October 6, 2025 • 23 mins
The Utes legend and host of the Down & Dirty on this week's matchup with #21 ASU Saturday at Rice Eccles + more
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Time go bring in the big Leffie.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You have to start thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Somebody else off.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Huge legend and longtime NFL quarterback Scott Mitchell's talking pig
Skin on the Sean O'Connell Show. Now Here's OC with
Scott on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Fir Jan O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
one AFM proud part of Utahs ESPN Radio Network, we
(00:49):
welcome Scott Mitchell to the show Talk a Little Utah Football.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
You'll hear him on the broadcast Saturday night, rice Ecles
Stadium eight fifteen Kick Night. Gay team should be a
fun one against Arizona State, the Ranks Sun Devils, or
of course, last year's Big Twelve Conference champions and a
team that a lot of people thought are on their
way to at least a repeat potential. Scott Mitchell, how
(01:16):
are you, dude?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Wonderful crazy weekend in college football in the NFL and
fun to talk about it. Really excited to get back
into things. I don't like bi weeks. I'd get them
over with. I want to play games. I want to
be in the thickest thing, So I'm excited and happy
to be here.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Scott, I have some people expressing their chagrin because I
came on in the opening segment after Kyle Whittingham's press conference.
I talked about this week being of megacritical, hypercritical, existential
importance for Utah football. I really feel like in a
lot of ways, your season boils down to what happens
(01:55):
on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Am I over selling that?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh? Not at all. I mean with a with one
conference loss, you're definitely you're not out of it, but
you're certainly not in the driver's seat. Iowa State losing
to Cincinnati changes things up. But this is this is
going to be a four or five team race. And really, really,
to me, this game against Arizona State is the game
(02:19):
of the Lurkers. Like they're teams with you know, kind
of a little forgotten. I mean, Arizona State's two and
oh in the conference, and you don't have to win
the conference. You just have to be one of the
top two teams at the end of it. And that's
kind of the thinking you have to have right now
if you're Utah. But I think Arizona with the loss
of Mississippi State, everyone said, well, they're kind of you know,
(02:42):
they're out of it. They're maybe not the same team
they were, and yet they very sneakily have won. They
wanted Baylor, they beat TCU. They're very quietly in a
very good position. And so they're kind of you know,
everyone's talking Texas Tech and by US five and oh
and Cincinnati beat Iowa State and and so they're like
those are kind of the teams to watch out for.
(03:03):
And even Iowa State still and Utah BYU or Utah
Arizona State are kind of in that lurking spot like
people aren't really talking about, you know, this game or
these two teams as those contenders, but very like we're
very much in the thick of it here at Utah
and and at Arizona State. So this is this is
(03:24):
an amazing game. This is an incredible game for the
rest of this year.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Last year at Arizona State, Utah was very much in
it going down late, and they were in it despite
you know, a quarterback who couldn't step into his throws.
They were in it despite a bunch of guys being
banged up. And I think that if the touchdown scored
by Pittman doesn't get called back on a pick play penalty.
(03:49):
I think that ultimately you end up winning that game.
You also were in that game despite the fact that
Arizona State had the second best running back in the country,
who's just a trump card in Cam Scataboo. They don't
have him now, And as was addressed in the in
the press conference today with Kyle Whittingham, it changes their
play calling quite a bit. Now they've got a great
(04:10):
wide receiver, they've got a mobile quarterback who has had
some struggles throwing the ball this year, but has been
very timely with his legs. I know it's like this,
you know, as personnel changes in college football, But when
you remove someone from a roster who is as good
and as impactful as somebody like Cam Skataboo, how much
(04:30):
does it change this game in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I don't. I don't think it changes the game, but
it's in the sense that it's going to be a
great battle. The Arizona State is a very seasoned team,
like they they've been in big games. They've they've they've
figured out how to close out big games other than
kind of a fluke play. You know, they they'd be
undefeated right now, and and and that's that's the thing
(04:57):
I look at is they're a very mature team and
the quarterback pretty much puts the ball in his hands
at the end of the game, whether it's running the
ball or some timely passing. Uh. But but he's a
guy that is very comfortable and being competitive and so
so to me, that's the game. You know that that
it's going to be a very competitive game. They're going
to fight the whole entire game. Uh, you got to
(05:19):
you gotta come ready to figure out how to close
out a game. And that that's the thing I want
to see from this Utah team that I haven't seen.
You know, can you finish a game? Can you close
out a game? Because you haven't really had I mean
you did. You had to against Texas Tech, and you did.
You kind of failed in that situation. It'll be interesting
to see where Devin dan Piri is if the if
(05:40):
the if the week off has actually helped him to
get really healthy, because if he becomes multi dimensional, then
this offense becomes very dynamic for Utah and they can
be much more productive than maybe they have been against
good teams. And so, uh, you know, I don't know
what the bye week will do for you, Tay, I
gotta believe it helps. And and Devin Dampier is is
(06:03):
that that key piece to it. But it's it's gonna
be a battle. You know, it's gonna be a great game,
and you gotta you gotta play for sixty minutes. You've
got to learn how to finish Scott.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
When when you're playing quarterback and a team comes in
and they've got you know, they're starting safety is out
and they're they're playing a rookie, they're playing a young guy,
they're playing a freshman behind him. What do you do
as a play caller and as a quarterback to take
advantage of that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, you're you're certainly gonna go. You know, Jordan Tyson
is probably a top ten pick in the draft. You're
gonna find opportunities to uh expose that and challenge that.
You have to. I mean, they'd be foolish not to.
And so, uh, you know, the defense is pretty good, Uh,
the secondary is pretty good, and and and there's you know,
(06:52):
there's a lot of other pieces there, and you just
you really want to put someone in a in a
position to not you know, be you know, coldly exposed,
and you can do certain coverages and ways to kind
of help yourself out a little bit.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Scott Mitchell is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
talking about Utah Arizona State. We'll get to some of
the happenings in the NFL and college football at large
as we progress in this conversation. But you know you
mentioned that as a fan, bye week's not ideal. Right,
Hopefully everyone got the yard work done last weekend and
now you can focus in on what's going on with
(07:31):
Utah versus Arizona State. But for a team to win
the bye week, especially a team that has some injuries
and has been banged up. But what does that look
like for Utah this year winning this bye week? You
already alluded to, you know, Devin dan Pierre getting a
little bit healthier. Kyle Whittingham announced that, you know, Jackson
Benny not a seasoning ending injury, Nate Ritchie not a
(07:53):
season ending injury, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So how do you how do you get better in.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
The bye week to get ready for Arizona State and
make sure that this last you know, off weekend was
put to good use.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, I think you have to, you know, the offensive
production and development of certain players, especially those defensive players,
and maybe with the injuries, maybe are going to see
less of Smith Nowden and maybe less of Lander Barton.
Then maybe you would have you certainly Daniel Bray is
(08:28):
a guy that showed some promise. You might see more
of JJ Buchanan who's showing promise, and then the evolution
of Ryan Davis and and Dallan Bentley. You know, I
still think Tobias Harris is a part of things. I
think Larry Simmons is the guy that you can get involved.
I don't so. I think it's taking advantage of finding
(08:50):
other targets, at least offensively to develop and getting them
some reps and getting them comfortable with certain you know,
maybe developed being some of the packages that they're involved in.
That's certainly one thing. Health is absolutely another. And then
if you're going to have these younger guys in playing,
they're going to relish getting the extra practice time and
(09:13):
getting some confidence. Now they don't have the game speed confidence,
but but it'll certainly help to get to a certain
level of you know, at least we can at least
we know they know what to do in a game.
Now can they go execute it at a high level
against again in a full speed Big twelve game. That
remains to be seen. But I think the bye week,
(09:35):
I like the bye week for Utah. I think they've
come at a really good time, and I think there's
a lot of value. As I've said before on your show,
you know, so much of it is about having an
honest conversation about where you are, and you have the
luxury of doing that because you know normally you're just
onto the next week. And so it's looking for tendencies.
It's looking for ways because you're in a tight race
(09:58):
and you've got to find any advantag as you can get.
So when you have a chance to look through and
maybe there's things you do, play calls you call, you
call against your tendencies, or maybe you put in a
play that you know, in the right situation, can be
a game changer, might be a special team situation. You're
always looking for just that little advantage because anything will
(10:22):
will be huge against Arizona State, it will be huge
even going into BYU. And of course now Cincinnati looks
like it's a team to worry about. I don't know
so much about Colorado, but Arizona State BYU and Cincinnati
coming up in the next month. Is that's that's a
tall order.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I thought. Against Texas Tech.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
I mean, look, you t all lost the line of
scrimmage battle against Texas Tech. But when you go back
and you watch that game, some of that, some of
the blame for that belongs to play calling. And we
talked about this that you know, you didn't really just
allow your guys to pin the years back and go downhill.
Against West Virginia. They it felt like Jason Beck learned
(11:04):
from the mistakes against Texas Tech and he called better plays.
The run scheme was more downhill. They attacked the middle
of the field in the passing game a little bit more.
And so often you'll hear coaches, you know, Coach Whittingham,
sit down in a postgame presser and say, oh, we
should have done this, we should have done this, and
then two three weeks later, you're like, they're still not
doing that. It felt like against West Virginia we only
(11:27):
had that one game sample size. They kind of went
out and they corrected some of the things that they
were doing wrong. From a scheme standpoint against Texas Tech.
This is probably a two part question A do you
agree with that? And B if you call better plays
like you did against West Virginia against Arizona State, do
we expect similar results? The same results because Arizona State
(11:49):
is a better team. But I think that fixes some
of those problems. That allows you to take advantage of
the strength to your offensive line even against a really
good run defense that the Sun Devils are putting up.
Where do you stand on these things?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So I think they're you know, my vibe from after
the Texas Tech game was this team wasn't ready for
a big game, like like maturity wise. And I don't know.
You know, Jason Beck, bless his heart, and I think
he's doing a wonderful job. He's still young in the
world of big games. I don't think he had any
(12:23):
big games at Syracuse. I don't think he had big games.
You know, at at at New Mexico, not like Texas Tech.
Big noon. Everyone's there and it's not they're there all week.
You know, Urban Myers at practice. He's a legendary coach.
You know, they're and and they're getting a lot of
pub you know, this offense, boy looks amazing and you know,
these long drives and scoring touchdowns and and I think
(12:46):
they got a little ahead of themselves, a little full
of themselves. And and I don't think they played well.
And I don't think Jay. I think if you asked Jason,
he goes, I don't think I coached well and and
they That was the sense I got from it. And
it's again it's just my opinion, but I just got
a sense that the players felt like they lost the
game more than Texas Tech won it. And I think
(13:09):
and I think Utah is a better team than they
showed in that game. And yeah, it was massively impressive.
In fact, Devin Dampier in the West Virginia game and
the correction he made, I think it's something they've been
trying to figure out from when he was at New Mexico.
He's not a very good thrower and and I think
they were trying to figure that out in the spring.
(13:31):
I think they were trying to figure it out in
the fall. I think they were trying to figure it
out in their non conference games, especially against cal Pauly.
And you know, the the UCLA game was kind of
a mix of things. But I think and I think
they figured something out. Devin Dampier in all that I've
watched him, the game against West Virginia was absolutely the
(13:54):
best he's thrown the football all year, and and it
was and it was needed. And you know, so if
you can continue to do that, he can continue to
run dynamically or start to anyways, and they really get
this offensive line moving forward. Yeah, you talk can be
very explosive, and absolutely you want to see it because
(14:15):
if you don't, then they're going to crowd the box,
They're going to challenge you to throw the ball, and
if you can't do it, it's going to be very
similar to how things were a year ago or how
they were against Texas Tech. An offense that's stifled, it's
going to score ten, maybe seventeen points a game, and
you're going to be in a lot of close games,
and you're going to lose a lot of close games
because you can't. You're not powerful explosive enough offensively to
(14:39):
finish games. And if you can figure that out and
challenge defenses down the field throwing the football, it's going
to open everything else up for you.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
Should Penn State fire James Franklin fully bananas.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You know It's look, college football is an interesting thing, right, now,
and I don't know that we're fully grasping the impact
of all of the movement of players. And so it's
it's about players gelling, It's about players, you know, getting better.
It's about attrition. You know, these these big time blue
(15:21):
blood programs don't get the stockpile players like they used
to in the past, and so you don't have the depth,
and depth actually helps hurt you in practice too. I mean,
think about Alabama. Uh, there twos, threes and fours are
NFL players, and so they're ones and twos are practicing
against NFL players every day. I mean, you know, when
(15:43):
they have all of that talent in one area and
now these players go, wait a minute, I don't want
to sit around. I can go play somewhere and I
can get paid to do it. And I'm a backup
at Alabama and I'm going to go somewhere and be
a star. You know. Yeah, that that changes things, and
it spreads out the talent across the board and you
see things like you know, U c l A surprising
(16:09):
a Penn State. You know. One of the things that
I'm still really curious about and and I'm actually doing
some research on it, is the impact of long travel
across the country and how how it impacts your play
both in the game you're playing and then next week,
because I think it has an impact. And so at
these conferences that have gone coastal and you know, they
(16:33):
I just wonder if if that has an impact on
the quality of the product you're you're putting on the field.
And it's still relatively early, because this is a new phenomena,
but I, you know, maybe there's something to that as well.
So I'm not surprised by anything that happens in college football.
And for that, I you know, I don't know that
you need to fire a coach over the craziness that
(16:56):
could be college football. But man, and as bad as
UCLA's looked, it's certainly not a good look for a
Penn State team that was really considered one of the
top teams in the country.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Well, it's interesting to me because James Franklin, the criticism
of him in the past has been he doesn't show
up when the lights are brightest, right, like when Oregon
comes to town for the whiteout game. That's the game
that everyone is like, oh my gosh, you can't win
these games, dude, Like that's what they criticize him for.
But then these games where you're playing against an overmatch
(17:31):
UCLA team who's been terrible this year. He never loses
those games. He doesn't like his teams don't stub their
toe in winnable games. It's always like the you know,
falling short when it really matters if you lose back
to back weeks one game that was like that, Okay,
this is potential national title implications, much less the Big Ten.
(17:54):
Already people are like, oh, here's regular old James Franklin.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
But then you just there's no chance.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
You don't even think about the fact that you could
lose the UCLA and to have the two things happen
back to back. When your expectations at Penn State are
supposed to be national championships, it just feels like there's
gonna be some conversations out there.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You're in a conference, you're at a school that there's
an expectation there, and it's a high expectation. It's you know,
it's a high stakes deal and you have to answer
to it. I mean, you know, if you if you're
not comfortable with that, then yeah, it's the wrong place
for you. But you have to wonder and just understanding
the dynamics of football. You have a very emotional loss,
(18:36):
like you mentioned against the Oregon white Out game, it's
a big deal. And then you've got to travel all
the way across the country and you have to play
a team that and you go, you know, is your
focus the same during the week, is your preparation the same?
And that's on the coach. You know, you got to
get yourself ready to play. But we're human, and we
tend to, you know, end up at the lowest common denominator.
(19:00):
We just we just tend to always do go to that,
you know, that easiest place for ourselves. Uh And and
it's and just human nature. It's very easy to get complacent,
as they say, you know, don't don't let this, you know,
don't lose this game twice kind of thing. And and
from the emotion of it. But it's a real thing,
you know, it's it's a drain on you. And and
(19:22):
to try to get yourself amped up the next week
and again traveling all the way across the country. I
just think I think there's a factor to it. And
all you have to do if you're Penn State and
and you know, I mean, you going up against Ohio
State every year, You're going up against Michigan every year,
You're going up with the research in schools like Indiana
(19:43):
and Illinois and some of these other places. And Ryan
Day was probably one win away from losing his job,
and you know, and you just have to find a way,
you know, to win that big game. And and that
was a big knock on on on Ryan Day. You know,
James Franklin, I think it's an excellent coach. I think
he's done a tremendous job of really resurrecting a dead
(20:06):
program at at Penn State. And I think there's you know,
there's patience, especially with all of the things going on
in college football, probably more so than maybe in the
in the past.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, we made this point last year. I think you
and I have talked about it as well.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
If if twenty twenty four had not been the first
year of an expanded college football playoff in Ohio State
hadn't been able to kind of backdoor their way into
the college football Playoff, Ryan Day would have been fired. Instead,
he won a national championship because he lost the games
(20:43):
that would have made him, you know, Big twelve champ
or excuse me, be a Big Ten champ, automatic qualifier in
a four team playoff and then because they you know,
the body of work was good enough that they kind
of backed into the College Football Playoff and won a
national championship because he's like, you know, it changed is
your whole reputation one game? So yeah, it's it's wild
(21:04):
when the stakes are that high.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, Ryan Dave probably would be the head coach at
North Carolina right now, or who knows, maybe U C
l A. I mean, he certainly would be sought after.
And so with James James Franklin for that matter. And
you're seeing a trend with some of these schools that
they're getting rid of these coaches early and they want
to put themselves in a position for a new coach.
(21:29):
And if you know, if Penn State's moving that direction,
you know, yeah you might see you might see a
firing just with that that trend.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Before I let you go, how much do you read
into Broncos Eagles.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Look, it's the same thing you know the NFL is
that the teams are so evenly matched and there's so
many crazy things happening in the NFL in the weeks.
You know, you just kind of scratch your head with
things you either have to embrace and just say there's
there's parody, and you're gonna see crazy games and it's
(22:04):
gonna come down to a lot of teams with a
chance to make the playoffs at the end of the year,
which I think people like. I love it personally. I
love that. I love the craziness of it. I love
the unpredictability of it. I love that you know one
week that team is a sure bet to go to
the super Bowl, and the next week you know they're
ready to fire the coach. And I just think it's
(22:25):
it's navigating yourself through all that madness and finding a
way to win ten, eleven, twelve games in a season
is a challenge and it you know, but it makes
it exciting, It makes it compelling.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Scott always love picking your brain. Thanks for the time, sir.
You gotta have a good day, Scott Mitchell. You can
find him immediately preceding our show on the Down and thirty,
and of course you'll hear him beside Bill Riley and
Stevenson Sylvester on pregame, the call and the official postgame
right here on your home with the US ESPN seven
(23:01):
hundred ninety two one FM,
Time go bring in the big Leffie.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You have to start thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Somebody else off.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Huge legend and longtime NFL quarterback Scott Mitchell's talking pig
Skin on the Sean O'Connell Show. Now Here's OC with
Scott on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Fir Jan O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
one AFM proud part of Utahs ESPN Radio Network, we
(00:49):
welcome Scott Mitchell to the show Talk a Little Utah Football.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
You'll hear him on the broadcast Saturday night, rice Ecles
Stadium eight fifteen Kick Night. Gay team should be a
fun one against Arizona State, the Ranks Sun Devils, or
of course, last year's Big Twelve Conference champions and a
team that a lot of people thought are on their
way to at least a repeat potential. Scott Mitchell, how
(01:16):
are you, dude?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Wonderful crazy weekend in college football in the NFL and
fun to talk about it. Really excited to get back
into things. I don't like bi weeks. I'd get them
over with. I want to play games. I want to
be in the thickest thing, So I'm excited and happy
to be here.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Scott, I have some people expressing their chagrin because I
came on in the opening segment after Kyle Whittingham's press conference.
I talked about this week being of megacritical, hypercritical, existential
importance for Utah football. I really feel like in a
lot of ways, your season boils down to what happens
(01:55):
on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Am I over selling that?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh? Not at all. I mean with a with one
conference loss, you're definitely you're not out of it, but
you're certainly not in the driver's seat. Iowa State losing
to Cincinnati changes things up. But this is this is
going to be a four or five team race. And really, really,
to me, this game against Arizona State is the game
(02:19):
of the Lurkers. Like they're teams with you know, kind
of a little forgotten. I mean, Arizona State's two and
oh in the conference, and you don't have to win
the conference. You just have to be one of the
top two teams at the end of it. And that's
kind of the thinking you have to have right now
if you're Utah. But I think Arizona with the loss
of Mississippi State, everyone said, well, they're kind of you know,
(02:42):
they're out of it. They're maybe not the same team
they were, and yet they very sneakily have won. They
wanted Baylor, they beat TCU. They're very quietly in a
very good position. And so they're kind of you know,
everyone's talking Texas Tech and by US five and oh
and Cincinnati beat Iowa State and and so they're like
those are kind of the teams to watch out for.
(03:03):
And even Iowa State still and Utah BYU or Utah
Arizona State are kind of in that lurking spot like
people aren't really talking about, you know, this game or
these two teams as those contenders, but very like we're
very much in the thick of it here at Utah
and and at Arizona State. So this is this is
(03:24):
an amazing game. This is an incredible game for the
rest of this year.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Last year at Arizona State, Utah was very much in
it going down late, and they were in it despite
you know, a quarterback who couldn't step into his throws.
They were in it despite a bunch of guys being
banged up. And I think that if the touchdown scored
by Pittman doesn't get called back on a pick play penalty.
(03:49):
I think that ultimately you end up winning that game.
You also were in that game despite the fact that
Arizona State had the second best running back in the country,
who's just a trump card in Cam Scataboo. They don't
have him now, And as was addressed in the in
the press conference today with Kyle Whittingham, it changes their
play calling quite a bit. Now they've got a great
(04:10):
wide receiver, they've got a mobile quarterback who has had
some struggles throwing the ball this year, but has been
very timely with his legs. I know it's like this,
you know, as personnel changes in college football, But when
you remove someone from a roster who is as good
and as impactful as somebody like Cam Skataboo, how much
(04:30):
does it change this game in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I don't. I don't think it changes the game, but
it's in the sense that it's going to be a
great battle. The Arizona State is a very seasoned team,
like they they've been in big games. They've they've they've
figured out how to close out big games other than
kind of a fluke play. You know, they they'd be
undefeated right now, and and and that's that's the thing
(04:57):
I look at is they're a very mature team and
the quarterback pretty much puts the ball in his hands
at the end of the game, whether it's running the
ball or some timely passing. Uh. But but he's a
guy that is very comfortable and being competitive and so
so to me, that's the game. You know that that
it's going to be a very competitive game. They're going
to fight the whole entire game. Uh, you got to
(05:19):
you gotta come ready to figure out how to close
out a game. And that that's the thing I want
to see from this Utah team that I haven't seen.
You know, can you finish a game? Can you close
out a game? Because you haven't really had I mean
you did. You had to against Texas Tech, and you did.
You kind of failed in that situation. It'll be interesting
to see where Devin dan Piri is if the if
(05:40):
the if the week off has actually helped him to
get really healthy, because if he becomes multi dimensional, then
this offense becomes very dynamic for Utah and they can
be much more productive than maybe they have been against
good teams. And so, uh, you know, I don't know
what the bye week will do for you, Tay, I
gotta believe it helps. And and Devin Dampier is is
(06:03):
that that key piece to it. But it's it's gonna
be a battle. You know, it's gonna be a great game,
and you gotta you gotta play for sixty minutes. You've
got to learn how to finish Scott.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
When when you're playing quarterback and a team comes in
and they've got you know, they're starting safety is out
and they're they're playing a rookie, they're playing a young guy,
they're playing a freshman behind him. What do you do
as a play caller and as a quarterback to take
advantage of that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, you're you're certainly gonna go. You know, Jordan Tyson
is probably a top ten pick in the draft. You're
gonna find opportunities to uh expose that and challenge that.
You have to. I mean, they'd be foolish not to.
And so, uh, you know, the defense is pretty good, Uh,
the secondary is pretty good, and and and there's you know,
(06:52):
there's a lot of other pieces there, and you just
you really want to put someone in a in a
position to not you know, be you know, coldly exposed,
and you can do certain coverages and ways to kind
of help yourself out a little bit.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Scott Mitchell is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
talking about Utah Arizona State. We'll get to some of
the happenings in the NFL and college football at large
as we progress in this conversation. But you know you
mentioned that as a fan, bye week's not ideal. Right,
Hopefully everyone got the yard work done last weekend and
now you can focus in on what's going on with
(07:31):
Utah versus Arizona State. But for a team to win
the bye week, especially a team that has some injuries
and has been banged up. But what does that look
like for Utah this year winning this bye week? You
already alluded to, you know, Devin dan Pierre getting a
little bit healthier. Kyle Whittingham announced that, you know, Jackson
Benny not a seasoning ending injury, Nate Ritchie not a
(07:53):
season ending injury, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So how do you how do you get better in.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
The bye week to get ready for Arizona State and
make sure that this last you know, off weekend was
put to good use.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, I think you have to, you know, the offensive
production and development of certain players, especially those defensive players,
and maybe with the injuries, maybe are going to see
less of Smith Nowden and maybe less of Lander Barton.
Then maybe you would have you certainly Daniel Bray is
(08:28):
a guy that showed some promise. You might see more
of JJ Buchanan who's showing promise, and then the evolution
of Ryan Davis and and Dallan Bentley. You know, I
still think Tobias Harris is a part of things. I
think Larry Simmons is the guy that you can get involved.
I don't so. I think it's taking advantage of finding
(08:50):
other targets, at least offensively to develop and getting them
some reps and getting them comfortable with certain you know,
maybe developed being some of the packages that they're involved in.
That's certainly one thing. Health is absolutely another. And then
if you're going to have these younger guys in playing,
they're going to relish getting the extra practice time and
(09:13):
getting some confidence. Now they don't have the game speed confidence,
but but it'll certainly help to get to a certain
level of you know, at least we can at least
we know they know what to do in a game.
Now can they go execute it at a high level
against again in a full speed Big twelve game. That
remains to be seen. But I think the bye week,
(09:35):
I like the bye week for Utah. I think they've
come at a really good time, and I think there's
a lot of value. As I've said before on your show,
you know, so much of it is about having an
honest conversation about where you are, and you have the
luxury of doing that because you know normally you're just
onto the next week. And so it's looking for tendencies.
It's looking for ways because you're in a tight race
(09:58):
and you've got to find any advantag as you can get.
So when you have a chance to look through and
maybe there's things you do, play calls you call, you
call against your tendencies, or maybe you put in a
play that you know, in the right situation, can be
a game changer, might be a special team situation. You're
always looking for just that little advantage because anything will
(10:22):
will be huge against Arizona State, it will be huge
even going into BYU. And of course now Cincinnati looks
like it's a team to worry about. I don't know
so much about Colorado, but Arizona State BYU and Cincinnati
coming up in the next month. Is that's that's a
tall order.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I thought. Against Texas Tech.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
I mean, look, you t all lost the line of
scrimmage battle against Texas Tech. But when you go back
and you watch that game, some of that, some of
the blame for that belongs to play calling. And we
talked about this that you know, you didn't really just
allow your guys to pin the years back and go downhill.
Against West Virginia. They it felt like Jason Beck learned
(11:04):
from the mistakes against Texas Tech and he called better plays.
The run scheme was more downhill. They attacked the middle
of the field in the passing game a little bit more.
And so often you'll hear coaches, you know, Coach Whittingham,
sit down in a postgame presser and say, oh, we
should have done this, we should have done this, and
then two three weeks later, you're like, they're still not
doing that. It felt like against West Virginia we only
(11:27):
had that one game sample size. They kind of went
out and they corrected some of the things that they
were doing wrong. From a scheme standpoint against Texas Tech.
This is probably a two part question A do you
agree with that? And B if you call better plays
like you did against West Virginia against Arizona State, do
we expect similar results? The same results because Arizona State
(11:49):
is a better team. But I think that fixes some
of those problems. That allows you to take advantage of
the strength to your offensive line even against a really
good run defense that the Sun Devils are putting up.
Where do you stand on these things?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So I think they're you know, my vibe from after
the Texas Tech game was this team wasn't ready for
a big game, like like maturity wise. And I don't know.
You know, Jason Beck, bless his heart, and I think
he's doing a wonderful job. He's still young in the
world of big games. I don't think he had any
(12:23):
big games at Syracuse. I don't think he had big games.
You know, at at at New Mexico, not like Texas Tech.
Big noon. Everyone's there and it's not they're there all week.
You know, Urban Myers at practice. He's a legendary coach.
You know, they're and and they're getting a lot of
pub you know, this offense, boy looks amazing and you know,
these long drives and scoring touchdowns and and I think
(12:46):
they got a little ahead of themselves, a little full
of themselves. And and I don't think they played well.
And I don't think Jay. I think if you asked Jason,
he goes, I don't think I coached well and and
they That was the sense I got from it. And
it's again it's just my opinion, but I just got
a sense that the players felt like they lost the
game more than Texas Tech won it. And I think
(13:09):
and I think Utah is a better team than they
showed in that game. And yeah, it was massively impressive.
In fact, Devin Dampier in the West Virginia game and
the correction he made, I think it's something they've been
trying to figure out from when he was at New Mexico.
He's not a very good thrower and and I think
they were trying to figure that out in the spring.
(13:31):
I think they were trying to figure it out in
the fall. I think they were trying to figure it
out in their non conference games, especially against cal Pauly.
And you know, the the UCLA game was kind of
a mix of things. But I think and I think
they figured something out. Devin Dampier in all that I've
watched him, the game against West Virginia was absolutely the
(13:54):
best he's thrown the football all year, and and it
was and it was needed. And you know, so if
you can continue to do that, he can continue to
run dynamically or start to anyways, and they really get
this offensive line moving forward. Yeah, you talk can be
very explosive, and absolutely you want to see it because
(14:15):
if you don't, then they're going to crowd the box,
They're going to challenge you to throw the ball, and
if you can't do it, it's going to be very
similar to how things were a year ago or how
they were against Texas Tech. An offense that's stifled, it's
going to score ten, maybe seventeen points a game, and
you're going to be in a lot of close games,
and you're going to lose a lot of close games
because you can't. You're not powerful explosive enough offensively to
(14:39):
finish games. And if you can figure that out and
challenge defenses down the field throwing the football, it's going
to open everything else up for you.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
Should Penn State fire James Franklin fully bananas.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You know It's look, college football is an interesting thing, right, now,
and I don't know that we're fully grasping the impact
of all of the movement of players. And so it's
it's about players gelling, It's about players, you know, getting better.
It's about attrition. You know, these these big time blue
(15:21):
blood programs don't get the stockpile players like they used
to in the past, and so you don't have the depth,
and depth actually helps hurt you in practice too. I mean,
think about Alabama. Uh, there twos, threes and fours are
NFL players, and so they're ones and twos are practicing
against NFL players every day. I mean, you know, when
(15:43):
they have all of that talent in one area and
now these players go, wait a minute, I don't want
to sit around. I can go play somewhere and I
can get paid to do it. And I'm a backup
at Alabama and I'm going to go somewhere and be
a star. You know. Yeah, that that changes things, and
it spreads out the talent across the board and you
see things like you know, U c l A surprising
(16:09):
a Penn State. You know. One of the things that
I'm still really curious about and and I'm actually doing
some research on it, is the impact of long travel
across the country and how how it impacts your play
both in the game you're playing and then next week,
because I think it has an impact. And so at
these conferences that have gone coastal and you know, they
(16:33):
I just wonder if if that has an impact on
the quality of the product you're you're putting on the field.
And it's still relatively early, because this is a new phenomena,
but I, you know, maybe there's something to that as well.
So I'm not surprised by anything that happens in college football.
And for that, I you know, I don't know that
you need to fire a coach over the craziness that
(16:56):
could be college football. But man, and as bad as
UCLA's looked, it's certainly not a good look for a
Penn State team that was really considered one of the
top teams in the country.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Well, it's interesting to me because James Franklin, the criticism
of him in the past has been he doesn't show
up when the lights are brightest, right, like when Oregon
comes to town for the whiteout game. That's the game
that everyone is like, oh my gosh, you can't win
these games, dude, Like that's what they criticize him for.
But then these games where you're playing against an overmatch
(17:31):
UCLA team who's been terrible this year. He never loses
those games. He doesn't like his teams don't stub their
toe in winnable games. It's always like the you know,
falling short when it really matters if you lose back
to back weeks one game that was like that, Okay,
this is potential national title implications, much less the Big Ten.
(17:54):
Already people are like, oh, here's regular old James Franklin.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
But then you just there's no chance.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
You don't even think about the fact that you could
lose the UCLA and to have the two things happen
back to back. When your expectations at Penn State are
supposed to be national championships, it just feels like there's
gonna be some conversations out there.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You're in a conference, you're at a school that there's
an expectation there, and it's a high expectation. It's you know,
it's a high stakes deal and you have to answer
to it. I mean, you know, if you if you're
not comfortable with that, then yeah, it's the wrong place
for you. But you have to wonder and just understanding
the dynamics of football. You have a very emotional loss,
(18:36):
like you mentioned against the Oregon white Out game, it's
a big deal. And then you've got to travel all
the way across the country and you have to play
a team that and you go, you know, is your
focus the same during the week, is your preparation the same?
And that's on the coach. You know, you got to
get yourself ready to play. But we're human, and we
tend to, you know, end up at the lowest common denominator.
(19:00):
We just we just tend to always do go to that,
you know, that easiest place for ourselves. Uh And and
it's and just human nature. It's very easy to get complacent,
as they say, you know, don't don't let this, you know,
don't lose this game twice kind of thing. And and
from the emotion of it. But it's a real thing,
you know, it's it's a drain on you. And and
(19:22):
to try to get yourself amped up the next week
and again traveling all the way across the country. I
just think I think there's a factor to it. And
all you have to do if you're Penn State and
and you know, I mean, you going up against Ohio
State every year, You're going up against Michigan every year,
You're going up with the research in schools like Indiana
(19:43):
and Illinois and some of these other places. And Ryan
Day was probably one win away from losing his job,
and you know, and you just have to find a way,
you know, to win that big game. And and that
was a big knock on on on Ryan Day. You know,
James Franklin, I think it's an excellent coach. I think
he's done a tremendous job of really resurrecting a dead
(20:06):
program at at Penn State. And I think there's you know,
there's patience, especially with all of the things going on
in college football, probably more so than maybe in the
in the past.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, we made this point last year. I think you
and I have talked about it as well.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
If if twenty twenty four had not been the first
year of an expanded college football playoff in Ohio State
hadn't been able to kind of backdoor their way into
the college football Playoff, Ryan Day would have been fired. Instead,
he won a national championship because he lost the games
(20:43):
that would have made him, you know, Big twelve champ
or excuse me, be a Big Ten champ, automatic qualifier in
a four team playoff and then because they you know,
the body of work was good enough that they kind
of backed into the College Football Playoff and won a
national championship because he's like, you know, it changed is
your whole reputation one game? So yeah, it's it's wild
(21:04):
when the stakes are that high.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, Ryan Dave probably would be the head coach at
North Carolina right now, or who knows, maybe U C
l A. I mean, he certainly would be sought after.
And so with James James Franklin for that matter. And
you're seeing a trend with some of these schools that
they're getting rid of these coaches early and they want
to put themselves in a position for a new coach.
(21:29):
And if you know, if Penn State's moving that direction,
you know, yeah you might see you might see a
firing just with that that trend.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Before I let you go, how much do you read
into Broncos Eagles.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Look, it's the same thing you know the NFL is
that the teams are so evenly matched and there's so
many crazy things happening in the NFL in the weeks.
You know, you just kind of scratch your head with
things you either have to embrace and just say there's
there's parody, and you're gonna see crazy games and it's
(22:04):
gonna come down to a lot of teams with a
chance to make the playoffs at the end of the year,
which I think people like. I love it personally. I
love that. I love the craziness of it. I love
the unpredictability of it. I love that you know one
week that team is a sure bet to go to
the super Bowl, and the next week you know they're
ready to fire the coach. And I just think it's
(22:25):
it's navigating yourself through all that madness and finding a
way to win ten, eleven, twelve games in a season
is a challenge and it you know, but it makes
it exciting, It makes it compelling.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Scott always love picking your brain. Thanks for the time, sir.
You gotta have a good day, Scott Mitchell. You can
find him immediately preceding our show on the Down and thirty,
and of course you'll hear him beside Bill Riley and
Stevenson Sylvester on pregame, the call and the official postgame
right here on your home with the US ESPN seven
(23:01):
hundred ninety two one FM,
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