Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 10-6-25

Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference, OC talks Utah FB with Scott Mitchell, Utah Mammoth in Between The Pipes with Adrian Denny, MLB Playoffs with Dale Murphy, Mark Sanchez arrested + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
He's the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
Willis on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
b ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one af AM,
a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Happy Monday.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Sean O'Connell Show starts now, but so does the Kyle
Whittingham Press Conference.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
So we set it up for the Hill this week.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
And proud of those guys, two great players for us,
both had outstanding NFL careers and just can't say enough
good things about what they meant to the program and
how they've given back and just been great ambassadors for us.
And so I really appreciate what those guys have done

(00:52):
for the program and mean to us, and we congratulate them.
Let's see, it's been a while. West Virginia couple last week.
Really proud of the way our guys bounced back. No
sign of a hangover or you know, just they played.
They came out and played exceptional from the start and

(01:14):
finished the game like we're supposed to do and had
some really good performances. Offense got back on track, which
was great to see. Defense was rock solid up until
we took out all the starters midway through the fourth
or so. They we gave up a few things after
that point, but the starters did a great job. Special

(01:35):
teams were solid, like the way our placekicker Dylan Curtis
struck the ball kickoffs place kicks, so a lot of
good things in that game. Thought we handled the road
trip well. We went out a day early. When when
you travel two time zones and have a game on Saturday,
that's not a night game. It's kind of our formula

(01:56):
from when we go out. If it would have been
a night game, we would have gone out to Friday
as usual. But that's how we manage the East Coast trips.
So Arizona back back at Rice Cycles this week Arizona
State excuse me, and night game at Rice Cycles. It's
one of the best environments in the country at night
anytime for that matter, but especially at night. And sun

(02:18):
Devils are playing good football. You know they've got two
really outstanding players. Zero the receiver leading the conference and receiving,
and number three, the running back is leading the conference
and rushing. So those are really the two catalysts for
their offense. In additional quarterback quarterback is dangerous especially when
he runs the football. He's done so much damage to

(02:41):
teams this year making big plays with his legs, and
that's something that we got to try to keep in
check if we can. Averaging about four and a quarter
four hundred and twenty five a game total low, very balanced,
about two fifteen rushing and about two ten throwing, so
so a balanced attack. Let's see, they're uh primarily a

(03:02):
twelve team, a lot of two tight end personnel groups.
Uh that's probably about sixty percent seventy percent of what
they do, and then the rest of it is uh
eleven personnel. UH defense, very athletic and very fundamentally and
technique sound. They're really good, uh with their techniques and fundamentals,
not not uh overly elaborate schemes, but just solid uh

(03:23):
defense and and they got good athletes. So that's where
we're at. Questions I got, okay, there's justin yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Do you have any plans to red shirt Bird Fickland
or have him as key.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
To the rest of the years limit to good question.
We're very pleased with up birds down. I can tell
you that much. Right now. I would say that there
is not a concerted effort right now to to red
shirt bird if you know, we're gonna play him well

(03:59):
if he's needed obvious see and then any experience that
we can get him. And so I think the road
we've been going down as the road will continue to
go down. And uh, like I said, he's really made
the most of his snaps and has looked very poised
and very uh in control when he's been out there.
You know, for a true freshman, he's he's uh seems
to be very mature and and to handle some his

(04:21):
business very well.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Cow you you came out being up a little bit
against uh West Virginia. Do you expect any of those
those people season.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Any injuries or uh? Good question. I was gonna address that.
I should have addressed that in my opening statements. None
of those injuries. Uh, we're season ending, and so just
going forward, you'll just check the uh what do we
call it availability report on uh? I think it comes
out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and maybe even Saturday. There's a
lot of them, So anyway, check those and I'll tell

(04:50):
you the status and uh but no, fortunately uh not
season ending. But uh, you know, we'll see who have
available this week and who we don't contain groups you
have to miss extended time. Him kind of moves into
that start in safety slat. Well, we've got uh Tayo
Johnson obviously playing the one safety and then uh, you

(05:13):
know we have Nate Tillman who came in and did
some He's another true freshman. Played played well uh in
his snaps. He did make a few errors on uh
last Saturday, but but uh did some sid did some
good things. Uh Uh Jackson Benny also has experience at safety.
In fact, that's where he spent most of his time

(05:33):
up until this year when we moved in a nickel,
and so we have some options there. Uh also have
a couple uh corners. We got some corners that are
good size. Might look at uh might look at moving
one of those guys inside and seeing how he does
uh this week and uh yeah, probably be the Caldwell
kid if if we go that direction. Uh last year

(05:54):
at kind of scattered we were uh uh against everybody
he had and yeah, and he's doing it now with
the Giants. He's doing a good job. So yeah, do
they kind of run the same thing or because they
have a guy like Jordan Tyson is one of the
best receivers in the country. Do you see them throwing
them all over the well, yeah, a little more balanced
and not leaning quite as much h on the run game,
although like I said, the runner is leading the league

(06:15):
and rushing, you know, and so they they do, uh
make sure that they you know, give a good dose
of the run game. But but uh scatter Bow, he
was uh you know, he was a guy that did
uh did us in last year and in uh really
good football player. But but uh they still have a
real uh you know, they're making an effort to run
the football and make sure that that's big part of

(06:37):
what they do.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Arizona State has been really good in one score game
last season.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
That yeah, they have what that just making plays when
they need to be made. They They've been in some
tight games this year. They uh lost the Mississippi game
Mississippi State game that was a one score game, but
uh they have done a good job of of pulling
those games out and uh being on the uh the
winning end of those. And just all I can say
is that when the you know, when the time comes

(07:06):
to the end of the game and things get tough,
they they make place. Yes, the old Asu Sun Devil
oh at the start all over that I it was good. Yeah,
tomatoes tomorrow, you said we were gonna practice tackling. Uh
huh what does that mean as far as how you

(07:27):
actually go about? That means we practice tackle and we
get a guy and we tackle. What's that not take
me or anything? And just simply tackling. Well, we yeah,
we're coach the technique as we're doing the taffing drills,
and it's not good on good. You know, we have
a scout guys, and so it's uh, you know, the
defense and and and in retrospect, we actually tackled really well.
We only missed ten tackles in the West Virginia game.

(07:48):
I they were magnified cause they were you know, in
space and and led to a lot of uh yards
after contacts. So I felt better about uh about that,
uh than I did right after the game. But dance
your question. Yeah, you get tackling drills with your with
your scout guys and your and your starting defense and
and uh tackle guys, I mean just you and you

(08:08):
you absolutely critique it and film it and uh pay
attention to the fun the fundamentals and technique of your tackling. Yeah.
Uh coach. Coach Dillingham is going into this thirty year.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
There was a mistage from afar.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
What have you been impressed with most of what he's
done there? How he stayed the course and uh, you know,
cause he had some rough spots the first year things
didn't go real well. I think that was the year
we beat him fifty something, you know, not very much
his first year. And he also had a few other
uh you know, rough rough games that year. But but
I've talked to him a few times and he's he's

(08:40):
you know, uh, we've conversed and and uh he's picked
my brain a little bit and and just say, hey,
you know, if you believe in what you're doing, keep
doing it. You know, don't couestion yourself, don't don't uh panic,
just keep doing He he's been doing it, and you
can see the the progress they've made. So he's uh
stayed the course. I guess it's the best way I
can turn what he's done in the.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
Last two years since entering the Big twelve.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
You guys are h and five at right Rice Cycle Stadium.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Does that put any emphasis?

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Say again, the last two years.

Speaker 5 (09:10):
Last two years, you guys are and five in conference play.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
A rice cycles that sucks. I wasn't aware of that.
I probably should have been.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
Okaya, does that put any emphasis on on weekend's games?

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Well, it hadn't. Might now, but I didn't realize that,
Like I said, honestly didn't go back. I mean, you
lose and you're upset and you're mad. I guess you
could delve into it further. But but that's something that's
a trend we hope to break this week. How about that?

Speaker 3 (09:39):
So versus West Virginia, you guys had your most passing
yards in a single game.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
Is that something that you hope to continue as you
guys head down the stretch.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I feel like with pushing the ball downfield.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Through the air well, we certainly like to keep pushing
the ball downfield.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
And really, the word you're looking for in the throw
games efficiency. You know, we don't need to throw for
three hundred and some yards a game, and we needs
need to be efficient when we do throw it. And
we're very efficient against West Virginia and and part of
that efficiency comes from being able to get chunkyardists down
the field.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Has emerged as one of the twelve targets once kind
of changed in his game from less.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
He's been able to stay healthy, first and foremost, he's
he's been with us three years now, going going third,
third year, and uh, that's the thing that has held
him back in the past, is just not able to
stay on the field. Uh knock on. Within this year,
he's uh, you know, he's been able to uh stay
healthy and be out there and and uh he's turned
into the player that we hoped he would when we

(10:36):
recruited him. And and he's, uh, I think one of
the better tight ends in the in the Big twelve
right now.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Ryan Davis is also a big part for you guys.

Speaker 7 (10:44):
We've been asking you which wide receivers are gonna step
out me while he just catches everything, throws trip.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
What did you see from vanity comfortable.

Speaker 7 (10:52):
Kind of you?

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah, exactly that he's dependable. He's reliable, which is I
guess redundant, but uh, he's got exceptional hands, he runs
exceptional routes. And I used the term crafty I think
was the term I used last time we talked about Ryan.
Where he's not necessarily the biggest guy, the fastest guy,
any of that stuff, but he's he's so good at
what he does. He's got such a great feel and

(11:15):
natural instincts for finding open space sitting down in those areas.
And also his rapport with with Devin. You know, they
obviously have a leg up on the other. You know,
he has a leg up on the other receivers in
the room because of that. You know, they were a
big are a good combination last year and that's just
carried over into this year. So that's a big part
of it. Two is their familiarity with each other. I'll

(11:35):
say of you know, rest and recovery.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
It feels like bye weeks are important time for coaching
staff deal self evaluation as you dove into the stakes.

Speaker 7 (11:42):
Where do you feel like you can make adjustments and
make big improvements.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Well, you know, I think we're you know, just looking
at position by position. I think our offensive line has
really played well this year so far. It hasn't been
every single game, but but we've overall, we looked at
the body of work. I think they've done a good job.
I think the running backs have made the most of
their care especially way Shawn. He's averaging good yards per

(12:10):
caurey average. I think he's over six yards of Carrey.
They're close to it. Tight ends have been have been
productive really in talking about ballen receivers. As we mentioned,
more chunkyards would be in order, but I think we're
making progress there. Defensive front has been solid. John Henry
Day has been a big plus for US. He's still

(12:33):
up there in the nation leaders in sacks and he's
caused I think he's first in the conference and cost
fumbles and creating a lot of havoc for US. Linebackers
have been outstanding as well as John O. Hall is
just what we hoped he would be when we moved
him to safety a little over a year ago. Lander
Bart is playing his best football as a you, secondary,
I don't think the secondary has been really tested. I

(12:53):
think there's bigger tests down the road for our secondary
and so we'll see how we continued to and then
with Nate if he's you know, depending long he's out, Uh,
how that secondary can uh can perform uh special teams.
So so some good, some bad, but but uh that's
kind of the short version right there. Oh it's one
of them. Ar arguably one of the conference's best quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Said well, it's going you're on Saturday. Can he speak
to his game?

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah? He's like I said, he's he's so dangerous when
he breaks the pocket. You know, if you look at
the big plays he's made this year, most of them
have been with his legs and and uh breaking the
pocket at critical times. You know, he picks up those
third downs when he's he seeming there's nothing there and
he's got to pull it down and run. He's he's, uh,
he's really dangerous when he does that. And and uh,

(13:38):
like I said, uh, the uh, the balance in their
in their offense. That's part of the reason why they're
good running the football. You get the best back, well,
the top statistically back in the league, and and him
that that makes for a potent ground attack. And and
uh he's done some good things in the throw game
as well, although his his QB rating is not as uh,
you know, high as some of the guys in the

(13:59):
league as or is Uh. There's two ratings that the
QV rating and the in the UH. I can't remember
whether it's it's just based on throwing. The QV rating
takes everything into account. I don't know if you look
at that at ESPN. But and then uh, your quarterback
were your uh, your throw just your throws have a
different rating system.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
So, ye, Kyle, if you have back to back weeks
coming up with against the ranked opponents, UH, I know
you've said you've wanted to see your team against UH,
you know, tough opponents and and obviously this is probably.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
A good Lipping's test for where you guys are at.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
I guess, just from an identity standpoint, what are you
hoping to see from your team the next two weeks
to kind of establish whether or not they're contender or not.

Speaker 8 (14:42):
UH.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
In the Big Twelve, well, continue to play consistently and
and finished games. You know, that was our our big
problem against the in the Tech game a couple weeks backs,
we didn't finish very well. We were in the game
all the way to the mid fourth quarter and then
didn't didn't uh, didn't do much that the rest of
the way. So that's that's something we need to do,
is play the f sixty minutes and UH, I think that,

(15:03):
you know, if we can continue to to win the
turnover margin. You know, the one game we lost it
you know, in dramatic fashions the game we lost. And
so that's that's something that we got to. I think
we're twelfth in the country in the conference right now
in turnover ratio, which is not good enough. We're usually
up in the you know, top third of the league
and that so that's something that's gotta hopefully change as well.

(15:24):
We gotta do better job of that. But but you know,
if you want to if you want to win the conference,
you gotta stand tone to toe with the big boys
and and come away with wins. I mean that's the
bottom line. Course with the rivalry game in a couple
of weeks, having a quote of like Ariz almost stay
top twenty five, does that almost help it? There's no way.
Don't even think about that game. That game hasn't entered
my mind right now. So I can't answer that question.

(15:46):
At the Big twelve Big twelve, Yeah, Texas Tech is
obviously the odds on favorite. I mean, how can you
not uh say that based on what's happened so far.
Really good roster, you know, like I said that when
we played them, and after we play them, they they've
done a great job putting that roster together. Uh, there's

(16:07):
always going to be surprised, as Iowa state, you don't
getting meat by Cincinnati last week. Was I didn't see
that one coming and so I think that there's probably
four or five, maybe six teams that still have a
legit shot at when a conference, but it's all got
to go through Texas Tech right now, Thank you guys. Else,

(16:28):
how was the pizza today? Okay?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Try Oh how was the pizza today?

Speaker 3 (16:36):
I James, We're gonna have to figure out a way
to go up there, grab some of the pizza and
then make it back in time to start the show.
Like maybe we'll pre record this version or this portion
of the show and then just jam down the hill.
Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show. Happy to be back.
As most of you know, last week I was in

(16:57):
Dubai calling some fights for the I'm sure we'll get
to that at some point. Today it was a big
combat sports weekend. There was a huge UFC pay per
view and hopefully most of you got down there to
watch that. At Big Willies, presenting sponsor of The Sean
O'Connell Show, seventeen seventeen, South Maine, the greatest place to

(17:18):
catch any of the road games that you don't have
tickets to for Utah football, Mammoth hockey coming up, Jazz basketball.
They're gonna have all of it, and they do all
of the big pay per view fights. So if you
don't want to fork over the eighty dollars, yes it's
now eighty dollars to buy a single pay per view fight,

(17:39):
then you can just go down, grab some food at
Big Willies, sit down, watch.

Speaker 7 (17:46):
Well.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
They take advantage of the drink specials, take advantage of
the food specials, and you know, it's like a three
four hour kind of nice leisurely meal. It's awesome with
some combat sports on your television. So Big Willies hooks
you up the same way they hook all of us up.
They've got lunch specials going on right now, head down
to seventeen seventeen South Main Telemosse sent you. You heard

(18:08):
Kyle Whittingham and the press conference talk about some things.
The first bit of the best bit of good news
that I think we could expect, and I'm tempering expectations here.
He did say none of the injuries experienced by Utah
against West Virginia have been deemed season ending injuries. That's big,

(18:32):
which means you keep an eye on the injury report
that'll tell you who's out for this week. But the
hunter Andrews Jackson Benny, Nate Richie kind of situations are
all wait and see, watch and see, and I know
if you're you turn Hunter Andrews is out for this
yet Oh wait, that was the week before.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
That was the week before.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
But the Jackson Benny and we I think we all
kind of assumed that Benny was not season ending. It
looked a lot more mind a little more like precautionary
hold him out type of thing. And by the way
Nate looked, Nate looked pretty severe. Was that end of
his season. So that's great news. And and who knows
what that means. That could mean they're out till no,

(19:12):
he's out till November, could mean he's out until like
a projected bowl game or something. But but I'm gonna
take I'm gonna take the positive news for what it
is right now, and I'm gonna say that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Here's the deal.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
If both of those guys are hurt at the same time,
Jackson Benny and Nate Richie are hurt in a week
by week basis at the same time, and respect to Tillman,
who is the at least for now, is the backup
for Nate Richie at that safety spot. Because of course
you have no Rabbit Evans for the year. That's a

(19:49):
freshman who looks like a freshman when he's back there.
And and Nate Richie made some mistakes this year, but
they were more execution mistakes rather than positioning mistakes. And
when you're a safety, the position mistakes can be so
much more costly. The pre snap read, the alignment, the
get yourself into the throwing lane like that kind of stuff.

(20:10):
Where are you at on the football field for a
safety is far far more important than any other position.
I guess corner, because if you're not where you're supposed
to be, then the wide open receiver ends up scoring.
But if you're a defensive back, right, if you're a
linebacker who ends up playing yourself out of position, like yes,
it'll create a hole and your team's probably gonna get

(20:31):
gashed a little bit. But it's very rare that your
linebacker is the last line of defense. If you're a
safety who's playing himself out of position or making the
wrong read or not communicating properly with the guys in
front of you or whatever, it could be disastrous for
a team.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
And actually, you saw.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
You saw last week or no, it was two weeks
ago when Nate Richie got banged up at the home
game and had to come out of the game, not permanently,
not for the game, but he had to come out
of the game.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
He had to leave.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
They attacked Tillman. The alignment situation was not correct and
it was a wide open completion because they were discombobulated
in the back end of the Utah football defense. And
I'm not saying this to heap on criticism for a
guy who's doing his best and had did do some
nice things against West Virginia and even did a nice

(21:27):
couple of things against Texas Tech when he came in.
But if Jackson Benny can't be put back at that
safety position, because that's a player that your coaches trust,
and I'm making a lot of assumptions here and telling
you that that's the direction that they will go. The
reason I'm making those assumptions is because we have seen

(21:48):
them put that level of trust in Jackson Benny and
we have seen him rise to the level of that
trust and meet the expectation or exceed the expectation. So
when you see the Thursday injury report, the Friday injury report,
the Saturday injury report. What you need to keep an
eye out for is our Nate Ritchie and Jackson Benny

(22:10):
on the same plane. Are they on the same This
guy's out, this guy's questionable, this guy's doubtful, this guy's probable.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
If they're both in the same world.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
On the negative end of things, that could be scary
for Utah football, especially against this Arizona State team that
is going to Kenny Dillingham doesn't get cute, all right,
Kenny Dillingham is going to watch film and he's going
to say, oh, man, look six is out and twenty
one is in. If twenty one is in against us,

(22:45):
we're going to attack him. That's just how he's going
to be. He's he's not going to overthink that. So
as we get closer to the game, we'll discuss those
individual things. As we get more clarity on injuries be
a problem or not, we'll talk about it. But for now,
that is good news that the multiple players who left

(23:08):
West Virginia game with some bumps and bruises in a
big time winning scenario, none of those are season ending injuries.
According to head coach Kyle Whittingham, I'm at today's press Coffin.
I'm frankly shocked that Nate Richies is not and definitely
highly encouraged by that. Now I'll be less encouraged if

(23:29):
you know, three four weeks from now, we're still he's
still just questionable every week or out every week. But
it is good to know that they do plan on
at some point having him back this season. Hopefully it's
this week or next week. It did sound like it's
probably not this week. The way he was talking about, yeah,
what you were just saying about Jackson Benny, and the

(23:51):
way he said, hey, Jackson's played safety before, I don't
think he says that if they're planning on him.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
They're planning on him being available.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Kyle Whittingham's not sitting down at the day press conference
talking about body corners that can move back to safety,
so like you're not going to be And by the way,
this is a perfect example of you always have to
be kind of careful what you wish for, because there
were plenty of people with the missed tackles that Nate
Richie had, there were plenty of people who were texting

(24:20):
in and saying like, you got to find something else,
you got to do something else.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Nate Richie's not up to snuff.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Well, now you're going to find out if the other
options are even serviceable. Because Nate Richie, you can criticize
some of the mistakes that he made, but as I've
said many times on the show, he was in the
right spot on the football field way more often than not.
And yes, he missed too many tackles. But now we're

(24:48):
going to find out if the guys behind him, the
guys in replacement, are anywhere near his level. Morgan Scalley
is not exactly a charity giver. When it comes to
reps at the safety position, you got to earn those.
So if Nate Richie was out there doing it in
practice and the other guys weren't, he was gonna put

(25:12):
Nate Richie in. And if you're one of those other
guys and you're watching Nate Richie mistackles in the game,
that's that's him signaling. That's that's the flag being lifted
to say, hey, there's an opportunity here for you to
come in and take reps. But nobody did. And when

(25:33):
I say nobody did, I mean nobody took his starting
job away. So now that he's injured and you have
to kind of forcibly surrender that starting job to somebody else.
We might see exactly why even a for some people's
substandard performance from Nate Richie was being tolerated by this
coaching staff.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
But keep an eye out on the injury report.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
I also got to shout you out, OC because he
said a couple of things in the press conference. It's
like that made it sound like he was listening to
our show.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
I promise a big time listener to not this show,
but whatever.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
But the first one was you hypothesized Jackson Benny seems
like the right guy to move out was that free
safety that Nate Richie plays that free safety position because
he's played safety before and and the way he plays corner,
you can see a safety in there too if needed. Now,
less credit to you because obviously they know what he's

(26:31):
played before on that one. But the one that I
give you, James Peters, bonus points are being handed out.
The points I give you, though, is when is when
the the former as U guy from the other station says, hey,
how do you practice tackling? And he says and and

(26:54):
he jokingly doesn't answer the question, says, well, you practice tackling.
But then but then he expounds by saying, you put
your Scout team players there, and you let your first
team defense tackle the Scout team players, which is exactly
what you were saying they should be doing to catch
up from the work that they did not do during

(27:16):
fall camps.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
So I give you tons of credit.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
You have to do it tackling. You have to tackle
to practice tackling. It's like the technique, the breakdown. There's
so many drills, all right, you've all seen the drills.
There are so many drills designed to maximize a player's
ability to tackle and maximize a running back or wide

(27:39):
receiver or tight end or quarterbacks ability to break tackles.
There are so many like pantomime actions that we do
as athletes, as football players, as coaches to try and simulate. Oh,
like this is, you run around this bag and you
jump over this bag, and then a coach is standing

(28:01):
there with a boxing glove on and he's going to
try to punch the ball out, And all of those
things are designed to minimize risk and maximize the simulated
pressure of not being tackled. The only way to actually
do it is to tackle and to avoid being tackled.
The only way to practice it is to actually really

(28:23):
truly do it when, as you said before, the only
way to practice it while also being can while also
being wary of we don't want our guy, our our
first our first team guys to get hurt in practice
practicing tackling is by having the Scout team guys, yes,
and the walk whatever walk Ons are left be the

(28:44):
tackling dummies.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Right, miserable.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
This bye week was for this, for the the walk
Ons if they're already left, and for the Scout team guys.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Because here's the other thing about it that.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
I guess this is the only good thing about me
being a terrible cut football player. I can give you
this tiny little bit of insight. There's not only do
you have to go and get beat up on by
guys who are bigger, stronger, faster better than you, but
you have to do it while also not being your best.
The coaching staff doesn't want you to like, actually avoid

(29:20):
the tackle. They don't want you to actually try to
run through the contact. They want you to get tack
bowl like. They want you to do enough to give
the guy a good look, but they don't want you
to win that rep They don't want you trying to
stiff arm Land or Barton's face into the dirt. You
probably can't do it anyway because you're a walk on

(29:41):
or you're a Scout team guy.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
But they don't want you doing it. They don't like
And if you do it, there's the other thing here.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
Even if there's one coach out there, there's like the
GA who's getting all riled up, just like, let's go.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
We're doing half line, We're doing an Oklahoma drill right now.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
I'm gonna put this ball in your hand and you're
gonna give me one hundred percent, and you're gonna.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Chop those feet and you're gonna run right through John
ou Hall.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
You're gonna put your face mask on his chest and
you're gonna blast right through him, or you're gonna choke
him out of his pants, and you're just like, yes,
let's go, and you're getting all fired up. First of all,
that ga he has does not have your best interest
in mind. Okay, he doesn't know. He he doesn't care
if you get another rep for the rest of your life.
He doesn't care if Kyle Whittingham likes you. He doesn't care,

(30:25):
especially if John Whu Hall likes you because what happens
is if you try to run over John Ohu Hall.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
If you're like and John, who's it's practice. He's a starter.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
He's got bumps and bruises from actual gameplay, right, so
he's at practice even in the hard reps, he's going
like eighty five percent, and you're the guy who goes
one hundred percent and you actually try to win that rep.
You know what, you know what the starters say to you,
you know what they think of you, just like, okay,
Scout Team All Star, Okay, you you have never been

(30:57):
called a more offensive name than the things that you
hear from starters when you're actually trying at practice. What
a miserable week of practice the Scout Team guys had.
But by the way that but they tackled, They were tackled.
They practice tackling, and the tackling should be better.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
As a result.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
I was gonna say, I don't think that the I
don't think Kyle Whittingham and Morgan Scalley, Jason Beck, I
don't think that they that they would actually hold They
probably hold the gradest the gas accountable in those situations
when the walk on makes occasionally, very rarely wins that

(31:35):
that matchup. I don't think they go, why don'd you
tell them to do that? No, they probably take it
out on the walk a Scout team player, right like,
come on.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Man, they they're just like, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't
damage the goods.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Like the worst thing you could do as a Scout
team player is like somehow get knocked off your feet
during a rep, because that's when people get injured, someone
loses the you.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Get rolled up on, You roll up on somebody to
get piled up on.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
If you lose your footing because you're trying too hard,
they're just gonna be like, Okay, run to the fence
and don't come back.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Anyway.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
One wants to hear about what life of a Scout teamer,
But the most important point there is that you know
they were during the bye week taking advantage of the
opportunity to go out there and correct one of the
wrongs that you've seen in important situations in the season
so far. They they're not just missing tackles like when

(32:36):
the backups are in you had in that Texas Tech
game after your offense scored in the fourth quarter to
bring it within three. The only touchdown. Your offense scored
in the game, it's still very much up for grabs.
The momentum is back. There were like six misstackles on
the ensuing Texas Tech drive that allowed them to score.

(33:00):
That's a massively important junctuary at a game. You have
to tackle, you have to make plays there. And Kyle
Whittingham noted that about this week's opponent, Arizona State.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
They don't make mistakes like that. That's why they win
tight games. Anyway.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Eight seven seven three five three zero, seven hundred. Let's
start our conversation. Let me know what you're thinking about
this Arizona State game. We're gonna take a quick one here.
We're gonna come back with Ari Tempkin Big twelve today
on tune in Radio Big twelve Insider. After another crazy
weekend in this conference at Utah and by you now
both occupy Sean O'Connell show just getting started on a

(33:37):
Monday ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
You attuned to the Sean o'connells Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
one af AM.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell show on a Monday,
wild weekend in Utah football.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
It was a bye, all right, and that could lull
you to sleep a little bit.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
As a fan, a die hard, hardcore fan of one
particular team, maybe you weren't quite as enthusiastic about watching
all the games this past weekend. BYU handle business impressively
against West Virginia. Bear Bachmeyer had a three hundred and
fifty yard passing date.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Now I get it.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
West Virginia, as we know having watched them against Utah
not not a very good team right now. But the
BYU freshman bear Bachmeyer got loose a little bit. Chase
Roberts had four catches one hundred and sixty one yards.
Talk about tackling issues. West Virginia had some against the Kooks,

(35:06):
but thirty eight to twenty four BYU gets it done
to improve to five and zero, and I know that.
Kyle Whittingham at the press conference said, I haven't even
thought about that game that's happening next week. He was
asked a question about the rivalry game and the timing
of you know, back to back opponents that they ranked
opponents and things like that, and he did the coach

(35:28):
speak thing and said, haven't even thought about that game?
You as a fan, you can think about that game
going to be on the road at rice Ecls and
excuse me, on the road at Labella ever Stadium, and look,
it's it's going to be a critical, critical game. Now
BYU is in a bit of a look ahead spot
this week. Arizona, much to our surprise, is a better

(35:52):
team than we thought they would be, at least on
paper what their record shows at four and one. I
think their win total was three and a half in
Vegas for Arizona, if I'm not mistaken heading into the
preseason like they're a better team than we thought they
were gonna be. So six pm kick was announced for

(36:13):
BYU and Utah primetime opportunity. And Utah gets a win
against Arizona State this weekend, they're back in the rankings.
BYU I think is still going to get a win
against Arizona even if they don't. We're talking about two
top twenty five teams, two teams still very much in
the hunt for a Big twelve championship. Everything to play for,

(36:38):
and you gotta do it in a rivalry scenario, and
you gotta do it against a freshman quarterback in a
hostile environment, in a place where you haven't won the
last game. Last time you dropped the ball literally and figuratively.
And by the way, you don't want to like it's

(37:01):
back to back wins for BYU. We all saw what
happened last year. You don't want to let them build
a streak. You don't want to let it be three
in a row. So it's certainly not back to back years,
because it's been. It was twenty nineteen, then twenty twenty one,
than twenty twenty four like this. It's different when it's
when it's consecutive years, it is. And and with Arizona

(37:23):
State game this weekend, you talk about critical importance, about
these sliding doors that opener shut for you as a
human being, in your life. As a football program, these
next two weeks are of existential, critical importance for Utah football.

(37:47):
Ut mcgeddon two point zero. I'm not gonna go full
ute mcgeddon right now, but think about it. Think about
what you've got. Okay, You've got a team that if
we had done a preseason Big twelve poll, it would
have been in Arizona State as the presumed champion. They
would have been number one, and one B would have
been Texas Tech because of everything that they did in

(38:08):
the transfer portal. I could see that, and then you
know BYU would have probably been like seven. Utah probably
would have been like four in the voting. But you
have an opportunity on your home field with an offense
that is as good or better than anything you've seen
since your pack twelve championship years at Utah, to go

(38:31):
against an Arizona State defense that defends the run really
well but gives up kind of a lot of points.
All right, You've you've got a winnable game against the
team that is top twenty five right now and his
last year's conference champion, and who, by the way, you
should have beaten the Valley of the Sun last year.

(38:51):
You would have beat if you just had anything better
than like a twenty five percent banged up Cam Rising, who,
by the way, was being given in his final that
was like his you know what, Cam, We're not gonna
pull you out of this game because the saga of
your injury and the long wait to get you back
on the field has been such a drain on this program,

(39:15):
on your teammates, on the fan base, on the coaching
staff on you. We are even though you got critically
injured on the second play of the game, we are
not gonna pull you out right now. We are gonna
let you die on your sword. We're gonna let you
that's the wrong term. We're gonna let you go out swinging.

(39:35):
We're gonna let you.

Speaker 8 (39:37):
Like.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
That was such a weird scenario for Utah football and
for Cam Rising specifically, because it was like if any
other quarterback, and I mean any other quarterback, like if
Devin dam Pierre, who everybody loves and this coaching staff
is like totally enamored with for good reason, and the
fan base is jumped on board with if he got

(40:00):
hurt the exact same way and had the exact same
follow up performance after being injured on that second play
of the game that Cam did in like the first
half of that game.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Any other human being gets pulled out of that game,
But because of Isaac would have been pulled out of
the game. If that happened to him, you would have
just been like, all right, Buttari, we're going with you.

Speaker 8 (40:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
But because of what the waiting game that we had
all played, and Cam wanted to go out there and
do it, and like Kyle Whittingham said postgame, he wanted
to still to keep playing.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Okay, what.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Like we all saw right, you should have beat Arizona State,
the eventual conference champion last year. Revisionist history is lame
in college sports, so the should have could have winn
I'm not going to spend a bunch of time on it,
but you have this opportunity. Kenny Dillingham coaches nervous against
Kyle Whittingham because that's like one of his coaching heroes. Okay,

(40:57):
and maybe that's now that he's beat him, it's a
little bit less of a thing. That's not this monkey
on his back anymore. But this is such a winnable
game you have to have to have to win it.
Though when I say it's winnable, I don't mean because
you have a massive talent advantage or anything like that.
What I mean is you are in the same conversation

(41:18):
as Arizona State, You're in the same conversation as BYU.
You're actually still in the same conversation as Texas Tech
if you don't shoot yourself in the foot several times
in that game. But against Arizona State, coming off of
bye you could not have asked for mid season a
better scenario than this one.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
You get the extra time to get guys healed up.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
You have now five games under your belt, six weeks
under your belt, in order to figure out exactly who
you really are as a team. Is that offensive line
what you thought it was going to be? Who are
your defensive stars? Who can you trust? Who can't you trust?

Speaker 6 (41:52):
It is?

Speaker 2 (41:52):
You have to win this game.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Must win is cliche and overused, but you have to
win this game for so many reasons.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
One so that you stay in the big twelve championship conversation.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Two, so you have momentum going into a rivalry game
where your rival is pretty damn good.

Speaker 8 (42:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Three because in the big, big, big picture scenario, you're
trying to let this be the swan song, the right
off into the sunset year for Kyle Whittingham. And if
it's another bad year, if it's another oh man, we
had opportunities, but we didn't capitalize on him, and we
ended up with a you know, a seven and five team.

(42:33):
It's not quite so obvious how the succession plan goes
to work. It's not gonna be quite so obvious that
it is the appropriate time. Kyle Whittingham is so competitive
that if he has another bad year and he sees
some of the young talent on this roster, he's gonna
be man is tempting.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Not like unfinished business.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
I mean, it is the exact same thing that you
see in the NFL in combat sports, in like it
doesn't happen as much in baseball and in the NBA
because like those are not as punishing on the body necessarily,
and it's not as obvious when the game has passed
you by, when the sport has passed you by. In

(43:13):
a physical sport, when a guy hangs around too long,
he hangs around too long because he thinks he's gonna
get some sort of redemptive performance and be able to
walk out on his own terms. Like don't I don't
want to make too many claims for a Utah fan base,
but like this is supposed to be the year where
Kyle gets to ride off in the sunset because you've

(43:35):
got this offensive line. You've got now a coordinator and
a quarterback that can deliver you some big wins, and
you should compete for this conference championship. But these next
two weeks are going to determine whether or not that
is true.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
And this week.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
When I say the next two weeks, I mean if
you don't win this week, then next week is all
about the pride and the bragging rights, and hey, can
we beat BYU. If you dig yourself hole and lose
a tiebreaker against Texas Tech and Arizona State, you ain't
in the conference championship game. Utah fans, yeah, I they definitely.

(44:10):
I'm glad you you brought this to the beginning of
the show, hero see, because I was thinking about this
all weekend that Utah has to win the next two weeks.
You you can maybe afford a lost. The other obviously
good team at this point that we see on the
schedule is Baylor in November mid November, and then we'll

(44:34):
see maybe Kansas ends up being one of those really
good teams. The last parts of this year, they've only
been Okay, Cincinnati's on the schedule. They've they got a
really big win against a banged up Iowa State team.
They may end up being a team that ends up
being a really good team you face, but the only
other obvious one right now is Baylor. You can maybe

(44:55):
afford a slip up to that team maybe, but you
you can't lose your rival again that's a given. Nope,
especially when they might with that tiebreaker, might just be
in the championship game instead of you, and.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
You can't.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
You can't lose to another you can't lose back to back,
or you can't lose your first two games against teams
that people think are going to be in the in
the conference championship game and then you still have enough
confidence and enough momentum to go through and make it happen.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
I just I don't see that being the case. So
see you can.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
That's why this week, beyond the tie breakers that you're
talked about, that's for me why this week is so important.
Because you just got destroyed by Texas Tech in the
fourth quarter mainly, and you're gonna follow that up with
with the loss to ASU a couple weeks later. I
just don't I don't know how you come back from
that and still make the conference championship. Also stadium, you

(45:54):
heard Kyle Whittingham reacting to the to the news that's
been zero to five against conference opponents at home.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
He's like, that sucks. Yeah, he had no idea.

Speaker 8 (46:07):
That.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
That surprised me. Honestly, but it can't be owing six.
I mean, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I'm not here to tell you that anything other than
a win this week ruins your day, ruins your weekend,
ruins your season.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
But it kind of does technically.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Technically, there's plenty of time for Utah to come back
from a loss against ASU this week.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
But I just don't I see it.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
In reality, Like then your bounce back game is going
to be against BYU.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Okay, you pull that off, and that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
They just Texas Tech put everyone in the conference on
notice when they came into Rice Ecles Stadium and they
rolled out with that final score. Anyone who actually watched
the game saw that Texas Tech dominated the line of
scrimmage and even though Utah was able to hang around

(47:02):
and make it still was a one score game going
into the fourth quarter, like Texas Tech made the plays necessary.
Oh and by the way they did it using the
backup quarterback who ended up being more of a threat
to Utah's defense than the starting quarterback, was right. And
by the way they did it by capitalized by all
of the guys that they went out and paid for

(47:22):
being really damn good. With the exception of Jacob Martinez,
the linebacker, Yeah, whose wife is a helicopter pilot, and
she's now a celebrity herself because every broadcast she's like.
Texas Tech went out there and they raised their hand,
they planned their flag, and they.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Said, we are exactly who we told you we were
going to be.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
And everyone else in the Big Twelve Conference, I mean
everyone else still has a big old question mark next
to their name. Texas Tech is the only team that
has made a definitive statement so far about who they
really are, and they did it, unfortunately against your utes.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Yeah, so if you're going to be who a lot of.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
The experts and a lot of the pundits and a
lot of the fans still think you are, you have
to start proving it this week. And when I say
start proving it, it's because, James, you just went through
some of the well, yeah, we think the obvious, like
Baylor's the obvious stuff. But now Cincinnati suddenly is chosen
to be good. Houston all of a sudden is scary Kansas.

(48:27):
Kansas can beat anybody because they've got quarterback. Man, as
long as your freakish quarterback is healthy, you could beat
anyone that Ucla showed us that this past weekend against
Penn State, the worst team in Power football, woke up,
got strong play out of a re energized quarterback who

(48:48):
is incredibly talented. We saw that, and all of a sudden,
they knock off a top ten team in the country.
We're gonna have a conversation about that's just as much
of an indictment against Penn State as it is a
compliment for UCLA. But the point stand that any team
in this conference that has good quarterback play is somebody
you got to reckon with.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
So Arizona State.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
Sam Levitt is not good as a passer this year,
but he's incredibly opportunistic and dangerous as a runner. All right,
Bear Bachmeyer, whether you like me saying this or not,
is ahead of the curve right now. Is a true
freshman as a dual threat, certainly improving as a passer
the last couple of weeks. And you've got these other
games that we in the preseason had kind of penciled

(49:31):
in as automatic wins for Utah that are far from
automatic wins. So the margin for error against other good teams.
There are nine teams right now in the Big Twelve
Conference that are four and one are better nine teams.
That means there are nine teams in the conference as
we approach the halfway mark of the season that are

(49:52):
still mathematically firmly in the conference championship race. Texas Tech
and BYU fully control their own destiny right now is
undefeated teams right everyone else that's a one lost team,
and even Baylor that's a four and two team, they're
still in the conversation. But nine teams in this conference

(50:12):
that are four and one or better. By the way,
it doesn't include Baylor because Baylor's four and two, not
four and one their win percentage, So there's ten with
Baylor a team that we still we still believe that
can go on and run and see themselves in the
running for a victoral championship game. In the Pac twelve conference,
you had kind of this this even though there was

(50:34):
a lot of parody and there was a lot of chaos,
what you really had was four teams every year that
were like hunting for a championship, and maybe a fifth
team could include themselves in the conversation, and then everyone
else kind of beat each other up so much that
it if you lost to Oregon State seem to be
a team that Utah would stub their toe against. Arizona

(50:56):
would be a team that Utah would stub their toe against.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Right, you didn't.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
You would lose those games and we would lament the loss,
but you would be like, oh my gosh, there was
no tie breaker implication there. Against Arizona State and against BYU,
these games are hyper hyper important. The margin for air
has gone from razor thin to completely absent. The turnover

(51:21):
thing that Kyle Whittingham addressed in the press conference today, Hey,
we got to be better than twelfth in the conference
in our turnover ratio.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
You damn right.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
If you're on that level against Arizona State and against
BYU these next two weeks, your season becomes regrettable. It
comes down Saturday, redout, rice Ecles Stadium night, game night, atmosphere,
the restoration of the horror House that it is supposed

(51:52):
to be for a Big twelve conference and it has
not yet been for a Big twelve conference. One of
the most critical games in Utah football's home history. And
that's not hyperbole, because the stakes, the ripples. You throw

(52:15):
that rock into the pond. With a win, big things,
you throw the rock into the pond with a loss.
Those waves, all of them are bad. Recruiting in state
recruiting no longer in the conference conversation. The gap widening
between Texas Tech and everyone else. Utah football season, in

(52:38):
a lot of ways, comes down to Saturday night eight
seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. With that
in mind, tell me how you're feeling. Tell me what
you think the most critical player is. What you think
the most critical juncture in this game is going to
be the most critical matchup. We're gonna spend the entire
week talking about how Arizona State and Utah matchup.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
I've taken way too much time.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
We'll get a quick break here on the Shata Connall
Show ESPN seven hundred ninety two one ff.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
You're listening to a Sean O'Connell show from a Murdock
Hunting Studio of PESPN seven hundred and ninety two one half.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
M Don O'Connell show.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Continuing here, we'll do a quick segment, says a recap
for you. I just made the point that there are
so many teams in the hunt still in the conference
championship race. Houston finally lost. They lost to Texas Tech.
Convincingly thirty five to eleven. Texas Tech took control of
that one in the first quarter and never let go Cincinnati.

(53:42):
James alluded to this already beat Iowa State, handing the
Cyclone their first loss of the season. Baylor outlasted Kansas
State thirty five thirty four over the weekend. Arizona beats
up on Oklahoma State, who is just in the worst
type of way at this point. TCU one victory over Colorado.

(54:03):
UH Deon Sanders this is his last year coaching. Deon's
gonna leave. He he's not enjoying the process right now,
and he's having more health problems. He thinks that he
has a doctor's appointment today. Dion talked about he thinks
he's got more blood clots, and he had obviously blood
clott issues earlier in his life that led to him.

(54:25):
He's lost some toes to it. He's got circulatory problems.
Obviously he had the cancer scare.

Speaker 7 (54:32):
UH.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
Dion is not going to spend a lot more time
in that coaching seat, So we'll be talking about that
in this offseason as how appealing is that job. Are
they going to roll out a red carpet for ten
million a year for the next guy.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Probably not.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
That things have gone sour I think in Boulder at
this point. And uh, you know, TCU is one of
those teams in the in the Big twelve that probably
isn't being talked about enough. I still think that TCU
is very much in contention. They are one of the
teams that's that's four and one or better right now.

(55:10):
If you throw in Kansas and Baylor, who both have
four wins, there are there are ten excuse me, there
are eleven teams in the conference with four wins or better.
As we head into you know, for most the sixth
week of play for Kansas and Baylor, they've already played
six games. But is this their bye week? They must
be I think it is. It's got to be this

(55:31):
week or next if over the weekend, and yeah, they've
got they've got a road game against Texas Tech coming
next Saturday. No, that's uh, that's just sorry, that's this
coming Saturday. So did they did they have a anyway?

(55:53):
They got to be having a bye. They have a
late buye. So their by comes after Texas Tech, Kansas
after Texas Tech, and then they've got Kansas State and
their second bye is in November. Then wow, all right,
that would be uh, that's quite The placement of buy
is that it feels like BYU's is the opposite. I
think theirbye is after the Utah game, not mistaken, and

(56:15):
then that's interesting they are and that'll be their second bye,
So yeah, Kansas. Kansas has a bye after this weekend
against Sexist Tech. Then they've got two games and then
a bye.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
Yeah. Wow.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
I mean it sets up for them to have a
nice end of the season, which, unfortunately for Utah if
that ends up being the case, final week of the
season is the Kansas game on the road. But it's
funny you bring up Colorado because as bad as it
has looked at times for them, they've also had back
to back weeks against really good teams BYU and then

(56:50):
TCU fourteen point leads in the first quarter.

Speaker 8 (56:54):
So I.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
All of what you said about Deon Sanders not enjoying
the process and them losing a lot more than he
probably thought they would and other people thought they would
at this point, they've shown in the last two weeks,
albeit in losses, Utah can't take them lightly either. On
the twenty fifth, that feel that's a huge potential trap game.
After these two weeks against potential Big twelve championship teams ASU, THN, BYU,

(57:24):
Then you got it. You cannot sleep on Colorado even
though their record is not very good. Yeah, Colorado is
gonna be one of those interesting teams for everyone this
year because at their best with depending on which quarterback
you face, Yeah, at their best they can beat you.

(57:45):
At their worst, you will absolutely blow them out the
floor in the ceiling for Colorado, the gap on that
like Utah's floor in Utah's ceiling. Even in really bad games,
Utah is not necessarily gonna get killed by like a
bad team. Same thing I think is true for BYU
because the defense kind of keeps you in it. For Colorado,

(58:06):
if you don't get moving offensively, it's just going to
be a disaster of a day. So the gap between
them at their best and then at their worst is
two different teams effectively.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Text line coming in, I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Sure why you guys are acting like we lost the
game already from sixteen twenty four, not acting like that
at all. We're just telling you what I'm driving home,
the point of this being a massively important game, which,
by the way, means that a win here, and I
think I'm not going to give you my pick just yet,
but spoiler alert, I think Utah is going to win

(58:43):
this game like a win here. The same way I
talk about how devastating a loss could be, a win
here is on the opposite end of that spectrum. A
win here is you beat last year's conference champion. You
beat the conference the guy that the team that will
lot of people thought would be this year's conference champion.
You set yourself up in at least one of those

(59:05):
tiebreaker scenarios, in a really good spot, and you come
in with a signature win over a top twenty five
team as you head out on the road for your
rivalry game, that is such a huge confidence builder. And
by the way, if you're going to beat Arizona State,
the way you're going to beat Arizona State is you're
playing Utah football.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
In order to get this thing done.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
You have to play the way that we think this
team is capable of playing, which means you've got pressure
on the passer, You've kept him inside the pocket and
corralled him on those third downs, which of course he
leaked out last year and hurt you so many times
on those you've put up twenty eight points or more
in that game in order to get the victory, and

(59:48):
you've overperformed the rush total that Arizona State has been
able to hold their opponents to all year long. So
if you're getting this win on Saturday, you are setting
yourself up on the positive side for all the things
that you have to fear on the negative side.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
So we're just we're just letting you know what the
stakes are.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
Texters and all of our listeners also, please don't excuse
or confuse objectivity with negativity. We're just we're giving you
the stakes. We're telling you that it's not guaranteed. And
I think all of you know that Utah is not
a perfect team. There are flaws with with this team,
which makes when they go up against another team that

(01:00:34):
could that has aspirations to be and realistic expectations to
be in the in the conversation for a Big twelve
championship game, we we are wary of the fact that
maybe those flaws will show up, that's all, and just
like just like you and all of us are hopeful
of the idea that they will not show up in

(01:00:56):
a meaningful way. It this is a high stakes game.
That's all we're saying. All Right, we gotta take a
quick one here, come back and uh we'll be checking
in with Scott Mitchell, hosted the Down in Dirty Color
Analyston on the Utah Radio broadcasts, and of course the
Utah quarterbacking legend coming out of a bye week. What

(01:01:16):
does he expect from the Utes. We'll find out next
on ESPN seven hundred ninety to one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Time go bring in the big Leffie.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
You have to start thinking about getting somebody else up.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Ute 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 2 (01:01:47):
A fir.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Jan Oldcyle show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety twe
afm croud part of Utahs ESPN Radio Network. We welcome
Scott Mitchell to the show talk a Little Utah Football.
You'll hear him on the broadcast Saturday night, Rice Ecles
Stadium eight fifteen kick night game should be a fun
one against Arizona State, the Ranks, Sun Devils, or of

(01:02:25):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Scott Mitchell, how are you, dude?

Speaker 8 (01:02:39):
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 five weeks. Let's get them
over with. I want to I want to play games.
I want to be in the second thing. So I'm
excited and happy to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Scott.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
I have some people expressing their chagrin because I came
on in the opening set after Kyle Whittingham's press conference.
I talked about this 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 on Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Am I over selling that?

Speaker 8 (01:03:19):
Oh not at all. I mean, 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

(01:03:40):
of the lurkers, like they are teams with you know,
kind of a little forgotten. I mean, Arizona State's two
and zero 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

(01:04:02):
you know, 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 zero
and Cincinnati beat Iowa State and and and so they're
like those are kind of the teams to watch out for.

(01:04:24):
And even Iowa State still and Utah b YU or
Utah Arizona State are kind of in that lurking spot,
like people aren't really talking about you know, this game
or or these two teams as those contenders, but very
like we're very much in the think of it here
at Utah and and at Arizona State. So this is

(01:04:44):
this is an amazing game. This is an incredible game
for the rest of this year.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
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.
The 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, I think that ultimately you end up winning

(01:05:12):
that game. You also were in that game despite the
fact that Arizona State had the second best running back
in the country, who is just a trump card in
Cam Scataboo. They don't have him now, and as was
addressed in the press conference today with Kyle Whittingham, it
changes their play calling quite a bit. Now they've got
a great wide receiver, they've got a mobile quarterback who

(01:05:34):
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 does it change this game in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 8 (01:05:55):
I don't think it changes the game, but it's in
sense that it's going to be a great battle. Uh.
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 I look

(01:06:18):
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.

Speaker 7 (01:06:27):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:06:28):
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 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?

(01:06:48):
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 de Peer is
if the if, 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

(01:07:10):
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 Utah.
I gotta believe it helps. And Devin dampier is is
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

(01:07:31):
got to learn how to finish.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Scott.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
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.

Speaker 8 (01:07:48):
Of that, 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 exposed 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,

(01:08:09):
the secondary is pretty good, and and and there's you know,
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 and and you can do certain coverages and ways
to kind of help yourself out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Scott mentioned 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.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
But uh, you know you mentioned that as a fan,
bye week's not ideal.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
Right, Hopefully everyone got the yard work done last weekend
and now you can focus in on what's going on
with Utah versus Arizona State. But uh, for a team
to win the bye week, especially a team that has
some injuries and has been banged up, 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,

(01:09:10):
Jackson Benny not a seasoning ending injury, Nate Richie not
a season ending injury, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
So how do you get better.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
In 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 8 (01:09:26):
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 Noden and maybe less of Lander Barton.
Then maybe you would have you certainly Daniel Bray is

(01:09:48):
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 a guy that you can get involved.
I don't so I think it's taking advantage of finding

(01:10:11):
other targets, at least offensively to develop and getting them
some reps and getting them comfortable with certain you know,
maybe developing 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

(01:10:33):
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, I

(01:10:55):
like the bye week for Utah. I think they've come
at a really good time and I think they're 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 you're in a you're

(01:11:17):
in a tight race, and you've got to find any
advantage 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. Uh, You're always looking for just that

(01:11:40):
little advantage because anything will will be huge against Arizona State,
it will be huge even going into b YU. 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 2 (01:12:02):
I thought against Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
I mean, look, Utah 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 from

(01:12:24):
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

(01:12:47):
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? In be 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

(01:13:10):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
Where do you stand on these things?

Speaker 8 (01:13:22):
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

(01:13:44):
big games at Syracuse. I don't think he had big games,
you know, at New Mexico, not like Texas Tech.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
Big noon.

Speaker 8 (01:13:52):
Everyone's there, and it's not they're they're all week. You know,
Urban Myers at practice. He's a legendary coach, you know there,
and they're hitting a lot of pub you know, this offense,
boy looks amazing, and you know, these long drives and
scoring touchdowns and and I think they got a little
ahead of themselves, a little full of themselves. And I
don't think they played well. And I don't think Jay.

(01:14:14):
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 and and I think
Utah is a better team than they showed in that game.

(01:14:34):
And yeah, it was massively impressive. In fact, Devin dan
Pierre 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. I think they
were trying to figure it out in the fall. I
think they were trying to figure it out in their

(01:14:55):
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 best he's thrown the

(01:15:16):
football all year. And it was and it was needed.
And I you know, so if you can continue to
do that, he can continue to run dynamically or start
to anyways, and they and they really get this offensive
line moving forward. Yeah, you talk would be very explosive
and absolutely you want to see it because if you don't,

(01:15:36):
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

(01:15:57):
not powerful explosive enough offensively to 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 3 (01:16:10):
Should Penn State fire James Franklin fully bananas.

Speaker 8 (01:16:20):
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

(01:16:41):
time blue 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, their twos,
threes and fours are NFL players, and so they're ones
and twos are practicing against NFL players every day. I mean,

(01:17:03):
you know, when 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. Uh, and it spreads out the talent across
the board, and you see things like you know, U

(01:17:26):
c l A surprising 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.

(01:17:48):
And so at these conferences that have gone coastal and
you know, they 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
it's a new phenomena, but you know, maybe there's something
to that as well. So I'm not surprised by anything

(01:18:09):
that happens in college football. And for that, you know,
I don't know that you need to fire a coach
over the craziness that could be college football. But man,
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 3 (01:18:28):
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

(01:18:52):
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 win games. It's always like the you know,
falling short when when it really matters if you if
you lose back to back weeks one game that was
like that, okay, this is potential national title implications, much

(01:19:13):
less to Big ten already people are like, oh, here's
regular old James Franklin.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
But then you just there's no chance.

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
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 8 (01:19:35):
You're in a conference, you're at a school that there's
an expectation there and 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

(01:19:55):
emotional loss, like you mentioned against Oregon whiteout game, it's
a big deal. Ill 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

(01:20:19):
lowest common denominator. 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 is 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

(01:20:40):
drain on you. And and 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're going up against Ohio State every year, you're going
up against Michigan when every year you're going up with

(01:21:01):
the research in schools like Indiana 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 that was a big knock
on on on Ryan Day. You know. James Franklin, I
think is an excellent coach. I think he's done a

(01:21:23):
tremendous job of really resurrecting a dead program at Penn State.
And I think there's you know, there's patients, especially with
all of the things going on in college football, probably
more so than maybe maybe in the in the past.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
Yeah, We made this point last year. I think you
and I have talked about it as well. 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

(01:22:00):
won a national championship because he lost the games that
would have made him, you know, Big twelve champ or
excuse to 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. He because he's like, you know, it changes

(01:22:20):
your whole reputation one game. So yeah, it's it's wild
when the stakes are that high.

Speaker 8 (01:22:26):
Yeah, Ryan Day probably would be the head coach at
North Carolina right now, or who knows, maybe UCLA. 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

(01:22:47):
a position for a new coach and if you know,
if ten states moving that direction, you know, yeah, you
might see you might see a firing. Just with that
that trend.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Before I let you go, how much do you read
into Broncos Eagles.

Speaker 8 (01:23:03):
Look, it's the same thing, you know the NFL is
the teams are so evenly matched, and there's so many
crazy things happening in the NFL in weeks. You know,
you just kind of scratch your head with things. You
either have to embrace it and just say there's parody
and you're going to see crazy games and it's going

(01:23:25):
to 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.

Speaker 9 (01:23:31):
I love it personally. I love that.

Speaker 8 (01:23:33):
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 navigating yourself through
all that madness and finding a way to win ten, eleven,
twelve games in a season is a challenge, and it

(01:23:56):
you know, but it makes it exciting, It makes it compelling.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Scott always love picking your brain. Thanks for the time, sir.

Speaker 8 (01:24:04):
You gotta have a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:24:05):
Scott Mitchell.

Speaker 3 (01:24:06):
You can find him immediately preceding our show on the
Down and Dirty, and of course you will hear him
beside Bill Riley and Stevenson Sylvester on pregame, the call,
and the official postgame right here on your Home with
the Utes ESPN seven hundred ninety TWOEFM on Saturday nights
our station. Pregame begins at two, No No No begins

(01:24:30):
at four, and then next week against BUYU is what
it'll start ut too, so Porter and Company at about
four this coming weekend. I know you're sick of waiting
because the bye week got real long. But up next
the Daily Dump and a mistake even worse than the

(01:24:50):
butt fumble. Potentially it's a Sean O'Connell show, ESPN seven
hundred and ninety two.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
Feeling out of the loop, Let's catch up on today's
biggest headlines about daily news Dump on the Shat o'connall Show,
where we flush out the biggest stories of the day.
On Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred and
ninety two to one half am brought to you by
Bally Plumbing. Just look for the truck with the duck rack.

(01:25:20):
One o'clock hour is gonna be big.

Speaker 3 (01:25:21):
We've got Adrian Danny between the pipe talk a little
Utah mammoth, and then Dale Murphy is going to join
us as the the MLB playoffs are in full swing.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
Get it full swing, full swing. Swinging a miss on
that one, all right?

Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
None not as good as the ones I come up
with A for effort daily dealt brought to you by
a friend's over at Valley Plumbing. And there's some stuff
that a lot of people are gonna want to flush
away after today's dab. There we go, he's back, Mark Sanchez,
the butt fumble. Remember that you were punchline for a

(01:26:00):
lot of years. Can't really stay out of the bad headlines,
although there's many many years between. Yeah, that happening turned
into a great, great broadcaster in my opinion. Yeah, and
then Saturday happened.

Speaker 2 (01:26:16):
So you saw.

Speaker 3 (01:26:18):
This is why social media is so interesting, right, there's uh.
The initial reports were that, oh my gosh, Mark Sanchez
was involved in some type of altercation and he has
been stabbed, and you're like, oh wow, looks like an
obvious victim, and in this alter case, that's scary stuff. Yeah, people,

(01:26:39):
you know when you spend time in certain cohorts, right right,
Like we've I've had an opportunity because of my MMA
world to be around you know a lot of cops,
a lot of military veterans, a lot of folks that
are you know, involved in real life conflict scenarios. And
one thing that everyone will say is that there there's

(01:27:00):
no such thing as a good like good stabbing. There's
it's bad no matter what. And that probably seems obvious,
but like any kind of blade scenario, it just gets
ugly fast and they all kind of are scared of
it for good reason. So I'm thinking about, you know,
things through that lens, like, oh my gosh, Like what
happened that Mark Sanchez? You know, somebody walked up to

(01:27:22):
him mugged him. You just had like your mind goes
through all these possible scenarios. You're like, that's really unfortunate.
And then we find out he's hospitalized and you know,
the injuries are pretty serious, but he's stable.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
Yeah, critical condition.

Speaker 3 (01:27:38):
Was brought there in critical condition, but then quickly they
said they were able to stabilize him. Yeah, and then
the next headline is that, well, now that he's stable,
we're gonna arrest him.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
Oh what h for me?

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
I told you this off airro seat. My jaw dropped, like,
wait a second, arrested. So again, like as you're finding out, oh,
this person got stabbed and he's a public figure, and
then it's always like, oh, thoughts and prayers.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
I hope he's okay, and that is still true. You
hope he's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
But then they're like, also, we're arresting him because it
turns out according now to multiple sources, and like the
reason they arrested him, and one of his charges has
been upgraded to a felony charge. Apparently Mark Sanchez was
the aggressor in this whole scenario. It was like a
sixty nine year old Uber driver basically that there was

(01:28:29):
a conflict about who was parking where whatever, and Mark,
according to these reports, was the aggressor and escalated the
situation and that the person who stabbed him may have
done so in self defense. You had some of the
details that I caught up on this morning with because

(01:28:51):
I'll be honest with you, loaded college football Saturday, as
it always is, loaded an NFL Sunday. I saw the headlines,
the initial one that he was stabbed. Looks like he's
the victim, but he's stable in the hospital. And then
later he's arrested, and I went, Okay, I'll dig into
the details more later. So this morning I caught up

(01:29:13):
on It wasn't until this morning I really caught up
on all the details here the fact. So it said
the one of the misdemeanors he was initially charged with,
oh see, was unlawful entry of a vehicle. And so
I think I said, I think I said uber driver, right,
truck driver. So, and it was a loading dock at

(01:29:33):
the Western Hotel that presumably Mark was staying at in Indianapolis.
He goes into his truck, into this guy's truck, and
you know, lies about how the hotel told him he
could well, he's well also charged with public intoxication. And

(01:29:55):
the driver, the sixty nine year old truck driver saying
he was slurring his words really bad. So he just
really drunk, is what it sounds like. The hotel, the
hotel told me I could do this. That wasn't true.
And then when things and I don't know how things
escalated from there, but the but the truck driver tried

(01:30:15):
to grab his phone, he Mark prevents him from doing so,
so the truck driver tries to mace him. That does
not work on Mark Sanchez, so then he pulls out
his knife and stabs him in self defense multiple times.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Just just an insane story.

Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
We say insane and crazy and myself way too much,
but this is truly that when it comes to this,
And yeah, we hope that I still hope that Mark
comes out of this.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:30:47):
I think he's been released from the hospital and we
sent went straight to jail from the hospital.

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
Was one of the updates I saw.

Speaker 3 (01:30:55):
But it's it's just unbelievable how he went from public
perception of Wow, this guy is an obvious victim. I'm
too bad that this is terrible that this happened to
Mark Sanchez, who I think has become a very likable guy, right,

(01:31:16):
as I said in my opinion, became a very good
media personality, and I think to me has always come
off as very likable even when he was doing the
bup fu fumble and stuff as a player. And now
he's like this guy who crossed the line to the
point where someone felt like they needed to get a

(01:31:37):
weapon out to defend themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
Just and by the way, insane. It matters a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
So my dad just turned seventy all right, Yeah, this
is a sixty nine year old truck driver. He drives
for a company that recycles cooking oil. All right, this
is like, this is a blue collar type dude.

Speaker 2 (01:31:53):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:31:54):
I don't know how much time he's spend around people
who are not Like, you're not decrepit and eld when
you're in your sixties, but especially if you're still working
like this man is, if you're a forty somethingter thirty nine,
forty year old professional athlete, former professional athlete, you shouldn't
be getting in physical altercations with people who are in
their late sixties.

Speaker 8 (01:32:14):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:32:15):
Kids don't drink, all right, Like absolutely, intoxication has something
to do with this. It doesn't justify any behavior when
you say, oh, well I was drunk. So but like
Mark Sanchez got stabbed because, according to the reports and

(01:32:36):
the CCTV, the footage that there is being described by
police representatives like you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:43):
Wouldn't leave the dude alone. He kept going after it
after he got pepper sprayed.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
Even after he got pepper sprayed, he advanced on this guy,
and so the guy was like, all right, well, this
dude who's twenty something years younger than me, thirty years
younger than me, is attacking me.

Speaker 2 (01:33:02):
I'm going to do what I have to do.

Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
That is scary, well and listen, like Mark Sanchez doesn't
look like Russell Westbrook or anything, but still in very
good shape. So this and maybe this guy didn't recognize
him as a former NFL player, but he probably took
a look at him and went, this guy is significantly
younger than me. He is in really good shapes that
he's in really good shape enough that I'm scared he

(01:33:25):
could physically overpower me if if I if I don't
have any way to defend myself. So that's the other
part of this is that this is a former professional
football player who is not even forty yet, has been
out of the game for a long time now, but
not even forty yet, and still looks really good right, Like,

(01:33:46):
still looks like he could play a little bit. Like
that's gonna scare someone in this truck driver's position. Absolutely,
it would scare most of us, most of us that
aren't even close to seventy years old, like this man
is sucks. Okay, as long as we're talking about scary scenarios, James,

(01:34:07):
let me just put a button on this. I have
not heard any official word from Fox Sports on this.
O see if you haven't seen anything or heard anything
about that. I'm presuming that he's not going to be
working for Fox Sports for a while. I don't know
if that means they're going to fire him or if
he just will be on extended leave of absence, but
he will not be calling games for a while. And
I don't think but no official word yet. I know

(01:34:29):
this doesn't matter for most people. His wife, by the way,
just had to tell his wife's an actress. Okay, And
there's this new show, Chad Powers Out. It's like a
football the Hulu show. Yeah, she's in that show. So
the timing for her is pretty bad, right, because like
when you're launching something like that, you don't want negative

(01:34:50):
pr around.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
The promotion certainly matters.

Speaker 3 (01:34:52):
Yeah, So that's anyway, talking about other scary scenarios, what
is your appetite for, like, I don't know, high altitude adventure,
going scuba diving, like the extreme behaviors where people push
beyond regular human limits, you know, there's like the ultra runners,

(01:35:14):
there's the mountain climbers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
The deep sea divers. Like, do you have any interest
in any of that in doing it?

Speaker 3 (01:35:20):
Yeah, not a ton, I'll be honest with you, because
I'm a little bit too risk averse for that sort
of thing. But it is fun to hear about and
see the videos of other people doing it. By the way,
nothing James just showed me pictures this morning of his
four month old son, very adorable.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
Nothing makes you even more risk averse like having a kid.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
Right. So the reason I bring this up, I've been
fascinated with mountain climbing Mount Everest, especially not.

Speaker 2 (01:35:49):
That I want to do it. I don't want to
do it. You like to hear the stories, the stories.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
I'm fascinated because it's one of those things like ultra runners.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
I don't understand you, Okay, I really don't do. I
admire what you're doing.

Speaker 9 (01:36:03):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:36:03):
I Once, when I was working in a previous life,
a different job, I interviewed a guy who was trying
to get a job with the company I was I
was working for.

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
He's like the iron Cowboy, I think he calls himself.

Speaker 3 (01:36:16):
He's the guy who did thirty iron Man triathlons and
thirty I think he would he I think his ultimate
accomplishment he did fifty iron Man's in fifty days in
fifty different states. It's like supreme durance athleticism. I'm just like, dude,
why what are you doing that? Suffering for the sake
of suffering?

Speaker 2 (01:36:35):
I don't get it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
I had when I was in boy Scouts when I
was a kid, we had one of the guys in
the war that I grew up in and I did
Scouts with the with the ward. He had climbed Mount Acincagua,
which is the highest mountain in South America, right, And
so they invited him to come talk to us in
Troop fifteen thirty one shout out and they were like,

(01:37:01):
he was like, hey, guys, I altitude climbing is terrible.
I was not the inspirational speech that I think the
Scout leaders expected it would be. He was like, I've
never been more miserable in my life. You feel like
you're drowning. You can't breathe when you're up there. And
that was That was on Mount Aconcogua. That was not
on Everest, right. Yeah, not even killiman Jarro, even it's

(01:37:22):
just but I'm so I'm probably viewing all this stuff
through the lens of that. Like when I was thirteen
years old, i heard that story from somebody I know,
and I'm just like, oh wow. So the whole Everest thing,
especially now because social media has ruined a lot of
these places because everyone's just dying for the photo op.
Like our own Zion National Park is way more crowded

(01:37:45):
than it used to be. Some of those hikes that
if you went fifteen years ago, they were just like
peaceful and beautiful and stuff, they're now literally like standing
in line at Disney And apparently that's how it is
at Mount Everest now, where you're just in a line
hiking up evers you pay like two hundred grand to
get guided up Everest in this life threatening scenario, and

(01:38:08):
you're just crowded in with thousands of other people. There
was a storm that blew into Everest this weekend that
stranded a thousand people at the summit or near the summit, James,
can you imagine a worst scenario that you're like twenty
eight thousand feet in the air on a freezing cold

(01:38:28):
mountain and your Shirpa turns and says, Hey, there's some
bad weather coming in. We're just gonna have to hunker down,
and you're like, no, no, no, let's just let's get
out of here. Well, it's gonna be here in eight
minutes and we can't get anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Put your tent up. We're just gonna have to ride
this thing out.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
And it's you and probably like ten people you know,
and then nine hundred and ninety strangers that are now
all trapped in a life threatening scenario, crowded onto a
mountain in a blizzard where there's not enough oxygen, there's
probably not enough warm clothes. Well that probably is enough
warm clothing for everyone to have their own. But like
four hundred and something people have died on Everest, right,

(01:39:07):
So there's dead bodies visible to you, Yeah, from where
you're at, and now you're trapped. They're stuck, James. Three
hundred and fifty of the thousand or so people that
were trapped have been able to work their way back down.
But there's avalanches, there's ice falls, there's all this stuff.
There are still like six hundred and fifty people that
are trapped at the top of Mount Everest. You paid

(01:39:31):
a quarter million dollars to go get this Instagram photo
and tell everyone that you made it to the top
of Everest and now you're stuck and you might not
make it back and.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
You and listen.

Speaker 3 (01:39:45):
I would bet these there's a good number of these
people that are not that not train like the people
who traditionally try to climb Everest before before it got
this crowded, right, Like, that's the other thing you got
to consider here. If it if the motivation truly is
to get the great, the great Instagram post, you're probably

(01:40:08):
not training the way you should have you should be
for Everest. So that makes this situation even worse for
some of those people. And maybe I'm maybe I'm presuming
too much, I'm skewing old too negative on that, But
that's that's the perception of it. If you frame it
that way, like my goodness, yeah, that's terrible. That makes
me want to do it even less.

Speaker 7 (01:40:29):
I just.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
I mean, we've all been in scenarios where you're just like,
oh my gosh, what, I'm so stupid?

Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
Why did I put myself in this situation?

Speaker 3 (01:40:39):
That would be one where you're just like, well, hm,
I mean I came up here, I wanted to be
here where I'm at right now, and now.

Speaker 2 (01:40:52):
You're hoping that someone can get you down from the
what are the.

Speaker 3 (01:40:56):
Most dangerous places and one of the most isolated places
and one of the most impossible to reach places on
planet Earth. I'm blown away by the desire to climb
all the way to If you're a high altitude climber
out there text in eight seven seven three five three
zero seven hundred, if you're like an ultra endurance athlete,
I I feel like I should understand because, like I

(01:41:20):
I participated in combat sports for a long time, never
ever thinking I would make anything close to real money
at it, like just being like, ah, I'm just doing
this because I love it. I I enjoy it the competition.
And I know there's a lot of people who are
just like that's a stupid thing to do.

Speaker 2 (01:41:38):
Why would you do that?

Speaker 3 (01:41:39):
But you enjoy getting your head beat in? Yeah, Like
why do you like getting punched in the face? And
my answer is all I didn't like that. I liked
punching other people in the face, but like in I
liked getting If you're climbing up a mountain, you don't
get to punch anyone in the face. You just get
to stand on top of the mountain, Like, try and
explain it to me eight seven seven three five three
zero seven hundred. Try and explain to me why you

(01:42:00):
to run a fifty mile race what like, just to say,
just to prove yourself that you can. I respect that
I do, I really do. I just I wish I
could understand it, because it's amazing that Mount Everest is there,
and we know that it's the highest place on the
planet Earth.

Speaker 2 (01:42:18):
Right. I don't want to go there, especially.

Speaker 3 (01:42:21):
If I have to wait for eight hundred other people
to get there and then turn around and come back down. Yeah,
it sounds like it's gotten even less desirable for the
use and means of the world, uh to want to
even try it. Oh see, with with that kind of
overcrowding and then the potential instill, the potential for the

(01:42:44):
bad weather and getting stranded in a terrible place like
in and being in a terrible situation, but with a
thousand other people instead of like dozens of other people
is what it probably used to be for the longest time.
Like that's yeah, makes me want to do it even less.
But hats off to those that do try these I'm

(01:43:05):
with you like, I admire the people who do who
who try these kinds of things, but yeah, it will
not be me.

Speaker 2 (01:43:16):
Okay, small correction.

Speaker 3 (01:43:17):
Apparently it's actually more like around two hundred hikers are
still around, So two hundred okay. The local news outlets
reporting that over that about one thousand people were stuck
in the blizzard and then you know, three hundred and fifty.
It made it back down apparently that they over shot
that it wasn't so it was more like five fifty
six hundred and there's two about two hundred left.

Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
Man, that's still that's still a lot of people stuck.
Sucks all right.

Speaker 3 (01:43:46):
Uh, Sean O'Connell show will double up here we come
back with Adrian Denny and U Tah Mammoth start their
season officially next week. How's the preseason going. We'll find
out next on The Sean O'Connell Show ESPN seven.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
So, bab, it's the Sean O'Connell Show. You're home of
the best inside of your utes. Let's get back to
oc from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio called ESPN seven.

Speaker 2 (01:44:16):
Appends the day that I die, this will be the
day that I.

Speaker 3 (01:44:25):
Welcome to our number three on the Sean O'Connell Show.
It's so wrapped up in the college football world, NFL
football world, but it's easy to uh forget. We're a
week away from NHL hockey season begins tomorrow at the

(01:44:52):
Delta Center. We've got games coming up in a week.
We've got let's see Utah Mammoth first game of the
season on the road at Colorado, happening Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
Whole league. That little logo, by the way, I love
the Utah Mammoth logo.

Speaker 3 (01:45:12):
When it's tiny, reduced down to like the scoreboard size
at like scrolling down, you need to zoom in a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:45:22):
I didn't think. I didn't even think of that.

Speaker 3 (01:45:25):
It's a little bit, a little bit too detailed almost
to be shrunken down as far as ESPN has to
shrink it down.

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
You don't think about these things. I should have thought
about that.

Speaker 3 (01:45:34):
Anyway, We welcome our Utah Mammoth insider, Adrian Denny between
the pipes we go conversation brought to you by our
friends at Angora in the Latin Industries, and uh we
get you ready for Utah Mammoth season that we think,
we think and hope will be a very promising one
as we're deeper into the rebuild and I think kind

(01:45:55):
of out of rebuild mode hopefully maybe Adrian Denny, Welcome
to the show.

Speaker 7 (01:46:00):
How are you hey, Shawn.

Speaker 6 (01:46:02):
You know, when you watch Mammoth games on SEG plus
and Mammoth Plus and Utah sixteen locally here, if you
see our brand new score bug, you'll see the Mammoth logo.
It pushes out. It pushes out of the usual kind
of score bug box where the logos are, so you
can see what we did with that. It's bigger than

(01:46:23):
it'd usually be if it's just foxed into a usual
score but I get sticking out there, so it's really cool.

Speaker 8 (01:46:29):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:46:30):
That's a great way to handle it. It's such a
sick logo and I want people to fully appreciate it,
and that sounds like you've achieved that with that scorebug.
So look, I think there's a lot of positives and
optimism and all that stuff as we head towards this season.
The club wanted to get Coolly extended, and so far
no agreement has been reached. In fact, the latest headline

(01:46:53):
is that he has rejected a pretty lucrative offer that
the Mammoth extended.

Speaker 2 (01:46:59):
What do you know?

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
What do you think about the conversations happening between the
club and Logan Cooley.

Speaker 6 (01:47:05):
Yeah, the good news is he's not a free agent
until June thirtieth, so that there is time right. Connor
McDavid got extended today, Carol Caprisov got extended last week
on the biggest deal and NHL history. McDavid took a
two year kind of hometown discount to stay exactly where
his salary is on this current contract to stay with

(01:47:26):
the Oilers, And those were kind of the first two
guys that the NHL has been waiting on from the
free agency group from next summer to get signed. So
you've got that component, You've got the new collective bargaining
agreement that starts on July first next year, and the
salary cap is going up and it's just going to

(01:47:49):
keep going further up. So guys that are free agents
going into to next summer, it's it's the wait and see.
I think is kind of expect it to go a
little slower with with this group as a whole, versus
how it did last year, where Dylan Gumpter was was
extended in training camp as he would have been a

(01:48:12):
free agent on July first.

Speaker 9 (01:48:14):
Of this year.

Speaker 6 (01:48:14):
So yeah, don't don't know the context obviously, right, we're
not in the in the room, and and but a
negotiation to me is, yeah, there's gonna be offers, there's
gonna be counteroffers, there's gonna be back and forth. Right,
So that that's that's kind of what I take on that.

(01:48:35):
And Logan is going to be a restricted free agent.
Typically there's not not too much concern on getting restricted
free agents resigned, just just in in general.

Speaker 8 (01:48:47):
There.

Speaker 6 (01:48:47):
I saw a quote from from the GM and the
ADS just a few minutes ago. He was talking about
one of their pending free agents for next summer, Martin Hious,
and he basically said, yeah, I've talk to an agent
and we've had conversations, and I'll leave it at that.
And I'd say that's probably a pretty good, pretty good

(01:49:07):
answer for for how things are going there. Chris McFarland,
the GM of the ass talking about Marty nat is like,
that's kind of how things go right in the negotiation.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
You talk, you.

Speaker 6 (01:49:20):
Go back and forth, and ultimately get a deal. So
I think I think that that's that's what you get.
Yet maybe maybe there was an offer. Yeah, but when
you're in negotiat and negotiation for for a contract, I
think that's that's pretty typical. So with all those variables,
to me, it's not not any any kind of surprise.

Speaker 3 (01:49:42):
So sports fans who are diving into the NHL world
now maybe haven't been as died in the wall. Right
it's hard to put into context, like what kind of
money we're talking about with rising star players. I mean,
the top you just references the top NHL contract in
league history is like a mid level exception in the

(01:50:05):
NBA right now. So it's really strange to think about,
you know, when you're Coolly, we're talking you know, offers
approaching you know, ten million dollar a year sort of
average contract value, and in the NFL that's like mid
level money. In the NBA, that's like you're into the

(01:50:26):
bench kind of guy almost, So like what kind of
number makes sense for you for a Logan Cooley, who
we think is you know, well, we know he's a
rising young star. He's a player with unlimited potential, but
he's already reached some of that potential. He's already demonstrated
that at this level he can be an extremely impactful player,
and it seems like he's someone that the franchise wants

(01:50:48):
to keep around for the long term. What does that
look like from a numbers standpoint, because you have to
leave room for other guys supporting casts, et cetera, et cetera.
Are we talking, I know, like ten million might get
this thing settled a year or is that too much
for someone of his caliber?

Speaker 6 (01:51:06):
Yeah, that's interesting. Let's look at the Carew cook pre
sauce deal that he just signed, the biggest deal in
NHL history, seventeen million. The report was he turned down
sixteen ish million, and as I looked at that number
that they had for Cooley, I thought, you know, that's
kind of in a neighborhood for for what I expected

(01:51:26):
for players like Logan that are coming up as free
agents for July. First, we've seen a couple that have
gets gotten signed that have been a little below that
from players that I think are Hudson from Montreal.

Speaker 4 (01:51:43):
Going up to.

Speaker 6 (01:51:48):
Last and so so when it came out that the
caprice of sixteen million dollars plus deal was rejected, well
that they came back and they signed it as something
pretty close right. So, so, as I said in a negotiation,
I think you're usually you're usually pretty close in most cases.

(01:52:10):
There's been some instances at the Anaheim Ducks with some
of their restricted free agents, have had some initial reports
of numbers that weren't necessarily in the ballpark where they
ended up signing with. But I think I think for
the most part, when when you've got your financial guys
and you're presenting an offer to to an agent that

(01:52:32):
you're you're usually pretty close to where you're ultimately gonna
end up.

Speaker 3 (01:52:40):
The Connor McDavid deal, since we're talking contracts, you know,
he it never felt like he was super interested in
going somewhere else. But this is a team that has
to demonstrate that while he and dry Sidle are in
the building, that they're ready to, you know, make the
necessary adjustments to actually get a cup. And uh, it's

(01:53:01):
a two year extension, so uh giving them a hometown discount.
Is this signaling something beyond like, hey, this is your
last two years? How should we interpret this, this deal
that he did with you know, his hometown franchise.

Speaker 6 (01:53:18):
I think it looks really good for Connor McDavid for
what he just did. Because Leon dreys Idel is on
a on a max deal and got more money when
when he resigned last summer and David taking the exact
same deal. There's there's not term involved, right, it's just

(01:53:39):
a two year deal, so it's it's not a major commitment.
But I I think it's I think it really makes
him look like a nice guy here just getting it
done before the season starts, right, So that's not gonna
be that That's been the story in Canada all summer,
and things are different in Edmondson, in Toronto, Accouver in

(01:54:00):
terms of the media in terms of stories and badgering,
and it's it's I don't think I don't think folks
would would believe it what it's like, what it's like
up there, But I don't think it would compare to
anything that we have in the US in terms of
you know, media scrutiny and and just everywhere you go

(01:54:21):
something something to story is would have been with McDavid
not being signed, coming up on a on a contract
expiring next summer. So I think I think it makes
it look like a really nice guy that he took
this deal to to stay at where he is, to
get it done before the season is. And I think

(01:54:43):
it really eliminates a lot of distraction and it and
it keeps the wait and see. Okay, what's Edmonton going
to be able to do?

Speaker 4 (01:54:51):
Right?

Speaker 6 (01:54:52):
They're totally strapped by by the salary cap. For instance,
they're three goalies that they have contract make like six
six and a half million total dollars, So right, because
they're they're they've got dry side on McDavid. They made
a lot of other big, long term kind of signings,

(01:55:14):
good or bad, that have kind of kind of strapped.
But I think McDavid doing this gives Edmonton a couple
of years in this in this window to stay as
flexible as possible to win a Cup, which is what
he says that he wants to do, and that's why
he wants to be there.

Speaker 2 (01:55:32):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:55:33):
Swinging things back to the Utah mammoth, What did what
did we learn in the preseason that we didn't know already?

Speaker 6 (01:55:41):
You know, I think you just look at little things
like for me, it's okay, how is this team going
to get eight to ten more standings points next year
so they can make the playoffs?

Speaker 8 (01:55:54):
Right?

Speaker 6 (01:55:55):
That's that's the biggest thing. Right, You're want to make
the playoffs and how are you going to do that,
So you go out the acquisitions over the summer Brandon
tannev Day Schmidt, JJ Peterca bring in a really solid
backup in v Tech Manacheck. But I saw on the
ice the team as a whole, like doing some additional
things to win games. For instance, the penalty kill was

(01:56:19):
really good during the preseason and Jylan Gunther was playing
on the penalty kill. You don't always see your best
players on the penalty kill because they're playing so much
five on five, so much on the power play, and
so when you when you put a player out there
like Gunther, and it was unexpected for me, but we

(01:56:41):
saw it. And I like when you have your best
player players and how you can manage it from a
time on ice standpoint on the penalty kill, because it's it.
If you can shave down a goal every five or
ten or fifteen games that you're not allowing, ultimately, that's
going to add up into another game that you're able

(01:57:02):
to win, force to overtime, et cetera. Right just during
the course of year, and incrementally those those points are
going to pile up one or two at a time.
I thought the power play looked really good too. And
that's another thing, yet another power play goal you touched.
Power play was pretty good last year, top half of
the league. But you go again, you're adding another power

(01:57:25):
play goal every five, ten, fifteen games that that's going
to kind of help you get pushed over the top.
And I think we saw how Tanef can can help.
We saw him score a breakaway goal, these nicknames Turbo.
We saw Turbo time for the first time at Della
Center on Saturday with him just kind of making a
play off of the face off. So I think yet

(01:57:49):
Turca put some pucks in the net. I think we
just saw a lot of little incremental things in addition
to the guys that were added that are just added
goal here, take away a goal against that I think
you're going to over the course of twenty twenty five
e two games show how they're going to pick up

(01:58:10):
more standings points than last year to make the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:58:14):
Are we going to get any major surprises with how
you know, final roster, how the kind of call up
sending down adjustments are made as this season progresses.

Speaker 6 (01:58:25):
I think the biggest thing today OC is going to
be three o'clock and the question, the biggest question is
going to be who's going to start the season injured?
Right that that is going to have an additional roster
spot open. For instance, Alice Kurfu didn't play in the preseason.
We didn't see Barrett Hayton for the final couple games.

(01:58:48):
We didn't see Liam O'Brien for the final couple games.
So are those guys in a spot where they're going
to start the year in or is it going to
be like Logan Cooley he didn't play on Saturday, hasn't
played since the second preseason game a couple of weeks ago,

(01:59:10):
but he's going to be ready to go on Thursday night.
So we didn't get updates on Hayten, on Kerfoot, I
don't O'Brien. So that's that's gonna be the biggest thing
at three o'clock today is are they going to be
on the roster? Are they going to be on injured reserve?

(01:59:31):
And with that being the case, then does that keep
an opening to start the season for Danielle boot guys
like Dmitri simyshev, Andre Gazino, Kyler Yavamono Or do you
want to stick with the plan if you had it
and that is to start Simachev and Boot in the

(01:59:51):
American Hockey League in Tucson to get the year going.
Does that Does that change anything? I think we saw
great camps from both of those to you guys, but
the question is you you want them in the AHL
to start the year playing every situation. Big minutes are
up here, where as we saw on Thursday night up
to one third periods and your Boot didn't play for

(02:00:13):
the final four or five minutes of the game because
we're out there with with our experienced players who are
more in tune for those situations six on five of
an extra attacker for the other team, no goalie. Right,
You've got your group that you're going to be with
right there in those in those spots.

Speaker 2 (02:00:32):
Where do you stand on that?

Speaker 3 (02:00:32):
Would you rather see a guy if you're trying to
develop somebody for the long term. But maybe that's not
even the right way to look at it. Maybe you
need some contribution from Simashevan Boot in a short term.
But are limited NHL minutes as how do they compare
when it comes to value limited NHL minutes with extensive

(02:00:53):
AHL minutes.

Speaker 6 (02:00:56):
My preference and I think this is because I'm entering
year number five of the Bill Armstrong doctrine is you
can't bake for long enough in the AHL, and I
have felt since it started training camp. Okay, looking at

(02:01:17):
this roster, looking at how Bills operated, those guys probably
do start in the American Hockey League. So I saw
it with Dylan got the first half of the season
two years ago, started in the AHL. It shocked him,
he was disappointed. But by the time we got him
in January and he got called up because the player

(02:01:38):
got suspended for three games, and you know, it was
probably just gonna be for a week or two. And
he went up there and he was up there for
the rest of the year, was one of their best players.
And we saw what he did last year at his
first full NHL season, So I think I think that's
probably the best example star. You know, it shocked him

(02:02:03):
to get not make the team out of camp two
years ago, but I think it was really good for
him to go go play down there and be top
minutes every night in every situation and versus you know,
up here we're trying to win. We're not. We're no
longer in the business of developing prospects in the National

(02:02:24):
Hockey League. As you said, the rebuild is is over,
and every night it's what can we do to win?
Not oh well, that was a good, good lesson that
Simyschev just learned in the in the third period, say,
for instance, if he turns a puck over and it
results in the three to two loss with the coal
scored with eighty seconds left. Right However, oh see, I'll

(02:02:45):
tell you Michev looks like an NHL defenseman during camp,
so in that, in that sense, I would say that
he probably exceeded what we expected to see from him
and the nail boot really nice camp as well, scored
a couple of goals, and it's a really nice place.
He's he's so big, he's six foot five. It's just

(02:03:09):
something that you don't come across every day. You just
don't have a lot of that on any given roster.
So those are two things that from camp might have
tilted things back in a different direction. Whereas, okay, those
guys are ready for the NHL. Now there's no doubt
we're going to not have to send them back of
the AHL. Or if it's the NHL, let's go.

Speaker 3 (02:03:33):
Between the pipes with Adrian Denny for a couple more minutes.
Here on the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you by
a Latin industry is Valley Plumbing. So as we talked
about Thursday, first game of the season or this Utah
Mammoth team, it'll be on the road. Your first three
games are going to be on the road. What do
you expect against the Colorado Avalanche.

Speaker 9 (02:03:58):
I don't think.

Speaker 6 (02:04:00):
It's one thing that concerns me about the game on Thursday,
just getting started right out of the gates. Is the
ads play tomorrow night against the La Kings, So they're
gonna have that first game out of the way, and
Utah is going to be going into their first game
against Colorado playoff team in my opinion, probably favored to

(02:04:24):
win the division. So you're gonna have to come out
on your toes. You're like, you can't fall behind, well
nothing to nothing, or it's gonna be it's gonna be over,
just with Colorado playing that first game against the playoff
team tomorrow night. So that's that's what I think.

Speaker 9 (02:04:41):
Big game, But.

Speaker 6 (02:04:43):
It's it's gonna be something where you're you're going straight
into the fire on Thursday night.

Speaker 8 (02:04:49):
You're not.

Speaker 6 (02:04:49):
It's not like you're playing a team like we did
last year with Chicago Blackhawks first game of the year,
an ultimate last place team, and you're both playing your
your first game of the season at the same time
where you didn't come out and maybe get away with
some first game mistakes or not quite being in sync

(02:05:10):
for NHL regular season hockey.

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
What do you need to see out of the first
three for this Utah team? Like two and one? Are
you okay we should we start hitting panic button?

Speaker 3 (02:05:23):
No, we don't do that because obviously it's going to
be a long season, but you know, you want to
get off on the right foot, and maybe that's tough
on the road against this AVS team, but you know,
in these first three that are road games before you
get back to the Delta Center next week and a
newly remodeled Delta Center, most of us will have our
eyes on that for the first time.

Speaker 2 (02:05:43):
What do you need to be? You know, what's your
record need to be after the first three?

Speaker 6 (02:05:47):
I think you'd like to take four or six points
to win two out of three. You go to Colorado,
you go to Nashville, who was the lottery team last year,
very disappointing year for them. They think they're going to
be better than you go to Chicago, who was the
last place team last year, They're gonna be a little better.
So I think it's it's a it's a trip where

(02:06:08):
Utah can get off your good start last year. It's
like that first game at Delba Center against Chicago, won
it five to two, and then went on the road
played the Rangers. Before that the Islanders Devil's Ducks went
to one and one. I like being on the road
early in the season because it's to me, it's an
extension of training camp. You're you're you're staying together, you're

(02:06:31):
all focused on hockey. Kind of stay in that in
that routine, playing every other every other day. I think
that's good for a team early in the season. So
I think they can do what they did last year.
I think they can take two out of three. They
sneak one out in Colorado. Nashville's probably you know it was.

(02:06:55):
It was a team Utah struggled against last year, even
though the pressitors did have a a bad year. But
I think I think what the roster Utah has going
into the season, and how excited they are and how
good of a team they are. I think even if
they don't win in Colorado on Thursday night, or they

(02:07:15):
take a point for an overtime loss or shoot all
LOSSI they can still come back with four to six,
and I'd say four of six is is the goals.
Just to be strong out of the gates. You're not
playing catch up. Just like that, as you come home
and you've got a four game homestand against Calgary you
didn't make the playoffs last year. Against San Jose, he
didn't make the playoffs last year. Against Boston, he didn't

(02:07:38):
make the playoffs last year. So those are your first
three home games. I think you can get off to
a really really good start in the road trip can
be the first first part of that.

Speaker 3 (02:07:48):
Before I let you go, how should how should we
interpret this fun fact? I've been I've been looking it
up for the first two weeks of the NHL regular season,
which of course is coming up. Uh, the only teams,
the only arena is you can get into or excuse me,
the only arena is more expensive to get into. Then

(02:08:10):
the Delta Center is going to be for the Mammoth.
Home games are in Canada, where of course hockey is life.
There's no United States domestic ticket that is more expensive
to get into than the Delta Center for the Utah Mammoth.

Speaker 2 (02:08:26):
How should we interpret that.

Speaker 6 (02:08:29):
I'm an economics minor OC proudly from the University of
Utah with my degree in mass communications, and I'm going
to say, supply and demand. Number one, there is just
over twelve thousand seats in Delta Center where you can
see both goals. Right there's obstructive use seats, one goal

(02:08:51):
of view seats that are available. But I'm saying because
you've got a smaller, small or arena configuration right now
than we're ultimately going to have when we're over seventeen thousand,
that's number one. But number two Utah starving to watch hockey.
And the dollar values for the tickets last year. I

(02:09:17):
know because I paid for this several times. It did
not go down throughout the course of the year. It
wasn't just like the Chicago It was crazy. And then
when you got into November, December, January, the ticket prices
went down on seat geeks, they stayed steady and I
think went up in a lot of cases. So we've
got a starving market that it's going to contend to

(02:09:42):
be in a playoff spot. And we also have probably
what seventy percent of what our ultimate capacity is going
to be for full view seats.

Speaker 3 (02:09:55):
I think it means we're hungry for hockey, like you said,
and we get it starting tomorrow you tell man, not
until Thursday, but we're right there.

Speaker 6 (02:10:04):
Thank you for your time, Yeah, my pleasure.

Speaker 8 (02:10:07):
Man.

Speaker 6 (02:10:08):
It's always great to talk to you. Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (02:10:10):
So it was good to be back.

Speaker 3 (02:10:11):
Adrian Danny between the pipes, brought to you by Aladdin
Industries and our friends over at Valley Plumbing.

Speaker 2 (02:10:18):
James, what do you think? What do you think of that?

Speaker 3 (02:10:20):
If you want to go to a game in Toronto
or Vancouver or Calgary, you gotta pay more. But as
far as I think, I found one ticket, I found one,
not one ticket, one game that's more expensive on average
right now than the early part of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:10:38):
And that is Edmonton versus at New York Rangers.

Speaker 3 (02:10:42):
So like New York City obviously going to be more
expensive anyway, Edmonton Stanley Cup hopeful team like that.

Speaker 2 (02:10:49):
That's a huge matchup. Other than that, this is the
hottest ticket in the NHL.

Speaker 3 (02:10:54):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it means anything as
far as they're going to be compared.

Speaker 2 (02:11:00):
Are comparatively competitive with the other teams.

Speaker 3 (02:11:03):
The couple of the teams that are the or that
the or that hockey means a lot more here, just
like it does in Canada. I don't think that those
things are true, but what it does mean is that
I think Adrian nailed it. This seat, the unobstructed view
seating is a lot more limited than in most other places,

(02:11:24):
just about every arena in the NHL besides here, and
it's just new. Newer is always better, oh see, right
like that, everybody's so excited about this team, especially because
we think that they're going to contend right away. They're
going to make the playoffs this year and then next
and then if not this year, next year they're going
to be on the short list of of potential championship contenders.

(02:11:48):
That seems to be the trajectory trajectory that they're going on.
They I think that that's really what what's going on here,
I think. And if they if they continue on that trajectory,
O see, the prices may even go up, right if
it's not quite that way, or there's a bit of

(02:12:10):
a there, there's a small lull at some point, maybe
the prices go down a little bit, but I think
that the demand is still going to be super high,
especially because we think this team is is going to
be really good this year and even better in the
coming years.

Speaker 2 (02:12:27):
Interesting stuff, big thanks to Adrian. I wouldn't have guessed.

Speaker 3 (02:12:31):
I wouldn't have guessed that, by the way, that would
be the third most expensive ticket in the on all
of NHL.

Speaker 2 (02:12:38):
But if you really think about it, it makes a
lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (02:12:40):
So yeah, I mean, there's people are hungry for hockey
right now, and uh and we care about hockey as
much as Canadians according to those numbers.

Speaker 2 (02:12:48):
So there it is. How much about baseball? Well?

Speaker 3 (02:12:54):
Dale Murphy been doing some work with Big League Utah
is also, of course a man who should be in
the Hall of Fame multiple time MVP, and he joins
us next talk a little America's pastime, Dale Murphy in
three minutes on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred
ninety two.

Speaker 1 (02:13:14):
You are listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source
for the best Hutes football coverage. Here's oc from the
Murdock Hundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to
one a half an.

Speaker 3 (02:13:29):
Check it in on a little baseball with the playoffs
in full swing, Tigers, Mariners, Yankees, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs, Brewers.

Speaker 2 (02:13:40):
I don't know if we'll have time.

Speaker 3 (02:13:40):
We'll try to get to all of it with Dale Murphy,
the legend who joins us now on the Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 2 (02:13:46):
Dale, thanks for giving us some time. How are you, sir?

Speaker 9 (02:13:49):
Great?

Speaker 8 (02:13:50):
Great, doing great?

Speaker 9 (02:13:51):
Watching some fun base postseason baseball.

Speaker 7 (02:13:54):
Thanks for having me on Sean.

Speaker 3 (02:13:55):
Thank you always appreciate you giving us some time before
we get into what's going on with these Major League
Baseball playoffs? What do we know what's going on behind
the scenes with a Big League Utah with the eventual
and hopeful idea that we will be a major league
city ourselves here in Salt Lake, you know.

Speaker 9 (02:14:16):
Working every day.

Speaker 7 (02:14:17):
Not I'm not working every day on it, but the
Steve Starks and the gang at Big League Utah are
working every day, establishing relationships, actually traveling. I know Steve's
been traveling, you know, established Like I say, I know
he's in New York going to games there and meeting everybody,

(02:14:38):
just you know, laying out our case for what we
can offer here Major League Baseball. Obviously it's gonna take
the time frame, no one really knows, but we do
know there's a CBA coming up, and I'm sure expansion
needs to be approved obviously by everybody, and that comes

(02:15:00):
up after next year. And just like I say, just
continuing to develop relationships and letting everybody know what we
have here, which personally I think is really good. And
I think what I hear from traveling around the country
talking to people, you know, we're optimistic and other people

(02:15:23):
will say, you know, you've got some good things going there, and.

Speaker 9 (02:15:29):
You know, just positive vibes.

Speaker 7 (02:15:32):
Really, you know, I'm obviously not in touch with the
Commissioner's office and not getting down in front of what
he's doing and what's going on, but just talking to
people in the game and around the country, you know,
everybody really likes what we have here.

Speaker 3 (02:15:50):
How does the impending CBA situation affect a timeline, if
at all?

Speaker 9 (02:15:57):
How will it affect it?

Speaker 2 (02:15:58):
Yeah, I mean will it Yeah, it's.

Speaker 7 (02:16:01):
Right right, Well, you know, it remains to be seen,
but the CBA is up after next year, and so
I'm imagining, you know, after next year they start negotiating
vote on you know, players and owners vote on expansion,
and so I think last year people are saying three
to five years. You know, it's not nothing set in

(02:16:26):
stone obviously until just you know, no approvals have been
made to even expand yet. But the Commissioner has made
many statements that he'd like to everybody, I think, would
like to get to thirty two teams, and so you know,
it's just a big operation. It's like an Olympic bid.

(02:16:48):
You know, you have to have a group, you got
to have the money, you got to have.

Speaker 9 (02:16:52):
The organization, just everything.

Speaker 7 (02:16:56):
And so people throughout cities and I mean like Charlotte,
great place and I've been to the their Tria a
ballpark there. They have a great location for that and
it's a great market. But as I understand, there's no
registered group trying to get a team. So you know,
there's there are people throw these cities out, but what

(02:17:18):
we have here in Portland and Nashville, and as far
as I'm aware, I don't know of other cities that
are as you know, organized and have registered with Major
League Baseball that that we're pursuing it. So, you know,
so the time frame just we don't really know what
all the cities that are involved. Those are the you know,

(02:17:39):
we're part of the Big Three, I guess, but you know,
you don't know exactly what's gonna happen. But the timeframe
out here is always three to five years.

Speaker 3 (02:17:48):
All right, let's get to some some playoff baseball. Are
you are you surprised by anything you've seen so far?
Now that we've advanced to the divisional series and you
know you've got there's a hull of baloo over Toronto
smashing New York last over the weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:18:04):
But are you really have you been surprised by anything
you've seen so far?

Speaker 3 (02:18:07):
Not really?

Speaker 9 (02:18:09):
You know, it's it's been good baseball.

Speaker 8 (02:18:11):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:18:11):
I know the Yankees went to the World Series last year,
but I never pick him in the in the last
you know, I love Aaron Judge, but him and you
young Carlos Stanton to me just can be pitched to.

Speaker 9 (02:18:29):
And they strike out so much.

Speaker 7 (02:18:31):
I just they did get to the World Series last year,
you know, so.

Speaker 8 (02:18:36):
They made it that far.

Speaker 7 (02:18:37):
But I have I have not liked him the last
ten years, just because they strike out so much in postseason.
So and the Blue Jays are on fire, you know,
I I think I think New York will will win
a game.

Speaker 9 (02:18:50):
I mean, it could go five.

Speaker 7 (02:18:52):
I think the Dodgers could go five too, but I
like I like them a lot, but I think Phillies
will give them, you know, a few headaches. The Dodgers
at the last month, their pitching has really settled in.
I think they got a great team.

Speaker 9 (02:19:07):
You know, I love uh.

Speaker 7 (02:19:09):
I love what Milwaukee's do doing as well. They tend
to play kind of small ball a little bit. They
don't strike out that much.

Speaker 2 (02:19:17):
They got really good pitching.

Speaker 9 (02:19:18):
But I think that's gonna go five.

Speaker 8 (02:19:20):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (02:19:21):
So you know, we'll see, uh, But I love what
I'm what I'm seeing so far.

Speaker 7 (02:19:26):
I like Seattle, although Detroit got some really good pigeon
over they got to scuba you know yesterday. So you know,
it's man, it's it's.

Speaker 9 (02:19:37):
Gonna be tough to pick. But if I were to
pick right now, I'd go Dodgers and Blue Jay's.

Speaker 2 (02:19:42):
I think, what do you think of Cal Rowley. I'm
always partial to catchers because that's what I grew up playing.

Speaker 3 (02:19:48):
For sure, he just he does it all. He's for
sure record setter, record tier, record setter.

Speaker 8 (02:19:54):
This year.

Speaker 3 (02:19:56):
Uh and you know he's twenty eight years old and
has really come into a play now where I think
a lot more is expected from you. When you have
a season like this and you've been part of the
headlines all season long, you know, what is that like
to try to then deliver playoff wins. It's great to
have all the personal accolades, but now you're trying to
carry your team through a postseason.

Speaker 2 (02:20:17):
What's it like for cal Rawly right now?

Speaker 7 (02:20:22):
Well, I think it's gonna be the MVP.

Speaker 4 (02:20:24):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:20:25):
People talk about Aaron Judges a great year he had,
but we've got a guy that had a great year.
Andy's a catcher, you know, very demanding, much more demanding
than the outfield. So whenever you have comparable situations offensively,
I always look at the position. If it's an outfielder
and you've got a comparable guy at shortstop, I'm going

(02:20:46):
with the shortstop. What Cal Rowley's done is, you know,
is incredible, especially being behind the plate so much. So
I love what he's doing. I think I think they
got a good thing going there. I mean, I I
think they're you know, I think they'll beat Detroit. But
it's it's uh, you know, but I just you know,

(02:21:07):
it's hard. It's hard to figure it out. But you know,
I think cal Rawley's just you know, found himself and
he's had an MVP season, so you know, I think
he's just enjoying this.

Speaker 9 (02:21:18):
Yeah, you're you're right.

Speaker 7 (02:21:19):
You can put some numbers together, but playoff baseball is
completely you know, it's a new season. That's why I
like Milwaukee. I just think they play a little bit
more small ball than anybody else. I think, uh, you
know a lot the Dodgers are capable of doing that.

Speaker 8 (02:21:36):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (02:21:37):
So I you know, I think it's going to be
a great National League. Uh you know, finish here, but
you know, uh, but.

Speaker 9 (02:21:44):
You know, I love cal Rawley.

Speaker 2 (02:21:45):
I think it's been fun.

Speaker 7 (02:21:46):
You know, I caught a little bit, you know, growing
up and getting into the big leagues, caught a little
bit and uh, you know, there's obviously no more demanding positions.
So what he's done offensively and defensively as well, because
your head is so much in the call in the game.
And then he's just a tremendous switch hitter too. So uh,
it's it's been an incredible MVP season for cal Rawley.

Speaker 2 (02:22:08):
Uh what are the Braves going to do with the
manager position.

Speaker 9 (02:22:11):
Oh good.

Speaker 7 (02:22:13):
You know, some some interesting names have popped up online
and and uh, I think one of the most interesting
to there's two, well, there's three I think of is
David Ross. I think Walt Wise will interview. I hope
Eddie Perez interviews as well with the Braves. Walt wis
Eddie Perez with the Braves. UH David Ross caught there

(02:22:36):
and managed to comes for a while. But this UH
head coach for the University of Tennessee's name is getting
thrown out there, and I think that'd be incredible. First
that I'm aware of someone going from college to UH
to the big leagues, and I think it's by Tello.
I'm I'm sorry, I don't have his name right in
front of me, but he's got some really good things

(02:22:58):
going to the University of Tennessee and that that could
be kind of intriguing.

Speaker 9 (02:23:01):
He might interview.

Speaker 7 (02:23:02):
We'll see what happens.

Speaker 9 (02:23:04):
Chipper. Chipper is not going to do it, he said,
I don't want to do it.

Speaker 7 (02:23:07):
But he'll be a hitting he said, I'll be a
hitting coach, which which is a happy medium if if
they want to hire him as a hitting coach, which
would be a good move, but uh, you know, we'll
see it's going to be interesting without Brian Snitker. I
was happy for Brian. You know, we we go back
to the early eighties, so I've know, I've known Stid

(02:23:27):
for a long time. Happy to see him have such
great success win a World Series and now will be uh,
you know, a consultant with the Braves for you know,
for many years to come.

Speaker 3 (02:23:37):
How does it work in a clubhouse when you know
you're you're an established player on the team, or you're
somebody who's you know, respected by the front office as
a player, and you know they're now searching for a
manager and you you mentioned Tony Boutello, the University of
Tennessee coach, and now you've got you know, this this

(02:23:58):
outsider who could potentially be brought in. I mean, how
does it work is that somebody who would be embraced
by a clubhouse. Baseball is more than any other sport,
full of all these unwritten rules and all these like
kind of cultural quirks that even fans have a hard
time keeping up with. So would that be something that

(02:24:19):
you know, baseball would be excited about, or would the
clubhouse be like, oh, this guy doesn't know what it's
like to be in the majors. I don't know his resume,
I don't know if he spend time in the majors
before at all as a player or a prospect or anything.

Speaker 2 (02:24:32):
So how would that work?

Speaker 7 (02:24:35):
That's a great question, and I think that's I think
that's probably why it's never happened before, because obviously, for
obvious reasons, you tend to go with someone who's connected
in some way. So I think he's a long shot.
I think it's just very interesting, but it would be
fascinating to watch. But once it happens, you know, it

(02:24:56):
just well, you know, I don't know, it's never a
happened before that I know of, But I think the
guys are you know, professional enough to understand that no
one's going to get hired without you know, a lot
of interviews. And you know, alex Anthopolis is not going
to hire someone without talking to a lot of people

(02:25:19):
about this person that he's getting ready to hire. And
then during the interview process, they would ask the tello
who you're going to get on your staff? You know,
what are you who you're going to bring along with you?
You know, because and I'll tell you the vital thing here.
Why I obviously think he's a long shot. I don't
know his connection to alex Anthopolis, the general manager and

(02:25:42):
the manager in baseball, any sport, but especially baseball. And
I can bring up two examples Joe Torre and Cashman
as the GM with the Yankees.

Speaker 9 (02:25:53):
They were a great team.

Speaker 7 (02:25:55):
You have to have a great team as general manager
and manager Bobby Cox and John Shurrol, and we can
find some other ones, but those are the ones I
point to as being a great general manager manager.

Speaker 9 (02:26:07):
So you've got to have a connection with the general manager.

Speaker 7 (02:26:12):
You've got to be in lockstep with each other, the vision,
who you're going to call up, who you're going to
trade for, what free agents you're going to sign. So
you know, I would consider Vtello a long shot. I
don't know his connection other than he's been a very
successful college coach. So I think it's just fun to

(02:26:32):
talk about and it's an interesting name. But you know,
the critical connection of success for an organization is that
general manager manager talking together and working together really well.

Speaker 3 (02:26:46):
Well, we'll see how it plays out, and we'll see
how these playoff series play out, and of course, anytime
that you get an update on what's going.

Speaker 2 (02:26:54):
On with Big League Utah. Let us know.

Speaker 3 (02:26:56):
Absolutely can't tell you how much we appreciate you giving
us some time. Hope you and the whole family are
doing really well.

Speaker 7 (02:27:02):
Great, Thank you, Sean, thank you so much. And it'll
be interesting if the Dodgers repeat. We haven't had anybody
repeat in twenty five years, so that's gonna be tough.

Speaker 9 (02:27:12):
But I like the way they're looking.

Speaker 3 (02:27:14):
I kind of hope it doesn't happen, just because you
know they're they're the big money jugger not and I can't.

Speaker 2 (02:27:18):
I can't get behind that.

Speaker 9 (02:27:21):
Yeah, that's an understatement, big money.

Speaker 2 (02:27:26):
Thanks dem.

Speaker 9 (02:27:27):
All right, thanks, I'll see bye bye.

Speaker 3 (02:27:30):
Dale Murphy baseball legend here in the state of Utah
obviously and really all around the world, multiple time MVP
and for all you you fans out there, of course,
father of Jake Murphy. That's probably what makes him most famous.
All Right, we got to wrap things up next. H

(02:27:52):
I saw I thought Spence Checkets in the building. All right,
we'll talk to Spence Checkets. Big thanks to Dale Murphy
and Adrian Denny for making our number three easy. It's
Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven d two one FM.

Speaker 1 (02:28:10):
You tune to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
a half an.

Speaker 2 (02:28:22):
We're wrapping things up here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
The Drive with Spence check Its is next.

Speaker 3 (02:28:28):
We're back in the saddle pushing towards a big time
matchup this weekend Utah Arizona States at Rice Ecle Stadium
eight fifteen. Kick pluny to talk about with that game
all week long, Spence check Its.

Speaker 2 (02:28:43):
How are you good to.

Speaker 10 (02:28:43):
See a Sean happy, handsome haircut? For our YouTube viewer,
Sean is looking like he is either ready to be
on the cover of People magazine or be called to
serve elder.

Speaker 2 (02:28:52):
It looks very good. Oh thank you, I'm tired baby.
So normally I cut my own hair. Do you really
I do? I tried that once, bad idea. I cut
my own hair for two reasons. A.

Speaker 3 (02:29:03):
I'm impatient, B I'm cheap sure, and so normally I
cut my own hair and most of the time I
think it looks okay.

Speaker 4 (02:29:12):
And I was.

Speaker 3 (02:29:13):
I was over in Dubai and the barber Belfast. His
name is Paul Preshaw and he was down there for
He's good friends with Paul Hughes, who was the fighter
in our main event, challenging for the title. And last
time I saw him, we were in Belfast and he's like,
let me cut your hair. And I was like, all right,
I don't usually go to barber, so you can cut

(02:29:34):
my hair. So he saw me down there and he
was just like, oh, your hair looks terrible. I was like,
all right, but you get me on TV, you gotta
look good. I'm like, you want to get me a haircut?
He's like yeah, So just there in the hotel, he
gave me a little a little cleanup. And Paul Hughes
any relation to Matt Hughes, No, okay, no, he is
a rising star in the game, but now has had

(02:29:54):
two He's come up just short in two title bouts
at twenty seven years of age.

Speaker 2 (02:30:00):
You have to go back to the drawing board a little.

Speaker 10 (02:30:02):
Bit, little love for my knowledge, my MMA knowledge. Bringing
up little Matt Hett. He was a bad boy for
a minute. Wasn't he kick around Salt Lake?

Speaker 4 (02:30:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:30:10):
He did.

Speaker 2 (02:30:10):
I've got an autographed Matt Hughes glove.

Speaker 3 (02:30:12):
Yeah, he would come train with us because Jeremy Horne,
my coach, and Matt came up together at like the
pioneering American Camp Militant Fighting Systems just in the Quad
Cities in Iowa.

Speaker 2 (02:30:24):
It's a random place for the birthplace of American Mma.

Speaker 10 (02:30:27):
Jeremy is good of a guy, as he said, I've
met him a few times, had him on the show.
He just seems like a really really solid, solid dude.

Speaker 2 (02:30:33):
He's awesome, he's very he's very dedicated to the sport.

Speaker 3 (02:30:38):
Yeah, and so as long as you're on that same wavelength,
you're gonna get along great.

Speaker 2 (02:30:43):
Cool cool.

Speaker 10 (02:30:44):
So conclusion week for Utah, right, Uh, I don't think
two conference losses kills your chances, but it might, right, So,
especially with two head to head losses against two teams
you're going to be jockeying with at the end. So
you lose, you already lose the tiebreaker. Tottack, who's really
good by the way. I mean, I thought Houston's offense

(02:31:04):
was improved. They could move the football at all. And
then if you lose to Sue, that's another team at
the end that you're gonna be jockey does two conference
losses kill your chances doing a Big Twelve champions.

Speaker 2 (02:31:14):
Well, mathematically no, but against these two teams.

Speaker 3 (02:31:18):
The point you're making is like probably yeah, and then
you've got BYU of course next week, and you've got
to position yourself momentum wise and confidence wise to go
down to provo against a good team. There are right now, Spence,
how many teams with four wins are better in the
Big twelve Conference?

Speaker 2 (02:31:36):
You know, off the top of your head.

Speaker 10 (02:31:37):
At five it's eleven, it's eleven, five teams in the
top twenty five ers.

Speaker 6 (02:31:41):
That s.

Speaker 3 (02:31:43):
Yeah, that sounds right, all right, eleven right now, you've
got nine teams that are four and one are better.
You've got eleven teams that have four wins, yeah, because
Kansas and Baylor have already played six games and they've
got four wins apiece. So like that's how many people
are still jockeying at this point, Yeah, for a spot
in the conference championship game. Texas Tech has the upper

(02:32:04):
hand right now on Utah. To your point, Arizona State
is a team that if they come in and they
beat you on your home field. Now you're hoping and
wishing and praying that somebody else takes care of business
for you. Right now, Utah, almost on the level of
Texas Tech, is still in control of their own destiny,
but there are nine other teams that are also in

(02:32:26):
that position. The margin for air is just not there.
I started the show today saying, hey, good news that
there's not a bunch of season ending injuries from what
you saw against West Virginia. But this week is critically important.
Your season in a lot of ways, does come down
to what happens on Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (02:32:45):
I tend to agree.

Speaker 10 (02:32:46):
And it's a big, like four week stretch, right because
every weekend there's a game that manifests in the Big
twelve that changes my opinion on the landscape.

Speaker 2 (02:32:54):
And Cincinnati.

Speaker 10 (02:32:54):
You know, early on you saw Cincinnati playing, you're kind
of like, all right, well, maybe that's a team to
look out for a big statement by them over the weekend.
And suddenly that Utah Cincinnati game doesn't look as easy
as maybe.

Speaker 2 (02:33:05):
We thought it would.

Speaker 10 (02:33:06):
Jack Kelly goes down for Brigham Young he was in
a sling on the sideline. Will be interested to see
if he's available for the Utah game, because that kid
is a powerhouse man. So we'll see big week, though,
We've got to move away from observation to conclusion at
some point with his Utah football team, and the only test,
in my opinion, that they've had that stiff they failed.

Speaker 2 (02:33:26):
So Saturday's big I.

Speaker 3 (02:33:28):
Just I don't see how it can go that way.
The same everyone came up short of expectations against Texas Tech.

Speaker 2 (02:33:35):
And to have that happen at.

Speaker 3 (02:33:36):
Every position in the booth and everywhere at one time,
that it just doesn't. It doesn't happen twice for Utah
football in the season any season.

Speaker 10 (02:33:45):
Really, it was as lung as they're healthy, right, I mean,
obviously the injuries have derailed them over the past couple
of years. But yeah, man, this is what makes this
job fun. A week like this and in a night
like Saturday night, a wrestsecle should be fun.

Speaker 2 (02:33:57):
We'll turn it over to Spence.

Speaker 3 (02:33:58):
He'll be talking about this and any other things, and hey,
tomorrow we got a lot going on, so make sure
you tune in. ESPN seven hundred and ninety two ONEFM,
proud part of Utahs ESPN Radio Network.