Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 10-7-25

OC talks Utah Jazz & the NBA with Gordie Chiesa, BYU FB in a new Red & Blue segment with Jarom Jordan, Utah vs ASU & NFL week 5 with Geoff Schwartz, NHL opening night, LeBron Decision 2.0 + more

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Network Heavy two.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Everybody, Welcome to the Rashon O'Connor Show on ESPN seven hundred
ninety two one FM. Throughout to you today and every
day by our good friend at Big Willie's. Salt Lake
City Sports Bar at seventeen seventeen, South Maine. The perfect
place to watch whatever game, games, fights, tournaments, matches, whatever

(00:50):
you're looking for in the sports world. Maybe you want
to go shoot some pool, maybe you're just interested in
a nice cold beverage. Big Willies has it all covered
for you. Craft cocktails, delicious food, diverse menu specials that
run every single day, and you get great treatment even
if you're not a listener to the Sean o'connells Show.

(01:10):
But if you go down and you say that OC
sent you, they're gonna take extra special care of you
because that's what our friends at Big Willies do. Go
check them out at seventeen seventeen South Maine. Fun Show
lined up for you today, Gordon Chiasa. As the Jazz
season inches closer and closer, and the Jazz this year

(01:31):
are going to be fun in a way that is,
I can't decide if we're going to be embarrassed by
it or we're just gonna lean into it. When I
say fun, I don't mean fun like competing for NBA
Championships type fun. I mean like they're gonna find ways
to engage with the community, to make themselves more appealing,

(01:53):
to give discounts and have family nights and Star Wars
nights or whatever else. Because you can't get people to
show up, well, you certainly hope they're gonna do something
like that. Oh see, I'm not. I don't know if
I'm as convinced as you the way that season ticket
prices and other things have gone up even though they're
not trying to win. Yeah, the ticket pricing thing is

(02:15):
all gonna be sticker shock through the roof. But they're
gonna they're gonna do some of like the gorilla marketing
I think. I think with the Utah Jazz, we got
some interesting Monday night football stuff to talk about. Devin
Lloyd with one of the plays of the year so
far in the National Football League. IM juke the the

(02:38):
I guess not defender. The offensive player out was Mahomes?
Was it Mahomes? I didn't. I I saw the highlights afterwards,
so I didn't. I didn't hear it live. But yeah,
he he catches it. I'm thinking when I hear he
had a nine yard pick six, he must have caught
it and had a straight line to the end zone. No,
he jukes Mahomes and then and breaks a like at

(03:02):
least one arm tackle and like jukes a couple other
guys like that was an athletic play by Devin Lloyd.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Incredible.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Devin Lloyd has a he's having a very uh he's
having a good but a strange year. If you head
on your Bingo card that Devin Lloyd was going to
be the NFL leader in interceptions, Devin Lloyd is leading
the NFL interceptions right now. He is the best defensive
back in the NFL right now and defensive player of

(03:32):
the month in the first month of the of the season.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I would not have guessed that.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Even though we saw that he's improved, he's steadily improved
every year, it's not been enough to where it was like, Yeah,
this year, he's gonna finally look like the best linebacker
in the NFL. I mean, he's trending towards like probably
a Pro Bowl year. I don't know about all pro,
but at least a Pro Bowl year potentially. And when
I say it's a strange year, he's he's the middle linebacker,

(03:59):
and his tackle totals still not really good.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
It's just like he's not.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Filling the stat sheet that way, but he's making these
huge impact plays. In college, he did both. He was
the luxury item that every defensive coordinator wants, where you've
got a guy who's a reliable tackler, always in position,
big time playmaker as well right now, and the reason

(04:26):
the Jags are loving him and the reason that the
NFL is starting to take a little bit more notice
of Agent zero is because he makes these big time plays.
And that was a fourteen point swing in a Monday
night football game that Jacksonville was kind of hoping. Everyone
in Duval was kind of holding their breath and saying,

(04:46):
all right, is this a time when we emerge out
of our own shadow a little bit where we stopped
making the same mistakes we've made the last decade plus
where we can finally win one of these big games
on a national stage. I mean, it felt like it
doesn't mean they're a better team in the playoffs than

(05:08):
the Chiefs, but right now the Kansas City Chiefs are
stuck in that place of being a litmus test for everyone.
You get everyone's best shot. And all these young players
that came up watching this dynasty that are now in
the NFL. I'm watching a highlight of Travis Hunter right now,
perfect example of this.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
All of those guys.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Want to show you the NFL fan that they are
ready for the playoffs, they are ready for bigger things.
By beating Kansas City and doing it on a national
stage is of course a lot more gratifying. And the
fact that Devin Lloyd gave you that pick six ninety
nine yard interception return, it was a fourteen point swing

(05:50):
in a tie game. Jacksonville doesn't go on to win
this game thirty one to twenty eight if he doesn't
make that play. Even if he he just intercepts that ball,
it's dubious as to whether or not they end up
finding the end zone because it wasn't hotly contested.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It was a tight game.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
If he picks that ball and just you know, kneels
down for the touch back, or if he picks that
ball and Mahomes ends up tackling him, so you're on
your own whatever it was seventeen yard line going out.
I don't have the level of trust in Trevor Lawrence
that he's gonna engineer a drive that creates the fourteen

(06:28):
points wing. Devin Lloyd created the fourteen points wing by himself.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
And we got an interesting question come in on Twitter
shortly after that that I thought was worth fleshing out.
Is that the best play you've ever seen by an
ex suite in the NFL?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Ooh, well, let's think of some other candidates here. So
I immediately was just like, that's a great play.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
But guys like Steve Smith, guys like Eric Weddles Smith
had a career worth, Guys like Alex Smith, guys like
Luther Ellis, if you go back far enough, I mean
Scott Mitchell played a long time, played really well in
the NFL.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Now it probably belongs on a top ten list.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, but I was like, okay, which immediately my mind
started going. I was like, all right, what what player?
A lot of my memories of great individual plays for
Eric Weddle are his plays in college, right, Like individual,
Oh my gosh, nobody else can do that. In college,

(07:38):
he had plenty of those. In the NFL, he actually
had a game ceiling interception that was called back by
a penalty that would have given him a million dollar bonus.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
I remember this, this.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Was the last, the last game of the year kind
of thing. This is when he was playing for the Ravens,
and he had a clause in his contract that if
he had a certain certain numbers performance bonus, right where
if he had certain numbers in his stat sheet and

(08:16):
Baltimore made the playoffs, then he got an extra million dollars.
And look, Eric has done very well for himself, did
very well for himself in the NFL, but not to
the level of like some of these NBA guys, where
a million dollar bonus is relatively insignificant. You know, at
the very very least, that's a big bonus for him

(08:39):
from a charitable giving standpoint. Somebody eight seven seven three
five three zero seven hundred helped me put this into
context because I didn't know we were going here today.
So but if I remember correctly, he had checked all
the boxes of how much he had, like he had
played more than seventy five percent of the defensive snaps

(09:00):
and if they win this game, they're headed to the playoffs.
And he intercepted the ball on the opposition I can't
remember who they were planning against. He intercepted the ball
and the oppositions what would have been game winning drive
to seal the game. And there was some TICKI tac
ridiculous garbage on the back side of the play, defensive

(09:23):
holding call or pass interference call that was like nowhere
near affecting the outcome of the play. And he got
the interception to trigger the bonus in his clause or
the bonus clause in his contract that would have given
him an extra million dollars. The flag thrown by the

(09:43):
referee took it away from him, and I was like,
that is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
That was such a clutch play.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
So I'm thinking it might have been twenty seventeen season,
because that was a year that they did not make
the playoffs, lost the final game of the year nine
to seven, or excuse me that I'm looking at the
wrong column here. That was their that's the record, Tom.

(10:11):
Obviously they they they lose in the final game of
the year thirty one to twenty seven. Okay, who are
they playing against playing the Bengals that Okay, I think
I have this right. I think it was that game
eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. Anyway,
that was one of those plays where it was like,
you're sending your team to the playoffs and you're scoring

(10:32):
yourself a million dollar bonus, and the referees threw a
flag that took it away from him, and of course
he reacted to it with class and was just like, oh, yeah,
you know what, they didn't I didn't lose that money.
I never had that money. That money wasn't mine until
the game went final and blah blah blah. Anyway, that
was a great play by Well, that's a memorable play

(10:54):
in his career. But I that's probably it because the
record they end up with nine and seven and they
probably and they did miss the playoffs that year, so
that's all. I think that's the year. I think that's
what we're talking about. It is a memorable play, and
it goes back to the question. After we see what
Devin Lloyd did Monday Night Football, ninety nine yard pick

(11:15):
six fourteen point swing in a game.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Now that's a regular season game.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
The play that I came up with that definitively goes above,
and there's actually two in the same game that go
If there's a top ten list of great plays made
by utes in the NFL, Alex Smith in the Divisional
round against the New Orleans Saints had a clutch game

(11:42):
winning pass to Vernon Davis. They call it the catch
three in forty nine ers low to advance past Drew
Brees and the Saints. He also in that same game
had an unbelievable touchdown scramble, and.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
That was playoff football.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Those were big time plays made by Alex Smith as
the quarterback of the San Francisco forty nine ers, And
of course that checks the boxes of former ut in
the NFL a bigger like a regular season even if
it is Monday night against in the Kansas City Chiefs.
A regular season game, big time play, awesome, big time

(12:20):
plays in the playoffs even better.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
I'm I'm looking.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
At because I remember seeing recently one of Eric Weddle's
like best highlights compilations on Twitter. Recently I found it again.
He has a one handed interception against Peyton Manning when
he's with the Chargers and Mannings with the Colts and
he's trying to he's getting blocked by the offensive lineman.

(12:48):
Ball gets tipped by a teammate and he gets he
gets one hand free from the block and somehow somehow
comes down with it one with his elbow and near
the goal line. Like that's an incredible play. Not maybe
not super high stakes, but like that, I mean, that's

(13:09):
that's an incredible play by Eric Weddle in the NFL
from a from a former youth that probably probably should
be considering this too. So Will Osborne on Twitter, thank
you for bringing that question in. Is that the best
play that you've seen a ute make or among the
top plays you've seen a ute make former ute make?
I wouldn't in the NFL, I wouldn't be mad at anyone,

(13:30):
including our texter that that believes it is, because that
was an incredible I think Devin Lloyd. I think Paul
Krueger had a sack and a half in the Super
Bowl in a contract year when he was with the
Baltimore Ravens. Also, if I'm not mistaken, anytime you're making
a big play in the Super Bowl, this is before
he ended up going to signing the big contract with Cleveland.

(13:54):
Could be mistaken there, but yeah, Paul Krueger entering the
chat for greatest plays in the NFL by you, Steve
Smith probably has a dozen catches that you could make
a case for. I can think of one in the
playoffs when against the Bears, I want to say, and
he catches it, and his celebration is he jumps. He

(14:15):
jumped straight into the uh, the field goal post with
the pat where the pad is and slides down it
like he jumped as high as he could and then
slid down it with his arms and legs straddling the
posts like I. I guess I remember the celebration more
than I remember the play. But it was a big
play in a playoff game with the Panthers, by the way. Uh,

(14:36):
I'm sad watching this a little bit watching these. It's
Eric Wuittle highlight compilation again, because he did a lot
of stuff against Peyton Manning, my goodness, whether it was
with the Colts or when Manning was with the Broncs,
by the.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Way, makes it more meaningful.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Like Devin Lloyd's interception last night was against Patrick Mahomes, right,
and then he jerked him out. He made Patrick Malmes
look bad twice on one play. How about this breaking news,
The Bengals are trading for Joe Flacco. Oh, interstate trade.
I guess the Browns feel really good about doing, Gabriel.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
He looked good to me.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
They're trading. They're trading Joe Flacco. The Browns are trading
Joe Flacco in a sixth round pick to the Bengals
for a fifth round pick. All right, all right, cool
sounds good. Have fun Bengals. You know what, James I
for all of you out there listening. James came in
and he had all these like alarm set and he
was he was ready to break down what the decision

(15:35):
to what. I was like, I'm not gonna miss the
decision two point zero. And then I got caught in
some some work conversations and I'm coming here. So I
come in and said I missed it, and and James
is about to go look up all the fallout, and
I said, wait, wait, wait, save it.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
I want you to go into this blind when we
go on air.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
So I'm on the last sports media guy, do you
know what the lebron decision two point zero is?

Speaker 2 (16:00):
And it's your fault.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
James is like that guy they found in like nineteen
sixty one that didn't know that World War two was over. Yeah,
like they they landed on some remote island in the
Philippine Archipelago and he'll fight. There was a Japanese soldier
there that was still fighting, and they were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Relax,
it's been it's been a decade and a half. The

(16:23):
war ended like fifteen years ago. Dude. He was like, oh,
for real, I was just doing my duty until somebody
told me. So, James, is that person, right, Yeah, all right,
Rip van Winkle whatever you want to call me. That's
a that's a that's an equal comparison, of course.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
So the decision two point oh James, you like everyone else,
you want to you want to let me have some
guesses is to so retirements and obvious guests. Yeah, I
I did like the wrong answers only that said it's
for Taco Tuesday. Yeah, it's insane. He got the patent
on Taco Tuesday. And and and I love I also

(17:01):
love that that tweeter put not joking in parenthesis because
because and I'm like I don't blame you for really
believing that's the case, because he's because Lebron is really
leaned into Taco Tuesday over the last few years on
social media. So those are my first like the serious
one is retirement and then if it's if it's not

(17:22):
a serious decision, my next one. I'd agree with that
that that guy on one of our listeners on Twitter
who said it's Taco Tuesday related.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Uh I could.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Also another guess I'd have is just him saying him
making this all this hullabaloo about I'm ready for this season,
just announcing I'm in regular season mode. It's like when
he does his zero Dark thirty thing twenty four to
seven zero Dark thirty playoff mode, Like, Lebron, shut up,
we know, yes, regular season mode. Oh wait, you're locked

(17:57):
in for the season and we are not lebron Ters
here on this program. N This is the this is
the stuff that when you're talking about Lebron James, you're
just like, Okay, this is either going to be a
momentous announcement where he's like I saw plenty of speculative
guestses yesterday, all right, he's announcing the retirement. Was the

(18:20):
number one thing that people expected he's buying a portion
of a team or basketball or otherwise that he's getting involved,
which would be huge, right, because that's something that that
players in leagues have started to really get into. You know,
NFL guys are buying into NFL franchises, NFL guys and

(18:41):
and NBA guys are buying into soccer franchises. Hockey's growing rapidly,
WNBA is growing rapidly, all these things. So I saw
people speculating Lebron's gonna buy into the WNBA.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I was like, Okay, that's a good guess.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
An announcement about Bronni, an announcement about Bryce whatever. Nope,
you want me to tell you what it was, Jim Ready,
it was a Hennessy ad.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Okay, of course it was.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Now shout out to Hennessy, which I've never tasted in
my life, but shout out to Hennessy for getting us
all thinking, talking, tweeting, wondering about what was going to happen.
I mean, this is a viral moment if that's what
you're looking for in advertising, which attention is the currency
of the day. There was nothing you could have done

(19:33):
as a drink brand like Hennessy to get more attention
than this than to have Lebron James tease an announcement
which is very on brand for him and all of us, say,
have twenty four hours of speculation about what Lebron was
going to announce, and then have everybody once he announced that, like, hey,

(19:56):
I've my decision has been to partner up with Hennessy,
everyone just be like, what the hell.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, we're never gonna believe you.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
We're never gonna We're not gonna believe your retirement announcement now, Lebron,
We're not even gonna You're gonna say I've got a
huge announcement coming up and no one and we're all
just gonna be like whatever, we don't want to see
another Hennessy at Lebron James is the boy who cried wolf.
Yeah he's Lebron who who cried wolf? But yeah, that
so from a brand, from an from a branding and

(20:26):
advertising perspective, it is beyond brilliant. Hennessy has been outside
of my consciousness since the days I was bouncing at
bars downtown, Like, when is the last time I thought
about Hennessy.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
They don't rap about it anymore, like they used to.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
When is the last time see I saw him in
like NBA commercials. Not, It doesn't seem like it was
that long ago. Maybe it was more than five years
ago though. With that, what's there? What was their drink?
Is it wild Rabbit? Is that what the something rabbit? No,
the drink is Hennessy. Oh yeah, yeah, okay, See that

(21:06):
that exposes both of us, is we're not doing anything
about alcohol. But there was a time, there was a
time in like the the nineties early two thousands where
like Hennessy bottles were in rap videos and people were
rapping about Hennessy, and people were talking about Hennessy, and
you knew that people who wanted to be in touch

(21:26):
with like the hip hop culture were gonna come into
the bar and they were going to probably order some Hennessy.
I have not thought of the word Hennessy since then, James,
until today.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
So congratulations to the brand.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Congratulations to Hennessy for figuring out a way to put
your drink, your bottle, your brand on the forefront, even
if it's for twelve hours. Yeah, back in our back
into the public's consciousness. Absolutely, and by the way, we're
not going to forget for the next However, many years

(22:03):
what the decision two point ohero was. Well, that's the
other part that makes it so brilliant is that they
is at Lebron and Hennessy decided to label this announcement
as the decision two point zho, making us all think, oh,
it has to do with his basketball career because the

(22:24):
decision is something we're never going to forget. It's it's
a perfect coup for advertising. I saw this thing memed
with the with a Christmas story. You remember, like Ralphie
is all about the Dakota ring from Ovaltine. Yeah, trying
to figure out what that secret message is and it's

(22:46):
a commercial. It's more Ovaltine. That's exactly what just happened here.
All of us are just like, he's retiring. I as
we were handing off the show to Spence yesterday, I
what I said to him was, he is If he
makes a retirement announcement, it puts everyone in the league

(23:07):
in a position where they have to give the farewell
tour to Lebron James and you have to roll out
the red carpet for his last appearance that you're building,
you have to buy like the surfboard. If You're a
Southern California team. You got to give Lebron like a mountain.
You have to name a mountain after him in Utah. Whatever.
All the fans, all the fans who who hated him,

(23:31):
have to give him a standing ovation. That was the
cringiest thing about Kobe's return to Utah.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
All the Jazz fans are like, oh, man love Kobe.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Oh my gosh, No, I've hated you my whole life,
but I respect you as a competitor. Man. Like, No,
that's the most disgusting thing I've ever so, especially here
in Utah.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
And by the way they did it.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
They did it with when he was retired. They did
it with a rod when he was retired from basketball.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
Like.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
So that was James.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
As I was leaving the building yesterday, as I was like, Spence,
this is what's gonna happen, I was like, Okay, one
of the segments I had planned for today was retirement.
Let's guess what the Utah Jazz are going to give
to Lebron James as his retirement gift.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
And guess what. We don't have to talk about that
because it was a damn commercial.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
How about a signed plaque of Sunday Ona Gains game winner,
and and like and the and like dates of of
his What was that a seven seven year win streak
in for the Jazz in Utah. You know what'd be
amazing is if they just here's what when it does happen.
Here's what I want the Utah Jazz to give Lebron James,

(24:46):
all right, some commemorative plaque.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Make it cool.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Make it like an engraved basketball, okay, that has the
entire history of Lebron James performances against the Utah Jazz
and have mostly the dates like whatever it was, you know,
December twelfth, twenty twenty four, DNP coaches decision, just a.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Bunch, Just let him know.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Just show him how many times he sat against the
Jazz because he didn't care it. Put it all caps
and bolded the DNPS and then just bolded the losses,
yeah in Utah and then the other and put the
other dates on there too, but not don't make them
stand out at all. Absolutely put like his actual stat
lines when he really did play. But then show him

(25:34):
how many times it was DNP coaches decision, DNP load management.
I want him to have to like confront that from
the Utah Jazz, like have a little bit of fun
with it, and the Denver Nuggets should do the same thing,
by the way, because he's also it was either sitting
against because they always play. They made it so that
they played altitude Jazz, the Jazz and Nuggets back to

(25:57):
back most of the time on the road for when
he was with the Lakers or Calves or a heat
and like have the nugg the Nuggets should do the
same thing because he either played that game against the
Nuggets and then sat against the Jazz or vice versa.
So they should absolutely do the same thing. And listen,
I put no thought into this. I just barely said
the Sunday on Sunday Ona Gains thing and thought of

(26:19):
it for the first time when I said it out loud.
But I really think put either either do like a
picture of that shot with with the stat lines you're
talking about right underneath it, or get the part of
the Delta center floor that Sandyana Gains shot it from.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
That and give it to him.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Lebron feels like he has a poor sense of humor
to laugh at himself in like a farewell tour, so
he probably wouldn't take it very well. But who cares,
but that that would make it that much funnier. In
any case, it was a Hennessy ad. The decision two
point zero is all of you know now at this
point a Hennessy ad, and the I'm.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Skipping decision three, Lebron. I want you to know that the.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Real world ramifications for this are exactly zero, except we
just get the chuckle at our own foolishness and believing
that it was gonna be a big thing. Except if
you are one of the folks out there who won
the secondary ticket market. As soon as this thing was teased,
we're like, well, I gotta be I gotta be there

(27:25):
for his last career game.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, you saw the story about this.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Three thousand dollars was the get in price for the
final home game, by the way, happens to be against
the Utah Jazz. So I saw that and went, no way,
we're gonna get a Lebron farewell the way Kobe got
a farewell.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Great Jazz are going to be that again.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, Like the the the value of tickets for every
Lebron James' final visit to every arena in the NBA
skyrocketed because people thought without him saying anything. People thought
it would be the last opportunity to see Lebron James
play against their team or in LA's case ever, Yeah,

(28:09):
like this is this is the last Lebron James home.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Game and the game the games.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
I'd love to see the prices of his last game
in Miami, the way his last game in Cleveland. But
since this, since this got teased, like those probably are.
Also if you are someone who's spent because it's you're
not buying it just for yourself, right, You're like, Okay,
you know what, My my daughter's favorite player is Lebron James,

(28:39):
and I gotta if I'm taking my daughter, I gotta
take my other Carria, someone from Cleveland or whatever, and
I gotta take my wife. We're gonna make it a
family event and we're gonna spend. We're gonna get nice,
nice seats for this one. We're gonna see Lebron James
final performance at whatever arena at the Delta Center.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
I'm going to fork.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Out from two to twenty thousand dollars because of a
Hennessy ad Oh what have you done? Hennessy' all right,
they're now they're now selling those tickets.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Let me offload these bad boys.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Hey, I I overpaid for these tickets and I don't
actually want to go to this game.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Now, I'm very very upset.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
The only way you can offset this, if you're one
of the people who fell victim, jump on the Hennessy
bandwagon right now. Go find the stock price for whatever
brand owned owns Hennessy and just watch them skyrocket a
little bit because of this viral moment.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, and then, and then, if you're.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Feeling, if you're feeling a specially vindictive sell way earlier
so it tanks the stock right, start manipulating the stock
price with your paltry purchase because you spent all your
money on the tickets. Oh man, love him or hate him,
and there's a lot of people here who just don't
like him.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Lebron James.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
And Hennessy, whoever was the brain, the mastermind behind this,
Pat yourself on the back.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
You just showed the power of Lebron James.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Even as he goes into his twenty third NBA season
at forty plus years of age, he is a guy
who can he can move the ticket price in every
arena in the land still and by the way, who
can no longer get past the first round in the playoffs.

(30:29):
That's he still has that power. I mean, that's probably
gonna change here soon now that Luca's with him. But
he hasn't been He hasn't really even been relevant from
a competitive standpoint in the most in the biggest time
of the year in a number of years, other than
their Western Conference Finals run that they end up getting
swept by the Nuggets what three years ago besides that

(30:52):
you got the bubble, was the last time they were
anything relevant in the playoffs. And he still has that
kind of power over us. This is like the best
viral marketing that we've seen in twenty years. The problem
is the news cycle moves so fast nowadays that they're
only gonna get like eighteen hours of run out of

(31:14):
this thing. Hopefully, hopefully for them, it's worth it, all right,
We got to take a break here. Gordy Chiasa is
going to join us on the other side. We'll see
what he thought. Decision two point zero was gonna be
Sean o'connaschow brought to you by Big Willies at seventeen seventeen,
South Maine, UTAIHS number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred
at a two one AFM.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
He's out.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Let's get the latest on the Utah Jazz with former
Jazz assistant coach Gordy Chiasa. He's forgotten more about the
NBA than any of us will ever know.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Let's not get crazy. Come for the hoops talk.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Stay for his list of the day My list Today,
here's oc with basketball Shaban Gordy Chiasa on the Sean
O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Time to check in with our resident NBA guru. Brought
to you by a ladin industry. He's a conversation with
Gordy chias as the NBA season approaches. In fact, the
Jazz have their first preseason game tomorrow at the Houston Rockets.
That'll be a six pm tip. Gordy, Welcome back. How
are you, sir?

Speaker 5 (32:26):
Oh see, I'm doing fine? Thank you.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
What did you think decision two point zero was going
to be?

Speaker 6 (32:34):
God?

Speaker 5 (32:35):
He was going to retire after this season? A little?
Did we know that it was? He's a pitch man
for Cognak as far as the alcohol and that he's
a new national ad unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Look, I don't mind admitting.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
When I got got I thought for sure we were
going to have a thirty to sixty minute program where
Lebron sat down and expressed in his own words, his
you know love for the NBA teammates franchises, and that
was announcing that he was going to be done after
this twenty five to twenty six season, and then we
were all going to get real sappy, and we were

(33:14):
all going to be like, Okay, how important is it
to see Lebron when you while you still have the chance.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
And he was going to go on this farewell tour and.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Instead, henness, he goes viral and capitalizes on our own
our own thoughts and preconceptions about what Lebron James is
willing to do.

Speaker 7 (33:31):
And as a.

Speaker 5 (33:32):
Plan words you know, sean a to that younger listeners,
the written decision was him leaving taking his talents to
South Beach, which was July twenty ten. Let's fast forwarded
after long he's played as far as NBA basketball, He's
entering his twenty third season of the NBA, which is
amazing to playing at a high level. And so he

(33:53):
announced again as a pitchman for alcohol.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
So we wait at least another I don't know, several
months before Lebron makes a decision about his long term future.
And if you are among the fans who overpaid for
tickets to see Lebron james last trip to the Delta Center,
I feel bad. I'm sorry that happened to you, but
he got us all. Let's talk about this Utah Jazz

(34:19):
team East High School surprise scrimmage. The rookies and the
young players rolled out and they did a scrimmage at
East High School in front of a bunch of high
school students. They did a high school musical rookie dance off.
A little mild gazing there, Gordy, what's the thought process
for a team behind stuff like this?

Speaker 5 (34:39):
But one thing, it's just a different environment. Instead of
just playing and practicing in your own a facility, they
took it the East High We went up the street.
Very simple to do, and it was good for the
players to get into a different environment as the lead
to go to play. You mentioned earlier about playing the
Rockets and the Spurs on this mini tech in Texas Swing.

(35:01):
It's good, different environment. The lights are on, the fans there, chairing,
and this positive upbeat.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
What was your favorite rookie hazing that you saw happen
while you were you know, coaching well.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
In Jazz Bastborn yester year is that the rookies carried
the bags in other words, where the rookie would help
out the management and the trainers as far as them
lugging some of the bags, especially on road trips onto
the airplane. They took it off the bus and they
put it onto the airplane on the underneath your plane,

(35:37):
and that was part of their part of their thing.
It was interesting. Add to that shown was that it
was part of the culture and that some most players
had a good attitude. A few thought it was really
indifferent about it, and they were hazed tremendously by the veterans.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
On a team that's so full of young guys right now,
like is keaven loved leading the rookie you're mild with
the hazing now, but like is Lowry the guy who's
like making the rookies do stuffing.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Every one of this team is so young, Yeah, very much.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
It's different when you're just say, Larry Mark would be
Kevin Love his eighteenth year in the NBA, but he's
a newcomer, so he might try to do it. However,
has to be done by the veterans that are there
from x amount of years, So it be Larry markin
as far as doing it the guy that's so young.
It's a different culture. It's part of the NBA, but

(36:33):
you have to be able to have the veterans that
have been there for a long time. As far as
with one franchise.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
How firmly set is this Utah Jazz roster you think
in the minds of coaches and management. You know, we're
talking about this Texas Mini Swing and you've gone through
training camp or you're going through training camp right now.
You're going to get some preseason basketball opportunities. Hopefully some
of the guys at the end of the bench are
going to be given minutes. I mean, is there someone

(37:00):
who can steal a roster spot or is it pretty
well set?

Speaker 2 (37:03):
You think.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
Pretty well set. Yes. The way the rules are, you
can have fifteen players on their contract and three two
way players, and the two way players can play a
maximum fifty games before they have to sign a regular
standard MBA contract. So it seems to me that the
rosters set, but not the starting lineup or as far

(37:29):
as as far as rotation. So in jazz basketball, they're
still fighting for playing time and should be interesting the
Jazz have three players that are really veteran, it's going
to be four. One's not playing right because of injury,
George and Nyang. So the question is always is Kyle Anderson,
Kevin love Yusuf Nurkice and I mentioned four by George

(37:52):
and Nyang those guys that are veterans of the team
right now the newcomers and then Larry Markin is really
the true veteran. How they integrate those guys with all
the young people on the team. That's the questions in
jazz basketball.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Well, we know that for the Utah Jazz, this is
going to be another year as part of a rebuild.
They're going to do it differently this year because of
the roster of construction. They already traded away a bunch
of the guys that can that you probably would have
had to make up injury reports for.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Instead they're just not on the roster this year.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
The uh, you know, the outlook is that you're going
to be one of the bottom what four or five
teams in the West that there are some people think
this will be worst record in the NBA again, and
we spend a lot of time all year talking about it.
How do you show growth, and how do you show
improvement and how do you show the things you need
to show for the future while you're having a bad year.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
If we think this is going to be another bad year.

Speaker 5 (38:51):
By playing time to the young guys. So the way
it should be judged is that can't de George is
third year now in NBA. His growth, Cody Williams his
growth is for his second year, it's going to look
like Kyle Filpowski, how does he play? Ace Bailey, who's
definitely the future, what does he do? And so they're

(39:14):
trying to balancing yes, winning because remember winning is important
in a sense where you could keep losing and developing
bad habits, but when you win, you're developing solid habits
that are in a present tense but also a future
and that's why it's so important. Isaiah Khalia who's a
good player, Walter Clayton who's a good young player, Walker

(39:36):
Kessa who is definitely part of the future, and his
contract as far as the extension is that elephant in
the room. How does all these things come together? The
Jets should be better. Last year, the just won seventeen games,
they actually should be better and Austin as said that
they're playing to try to improve and get more wins,

(39:57):
and they will, and so the question is how many
at a trading deadline, what did he do with some
of their players? But as of right now, they're going
to try to integrate these play with the older guys
with the younger guys as far as getting more positive results.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
So as we gear up for another season that is
not going to end in the Utah Jazz with a
playoff run and not going to end in a pursuit
for a championship, what teams are you eyeing as the
preseason winds down that are either trying to stay relevant
or make their way into that championship conversation? Who's on
the Gordy Chi radar this year?

Speaker 5 (40:39):
Nuggets? Nuggets are good. They've done a good job with
their roster. They have the once in a lifetime player
and nikola a Jokic. I love that guy the way
he plays. And their new new VP of Operations, Ben Tenzer,
has done a good job with their roster building and
so I'm watching them. Jamal Murray, Christian Brown, Cam Johnson's

(41:03):
they quite from the nets, Aaron Gordon and Nikolai Jokic
and at a bench now, Bruce Brown, former Nuggets player
two three years ago when they were champions, Tim Hardaway,
Peyton Watson, Jonas Valacunis, and Zeke Naji. So they that's
their roster. I'm looking at them because last year they

(41:24):
lost to the okase He Thunder four games to three.
And let us show and I know you love conspiracy theories.
What if just saying if Aaron Gordon doesn't pull his hamstring,
do the Nuggets knockout the Thunder? Just saying.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
What are the Warriors going to be.

Speaker 7 (41:48):
Good?

Speaker 5 (41:49):
Underrated? It's hard to imagine the boys underrated, but they're
off the radar. Screen goes, you know the Warriors. Those
guys are getting old. That's that's the narrative about them
around them. And then they're not going to cooperate. And
so they have a bunch of good players on their
team that are ready for prime time as far as veterans.

(42:10):
And again with their they're all star people led by
Stephen Curry. So they should start Steph Curry, Moses Moody
or Brandon Prazinski either or Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and
Al Hoffett, and then their bench could be Gary Payton,

(42:33):
the second buddy heel, the Anthony Melton Jonathan Kaminga who
they re signed was absolutely critical and the underrated player
also quit in post. So they're going to be good.
They're right there as far as contending in the West,
even though they're old now injuries might be a factor.

(42:53):
But when you have Stephen Curry and your team, and
you have Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green and going to
be al Haffed, now you have a chance to be
anybody because these are the crafty veterans that know how
to win, especially in close games, both home and away.
So watching them also.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
This flast offseason Utah Jazz fans, we all got our
hopes up that eventually Cooper Flagg might be wearing a
Jazz uniform. Of course he ends up going to Dallas instead,
and now you kind of have to watch him jealously,
probably say what could have been here in Salt Lake City?
Should have could have would have been in Salt Lake City.

(43:32):
Have you been impressed with Cooper Flagg in what limited
we've been able to.

Speaker 5 (43:35):
See so far, Yes, very much. This guy is going
to be eventually a generational talent. He's only eighteen years young,
it's crazy he's showing. He turns to nineteen in this December,
and so last night in Forward, Texas the Dallas Marriviage
is his first game. He showed his overall versatility as

(43:58):
a rookie. Ten points, six rebounds, three assists, one block,
and no turnovers, and he goes two for three from
three point range, and you're generally speaking, he belongs. So
a lot of times you're a rookie, you try to
do things you can't do because you try to showcase
your skill set, and it becomes a negative. This guy's

(44:20):
the opposite. The game comes to him. Defensively, he is
absolutely right there as far as blocking shots, getting steals,
active hands, early eyes on defense remind me so much
of defensively of Andre Carolinko. That he's an unbelievable defensive player.
But offensively he's poised, he can make shots and make plays.

(44:43):
So I'm thoroughly impressed by him. And now they're they're contending.
Also they have a tremendous team, the Dallas Mavericks. They
have their coach is terrific and Jason Kidd, and also
they'll be fighting to go deep into playoffs too. The
West is really low in the East right now. It
should be the Cavaliers, it should be possibly the Knicks,

(45:08):
the Celtics, don't count them out, and the Magic and
the Pistons going to be the up and coming team.
They're going to try to go deep in the playoffrunt?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Where do the Timberwolves fit in?

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I'm thinking of you know, you just mentioned the Cavs
and all of us still wonder what Donovan's going to
be able to accomplish before he's done in the NBA.
I think the same thing about Rudy. Always been a
big Rudy fan. What are the Timberwolves going to be
this year?

Speaker 5 (45:35):
Right there? Also, they won forty nine They won forty
nine games last year, and then let's not forget in
the playoffs they beat the Lakers four games to one,
beat the Warriors four games to one, and then they
lost to the thunder of four games to one. So
they should start Mike Connley, who's entering his nineteenth season
in the NBA, Anthony Edwards all NBA tremendous talent, he's maturing,

(45:58):
Jade McDaniels, Julius Charandel, and Rudy Gobert. He's entering his
thirteenth season and then now as always, it's that bench
because there'll be injuries and there'll be things that are
going on. So the question is young Rob Dillingham, can
he back up Mike Conley if Mike Colley has an
injury or as far as as far as him struggling

(46:19):
to shoot the ball. Deontay Davin Chanzeo, who's very good jelling,
Clark Nazrid. Those are the guys and then Terrence Shannon.
So they're ten deep right now. Their coaches are good
in Chris Finch. Can they go make that leap right now?
They think that they can knock out the thunder and
last year they lost four games to one. Will plays out,

(46:41):
but they're underrated and they're ratings to go deep in
the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Lordy, what's the list today?

Speaker 5 (46:53):
The list today is the oldest active NBA players to
start this season. So this season the ten oldest guys
in the NBA. And it's so interesting many of them
still have a game yet, which is really unbelievable based
on their training habits and their mental focus. Oldest players

(47:14):
in the NBA this season as we start right now.
Number ten, Brook Lopez aged thirty seven. Number nine. Steph
Curry of the Warriors, age thirty seven. Number eight showing
right on que Mike Conley turns thirty eight this Saturday,
October eleventh. Number seven former jazz player. Do you all

(47:36):
see what a swag? Showing from the t Wolves. Joe
Ingles thirty eight years old. Number six oldest player in
the NBA. Also former jazz man Jeff Green of the
Rockets thirty nine years ago. Number five we mentioned earlier.
Second ago. Al Haffer of the Warriors is age thirty nine.
Number four oldest player in the NBA. From the Raptors.

(47:59):
Greck Temple aged thirty nine and sean he was undrafted,
so think about it, the guys was undrafted back in
two thousand and nine. He's thirty nine years old. Garrett
Temple still in the NBA. Number three. Kyle Lowry of
the seventy six is age thirty nine, the second oldest

(48:20):
player in the NBA. He plays for the Clippers. He
still's got game. That is Chris Paul h forty and
the number one, the oldest player in the NBA. He's
either the greatest player of all time or definitely his
second greatest player of all time. Has a different debate
for a different show. He turns forty one on December thirtieth.

(48:42):
Lebron James forty one years young. Last year, at age forty,
Lebron averaged twenty four point four points per game, eight
point two assists, seven points, eight rebounds, and fifty one
to three field goal percentage. Now Cooper Flegg mentioned earlier
he's the youngest guy in the NBA. It's amazing. He

(49:04):
turns nineteen this December twenty first sean in the NFL.
Who's the oldest NFL player in the NFL this year?
Who do you think it is?

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Got to be a kicker, right, got a who's the well?
Aaron Rodgers is getting up there too?

Speaker 5 (49:22):
That's exactly right, showing right. I'm prying if you knew it?
Avn Rodgers of the Steelers turns turns forty two this
December second, so Rogers of the age forty two December
second Halbin in Jazz basketball and yesteryear, John Stockton played it.
Played in the NBA at a high level till age

(49:44):
forty one, and call him alone, play at a high
level with the Jazz and the Lakers till age forty So, yes,
it does matter training habits. It does matter, new nutrition,
it does matter a mental focus. And also what mattters
is your teammates. When your teammates are quote for lack
of a better word, good guys around you, you tend

(50:06):
to play at a higher level because you want to
be around them. You can never assimilate what it's like
to be in a team sport with a bunch of
good guys trying to trying to be champions. There's nothing
like It's great. That's Lebron James.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Pretty unbelievable what he's been able to do at this age.
His own son in the NBA now, and there's probably
what there's there's probably three guys on every team that
are young enough to be Lebron's son.

Speaker 5 (50:31):
That's right. And Sean think about it. You and Aaron
Rodgers are the exact same age.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
We graduated from high school the same year we were born,
in the same year me and Aaron Rodgers. We've had
similar amounts of success in our lives. Obviously, he and I.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
Oh, definitely, absolutely, Oh No, you're you're selling it. You're
showing yourself too short right now, selling it? Oh definitely.
But Aaron Rodgers aged forty two NFL with the Stillers
right now, formerly of the Packers, and then with a
short stint with the Jets.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
I'm getting to that age, and I mean, there's there's
no professional athletes that are older than me anymore, basically,
and that's a weird as a sports fan. That's a
weird juncture to reach in your life where you come
up and you're rooting for people who are older than you, right,
and you're like, you respect these guys. You root for
these guys that are you know, they're your big brothers

(51:28):
or you know, if you're young enough, they're your dad's age.
And then you kind of age out of that and
you're like, Okay, now I'm rooting for guys my own age,
and I'm getting to the point where I could, you know,
when I'm watching NBA basketball, these are people I could
I'm old enough to be their dad, just like Lebron.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
Correct, And that just shows you you have staying power
as so as Lebron. That's beauty of it. So again,
the question always is how old you are, as far
as physically but more importantly mentally, And that's the thing
about you. Anybody in sports or entertainment you've got to
keep evolving, and that's what Lebron James is doing right now.

(52:07):
And also Cooper Flagg at young at a young eighteen
years old right now, will be nineteen in December. It's
him as far as his career. There's nothing like sports.
It keeps you young. That's why Sean, you are terrific.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Gordy, you're the man. I always appreciate your time. Thank
you for joining us.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
Thanks guys, peace out.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Sean gory Chia's had that conversation brought to you by
Aladdin Industries. James, have you ever stood on one of
those scales that gives you your biological age?

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Have you ever done that thing? I haven't.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Okay, first of all, it's probably pseudoscience at best, but
it's kind of like when you stand on the scale
that has the little electrodes on it and it tells
you your body fat percentage.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
I've done that.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
It spits out that number that you're just like, oh, nope,
that's bad, I don't want that number.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
The only time I've ever done this literally on my honeymoon. Okay.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
My wife and I are like, we're in Saint Croix Us,
Virgin Islands for our honeymoon. Okay, scale in the bathroom
that's like, oh this enter you know, enter your actual age,
and then you stand on this thing and it's gonna
tell you your biological age, how old your body is,
based on whatever fake electrical current at sensoria.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
I was thirty five.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
When I actually stood on this thing and said I
was sixty three, I was.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Like, what the hell?

Speaker 3 (53:26):
And then you went, yeah, this is this is like
this is crackam.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Of course this is true.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Of course I let my wife stand on it first,
and my wife is younger than me. My wife was
twenty eight right when she stood on it, and the
scale came back and said like, oh, your biological age
twenty four. I'm like, oh, that's wonderful. So of course
she's feeling really happy. I stand on it and it
says I'm sixty three. And then you couldn't say, oh,
this is this is obviously a fake, because it was

(53:52):
good for her.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Yeah. I gave her good news.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
So if I was like, this is garbage, Oh you
don't think of discounting twenty four exactly?

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, bad deal.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
You know what, you know what it sounds like, it
sounds like it the nickel the Nickel Arcades, the o
the fortune teller thing where you put your hand on
the on the joysticker like greasy joysticky and then it
it tells you your future.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
That's what it sounds. You know what we need. We
need to get a nickel Cade sponsorship on the show.
We need to do a live remote from a Nickel cad.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Absolutely, there's a couple in the valley still those things. Man,
if you have not yet experienced the glory of a
Nickel Cade, if you're someone who's new to that world,
show up.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
They are the best.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Those were like when we were off track as kids
in our year round school. Spend all day there. Yeah
heck yeah, you can spend all day there for like
eight bucks.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
Anyway, all right, well double up, we'll come back with
some red and blue. Jerem Jordan's gonna join us to
talk about the outlook for BYU. Some injuries starting to
pile up for important players. It's a Sean O'Connell show
on ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM.

Speaker 8 (55:03):
My father taught me in many things here you know
what they see.

Speaker 9 (55:06):
They taught me keep your friends close, put your enemies close.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Time to check in on that tune down South.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
They have done absolutely nothing wrong but the blue. I
think just the red and blue.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
On the Sean O'Connell Show and Utah's number one Sports Talk,
the ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Ninety one half a little scream Kickston.

Speaker 10 (55:29):
Concessity, Parker Kickston, who is sucking Tuxtown at the game?

Speaker 3 (55:39):
Parker Kingston touchdown as BYU smacked around West Virginia Friday
night courtesy of ESPN and this Shrove on the call
time for a little check in with the team down South.
Jerem Jordan Yu Sports Nation joins us here on the
Sean O'Connell show.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Jerem, how are you?

Speaker 7 (56:00):
I'm doing great. Just at an unbelievable weekend with my
seven year old Tate, went up to Seattle to see
my Mariners, got the split, saw the Seahawks play the Bucks.
Fortunately lost at the Buzzer, but unbelievable experience. It was
super fun.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Man, are you in possession of any of the cool
throwback merchandise of the Seahawks uniform? That Seahawks Bucks uniform
matchup was nineteen eighty nine, Back again its beautiful.

Speaker 7 (56:29):
It was two franchises celebrating their fiftieth seasons that joined
the NFL in seventy six. I already had my you know,
kind of royal blue sea blargein Jersey a year or
two ago, so I was prepared. I was ready to go.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Well done. I like that.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
All right, Well, I'm glad you had a good trip
to Seattle. Seattle has I think for me. San Francisco
was always my favorite American city to visit. It has
fallen on harder times a little bit, so I think
Seattle is all the way up.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
There with me for me. Now. I love Seattle.

Speaker 7 (56:58):
It's a great place, great great spot, great town for sports.
I grew up in Portland before I moved to Utah,
and so northwest ties and yeah, just beautiful city. Stayed
downtown with my seven year old Santa, had a great
time just scootering around town. And yeah, unfortunately unfortunately lost
two or three in the game through too, but saw

(57:19):
a Mariner's home playoff win for the first time since
oh one.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Had to be there for there. It's pretty cool, all right.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Let's talk about more pressing things here in the state
of Utah. BYU continues its march and we thought we
would probably see this for the Koogs, you know, not
heavily tested in the early portion of the season, at
least from a schedule. On paper standpoint, they are still undefeated.
I think that the momentum is headed the right direction,

(57:47):
with maybe the exception of your starting to see a
little bit of injury attrition, I guess we'll go there.
How how costly are these these bumps and bruises and
bang ups that the Cougar are experiencing now as we
hit into their sixth or seventh game.

Speaker 7 (58:05):
The most visible of them is Jack Kelly obviously coming out,
you know, with what appeared to be an injured shoulder,
and there's no timeline publicly given quite yet. You hope
Jack is back for the Utah game. I would, you know,
I would be surprised if we played against Arizona. I
would love that. Of course, he's been so impactful. He
and Idad Blaster Lasker came out with an ankle injury.

(58:26):
Could have come back in, but Joi was up twenty one,
kind of mid third, so if they held him out,
they were fine. Good opportunity for a couple other guys
to get a chance, like Ace and Mike Kapussi and
Miles Hall in company. Joni Mullen is a big deal.
RB two being out. I know we've talked about him
a bunch, really good blocker, good pass catcher, good running back.
Him being out's been an issue. Bear bachmeers had to

(58:48):
run more. Here's a good runner, don't get me wrong,
but that's that's the problem. Those those are, in particular
Jojo Phillips at receiver too. I guess those four are
kind of only the massive ones for BYU right now,
and they're little sen Frankly at receiver and running back.
Linebacker is going to be just unproven guys. Doesn't mean
they're can't show up and do stuff running back and

(59:11):
receiver as well. But yeah, it's you know, they should
be five and zero, and they made plays to deserve
to be five and no. Strength of record thirteenth FPI's
twentieth ranked eighteenth in the AP. So all's going great.
Aaron Ryder at yesterday on Coordinator's Corner said he thinks
these next six games are the toughest in BA history
consecutively of six in a row. They're all four and
one are better. They could be ranked matchups in four

(59:35):
or five of the six by the time BUA gets
to those depending on how BUYU is doing. But I
mean it's it's wild because you look at the next
six At Arizona, who's better than without preseason Utah is
always tough game no matter what. Obviously at Iowa State
there's a bye week, luckily at Texas Tech, at Keith,
you at home at Cincinnati, who's kind of the AFU

(59:57):
this year? Right now? Yeah, for the Big twelve. So
today Spencer and I were talking about this on Buoy
Sports Nation, Like, Okay, realistically, UCF on the in the finale,
we're like four and three would probably be pretty good,
and Boy goes nine and three in the regular season.
They're ahead of schedule with the true freshman quarterback. I
would love that. I mean, if you don't play well
and you have you are banged up, and it's you know,

(01:00:18):
three and four, that would be disappointing. Give him the
five and oh start. This team's talented, they've got good
coach and good depth, but certain injuries can really influence things.
So it's time for Boy's depth to show it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
So when we talk about somebody like Jack Kelly and
I'm assuming that Glaster is going to be full go because,
like you said, his sitting him was a little bit
more precautionary. If if Jack Kelly has to miss whatever
two or three games, we know that the production loss
is a significant one. But he's a guy, he's a

(01:00:54):
transfer who has become, you know, a captain for this team.
He's a transfer, has become a huge team leader for
this BYU defense that now is kind of the backbone
of the team. So take away his tackles for loss.
Take away his tackles, take away all that. What kind
of a loss is it from a leadership standpoint? If
you know, even if the backups come in and play well,

(01:01:15):
they're not Jack Kelly from a leadership standpoint, So how
big is that the loss there?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
If he's out extended time.

Speaker 7 (01:01:23):
Yeah, he's not a vocal RaRo guy. He's just just
get on my back and I'll carry us guy. He's
Buy's most explosive rusher off the edge. They spy the
quarterback quite a bit with him, and once that quarterback
rolls out and he gets in the third year, forget
about it. Asked Kaden Salter about that a couple of times.

(01:01:43):
I love that he pressures Salter. Glasger intercepts the path
that steals the Colorado win buys two backers, I mean
those two together specifically, Andre andre Ware said on there
he thinks, you know, they're one of the best in
college football, and if not the best, I mean two
together have been unbelievable. They'd combined for thirteen TfL, six sacks,

(01:02:05):
four quarterback Hurris, two forced fumbles. Well, by the way,
Jack Kelly picked up a Blackfield going return to poor
Boy's first touchdown of the season earlier this year, that
would be a big loss on the field. A guy
like Acekapusi had a really nice camp. He's probably the
guy that steps in that spot, as he did so
against West Virginia. So we'll see kind of if it's
by committee or one of the Kapussi boys gets a chance.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
Jerem Jordan bar Our guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
Little Red and Blue talking BYU Cougars, who are five
and oh top twenty five team coming off a win
over West Virginia that was very similar to how Utah
played West Virginia. They get up big and then the
foot comes off the gas pedal a little bit as
you're putting backups in and things like that, but a

(01:02:49):
big statistical day for a freshman quarterback. Bear Bachmeyer, you
mentioned that you know you could be ahead of schedule
with a freshman quarterback. Is bear Bachmeyer individually, is he
ahead of schedule based on what you've seen not only
against West Virginia but all the way up to this point.
I mean three hundred and fifty one yards passing for
a freshman who's supposed to be more of a dual threat,

(01:03:11):
like not a pure passer type of guy. I don't
care if it's against West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
That's a good day.

Speaker 7 (01:03:17):
Yeah, that was great. And first thought on West Virginia
was you always should have won that by twenty five
or thirty point. They turned it over three times. That
was the issue. They gave two super short fields. One
was that the three one was at the twenty two.
West Virginia cashed in this fourteen of their points. I
mean it probably should have been forty five to ten.
If boy had played a clean game, which they had

(01:03:39):
been pretty clean up to that point, that offense hadn't
turned it over. Suddenly they're turning it over three times
with some fumbles and some pitches battened down and whatnot.
So that was that was tough overall though you just
in the Big twelve, you know, and this team with
a true freshman quarterback just win. I'm not overly concerned
about style points. I don't think you always at that

(01:03:59):
level quite yet. I think that they can get there.
But bar Bachmeyer's way ahead of schedule, Like he's been incredible.
His decision making has been awesome. The ability to push
it down the field for explosive plays. What we saw
in that game Friday night was big plays. In the
past game a little more bo You only had a
couple of kind of forty plus plays and then they

(01:04:20):
go forty seven fifty four to eighty five, which is
the longest pass play for UY since ninety six thirty five.
Twenty twenty one. You had a bunch of explosive pass plays,
which was great. That was a new wrinkle, That was
a new thing teams have to defend. Bart Bachmeyer is
one of the smartest quarterbacks jo he's ever had. Dude
takes like twenty credits to Stanford gets a four to

(01:04:41):
zero is kind of spring semester comes to BYU like
he applies those smarts on the field. He makes good decisions,
he's athletic, He's able to make chrisp timely throws, decisive throws.
It's been awesome. I'm excited about the future for this
kid and the president. Frankly, everyone always looks to the future.

Speaker 4 (01:04:59):
All of this.

Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
What about right now? Right now? Bart Bachmeier is leaving
a five to zero team and the ramp up has
been good for him to prepare for increasingly tougher challenges
and he'll put more weight on the bar out of
Arizona seven.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
This question is silly even as I say it, because
I mean, he's like third most productive receiver in the
league right now. But it feels like they could still
uncork more with Chase Roberts as he develops chemistry with
this freshman quarterback. He had a big game against West Virginia. Obviously,
hasn't seen the end zone as often as I thought

(01:05:34):
he would to this point so far in the season.
But is there more to get out of Chase Roberts?
You think in this offense?

Speaker 7 (01:05:42):
I always do, Yeah, I think Chase is really good.
So like, Chase to me is kind of a sixth
seventh round guy that could be maybe maybe undrafted, and
he could he could play his way into that. But yeah,
nearly twenty yards a catch, almost four hundred yards and
five games three touchdow. I'm with you, Like Chase to me,
in any given game could be a one hundred yard guy.

(01:06:05):
He's that kind of threat. He had eighty five on
one player. As we mentioned in the last game, his
hands are incredible. His ability to get separation. We saw
that against Colorado where he ran what he told me
was a star route, kind of starts with a slant
and then opens up his hips to an arrow or whip.
He got five yards of separation. Like he can win
one on one battles in the big twelve, in a

(01:06:26):
big moment, on a third down, on a fourth down. Yeah,
I always think Chase could do more. I just think
his abilities are really high. To me, he's one of
the top probably five receivers in Boa history in terms
of athleticism, ability to make a play, game winning catches.
At Arkansas a couple of years ago, it kind of
did the jumpman one hander. He's got it all and

(01:06:47):
if Boi targeted him four times a game, I'd be
happy it was five. On Friday, he got four catches
for one sixty one.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Again probably equally silly. But is the same true for LJ.
Martin because now you mentioned it. You know, with Sion Moa,
who I'm a big fan of, and I think you
are too, with him experiencing a little bit of an
injury problem, you gotta be perhaps more of a bell
cow if you're LG.

Speaker 6 (01:07:11):
Martin.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
He's already six and a half yards of carry. He's
already basically add one hundred yards a game. Do they
lean more heavily on him?

Speaker 7 (01:07:20):
That's a good point too, Yes, And he's he's got
a few Nixon bruises as well, just going through the
regular rigamarole of a season being running back, get twenty
one carries, which is a good number.

Speaker 4 (01:07:31):
I like that.

Speaker 7 (01:07:31):
The fact that he goes for ninety was good. Twenty
one was a season high. He'd gone eight eighteen, fourteen, fifteen,
and he'd got one thirty one, one ten, one fifty eight.
Against Colorado, they kind of loaded up on him and
that opened up Bear That's what they saw in the game.
And then against West Virginia, Yeah, two touchdowns for him,
which was great. I would love for him to continue

(01:07:53):
to get, yeah, fifteen to twenty carries a game and
he's a good player, he's a chain mover. And Aaron
Rodgers on a situation that is saying, what are they
giving us? What am I setting up right now for later?
And this old line I think has been underrated too
with how they perform with two brand new tackles, But
these are two of the highest rated tackles in the

(01:08:13):
Big Twelve. And Isadia Jada and Andrew Gentry And yeah,
keep it going because the identity is the run game.
But if West Virginia is going to load up on that,
Bear showed he can chuck it for three fifty one,
which is awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
Let's talk about what happens for BYU this weekend. Arizona,
as you already mentioned, is a much better team than
we thought they were going to be. That's that's true
of Houston, that's true of Cincinnati, that's true of Arizona.
The Big Twelve continues to surprise, and I guess that's
just something we'll have to get used to with this
conference as both teams stay in it. I don't know

(01:08:46):
how much film study you've been able to do. I
don't know how deep you've gone on your dive into Arizona.
But why are the Wildcats so much more successful to
this point in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 7 (01:08:57):
I'm seeing that their defense is way better. So there's
desert swarm his back question mark sixth in defensive success rate,
So the only FBS defense that has not allowed a
passing touchdown their eighth and third and fourth down success
the twelfth and picks the twenty five and rush yards
allowed per game under hundred here was fifteenth by the
way in rush yards per game. I think that matchup

(01:09:18):
will be who can establish the ground game or not
allowed right, So I think the defense kind of led
the way, which is interesting. Arizona, you lose Tron McMillan,
then you get better. I mean it is a junior,
no Fafinak. He has more time. It is second year
with Brent Brennan running the show there. They wanted him
out midway through last year, but he's shown this year,
Hey give me some time, we can make it happen.

(01:09:41):
So this will be an increasingly tougher challenge for BYU.
But Kline's take historically four to zero against Arizona in
four different places but Vegas, Glendale, Tucson, Provo, and he
hopes to make it five and zero and two to
zero and Tucson. So it is a it is a
better defense, the best defense has played so far Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
So do you think we see like kind of a
low scoring slug it out type situation?

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Is that how this game?

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Like does the paper translate to what we actually see
on the field.

Speaker 7 (01:10:12):
Yeah, I wonder if it's like a twenty four to
twenty one kind of kind of games. Obviously BYU turning
over three times last week kept West Virginia sort of
within somewhat striking distance at times. I don't think you
can do that with this Arizona defense, and given short fields,
I think the FEEDA D Company are kind of figuring
it out a little more. And this will be, you know,

(01:10:32):
just the second power for roads start for bear like
you've you got to take that Colorado obviously, ESCU and
non conference across the country. So I'm excited to watch it.
I think it's going to be an interesting game, and
it's kind of a separation game of who's going where
in the Big twelve and what kind of wins can
you compile? And frankly, I think if UYU wins against Arizona,
they've got a good chance to go at least four

(01:10:54):
and three in the final seven. If they don't, it
might be kind of a three and fourish thing. So
it's just it's a big swing game.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
I think for BA it's interesting that you know, both
BYU and Utah are kind of entering this meaty part
of the schedule where the season is going to be
decided here, and of course they meet one another in
week two of that. I don't think on paper, at
the beginning of the season, I had it projected exactly
that way.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
For BYU.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
I thought with Utah I was going to be the
Texas Tech Game, big crazy test, and then Arizona State BYU,
et cetera, where you're going to really figure out what
you have. You and I have talked about this ad
nauseum that you know, by you could get to six
and oh and we still might not know really how
good they are as a team. Now that Arizona is
better than we thought they would be. If BYU is

(01:11:43):
six and zero heading into Holy War Rivalry week, will
we know more about them than we thought when we
had this conversation five weeks ago.

Speaker 7 (01:11:53):
Yes, because we will have seen at least you know,
Arizona would be to me like, Okay, how do they
form of that game? And if Utah rebounds against Arizona State,
I think they're going to feel like, Okay, it's not
as bad as we thought. I think Utah fans probably
after the Text Tech game feeling like the sky was
falling and the offense stinks and then here we go again.

(01:12:15):
No nights, just wanted last week at West Virginia. But
big game with ASU, and let's be honest, that's a
little little kind of trap game for both these teams. Frankly,
kind of thinking about next week. I think I think
they are dialed in and they have important, big games
this week, but it is next week. It's like creeping
up on us like that YU and Utah are going

(01:12:37):
to be playing here at the end of next week,
which is crazy to me. But huge games for both
against teams from from Arizona. And so I'm interested to
watch Utah Arizona State. I'm interested to watch your Arizona
because those two teams are going to walk in. I
mean there's a there's a chance that's six and oversus
five and one. Like come on that topic, let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
Have you taken a look at this, uh, this defensive
stop rate list as we go into week.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Seven from ESPN No no talk to me, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
So defensive stop rate is what it sounds like, the
basic measurement of success the percentage of defenses drives that
end in punt turnover or turnover on downs for the
opposing offense. Right so, number one in the country last
year was the eventual national champion, Ohio State. Right now,
number one in the country is Texas Tech. That's important,

(01:13:32):
I think to note. But BYU comes in at number
nineteen nationally right now in defensive stop rate. Arizona, who
we've been talking about plenty for obvious reason, comes in
at number twenty one. Utah comes in at number twenty
four right now seventy four percent. It's seventy three point eight,
but seventy four percent of BYU's defensive drives end in

(01:13:54):
a stop, which is good enough for nineteenth in the country.
So Jay Hills defense continues to impress. They're on that
top twenty five nationally relevant scale.

Speaker 7 (01:14:03):
As a defense, it's a big time and I think
the matchup of good defenses is going to be interesting.
And is that Jack Kelly with Jack Kelly against Utah
for Bayiam You know that that will make a big difference.
How how is he feeling? Yeah, and that's a big

(01:14:24):
difference for Arizona. I'm seeing Arizona stayed on this list
of forty eight, like decent, but not quite the same.
Arizona State is going to try and outshoot you. And
you know the thing that a team like Utah could
do that TCU did not when they were up seventeen
a week ago, a week and afric on a Friday,
was to run the ball and milk some clock like.

(01:14:45):
TCU's refusal to run is just mind blowing. They blew
a massive lead on the road at Arizona State where
they could have really sent ASU down a spiling spot. Instead,
the sun levels are still in this thing, and yeah,
they big game Friday. I like that number though defensive stoppery.
I love that BO and Utah a top twenty five.
That'll be a fun match up.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
If by u's defense continues to dominate. James just whispered this,
can we workshop?

Speaker 7 (01:15:12):
This?

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
Can we it? Could it be desret swarm?

Speaker 7 (01:15:15):
Oh nights, that's really good swarm presented by Desert Industry.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
I can't I can't take credit for it. That was
James but good work the Deseret Swarm.

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
Like if they shut out Arizona or something, that's gotta
be a headline somewhere.

Speaker 7 (01:15:34):
Hey, I'm borrowing that. I'm giving no credit.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
You know what, you deserve it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
You could, you could keep it, you could have it,
you could call it yours. You contribute so much to
the show every week. That's that's our repayment.

Speaker 7 (01:15:47):
Yeah. Sorry, I can't credit the Home of the Youths
for that one. That's just that is not gonna work.
That's all right, let's just be honest. But that's great
Desert Swarm. Oh yeah, that's money for Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
Oh you my, I'll use my burner account on cougar
Board to just ridicule you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
If you steal it from us.

Speaker 7 (01:16:05):
It's fine, don't don't you go my l or something.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
Yes, I thought people didn't know. Dang it, I've been
found out. I gotta I gotta create another one. Oh
you're the man, Jerem. I appreciate your time as always.
Enjoyed this weekend, and then when we talk next week,
it'll be a much more combative stance.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Okay, just be right.

Speaker 7 (01:16:27):
Yeah, it's like it's all been like fun and games
and very cordial and whatnot. It's on baby next week.

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
Let's go baby, and I sincerely hope it is six
and o versus five and one because.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
We need that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
We need a big holy war game for both teams,
not just hey, we're trying to have a great season,
we're trying to spoil your great season, like conference championship implications.
That's why we wanted these two teams in the same
conference together.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
We got it. Hopefully that's what we get next week.

Speaker 7 (01:16:58):
I'm still upset game is not November twenty ninth or whatever. Yeah,
well we had it. We had it off and on there.
I'm just clouded every year and so it should be
a ton of fun coming up next week.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
All right, we'll chat with you then. Thank you. Jerem,
Thanks yep, Jerem. Jordan Bred and blue.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
Jack Kelly being absent from that BYU defense. That is
significant if it stays that way. The deserret swarm defense,
desert swarm defense games.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
It just came to you. It just came out of nowhere.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Well, I'm like, I'm like, why are we I get
desert storm, I get the play on words there, but
I'm like, b yu, why are why is b YU
TV and BYU radio and whatever else. How have they
not gone deserret there?

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why, because it's
just it's too on the nose. It's right.

Speaker 3 (01:17:52):
It's like when you hide in plain sight. You know,
it was just it's right there for the taking. Sometimes
you have to be looking at it for Afar to
notice deserret swarm. Well, it works on on multiple levels,
because what does deseret mean?

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
Honeybee?

Speaker 5 (01:18:08):
Swarm?

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
Boom? Wait?

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Does is that what deseret actually means? I thought it
was like term for like hard work. Looking it up
eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, all
of you church historians out there, meaning honeybee, Deseret means
honey bee in what language? I'm not sure, probably Mormon ease.

(01:18:37):
The claim is Hebrew, but I'm not sure. Okay, all right,
we're gonna find out. We're gonna do some research here.
We're gonna come back with the Daily Dump. Hopefully we
have an etymological answer. We we I'm getting some people
on the phone now. We actually have quite a bit
of stories to talk about in the Daily Dump. I
don't know if you noticed I added a few lines

(01:18:57):
to these things some big like John Matti here returning
this week for Red River Shootout per hash y questions
like that going on and stuff that came through yesterday
that have a local spin on it. Well, I'll tell
you where we're gonna start the Daily Dump. Sometimes having
a billionaire ex player donor can't solve all of your problems,
and Texas Tech just showed us exactly what I mean.

(01:19:20):
I'll explain it for you in the Daily Dump in
three minutes on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred
ninety two on FM.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show for the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
to one af.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
AM Daily Dump Time brought to you by Valley Plumbing.
Here on the Sean O'Connell Show, I'll tell you what
needs to be dumped out, flushed away. Did you see
the Texas Tech Red Raiders logo rebrand that they put
out mid season in like this?

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
I love that they've done this.

Speaker 10 (01:20:01):
This.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
Let it be a curse upon the successful season that
the Red Raiders are having right now in Lubbock, Texas.
Have you checked this out? I tweeted something out earlier
this morning. Texas James, just the double the generic looking
double t Is that what you're talking about when I
say Texas Tech Red Raiders football?

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
What are their colors? Red and black? Uh? Huh huh?

Speaker 3 (01:20:25):
Now tell me the new logo, the new primary interlocking
tea logo.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
What color is that? It's just red? What have you?

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
What are you doing with the white outline? At least
put the black outline in there? What are you doing?
Texas Tech? Again, I'm worse, worse, worse rebrand in the
in the past calendar year. This cracker barrel or Notre Dame. Oh,
Notre Dame is great with the non fighting Irish, it's

(01:20:55):
now the passive Irish. Passive, it's the it's the fleeing
Irish because he's literally running away Irish. No, seriously, though,
this is it's kind of like my complaint about when
a team wears blackout uniforms when they don't have black
anywhere in their color scheme. The Red Raiders have established

(01:21:16):
themselves for a long time now as a team that
is primarily black, even though they're the Red Raiders. There's
more black on those uniforms than there is red. Yeah,
and guess what, they just took the black out of
the logo. Now I'm looking at the press release on
their website.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
Here they have a bunch of alternate logos. One of them, what.

Speaker 3 (01:21:42):
Sementy Sam looking guy that I've never seen before.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
That's their uh, that's their Red Raider, isn't it. Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
But he's I mean that cartoony one that they put
that anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Yeah, I haven't. I haven't said.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
They have the cool one where it's like he's like
the Red Raiders, a Zoro looking character.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
Right, Yeah, that's the riding the Black Stallion.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
There is one, you know, interlocking tea double T I
think is what they're The double T is what they're
calling it over a red state of Texas, which is cool.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
It's black double T over red state of Texas. That's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:22:19):
Yeah, maybe make like make one of the tea's black, Like,
what why is it? I'm with you? Why take black
out of your main logo? You've got to te's there?
Make the smaller T black.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
So Cody Cody Campbell, all right, the billion dollar man
who's supposed to solve all Texas text problems. If you're
involved in this at all, you've really screwed it up.
This is gonna jinx your team. It's gonna jinx the
program you start taking. First of all, the prices are
going down.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
No, they don't.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
The shadow the shadow black, uh, interlocking teas.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
There was nothing wrong with that logo.

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
It was like it was it was very much associated
with you and your success as you have built into
this thing. As soon as you get a little taste
of Top twenty five, roll out a rebrand, simplify it.
Take the blackout. All right, fine, now you just look
like Houston Yeah, sorry, and Utah's and are locking you
logo like cool, you look like two other schools in

(01:23:20):
your conference. Yeah, you've just that's silly. You've messed it up.
Texas Tech. By the way, the website on the top right,
you know when you click on the websites now you
click on the business logo and it takes you to
the homepage. That that that logo there on Texas Tech
website is still the classic shadow black double t which

(01:23:44):
works perfectly because it's mostly red. You're the Red Raiders,
but you got the shadow of black there with saying like, yeah,
black's part of our identity too. That's another reason why
just keeping that makes a lot of sense. But I
do like the tea, the black double tea over the
Red State of Texas though. That one's cool. That one
is pretty cool. The finger guns one, don't care. The

(01:24:08):
weird little Yosemite sam looking red Raider guy, don't care.
The black Stallion, the Zoro dude on the black Stallion cool,
really cool. And the interlocking teas it's a it's a
downgrade from what you already had, so kind of dumb.

Speaker 2 (01:24:25):
But do your think Texas Tech? Yeah, we we wish
you nothing but the worst.

Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
Do you know what's the craziest thing about this, James, Yeah,
I can guarantee you that over a million dollars was
spent on this, absolutely, just like just like millions of
dollars was spent on the Jazz Jersey change a couple
of years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
That we should never speak up again.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
When you're like, there's a thirteen year old amateur graphic
designers that can do this in thirty five minutes and
come up with something better if you just like put
it out there on your social media. Hey, whoever, we
could come up with a rebranded interlocking tea, We'll give
you free season tickets for life, and instead they go
to these consulting firms and they're just like.

Speaker 9 (01:25:08):
Oh, what we've done, Actually, we've we've toned down the red.
It's now a cerulean blue behind it, which makes it
less of a violent red or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
And it's just like, and people psychologically will feel better
about your team because of this color change.

Speaker 9 (01:25:25):
We've made the finger gun look a little bit more
passive because we're not we're not a big fans of
the aggressive nature of the old finger guns.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
Like some stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
Firm just fleeced Texas Tech Athletics for a million bucks
for this, and I'm glad, yeah, good for them. All right,
moving on in the daily dump, flush that thing down
the toilet. Um, I need to get a that's what
we need. We need a toilet flushing sound effect for
when we move on to stories here.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
All right, I'm gonna work on that, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
Uh, we already we already kind of alluded to this.
The Bengals are trading for Joe Laco. So two things there.
The Bengals are just like, oh, Jake Browning behind Joe Burrow,
not what we need. And the Browns presumably are just
like Okay, we like Dylan Gabriel enough that we're unloading
the only established veteran in our quarterback room.

Speaker 2 (01:26:18):
Yeah, I said it.

Speaker 3 (01:26:20):
I said it when we when we first, when this
first broke, I thought Dylan Gabriel looked really good, albeit
in the loss against the Vikings in London. I I
I'd be encouraged by that performance. If I'm the Browns
and I'm their fans, I'm not sure I was encouraged
enough to trade your only veteran quarterback. But maybe they

(01:26:43):
maybe they feel really good about what shoud Or Sanders
showed them in the preseason, which was also pretty good,
that they're like, we don't need Joe Flacco anymore. We
get we're gonna We're gonna trot out Dylan Gabriel as
our starter and then if if something happens to him,
or if there happens to be a couple of weeks
in a row where he struggles, we feel good about

(01:27:04):
Shador Sanders too.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
But I I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
I probably would have held on to the veteran to
help mentor these guys and at least as a backup.
But I mean, they got it, would they get it's
a draft pick out of this, So they.

Speaker 2 (01:27:17):
Got a sixth round pick.

Speaker 3 (01:27:19):
Maybe they maybe they're like, hey, we wouldn't we didn't
envision getting a draft pick out of Joe Flacco before.
At least we get at least we get a future
draft pick out of this.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
I mean, it's it's more like, I don't think anything
impactful in the return is the story here. I just
think that it's like both of these teams appeared that
they have made some kind of decision about the depth
of their quarterback room.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
And I actually think this is good.

Speaker 3 (01:27:42):
If you're Shador Sanders, if you're in that Shador Sanders
fan camp kind of a situation, because so if you're Dion,
if you're if you're Dion or Shiloh, those those are
the two people that we should We actually just pantomime
the rest of this segment in honor of him, and
we talked about it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
They never talked about that on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:28:02):
You you mentioned pantomime yesterday and I almost brought that up.
But this happened last week, right when he was asked
about Dylan Gabriel. I thought of you about how much
you said he just does There's so many things about
his game that's like, we should like that guy, but
then he does so many other things. You're like, I

(01:28:22):
can't like you. It's just he just makes himself unlikable.
He is he is like simultaneously should be cool and
is so remarkably tone deaf, Like there's no humility to
him at all.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
Example of that this pantomime thing. If if you didn't
see it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:38):
He was asked about Dylan Gabriel getting the start, asked
about the quarterback situation, and instead of actually answering the questions,
he stood there, smiled and mouthed like he was answering
the questions without any sound coming out of his mouth.
Who which one of his buddies? Which one of his
best friends? You think told him it would be really
funny if you did this, and then we're laughing their

(01:28:59):
heads off when they saw this. He did this for
like three people. I'm sure I want to know. See,
I want to know if Dion was like called him
and was just like, what the hell is wrong with you?
Or if he was just like, yeah, don't give him anything, son.
I desperately want to know. Yeah, how because Dion love him,
hate him, neutral on him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:19):
Whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:29:19):
Dion had this like production as a player and charisma
off the field that made it so. And he's still
this way. People want to talk to him. Even if
you don't like what he's going to say, you want
to talk to him. Shador is not that way at all.
He's just like so Dion will say things, and sometimes

(01:29:40):
he's combative and sometimes like the best example was when
he was still at Jackson State and the radio broadcaster
was interviewing him. He was the voice of Jackson State
football and they were doing the coaches show and they
came on air and he changed his he changed the
way he speaks because he's doing his radio voice.

Speaker 2 (01:29:59):
And Dion called him.

Speaker 3 (01:30:00):
Out for it and was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, why'd
you Why aren't you talking the same way? Just like whoa,
That's not cool to do. But like, even as he's
doing something you don't like, you're listening to him.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
You want to listen to him.

Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
You want to hear what Dion has to say, even
if you disagree with what he has to say.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
Shador I actually would prefer if that's what he did.
Every time.

Speaker 3 (01:30:23):
People ask him a question, just pretend you're talking and
don't say anything because you're that annoying. Yeah, that was
that was wild, But yeah, it'd be interesting. I think
it's I think it's a great move by the Bengals
because you don't know how much longer. You don't know
for sure how much longer you're gonna be without Joe Burrow,
and Joe Flacco is a guy that can Probably that
gives you a chance to still make the playoffs and

(01:30:46):
hopefully Burrows available before then, you know, to take you
to the heights. You thought you might have it in
the preseason. Uh, John Mattire, you alluded to this. John
Mattier is looking to return this saturd It's Red River shootout.
That would be seventeen days after surgery on his throwing hand.

(01:31:08):
If John Mattier, the former Washington State quarterback who was
the big free agent, he was the big offseason acquisition
that any team who was quarterback needy wanted, Oklahoma Utah
was interested. It was Arbuckle and Matier going as a
package deal, the same way that Beck and Dan Pierre
were coming to Utah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:27):
Eventually, like this.

Speaker 3 (01:31:29):
Was QB number one in the offseason market, maybe the
best offensive coordinator available in the market. And by like,
whether he's the best or not, he's the guy with
the most upside because he's still in his twenties. Yeah,
you know what I I learned watching watching college football
this week. Mack Leftwich, the other guy, the guy who

(01:31:51):
ended up at Texas Tech from Texas State, the other
guy Utah was in on and got close to bring
in his offensive coordinator, although he did not have a
quarterback coming in as a package deal like John beck
or like Jason Becken and Ben Arbuckle. But uh, Mac
left which is also just thirty years old. I did

(01:32:11):
not realize our Buckle and left Witch to the two
hottest names in the offensive coordinator free agents. If you
will this this past offseason basically the same age and
you know, late twenties or thirty years old. Like that's wild.
You know what I think happened. This is my hypothesis

(01:32:32):
on why there's so many of these genius young coaches
right now, especially in the offensive side of things. Yeah,
there was a time where NCAA football the video game
didn't exist, right, These guys could not play.

Speaker 2 (01:32:46):
Like when I was in college.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
Everyone who thought they knew how to call plays, they
were just doing it on their PlayStation or on their Xbox,
and that was scratching the itch for them. That's what
would have happened with these guys if that game existed
in the period that.

Speaker 2 (01:33:02):
They were in college, which coordinators.

Speaker 3 (01:33:04):
Instead, what happened is these guys were like, I need
to figure out play calling. I don't have a screen
and a box in my house where I can do
these college play calling exercises. So in order to scratch
that itch, they had to go join a staff and
they had to actually learn the game. And years old,
they were just like, Okay, you know what, instead of

(01:33:25):
wasting my life in front of my Xbox or in
front of my PlayStation, I'm going to go become a
GA and I'm going to learn how to do this.
And they have that nimble, young mind and that creativity
doesn't get wasted through a controller.

Speaker 2 (01:33:38):
You actually get to do it in the real way.

Speaker 3 (01:33:40):
You had to do it in the real game, and boom,
that's my that's my theory, that's my hypothesis. And then
the game came back. Right now, the game is back,
So guess what the left witches and the r buckles
of twenty twenty five, they're not joining a staff as
a g now they're sitting in their roommate They're sitting

(01:34:02):
there doring with their roommates, and they're they're doing it
on screen again, poning fools on NAA. Yeah, they got
the headset on and they're they're making excuse me, they're
they're they're insulting people with offensive language that their mothers
would not want to hear.

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
Exactly what's going on? Now? Do you think jomets here
comes back though seventeen days?

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
That's I think it would be stupid for Oklahoma to
do this. I understand the magnitude of a rivalry game
like this one, but Oklahoma is an undefeated team right now.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
They're a top ten team right now.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Championship conversation, they're like, that's their goal this year, that's
what they're shooting for. And rivalry games are massively important
and they're special in college football.

Speaker 2 (01:34:47):
But Texas is not at their best at the moment.

Speaker 3 (01:34:49):
You can you can probably beat them with your with
your backup quarterback who actually looked really good against Kent
State on Saturday. And by the way, State the University
of Texas is like all everything has not proven to
be in all everything quarterback, He's had his struggles this year,
So it's not this premiere prime time shootout pun intended

(01:35:09):
between you know, these two gunslingers, Like you have to
go out there, you have to do what's best for
your team on Saturday, but you also have to do
what's best for your team chasing a playoff spot in
a crowded SEC race and of course an eventual national championship.
So I don't think seventeen days off of surgery unless
he's been shooting HGH directly into the injury, like the

(01:35:34):
suture scars, just like, let's just rub some HGH cream
on there. I mean, that's Stuff's a miracle drug for people,
but you're not supposed to take it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
Yeah. Yeah, so we throw out the word allegedly there. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:35:47):
They said three to four weeks was the the initial timetable,
so this would be the This would be close to
the third week, so this is the earliest that they
that they thought he could return.

Speaker 2 (01:36:01):
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (01:36:02):
I think I would take my chances with my top ten,
top five defense and one of one of the best
defensive minds in college football as a head coach, Brent Venables,
and I would take my backup quarterback who looked really
good in Mattier's absence, and I would say I would
take my chances with those guys and hope that Mattier
heals a little bit more and is better. Is goodbye

(01:36:24):
next week or the week after, all right, I gotta
take a quick one here. Jeff Schwartz is going to
join us at the top of our number three. But
you Tom Mammoth starting their season tomorrow. They're on the
road for the first three games. The official roster has
a mild surprise or two on it. We'll give you

(01:36:47):
the names next on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven.

Speaker 4 (01:36:50):
M Please please by Sean O'Connell show, you were home
of the best inside of your Let's get back to
wo see from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven
hundred and ninety two to one.

Speaker 2 (01:37:07):
Alf Am.

Speaker 3 (01:37:10):
And Little Utah Mammoth update. Also reminder Epic Beers it
is going to be hosting us before the Friday, October seventeenth,

(01:37:30):
second home game of the season for the Utah Mammoth
at Epic Brewing, So swing on by grab some Epic
Beers before the Utah Mammoth game Friday, October seventeenth. Looking forward,
to that the the latest and greatest from the Utah Mammoth.
We were anticipating the roster release when Adrian Denny joined

(01:37:51):
us between the pipes yesterday, and now we have it.
Not a ton of surprises. There were questions of about
whether Daniel Boot and Dimitri Simyschev We're gonna make the
opening day roster so to speak, simashev on it, both
of them.

Speaker 2 (01:38:07):
Did not on it. Got the Boot if you will?

Speaker 3 (01:38:10):
No, he's a sounds like he'll spend He'll spend the
start of the season down in Tucson in the AHL
or maybe is that?

Speaker 2 (01:38:19):
Am I assuming correctly with that? I don't know. Yes,
I think that's the plan.

Speaker 3 (01:38:22):
Uh, and so Boot will be given some developmental opportunity
here we talked about, you know, kind of the trade off.
You get a bunch of minutes playing on AHL ice
or you get sparing minutes playing on NHL ice. How
much faster does your development happen. I am one who

(01:38:43):
believes that more reps are better, even if they are
at a slightly lower level. And I also think that
there's a massive advantage to building confidence by playing at
a level where instead of where being the big fish
in the small pond can be really really good for
your confidence. Now, inevitably you're going to have to take

(01:39:03):
the step up and you're gonna have to face that
sort of like hurdle.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
You want to be confident when you face.

Speaker 3 (01:39:08):
The hurdle, right, So I think obviously the coaches and
the staff know a lot more about where these guys
are at in terms of their development with readiness on
NHL ice. But I think it's a good idea to
let a young guy, especially a big, massive young guy
who's going to be treated like a veteran, a big boy.

(01:39:28):
As soon as he gets on NHL ice, people are
going to be gunning for him because he's a physical presence.

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:39:35):
Also, Tija Ginla not on the opening day roster, we
kind of anticipated that would be the case. Shell, if
I'm not mistaken, is what is the level he's gonna
be at. He's coming off that hip surgery still and
again he's one of these guys where the vision for
him is to eventually be a fifty goal scorer on

(01:39:56):
the mammoth roster.

Speaker 2 (01:39:58):
So go ahead and let him be.

Speaker 3 (01:39:59):
A fifty goal scorer or a forty goal scorer at
a lower level and just practice all of it and
get healthy.

Speaker 2 (01:40:07):
He's nineteen years old. Yeah, he's a baby.

Speaker 3 (01:40:11):
He'll still be a really young player with a lot
of years ahead of him whenever he joins the Mammoth
at the NHL level. I did you were talking about,
you know, play ten minutes a night at the NHL
level or way more than that at a lower level.

Speaker 2 (01:40:28):
What's better for your development? It reminded me.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
I saw our guy, Brogan Houston from Desert News a
tweet from him. He tweeted out a quote from a
recent media availability with with GM Bill Armstrong. He said
exactly that. He said, for some guys, I would rather
them play way more than I would rather them have
the opportunity to play way more than ten minutes a night.

(01:40:54):
And even though they could give us ten minutes at
the NHL level, I'd rather that guy had the opportunity
to play way more than that and then hopefully join
us in the middle of the season, Like twenty two
minutes at the AHL level is going to be hopefully
better for your development than eight or ten. On Mammoth
ice Caleb Danoye all of his big talk, and he said,

(01:41:15):
I want to make I want to show this team
I'm ready to skate in the NHL for them in
my first season after being drafted, draft and stash. This
is the more common road in the NHL for these
young players. Don't hate it, oly Mata, John Marino, Schmaltz, Keller,
Gunther Tanev, Jack McBain, Dmitri Simashev, Barrett Hayteny and Cole

(01:41:40):
and the rest of the crew. JJ peterka is the
guy seventy seven is the guy you're going to be
watching up. That was one of the big offseason acquisitions.
That's supposed to add to your goal scoring average, supposed
to give you a little bit more of a physical presence,
supposed to be analyst to help you move from being

(01:42:00):
and also ran to a team that's in the playoffs
and actually CBS Sports in their NHL Bold Predictions has
the Mammoth not only making the playoffs but winning their
first playoff series.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
Let's go CBO, Let's go CBS Sports. Love to hear that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:17):
We're gonna have to I looking at wrote this, We're
gonna have to have them come on the show. Absolutely,
looking at this roster, I was struck by just how
many names I recognize right. Oh see, like last year,
recognized the couple that were marketed quite a bit before

(01:42:39):
the season, the Quayton Keller's The Loss and krous and stuff.
This year, I recognized lots of other guys because I
knew that they were good in other places. So that
I think that that should make Mammoth fans feel really
good about this upcoming season and the roster that Bill
Armstrong and the front office have put together. Spicy Tuna
starts the season on the injured list, injured reserve list. Okay,

(01:43:02):
so just don't worry about as does Kerfoot. Who was
a who was a key guy last year? Jus VALLAMACKI
a couple of those guys, all right, Jeff Schwartz next
to the shot o colleg show. By the way, I
want to get this plug in. We do have hockey
tonight on the station. I saw this right after the
Colwindingham Coaches show. Yes eight o'clock, I mean not quite

(01:43:23):
right after coach showing at seven. Then an hour later
you get you get hockey. But eight o'clock Aves Kings,
the hated Aves. That's the rival we want to make happen.

Speaker 5 (01:43:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:43:35):
Oh see that those apps that's the season opener for
the Mammoth on Thursday in Colorado versus the La Kings
eight o'clock via our friends at Sports USA. So excited
to have opening night hockey for you here on the station.

Speaker 2 (01:43:51):
All right, Jeff Schwartz.

Speaker 3 (01:43:53):
Next, crazy stuff happening in the NFL, Crazy stuff happening
in college football. We'll talk about all of it. P
ninety to one FM. Proud Party, you tells ESPN Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
Now you were listening to the Sean O'Connell show.

Speaker 1 (01:44:08):
It's your source for the best utes football coupy. Here's
o c from the Murdoch Hunding Studio of DESPN, seven
hundred ninety two one at end that the.

Speaker 10 (01:44:18):
Three of the Jaguars Kansas City, second down in gold
Maholmes and the gun off his left hip for his
hunts arms out stretch shot.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
That's that picktow. It's it a second of the day line.

Speaker 10 (01:44:30):
Pick off on the play, and here comes the wonderful
wine backer running up the middle.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
It's Lloyd.

Speaker 10 (01:44:37):
He kicks it on the sideline thirty forty, chasing too
the fifty down the sideline forty thirty twenty, the rights
to the ten.

Speaker 2 (01:44:44):
Five touchdown touchdown.

Speaker 10 (01:44:48):
Mahomes has been picked off by double Lloyd.

Speaker 7 (01:44:53):
Near the gold.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
Line down the sideline for six. I'll pick six, and Devin.

Speaker 10 (01:45:02):
Lloyd, who is from Kansas City and the reigning AFC
DE Thumps Up Player of the Month, has just returned.
I'm Homes pass at the goal line for six a
pick six.

Speaker 3 (01:45:24):
Kevin Harlote on the call Shawn courtesy of Westwood One
Monday Night Football, Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars found a
way to win harsially because of that. Devin Lloyd fourteen
points winging pick six against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas
City Chiefs joining us to talk about all things football,
NFL college related. My former co host, good friend, NFL

(01:45:48):
veteran former Oregon Duck, which is something we don't hold
against him.

Speaker 6 (01:45:52):
Jeff schwartzle t me on to do hockey preview today.

Speaker 2 (01:45:56):
Noah, I know you're a big Utah Mammoth fan. I am. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:46:01):
I get myself. I'm gonna order myself a hat. They
didn't have my size last year. I want to be
supportive of the of the Utah Utah clubs like that.

Speaker 3 (01:46:10):
We'll find a way to get you a mammothat Uh.
The sweaters, I don't know. I don't know if they
make I don't know if they make the sweater in
your size.

Speaker 6 (01:46:18):
Well, I have three Oregon hockey sweaters where for podcasts
that they certainly fit, So I don't know. I don't
know like what size I would need, but I mean
I know they do fit.

Speaker 2 (01:46:28):
All right, We'll figure it out.

Speaker 3 (01:46:32):
So are you? Are you now discounting the Penn State victory?
Uh for your Oregon Ducks because Penn State turns out
they stink they lost to UCLA.

Speaker 6 (01:46:41):
No, I'm not doing that. The dumbest thing ever. There
are people that are gonna wager in Indiana this weekend
because Oregan because Penn State lost US. I should say
not because anything organ Dinner didn't do because an opponent
they previously played, instead of just really looking at it
as you should, which is that Oregon broke Penn State.

(01:47:05):
I mean that's it was a game they had, they
had planned for years, and they just were never the
same clearly after that game. And I think they also thought,
you know, I would imagine that UCI stinks, this might
not be a tough matchup for US, even if we're
a little bit down from the previous game, and it
was uc A is not good, man. I mean, even

(01:47:26):
after that win. The Bruins are on the road this
weekend at Michigan State, who's terrible, and they're eight and
a half hunderdogs, like no one believes in them any
even after the win the other day. But no, I'm
I'm not downgrading Oregon at all because Penn State happened
to play a really bad game against UCLA.

Speaker 3 (01:47:47):
I asked that question somewhat tongue in cheek. This one
I am more serious about. It is good the enemy
of great, to the point where Penn State has to
think about moving on from James Franklin because him and
his work. That's the reason you're in these conversations. But
also you're only ever just in the conversation. You don't
win these games, but you don't win the Oregon game.

(01:48:09):
You usually do win the UCLA game. And now you've
not only lost to Oregon, and you know you're not
good against top ten teams, et cetera, but now you're
dropping it against the arguably the worst team in your league.
So do you have to start having those conversations? If
you're Penn State, you want national championship expectations. Do you

(01:48:30):
have to separate yourself from a coach who's kind of
demonstrated he's not going to get you there.

Speaker 6 (01:48:35):
I think it really depends on the rest of the season,
but I'm leaning toward yes. And to me, it's not
a firing. It's just like they just mutually decide, like,
you know, we've we've had our fun, we've done what
we have to do, We've gone as far as we can,
and they decide to move on. I don't think firing
Franklin for the sets he's had makes sense. His buyout

(01:48:55):
is enormous, but you mutually agree to part ways. Remember
this was there, This was the year that they had
tout it right. Everyone came back for the most part
of me that Carter did not, but Drowler came back,
and you went and got Porter receivers, and you had
a veteran offensive line and really good, really good defense
that they still have, by the way, the offensive has
not been as good. And you look at at two

(01:49:16):
like you let Pribulah walk to Missouri, who's been great
so far, and they have a big test this weekend obviously,
and you chose Drew Aller and Drew Aller has not
been the guy. So that's also part of the equation
as well, as you chose maybe the wrong guy, and
you know, can you can you live with with that
decision if you are in the front office or really

(01:49:39):
the you know, the ownership group, whoever, whoever fires the president,
ever fires Franklin using NFL terms, I get it, Sean
that that to me is the biggest question, right and
so we'll see how they finished. But it might just
be where we run our course. Has done all he
can do at uh PASA, Maybe he goes somewhere to
u c l A and rebuilds a bruise. I mean,

(01:50:00):
he's a great program builder. We did it, did it
Penn State.

Speaker 3 (01:50:05):
Right now, the big ten's got nine teams that are
foreign one or better. The Big twelve's got nine teams
that are foreig and one are better. The SEC has
got nine teams that are four and one are better. Mathematically,
it can't stay this way with these teams. So how
many contenders versus pretenders are are we seeing in the

(01:50:26):
top twenty five right now? Because all those teams that
I just mentioned, they're kind of buying for those top
twenty five spots. I mean, we're getting in the conference
play and the separation has to happen at some point.
How many of these teams are going to rise and
how many of these are going to prove to be
paper tigers?

Speaker 6 (01:50:43):
Sorry, my dog is very very energetic about this topic.
So are we talking about just like, can win a
championship or make a playoff? Is there?

Speaker 2 (01:50:54):
I think it's probably making probably make a playoff.

Speaker 3 (01:50:57):
And we're pro dog on this program, so it's okay
if falls barking in the background. Yeah, But like you know,
USC right now is four.

Speaker 2 (01:51:06):
And one, Yeah, so Auston.

Speaker 6 (01:51:09):
Yeah, So playoff teams are interesting, Sean, So I think
in the Big ten, I really think Michigan is a playoffs.
And Michigan beats USC this weekend, and with their schedule,
they're probably you know, know, you lose to Ohio State, and
we say that now obviously hasn't been the case last
couple of years. But I think that that that Michigan's
in Oregon's in Ohio State's in Indiana, probably in depending

(01:51:30):
on the way they finish out. If Penn State can
beat Indiana and Ohio State, Penn State's in right, I mean,
like I I think I think they feel pretty good
about sort of those teams you know in the SEC, Bama, Georgia,
Old miss UH probably near locks to be in in
that in that conversation, right, I can't thank anyone else,
acc Miami, Georgia Tech is interesting, Forest State obviously in

(01:51:53):
the Big twelve. Look, the Big twelve is interesting. I
think that the quality of teams is is vast. I
don't know if they're like all playoff caliber teams, but
Texas Tech obviously is the front runner. And I still
think Utah can can can be there and be in
that discussion. Sean, I don't know if you know Utah
fans feel that same way, but it's it's gonna be.

(01:52:16):
This is the if you're a proponent of the twelve
team playoff, like this is what you've been hoping for,
which is like this season right Sean, where it feels
more open than ever before. I don't think I think
there's a bubble of three teams right now. That they
win a championship, that's it and we're gonna get a
bunch of chaos. I think the rest of the way
conference players started conference road games happen. You know Alabama

(01:52:39):
goes to Missouri this weekend they lose. The third discussion
about Alabama being that in that situation, what if organ
loses in the end of this weekend. It just there's
a lot of sort of openness to to who the
those twelve teams are gonna be. It's gonna make it
fun down the stretch.

Speaker 3 (01:52:56):
So in the Big twelve, you have Cincinnati overperforming expectations,
Houston over performing expectations, Arizona overperforming expectations. Kansas State has
looked worse than we thought. We'll find out a lot
more about Utah and BYU these next couple of weeks.
If one of those three that are like Cincinnati, Houston,

(01:53:18):
or Arizona are actually going to be this year's version
of Arizona State, who's most likely in your mind.

Speaker 6 (01:53:25):
Sinnati does since their offensive line is good, Man quarterback
is good. I alter defense is good enough to make
that happen. But they're certainly I think in that in
that discussion for that. But Holy War, by the way,
might might be bigger kickoff. There's some chatter about that.
That's early game for you guys though, it's only problem,

(01:53:46):
but there might be some So there might be a
lot of people interested in that game, depending how the
results going this weekend. Would you welcome a ten million kickoff?

Speaker 3 (01:53:55):
Well, it's right now. The kickoff time has been given
as six pm, So people like that a lot bitter.

Speaker 6 (01:54:00):
Oh, it's already it's already given. Okay, Oh, I think
you're out.

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
Of that then, Okay, I think we're out of that discussion.

Speaker 6 (01:54:06):
Six six is much better than the ten am. It's wild. Cincinnati,
to me, is that team sean there it was, there
was a good win for them. I think, I always
it's a good team. You know, they've had some close
wins obviously as Iowa State, but Cincinnati feels like that team.
But I really I don't think the Big Twelve has
like an Indiana type team like sitting in the wings.

(01:54:27):
I think the teams we know that are good are good,
and there's the Big Twelve always has you know, a
crazy amount of uh kind of beat each other from within, right,
which is only I think that people care about when
it comes to the conference, that not the SEC. The
s see when they beat each other, it's like this
is great football. What everyone else does, It's like it's
a side of weakness in your conference, but I think

(01:54:49):
that Cincinnati's that that team that I look at.

Speaker 3 (01:54:52):
So we uh, you talk coming off of bye week.
We had Kyle Whittingham's press conference again this week and
he gave a little bit of good news and said, hey,
there's a bunch of injuries in the West Virginia game
in a win, but none of those have been deemed
to be season ending injuries. You lost the safety you
were worried about, Jackson Benny, who's been this like multi

(01:55:15):
faceted special teams offense defense type player. Yeah, and he
says these are not season ending injuries. But then you remember, Okay,
it doesn't mean they're back this week. And the gamesmanship
of the injury reports and things like that, it's been
well documented. So how optimistic from your sort of like

(01:55:35):
outside perspective should people be about good news that might
not be all that good of news.

Speaker 6 (01:55:41):
Did you see before the Texas Tech game? It was
a BYU fan account but tweeted out like you tosk
injury reports as it was a joke tweet, but he
put everyone in the roster under questionable and then he
put Cam Rising on there as doubtful. This is why
we need injury report, Sean, I've made this art for years,
like just so we have a little bit of transparent

(01:56:01):
to in the companies. I saw a tweet today from
from Pete Thambill, who you know, this is his job,
but it's these tweets I can't stand about Oak Almost
quarterback John Matier like he might play this week, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:56:14):
Days after like like like.

Speaker 6 (01:56:17):
Okay, but he probably isn't. And like if we had
an injury report where they had to declare his practice
status for today, we would probably not have to go
through this exercise every week of guessing who's playing and
who's not. I get it, it's not it's not the
coach's jobs to make sure that we the public know
or whether or not someone is playing. But it's very easy
just to say, like, these guys are are in and
they don't you know, they don't play. There's no repercussions

(01:56:39):
for that, you know. I think obviously, I think outside
of Cam Rising, maybe they've been mostly because Damn Pierce
stuff wasn't great, mostly been truthful. But yeah, I think
skeptism based on the previous way coaches talked about injuries.
It's certainly fair.

Speaker 3 (01:56:55):
Devin Dan Pier is a good place to start any
conversation about success or failure for this Utah football team.
They've got a pretty good Arizona State team coming in
the Rice Cycles night game. At one point that was
very meaningful. Night games at Rice Cycles were incredibly tough.
It has not been that way so far for Big
twelve opponents, but hopefully Saturday will reverse that trend. And

(01:57:18):
I think a lot of that hinges on your quarterback
who has played well and played well against a pretty
bad West Virginia team.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
He's not as mobile.

Speaker 3 (01:57:27):
He wasn't as mobile, and they had the bye week,
and the hope is that he's going to get, you know,
one hundred percent healthy. And the reason I'm picking your
brain about this is when you're blocking for a guy
who usually is a mobile quarterback, usually is an elusive guy,
versus someone who has relied on that skill set his
whole life and now has to be a pocket passer
like we saw against Texas Tech and like we saw

(01:57:49):
to some extent against West Virginia. If he's been able
to get right in the bye week, how much does
that change things? And I guess on the flip side,
if he's not and he's got a win with his arm.
How much should we factor that into our expectations for
Arizona State.

Speaker 6 (01:58:05):
Well, you don't really change the way you block and
pass protection whether you know based on whether or not
you know the quarterback is mobile.

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
You do change the way that you call plays, right.

Speaker 6 (01:58:16):
Sure, right, right, right, yeah. So the big difference is
obviously the play calls and just the feeling of like
what can we do in certain situations. And we talked
about as many times like Dann Pier, we don't know
how good he is as a pocket passer. We don't
think it's great. And so when teams can keep him

(01:58:37):
in the pocket and he can't use his legs to
threat the defense, it just makes playing defense against Utah
much easier. It just it just does. And when when
the thread of his legs are back, it should change
the way this offense can operate. But sing back to
the same thing I've said for years now is mobile
quarterbacks and the ability to run is a great thing.

(01:58:59):
It can be really beneficial for your team, but you
have to win from in the end ultimately that position
from making place from the pocket shown and so it's
good that he's healthy. That will certainly help with some
design runs and started short and fourth and short some
situations and yeah, out of trouble. But you know, can

(01:59:19):
he make sure that again he is getting the ball
out on time taking those deep shots? I mean, really
against Sexast Tech. I didn't watch the West Virginia game
very much. I knew I should have been on Utah.
I knew bet on Utah. I just didn't. That was
done by me and they bounce back in that game,
you know, you know, against against Tech, there weren't a
lot of deep shots even attempted that the one obviously

(01:59:42):
had the penalty, which is kind of a bummer, but
I I, I just that's got to be a bigger
part of the offense however you get there.

Speaker 3 (01:59:52):
Arizona State has been really good against the run, and
Utah has obviously needed to use the run in order
to rack up the wins that they had. Of the
offensive line I think has kind of yet to live
up to the preseason billing for Utah. They've only had
the one stiff test and they didn't pass that test.

Speaker 6 (02:00:09):
I told you, I don't think they played that bad
in that game.

Speaker 3 (02:00:11):
Though, I don't think they played that well either. I
mean this is supposed to be a team that are
are position group that can take over games even against
good competition, And they certainly didn't do that against Texas Tech.
But when we're talking about this matchup against Arizona State,
should we expect, like, especially now that you're you know,
you're bringing up, hey, they didn't play that bad against

(02:00:31):
Texas Tech. Should we expect that against Arizona State, who's
good but not as good as Texas Tech defensively, that
the offensive line will take over in a game like this,
or at least as capable of taking over in a
game like this.

Speaker 6 (02:00:42):
Well, there are plenty of campbells have to do it right,
and that's obviously the hard part about any sport, right
is a lot of times on paper things are good
and then you got to doom in reality. And so yes,
I would imagine that there's a little pride there and
making sure that they played better. And you're right, even
though you would say that it's tough for sledding to

(02:01:05):
run the football when you can't pass the ball, certainly
is right. Safeties are down a little bit, linebackers a
eyeing those things. You would think Utah's offensive line will
be able to overcome that, right. I mean there's certainly
times in every game when you have must runs, right,
and can you do that? And I think that's your
point about that game, right, It's like the must run
situations just weren't as good as you expected. And so yeah,

(02:01:25):
I think just pride pride wise, right, you want to
show in this game that that wasn't what you completely
are against Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (02:01:34):
Jeff Schwartz is our guest for a few more minutes
here on the Sean O'Connell Show, talking All Things football,
shifting gears to the NFL Monday Night Football.

Speaker 2 (02:01:43):
We all loved it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:44):
Devin Lloyd, former Utah linebacker, fourteen point swing on a
pick six one of the plays of the season so
far and obviously ended up being hugely important in that game.
In the NFL, I've learned that you can't really read
too much into one week. Yeah, that was That's an
important win for Jacksonville to be able to, you know,

(02:02:04):
put that feather in their cap, prime time, national television,
everybody watching. You're against Kansas City, who, of course is
the the high water mark in today's NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:02:17):
How meaningful is that win for Jacksonville?

Speaker 6 (02:02:21):
I think It's super important, Sean, because when you have
a new staff and a new coaching you know, a
new situation, as they do, you want you want to
have a sort of a signature moment early in your
tenure to say that this is it's working. It's working
for us. And the Chiefs are not the same team
they've been, but it's still the Chiefs. I think the
most important thing for Jacksonville is coming back from fourteen
points and the reason why the Chiefs just aren't as

(02:02:43):
good this year in general, I think and is they
they are not winning the moment. In the past, they've
won to win games, right There Obviously a lot of
plays in a game, and there are a lot of
ways you can win and lose, but a lot of
times it does come down at the end to cup
of plays. Right So the way the NFL works out
and the Chiefs for years I've won those plays and

(02:03:04):
this year they're not. You know, a fourteen point lead
for the Chiefs like I mean that that that's been
a win. Like you usually we're going to come back
in that game. And Jacksonville, Sean came back and they
came back, you know, to tie the game, and the
Chiefs went ahead, and then they came back and they
scored like so the way they did it too was
super impressive. And the Devil interception was awesome because Mahomes

(02:03:26):
after the play it certainly looked this way watching it.
You know, he got fooled right that that was a
he did. I think he didn't think Devon was going
to be there, and he thought they were going to
have a wide open crosser on that zero pressure, and
he bounced out and made the play. It was a
fantastic play by him and then obviously was able to
take it all the way back to the end zone.

(02:03:47):
So those are plays like the Chiefs just never really
made in previous years, and they're they're making it now.

Speaker 2 (02:03:54):
For my forty nine ers.

Speaker 3 (02:03:56):
If if mac Jones continues to win, do they have
a real decision to make about Rock Purty.

Speaker 2 (02:04:00):
When he's healthy.

Speaker 6 (02:04:02):
I don't think so. Do you?

Speaker 3 (02:04:05):
I don't think so. I don't know, though, because you
know you all you care about is winning, but also
you kind of have to care about your fifty million
dollars a year quarterback and what that means. So I mean,
I love when you have a backup who can win
you football games. You know, it's harder in college. Now, Yeah,
have those guys in the NFL. I think there's a
lot of teams that have those guys. Good teams have

(02:04:28):
those guys. But I just don't know the dynamic when
we're talking about a team like the San Francisco forty
Diners who've dealt with so many injuries and have had,
you know, situations where they're right there for a Super
Bowl and then last year as well.

Speaker 2 (02:04:43):
So I don't know. That's why I ask you the
NFL answer.

Speaker 6 (02:04:47):
I think you answered your question with with the salary, right, Like,
if you're going to pay pretty fifty million dollars yary,
he has to be your starter. That's just the way
things work in the NFL. Is it fair that you
know guys get is based off a salary? No, but
that's that's life in the NFL. Right, you paid pretty
all this money. Mac Jones is not that much better.

(02:05:07):
I don't even think that's what we're worth it. Say,
he's not better than brock Party, and even if he
plays well, it won't be anything close to what brock
Party can give you. You've he's taken you super Bowl already, Sean,
like legitimately gotten you very, very far, and it would be,
in my opinion, the wrong thing to do to pull
him if Bac Jones plays well again this weekend in
Tampa Bay, which is certainly possible. Tampa Bay's defense has

(02:05:30):
been up and down this year. Seah, I'll just scort
a bunch of points on them. He could certainly play well.
I just I just can't imagine you would Jesus bench
brock party after this.

Speaker 2 (02:05:39):
Should we read anything into the Joe Flacco trade?

Speaker 6 (02:05:42):
Like?

Speaker 3 (02:05:42):
What does that say anything about where the Bengals and
the Browns view their quarterback situations?

Speaker 6 (02:05:50):
I put this tweet out there. I think that's a
good way to phrase it. This is like replacing a
chair on the deck of the Titanic. I don't what
what's this gonna? What do you go accomplish here? If
you're the the Brown's got a fifth round pick for him, sean,
which Joe Flacco got benched in Indianapolis last season when

(02:06:11):
he was benched when they bench Anthony Richardson. Okay, Then
then he started for the Browns this year and got
benched for Dylan Gabriel and anders like they're like uh
and and and then the Browns said, you know what,
We're gonna trade you to division rival. That's how much
we think about you to be their starting quarterback. It's
it's not he's deaf, he's they tried to be the

(02:06:32):
starting quarterback. That's how that's how poorly he is playing
right now, has played this trade. I know the Bengals
think they can salvage their season while after Berto come back.
I would have gone Jameis Winston if that was really
the case. But yeah, no, this is this is not
gonna do anything. This is not nothing's gonna be different.

Speaker 3 (02:06:52):
Are you surprised there's no undefeated teams left in the
NFL through what five weeks?

Speaker 6 (02:06:58):
Yeah, the Bills should have won. I mean, the Eagles
schedule has been tough. I get why they might not
be undefeated at this time, and you know they obviously
they've they've done it, you know a couple of different ways.
But yeah, the Bills should have won. But the NFL, man,
it's a weird NFL year. There's a not a lot
of like elite teams. I think we can agree on that.

(02:07:18):
And then also there's a lot of really really bad teams, dude,
a lot of bad football right now. It's interesting year.
When I mean right now, who are putting money on
to win the Super Bowl? Right now? I think it's
still Buffalo, maybe Detroit, maybe Philly. Not a lot of choices.

Speaker 2 (02:07:35):
Is Tampa Bay one of those choices?

Speaker 6 (02:07:42):
Very fun? Team Baker's very fun. I don't think they're
good enough to win a championship?

Speaker 2 (02:07:51):
Is Denver?

Speaker 6 (02:07:53):
I I cannot imagine bo Knicks winning three playoff games
win a championship for four?

Speaker 2 (02:08:00):
Yeah? How dare you say that about a duck?

Speaker 6 (02:08:04):
You know me? Man, I'm I just tell how it is.

Speaker 2 (02:08:06):
Man, You're unemotional about it.

Speaker 6 (02:08:09):
I don't think Organ's gonna call me right now and
be like, how dare you do? But smirch bow Knicks's
name on Sean O'Connell's show. No, I don't. I don't
really think, uh, he's good enough to make that. I mean,
let's say they don't win the division, okay? Is he winning?
Is bow Knicks winning three playoff games on the road
in the road to make the Super Bowl? I don't.
I don't. I like bot next, I don't think that

(02:08:30):
that's that's gonna be true?

Speaker 2 (02:08:33):
Is it working for Pittsburgh with Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 6 (02:08:38):
Yeah, in the most Pittsburgh way possible, like the most
You're like, how does this keep happening? And they do that,
and the schedule is super easy coming up, so it's
working as so far. It's not blown up yet. But
I don't I mean the golden Pittsburgh to me a
super Bowl or bust. And it feels like they're not
close to super Bowl right now. So I don't know
what working actually means. But it's been fine, better than

(02:08:59):
a low season, and the offense has shows far more
life they did last season. So I think it's working.
But the end goals when zerole, that's just not gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (02:09:08):
What's going wrong in Baltimore? As long as we're talking
about the AFC.

Speaker 6 (02:09:11):
North, you were playing a team that had a bunch
of injuries. Yes, it's just hard after a while to
have the energy to play your best when you know
your margin for error is like nothing, and then you
start scoring poorly in a game and you're down fourteen nothing,

(02:09:32):
and look, you're still playing hard, you're not quitting, but
there is a little bit of you mentally, it's a
little bit bean right, And I think that that's where
Baltimore's at right now where everyone's hurt. They have to
win games one specific way. They get down immediately twenty
one to three, whatever it was, and they're just like,
I'm it just you mentally get depressed. And I'm again,

(02:09:54):
I'm not saying that Braves aren't trying to win and
they're not playing hard. I won't accuse players of doing that,
but you know, you you get to a point when
it's just it's just mentally difficult to keep playing at
the same level when you can't do anything successible. I
mean the Ravens can't play offense, can't play defense. I

(02:10:15):
mean they've they allowed what thirty eight to Lions, forty
four this weekend, thirty seven the Chiefs, I mean forty
one to Buffalo Sean like, it's it's just mentally demoralizing.
And again, I don't think they've actually decided we're all quitting,
you know, but it feels like a team that just
knows they can't win any games right now.

Speaker 3 (02:10:38):
Before I let you go, how much Tennessee did you
go by today after decision two point zero?

Speaker 6 (02:10:44):
Yeah, I'm sort of, oh wow, it's already sort of
three thirty two, and you know that if you're gonna
call I saw that. I chose to as a Lebron fan,
I chose to ignore that and pretend it never happened.

Speaker 2 (02:10:56):
Did you did you think he was gonna make a
real announcement? Uh?

Speaker 6 (02:11:02):
I think this is last year. That would have been
the announcement. I think he's tiring now, but I definitely
think this is last year.

Speaker 3 (02:11:07):
I thought that's what he was gonna say and get
like the farewell tour.

Speaker 6 (02:11:10):
Yeah, like the like the Jeter where they get him like, yeah,
I found it was a little bit odd, where like
the posing team gives you a gift. Yeah, like here here, Jeter,
thanks for beating us for fifteen years. Here's a gift
on your way out. How was uh? How was Dubai?
I saw some of the social media clips. It looked
like you had a good time.

Speaker 2 (02:11:30):
Yeah, DUDEI was cool. It's a wild place, man.

Speaker 3 (02:11:33):
The fights were a lot of decisions, but good tactical
back and forth stuff. Had a crazy spinning elbow knockout
that was wild.

Speaker 6 (02:11:42):
I saw that. That's a clip I think I saw today.

Speaker 2 (02:11:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:11:44):
I gotta figure out a way, Like I gotta be
more aware that that camera is always on me, so
I don't look stupid when I'm doing the calls.

Speaker 2 (02:11:50):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (02:11:51):
What do you mean you just got up and were excited?
What do you mean stupid?

Speaker 3 (02:11:53):
I know, but I like put my arms up in
the air like I'm feeling like like catching the spect
you know, like you actually one.

Speaker 6 (02:12:00):
Yeah, yeah, uh it was. I know, I liked it.

Speaker 3 (02:12:07):
I also got a haircut from a real professional. It
only happens like once a year for.

Speaker 2 (02:12:11):
Me, so that was good.

Speaker 6 (02:12:12):
Do you mean like like in dubai Yea, is it
one of those places that does the does like the
whole like head massage shave thing.

Speaker 2 (02:12:20):
No, I didn't do that.

Speaker 6 (02:12:21):
I don't, dude, I see talk. I can't hear what.

Speaker 2 (02:12:25):
I don't like strangers touching me, so I don't. I
don't want that.

Speaker 6 (02:12:28):
I want one of those like as a s m R.
Like face massages. In the worst way, I'd be all
I'd be all in on that. I mean, it's the problems.
I would sleep the whole time, and that would be
like it would be a waste of money.

Speaker 2 (02:12:39):
Well, now we know to get you for Christmas Hanukah,
but thank you, yes it could we could still give
you Christmas presents. You certainly can interface celebration. Jeff.

Speaker 3 (02:12:48):
We have a tree though, Yeah, you guys have a
Christmas tree at the Schwarts house.

Speaker 6 (02:12:52):
Come on, we do have a Christmas tree. It's it's
only a couple months away from from being the house
I think.

Speaker 3 (02:12:58):
All right, dude, thanks, thank for joining us. Sorry for
making you late for your next call.

Speaker 6 (02:13:03):
Uh that's unimportant, all right, Thank you, buddy. Bye.

Speaker 3 (02:13:07):
Jeff Schwartz, betting expert, NFL vetter in College Football Insider.

Speaker 2 (02:13:13):
He really does it all great stuff, as is always
the case.

Speaker 3 (02:13:18):
Sean O'Connell show on You Tell number one Sports Talk
ESPN seven hundred ninety twoe FM.

Speaker 1 (02:13:30):
You tune to the shadow'connell show for the Murdoch Cher
role at studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two one
half am, wel direct to.

Speaker 3 (02:13:43):
The show, Connor SHELLYESPN seven nine got big news for you.
Kyle Winningham's going to join us on the show tomorrow.
Looking forward to that conversation. We'll do it right at
the top of the show. I believe, is that correct, James,
That when we're right at eleven, so we'll start the show.

(02:14:04):
You'll tell everyone what's on tap for the show today
and then we'll get We'll introduced with.

Speaker 2 (02:14:09):
Excited for that.

Speaker 3 (02:14:11):
We really wanted to get him on during the bye
week because I figured that'd be most convenient for him,
but even better game week playing the defending conference champs
at home in a revenge game. Absolutely, we're also excited
to announce the return of Young Blood to Utah, making
stop at UCCU Center May thirteenth. Tickets are on sale
at October. Tickets are on sale already tomorrow. ESPN seven

(02:14:35):
hundred sports dot com for more info, tune into the
Drive every day this week and Spence will be giving
away tickets with Arizona State coming to town. Kyle Whittingham
is this long tenured og second longest tenured coach now
in college football. Kenny Dillingham is a representative of the
opposite end of that spectrum. He is in his third

(02:14:56):
year as a head coach at Arizona State. He is
a guy who I think wants to have a career
a lot like Kyle Whittingham, where he spends most of
that if not all of it, as a head coach
at one school.

Speaker 2 (02:15:08):
He grew up in the Valley of the Sun. He
wants to make it a destination. So far, so good.

Speaker 3 (02:15:14):
Whin he co a Big twelve championship last year, and
he has not been shy ever about his admiration for
Kyle Whittingham, for the Utel football program, or for what
this Utah football program has and how they've recruited. This week,
of course, he was asked about the Uts, he had
a lot to say.

Speaker 8 (02:15:31):
Yeah, he's a phenomenal player.

Speaker 11 (02:15:33):
I mean, I definitely should have recruited him harder, to
be honest to me, He's definitely proved me wrong.

Speaker 8 (02:15:38):
You know, I always thought it was a really good player.

Speaker 11 (02:15:40):
But how productive he's been in college football, I mean
super impressed by him. Completion percentage out the roof, his
ability to extend plays, I mean, how he runs the
offense and operates it. I mean super definitely a mess
by me one and kudos to them for having won
their team because he's a really, really good football. He's

(02:16:01):
a tough guy to tackle, he gets the ball off fast,
and he just does a lot of things well, which
is why he won a lot of games at Suarel
High School.

Speaker 8 (02:16:10):
So kudos to him. I'm happy for him.

Speaker 11 (02:16:12):
I mean, my brother in law coached him, was his
quarterback coach, Jason Bonds was a head coach.

Speaker 8 (02:16:16):
So even though we're playing him this week.

Speaker 11 (02:16:19):
I got a lot of respect for him his game,
how he plays, how he goes about his business, and
how he continues to prove people wrong and has a
chip on his shoulder. So I got nothing but respect
for him and I wish him luck the rest.

Speaker 6 (02:16:29):
Of the way.

Speaker 3 (02:16:32):
Obviously, talking about Devin dan Pier there who played at
Suarrow High School, who's in the shadow of Arizona State,
so to speak, as an in state kid. And it's
not like he didn't impress. He was undersized. This is
what happens when you're a great player who's not built

(02:16:52):
in the sort of like stereotypical, prototypical way for certain positions,
you end up being passed over a lot of times.
This is why the transfer portal in college football, the
actual designed use of the transfer portal, the reason that
it was put into place is for guys like Devin Dampierre.

(02:17:14):
It's for guys like Cam Scataba, who you see killing
it right now in the NFL, Guys who don't check
every box and they they end up having to kind
of fall through the cracks. Now, they can climb back up.

(02:17:35):
Devin Dampier, I imagine to hear somebody who he respects,
who's had a lot of success, who he probably wishes
would have recruited him. To hear somebody like that say
I was wrong from missing on this kid. That's a
win Like that's a nice little boost to your confidence.

(02:18:00):
That's a nice little like feather in your cap. It
doesn't actually mean that you're gonna be a better player
against Arizona State. It doesn't actually mean you're gonna end
up having a better season. But it's one of those
things that shows what Kenny Dillingham's a little bit different
than a lot of coaches in college football, because a
lot of coaches will just give you kind of like
the hey, what do you you know this Devin dan

(02:18:22):
Pier kid?

Speaker 2 (02:18:23):
What do you think of him? Hey?

Speaker 3 (02:18:24):
Number four is a good player. We got to do
our best to stop him. Got a lot of respect
for everything. Utah does give you the coach speak and
break contain. He goes out there and he says, look, man,
I was wrong for not getting this kid. That's Kenny
Dillingham's a little bit different. He talks a little bit
different than a lot of coaches do. I think it's
why he's a good recruiter right now. I think it's

(02:18:45):
why people love playing for him. I think it's why
he is going to be a thorn in the side
of Utah football for a long time, because I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:18:53):
Think he's gonna leave Arizona State.

Speaker 3 (02:18:55):
I think if he continues to have success, they're gonna
continue to pay him well. And I think he's going
to try to prove to everyone what many of us
have been saying for years, that that's a place that
you can be ultimately very successful in college football. Really
cool though, to hear him acknowledge that, Devin dan Pierre and.

Speaker 2 (02:19:15):
It's silly to say, but there.

Speaker 3 (02:19:17):
I can't tell you how many guys in college football
want to hear that from the hometown coach that didn't
recruit them. How many guys that come from southern California
want to hear Lincoln Riley say, oh, man, I should
have got that guy.

Speaker 2 (02:19:32):
We should have given him a scholarship.

Speaker 3 (02:19:34):
How many guys that escape the Utah footprint and end
up at wherever want to hear Kyle Whittingham or Kaloni
Sataki say, hey, I was wrong on missing on that guy.

Speaker 2 (02:19:48):
Now you have a chance to right those wrongs. Right.

Speaker 3 (02:19:52):
Jack Kelly never should have been at Weaver Stake Ever,
he never should have been at Weaver State University. Jeffrey
penay Sewell, these guys were different because they were like
the elite recruits that other schools came in and they
poached a guy like Jack Kelly fell to Weber State

(02:20:13):
for lack of and I have a lot of respect
for that. Weever say program obviously, but fell through the
cracks and ended up there, and all of a sudden
showed what he was capable of from day one at
a lower level, and everyone was just like, oh wait,
we missed on that guy.

Speaker 2 (02:20:29):
Let's go get him.

Speaker 3 (02:20:30):
Scataboo, I think you just brought up again the best
examp about him all the time when we have these
camp Scattaboy is the best example. Go watch camp Scatabase.
Can I tell you how important it is for Utah
football that they did not fall victim to the measurables
debate with Britain Covey, Yeah, like that.

Speaker 2 (02:20:50):
That's one of the best.

Speaker 3 (02:20:51):
Moves that Britain that Utah Football ever made in recruiting.
And by the way, whether they will ever admit it
or not. I think it has a lot to do
with the fact that his last name was Covey. Not
only was he a great player, but it was also Like,
if you can get a Covey to come to Utah
instead of going to BYU, that's a win.

Speaker 2 (02:21:13):
If you can get a tim few high.

Speaker 3 (02:21:15):
School star, temp you has effectively been a developmental program
for BYU specifically for like three decades, right, so if
you can start going into that backyard and create a pipeline,
like I think if his name had been Britain Jones,
that whole thing might have played out a little bit differently.
But go watch cam Scattabho's high school highlights and tell

(02:21:39):
me why he wasn't at Alabama instead of Sacramento State.

Speaker 2 (02:21:43):
I'll tell you why. We all know why. He's a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:21:47):
Too short and he's got a little bit to past
the skin. It's just the way things are. You don't
check the proto type boxes. Devin dan Pierre, if he
had been four inches taller, would not have gone to
New Mexico. Cam Ward, if he had been three inches taller,

(02:22:09):
would never ended up add incarnate word. Coaches do a
good job recruiting. Recruiting services do a good job evaluating
players now, but they still want the raw measurables to
be the starting point whenever possible. And it's obvious why, right,
You've got on one end of the spectrum undersized guys
who perform really well, atypical stars who perform really well.

(02:22:32):
But the more common representative is the six foot five inch,
three hundred pound offensive lineman who, oh.

Speaker 2 (02:22:38):
Guess what, he's really damn good.

Speaker 3 (02:22:40):
Well, And it's the it's something else we've talked about
a lot. It's the flaw in the way every coach thinks.
It's like in basketball, the thing the phrase I hated
the most, which you can't teach tall, because most of
the guys they said that about were guys who can't
even who don't even know how to walk in him.
At the same time, you remember Fasanko, He's my favorite, Yeah,

(02:23:03):
Guerrela Fassenko didn't even care about basketball and got like
a four year career in the NBA because he was
seven feet tall.

Speaker 2 (02:23:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:23:10):
So I mean that was as I was going up
and trying to make trying to make the school team
and the club teams before before the high before high
school and and getting cut for even though I felt
that was much more skilled. But because these guys, they're
they're keeping guys that are six feet tall in sixth
grade who can't even move, but can't teach tall. It's

(02:23:33):
the same way in football. Can't teach these measurables, I
can teach everything else.

Speaker 2 (02:23:38):
Well, how come?

Speaker 3 (02:23:39):
How come there's a million examples of those guys who
you said you can teach everything not working out.

Speaker 2 (02:23:45):
Well, maybe you can't teach it as well as you
think you can.

Speaker 3 (02:23:48):
That's the funny thing, right, or some piece correct, you
can't teach tall, But then there's also some tall people
who can't learn basketball.

Speaker 2 (02:23:54):
Yeah, like either you.

Speaker 3 (02:23:56):
Don't teach it as well as you think you can,
which is that's partially the case, but mainly I think
it's there's guys who can't learn what you have to teach.

Speaker 2 (02:24:04):
That's I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 3 (02:24:05):
So you shouldn't always fall for the measurables trap. And
I'm with you, like it would have been very easy
to do that with Britain Covey. And it's such a
win that Utah went, no, we're we're going after him
because look at how he runs on tape. Look at
how he look at the vision with which he runs
and and the yardage he gains as a runner and

(02:24:27):
as a returner. And by the way, the transfer portal
can erase so many mistakes now in recruiting, it's not
even funny. Think of how many coaches have been bailed
out by the transfer portal. Certain certainly you get hurt
by the transfer portal too, because maybe you have a
guy who would have been great who leaves. But think

(02:24:50):
of how many coaches are bailed out by the transfer
port Think of like Utah and BYU this year were
completely bailed out by the transfer portal at the quarterback position. Yeah,
if you had to ride with only Isaac Wilson and
or Bird Fickland, the outlook would be drastically different. If

(02:25:10):
and for BYU you had who Bergoy, traycon Borgette, Trayson Borgett,
excuse me, who was the guy who they initially recruited,
who even may end up being a pretty good college quarterback,
We don't know. But that's but that you're in a
much better situation with bear Bachmeyer. I think that's obvious. Yeah,
it's it's just a wild scenario now and again, it's

(02:25:34):
a double edged sword, as we know with the transfer portal.
But it's really cool to see when we played you
the Kenny Dillingham sound, it's really cool to see a
coach acknowledge that, acknowledge it, like, hey man, we missed
we missed on that. And Ryan Davis, who's been awesome
for Utah. How many teams missed on him?

Speaker 2 (02:25:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:25:57):
Right, Like because he's a little bit too short and
because his forty time is not Like if you take
all respect to Tobias Merriweather, right, if you take Tobias
Merriweather and Ryan Davis and you have them lined up
next to each other on any football field in the
country anywhere, and you just do playground style right where

(02:26:21):
the coaches are just like, all right, who are you picking?

Speaker 2 (02:26:24):
Not one coach is saying, gimme Ryan Davis. Yeah, they're
not one.

Speaker 3 (02:26:27):
Ryan Davis is going to be the one that they
have to settle the other coach has to settle for
because they because they didn't get the first pick, they're
just going I'm picking that guy. I'm picking that like absolutely,
and that's just the way it's going to be. And
you know what's wild is how many how many Wes
Welkers and and Cooper Cups and all the Danny Woodheads

(02:26:48):
do there have to be Sharon.

Speaker 2 (02:26:49):
Sprolls and all these guys?

Speaker 7 (02:26:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:26:51):
How many? How many of those guys do there have
to be?

Speaker 3 (02:26:53):
Before coaches go, you know what, this guy who actually
like he doesn't have the measurables, but he like can
play football. Start coaches and gms start going, We're gonna
take the guy who can play football over the guy
who has the measurables who doesn't look like he can
play as well.

Speaker 2 (02:27:09):
I mean, I.

Speaker 3 (02:27:10):
Understand it's a percentage play, I really do. I know
that coaches in recruiting they have to like project out
and things like that. One thing that is wild to me, though,
is how often a coach will step over a dollar
to pick up a dime because they're like, well, I
know that that guy's a good player right now, but

(02:27:32):
I think that his ceiling is not high enough for me.
But he's you know, he's a good player. You know,
he's good. I know, but I don't want good. I
want great. And that guy over there is six' five
and two sixty five and runs a four to, five
so he could be. Great but you if he why
isn't he? Great then if he has, that why isn't

(02:27:53):
he already?

Speaker 2 (02:27:54):
Great they haven't been coached by me. Yet. Exactly it's
a wild.

Speaker 3 (02:27:57):
Deal and, thankfully and by the, way credit to Devn Dan,
pierre because he chose to stay with the dude who
recognized how good he, was recognized his talent and cultivated that.

Speaker 2 (02:28:10):
Talent he didn't have to come To utah With Jason.

Speaker 1 (02:28:12):
Beck.

Speaker 3 (02:28:13):
Yeah he he was one of the more coveted guys
in the transfer, portal for. Sure he was one of
three quarterbacks in the country that had stats in the
throwing game and the run game that were like eyebrow,
raising oh thousand yard, rusher two thousand yard pass like
twenty five hundred yard. Passer we can get both of
those things in one, player let's. Go and he, decided

(02:28:35):
he took his. Credit he stayed with the thing that
he knew was going to work for him, Anyway gone too.
Long once, again AS i always, do it's The sean O'Connell.
Show will wrap things up With spence check it's next
ON espn. Seven she was.

Speaker 1 (02:28:56):
Listening To The sean O'Connell show for the murdochis studio
OF despn seven hundred and ninety two one A.

Speaker 3 (02:29:03):
Fm the Drivers Ben checkets will be coming at you
live today From Arup Blood services In, Sandy. Utah so
he's not going to join us for cross talk here in,
studio but that's all right because it's already time to
hand things. Over join us right at the top of
the show. Tomorrow Kyle whittingham is going to join us
at we'll say like eleven oh, two all, right so

(02:29:26):
make sure you're here with us at the very beginning
of the. Show we'll talk all Things utah football and
of course looking ahead To Arizona State saturday night At
Rice Echles. Stadium Kyle Whittingham Coaches show is tonight right
here on your home of THE utespn seven hundred and
ninety two ONE. Fm and of course after that eight
O'CLOCK nhl season starts. TONIGHT Nhl hockey right here ON

(02:29:49):
espn seven. Hundred let's Go Avs. Kings keep an eye
on your hated, rival Your Rocky mountain, rival the Hated.
Colorado we were we were talking about with With bryce
and Bing ucci when they filled in last. Week oh,
see they were saying they were joking, around like who

(02:30:10):
who should be the mammoth's, rival AND i, SAID i,
Said ohc's not, here SO i got to represent him
and say it's it's It's. Colorado we've already decided the.
Avalanche and by the, ways sorry. AVALANCHE i know an
avalanche is deadly to pretty much any. Mascot you, know
an avalanche can't hurt a. Mammoth, okay first of, all
even if it's a powerful enough avalanche to sweep it

(02:30:32):
a mammoth off its, feet guess what that snout that
knows that, trunk it's effectively a. Periscope you're not Gonna
you're not gonna suffocate in the. Snow they're, breathing just.
Breathing we're.

Speaker 2 (02:30:43):
Breathing just, Fine, Okay we're just gonna. Stick we're just
gonna wait till the stick.

Speaker 3 (02:30:48):
Melt, sorry, avalanche you can't do you know what to a.
Math what's the is That tarzan Where tantor uses his
uses his nose as a. PERISCOPE i think he Doesn't.
Tarzan oh my, gosh you just you just you just
made a connection with Childhood. James that's Why i'm laughing at.
That underrated by the Way Tarzan, Disney tarzan's great awesome.

Speaker 2 (02:31:11):
Soundtrack Phil, Collins, yes.

Speaker 3 (02:31:14):
And that's that's one of the songs we played when
we were taking the boy home from the.

Speaker 2 (02:31:18):
Hospital beautiful As you'll be in my.

Speaker 3 (02:31:19):
Heart the wife AND i bawling our eyes out on
the right. Home, oh it turns you into the big
sap and it does all. Right stay tuned for the
drive With spence. Checkets tune in right at the top
of The sean O'Connell. Show tomorrow we'll Have Kyle whittingham
to start things. Off have a good. One let's do
it again TOMORROW espn seven hundred and ninety twem