Sean O'Connell Show w/Brice and Bianucci - Full POD 10-2-25

Brice Larson & Jordan Bianucci talk Utah Jazz + the NBA with Gordie Chiesa, Utah Mammoth + NHL with Tom Callahan, Thursday Night Football with LA Rams Analyst D'Marco Farr + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
He's the Shan O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and Homa bus
ESPN seven ninety two one a m a proud part
of Utah's ESPN Radio network.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It is time for the Shan O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
No Shan O'Connell, but it is Bryce and Biannucci sitting
in for one OHC. I'm Bryce Larsen, that's Jordan Bianucci
James Peterson behind the glass. We want to remind you
you can catch us all morning long into the afternoon
over at ESPN seven hundred sports dot Com. Just hit
the listen live tab and you can take us on
the go wherever you go.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Same with that app.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Just check out the ESPN seven hundred app or your
smart speaker and tell it to play ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Do you want to remind you?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
The Shan O'Connell Show is brought to you proudly by
Big Willie's Sports Bar in Salt Lake City. We're back
at it once again on a Thursday edition of the program,
and it's a jam packed one. Jordan b Uci, how
you doing.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. This is Listen, you
don't get more. Not only is the show jam packed,
it's a jam packed day of sporting events. So this
is yeah. I mean when we talk about great October days,
this is it.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Oh, it definitely is.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Three elimination baseball playoff games coming your way throughout the
day today. We'll break those down for you a little
bit later on in the program. Thursday Night Football with
the Rams and the forty nine Ers. That's a good matchup.
I would say it's a good matchup normally, and then
you look at the injury report for the forty nine
ers tonight and you're like, oh boy, maybe it won't
be a very good matchup now.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
It's still as far as backup quarterbacks go, Mac Jones
has played well.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's true.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
That being said, it's not just it's just not rock
Perty who's out. It's a litany of night.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
I saw Ricky Piersoll's out. I saw there.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
There is a lot of dudes that have gotten hurt.
And once again more injuries come for the forty nine ers.
This has happened like three years in a row. Jordan,
what's going on? Do they need new strength and conditioning
staff out there?

Speaker 5 (02:09):
That's where I'm headed. I don't know what they're doing.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Seriously, do they play on natural grass or turf?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Natural grass?

Speaker 3 (02:15):
So how many away games have they played? Off the
top of your head this year? Yeah, because he played
on turf and Seattle bothso tours is acl and MetLife.
No he really did, yeah, first, but then he toured
on grass in Santa Clara. They played on turf and
Seattle played and am I missing.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
One injury in Seattle?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
On Turf's right, I'm telling you that NFL's got to
do something about turf.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Oh, it's awful. And to night's on turf too. Yeah,
you got to get off the turn, no, get get
rid of it. Yeah, the Niners. Man, just I don't know.
It's like Utah football the last two years. Yeah, Like,
I don't have an answer.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
So we'll go a little bit further into that as
we break down Thursday Night football for you and more.
You'll hear from Kenny Dillingham coming up here in just
a couple of minutes. We'll wake up with Gordy Chiesa.
This morning eleven thirty, we'll talk a little NBA, the
ins and outs and more. At twelve thirty we'll Welcome
in Tom Callahan from the Lockdown Mammoth podcast. Hockey's right

(03:13):
around the corner, Jordan being itch and we dare I say,
should have a playoff hockey team here in the state
of Utah. That should be the expectation for Utah Mammoth fans. Yeah,
and we'll ask him that because I think it is.
This is it's the perfect start to a new team
and a new market. It's just last year you kind

(03:33):
of what the palette there, they're there towards the end.
But this year, yeah, I think this is the first year.
Maybe they might feel some pressure. Honestly, Well, listen, we
talked to Bill Armstrong, the GM of the Utah Mammoth
last year. It was actually the day before the draft
or the day after the draft, and had a good
discussion with him and he said, look the way that
we did this offseason, Yeah, the expectations are the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
So he set those expectations for us.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
We'll see you if Tom count agrees, but it should
be it should be playoffs or bust for the Mammoth
this upcoming season that starts here in just a week.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
And we can answer this throughout the show. But are
the Mammoth the most intriguing team in the state right now?

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Do they professional team.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Or anybody do they beat out?

Speaker 5 (04:19):
Like a by B y U Basketball is intriguing Utah
football this year with Dan Pierre, and that's intriguing, That's
what I'm saying. Like the I don't know, they may be,
maybe they may be. Definitely the pro yes, absolutely, out
of all the professionals.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I mean not even close.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
There's not really a conversation to be had there. But
in terms of maybe some football, I don't know. I
think football is still king no matter what. Well, it's
most popular. But is it the most intriguing year.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
For I agree, I get what you're asking me.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I think you get what I'm asking.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
If we were to put that out there in a poll,
just because people love football so much, they'll still like
NA football of course, yes, yes, yes, so I think
it would skew what we're actually trying.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
True, But I'm asking you. I'm not asking the unwashed
masses out there. I'm asking you and James.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
You know what it might be the most intriguing.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
I think it is.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
It might be, Although I'm very intrigued to see how
Utah finishes this football season. That's because of the new
storylines that are popping up.

Speaker 6 (05:17):
I think BAU basketball potentially being a top ten team
and it's the Final four contender is a lot more
intriguing than the than the Mammoth.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
Maybe be in the last seed in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, that's fair, that's fair, the last seed in the playoffs. Okay,
we've got a okay, third doesn't believe over here?

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Hey, Bill, our producer, You're never gonna believe this.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
All right, We'll talk with Tom Callahan coming up here
at twelve thirty to see what's going on with the
Utah Mammoth. As I mentioned, DeMarco Farr is going to
join us. He's a RAM sideline analyst and a good
friend of the Bryce and Bianucci program. You can hear
him quite often over on our program in the mornings
from seven to ten on a three nine ninety eight
three ESPN the Fan. But DeMarco Farr will join us

(06:03):
at one pm two breakdown tonight's Thursday night matchup between
the forty nine ers and the Rams. All right, so
that's your rundown for this morning. Jordan bin Ucci, speaking
of football, let's jump over and talk a little bit
of Utah football to start this program off. Today it's
a bye week, but next week Utah welcomes in ASU.

(06:26):
Kenny Dillingham, already fielding questions on Utah football, had a
lot of nice things to say. Here's what he had
to say about the offensive line unit and more specifically,
how they're going to try and attack them and what
keeps them up at night. In terms of that offensive
line for Utah.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
They're both first round draft picks. That's a pretty big challenge.

Speaker 7 (06:44):
They block well, you know, they play offensive tackle and
they're good blockers. Usually don't want to, you know, go
verst Night, we actual your career ballth the record, Spencer
and Oregon. Unbelievable kid, unbelievable family.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
And you know number two or number one, however.

Speaker 7 (06:59):
You spin it is from We recruited him and tried
to flip him my first year here Alan Move. So
they're both really good players, both really good families, both
really good people. So I kind of wish we got
them both once one went to Oregon. I wish the
other other guy came here we didn't have to play him.
But they're both at Utah and you get to place
two first rounders. I mean, I'd rather go versusn offensive line.
That's not that good personally. But it's a great challenge,

(07:22):
you know. But I'd much rather go versus me playing
left tackle. I would sleep way better at night if
like me and my brother were playing offensive line. But
they've got a really good old line, they got a
really good program, So it's a good challenge for us.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Oh the kind words of one Kenny Dillingham.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Just lulling us into a false sense of security. Oh,
they're so good, they're so great. How are we gonna
beat them?

Speaker 5 (07:44):
You know, if it were me, i'd put them in
the NFC West, that's how damn good they are. There's
a lot of nice words. Kenny Dillingham had a lot
of nice things to say right there.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I like Kenny Dollingham.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
I really like Kenny Dillingham. We go down to Big
twelve media days every single year. Kenny dealings the first
guy to sit down with me. Every single year. We
continue our conversation from the year prior, and they're always
so great. And I asked him about the situation that
happened with BYU at the end of the game last year, and.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
He owned up to it.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Man and I was like, listen, I don't fault you
at all, because he got a lot of guf for that,
for yelling and screaming at the referees. He's put all
over social media. He was made fun of, he was
called out. He said it was not or people said
that it wasn't a way that a coach should act,
and I told him, look, I appreciated what he was
doing because if I'm a player, I want to play

(08:33):
for a dude that's gonna fight for me no matter
what the situation is. And that's what I saw in
Kenny Dillingham and that's why he's having success right now
at ASU with the program that was hit with sanctions
when Herm Edwards left and it was just a mess
when he took over, and he's flipped it because he
has passion about what he does and he cares for
his guys.

Speaker 5 (08:52):
Look, whether you'd think it was an appropriate way to
act or not, you need guys like Kenny Dillingham in
sports because it's becomes so corporatized and these guys have
just no personality that Kenny diltjem No exactly. It's a
breath of fresh air when you get a guy that's
just not going by the book, constantly not so concerned

(09:13):
about his image. And it comes when you interviewed him.
Both times he's very open, like he's just fun to
talk to. He's not he's not keeping things close to
the vest like it's just yeah, it's it's very difficult
to dislike doing him.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, and I let him know.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
I was like, no, Look, there are people out there
to appreciate that you step up for your guys and
you will stand in for your guys and fight for him.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Say someone's got to do it.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
You sucked up to him. That's what you did. You
sucked up to him.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
If you haven't listened to that interview, you should go
back on the Brice and Be Nutche podcast if.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
You want to hear big kissing noises.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
Oh Kenny, Kenny, sit down, you're my favorite coach in
the conference.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
No, you take the.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Nice chall my friend. I will be the first one
to throw it out there. Kenny Dillingham, just the way
that he coaches.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Kenny.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
I don't know what you're doing later, but I wasn't
get some dinner. I don't know if you'd like to
join me on.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Me No, listen if I'm a young college football player,
or if i'm I'm a dad of a college football player,
there's one coach in all of college football that I
want him to go play for.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
It's Kenny Dillingham.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
There's something about him that makes him able to connect
with the players in this age, and he gets the
most out of his dudes. There's no reason why Arizona
State should have been one of the top teams in
the conference last year except for Cam's Kataboo Jordan.

Speaker 6 (10:29):
If you thought, if you thought this was a love
fest on Kenny Dillingham, Porter and I were were waxing
poetic about Dan Lanning as well. The one I mean
I would I would say they might be the two
coaches at least in west of the Mississippi that have

(10:51):
the They have that same kind of thing about him obviously.
I mean, Dillingham was on Landing staff right at the
end before he got the ASU job, so they saw
in Landing saw something in him that said, yeah, I
work well with this guy. But I feel this I
feel similarly about Dan Lanning too. That's a guy that
seems to relate really well to the players he's coaching.

(11:14):
I think Morgan Scaley has that ability to at Utah
as the next head coach in waiting for the University
of Utah. But Dan Lanning is the same way I
think that you're talking about with Kenny Dillingham.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
They relate really well.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
I think that whatever, even if it's cheesy, the guys
seem to buy in all the time. The whole uh
rooted in substance, not flash.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (11:38):
I thought when I first saw that, I thought a
little self righteous there, Dan Lanning.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
But then he's shown that he.

Speaker 6 (11:46):
Actually believes that he actually holds himself that way, at
least in the public persona, and so he kind of
I bought into that after, you know, since that clip
to show that, hey, he's actually consistent about that. And
I think that we a similar thing with Kenny Dillingham.
So I I those might be the two coaches off
top of my head in all of college football that
are probably that probably get their teams to buy in

(12:09):
the best.

Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah right, they're genuine, because if you're not genuine as
a college football coach, kids will see through you like
like that. So and I think honestly it's not great
news for Utah. But I think Kalani Satake is like
that too.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Genuine.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Yes, yeah, not like dealing him where he's like super
relating to the players, but.

Speaker 6 (12:29):
Quite as charismatic as dealing him and Landing. But but
certainly he's got the.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
Genuine yes, and the players just seem to really just
adore him. But yeah, so I think you do have
scally and I think you I would throw a satake
and then yeah, Dillingham Landing, absolutely you.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Want to go to the other side of the spectrum
in my opinion, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Brian Kelly is a guy that I don't think people
I don't think people really think he's genuine at all.
The way that he conducts himself, the way that he
you know, we talk about this quite often. He's our
jerk of the week two weeks ago. Is the way
he was acting to a reporter. It can we get
a beef jerky sponsor on that, by the way, you
don't think you're out trying. If you're out there, let

(13:08):
us know if you want to.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
You can sponsor like maybe a Henroid company like Preparation Age. Uh. Yes, yes,
Brian Kelly, who I don't think. The other portion of
it is Saban was genuine, doesn't mean his players really
liked him. But but it's a different kind of thing,
Like he got his players to perform. I don't think

(13:32):
they liked him that much, but he was he was
for whatever, you know, whatever it was, he got the
best out of them.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
Who else This is a good conversation.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
Who is like, like Brian Kelly.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
The least Dabbo.

Speaker 5 (13:49):
I can't figure Dabo out to be honest with.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
I know, kind of go back and forth on.

Speaker 6 (13:53):
There's times when I think he's refreshingly honest and like
fun personality. Then there's other times when I think, like
what I said about Dan Lanning seeming way too self
righteous in that moment, right, but then winning.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Me over with his with his consistency and stuff.

Speaker 6 (14:11):
Uh, Davo's never won me over when he's when he's
been way too self righteous. Like it's just like, okay, stop,
can we talk about can we talk about what actually
matters in football now?

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Not when he's talking about building his program in God's
name image like this instead of an eye el money.

Speaker 6 (14:27):
Yeah, and and can we stop talking about what you
think are high morals as related to football and actually
talk about what matters in winning football?

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Please?

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Like that's true, that's true.

Speaker 6 (14:37):
Leaving leaving the religiosity part of out of it. I
do not I do not fault him or anyone else
for for being outspoken or or feeling as deeply about
that is as Davo does.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
It's just like.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
There's other things that are like, Okay, that's actually has
nothing to do with winning football, but you're you're saying
that because your team or high moral standards you in games,
Like that's right, you've lost me.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, there's there's ways to go about it. And when
you're asked about the name, image of likeness, money in
your program and you go that way.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's a different way. It's not like Spencer Danielson.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
We don't fault Spencer Danielson up at Boise for being
the outspoken guy that he is about his religion.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
We're fine with that. That's cool, that's fine.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
But in the way that you uh, the way that
you do it, if you're dabbleswinty, that that's yeah, it's
a different conversation a.

Speaker 6 (15:27):
Little too much, even when he's not, even when it's
not religious centered, which there's so many other examples I
could point to.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
It's like it's just stop, it's it's at some point
you're like, it's football. Yeah, it's it's we get it.
You can have those intertwined to a certain extent, but
there does come a point where you're like, it's still
it's a game.

Speaker 6 (15:47):
There was a like I'll point out another example and listen,
I'm biased because he was speaking against Ohio State in
this sense, but I would have felt this way no
matter what if he was talking about Michigan.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
This way, Come on. Stop.

Speaker 6 (16:02):
But with the twenty twenty season when the Big Ten
only played what seven games? Pac twelve only played five,
but Ohio State won all their games and they made
it to the playoff. Yeah, and dabbo before they played
each other in the in the Sugar Bowl that year
in Ohio State just wiped the floor with them, wiped
the flour with Penson or Clemson in that game. He

(16:25):
said he ranked them eleventh in his coaching in his
coach's poll, even though they made the playoff as top
four team and won the Big Ten and all that.
And he's his line when asked about it was it's
it's not hard to do the right thing. So he's

(16:45):
implying that because they played less games, because they were trying,
because the conference was doing what they thought was right
by limiting the schedule, limiting the travel during a pandemic,
that not and making and that a committee mate put
them as one of the.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Top four teams in college football.

Speaker 6 (17:03):
He's implying that the right thing to do is to
make them not even is to vote them not even
a top ten team because they didn't play enough games.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
So that's the that's the stuff where I'm like, just
stop Davo.

Speaker 6 (17:14):
But then there's other times when I'm like, I find
him refre like I said, refreshingly honest, and I like,
I like Davo. But then there's so many other times
it's like, just stop with your moral high ground.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
No, the best was when the Notre Dame quarterback last
year was like, no, we've gotten. I can't remember his quote.
You remember, it was like, we got we were here
in the National Championship or up there because we pray
as a team in the off season. We did, like
we baptized people or something. I'm like, dude, it's football,
it's take it easy. Just take it down a notch.

(17:48):
So with that being said Kenny Dillingham all the way
back here. Yeah, Riley Leonard was uh, if we go
jump back over to Kenny Dillingham. Another uh piece of
audio that I want to play here this morning. Kenny
Dillingham in his press conferences last week, talked about having

(18:08):
competitive people in their locker room. And this is another
reason why I like him is because he's he's he
finds the good in his players as well, but also
challenges them to be the most competitive that they could be.
This is what he had to say about his locker
room and the competitive people in his locker room as well.

Speaker 7 (18:26):
I think we have competitive people, you know, I sat
it out to the game. I think when you have
competitive people, I think competitive people are used to being
in competitive moments. If you have people who are on
TikTok all day, right, they're probably not used to being
in the biggest playing a competitive moment, having to be
your best all the time. When you have people who
you know, they play these weird like Clash of the
Clans and all this other stuff now, but they're like

(18:49):
making decisions in real time at the lunch room and
I'm like, well that's better than watching.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
A video, right.

Speaker 7 (18:54):
At least they want to compete and they're yelling at
each other or sitting next to each other.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Like what's going on right now? But that's what they do.
They don't play card games. They play this.

Speaker 7 (19:02):
Then some guys play card games during Friday Night four games.
Competitive people are used to competing, and when you're used
to competing, you're used to being in pressure scenarios. So
it's really not a pressure scenario because you're used to it.
So I just think getting guys that love competing, love competition,
and then prepare to be a champion, and you combine
those two things, and I think the moment, you know,
is a little bit easier for those type.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Of guys because you know, you're used to it.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
You're used to being at game point, whether it's on
the field in front of an unbelievable fan, an unbelievable crowd,
or whether it's at home in your living room, like
you're used to being in that moment where this is
the most important thing.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Panucci, Are you a player of the Clash of the Clans?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
I am not. Boy.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
I get a hell of a lot of ads for
it on YouTube, though I'll say that I have never
played Clash.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Of the Klan.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
I've only played it once or twice, but I didn't
really jump on the Clash of the Clans.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Did you compete though, I compete it? Damn right.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
You know what, if you're at Arizona State, you can
speak by playing Clash of the Clans. If you're at Colorado,
you compete by playing locker room craps.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Oh, if you don't remember that, they.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Got in trouble last year for putting putting social media
videos out for throwing dice in the locker.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
Room, throwing dice in the high school battles. I've been
doing douop like it's nineteen fifty six man playing crap.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
So Colorado's got locker room craps going on with money
on the floor. Arizona State's running with the Clash of
the Clans instead of TikTok dances, which is good for
Kenny Dillingham. All right, what's going on here in the
state of Utah. I don't know how we're competing out here.
I mean, how are we competing in the locker room?

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Bryce?

Speaker 6 (20:33):
I mean there's if if you wondered why I would
choose YouTube to fill in for the Great Sean O'Connell
and when he's on one of his PFL trips, it's
it's we like competitive people around here. That's right at
ESPN seven hundred ninety two ONEFM as well and Broadway Media. Okay,
like your competitiveness has has stood out to me. I
saw you those two times playing Clash of the Clans,

(20:55):
but you didn't know.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
This is why Bear Bachmeyer down to BYU hasn't throwing
an interception. He's been playing that Katan game.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
He goes to Place Catan after practice.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Isn't that what he said?

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, ping pong with the boys. And so what's going
on up up on the hill?

Speaker 2 (21:10):
How are we?

Speaker 3 (21:11):
How are we competing in this Utah football program?

Speaker 6 (21:15):
Next availability, that's the question. I'm gonna get to the
bottom of this.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
Asked Devin dan Pierre.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
What he does in his off time to be competitive
outside of the locks.

Speaker 6 (21:24):
Tune in the next week ONU Diition with Devan No,
no new Dish with Devon today, But next Thursday, we're
gonna We're gonna get to the bottom of this.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
All Right, access or access and allies are risk? Dev
Which one are you competing that? Which one is it?

Speaker 6 (21:38):
Which clash of the Clash of the Clans are a
different tower defense game?

Speaker 2 (21:44):
All right?

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Kenny Dillingham talking about having competitive people in the locker room.
Isn't it crazy how much things have shifted with with
the Internet age of things. You know, we were just
talking about what dudes used to do, I mean, you know,
whatever it is, but now they're playing clash of plans
to be not necessarily to be competitive, but he said
it's better than doing TikTok dances. If you're a coach

(22:07):
and you're having to deal with this stuff, you can
kind of imagine why Nick Saban was like, yeah, I'm
gonna dip out of here.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
I'm not coaching these guys.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Aye.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
Well, I know in pro sports it's always been cards
and dominoes on the plane or the train way back
when whatever.

Speaker 6 (22:21):
Yeah, you watch the Last Dance, there's like so much
of so much footage of Jordan playing playing cards on
the plane.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Or well not only that, going out and golfing and
you putting money on the line.

Speaker 6 (22:31):
Talk about talking about always being competitive, yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
so I they know cards have been part I mean
since the you know, eighteen hundred, guy's been playing cards
in between games.

Speaker 5 (22:43):
I don't know about college though, you know, they used
to do homework, not so much.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Anymore, but Uh, you don't think they're going to class
I don't think, well, you're getting competitive with great exactly.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
I don't think they're competing. They're going to classroom.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
Read my essay. We'll see how persuasive yours is. Okay,
I don't think that's what they're competing at.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
No, no chance.

Speaker 6 (23:03):
Well, we knew that the the.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Literature major was going to come out at some point.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
That's right, that's the English English essays.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
You're all a bunch of dummies coming out.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
So Utah will host Arizona State coming up next week,
eight fifteen pm start on ESPN under the lights.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
You like the eight to fifteen pm.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Starts for for the these late ones, right, rice cycle
kickoffs with a good atmosphere in the stadium.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Now it's fun. I don't mind.

Speaker 5 (23:35):
I don't mind a couple if you're going to go
eight fifteen. I like September when it's hot. But I've
said my ideal kickoff time is like a three thirty
Oh yeah, yeah, I love a three thirty kickoff sunshine,
but it's not you know, the sun. You get it
cooling down towards the end.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
All right, I like the eight fifteen kickoff. I like
the atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
I like the the way that rice cycles gets rocking,
and it's going to be a good atmosphere for that
Arizona State football game coming up eight fifteen pm start
on ESPN as Kenny dilling Am brings his troops into
Salt Lake City. All right, that's a little bit of
a little bit of talk on what's happening around the
college football world.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
So sound for Kenny dilling Hammond More.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
We've got major league baseball talk coming your way coming
up in just a little bit. But Jordan, the best
thing you saw yesterday in terms of Major League Baseball,
give us a little bit of a hint of what
we're going to be talking about coming up. I know
there was an incident in the Red Sox Yankees game
yesterday with a third guy at third base that didn't
turn home.

Speaker 5 (24:34):
There were I mean, like, we'll touch on Tigers, we'll
touch on all of them, all the games, but that
Red Sox game we have to get into because there
were various turning points in that game. What three lead
changes and just little that game was what in a
lot of ways, it wasn't as clean as you'd like,
but in a lot of ways it was what you

(24:54):
want postseason baseball to be because there were so many
little things. We were talking James and I before the
sh just tiny little things that decided that game in twitch,
so a lot to get into.

Speaker 6 (25:04):
That, and unfortunately more of the little things went against
the Red Sox than they did the Yankees.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yes, but it's gonna be different tonight. Let's go. It
sets up a nice game, three elimination games.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
Listen, it does, and let's be honest, the Yankees are
more than capable of making crucial mistakes at crucial times.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
So you'll have Tigers and Guardians at one today, you'll
have the Padres and Cubs at three. Padres got a
big three zero win yesterday over the Cubs. Then you'll
have the Yankees and the Red Sox for the nightcap
tonight at six pm. A lot of baseball and we'll
get you ready for it throughout the afternoon. Winter Winter
Go home, here we go. Coming up next, our friend

(25:45):
Gordy Chias, a stop spy. We'll talk a little bit
about the Utah Jazz and more. That's here in just
a couple of minutes on the Sean O'Connell Show. I
want to remind you that The Sean O'Connell Show is
now brought to you proudly by Big Willie Sports Bar
in Salt Lake. From Craft to Kraft Cocktails, they are
the sports Bar. Check them out today at seventeen seventeen

(26:07):
South Main Street. Our friend Gordy Chiasa comes up next
right here on Utah's number one sports Talk ESPN seven
hundred and ninety two to one FM.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
He's out. Let's get the latest on that 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 (26:33):
Let's not get crazy.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Come for the hoops talk. Stay for his list of
the day My list today, here's oc with basketball soavon
Gordy Chiasa on The Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Well, we're glad to have Gordy Chiasa join us here
in this segment to make up for our lack of
knowledge around the National Basketball Association. That won myself, Bryce
Larsen and Jordan Bianucci don't have, so we'll get out
to the ESPN seven hundred hotline.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
Well, welcome in, one, Gordychia.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Gordy it's been quite the couple of last weeks here
with some off season news.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
How are things going for you?

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right?

Speaker 8 (27:12):
Enjoy it. It's going well, thank you, And you're right
about off season news. And the first thing would be
about the Golden State Warriors. How those guys had an
off season where they did a good job as far
as their roster and it finally came a tuition with
the signing of Johnathon Kaminga. They're really talented third excuse me,

(27:35):
fourth year player that's really going to help them. However,
it got messy negotiations.

Speaker 5 (27:41):
Gordys sticking with the Warriors. Yeah, they signed Kaminga, they
signed Al Horford. What is their depth a center look
like now, because last year it was thin, to say
the least.

Speaker 8 (27:53):
Well, I hope it should be the starter and they
could switch over Draymond Green late least some of the
time and then the third backup with the Quinton Post.
This young guy who was a second year player from
Boston College who's a good three point shooter. Now Al
Haffer gives them another range shooter, savy defensive player at

(28:15):
age thirty eight. Right now, he's on the downside of
his Korea However, he's the perfect fit for them where
he can execute. They trust them offensively, and he's a
good position defensive player, so he'll add to the group.
As far as as far as everything, Steph Curry is
the main guy, so is Jimmy Butler, and so is

(28:37):
Draymond Green and the Moses Moody he's very underrated. And
Brandon Paginski who's going to help them as far as everything,
and then knockdown shooter Buddy Heel and then Gary Payton
the second who's a good defensive player. So WILLI The Warriors.
They are good, still a good team, and Steph Curry

(28:57):
is an amazing player. He is the He's the whole
reason why the Warriors are so good for the last
basically fifteen years.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Gordie, I've heard a lot of talk in the last
couple of days, even weeks about one Walker Kessler and
the Los Angeles Lakers. Have the Lakers done anything this
offseason to help out their center spot that a lot
of people are talking about and connecting Walker Kessler with
the Lakers to and is there any good news for
Jazz fans that might make us feel a little bit

(29:27):
better about the Walker Kessler situation.

Speaker 8 (29:29):
Here in Utah, well, the Lakers they're Onarly Twelvey. In
the summer was they're trying to trade for Walker Kesler.
However that's been now stopped because they did sign DeAndre
Ayden and so Aidon when he's the starting senate with
Jackson Hayes being the backs up and a Maxi Klebland
who's a good all around, a big guy inside outside, outside, inside,

(29:51):
So that's the senate position now. Walker Kessler is a
huge part of the Jazz that he is home grown.
He's a good player. He's offensively challenged right now, so
he's got a fast track his development as far as
being able to score the ball on his own versus
needing helped. So, as we call it, he's a recipient

(30:14):
scorer wherein people penetrate a broken place, he can finish
usually a law pass on short corner spacing. However, as
the Jazz go forward, hopefully in the playoffs, someday is
that he's got to be able to score the ball,
and that's why he's not done consistently. With that said, though,
the Jazz are going to try to resign him, I'm sure,

(30:35):
if not between now and October thirty first. It will
be next hopefully July, where they have much more flexibility.
He's worth roughly in this market, generally speaking, between twenty
five to twenty eight million dollars a year. The Jazz
don't give him four years, and we'll say that's average
out to say one hundred and twenty five to twenty

(30:57):
eight million on an average, and that's what he should get.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Gordy Jays is here with us on the Sean O'Connell
Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety to one FM. Gordy,
one question that I have about the Jazz is they
were pretty bad on the defensive side of the basketball
last year. What should our expectations as fans be for
this Jazz franchise this upcoming season in terms of improvement
on the defensive side of the basketball?

Speaker 8 (31:25):
One effort. It sounds so simple saying it just by
playing harder, you'll win an NBA season because of the
rigors of travel. If you play harder than the opposition,
you'll win two to four more games. That sounds so trivial,
but it's huge, especially when you're a good team trying
to get a different seating in the playoffs or trying

(31:47):
to improve yourself to get to the playoffs. And Jazz basketball,
like all teams, the ability to guard the ball. In
other words, the Jazz, unfortunately last year had a difficult
time of everybody guarding the ball, where even lesser talented
players would go by the Jazz off the dribble and
compromise the defense. And then they relied on Walker Kessler

(32:11):
to try to block some shots. And yes there was
Rudy Gobert where the Jazz also had problems guarding the
ball to the extreme, and the Rudy Gobert, to his credit,
with block shots. Now it's Kessler, all right, how do
you guard the ball? Just quickly, I give you a
layman's term. One, besides effrit, you've got to be in
a stance. It sounds so elementary, just like you play

(32:31):
pickup games. Or by the way, you please bend your
knees on defense. Two we call it cushion where you
get your be called press up near the guy and
then back off a slight step to cushion the stance.
The movie your feet the stay in front of it.
And the third thing is that in screening action do

(32:52):
not be a dish wreck, meaning this the second semon screens,
you do not fall down like you want to be
in Hollywood as an actor, You've got to navigate the screen,
you know, over under by lowing your shoulder. This is
just simple fundamentals that the Jazz have to try to
improve on dramatically the whole roster, and the way to

(33:12):
do that is by technique. Is nothing better than technique.
It's everything, whether it's the NFL. If you're a d
bag in the NFL or safety, you need technique. If
you're alignment in the NFL, you need technique, and basketball
you need technique well on both sides of the ball.
That's how you improve.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Let's talk about improvements across the entire NBA in the
off season. Guys that were rookies last year that were
impressive that need to make an improvement and step forward
in year number two. One guy that I loved to
watch before he got injured last year was Jared McCain
in Philadelphia. What do guys need to work on and
what's the biggest improvement from year one as a rookie

(33:49):
to year two as a sophomore and things that they
need to improve on in the offseason.

Speaker 8 (33:56):
Well, most times, motive the NBA players, they make a
huge jump between their rookie seasons the year two and
from year two to year three. And so these I'll
call them these talents. What they do they grasp better?
One the game speed. The NBA game is absolutely fast.
It's laser and you've got to be able to play

(34:18):
on both sides of the ball. The second thing is
that the improvement will be shot selecting. So when you're
in college or your rookie season, you don't understand the magnitude. Oh,
I feel like shooting the ball because this is my
turn says who says the player he thinks that way.
And then on good teams is that they realize that
shot selection is huge because shot selection, besides going in,

(34:42):
they compromise your defense by taking so many crazy shots
you can't get back to fend the goal. The third
thing is that less dribbling. Usually speaking now, I'm going
to paint the campus with one broad stroke. Most players,
including you guys, I picked cup games over dribble. And

(35:02):
so from year one to two and two to three,
the improvements going to be less dribbling. And the fourth
thing is that the players realize about help defense is
that besides being in your own stance, which we begin
encouraging is that you've got to be able to be
called help the helper, and so they're more alert of
playing help, defense and recovering. And the last thing which

(35:26):
determines so many, especially road games, is a low shot,
low shot clock execution up one, what are you going
to do down three with forty seven seconds left? What's
our defense with the four seconds left? Are we going
to switch? Are we're going to play straight up? Is
all things that the players get better in that situation

(35:47):
quickly and Jazz basketball, so from year one to year two,
Isaiah Callia, Cody Williams, and Coles Philipowski, they've got to
improve those those five areas. And year two to three,
which is absolutely critical, Kyante George Cala Hendrix and Bryce
center Baw these guys got improved. So especially Kyant George,

(36:09):
he's got to get better at what game speed? Sometimes
out of control, definitely, shot selection, three, definitely less dribbling,
four being more active help defending, and five extitting what
low shot clock situations. And that's how you improve. So

(36:30):
a lot of times people think you improved by getting
new players. That's part of the mix. But also, you
improve by internally by the emphasizing and accountability of these
five different things. It sounds so simple, it's absolutely hard.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Another Utah connection, former Utah head coach Quinn Snyder, now
down in Atlanta, has a guy in Zachary Risiche who
was a rookie last year, trying to make another jump
here for the Hawks this season, like they went out
and made a couple of different moves. What do you
think about Quinn Snyder's position this offseason heading into this season?
And do you think Atlanta's going to be a team
in the East that can make a run in the

(37:09):
playoffs this year?

Speaker 8 (37:10):
Yeah, I do answer, Yet they's gotten better. They also
edited a jazz forma jazz player or we all liked
bryceon It's going to be the Alexander Walker was the
guy that played for the Jazz for two years from
twenty twenty one to twenty three. He played only fifty
one games, but he played last year for the two Wolves.

(37:31):
He's good. He's a good defensive player and a timely shooter.
And he also added Luke Conad who's also a knockdown shooter,
so he've got a guy that can play defense and
scored the ball and the guy that can really make
a knockdown shot. You mentioned four about Zachary As far
as visache is that he's a young Frenchman and he's

(37:52):
very good. He was the first pick of the draft
in twenty twenty four for France and he's got game.
So the Hawks, though, it's that elephant in the room
called Trey Young. Is that as good as he is
as far as a talent, and he is and he
does a lot of good things. Often he overdribbles and

(38:15):
sometimes he wont takes crazy shots and also doesn't defend
his position, and so he's got to get better at
that to help their team. Also, they added christ ephe Pezingis,
who's from the Celts, who's a good shot blocker and
a range shooter, so they should be better. Last year

(38:35):
the Hawks were forty and forty two and they lost
both home games in the playing tournament. They lost to
the Magic and lost to the Heat. But in their world,
they think they can get to the top six.

Speaker 5 (38:49):
Pardy, we have the Jazz and the Rockets coming up
next week. In the preseason. From a coaching perspective, what
were you looking for in preseason games from.

Speaker 8 (38:57):
Players execution that hit the question philosophically, how can a
player showcase their individual talents within the team game? And
I'll pause for air to that. Just think about that. Hey,
I'm a good player. I'm twenty two years old, I

(39:18):
was a hot shot in college. How dare you not
dreft me the NBA? And now I'm in training camp
and I'm playing my first few games and quote in
the preseason. You know, I have a David Stern story,
the former Great commissioner. One time I heard at a
press conference one of the media people said about David
Stern about how do you feel about exhibition games? And

(39:39):
then David Stern said, very very sternly, on a play
on words, said there's no exhibition games in the NBA.
The Globe trotted do that our games are called preseason
games as a reference point, So in preseason games, is
I'm looking for execution, intensity, shot making and just generally

(40:03):
speaking that these guys play to win, and how can
I showcase my own skills within the team game. That's
how you do it?

Speaker 3 (40:11):
All right, Gordy, give us the list for this Thursday,
October the second.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
What do you got for us here?

Speaker 8 (40:18):
October second? I love it. This list is the NBA
career regular season triple double game leaders career wise. So
how many triple doubles there's a player half of his
career and I broke it down only to ten, and
many of them in the NBA as we speak right now,

(40:38):
many of these guys are either in the Hall of
Fame or going to Hall of Fame before let's right
now clarify what's a triple double. A triple double is
recorded when a player registers ten or more and three
of the following five game categories. They are one points

(41:01):
to assist, three rebounds, four steals, and five block shots.
Prior to the nineteen seventy three seventy fourth season, the
NBA did not officially record steals and block shots, so
we never know how many block shots Bill Russell had

(41:25):
and Wilt we never know that, and I can trust
trust them, and I say this, these guys blocked a
whole bunch of them. So that's unfortunate for those guys.
But more importantly, in the present tense hit the top
ten list number ten all time in Korea, triple doubles
is Domatos, a bonus of the Sacramento Kings. Right now,

(41:47):
with sixty eight Number nine. Wilt Chamberlain did it seventy
eight times. Not know his block shot total number eight
all time. James Harden has a eighty career triple double games.
Number seven. Luca Dantis has had eighty two career triple
double games. Number six. He's the head coach of the

(42:12):
Dallas Mavericks. Jason Kidd with one hundred and seven triple
double games number five he plays for the Lakers. If
not the greatest NBA player, certainly the second greatest of
all time. Lebron James with one hundred and twenty two
career triple doubles number four. He did it with a smile.
Matthew Johnson fourth all time with one thirty eight career

(42:36):
triple doubles Number three. This guy we all love. He's
the jazz Arch tribe, but you all still love him.
Nikolai Jokic of the Denver Nuggets has one hundred and
sixty four triple doubles and trust me, counting number two
all time. One of the greatest players ever to play
the game. In yesteryear, Oscar Robinson did it one hundred

(42:58):
and eighty one times and the number one player and
Hiss of basketball with the most triple doubles. It's a
lightning rod. You either love him or you dislike him.
Russell Westbrook with two hundred and three Korea triple doubles.
What about in jazz basketball, the leader all time and
career triple doubles is Pete Maravich with only seven games

(43:22):
ever doing it. And in John Stockton never had a
triple double in his Korea For nineteen years, one thousand,
five hundred and four games, John never had a triple double.
He did have one in a playoff game back in
two thousand against the Dallas Mavericks. That's how hard it is.

(43:44):
They get a triple double. So if Yokia is getting
right now, one's sixty four in counting. That just shows
you what a great player is. Thus that's my list
of today.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
I'm surprised Lebron James only came in at number five
on that list. I thought that he would have boy right.

Speaker 8 (43:58):
Two, yeah, yeah. One. It's hard, which means that you're versatile,
that you can pass, you can rebound, you can block shots,
you can score the ball, you can you can steal
the ball, But can you do it all the exact
same time.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Exactly Hey, Gordy, thank you so much for your time
this morning.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Appreciate you jumping on with us.

Speaker 8 (44:19):
Thanks guys, peace out.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
That is Gordy Chiaza right here on the Sean O'Connell
Show and George Binuci. I think the passing portion of
Lebron's game is what's keeping him back a little bit.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah, but I mean.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
He's a great passer, is the thing. He's a very
come on, you didn't you like the jab at Lebron? No,
I mean he's going to defend him on this.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
A going to defend him a little bit.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Bron's a great This guy off Utah Radio, by the way.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
I I'm really proud of myself. I didn't have a
dang clue how far the what the distance of the
three point line was? When Gordy asked us, I could
have named the top three there.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm really The only two that came
into my mind when he brought up the list was Westbrook.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
I thought Westbrook, I knew Oscar Robertson, Oscar Robertson and
the other one, which was now in Jokic.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Yeah, Jokic did not pop into my mind, which is Oh,
it's every damn an indictment to me every NBA watching ability.

Speaker 5 (45:18):
That dude's incredible. You know what I love about Jokic.
He looks like he should be working on a farm
in Serbia or whatever, you know what I mean, Like
he's he should just be like hanging out with his
ponies that he loves. The dude is so like it's
not like Lebron where you're like, that's an athletic specimen, right,
it's just amount on a statue. Yeah, Jokicic is just

(45:39):
so crafty and fundamentally sound.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
He looks like your uncle that just happens to be
six eleven exactly. All right, we'll take a break here.
Coming up next on The Sean O'Connell Show will wrap
up the first hour of the program, the latest news
around the world of sports, maybe some Major League Baseball
talk that all comes your way next right here on
the Sean O'Connell Shaw, Utah is number one sports dock
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
You're tuned to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
All right back at it on the Sean O'Connell show.
Sehan will be back on Monday. Take you through a
game week for Utah footballs they get ready for Arizona
State next week.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
It's a bye week.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
We'll keep you up to date with all the bye
week news as it pertains to Kyle Whittingham and the Utes.
We'll also get into some Major League Baseball talk here
in this segment with the Major League Baseball playoffs going
on right now. Just a reminder, I'm Bryce Larson, that's
Jordan b Uccin. We're sitting in for the Great OC.
If you like us, if you are more of us,
you can find us over on the Brothers Station one

(46:59):
of three two point nine ninety eight point three FM,
up and down the Wassats Front. We're on from seven
to ten every single morning on ESPN. The fans, you
could come and join us over there. A lot of
Utah football talk, a lot of sports across the board,
whether it is Major League Baseball we do a lot
of that too, or college football in general. You can
join us in the mornings for some live in local

(47:20):
sports talk over on one O three nine and ninety
eight three FM.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Ghost Stories. We had some good ghost stories the other.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
Day spooky season is about us in the month of October.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Yeah, oh, we got a good one.

Speaker 5 (47:30):
Someone to Yeah, if you got a good ghost story,
you send us a text, because we got a damn
good one.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
The other day's scary.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
As very scary. Uh, Jordan, Let's jump into Major League Baseball.
Though the playoffs are underway, a lot of games, a
lot of series that are going to game three. The
Guardians win six to one yesterday, they push it to
Game three in Cleveland. The Padres get a three zero
lead or a three zero win, excuse me. They push
it to a game three in Chicago, and then the

(47:58):
Yankees stave off elimination with a four to three win
and what was an exciting game to push it to
game three, and the Dodgers get it done, although their
bullpen really made it tough on them and the door
was opened for a while. The Reds just aren't good
enough to close the gap. But they won eight to
four and they win the series.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yesterday. Yeah, we look if that.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
If you're a Dodger, ban that's why you worry about
going up against a better team like the Phillies with
with offensive firepower. Was that those first two games the
bullpen wasn't great, So that's something interesting to watch The Guardian.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
The other thing I wanted to point out about the
Dodgers is that in the post game Dave Roberts mentioned
that shoe hail Tani's going to be the starter in
game one of the next series.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Yeah how far? How long did you let him goes
the question?

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Yeah, that's a good question. So you have to think,
if I'm Dave is a starter or an opener?

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Jordan, that's a great question.

Speaker 6 (48:48):
Exactly could he just be a two winning guy like
they were, like when a bullpen guy opens a game?
Or is he a guy that's gonna go at least four?
They used to be you kind of honest for five?

Speaker 9 (49:00):
Are we?

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Are we in terms of like we're worried about him
getting injured, we don't want to have him throw, or
you want to save him for later on? And what's
the conversation.

Speaker 5 (49:09):
It's I think it's terms of injury. It's it's he's
coming back from Tommy John. We didn't see him throw
more than five innings. I want to say four innings
during the regular season, but I assume if they're starting
him in the playoffs, it means he can go six
or seven, especially considering their bullpen, because because we'd been
talking about, what Otani had hinted at was that I

(49:31):
may be used out of the bullpen, which made sense.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
I thought that made sense. Yeah, maybe some long relief
in certain situations.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Actly, that actually makes more sense than putting him out
there for four innings to start and then turn it
over to a bullpen.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
That's that's not great.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
I would rather have a starter out there on the
mound and then when he runs into problems in the
fourth you pull him and put in show Hao Tani.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, or he'll give.

Speaker 5 (49:53):
You four more well exactly, yeah, give him starter goes
five or six, throwing Otani and just let him finish
the game if he can. I know it's weird he
doesn't come out of the bullpen, but Otani. I just
don't worry about him with stuff like that.

Speaker 6 (50:04):
You remember, yeah, of course you remember this big Giants
fan over here, Madison Bumgarner is five innings save against
the Royals in game seven or whatever. Oh yeah, that's
that's exactly what you're talking about. What you can't the
way you can use is show Aotani. You know, if
you're not concerned about his elbow that he just said,

(50:25):
Tommy John, Tommy John Surgerio.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Yeah, actually we see that. You and I call college
baseball on the ESPN Plus together. We actually see that
a lot in college baseball where they'll bring in a
starter from that pitched in one of the other games
in the back end of the bullpen just to close
it out.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Oh, in playoff situation.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
Yeah, you saw it last year in Game five of
the World Series of bringing Walker Bueller to finish it.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah, finish it out.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
The difference between Otanni and these other examples, though, is
what we're talking about coming off Tommy John. They have
not pushed him hard in the regular season, so like
Bumgarner was superhuman that in twenty fourteen against the Royals,
started what two or three games, didn't give up a run,
and then they brought him in in game seven. The
greatest story about that, by the way, is the Royals

(51:08):
that was in Kansas City, and the Royals behind the
Giants Dugouter chim we want Bumgarner, Well, we want one
of the Giants. The Giants third base coach yells at
the crowd, you got him, man FRS. And he comes
in and just shuts him down.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
That was one of the most incredible things I've seen
in a you know, do or die championship situation when
and I don't like that used to happen in the
seventies you got closers go for three innings or whatever.
You That's the first time I've seen a guy stay
in the game that long coming out of the bullpen,
whether he's a starter coming out of the bullpen that

(51:43):
day or a closer or whatever. And it's still one
of the most incredible things I've seen in a game seven,
in a championship clinching situation.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
On two or three days rest, too, he had thrown
a complete game, shutout. Yeah, it was just, Yeah, that
was phenomenal. So I think you can use show Hey
like that to a certain degree, but not if you're
Roberts of those guys. You just can't, yeah, rely on
him for five innings of or maybe you know, like

(52:12):
six innings of relief. I don't know, especially if you're
gonna start him. So it's interesting that they decided to
start him. Aaron Boone managing for his job tonight. If
they lose, does Aaron Boone get fired by the Yankees?
I would say, yes, I think he does. Last night
was interesting because Boone, what did we talk about the
day before? It was what is Aaron Boone doing? Leaving

(52:35):
Max Freed? You're yanking this the lefty that's been really good,
and you're bringing in Weaver who has a five RA
in the second half of the season or whatever it is,
and we're just killing him. So last night he goes, fine,
you know what, forget you people, I'm leaving Radon in. Yeah,
he's struggling, but I don't like my bullpen. I'm sick

(52:55):
of getting ripped in the post. I'm leaving it. I'm
leaving him in. So they leave him in for the
seventh inning after he's obviously tiring. In the sixth, first
two guys he faces, he walked like he can't throw
a strike. So that was the inning where that top
of the seventh it could have completely changed. But if
the Red Sox just couldn't take advantage on a bad

(53:18):
throw from Chisholm and the dirt you have Eaten rounding
third doesn't take, they could have taken the lead there
and Eaton didn't either pick up the third base coach
or just didn't any I mean, obviously didn't realize the
ball got away from Goldschmid at first.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
But after the game, After the game, he said that
the third base coach didn't send.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
Him, That's what he said. He said that I picked
up the third base coach and he told me he
gave me the stop sign. And so we should go
back and look at the video because I think he's
right because he look, you're running to third base. You
can't see you're not looking behind you at first base
to see if a guy throws a ball in the
dirt exactly. So, yeah, that cost the Red Sox all
as James, what was the bigger play that eaten? Not

(53:58):
scoring there or Duran dropping that? What is a fairly
routine play for me, it's Duran dropped not catching that ball.
I wouldn't He didn't really drop it. It hit off
the bottom of his glove. But not not securing that catch.
It was the bigger play for me because I I
have a hard time blaming Eton in that situation for
not taking what would have been, from his perspective, a

(54:22):
huge risk, even though he's quick enough to score on
that if you had realized that the ball hit got away.
And so it's it's not really as big a risk
for us when we can see everything, but from his perspective,
that's a huge risk.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
Was there two outs already? You got story coming up
with the bases loaded. Who was amazing last night up
to up to that point, and he was what five
feet away from a grand slam there it hit a
dead center and the cruiz loses his mind after that.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
But anyway, Uh, yeah.

Speaker 6 (54:52):
I would say Duran earlier in the game that gave
the Yankees the lead back after after they fought back
to tie it to two and they tired rodn It
felt like all the momentum was on the Red Sox side,
Duran not securing that catch. I mean, it doesn't matter
at that point. It doesn't matter if he makes that catch.
It doesn't matter that you miss out a chance to

(55:13):
take the lead with With that, some people calling base
running air by and I don't call.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
I think that's a little harsh. And then uh, Chisholm.

Speaker 6 (55:22):
Chisholm's run ends up being the tying run instead of
the instead of the game winning run.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
The other thing that I second guess is Whitlock was
obviously tired after getting that second out. You gotta get
someone else in there. Maybe you don't want to. You
don't want Chapman to do four out save two nights
in a row. Okay, you got other arms out there
to Let's just finish the inning, then go to Chapman
in the ninth. You don't have to go to your
closer with two outs in the eighth inning, Alex Cora,

(55:51):
you don't have to. And like we Seart's been really good.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
For them in the pen.

Speaker 6 (55:56):
That's a guy I might have I might have said, hey,
get us one out, and Whitlock ended up. I mean
he was great for an inning and two thirds and
then he obviously tired out. Like why is speaking of
Boone leaving leaving rodin maybe in a little bit too long.
I think Core did the same thing with the with
his second best bullpen guy who was who was awesome

(56:17):
up to that point, but like he didn't have it anymore,
and that's what probably led to Chisholm's game winning runs.
So those are the two things I would say are
bigger deal than Eton not going to home.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
I'm with you.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
I think the other thing that baffled me was I
think it was Rafael with runners on first and second
and nobody out. They have him lay down a bunt
number which.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Yeah, that was that was bunting in major League Baseball.
That's quite a thing of the past.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
Yeah, well it's come back the last couple of years,
which is really interesting. But now with the Red Sox,
like the two things I had an issue with, I
don't have a you need to run there. So if
you have a guy that can lay down a bunt
and get it done, fine, and you have somebody coming.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
Up, obviously you didn't.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
But first of all, if you're rafi Ela, he's he's
he has the back back, he's not squared around, so
already he waits until the pitcher's in his motion and
then squares are just square around.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
That makes it so much more difficult.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
I know, you're you have a dude crashing from first,
so you don't want to give it away too early,
but just square around and so instead he's waiting squares
around at the last minute, pops it up.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
It's a wasted out. It's a gift for the Yankees.
I don't think major league baseball players know how to
bunt anymore. Well, Boston, nobody teaches it. No, the Red
Sox don't.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Some teams do.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
There's only some college teams that still do it. And
it's like cal Poly Jordan. It's cal Poly because their
coach is still like ninety years old.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
No, it's the way.

Speaker 5 (57:40):
No, you know what, the West Coast in baseball absolutely
knows how to bunt.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Yeah, it's just that of the culture. It's part of
here in Utah. Baby, No, we hit bob well.

Speaker 5 (57:49):
Yeah, why would you bunt here in Utah? But some
teams can do it. You watch the Blue Jays. They
put the ball in play that they'll be able to
bunt the famous last words. But the Guardians I think
can lay down some months. Maybe I'm in favor of
a bunt. Look, I'm a bunting man. I always talk
about how much of a and moving the runners around
in you literally you literally have one scenario where I

(58:17):
think it's good to bunt in Major League Baseball because
you have such great hitters, and it's in extra innings
when you have a guy on second base automatically and
you move them over if you're the second team that
had and the first team didn't score, if you're the
home team, yeah, yeah, absolutely, And that won't exist in
the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Yeah, so, but but no, if.

Speaker 5 (58:33):
You haven't been bunting all year, you in that situation,
it's hard to it's I don't love that call. The
other thing watching that game that occurred to me it was,
we're talking about all these mistakes. We're just there's a
reason these two teams did not win the division. They
don't look sharp. They just don't look great at times.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
So I don't know.

Speaker 5 (58:54):
I mean, either of these teams can beat the Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays are a much better fundamental team than
these two teams.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
All right, weh dare you? We need to wrap up
this segment. So coming up next, I've got some news
on the mayor of Sac Lake City. There's a National
Award watch out for one John Henry Daily, I'll tell
you exactly what that is. Plus a preview of Thursday
night football coming your way. In our Daily Dump segment

(59:20):
will bring you the top headlines around the world of sports,
and we'll tell you about those Major League Baseball times
and who's on the mound as well. That's all coming
up next right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
two one FM, a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Feeling out of the loop, Let's catch up on today's
biggest headlines in the Daily News Dump on The Sean
O'Connell Show, where we flush out the biggest stories of
the day on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven
hundred and ninety two one A f am brought to
you by Bally Plumbing. Just look for the truck with
the duck.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
All right, our number two, The Sean O'Connell Show this afternoon.
Appreciate you being along for the ride with us at
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM. Do you
want to remind you you can check out the show
after the fact. Just search up The Sean O'Connell Show
wherever you get great podcasts. You can find it on Apple, Spotify,
wherever it is. Just search it up The Sean O'Connell

(01:00:21):
Show and you can take it on the go wherever
you go. We're jumping into the daily Dump the top
news lines across the world of sports here on The
Sean O'Connell Show and Jordan Bianucci, I want to start off.
I teased it before we went to break there, but
John Henry Daily, the mayor of Sack Lake City, currently
on the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list for the most

(01:00:43):
Outstanding defensive Player in college football. Started off the season
as the top sack leader in the country, and he's
been fantastic for that Utah defensive line. One of the
reasons why they've been able just to rush for in
the first couple of games and get after the quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:01:01):
Best player on the team, right, Bardon, I mean the
best so far this year?

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Who's been better? You make a good argument, Yeah, you know,
Devin Dampier has been good. Not as good as John
Henry Daily.

Speaker 6 (01:01:13):
Yeah, sos been good. They he had a rough game
against Texas Tech. Daily has not had a rough game
at all, though, So I think that like he hasn't
had a down game you might have wanted to know
was dealing with an injury though, right, Logan Fano, I think, yeah, okay,
but but Spencer, Yeah, the on the offensive line has

(01:01:37):
been You could argue he's been Utah's best player, which
was going into the season, that was what he's projected
to be. But I mean he had the He and
the entire offensive line had a bad game against Texas Tech,
including that awful penalty that he had that took away
the Benny's touchdown. John Henry Daily, the argument against for
him being even better than Spencer Fano has been is

(01:01:59):
that he hasn't really had an off game. The only
thing you I think we all might have expected a
little bit more sack production against West Virginia, but he
still got a half a sack against West Virginia. So
I mean, he's he's been on it every game Fano.
It's been all but maybe one game so well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Not only that, but now opposing offenses are key on
John Henry Daily doubling him up to try and slow
him down. He's still getting into the backfield, which makes
it even more impressive. So yeah, I would think that
your argument that he's been the best player for Utah
so far this season by far and away, probably the
guy this year. All right, Rams and forty nine ers

(01:02:37):
tonight Thursday Night Football. The national broadcast you can hear
right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
FM via Westwood one, and then of course the RAMS
home broadcast is over on our station one of three
point nine to ninety eight point three FM, the home
of the La Rams here in the state of Utah.
It's ESPN the fan, So Jeorde Binucci. We'll talk with

(01:02:57):
DeMarco Farr about this coming up a little bit later.
But boy, are the forty nine ers beat up? No
brock Party once again.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
No, no Brock Party, No Ricky Piersoll, no George Kittle No.
And I'm leaving other guys out too. I don't even
know is Jewan. I didn't even check. Juwan Jennings might
be out as well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
If the Rams don't win this game, it's not panic time.
But if you're the Rams, you're just like, if we
can't win, if we can't beat the Niners tonight, when
can we beat the Niners?

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
And in the last couple of years, really the nine
the Rams have struggled against the Niners.

Speaker 5 (01:03:32):
Oh yeah, in the regular season, the Niners have dominated
the Rams. So yeah, mac Jones listen. To be fair,
Mac Jones is not your average backup quarterback. I think
he'll play pretty well, but uh Jones over here, well,
he's no, I mean, he's not better.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
Here's our conversation though, that we always go back to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
Is it the backup quarterback and the way that he
has the ability to play or the how what's more important?
The quarterback himself, or the coach that puts him those spots,
because look at what O'Connell's done over in Minnesota with
his backup quarterbacks, Sam Sam Donald was winning football games
and then you put in Carson wentz Now and they
scored almost forty points a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 5 (01:04:13):
Well, it's the coach. That's why Mac Jones wanted to
come to San Francisco. It's why Sam Donald got a
great deal after he left San Francisco as a backup
quarterback and was awful in New York. So no, So
what I'm saying is, yeah, Mac Jones gives you a
chance to win, Like he played well against the Cardinals.
So but that being said, like the Rams are a

(01:04:34):
better team than the Cardinals, and I just it's a
short week. This is a game the Rams need to win.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Huka Naku has been phenomenal, the best wide receiver in
the NFL through the first couple of weeks, and he's
the highest graded offensive player by PFF so far for
the through the first couple of weeks of the NFL.
As well, you've got two of the highest play highest
rated players by PF in this game. One Fred Warner

(01:05:02):
on the defensive side and one pookin a coup on
the offensive side. I would expect pukuin akup At once
again to have a big time, a big night tonight
on Thursday Night football in front of the nation.

Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
Oh yeah, Well, and the Nighters don't have Bosa on
that defensive line, so we'll see how much pressure they
can get if from Stafford can sit back they're comfortably
and find his guys.

Speaker 6 (01:05:19):
No, by the way, Jordan, did you I was talking
about this with Porter. Did you see how close Fred
Warner was to forcing a fumble in victory for against
victory formation against the Jaguars yesterday? Flying over the offensive line.
He got his hand on the ball before the guys
knee went down. Yeah, before Lawrence' knee went down. Just

(01:05:40):
just a freak athletes, still Fred Warner is. And so
if that's all you got, you got a chance defensively
to hold a really good offense like the Rams. A
small chance, but you still got a chance because you
got that guy on the other side who's not injured.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
You do.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
And I should mention, speaking of Ange, even mac Jones
isn't healthy. He's going to have a brace on his
left knee. He was likely limping up and down the
field in the fourth quarter against the Cardinals. So it's
it's just everybody is it's Niers just decimated right now.

Speaker 4 (01:06:13):
I just want to go back to There're three and one.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
It really is. It is.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
I want to go back to the Pukuinakua conversation because
these stats are ridiculous. If you take a look at
his stats, five hundred and three yards receiving so far
this year. The next closest is Jackson Smith and Jigba
with four hundred and two.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
It's one hundred and one yards more.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
If you look at the targets and the receptions, Jackson
Smith in Jigba has thirty four targets twenty six receptions,
the second leading receiver in the NFL, Pukinakua has fifty
targets and forty two receptions. On fifty targets, he's only
missed eight of those. Some of them were overthrown. I
don't know how many he's dropped in those, but forty

(01:06:53):
two receptions. Jackson Smith and Jigba only has twenty six receptions,
which is impressive by him. That's high average of yardage
that he could get yards after catch.

Speaker 4 (01:07:03):
It is by Smith and Jigbuff But that's impressive.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Fifty targets and forty two receptions, only eight of them
have not been completed. Yeah, the big question is can
he stay healthy? Canny stay healthy. That's the big question
for the La Rams. They've got a good run game
with Kyrien Williams. Seems like everything's working really well. There's
a question about the back injury for Matthew Stafford. In
the early going, he's looked to manage it well. We'll

(01:07:28):
see if they can keep it going. They look like
a good football team this year. The Rams do all right.
Let's jump over to a different news story here this morning.
Duke is extending John Shire through the twenty thirty twenty
thirty one season. That coming down just a couple of
minutes ago. Duke has been okay, but not great under
john Shire. It's interesting how the transfer portal and the

(01:07:52):
nil era of college athletics has shaken up the powers
in college football and college basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Yeah, college football not as much, but college basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
All it takes is a couple maybe one guy exactly. Yeah,
I mean, has it shaken up because Duke is still good.
They're good, but they're not dominant. But also I would
argue Duke hasn't been dominant in a long in a
long time. Yeah, North Carolina has been good, but they're
not dominant.

Speaker 6 (01:08:23):
Yeah, Carolina has been worse than Duke has in that stretch.
Other than that miracle Final four championship game season they
had now three years ago, Duke's been at a higher
level post S Tzazhevski than Caroline has been post Roy Williams.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
I mean, Duke.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Here's the thing.

Speaker 6 (01:08:42):
Duke was up double digits against Houston in the second
half of the National semi final. They were this close
to being in the championship game, and who knows, maybe
they end up beating Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
I'm not sure that happens.

Speaker 6 (01:08:54):
Florida was just on a roll, but they he this
was this is a timely extension for from John Shire's perspective,
he had a lot of AMMO to say, hey, look
what we just did. We were we had some unlucky
breaks and some yeah, some questionable decisions that where we
we blew the lead at the end, but we're that

(01:09:16):
close to being in the championship game. And then and
then that same team that did that to us Florida
did it to them, so who knows what would have
happened if we'd have moved on. So I this was
If this is the peak of the John Shire era,
it's a it's a great time for It was a
great time for him and his agent to ask for
for an extension. I'm not sure it will be the
peak because They're always going to have the best players,

(01:09:38):
and Shire's shown that he's he's a pretty good coach,
and obviously he's still a great recruiter. So I definitely
good time to get an extension for him.

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
I just think it's interesting to see sec superpowers pop
up that you thought were good at football, but now
all of a sudden, Auburn and Alabama are good at basketball. Yeah,
and that's all due to NIL and transfer portal. Little
brust Pearl I just retired.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
That's right, Jordan.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
How does this make you feel about Utah basketball being
able to rise back to power under Alex Jensen?

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Pretty good?

Speaker 5 (01:10:10):
I mean, I don't think if they don't rise back
to power, I don't think it's gonna because of Alex Jensen.
I think it's gonna because for whatever reason, they couldn't
bring in the NIL money, so that that's what I'm
watching for.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
I mean the bring me the money, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:21):
And Alex Jensen is the higher that will do that,
if there's anybody that's from what we've heard behind the scenes,
that was the guy booster the boosters wanted. So we'll
see the problem is it's you don't have to The
amount of money you have to bring in now is
so utterly absurd that to get to a Sweet sixteen

(01:10:42):
final four consistently that I don't I don't know, I
don't have the answer to that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Well, we saw a news break yesterday and I think
it was Nicole auerback to put this out that the
Big ten is looking into and fusing a two billion
dollar private equity fund to get some or money going
the Big Tens way.

Speaker 5 (01:11:01):
Yeah, the Michigan one of the Border regions, one of
the members of the Border Regions came out and says,
I'm totally against this. This is a terrible idea, and
it is.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
It's just our friend Matt Brown from Extra Points broke
it down and said, well, normally you get the influx
of cash to grow your sport. If you're not, if
you don't have other ways you can grow the sport
or your athletic department. You're going to find yourself in
the same exact situation when you run out of all
of that money in five to ten.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Years, yeah, or less than that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:30):
And then who's making the decisions and you give up
the power?

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
Yeah, you give up the power to make decisions, or
at least a portion of the power.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
And if you don't think college conferences are making decisions
in the best interest of the game in college sports,
now just wait until private equity gets involved.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
They don't.

Speaker 5 (01:11:49):
They don't give a damn about like the health or
the best thing you know, quote unquote best thing for
the sports. It's what will make us more money. Yeah,
I just think yeah is a road you do not
want to go down.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
All right, that's something that came out yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
More baseball comes your way today, starting at one pm ABC,
Tigers Guardians, that series tied one one Flaherty versus SISONI.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
I don't know how to say his last name.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
Yeah, that's who will be on the mound for Cleveland.
And then you will have the Padres and the Cubs.
You Darvish will go against Thailand at three pm on ESPN.
Your nightcap will be Boston and New York.

Speaker 5 (01:12:32):
Easy, what's the matchup? What's the Biers matchup? Yeah, you've
got the rook Connolly early, you'll be going for the
Boston Red Sox. Pam Schlittler will be on the mound
early versus Schlittler. It's an early Schlittler matchup, is okay?

(01:12:52):
In the daily dump, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Hit the dump button right now. That's it.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
And it's interesting that the Red Sox Jordan are going
to Rookie in this do or die situation. I think
obviously this is like a Game seven where all your
arms are available in the bullpen. So maybe that's why
it's probably not that big a deal to not be
going with some experience here, but that that is curious

(01:13:23):
for me. I'm not that concerned about it because everyone's
available as a Red Sox fan, but it is it
is a curious move to go to to say, hey,
rook Yankee Stadium, biggest rivalry in the game, do or die?
Basically a Game seven situation here you go.

Speaker 5 (01:13:39):
Yeah, and look, Schlitler is a lefty, and who did
the Yankees really struggle against in Game one? Two lefties?
Right Crochet and Chapman. And I'm pulling up like in
the moment, what if the Yankees hit against lefties this season,
because they've it's the first seems like they've struggled. All uh,

(01:14:03):
I'll work on that though. So Schlittler's the lefty or
Early is the lefty?

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
Schlittler is is? Did I get it backwards?

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
I think so? Because for the Yankees, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Early is the lefty and Yankee.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
Ya because you said Slitler.

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
Oh okay, oh my god, no page, yeah, Early the
Red Sox lefty is a he'll go against the Yanks,
who really struggled in Game one against lefties. The in
this well, they hit two oh five in game Game one.
This is just their game one stats. They were nine
for forty four. That's and they struck out fourteen times

(01:14:40):
against those lefties.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Sounds like the Oregon Ducks when they faced Utah Valley
Baseball in that Yeah, in that regional good pool.

Speaker 5 (01:14:49):
You want your regular season stats Yankees versus lefties. Yes,
they are hitting two fifty seven, which is actually nine
points higher then against righty's. Now, obviously they faced him
a lot less, but for what it's worth, all right,
it bodes well for the Red Sox later on tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
I think it does a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
Yeah, we'll see what happens there. All right, we got
to take a break. Coming up next, our friend Tom
Callahan from the Lockdown Mammoth podcast is going to join us.
We'll talk about the NHL season right around the corner.
A lot of questions going his way. Phase one of
the Delta Center renovation is complete. Maybe we'll ask him
if he calls it the Delta Center or just Delta Center.

(01:15:29):
We'll see what say.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
No, you don't want to ask him that.

Speaker 5 (01:15:32):
I don't think he's going to be in a bad spot.
Do you want us to get another Mammoth guest in
the next year?

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
Do we want an email from someone across the way?

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
That's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
All right, we'll leave that one out, Tom, Tom Callahan
coming your way. That's all next year on Utah's number
one sports dock, The Shaan o'connall Show, ESPN seven hundred
and ninety two one FMN.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
You were listening to the Sean o'connall Show for the
Murdoch Day Studio of ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
And Welcome back into the Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Bryson Bianucci have taken over the Sean O'Connell show this morning,
this afternoon. Actually, I'm used, I'm so used to saying
this morning on the radio because we're in the morning
drive guys that once it crosses twelve, I forget that
we're not in the morning anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
I woke up and the sun was up today.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
It was a miracles nice sleeping in a little bit
was incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:16:30):
It's good.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
Well, you could join us seven to ten am every
single morning during the weekdays over on one, O, three
nine and ninety eight three FM. It's part of the
Utah ESPN Radio Network. You can join us on your
morning drive on Bryson Bianucci. Right now, let's talk some
Utah Mammoth hockey. We'll jump out to the ESPN seven
hundred hotline. Welcome in Tom Callahan, Who's the Lockdown Utah

(01:16:52):
Mammoth podcast host.

Speaker 2 (01:16:54):
Tom.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
Glad to be chatting with you once again. It's been
a minute since we last had a discussion.

Speaker 10 (01:17:00):
It has, but hockey season creeps around so quickly.

Speaker 11 (01:17:03):
Here we are again.

Speaker 3 (01:17:04):
Here we are again, and we just got out of
a couple of different camps. Rocky Mini Camp was a
little while ago, let's start there the young players on
this mammoth roster. Do we know how much ice time
we're gonna see a lot of these young guys that
we just saw drafted get it. Normally takes a long
time for them to get up there. But is there
anybody that is impressed enough to maybe make their way

(01:17:26):
up the organization and the chain there?

Speaker 10 (01:17:30):
Well, we can talk about who is still in training camp,
and that is generally a better indication of who might
crack the lineup. Honestly, forwards have a better shot than
defense as far as trying to find a spot. I
feel like the defenseman and we've pretty much seen this.
It's kind of settled what the defense is going to
look like with one or two battles still going on.

(01:17:53):
But that's more for seating or ranking, if you will,
on the depth chart as opposed to whether or not
they're going to have a job. But forwards, I think
a lot of it starts with Tjaginla. We like to
talk about Againla because he's got a famous hockey name.
You know, his dad played for years. Was an excellent
example of what a captain and a leader should be.

(01:18:14):
Besides being a dominant player, so he's always a name
that comes up. He will definitely still get his chance
as we move forward here. But one guy I want
to talk about that I think has done really really
well in camp and continues to put up some points
and really impress people is Danil Boot.

Speaker 11 (01:18:32):
Now.

Speaker 10 (01:18:33):
Boot came over from Russia, was playing in the professional
league over in Russia and the KHL, So there's always
a question because the ice surfaces are bigger, they're the
Olympic size where they're fifteen feet wider. How do those
players adjust and that is one of the biggest questions.
But right now Boot seems to be finding his game

(01:18:57):
pretty well in North America. Like I say, he's some
points up, he's showing some flashes of skill and some talent.
And I know that GM Bill Armstrong was high on
both him and Simashev, the other Russian that came over
from Locomotive, saying, these guys have a real chance to
crack the lineup this year and not go to TUSA,
him not be in the American Hockey League. So I

(01:19:18):
think that that's one of the guys that I'd keep
an eye on.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
Now.

Speaker 10 (01:19:21):
Mentioning Simashev, I do think He's worth keeping an eye
on defensively. But right now, fortunately for Utah, because of
all the injuries last year, I think out a paranoia
they overstocked the cupboards. The simashev have a chance maybe
to play in the NHL, Yes, but I think for
a defenseman, minutes are more important than having that NHL

(01:19:44):
crest on your warm up jacket. So I think he
might be better served going to the American League and
just playing a ton of minutes down there.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
You mentioned overstalking the cupboards. One guy that we saw
on the ice last year was Maverick Lamarou. I did
just barely see that he got a signed to to
you saw on with the Roadrunners. Does that mean that
there's just too many bodies it's too crowded for him?

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
He needs more work.

Speaker 3 (01:20:07):
What's the story with Maverick Lamarou and his story and
we'll see him this upcoming season.

Speaker 10 (01:20:12):
Well, the reason you saw him last year, and I
thought he was great when he was up thrown into
that situation. At the time, he was twenty. Now he's
twenty one. He's still very young. He's got a lot
of time, a lot of development left to do. He
filled in in a pinch. At one point, Utah had
four of their top six starting defenseman out last season,
and that is almost an untenable situation for any team.

(01:20:35):
I don't care who you are, So you end up
calling players up, you throw him into roles and you
hope they get you through and they get you by.
And Utah made some trades, they brought some guys in,
they combed the waiver wire, but they also put Lamaru
in that spot, a homegrown product.

Speaker 11 (01:20:51):
He played very well.

Speaker 10 (01:20:53):
But when you look at him being young, and Ardam
Dudah is another at twenty one years old, sending him down,
and I mentioned Simachev, he's only twenty defenceman, I think
you would much rather have them playing in Tucson in
the American Hockey League, logging twenty minutes a night, as
opposed to them being in and out of the lineup
in the American Hockey League. It doesn't really do them

(01:21:13):
any good. And so when you look at the veterans
on the defense for this current Utah roster, it just
makes sense. The top six are pretty much set defensively.
You're going to have Sergachev, Jersey, Marino, Mata, Schmidt and
Cole Beyond that if they carry seven or eight defensemen,
you've got those seven and eight spots that are kind

(01:21:34):
of up for grabs, But I expect those are going
to be filled by some veterans as well who are
battling it out. I'd really like Scott Pirinovich. Nick de
Simone did a great job last year at a waiver
claim really liked his game. To me, those are maybe
the leaders in the clubhouse right now for that. So
I don't this is not a slight on Mavery glamor

(01:21:54):
setting him down is exactly what he needs to continue
to get better in one day, be a full time
NHL defense.

Speaker 5 (01:22:01):
Tom the biggest news last day or so U Tustin's
Connor Ingram to Edmonton? Can you just take us through
that trade and why it makes sense for both sides.

Speaker 10 (01:22:11):
I will say that the Mammoth really did Ingram a
massive solid getting him to Edmonton and supporting the player.
This is a culture thing. This is not who won
this trade or any of that. This is all about
Utah trying to do the right thing by the person,

(01:22:33):
and I think they did a very.

Speaker 11 (01:22:35):
Good job of that.

Speaker 10 (01:22:35):
Now Edmonton does need a goaltender. They struggle. They really do. Honestly, Ingram,
if he can put his game back together, has a
very good shot at being on that team in the spring.
When I look at that move in the offseason, because
of the uncertainty, because we didn't really know what Ingram

(01:22:56):
would be like when he'd be back, if he'd playing NHL,
they want to and sign d Tech Banicheck, who is
a very capable one B. He just wanted to stand
the Cup with Florida several seasons ago, was a starter
in New Jersey, very good there and then struggling a
little bit, ended up in that.

Speaker 11 (01:23:13):
Like I said, that backup.

Speaker 10 (01:23:14):
Role with Florida, Florida didn't need him to play a
lot because they had Sergey Bobrovski in front of him.
I think now he has a chance to reclaim a
little bit more playing time. He's got a fellow check
goaltender to work with the net, which I think actually
is a huge positive because these guys can really kind
of break it down with one another and talk in
their native language. Should actually make it a little bit easier.

(01:23:36):
And the Mammoth made it clear they felt like they
could get Vantacheck back to his New Jersey days when
he was winning thirty games, and so that was their
guy because they didn't know if or when Ingram would
ever be ready, so that makes sense. They have a
discussion with Ingram. They say, look, this is our tandem.
We're gone with this for the regular season. We're going
to put it through waivers. Nobody claimed him, So then

(01:23:58):
what happens is they end up making the deal for
future considerations and sending him to Edmonton. They retain eight
hundred thousand of the salary that gets Ingram's tap hit
to a point where he doesn't have to clear waivers again.
Evington can sent him to Bakersfield, which is their AHL affiliate,
and let him try to work his way back up.
It really does not hurt Edmonton much at all. The

(01:24:20):
eight hundred thousand is nothing for one year for the
Mammoth because they have the space, they can eat that up,
and really what they're doing is trying to take the
best care they can of Connor Ingram.

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
Tom Callahan from the Locked On Mammoth podcast is with
us for a couple more minutes here on the Sean
O'Connell Show. Tom, since we're talking about AHL affiliates and
different things, one affiliate here in the state of Utah.
The Grizzlies, they are headed out. This is their final
season here in the state. There's been some talk about
maybe Tucson getting moved around. I thought maybe Nevada Reno

(01:24:53):
would be a spot for them. Do we know anything
about potentially bringing an AHL team here to the state
of Utah?

Speaker 4 (01:24:58):
Is there any news on that front?

Speaker 10 (01:25:02):
So there has been some talk among the ownership group,
and it makes a lot of sense because many teams
in the American Hockey League are very close to their
NHL parent clubs. It makes sense financially. A lot of
your development budget gets spent on travel, so the closer
your players are, maybe they're a car ride away, which

(01:25:25):
also helps if somebody get hurt in warning skate. You
have that flexibility, and it's really nice you can keep
a closer eye on development. That's been the recent trend,
especially for the Western teams. So yes, it makes sense
first of all that this is a topic of discussion.
Second of all, with the Grizzlies leaving, it does leave
a vacant building in the Salt Lake area, and it

(01:25:45):
wouldn't be unprecedented for an AHL team to play in
or near the same city. That said, the AHL is
very focused on having exactly as many teams as there
are NHL teams because they do not want any teams
having to operate independently, but they don't want too few,
so the teams have to share. So with the Roadrunners

(01:26:09):
agreement here, the minimum timeframe would be at the expiration
of that. I think it's a year or two left
on that agreement. There's every possibility the Roadrunners don't stay
in Tucson. They may end up in Nevada. But I
feel like what we're hearing here is that Smith Group
would like to own and control their own American Hockey

(01:26:30):
League team. Makes a ton of sense. That's how it
was with the Coyotes. For some reason, the Roadrunners were
not included in the package to buy the Coyotes when
that happened, and I'm sure there were reasons that I'm
not privy to, but eventually it makes sense to have
that happen. It will only happen by one of two things.
Smith Group has to buy an existing AHL franchise, or

(01:26:51):
if the NHL expands, which might happen in three, four
or five years, then the AHL will expand and Smith
Group could then purchase an HL franchise. They talked about
putting it anywhere in the state, from the northern to
the southern tip. It sounds like the whole thing is
fair game. I think that's an excellent idea, and I
think it's only a matter of time before it happens.

(01:27:12):
But we're probably talking three, four or five years at least.

Speaker 4 (01:27:16):
That's really good insight.

Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
That's good stuff to know so that we can stop
asking you about it for at least a year or so.
There you go, All right, let's jump over to season openers.
The NHL opens up on Tuesday night, but the Mammoth
won't get started till next Thursday when they take on
the Colorado Avalanche. I want to ask you which matchups
on Day one of the NHL are you looking at

(01:27:37):
in terms of exciting matchups and teams to look out
for this year in the National Hockey League.

Speaker 10 (01:27:42):
Well, I think there's a ton of questions coming into
every single season. Outside of the Mammoth, who obviously we're
going to be very focused on them. I look at
a couple of different teams. I think, for me, Edmonton,
which we talked about a little bit earlier. There they're
a giant question mark. They have so much talent. Conor

(01:28:03):
McDavid is the best player in a long time, but
we're already asking the question, is he going to retire
the best player never to win the Stanley Cup. So
that's a big one to keep an eye on. Even
within the Central Division, I think there's a lot of
This is the toughest division in hockey in my opinion.
There's a lot of questions around what are the Avalanche

(01:28:23):
going to be like this year? The Wild just signed
Carill Caprizo to the most expensive contract in hockey history.
What are they going to be like this year? Spending
all that money on him, you know you're going to
expect him to dominate Dallas? What they're They had a
coaching change, so they're very very good team. Are they
going to stay a very good team? Are they going

(01:28:45):
to falter a little bit out of the gate? Weill
Toy figure it out. Are they going to come out strong?
Who is Nashville? Nationville spent all this money in free
agency a year ago and then came out and just flopped.
Was that who they are now? Or was that a
bad year? So there's so many questions in and around
this division right now. Even with the Winnipeg Jets, who

(01:29:05):
you know, they won the division, won the conference, won
the President's Trophy, is the best team in the NHL,
and then really didn't look good in the playoffs. Saint
Louis is another. So you could just keep going on
and on. There's a lot of teams to keep an
eye on, even in the West. So I think, look,
Mammoth fans, if you're looking for somebody to pay attention to,
pay attention to your own division. The Central really holds

(01:29:26):
the key this year to the NHL.

Speaker 5 (01:29:29):
All right, as far as expectations go, is it fair
to expect a playoff berth this year?

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
In Utah?

Speaker 10 (01:29:36):
We're saying playoffs are bust on lockdown. We are absolutely
saying playoffs or bust. With the team that has assembled
on paper, this is a playoff team if everybody takes
their expected step forward. Last year, I think the hype
was a little premature and we said that at the time.
All the national people were jumping on the oh, there's

(01:29:56):
a playoff team, like, well, slay your role if if
they overachieve. To me, last year, they could have been
a playoff team, but they didn't. And of course the
injuries didn't help this year, you would expect with them
being healthy, being hungry, and with develop and taking another
step forward. Yes, it is absolutely fair to expect a
playoff berth for this Utah Mammoth team this year, especially

(01:30:18):
because I think five teams from the Central can make
it in. If they're not one of those five teams,
then we have a lot bigger questions that we need
to start asking.

Speaker 3 (01:30:29):
All right, Tom, Phase one of the Delta Center renovations
have been complete. I think it's just over twelve thousand
that it'll see for hockey this upcoming season. Have you
gotten eyes on inside the Delta Center this year and
what do you think about the site lines and everything
and what they've improved this offseason.

Speaker 10 (01:30:47):
You know what, I have not had a chance to
get in the Delta Center yet to see the seating
and the new configuration, but looking at it from the
photographs and some of the schematics that I saw, it
kind of reminds me of how arenas were when I
was younger. They were a little bit more of a
steeper build, there was more of an incline, it was
more intimate. Fans felt like they were on top of

(01:31:07):
the action. And to me that was kind of the
cool part of it is it reminded me a lot
of old Maple Leafe gardens seeing the way the end
zone seats were because the old gardens went very high
up on the sides, lots of seats there, but in
the ends there were not a whole lot of seats,
and seeing that area immediately behind the goal reminded me

(01:31:30):
is kind of how steep it was and how you
just felt like you were on top of the action.
I think it's going to be amazing for the hockey
site lines and fans are going to absolutely love it.
I like sitting behind the net anyway, because I'm an
old goalie, so that's what I'm used to looking at.

Speaker 11 (01:31:45):
I think it's going to be spectacular.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
I love it. I'm all in on Mammoth Hockey this year.

Speaker 3 (01:31:49):
It's Playofficer Bust right here on ESPN seven hundred as well.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
Tom.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Appreciate
you jumping on with us. We'll talk here with you soon.

Speaker 10 (01:31:56):
Okay, sounds good. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 4 (01:31:59):
Guys is to Callahan.

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
Make sure you subscribe over at the Lockdown Mammoth podcast
and get the latest on your Utah Mammoth as they
get ready for another NHL season.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
It starts next Thursday, week from today.

Speaker 3 (01:32:15):
The Colorado Avalanche Jordan Binucci, all right, well you're all
in on some Utah hockey this year?

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
Oh yeah, playoffs or bust?

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
Best professional team in the state. Yeah, is it not
even clo, there's not even there's no discussion.

Speaker 6 (01:32:28):
No, the the hated Colorado Avalanche's right, what's the big
what's the big arrival?

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
The Avalanche or the Vegas Golden Knights.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
Oh, we hate the Avs. No, it's a lot of
history between these two.

Speaker 6 (01:32:44):
You know What's really funny though, Oh c is anti
Denver because he thinks that and he has he makes
great points. He thinks that salt Lake and everything about
salt Lake is what people think Denver is, but it's
not really like the mountains are not near as close
to Denver as they are to salt Lake City and
those kind of things. So he thinks that salt Lake

(01:33:05):
is just a better version of what people think Denver is.
And so he's he's anti Denver, anti anti Colorado. So
that's that's for him, the rivalry that he wants to
really make happen is the the the checks out mammoth
versus the Avs.

Speaker 5 (01:33:20):
Salt Lake City is a prettier city than Denver. Denver,
there's more. Denver's a bigger city, so there's more to do.
But when yeah, when you go to Denver, you're like,
all right, I guess we're in the mountains. Yeah, it
is kind of far away from the actual well you're
you're in them, so you don't realize how and you
are far away from some of them, but you don't
realize how high you actually are.

Speaker 3 (01:33:41):
It doesn't look like no, it's it's pretty here. So
as we're coming for you, conspiracies shrouded around that Denver airport.
I don't know if you've heard of Oh, I've heard
about him. I've heard about him. The weird stuff going
on at that airport. So that's another reason.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
I'll tell you why.

Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
I Hey, Denver, the freaking city's forty five minutes away
from the airport. Holy cow.

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 6 (01:34:05):
And that's another thing that makes Salt Lake superior to Denver.
The airport's practically it's minutes away from downtown.

Speaker 3 (01:34:13):
Yeah, that's right, all right, we'll take a break here.
How about this, let's talk some college football Big Twelve
coming up this weekend. We'll get you all the Big
twelve action watch games to look out for on your
bye week as Utah takes a seat, some big time
matchups around the Big twelve Conference. We'll take a look
at that and more college football around the entire country

(01:34:33):
that comes your way. To wrap up, a second hour
of The Shan O'Connell Show right here on Utah's number
one sports stock ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:34:42):
We no, this is the Sean O'Connell Show. You were
home of the best inside of your hutes. Let's get
back to oc from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN
seven hundred at ninety two to one am.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
Rolling through the twelve o'clock hour on the Sean O'Connell Show.
I'm Bryce Larson. That is Jordan bin Ucci. We're filling
in today and tomorrow for Sean O'Connell. He'll be back
on a Monday edition of the program. But don't worry,
We've got you covered. We'll also have you covered tomorrow
in the morning drive. Jordan, We're gonna do what six
six and a half hours of radio tomorrow seven to

(01:35:22):
ten am over on one oh three, nine and ninety
eight three ESPN the Fan, and then you could join
us right back here on The Sean O'Connell Show from
eleven to two listen.

Speaker 5 (01:35:30):
There will be no shortage of talk tomorrow. We have
three game, three deciding games in baseball. We have rams Niners.
We're getting ready for a BYU West Virginia game that
I'd rather spend a little less time on.

Speaker 4 (01:35:43):
We have not talked a scent of that.

Speaker 5 (01:35:46):
That's the most boring, like goodness, like, what are you
supposed to say?

Speaker 2 (01:35:50):
Not a lot, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:35:51):
And then we got college football this weekend in the NFL.
It's like, yeah, tomorrow's a packed show.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
Well, not only that, we've got three hours in the morning,
so we'll keep you up there. We have Ridley Jensen
on our program tomorrow, and then we've got a great
lineup for you here on The Sean O'Connell Show as well,
so we'll talk to a former Utah State quarterback about
the upcoming weekend of college football and more. But so
we've got three hours there, three hours here. I've got
ESPN plus duties tomorrow. I'm on air between radio and

(01:36:18):
TV like nine hours. Jordan, You're gonna be delirious by
the time I'm gonna pass out on air on ESPN
Plus tomorrow night. I don't drive ratings though. That's that's
good stuff you all. You know somebody passes out that
brings eyeballs.

Speaker 2 (01:36:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
The last time they left me solo, the color commentator
didn't show up. That's rough, rol in solo on soccer.
All right, anyway, let's jump into college football. There is
a college football matchup tonight Sam Houston in New Mexico State.

Speaker 4 (01:36:45):
I know you're gonna be tuned in for that one.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
Yeah, locked in.

Speaker 3 (01:36:48):
Me and the Sikos are gonna be locked in on
Sam Houston and New Mexico State at seven pm on
CBS Sports Network.

Speaker 4 (01:36:54):
B y U and West Virginia will.

Speaker 3 (01:36:55):
Get underway eight thirty pm on Friday night, that is
on e PN live from Levell Edwards Stadium down in Provo.
Should be a role a route of West Virginia once again,
b Why you should take care of business. We'll see, Jordan,
we had a conversation about helmet communications the other day.

(01:37:15):
KRK Curb Street had Lane Kiffen on his podcast and
he talked about helmet communications and how much they're actually
doing behind the scenes. And you'll see I went back
and watched it just the first half of the BYU
Colorado game to see how often bear Bachmeyer checks at
the line of scrimmage. It was only twice in the
first half that I could tell when they had the
cameras on him, and it was both times was before

(01:37:39):
the play clock hit fifteen seconds, which means the headset
in his ear was still on when he was making
the changes at the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 5 (01:37:49):
What does that tell you, Jordan, that a Rod's helping
him out.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
That Aaron Roderick is the one that's making the play
change calls from the sideline before it hits fifteen seconds.
Anytime it turns off, they're running with the play that
they have.

Speaker 5 (01:38:04):
It makes sense because he's played pretty well for a freshman,
played better than you thought for a freshman. It helps
when you have the offensive coordinator in your ear.

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:38:11):
One thing that Lane Kiffin said on kirkirb Street's podcast
on Monday was that this allows young players who aren't
experienced the ability to be able to do hard things,
more challenging things at the quarterback position, he said, not
just the quarterbacks, but the linebackers as well. When you
can get into their ear until there's fifteen seconds left,

(01:38:32):
he said, as soon as they put that ball down
and the play clock starts, you can talk and you're
in their ear from forty seconds all the way down
to fifteen seconds, and that allows them to make those
changes for a freshman quarterback that normally maybe you don't
trust him to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:38:48):
Yeah, and I guess it's better than as long as
they're not looking at the sidelines at seventy different billboards.

Speaker 4 (01:38:54):
Well, here's the thing. I'm glad you brought that up.
Sorry to cut you off.

Speaker 3 (01:38:57):
Here's the thing though, the one check I noticed that
he went to go and check and then you could
tell that it turned off in his ear because he
immediately in the first half turned to the sideline to
get the signal from the sideline to finish where he
was sending.

Speaker 4 (01:39:13):
Guys. That was after fifteen seconds. Isn't that fascinating?

Speaker 5 (01:39:16):
It's fascinating, But also at some point can we let
the players play the game like if.

Speaker 3 (01:39:22):
He's not if a quarterbacks are doing their job, Jordan
coach millions of dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:39:26):
Oh, Oh, it's so fun. That's why I tune into
college football. I want to guess what the coach is
saying into the ear of the It's like a helicopter
parent just like over them all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
I just listen.

Speaker 5 (01:39:37):
If a freshman, he's gonna make mistakes, that's fine. I
just I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:39:41):
I'm trying to articulate why that annoys me. I want
to see the players play the game. I don't need
to see, you know, a fifty five year old man
in the press box telling him exactly what to do
all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:39:52):
Like it's just come on, that happens.

Speaker 6 (01:39:54):
I know it does. That's what I'm complaining about it.
That's a good slew thing by you. By the way,
Bryce to pick those things up with Garry Bockmeyer and
the n b AU, did you guys, You guys have
been keep an eye on the text line here that
we got a texture that says Utah Warriors Rugby is
the best professional team in the state. I used to
regular season number one, and here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:40:14):
I went to that playoff game, James.

Speaker 3 (01:40:16):
I saw what I saw at that playoff game, and
they got rolled at home. So I don't know that
I can jump on that, all right. I spent my
own money to be there too.

Speaker 6 (01:40:24):
I'm gonna lie, Jordan, I did not expect to hear
real analysis for Warriors rugby.

Speaker 3 (01:40:29):
I was disapprised there. But okay, oh he's fair enough. Yeah,
I was disappointed with what I saw out there in Harriman.

Speaker 6 (01:40:36):
We also had someone that sounds like a delivery driver.
We love our delivery drivers. Appreciate appreciate your ears. You're
doing God's work out there, getting us all over our
great packages and stuff. He says, the the rookie catcher
for the Dodgers. You didn't give a name, the rookie
catcher for the Dodgers. He's laid down. I think he

(01:40:57):
meant bunts that he didn't write. Bunch is a typo there,
but I think he was getting in on the bunt
the bunting conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
He said he's pretty good at the.

Speaker 6 (01:41:05):
Bunch, at doing at laying down bunts, which is what
you talked about. The West Coast teams are the ones
that seem to be the best at it in the majors, right, Jordan.

Speaker 5 (01:41:14):
Well, that was in college. In college, Oh, in college,
you're talking out college. Okay, nobody can. He can, but
it's been it's Ben roart fit.

Speaker 2 (01:41:21):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:41:21):
And if you watch Big West baseball in college, which
I'm sure a lot of our listeners do here, you
will see a lot of bunting for some reason.

Speaker 5 (01:41:28):
Yeah, you want to know why he's bunting a lot, James.

Speaker 2 (01:41:32):
He's hitting one fifty two. That's why he's bunting a lot.
You know, we got to run her on, We got
to run her on. Let's let's let's have you lay
one down here, but not fair. Let me career.

Speaker 5 (01:41:45):
Now his career though he's batting in almost six hundred
at bats, one ninety, that's why he's bunting.

Speaker 4 (01:41:52):
See as the baseball purist I am.

Speaker 3 (01:41:53):
This is why I'm so mad that they took away
pictures being able to hit, because.

Speaker 2 (01:41:57):
Those were the dudes they used to bum man.

Speaker 5 (01:42:00):
Just put it in play baby freaking DH Listen. They
had to change, They had to bring the DH in
because the pictures everyone else college, high school, they all
had the DHL. These pictures couldn't freaking hit and it
was so embarrassing. But I do I hate the DH.
It you and I could manage a damn major league
team with the DHS before. You had to run some
double switches out there.

Speaker 3 (01:42:19):
There's some moves. Yeah, all right, somehow we got away
from college football. I do want to let you know,
keep an eye on the Iowa State Cincinnati game coming
up this weekend. Cincinnati went into Kansas and beat him.
Just look out for that one number fourteen Iowa State
on the road at Cincinnati and Nippert Stadium. It's a
ten am kick on ESPN two. Keep your eye on
that line on that game. We thank you for putting

(01:42:40):
me on the spot.

Speaker 2 (01:42:41):
Because I'm not keeping it up.

Speaker 3 (01:42:42):
There's ESPN Bet has it minus one and a half
in favor of Cincinnati. Okay, is that not shocking to
a little surprising? They are the home team. Give them
three points for being the home.

Speaker 5 (01:42:52):
It's Iowa State. I always State's been playing great. I'm
taking that. That's good value. Holy ca, here's my point
in saying this.

Speaker 3 (01:43:00):
I think Cincinnati is a better football team than what
people are giving him credit.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
For, including you.

Speaker 5 (01:43:05):
You've been on Cincinnati for two weeks. It's just it's
been exhausting. I'm like, I don't see it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:12):
All I'm saying is lookout of that game. Okay, guys
this weekend, No they.

Speaker 4 (01:43:15):
Could do it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:16):
No, thank you, No, all right, we'll take a break.
Our good friend DeMarco Farr comes up next. Still break
down tonight's Thursday night Rams Niners matchup. He's the sideline analyst,
not reporter analyst for the Rams. He comes your way
next right here on the Shawan O'Connell Show on ESPN
seven hundred and ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:43:42):
That you were listening to a Sean O'Connell show, your
source for the best hutes football coverage. Here's oc from
the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two
one half am.

Speaker 3 (01:43:56):
Welcome back into the Shan O'Connell Show, proudly brought to
you by Big Willie Sports Bar in Salt Lake. Check
him out at seventeen seventeen South Main Street. No Sean
O'Connell today, it's Bryson Bianucci sitting in for Sean O'Connell.

Speaker 4 (01:44:09):
He'll be back on Monday.

Speaker 3 (01:44:11):
We'll be with you here on a Friday edition of
the show tomorrow as well, getting you ready for a
weekend of college and National Football League football, and speaking
of which, Thursday Night football comes your way. Later on
tonight the Westwood one call on ESPN seven hundred and
ninety two to one FM, and then over on our station,
Mine in Jordan station on one O three nine and
ninety eight three ESPN the fan you'll hear the home

(01:44:34):
Rams call. And this man, DeMarco Farr, the sideline analyst,
not a sideline reporter, the sideline analyst for the Rams.
We welcome in now. It's one DeMarco far DeMarco. Glad
to have you back on it, Glad to talk to
you again, my friend, our things.

Speaker 11 (01:44:46):
Oh, let me Adam, it's forty nine er week. Cannot
wait for this. This is gonna be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:44:52):
That's the gate, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:44:55):
And you know what for the Rams things before the
game starts, it's starting to look a little bit better,
might I say? Because the injuries are starting to pile
up for the forty nine ers. So how you feel
in with the injury situation, with the way that this
game set up tonight, how we feeling about the Rams?

Speaker 11 (01:45:11):
Oh, not gonna work, not buying it. It's still the
San Francisco forty nine ers. Strange things happen in this rivalry,
This division rival. It seems like we always the Rams do.
They always catch the Niners in a period of transition
and then something bad happens for the Rams. So I
know they've got a rash of injuries, but I'll tell
you what they do have. They still have McCaffrey back there.

(01:45:32):
They still have Trent Williams, they still have Fred Warner.
They still have some weapons to hurt you. So you
got to play this as if this was three years
ago when this forty nine er window was wide open.
They can derail a lot of your goals for this year.
So this is very important for the Rams. And I
thought it was really cool after such an emotional win
last week versus the Colts, where just it was going

(01:45:55):
back and forth. You were fortunate you had the touchback
that went in your favor. Right at the end of
that game, Sean Nicvay gave his his team the credit,
the props, the game, bowls and whatnot, and then right
after he said, we got Sanfran next week with first
place on the line, so set your minds right. So
they're taking this seriously. They need to be ahead of
the Niners. It's not about them being injured. It's about

(01:46:16):
the Rams playing their best game.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
Tonight, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
And one thing that's been really impressive with this Rams
team is of course the BYU product from just down
the road from us in pukuin Akula. He's been outstanding
and some say he might even be in the MVP conversation.
Is that going too far? And what have you thought
about pokin starts the season.

Speaker 11 (01:46:35):
I am so glad he's being recognized, and I think
it's you know, it's it's the fantasy football era we're in.
It's about yards and points and whatnot. And you know,
he doesn't score as often as some other receivers, but
he is just as dangerous, you know, from twenty to twenty.
So he does a lot for the offense. He's basically
a receiver slash tight end. They count on him to block.

(01:46:56):
I mean sometimes he's the point of attack in the
run game and he's willing to do that. But then
what really has set him apart this year is his
route running. His hands have improved. I think Matthew Stafford
trusts him. There is a level of respect there between
the two. They know they have that second sense about
each other. So you have a quarterback that's willing to

(01:47:16):
feed him and see that. So yeah, I mean I
think by the numbers, I think will be in the
running for the MVP. But as far as what he
does for the football team, he's already been the MVT
for this football team.

Speaker 5 (01:47:28):
With Nikoua getting so many targets. How has that affected
DeVante Adams and his ability to just affect that offense.

Speaker 2 (01:47:35):
In a big way.

Speaker 11 (01:47:37):
I'm not sure what affects DeVante Adams. He is a
special guy. He doesn't have any insecurity about who he
is or his place in the offense or his place
in the NFL. He's a great receiver. As a matter
of fact, a lot of us on the Rams side
the broadcast, I feel it's going to be a DeVante
Knight tonight. So he's the one dude that you can't
sleep on, period. If if you think he might be

(01:47:59):
frustrated or be a second fiddle in the offense, next
and you know he's behind you. That touchdown pass he
caught for Matthew Stafford was unbelievable. The way Stafford moved
that safety with his eyes. He's been doing that all year.
So as that relationship continues to develop and it gets
on the same level. Dare I say, like Puka, then
we'll start to see some real fireworks.

Speaker 3 (01:48:19):
DeMarco far the RAMS sideline analyst, is here with this
for a couple more minutes on The Sean O'Connell Show
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FM.

Speaker 4 (01:48:27):
DeMarco.

Speaker 3 (01:48:28):
A lot of the talk in the preseason was about
Matthew Stafford's back in the injury. Since then, I haven't
heard a lot about it, which is a good sign.
It sounds like maybe that trailer they brought in with
the red light therapy and everything's working out for him.
Tell us a little bit about that situation with Matthew
Stafford and his health.

Speaker 11 (01:48:45):
He's moving into Darth Vader territory, right where you get
all the equipment just to keep you alive.

Speaker 2 (01:48:50):
Yeah, is what it is.

Speaker 11 (01:48:51):
I mean, he's got a lot of miles on his
on his belt, on his tires. You know, he's thirty
seven years old. He's played a lot of football, so
it is to be expected that you know you're gonna
have to take care of a guy like that. But
it does come up. The back was everything in training camp.
It kind of goes away with your first and second win,
and now you're three to one. But every time he
won hops one, or he gets sacked, or you know,

(01:49:12):
he gets stuffed on a sneak and he gets up
a little bit slow. We all kind of collectively hold
our breath because you know, he is thirty seven. He's
had a back injury, so we don't know. But look,
I don't think any quarterback in the league closes like
Matthew Stafford. It's like seabiscuit. All you need to do
is get him neck and neck with the faster horse
around the backstretch and he's gonna win that. So he's

(01:49:34):
got a competitive fire that drives his football team. But
the back hasn't been a thing until it will become
a thing at some point. It's a long season.

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
How about the defensive side of the football. I know
in the last couple of years the Rams have invested
in the defensive side of the football, guys like Jared
Vers and others. How are we feeling about the defensive
side and where's the where's the weakness in this Rams defense?

Speaker 4 (01:49:55):
If there is any?

Speaker 11 (01:49:57):
Well, there was a subplot to last week's game. The
edge rusher for Indianapolis was out there now everyone in
LA because he's from here or played here in college.
Everyone wanted him. He was the first player taken in
the draft, I think, if I'm not mistaken, So the
Rams got Jared Verse, And if you had to redraft,
you would definitely take Verse because of what you know

(01:50:19):
about him and how hard he plays. But that was
fun watching those two go at it. But Jared Verse,
in my opinion right now, is the most physical edge
rusher the league has, and that includes Michael Parsons. It's
not as how do you say, stylistic as a Miles Garrett, Like, Wow,
that was a pretty move with Jared Versus, Like, damn,
did he knock the guy's teeth out? I hope that

(01:50:41):
guy's okay. Did you see him run through the center
from the Colts?

Speaker 2 (01:50:45):
I did not see that, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 11 (01:50:47):
So they lined him up at Mike linebacker. He took
like a three yard running start and just ran right
through Bordolini and then Superman dove out to Daniel Jones.
I wish Daniel Jones was miked up. That would have
been fun to see that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:01):
It would have.

Speaker 11 (01:51:01):
But I mean, he has just been a wrecking machine.
He leads the defense. I think at some point he'll
leave this entire football team. He's got that sort of gravity.
So and I remember talking to him before week one
and I said, you know what motivates you? And he
looked be in the eye right in pregam he goes,
I'm out here to change lives. I'm playing for keeps,

(01:51:22):
And I think he was dead serious about that. So
he's been a great acquisition for this football team, and
I think he's doing nothing but getting better each and
every rep.

Speaker 3 (01:51:30):
Marco far is here with us on the Sean O'Connell show,
Rams sideline analyst, getting us ready for some Thursday night football. DeMarco,
if the Rams are going to beat the forty nine
ers tonight, how were they going to do it? And
what should the game plan be for Matthew Stafford in
the game.

Speaker 11 (01:51:46):
Well, number one, defensively, you have got to stop McCaffrey.

Speaker 1 (01:51:50):
You did.

Speaker 11 (01:51:51):
You finally stopped Saquon Barkley up in Philadelphia and that
was easier said than none. That was in his house
when you didn't have benefit the crowd noise, and you
stopped him. You did the same against Jonathan Taylor. You
forced the game onto the quarterback shoulders. Now, same thing
this week. If you stop McCaffrey, if you take away
the run game for Shanahan and the forty nine ers offense,
I don't know where they go with the football. I

(01:52:13):
don't I'm not sure the forty nine ers know where
they go with the football. So that's got to be
job number one for the Rams and the defense. Job
number two is keep the pressure on. Offensively, you have
to score. You have to score touchdowns. You could put
so much of a lead on them that you could
take away a run game by a two score or
a three score lead. Then they have to throw, and

(01:52:34):
they're in your house with crowd noise. So to me,
that's the game plan. First McCaffrey, Matthew Stafford and the
offense keep pace and then start to pile on and
then get after the passer as best you can.

Speaker 5 (01:52:47):
Hey, DeMarco, you were part of those great Rams teams
in the early two thousands, and I'd be remiss if
I didn't ask you about him that year in two thousand.
I'm just curious because Saint Louis had been a great
baseball down forever, but you guys took over that town.
It was incredible. Just what was that like when you
guys win on that run and just captured the imagination

(01:53:08):
of Saint Louis.

Speaker 11 (01:53:10):
Well, okay, so I was a rookie in ninety four
when we left here, so I'm just walking in this.
I have no idea what's going on. I'm just wide eyed.
I'm just trying to make the football team. But I
remember waking up that spring after my rookie year, going
into ninety five, turning on the TV and seeing Georgia
Frontieri on TV with Sparklers where it says Saint Louis

(01:53:30):
rams and I'm like, okay, well, I guess we moved.
So we go to Saint Louis and I just remember
seeing the trucks pull in. It was just our equipment
pulling in the town, and the truck's got a ticker
tape parade. It's like, wow, do they know we only
won four games last year? You know what I mean?
That's that's that's stuff you do for champions. But that's

(01:53:51):
how excited they were to have football back in town.
So it took a while to get going. We had
to let go of a coach and then hired Dick Vermeial.
But once we got a hold of something as a team.
That city was more than willing to just go all
in on us, and the support was incredible. The Dome

(01:54:12):
was by far the loudest place I have ever been.
I'm talking concerts, fireworks, everything on third down in the
playoffs or in the NFC Championship train trying to get
to the Super Bowl. It was as loud as anything
in the world. And the parade coming back home after
we won it was just as loud and just as otherworldly.
It was so special, it was wild. I look back

(01:54:34):
on it now, it's like, Wow, does that all that
stuff really happen? Or I'm in some sort of fever dream,
But it really did. It was that special. It was
that great. And you know, for that team, we're still together,
We're still teammates and we will be forever.

Speaker 3 (01:54:47):
And is that same type of love for this football
team kind of transition back to Los Angeles? Is there
the fan base there in LA starting to attach themselves,
especially after the first Super Bowl?

Speaker 4 (01:54:58):
What does it feel like now in the team's.

Speaker 11 (01:55:00):
Gone back, it's starting to grow. So I have a
ten year old, she's in the fifth grade, and since
the Rams have come back, you start to see more
and more kids wearing Rams jerseys or Rams flags on
game day. Before you didn't see many, or you saw
other football teams. Now you're starting to see more. Last week,
I've never seen that many LA fans in so far

(01:55:22):
be that loud in that game. So it's starting to grow.
Now here's the one problem. It starts tonight because I'm
curious as to how many Red jerseys are going to
be there tonight. So we still have to worry about
getting them out first, and the only way to do
that is to annihilate the forty nine ers, make them
feel stupid for showing up. Hey, look, why don't we
go to sofa to watch our team get beat up again?

(01:55:43):
You know what I mean. So if the Rams win
to night, that's four in a row. If you can
run that to five, six, seven, eight, nine in a
row and make this a laugher, yeah, you'll stop them
from coming and you can fill up with your own
your own fans. That's how you start to build momentum.

Speaker 4 (01:55:55):
Oh absolutely absolutely hate DeMarco.

Speaker 3 (01:55:57):
Thank you so much for your time here game day,
Good luck later on tonight and we'll be listening.

Speaker 11 (01:56:03):
Thanks guys, talk to you guys soon.

Speaker 3 (01:56:05):
That is DeMarco far Rams sideline analyst. You can hear
him along with JB. Long and Maurice Strones drew over
on one O, three nine and ninety eight three ESPN
the fan our brother station with the call that's the
home call and the home of the La Rams here
in the state of Utah, Jordan.

Speaker 5 (01:56:21):
I love DeMarco. I was right, like I'm a diehard
Niners fan that when Kurt Warner showed up and those
Rams teams, it was I mean like I cheered for
the Rams. It was one of the most fun football
teams I've ever seen play. It was just incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:56:37):
Well, and Matthew Stafford is doing some incredible things right
now for the Rams.

Speaker 2 (01:56:40):
Soon he is. It's not even close to what that was.

Speaker 3 (01:56:44):
You're right, but they play an exciting brand of NFL football.
Nothing with Pukakua, with Matthew Stafford, with kyn Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:56:51):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 5 (01:56:52):
But the thing about that two thousand Rams team, they
were running stuff we'd never seen, Like, we had never
seen teams throw the ball like that before, right, it
was just it was so exciting, especially for a team
like the Rams who had been terrible for so long.
But I mean, look, as far as like building a
fan base in La rebuilding one, the Rams have been fantastic,

(01:57:12):
Like they've done exactly what they need to do. You
win a Super Bowl, you're competitive.

Speaker 3 (01:57:17):
Absolutely, Yeah, there's no reason the Chargers need to be
in Los Angeles. I thought that was a silly move. Yeah,
that's moving from San Diego to LA It kind of
seemed weird to me at the time. I think it's
still kind of weird.

Speaker 2 (01:57:28):
It is weird.

Speaker 5 (01:57:29):
It's almost as if the owner just cared about money
and not you know, a civic institution.

Speaker 4 (01:57:34):
About that team moved to Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 (01:57:36):
It was weird too. That was awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:57:37):
Wonder why.

Speaker 2 (01:57:40):
Strange really Strange left. Seems like they had a lot
of passionate fans in Oakland.

Speaker 3 (01:57:44):
By the way, if there are any Rams fans out there,
we want to try and gather all the Rams fans
and get you all to the same bar. We're gonna
pick a spot. We're gonna start doing Rams watch games
over the weekend. So we need to you to hit
us up either on social media at esp and the
fan at Larson Sports at Jordan Binucci. You can text
us in on the text in line eight seven seven

(01:58:05):
three five three zero seven hundred. We're looking for you
out there, and we're gonna start getting everybody together for
some watch parties.

Speaker 5 (01:58:10):
Yeah, bro, we know there might be one already, like
there might be a RAMS bar, so we just don't
know about it.

Speaker 4 (01:58:14):
If there is, let us know.

Speaker 3 (01:58:16):
Yeah eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred
on the text in line, and we'll get we'll get
some NFL watch parties going over the weekend later on
tonight forty nine Ers Rams Thursday Night Football. Jordan, give
me your prediction for tonight's game between these two teams
and listen. Now, one thing to note about one, Jordan Banucci,
big forty nine Ers guy. Yeah, so whatever is said next,

(01:58:39):
know that first.

Speaker 5 (01:58:39):
I'll be objective. Niners by fifty. No, No, what is
the line? Do you have the line in front of you?
Let me pull it up for it, because I would
think Rams three and a half four on the road
or at home? Yeah, maybe more sure, it's pretty close.
But no, I'll just I know DeMarco's not worried about
the injuries, but I'm worried about the injuries.

Speaker 2 (01:58:57):
But the Niners.

Speaker 3 (01:58:58):
You said three and a half four on the road,
how about that try eight and a half in favor
of the Rams.

Speaker 2 (01:59:04):
Yeah, that makes Yeah, that's a.

Speaker 3 (01:59:06):
Big line for an NFL line normally you see it one, two, three,
or four. Once you start get beyond that, yeah, I'll take.

Speaker 2 (01:59:12):
The Rams by a touchdown. I just yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:59:15):
The then then the Niners are they just they do?
I know you have McCaffrey, but but you don't have
a whole lot a lot of other guys out there
right now.

Speaker 3 (01:59:27):
Yeah, you go down the list. Robert Beale Junior out
with an ankle, Jordan Watkins a wide receiver, out with
a calf, Ricky pearsall out with a kneel, Juwan Jennings
out with an ankle. Brock Party out with his hurt toe,
that Poort Rock party.

Speaker 2 (01:59:48):
You ever had turf toe because of the toe? You
ever had turf dooe?

Speaker 4 (01:59:51):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:59:52):
Bryce Larsen questioning the toughness of National football listeners.

Speaker 3 (01:59:56):
Listen, all right, if this is, if this is even
the nineteen nineties, are the two thousands? You think turf
toe is keeping a guy out from playing a National
Football League game?

Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
Yeah, sometimes if you can't walk on it, you can't
walk on it. But I'm just curious how you know.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:00:13):
I'd like to know how bad does it really hurt?
I am questioning it. Okay, little bit, somebody get a
hammer and let's see. Let's find out break let's turf toe.
I think it hurts. Here's the thing, you know. How
I know it hurts. Brock Party. Brock Party played through
cracked ribs at Seattle a couple of years ago, So
the turf to a must hurt pretty damn bad. I'm

(02:00:35):
not questioning this toe gonna fall off if he goes
out there and play.

Speaker 5 (02:00:39):
My general rule is don't question the toughness of National
Football League players. That's my general rule. Is it your
general general rule?

Speaker 11 (02:00:48):
All right?

Speaker 3 (02:00:48):
Well that's yours? Thank you for sharing. All right, we'll
take a break here more major league baseball players. I
got more college football coming your way next to because
I didn't get out all the things that I need
to purge from my system on a college football weekend
just yet. A lot of college football news and notes
coming your way that's up next in a big college

(02:01:09):
football weekend, especially around the Big Twelve. We'll let you
know the rest of the matchups to watch out for
and look out for this weekend in the Big twelve
Conference on your Utah bye week.

Speaker 2 (02:01:19):
Will take a break. That's all yours.

Speaker 3 (02:01:20):
Next here on the Shan O'Connell Show, the one o'clock
hour right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
to one FM.

Speaker 9 (02:01:28):
The ESPN seven hundred app and now streaming live at
ESPN seven hundred Sports Utah on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
Who we were.

Speaker 1 (02:01:45):
Your tune to the Shan O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and NFN.

Speaker 3 (02:01:57):
The Tigers and Guardians under way over on ABC an
elimination game, game number three in Cleveland. Top of the
second inning, one out, currently no score, Go Tigers.

Speaker 2 (02:02:13):
We have that. That's that sound bight. He's in there somewhere, James, Oh,
I got got yeah. The next I did, I did
a live fresh and drop.

Speaker 3 (02:02:20):
In my opinion, the next head coach of the Oklahoma
State Cowboys should be one at or dun.

Speaker 4 (02:02:27):
Would he bring you they have enough money? That's what
I was going to ask you. Probably not. What do
you think in terms of nil money?

Speaker 2 (02:02:33):
What do you think?

Speaker 6 (02:02:33):
I hadn't even thought of it at Coach O for
one of these openings because he's it seems like he's
been in obscurity for a while.

Speaker 4 (02:02:40):
I don't even know if he wants to come back
to coach and who knows.

Speaker 2 (02:02:43):
But he was the interim coach at USC Maybe U
c l.

Speaker 4 (02:02:46):
A, Yeah, maybe u c l A.

Speaker 3 (02:02:47):
Maybe if if Florida decides to fire billion Apier, it
might be a spot for him to step in Florida's matchups.

Speaker 5 (02:02:56):
We haven't asked, James. I'll ask you this, does prime, Dude?
Does you see only have a shot at Dion Sanders?

Speaker 6 (02:03:04):
They probably do because it's the big ten and because
it's the La market. Yeah, but I don't think he's
leaving Colorado after he I mean, crazier things have happened
with that. Guys sign long extensions and then the next
year they're gone. But it just feels like it feels
like he wants to be there. Trevor Riley, who is

(02:03:26):
on his staff, who's now a weekly guest of ours
here on the Sean O'Connell show and with the Drive
of Spence Checkets, he has said Dion doesn't want to
go anywhere now. I don't know when the last time
he had. Trevor has been in Boulder a couple weeks
during the season. So maybe he's talked to Dion recently,

(02:03:46):
but I don't know if he's when's the last time
he actually talked to him about that. He didn't say
I just talked to him. He is not going anywhere,
but it I think it does bear some way to
guy who was just on his staff at both Jackson
State and Colorado saying, yeah, he's Dion wants to be
in Boulder for the foreseeable future. Now foreseeable future could

(02:04:09):
be if they're have an awful season this year, the
rest of this year, though, Guys, the foreseable future could
be the rest of this year. So like that, that's
how things go in this market. But I I'm inclined
to believe that he probably is going to pass on
the u c l A job, and maybe he maybe
he takes a different big job, big opening that comes up,

(02:04:30):
and I don't think Oklahoma State or Virginia Tech or
what's the other one they opened up the anyway, I
don't think any of the rest of them are.

Speaker 5 (02:04:41):
Are enticing enough for him to leave Bolder. Yeah, well
he's waiting for Florida State.

Speaker 2 (02:04:47):
Yeah, Florida State.

Speaker 6 (02:04:48):
Maybe even Miami because of the because same area. And
then if the you know a lot of guys when
they can't get on at their alma maters, they love
the idea and I'm going to coach the right and
we're gonna kick your ass in Florida.

Speaker 3 (02:05:04):
So well, did they not have the chance to hire
him the first time around and they went a different way?
Didn't that coaching change happen while he was at Jack Saxon?
Then he went to Colorado in that same side, Yeah,
they chose Norvel. I don't know if he actually interviewed
at Florida State.

Speaker 6 (02:05:20):
Yea, he may he may may not have, but he
was linked to that job in the media and they
went with Norvel instead, right, So.

Speaker 4 (02:05:29):
I don't know. Yeah, maybe he's waiting for Florida open.

Speaker 6 (02:05:32):
Yeah, I could see him at Florida too, Like that's
probably opening soon. Yeah, man is killing me. What was
the fourth? It was Arkansas? Arkansas Arkansam Pittman got fired
at ur that's SEC that might be a little bit
more entice.

Speaker 2 (02:05:50):
But yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:05:54):
Petrino standing in for Sam Pittman in Arkansas.

Speaker 5 (02:05:56):
Now you have a better chance to win at Colorado
than you do at Urk and so hey, there's a
lot of I think, is it Walmart backing them?

Speaker 3 (02:06:05):
The owners of Walmart, big Arkansas people. They've got the
Walmart logo on the field.

Speaker 2 (02:06:08):
Jerry Jones is an alum.

Speaker 3 (02:06:10):
They're also the owners of the Broncos too, so they
got a lot of money you would think you got
I think I saw sneaky like under the radar. You
get a guy, a young coach in there that can
connect to kids, and they got the nil money from
their backings.

Speaker 1 (02:06:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:06:26):
OC and I were joking about this. I brought up.

Speaker 6 (02:06:29):
I brought up you get the Clinton money in there too,
because Bill Clinton was at Arkansas games throughout his presidency
in the nineties, the Nolan Richardson era basketball, So Jerry
Jones played there. Jimmy Johnson I think played there with
Jerry Jones. So they've got very high profile alum with
lots of money if they could tap into that.

Speaker 3 (02:06:50):
And a very passionate fan base with no NFL team
in that state.

Speaker 5 (02:06:54):
Oh, it's incredibly passionate fan base for having a terrible
team that's never in contingent for anything.

Speaker 2 (02:07:00):
It seems like it's.

Speaker 3 (02:07:01):
Been a minute since they happened since since Petrino I
think took over and then got.

Speaker 4 (02:07:05):
In trouble that year.

Speaker 3 (02:07:06):
Yeah, for crashing his motorcycle and then everything came out.

Speaker 2 (02:07:09):
Yeah, it's a problem. That wasn't someone else on the motorcycle.

Speaker 4 (02:07:12):
Yeah, there was someone else on the.

Speaker 3 (02:07:16):
He's back though the play concert in. Oh yeah, sorry, no, exactly,
that's exactly two different. That's exactly what was going on.
Speaking of college football upcoming this weekend, I told you
Iowa States on the road at Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (02:07:29):
Look out for that when Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (02:07:31):
Is a one and a half point favorite in that
game against the fourteenth rank Cyclones. Listen, Campbell prepares his
teams like on any other coach in college football. If
you go back to Big twelve media days, I say
this a lot on our program. I'll repeat it for
the listeners who don't know our conversations. Jordan our friend
John Kurtz from Open Forbidden Business, it's a Big twelve newsletter.

(02:07:53):
At Big twelve Media Day, asked a slew of different
Big twelve players who the tough fist team in the
Big twelve is to prepare for the majority, The overwhelming
majority of them said Iowa State and Matt Campbell the
way that he prepares his teams, the way that he
sets up to his schemes, the way that they do

(02:08:14):
things at Iowa State makes it really hard to win
football games against them. I'm not worried that Iowa State's
not going to be prepared. I think Cincinnati is just
a better football team than what people have given them credit.

Speaker 2 (02:08:26):
And they're a one and a half point favorite at home.
I'm just not buying it.

Speaker 5 (02:08:31):
I just get I may very well be totally wrong,
but that is I could see Iowa State being a
foreign at Like, even if I was a were a
four and a half point favorite on the road, I'd
be like, man, I close are to five six? Cincinnati
is the favorite? Like, I just wow.

Speaker 3 (02:08:54):
That's a ten am start on ESPN two. It's a
game to look out for this weekend, in my opinion,
in Big twelve play.

Speaker 2 (02:09:00):
Who would you take in that? Right now?

Speaker 4 (02:09:02):
Who would I take in that right now?

Speaker 5 (02:09:04):
You could save it because we make our picks tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (02:09:06):
We will make our picks tomorrow on bryceon Bianucci from
seven to ten am on one, O, three, nine and
ninety eight three FM.

Speaker 2 (02:09:12):
But what does Vegas know?

Speaker 4 (02:09:14):
Man?

Speaker 3 (02:09:16):
That seriously is such a coin flip flip game, and
to be honest with the Iowa State could go in
there and obviously win the football game because I think
Matt Campbell's such a great coach.

Speaker 4 (02:09:24):
I just think that Cincinnati's gonna give him a hard time.

Speaker 5 (02:09:26):
Sure, but you think Iowa's States the best team in
the conference, one of the best two teams. Oh, now
you're backing down.

Speaker 4 (02:09:32):
I'm not backing down. I said one A, one B.

Speaker 3 (02:09:34):
The last time we talked about this, I said Texas
Tech and Iowa State or one A and one B.

Speaker 5 (02:09:39):
I know one A in one B one B can't
go in there as a favorite.

Speaker 3 (02:09:44):
You're right, I just said, well, and that's how much
people don't respect Cincinnati. Vegas fast to respect them or
else they're going to lose their their areses off of
money coming in on on Iowa State and then Cincinnati
beats them.

Speaker 6 (02:09:58):
I'm just wondering, guys. Maybe you know, Bryce, you're plugged
into the gambling world a lot more than Jordan and
I are because you like to you like to dabble.
But what are we What are people like Jordan and
I missing when you Because I think it's crazy that
they're that Iowa State's not a favorite in this game too,
like it. I mean, obviously you get two and a

(02:10:18):
half points for home field, so if this were a
neutral side, Iowa States favored by point, right, But that
still seems very tame. Yeah, So what are some things
that your theories of what we might be missing when
we see a line like that and go what the heck?

Speaker 3 (02:10:35):
Brennan Soresby so far this season has thrown seventy four
completions out of one hundred and seven, ten touchdowns to
one interception. Okay, So I think people are sleeping on
the offensive scoring power of Cincinnati against good teams, not
against just terrible teams on the season. I mean, they
went into Kansas last week and won, and I think

(02:10:57):
people sleep on Kansas a little bit because it value
I think that's a very good win against the Kansas
team on the road. If it comes at home, you
don't give them as much credit for winning that football game.
They scored a lot of points against Kansas last week
on the road and won that football game. Soursbi's a
better quarterback than what people think, and Cincinnati's defensive line
is sneaky good. The guys that they have on that

(02:11:19):
defensive line are athletic and can stop the run. And
I think that's why that matchup between the Cincinnati defensive
line and Iowa State's offensive line and run game is
going to make the difference in this football game coming
up on Saturday.

Speaker 5 (02:11:34):
It is interesting to note that Iowa State opened as
a three and a half favorite.

Speaker 4 (02:11:38):
And the money has rolled in on Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (02:11:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:11:41):
Yeah, so that makes more sense to me now because Cincinnati,
it's not like they've played great teams. I know you
like Kansas, but Kansas isn't phenomenal. And then their only
other good win is good in quotation marks Nebraska or no.
They lost in a Breaka and Nebraska. I was gonna
say they were competitive against Nebraska, who's yeah, just decent.

Speaker 4 (02:12:03):
Right, They're solid, not great.

Speaker 5 (02:12:06):
So that'll be fastest. Okay, I'll watch it because that's
I just don't So.

Speaker 6 (02:12:12):
They're one in one in the in the Kansas City area.
Is that what we're saying? The competitive in both?

Speaker 2 (02:12:17):
That competitive in both competitive in both?

Speaker 3 (02:12:20):
All right, Kansas State's on the road at Baylor this
weekend and that's a ten am start on ESPN plus.

Speaker 4 (02:12:26):
Baylor is a six and a half point favorite.

Speaker 2 (02:12:28):
In that game.

Speaker 3 (02:12:29):
Oklahoma State will take on Arizona one PM. That's a
start in Tucson. Arizona's twenty and a half point favorite there.
I don't think that's going to be very competitive at all.
Texas Tech on the road at Houston though, another one
to look out for it. Yes, Texas Tech is eleven
and a half point favorites. Houston has played better, but
I was disappointed with their showing against Oregon State and

(02:12:51):
their head coach icing their own kicker in overtime with
a timeout as he ran out there to go and
kick the game winning field goals. The bold strategy got
He turned and looked at the sideline and said, what
the hell are you doing?

Speaker 4 (02:13:02):
That's what the kicker did.

Speaker 3 (02:13:02):
Can you imagine being asked by your kicker, your college kicker.
He turns to the sidelines and goes, what the hell
are you doing?

Speaker 2 (02:13:10):
Coach?

Speaker 6 (02:13:10):
He heard our conversation and went, guys, yeah, have you
have you not heard the people talking about we're not
very good at kicking anyway?

Speaker 2 (02:13:19):
Come on now, the poor kid.

Speaker 5 (02:13:21):
I'm scared to death out here and now I'm just
sitting around Oregon State.

Speaker 3 (02:13:26):
Oregon State had no timeouts left in overtime. There's no
way they could have iced him, and Houston takes the time.

Speaker 2 (02:13:34):
Head coach was no, I want him to think about
it a little more. I wanted to really lock it
talking about a game where I had been blocked already.
We're icing.

Speaker 3 (02:13:43):
That's what he's doing. He's icing the field goal blocks.
That's what he's doing.

Speaker 4 (02:13:48):
He's like, Ah, maybe we won't line up the way
you think we will.

Speaker 3 (02:13:52):
So before that game, Jordan I was sitting there thinking
about Houston in the Big twelve and I was like, Okay,
Houston's actually they might be a sneaky good team too.
And then I watched him play a bad Oregon State
team on the road in the West Coast late at
night last Friday, and I was like, Okay, maybe this
team's not as good as I thought they were.

Speaker 5 (02:14:09):
Yeah, I'm telling you, I have my top four or
five teams, and then the rest of the May twelve
is either an enigma or they're terrible. That's my take
on this conference right now.

Speaker 2 (02:14:19):
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 3 (02:14:20):
You look at Houston's games that they've played, They've played
against the Colorado team that we know is okay, thirty
six to twenty win there barely squeaked by Oregon State
on the road twenty seven to twenty four. Rice they
beat thirty five to nine, and Stephen F. Austin twenty
seventy zero. So not a lot of great opportunities to
know about Houston. We'll see what they look like against

(02:14:40):
Texas Tech. I would assume Texas Tech wins by two
or more scores, but you never know. Houston could be
a team that might be surprising to you.

Speaker 5 (02:14:47):
And Texas Tech's quarterback, I believe, was cleared to play
this week as well. Their starter who went out against Utah.

Speaker 3 (02:14:53):
Baron Morton is back and I and they named him
the starter. Yeah, there's no quarterback controversy.

Speaker 6 (02:15:00):
Baron Baron Morton's back, and and I I have from
what I've gathered, he's like as good as Hammond played.
There's as long as as long as Morton can play,
that's who they're going with. And then they feel really
good that they've got a guy like Hammon waiting in
the wings if if, if Morton even forbid goes down again.

(02:15:22):
And yeah, so they see it as a love It's
almost like Jim.

Speaker 2 (02:15:26):
Harbaugh with your Niners when they were when they.

Speaker 6 (02:15:28):
Moved to Kaepernick and he and people were like, what's
the con and he was like, what's the controversy? We
have two good quarterbacks, Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick. That's
what you want. Feels like that's what they got in
Texas Tech.

Speaker 2 (02:15:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:15:39):
Well the controversy is if you have two quarterbacks, you
don't have any quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:15:43):
Yeah that's a nice way. Yeah that's like that's coach speak.

Speaker 4 (02:15:46):
That's the controversy.

Speaker 3 (02:15:48):
Uh So Texas Tech will take on Houston, as I
mentioned as an eleven and a half point favorite on
the road at Houston, Colorado on the road at TCU
five point thirty pm start on FO. TCU is a
thirteen and a half point favorite over Colorado. That shows
you what they think about TCU, what Vegas thinks about
TCU versus what they thought about BYU.

Speaker 2 (02:16:09):
Last week, BYU was.

Speaker 3 (02:16:10):
A six and a half point favorite, and TCU at
home is a thirteen and a half point favorite, So
maybe similar because maybe not so quiet, maybe about four
four and a half points more in favor of TCU
than what they were giving BYU last week. So that
shows you the athletes that TCU has and what they
think they have there Kansas is on the road at

(02:16:32):
UCF five thirty pm start on ESPN two, and Kansas
is just a five and a half point favorite over
UCF there, so that's a big twelve slight this weekend.
We already mentioned BYU taken on West Virginia, don't expect
much of a game down in Provo on Friday night.

Speaker 2 (02:16:47):
No twenty and a half point line currently.

Speaker 3 (02:16:49):
Since at eighteen and a half, these are all according
to ESPN bets, so there's probably some other lines out
there that say.

Speaker 2 (02:16:54):
That the real question I'm going to go to that game.
The real question is over under half time? Am I?
Am I leaving or not?

Speaker 4 (02:17:02):
Are you? Are you taking the stadium taking the under?

Speaker 3 (02:17:05):
I probably can be under over under first quarter, And yeah,
BYU fans hope that that is the case, because if
it's not the case, I know the injuries are starting
to pile up down there, number one, and they need
time to let those guys get healthy. And number two, yeah,
you don't want to have any sort of questions going
into Arizona on the road next week.

Speaker 4 (02:17:26):
If you're BYU.

Speaker 5 (02:17:27):
I think I'll be the only person in the stadium
hoping it's a close game. I just want to be
in I just want a good football game.

Speaker 1 (02:17:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:17:33):
So I mentioned you, I'm on soccer duty tomorrow night
for Utah Valley, so I'm not going to be able
to watch the majority of the game live.

Speaker 4 (02:17:40):
Can you do something for me?

Speaker 3 (02:17:41):
You pay attention to the to the play clock and
checks at the line of scrimmage before fifteen seconds versus
after fifteen seconds.

Speaker 4 (02:17:49):
Yeah, just keep track. Yeah, I'll do my best for
the for the first half.

Speaker 3 (02:17:52):
For the first half, I just want, yeah, for the
first half, because I mean after that, you think Bachmeer
is going to be out of the game.

Speaker 2 (02:17:58):
Yeah, I'll try. Also, also, might be show next week.
I mean I might be.

Speaker 4 (02:18:05):
It might be a sleep anyway.

Speaker 6 (02:18:06):
And I was gonna say, Jordan, you want to be
entertained regardless of the score, just keep your eyes on
rich Rod.

Speaker 2 (02:18:12):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 6 (02:18:13):
The fiery rich Rod that we've always known and loved
was on full display in the in the game against Utah.
They're down, They're down forty one to seven, and he's like,
I broke my headphone, so did rich Rod.

Speaker 3 (02:18:32):
Listen, it's bad in West Virginia. Things are bad right
now for them for the Mountaineers. Yeah, and you talk
about they're down to fourth, fifth, sixth string guys. So
it's just not you're not expecting them to be competitive
in any sense of the the matter. They've got two
quarterbacks listed as out two of the three that have
played so far. It's like they're down to their one
quarterback that they're just gonna throw out there, like it's not.

Speaker 2 (02:18:55):
Going to be pretty.

Speaker 4 (02:18:56):
No, nor should it.

Speaker 1 (02:18:59):
No.

Speaker 2 (02:18:59):
If I'm just bummed, I just want a good I
know you want good college exactly.

Speaker 4 (02:19:03):
I just want a good game almost heaven.

Speaker 3 (02:19:07):
That comes this team that comes your way Tomorrow thirty
pm on the ESPN over under. How many jars of
moonshine will West Virginia fans be putting down the gullet
by halftime? How many West Virginia fans made the trip
out to Utah is my question. Those are the ones
that are dedicated, kidd, Those are the dedicated ones. All Right,
we'll take our final break of the Sean O'Connell Show

(02:19:30):
and we'll wrap it up. Coming up around the corner,
we'll give you an update on the Tigers and Guardians
playoff game that's going on at this moment. We'll talk
about some other Major League Baseball card games, and uh,
maybe maybe we're gonna have Spence Jackets pop in for
some crosstalk.

Speaker 6 (02:19:44):
Here he is, He is here for his show today.
He is not un remote, so we should see Spence
for a little bit of crosstalk. Maybe we'll just hand
it off to him, you know. He he the time
he shows up is not quite consistent every day, so
we'll play that by year as we always do.

Speaker 3 (02:20:02):
Well Love.

Speaker 1 (02:20:09):
Buggy Mayby Skies. As we were listening to a Sean
O'Connell show from the Murdoch Houndi Studio ESPN seven.

Speaker 2 (02:20:30):
Okay, getting ready to.

Speaker 3 (02:20:31):
Wrap up a Thursday October, the second edition of the
Sean O'Connell Show. Appreciates you being along for us for
the ride here this afternoon. Catch us tomorrow. It's a
marathon day for me and Jordan. Three hours from seven
to ten am tomorrow over on our brother station one
three nine ninety eight three FM, and then we're back

(02:20:51):
here with the Sean O'Connell Show. Three more hours, so
six full hours of radio tomorrow. You ready your voice?
Ready for it?

Speaker 5 (02:20:57):
It is talking sports is hard work, and I'm getting
ready to Clay playing too much?

Speaker 3 (02:21:01):
Right, all right, right now, we'll welcome in the one
and only Spence check Attill.

Speaker 4 (02:21:07):
Here him coming up on the drive. Spence, glad to
have you back.

Speaker 2 (02:21:09):
I got to ask you guys a question right off
the top. How's my guy Kyle Beckerman? How's my guy KB?

Speaker 4 (02:21:14):
Fives?

Speaker 3 (02:21:15):
He's doing great things down there at Utah Valley. It
has his team in the top twenty five this year
and a great They've only conceded one goal so far.

Speaker 2 (02:21:23):
So have you guys had a chance to get to
know him at all, not to interview him a little bit?

Speaker 1 (02:21:27):
Now?

Speaker 2 (02:21:28):
He's he's just like made for this role. He's one
of those guys. And it's always interesting to consider what
players make great coaches. It very rarely is like the
best players, right, it's very rarely. Like I remember Magic
Johnson tried to coach the Lakers and lasted nine games,
and they interviewed him and said, why'd you quit? He said,
because none of them play like me? And we're like, yeah, yeah,

(02:21:50):
I know, Magic, You're you're a top five player of
all time. Like so you know the Jeff Vann Gundhi's,
the Phil Jackson's, the Steve Kerrz and Kyle was never
the most talented guy, but every day of training he
was going to out work you. Every day. Every game
he was going to log the most, Like they have

(02:22:10):
this tracking thing in soccer where they just track how
long you run, how far you run. Kyle every game
superseded everybody. So I was actually kind of hoping that
after he retired, RSO would keep him in the fold. Yeah,
and I don't know how long Pablo wants to coach,
and coaches are hired to be fired anyway, but I
have this like grand vision of Kyle coaching RSL at

(02:22:31):
some point. Not to diminish what he's doing down at UVU,
cause I know he's all in, but I'd be interested
to kind of dig in to get some details about
how he's building that thing up, because I knew he'd
be dynamite for this. Oh, he's done a phenomenal job already.

Speaker 3 (02:22:44):
They just barely open up a thirty million dollar new stadium,
UCCU Stadium, and from his own words, he said, it's
better than some of the MLS places that he's been
in terms of a locker room, in terms of the
things like if you haven't been down there, you've got
to get down there and watch a game.

Speaker 2 (02:22:58):
Well, and the other thing about it's interesting you bring
up the facilities. The other thing about Kyle is he
always mandated the best of everybody around him. He always
demanded the best of his teammates. It's what made him
a great leader. And he would point out little details like,
you know, the way they studied film, or the way
the locker room was set up, or the way the

(02:23:18):
social media manager of the team was tweeting about RSL
Like he's so hyper focused on details that just a
role like this is perfectly suited for him. And UVU
to me is like this like sleeping giant when it
comes to the future of that program.

Speaker 4 (02:23:33):
My son went there.

Speaker 2 (02:23:34):
He wanted to live in Utah County without the BYU experience,
so he did the UVU thing. I had a great experience,
and I feel like, you know, just the size of
the school and the longer you can you know, last
and grow more alums will care about the school they
came from and they'll invest, you know, the way that
some of the BYU bros Have invested in BYU. So yeah,

(02:23:55):
I just wanted to check in on my guy, Glad
he's doing well, well, Kyle's doing a great job.

Speaker 3 (02:23:59):
Yeah, oh, go ahead, finish your What I was going
to say is shift over the basketball conversation. Todd Phillips,
who used to be at Salt Lake Community College, won
a couple national championships, doing a phenomenal job there. And
if you take a look at the rankings going into
this year and you compare it to the new PAC twelve.
Now the PAC twelve's they're not going to play basketball
this year, but they will in the following year. Where
Utah Valley would step in In terms of the Evan

(02:24:21):
Miacablo rankings, they're at one hundred and fourteenth. That's good
enough for sixth in that new PAC twelve conference. With Gonzaga,
with Utah State, with San Diego State, with good basketball teams,
they'd be a top six team in that conference.

Speaker 4 (02:24:33):
That's saying something that people don't really realize here.

Speaker 2 (02:24:36):
Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:24:37):
No.

Speaker 5 (02:24:37):
Just as a Beckerman thing, that was one of my
questions was when he goes hired, does he want to
do the stuff that college coaches have to do, which
is talk to donors, yep, all that stuff, And it
sounds like no, he's really good at that stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:24:49):
Kyle will give you everything he has with whatever he's doing.
I mean, that's the thing about Kyle, and it goes
back to who he was as a player. And I
can remember the first because when we traded for Kyle,
we sucked. We were so bad. The team was awful,
and what we lacked was really professionalism and what we
lacked was I mean, certainly talent. But I remember watching

(02:25:09):
the first training and I'm like, okay, you know, like
this is the guy. And of course there are other
players that Jason acquired at the time, Hobby and Morales,
we could go down the list, but Kyle's leadership his
again back to demanding the best from everybody around him.
I just knew at some point, man, if that guy
wants to coach, he's going to be dynamite. So we'll
see what the future of UBU athletics as as a whole.

(02:25:30):
I feel like again a sleeping giant in our state.

Speaker 3 (02:25:31):
Well, I think it does say a lot that the
big programs in the state will no longer schedule UVU
and basketball. I think that says a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:25:38):
Yeah, Well, I mean they've proven they went into the
Marriot Center a few years back in one.

Speaker 4 (02:25:42):
Right, they've won three out of last six.

Speaker 3 (02:25:44):
Was that when Mark was the coach or so, yeah,
so Pope won one and then Madson won.

Speaker 4 (02:25:50):
I guess they're both markets one.

Speaker 2 (02:25:52):
Yeah, that's right. So yeah, it's well in competitive. I
don't know how many teams are going to go to
the Married Center and win this year, that's true.

Speaker 3 (02:25:59):
Which which tells you that if there's any time that
they're going to schedule UVU, this probably should be the
year with their most talented and they still don't want
to do it.

Speaker 2 (02:26:07):
Yeah, and you know, I'm thrilled that whatever process led
Alex Jensen to Utah actually bred that result. But you
know where Kevin's built down there on the backs of
powerful donors. I mean, people don't want to say it
out loud. This is a Ryan Smith Danny Ainge pet project,
This is a passion project. This is their side hustle.

(02:26:28):
And without those two, Kevin doesn't take the job. But
with the funds they've been able to raise, yes, the
money they're paying their players. Sorry, like it's so weird
to me. People don't want to say it out loud,
like it's part of the deal man and it's not
against the rules. You're not circumventing anything. So congratulations, proud
of it. I five instead of trying to preach about
your culture. And that's why aj Deband said, like, look, okay, yeah,

(02:26:49):
he went on your podcast and said he likes Provo.
He also likes his paycheck. Okay, he also likes his
bank account. But that's all is that all of that
is to say is we are potentially out to see
the best college basketball team we've ever seen in the
state in Provo. Yeah, I mean, that's how talented this
kid is. The Rob Wright kid is really good. They
get Richie back, They're seven eight deep. They probably have

(02:27:10):
three four pros. And if you want to win a
national championship in college basketball, you got to have three
or four pros. I mean Rick did when they went
to the championship game with Andre and Britt and Toliak
and obviously Van Horn before that. And this is probably
the first team we've had since maybe those Majari's teams.
It has three or four legitimate NBA guys. So if
you're a college basketball fan, as horrible as it is

(02:27:32):
to drive to Provo and drive back, you might want
to schedule some trips to the Marriott Center this.

Speaker 3 (02:27:36):
Year, no doubt, one more plug for my guys down
at UVU, for all the Jazz fans that are out there.
Then I have one more question to ask you before
we get out of here, all the Jazz fans. Taylor
Hendrick's brother Tyler signed with UVU in right offseason. Yeah,
so there's a reason for you to go and watch
Utah Valley basketball.

Speaker 1 (02:27:52):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:27:52):
Is he built like Taylor? I don't know anything about him.

Speaker 3 (02:27:54):
Yeah, he's a big kid. One of the better shooters
on that UCF roster. Just didn't get a lot of time.

Speaker 1 (02:27:59):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (02:27:59):
So here's this, this opportunity to get out of the
court shoot the basketball. I think it's gonna be great.
He's gonna be the guy good stuff for UVU. Final thing,
Red Sox Yankees tonight elimination game. How are we feeling well?
Two young arms and Game one was Yankee mistakes? Game
two was Red Sox mistakes. The Red Sox load of
the bases popped out. Dude, with this rivalry, you just

(02:28:19):
never know, And I'm just hoping it's close.

Speaker 2 (02:28:22):
Obviously, I hope the Yankees win, but yeah, I mean
I feel good that they're at Yankee stadium. They didn't
overthink the analytics. They played Jazz. They played Ben Ben
hit a too run home run, Jazz scored the game
winning run, saved a run two. But this is like
the only way I can describe it is locally the
way a Utah fan or a BYU fan feels during

(02:28:43):
game week. When Yankees Red Sox play, it's like the
only game left where the fan in me is still alive. Yeah,
because you guys have been doing this long enough by
now to know the fans side of you has to
be a little bit agnostic if you're in a crack
a microphone and talk for hours about sports. So people
ask me all the time, like who do you cheer for? Locally,
say everyone. I want everyone to win because it's better
for my business, period, right, you know, Like, and that

(02:29:05):
includes every single school, every single team. I want everybody
to win every single game. But this is kind of
like the childhood Yankee fan. You know, I grew up
with the Core four in the nineties with Mo and
Jeter and pat It and those guys, and so it's
still like alive in me. So I'm kind of glad
that it doesn't start and tell the show's over so
I can go home and watch. It'll be fun tonight,
Yes it will, Yes, it will all right. Spence, thanks

(02:29:25):
for jumping on with us to see boys.

Speaker 3 (02:29:26):
Good luck with your show later on, and we appreciate
you the listener for joining us throughout the Shan O'Connell
show here this afternoon. We'll be back tomorrow. Just a reminder,
we're doing six full hours of radio. You can find
us in the morning on one O three nine and
ninety eight three FM. Then we'll be back here on
the Sean O'Connell Show to wrap you up on a
bye week for Utah and of course a big NFL weekend.

(02:29:48):
We've got a lot left for you on tomorrow's program
as well. For now, we'll pass it on to Spence
check it's in the drive. That's all coming up next
here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FM.