Sean O'Connell Show w/Porter Larsen - Full POD 10-1-25

Porter talks Utah Volleyball with Head Coach Beth Launiere, Utah Football with Trevor Reilly, NFL with Geoff Schwartz, Utah Mammoth preseason with Adrian Denny, MLB Playoffs wildcard round continuing + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
This He's the Shan O'Connell Show, brought you by Big
Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
the Utes, ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one a FM,
a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello there, welcome in Shan O'Connell Show on ESPN seven
hundred ninety two point one FM. I am Porter Larson.
Of course Sean O'Connell out. We'll get to where he's
at a little bit later on, but appreciate you guys
for joining us on this Wednesday afternoon. Looking forward to

(01:04):
a good jam pack show today. We're watching a little
baseball in studio this midday, but talking a lot of football.
We'll get to it all as the show goes along.
Trevor Riley, Jeff Schwartz, Beth Lanier, Utah volleyball coach, will
stop by the program. We'll talk a little bit of
hockey with Adrian Denny that is between the pipes, and

(01:27):
more still to come on the Sean o'connellton Show. I'll
be with you later on today on the drive as well.
James Peterson is behind the glass and as I mentioned,
we're gonna be talking a lot of football today, but
James Red Sox gear. Of course, let's go man for
you today, and we would expect no less from Jersey

(01:48):
James to be rocking some Red Sox paraphernalia today. It's
you know, wild card season, if you will, there the
small comeback win last night, doing it in a typical
Red Sox fashion this year Porter right, I feel like
everyone talks about this Red Sox offense is explosive because

(02:11):
statistically they have scored a ton of runs this year
and even post the Devers trade, but it's not. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't describe it as explosive because they it's like
a it's like a it's it's like a deliberate single here,
extra base hit here, not a lot of homers. It's
not a big, poppy, three run homer. No. Now, if

(02:32):
they had a seventh like it sometimes was, if they
had held on to Devers, if that situation had hadn't
become completely untenable for the Red Sox front office, then
it would we'd be Yeah, there'd be a lot more
explosiveness because Devers would be hitting a lot more homers
along with Story and and and Bregman like Bregman didn't
even have twenty homers this year, right, and he was

(02:53):
number I think the second, their number two home run
hitter this year. Trevor Story led the team with twenty
five and he didn't even get going till July. So
this is a this is a manufacturer runs, not necessarily
bunting and moving guys over kind of thing. But it's
it's a it's a stressful team to watch offensively, even

(03:13):
though they do score a lot of runs. And they
got it done. Chapman almost gave me a heart attack
in the ninth then, but but but we did it
all right, one oh one more game moving on to
the alds Let's and you mentioned it. It may be
a little more of like a deliberate attack than you're
used to with the Red Sox sometimes, man, they uh,

(03:34):
it's part of the deal. When you were a big
market team in baseball, usually have a couple of big bats, right, yeah,
and listen, if they're gonna extend this run, they'll need
someone to get hot. But this approach may be a
little bit more sustainable through a full postseason, so that
I don't know, especially if the especially if the pitching

(03:55):
and the bullpen holds up Crochet was incredible. If they
can get other guys in the rotation to to pitch
well and and win you the If the starting rotation
can win you two three games a series, they have
enough on offense, and the bullpen is is certainly good
enough to get you the other one or two wins

(04:17):
you need. So we'll see. I don't think they're gonna
win the World Series this year, porter, but it's just
great to have them back in the playoffs. Four years
in between playoff appearances is way too long for me
as a Red Sox man. It just as a baseball
fan in general, if your team's not in the postseason, man,
it's it's hard to stomach. It's such a long year.

(04:38):
It's such a long I still loved, I still love
watching the playoffs, whether Red Sox are in or not.
It's it's really fun. It's really fun product in the playoffs.
But it's just it's it makes you feel dead inside
after one hundred and sixty two games a few years
in a row. Nope, no October, and so I'm just
pumped that they're playing some October baseball. The Kid, I

(05:01):
love love having the Kid introducing the Kid to Red
Sox October Baseball as well. He's he's got he's got
a couple of pieces of Red Sox gear already already. Yeah,
so we're watching, we're watching choose for himself. I know
I did the Josh Newman thing. You know, Newman's first
first boy. He put him in the in the Aaron

(05:22):
Rodgers Jets. Suresey, I kind of did that, but a
little I don't know if I would have done that,
the specific one if I was Josh Newman at the time.
But they were those Jets fans. They the Jets were
excited about Rogers for a little bit there. Yeah, I
I was probably like as a as a young child,

(05:42):
like blessed in Cowboys gear. So I can't speak there.
You know, sometimes you're you're born or cursed with it. Yeah,
and who knows, maybe he chooses something else. My wife's
tease me about that. I'm like, he's gotta be careful.
As long as it's not the Yankees, I'm I'm fine. Yeah,
you gotta be careful with that. Sometimes they'll they'll rebel.
You can be a Twins fan, you can be a

(06:03):
Padres fan, Like I don't have any problem with that,
just not the just not the Yankees. That's fair. This
is fair. This is fair. That's what's gonna happen. Speaking
of that, though, this is your home of MLB Baseball
on uh. On the on the playoff side, James, give
us an idea. First off, we're monitoring live games, live
playoff baseball. That's one part I do love about, Like

(06:27):
midday afternoon radio is sometimes we get live events Tigers,
Guardians just getting going. So we'll we'll have that at
least to monitorzation we go. We go along Padres Cubs
tonight or a little bit later this afternoon, Red Sox
Yankees at four o'clock. So I'm sure James will be
headed out to the studio quick. I've been. I've been

(06:48):
having some later days, as you know, after leaving after five,
sometimes after six. I noticed yesterday you were head at home. Click.
I'm like, I'm gonna hustle a little bit and get
out of here before four. So yesterday was that for
the kiddo? Or was that baseball? That was? Well? It
was it was main baseball was the main motivation? Is
a safe Yeah, baseball was the main motivation because unfortunately

(07:11):
I've gotten My wife used to Hey, there's a lot
of days I gonna be home after five sometimes and
we're going over time or otherwise. Yeah, and you know,
she's she's been fine with that arrangement, but yeah, it
was it was a lot of I didn't have as
much to do yesterday as the past few weeks. Bye
week is a little less busy that way, and uh,

(07:34):
I'm like, yeah, let's try to let's get home before
four since I since I'm done with work already. So yeah,
as far as what we got going on, we have
games on the on the entire network right porter, so
that means also some games on the fan. Uh, Scheduling wise,
it was just a lot easier to schedule these two,
these first two wild Card games, the Dodgers Reds games

(07:57):
on the fan and one of three nine ninety eight
three FM also the ESPN the Fan app. So you'll
you'll get tonight's game Dodgers Reds on that one tomorrow.
If there's gonna be game threes, we will not have
them because of live shows. It's these exact same times,
the teams play, same teams play the exact same times

(08:19):
all three days during the Wild Guard round and watch
so while to us yeah, so we'll have live programming
listen to. So we'll have live programming that gets in
the way of the early games as we've had, as
we had yesterday, and we will have today the night game.
It's because we got Thursday Night football Rams Niners and
then that's on both stations, by the way, because we

(08:41):
have the RAMS home game home broadcasts on the fan
no way, So we're gonna have the RAMS home broadcast
on one of three nine ninety eight three ESPN the
fan that's on the FM broadcast on the on the
Westwood one broadcast on the national broadcast here on ESPN seven.
So if you're if you're a RAMS fan, if you're

(09:02):
a b Yu and thus big pookin Akua fan, you
may want to tune into the home broadcast. If you're
just a big NFL fan, maybe tune over to the national one.
Or if you're just curious what the RAMS home broadcast
sounds like, check that out. It's our our friend JB.
Long the play by play voice, uh Greese Jones Drew
is the color analyst. H So they got some heavy

(09:24):
hitters over there. Yeah, MJ d And and JB. Long
are a really good tandem. Obviously Maurice Jones Drew brings
a wealth of football knowledge, but uh jb is is
a friend of the show, friend of the program, and
really good voice of the Rams. And like James said,
pookin Nakua is obviously now not some sort of flash

(09:49):
in the pan. We've known the heat stuff he brings.
But what he is doing, the numbers, the consistency, it's
pretty remarkable, man. I mean he him and Fred Warner
are the highest rated, the two highest rated players in
the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. And if you

(10:09):
look at a bunch of other record wreck uh you know,
kind of stat analytics brands, they're up there in those
as well. It's it's just did you see Fred almost
knock the ball loose jumping over the line dur in
victory formation the other night? My gosh, I was like
he got his hand on the ball, and it would

(10:31):
have been like he got his hand on the ball
right before the knee touched the ground. So if he'd
have jarred that loose, that would have been a fumble.
I mean, that was incredible. I wish it. I wish
it would have worked out that way. I think Aaron
Donald has has made a play on those before, but
was famous for that kind of stuff. He's his was
on an attempted spike he almost intercepted, right, he had

(10:53):
fingertips under it.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Gosh.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
By the way, the speaking of that Niners game, Devin
was a beast for the Jaguars on Sunday. Fred Warner
is right now the best linebacker in the NFL. If
we're just talking about the first month of the season
so far, Devin Lloyd is right there behind him. He is.
He is playing elite football. He It was interesting watching

(11:20):
the first couple of years of his season because I
thought after he left the University of Utah, and I
shouldn't say I thought, I knew we all saw the
product on the field, I saw it behind the scenes
as he prepared for the draft. I knew that that
was a guy that was ready for the NFL physically, mentally,
from a football IQ and mental standpoint. He was there. However,

(11:45):
it seemed like there was some sort of adjustment period
for him in that defense, which I thought. I thought
it was when he got drafted by Jacksonville. I thought
it was a perfect fit for the way he would
play as that mike linebacker, and it took Devin a
little bit of time to adjust, and maybe that's just,

(12:07):
you know, a product of maybe a little bit of
the speed of the NFL, that the physicality is a
step up from the PAC twelve that he played at.
I don't know what it was, but there was a
little bit of an adjustment for Devin. He also, to
be clear, during a fair share of this time was

(12:27):
dealing with some injuries, more nagging than serious. So Devin
is now at a point where he is healthy, he
is comfortable in that defense, he is orchestrating a lot
of that defense, and he is making plays. Man, he
is if he's all over the place. He was all
over the backfield against the Niners on Sunday, all over

(12:49):
the backfield, but also making plays and coverage, interceptions, pass breakups,
fumble force fumbles. I mean he is. He is playing.
And when I say an elite level, I don't like
when that term is used liberally. Yeah, a little oversaturation
with that, yeah, elite Like okay, really, because if we're

(13:12):
talking elite and we're talking about the NFL, there's maybe
two or three, right, it depends on the position. Right,
depends on the position right. Receivers maybe there's five to ten.
I'm talking you are a top five player in the
world at your position at the time you're playing when
I'm talking elite, and that's what Devin Lloyd has been

(13:33):
doing over the first month of the NFL season. He
is far from the only local that is playing at
a at a high level and in that elite category.
Fred Warner, Puka Nakua, those are the probably only two
others in that stratosphere. But man, it's been a lot
of fun to watch. Yeah, going back to Pooka, I

(13:55):
think Bryce Larson yesterday when he and Jordan Bianucci filled
in for OC yesterday, I think he he found the
stat that it was like forty two or forty three
catches or Pooka on fifty targets or something, and maybe
you know, we can go through verify that. I may
have I may have butchered what he said, but it

(14:15):
was like basically every time they every time Stafford throws
them the ball, he's coming down with it, no matter
the coverage, no matter, no matter anything, he's no matter
if like he Stafford's having to ad lib and he's
and he's having to adjust the route a little bit.
Who was coming down with the pass like Pooka and listen,

(14:37):
I think we all knew that he was an incredible talent.
You know, watch him in Orum and with the with
the offers he got. He ends up at Washington at first,
and how he played it at his last was that
two years at BYU, Right, but he was He's showed
no indication he was this good, like as he would
be this good as an NFL player, at least from

(14:59):
my perspective. Maybe I'm completely wrong. I mean, I think
he showed flashes of it right there. There were moments
that BYU when he was healthy and listen, you didn't
have the quarterbacks, so that was maybe why it looked
like to me that he didn't really like no way
this guy like he looked like a guy that went
in the fifth round. And that's why I say flashes

(15:19):
because it would just jump off the screen at moments
during the course of play. It may be, you know,
kind of a pedestrian game going on between BYU and
their opponent. But then Pukinaku would do something that you're like, whoa, right,
and it seems like this one off because he may
have had two receptions for fifty two yards that game,

(15:41):
but it was something that once NFL scouts went and
looked back on it, they're like, oh, you know, I
don't know how many players can make that play. And
when you just up the targets, when you just up
the data on that, he's going to continue to make
those plays you mentioned it. Probably a Hall of Fame

(16:02):
quarterback too. That's the other thing. Fifty targets of forty
two receptions, that is the correct number that the targets
leads the league by quite a white wide margin. Interestingly enough,
second is Christian McCaffrey out of the backfield. He is
second in the league in targets from a passing standpoint.
Chris Alave, Jake Ferguson, Garrett Wilson unsurprisingly in those in

(16:25):
the top categories there as well, but Pukinakua fifty targets,
forty two receptions, five hundred and three yards. He is
the only receiver with five hundred yards and there's only
one other that has four hundred that's Jackson Smith and Jigba,
and he just crossed over the four hundred yard platform.
He's been good to start this season too, obviously someone

(16:46):
I yeah, a couple of fumbles, but as far as
as far as that yardage doesn't surprise me. He's second
in the league because from that perspective, he's been pretty good.
Ricky Piersall and Christian McCaffrey both in the top ten
in receiving, which is a kind of a standout number
to me. Interestingly, Yeah, do you have any insight sorry,

(17:07):
before we move, no, go ahead, do you have any
insight as to how Utah didn't get him in the
when he transferred or initially when he committed at Washington
because he was Utah was one of his hookah you said, yeah,
pooka because what Utah was one of his final teams.
Samson was on the was on the team at the
time he committed to Washington, so a little bit, a

(17:28):
little bit, I don't know if you remember, but this
was a decision that he and Samson kind of came
to together.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
Right.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Their mother, she was a huge part of this, right there,
Utah County kids, and I think that that was kind
of the driving force was they could just want by
U and to all more so I'll just be together, right. Yeah.
They had lost their father young, so there there was
a connection there with their mother that was really deep

(17:58):
and and that was a huge part of it. And
now here's the deal that could have happened at Utah.
Yeah in some way. I mean it's forty miles away, right,
but I think that that's much closer to mom at
home is made it made a big difference, right, And
at that point I know that I think Samson had
kind of made his decision not to be you know,

(18:19):
to to transfer from Utah, so they said, hey, let's
just go home. And uh that is that is kind
of the very short version of it. There's I mean,
there was a lot of behind the scenes where I
know the day of their commitment, there were people at
TV stations, there were people with the nakup As that
were saying they were coming to Utah. It was it

(18:42):
was very much close, and there were there was a
chance that they could play at either school. But yeah,
I think it turned out pretty good for both of them.
And yeah, Puka man, like I said, you didn't see
it maybe as often as you'd think for a like
a top flight elite receiver, but it byu. If you

(19:03):
go back and watch some of the tape, some of
the plays that he would make, even on like Errant
throws just on the sideline, even if it wasn't a
first down or a big highlight play that would make
Sports Center. You know, it's a third down conversion early
in the game, but he's making this play on the sideline,
getting both feet down noticeably, and just his ball skills,

(19:26):
his awareness, and you combine it with clearly the athleticism
man he is. He is something special. One hundred and
twenty six yards per game this year. Those are just
bonkers numbers. Obviously double digit receptions every game if I'm
not mistaken too, he's averaging ten point one yards or

(19:46):
ten point yard one catches per game. So just remarkable
stuff from Puka Nakua, one of many local standouts right
now in the NFL. Utah on a bye week, I
think really well timed for Utah. We we talked about

(20:07):
this before. BYU had like a really early odd bye
week for Utah. Three. Yeah, they had their buy they
were two and zero and and and went on a buye.
I feel like I feel like they got to be
able to figure out every team at least playing three games,
like at least getting through they're not they're maybe not

(20:28):
all non conference, but that non conference part of the
schedule from week one to week three at least, like
you don't get a bye until you've had at least
three games played. I can understand like Utah's feel, their
two buys feel, and last year's too, felt like the
exact perfect time. You played a month of games and
then you and then you take a week off, you

(20:49):
play another month, then you take another week off. That's
kind That's basically how it is again this year. I
understand it for your bodies too, right. I understand that
you can't make that work for every team in the
FBS or in the power for at the very least,
but I feel like you can at least give everyone

(21:11):
like wait until everyone's gotten through week three, I would think.
But maybe they've looked at it and they like, we
can't do that. So there's gonna be some wonky byes. Well,
context is always key, and this one's a little niche
for Utah. But BYU petitions every year to have their
bye week fall this weekend, at least one of them

(21:33):
because this General conference, right, Okay, so that is built
into BYU schedule. The Big the Big twelve has so
far accommodated that request. Or they play on a Thursday
or Friday, like their pend Friday this week, correct, and
so that is always historically been a thing where they
kind of build that into the schedule. Interestingly enough, BYU's

(21:56):
by was super early, and then that requires you to
go late in the season and you kind of have
a gauntlet man to end the year. You're at Iowa State,
You're at Texas Tech, You've got TCU, you're in Cincinnati,
you finish with UCF. I know, we don't really know
a whole lot about all of those teams, but yeah,
like you said, James, that's that's one you'd like to

(22:20):
have a break during, I think absolutely. And their second
bye is that also, is that in October? Yeah, so
they like just terrible placement of their of their buys
for BYU, absolutely terrible James for Utah. This bye week
comes at a time where obviously I think getting healthy

(22:43):
is is paramount. You get Arizona State on the way back,
and that's a big one for both teams. Arizona State
obviously kind of a surprise Big twelve champion last year.
They came into the season, I know from Vegas the
underdog as far as odds go, they were the lowest

(23:06):
odds on a lot of those boards. And I believe
if you remember this correctly, correct me if I'm wrong.
They were last in the Big twelve media poll going
in so Arizona State man a surprise, really impressive season
from from Kenny Dillingham and co. They're gonna come into
Salt Lake City a different team than we're used to.

(23:28):
I feel like the Arizona State team historically in the
Pac twelve that we got was they were I mean,
they were always physical, they were always fairly tough, and
I believe Utah and Arizona State had more of like
a chippy rivalry than a competitive rivalry. But this is
a different Arizona State team. This is a more organized,

(23:49):
more structured, and just more competitive Arizona State team you're
gonna get, I think, for at least the near future.
Kenny Dillon, with how he has kind of bursted on
the scene, it's kind of earned himself probably five years.
He's probably got a little bit of a recruiting bump.

(24:10):
You're gonna see him reap the benefits of the strong start,
and because of that, I think this is a team
that you're gonna at least see field competitive rosters for
a couple of years here in the Big twelve, and
I think you're gonna see a really good football game
when Utah returns from this bye week. And because of that,

(24:31):
like I said, the return is in, the return to
relative health is going to be huge for Utah. Obviously,
Devin dan Pierre, he looked a lot better against West
Virginia physically than he did against Texas Tech. But those
ankle sprains, those those twisks, those twists and tweaks of

(24:56):
the ankle man, they they take time. They take a month,
two months sometimes more to like really really get back
to where you're at full strength and you're confident, and
you know that's his plant leg. That's where he has
to step into throws. You saw on the one that
got called back against Texas Tech, he didn't necessarily step

(25:18):
into that throw. He kind of just chucked it up there.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Now.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
It ended up being a good toss and Jackson Benny
took it to the house and obviously got called back
for the egal man downfield. But you saw in that throw,
even though he put it on the money, it was
affecting him a little bit on just how now he
was about to get hit as well. But he was
favoring that ankle a little bit. I hope he gets
to a point where he doesn't have to do that

(25:43):
at all and Utah doesn't have to worry about that now.
The other probably biggest concern when it comes to injuries
and depth for Utah is in the defensive backfield. You
lose Rabbit Evans, who was already coming back from an injury.
He missed time to start the year. That was fairly precautionary.

(26:05):
They wanted him to be one hundred percent when he
came back, and I talked to Kyle Whittingham after it happened.
I think he confirmed it was six or seven plays
into Rabbit Evans' season obviously gets the injury at Wyoming.
It was mostly non contact. There was some confusion there

(26:26):
because he did have some contact. He was kind of
wrestling with the receiver in that five yard grace period
zone and his knee just kind of buckled. You could
see it. It wasn't caused by the contact. It was
caused by him trying to backpedal and didn't look good.
Kyle Whittingham confirmed, so Rabbit will be back next year hopefully.

(26:47):
And then you see Nate Richie go down we'll get
more on Nate Ritchie's but it doesn't look good in
that direction either, And for Utah that leaves a lot
of questions in the defensive backfield. And it also if
you've been watching Leaf's question marks on the offense, because well,
guess who have been your playmakers on offense in a

(27:09):
lot of ways. Yes, Ryan Davis as a possession receiver,
he has been phenomenal, maybe one of the more underrated
players for Utah along with mister Laya on the defensive line.
But your playmakers have been guys that are going to
be needing to take more reps now more snaps on
the defensive side. And Smith, Noden and Jackson Benny who

(27:29):
Jackson Benny specifically playing a lot of nickel, but he
he may be asked to step back and play some
safety if not, which means probably less snaps for Snowden
on offense, and almost certainly less snaps on offense for
Jackson Benny, especially because he left the game hobbled yep

(27:52):
with it looked like maybe an ankle, certainly a lower
body injury. There are quite a few of those against
West Virginia, I think, so that's not a lot of
them expected to be long term. I don't think that
Kyle Whittingham and Morgan Scaley are going to be saying
when when Jason Beck says, hey, so I can I
can count on those guys for this many STAPs snaps
this game, right, And I don't think either of them

(28:13):
are gonna be like, yeah, absolutely, given how thin that
defensive backfield has got. Yeah, it's it's gonna be one
of the dynamics we have to pay attention to as
the season wears on, and I think it's gonna be
one that competitively for Utah is gonna be really important.
They are going to be teams if you want to
contend for this conference that are going to challenge you

(28:34):
on the back end.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
You know, they're not going to allow you to just
play single high safety and stop the run. They're gonna
try to beat you through the air as well. And
you know, Texas Tech is a good example. Even though man,
they they they mostly handled Utah upfront, which is one
of the more surprising things about that matchup. You're gonna
have to kind of do it both ways against that
Texas Tech team if you by some chance meet them,

(29:00):
all right, that's gonna do it. For the first segment,
a bunch of college football utes talk as you'd expect
on your home of the youtes and of course me
filling in for Shan O'Connell. I will host your utes
game days each and every week here on the station
four hours before kickoff. On the other side, though, we'll
talk a little well, we'll go all over the map.

(29:21):
Beth Lanier, you taught volleyball coach, but we'll go all
over the map. But of course we'll talk some UTAP
volleyball with the head ball coach there. Later on in
the program, Jeff Schwartz, Trevor Reilly and Moore, Adrian Denny
talking some hockey on the Sean O'Connell Show. Your home
of Utah Football, Utah's number one sports talk It is

(29:44):
ESPN seven hundred ninety two point one FM, proud part
of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 5 (29:54):
You're tuned to.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
The Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN.
Half a.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Little Eddie Money James Peterson bringing us back with Eddie money. Wow,
I didn't have that on my bingo card. Is that
a bethlen the year or Is that just a random
Is that an o C. Jameis Peterson especially likes likes
the eighties hits. Okay, this is this is one of
those hits from the eighties and I you know, I

(30:33):
love it when it gets times and they want aclock
hour because take me home. But uh we got it.
We got an eleven o'clock hour today. My parents approof,
my parents approof of the eighties, eighties hits and eighties
eighties rock. A little Eddie money bringing you back to
it on the Sean O'Connell show. I am Porter Larson

(30:53):
filling in on this Wednesday afternoon. Happy up day to you.
Halfway through your work week and halfway close are to
the weekend. Now it's a bye week for Utah football.
The Cougars of course. The early matchup this week against
West Virginia, the team that Utah already faced a lot
of Big twelve stuff that we can get to. Baseball

(31:17):
wild Card week, Cleveland is up one to oh now
over Detroit. I mentioned a little bit earlier. We'll give
you guys a little bit of live updates as we
go along throughout the afternoon. It is the AL wild
Card right now. We'll get to the rest of the
games later bit later on this afternoon. James's Red Sox
and the Yankees in that historic rivalry, we'll go to

(31:40):
battle later on today at about four o'clock. So a
lot of fun baseball live today on the on the
air waves, but a lot of football chat on the station.
West Virginia is a team that I don't know we're
gonna learn a lot about BYU from just based on

(32:01):
what we've seen so far and where they are. Utah
beat them forty eight to fourteen, and in a lot
of ways, wasn't you know that wasn't even that close.
Utah probably could have, you know, expanded upon that lead
in West Virginia right now with the health situation. I mean,

(32:22):
you guys saw the Big twelve availability report before going
into that game. It was a skeleton squad of their
roster going in, and much of the same this week
against BYU. So while the Cougars are ranked and they
look good, you know, I think that they'll go as

(32:43):
far as one Bear Bachmeyer will take them. We don't
know a whole lot, and I don't know that we'll
learn a whole lot against a West Virginia team either.
What we do know quite a bit about is beth
Lenear's volleyball team. Somehow, Beth, somehow, we're already you know,
I don't know. I don't want to say midway through
the season, but into the conference play Utah Volleyball eight

(33:06):
and five all ready and uh a tough start to
Big twelve play. So I want to start with how
are you doing? Because much like football, we waited all
off season and then it seems like the actual season
goes by in the staff of a finger.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
Hi, thank you, thanks for having me, and yeah, I'm
doing okay. It's a really weird thing for fall sports.
Like say, just like you said, we gear up for
the season, we go through a preseason of four weekends,
and then we get into the conference and it seems
like we're halfway. But yeah, we're kind of not right.
We're just getting started in the Big twelve. So yeah,

(33:44):
you know, we we we've got we faced some adversity,
but I'm doing okay. Thank you for asking. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Of course, of course is always important there Now, how
is Utah volleyball doing? You You've mentioned some adversity. There's
of course always injuries a part of the game. How
are you guys doing going into Big twelve play and
we'll segue that into a little chat about the conference
as well.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
Okay, sounds good. Yeah, we opened up the first weekend,
you know, beat a really good day and team, both
of us were top twenty five, and we just played
great the whole first weekend. And I don't like to
make excuses, you know, no coach wants to do that,
but we really got hit. We got hit with the
injury bug and we got hit with a snickbug all

(34:35):
at the same time. So we you know, all things considered,
we were really pleased to get out of our preseason
with an eight and three record, two of the losses
against top you know, top ten teams, so we survived.
But we had we had four starters out in the
last weekend, and you know, again we survived. But the

(34:58):
worst part about it was we didn't have of two
of our key players practicing for three of the four
weeks of preseason, so we got everybody back before last weekend.
And again the sickness, we had fevers and chills and
it ran through our whole whole team. So yeah, we
went into Big twelve and we were excited that we

(35:19):
got people back from some you know, soft tissue injuries,
but you know they had practice for three weeks. So
we faced a very good Iowa State team. You know,
they beat us in five. You know last year we
finished our season at their place last year and we
had to beat them to host last year, and we

(35:40):
went down two, and we did a reverse sweep on
them and got the five, got the winning five, and
then they did the same thing to us. Unfortunately, we
went out won the first two sets, but we couldn't
maintain it, and then we fased to get Colorado team.
So I don't know when the last time we finished
you know, started owing two. But we got to work
cut out for us moving forward.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Well, and you mentioned bet the kind of preseason non
conference adversity and the health struggles. That's got to be
obviously something you'd never want to deal with as as
a coach. It's always you know, makes you earn your paycheck.
But that's got to be valuable for the players that
got reps, got in game experience that you know, maybe

(36:17):
wouldn't have gotten as much of that early season that
you know, now we'll pay dividends going forward.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yeah, I think that's that's that's true statement. And you
know you only have depth if you play it. And
we were forced to play a lot of players that
maybe won't see as much time moving forward, but they
certainly got some really high quality reps and and again
you know we won won some really tough matches. So yeah,
there's there's there's always value and adversity. You know, I

(36:44):
talked to my embrace it and respond and you know
it's life lessons all over the place. Saying adversity and
figuring out how to come out the other end, you know,
at a better place, is part of what sports teaches.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
You, all right, Beth. Obviously you making a transition from
the Pac twelve to the Big twelve. It's still probably
something that is ongoing in some ways. But uh, from
a from a conference wide perspective, competition perspective, how have
these conferences contrasted and and how do you how do

(37:28):
you approach that as far as the teams you're facing,
the athletes you're facing, or is that something that you know,
maybe we read too much into it's more of an institution,
case by case, team by team bases.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Well, I think I think it's the real, real realism
to that, you know, the biggest thing last you know,
one of the big things is that in our second year,
we're still going to new facilities. You know, we went
to half of the facilities last year and now we're
going to go to the other half this year. Of course,
we play the Arizona's and BUYU in Colorado twice. But
as far as the conference goes, compared to what the

(38:02):
Pac twelve was, this conference is very strong and it's
got a lot of depth. In fact, we came out
of pre season out of as a conference. We came
out of preseason with the highest winning percentage, which is
very very good for us when it comes to RPI
time at the end of the season trying to get
automatic bids. That was a huge preseason for Big twelve.

(38:22):
There was a lot of big time wins across the conference.
And yeah, I think there's you know, you know, the
Pac twelve had, you know, Stanford, who could always they
could win a national championship on any given year. So
I don't know that there's a team like that in
this Big twelve. But the depth is great, and you know,
but opening weekend, you know, BYU was picked to win

(38:43):
the conference and they got beat by Colorado, and so
it's just there's there's already been upsets, and I think
it's going to be that kind of year. I think
it's I think it's going to be very competitive conference season.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, it's interesting. The Pac twelve always seemed to have,
you know, a team I want to say, ranked in
the top two or three at any given time, right
And there may not be that team you look at
all year in the Big twelve, but it just seems
like there are a dozen or so teams that are
on any given night going to be able to give

(39:15):
the top teams a run at their money. And that's
that's an interesting dynamic to try to navigate and a
little bit different than the conference you used to You
used to coach, and I didn't really think of it,
but interesting you mentioned you're still navigating new facilities, you're
still going to conference towns that you've never been to before.
I think from a coach's perspective, maybe more from like

(39:38):
a you know, the the people you work with in
the logistics side, maybe more for them an adjustment, But
that's still when you're looking for your your hotel room,
you don't know the route to the locker room. That's
you know, that's a that's a real effect on a team.

Speaker 5 (39:57):
It's more than It's not something you gonna come by
any stretch, but there. You know, one of the good
things about being a conference for a long time is
the familiarity with the facilities, the coaches, the fans, and
so we're just starting to build that. And that's this one.

(40:17):
It's gonna be you know, there's there's already a great
rivalry starting to blossom. And yeah, I'm excited to be
in this conference. It's it's a very good volleyball. It's
it's not gonna be easy for sure.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
That is Beth Lanier, head coach of Utah Volleyball. As
we mentioned off to, I want to start in the
Big twelve. But a lot of context that we just
got to that that revolves around there. They've got Arizona
and Arizona State on the road in Tucson and Tempee.
We'll we'll let you go bet a little radio little
radio cell connection issues, but quick quick preview of the

(40:54):
Arizona trip on your way out.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
Yeah, Arizona, you know they've got they've got a outside
Hayter that's one of the top players in the conference
in the country to be fair, so we'll have a
challenge there. Arizona State just beat Kansas, who you know,
we're ranked you know, two and three in the conference
in five so they won the conference last year, so

(41:19):
they're going to be tough too. It's this is going
to be a tough road trip, but we're excited. You know,
we know these teams, we know these facilities, we know
these coaches, we know these fans, so we're excited to
get down there and get back after it this weekend.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah, unlike what we just spoke about, you're very familiar
with our ASU and Arizona. Be enjoyed the trip, good
luck and best wishes in big twelth play, thank you,
thank you. And as I just mentioned familiarity on the
Arizona and Arizona State team Arizona State matchups, well you

(41:53):
can also see those games on a familiar station, FS one.
Utah and Arizona playing on FS one. Pack twelve is back, Baby.
Arizona State game will be on ESPN Plus. That's on
October second and the fourth, Thursday and Saturday for Utah volleyball.
A fun squad and yeah, we'll chat with Beth Lanier

(42:19):
as the season goes along and as Big twelve play continues.
No update as of now on the AL Wildcard. It's
still one to oh Cleveland over Detroit. They are in
the bottom of the second two outs and a full count.
As we head into a commercial break. The Sean O'Connell

(42:40):
Show brought to you by our friends at Big Willies.
Big Willies Sports Bar in Salt Lake. From Craft food
to Kraft Cocktails, they are the sports bar. Check them
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(43:00):
they got some Outlaw distillery available to try. The Outlaw
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Headby and say hello. Tell them that OC and ESPN
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(43:21):
youths ESPN seven hundred, Utah's number one sports talk proud
part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
As you were listening to The Sean O'Connell Show, from
the Murdoch hundred Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
two one af AM.

Speaker 7 (43:41):
Whether the league cares about the health of the players
is one thing, but to also not care about the
product we put on the floor is truly self sabotaged.
The year of the year, the only thing that remains
consistent is a lack of accountability from our leaders. We
go to battle every day to protect a shield that
doesn't value us.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
It's your loan.

Speaker 7 (43:57):
I've gotten calls, texts and wild wishes from so many
players across the league, but do you know who I
haven't heard from Kathy, Not one call, not one text,
and said the only outreach has come from her number
two telling my agent that she doesn't believe physical play
is contributing to injuries. That is infuriating, and it's the
perfect example of the tone deaf, dismissive approach that our

(44:18):
leaders always seem to take. I'm not concerned about a fine,
I'm concerned about the future of our sport. At some point,
everyone deserves to hear the truth from someone who I
hope has earned the benefit of the doubt to fight
for what is right and fair for our athletes and
our fans. We have the best players in the world,
We have the best fans in the world, but right
now we have the worst leadership in the world. If

(44:38):
I didn't know exactly what the job entailed, maybe I
wouldn't feel this way, But unfortunately for them, I do.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
That was Minnesota Link's superstar and a FeSi Collier calling
out WNBA leadership courtesy of VESPN and the WNBA. That's
sound courtesy of them. A lot of frankly well founded
criticisms to be pointed at the w NBA commissioner. You know,

(45:08):
think Kathy, by the way, is Kathy Engelbert. Kathy Engelbert.
And I should mention too, this was not the we.
It was two and a half minutes statement. I those those,
all of that was not necessarily insequential order, but I,
you know, edited it together to basically get her sentiment
out there. We can talk about it doesn't give a

(45:29):
lot of context because I didn't have time to play
the whole two and a half minutes coming in from
a commercial break, but we there's some bullet points here.
We'll go over as the things that she was actually
speaking to, the criticisms and why she's infuriated with Kathy,
not just because Kathy doesn't talk to her right, but
just but because of a lot of other things afficiating.
It's one of them. So just just so everyone knows,

(45:50):
if you want to hear the full statement, ESPN dot
coms where I found it, you can google it, you
can search for it on Twitter and other other social channels.
But that that was the kind of a a condensed
version of it. I think there are fair like business
critiques to be thrown at the commissioner of the w NBA.

(46:12):
I think there's been some some missteps in that direction.
Collier also talked about officiating. I'll be honest with you,
I don't watch enough WNBA basketball to give you like
an honest, good critique on that. However, I you know,
when I do, I do see games, I'm like, I

(46:33):
don't know. The officiating does sometimes stand out as something
that they're just letting like a helter skelter game go
on at some points and get the clock, keep the
clock rolling, let's get out of here, right. That seems
like sometimes the approach. I'm the same way. I can't
give an educated opinion from my own perspective on it,
but I mean, I feel like you can trust someone

(46:55):
like Nafisa Collier who and and the fact that all
the players and reaction to this have said not not
one player who's who's publicly who said anything publicly would
be a social channels or whatever has said, yeah, you
know what some of the things she said, we're a
little off base. I think I think if all the
players are saying the officiating is way too inconsistent, and

(47:17):
there were coaches that said, yeah, well said in Afisa,
I think that we can probably trust, even even if
we don't watch a ton of enough w NBA for
us to give an informed opinion on it from our
own perspective, I think we can probably trust that they're
that it's not completely off base, right, Like it seems
James like there's just there's a lot of and when

(47:39):
they say physical play, to me, it just it seems
like no call fouls, like they're just letting stuff go
to keep the game flow. And you know, officiating there
because I don't think any athlete is like, let's make it.
Let's make it so there's no physical play in any sport.
I think you want you embrace the physicality of whatever
sport you're playing, but when it's oftentimes stuff that, hey,

(48:05):
that should be a foul call, but you're letting it
go and and players are getting hurt like Nafisa Collier's
claiming here and others, Yeah, that's probably too physical a
play being allowed. She also said something about rookie salaries
being too low for revenue drivers like Caitlin Clark Agel

(48:26):
reason of course, Paige Becker's that one is interesting. That's
hard for me because the number one, the WNBA doesn't
have as much to work with as other leagues when
it comes to their salaries and giving that out right,
you have to bring a lot of revenue in to
take a lot of revenue out. And the issue there

(48:50):
is that so does every other league, right you look
at rookie scale contracts in the NFL, there was a
reason that the Kansas City Chiefs were so good in
Patrick Mahomes's first few years because he was the best
player in the league on a rookie scale contract. He
made a bunch of his money off the field. That's
kind of just how sports work in a lot of

(49:11):
ways right now. If you're a first round early draft pick,
there are usually scales to that. In the NFL in
the NBA that get you a bigger salary. But for me,
even that is, you know, a slope that the owners
in the NBA and the WNBA don't want to go
too far down because there are a lot of second, third, fourth,

(49:36):
top five draft picks that don't go anywhere, and they
don't drive any revenue, and that don't ever even mb
end up playing in your leagues. So at some point,
you know, sometimes you get to the court and then
you earn those salaries, you earn those contracts, and I
don't have much of an issue there. The one point
I'll add, James, the piece a Collier had is a league. Yep.

(50:02):
She has a basketball league debuted this late winter, early spring.
So while her critiques in a lot of ways hit
at real issues in a league that does have real issues,
she is commercializing her own league. Yeah, she is. She's
got some motive here that is important to be said.

(50:25):
And one of the motives is, as you mentioned, for
a three on three league. And this is where I'm
putting my foot down. Three on three basketball is garbage.
Three on three basketball in a half court setting, in
a full court setting, in any setting is garbage. It
is it is not basketball. It has no flow. You

(50:45):
can't play any real defense. There is no uh schematic offensively,
it's you can have fun. You can have fun playing
three on three basketball like a three quarter court that
the unrival play on. No, Nope, sorry. Can you have
fun playing three on three at a fundraiser on at Blacktop? Absolutely?

(51:08):
And I support you doing so a league around it
on television. Sorry. I'm also out on golf simulators, by
the way, on television in tiger Woods Golf League. Not not.
If I'm if Tiger Woods is golfing and I'm not watching,
you've lost the player. Yeah, because I will watch him

(51:28):
if he's out on a golf course, I'll watch him
cut grass with scissors. But put him inside on an
AI simulator, I'm out. Uh. Yeah. The three on three
in the Olympics was not good in Paris, especially when
the men's team is headlined by you know, NBA legend

(51:50):
Jimmer for Debt. Wait a minute, no, one guy who
didn't ever make it in the NBA. Like the the
women's at least had top college players. She had blank
now I'm blanking on the name now, but anyway, they
had top college players on there. Come on, Haley vanlydth
there we go. She headlined the women's team. That's that's

(52:12):
a really world class that's a world class basketball player
playing Olympics men's three on three Your best players, Jimmer
Ferdet not a world class basketball player. That there's a
problem with that anyway. Well, and so I'm with you
on like the three on three in Olympics and and
trying to make it a major sport. Like let's let's

(52:36):
hold off on that. The it's the pickleballification of the
of the sports world. It really is no offense, no
offense having fun playing pickleball at the park. I don't
need to have it on TV. Im I might. I
might make a noise complaint if you're playing pickleball, I
might make a noise complaint. I might send a letter
to the city council because they're ripping up all my

(52:57):
tennis courts to build pickleball courts. No, but really, the
WNBA has kind of a vibe problem. They've got a
vibe issue because they've got these players who are mad
at the commissioner because the commissioner is number one kind
of dismissive and rude and trite. I don't know's she's

(53:19):
just not doesn't seem to care about the individual players well.
And even if she does, that's what And even if
she does, she's not like doing a very good job
of representing that relationship with them very well. And beyond that,
there's some business missteps. But then on the other side,
there's a bunch of players who are going to bat

(53:41):
for like young players getting bigger Rickie scale contracts, while
also kind of having issues with Caitlin Clark, who is
the one driving that rep Like, there's a lot of
vibe issues in the w NBA right now. I hope
they can figure it out. One of the biggest one
of the biggest things that could help that would be
a lot of good basketball and a lot of you know,

(54:01):
a healthy Cave and Clark playing some good basketball. Hopefully
that is something we see. Playoffs have been pretty good
so far, really good fever Aces series that just ended.
But yeah, like it's true and I think that I
think that just about everything that that Nafisa talks about
in her statement, which again we did not play the

(54:22):
full thing for you, it's pretty on, pretty on, pretty
fair criticisms. I'm with you, though, I'm you lose me
a little bit on the rookie salaries. Like you have
to have the revenue to have the salaries, and unfortunately
they don't have the revenue to be offering rookies much
more than they're offering them right now. And by the way,

(54:43):
those rookies are making seventy grand. You know how many
people are not making seventy grand for in their in
their jobs. And also these a lot of these revenue
drivers are making tens of millions in endorsements right on
the side of that, they're doing fine. So you lose

(55:04):
me on the rookie salary a little bit. And I'm
not saying like, like you absolutely I believe that, like
pay them six figures. It's a little insult. It's an
insult for professional athletes who are this visible now in
the WNBA to be paid less than six figures. I'm
with you, but like, don't act, don't cry poor because

(55:25):
you're making seventy grand in an entry level job, and
that you're losing the fan. You're losing the everyday fan
when you do that well. And like we talked about,
there are realities to a draft where you don't know
which of these draft picks are gonna hit. So there are, yeah,
the opportunities for these teams if those players go out

(55:46):
and are awesome, to extend those contracts, to do things
to get them more money, to you know, and hopefully
this new I like them and get them sponsorships. That's
all all possible. And hopefully this new media deal Meteorite Steel,
which is significantly higher than the last one, hopefully that
does come with increased salaries for these players, because they

(56:07):
deserve to be paid more. And if it doesn't, that's when, yeah,
you can start to really really go at the commissioner. Regardless,
the answer is not three verse three or pickleball. At
least they don't have to play at least with this
unrivaled three v three league. They don't less have to
feel like they need to play overseas in the wintertime.

(56:29):
So that's a good thing about it. But yeah, the
product itself not great. Trevor Riley on the other side,
I'm sure we'll talk some pickleball volleyball with him, and
we'll get to some mutes football as well. Jeff Schwartz,
Adrian Denny still to come in the program, and maybe
Everett Gray, who just texted me we'll maybe chat with
him on the show as well. It is the Sean
O'Connell Show. I'm Porter Larson filling in on a Wednesday

(56:52):
ESPN seven hundred ninety two point one FM.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
This is the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of
the best inside of your use. Let's get back to
OOC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred
and ninety two to one app.

Speaker 8 (57:15):
AM, Welcome back in new hour of The Sean O'Connell
Show on ESPN seven hundred ninety two point one FM.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
I am port of Larson filling in FORROCS on this Wednesday.
Listen live ESPN seven hundred Sports dot Com the ESPN
seven hundred mobile app pre on the app store. Of
course you're smart speaker to say play ESPN seven hundred,
Hit us up at ESPN seven hundred Sports utah on YouTube,

(57:50):
and then the podcastab on our website has the on
demand section for all of the podcast Just search the
Shan O'Connell Show wherever you happen to listen, subscribe, rate, review,
do all the things it does help out the show.
We appreciate you for doing so. We appreciate one. Trevor Riley,
a friend of the program, a friend of utah Utes program,

(58:14):
a guest host on the show last week with me
on remote out there at the dealership. Trevor Riley, how
are you, my friend.

Speaker 6 (58:24):
I'm doing very well. A good win, A good win.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
By the time out, we'll get there. Where are you?
This is the first question we always have to ask,
Trevor Riley. Are you in the North Shores? Are you
in Australia? Are you in the Permuta Triangle? Where are you?

Speaker 6 (58:43):
So I'm actually in Boulder. I'm at a used tire shop. Okay,
I got to put one on. Okay, get a spare
for this car I bought, and take care of some
business here. But then the Islanders we got a game
against Air Force Prep this weekend, so I'm I'm staying
here for the week and the I'm going to the game.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Okay. So you have a game in Colorado this weekend
with the Islander.

Speaker 6 (59:03):
Yes, we do.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Can I ask you? Can I ask you? What car
you bought.

Speaker 6 (59:07):
At twenty eleven Ford Mustang three point seven liter Okay,
Blue Coop. It's not bad. It's restored, rebuilt, Okay, So
it was hammered but we've rebuilt it now it's yeah,
I like it. Man, it zooms a little bit.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
We'll have fun with the with the Mustang and go Islanders.
Give us the latest. There you got a team that's
taking the game.

Speaker 6 (59:32):
Yeah, well the Air Force preparatory campy. They want some
of this smoke. So we're getting ready for them. They're
gonna be running that you know that, you know that
option offense. You're still doing that blacking they are, man,
they're running out of shotgun. Now it's a little more.
They're still running the ball. If you look at the
box score, they're going to run the ball, you know,
fifty sixty times a game.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
All right, Well, best of luck to the Utah Islanders.
Will always send the folks interested in that direction. And
of course when you're in ten, get folks out to
the game. And for any players, any guys that are
still looking for an opportunity, maybe involved with Salt Lake
Community College or another school that doesn't have a football program,

(01:00:11):
hit up, hit up our friends of the Utah Landers.
Hit up Trevor. We'll we'll put you in touch. Of course.
Of course, how about the youths though you you've tried
to you tried to usertain me. You tried to get
into it quick. Big win against West Virginia. I don't
know how much we learned because West Virginia is a
number one not great, but also a skeleton squad of

(01:00:33):
their own team with all the injuries they're dealing with.
How did you feel leaving that win? At the very least,
it was clean, It looked good, and for the most part,
Utah got out of their healthy. A few bang ups
and some injuries that we'll we'll get to. Uh, but
how do you feel after the West Virginia win and
going into the bye week?

Speaker 6 (01:00:54):
Shoot? No guests we had on last week? Jed he
he predicted the whole game. Yes, well, we can't run
the ball very well right now, we don't throw it either,
so look out and sure enough I look at the
score and we're watching the game was over in the
first quarter. We lost Benny. Do we find out what
the injury report is on him? Yet?

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Not totally, not yet, but as as we've grown accustomed
to in Big twelve now now it's not a game
week for Utah, so they're not required to do it.
But Kyle Will will update us on his Monday press
conference and we'll get we'll get an injury report shortly
after in a couple times throughout next week. So for Jackson,

(01:01:34):
I don't think it's anything long term. For Nate Ritchie
and some other guys in the backfield, I think that's
more of a more of a question mark.

Speaker 6 (01:01:43):
Well, I'll say this, we looked a little bit better
offensively at times, but again you said it, they're worse
than Wyoming in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
I think Wyoming was better than West Virginia, at least
the West Virginia we saw.

Speaker 6 (01:01:55):
Well, yeah, I mean both offenses are hard to watch,
especially on television. Will say, the Big twelve itself is
it's going to get interesting now, right, We're getting to
the mode where it's about where you start eating itself.
It almost happened. I was at the stadium with BYU
in Colorado. I was there and BYU that was almost
almost a close one. But we can kind of see

(01:02:16):
that's what Utah has headed form if we can't do
a better job on offense with explosive plays. But I
thought the team looked pretty good, but I didn't see
too many roles there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Well, you mentioned the explosive plays. You mentioned the down
the field stuff that is, Trevor, that is what you
and I talked about really all week leading into it, right,
that is the main question mark for this Utah offense.
It still is. However, they at least tried to put
some of it into practice. They at least tried to
get Devin dan Pierre a little bit comfortable with some

(01:02:50):
of it against West Virginia. Did they do enough to
at least get you a little bit more comfortable as
we head into the rest of the conference.

Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
Late, it's hard to get and the offensive coordinator, if
I'm him, the game's in hand pretty early, right, it's
kind of hard to see.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:03:06):
There wasn't a competitive spirit much in the second half
as far as the game goes, So you know, I'm
still going to check in on that and see how
that goes as far as plays down the field. But again,
give credit to this recruiting staff and give credit to
the coaches and players. It was a dominant performance as
it should have been. Looking ahead, we got to see
if we got any depth, right, We got some injuries here,

(01:03:28):
and that's the word on the street for everybody. Do
you have depth? I get excited. I know it's not
good to get excited for that. I get excited when
new guys get opportunities. Sometimes great players are found when
they get opportunities.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Well, I mean, that's that's part of this game. And
right Utah, there's you know, there is some tradition to
the next man up thing. Now, it is the case
at every football team, right, it's not unique to Utah,
but they do put a lot of emphasis into especially
if you're number two man. You gotta be ready in

(01:04:01):
this sport. A guy like Terrell Burgess comes to mind
for me. He was, for the most part, a depth
piece for Utah. He was for several years a guy
who was on scholarship because he was so impactful on
special teams and was able to when Utah needed give

(01:04:22):
the guys a breather at safety or at nickel. He
could kind of move around to different positions and was
versatile in that role. And then because of some injuries,
Terrell got his start, got his opportunity to start, and
within a couple of years, Trevor he was, you know,
giving meaningful reps on a super Bowl team. So that

(01:04:43):
just kind of gives you an insight into as you mentioned,
the things that you look for the things you could
get excited for when you do see that depth.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
I liked seeing the backup quarterback have a nice little
four for four. Yeah, that's good to see. Okay, it's
a small thing, but it's a big thing for me.
Another thing, the running back position. Okay, we got a
two headed monster, and to a point, I think number
one is still the clear cut best guy to get.
I think, you know, he got about fifteen touches I think,
and so there's some good things there. You know, going forward,

(01:05:14):
we're gonna have to see if we can rally around
this this tight end group. The more and more I
look at it, these guys can really play. Eighty one
cut a pass right. He was a tight end, but
looked like Barton played a lot of snaps on offense.
I look over there, he's blocking his butt off. So
and we got a lot to look forward to. But
going to this BYU Colorado game I talked about, I'm
in the stands and I'm watching you Colorado hang in

(01:05:36):
there with BYU and really at times, you know, they
almost had the game. I'm excited to see down the
road with Utah. Okay, this conference is really exciting and
as I as it starts taking shape, right these games
start coming along, here should be some excitement. Porter, what
do you think, man, we got Colorado TCU this week
and who does by you have?

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Uyu's got West Virginia. So oh yeah, there's a right
a ranked BYU team against the West Virginia team that
is now even more banged up than they were last week.

Speaker 6 (01:06:08):
Wells, as we talked about last week, five trips to
the red zone on the season, I think I think
it's six now for the Utah defense. That's all they've
given up, right, And that's dominant. I mean that is
that is domination and that's going to continue. You know,
we hope it does. But we got we got a

(01:06:28):
lot to look forward to here with this team. Now,
if we can just fight rally rounds some explosive plays, I.

Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
We're taking care of business where we should we just
we just got raped these two or three or four big.

Speaker 6 (01:06:38):
Games we got coming up. But I like it for it.
Is there anything you saw from the from the defense
or offense, anything stand out for you? Or is it
pretty much as business?

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
I think that it's It's it's funny that we're this
deep into the season. Trevor, and I'm still kind of
trying to piece things together because here's the deal. We
the one loss that Utah has on their record is
against Texas Tech, team that we're still trying to figure
out how real what that is. We're still trying to

(01:07:07):
figure out a lot about Texas Tech. And then on
the Utah side, every team they've beaten has been a
team that they should have and have beaten handily. So
there's still this kind of middle ground, and really the
remainder of your Big Twelve schedule has a bunch of
teams that are in this middle ground that I don't
really know about Utah and the question marks there, Trevor,

(01:07:29):
really do still rely on the things that we've talked
about for this first ten minutes of the show, and
that is the verticality of the offense. I don't you know.
I think that Utah at this point they lead the
Big Twelve in yards on the ground, yards gained on
the ground. I think that's something we can be confident in.
That's something I don't question going forward. This offensive line

(01:07:49):
is going to continue to be productive regardless of who's
running the football. Nikari Rodgers was Sham Parker Devin, Dan
Pierre Hell, Bryce Duke. We can kick going down the list.
I think they'll be productive in the run game, but
the verticality of the offense and then the depth in
the defensive backfield is is still something that we definitely

(01:08:10):
have to look at. You mentioned, you know, way Sean
is the guy that looks to be number one. He's
kind of allowed an opening for Nakari Rodgers just by
putting the ball on the ground. But I agree with
you there, Trevor. We talked earlier in the year. I
told you and you mentioned it in your answer. JJ
Buchanan eighty one listed is a tight end, but I

(01:08:33):
told you to pay attention before we kicked off this season.
I mentioned I don't know if he'll put his hand
in the dirt all year long, right, he may just
might as well be a wide receiver or a slot
as far as the depth chart goes. I look back
on it as far as his reps go, I didn't
look at every snap JJ Buchanan has taken, but I
have not yet seen him put his hand in the dirt.

(01:08:54):
So that's you know, that's a guy you can kind
of expect to be on the outside. I want to
get your thoughts on Ryan Davis, the youths leading receiver
who there's not a lot after the catch. You know,
he's not going to wow you down the field or
high point a ball against the free safety and come
down with some spectacular catch. But man, he's been a

(01:09:15):
real safety blanket and a real real tool for Devin
dan Pire. It's been really important for him this year.
What have you taken from his game and how do
you see Utah maybe being able to expand that a
little bit or maybe expand off of the threat that
he's posing.

Speaker 6 (01:09:33):
Yeah, he kind of reminds me a little bit Toamors Simpkins. Reliable.
He probably knows all things, can play all the positions.
If it's a tight window, he's still going to come
up with the catch. He's a master routes under fifteen
yards their twelve yards. I think we need to get
him some help. You know, we can't ask a guy
to do something consistently that he's not necessarily made to do.

(01:09:54):
We haven't asked this guy to go down the field,
probably because it's not as big as strength. But with
that being said, it's going to be the thing going forward,
right as a defense of coach, how do you beat
the utes? Okay, I would say, well, based off of
the game plan SETSU sected, we're going match coverage, we're
gonna get physical, and we're going to make you go
down the field on us. We don't want you to

(01:10:15):
be this run on the football. That means single high defense,
that means blitzing. We got to find that answer, I think,
coach Will. We got a bye week this week, then
we got Arizona State. What I'll say preview in Arizona
State when I was at Colorado, Kenny Dillingham was the
first year coach. We went down there and their punter
got hurt. So this how good of a coach these

(01:10:37):
guys are? I give him them some props here. They
start subbing in a guy on fourth down late and
I'm talking about the quarterback and the punter. They start
moving the quarterback back and forth, so we don't know
if they're going to punt or not, or if they're
going to go forward the quarterback. But just the fact
that they had some packages in right, that's one thing
I'm happy about that we have a bye week for

(01:10:58):
the Arizona State team, a well coached team, and we
know that from last year they went all way to
the final four. The schedule, as you look, as we
look at it, it's playing out pretty nicely.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:11:07):
We got really a two game season coming up here. Okay,
we got a bye week to get ready for two
games Arizona State and BYU. Those are both the only
ranked teams left on the schedule. Anything can happen right
as the season goes on, but I'm really excited to
see what we get. We got together in a bye
week for the for the for the Arizona State suendoubles.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
Yeah, that's that's always something that I look forward to,
is how Kyle Whittingham's teams look after a loss, Yes,
but more so with time to prepare, right, a bowl
game for sure, but also a bye week. Right, they
usually come back looking really clean, executing well on their

(01:11:46):
p's and q's. And that's that's something I expect against
Arizona State. But Trevor ASU under new ownership, under new leadership,
I should say, uh, not necessarily the ASU team that
were used to like messing mucking things up, making the
game a little dirtier and and a little scrappier. That's

(01:12:08):
that's not really the ASU team we're looking. We're looking
at this time. They're a really well coached, well run
program down there. Like you mentioned Kenny Dillingham, his first
year has been as impressive as as really anyone that
you can you can look back upon. Right, How how

(01:12:28):
sustainable do you think that is? In Tempe after I
think a unique perspective on that being in Boulder the
last few years.

Speaker 6 (01:12:36):
It's hard to say, because what's that guy gonna what's
he worth? If they keep winning, someone's going to offer
him all the money in the world, or the NFL
is going to come call in. I would say, after
scouting him and playing against him or coaching against him,
the guy is a very efficient guy who's very smart.
He's been at it for a long time. I don't
think he played much in his freshman year. Or somebody's

(01:12:58):
been coaching forever almost sixteen seventeen years, right, and they're
at a prime location. You know, when we were at
Jackson State, we talked about as things started getting neated up,
where would we want to go? And my whole thing
was always looking for places that have big time airports. Phoenix, Man,
you can't be that. You can't beat it. And so
the place he's at, he's can recruit nationwide. They have

(01:13:19):
a great brand that he's got. He's got, he's young.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
With energy.

Speaker 6 (01:13:22):
They got a quarterback right, he's probably an NFL guy.
What you asked me, how long can it be sustained for?
I would say as long as they're willing to pay.
Who the heck would want to leave Phoenix. That's where
all the stars go to retire for Heaven's sake, or
they live there in the off season. So the biggest
thing with them is always going to be are they
prepared to pay? Are they prepared to get organized? Are
they prepared to be a big dog? Because I'll tell
you right now that coach is the real deal. As

(01:13:44):
long wherever he's at, they're going to win.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
Yeah, That'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
I'm with you, and I think because of how he's
jumped on the scene, he's kind of bought himself a
little window of a little recruiting bump and probably a
few years of real competition in the Big twelve Conference.
Going to be interesting to see how the Arizona State
Sun Devils play out A big one this this next

(01:14:10):
week after the bye week. It is Utah and as you, Trevor,
I'm sure will be on some sort of coverage, whether
during the week or pre game. We can expect some
some Trevor Riley.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
Chattne Absolutely, man, absolutely, I'll tell you this. I wasn't
scattered BYU four US.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Okay, Okay, look you do Intel.

Speaker 6 (01:14:30):
Well, I'm just I'm looking at the roster as a whole,
and I gotta tell you, built very similar to US. Okay,
they come out, they're running the football with number four,
they're throwing the ball a little bit. Chase Roberts is
still doing his thing over there. He had three or
four amazing catchers.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
He's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
I didn't see a whole lot of down thefield Presidence either. Okay,
so they got eleven, they got two, they got four,
and so I'm looking forward to that game. And that's
in three weeks. But those are These are two teams.
I've seen the Youths live now and I've seen the
Cougars live. You know, very very very similar in a
lot of ways. Their quarterbacks are more power. But he'll
run the ball now. Our quarterbacks can be a little shifty.

(01:15:07):
They got a bruising tail back. We got one. I
like the way this is looking in three weeks, I
gotta tell them, I'm excited for Arizona State. But Porter,
I'm salivating for three weeks from now that we've got
BYU Utah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
Baby patients, Trevor Riiley patients.

Speaker 6 (01:15:22):
Hey man, I don't lose to BYU Okay four and
oh and I'll tell you what. When I watch them,
it looks like we get that's a team we're gonna
match up well against. I'm telling you so, Arizona State.
It'll be a good test. They got some guys that
can get down the field. They got some guys that
can match coverage somewhere to Texas Tech. We're going to
see if we can make those adjustments from the Texas
Tech game. We're really going to see that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
What about what about a little trip to Provo this weekend?
We can do some some more intel, you know what.

Speaker 4 (01:15:50):
Not about the move.

Speaker 6 (01:15:51):
But aren't they playing West Virginia?

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
What is there to see? The game's gonna be over
in about six twelve minutes and you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
And Meriday night whatever, Friday night in Provo.

Speaker 6 (01:16:04):
Yeah, okay, I might be able to do that. You know,
I got my own game on Saturday though, so I
have to fly out Saturday morning. I'd be a tight one, all.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Right, never mind, I'll send you the I'll send you
the notes.

Speaker 6 (01:16:15):
Take Spence with it. He loves it. Down there.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
There we go, we'll get Spence into into provo. Thanks Trevor.
That's Trevor Riley, the former you NFL linebacker. Always a
good time, joining the Sean O'Connell Show on this Wednesday
after noon. Back on the other side, we're gonna talk

(01:16:38):
to Jeff Schwartz. That was the college football half of
the hour. We're gonna talk to Trevor Short, Jeff Schwartz
rather a little more on the pro football side, preview
the Thursday night football matchup and the week ahead, and
look back on what was a crazy Week five in
the NFL. All that and more still to come on
the Sean O'Connell Show. I am Order Larsen, filling in

(01:17:01):
as James Peterson behind the glass, patiently awaiting his Red
Sox postseason matchup against the Yankees. That one's at four
right now, still a low scoring one Detroit and Cleveland
one zero. We'll keep you updated, oh tow to one.
I just missed that as we were interviewing. We were
interviewing trade Trevor Detroit scored. It's two to one for Detroit.

(01:17:27):
It's one one. What's going on out there? This is
why I don't call. Yeah, they challenged they there was
a review and it was it looked like a third
base review there and switching that up. So it's one
one Detroit. Cleveland will give you an update at the
end of the show and go from there. Jeff Schwartz
is next. We've got Adrian Denny behind the glass in

(01:17:49):
the one o'clock hour. Still plenty more to come on
the Sean O'Connell show. Spence check. It's to drive at
two right here on Utah's number one sports talk AT's
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two point one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
As you were listening to a Sean O'Connell show, your
source for the best hues football at compliation, here's oc
from the Murdoch Hyundai studio of ESPN seven hundred at
ninety two to one AFM.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
Psych no OLC. Sorry, it's me Order Larsen, producer of
the next show on the station, The Drive that'll commence
about two o'clock. Spence will be here in studio and
we'll be going till about six o'clock. But this is
the Shan O'Connell Show, each and every day from eleven

(01:18:36):
to two on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two point
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Sean O'Connell Show to head over to the Listen Live
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(01:18:56):
does work. I've tried it on Miine Just kidding. I
don't have a smart span. I will allow the the
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smart speaker. Sorry, no alecxis allowed. But you can head
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demand section of the ESPN seven hundred app, and then

(01:19:17):
search the Sean O'Connell Show wherever you happen to listen, rate, review,
and subscribe. It actually does help out the show and
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above my head. Jeff Schwartz serious XM talking some NFL.
We'll talk some college football as well. One of the
best football guests that we get on the station, and

(01:19:39):
of course on the Sean O'Connell show, Serious XM, Serious
XMNFL and some Fox Sports stuff as well.

Speaker 4 (01:19:45):
What's up, Jeff, So thanks, I just struct my bank account.
The money from Sean came first. Can I can be
on with you today? And you said, you know, yes,
that's why to make sure Sean pay me some to know.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Yes, there you go. There you go. Hey, that's above
my pay grade, my man. But I'll make sure.

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
By the way, I just like you guys to start
coming on every lease.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
We should at least send you some some stake or something.

Speaker 4 (01:20:06):
No, they shared the house and he brought my kids
sweatshirts and they wore them the other day.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
So that's all.

Speaker 4 (01:20:13):
It's all that matters if these are my kids. Like
love language right now, there we go, There we go.

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
Jeff Schwartz of course, an eight year NFL offensive lineman,
host with with OC for a long time on on
PAC twelve today and otherwise and now doing a lot
of Big ten stuff, doing a lot of NFL stuff.
Let's start on the NFL side show, Jeff. We've got
a Thursday night football matchup tomorrow. We carry the Thursday
night football games on this station, so always like to

(01:20:40):
get a good preview. We've got the three and one Niners,
the three and one Rams, both of these teams two
and zero on the road, which has been interesting, but
their records are identical, but they've gotten there in completely
different ways. It's it's interesting to watch, But how have
you consumed the first couple of weeks of this division
that looks like make them down to the Rams and

(01:21:02):
the Niners who play tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
Well, I was super high on the Rams in the preseason, right.
I think if you look at the way they they
finished last year, on the personnel, and you know, a
lot of times you know the winner of a division,
it's it's very simple, right, It's like the best, the
best quarterback first of all, the best coach he's looking
around the NFL. It's pretty simple. And in this division
that was the case, right. It was McVeigh and Seffer

(01:21:25):
and then of course all preseason stuff with Hurt and
you're like, what what is happening here? I kind of
backed off my Rams case and they've really made wrong
because Mats that has been healthy, Right, every week he's
gotten better. You know, week wanted a little tough yet
get him playoff preseason all of a sudden, you know,
and then he got better and better and better. We
saw what happened last week with that great throat in

(01:21:45):
there to to t to win that game. So the
Rams are healthier, which is hugely important. Right, you have
a short week and you have a beat up team. Right,
Purty as a right in the ally. I don't think
he might play, but he's you know, toasting. It happens, right,
But it's a Sunday, there'd be no question. But because
obviously Thursday it's a little bit different. You have all

(01:22:06):
the BP guys, the wide receiver and off, the Kittles
out and boasas out, and it just feel like the
Rams are just a better team. And they get this
game at home, and for I think it was three
years in a row the Nyers won every one of
these games except the as and Chention tame and how
it's forked the other way around, the Rams have been
more successful lavery. So I think Rams win this game.

(01:22:27):
They covered the I think it's seven points is a
lot in any NFL game, But I think the Rams
are certainly a better team right now.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
I'm with you there and they're just healthier. They're just
you know, they're rolling on on all cylinders in a
way that the niners are not speaking of rolling on
all cylinders. Pukinakua, man, it just keeps churning out performance
after performance. Ten plus catches, one hundred plus yards seems
kind of like the norm for him. Obviously it's still

(01:22:56):
early in the season, but give us the uh the
Jeff Schwartz take on Pokua's performance and how sustainable it
really is.

Speaker 4 (01:23:06):
Well, you know what the important part about what he
does and here goes really underrated. First of all, pack
twelve legend clearly right. You want to make sure that
that's in there, and we're gonna go to pack school.
You've become pack to a wife for of course, it's
just the importance of route running right, and you know
the details that go into that position. I think a

(01:23:26):
lot of times, you know, we just think run fast, right,
it runs the open area and it can be a
lot of that right with faster guys. Something to be well,
which that's just about again, like can you you know
where the defense is going to be on the snap?
Do you know what we're gonna be post snap? Do
you know what the goal of the play is, right,
do you know how to run the right route? So

(01:23:46):
all these things are super important, the success of route
running and pugin Akua is with all of that, And
of course obviously give a quarterback of Stafford and you know,
winked about Adams is helpful. Three pointing full a couple
of defenders away from you. But he's in this pace
it just feels undustainable. I mean, on pace for one
hundred and seventy target for someone's seen amount of switch

(01:24:09):
just feels incredible. But those battors co operations running in
the chemistry, I think the staffering.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
Let's zoom out on the NFL some of the matchups
coming up this weekend. Yeah, you've got the forty nine
Ers and Rams that you'll get on Thursday night. Here
on the station, Vikings Browns Vikings have you know, gone
back and forth on on their QB situation. It's been
interesting to watch that. How about the Colts they are

(01:24:38):
three and one, They've got the Raiders this week. They
should get to four and one at home. I mean,
Daniel Jones is a guy who obviously started in a
bad situation in New York and he didn't make it
look much better. So I think there's a hesitancy to
give him much credit in Indianapolis. And let me be clear,

(01:24:59):
I don't necessarily think he's like the long term guy.
But three and one, they've won their their two games
at home, and he's looked pretty good. What's going on in Indianapolis?

Speaker 8 (01:25:09):
Now? Real?

Speaker 6 (01:25:09):
Is that?

Speaker 4 (01:25:11):
Yeah? So here's very interesting, right because there's two things happening.

Speaker 6 (01:25:17):
I think one.

Speaker 4 (01:25:18):
Good and one is probably bad. One of the one
grid is that you know, Shane Stike and I think
we all think it is a good coach, has had
a good quarterback, and they never gave the chance Anthiris
to succeed. I think we all believe that he gets
from Frank Danion. Jones has gone the most ut and
the house stonable is it? I don't know, but any
it's proven a shaking stiking can call on offense, right,
and that's it's known now it was proper concept. And

(01:25:41):
you know how long this last? I don't know, probably
know the whole season. Because there's a reason why Jones
has not been starting and not being successful in the NFL.
Doesn't be he's gonna become great all of a sudden
by playing in this offense. I think long term it's
a little damaging because you end the season at wherever
you are this year, there's still no quarterback in the
feat Jones is not your part. Guys, If sure, do

(01:26:01):
you with Anthony Richardson, you're in the draft. Let's say
you in the division right now? They have a enough
chip when Lily draft in the low twenties, and I
mean you time in the second again we go the
franchise quarterback and you have to go get yourself another veteran.
Now get again, I get one. The short term, great
success for them. The long term, I don't know if
this helps them very much, but just enjoyed the road

(01:26:23):
wall last.

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
The Giants and Saints play Sunday eleven. Am Jackson Dart
the starter. Now for the Giants, he's a Utah kid,
a local connection. We'll dive into a little bit there.
The Saints with Spencer Rattler and kind of a random
a few quarterbacks behind them that they could go to.
Giants still somehow still are trying to replace Eli Manning

(01:26:49):
and the Saints somehow still are trying to replace Drew Brees.
Do either of those teams have that replacement in their
room right.

Speaker 4 (01:26:56):
Now, Well, look, they're really give Jackson Dark all the
opportunity to do this, right. I think the Saints they
drafted Tyler Schuff obviously, right. I just don't know he
talkt us the guy. There's a long history of NFL
second round quarterback picks of not being good, the positives
off the game of hurts. But there's a long distance

(01:27:18):
quarterback in the last five, six, seven years that have
not been good. And I don't know Tyler Shuff is
that guy. Johnson give dark the opportunity. I don't know
if he's going to be a super winning quarterback, but
he's better than what they had, and he gives him
hope and energy. He's able to run the ball a
little bit. So it's so funny. Russell Wilson was just
maybe not good day mean, reluctively our started to watch

(01:27:41):
dar was fine. You know, he took one hundred and
ten yards us like we act like he was pay
manning out there, like he fine, right, but he wasn't
the guy who pay for three hundred yards, which again,
in the end, that's how you win football games. You
have passed the ball on the top la.

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
We've got the Bills and the Chiefs on the night
games to end the weekend. The Bills on Sunday Night
on NBC against the Patriots, and the Chiefs against the
Jaguarars on Monday night in Jacksonville. Those are the two
teams that, even though the Chiefs season got off to

(01:28:19):
a tough start, those are the two teams that I
think a lot of people still look at in the
AFC is probably who we're looking at at the end
of the year. What do we know about the Chiefs
so far that's maybe changed, right? I mean, they started
h to two. There was a lot of people who
sold their stock pretty quick on the Chiefs. I thought

(01:28:41):
the rumors of their demise was a little bit premature.
What do we know about the Chiefs that maybe is
different this year, that maybe they do have to address
in order to extend what has been a remarkable championship window.

Speaker 4 (01:28:56):
The things the bullisting right now is doing, or she
writes back, we saw just the addition of the Worthy
when made them so much better. And the Ravens defensively
think at the moment, but the addition of Worthy made
them so much better. Offensively imagine that she writes and
Worthy and Brown and Burn and Chelsea and Gray and

(01:29:17):
all those guys and what that team can be when
they're healthy. I think they came at a running back
at the deadline. Maybe it's a way to go as well,
and maybe that running back room a little more explosive Smith,
but be that guys from them. The rookie saw few
more carriers last geame Andy working him in a little
bit more so to me, it's just that, right, it's
whether this early storm. Offensively you start get a little

(01:29:37):
more rhythm and look defensively, they have some new players
that are getting bigger roles in the secondary and so
might have a move in time to figure that that
part out. That's all the zero presses they run, and
there's those corners end up being in Sydney, being in
the island a lot which still looked life in the league.
But you find guys that can cover, and it takes
some time, I think, to get in that rhythm. So
I got chose a fine man. They have a tough schedule.

(01:29:59):
It's always always do and from Buffalo. They just got
to be Kambas City in the postseason. It's that's simple, man,
That's the only thing you left to have to do, the
be the every season to probably win this year and
the games of Buffalo. They've got any Kanpas City, but
they just can't be in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
I'm going to ask you about one more matchup that
kind of jumps off the screen to me this week,
and that's the Bucks and Seahawks. They're both three and zero.
Sam Darnold versus Baker Mayfield. You know, two quarterbacks that
have had a really interesting beginning of their season and
then a potential kind of resurgence of their career. Really

(01:30:37):
an interesting matchup between those two and two teams that
I think we're going to learn a lot about on
this Sunday afternoon. Which way do you lean? Seattle's got
three and a half points, that's usually kind of what
you get with the home team, so Vegas is calling
this basically a toss up. I think that we learn
which one of these teams is for real this week.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Think Tampa is a lot better. This is kind of
a surprising line to me in those stands, playing a
while I stretched so far, but they have the rest
advantage obviously with the Thursday night game and climate team
at home, and Tampa has gone. Tampa's had a pretty
you know, physical game on Sunday. Fine across the country
dock to Seattle. But yeah, I just like Tampa more.

(01:31:21):
My campon injury it stinks, but they havena UKA and
they're offensive line and get a little healthier this week
with which just the worst thing that I just don't
really buy Seattle quite yet. Right, They they beat they
beat the Patriots, who stink, the Cardinals who stink, lost
the Niners, and who they beat, they be one of
the teams too, right, So I just I like Tampa more.

(01:31:43):
Three and a half is kind of worrisome. Numbers high.
I thought it wouldn't be. So maybe I'm I'm in
the wrong here, but I need to Tampa that game.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
Yes, Seattle beat Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Arizona in that closet.
Okayber Jeff, I know you got to go here shortly.
I'm as I'm asking you this question, I'm sending you
a picture, a couple of pictures for context. We mentioned
Puku Nakua. We mentioned Jackson Dart, Fred Warner's a BYU alum.
We talked about Devin Lloyd playing some elite football earlier

(01:32:13):
in the show, the product of football coming from the
state of Utah has been just really good over the
last decade. That's not really anything new, but per capita,
the NFL players when you get out of SEC country,
the most players per capita right now and for the

(01:32:34):
last couple of years have been coming from Utah. That's
one point four to one players per thousand people here
in the state of Utah. I wonder you're a guy
on the East coast in North Carolina, but you also
have the Pac twelve and the organ connections. You have
a good geographical knowledge of football. I just want to
get your quick thoughts on Utah football culture, not from

(01:32:57):
an institutional standpoint of any of them, but how you've
seen it from the outside and how you've seen it
change and maybe keep growing over the last decade.

Speaker 4 (01:33:07):
Yeah. I mean obviously the Polynesian culture helped with that, right,
you know, big than a football and big into you know,
they just growing, you know, the culture there and they
love football. But I think too, like we, I mean,
we've seen a lot of migration out of California, right
and people are migrating to Utah into Vegas right in Nevada,

(01:33:30):
and I think part of that is is what they're
getting right, is you're getting just a lot better players
coming from California that want to live in solid city
and want to live in and shining areas because of
proper living and just I think ovid grive a lot
of people out of California and you know they cancel
high school football and and you know they wanted to
get you know, we have in North Carolina too, we

(01:33:51):
have people leave Charlotte to go play somewhere else so
they cancel the season like I and so I think
all those factors and there's just a strong football culture
in each from great schools and people want to be there,
so that all factors in.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
Hi, Jeff, I appreciate your time as always. I know
you got a run. Well we'll plug the pod and
plug your stuff on the way out and appreciate your
time as always.

Speaker 4 (01:34:12):
Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
Fun as Jeff Schwartz eight year NFL veteran on the
offensive line. You can hear him on Serious XM, Serious
XM NFL sometimes on Fox Sports as well. He's a
big Orgon Duck fan obviously at Organ Duck alum and
hosts the Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you podcast, and
when we're talking football, Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you.

(01:34:35):
I mean, as OC says, you mentioned Oregon, duck Alum,
we forgive him for that, we do, Right, that's fine.
At least it's now that's it's old hard feelings. Yeah,
at least it's old. At least it's an old Pac twelve.
And we get someone that, we get someone who's on
our side of things where it's like, yeah, it was
better back then. Right, forgive me Jake James. I don't

(01:34:58):
know who Jake is. Forgive me Jake for that, forgetting
my name wrong. Yeah, not that I've known you for
a while. Yeah, forgive me. I found myself cheering for
Organ lately. Really, I mean it's been I'm a PAC
twelve guy, Like, I'm always gonna kind of have an
affinity for the PAC twelve as a West Coast kid
growing up here watching this football footprint, watching the Rose Bull,

(01:35:21):
the granddaddy of them all. I'm always going to have
a Pac twelve affinity. And Organ is the team that
went to the Big ten and is doing the thing. Yeah,
USC and UCLA, come on, USC's looking all right. But
Oregon organ might not lose a football game this year,
and they might beat everyone by ten points. Yeah, and

(01:35:42):
I find myself kind of enjoying it. Yes, Sorry, sorry
to cut you off there. And you can't help but
root for a guy like Dan Lanning. He's awesome, guys,
the guy when he when he said that, when he
said that, the made headlines before the Colorado game when
you say substance over over flash, or we're rooted in substance,
they're rooted in flash, right, Like that came off as

(01:36:06):
a little self right, just in the moment for me porter,
But then he's been consistent with that before that and
ever since that point. So I just nothing but respect
for Dan Lanning and I would love for him to
be the coach of my favorite team. I think Utah
fans would love as much as we love Kyle Whittingham
and we love Morgan Scale, who's next in line. Utah

(01:36:28):
fans and BYU fans would love a coach like Dan Lanning, right,
And that's another reason why it's hard not to root
for Oregon. You mentioned the reaction to that little SoundBite, right,
there was some a lot of people ass corny or whatever. Yeah,
when the results bear out that every player in that
locker room believes every word that Dan Lanning said there

(01:36:51):
hard didn't pick. It's hard to critique that he has
been not only just clearly an elite football coach, which
we're talking about the schemes, the game plans, the individual
week by week adjustments to who you're playing and how
you're playing. He's been phenomenal. But he's also been in

(01:37:14):
a new age of college football in the NIL space,
in the let's just be frank, the pay for play space,
which Oregon kind of had a head start on in
some ways, at least on like the getting ready for it.
He has been really good in that regard because he's
a young dude, he's a player's coach. He knows the assignment,

(01:37:36):
and boy has he bought in and it's been fun
to watch. And like I said, as a PAC twelve lifer,
if I can find one, I'm gonna put a PAC
twelve flag on my house. If anyone's got a link
to a PAC twelve flag, I'd like to hang it
up below the American flag. Just to be clear, I'm
gonna throw it up there. As a PAC twelve guy,

(01:37:58):
I find myself sometimes cheering for Oregon. Sorry, uh, you
have a pack twelve flag to sell to Porter, and
you got a link on eBay or or Amazon or
I bet he's got a few. I bet he's got
I bet he's got some extras. I bet Yogi ross
house is like, he'll send you decoration, We'll send you

(01:38:20):
a big ten flag along with it. Now and now
he's with big Yeah, maybe there's some you know, maybe
maybe not anymore. But I bet if we could rewind
a few years, Yogi Ross's house would have just been
covered in packed twelve gear with a with a flag
on top. I want one of those flags. But again, Oregon.

(01:38:42):
I I think they might win the national championship this
year going away. I know James and Ohio State guy
may have a bone demend market. They all look near
as strong as they did last year Porter, So I
I am hopeful that Ohio State can can be there
and and and winning a in But I'm not. From
what I'm seeing, nothing tells me that they will. Hey,

(01:39:04):
at this point, they're still the number one team in
the country. Number one. We'll take the ranking as long
as they want to give it to us, all right.
The AP Top twenty five BYU coming in at number
twenty three. They've got West Virginia this week and at
four and one. Guess who's receiving the second most votes
of teams not ranked. That is the Utah Utes South

(01:39:27):
Florida with fifty three votes, Utah with fifty two, Mississippi
State with fifty or with forty six. So those are
the first teams kind of left out dropped from the
rankings this week. Or USC previously mentioned one of the
other Big ten teams that jumped ship from the PAC
twelve and TCU a Big twelve contender with Utah, So

(01:39:49):
a lot of familiar names and a lot of Big
twelve teams right there in that twenty to thirty range
right now in college football, which I think is interesting
because those are the teams at Utah and BYU have
remaining on their schedule, and those are the teams that
are gonna tell us all we need to know about
these two teams in Utah, in Provo and Salt Lake

(01:40:11):
City respectively, who somehow, somehow still I think we still
have a lot to learn about despite being halfway through
the college football season, not quite halfway, but by all
intents and purposes, we are well, we're in October, so
we're in mid season, no doubt about that, all right.

(01:40:32):
In the one o'clock hour between the pipes, brought to
you by our friends at Aladdin Industries and Valley Plumbing,
we'll talk to Adrian Denny on the latest in the
National Hockey League. In the Utah Mammoth. I'm gonna have
James call our guy every Gray. I think we'll talk
some more hoops, maybe some football as well, and go
from there. On the Sean O'Connell Show, I amporter Larson

(01:40:53):
phill and in James Peterson behind the glass SPTCH Jackets
will take over on the drive at about two pm.
This is Utah's number one sports talk. It's ESPN seven
hundred ninety two point one FM, the proud part of
Utah's ESPN Radio network.

Speaker 6 (01:41:18):
Scott for run of it, flow to high one timer, Boom,
Patsy Rebound Store, Cameron Hebig knocks.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
It in and Utah is on the board. Here in Boise,
last night's three two lost to the LA Kings. That
was a preseason home game in Boise. Let's right, a
preseason home game and Boise courtesy of the NHL. Adrian
Denny between the Pipes, brought to you by a Laddin

(01:41:47):
Industries and our friends at Valley Plumbing. He joins the
Sean O'Connell show each week during the NHL and Utah
Mammo season. Adrian, how are you, my friend? Been a
while porter?

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
How you doing?

Speaker 9 (01:42:01):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
Doing well? Doing well? Appreciate your time as always. Let's
first off a little recap of a preseason so far,
and we'll get into what will be the first event
at the Delta Center, and uh, of course get into
the ice in regular season, which is not too far off.

Speaker 9 (01:42:21):
Yeah, preseason seven games this year. Next year, the NHL
is going to forest part of the new Collective Barringing Agreement,
so training camp next year is not going to seem
quite as long as as it has been. And for Utah,
they like all the other NHL teams, have used the
first week and a half of camp in the first
four or five preseason games just to really get their
prospects in the middle of it and get them into

(01:42:43):
some NHL action. And Utah has five first rounders that
have been on the ice in training camp and and
some some American Hockey League guys from from the minor
leagues down in Tucson that that have have had good
camps and they've given them some ice time, and now
were really going to get into the preseason here, going

(01:43:04):
into the final two games at Delta Center Thursday and Saturday,
that's when we're really start to see kind of our
lineup for the first time altogether, versus say what we
had last night, nine NHL regulars out of the nineteen
guys that the dress. But head coach Henri Turney was
pretty pleased with the prospects last night. COPA Dwayne was

(01:43:24):
out there, gave Smith he just heard the goal that
the Neil Boots set up, so it's slammed home by
by Karen Hevik. They played a good, heavy puck possession game.
It wasn't without its adversity, but he liked how they
responded to the adversity after giving up a couple early
goals and pushed back and kind of took control of
the game.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
What questions does Adrian Denny still have two games left
in the preseason. I know a lot of the discussion
around those two games is going to be about the
arena and the new looks downtown Salt Lake City, But
on the ice what questions remained for Adrian Denny before
we get to preseason wrapped up?

Speaker 9 (01:44:00):
You know, Porter, I think the biggest question is opening
night roster. Is Alexander Kerfoot going to be healthy? He's
listed is week to week right now. He practiced the
first day and he's been out since. We've had several
other guys day to day. Jack McBain has been day
to day. He was back on the ice today at practice.
Blogan Cooley is day to day. He was on the

(01:44:21):
ice yesterday in a non contact jersey, but skating. But
really our question is for in terms of a roster spot,
is Alexander Kerfoot going to be healthy on opening night?
And if not, who is in that spot? Because coming
into camp, pretty much every roster spot was taken by
a player that was an everyday player for Utah last

(01:44:42):
year or an everyday player in the NHL. So if
there's one spot right now, it looks like it's going
to be Alexander Kerfoot and who takes it? And Neil
Boots had a great training camp. You've got Kylie Yamamoto,
who's played over three hundred games in the NHL, who
went up and down last year between Utah and Tucson
and the American Hockey League, And that's kind kind of
who who Mike and I feel you heard Mike calling

(01:45:03):
that that goal right there. Mike fulta radio play by
play announcer on SCG Media, who we kind of felt
takes that spot because he's just kind of kind of
that versatile, uh, do everything piece for the Mammoth.

Speaker 2 (01:45:15):
So far in the preseason, although they've played separately a bit,
we've only seen one game where Dylan Gunther and jj
Petirka have shared the ice and it looked really good,
generated two goals and a bunch of other opportunities. You
want to see more of that before we get to
regular season.

Speaker 9 (01:45:31):
All yeah, I think the fans want to see that too.
That game in Thursday, that game in Vegas on Thursday
night was was tons of fun because of those guys.
They were playing with Barrett Hayton at the beginning of camp,
they started out with Logan Kooley and that that's kind
of what we expect to be that that forward line
is the Turca, Cooley and Gunther and the speed that

(01:45:54):
they have. But so watching the Turk and Gunther play together,
it was it was a good thing. And and Turky
can just create offense just out of anything. And is
he can shoot from the right, he can shoot from
the left. Gunther's got that shot, one of the best
in the NHL. He's been going to the net too.
That's that's one area of his game that he's focusing

(01:46:16):
on this year. Is he can score twenty seven goals
blasting them from the left wing circle, but maybe you
get ten or fifteen more by crafting the net too.
And that's how he's got his pair of goals. And
in the preseason. And we're talking with Dominic Moore, one
of our television broadcasters, and he felt that Dylan Gunter
might be the most improved player for Utah in training camp,

(01:46:36):
which would be saying something for the twenty two year
old starting just his second full NHL season.

Speaker 2 (01:46:43):
Now, what about availability on the roster. Obviously, you've got
a couple of games in the preseason left. You're not
gonna you know, run your first line out there and
get guys banged up if you don't need to coming
into you know, coming into puck drop. Logan Cooley, Jack McBain,

(01:47:04):
Alexander Kerfoot, who you mentioned earlier, have been dealing with injuries.
Liam O'Brien is back in mostly full strength, but I
wonder how you see the roster and their availability as
a whole. As puck drop approaches.

Speaker 9 (01:47:20):
You know, it's you'd like to get him a game
together and in the preseason if it fits. If a
guy ninety seven ninety eight percent, you're probably like, yeah,
we're good. But if guys one hundred percent, he's ready
to play in a game, and you know the extra
day or two isn't gonna you know, number one, help
him just stay stay rested, stay sharp, but be able

(01:47:45):
to be one hundred percent from from a health standpoint.
I think you'll wait till till the start of the
regular season. I know head coach Andre Turney told us
yesterday that he's just so excited to be back at
Delta Center and just just to be in that atmosphere,
and he wants to play as many of the stars
as possible as as makes sense. Obviously, you're not going

(01:48:07):
to put somebody out there that's not one hundred and
ten percent in a preseason game, but it is on
the mind of coach Bare that we want to put
on a show the second we're back in Delta Center.

Speaker 2 (01:48:18):
And you mentioned it right there back in the Delta Center.
It's a different look Delta Center that we're going to
see for the first time tomorrow. Tomorrow the first events
at Delta Center will go on since what April I think,
the last time that venue was in use. Were you

(01:48:40):
able to get the little tour before they take everyone
in for the first game.

Speaker 9 (01:48:46):
I was not on the tour yesterday, porter because I
am such a hockey guy. It's such a blue collar,
nuts and bolts morning skate guy. I came over to
morning skate here at Southtown and watch the team practice.
But our our producer of Hockey Night in Utah on
the radio, Will Trubshaw, was part of it. And that

(01:49:06):
riser system that they've installed to give it a unique
setting for both hockey and basketball sounds incredible. He said
that they had both both sets of risers out yesterday,
that one side was hockey, one side was basketball, and
he said, you would not believe the difference from the
from looking at it with your eyes, how steep. But

(01:49:30):
the hockey risers are compared to the to the basketball risers.
So that's that's really going to be fun to see.
It's it's something that that's never been done before, but
it was it was something that was important to to
Seg was we we got to keep Delta Center as
the best home court advantage in the NBA when the
place is rock and don't want to lose any of that.

(01:49:51):
And it's always been that way, right, You know that
growing up in Utah when the Delta center's crazy, it's
it's just the way the buildings built and the seats
are configured, and everybody's on top of everything. We wanted
to do the same thing for for hockey, and now
the arena is going to be fully in the round
for hockey. The curtains and the banners are gone from

(01:50:16):
last year and it's going to be ready to go
for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:50:19):
How noticeable was that last year. I know obviously it
was something that they were going to get done long
term regardless, but I want to know how noticeable the
atmosphere change was and how noticeable it was. It was
that when you were in that venue watching a hockey game,
it was I would say, at least very obvious to

(01:50:42):
you that you were in a basketball arena.

Speaker 9 (01:50:44):
No, you know what I thought when I walked into
that building for the first time, I thought, you know what, this,
this doesn't feel like Delva Center. I thought it had
its own unique feel, and I thought it was pretty
sweet and it looked great.

Speaker 2 (01:51:00):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:51:01):
The biggest thing was we just needed more fans to
be able to have the view of both goals.

Speaker 7 (01:51:08):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:51:08):
We had eleven thirty one seats last year where fans
could see the entire ice sheet and both goals, and
we had five thousand plus where you could see one goal.
And the folks that could see one goal were just
as wild and crazy and loud as everybody that can
see two goals, but just one for for the fan experience.

(01:51:31):
Just won as many fans in there as possible that
can see the whole the whole sheet of ice right
and not have to look up at the video boards.
So I think the atmosphere last year was unbelievable. It
was like a rock show. It was like nothing I've
ever experienced at a sporting event or anything. So I
think the biggest difference is going to be just just

(01:51:52):
adding those eleven hundred extra seats for this year, and
additional thousands of seats for phases two and three to
ultimately get over seventeen thousand that have a great view
of the ice. But man, did they ever do a
great job last year with those banners and with those
curtains making it look like, boy, you could have told

(01:52:15):
us this was a hockey hockey arena, we would have
believed you.

Speaker 2 (01:52:19):
Yeah, they did. They certainly did a good job of
like covering that up and you know, getting a good atmosphere.
I mean, if you watched on TV, it looked like
one of the better atmospheres in the National Hockey League.
You wouldn't have known that half of those fans couldn't
see a good portion of the game, right, Which that's
a testament to gues number one of the environment, but

(01:52:40):
also the fans that were just really excited to see
a product even if they could only see three quarters
of it at certain times. It's interesting how they had
to do that. But I am very excited, Adrian, to
see the new product in a hockey form in you know,
in a venue that is built for the game. I'd

(01:53:02):
like to get one of those seats down there closed
just to see what it's like. How big is that
when yeah, you're talking about a home ice advantage, but
I'm talking just night to night when you know you
have this fan base that you can rely upon being
there and being active. How big is that for a team,

(01:53:22):
especially a young team in the Utah Mammoth that are
you know, they're trying to to maybe make a playoff
run this year.

Speaker 9 (01:53:30):
Yeah, the home record the second half of the season
last year was as good as anybody and it was
the NFL and the fans were The fans were just
phenomenal and just just from day one, right when they
got off the plane from Arizona in April of twenty
twenty four, like that that set the tone of what
this is going to be like. And for the team

(01:53:53):
were watching the games last year like the plane good
first half the year home, they're in every game, but
it just took a little bit of time to get
used to that new home and just just take the
you know, not crypt the sticks is tight and I
felt with the team coming to Utah that was going

(01:54:13):
to be the biggest thing. Is all of a sudden,
you're in a city, you're in a state where you
are beloved and you are supported and people know who
you are and love a winner. And they brought that
into Dela Center last year and it took the team
just just a little bit of time, as you said,
a young team coming from a from a different environment.

(01:54:36):
It just took a little bit of time to get
settled into that that new house, right and once once
it clicked in January and the home record was what
it was the rest of the way, and and it's
it was always a great place and everybody always loved it.
It just the brain wasn't quite clicking with with the

(01:54:59):
town and maybe some some pressure that wasn't felt. It
was kind of melted into the brain. They're like, oh gosh,
we have to put on a show here.

Speaker 2 (01:55:11):
Yeah, it's it's it's a lot of pressure when number one,
you're you're starting a new franchise. You are, you know,
trying to compete, but you're also trying to put a
new product out there and sell a new product, which
sometimes is a completely different job than trying to win
hockey games. So, uh, you know, that's going to be

(01:55:32):
part of the conversation as we go along. Adrian on
the ice, Utah is a team that is improved again
over last year. They've made a few trades, They've got
some new draft picks to to play with. How realistic
is a A? And I don't want to say a

(01:55:53):
playoff run, meaning they're in the postseason and making a
run to a conference finals. I'm talking about Hey, just
late in the year year, late in the regular season,
we're talking about this team as a contender to get
into the playoffs, to make an appearance in the postseason.
You know, I think that just based on what we've
seen over the first couple of years. It's it's not

(01:56:14):
an unrealistic goal and not an unrealistic expectation, Uh, this
early in the process.

Speaker 9 (01:56:21):
Yeah, that's that's the that's the expectation. Porter. Everybody said it.
President Chris Armstrong, GM Bill Bill Armstrong, head coach Andre Turny,
the players, if you ask them, that's that's the expectation.
They're not shining away from it. They're not like, well,
we just want to take it one day at a time.
We want to be a playoff team. And last year

(01:56:42):
was was great. Came into a new home, got settled
or in the hunt going into the final final week
or two, had some injuries, learned, learned on the fly
a lot of things with those injuries that that made
them a better team coming into this year. But that's
that's that's that's what they want and you know, I

(01:57:02):
think they were really disappointed they didn't make the playoffs
last year. I think you look at last year and say,
that's probably where we expected to be, maybe a little better,
and we were without two of our top three defensemen
for over half the year, and Carel Viamelca played twenty
three straight games in a row in the second half

(01:57:23):
of the season, so stuff you didn't really expect. And
I think you still kind of exceeded expectations, and I
think they were disappointed. But this year, with the team
being a year older, they were the third youngest team
in the NHL last year. They're not going to be
close to that this year, just with the additions and
Gunther and Cooley and guys like Jack mcpain and Barrett
Hayton Albing a year older and Josh Jone and Michael

(01:57:46):
Casselrain being part of that Jajpaturk trade. So they were
to twenty two year old, twenty three year old guys
that are no longer here. So it's more of a
veteran team. It's more of an experienced team from the
group that was here, and they're eat it, ready to go,
and they want to make the playoffs. And you know,
there's been a core group of them that have been
part of this build for four or five years, and

(01:58:08):
believe me, that's that's the number one thing on their.

Speaker 2 (01:58:11):
Minds Adrian, you mentioned some of the younger players that
have been here for a minute, the maturation process we've
seen over the last couple of years, even sometime in
Arizona for a few of them. Which one of the
familiar faces on this roster do you think makes the
biggest jump or needs to make the biggest jump in

(01:58:34):
twenty twenty five. From an individual.

Speaker 9 (01:58:37):
Standpoint, I'm excited to see Logan Cooley for the third
year in the NHL s put up twenty goals plus
in his first two seasons. That's that's a player I
think can keep going. Talked about talks about Dylan Gunther
earlier and the stuff that he's able to do. And

(01:58:59):
maybe it's just a three of Peka, Gunther and Koley
because Turka is twenty three, Gunther twenty two, Cooley's twenty one,
expected to be on the same forward line together. Seeing
what those guys can do collectively, I think we could
see a huge a huge jump just out of those
three altogether.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
Yeah, I don't think you're alone and having some excitement
about just what that front line as a unit can bring.
I don't know that we really know what to expect
the numbers to look like. Just between the three of them,
they're all just so good at creating. You mentioned Paka specifically.
It seems like he can just for himself or for others,

(01:59:43):
create opportunities out of kind of chaos in front of
the net. Right, there's a lot of opportunity there. I
don't know how it's divvied up between the three of them.
That's something that, like we've alluded to, we need to
see them on the ice together to get an idea
what that looks like. But man, I think that is
probably the main thing to be excited for and to

(02:00:04):
look for for Utahs is that front line. I'm I'm
in agreement with you on that one.

Speaker 9 (02:00:09):
Agent and yeah, man, And when Utah sees those three together,
they are so fast, they're so skilled, and they're so creative,
Like it's it's gonna be something that that takes the
Mammoth to another level in terms of how excited the
fans are to watch the team.

Speaker 2 (02:00:28):
On the back end, we had a trade, Yeah, what's
the what's the move a goalkeeper and give us the
latest on the move today.

Speaker 9 (02:00:38):
Yeah, so Connor Ingram was traded to Edmondson for future
considerations and he's always going to be a huge part
of the organization. He started the first ever game for
Utah last year against Chicago, earned that victory. So he's
the starting goaltender coming out of training camp. And then
his mother passed away from cancer in November and he

(02:00:58):
was away from the team for for a little bit,
and then in March went into the player Assistance program
and you know what what, the fans came together to
do the letters they wrote to Connor Ingram and it
was a really special part of the first year. He
got out of the player assistance program in in August.

(02:01:22):
Uh Utah going into free agency in July, signed v
Tech Vanichik, the backup for the defending Stanley Cup champion
in Florida Panthers. Just just to make sure, right with
no information on Ingram's status, you don't you don't keep
in touch with with players from a team standpoint when
they're in the player assistance program. Uh So, fortunately Connor
was able to emerge from that in in August and

(02:01:47):
Utah and and Connor and his his camp uh collectively agreeing, right,
let's let's get Connor to it to a fresh place,
get him off to a fresh start. Were in good
shape from a goaltending department, and and we wish him
all the best. So it's it's you know, it's really
sad and really tragic what happened with his mom and

(02:02:07):
her passing away and then Connor needing the additional help
and support. But Utah was was behind him all the
way with so happy he could get to that point
to return to the National Hockey League as a goaltender.
And he's going to the Edmonton Oilers, a team that's
been on the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row.
So we're excited to watch him up there and wish

(02:02:30):
him all the best. But with the trade, I think
I think on all ends, including the fans, we're just
happy Connor's ready to play in the NHL again.

Speaker 2 (02:02:38):
Yeah, it'll be good to see him back on the ice,
and as you mentioned, probably plenty of affinity for Utah
Mammoth fans for one Connor Ingram. What does the updated
recalibrated goalkeeper room look like for the Utah mammoth. Now
as we approach puck job.

Speaker 9 (02:02:55):
So you got Corova Melca who's on a five year
contract and mentioned the load that he carried last year,
earned that contract in March, very part of the twenty
the twenty three games. I think maybe one of our
signature games at Delta Center last year was when he
stopped forty nine to fifty in a four to one
victory against Carolina, and from from that point on really

(02:03:17):
took the reins and and you know that became another
fan favorite with the Veggie Chance and the Veggie Heads
broccoli branded, one of our favorite fans getting getting that started.
So he's, uh, he's going to take the load. He
loves being a fan favorite, he said, it's something that
really hasn't happened in his career, so he's embracing that.

(02:03:40):
He's going to be the starter. V Tech Banichik won
twenty two games with New Jersey two three years ago.
During the twenty two to twenty three season. Was in
Florida last year part of their championship team and Utah
was able to go out and sign him and feeling
good about that. Both players Famelca and Vanichi from the

(02:04:00):
Czech Republic two of the nine goaltenders from that country
in the NHL here, so we've got that connection. And
we also have another check goalie and our system, Michael Robbel,
who we're really excited about his future coming up. So
I would say Porter Veggie probably starts two to three
games to start the season and we'll see how it

(02:04:22):
goes from there. But during the course of an eighty
two game season, if Veggie starts fifty to fifty five,
that leaves thirtieth for Vanichik, and I think that's a
good spot to keep Lamelka from having to go every night,
and Vanichick a very quality NHL goalie that you mix
in there and feel pretty good about.

Speaker 2 (02:04:43):
All right, Adrian, that's a lot of info, a lot
of good insight for the Utah Mammoth ahead of the
regular season. Two more preseason games built at home at
the Delta Center, the first events at the Delta Center
since this spring, and of course it'll be a new look,
so tune in for that and maybe head down and
see the new look Delta Center. While preseason ticket sales

(02:05:04):
I'm sure are plenty more affordable than the regular season, Adrian,
give us a preview.

Speaker 9 (02:05:11):
Yeah, ten dollars single goal view tickets available to check out.
Check out mamasocial Media on Twitter on Instagram. They'll be
a link there you can click it and get your
ten dollars single gold view seats for those two preseason games.
But as we said, you'll be in the building, you'll
be part of it, and you'll love it.

Speaker 2 (02:05:29):
Adrian Denny behind Between the Pipes rather on the Sean
O'Connell Show. Appreciate your time.

Speaker 9 (02:05:36):
Man, my pleasure reporter. Thanks for talking to me man.

Speaker 2 (02:05:40):
As always Between the Pipes brought to you by Aladdin
Industries and are friends at Valley Plumbing. That is Adrian
Denny one of the brightest hockey minds here in the market.
And he's not He's not one of these guys that
just started covering hockey this last year or two. No,
he's been talking hockey in the market for I don't

(02:06:01):
want to put a number on it because I don't
want to short change him. I'm going to say more
than a decade, probably even longer, been involved with the
Grizzlies and more. Adrian Denny. If you want some hockey insights,
some hockey knowledge in Salt Lake City, he is one
of the best to turn to. It is between the
pipes back on the other side. Our friends at Orum

(02:06:22):
Toyota especially chance for you. We got a news dump
for you, our daily dump there and more still to
come in the one o'clock hour. Spence Jackets will take
over in about a half hour here on Utah's number
one sports sports Talk, I am Porter Larson filling in
for Sean O'Connell on The Sean O'Connell Show on this
Wednesday afternoon ESPN seven hundred ninety two point one FM,

(02:06:45):
a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network. Feeling out of.

Speaker 1 (02:06:53):
The loop, Let's catch up on today's biggest headline said
about daily news dump on the Sean O'Connell Show. Flush
out the biggest stories of the day on Utah's number
one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
a half am, brought to you by Bally Plumbing.

Speaker 2 (02:07:09):
Just look for the truck with the duck. By the way.

Speaker 10 (02:07:13):
Tommy Edmonds, his height and his birthday are the same.
He's five to nine and he was born on May
the ninth. I keep track of those things too, Yes
you do.

Speaker 2 (02:07:26):
Oz Al two by five six born on May the sixth.
How many June birthdays you got to match that. I
don't have ball.

Speaker 11 (02:07:36):
I have a few.

Speaker 2 (02:07:39):
Of Tim Kurtgein of course keeping track of the uh
the in depth stats on MLB postseason. I mentioned to
James that's a JP chung A special oh Ab Chunga,
who is a friend of Tim Kirkchin's by the way,
because he went to school with with Tim's son. Yeah,

(02:08:03):
maybe maybe it's a Syracuse thing. Yeah, I laughed out loud.
I'm doing I'm doing dishes at night, which is now
part of my life as the It's a lot of
the baby dishes, washing the baby bottles and stuff. That's
a nightly chore of mine now as a as a
young dad. And so I've got the radio, I've got
the Red's Dodgers radio call on. That's where that's from

(02:08:28):
via ESPN Radio, playing on the phone on the ESPN
the Fan app. And I've laughed out loud at that,
just like just like his broadcast partner did. Like seriously,
I mean, what a treasure Tim Kirchin is because you
just don't get the those kind of funny, quirky moments
from anyone else in the industry, always good, always fun.

(02:08:54):
Like I mentioned a stat that would go like completely,
I would never have come across or even had noticed
that kind of stat. I also want to throw out
jose Al to I don't standing on first base. Maybe
his real hype probably doesn't match his birthday standing on
first base with his spikes, jose Al might be five six.

(02:09:19):
That's your first stop on the daily dump. Connor Ingram
traded to the Edmonton traded to Edmonton for future cash
considerations on the Utah Mammoth side. If you want like
in depth coverage reaction to that, well, we just had
one Adrian Denny on the program. Go check that interview
out on the podcast feed when it applies there and

(02:09:42):
you'll get the latest on Connor Ingram to Edmonton. I
do wonder porter, just real quick, that's that's related to
this trade. I do wonder how much that having Connor
Ingram as a death piece uh for their for a
Minton's goaltending might improve that come playoff time next year,

(02:10:04):
because that's been a noticeable weakness for the Oilers. They
are this is true. They probably have the most talented
team in the NHL besides a goaltender and and Connor
Ingram is not going to be a guy that fixes
that completely, but I would think that it improves the
depth at the very least. So I just wonder what

(02:10:25):
kind of impact that that has. If we do see
Connoringham play for the Oilers, and especially in postseason, I
think you'll you'll probably see him be there their second
or third guy. You know that NHL teams usually like
to have a semblance of a kind of a three man,
two guy rotation at the goalkeeper position. We'll get US
hockey experts over with the of course, a very much

(02:10:47):
a lead guy that probably isn't Connor in Edmonton if
you're not a if you're a trying to be a
contender in the NHL. But like James said, a good
depth piece for a team that has needed help at goalkeeper.
Like I said, Adrian Denny has a bunch on that.
If you want to go listen to his interview that
we just wrapped up on it. Between the Pipes, Between

(02:11:08):
the Pipes. The Utah Jazz have announced a new PA announcer,
a new voice of the Jazz. It's Mark Denman. He's
a He's been all over the map, including with the
Harlem Globetrotters, and he will replace a long time voice
of the Jazz that was Dan Roberts, who retired after
last season. So James, a new voice in the Delta Center,

(02:11:32):
one that you've heard your entire life in then some yeah,
uh this is We knew that this was going to
be happening because they announced really early on Dan roberts
retirement last season. But I will say it's still caught
me off guard seeing that announcement. Hey, they've hired a
new They've introduced a new the new PA voice of

(02:11:54):
the Jazz like and I had to go, oh, yeah,
no Dan Roberts this season for the first time in
my life, time in your life, reporter, and first time
since they moved here in seventy nine. I believe he
was there for He was the PA guy at the
Salt Palace and then the Delta Center for every single
home game. Yeah, I believe so since they've been the

(02:12:14):
Utah Jazz. He probably even went down to Vegas when
they in the early eighties when they had the some
home games in Vegas at the Thomas and Max Center.
In fact, I know he did some of those games. Yeah,
he's talked about it on the show before, so well,
actually we're gonna get Dan on the show with Spence
sometime soon, just to to look back and get a
perspective on this Utah Jazz team as well. So, Mark Denman,

(02:12:38):
it's certainly going to sound. It's certainly going to make
you go, this doesn't sound that's different. This is different. Yeah,
it's certainly going to be different at games this year
with the new PA voice. But looking forward to it.
Not it sounds like he Mark has spent most of
his time in the Atlanta and Alabama area. Based on

(02:12:58):
his on the press relief the Atlanta women's basketball team,
he did a bunch with the Atlanta Braves yea a
little bit, and then, like I mentioned, his main gig
for a minute, it was with the Harlem Globetrotters. So
I don't know unless he traveled with the Globetrotters and
I'd been to a couple of Globetrotters games, maybe maybe
I'll recognize his voice from that, But I don't think

(02:13:19):
I'm familiar with Mark at all, So this will be interesting. Nope,
it'll be a new voice for just about everyone in
the arena. But looking forward to to meet Mark and
we'll probably get him on the shows as well. Speaking
of Atlanta, how about this, Brian Snitker not returning as
the Braves manager. He just barely won the World Series.

(02:13:40):
For you, as someone who is a Mets fan and
doesn't like the Braves, I like this. I mean, I know,
like you said, he won a World Series and in
twenty twenty one, this is the first time they've missed
the postseason since almost ten years twenty seventeen. Yeah, not

(02:14:01):
successful enough I guess to retain his job, although he
is staying with the organization, so maybe it's partially his
his choice in a little bit, I don't know. Maybe
they've got someone in mind, maybe it's his successor that
he I don't know the situation there enough. We'll get
clarity on that as as we go along. But yeah,
Brian snicker out curious move as the manager of the

(02:14:25):
Braves and as a Mets fan. I'm okay with that
because they seem to even though they don't go back
and look at the numbers, it's not quite as lopsided
as I seem to think it is. It seems like
the big games we're talking about, the Pennant, we're talking
about the division. We're talking about series, late season series

(02:14:45):
and in playoffs, the Braves just have the number on
my Mets, and it feels like enjoy retirement, Buddy. Feels
like it's been that way since the early nineties too,
like when the Braves really got things and with Smoltz
and Maddocks and glad and and Chipper Jones and company.

(02:15:06):
It feels like it's been they've owned that that nl
es And it's not just been the It's not just
been the Mets that have been victims of that. The
Phillies have been victims of that for a long time.
Although the Phillies are doing really well right now. Rockies
also dismissed their general manager Omitt after one hundred and
nineteen losses on the season, So that one a little

(02:15:28):
arguments there. Yeah, that one a little more understandable. They
haven't been very good. Other baseball news, Albert Poohols, according
to The Athletic, a leading candidate to be the Angel's
next manager. Umm, can you think of that? Because not
it feels like a no brainer, Hall of Fame, great player.

(02:15:49):
Of course, they'd be a great coach. But it doesn't
turn out to be that way. Most of the time,
it doesn't. And I have also just never really thought
of that or seen that, or or thought of that
is like a lane for Albert Pooholes, like some guys
in their interviews, in their their public setting, seemed like

(02:16:11):
a coach. Like just watching him play, they look like
coaches out there. For instance, if Britain Covey retires and
is no longer on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad and
he is coaching, whether at Utah or elsewhere, zero surprise. Yeah,
he's either going to be leading a business, leading some church,
calling or coaching football. I can almost guarantee you that

(02:16:34):
I think he's said publicly, even on this station in
other places, that that is what he'd like to do. Right.
So I but even if he hadn't have said that,
right because of all the things, you just see it.
You could see it, you could hear it. That's a
future coach. I don't know that I've ever thought of
that with Albert Poohols. I thought of him as always
kind of like a silly, funny guy who also is

(02:16:57):
just a supremely talented hitter in baseball play or maybe
the maybe the best hitter of my lifetime, of our
lifetime porter. I mean, certainly there's other guy. I mean
Barry Bonds probably, but other than Barry Bonds, other than
now it's Rodriguez. If you take out the the guys
with the steroid cloud hanging over them, Like, Yeah, Pooles

(02:17:18):
is probably the best hitter part of our lifetime, especially
when you look at like the totality, right, the fact
that he could expand it upon twenty two years. I
think in the Yeah, in the Bigs, he was like
the Vince Carter kind of he seemed like it's like baseball,
and it's like it's a lot like Aaron Judge. Now,
Like the guy doesn't look like he has any weakness

(02:17:41):
in his strike zone right or in his uh in
the batter's box there, Like you can't put it anywhere
that Aaron Judge can't punish it, right, Right. That's the
way it was, and probably even more so when pool
Holes was playing with the with the Saint Louis Cardinals
in his prime, especially Angels, he was still pretty good,
but not near as good as he was with the Cardinals.

(02:18:02):
He was as intimidating of a hitter for opposing fans
and I think probably for posing pictures as there's been
in this in the last thirty years or so. Big guy,
big strike zone, big reach, similar to Judge in that way,
not quite the yeah, not as tall, but big yeah.

(02:18:23):
Like you said, that's that's tough when you have a
strike zone that seems so big and he can smash
it out of the park regardless of where you put it.
By the way, hit like three point thirty two, just like.
That's why I think Judge is an apt comparison because
he also hits for high average like Pools in it.
A lot of people were hitting for a higher average

(02:18:44):
at that time when Pooles was in his prime than
there is today. But so he wasn't quite the outlier
that not quite the home runs that you see today.
But yeah, he anyway one of my favorite players that
I always tended to root against because I liked the
Cubs a little bit more than I like the Cardinals,
but always had a ton of respect for him. I

(02:19:05):
I mean, why not if you're the Angels though you
have nothing going for you. I know there's a fair
amount of Angels fans in this market, and we apologize
to you because we have we have a texture. In fact,
who might text in who's just an apoplectic Angels fan
and let's spin off. Let's get your thoughts on an
Angels fan. I know there's more than one of them,

(02:19:27):
because this is a Bee's Angels affiliate market, and around
here likes to get a lot of people around here
like to go to Disneyland, so they check out the Angels.
Well they well they make that trip too, so that
there's a lot of reasons why. But I want I
want your thoughts on it, because to me, the Angels

(02:19:49):
have been so deeply unserious for so long. Then take
a high like this. I mean, maybe here you can
go both ways and maybe we can do it for
the sake of radio here. Yeah, I kinda think that
this is you know, you're hiring a player, a guy
who maybe brings butts to seats. Yeah, from a coaching standpoint,

(02:20:13):
maybe brings butts to seats, which is interesting. Maybe I
need to sit in a room with Albert Polholts and
talk baseball with him, because I don't want to. I
don't want to like put off the that the thought
that I think this is an unseious hire. I just
I've I've never seen him involved in any sort of
coaching or coaching rumors, so it it kind of just

(02:20:36):
jumps off the page of me as oh interesting, Yeah,
it feels kind of feels kind of random, And maybe
we're just ignorant of of the things that of opportunities
he's he's pursued in this market. Maybe if we were
in LA we'd know, we'd this would make a lot
more sense, like, oh, yeah, we've seen him coach whereverever,
but we haven't. You and I have not seen that,

(02:20:56):
and I think most people probably haven't. He is a guy.
One thing that lends him towards being a the lends
gredence to the idea that he could be a good manager,
was that towards the end of his career with the Angels,
the Dodgers, and the Cardinals again, he was known as
as Teo Albert Uncle Albert right as the as the

(02:21:19):
veteran leader. The young guys always gravitated towards him, respected him,
and it at least the stories that they told on
broadcast was it was it was beyond that they know
he was an awesome player, It was because he had
that kind of leadership ability and that of course translates
very well to being a manager. Yeah, and being a coach,

(02:21:39):
especially if you could delegate. Yeah, if you if you
are the Angels and you hire Albert, is that guy, right,
someone who is a leader, someone who is a a
like an emotional leader, and a someone that these young
players can look to as a teal as you said, right,
uncle uncle al That can be really beneficial as a

(02:22:03):
manager if you can delegate like the intricacies of baseball
to good managers beneath you. That's kind of a question there,
veteran bench coaches with pitching coaches, what have you hitting coaches?
What have you to clarify? Because I I you know,
I'm not sorry following Albert Pools too closely. In his retirement,

(02:22:25):
he has done uh some work with the Dominican national team,
so he has been doing some managerial stuff. He has
been kind of on board unofficially with the Angels. Sounds
like this entire time, like a consultant exactly.

Speaker 4 (02:22:39):
So.

Speaker 2 (02:22:39):
The folks in the Angels front office seem to know
him very well, which leads me to believe maybe, uh,
they have a better feeling on his his baseball like
real baseball IQ baseball knowledge than anyone else. And and hey,
if he's if he's the lead dog, and they know
him this well, and you know he's going to getting

(02:23:01):
his coaching experience with the Dominican team. Why not? Why
not take a swing? If you're the Angels, you're gonna
get worse. It's gonna be worse. Are you gonna have
less people come into your games? You have absolutely nothing
going for you except for the fact that Mike Trout
is still on your roster. But that is not made
any kind of difference. Are you gonna waste Mike Trout
anymore than you are right now? No? You might as

(02:23:23):
well try something like ir Uncle, I have completely flipped.
I have gone from skeptical to all in in one segment. Magic.
Let's go, Uncle Al. Hire him. I don't care if
he's coaching the UH benchwarmers or the what's the salt
Lake the Sandlot team? Iron Uncle Al? Uh back on

(02:23:46):
the other side. We'll wrap things up and hand it
over to one Spence checkets. I think maybe some cross
talk if he is in the house and ready for it.
Of course, I'll remain here in the studio and UH
be down until about six o'clock with Spence on drive.
This is the Shan O'Connell Show. And I am Porter
Larson filling in that there is James Peterson behind the

(02:24:08):
glass and RPD here at ESPN seven hundred. Anything you
missed on the show today, head over to the website.
It's ESPN seven hundred, sports dot Com or wherever you
happen to podcast. On the other side, we'll wrap things up.
Handed over to Spence. It's ESPN seven hundred and ninety
two point one FM.

Speaker 1 (02:24:37):
You tune to the Shan O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
one a FM.

Speaker 2 (02:24:47):
Welcome back Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred. No
Shan O'Connell today. He is out be back with you Monday,
I believe on ESPN seven hundred ninety two point one FM.
If you missed anything from the week or the show today,
ESPN seven hundred, Sports dot Com or wherever you happen

(02:25:09):
to podcast, Spreak or Spotify, Apple, Google Play, just search
the Sean O'Connell Show, rate review and subscribe. It does
help out the program. We're handed over to Spence. Check
it's here momentarily. We we'll get plenty more college Football NFL,
maybe a little Jazz Mammoth preseason and some RSL chatter.

(02:25:30):
That's going to be the rest of your afternoon up
until about six o'clock. But right now in studio with
us an old familiar face, our buddy, Jake Jensen. Jake
works behind the scenes on a lot of shows that
you guys have been to, you guys have heard of,
but also an old friend of the programs here on

(02:25:50):
X ninety six and otherwise, Jake, good to see you, dude.

Speaker 11 (02:25:53):
Good to be back in my old stomping grounds here.

Speaker 2 (02:25:57):
Your key cards still work.

Speaker 11 (02:25:58):
It still does amazingly enough, they.

Speaker 2 (02:25:59):
Actual it does better. We better chat you.

Speaker 3 (02:26:02):
Probably someone took my parking spot though, but that's all right.
We'll take the wins where we get them.

Speaker 2 (02:26:07):
I love it. But yeah, so Jake is obviously a
guy that we're familiar with here. But today you're punching
the Red West stuff. And it's, like you said, coming
in off air, the biggest country show as far as
the artists go, and right now, as far as tickets sold,
tickets ripped at the Gator are going to be probably

(02:26:28):
record numbers for the state of Utah and for a
really good lineup. Give the folks the lowdown.

Speaker 11 (02:26:34):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

Speaker 3 (02:26:35):
Like this show that's gonna be the fair Park, Red
West next weekend, So not this weekend, but next weekend.

Speaker 11 (02:26:41):
Out there, we're talking Casey.

Speaker 3 (02:26:42):
Musgraves, Noah Con and then closing it out with everything
with post Malone.

Speaker 11 (02:26:47):
This lineup is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:26:50):
I was there for last year. They did a great
job of kind of setting it up in different settings
so you could go warped tour country style, right, like,
you've got a stage here, a stage here, exactly, always
music going on regardless of when you stop by October
ten to twelfth, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:27:06):
You know, it's funny you brought that up because a
lot of the guys that built this and built the
site design, I don't think people realize there's such a Utah.

Speaker 11 (02:27:13):
Connection to the Warp Tour.

Speaker 3 (02:27:15):
The majority of the guys that built Warp Tour all
are Utah Skyline Olympus, high school kids and stuff like that,
and they're all actually working on the same show.

Speaker 6 (02:27:23):
Right.

Speaker 11 (02:27:23):
I love it though, it really is. I guess that's
a great way to put it.

Speaker 3 (02:27:26):
This is a this is a country warp tour out there,
and you know it's it's gonna be the biggest show
ever to hit the fair Park. Two stages, music going
the entire day, and just a little bit of something
for everybody. It's a really awesome, full, full family show.
There's stuff for the kids, there's stuff for the families,
and there's stuff for the people that want to come

(02:27:46):
out and enjoy watching Post Malone.

Speaker 2 (02:27:48):
Jake mentioned Casey Musgrave's Post Malone, Noah con those are
kind of your your headliners. Also, Red Clay Strays are
a band that I really really like. Ian Munsick is
a Wyoming kid that has been really good. Midland is
a band that I think is phenomenal. I'm just going
through the ones that I know just because it stands

(02:28:09):
out and you know, it's an authentic way to go
about it. But there's still there's twenty thirty plus other
artists that that are are gaining traction and are touring
artists that are are on this lineup. So three straight
days of really good country music, give the folks the
latest on tickets, what's left where they can go, what's

(02:28:30):
the best place to do it? Maybe discount codes whatever, whatever,
Still a better of course.

Speaker 3 (02:28:34):
So yeah, so definitely don't wait till next weekend. This
is this is just about sold out. It's definitely gonna
get there. We've also partnered with our friends at the
Ron McBrien Foundation with some of our VIP tickets on
the show. So if you go to the Ron McBride
Foundation's website on there, there is a link and every
single ticket purchased through the Ron McBride Foundation, there will

(02:28:55):
be a donation made back from Red or West to
their school program that they do with after school programs
all over the state of Utah. That's absolutely amazing. Ron
Bride's done ed just a marvelous job with that, and
that's something that's really important for us to support here
in the community. So definitely grab some of those VIP
tickets off of the rominic Bride website. You can also
get regular tickets right now at Redwest SLC dot com. Again,

(02:29:17):
like I said, a mint ago and this is a yeah,
maybe a little biased on this, but I also you know,
watch shows and how they sell for a living. I
wouldn't wait till next weekend. This this one's definitely gonna be,
definitely gonna be one the next couple of days. You'll
you'll be buying a you'll be buying scalp tickets otherwise.

Speaker 2 (02:29:35):
I can say I've had quite a few people reach
out and be like, hey, where's the tickets? Like I
maybe we'll have them last minute from the radio. I
don't know. I don't know they're selling out probably, so uh,
don't wait, get in on it, make sure you're there,
make sure you get in on the gate. And hey,
if you're so inclined, maybe you're a youths fan and
a country music fan, head over to Ron McBride foundation.
Use the link there to buy and you can get

(02:29:58):
in and a portion of your ticket rip will go
to the Ron McBride Foundation, which is improving the education
and helping the well being of Utah's at risk youth.
And I'll tell you I know Ron McBride, that foundation
does what it says it does, which is an important
important note. Jake, it was really good to see you.

(02:30:18):
If you need before, we've got a couple weeks before,
so we'll chat with you again.

Speaker 3 (02:30:22):
But looking forward to a good show. Amazing great seeing
my friends. And we appreciate all the support of you know,
local independent concerts and music here in Salt Lake.

Speaker 11 (02:30:31):
So we appreciate more.

Speaker 2 (02:30:32):
Than you know. It's awesome. I appreciate it. Thanks Jake.
We'll do some cross talk maybe here with Spence check
it's as we wrap it up, but appreciate you guys
for joining us. If you missed anything from the show today,
head over to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports
dot com. It is the Sean O'Connell Show and wherever

(02:30:53):
you happen to podcast coming up on the drive with
Spence check it. So it'll be a jam packed show
for you. Stay tuned. We'll talk some college football, we'll
talk some NFL Week five of course Thursday Night football ahead,
maybe some RSL Jazz Mammoth preseason, all of that's still
to come on the show today. This has been the

(02:31:16):
Sean O'Connell Show for James Peterson behind the glass. I
am Porter Larson filling in Sean O'Connell. We'll be back
with you down the road and James, what have we
got tomorrow on the OC Show? Yeah, we have a
loaded Thursday. Gordy Chias we're doing the twice a week
hits with him. As we are now basically in basketball season,

(02:31:39):
preseason coming up training camps, underway, so we'll have him
on tomorrow at one o'clock. We have man I am
doing a terrible job. DeMarco far there. It is La
RAMS sideline analysts. The Rams are playing tomorrow on Thursday night. Well,

(02:32:00):
we're gonna have that again on those radio calls on
both stations. The national call here from Westwood one on
ESPN seven hundred ninety TWOFM the RAMS Radio Network home
broadcast over on ESPN the Fan. That's one of three
nine nine three FM, And so those two guys and
much more. No audition with Devin. It is a bye week,

(02:32:21):
so we will not have that this week on a Thursday,
but all your other regular guests on a on a
Thursday tomorrow on the Sean O'Connell Show, Bryce Larson and
Jordan Bianucci. Bryce and Bianucci filling in once again tomorrow
and Friday, so stay tuned for that. Oc will be

(02:32:42):
back on Monday, and he's then he's with you for
the rest of the football season. Guys, if you missed him,
you will now miss him again the rest of the
rest of football. Get that PFL season over with. Get
OC back in the house. Cleveland up three to one,
now over Detroit. It's the bottom of the eighth, the
Drive with Spence Check Its comes your way next. It
is ESPN seven hundred and ninety two point one fam
a proud part of Utah ESPN Radio Network