Ep. 4: The Enemy's Perspective - Utah vs. UCLA

Get a glimpse at UCLA from the enemy's perspective.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome everybody to the Enemy's Perspective, a Ute Nation podcast,
where today we're discussing the Utah Ucla matchup with Mike
Rigolato is with the Bruins are porn Online. I'm your host,
Matt Stanley. Mike, thanks for taking some time to talk
to us today about some football.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh totally. I am so excited. We're almost there. We're
within field goal range of the season and uh yeah,
what three days now we have some football. So I'm
very excited and definitely excited to talk to you guys again.
So thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, no problem, Thank you so much for your time.
Utah and UCLA kind of feel like in similar places
right now, coming off of five.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
And seven season.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
But the Utah vibes are high right now, the optimisms
high and looking into UCLA seeing what you guys are
saying now, you guys seem pretty optimistic about season two.
What what are your just the general fan base feelings
about how things are going right now?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, things changed from the middle of spring camp
to now. Prior to that, there were changes, much much
needed changes. One of the first changes that Deshaun Foster
made was, you know, in his first year, he had
Eric Bienemy as the offensive coordinator and he just ran
a just way too complex offense that had that was

(01:33):
stagnant at times. U s All I think had the
second worst run game in the nation.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Not good for a head coach who was a stellar
college and NFL running back. But he made a change
with an offensive coordinator, bringing in Indiana quarterback coach Tino Cenceerri,
who just has some absolutely fabulous hair.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I call him football Morrissey. It's awesome. But he comes
in and from what we're hearing, there's going to be
a more balanced attack, simpler. We have Joey Aguilar coming
in from what was app State, I think, and he
was looking okay, wasn't you know Fireworks weren't going off,
Sirens weren't going off. That happened two weeks in the

(02:21):
camp when the whole thing with Nico Iamliava broke that
he's not going to return to Tennessee. He was looking
for a landing spot, and it was funny. In the
first twenty four hours people, you know, fans, media, were like,
that would be cool if it happens. Can it happen?
You know, things don't go have things haven't bounced c

(02:43):
CLA's way in recent years, and then sure enough by
spring he was a Bruin. So with that just as
as a foundation to this new offense in Deshaun Foster's
second year, Yeah, there's the fan is quite excited, definitely

(03:03):
having a former five star quarterback and a quarterback that
led his last team to the college football playoffs. That
that sits very well with the UCLA fans. So right
now there's a lot of optimism, just as you were
talking about, and rightly so. Both teams have new offensive coordinators,
new new quarterbacks who were just studs with their last team.

(03:27):
And yeah, it's along with the the the spirit Deshaun
Foster's trying to bring back. Now there's a little bit
behind it, there's more momentum, and fans are getting right
behind all of it.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, that sounds almost exactly like Utah situation. Right now,
we've moved to a new offensive coordinator who has a
more simple offense. Our last offensive coordinator who had a
very complex offense, who it worked really good with the
right people. But in these days when you seem to
have you never know who's coming who's leaving. Right, there's

(04:03):
a lot more turnover, especially at that quarterback position. Simpler
offenses seem to do more because people need to pick
it up quick. But now I'm glad, I'm glad you
brought up Nico.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
He I'm a.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Maliava, maliava, maliava A right, Hey, from now on, it's
just Nico.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
I said it once.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I'm at right, were gonna we're gonna call it good there,
So Nika, glad you brought that up because that was
a pretty dramatic national story Niko. A lot of people
only know of Nico because of that. How's the u
c l A fan base feeling about that situation with
him coming in? Do you worry about him? If he

(04:46):
has a good year or even a bad year, just
you know, is he going the highest bitter next year?

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I mean probably, I mean in the world of nil players,
can you know, find better opportunities in call edge than
than the NFL. But if he has a really good year,
if let's say I'm not saying this is going to happen,
but let's say they get to ten wins, Uh, yeah,
he's he's probably bolt into the NFL. So this this,

(05:15):
this is, this is gonna be an interesting year to
see how well the team does and what that does
for their future, not just with Nico but other uh yeah,
potential transfers, recruits. And that's one thing too. There's been
more life injected into the recruiting recruiting style of u

(05:38):
c l A's coaches. They basically, especially the newer ones
for from this season, they've really hit the ground running
and they've already brought in several guys. So having a
winning season would do wonders for u c l A
the program in general, just because there is all this
other momentum that's been going on. So if what we're

(05:59):
seeing from practic this and from what we're hearing, uh,
and they have a good season, yeah, Nico could probably
move on, but UCLA would probably put themselves in a
really good spot to maybe pick out whatever quarterback is
in the transfer portal. Again, maybe one of the quarterbacks
on the roster right now takes a jump.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
You know.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Nico's younger brother, Madden, is also on the team. They
also have two other not that experience, but guys who
have been with the program that that know what to
expect from Foster. So yeah, it's there's there's a lot
of optimism and really quickly. I'm kind of rambling on,

(06:42):
but U C. L A has been used to not
having great seasons, and that's been felt at the beginning
during the preseason too. Uh about a year ago now,
there was not a lot of optimism. That's that's it's
it's different. There's energy, there's a bit of a flow,
there's a little bit of a buzz. But as as

(07:03):
far as talk of UCLA's offense, it's it's energizing right now.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I don't want to say I was surprised, but
once I started, you know, this past week or so,
trying to look at see what UCLA guys are saying,
there's a lot more optimism.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Than what I expected.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Not that there's always high preseason and stuff, but I
feel like I haven't seen quite that optimism from the UCLA,
at least social media wise, coming out in the last
couple of years. But so, Nico, he's coming to you
as a true junior. G Richard sophomore, rich Chert sophomore. Okay,

(07:45):
all right, So last year he had twenty six and
sixteen passing yards, nineteen touchdowns, and only five interceptions, seventy
point five QBR sixty three point eight percent completion rate,
which which for his sophomore year or his true red
shirt freshman year.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
That's that's a that's a good year.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
He was only sacked twelve times last year, but five
of those were against Georgia, four of those were against Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
So he had a really good offensive line last year.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
But when he started taking those pressures, like against Georgia,
he threw only for one hundred and sixty seven yards
that that game, sixty point six, so just in our
sixty one percent completion rate, no touchdowns, and Tennessee only
put up seventeen points. Against Arkansas, he took four sacks,
they only put up fourteen points in that game. He

(08:34):
had a sub sixty percent completion rate fifty eight point six,
no touchdowns. So it seems to me like he does
really good with a clean pocket from what I've watched
on him, But under pressure, I think he doesn't throw
a lot interceptions. He seems to take sacks as opposed
to trying to rush that ball out, but he his

(08:57):
performance decreases dramatically under pressure. And with that note, UCLA
last year's offensive line was leaky at best, right, it
wasn't a good offensive line. And looking at their offensive line,
looks like you have two returning starters, but you're bringing
in three kind of unknown transfers coming in and then

(09:20):
your center. I don't I don't want to try to
say this guy's name, but I can't. There's not much
on him. He's not even two four seven, not even
a transfer rated. Looks like he's visited a lot of
schools and committed to several. Who's this guy and Harry guys?
Feeling about the offensive line rebuild? You have the same
offensive line coast. Do you think you have the offensive
line this year to be able to keep Nico in

(09:42):
a clean pocket? Because I think that's gonna be the
biggest difference for you guys.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I'm hoping, because oddly enough, UCLA actually did have a
decent passing game last year. Ethan Garber's Ucla is a quarterback.
He actually threw for more yards than Nico y Malava.
But that's because Tennessee was more run heavy and they
couldn't run the ball to save their lives. Literally, like

(10:06):
whenever they tried to run the ball, it's like the
running back would run into a wall in between every gap,
every gap just closed off. But I looked at the
numbers of a few weeks ago, and you know, a
lot of people on Twitter, we're surprised, and you know,
thanking me for doing the average weight of UCLA's offensive linemen.

(10:30):
Prior to this year, they were I think in order
it was maybe two ninety eight average three ZHO one
three hundred. This year it's up to three seventeen heavier.
They have bulked up. Now. One thing we can say
is that Chip Kelly did want lighter offensive lineman quicker,
but obviously Chip Kelly's not here anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I just want this out there right now.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
I hate Chip Kelly.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
You're not the only one, especially out here, not the
only one. But Tino since he said he wants to
play more physical football. He's a disciple of Nick Saban
and yeah, just smashing, you know, smashing into the defense.
That's the kind of football he wants to run. And
even Deshaun Foster has acknowledged that, you know, did irk

(11:19):
him a little bits as a running back coach. He
wants to see the run game, but he just wants
to see a good balanced offense, which assumes that they're
going to have this year. Now, going back to the
offensive line, Yeah, they had to bring in some transfers.
But what Robert Kwan, the new offensive line coach, has done,
like you could see it in just the four weeks

(11:41):
of spring, how much better the offensive line got and
so so far from what we've seen in fall camp.
They're continuing that and there's just a lot of praise
right now for the offensive line, and it seems like
they're going to take a huge step forward. Now. They're
not going to be Utah qual the offensive line, but

(12:02):
you know, guys like Errett de Giorgio, Sam Yune, you
know Rubin One, some of the guys were that were
here last year. Uh some of them got injured. But
it looks like everyone's ready to go. So this offensive line,
as as you asked previously, should be able to uh
keep some heat off of Nico. But hopefully Nico can

(12:25):
use his feet to run out or as you say,
you know, take a sack rather than a chance and interceptions,
so uh so, yeah, there's much improvement there.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, like I said, Nico seems like his interceptions is
not his problem by any means, So that's that's a
good thing. And overall sounds like you're feeling optimistic about
the progress of your offensive line. Yes, we're almost we're
about to find out. I think they're they're about to
face a pretty strong defense. But you brought up Utah's

(12:53):
offensive line. We got we have a strong offensive line
this year. On the top of the nation. We have
Spencer Fano, who is projected top easily a top five
pick in the NFL draft. This year goes well for him, right,
And then we have Caleb Blamoo as well. On the
other side the left tackles Caleb Blamu who also very

(13:15):
possibly a first round draft pick.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
So with that being said, who on your defensive front.
Who's the guy that you feel like is gonna challenge
our offensive line the most?

Speaker 2 (13:27):
It's the interior. UCLA has actually prided itself on having,
you know, pretty solid edges, but they they lost the
core of guys that will get into the backfield are
all in the NFL. Schwessinger, Madrano, Oladejo, and Jaytoya all
off to the professional ranks. So UCLA had to fill
out those positions, and most of those guys Schwessinger was

(13:50):
a Schwes Singer in Madrana were linebackers, but Fami was
an edge and he actually did well the second half
of the season in the past rushing spot. But right
now UCLA doesn't really have that guy. Uh there there's
some guys that they brought in and some younger guys
who look like they'll do a serviceable job. Who knows

(14:11):
if they could actually, you know, be monsters in the backfield.
But this year their strength is going to be the
interior defensive line. Just three guys that we're just seeing
a lot of good stuff from their just huge. Gary
Smith the third who he's had injury problems and I
don't I think the last time he played was two

(14:33):
seasons ago, maybe three, but he's been plagued with injuries,
but he's good to go. That's just from a student
athlete perspective. That's a really good dude. And you you
just love to see see hear about these like bounce
back stories if you will, down from injury. But yeah,
you also got Keanu Williams who played a ton last

(14:53):
year and to Paki and those two are are seasoned veterans.
So yeah, and especially they've been with UCLA's a cake
of Maloy, the defense coordinator. He used to be the
defensive line coach, so they've been with him for at
minimum three years. I'm forgetting what their class status is.
But yeah, no, these are guys that know exactly what

(15:14):
Maloy wants and I think they're going to be pretty impressive.
I kind of want to pick one to stand out,
but kind of cant. They're all just you know, being
really productive and and just filling their role roles accordingly.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Okay, let me ask you this. Do you think anybody's
gonna get a sack against Utah this Saturday? And if so,
who's the most likely candidate to get that sack.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I'd say maybe if it's coming from a gap or something,
maybe coming off the edge. John John Vaughn's linebacker. I
think he's probably one of the most likely. But I
think Gary Smith can somehow push his way through, maybe
just on a chance play, he might be able to
get in and hopefully get a sack.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, So Devin dan Pierre our new quarterback last year
with New Mexico. With the offensive line, he took four
sacks last year. Ye four, So I you're gonna have
I think you're gonna have a hard time sacking him,
but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try, right And UCLA definitely.
Even coach Whittingham, I can't remember what player he called

(16:24):
out did. Ucla has good defensive ens. They have good
defensive lines. So that's something we're definitely looking at right there. Yeah,
so you're we've talked about your offensive coordinator a little bit,
tell me a little b about your defense.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Cording.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's his second year. In last year, UCLA's defense was
you know, okay, right, not horrible, not not great. I
can't remember exactly where you fell in in Big ten rankings,
but you have almost a whole new defense, right you're
turning a couple starters, right, Almost everything's different, like so

(16:58):
that's why I call it almost to rebuild on defense.
You do have the same defensive coordinator, but everybody's everybody's different.
How you guys feeling about your defense right now?

Speaker 2 (17:09):
When Danton Lynn was there for chip Kelly's final season
at UCLA, he turned the defense around. And that's that's
that's UCLA's luck. One year they'll have a really good
offense and a bad defense. Well, that year they had
a really good defense and a offense because chip Kelly
was trying to balance three different quarterbacks, forcing Dante More

(17:33):
to move on to Oregon. But last year, well prior
to last year, Danton Lynn bolted for USC what the
heck kind of obvious choice. A kick in malloy, who
was the defensive line coach that year to be promoted
to defensive coordinator, and he basically kept the same the
same scheme, the same overall game plan that Linn brought,

(17:57):
just being very aggressive, having aggressive edge edge rushers. So
you know, we'll see how that works this year. But
it just seems he just knows where, you know, he
puts his players in the best position to be successful.
And we see that, you know, game in and game out.

(18:19):
You know, they they'll have they'll miss on, you know,
a few plays here, but they also don't quit. They
don't really get angry. They don't they don't take it
out on other teams. But they also don't quit. They'll
be down two three touchdowns and there's still they're still
fighting to the end. I like that fight, and I
like that grit that molloy has instilled in the players.
And we've seen a lot of Yeah, you talk about

(18:43):
there are only two returners, so they had to hit
the transfer portal, and it seems, you know, it takes
some time for a player, a new player to mess
with his new team. But so far from what we're
seeing from key transfers as a Chisholm from Oregon State
linebacker Key Laurence safety from Ole miss these guys are

(19:04):
already assimilating into the culture as well as you know,
just adopting the scheme and you know, trying to make
it their own. So I love what Kika Maloy is doing,
and I feel we're going to continue to have a
very aggressive even if the the pass rush pass rush

(19:24):
is questionable, They're still going to be very aggressive and fight,
you know until that clockhead zero.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, gotta love of a nice physical defense, especially if
we're going back to Pack twelve after dark. We need
that from you. So, yeah, talk, we're talked about defense.
Let's go circle back to offense. What's your expectations for
how they're going to attack Utah's defense, which, by the way,
I think is a very good defense.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
It might be.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
It's a tough defense, especially for your first game, right,
So what are your expectations on how they're going to
attack Utah's defense out the gate Week one? I know
there's a lot of question marks.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, like we don't even know, Like they still
haven't even put out a depth chart.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
So oh we don't have We're not going to get
one unless there's an executive order about it.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
But yeah, no, Deshaun Foster has kept things pretty close
to the best intentionally, you know, at times, angering the media.
But I understand that, you know, I get I get it.
He new coordinator, new players. He doesn't want to give
anything away. But I think if you see, if you see,
he wants to establish a run. This probably isn't the

(20:38):
best game to do it, but uh, they to run
their offense, they're going to need to do it. They're
gonna have to try to figure out ways. Okay, that
run didn't work, but what if we do this? What
if we kick it out to the side. The passing
game I think is going to be a little bit
more explosive. U C l A. I I truly believe
that they have probably one of the top five receiving

(21:00):
rooms in the big in the Big ten and uh
and and nobody knows about these guys just because UCLA
just wasn't very successful. A lot of guys had injuries
last year, but their receiving room is really good. Led
by true sophomore Quasi Gilmer uh Titus Mochila. He's a
he's a veteran and he knows what's expected of him.

(21:25):
Mikey Matthews from Cal That dude's a baller.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
I saw him guys from Utah first.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Actually, yeah, that's right. Yeah. So they have some really
good receivers and with the way the poise that Nico
brings and his his athleticism, I think probably the best
way is to probably maybe do some like uh mid
routes passing game that could probably be effective.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know, they want to try to spread out Utah
as much as possible. You don't want to get a
bunch of guys uh close to the ball and you know,
beat it out of you, but to to maybe spread
it out, especially for the passing game. Hopefully the run
game can can produce something, but I think it's going
to be through the air if U c l A

(22:15):
can can get pass the defense in and that that's.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
What I think of when I think of U c
l A. Like I think, if you say the offense
is a flashy pass game, right, and that's just by
general impression.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
U c l A.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
They like to pass, right, so we can I feel
like we have some bad corners coming up. Yes, Smith
Snowden in there. Do you feel like you guys are
gonna be more successful on the sidelines or are you
going to be more successful over the middle trying to
test our safeties.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
That depends. I mean, I'm just generally interested to see
what Tino Sinceri is gonna do. But these these receivers
look look pretty talented. We've seen him have you know,
go routes. We've seen him off to the side, passes

(23:08):
in the flat. But the one thing that does stick
out is that Nico is pretty freaking accurate.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
He has a strong, accurate guy.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
He gets the ball right in the hands of the receivers.
We were at the Rose Bowl for open practice and
it was basically a walk through, and so when the
offense was going through, you know, eleven versus zero every
time in the receiver's hands. And that's one thing I
think it's going to be a strength is being able
to target, not only getting guys out into the open,

(23:39):
but targeting them, getting the ball out to them quickly
and just trying to get as many yards after catch
as possible.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
So do you feel like Nico broadcasts a little bit
on his at least his first read because watching the
last couple of days, I've been watching a little bit
more of his Tennessee highlights, and a lot of them
he seems locked in staring down, but he has the
accuracy to make out for that. Yeah, like he's still
broadcasting those throws a little too much.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
He might. We've only seen a few plays, like goal
line plays. We haven't really seen anything. You know, eleven
on eleven at the fifty yard line, you know whatever,
you know, you know second and three, you know first
and whatever it is. So we haven't seen him in
action in that aspect. But from what we've seen, he

(24:26):
is looking around more. He is looking to see what
options are open, and it does seem like he has
a few favorites, but he's making sure that all of
his bases are covered. And just from what I've seen,
it looks like he's he's doing a much better job
of analyzing the entire field, not just seeing where his

(24:49):
targets are, but also where the defense is and just
able to get it out to his receivers.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah, absolutely, he's the accurate quarterback for sure. So put yourself
in the role of u c l A. You're a
coach right now, You're you're developing a game game plan
to go against Utah. What position group of Utah are
you most worried about right now? What's so good?

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Fano is just looking at some of some of his
video highlights and whatnot from last year. It's like that
dude is just an absolute athlete and I can imagine
he just got so much better and just how that
unit works altogether, and they're just going to give uh

(25:40):
a damp here so much time. It's it's gonna be ridiculous.
But yeah, UCLA has to figure out some way to
disrupt that if they can. If not, they're gonna probably
have to just rely on their linebackers and secondary for
most of the game, especially if they get into a
passing attack. But yeah, I don't know that that offensive
line just seems scary and it's actually, you know, really

(26:01):
excited to see uh see see them in person on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
So coming off that UTA's offensive line, what scares you
more right now? Utah's run attack or their passing game.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's a hard one because I try to analyze that
with I try to see what that could be with UCLA,
And it's kind of hard to picture with Utah too
as the you know, same thing. The only thing, Yeah,
the only difference is Utah has a proper offensive line. Yeah,
I just think the offensive court and I'm blanking on

(26:37):
his name. He he just had a good system, and
I think he just wants to try to uh have
a yeah, have a balance attack too. I think he's
going to just try to shove the ball down down, uh,
not just UCLA's throat, but every team that they face.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
But I can also see uh that that passing game
just being absolute killer in some games. So I don't know,
like I would not want to be uh any of
the coordinators right now trying to dissect Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah, there's a lot of sure, there's a lot of
stress going on in those those rooms right now. So
I don't obviously been folks in the UCLA. I don't
know how much time you spent on Utah or Devin
Dampierre specifically, But what are your thoughts. There's a lot
of optimism and hype coming around the Utah community right
now on Devin Dampierre.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
What do you what are your thoughts right now?

Speaker 2 (27:27):
No, I like them that that's a hell of a
good choice and and uh yeah, it seems like that
uh O c QB combination is going around and it
should be successful. Uh you're the architecture of an offense
where this quarterback was highly successful at you get hired

(27:48):
at Utah. It just seems like they could do some
major damage. But yeah, they just seem scary. And it
just all begins with that offensive line. I think Dan
Pierre is going to be able to do almost anything
he wants on Saturday, and so yeah, UCLA is just
going to have to, you know, really be on their toes.

(28:08):
One thing that has been a weakness of UCLA is
their secondary not a great passing defense basically since Chip
Kelly has been around. But they brought in some key
guys and they also brought in a Demetrius Martin who's
the secondary coach, who was a secondary coach under Jim

(28:29):
Mora about a decade ago, and that was basically the
last time they had a really good secondary. So I'm
quite excited to see what he can do if he
can revamp this these defensive backs, and if so, that's
going to give a lot of passing teams a hard time.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Okay, nice all right, So we put you in the
position of UCLA's coaching staff. Put yourself now in the
role of Utah's coaching staff. Knowing what you know about UCLA.
What would your plan of attack be if you were
in Utah right now, get some kind of asking for
your weak links here?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, no, I would. I would run the ball. As
I said earlier, run defense has been a strength of
U c l A. But it hasn't been as great
doing the scouting. Knowing what I know, I would know
that you have to be careful with the defensive backs,
but trying to run to the edge, you know, getting

(29:27):
space in the flat you know, five yards five yards
you know, out into the sideline short game to really
test U c l A's edges as well as their linebackers.
But I would. I would also you know, test the
waters too, you know, like it was that scene in
Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs are hitting the electric fence
to see weak weaknesses in it. That's what you gotta do.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
You got to hit.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
You got to look for the mismatches. You got to see.
You know, can this this nickel, can this cornerback stick
with our receivers? Yeah, that's you. If I A Utah.
I just run it up the middle as much as
possible of the time, and then you know, find the
weaknesses in the in the secondary.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Okay, all right, so keys back to UCLA's coaching staff mindset.
If you could give me three keys, like these are
the three things we need to win this game?

Speaker 3 (30:21):
What are they?

Speaker 2 (30:24):
They need to get their run game going, They need
to get into the backfield somehow. And I'm gonna goes
a special teams choice here.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
You know, UCLA has a really good kicker in my
team Bagani, but I think returns hunt and kick returns
are gonna be key.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
UCLA wasn't that successful in that last year. But if
they can get themselves some good field position, keep the
ball away from Utah side of the field, and you know,
just keep pushing it towards ucl end zone, that's gonna
be huge as well. And I really like what Mikey Matthews.

(31:07):
We've seen him a few times, but it seems to
he's going to be a kick returner.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Oh okay, cool front.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Returner to I believe as well.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
But just fast, just I hope he has eleven great
games as a kick returner.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
I'm hoping for thirteen.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
But but uh, yeah, no, those are those are the
like three aspects where I think UCLA could really if
if those are on part, those are perfectly executed.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Uh, that could be a huge reason for UCLA getting
a w on on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Slightly off topic, but house thing's going for the Big Ten.
How do you like the Big Ten so far? How's
the Big Ten experience been and compared to the PAC
twelve experience.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
It's been cool. Obviously, I've been from Los Angeles my
entire life went to UCLA covered. UCLA covered the PAC twelve,
so I know all the teams from Seattle all the
way down to Tucson out to Salt Lake City. It
was fun, it was great. But you just hear about

(32:18):
these teams in passing because you sometimes play them in
the non conference, you play them in a bowl game. Obviously,
the powerhouses of the Big the Big Ten, and the
SEC are always going to the National Championship Game. So
at least you know about those teams because of that,
because of that exposure. But I quite like it. I
think it's fun learning about new teams, traditions, getting deeper

(32:44):
into that knowledge. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I'm also
geography nerd. I mean freaking Mapa, California right here. So
looking into where these colleges are, how do you get there?

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Well?

Speaker 2 (32:55):
What cities and counties and states do they represent? Absolutely
I'm nerding out on that aspect, but I do love
learning about, you know, the histories of some of these teams.
The only thing that bugs me, how the hell are
you gonna start with eyes schools that start with I?
There's no a B C D team. I was just

(33:19):
I was talking to one of my uh uh au
USC writer and we were talking about, Yeah, that's so
in the Pact twelve you had Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado,
blah blah blah. You knew the alphabet. We're starting with
Illinois here, people?

Speaker 1 (33:33):
What is this alphabetic order?

Speaker 3 (33:35):
That's it gets you?

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (33:37):
You don't like you don't like being too far down.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
The little naggin it has does doesn't even have anything
to do with football or sports, but for some reason
it annoys the hell at me.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
All Right, that's the bugaboo. I like it. Bear traps
in alphabetic order?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Nice?

Speaker 1 (33:53):
All right, So back to the Big ten. Where do
you guys think UCLA is gonna fit in on the
big ten. You're looking at top five, top ten or
the championship.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
No, I don't think they're gonna be in the top five,
but I think they are gonna make an improvement. Just
looking at their schedule and looking at how it might land,
I think U c l A could be definitely in
the top ten. Definitely not a contender for for for
the title, but I think they're gonna be much improved,

(34:23):
definitely going to a bowl game. They surprisingly made it
to five and seven last year with that offense, and
I think that offense is gonna be much better, which
is going to warrant a few more wins. So I
think U c l A will be eight and four
this season. I actually put that on Twitter, and I
thought people were gonna say, you're crazy, You're insane. Okay, well,

(34:45):
the four USC fans did, but I was surprised that
you U c l A fans were like, oh, I
could see them win nine, nine games, ten ten, ten games.
I'm like, Okay, I'm still gonna be somewhat cautious on
my predictions, but I can see them going eight and
four and going getting back to a Bowl game.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
All right, Yeah, Yeah. Like I said, I feel like
the UCLA fan base and journal feels really optimistic right now.
So betting odds, they've been flown around between Utah minus
five point five Utah minus six point five. Let's average
that out of Utah minus six. What's your bet right now?

Speaker 2 (35:23):
I'm going with what did I have last night? I
did this one on my podcast. I'm predicting the UCLA
thirty Utah twenty six. OK. I just think that if
last year's team was only able to get eighteen points,
I think this year's team is going to be able
to not only crack the twenty point mark, but play
well above that. And I do think that Mloy's defense

(35:46):
may surprise a little bit. Obviously we have to see
it to believe it, but yeah, I think UCLA has
this one in a four point win.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
That you so you've Utah, I mean UCLA winning by four, yeah, TIX.
All right, Well, it's been fun. Thank you so much
for coming on. This has been our first of the
season for the Enemy's Perspective special thanks.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
To Mike Rigolotto. Thank you guys for coming on.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Thank you so much to everybody for listening today. Please
like and subscribe and stay tuned for more ut Nation
podcasts and coverage.