Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 9-29-25

OC talks Big 12 Football with Ari Temkin, Utah Football with Scott Mitchell, Utah Jazz & the NBA with Tony Jones, 4 P4 coaches fired in season, Ties in the NFL + more

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Happy Monday, everybody, Welcome to the Shan O'Connell Show on
Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred and ninety
two to one FM.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Very happy to be with you after a big Utah
win on the road. The trip to Morgantown for the
fans who made it ended up being absolutely worth it
forty eight fourteen. Your utes are victorious and back in
the win column. The show today and every day brought

(01:05):
to you by our friends at Big Willies seventeen seventeen,
South Maine, Utah's Sports Bar, craft food menu, craft cocktails,
cold beers on draft, and enough to get you through
the bye week down there at Big Willie's. Ari Tempkin's
gonna join us today, as is Scott Mitchell and Tony Jones.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yes, that Tony Jones, who.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Is He's left us, He's abandoned us for the Philadelphia
seventy six ers beat, but we love him anyway. Tony's
gonna swing by on the Sean O'Connell Show. I'm not
gonna say one last time, because we'll find reasons to
call Tony and get him back on the show at
some point. But yeah, it won't be quite so regular
an event now that Tony is in a new market.

(01:48):
So looking forward to Yeah, the Sixers never gonna play
in Salt Lake City again, Amon, We're gonna get Tony
on plenty during NBA seasons. I think he might. He
may still have the nugget. It's as part of his beat.
I have no idea when when you know, ten years
from now, the Washington Commanders moved to Salt Lake City
to become the Brian Shrimp. We'll talk to him about

(02:11):
that because that's his favorite team. Absolutely, we'll find reasons
to get Tony on the show. All Right, a couple
of Twitter questions for you today. I'm gonna start with
the positive one. All Right, is Utah back? Did you
see enough against West Virginia to say, all right, you
know what, that Texas Tech game was a fluke.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Unfortunately timed.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
The Texas Tech game was Devin dan Peer's ankle was
bothering him, and you can't beat a team like that
unless you're at one hundred percent. Is it enough for
you to say everything's gonna be alright with Utah? That
you molly wopped a bad team, a West Virginia team
that really couldn't do anything until you called off the dogs.

(03:01):
If you want to get real nitpicky, and we tend
to do that on the show, because well, that's just
how I am as a person. I guess there's there's
some things that you know in the stat sheet you're
not gonna love about this Utah game, But the number
that matters forty eight to fourteen Utah and proofs to
four and one one on one in the Big twelve,

(03:22):
and you head into the bye week, a perfect time
to try to get right with some of the bumps
and the bruises and the injuries. If there was a
negative from this West Virginia game, that's easy to draw out,
it's because you know they you saw guys leaving the game,
You saw more injuries piling up against West Virginia, and

(03:45):
it's bad luck.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
As far as I can tell.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
These are fluke things on avoidable things, and you know
you might have to spend some significant time without Nate Ritchie.
You might have to spend some significant time without Hunter Andrew,
you might have to spend some amount of time without
Jackson Benny. Against West Virginia, you were okay. Without those guys.

(04:09):
West Virginia couldn't do anything well. You were trying. So
was it enough for you to say, all right, I
I'm back on the bandwagon. I was jumping off. I
was getting cantankerous. I was bothered by what we saw
against Texas Tech. But now this is this was the

(04:32):
get right game we wanted it to be. Eight seven
seven three five three zero seven hundred at realo C
Sports on Twitter.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
West Virginia stinks. They're two and three now on the season.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I don't know how many more wins there are for
a West Virginia team that, uh, somehow in a in
a rivalry game against pitt Well also wasn't very good. Uh,
they found a way to win after losing some really,
really important players on their team. Did you see how

(05:09):
mad rich Rod was getting on the sideline, By the way,
that's kind of a rich Rod thing. Is amazing. It's
amazing to watch it again a lot more closely because
he's been in obscurity tell his job. He kind of
got relegated to some college football obscurity the last couple
of seasons. So it is amazing to see the sideline

(05:30):
antics of rich Rod once again. It just amazing because
he he knows that this is like his c team
in some areas, right with all the injuries they've unfortunately
piled up. But yet he's just as mad at his
third and fourth stringers second third and fourth stringers screwing

(05:52):
up as he is as he would have been about
his projected starters going to season.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
It just just incredible.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
So Kyle Whittingham gave it rich rotted by the way
a ton of credit he did heading into the game.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know, there's a lot of eventsive mind, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
There's a lot of admiration for rich Rod and coaching
circles because he the last time he was at West Virginia,
he brought them to a top five national ranking. He
was producing NFL talent and that's not an easy thing
to do. At West Virginia, they won at that time,
big time conference championships in the in the Big East,

(06:33):
in the yeah, the BCS era where the Big East
was a thing. The Big East was then the equivalent
of what like the ACC is today. Yeah in Big
twelve ACC in Big twelve where it's like they not
the nowhere near considered the best conference, but one of
the five or six I think there might have been

(06:54):
six at the time BCS conferences automatic bids to those
New Year six bowl games, those conference champions. Reason why,
I mean, if anyone is forgetting or didn't know, why
was Pitt playing an undefeated Utah team on your twenty
four team? Oh see your team and it's like, well,
because they won the Big East and that was they

(07:17):
were automatic qualifier because they won the Big East. So
it used to be a big deal. And that was
a huge deal that he was winning multiple of those
conference titles at West Virginia of all places. So at
the end of the day, Utah goes and does what
you're supposed to do against a bad team, a bad

(07:38):
team that maybe is well coached in some areas, but
right now is on the rebuild on the men. Is
it enough for you as a Utah football fan to say,
all right, Devin dan Pierre once again, like his quarterback
rating outside of the errant interception throw, which was just
we're not going to make any excuses for it was

(08:01):
just a bad throw you had. You really had.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Three guys wide open.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, and you could have put that ball kind of
anywhere in that area except where you put it and
your guy's gonna come down with it.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
It was awful.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, it wasn't as costly and as timely as you
know some turnovers can be, and certainly not as bad
as they were against Texas Tech. It's not something you
just get to ignore. But to me, it was do
you pencil in a quarterback like him, a guy who's,
you know, a multifaceted threat, a guy who's just as

(08:39):
formidable as a runner as he is as a passer,
maybe even more so, do you kind of pencil in like, ah, man,
you're gonna have one of those throws every other week
or maybe even every week, and you just have to
be willing to deal with it. Like that was a
bad interception, but it didn't end up killing you because
West Virginia is not good. And he threw four touchdown passes.

(09:01):
He was twenty one of twenty six and by the way,
there were two drops in this game.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
He could have finished the game twenty three. At twenty six.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
He comes away from the weekend as I think the
highest rated quarterback in the Big twelve Conference for the weekend.
I mean, it was an important bounce back game, and
I had questions about whether or not what we saw
against Texas Tech was going to shake his confidence, was
going to shake his self belief or his belief in

(09:31):
the offense, in whatever else, because that's a natural, normal
thing where you're a guy who's stepping up a level
and you've looked great so far on this new level,
but then when you get like the real big boy opponents,
when it's actually the measuring stick of are you ready
for the Big twelve Conference? He didn't play particularly well,
and that can shake you. And it didn't shake him.

(09:53):
It looked like it shook him during the Texas Tech
game too. Sure, see, I think that's fair to say too.
He did bounce back and they got that touchdown in
the fourth quarter where he looked like Devon again in
that game. So he does seem to be a guy that,
of course is human and things bother him and maybe

(10:13):
shake his confidence, but he also seems to be a
guy that later in that game can shake that off
and go back to his his very talented self and
very confident self so, and I think that's a good
sign so far for Devin Dampier. For me personally, I
got to see it against ASU, I got to see

(10:34):
it against BYU opponents like that Baylor later in the season,
opponents that are actually really good at your level or
above your level before. I'm totally confident that the Texas
Tech game wasn't a really bad moment where Utah got exposed,
particularly on offense. But that being said, it is a

(10:57):
big deal that they curb stomped West Ridge. It's a
big deal that they almost put up fifty points on
West Virginia because if they if they get thirty, if
they get thirty points and they win by two scores,
I'd feel much less confident in this team being as
good as we thought they would be going into the
seasons as I do right now, because they they showed

(11:22):
once again then an opponent that is vastly inferior to
them talent wise has no business being on the field
with them, which is not nothing. Ninety seven O eight
says we should give Devin one of those throws every
other week and makes observations that he's clearly not still healthy.

(11:44):
The mobility is not all the way there. This is
why the bye week, it's a very very timely thing
that you're getting this whole week.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
I don't know what the practice schedule is going to be.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
I promise you people like Devin Dan Pierre, it's treatment, treatment, treatment, treatment, treatment,
get healthy. Jackson Benny's gonna be treatment, treatment, treatment, get healthy.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
There is no presser by the way today obviously, that's
why you're hearing me talk at the very beginning of
a Monday show. No audition with Dev either, although you
can head the at ESPN seven hundred Sports Utah on YouTube.
Go to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. If you
missed last week you want to hear any of the
audition with Dev again, please please check them out and

(12:28):
you will not hear a new one this week, but
you'll be able to you'll be able to catch up
on on past ones this week.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
So there's a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
There's a lot of layers to the onion are you
are you back on the bandwagon after last week? The
first one is where did you jump off the bandwagon
after Texas Tech? Because you shouldn't have. Although I understand
the urge because that was not it was a bad
performance by the team. Nobody lived up to the building.
As we said against West Virginia. Uh, you still got

(12:58):
a little bit of what we talked about with BYU's
football season happening right Like the Koogs they got by
against Colorado. They didn't look particularly great in getting by
against Colorado. They looked like they were gonna lose Wight
a couple of scores after the first quarter against Colorado
at one point it looked like Colorado is going to
take control of that game. Credit to BYU for finding
a way to win, but we said this, You're probably

(13:19):
gonna get a situation where BYU comes or where Utah
goes to level Edwards Stadium, and we still don't know
how good BYU is. Right for Utah, you're gonna have
a better sense because you had Texas Tech, which didn't
show you what you wanted to see. And now after
this bye week you get Arizona State. And I don't

(13:40):
think Arizona State is the best team in the Big
Twelve conference right now, but they put themselves back in
the conversation to be there. They beat TCU tough game,
hard fought game, back and forth game win that won
by a field goal, and they still have. I mean,
Jordan Tyson is the best wide receiver. You heard Scott
Mitchell talking about this. He might be the top draftable

(14:01):
wide receiver in all of college football. He's the best
wide receiver in the Big twelve conference, and he's going
to cause you problems. Levitt is a good enough quarterback,
as we saw last year, with his legs and with
his arm, to really make it a nightmare day for
you if you're not ready defensively to corral offensive excuse me,

(14:22):
quarterback movement, and of course you're not doing your best
to take away threats like Jordan Tyson, and you're probably
gonna have to find ways. Like this is not the
game where you say, all right, we're playing press man
against that guy.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
Have fun.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Scooby have fun, Blake Cotton have fun, Smith, Nodeen, whoever
you decide, that's not one of those games. I don't
want to bring up bold stuff, but you go back
far enough to win Utah with I think better corners
were like, you know what we're gonna just We're gonna
have our guys play press man against USC's wide receivers

(15:00):
and it doesn't work out all the time.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
Right when you got NFL bodies on the other side.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
You gotta find ways, and do you have the opportunity
to find ways to take away that particular weapon for
Arizona State. And if you could take away that particular weapon,
probably using two guys instead of one, does Kenny Dillingham
find ways to exploit that.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
You're working on all of it during the bye week.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
But the bye week comes at exactly the right time,
and it comes after you have re established a little
belief in yourself and amongst your fan base and on
the coaching staff, in the building, on campus, everywhere. You
needed to wash the taste of Texas Tech out of
your mouth. And it actually would have been I think

(15:48):
disastrous if the bye week had happened instead of a
West Virginia game, if you had gone Texas Tech on
big noon kickoff, terrible performance basically across the bold and
then you get a bye week to just stew on it,
and you gotta wait two weeks to wash the taste
out of your mouth.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
I think that could have been awful.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, this West Virginia game, this schedule worked out really
nicely for Utah and the fact that you get Arizona
State at home. I think works out very nicely for Utah.
It's an eight to fifteen kick Rice Eco Stadium. I
will not doubt you again. You showed up for ten
am kick against Texas Tech. Eight fifteen against Arizona State,

(16:30):
I promise you is gonna be a hostile environment at
Rice Cycles So as a fan and you're trying to
figure out what this Utah football team is. That's why
I'm asking the question. What you saw against West Virginia.
Was it enough for you to wash out the doubt?
Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred at

(16:53):
ReOC Sports on the old tweet machine.

Speaker 5 (16:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
You you mentioned how it probably would have been bad
for Utah to be on BUYE last week. I mean,
I think you can look at last year's the beginning
of the losing streak. Last season was Arizona at home.
A terrible showing for Utah and a game that I
think all of us thought they were gonna win, especially

(17:18):
after Isaac Wilson looked as good as he did against
then ranked Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma State was at the
beginning of a downward slide. They were awful too, but
you you follow that up with a terrible showing only
getting ten points against Arizona the next week. Then there's

(17:39):
a bye leading into guess who Arizona State on the
exact same date a year ago, just a Friday night
instead of a Saturday night. So I think we saw
last year at the time, you tell yourself, yeah, good
time for a bye. Losing before your byes is really
good from coaching perspective, because you can really lay lay

(17:59):
in on your guys, lean in on your guys and
tell them, hey, that was not good enough, and you
don't have a you have more time to to really
pick them apart and correct things. Then I don't know
if they did if they had played if they an
a s U was obviously awesome last year, but if
they had played Houston in between, maybe they would have

(18:21):
been better equipped to play a lot better against a
SU on the road last year. Maybe end up beating
up by the way, still Houston right now four and
oh yeah Houston, although Oregon State is winless at oh
and five and they they darn your beat undefeated Houston

(18:42):
in a research stadium. So there's that. So Houston right now,
win against Steven F. Austin doesn't count. Win against Rice
kind of doesn't count. Win against Colorado, Okay, I mean
we don't know really, uh. And then on the road
they won against Oregon State. Like everyone else, Houston will
find out more about them as they take on Texas

(19:03):
Tech this week. But Houston won this weekend to improve
to four. And oh Cincinnati. I'm bringing these teams up
because they were supposed to be the bottom dwellers in
the conference. Cincinnati is now three and one and one
to oher in the Big Twelve. They beat Kansas and
there were a lot of people who were saying, all right,
Kansas is back, Kansas is a threat again. Kansas, I think,

(19:25):
is exactly who Kansas was last year. Cincinnati barely lost
to Nebraska to start the year, and then it's bowling Green,
Northwestern State, Kansas. They've got Iowa State this week, so
we find out more about them. Heading into this week,
UCF lost to Kansas State. Kansas State looked like they
were gonna stink it up this year. Now they're back

(19:45):
in the win column. Baylor beats Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State
might not win another game all season long. Utah smashes
West Virginia and it's really hard. I'm echoing the sentiments
that were you know here on the text line eight
seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. As good
as this win was from sixteen twenty four, are still

(20:07):
hard to figure if this team is good with wins
against bad teams. He's echoing my point. Yeah, we're on
the same page sixteen twenty four. This is the important
part for me, though. The offense did what they should
have done against Texas Tech North South in the run game,
attacking the middle of the field in the passing game.

(20:28):
And this is where again you have to give the
coaching staff credit. You have to give Jason Beck credit,
you have to give Kyle Whittingham credit, because they call
out specific things postgame against Texas Tech, very granular specific things,
and say we need to do better with that.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
And you can be paying.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Lip service to the players who are concerned, to the
boosters who's concerned, to the fan who's concerned. You can
be just trying to calm the angst and say those
things and not actually mean them, or like we saw
the case, you can be like, let's actually do it,
let's put it into the game plan, and against Texas
Tech you're not gonna get the same results. Even if

(21:11):
you do that, but against West Virginia, you're gonna get
great results by doing the right things, and they did.
The first half was everything looked easy for Utah. Eight
for eight on third downs, didn't have to punt all
game long. Devin dan Pierre incredibly efficient. Ryan Davis gets
over one hundred yards receiving. A Utah wide receiver with

(21:35):
over one hundred yards a Utah wide receiver, not a
tight end with over one hundred yard receiving is a
refreshing and lovely thing to see. You got multiple players
involved in the run game with really solid averages. Carrie
Rogers was pushing five yards of carry. Way Sean was
seven yards of carry. Daniel Bray, who didn't come into

(21:55):
the second half, really looked good when he gave him
some touches. Bryce Duke looked good when you gave him
some touches. And I know at that point you're up
against like an already defeated and deflated West Virginia team,
but that was good to see. And a lot of
that was because you were getting pushed from an offensive
line that I don't think, despite their athleticism, and they

(22:17):
are an athletic group, I don't think they're really suited
for like these stretch zone concepts. Get out and run,
find somebody in space. Like on paper, Sure they don't
wear the big knee braces. Caleb Lomo and Spencer Fano
are as nimble footed as you're gonna find offensive tackles.

(22:39):
Caleb I don't think is particularly good at blocking guys
opening in space. I think he's actually better suited for
like mauling guys the way that Tainoa TONIAI is the
way that Jared Coump is. So understand the personality of
your offensive line, know that they're really good pass blockers,
and understand that when you want to make him run,

(23:01):
you know what, just be better than that guy.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Be stronger than that guy. Blow that guy off the ball. Again.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
West Virginia is not the same as you're gonna see
against Texas Tech, and it's not the same you're gonna
see after the bye week against Arizona State. But you
better be able to do it against these guys. And
you were two hundred and forty two yards rushing two
hundred and ninety yards passing, although fifty three of those
belong to your backups in burd Fickland.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
By the way, four for four again, he looked awesome.
Burt Ficklett looked great.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Burt Ficklett is the quarterback equivalent of Caleb b Loohner.
Remember Caleb Loder was just like all you do is
is catch touchdown passes. Burt Ficklett, if he's throwing, it's
complete and it's just and he got a touchdown pass,
it jumps out of his hand.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Oh see, like he's got a lively arm.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
I tell you what, focusing on the present is most
important for Utah. But the demise of the recruiting picture
because you fail in the rankings and you lost some
guys to transfer portal and you know, like the number
one recruit in on your board went somewhere else is

(24:09):
it's greatly exaggerated. This is a coaching staff who has
some really promising guys in the pipeline and they're finding
way to put those guys on the field.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Now, JJ Buchanan heck of a catch.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
JJ Buchanon needs to be given the ball seven times
a game, like.

Speaker 4 (24:32):
I know that he's technically a tight end.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
JJ Buchanan is the big body, wide receiver that Utah
has been craving for years. Contested catch ball in the
air jump and get it.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
JJ Buchanan is that dude.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
And I think that Devin dan Pierre knows that about him,
which is why he's willing to throw at him when
the kids covered, because he's gonna get those balls. There's
so much chemistry and trust between Ryan Davis and Devin
dan Pierre that carries over from last season. Dallan Bentley,

(25:14):
I gotta tell you, Dallan Bentley was a guy that
we talked about very sparingly a season ago because there
were so many bodies in that tight end room and
we thought all of them were gonna be great, And
then we didn't talk about it much in the preseason,
even because at Big twelve media days, Kyle Whittingham was
just like, Yeah, we're gonna have land or Barton play

(25:35):
him tight end and I was like, Ah, that's exciting,
but also like, what does that mean about the guys
who were already in the tight end room? And for
three years Utah fans were shouting out me on the
text slide telling me that Landon King was the next
coming of Dalton Kincaid.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Look at Dalon Bentley, man.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
I know it's against West Virginia, but I'm talking about
just individual plays.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
The dude is a player.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Put him over the middle of the field, give him
targets on the seam against Texas Tech, and I think
something could have changed in that game. And remember that
game was oh so narrow close, and in fact, in
the drive, the scoring drive, the only touchdown drive that
Utah was able to mount in that Texas Tech game.
Who had the biggest play, Who had the biggest chunk

(26:25):
play of that game and one of only three chunk
plays on the day for Utah, it was that forty
something yard catch of it was Dallan Bentley. Dallon Bentley
is an absolute monster. Now, Tobias Meriwether you need way
more from him, But JJ Buchan and Ryan Davis, Dallon Bentley,
I'm starting to have some faith. Larry Simmons developed the

(26:47):
same kind of chemistry you have with Devin Dan Pierre
that you had with Bird Ficklin, and let's see what
happens here, right, And you've got to be able to
do it through the bye week while some guys are resting.
You gotta stay focused. You got to get better. It's
not as easy as it sounds. Improvement during the season
adjustments during the season. But Jason Beck gets credit because

(27:11):
he came out and he did the thing that he
should have done a week ago and helped set his
team up for success. Yes, against a bad squad, but
it was also on the road. It's a it's a
ponderous road trip. It's not perfect conditions, a little bit
wet in West Virginia, which might have been partially to

(27:33):
blame for the Devin dan Pier interception. We told you
it was going to be a get right game, and
that's exactly what it was. This was the game for
Utah to get right stay right through the bye week.
That's the tough challenge now eight seven seven three five
three zero seven hundred, keep your feedback coming in. Ari
Tempkin's gonna join us on the other side. I'm going

(27:54):
to asking the same question for him. Did Ari see
enough from Utah against West Virginia to feel like, all right,
we can climb back onto the bandwagon, at least tentatively so.
Sean O'Connell show just get started on a Monday on
Utah's number one sports talk ESPN seven hundred nine.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murder
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN and one half.

Speaker 6 (28:23):
M Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
On a Monday ninety seven eight. On the text line says,
U Canan is the next Kincaid. He's not as big
but displays the same receiving skills. Uh yeah, I mean
Dalton Kincaid was listed as a tight end. He played
wide receiver in the like he was just a big body,
wide receiver that occasionally lined up with his hand in

(28:57):
the dirt, but not particularly adept in the blocking game
compared to what else you had on the roster. It's
it's unfair to throw that comparison on JJ Buchanan already,
but it is something that makes a little bit of sense.

(29:22):
Big numbers for Utah against West Virginia. Is it enough
to convince you that this team is all right? Is
it enough to convince you that what you saw against
Texas Tech was a fluke, a bad day, an unfortunate
confluence of factors like the pressure of big noon kickoff

(29:45):
and early kickoff, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm
not trying to write that thing off and say you
shouldn't worry about it at all. I'm not trying to
tell you that that game doesn't matter, because it does.
It is the most importan result you have seen so
far from this Utah football team in twenty twenty five. However,

(30:09):
I did say during after the loss, like, man, you
were so the result isn't quite as bad as it looked,
and I still do believe that. I also don't think
that this win is as good as it looks. Forty
eight to fourteen against another bad squad doesn't guarantee that

(30:32):
you're going to beat Arizona State, not by any stretch
of the imagination. And the Sun Devils are coming into
their own in a way that I wasn't sure we
would see this year, because you could see what Cam
Skataboo's doing for the Giants, you could see what the
next level has done for him. And by the way,

(30:55):
Jackson Dart and Cam Skataboo being on the same team
and that team being the Giants, it's actually pretty problematic
for me because I don't want to root for the
Giants ever, but I really like both of those guys.
Fourteen eighty five says if Buchanan is only a freshman coach,

(31:17):
wit is gonna have thirty pounds of muscle on him
by the time he's a senior, for sure.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
I don't dispute that I'm saying. I don't know if
that's the right thing.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
I don't know if that's the best thing for He's
just he's a good wide receiver, Like, do you really
need him to be a tight end?

Speaker 4 (31:35):
I know he's got the height and the frame, but.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Why not just have it be a six foot four,
six foot five, two hundred and fifteen pound wide receiver.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Maybe I'm short selling him.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Maybe he's a guy who's like, uh, he's more hard
nosed than physical than I'm giving him credit for. And
I don't want to get out over my skis at
the moment. But a couple of touchdown catches already this year,
and the one against West Virginia, I mean that is

(32:10):
a that's an NFL catch. It you're being interfered with
balls in the air. You've got a defender right in
the bread basket. He is draped all over you to
where the referee throws a flag, and you just don't care.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
You frame him out.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
You reach up kind of like that backward lean, use
the wingspan touchdown catch that's big time, and it's so
desperately needed, not only against West Virginia, but against Texas
Tech and against Arizona State and against BYU.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
There's nothing that we've seen.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
From JJ Buchanan that makes me think he won't be
able to do that against better teams. And by the way,
if you're gonna, if you're gonna like work your way
into it, West Virginia is the right team to work
your way into it too. On the defensive side, we
hadn't even touched the defensive side of the ball yet.
As Utah smashes the West Virginia Mountaineers, Lander Barton looked

(33:20):
like Lander Barton. Now, I don't want to get into
a situation where Lander Barton is only looking like we
expect him to look against bad competition. Maybe, just like
last year, it took him some time to start feeling
more comfortable. He had a pass breakup, although he did

(33:46):
not get any credit for it, half a sack.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Led the team in tackles well.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
He and Jonalia Aa, who is another bright spot on
this defense right now, tied for the lead in tackles.
John ou Hall has become He has emerged as the
starting linebacker alongside Lander Barton. We talked about this last week.
I thought it was gonna be Levannie de Mooney and
Lander Barton, and then John neu Hall would be the

(34:14):
spot player. In this case, it's John ou Hall has
taken that role. I have no problem with it at all.
I want to see more Levanni de Mooney, but that's
going to be predicated on his health, and that's going
to be predicated on the opposing teams, not only substitution packages,

(34:38):
but their actual formations. Because Utah's base defense now is
a nickel and if you need to get three guys,
three linebackers on the field for Utah, Leavanni, John Hu
and Land are playing together, it is probably the best
case scenario.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
But it just doesn't happen as often as you think.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Speaking of Lander, OC feel about his kind of response
to what's been a slower start to the season than
we wanted to have. I thought, at least in the
first half, he looked like he looked a lot like
the Lander that we expected to see and.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
This Utah defense need Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
No, I just made that point that it's you don't
only want to see it against like inferior competition, because
he's one of these guys that he has the physicality
as the size and the speed that he can be
he should be able to do to Arizona State, Texas
Tech and byu what he does to West Virginia. That's
not necessarily on paper obviously true of everyone. Like there're

(35:40):
guys like Nate Richie don't have the measurables that Lander
Barton does. I mean, guys like John ou Walden have
the measurables that Lander Barton does, although John's just a
different build. There's Jackson Benny right is a guy whose
speed is up there, but his size it. Lander's got
all the tools, all the physical tools, so he should
be able to play like that and eight tackles with

(36:01):
some disruptive havoc plays. Do I want to see him,
you know, forcing fumbles and intercepting footballs and all that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
Of course, it's Lander Barton.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
The baseline of our expectations for him are the kind
of game he had against West Virginia where you're at
or near the team leading tackles and there's a couple
of plays in the game where everybody has to pay
attention to number eight, where everybody in the stadium everybody
on the field, the opposing offensive coordinator, the quarterback, the

(36:36):
running back who tried to get through that hole has
to be like.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
Who's that.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
You hadn't seen enough of those plays in the first
three games of the season, the first four games of
the season.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
And finally you got one.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
You got a couple in this West Virginia game, and
hopefully that's momentum that Lander builds on. You're gonna see
a lot more of Nate Tillman, ladies and gentlemen, and
that's a guy who's got to improve his knowledge of
the defense, improve his angles. Say what you want about
Nate Richie and their people have been We've been harsh
on him. People have been the mission ruins your legs,

(37:11):
and you don't like the best way to interrupt a
promising athletic career is you leave for two years.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
Like Nate Richie did what he was supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
And Nate Richie, despite his mistackles this year, he's been
on balance, more of a positive than a negative. We
obviously attach ourselves to the negative plays and to the
penalties and things like that. Nate Richie being out is
not good for this defense, and it's not gonna be
good for this defense against Arizona State, because one thing

(37:39):
you can't say about Nate Richie is that he's not
in the right place. He is in the right place.
That's why the tackles are mistackles instead of he just
wasn't there. Like it's a double edged sword. You got
to be the guy who's there and finishes the play.
But Nate Tillman, congratulations, sir, it is now your opportunity

(38:03):
through this bye week. I'll be very, very curious to
see if there's any kind of positional manipulation for other
guys to get more reps at the safety position. Rabbit
Evans and Nate Richie being out that thins that safety
room in a way that you should not feel comfortable
with heading into a tough stretch on your schedule, especially

(38:25):
against Arizona State BYU the week after that, and will
spend plenty of time talking BYU like you're gonna have
to over index on stopping the run against BYU, that's
gonna be your biggest problem because they've got two really
good running backs. They've got a quarterback who can run
the football. Against Arizona State, they have a star running

(38:50):
back and they have a passing game that could make
your day a nightmare if you're not in the right
place positionally, and if you're not communicating with the other
defensive backfield players to get them in the right position.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
That's my concern with the Nate Richie injury.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Tao Johnson, fine Smith Nowden had some really nice plays,
uh not takeaways, but just batting balls down positionally. I
felt like he was in a good spot. I liked
what we saw from Lance holtzklaw. With Paul Fitzgerald appearing
on the injury report, I don't think he was on

(39:29):
the Wednesday or Thursday or sorry, the Thursday or Friday
injury report. I think that we didn't see Paul Fitzgerald
is out until the last one, the official game day one.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
It was Thursday night, was it?

Speaker 3 (39:41):
Okay? It was Thursday night that that second injury Okay,
so he's on the second one and Baklai I believe
was on the same one. And listen, no, I'm thinking
of anyway, there was two two key players there, so
that I think increases the reps for somebody Likeance holtz Claw.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
He had two tackles for loss in this game. Yeah,
he looked good.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
He looked really good. You need more of that. John
Henry Daily had his half sack. I need I need
that guy against somebody like West Virginia to have like
four sacks. But he got a half sack. He and
Lander combined for the I guess, the only sack of

(40:26):
the game. Yeah. I was joking with Bill in the
break because he does a he does a read for
the best defensive play of the game, and I got
to the postgame show and I'm like, oh, I didn't
I didn't clip a defensive play I had. I had
forgotten that they even had that sack. So I had
to go back and find defensive play because the defense

(40:47):
didn't play bad. There just wasn't a lot of highlight
plays and that that sack. And then I the tackle
for loss or lance Holtz claw had when they after
they had that. I think he was after the sixty
eight ard run that West Virginia had before there before
they scored a touchdown. He Lance Holt squad had a
big tackle for loss right in the red zone there.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
But it was, yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
It was a little bit of a strange day on
defense that way, where they were obviously dominant, they just
weren't any obvious highlight place. Ninety seven oh eight brings
in something that we talked about off air. You need
to rearrange things and put Benny Jackson Benny had strong safety.

(41:34):
They gotta do something because Tillman doesn't look ready. Here's
the thing. Everything I've heard and everything we've been told
is that Jackson Benny's injury is not serious. But how
are you supposed to adjust to a new defensive responsibility

(41:55):
in a bye week where you're also trying to get healthy,
and then to go out there and execute if this
is even the plan at a new position against the
toughest passing competition that your team is going to face,
probably to this point in the year, and that includes
Texas Tech.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
We thought.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
We thought Texas Tech was going to be more of
a problem in the passing game. What ended up happening
was that you knocked out the starting quarterback than the
backup quarterbacks. Dual threat ability ended up being the big
problem for you. So I don't hate your idea in
ninety seven oh eight. I just don't know if from
a practical sense, you can actually make it happen. All right,

(42:38):
we'll take a quick one here. Ari Temkad's going to
join us in the Hot Lunch which is coming next
on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred ninety proud
part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 6 (42:48):
That's me in the corner, that's in the spot.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
Murdoch Hunting Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
to one half N.

Speaker 7 (43:03):
You're looking down the field, has a man open end
zone caught touchdown Ryan Davis thirty one yards from Damn
Pier came down with it with a Devension fact right
in front of him or a Utah touchdown.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
That highlight courtesy of the Utah Sports Radio Network. Bill Riley,
the voice of the Utes on the call. Devan Dan
Pierre cooking up with his old New Mexico teammate. They've
been really good together in Utah uniforms as well. Ryan
Davis over one hundred yards and that was a thirty
two yard touchdown pass in the win against West Virginia.
Ari Temkin Tune in Radios Big twelve Today joins us

(43:52):
to talk about this conference Utah's win on the road.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
Et cetera, et cetera. All right, welcome to the show.
How are you.

Speaker 8 (44:00):
I'm great?

Speaker 5 (44:00):
Oh see, how are you, Budy doing?

Speaker 3 (44:01):
All right? Is this win against a really rough looking
West Virginia team enough to calm the concerns for Utah fans?
Did we see enough in the bounce back game to say, like,
all right, you're gonna be okay despite what happened against
Texas Tech.

Speaker 8 (44:18):
Well, yeah, they have like twelve hundred yards of offense.

Speaker 9 (44:21):
I mean.

Speaker 8 (44:22):
It looked really good. And you know, I mean we
talked last week about you know, when there are teams
defensively they can force Utah to v one dimensional, they
can they take advantage of it. But it's hard to
overlook this game. I will say, you know, West Virginia
is just really bad. I mean, I think coming into
Big twelve play they had looked defensively like they're pretty good,

(44:45):
and you know, so you can at least hang your
hat on that. You know, their offense it's just not
been a good showing for them, and in two games
defensively they've just looked like a train wreck. So you know,
it's a good bounce back game for Utah. They needed it,
especially after last week, and you know.

Speaker 9 (45:01):
But but it's clear that West Virginia.

Speaker 8 (45:03):
Is not gonna be one of the you know, five
or ten best teams of the big twelve.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Yeah, I think they're going to be probably down in
that five or you know, one of the worst five teams.
But when you see a team like Utah, you know,
have that the performance they had which was obviously substandard,
and then they come back with a performance like this
where all you're doing really is you're beating the team

(45:28):
you should beat kind of the way you should beat them,
even if it's a road game for Utah. Does it
does it answer any of those questions about like, all right,
if you can do it against West Virginia, can you
do it after the bye week against Arizona State? Or
is the only way to answer that question is to
do it against Arizona State.

Speaker 8 (45:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think Arizona State is a totally
different animal. I mean, they have seventeen sacks in their
first five games of the season. They had six last week.
This is a you know, that will be a true test.
So I mean, look, Dan Pierre, I think needs to
build some confidence, especially going up against, you know, an
opponent like Arizona State going in the next week, which

(46:09):
is gonna be a really good game. But I just
don't think it'll you know, I mean, I don't think
it says much in terms of can he do it
against Arizona State. And I think that's the reality of it,
you know. I mean, you've got opportunities to build your
confidence and these you know, against these opponents that you
should be able to beat. And look, i mean it's
a tough road trip, but going to West Virginia is
not easy, So it's not, you know, a complete shutdown.

(46:31):
I mean, they just absolutely demoralize them offensively. I mean
they do whatever they wanted. The three hundred plus passing yards,
the two hundred plus rushing yards. I mean, they Utah
did whatever they want. It's so hopefully that builds confidence
of the team. But yeah, I mean, a whole different
animal next week in terms of what Arizona State can
do to you defensively. And they've looked so much better
this year than they did last year. Last year they

(46:52):
couldn't get ask the quarterback. That was a huge question
mark coming into the season, and so far they've they've
been really good at it. In terms of you know,
living in the backfield for their opponents.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
So I mean I ask you this every week when
we talk. TCU had entered the conversation for me as
a team that you know deserves consideration for top four,
top five in the Big Twelve conference. I don't necessarily
even think that losing the Arizona State takes you all
the way out of that conversation. But what is the
power structure and is Utah near it?

Speaker 8 (47:26):
I mean, I would say, you know, Iowa State and
Arizona State so far are the two best teams of
the Big Twelve, which you know, those are two teams
that played for the Big Twelve championship last year. I'd
probably put Texas tack in the mix. I think it's
hard to overlook what BYU has done. But I mean,
you know BYU hasn't played a Texas Tech yet like

(47:46):
Utah has, so the opponent's BYU has played, I think,
don't you know, aren't aren't are not on a level
yet of Utah or at least one opponent of that
being said, I probably put BYU there. I'd probably have
Utah close. I think Cincinnati, you know, their win over
Kansas on Saturday put them probably closer to the top
of the conference in the middle of the conference where

(48:07):
Kansas is. So I mean, I think there's certainly the mix,
But right now, I'd probably say there's probably top four
top teams Texas Tech, Iowa State, Arizona State, and probably
BYU as well.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Who are the must watch players in the Big twelve
conference right now? You had so many of them last
year and you had the ultimate much watched player and
the eventual Heisman Trophy winner. Who are the guys this
year that you just even if you can't catch the
whole game. And I know that you do your best
to catch every one of every one of these games,
but who are the players that you absolutely are checking

(48:41):
in on and seeing what they did any given Saturday
or I guess Friday night in last week's case.

Speaker 8 (48:47):
Yeah, I mean it's sometimes I mean Devid Dan Pier
and basically all the games we've seen from him except
for the Texas Tech game. Isn't that conversation? I mean,
you know, Jack Kelly and Isaac for BUYU. I mean
when I talk about BYU, and you know, they haven't
played an opponent like Texas Tech yet, but they have

(49:08):
one of the best defense of the Big Twelve. I
mean they completely shut down Colorado and the fourth quarter
of that game. The fourth quarter, Colorado had nine total yards.
They had three sacks BYU, including two from Isaiah Glaster
and Glasger also had the game sealing interception. So I
think the linebacking court BYU is must watch. I mean

(49:28):
Sam Levitt, you know, Levitt completely out dual with Josh Hoover.
If you watch that game, you know Tim Brando and
Devin Gardner were just falling over themselves to talk positively
about Hoover and how underrated he was and is and
how good he is. And meanwhile, it was almost like
Sam Levit could hear what they were saying on the
broadcast and was getting offended by it because of the

(49:49):
way that he played down the stretch of that game.
I mean, Hoover had a fumble then an interception along
with two punts in the final four drives for Texas.
For TCU, that's just for a team that should be
considered the of the conference. It was just a really
bad finishing to that game. And meanwhile, Arizona State played
like they're the defending Big Twelve champs, like they had

(50:09):
the heart of the champion in that game, and so
Sam Levitt, I think for me and Jordan Tyson man
he is just a monster in terms of muskwash players
in this conference. Another big game for him. He's just
a fourth down machine. Last year, I think Arizona State,
especially in short yardage, he used Camps Scatabo a ton.
Now every fourth down they're going to Jordan Tyson and
he's delivering. And then you know, last I'm going through

(50:32):
kind of a list of I had. I mean, it's
hard not to mention Sawyer Robertson for Baylor. You know,
Baylor has been so up and down defensively, including you
know what they did against Oklahoma State. I mean, Oklahoma
State had not scored a touchdown against FBS opponents is
twenty twenty three until they scored two touchdowns on Saturday
against Baylor's defense. But Sawyer Robertson is number one in
FBS and passing yards at seventeen hundred, He's got seventeen touchdowns.

(50:56):
He had five touchdowns this last week, including four through
the air. So I mean, I don't know how much
in the Heisman race Robertson's going to be because they're
not probably not a good enough football team and especially defensively.
But man, Shilia Robertson is incredible this year. What he's
doing seventeen hundred yards passing, you know, in such a
short period of time. So that's probably my short list

(51:16):
right now. But a lot of good quarterbacks at this conference.
And you know, Sam Levitt and Swayer Robertson are incredible.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
Is Houston good?

Speaker 8 (51:29):
Great question? Yes, and no. I mean to me, they're
probably still a mid tier Big twelve team, but you know,
it mains to be seen. I mean, they had really,
in many ways no business winning that game. I mean
it's a tough opponent. They played on the road, they
played Corval, they played in Corvallis. But how good is
Oregon State? And I mean they were down in that game,
They were down big in that game, and you know,

(51:52):
and then after coming back and really playing great second half,
you know, Oregan State was still set up to win
with a forty six yards field goal and they block it,
and then in overtime Oregon State goes for goes for
it on fourth and one and they get stopped, which
set up the game winning field goal for Houston. I mean,
swiming possessions so, like, I think we know Willie Fritz's

(52:12):
teams are gonna be good defensively, They're gonna be good
up front, They're good on the potato side. I think
there's still a lot of unanswered questions on offense. And
you know, I think opponent has a lot to do
with it. But we're about to find out because Houston
goes right into the deep end here with Texas Tech
on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
What are we gonna What are you gonna be saying
about Colorado? I mean, they they looked good for three
quarters against BYU, Like you already said, b YU was
able to shut them down and eke out that win.
What are we gonna be saying about Colorado by the
end of this thing? They've got an opportunity against a
TCU team that is good, But we now know we're beatable.

(52:52):
So are we believers at all in Dion and the
bounce back here?

Speaker 8 (52:58):
It's a great question. And look, I mean, I think
what are the expectations here? I mean, I think from
what we saw on Saturday, this could very well be
a bowl team. I mean, I think there's there's a
lot to like about them, and Salter probably played his
best game and has probably stacked his two best games consecutively. Now,
he had, you know, a couple of boneheaded plays in
that game, especially down the stretch. He had a twenty

(53:21):
two yard loss on third and three and then he
throws the interception to Glasgow that basically seals the deal.
But despite that, I mean, he was really good in
terms of running and passing dropped the game. They also,
like Colorado under Dion has just not been a very
good running team, but they ran the ball very effectively
in that game. So I think, like, though they didn't win,
oc like, there are a lot of things to take

(53:42):
away from that game that looked positively for them. So
I haven't committed to the rest of their schedule to
memory yet, but it feels like, you know, six win season,
like they get to a bowl game like that would
be a tremendous successful season for them. Tremendously successful season
for them. Now with that being said, you know, I mean,
they like defensively, they've got some holes, they've got some issues.

(54:02):
You know, they're not nearly as good up front on
defense as I think we expected. And and but if
Salter continues to get better, you know, I think this
team could certainly be a you know, five to six
win team and get to a bowl game and compete there.
And I think that's that like, that would be a
really good season for them. I mean, look, they lose
should Shoulder and Travis Hunter. I mean that's you know,

(54:24):
traditionally not easy too geezy guys for play, especially at
the quarterback position. You know, I have major question marks
about the long term viability of a guy like Pat
Shermer at Colorado, and I think this year is a
good example of the limited you know, how limited an
offense with Pat Summer can be in a college game.
That kind of necessitates building an offense around, you know,
more multiple in a way that Shermer just hasn't been.

(54:46):
But yeah, I mean I think I think what we
saw with Salter the running game, there's a chance this
team to be a bowl team. And if so, I
think that's a very successful season for them. If not,
then yeah, this is I mean, this is a.

Speaker 9 (54:57):
Rebuilt season for for Colorado, There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 8 (55:00):
And I think they expected more on Assaulter. By these
last two games, at least, he looked like the best
version of himself to a degree.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
All Right, it's always great. Catch it up with you.
I appreciate you giving me some time every Monday.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
Man. Thank you, yeah, of course, So see great. Talk
to you brothers. Take care.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
It's Ari Teenkin Big twelve today on tune in Radio.
By the way, UH top twenty five, AP Top twenty five,
BYU at twenty three, Arizona State at twenty five, Iowa
State at fourteen, Texas Tech at eleven. In the coaches poll,

(55:37):
Utah's back in the top twenty five. So if you
care about the AFCA Coaches Poll, there you go. You're
a ranked team right now, take a quick one here.
We'll start our number two with Scott Mitchell on ESPN
seven hundred and ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Time go bring in the big Leffie.

Speaker 5 (56:08):
You have to start thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Somebody else talk utes legend and longtime NFL quarterback Scott
Mitchell's talking pig skin on the Sean O'Connell show.

Speaker 5 (56:16):
I want the left hand.

Speaker 10 (56:17):
Now.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Here's posse with Scott on ESPN seven hundred ninety.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Our two of the Sean O'Connell Show. Here on a Monday,
we welcome in Scott Mitchell, you tall football legend, color
analyst and all of our Utah radio broadcast right here
on ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM. You can
also hear his show Down and Dirty immediately preceding us
and UH. You can find it at ESPN seven hundred,
sports dot Com, on the ESPN seven hundred app, and

(56:53):
wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
Scott Mitchell, Welcome back to the show.

Speaker 5 (56:56):
How are you.

Speaker 9 (56:58):
I'm doing pretty good today.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 9 (57:01):
It's a good Monday after a win.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
So how good of a win was this one?

Speaker 3 (57:08):
We know that West Virginia is not among the best
teams in the Big twelve, but given the context, the
timing of you got to get right after that Texas
Tech loss, and it is a road trip that isn't
the easiest road trip in the world to make. How
big of a win is this? How good of a
win is this for Utah?

Speaker 5 (57:27):
I think it's a huge win. And every win the
rest of this year is going to be huge. It's
going to be a tight race in the conference. So
you always want to take care of your business no
matter where you're going, when you're gonna play, or who
you're going to play. And what's kind of cool is
like this team is coachable, like Devin Dan Pierre is coachable,
Jason Beck is coachable.

Speaker 9 (57:48):
And because you always say, hey, throw the ball down
the field a little.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
Bit more, throw the ball over the middle of the field,
a little bit more. Run straight out. People don't run laterally,
you know, run downhill.

Speaker 9 (57:59):
And you saw all of those things and it was
a flawless execution.

Speaker 5 (58:03):
You thought it didn't even punned it all.

Speaker 9 (58:04):
I get West Virginia's not very good, and they're not very.

Speaker 5 (58:07):
Good, but it's always awesome when you have.

Speaker 9 (58:11):
An answer back, and that that was the biggest thing
I wanted to see.

Speaker 5 (58:15):
How does this team, how does this offense answer back
after such a tough outing last last week?

Speaker 3 (58:25):
Get take me inside of the quarterback mentality specifically, because
when you're Devin Dampier and you know you have this
opportunity for this big national television coming out party, and
unfortunately you and the rest of your team don't perform
to the you know, the best of your ability. It's
not doesn't work out the way that it could have
or should have it in some people's minds against Texas Tech.

(58:49):
And now you know you're going on the road and
you're gonna take on a West Virginia team that is
probably going to try to force you to throw the
ball downfield because it didn't look like you were really
good at at against Texas Tech. And you're not one
hundred percent healthy, You're not as evasive, elusive fast as
you're used to being. I mean, how do you get

(59:10):
your own mind around a game like that and perform
the way that Devin did twenty one to twenty six
two thirty seven, four touchdowns. We'll get to the bad
interception here in just a second. I mean he was
twenty one to twenty six with a couple of drops.
So how do you fix that with the mind?

Speaker 5 (59:29):
Well, how you fix it is, you know, you you
have to move on from it and you have to
forget about it. But you also have to be honest
with yourself and just say, hey, look this is what
i'm doing poorly, this is what I've done poorly.

Speaker 9 (59:45):
And understanding this is what you're going to see. So
you either make friends with it, you deal with it.

Speaker 5 (59:51):
But you've got to have those honest conversations.

Speaker 9 (59:55):
It's not like oh yeah, man, I got this.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
I got this. It's like, no, we sucked throwing the
football against Texas Tech, and we have to do better,
and I have to do better, and I think even
the coaches had to do better. And that is they
called they called better plays. I mean there were there
were legitimately called passes down the field and that and
that was a better thing. But it's it. It certainly
starts with that honest conversation and then it's it's really

(01:00:21):
all all about your preparation. You know, for me, when
when when I had a bad game, I brought this
stuff on my show earlier, or or you know, you're
kind of out of source whatever, you really go back
to those fundamentals of you know, your drop, your your
throwing mechanics, and you really just focus on those foundational
basic things that you you know that you need to

(01:00:45):
rely on and build from there. And and that's really
it's really a good way to bounce back, to start
over to really you know, don't don't overanalyze things, but
just just to do the fundamental things right and and.

Speaker 9 (01:00:59):
Things just fall fall into place.

Speaker 5 (01:01:01):
But I'll tell you, the biggest impression or the most
impressive thing to me though, was Devin dan Pier throwing
the football, and it was it was markedly better it's
probably the best. I'm not em gonna say probably, it
is absolutely the best. He's throwing the football all season,
and he's shown an ability to throw the football in

(01:01:23):
you know, other than five yards into the flat. So
there was there was some nice, nice throws in this game.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
He had his one hundred yard receiver, Ryan Davis. I think,
I mean, I don't want to keep talking about him
as a possession receiver. He's a guy who's got you know,
some quality yards after catch. Now. I know that his
physical profile means that he's going to be kind of
put in that category, but I think he's established himself
very clearly is the best wide out on this team.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
Well, I don't, Yeah, I don't think it's close. And
that was another thing that we saw, you know, some
deeper intermediate throws to Ryan, and when Devin, you know,
he was a little bit erratic in his uh A
location early, but as he got dialed into the game,
he was he was really throwing the ball in good
locations which allowed Ryan to very easily get yardage. And

(01:02:14):
you know, some some receivers have a knack for it
and some don't. And and Ryan Ryan Davis is showing
an ability to immediately make a positive move, an attacking
move once he catches the football a field. And that's
what you love to see, you know, you don't you
love to you don't want to see wasted motion. You
don't want to see, Oh, thank goodness, I caught the ball.

(01:02:37):
You know, I jump up in the air and catch
the ball in my stomach kind of thing. And and
and you know his feet are playing it on the ground.
He catches the ball and the boom he gets a
field and so and and part of that is, you know,
he's been catching a lot of passes, So guys get
comfortable doing that kind of stuff when they're you know,
when they're seeing the ball. You know, some of these
guys don't see the ball again. They're just like, just

(01:02:59):
catch it, just don't draw, and they don't even think about,
you know, what happens after you catch the ball. And
so that feeling confident, feeling comfortable. You're starting to see
that with Ryan, and I love that they were getting
the ball to him down the field.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
Further, I know it's unfair to do when we're talking
about a true freshman, but I just jj Buchanan has
showed me enough that I think that he's got an
opportunity to be like a really, really great player for
this Utah football team. We were having a brief debate
earlier about whether or not you pack weight on him

(01:03:34):
and trying to make him more of a tight end
or you just let him be two hundred and fifteen
pounds and be a big body, wide receiver. His touchdown
catch despite the past interference is exactly the reason I'm
overreacting the way that I am. You are better at
analyzing these things than I am. But what do you
think JJ Buchanan's future is going to be well?

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
For someone who came in and just in fall camp
and made a huge impression and has gotten himself on
the field, I think that speaks a lot of his
talent and his maturity.

Speaker 9 (01:04:08):
He's a mismatch, you know, no matter where you put him.

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
And that that's a that's a nice thing to have.
Hopefully you, TAHK can continue to utilize that, and not
just in the red zone. I mean, there's there's a
lot of throwing opportunities, you know, out on the on
the on the you know, the in the regular field,
but but it's also if you can effectively run the
football tight ends, meshing with running the football and play

(01:04:34):
action and throwing the ball over the middle of the
field and having uh, you know, a nice target and
and Devin get really comfortable with tight ends, they become
your very very best friend in the world. I think
the master at that was certainly Tom Brady and a
very very close second is is certainly Patrick Mahomes understanding, uh,

(01:04:56):
when you you create that mismatch and and so he
JJ's the a player that can do that. And if
and if, you know, then if he becomes a guy
that they have to kind of account for, then it
opens things up for everyone else. So whether he has
it or he doesn't. And that's the potential of this,
you know, where it could. It's not there yet, but
it's certainly something that if they, if they scheme this right,

(01:05:19):
can really create a very potent offense utilizing the tight ends.
And and I think they can still do do that
this year. The other thing that really stood out to
me he's kind of speaking of tight ends and touchdowns
and is Devin's uh been very accurate throwing the football
in the red zone into the end zone and he's

(01:05:43):
made some I just think through through all the different
games so far this year, he's had some special throws
and there they're those unique throws. It's almost like your
short game, you know, and on a golf course where
you know you're chipping into a green or you got
to get get.

Speaker 9 (01:05:57):
The ball out of the sand.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
You know, he's got some some creativity in some of
the throws that he's made, the one touchdown to wis Sean,
Uh you know where he's kind of loves it over
the defender. You know, those aren't those aren't.

Speaker 9 (01:06:10):
Necessarily easy to execute, and it's it's.

Speaker 5 (01:06:13):
The location of the passes that he's throwing that he
you know, I think of the one throw to Larry
Simmons against Wyoming, and there was a throw to Jake
Bentley or not Bentley but uh yeah was it no
Dylan Dylan Bran Brantley. H yeah, sorry, Dollon Bentley. Man,

(01:06:33):
there's there's Jake's, Dollon's.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
Dylan's who we got we got to get with our
naming of no kidding, Yeah, targets.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
What's wrong with thing one and thing two? You know
that's the names you need right there. Anyway, Thing one
made a nice catch. They we'll call the tight ends
thing one and thing two.

Speaker 9 (01:06:52):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:06:52):
But but it's that accuracy and it and it's like
throwing the ball to a tight end and in the
end zone is an art and a lot of quarterbacks
can't do it. Utah couldn't do it last year and
they had this size mismatch and and so you know,
not only are these great talents and weapons to have,
but you got a quarterback who's got some creativity and

(01:07:14):
accuracy in the end zone, and that's that can be
a deadly combination.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
Scott Mitchell's our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
the Utah football quarterbacking legend and color analyst on all
of our radio broadcasts. Here also host of The Down
and Dirty immediately preceding this show, How do you win
the bye week? If you're this Utah football team? What
is the you know, the Scott Mitchell model for success
in a bye week where you got some bumps and

(01:07:41):
bruises to significant players and you got a big test
coming after the bye week in Arizona State.

Speaker 5 (01:07:48):
Yeah, and you know a lot of it is self evaluation.
You know, if you can really again, it's those honest
conversations you can have with yourself and look and.

Speaker 9 (01:07:56):
Go, okay, what are some of our tendencies.

Speaker 5 (01:07:58):
You know, they broke a little bit of that when
they when they threw the ball in their big jumbo
power eye formation. And it's stuff like that, you know,
where where are we where are we tipping our hand?

Speaker 9 (01:08:09):
It's also you saw.

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
Daniel Bray who showed us a burst. Actually asked coach
Whittingham about him after the game. He said, you know,
we we feel like he's a guy that's going to
get more and more involved in what we're doing offensively,
so it's an opportunity to get him more reps. Uh.

Speaker 9 (01:08:27):
You got some guys bumped and bruised.

Speaker 5 (01:08:29):
On defense, you know, so that's the thing. But but
also you know, Nate, Nate Richie's out, Rabbit Evans is out.
Now someone new is in, or or maybe you shuffle
your secondary round and you know, maybe maybe Smith Snowden
starts playing a different position. I don't know what their
answer is, but they'll have time to figure out that
answer and get someone some quality reps to get up

(01:08:51):
to speed. Because Nate Ritchie actually went out of the game,
and it did changed the the texture of the defense,
and and uh, and and they they started to move
the ball. All the game was in hand for the
most part, but you don't, well it was. It was
when Jackson, Benny and Nate went out, and those are
two key guys in your secondary. So it's it really

(01:09:11):
is about shoring that up a little bit and all
that does down the road. It just gives you more
depth because you've been forced to play guys. Now you're
playing them and now they're getting that experience. And then
hopefully I don't know what the status of Nate Richie is,
but hopefully he comes back in a few weeks and
again you have another bye week and you've got a
lot you know, this is the meat of the schedule
of the of the your season coming up, and you

(01:09:35):
really want to make a push in these next four
games to get to your next by So it's it's
all of those things. It's getting Daniel Bray caught up
and hopefully get him more implemented into what you're doing.
It could even be expanding on some of these Lander
Barton packages and Smith Noden and even even Jackson Benny

(01:10:00):
because you only have so much time regularly and now
it's like you you have some found time, you know,
you get some a nice reprieve. So I know that's
a long list, but these are these are things. Boy,
if you can really utilize your time doing all of
those things, it's just really going to help you out
the next month, for the next month.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
I thought you made a really interesting point on your
show this morning where you said you're not convinced and
I'm paraphrasing here, not a direct quote of your own words,
but you're not convinced that this offense is even like
fully aware or fully convinced of its own talent because
of the use of guys like Lander and Smith and

(01:10:42):
Jackson Benny on offense. I thought it was accurate And
are we seeing enough with like the emergence of bu
can and maybe is more of a weapon that you
can rely on and Dallan Bentley being perhaps a better
tight end than we had given him credit for, and
I don't know, even maybe Daniel Bray, Like, is there
a way that you can uh see these other offensive

(01:11:05):
weapons that are maybe less expected emerged to where you
don't have to use those defensive guys on the offensive
side of the ball.

Speaker 5 (01:11:13):
Well you, I mean, I would hope. So personally, I
just think it's better. It's better keeping your guys fresher,
you know. I mean, the defense got tired a couple
of weeks ago against Texas Tech, and and so you
you don't want to you don't want to have them
get tired as the.

Speaker 9 (01:11:30):
Season goes on.

Speaker 5 (01:11:33):
But you also you have to win games. And so
you just have to ask your quote youself, are you
are you better off with maybe as talented guys like
Daniel Bray or JJ Buchanan who don't have experience, and
as opposed to some some very talented players who you know, well,

(01:11:53):
you have confidence can get the job done, but they're
limited because they can't practice and get all the refs
they want. So, you know, I think these young guys
are showing and have shown an ability. I think I
think Ryan Davis for these coaches was also an unexpected production.

(01:12:16):
I don't I don't think they thought, you know, and
I think if they said that, I'd say they're lying.
But uh, you know, he just has emerged as that
guy for whatever reason, and and he has and so uh,
you know, when you start finding the production, I mean,
the real production is in the running game. And and
that's where that's where Daniel Bray could really help this

(01:12:40):
team out. It's just a different it's a different motor,
it's a different skill set, and it's a very talented one.
And if he has that ability to to add to
your offense, you know, maybe you don't need to see
Smith Noden on fly sweeps or some of those. Maybe
that guy becomes Daniel Bray.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
Should we be concerned at all that you gave up
two and sixty yards of rushing to West Virginia.

Speaker 5 (01:13:09):
Well, you know, when you have the injuries, and that's
what I mean, you lose that continuity because you can
only get so many guys ready for a game. And
losing both of Nate Ritchie and Jack, I really think
it hurt the team to some degree. You know, a
lot of you know, a significant amount of that yardage
came later in the game. I mean they had the
big reverse that was you know, kind of after things

(01:13:30):
were decided. It really felt like defensively, Utah had West
Virginia under wraps. It didn't feel like, you know, early
on in the game, when it was really intense and
really being decided that Utah was in any kind of trouble,
there still was some mistackles and that's something that keeps

(01:13:51):
showing up, and honestly, I don't know what it is
at this point. I mean, when you know, when you've
been through this much of the season, you should be
in tune with but it just seems to continue.

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
I don't want to interrupt you, Scott, but I think
it's because they didn't tackle in camp and once you
get into once you get into the season, you can't
really say, Okay, now we're going to start tackling a
lot and practice guys, because now is when you actually
have to keep your players healthy. And this is this
is something that I know that every coaching staff tries

(01:14:22):
to find the exact right balance, but we've seen it
for Utah in the past. Be problem where you know,
they don't tackle a lot in the preseason camp because
they're worried about injuries, and then you miss a bunch
of tackles in a game and then you're like, Okay,
well the next game is a little bit better. But
if it's something I mean, football can only be practiced
with football, Tackling can only be tackled practice with tackling.

(01:14:44):
It's not something that you can really do at this
point in the season. I mean, maybe you use some
of your younger guys to be tackling dummies during a
bye week. But it's just I don't I think that's it.
I think that's the explanation. And that's why I hate
every time we get into this conversation about like, all right,
well you gotta you don't have as much depth on

(01:15:05):
this team, so you got to keep everyone healthy. And
then they say, coming out of camp, you know, we
hardly did any full contact tackling. We hardly ever tackled
to the ground. I just don't know how you make
up for that once the season begins.

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
That's a great point and one that I don't I
don't know that I have the answer. I mean, maybe
the answer is tackling more, but you know it's really
a risk. I think you just kind of manage risk, right,
and so you you look at what's the lesser of
two evils and say, well, it's better to have our
guys on the field than to have a bunch of
second and third teamers, you know, making great tackles or

(01:15:43):
or not even being in a position to make a
tackle in the game. And so I think it's it's
you know that I think it's the better choice of
the two. You look, you get into the pros, and
these guys they.

Speaker 9 (01:15:56):
Just they're they're hired assassins.

Speaker 5 (01:15:58):
They're trained. You know, those guys just know they don't
need to tackle, they know how to tackle, and and
there there's there's certainly an art to it.

Speaker 9 (01:16:06):
It's fun having conversations.

Speaker 5 (01:16:08):
With Stevens and Sylvester, you know, about how do you
tackle people? And and and it's quite quite an interesting conversation.
But I still think you can get better with the tackling,
hopefully through the season. Maybe you're not going to be

(01:16:28):
perfectly great, but but at least you can get a
little bit better. And and and you just kind of
have to live with it, and and you know, hope,
you know it doesn't hurt you down the road. We'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:16:40):
Before I let you go. Should NFL games end in ties?

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
No? And and hell no, Uh, this is like.

Speaker 5 (01:16:51):
And this is about Look, the only thing they let
things and and attire at least that I'm aware of
is soccer. And I don't like soccer. Not enough scoring.
It's like, you play these games either win or lose,
and and figure out a way. I don't care if
you flip a point at the end of the game.
To figure out who wins, it needs to be a winner.

Speaker 9 (01:17:10):
And a loser.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
It's basically saying, ah, we didn't really this did we
didn't really do anything. We put all this effort, all
this energy into it. I think Jerry Jones's is behind this.
I think he said, how can I create the most
drama with the player I let go of? It will
end us thing in a tie, and that will just
throw everyone in its dizzy And and so I think
it's I think it's Jerry Jones' fault that this is

(01:17:32):
this happened. But I never in a million years would
have expected a tie between these two teams, and quite frankly,
I would have expected a very decisive win with the
Green Bay Packers. And you just it's just funny how
the season it starts out and it looks like it's
going to be one way, and then and then it
kind of flows another way where it almost feels like
that the Cowboys are trending in a better direction and

(01:17:55):
the and the Green Bay Packers are not, you know,
and you wouldn't have said that at the beginning of
the season, which is why the NFL to me, is
just so compelling and so fun to watch.

Speaker 4 (01:18:08):
Scott. Always great hearing from you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
Thanks for your time, sir, you got a buddy got
Mitchell hosted The Down and Dirty right here on ESPN
seven and ninety two one FM, and he was there
on the call in West Virginia with Bill. He was
telling the moonshine story, by the way, on his show
this morning. Apparently Bill was offered and he was gifted

(01:18:33):
a mason jar of moonshine. I don't know if you
watched on the History Channel or Discovery Channel, if people
watched that moonshiner's TV show. For some reason, those things
get me. I don't drink. I've never had moonshine. I
think I've probably never even seen moonshine, But for some reason,

(01:18:53):
I've watched like eight hours of people with funny accents
making moonshine in backwoods stills, intity illegal. You ever see
Filthy Riches No, I think that was on Netflix. Might
may or may not still be going. But there were
the same kind of guys, and they might have been Kentucky,
the Hills of Kentucky, and they're they're getting Gin Sang,

(01:19:17):
They're getting Gin Sang, and Filthy Riches is like guys
who are making money off of harvesting stuff like that
instead of working in an office. Oh that kind of stuff,
like just that sounds like your kind of show. Yeah,
I love like dirty jobs, all these things where you're
just like, I don't I don't have time to be
watching this, but I'm like in a hotel room somewhere,

(01:19:38):
and it's just like, all right, Yeah, what's what is
that gonna be good? That moonshine that he's making. Are
the cops gonna catch him? Do they even care if
they catch him? I don't know. Is he is he
giving them to the cops when they catch him exactly?

Speaker 5 (01:19:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Moonshine is still the thing, I guess giving them giving
it to the cops. Yeah, moonshine is multiple people. Oh,
there's a there's a great I don't know if it
feels like a very underrated movie to me, Tom Hardy
shy La Buff. I think it's called Lawless. Oh, I
haven't seen it. Their moonshining brothers in I don't know.
I don't know what. Somewhere in the Appalachia and it

(01:20:15):
is a great movie. It's like Prohibition era. It's really
really good. Anyway that Yeah, that moonshine story, really good story.
They even they even kind of brought it up during
the pregame show. Nice. They didn't go into very much depth,
but they said something about there's that moonshine you had
last night, Bill, and like, yeah, I was like, I

(01:20:38):
gotta I got a text, Bill, I gotta see what
flavor they gave him. You know, it's like a it's
a it's an American heritage craft. It is so even
though I'm not an alcohol guy and I wouldn't drink
it myself, I would feel very uh flattered and honored
if someone was like, I might got you moonshine. I
might have understand that my grandma had back. And you know,
like just I'm fascinated by that apple latching culture where

(01:21:01):
you live in a holler and you don't you know,
you're it's not your city pride, it's where county you're from.

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
It's just a it's just a different deal.

Speaker 3 (01:21:12):
Yeah, and you might you know, you and I if
we were offered moonshinem like, yeah, sure, I got some
paint to remove.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
Yeah, let's take some. I'll thank you. Take a couple
of Mason jars.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
Yeah, give me. I need to just strip some adhesive
off of off the back of my car. Someone put
a bumper stick right and want on there? All right,
we got to take a break here. Daily Dump is
coming next. Brought to you by Valley Plumbing on the
Sean O'Connell Show. Utel is number one Sports Talk ESPN
seven hundred and ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:21:44):
Feeling out of the loop, Let's catch up on today's
biggest headlines about Daily news Dump on the Sean O'Connell Show,
where we flush out the biggest stories of the day
on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven and ninety
two one alf Am brought to you by Bally Plumbing.
Just look for the truck with the duck.

Speaker 7 (01:22:05):
Second down and goal ta in motion. Damp Year rules
to his right hand side, rose to the end zone
talk touchdown Dallent Bentley all by himself in the back
of the end zone. Third touchdown passed today for Devin
damp Pier and Utah punches it in just before half
times forty eight fourteen victory.

Speaker 3 (01:22:25):
One of Devin dan Peer's four touchdowns, that one to
Dallan Bentley. Who is I mean? We knew he was
a solid player. He's emerging as a star caliber player
for this Utah football team. Really great to see that
the patience and the hard work of Dallon Bentley paying
off here in the latter portion of his career, he's
been a very crowded tight end room that suddenly wasn't

(01:22:48):
so crowded anymore. And even though like he effectively became
like the de facto starter, but he's wildly productive.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
He's making test contested catches. It's really good to see that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Sound courtesy of the Utah Sports Radio Network, Bill Riley,
of course, on the call Daily Dell, brought to you
by Valley Plumbing Man. Lots of stuff to get into, James,
were you have you ever?

Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
Were you ever in the the hardcore like sports video
game world?

Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
Did you?

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
Did you spend a lot of time playing NBA two K,
n ca A Football Mad and any of that. Yeah,
uh NBA two K and before that NBA Live, r
r I P, NBA Live r pn A Live I
love was my favorite. I even't played remember nine to
eight nine sports? No, they had anyway, they they had

(01:23:41):
a like baseball and uh n B a NBA game
that I that I played at one time. Yeah, So yeah,
I'm I've been into that. I've not been as into
like Madden and nc away Football because frankly, those are
just way harder to play. They don't have much fun
with those. So, but you know e A Sports EA

(01:24:03):
who had an office here in Salt Lake City. E
A Sports, uh huge in the sports video game space.
They've done uh, they did the UFC game, they did Madden,
they did NCAA football game the year in. I'm in
the UFC two yes, two game.

Speaker 5 (01:24:18):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:24:19):
And honestly, James, I think I think that in a
weird roundabout way, I think that the fact that e
A maybe had an office here in Utah probably got
me into the game. Think, so, hey, Utah guy, we
know that guy exactly. I had two wins when they
put me, two UFC wins when they put me in
the EA game, I was just maybe it's because they

(01:24:39):
like my tattoos. I have no idea, But anyway, EA
Sports has sold for fifty five billion dollars cash money.
When I say, James that EA Sports has sold for
fifty five million cash a billion, right, did I say
million in the second time? Fifty five billion dollars cash?

(01:25:04):
You probably now have narrowed it down to the very
few people who could buy something for that price for cash.
That's like five times more than five times the sale
of the Lakers, oh see, fifty five billion dollars. The
Saudi Public Investment Fund, okay, as should have known, has

(01:25:25):
purchased EA Sports We're gonna have. We're gonna have whatever
the Saudi Soccer League and the the Saudi NBA League
and the and live golf. We're gonna be sech of
those games. You're gonna get a live golf video game
for me, A Sports Rice and De Shambo live golf
you're gonna get. You're gonna get the Tom Brady flag

(01:25:48):
football game because remember Tom Brady revealed he's doing a
flag football tournament right ye. Apparently they're paying him like
seventy five million dollars. Gianna Ronaldo isn't He's still playing
in Saudi Giano Ronaldo right now is making like two
hundred million dollars a year to play in the Saudi League.

Speaker 4 (01:26:06):
Which is probably just terrible. It's terrible.

Speaker 3 (01:26:09):
They it's probably the only good player in that league.
They just had a uh, they just had an award
ceremony of some kind and the video of him receiving
their ballon d'Or right, they're like MVP award.

Speaker 4 (01:26:21):
The video went viral because it's him.

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
He's sitting there in like kind of an Oscars type setting, right,
it's like a you know, stressed up in the tuck
black tie kind of event, and he doesn't he have
his family with him. It's like he just is like
punching the clock and they announced it's like, oh, the
MVP of the Arab League is Christiano Ronaldo. Doesn't even smile,
he's just like yep. It's like it's like he's bothered

(01:26:48):
that he decided to sell his soul for the money
to go play in Saudi. Instead, could have predicted that,
oh see you being bothered to you selling your soul
for for yes, a just crazy amount of money, worthwhile
amount of money. You know, it's not being very satisfying
way of life after that. Interesting, I could have predicted that, yeah, sorry,

(01:27:12):
uh two hundred million euro so that's okay. Still, that's
like two and twenty million dollars or something. I don't
know how much. Like right now the euro is stronger
than the dollar, so that is a ridiculous amount of money.
To be playing for Al Nasser in any case, Al
Nasser the the iconic club. Let's see seven hundred million

(01:27:38):
dollar contract total. Christiano Ronaldo Al Nasser live. EA Sports. Yeah,
PF Sports. Now apparently like a big part of this
was the FIFA thing, right because they make the FIFA
game and you got a World Cup, got a World
Cup come in and that's gonna like once again spike

(01:27:59):
the poppy hilarity and the video game sales should go
insane for that. But fifty five billion, and for those
who are maybe less aware of the Saudi PIF, the
Public Investment Fund for Saudi Arabia, the whole thing is
that designed to divest the massive wealth of Saudi Arabia

(01:28:19):
from oil into other things, which is why they've they
dive directly into sports and why they've invested in these
sports leagues and these sports things that EA Sports is
obviously a huge part of. Now the video game side
of it, Saudi Arabia jumping on board. Could we see
a PFL video game?

Speaker 4 (01:28:41):
Probably not because the.

Speaker 3 (01:28:46):
They're now in bed the PIF and the guy in
charge of the sports, like I forget what his official
title is.

Speaker 4 (01:28:54):
His name is Turkey Al al.

Speaker 3 (01:28:55):
Sheet, but it's the sports investing. He's the sports guy. Yeah, yeah,
he's the sports arm like the head of the sports armies.
He's now partners with Dana White, the UFC president on boxing.
They're the ones who produced the Canelo Alvarez Bud Crawford
fight the other night on Netflix, and they just like
they're trying to completely redo the boxing world to match

(01:29:18):
the UFC model, which boxing is very very upset with.
I'm not going to bore too many people, but like,
if you're a combat sports fan, look up the ALI Act.
Look up the fact that they're trying to overturn the
ALI Act now and change the power structure of boxing altogether.
And that's Saudi's involved with that now. So we'll see.

(01:29:38):
I don't want to only talk about that purchase. In
the Daily Dump, brought to you by our friends over
at Valley Plumbing, there's now James a fourth Power for
head coaching opportunity open. Sam Pittman at Arkansas is out,
which means four jobs are open already. We're not even
halfway into this season. One from each conference that just

(01:30:02):
dawned on me, One from each of the powerful conference
UCLA Big ten uh Oklahoma State, Big twelve, Virginia Tech
ACC which is the one. People are like, what's the
fourth one? That's the fourth one Tech, And now that's
the one you forgot and now SEC was Sam Pittman.
But Arkansas. This is already more powerful openings than we

(01:30:22):
had in the entire cycle last year. I'm not I
don't think this is a good thing. Oh see, I
as bad as Gundy was, and we knew he was
on his way out eventually. I don't think any of
us predicted it to happen in season, but we knew
he was on his way out, and as bad as
Deshaun Foster was. And I, I'll be honest with you,

(01:30:45):
no idea who the head coach of Virginia Tech was.
I still don't still don't know. Sorry man forgetting forgetting fired.
I don't know if you were bad, if you were
awful compared to other coaches or not, like these other
two were. And then Sam Pittman, like they were obviously
not good, these four coaches, but in season firing though, see, like,

(01:31:07):
can we not just wait till the end of the season.
It's not gonna be good anyway. I'm okay with doing
the interim thing. I just don't think that doing it
Brent Prye, by the way, is Brent Prye. Okay, I
just don't think that doing it in week four is
a great idea. Yeah, maybe, like wait a little bit longer.
I don't know when it is when it's good. Maybe
November when you're like, it's a bet we get a

(01:31:29):
head a month head start on the on the hiring cycle.
I don't know. I also don't think that there's like
a I don't think you actually get a head start
on the because I think that the hierarchy of jobs
is established and being the first to market, Like, hey,
I offered you this head coaching job, you're giving it
to a coordinator, right, or you're giving it to a

(01:31:50):
head coach at a smaller program for the most part, right,
guys who already have jobs. You're not offering the Arkansas
opening or Virginia tech oorkleme state. You're not offering that
job to someone who's going to leave their position. Now, Hey,
Ryan Day, Like we're the first to call you. It's
not like Jay Hill, Right, Jay Hill, You're about to

(01:32:12):
be the fifth This is now, this is now four
powerful coaching jobs and I'm assuming there's going to be
at least four more that open, right, So let's say
eight of these jobs are open. It's crazy number. It's
not like Oklahoma State calls Jay Hill first and it's
just like, hey, I we're first, here's the offer, take it,

(01:32:32):
and he's like okay, and he signs. He's got practice
film his family do is they're not doing these things
if it's not like if you're Virginia Tech and you're like,
let's hire someone before Arkansas's job opens, because everyone would
rather have the Arkansas job. It's not like Virginia Tech
is getting in on the candidate first and they're saying

(01:32:55):
no to Arkansas. Now, every one of these coaches and
their agents are absolutely having the conversations. The agents are
behind the scenes, but no one can take these jobs
right now. You can't sign on the dotted line when
you're already the coordinator for BYU are already the offensive
coordinator for whoever for you know, Ohio State or one

(01:33:18):
of the or a guy from the NFL ranks coming down.
It's just as weird that that teams. And I think
a lot of this and we talked about it last week.
I think a lot of this is booster pressure and
knowing that the NIL Fund and knowing that the collectives
and the revenue share and the people that that make
it possible, they matter more than they ever did. So

(01:33:41):
now when that booster who used to just be kind
of annoying calls you as an athletic director and it's
just like, hey man, you got to get rid of
this guy. I'm gonna pull my money, You're like, okay,
we're getting rid of him.

Speaker 5 (01:33:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:33:54):
By the way, did you also see the subsequent story
that from this morning from Pete Thamil Bobby Trino, interim
head coach for Arkansas offensive coordinator for Arkansas up, He
Patrino should do the funniest thing possible and he should
show up at his first interim head coaching press conference
with wearing a neck brace.

Speaker 4 (01:34:13):
It's a neck brace.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
Yeah, just just a shout out to the old days. Yeah,
beat the beat the jokes, do it yourself. Yeah. He
fired his defensive coordinator, Travis Williams and two other defensive
assistants like a less than twenty four or about twenty
four hours after he was named interim head coach of

(01:34:36):
as you just alluded to, the program that fired him
for having an inappropriate relationship with one of his staffers. Now, however,
many years ago, that was okay, so crazy. I will
say that the defense probably needed a change because you
gave up six hundred and forty two yards forty three

(01:34:58):
yards to Notre Dame. You probably needed some kind of
change there. But an interim coach firing assistant coaches like
this in the middle of a season games. I'll tell
you this. If some like if someone may meet the
interim coach, this is exactly how it would be if
you if you called them.

Speaker 4 (01:35:18):
Were just like, hey man, I don't know if I'm
gonna have this power for that long.

Speaker 3 (01:35:22):
If you were like, I I got to take a
leave of absence, You're the interim program director.

Speaker 4 (01:35:28):
Everybody's gone.

Speaker 3 (01:35:29):
I'm just like, oh cool, Spence, you're done.

Speaker 4 (01:35:32):
Porter, You're out of here. I'm just firing everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
Everyone on the fan, You're out of here.

Speaker 4 (01:35:38):
They're just like, what, who's replacing it? Oh crap?

Speaker 3 (01:35:41):
I don't know. I just wanted to exercise my power.
I just wanted to flex this interim muscle that I've
been given.

Speaker 5 (01:35:47):
By the way.

Speaker 3 (01:35:48):
The offense is definitely not a problem because you scored
thirteen points against Notre Dame. Yeah, really good supposedly really
good team. Maybe maybe, but like it's not as if
your offense was incredible here, mister Petrino, mister neck brace himself. Yeah,

(01:36:08):
thirteen points against Notre Dame and you are the again.
It's kind of like, all right, you've done it before.
We need somebody in this spot right now, so go
ahead and take these duties. The tough situation at Arkansas
and just like just like everybody else, I'm going, how

(01:36:28):
appealing is this Arkansas job because you're in the SEC
and you're Arkansas. Unless you can get Jerry Jones to
be like, yeah, man, here's a blank check because for
whatever reason he wants his his alma mater to be
or you know, the the or the Clinton's also big
Arkansas fans could if they, you know they, if you

(01:36:51):
could get the former president and uh and the Dallas
Cowboys owner to give you a blank checks, then then maybe,
like you said, maybe they can win the SEC year
in and year out. But this is if I'm Arkansas, Like, hey,
is any way we could get to the Big twelve.
We could probably be pretty good in the Big twelve.

(01:37:11):
Sixty seven fifty four says it's the recruiting cycle that
forces everybody to make these changes early on. If you
hire a coach in November, doesn't give them enough time
to lock in a class by December. But that's the
point I'm making. Even when you fire these guys now,
you're not hiring a new coach until November or December, Like,
it just doesn't When is the last time you had

(01:37:35):
a I guess, with the exception of the interim coach
getting the permanent job, which is not going to be
the case here, which is very rare actually these days
in college football, when is the last time you had
someone who was fired in September or October? And then
they're just like, also, here's our new head coach, Dan Mullen,

(01:37:55):
who is going to get one of these jobs? Right,
Arkansas is not announcing Dan Mullen today. Now, Dan Mullen
might have an idea that he's gonna take the Oklahoma
State job, or he's gonna take the Arkansas job, or
he's gonna take the UCLA job. I'm not even gonna
say Virginia Tech. So maybe his shift in recruitment focus

(01:38:15):
is just like I'm gonna have a spot for you.
I want you to play for me. I like you,
not UNLV loves you. But you can't recruit to any
school other than the school that you're at. Anyway, The
Virginia Tech slander inadvertently on this in this segment though.

(01:38:35):
By the way, sorry Porter, Big Hokies fan. I want
to go to a game in Blacksburg desperately. Absolutely, at
some point in my life I want to go here
the enter Sandman in person. Absolutely, yes, But also what
is that like when they're a three to nine team?

Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:38:51):
I mean are they allowed they did get a big
win over n C State. Are even allowed to play it?

Speaker 10 (01:38:56):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:38:56):
Does Metallica call them and say you can't use this
while you suck?

Speaker 5 (01:39:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:39:02):
All right, that's your daily dump, brought to you by
a friends over at Valley Plumbing.

Speaker 4 (01:39:08):
Any of your plumbing needs they can help take care
of you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:10):
Also a reminder, Live night Events presents the twenty twenty
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Speaker 4 (01:39:23):
It's getting a little bit chillier.

Speaker 3 (01:39:24):
You're not gonna have these outdoor concerts for much longer,
so check them out at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:39:31):
All right, we'll double up here.

Speaker 3 (01:39:32):
Tony Jones when we come back on the Shan O'Connell Show,
you tell his number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred
and ninety two one.

Speaker 1 (01:39:39):
Salt Lake k x R k HD three, ESPN seven
hundred and ninety two one FM till you're a smart
speaker to play ESPN seven hundred. This is the Sean
O'Connell Show. You were home of the best Inside Joey Hughes.

(01:40:01):
Let's get back to wo see from the Murdoch Chevrolet
Studio ESPN seven.

Speaker 6 (01:40:10):
Where you got me Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
All right, it's a conversation that we're both looking forward
to and not looking forward to.

Speaker 4 (01:40:19):
Tony Jones, all of you know, at this point, has
abandoned us.

Speaker 3 (01:40:24):
He's left to take a cool job covering the Philadelphia
seventy six ers, and who knows what else, because Tony's
always got a bunch of things going on. But it's
kind enough to swing by, and I guess allow us
to bid him a fond farewell. Tony Jones, how.

Speaker 5 (01:40:40):
Are you.

Speaker 10 (01:40:41):
Is abandoned the world that we really want to.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
Use here, Tony, how dare you? How dare you leave us?

Speaker 10 (01:40:49):
The love by half for you guys is like infinite
and indelible.

Speaker 4 (01:40:55):
I don't feel abandoned. I'm actually really happy for you.

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
This is It's great to see people from you know,
little backwoods sports market get opportunities like this. Philadelphia is
home of the worst fan base in America but still
a massive, massive sports market. How to come together?

Speaker 9 (01:41:14):
How?

Speaker 4 (01:41:15):
When when did this start being a thing?

Speaker 10 (01:41:19):
It actually started being a thing. I want to say
two years ago, so let's say twenty twenty five. So
about two and a half years ago, the company came
to me and said, we need you to cover the
Denver Nuggets playoff run because they're really good and we

(01:41:43):
don't have anybody to cover them. I said, sure, no problem.
And then they came to me and they said, we
need you to do and block every Denver Nuggets fan
that you you blocked during that Shaquille O'Neill, Nikola Jokic
argument that you had six months. So I ended up
on blocking like four to five hundred Denver Nuggets fans

(01:42:05):
on Twitter, and then you know, I covered, I covered
you know, what turned out to be a championship run.
And then that summer they came to the bosses came
to me and they said, how do you feel about Philadelphia?
And I said, I really loved Utah. And they said, well,

(01:42:28):
let's see how this works. Why don't you cover you know, Philly.
I mean, why don't you cover Denver and you cover
Utah and you cover basically the Mountain West region, and
let's see.

Speaker 8 (01:42:40):
How that works.

Speaker 10 (01:42:41):
So the year went by, and then at the end
of that year, this was I believe twenty twenty four,
they said, okay, how yeah, you know, we kind of
need you in Philadelphia. You know, that's a really big market.

(01:43:01):
It's like our top five market in the country, and
we don't have anybody there and it's a glaring hole
for us. And I said, I really love Utah, so
give me a year. Let's, you know, see how it goes.
And this was the previous summer. So that's why you
saw me covering last year the Utah Jazz, the Denver Nuggets,

(01:43:25):
and the Philadelphia seventy six is because they said, okay,
let's just see how it works trying to cover all three.
So I did all of that. I covered that year,
and then at the end of the year they said, yeah,
we really need you in Philadelphia and I said, I
really love Utah and they said, okay, let's see how

(01:43:47):
the lottery goes. If the Jazz get Cooper flag, we'll
keep you in Utah. So the lottery came and so
I was like every Jazz fan. During the lottery, I
was like, Cooper, Cooper, Cooper, and it didn't happen, and
I threw something at my television because I knew that

(01:44:09):
was it. The next day they called. They were like, yeah,
you're going to Philly, buddy, and that was that was it.
And I said, yeah, I still I'll go. And they
were like, yeah, here's a contract extension and here's a raise.
I was like, okay, there you go. That's that's how
and that's honestly pretty much.

Speaker 1 (01:44:32):
You know.

Speaker 10 (01:44:32):
I had some writers embellishment there, but that's about ninety
percent of how it happened.

Speaker 5 (01:44:37):
So here we are.

Speaker 3 (01:44:38):
So because of the the NBA's pernicious and manipulative draft
lottery practices, we lost. We lost out not only on
Cooper but also on Tony Jones, I have grievances to
air with Adam Silver and company. I know that that
is pretty true.

Speaker 10 (01:44:55):
Like I actually the funny thing was, like I told
the Jazz, like I told the front office, I said,
you guys, don't get Cooper flag, I gotta go. I'm leaving.
And they were like, oh, we we don't want Cooper flag.
Now now I'm saying, they're like, yeah, you know, so
you know, we hope we get Cooper flag. And you know,
I was like, I hope you get Cooper flag too,

(01:45:15):
Like there was there was actually a small chance of
you guys had gotten Dylan Harper as well as if
the Jazz had gotten Deling Harper, it might have worked out.
But with Cooper had worked out. But once once the
fifth pick, that fifth pick came in, I was like,
I might as well stood. I told my wife. I
was like, we might as well start packing our bags.

Speaker 3 (01:45:34):
We out, well, uh, we wish you all the best
in Philly obviously, but let's talk about this upcoming NBA season.
Is now, you know, the teams are in camps and
everyone's figuring out what the power structure is actually going
to look like. The we'll start with the Cooper Flag thing,
because you know, I somewhat tongue in cheek but also

(01:45:57):
kind of not I was among those loudest yelling like,
oh the corruption and this is this was a compensation
for trading Luca and the Lakers. And more importantly, is
Cooper Flag immediately going to change the Stars for a
Dallas Mavericks organization. The expectation was he would do that
for the Jazz. He's I think, in a better spot

(01:46:19):
with the MAVs.

Speaker 10 (01:46:19):
But you tell me, Cooper Flag affects winning an awful lot.
I'll just put it that way. And He's he's just
a really great basketball player and almost every facet, you know,

(01:46:40):
I'll be shocked if if he's not a really really
good player in this league. He's you know, he can defend,
he you know, he's he has everything you look for
in terms of the versatility of a wing. He can
play you know, three or four positions on each side
of the floor.

Speaker 9 (01:47:00):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:47:00):
He's been insanely and I mean an insanely competitive, uh person,
competitive basketball player. He's a dog out there. I mean
he's he's he's a ridiculously good player and a ridiculous competitor,
and you know, unlike you know what would have been

(01:47:21):
the case, you know with some of the teams that
that you know he could have gotten drafted by. I
mean he's going to a team with with some ready
made stars. I mean Anthony Davis is you know, one
of the one of the brightest stars in in in
the league. You know, Kyrie Irving when he comes back,
you know, veteran presence of Klay Thompson. I mean, there's

(01:47:43):
just he he can go in there and he can
blend and he can contribute to Rent winning right away,
rather than you know, having to come to Utah or
Charlotte or Washington or you know any number of teams
and having to to to stay and out as a
star star level player right away. So you know, he

(01:48:05):
he's a guy that I think has a chance to
be a ridiculously good player in this league.

Speaker 3 (01:48:13):
Are they a playoff team because they have them?

Speaker 10 (01:48:16):
I think they are.

Speaker 5 (01:48:17):
I think they are.

Speaker 10 (01:48:18):
I mean I think, as with anything, health is going
to play a major part, and especially with with Dallas
and ironically, you know, I cover a team now that
you know health is going to play. You know, seventy
to eighty percent of a part of what the Sixers
are going to be. But you know, if you know

(01:48:40):
Anthony Davis, let's say, if he can play sixty five
to seventy games, If Derek Lively can play sixty five games.
You know, if Kyrie Irving can come back, you know
reasonably soon, you know, possibly by January or February. There's
a lot of ifs, but you know, if it all
comes together for them, their first sure to me a playoff.

Speaker 3 (01:49:03):
Team before we move on to the relevant teams in
the NBA. How should we be covering and talking about
a Utah Jazz team that with new management has said
we're not going to tank. But they are going to tank.
They're just doing it in a more dignified way by

(01:49:24):
not having enough veteran players on the team to actually win.
So I mean, how do you cover a team like this?
You don't have to do it anymore? How should we?

Speaker 10 (01:49:36):
I will look at it two ways? And you know
this is you know, from kind of insider's knowledge knowledge
a little bit. Yes, the Utah Jazz want to be
the worst team in the NBA this year. There's there's
no two ways about it. Now, They're going to go
out and play hard, but like you said, they have
structured their team in a way to where it's going

(01:50:00):
to be really difficult for them to win games, especially
in the Western Conference. If they're in the Eastern Conference,
I think that you know, there's a chance they could
win thirty or thirty five games, but in the West
it's going to be twenty to twenty five because the
West this year is just really insanely competitive. But I
think the good news is I think that the focus

(01:50:24):
in the one to win is going to shift at
the at the end of this year. I think that,
you know, the Jazz want to The main thing with
the Jazz is they owe their pick unprotected, I mean
not unprotected top eight, protected to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
So they can't give that pick away, which is why

(01:50:46):
you are seeing the roster structured in the way that
that it is like they have to keep they have
to keep that pick. And if they keep that pick
and they can get into the top three and they
can draft one of Darren Peterson or aj Debaansa or
Cameron Boozer, then they're going to be in a position

(01:51:07):
to where they can they can shift their focus. You know,
as soon as this coming summer and shift to trying
trying to win games. So, you know, let's say to
get one of those three. Let's let's just say for
argument's sake, they get they come away with the number
two pickures of the draft, and they pick aj Debanca,

(01:51:28):
so you will have you know, let's say to keep
Walker Kessler. Let's say they don't trade with Lowry Marketing.
Then all of a sudden, you have a team that
you know, if you go out and you go and
you get a professional point guard who can run an
NBA offense, and you get some veterans who can really

(01:51:48):
contribute to winning. You know, you all of a sudden
have a corps of Aja de Banca, uh a second
year Ace Bailey. You have Walker Kessler, and you have
Lowry Marketing. Let's say you have said point guard, you know,
and then you know, you can start to see the
makings or something, and you could start to see the
makings of a team that's trying to uh to be competitive.

(01:52:11):
So you know, I think, you know, if you're a
Jazz fan, you just got to look at it like this.
You know, this year is going to be painful for sure,
but you know, if things go right or wrong enough
this year, the pain doesn't have to last forever.

Speaker 3 (01:52:32):
I will I will lean into that optimism and appreciate
you for sharing it because it didn't work out last
time when you tanked, and I don't know why we
would think that it will this time, but I will, well.

Speaker 10 (01:52:44):
The tanking last year was shameless. I mean, you know,
you're sending people all over the place and this and that,
like they're not going to do that part this year,
like Lowry Marketing is not going to sit for three
quarters of the year, you know, while you know faking
you know, a back injury or something like that. That's
not going to happen, you know. So you know, I

(01:53:06):
think the Jazz, if you gave them truth serum, they
will tell you that they want to be the most
fun and competitive twenty win team in NBA history and
then go out and I'll tell you like this, I
know the U y U fans and you know a
lot of people love a Javans. The best player in

(01:53:27):
this draft is Darren Peterson. He's the closest thing that
I have seen to a young Kobe Bryant, and I
think that that's the guy that if if, if, if
the Jazz were too able to get him. He's the
guy that's capable of stepping in right away instantly and

(01:53:47):
actually playing winning basketball in an NBA At the NBA level,
Cooper Flag is a guy that can play winning basketball
at the NBA level. There's a difference between coming in
as a rookie and being able to average fifteen to
twenty points per game and actually contributing to winning. Those
are two different things. Cooper Flag can contribute to winning

(01:54:09):
at the NBA level and Darren Peterson can do the same.

Speaker 3 (01:54:15):
How much does it matter if Okay so Aj DEBANTSA.
What we know of him so far is that he
seems to like Utah. He seems to like the state
of Utah just fine. He seems to be willing to
extend his relationship with the state despite any possibility of
going anywhere he wanted to by committing to BYU, and
obviously BYU and this Utah Jazz organization are they're they're

(01:54:40):
tied together now, I think semi permanently.

Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:54:46):
If you're if there's a significant gap between Peterson or
Boozer or whoever and DEBANSA, I think that you got
to go with the guy who's obviously on paper a
lot better. But how much should a team like the
Utah Jazz care about Well, this guy, we know him,
we have a relationship with him, he has a relationship

(01:55:06):
with this state. We think that, you know, he's almost
as good or just as good in the right circumstance.
I mean, Utah Jazz have been stung now with their
last three star players not wanting to make a whole
career here necessarily. And if AJ DEBANTSA has shown us well,
I like Utah, why not lean into that if you're

(01:55:30):
if you have an opportunity to draft someone.

Speaker 10 (01:55:32):
Like that, it's a fascinating question. And you know, I
think part of the answer with Aj specifically is that
you look at him and he's definitively one of the
best three players in this draft, like no question. And
if I had to make a comparison, I compare him

(01:55:52):
to a young Tracy McGrady. You know, he's you know,
a six foot eight, six foot nine, you know wing
that that can kind of do everything on both ends.
I think the difference between him and Darren Peterson is
I think that, you know, Darren's attention to detail for
the minute things that concern basketball is a little bit

(01:56:16):
more advanced than AJ's.

Speaker 5 (01:56:18):
At this point.

Speaker 10 (01:56:19):
I also think that, you know, Darren Peterson can actually
run point guard at for an NBA offense right now,
which is what the Jazz really need because right now
they don't have good point guard play, you know, So
I think that that that works. But you can throw
AJ and Darren and and Cameron Boozer and even somebody

(01:56:43):
like my Michael Brown, who's who's a six or five
point guard that's gonna play in movies though?

Speaker 5 (01:56:48):
This year, you can throw.

Speaker 10 (01:56:49):
Those four guys, maybe even Nata Mint from Tennessee, and
you can throw those guys into a hat, and it's
hard to go wrong with any of those guys because
those guys are so talent tick, you know. So it
comes down to the margins, right like it'll come down to,
you know, how those guys play this year, how those
guys play in the NCAA tournament, should they make it,

(01:57:10):
How those guys play, you know, how those guys tested
to combine, how those guys interviewed the combine, how those
guys work out with with specific teams, and who falls
in love like for instance, you know, VJ. Edgecombe went
into the draft cycle last year you know, kind of

(01:57:31):
in a hat for that three four five spot with
with with with with Ace Bailey, uh with with a
Billy in Indylan Harper. Uh. He once the interviews started
and you know, the team started looking under the hood,
he became the no doubt number three pick behind Cooper

(01:57:55):
flag In Dela Harper because of how well he interviewed.
I had team executive tell me like a team executive
told me. He said, I'm not sure whether vja Incomb
is gonna be good or not, but I'm willing to
bet on Vija Edgecomb the person, uh to to elevate
Vja Edgcomb the player, whether he's gonna be good or not.

(01:58:17):
So you know, some of that stuff, you know, on
the margins is gonna determine, you know, who goes in
what order. But if you throw aj Debanza, Darren Peterson
and cameraon bruiser and square hat and you just kind
of mix it up, you're gonna get a guy that
has an all NBA upside, all start upside, maybe even

(01:58:39):
Hall of Fame upside coming into the league, uh right away.
So it's it's gonna depend on on the margins. And
you know, for the jazz I think a lot is
gonna depend on you know what, what what that team needs,
what they need.

Speaker 3 (01:58:56):
What are they gonna do with Kevin Love.

Speaker 10 (01:59:01):
They're going to hope that somebody trades for him. And
one of the reasons why he's still here is because
nobody traded him. So, you know, Kevin doesn't want to retire.
The Jazz don't want to pay him to retire. So
you know, he's here, and you know, I'm not sure
that he's going to play a whole hack of a lot,

(01:59:23):
but I think that, you know, while he's here, they're
going to lean on him. They're going to lean on him, uh,
to be a presidence in the locker room, and you know,
we'll see, we'll see what happens on the floor. I
don't think that he's going to play a lot of minutes.
I think the Jazz are going to be, you know,
pretty committed to to playing the young guys up front,
specifically uh, Taylor Hendricks and and you know, they want

(01:59:48):
to see what they have in him. They want to
see what they have obviously and Kyle Filapowski, they think
they have something obviously really good in him. Uh. The
same thing with Walker Kessler. You know, same thing with
Ace Bailey at you know, at that two three spot.
The same thing with Cody Williams. I mean, there's just
it's you know, in some ways I don't envy will

(02:00:09):
Hardy in the front office because they have a lot
of guys this year that they have to collect a
lot of data on because you know, those guys from
that first draft year are starting to come up next year.
You know, they're gonna have to figure out whether they
want to pay Keyante George, They're going to figure out
they have to figure out whether they want to pay
Taylor Hendrickson, Bryce S and the ball They're going to

(02:00:31):
have to figure out, you know, what they're going to
end up eventually end up doing with Cody Williams. So
they have to figure out they have to to gather
some string and some data on a lot of guys
and figure out who they want to pay and kind
of who they want a jettison.

Speaker 3 (02:00:49):
Tody Jones for just a couple more minutes here on
the Sean O'Connell show. How many teams have a chance
to win this year's NBA Championship. Every year we get
into a professional season, even a college sports season, and
you can kind of narrow it down. The NBA, I
feel like that the scope is as narrow or even
more narrow than in any other league. How many teams

(02:01:11):
are real championship contenders heading into twenty five to twenty six.

Speaker 10 (02:01:15):
I would kind of disagree with that. I actually think
the scope is wide. I thought it was wide last year.
And you know, I would say in the Western Conference, obviously,
Oklahoma City can win it, Denver can win it, Houston
can win it. I think the Lakers can win it.
I mean, these are teams. These are teams that you

(02:01:35):
could say, Okay, if they hit one hundred of their
ceiling and things go right for them, they're capable of
winning a championship. And you know, I think that, you know,
team you could say that, you know, the scope is narrow.
But I mean, if if Tyreez Halliburton doesn't blow his

(02:01:56):
achilles in Game seven, I mean, you know, Indiana Mike
win the championship last year, and nobody going into last
year was like, yeah, the indyf Pacers can go and
win a championship. And there they were in Game seven
with a chance to win a championship. So you know,
I noted. You know, teams win win championships. But I mean,
you got to look at it like this, right, we

(02:02:18):
haven't had a repeat champion. I believe since twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen. That's the Golden State Warriors. So from twenty
eighteen on we have had a different champion every year.
So I think that the NBA is more parody driven
than ever. I think the Western Conference. In the Western Conference,

(02:02:40):
there are five or six teams, maybe even more than
that that that can actually win the Western Conference. I
think the scope is a little bit more narrow in
the Eastern Conference, just because you know, Halliburton probably doesn't
play this year, Jason Tatum probably doesn't play this year
for the Boston Celtics, and you know, I think, you know,

(02:03:05):
the Knicks have a chance to win it. I think
maybe the Orlando Magic have a chance to win it,
but I think they're too young and klo to win it.
So I do think that the scope is narrow in
the Eastern Conference, but I think that the scope is
wide open in the Western Conference.

Speaker 3 (02:03:21):
How are you feeling about your commanders right now?

Speaker 5 (02:03:25):
Jayden? Come back?

Speaker 10 (02:03:27):
But the beauty of this is this is great talking
to a football guy. Our defense sucks and Marshaun Lattimore
is washed and that is a real problem because he
can't run anymore, so receivers are just running past him.
But Jayden Daniels, You'll appreciate this because you know that

(02:03:51):
a good quarterback can make a defense look better because
a good quarterback like Jayden Daniels keeps your offense on
the field, and uh, it keeps your he keeps your
defense fresh, and you know, your defense eventually starts to
look kind of better than it is. That's what we
talk about when we talk about complimentary football. And you know,

(02:04:14):
Marcus Mariota is I believe he was one of the
better backups, maybe even one of the best backups in
the league. But you know, with actual average quarterback play, Uh,
the our defense was actually on the field for you know,
a regular a lot of time, a lot of amount
of time that a defense was on the field. And
when that happened, we just got ran. You know, Bijon

(02:04:37):
and Drake London was killing us and Michael Pennix was
killing us. This is a team that got shut out
by the Carolina Panthers the last week and and they
looked like the prime. They look like prime. Tom Brady
New England Patriots against US offensively yesterday. So that's my

(02:04:59):
little solilic to say, Jayden Daniels, please come back because
we need you.

Speaker 5 (02:05:03):
Brother.

Speaker 3 (02:05:05):
Last thing before I let you go, Tony, have you
found your Philadelphia runs yet? You know where you're playing
your pickup hoops?

Speaker 5 (02:05:12):
No?

Speaker 10 (02:05:13):
I try to go to an LA Fitness and everybody
there thought that they were going to the league.

Speaker 5 (02:05:20):
So that sucked.

Speaker 10 (02:05:22):
And the life Confidness that I'm at, they have a
group that plays. But guess what time this group plays.

Speaker 3 (02:05:33):
Is it earli or late?

Speaker 10 (02:05:34):
It's early? Just take a guess, like six, five thirty
in the morning.

Speaker 3 (02:05:39):
That's no.

Speaker 5 (02:05:40):
What No?

Speaker 10 (02:05:43):
And I said, what God lead you to? Like, why
would you guys play this early? And they're like, oh,
because we got to go to.

Speaker 8 (02:05:49):
Go to work.

Speaker 10 (02:05:49):
I was like, y'all don't have to be to work
at until nine.

Speaker 5 (02:05:53):
Y'all can play at seven.

Speaker 3 (02:05:55):
How long are they playing for? They got like three
hours of games all morning.

Speaker 10 (02:06:00):
Apparently they played for like an hour and a half
or two hours and then they and then they leave.
But that's that only takes you to like seven thirty.

Speaker 3 (02:06:07):
That's too much. No, thank you?

Speaker 10 (02:06:10):
Are you getting Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:06:11):
I'm gonna be ripping Utah when you're at those games,
because nobody's gonna think to some guy from Utah and
hoop out there.

Speaker 10 (02:06:18):
So at the Lifetime Fitness this guy was talking junk
to me, and and you know, I graduated from high
school in Philadelphia, so you know it's on my Twitter, bido.
I claimed Philadelphia as part of where I grew up.
I grew up in New York and I.

Speaker 5 (02:06:33):
Grew up in Philly.

Speaker 10 (02:06:34):
But this guy was like talking junk to me, and
so I hit the game winner and I looked at
him and I said, I'm from Utah. Yes on the
court was like, yo, you got cute by a dude
from Utah. Like the guy was like really upset, like

(02:06:55):
and you know, he started talking junk and I just
like got my stuff and left and it was great.

Speaker 3 (02:07:00):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (02:07:02):
Well appreciate you all the time.

Speaker 3 (02:07:05):
We're going to find every excuse to bring you back
on and uh, you know you're You've been a friend
for a long time. Can't tell you how much I
appreciate you. Thank you, Tony.

Speaker 5 (02:07:15):
I appreciate you, my guy. I appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (02:07:17):
Thank you so much, Tony Joness now he is on
the Philadelphia seventy six ers beat Long Time Jazz. And
then of course you heard the story covered the Nuggets
and they were they were trying to get him. It's
important for me to hear that when he says I
love Utah getting choked up there. No, well, yes, but

(02:07:40):
not because of Tony. I love Utah, right, Like, that's
a dude who grew up in New York, graduated high
school in Philadelphia Northeast.

Speaker 9 (02:07:52):
Guy.

Speaker 3 (02:07:52):
Man, he's got family in DC area.

Speaker 5 (02:07:55):
That's why.

Speaker 3 (02:07:56):
That's why he's got the DC I have fanned them too,
Like that's he's a big city black dude who loves
Salt Lake City. It loves Utah. And we we fight
this perception all the time that this is not a
place for people who grew up where Tony grew up,
people who look like Tony, people who are like Tony,

(02:08:17):
and it's absolutely untrue. Tony is and was a great
part of this community and he enjoyed this community. So
love me some Tony Jones for those reasons. Also, I
guarantee that there's some some church members out there in
the Pennsylvania Philadelphia area who have a key to the
church that probably have a run they're doing out there, right,

(02:08:41):
So let's get let's get in touch with the missionaries
and be like, yeah, okay, I'll listen to one of
your lessons church ball in Pennsylvania. Just get me, just
get me into your runs, all right. Uh yeah, No,
we're gonna miss We're gonna miss Tony around here. But
as you said, we're gonna we're gonna get him on
anytime the Jazz are playing the Sixers, especially here in

(02:09:03):
salt Lake. Maybe even try to get him in studio
when when he's in salt Lake for those Sixers Jazz
games once a year and playoffs. Whatever, We'll we'll, we'll
find any excuse to get him on the show. And
uh yeah, I hope he has a great experience back
in back in Philly covering the sort of hometown team

(02:09:25):
for him there. All right, I gotta take a quick
break here, I asked Scott Mitchell this, I should ask
Tony Jones as well. At the end of his should
NFL games finish in a tie forty to forty Dallas
versus Green Bay? Last night? Nobody leaves satisfied. Chris Collinsworth

(02:09:48):
had a fun time though He's.

Speaker 1 (02:10:00):
You were listening to about Sean O'Connell show. It's your
source for the best huge football cover, which here's oc
from the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at
ninety two to one half m.

Speaker 7 (02:10:12):
Damp Pierre, Brins Bentley in motion.

Speaker 4 (02:10:14):
He's gonna run to that right hand side.

Speaker 7 (02:10:15):
Devin's got the vibe, cuts it inside to the goal
line into the endzon.

Speaker 5 (02:10:19):
He goes.

Speaker 7 (02:10:20):
That's a touchdown, A big boy run by quarterback Pevin
damp Pierre seven yards into.

Speaker 4 (02:10:26):
The Mountaineer endzone.

Speaker 3 (02:10:31):
Devin Dampier touchdown run from Saturday's win against West Virginia.
Utah Sports Radio Network gives us the sound Bill Riley
on the call once again. Opportunity for you r ESPN
seven hundred listeners to win five thousand dollars cash from
Orum Toyota Toyota October third BYU West Virginia. Find the

(02:10:53):
Orum Toyota vehicle by the ESPN seven hundred van scanned
QR code enter and Orum Toyota. You lead the way.

Speaker 4 (02:11:04):
Should professional sports end in a tie?

Speaker 5 (02:11:07):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:11:10):
Soccer, I don't care. It's part of your culture. In soccer,
they do it, they love it right in the NFL
games should not end in a tie. I know that
what they've done with the overtime rules is they don't
want to add double overtime. Triple overtime. College overtime is better. Okay,

(02:11:35):
it's way more fun. And even if you don't like
how they condense it down to those two point conversion
goal line situations, it's real football being played. I heard
a ton of people today saying, well, no, don't let
it in in a tie, just kick field goals. Nobody
wants field goals to decide games, especially a hotly contested

(02:11:59):
double overtime game where you've had every possible thing under
the sun unfold during the run of play. It's the
same argument that soccer fans and hockey fans make about
why shootouts determining the ultimate result in a game is
less than ideal because it's not run of play. It's

(02:12:20):
not actual soccer, it's not actual hockey that ends up
determining who the victor is. Well, if you just run
an entire do whatever, five minute quarters, five minute overtime period,
you've already said, well, the game could have ended, but
we don't want We want to make sure everyone gets
there their Participation Trophy. You want to make sure everyone

(02:12:43):
gets a chance to score, right NFL games, it used
to be the coin toss was just going to win
you because all you have to do is get into
a field goal range. And teams didn't like that, so
they said, no, no, no, no, it only ends if
they score a touchdown. If they score, if they only
score a field goal, that we get a possession, all right.

(02:13:04):
And then they've changed it even further to where doesn't
matter what happens in the opening drive, the other team
still gets a possession. I I kind of like the
way hockey does it. Oh see in the regular season.
You you've noticed, it's like they do three on three
kind of a different version of hockey in the regular season,

(02:13:24):
just to get it so that the game ends sooner, right. Yeah.
The only I have with that is that hockey overtime,
they still you have to take a damn twenty minute intermission. Yeah,
see that that's a problem. But the I do like
kind of the baseball thinks that they've come up with
something like that by putting the runner on second base

(02:13:46):
in the regular season. That's awful though, Like three three
v three on hockey is still close to real hockey, right,
because there are situations, very rare situations, but there are
situ in hockey where you can be playing three on three, yeah,
and it's or with or you know, positive numbers on
a breakaway, that sort of thing. So it still looks

(02:14:08):
like real hockey. The guy on second base, that's that's
not real baseball. And I don't think that I I
think that they should probably go back to sudden death
overtime in the regular season in football, and just because
you gotta have the in the postseason. It doesn't matter
how long the games go, right, just just go till
someone won the game. But in the regular season they

(02:14:31):
got to end quickly, even yeah, give them an overtime,
but it's got to end fairly quickly. And then just
don't have a clock, like what is this? They had
ti They've had ties forever in the NFL, even back
when it was sudden death like that OC and for
some reason they had a clock even though it was
sudden death, and they said, okay, after that fifteen it
was fifteen minutes for a long time, I think a

(02:14:53):
whole a full quarter rank oh after that, okay, we
the game's got to end. Why don't you just if
it's sudden death, why do you need a just have
someone score and win the game. The thing that I mean,
I really do prefer the college rules. The college rules
are the best. Yeah, if you don't, if you want
to avoid because what the NFL wants to do is

(02:15:13):
they want to avoid big collisions. Right, take away the
take away the overtime kickoff. You've already tried to eliminate
the kickoff for the most part. Take Away the overtime kickoff,
at the ball at the twenty five, like, don't even
do the twenty five, just say all right, two point conversion, okay,
two point like the like, Now what the college rules are?
From third overtime, triple overtime on? You just say, just

(02:15:36):
run the play and then try your defense out. They're
gonna run a play. It's if anything, it's more best
on best then you can get in any other overtime scenario,
certainly your best play. You're gonna say, all right, we're
gonna run our best play. Okay, cool, and look people
will counterpoint and say, well, then you're just gonna get

(02:15:56):
a bunch of tush pushes back and forth.

Speaker 4 (02:15:59):
Learn how to stop play.

Speaker 3 (02:16:00):
First of all if you don't like, what a great
opportunity to finally learn how to stop the toush push.
And guess what it's like, it's just out, it's just
at that edge of where that's guaranteed yardage for the
toush push. Anyway. Yeah, so you're probably not going to
get as much as that as you think your best
defensive play against their best offensive play. Oh, you both scored. Great,

(02:16:23):
Let's do it again. Let's do it again. Let's do
it again. And then what you have is effectively like
potentially six seven to eight short yardage plays where the
defense is trying to make the stop, where the offense
is trying to punch the ball in and ultimately at
the end of whatever, it is a resolution that actually
came from real football, from blocking, tackling, running, catching, passing.

(02:16:52):
Kickers are too finicky, and you know it would be
so disastrous to say, all right, which is the the
conversation of the day, thirty yard field goal, and then
you back it up five or ten yards. As you
go back and forth, you're just playing horse with kicks. No,

(02:17:12):
make it real football, just make up. And by the
way it works in college, how many epic amazing, incredible,
like seven overtime games that are just play after play
after play and real football, and yeah, the guys get tired,
But if the NFL is trying to eliminate injury risk

(02:17:32):
and they're trying to pretend they care about player safety,
those are as safe as plays as you can find
in actual run of play, short yardage scoring plays designed
for the red zone, for the end zone specifically. I
want it. I want them to change. I don't want

(02:17:53):
more ties. And there's only been eight ties in the
last eight seasons, so one per year, okay, if you're
averaging one per year year. It just felt like at
a Sunday Night football, all the storylines Cowboys Packers after
the Micah Parsons straight, it was the most anti climactic,
the most like unsatisfying resolution. Oh nobody wins when kind

(02:18:17):
of an unexpectedly really fun back and forth game. Because
I think everyone thought Cowboys are awful, the Bears, the Bears.
They didn't look very good against the Bears, and the
Bears have not been that good this season. The Packers
look are looked at as a super as a Super
Bowl favorite in the NFC. I think we all thought,

(02:18:40):
maybe all of us. We weren't. Cowboys fans thought Packers
are gonna win by a couple of scores, ends up
overtime game, the Cowboys up in the final minute of
the game. Like for that, for that unexpectedly great game
to end like that just was was pretty awful. Now,

(02:19:01):
how great would it have been if Jordan Love after
and the Packers after completely mismanaging the clock on that
last game, if he completes that pass in the back
of the end zone with one second left. Ohc but
we were, we were like inches away from that great
ending to this game. But anyway, and and up is

(02:19:23):
a tie. That's why I say the thing that people
don't they don't talk about as to why these are
the extra innings rules, these are the overtime rules, and
whatever sport is that leagues and teams and players do
not want this game to end up being something that
goes on for you know, X amount of more hours. Right,

(02:19:46):
That's why they changed the college football rules to two
point conversion plays back and forth after the third overtime,
because like we just played, we just played a regulation
three to four hour football game, and now we play
We're gonna play another couple hours until someone went until
someone's on top at the end of an overtime period
or at the bottom of an inning, someone's on top

(02:20:08):
in baseball, and that's where the twenty five yard line
and in was like, I mean, you're get that. That
could go on forever and it dates sometimes and yeah,
you could get you could get a couple of first
downs before the idea that you're just running scoring plays.
I mean, I wouldn't hate if there was a league
that that's all the damn league was. That's the football league,

(02:20:31):
the two point conversion league where it's just like a
ten yard field, give me your best plays. What's that?
It's almost as gimmicky as that. What's that league that
you and Big Buddha were telling me about where they're
just running at each other from the yards away?

Speaker 4 (02:20:44):
It's the rugby thing. Oh, run it, run it.

Speaker 3 (02:20:47):
Yeah, okay, it's just the Oklahoma drill basically, where you
just it's just two giant guys. One of them for
some reason, carries a rugby ball. You don't even need that,
and you can't juke. It's just like each other and
head on collisions boom. Yeah, but it's like that for football,

(02:21:08):
like that, if that is still allowed to be called rugby.
Then this two point conversion shootout thing is still football. Yeah,
I could. I could see myself wasting some time watching
that league, the two point conversion league, as it counts
for the outcome of a game. It is a good
resolution to a hotly contested game. Whe's just like, man,
we already did the kickoffs thing, we already did the

(02:21:30):
my drive responding to your drive thing.

Speaker 4 (02:21:32):
I don't need.

Speaker 3 (02:21:33):
I don't need more of that. I really don't. If
you want to make if you want to resolve over time,
you want to do it quickly, just do it with
two point conversion scoring. And if you if you're like,
oh no, that's not fine, make it from the five
yard line, make it from the seven yard line, maybe
first and goal from the ten, like even that you
get four downs to score.

Speaker 4 (02:21:51):
Yeah, even four downs is fine.

Speaker 3 (02:21:52):
Yeah. And that's why there's a lot of people and
I'm one of them. I didn't. I preferred the old
college rules because it just it was a lot I
felt like it was a lot more fun. But this
is even if you don't like that, you have to
take into consideration these games cannot go on, you know,

(02:22:14):
an hour longer after the after regulation ended in the
regular season. In the postseason, go crazy, like do play
play till the next day, till we if if that's
how long it takes to get to get a winner.
But in the regular season, we need quicker resolution to
these games that have already technically ended. And if we're

(02:22:37):
if we're not going to be satisfied with the tie,
which I'm I'm in that boat to then something like
a shootout, a football version of a shootout, which would
be these two point conversion alternating two point conversion plays
or even four downs from the ten, like that's that's
probably the only resolution, or like I said, going back

(02:22:58):
to sudden death and just don't have a clock and
like first one to score, let's go. But that that
could also take forever, which is why I mean it
took sometimes it took a full period before anyone scored,
which is why there are still ties in that era.
But uh, something something it has you have to keep
in mind. It has to be quick enough for the

(02:23:20):
players and coaches and the guy and the and the
league officials to be like this is worthwhile to do
and overtime that a actual winner comes out of this.
If it's not. If that's not the case, they're going
to keep ties because they because they want a quick resolution.
They feel like they need a quick resolution, and I
don't necessarily disagree with that in the regular season. All Right,

(02:23:43):
we've solved your problem, NFL. You're welcome on last break.
Do we have anything to give away today? James Peterson, Yeah,
bonus points. I was about to say nothing, but that
is not That is clearly not nothing. All right, you
can turn those in for something. Yeah, somewhere, some somewhere,
some point. So Sean O'connellshaw, and you tell No. One

(02:24:05):
Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred two one FM.

Speaker 1 (02:24:12):
You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one half.

Speaker 3 (02:24:20):
Am alright, eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
Today's trivia question is Utah football eight for eight in
the first half on third down.

Speaker 4 (02:24:32):
And then they kind of called off the dogs.

Speaker 3 (02:24:34):
You know, you sat a bunch of people, took the
foot off the gas pedal. What did you tough finish?
What was their third down conversion rate for the game
after that strong first half? Eight seven seven three five
to three zero seven hundred Sean O'Connell show wrapping up,
turning it over to the Drive with Spence Check its Spence,

(02:24:55):
how are you?

Speaker 4 (02:24:56):
I am good.

Speaker 11 (02:24:57):
I am trying to readjust to the the normal You
and I were just speaking because you often travel internationally
and I haven't in a number of years. Spent the
last week in London and doing my best to readjust
to a normal time frame.

Speaker 4 (02:25:12):
It's been quite challenging and problematic.

Speaker 11 (02:25:14):
You were giving me some tips and when I asked
you what the worst thing to do, you said, land
and take an AAP and that's exactly what I did,
and it didn't work out very well at all.

Speaker 3 (02:25:22):
Yeah, it's uh, I'm I'm headed to Dubai. Thankfully it
worked out. So we're going. You know these fights that
are happening, two world title fights coming up on Friday
night in Dubai. It's during the bye week, and then
we're this lady is mostly clear the rest of this
Utah football season, So bear with me, ladies and gentlemen.

(02:25:45):
We're gonna have some fill ins the rest of this week.
I appreciate everyone listening for the fill ins last week.
Make it through the bye. I'll be back ready to
go for the Arizona State Week, which is a huge
one for Utah football. But you're out there for your
dad's birthday party, right, Yeah, my old man turned seventy,
which my dad just did a couple of weeks.

Speaker 11 (02:26:04):
Yeah, and we surprised him, so it was kind of cool.
He was there for some meetings. He's on the board
of Burnley FC. It's a football club, as you know.
I actually did know that, did you really? JJ Watts?

Speaker 5 (02:26:14):
Somehow?

Speaker 4 (02:26:15):
JJ Watts one of the partners and he's at all
the board meetings. He's like actively involved.

Speaker 11 (02:26:20):
So he had board meetings and then we flew out
there and infiltrated the hotel room. Cool, and he came
back from the meetings and we popped out and said hey,
and he had no idea. We actually pulled it off.
That's really cool because I come from a family of talkers.
I know that probably shocks you, so no part of me.
And we have planned this for like six months. We've
had last week planned for like six months. I thought

(02:26:41):
my little sister was going to blow it so badly,
but we were able to pull out the surprise.

Speaker 4 (02:26:45):
Spent the week in London.

Speaker 11 (02:26:47):
Came back over the weekend in time to watch the
Utah game BYU game and then get everything in that
I needed to.

Speaker 4 (02:26:52):
For the weekend.

Speaker 11 (02:26:53):
But I'm still kind of like I got to get
my sea legs underneath me, man, because I landed Saturday night.
Then I had to get up, had to get up
on sunday'd play golf. Tournament finished second. You know, we
put it should have finished first. We finished second to
some cheaters. Again, right here we are. And so so
for future reference, next time I do this trip, I'm
supposed to land and work out immediately.

Speaker 4 (02:27:13):
Yeah, not take a four hour nap for though t.

Speaker 3 (02:27:15):
Work out as soon as you can, and over drink
the water so you have to pee all day.

Speaker 4 (02:27:20):
Okay, good tip, Yeah, good tip. I'll take that into
consideration because I was a zombie.

Speaker 3 (02:27:25):
By the way.

Speaker 4 (02:27:26):
You've been to London.

Speaker 3 (02:27:27):
Oh yeah, love London.

Speaker 4 (02:27:28):
Okay, tip number one.

Speaker 11 (02:27:30):
If you're going to London, understand that you do not
have the right of way as a pedestrian.

Speaker 4 (02:27:35):
That's all on the taxis.

Speaker 5 (02:27:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:27:38):
I got ran over.

Speaker 11 (02:27:39):
I nearly got ran over like seven times because I'm
approaching a crosswalk. I'm like, wait, here's a crosswalk. I'm
the pedestrian. I have the right of way. You very
much do not. The taxis don't give a rip. They
will just I'm surprised there's now more pedestrian deaths in London.

Speaker 3 (02:27:53):
They also you got to look right. We're so used
to looking left, right, left.

Speaker 4 (02:27:59):
Oh you gotta look seven different ways. You got it
because they're coming from the different direction, roundabouts and such.
It's disorientation.

Speaker 1 (02:28:06):
It is.

Speaker 3 (02:28:06):
Yeah, it is first world problems.

Speaker 11 (02:28:08):
But heard you today get right game for Utah where
you expected probably boxes checked, Maybe mistackles an issue.

Speaker 4 (02:28:16):
What are your thoughts?

Speaker 3 (02:28:17):
Yeah, I mean I think that's something that you're just
gonna keep fighting with because you didn't.

Speaker 4 (02:28:21):
You didn't practice it enough during camp.

Speaker 3 (02:28:24):
And there are some teams that are veteran enough and
just naturally good tacklers enough that you don't have to
practice it quite as much. This one is proving not
to be that way. So I think that's something you're
gonna have to worry about, probably past the bye week, because,
as we were talking about on the show, you can't
now say, all right, guys, strap up, we're doing this

(02:28:46):
because now you're worried about keeping everybody healthy so you
probably just that's just a necessary or unnecessary evil that
you have to engage in.

Speaker 4 (02:28:56):
Tackling in football. But it is exactly the game needed
to have.

Speaker 3 (02:29:01):
I don't think it's overly telling or overly impressive, but
anything other than that would have been alarming. If Utah
doesn't go out and dominate West Virginia, if you come
back with a twenty to fourteen victory, I'm probably starting
to chill my expectations. This puts me back to where
I was right before the Texas Tech game, where there's

(02:29:22):
everything to play for. And I know it's revisionist history
and it sounds like I'm being a Crimson apologist here,
but I mean, you needed one extra stop in that game,
You needed one play, and then it doesn't get off
the rails late against Texas Tech.

Speaker 4 (02:29:38):
So you're right there.

Speaker 3 (02:29:39):
Just there are some things that are concerning and the
injuries are starting to pile up again. So Utah football
played their get right game. Now you're in a bye week,
which is designed to be a get right week. You
got to do that, and we'll see what happens against
the best pass rushing team in the conference. When Arizona
State comes in and a lot of other things that

(02:30:00):
they can do well.

Speaker 11 (02:30:00):
Yeah, this is this is going to be a big
game coming up because Arizona State past two weeks, you know,
two big wins, they're right in the mix top twenty five.
But yeah, I think if your coach went all those
boxes checked and as you know better than anybody, a
litany of things that you can continue to work on,
which Kyle likes. Do you have before I say loose?
Do you have an understanding where we're at with injuries?

(02:30:22):
I know Jackson went down with an ankle, anything else
that you know about.

Speaker 3 (02:30:25):
I think that he's going to be back sooner than
Hunter Andrews, and he's going to be back sooner than
Nate Ritchie.

Speaker 4 (02:30:32):
And those are, in my opinion, the big impactful losses.
Sounds good.

Speaker 3 (02:30:36):
I think that those are the ones that you got
to worry about. And I think what we saw from
Devin was a game where they were like, hey, we're
not going to use that leg that's bothering you, so
use your arm.

Speaker 4 (02:30:49):
And he did it effectively, which is nice.

Speaker 3 (02:30:51):
Yeah, and they got him on ice early enough, a
couple a couple of weeks of rest for him, so
we'll see. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 4 (02:30:58):
Work out when you land.

Speaker 5 (02:31:00):
I will do that.

Speaker 3 (02:31:00):
Spence check its for the next three hours here on
ESPN seven hundred.

Speaker 4 (02:31:05):
Thanks for listening to the Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (02:31:07):
Bear with me, and big shout out to James and
to Scott and to Bryce and to Jordan and to
everyone on the fill in stuff. I don't make it
easy for people to work with me, but it's just
part of the deal. It's a Sean O'Connell show, ESPN
seven hundred ninety proud part of Utahs ESPN Radio Network.