Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 11-10-25 - ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM | Utah's #1 Sports Talk

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
Willis on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
b ESPN seven and ninety two one ant AM a
proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Happy Monday, Kylin again. Press conference underway, so we send
you right there.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Energy, a lot of physicality and uh the got the win.
Bye week was productive. We pretty much followed the same
exact format as we did in bye week number one,
so not much change there. We felt like that was
a pretty good, uh way to handle it, and so
we repeated it. No reason to change a bunch. We'll
be back on the field today in full pads, front

(00:49):
load of the week, just like we did again the
last by week, and taper down and be ready to
go play Baylor on Saturday. Baylor's a very talented football team,
I can tell you right now. They've got a lot
of good players, a lot of athleticism, length and there.
You know, they've had some good wins this year, some
tough losses, but they're a quality football team, there's no

(01:12):
doubt about it. Got to go to their place, should be.
You know, the last time we're there, it was scorching hot.
You know, it should be seventy degrees, which is no problem. Fact,
we might even get some rain, I guess, is what
I understand. So so we'll see how that shakes out.
But got to have a great week of preparation as always,
and this team's playing with a lot of confidence right now.

(01:33):
Our team and really have seemed to gain some moment
in the last couple of weeks, the last few weeks,
so questions got Justin's question here, how are you going
to implement more grown than the offensive game play this week? Yeah,
that's been a topic pretty much all season. The deep

(01:55):
balls in the chunk yardage. Just got to keep downing
them up. First of all, you know, we gotta call
them u enough of a percentage of them that hopefully
well connect on some but that is something that certainly
is you know, we're aware of, and and there's been
a a focal point to try to try to get
a few more shots in there. But you know, you
gotta do what you do best. Right now, we're running

(02:17):
the ball really well and so that's, uh, that's our
bread and butter at this point. And uh, but but again,
you know, sure would sure would help the offense to
uh get some some more chunk plays to uh not
have to have those twelve fourteen play drives uh to
get in the end zone, and then we'll text that
obviously pub the the favor of the big twelve. How
do you see the race for that number two spot

(02:39):
to get big play? Yeah, it could be could get
interesting here as we go along. We were not really
concerned with it. I mean we're concerned with it. We
don't focus on it. Uh, We're we're still in the
hunt mathematically, as you know, as as uh a couple
of teams are uh you know, got losses this past weekend.
But uh, you know, we just got to keep doing

(03:00):
our thing. We just know that we have to win
this week. I mean that's that's our bottom line. And
and if we uh are able to uh get a
win on Saturday, then we stay in the hunt and
we'll see what happens with everybody else.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
What have you seen from Sean Parker the the last
couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, first of all, we're giving him more opportunity, which
uh is a good thing. He's he's had more carries,
He's uh shown a lot of explosiveness. You talk about
explosive throws. You also need explosive runs, you know, that's
another way to get explosive, explosive plays, and so he's
given us uh several of those.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
He's a really good back and he is really starting
to hit as stride as I mentioned, UH. I think
it was after the press conference, uh of the game
set or after the game Saturday two Saturdays ago against
Cincinnati that he has really separated himself right now. As
as running back, one, he's the He's the guy that
that uh is our lead back and deservedly so.

Speaker 6 (03:50):
Kyle Baylor has the best passing offense in the Big Tel.
What is the big thing.

Speaker 7 (03:54):
That you guys need to focus on this week?

Speaker 6 (03:56):
You know, limit sort of Robinson and that and that.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, gotta try to make him uncomfortable if he just
sits back there, it has all day to throw and
can throw to those. They got three really productive receivers,
a really productive tight end catches everything. They also have
a really good back. He was a thousand yard back
last year and he's closing in on a thousand this year.
So they've got weapons around him and the offensive line
is playing efficiently. So yeah, he's a number one thrower

(04:20):
in the league as far as yards per game. I
believe he's number one in the league in total offense
per game. And he's got a good supporting cast. He
does not run as much as the quarterbacks that we
faced this year, but he likes to beat you from
the pocket with his arm, and so we've got to
find a way to not let him get comfortable back
there and just go through his progression. We've got to

(04:42):
speed things up, Kyle.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Obviously, with you guys going into the state of Texas,
I know you guys have expanded recruiting into the South
and at Oklahoma and just other places with the conference realignment.
Just kind of walk me through You've talked about it
a little in the past, just some of the negative
recruiting that comes with being in Utah with with you know,
kind of recruiting in different states now outside of your

(05:06):
normal footprint that you guys have. Has that become more
challenging given what what some of the stereotypes there are.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I wouldn't say more challenging. I would just say more
of the same. You know what we've dealt with for years. Uh,
you know, they say, oh, you get a little trip
to Utah, you're gonna you know, dirt roads and covered
wagons and each coach has six wives and all that stuff.
And so so yeah, we uh we have uh come
across this before.

Speaker 8 (05:29):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
And it's it's something that as part of recruiting, you
just gotta you know, say hey, come up here and
take a visit and see what you think, decide for
yourself and and uh, I don't know if we've ever
had a guy say no, I'm not coming because of
all the things I've heard about it.

Speaker 5 (05:42):
You.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
So, so it really doesn't have as much of an
impact as as I'm sure that people that are negative
recruiting would like it too, But but we have, we've
learned to deal with that through the years.

Speaker 7 (05:52):
To peggyback off of that bye week used to be
really big for recruiting Moss going out. Is that still
the case or how is that changed in the.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
Last few years?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Still the case. We do a good deal of recruiting
on the bye weeks. The NCAA has scaled back how
much you can be out. I think it's now forty
days forty total. So if you send seven coaches out
for one day, that's seven days. One coach goes out
for four days. That's four days, so forty total opportunities.
I think we only have a couple a few left

(06:21):
that we haven't utilized. And so yes, we do it,
but not as extensively as we happen in the past
because of the limitation.

Speaker 7 (06:30):
And then with the bye week, obviously rest was the
priority as you mentioned, But how much of last week
was about kind of resetting the mindset for this final
stretch of the season.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, a great deal and also focusing in on Baylor.
We had a great start on our game plan for
the next opponent. But yeah, we've had a discussion, you know,
team meetings and where we're sitting and and you know,
but again, all we can do is take care of
our part and that's that's job one, and that starts
with Baylor this week. But yeah, we feel like, you know,

(07:01):
we're seven and two. Everyone would like to be nine
and zero or not, but we're still in the hunt
and we're playing some good football right now. You know,
I think we've had a couple of good outings last
two outings.

Speaker 9 (07:12):
Yeah, a bit of a two part question.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Your defense has allowed to leave fourteen or some points
a game scoring, which is the lowest instance like nineteen
sixties or something like that.

Speaker 7 (07:24):
On top of that, your pass defense isn't been pretty
pretty solid this year.

Speaker 9 (07:27):
What does it counted to that?

Speaker 7 (07:28):
How does that really impact this team?

Speaker 9 (07:31):
In what you've been able to do well?

Speaker 3 (07:32):
We're playing well in the red zone, which keeps points
off the board. So that's a big part of why
we're only giving up fourteen fourteen point three or seven,
whatever the number is. And so that's a big deal.
You know. I think that the secondary has played really
well this season. As you mentioned, we're top two or
three in the league in past defense, and so that's

(07:53):
another big part of it is we're not allowing you
talk about us getting chunk plays. We're not allowing a
bunch of chunk plays, which helps us. But uh, you know,
coach Galli and his staff doing a great job schematically.
Uh we got a lot of good players on defense,
There's no no question about that. You know, all three
levels are are really uh solid, and so uh you know,

(08:14):
just if we we gotta keep it up for for
uh three more weeks, I guess uh. Uh Ryan Davis
is by far and away the number one receiver. He's
got twenty four four more Kansas than anyone else. I
do you expect defenses to try to take him away,
which would open up opportunities for other guys?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
And then do you think.

Speaker 7 (08:29):
Spost see more of Smith Snowting.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Than Lander Barton on offense? I haven't seen a lot
last years. Yeah, I think Lander played twenty something snaps
on on defense or offense. Rather, Snowden's has slowed down
with the emergence of Daniel Bray. He's doing a lot
of things that that Smith did or or was going
to do, And so Daniel has really allowed us to

(08:52):
let Smith focus more just on defense. No a Benny,
No a Benny. I did it again. Jackson Benny has, uh,
you know, showed up here and there on offense, and
he'll continue to show up a little bit down the
stretch here. But really, you know the answer to your
question is, yeah, you'll see Lander continue to get some
reps as a second tight end. You'll see Jackson Bennie

(09:14):
sprinkled in there, and you probably won't see much of
all of Smith. Do you better take away Ryan Davis?

Speaker 5 (09:22):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, you know if they have him by now, I mean,
you know, he's been catching ball since the first game,
and so you know, He certainly has got the attention
of opposing defenses, but but you know, they really haven't
seemed to make it a real concertive effort to bracken
him or completely take him away. So we'll see Coach
Horanda is a really good defensive guy, and we'll see

(09:44):
what they have in mind this week, Kyle.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
The first Tall Football playoff randings came out last week.

Speaker 9 (09:49):
Where you guys are number thirteen.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
Obviously there's been some movement and we'll find out more
on Tuesday.

Speaker 7 (09:54):
Yeah, where you guys are, you.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Know, given if you guys aren't able to make you know,
the Big twelve championship, and how competent are you at
a potential at large college football playoff bit? I know,
focus on Baylor, but just kind of walking through where
you're thinking.

Speaker 6 (10:07):
Is on that.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Our thinking is we're really focused on Baylor right now,
and we just know that we are. We don't have
any margin for er. We understand that, and so I
think it was a nice show of respect for our
program from the committee to h to rank us where
we were ranked. But but again, you know, we got
to take things one week at a time and and

(10:31):
that's exactly what we're doing. This week and not to
you know, not have a better answer for you, but
that's just how we're handling it.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
What would you say is the kind of defining characteristic
of this team so far?

Speaker 3 (10:43):
I would say great leadership. You know, we have tremendous
captains this year, or not that we haven't in the past,
but but fortunately they've all been able to stay healthy
and intact. That's a big part of it. And then
not just the captains, but the the upper classmen. Yeah,
because we had a couple of really disappointing games that
we had to bounce back from, and I credit the

(11:04):
leaders for for really making that happen. And practice is
as good as it's ever been here as far as
the energy and the and the focus and the juice
and so again that's probably the the.

Speaker 8 (11:16):
Number one.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Thing that has really driven this team and help us
get seven wins.

Speaker 6 (11:25):
Kind of building off of that the bye week last time,
you know, it was big for Devin to get healthy
and on while of the other guys. How is like
the help of Devin Smith and other guys that got
kind of banged up nessary.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
We feel good about them and you will find out
more today because they've had what one, two, three days
off and so hopefully they're in a you know, in
a pretty good place today. So we'll find out more today.
We won't tell anybody what they're doing. You get to
read the report wasn't coming on Wednesdays. Yeah, so yeah Wednesday.

Speaker 8 (11:54):
Do you like that report?

Speaker 3 (11:55):
By the way, is that something that's been a positive
for you?

Speaker 5 (11:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (11:58):
Good? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Okay, more more job one more or no more? I
guess we're done. Thank you everybody. Okay, does anybody cut
hair here?

Speaker 10 (12:09):
Anybody a rapid succinct Kyle Whittingham press conference here as
we get the Sean O'Connell shows started on a Monday.

Speaker 11 (12:23):
How about that? How about the little troll question at
the end for Kyle Whittingham. That guy, he's enjoying himself
right now. He's feeling loose in the job. You liking
that injury report has had a positive for you, guys.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
I also knew everyone in the room just just like, yeah.

Speaker 11 (12:39):
No, at this juncture, at this joint it was never
the case in Utah. Our our media, myself included, we
are excessively deferential to the programs, to the the coaches,
the owners, whatever, Like we're just that way This is

(13:00):
not a New York San Francisco, LA media market where
your media is gonna grill the coach on anything. But
especially with Kyle Whittingham being, you know, this elder statesman
who we think is probably heading into the sunset of
his career, no one's going to finally be like, you
know what, Coach, I really wish you would stop doing

(13:22):
that kind of thing. No one's gonna be confrontational. There's
no reason to be, by the way. I just I
thought it was funny.

Speaker 12 (13:27):
Maybe he was like, you know what, you guys liking
that thing? Anyone want to cut my hair?

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I need a haircut too.

Speaker 11 (13:33):
So if Kyle Whittingham got an answer on that, I
would like to hear what the answer was.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I wouldn't pass that along. Coach.

Speaker 5 (13:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
I if there's anyone who might in that moment, even
when even when witt is being tongue in cheek, who
might kind of be like, actually, no, I don't like
the way you handle it. I could see like Gordon Monson,
but he's not. He's not at the press conferences.

Speaker 11 (13:55):
He's retired effectively, but he's that that might be the
only one, and he's not even like you says, he's
not even really a big part of the sports media anymore,
and there's not going to be you know, nice you
to show up situation for Gordon again. Anyway, Happy Monday, everybody,
Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show. It was a very

(14:16):
interesting weekend in the world of college football. Is very
interesting weekend in the world of sports. As a Utah fan,
you were probably like tuning in with great interest to
that Texas Tech BYU game. That was the center stage
college game Day, you know, the big Newton kickoff time slot.

(14:36):
It was an early game, it was it was highly
featured and Texas Tech did to BYU what Texas Tech
has done to everyone else this year, with the exception
of Arizona State, and they make a pretty solid team
look bad, make a pretty solid team look like they
can't figure out what they're doing. And they made Bear Bachmeyer,
who I think is an excellent player, they made Bear

(14:59):
Bachmeyer look like he was a freshman quarterback. This was
a masterful defensive performance by Texas Tech against BYU. And
I don't think BYU was a fraud before. I don't
think BYU is a bad team. I think that Utah
should have beat BYU. I think that that is gonna
be one of those games like the loss, Well, the

(15:21):
last three losses are all games that Utah fans are
gonna scratch their heads and they're gonna regret, and they're
gonna cringe at and they're in some level is gonna
probably try to explain away.

Speaker 12 (15:31):
I think BYU is a.

Speaker 11 (15:32):
Good football team, and I just think Texas Tech and
their defense in particular, is a is any racer, it
is a problem. It is a game changer on the
level that we have not seen since Utah was playing
against Washington team that was headed for a national championship,

(15:53):
and that wasn't a defensive thing, but there was just
an offensive unit on that side of the on that
matchup where it kind of didn't matter if you were good,
they were gonna be better Texas Tech's defense right now.
And yes, some credit goes to Cody Campbell and the spending,
but the staff at Texas Tech has done, as I've

(16:15):
made the point before, They've done such a remarkable job
of maximizing the potential of the guys that they've gotten.
Ramelo Height was a journeyman. He was a highly recruited
guy who started off at USC and then he had
to go to Georgia Tech and he's bouncing around because
he can't really find the right spot.

Speaker 12 (16:34):
And he's a really good player for.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Texas Tech, but he's like the fifth best.

Speaker 12 (16:37):
Player on their defense.

Speaker 11 (16:40):
Their linebacker Jacob Rodriguez is probably going to win Defensive
Player of the Year in the Big Twelve Conference, and
if he doesn't, then it's gonna be David Bailey, who's
leading the nation in sacks right now, is way up there.
He might be leading in tackles for loss as well.
And the same point I just made about Romelo Height
is focused and amplified all that much more for David Bailey,

(17:01):
because David Bailey was a guy that playing admittedly for
a Stanford team where he was like the last holdover
of the bygone glory days of Stanford football where they
were still getting a bunch of like NFL caliber dudes
and they were having, you know, ten win seasons under
Jim Harbaugh. Then David Shaw, David Bailey is a guy

(17:25):
who is like that exceptional and rare gem of a
player not only great academically but also a monster football player.
And when there wasn't a bunch of guys around him
like him at Stanford, opposing offenses could just be like,
just we got a double team that guy every time,
we might even triple team because there's nobody else around

(17:47):
that you really have to be scared of. He wasn't
remarkably productive at Stanford kind of as a result, But
credit to every other coach and especially this Texas Tech
coaching staff that were like, yeah, yeah, but you surround
him with some other talent, you make him less of
a focus of opposing offenses, and watch what we're going

(18:08):
to be able to do with this guy. And David
Bailey has been a monster for this Texas Tech team.
And again, if he was on any other defense besides
byu Utah Texas Tech in this Big twelve conference, he'd
be like, far and away the best player on that team.
And because everyone else on that Texas Tech defense has

(18:30):
been so impressive. Yes he is one of the leaders,
Yes he is one of the stars, but it's a
debate whether or not he or Jacob Rodriguez are the
better player. That's a crazy, crazy, crazy thing that they've got.
I think, inarguably right now, the two best defensive players
in the entire Conference on one defense and because they

(18:52):
have that and the guys around them are also excellent,
Texas Tech demolished.

Speaker 12 (18:57):
BYU and BYU.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
I think it's going to be punished heavily when we
get the college Football playoff rankings to come out, because,
as we talked about last week and as we will
continue to talk about, the measurables, the metrics already didn't
love BYU and BYU needed to beat Texas Tech.

Speaker 12 (19:22):
And even if they had, people might.

Speaker 11 (19:24):
Have said, oh, well, the metrics their numbers, they probably
would have got like a three point win at best, right,
And then everyone will be like, yeah, but that's because
Texas Tech made mistakes.

Speaker 12 (19:31):
That's like they didn't dominate and they're decent.

Speaker 11 (19:35):
Like already, the the measuring tools we use in college
football to determine whether or not a team is truly excellent,
we're kind of sour ish on BYU and I think
that the committee is going to be like a freshman
quarterback looked like a freshman quarterback. Let's be honest, The

(19:57):
committee really really really watched this game closely, more closely
than any other performance for Texas Tech or for BYU.
It's a big twelve top ten matchup the highest ranked
two Big twelve teams squaring off in like a decade,
and one looked like they belong in the national Championship conversation,
and the other looked like all of their warts had

(20:20):
come back to haunt them.

Speaker 12 (20:21):
All of their.

Speaker 11 (20:24):
Vulnerabilities were put on display at one time, and that's unfortunate.
I think it has a lot to do with the
point you're at in the season right now. I think
it has a lot to do with the fact that
you know you're not as healthy as you would like
to be. But that's them's the breaks, right You didn't
get a pass for that at Utah last year or
the year before. You don't get a pass for that.

(20:44):
Now you don't. We'll see. And as a Utah fan,
you probably had some feeling of like, ah, yeah, see,
I knew these guys weren't as good as everyone was
talking down in provo. In regard to BYU, your rival,
you think there was a fair amount of hate watching.
I think there was a ton of hate watching. And

(21:06):
guess what, you needed them to win that game. You
wanted BYU to win that game. Because BYU wins that
game hands Texas Tech a second conference loss, it opens
up your path to a conference championship appearance a lot
more easily. Look, there's still a way, as you heard
Kyle Whittingham address in the press conference earlier, but it.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Is complicated, as convoluted. It is not going to be easy.

Speaker 11 (21:32):
And now instead of being a big Texas Tech fan,
excuse me, instead of being a big BYU fan and
swallowing that bile, now you have to root aggressively for TCU.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
And Cincinnati.

Speaker 11 (21:46):
After that, TCU, you want TCU to beat Cincinnati and
BYU and solve all your problems for you. TCU plays both.
If they can beat both of those teams, you get
rematch with Texas Tech.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I had some hope that TCU would give BYU a
good challenge, if not pull off the upset, but they
did not look very Iowa States still a good team now,
even though they've they've taken four more losses, three or
four more losses than a lot of people would have
thought they would at this point. By this point in

(22:21):
the year, they're still a good team. But I know
TCU did not. It did not feel like they're the
formidable opponent that Utah fans need them to be. As
they go down to Lovelle Edwards this weekend to try
to pull off a much needed upset for Utah's conference
title hopes.

Speaker 11 (22:41):
The resident BYU fan says, hey, hopefully BYU can get
kind of a bounce back performance. That has been one
of the things that is characteristic of this Utah team.

Speaker 12 (22:52):
It has been a pleasant thing.

Speaker 11 (22:54):
About observing a squad that you know has lost two
games you never wanted to see them lose. The bounce
back has been oppressive. The way that they've handled their
business following those losses. Utah has really really showed the
character and the culture of the team. And if you're BYU,
who has in so many ways become Utah football, especially defensively,

(23:17):
now you have to show a level of growth and
maturity that we don't for certain no exists yet in
that program. I think it's probably there because a lot
of your important players have experience. But you can't let
Texas Tech beat you twice with the old cliche, and

(23:38):
there's no reason that they should because this is not
the old days of a four team college football playoff.
BYU still has everything to play for and still controls
its own destiny in a way that Utah cannot yet
say it does. If BYU wins the rest of these games,
they get a Texas Tech rematch, which, to be honest,

(23:59):
they probably don't want at this given moment. They're probably
going to be watching film today and being just like,
oh my gosh, this is gross, and maybe that's why
they want it. I'm being a little unfair. That's probably
they probably want it more because of that. That was
far from the best representation of BYU football. But you
have to give credit to Texas Tech for what they've

(24:19):
done now to Utah and what they've done to BYU,
the two teams you probably watched most closely. I certainly
do here in this twenty twenty five season. They just
they are not to lean too heavily into my combat
sports background, but they are the type of fighter that

(24:40):
just pressures, pressures, pressures, pressures, and forces you to make
mistakes that you're not gonna make in other situations, whether
it's because of fatigue, whether it's because of in a
quarterback situation. They're showing you things that you are not
accustomed to seeing, and they're throwing it rapidly at you,
and they're giving you too much to process whatever it is.

(25:01):
They force errors man and their players execute, their players
do what they're supposed to do, and there's an attention
to detail in that defense especially that is really really
impressive to see. Watch if you're watching Texas Tech, watch
the second guy to the ball every time. He's always

(25:24):
trying to get the ball out always, and if it's
one of their better players, if it's Jacob Rodriguez, he
takes it to another level where he's not just trying
to get the ball out. If he's the second player,
if he's got anything other than an open field tackle
in front of him, he's always trying to get the
ball out. If he knows that there's somebody else, if

(25:46):
he kind of like over commits to punching the ball
out and falls off the tackle, he knows that his
guys are there, he's still doing it. And that's just
it's not something that should be easy to pull off
in a transfer portal era where a bunch of your
teammates are like, there's no way with the way they

(26:06):
reorganize their defensive roster that they have like this deep,
deep tie to one another, like they've been playing for
three four years together.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
But that's what it looks like. When you watch the film,
it's a really good team. And in the in the
teams that I know that there's a BYU fan or
two that's listing right now.

Speaker 12 (26:31):
That's gonna hate to hear me say.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
This, but Texas Tech has clearly established themselves as the
class of the conference. Right we were right after the
Utah game when we all were saying that OC that's
what that was. My takeaway is after they lost ASU,
it was like, well, maybe they're not quite as dominant,
and then they reasserted their dominance Saturday against BYU at

(26:53):
the exact right time to do that. And yeah, I
it was just we should feel validated when we say
after the especially that fourth quarter against Utah at Ricecycle
Stadium in September, where we're like, yeah, no one's beating them.
If you're power, if you're doing what Josh Pate does
in your power your power rating. Instead of ranking the
teams in the Big twelve Conference, you got to give credit.

Speaker 11 (27:18):
I don't know how fluky I mean, you got to
give credit ariors on a state for somehow pulling off
a victory over Texas Tech. It's it's inexplicable to me
that they were able to make that happen. I guess
they were just so re energized by the return of
Sam Levitt uh and maybe we didn't give him enough
credit for what he was able to do.

Speaker 12 (27:36):
But like, if you're doing the.

Speaker 11 (27:40):
Apologist kind of thing, and that's where we're at in
this college football season, I think you look at Texas Tech, yep, unequivocally,
they're the best team in the conference right now, and
then you try to figure out, Okay, well, who is
the best challenge for them in an upcoming conference championship game,
because let's be honest, Tech's going to be there.

Speaker 12 (28:00):
The answer to that question is.

Speaker 11 (28:01):
Utah looks like it's Utah, a healthy Utah was or
is the I think the best matchup for Texas Tech
and may not be enough.

Speaker 12 (28:11):
We don't know, but may not be enough.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, I'm not sure i'd pick Utah in that game
os they would definitely be.

Speaker 11 (28:17):
An underdog on a neutral site field that won't, by
the way, if it happens, be very neutral because it's
in Arlington, Texas, and so all of West Texas is
going to caravan across the state and end up at
Jerry World. But look, because we're playing this game of like, well, okay,
you got to kind of concede that Texas Tech is

(28:37):
the front runner. If your hope is that this conference
could be a two bid league or maybe somehow potentially
even a three bid league, what is the best foot
forward who can you put in that game against Texas
Tech to give it a shot. I mean, right now,
based on what we saw against BYU, it would be

(28:58):
Utah because BYU didn't match up well. And look, I
firmly disagree with the texts we got from sixteen twenty four,
who we always appreciate the input from. Can we please
just be honest with ourselves? Tech defense is very good,
but BYU is a fraudulent team. They got exposed badly
against Tech. This is what happens when a team barely

(29:19):
beats bad teams and goes against a very good team
and now the nation knows it. No, that's not no.
I disagree. BYU is not a bad team. BYU is
not a fraudulent team. BYU is a well coordinated, well coached,
well disciplined team that has had, yes, an occasional fortuitous

(29:43):
thing go their way and force some inexplicable errors from
the opposition. But they give up eighteen points a game.
They're not fraudulent. Is their offense that impressive? No, that's
what you would expect when it's being run by a
true freshman quarterback who, again, aside from the Texas Tech game,

(30:06):
has not made a lot of characteristic mistakes.

Speaker 12 (30:09):
They score thirty three points a game.

Speaker 11 (30:11):
And by the way, if you're saying they're a fraudulent
team who can only beat bad teams, you're lumping Utah
in to being a bad team, which we know Utah
is not Utah. I will hammer this point home for
the next three weeks.

Speaker 12 (30:25):
Okay. Utah is one of.

Speaker 11 (30:29):
Four teams in the country that is top ten in
scoring offense and top ten in scoring defense. What are
the most important statistics in all of football? How much
you score and how much you let your opponent score.

Speaker 12 (30:45):
That's it.

Speaker 11 (30:47):
You boil everything else down to get those numbers. All
of the passing offense and the rushing yardage and the
sacks and the turnover margin, it's all to achieve those
two things. Score points yourself, stop the opposition from scoring.
It's Utah, it's Indiana, it's Ohio State, it's Texas, A and.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
M and Oregon flirts with both.

Speaker 12 (31:16):
I think Oregon actually is in both. Utah is a
good team.

Speaker 11 (31:21):
You can't say BYU is only good at barely batting
barely beating bad teams, and that proves they're fraudulent. No,
BYU made the plays necessary when Utah did not.

Speaker 12 (31:33):
Down the stretch.

Speaker 11 (31:34):
BYU took advantage of what I think were some coaching
gaffes by the University of Utah, and they won that
game fair and square without any question marks about refereeing
and should that penalty have been called or not.

Speaker 12 (31:48):
They're not a fraudulent team. I know you wish they were.

Speaker 11 (31:50):
Now, look if they can't rally and beat TCU in Cincinnati,
let's have that conversation again and sixteen twenty four. You
can gloat if I'm wrong, but I just don't think
they're I don't think they're fraudulent by any stretch of
the imagination. I think that they are flawed, But there's
a vast gap between flawed and fraudulent in my world

(32:16):
of college foot.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Well, and how about how about Texas Tech is just
really legit from a national from a national championship conversation,
they are a legit contender. How about that?

Speaker 6 (32:26):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (32:26):
I think I left out.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
I think I left out the other team that's top
ten and scoring in top ten and defensive scoring, Yeah,
Texas Tech.

Speaker 11 (32:36):
Yeah, they're higher on both lists than Utah's. They score
more points than Utah does, they give up fewer points
than Utah does.

Speaker 12 (32:43):
Texas Tech is a really, really good team.

Speaker 11 (32:47):
And you can go back and by the way, when
we're talking about who else is in those categories you're
talking about, it's like I said, it's Indiana, it's actually
Ohio State's not even in that anymore. It's Oregon, it's
Texas Tech, it's Utah, And it's.

Speaker 12 (33:06):
Teams that are not.

Speaker 11 (33:09):
Teams that are not really uh in the conversation, because
they're a group of five teams that are able to
pull off some impressive numbers on both sides of the football.
To do this with the Power four team is truly
truly impressive. Texas Tech is right now third nationally in
scoring defense, behind only Ohio State in India. They are

(33:34):
fourth in scoring offense. By every metric, they are a
top five team in the country. So did BYU look
bad against them?

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (33:44):
Does that mean BYU's a fraud? Far from it?

Speaker 2 (33:47):
I mean, would we just would we think BYU is
a fraud if Ohio State blew them out the way
the way Texas Tech did. Absolutely not. That's the way
that we probably we need to be looking at this
Texas Tech team from here on out. You know, obviously,
barring injuries whatever, they are playing to that caliber. And

(34:10):
they're the only team in the Big twelve doing that.
So yeah, it does not mean that their opponent who
they blew out, are terrible. It means they're awesome. Small correction.
They're the only team besides Utah, okay twelve that is
doing that. But they're doing Utah is not in the
national championship conversation doing it at a better clip Texas

(34:31):
Tech might be. Is what is the point I'm making. Yeah,
we'll see.

Speaker 11 (34:36):
If Utah can find their way into the College Football Playoff,
then you might have to put them in that conversation.
But they gotta win, and they got to blow these
next three teams out for the committee to entertain at
least in that large opportunity. All Right, as I always
do on a Monday, I'm way over time. Here shows
brought to you today and every day by our friends
at Big Willies. Go check them out at seventeen seventeen,

(34:58):
South Maine. We're gonna come back with Ari Tempkin Big
twelve Radio on tune in Radio Big twelve today. He's
a Big twelve insider. He'll have some thoughts on Texas
Tech ESPN seven hundred ninety two ONEFM.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
That's me and Connor.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
You tune to the Sean O'Connell show for the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
half m A.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
John were welcome in Ari Tempkin on the Shawn O'Connell show.

Speaker 11 (35:35):
He joins us every Monday to digest the weekend of
Big twelve football. He's here again as BYU falls twenty
nine to seven against a now nine to one Texas
Tech Red Raider team that has firmly claimed the spot
of best in the Big twelve with only a couple
contests to go for those Red Raiders.

Speaker 12 (35:54):
Ari Tempkin, welcome to the show again. How are you?

Speaker 5 (35:57):
I'm great, OC, how are you?

Speaker 13 (35:58):
Buddy?

Speaker 12 (35:59):
All right?

Speaker 11 (36:01):
I want to talk about this game and obviously whatever
other action we can get to in the Big twelve conference.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders held what is usually a
pretty formiadle BYU rushing attack to only sixty seven yards
in the game, and that really is mostly the tail
of it for me. But the defense continues to be

(36:22):
incredibly dominant, and the proof of concept that you can
actually not only get guys from the transfer portal, but
you could coach them up, you can maximize them, you
can integrate them in a way that turns them into
like a real not only conference but maybe national championship contender.
I mean, it's impressive what's going on in Lubick.

Speaker 13 (36:40):
Yeah, it really is. And I mean I think you
had then Alma head the most. You know, the part
of this that was so glaring was, you know, even
though you knew with BYU it's been coming all year,
you just have been able to stop it. Their rushing
attack it's been so good. And to hold them to
just sixty seven yards rushing, and in turn, when they

(37:00):
are not able to run the football, Baron Bachmeyer looks
way more like a true freshman. It really speaks to
just how dominant that Texas Tech defense is. And you know,
it's so interesting because you've got two guys that have
been there and basically everybody else that's major contributors. You
are new players, but I mean Jacob Rodriguez and Baron
Morton two guys that have been at Tech. And I

(37:22):
think obviously Rodriguez what he's doing, I mean, this guy,
it should show you how good he was the last
few years because I mean, as you know, see, if
you're you know, if you're not playing as a linebacker
in front of a really good defensive line, suddenly you've
got to make up for all of that, and there's
a lot more traffic in front of you and it's
much harder to play the position. This year, we're getting

(37:42):
a good sense of just how good Jacob Rodriguez is
because he's got you know, clean opportunities. The defensive line
is opening up holes, you know, basically that he's able
to plug and and and I think it's just it's
working perfectly. And it's just a good example again of
a guy that was really good but probably never to
show the true, you know, truly how good he was

(38:03):
until you know, he finally had a defensive line that
complimented his ability as a linebacker. It's really impressive what
Rodriguez is doing. And yeah, I mean there's two teams
right now in college football that are trying to buck
a major trend, and one would be tex Attacked, the
other would be Indiana. Those are two teams that are not,
you know, part of that blue chip ratio that to
go back and historically, teams that have won national championships

(38:26):
in the modern recruiting era have had at least four
have had at least fifty percent of their roster before
five star cruits over a four year period, and teams
that played for the title would never want it. But
Indiana and tex Attack are two dominating teams right now
that could potentially buck that trend, which would be remarkable
feat considering it's never happened historically.

Speaker 11 (38:46):
When we take a look at not only the kind
of the power structure, but as we wait for a
college football playoff committee to now tell us what they
think of the result in this game, what it means
for the rest of the Big Twelve Conference. How do
you think the fallout plays itself out? There were a
lot of metrics that didn't like BYU already and they

(39:08):
got blown out on the national stage. I think they're
going to be punished heavily by the committee. Will that
ripple effect also hurt Utah who's the next highest ranked
Big twelve team, et cetera.

Speaker 13 (39:21):
I still think the Big twelve should have all three
teams ranked inside the top fifteen. You know, well, obviously
we'll see to your point what the committee does, but
I mean one loss is as one sided as it was.
It's just the first loss of the season for BYU,
and it's against a team that was obviously ranked in
the top ten. I mean when you look at it,
I mean, Ole Miss beat a you know, Citadel team,

(39:43):
and then the other team in front of Texasttack obviously
beyond BYU, like they should move up at least two,
maybe even three spots. And look, I mean you watch them.
They pass the eye test text Attack looks like a
top five team in the country. You can't find five
teams that are better than tax Attack right now on
both size the ball. And then yeah, I think with Utah,
like again, not a ton of movement in the top

(40:06):
twenty five. I think the biggest thing will be the
Big twelve continues to solidify itself as the third best
conference and probably a lot closer to the Big Ten
and than the SEC than how far away the ACC
is from the rest of the pack. I mean, the
ACC had five teams ranked in the top twenty five
in the first rankings. In the top two both lost

(40:26):
in Virginia and Louisville, just to show how poor the
overall conference is. So yeah, I mean, I think it's
twofold here. I think we'll wait and see this stuff
will tend to take care of itself. I'm very intrigued
by how the committee will look at Utah's loss to
BYU relative to what the full resume looks like. But again, ultimately,

(40:52):
the good news here is the conference. We were waiting
for this conference to be more top heavy and not
be sort of a lege of parody. It looks like
the SEC is a league hardy as much as the
ACC is. In the hierarchy of the SEC, Big ten,
and Big twelve, like those three conferences are so head
and shoulders above everybody else that it's almost embarrassing for

(41:14):
the rest of college football.

Speaker 12 (41:18):
How worried should we be about Baylor?

Speaker 5 (41:24):
Yeah, I mean that is.

Speaker 13 (41:27):
It's not a very good football team. Now, last week,
you know, both are coming up buys. Last week, I
thought Baylor, you know, I mean, defensively, we've never seen that,
at least not this year. This was one of the
things like I picked Baylor OC to win the Big
Twelve this year, and obviously I looked horribly wrong now.

(41:47):
And a big reason why I picked them was because, well,
they returned everybody from that really dominant offense, including that
really dominant running game. And you figured that with another
year with David Randa to fix some of the the
things on the defense, that this thing would have been fixed,
and he didn't. I mean, they came back and their
defense was just absolutely atrocious. Last year, their defense was

(42:08):
really susceptible to the big play and this year it's
big play, small play. It doesn't make a difference. Now,
with that being said, they showed out and the last
game against the UCF defensively held them to three points.
That was the UCF team that coming into the game
had looked pretty decent offensively and it really didn't matter
like Baylor, it didn't matter what type of an offense
they were going up against, just couldn't stop anything. So

(42:32):
you know, we have a pretty large stample hero I
see of Baylor's defense being very bad, and one game
where they looked kind of like we expected they might,
but I mean against the Utah offense that knows what
it wants to do. I think they're going to own
line of scrimmage. I think they'll be able to run
on Baylor. You know, like unless Baylor just figured out
something on defense that they employed against the UCF. You know,

(42:55):
at this point, it's basically one game versus a whole
season long stample of this defense as being very, very bad.
And that's that's sort of the key to what's ailed
Baylor this season. But they're most likely, I think, playing
up the last few games of Dave br Annis Tener
at Baylor in Waco, and big reason for that is
because of how bad their defense has been.

Speaker 11 (43:16):
I'm gonna ask you this question every week, probably until
the end of the season. But let's pretend that we
all hate what Texas Tech represents, and you do not
want these new money millionaires who moved into the neighborhood
with their yellow corvettes to have nice things. You don't
want them to win a conference championship. Who do you

(43:39):
want to see in the conference championship game opposite Texas
Tech that you think could possibly pull off the upset
and actually get them out of that number one spot.

Speaker 13 (43:50):
I mean, that's a great question because the two teams
that are right now are with Tech at the top
of the food chain of the Big twelve, have both
making their lumps against Texas Tech, and that's Utah and BYU.
I guess my answer today is Utah because having seen
both of these teams play against Texas Tech, I guess

(44:11):
I'd rather see Utah get a second crack at it, because,
after all, bar Bachbeyer did look like a true freshman
quarterback in this game on Saturday, which is something that
we haven't seen him look like all season long. And look,
I mean, maybe BYU has a better defense, but I mean,
as we know, these teams, Utah and BYU are very
very close. I mean, the game played out like that,

(44:32):
and we knew going in that those are two similar teams.
They play similar styles. Like the coaching staff, it's just
very you know, similar coaches or coaches that have been
you know, from the same tree. I mean, it's so
there's so many connections there that it just feels like
Utah with the more experienced quarterback, who, by the way,
last time we saw him probably had his best games

(44:53):
during the football that we've seen all year. So I'd
like to see Utah later in the season, having more
suc on offense at their quarterback, getting a second crack
at Texas Tech. But I think right now it's pretty
obvious that three teams at the top, you know, are
Texas Tack, Utah, and BYU. And even though Cincinnati's in
that conversation, and I don't want to completely count out Cincinnati,
you know, they'll get their crack at BYU in a

(45:15):
couple of weeks and we'll see. But obviously, in the
Cincinnati game against Utah, they did not look like one
of the upper echelon teams in this conference. They looked
more like, you know, a team that wasn't totally ready
for the type of you know, big body in girth
that Utah and BYU and Texas tex team to have
up front of both find the scrimmage. So yeah, I mean,
I think at this point the hierarchy is those three,

(45:36):
even though both Tech, even though both BYU and Utah
taking their Lumpston games against Tech this year, I'd like
to see Utah get another crack at it.

Speaker 11 (45:44):
So I think TCU has the biggest opportunity to be
disruptor of the top of the conference down this stretch.
Here because they've got a game against BYU, they got
a game against Cincinnati. Cincinnati and BYU still play against
one another. But you know, TCU is one of those
squads I think that can still kind of cause some problems. Yeah,

(46:05):
they've got they got BYU, Houston and Cincinnati, all of
whom are in the top end of the conference standings
right now. Can TCU go on some kind of run
here against tough competition at the end and really make
it interesting to get to see what happens with these
conference standings, Well.

Speaker 13 (46:23):
Number one I think is totally right, just based on opportunity.
You know, TCU has the opportunity to really you know,
have a firm saying in how this thing plays out.
But TCU, they're kind of a enigma. Like you know,
Iowa State had been hemorrhaging yards on defense and just
looked atrocious, you know, last four games. I mean, their

(46:44):
numbers were start compared to what they had started the
season at.

Speaker 5 (46:48):
Five to zero.

Speaker 13 (46:49):
And tc was in complete control of that football game
against Siwa State until they weren't. Iowa State that had
a long drive they score and then as TCU is
trying to rap the clock, Yeah, get they get a
twenty eight air carry and the balls put on the
turf and suddenly now iows take gets the ball back
going ahead. It was just a miraculous comeback for Iowa State,

(47:11):
and I think speaks to the issues that TC was
dealing with. The Josh Houper that started this season is
a little bit different than the Josh Houber we've seen
last four or five weeks. He just has not been
very effective. He's not been very good. I mean, he
was one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Twelve.
It's almost as if the game he had against Arizona State,
and I keep going back to this, but the announcers
on there in the broadcast kept talking about how underrated

(47:33):
Josh Huber is and it was almost like Sam Levit
could hear him because Levitt in the second half just
absolutely completely outdueled Hoover. And he just hasn't been the
same since. I mean, Hoover was an elite pastor in
this league, and I mean against Iowa State, who has
not had a lot of su I mean even Caden
Salter dominated the Iowa State's secondary earlier this season. With
the injuries they've had, so it's just sort of surprising,

(47:57):
So like, yeah, I think you're right in terms of opportunity.
I know the day of the players right now to
do it, and and it starts with Josh Hooper. I'll
tell you the other team, And I don't have their
schedule in front of me, so you know this better
than me. But just from like how they're playing standpoint
Arizona State, I mean, it's it's pretty remarkable what they've
done this year considering the injuries, and then of course
the one loss that Texas Tech has is at the

(48:18):
time when Sam Levitt and Jordan Tyson were both healthy
and playing, and of course you know Baron Morton was
not so like.

Speaker 5 (48:24):
But they go out and they win with Jeff.

Speaker 13 (48:26):
Sims a couple of weeks ago. So again, I don't
have their schedule in front of me. I don't don't
think the opportunity is there as much as it is
for TCU. But Arizona State is another team that could
play spoiler just because there's the defending champs. There's so
much completely out of it yet with two conference losses
and it's just like the heart of a champion stuff. Man, Like,
they they're not they do not go down easily.

Speaker 11 (48:44):
I actually I'm with you. I wish that Arizona State
was playing someone schedule of import, you know what I mean. Yeah,
they got West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona to finish out, so
so yeah, I mean, they can't help They can help themselves,
but nobody else.

Speaker 13 (48:59):
If they flipped tease Use, if they had TCU schedule,
I can see them being spoiler in a major way.
But tc right now just seems like kind of a mess.
And I don't know that Tonny Dyke is on the
hot seat. I don't know that he should be. But
this is a very disappointing season for TCU. And look,
they still were firmly in position here. If they get
a win on Saturday, there's seven and two the two
conference losses, like they would have still been there. But
now they're six and three. They're looking up at the

(49:20):
standings and you know, and again it's this quarterback play
that's just been really really struggling. It's been it's been
really really tough to figure out what's wrong with them.

Speaker 11 (49:28):
I haven't been able to figure out Houston. They lost
to West Virginia. That makes no sense. But they've only
got two games left and it's TCU and Baylor. And
look they're again in this log jam of teams that
have two conference losses. Right now, they're eight and two overall.
How should we think about Houston?

Speaker 13 (49:47):
Yeah, I mean an impressive win on Friday night. You know,
i'llbe it against a a you know, not a great
UCF team, But I mean they've turned the ball over
four times. Connor Wegman was not very good throwing the football,
and they were able to grind out the win because
of their defense, scoring points, creating opportunities, and their running game.
I mean they ran for over two hundred yards in

(50:08):
that game. So even though Legman was not throwing the
ball particularly well, you know, they still had chances because
of their ground game and that was a big part
of Legman. But you know, I think the West Virginia
lost at home. It's one of those where it's like,
you know, show me you're not a real contender. Like
they've had a great season. They're at eight wins. Considering
this the first year where Houston is going to be

(50:29):
Bowl eligible since win the Big Twelve, I think they've
taken a major step. Love Willie Fritz and I think
he's proving how good of a coach he is this year.
But yeah, they're clearly in that second tier of the
Big twelve because they you know, the slip up to
West Virginia is one thing. It's at home, and it
just it just felt like it was one of those
like welcome to the big time moments, like, yeah, you

(50:49):
can't overlook anybody in your schedule. And that's like the
maddening the madness.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
Of November, man.

Speaker 13 (50:55):
I mean, like the calendar turns in November, suddenly the
pressure ramps up. You know, you've got teams that are
feeling that pressure, especially when the College ball playoff rankings
come out. It's like that class when that calendar turns
a no vemm man, crazy things happen. And you know,
look this week in the top twenty five, there wasn't
a ton of craziness, but I look for some real
crazy shake ups these next few weeks. And this is

(51:16):
where like you look at the schedule for this week
in the Big twelve, oh see, and it's it's one
of those things where it's like, all right, there's no fireworks.
What you know, everybody's got to be a little bit
more worried about what they're doing because these are the
types of weeks where crazy things happen and they completely
dictate the outcome of the college ball playoff races. Like
they it feels like right now so much is up
in the air, and if teams take care of business,

(51:37):
they control their own destiny, and the Big Twelve should
get to maybe even three bids. The crazy things happen
this time of year, and you look at that schedule,
no big matchup that stands out in a big way,
but who knows, there might be some fireworks this weekend.

Speaker 12 (51:50):
Are you the man? I always love catching up with you.
Thanks for your time, sir, Take care e.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
See Ari Teenken Big Twelve today on tune In Radio
covers this common friends very closely and look TCU, I.

Speaker 11 (52:06):
I want to believe, but I can't believe. Okay, BYU
Houston Cincinnati. TCU could effectively clear the way single handedly
for Utah to get into the conference championship game. If
they went on a run, then you'd be like, Okay,
here we are. They could hand BYU a second conference loss.

(52:26):
They could hand Cincinnati a second conference loss. They could
create the multiple team tie scenario that suddenly starts to
favor Utah because of tie breakers and because of the
metrics that end up being used in the opposition strength
to scal like the strength of win strength of losses
type thing. But TCU has not yet beat a good team.

(52:49):
They've got a decent record. They're six and three on
the year. Their losses have come to Arizona State, Kansas State,
Iowa State wins over Colorado Baylor, and narrow win on
the road against West Virginia. I just can't be convinced. Unfortunately,

(53:12):
lots left to get to here on the Shan o'connall Show,
including important news for a former player here in the
state of Utah. He's now without a head coach. Sean
O'Connell show on ESPN seven.

Speaker 14 (53:24):
Ye you were listening to a Sean O'Connell show from
a Murdoch Hyundai studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two.

Speaker 5 (53:37):
One half am.

Speaker 11 (53:53):
All right, we love our local players in the NFL, right,
whether you watched him in college, whether they played for
the rival school, whatever.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
I think.

Speaker 11 (54:02):
If you had a high school kid, elementary, middle high
school kid from Utah, right, you root for that guy
when he's in the NFL, regardless of where he went
to college. Jackson Dart of course, ended up going from
from a USC to Ole Miss, and then he ended
up in the NFL with a team that I just

(54:23):
cannot suffer. I cannot stand the Giants, but I want
to see him be successful. Yesterday was a rough day
for Jackson Dart. He got evaluated for a concussion. It
was determined that he has a concussion. By the way,
that is the fourth time this season that he has
been evaluated for concussion. That's not a good trend. Don't

(54:47):
want to see that trend continue. But hopefully this works
out for him. Hopefully. When I say he had a
rough day yesterday, I mean getting injured and having your
team fumble away a game that was well handy. That's
now what the fourth game the Giants have lost after
leading by ten points, just ridiculous. Hopefully the news we

(55:10):
get today will end up being something that ends up
as a net positive for Jackson Dart because Brian day
Bole is fired. In twenty twenty was it twenty one
or twenty two, James that he was the coach of
the Year in the NFL and now he's fired, he's out.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Might have been might've even been twenty three, like it was.
Wasn't it the year that they upset the Vikings in
the first round? Anyway, they either twenty two or twenty three.
I think he won the Yeah, twenty twenty two NFL
Coach of the Year. The game, Yeah, the playoffs. The
playoff game was in twenty two. Ok So it was
the twenty twenty two season. Yeah, that doesn't feel that

(55:49):
long ago, right, But he is Daniel Jones looked like
a fraud that very next season and now he now
he's gone to a better situation and looks and looks
awesome again.

Speaker 11 (56:03):
I actually would love to know from an owner and
GM standpoint, if that is besides losing games, because you know,
losing games is the metric that kills you worst.

Speaker 12 (56:14):
If that is like the real kiss of death.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
It's gotta be for Brian day Ball, because that was
a guy that they draft that or no, he might
have been drafted right before, but he was. That was
the guy that that he made into a star people
thought was a star in that twenty twenty two season,
and then all of a sudden he just regressed.

Speaker 11 (56:35):
If you are the person who that you know that
quarterback doesn't thrive under you, and then they go somewhere else,
and they do what Sam Darnold is doing right now,
they do what Daniel Jones is doing right now, they
do what Mac Jones is doing.

Speaker 12 (56:48):
Everyone looks at you just like, huh, how'd that happen?

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Bud? Even though even though Jackson Dart has had a
nice rookie season under the tutelage of Brian day Ball
that that's gotta be hard to survive.

Speaker 12 (57:02):
So tough situation.

Speaker 11 (57:04):
And by the way, I know that this is not
how it works in the NFL, because you gotta take
your opportunities when you get him. But he's had his
bell rung several times now. The Giants are effectively saying,
all right, this season sucks. They're ripping it up. If
you're Jackson Dart, like failure concussion evaluations for the rest

(57:27):
of the season, dude, even if you're feeling fine, just
pretend be like, uh, what number am I holding up?
Is that a pie is at three point one?

Speaker 8 (57:40):
What?

Speaker 13 (57:40):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (57:42):
I didn't know you could do? You do you have
decimal point fingers?

Speaker 11 (57:45):
How many? How many fingers? About holding up eleven? No, Jackson,
that's not possible. Yeah, Like it feels like that's a
prudent for his for his health situation. Oh see, but
there's no way.

Speaker 12 (57:59):
You just can't do it.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
There's no way, Like if you if you can pass,
which means you can get another opportunity to play, you
gotta take the opportunity. But yeah, I hear what you're saying.
If it was, if health was the number one priority,
it would feel like that might be the best thing
to do for him.

Speaker 11 (58:20):
They've got what they've got, Chiefs, They've got Cowboys coming,
they got Packers.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
That's a tough schedule Cowboys notwithstanding.

Speaker 11 (58:29):
Hold on, no Packers. It goes Packers, Lions, Patriots, Commanders.

Speaker 12 (58:35):
All right, there you go.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
So you got maybe two wins left the Cowboys and Commanders.
But those aren't guaranteed either. I lie the.

Speaker 12 (58:43):
Packers, Why did I?

Speaker 5 (58:44):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Yeah, Cowboys on January fourth Yeah, so Packers, Lions, Patriots,
Commanders December fourteenth, Vikings Raiders. So I mean, look, there's
I mean, Raiders is another winnable game. Like that's that's
a tough schedule for the Giants coming up. Have fun
with the interiom and the new head coaching search.

Speaker 11 (59:07):
By the way, by the way, we've been talking every
single weekend we have some news about another college coach
being fired. Now the NFL coaching carousel starts its spin.
And guess what, fellas and ladies. If you're out there listening.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
The cross, the crossover, the cross pollination, there is something
like these NFL openings could have drastic effect in college football,
especially if Steve Starkezing gets his way real quick. This's
just reminded me Thursday. Uh, Scott and I talked about this.
Did you see Pat Fitzgerald settled his wrongful tournament termination

(59:45):
lawsuit and his and he is announced to the world
that he's ready for another head coaching job. Oh okay,
that's another that's another really good head coach who's gonna
be in on this cycle. That's interesting. I think I
think he goes coordinator before someone's kmp keys. But Scott identified,
doesn't he feel like a Penn State guy. They're not

(01:00:06):
gonna do that, but they they probably won't do that,
but he kind of feels like that's a good spot
for him. Penn State cannot, for the rest of its existence,
hire a coach that was involved in any kind of
scandal at all, especially you can't.

Speaker 11 (01:00:21):
You're right that you can't like Penn State. You have
to be a you have to have a boy scout
reputation to get the head coaching job at at Penn State.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
And maybe he'll have to settle for the Arkansas job
or something.

Speaker 11 (01:00:33):
I mean, somebody's gonna want him, all right, We got
to take a quick one. The afore mentioned Scott Mitchell
will join us next. We'll talk about what's coming for
Utah as they take on Baylor and the fallout of
a BYU loss.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
To Texas Tech. Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 12 (01:00:47):
On a Monday ESPN seven two on FM.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
This Sean O'Connell Show, you were home of the best
Inside of your hues. Get back to WOC from the
Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred nine AM.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Welcome to our number two on the Sean O'Connell Show.
Trying to track down Scott Mitchell, host of The Down
and dirtys if he wants to talk a little Utah football,
got the Daily Dump coming.

Speaker 11 (01:01:26):
We gonna have a little bit of fun on the
show today. Big Willies is the presenting sponsor of The
Sean O'Connell Show. If you don't hear us live, you
could always catch us at ESPN seven hundred sports dot
Com or on the ESPN seven hundred app in the
on demand section. Today we're giving away tickets to Fierce

(01:01:49):
Fighting Championship that's coming Friday night at the Masonic Temple
in Salt Lake City. Make sure you're listening from eleven
to two every single day this week. Be ready to
answer the trivia question. But we're gonna have pairs of
tickets to go see Fierce Fighting Championship. And even if
like you're just kind of like mediocre fan of MMA,

(01:02:10):
this is such a cool venue. It's at the Masonic Temple.
You probably if you're a Mason, you probably haven't been
inside a Masonic Temple before. It's fascinating just to be
there in the building. I know these guys, they do
a great job. Fierce Fighting Championship has now kind of
taken on the role of being the developmental league that

(01:02:30):
allows Utah fighters to get to the bigger shows. So
if you want to go check out these fights so
that you know, three five years from now you can say, hey,
I saw this kid in front of a couple hundred
fans at the Masonic Temple Friday Night's your opportunity. All right,
let's welcome in Scott Mitchell, Utah quarterbacking legend, color analysts,

(01:02:51):
and all the Utah football radio broadcasts that you can
hear right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two ONEFM,
and of course, the host of the Down and Dirty,
which immediately precedes my three houturs.

Speaker 12 (01:03:01):
Scott Mitch, welcome.

Speaker 14 (01:03:01):
How are you.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
I'm doing great. I would call myself mediocre. I'm a
mediocre MMA fan, So yeah, mediocre, that's my mantra for
the day.

Speaker 11 (01:03:13):
But when I tell you, hey, you could check out
these fights at a Masonic temple building, you probably like, oh,
that'd be a little bit more interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
The minuting you said that that's exactly where I went.
I haven't ever been in a Masonic temple, and I'd
be interested to go.

Speaker 11 (01:03:28):
Yeah, all right, Well we could probably hook up with
some tickets. Scott, what did you do for the bye week?
Obviously you don't have to you know, I have to
be up here doing your game prep. You don't have
to travel to go on the road to follow the team.
So the bye week for the Utes is also a
bye week for you on your color analyst duties.

Speaker 12 (01:03:43):
How'd you handle it?

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
It? Was nice. It was it was fun to just
relax watch some football games. You know, watch a lot
of the a lot of college football and and of
course NFL football as well, and uh, you know, it's
it's it's kind of nice. Not love doing the games.
I love being a part of it, but it's nice
to have a day off, for sure.

Speaker 11 (01:04:05):
So Texas Tech smoked BYU. Now we've had a little
bit of a conversation some debate with our listeners this
morning that feel like, hey, that b why you got
exposed as the fraud they are.

Speaker 12 (01:04:17):
I don't feel that way.

Speaker 11 (01:04:18):
I just think that this was another piece of evidence
that Texas Tech, especially defensively, is really dang good football team.
How did you process the big game of the week
in the Big Twelve this past weekend?

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
You know, watching Texas Tech and watching them through the season,
and I kind of described it like like boiling a
frog and water. They just you think you're in it,
you know, you think you're right there, and they just
kind of methodically go along and all of a sudden
they turn over the ball here, and then they score
a few points here, and they're you know, they're they're

(01:04:53):
not really scoring on offense. And and it's a close
game and then and then the next thing, you know,
your you know, and you're boiled. And and that that's
kind of how it's happened with them against you know,
Kansas State and a lot of these other games the same.
It was like that in the Utah game. And and
they they're just do a tremendous job of getting turnovers

(01:05:14):
at the right time. And I think one of the
things that's different about Texas Tech is that they're playing
great defense, and that's not something they've necessarily been known for.
And they're they're actually running the ball much more effective,
I think than they have in the past. And I
would I would say the third most important thing they've done,
which isn't bad, is throwing the football. Now b Yu

(01:05:37):
on the other side, their whole thing is don't turn
over the ball and play and play hard. Uh. And
they they they maximize whomever they are, you know, they
get all the talent out of their their players, and
and they're in most of the ball games. And and
this was a game where, uh, that didn't happen and

(01:05:57):
Bear Bachmeyer, who's now a season player, actually looked like
a freshman.

Speaker 12 (01:06:05):
Is that you know, you played the position.

Speaker 11 (01:06:07):
So is that like, hey, you just had a bad week,
or is that more a symptom of you were going
up against Texas Tech, who's made plenty of opposing quarterbacks
and plenty of opposing offensive players for that matter, look
like less than what they are.

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Well, yeah, I think it's a little bit of both,
you know, And the wind is kind of a thing
a little bit, and it can kind of get in
your head sometimes. And but but I you know, I
I b YU has won every game, and and there
a lot of them have been emotional games, and and
over time that kind of takes some energy out of you,

(01:06:44):
as opposed to being a team that's just kind of
dominant and you win and it's and it's easy. Winning
all these games has not been easy for BYU. And
you're just gonna have you're gonna have a week where
where you're a little flat and and they certainly felt
that way this last week. I will tell you, and
I believe this for the conference. I think it's really

(01:07:07):
important and I think it even plays into Utah's position.
I think it's really important that BYU plays well the
rest of this season, because I think it makes the
conference in general look stronger, and you don't want to
you want to pass the eye test. You want the perception,
because I think the perception right now is that the

(01:07:29):
College Football Playoff Committee likes the Big Twelve conference. They
certainly like them way above the ACC and you know,
maybe they're not really in love with the Big Ten
like maybe they have in the past. So if BYU
falls off a cliff, it just makes the conference look bad.
I mean, I would love to see three teams from
the conference get into the playoffs, and and those three

(01:07:51):
are the most likely scenarios. I think it's tough for
Utah to get in the conference championship game, but I
don't think it's tough or you taugh to get into
the playoffs based upon their first thing. So as much
as we don't like BYU and their arrival and all
that stuff, I think it helps if they play well
the rest of this year.

Speaker 11 (01:08:12):
We talked about that a little bit earlier on the show,
that you know, you find out things about a team
in certain junctures. You find out when they play their
first tough game, how good a team really is. After
you sustain a loss. You find out the maturity of
a team, the culture of a team things like that,
And to Utah's credit and to this coaching staff's credit

(01:08:32):
in their losses, as painful as those have been, as
inopportunity as those have been, they've been incredible after the losses.
The bounce back has been a real thing. Has been
fun to see. What is the key to a good
bounce back? Like how does BYU make sure that they
follow that Utah model and don't let tech beat you twice?

(01:08:53):
And not only that, but like get back to what
made you good?

Speaker 8 (01:08:58):
I think it's a couple of things. I think it's
about really focusing on the fundamentals of playing, you know
about about executing your job and your responsibility at a
high level. And you do that by executing the fundamentals.
But I also think it's like there's something about a
sense of urgency kind of the pace with what you play,

(01:09:20):
and that it's funny how we always seem to play
better when it's on the line, when when it matters,
and we just you know, and people, why don't you
play like that all the time? And it's just human nature.
Sometimes we just don't. We just have different energy and
you're unfortunately reminded of Hey, if we don't play with

(01:09:43):
the same energy, we don't play with the same focus,
we don't take care of our job, we lose. And
so getting that reminder just kind of it's maybe that
slap in the faith a little, you know, maybe it's
cold water thrown in your face. Whatever is thrown in
your face or slapped on your face, it actually gets
you back into the right frame frame of mind. And

(01:10:05):
and it just it just seems to be one of
those things to work now with, you thought. I think
it's a little bit more.

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
Than that though. I think it's it feels like this
team is kind of gelling at the right time. And
and the mixture of the new players and the old
players and the whole the new system, it just feels
like this team is kind of finding its stride as well.
And and and there's part that you know, with with

(01:10:31):
with bouncing back, and it just feels like Utah has
kind of found a rhythm. Uh. It's it's found some confidence,
it's found some playmakers offensively, the defensive, it's I think
the defense knows who they are and they play to
that strength when they play. And Utah just seems to
be hitting, you know, the high note at the most

(01:10:52):
important time, and that's that's the month of November.

Speaker 11 (01:10:56):
What do you think Baylor is going to be against
Utah this weekend? I mean, they're a bit of a
bipolar team. They are the best passing, most productive passing
team in the in the Big Twelve Conference, but their
defense is so bad and their run game has been
so substandard that that hasn't translated to the kind of
success they anticipated this year. We all have some knowledge

(01:11:17):
and probably a little bit of affection for Dave Randa
because of his time here in the state. What do
you think Baylor has for this Utah team that, like
you said, is really in a groove right now.

Speaker 5 (01:11:28):
Well, I think Dave Randa is the case in point
for for who Baylor is. And he's the guy that
I'm just like, man, he's gonna get fired and he's
weather through some just tough tough times at Baylor, really
tough times, and and I think that's that's kind of
who this team is. They kind of weather through those

(01:11:50):
those storms and they find moments to stay relevant and
to to win, and and and so you have to
take that seriously. And you can't look at the record,
You can't look at any of that and just say, hey,
we're going to roll up and play. You've got you
got to come ready to play, and not only play.
I think it's really important about style points for Utah.

(01:12:11):
I think it's like play with some dominance and and
I think it's not about winning. It's about winning big
and and uh and doing it in a way that's like, uh,
there was no hope you know from the opening kickoff
that Baylor was ever going to win a football game.
And I think it has to be that way with
every single game the rest of the season, because I
think Utah's best chance to get into the college football

(01:12:34):
playoffs is the at large bid. And I think it's
it's it's all about perception because this is a subjective
decision that's happening. And so if you you know, if
you barely eke by Baylor and you know, limp your
way to the end of the season, it doesn't look
as good. So it's really important as important as winning,

(01:12:58):
it's it's it's how you win as well.

Speaker 11 (01:13:00):
At this point, Scott Mitch is our guest here on
the Sean O'Connell Show. I want to pick your brain
about the NFL for a couple of minutes, and specifically
Jackson Dart. He's in a really interesting situation right now
where you know, his team gives up a bad loss yesterday,
his head coach, the guy who gave him his first opportunity,

(01:13:21):
gets fired, and he gets a concussion. It's like this
weird trifecta of bad things all happening for Jackson Dart,
but then the head coaching change might end up being
a good thing. I've never been in this position, Scott,
where you move on from the guy, one way or
another who gave you your first NFL opportunity. So what

(01:13:41):
is that like for Jackson Dart right now? Is he's
hoping to feel his head better, you know, get better
and probably wearing some sunglasses, dealing with concussion symptoms and
learning that you know, the guy that he seemed to
love him and seemed to really be excited about his
potential is no longer going to be his head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:14:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a dangerous position to be in
because you know, a new guy comes in and he
wants his people, he wants his team, he wants it
a certain way, and and the organization is gonna is
going to give a new coach a lot of latitude
and and try to appease his his wishes. And if

(01:14:21):
if the new guy goes, yeah, I'm not really a
Jackson Dark fan. And it doesn't matter who Jackson Dart is.
It's like, I'm just not a fan. And so I
really want to go a different direction. Or he makes
it really hard on on on Jackson Dart, you know,
and he looks at him through a biased lens, so
everything he does is magnified in a negative way, you know,

(01:14:44):
the mistakes and and the success is minimized, and and
that's a hard thing to deal with. Now. It's he's fortunate.
And if there's a prospect out there that's a new
coach that's really good and and and smart coaches go,
I want to go somewhere where I got a chance
to win. And and if that guy believes Jackson Dart

(01:15:05):
is the ability to win, it could attract a really
good coach. Think of like Jim Harbam going to the
Chargers and Justin Herbert. He goes, I can win with
Justin Herbert. And I like Justin Herbert a lot, and
and uh and and so I want to you know,
I want to be there as a coach, and and
and Jim Harbaugh is a good coach, and so the

(01:15:26):
right coach can be attracted to the right player like that,
and it can be a really a really good thing.
But it can it can certainly go both ways. And
it's a situation quite frankly, that you really don't want
to be in. So much of the NFL today and
in the past and forever is not how good you are.
It's like who you know and who you you know

(01:15:50):
and and and do those people believe in you? And
does the system, the system that they have fit what
you're you're all about? You think of Bill Parcells, very famous.
He's saying, you know, if you want me to cook
the meals, you've got to let me buy the groceries.
And and and so many coaches are like, I want
my guys here, I want my people. Peyton or Sean

(01:16:16):
Payton said I want bow Knicks. That's the guy I want.
And they went out and got him and and and
it's it's played pretty well for Denver. So Jacks and
Dark could be in that situation. I really hope he
is because because he's fun and he's exciting, and he's
got great passion to play, and I really would like
to see how far that really goes. And on top

(01:16:38):
of it, you know, he's a local kid from Utah,
so we cheer even extra hard for him, and I
hope it turns out well. I was shocked by firing
in a little sense because Jackson is a rookie and
and the Giants are typically a team that moves slowly.
You know, they're not They're not a knee jerk kind
of rip rip the the rafters down in the middle

(01:17:01):
of the season, So there must have been a lot
of inks there for for that situation to go south
as early as it has.

Speaker 12 (01:17:09):
Would Lane Kiffin be a good NFL coach, oh.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
Man, probably, You know, Lane Kiffin might be a better
NFL coach than a college coach. Uh And and and
there's a perfect example of someone who I think could
fit that well. You know, Lane Kiffin's dad, Money was
a was a longtime NFL guy, and they had a
real close relationship, and Money worked for him, and and

(01:17:35):
and Lane's had NFL experience as well, And uh really
really almost feels more of an NFL coach per se.
Uh And has that personality. I think that because because
you're the head coach in the in New York. There
it's you know, it comes with some extra special sauce
that you've got to be able to handle. And and

(01:17:56):
I think Lane Kiffin is the type of person that
that could handle that. So yeah, that would that would
be kind of fun. I'd actually played pay to see
to see Lane Kiffen with the Giants.

Speaker 11 (01:18:09):
And I mean he and he and Jackson Dart have
had a lot of success together before, so it'd be
kind of fun to see.

Speaker 5 (01:18:15):
Well, and you know, he just understands how to coach
quarterbacks and and and you know he's you know, he's
the guy. I've had a son that was going to
college or wherever. I would have no problem having him
go play for Lane Kissen.

Speaker 11 (01:18:31):
Scott, I always appreciate your time and your insights. Have
a great call this weekend and great shows this.

Speaker 5 (01:18:37):
Week I appreciate it. Thanks John Scott.

Speaker 12 (01:18:40):
Mitchell, host of The Down and Dirty.

Speaker 11 (01:18:42):
You can hear him right here on ESPN seven hundred
and ninet two one FM from ten am to eleven am,
immediately preceding our show. That's a question, by the way,
that came in on the text line again. Sixteen twenty four,
we always appreciate the interaction. I mean, if you're a
franchise that has a lot of belief in a player,

(01:19:06):
are you willing to hire a coach around that player.
We know that franchises NFL teams will get players to
fit with the coaches. Do you have enough belief in
a guy that you spent a lot of draft capital
on in Jackson Dart in order to say, well, let's
bring in someone that can maximize him.

Speaker 12 (01:19:27):
It'd be interesting. I don't know.

Speaker 11 (01:19:29):
I don't know how that would work. I actually agree
with Scott though. I think that Lane Kiffin is sort
of like I don't give a bleep attitude and his
sarcastic nature and that kind of thing would be really fun.

Speaker 12 (01:19:44):
In the NFL.

Speaker 11 (01:19:48):
And college football, when you're the head coach, you can
kind of get away with murder, especially in a place
like Old miss You could say what he wants to
say without really any serious course. Now, I don't know
if that's true as true in the NFL. If your
team likes your humor, great. If you're there with a

(01:20:09):
bunch of thirty two year old guys who don't like
the cut of your jib and they perceive you to
be arrogant or something like that.

Speaker 12 (01:20:17):
That can get messy, that can get up.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
But I don't know. I'd like to see it, I think,
and I just want to see whatever works best for
Jackson Dark.

Speaker 11 (01:20:28):
All right, The Daily Dump is next. There's a lot
going on in the world of sports. We'll go rapid
fire through a couple of different things. It's a Sean
O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred ninety two.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
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 hundred and
ninety two to one half Am, brought to you by
Bally Plumbing.

Speaker 9 (01:20:59):
Just look for the truck with the.

Speaker 12 (01:21:00):
Duck pip for the Daily Dump.

Speaker 11 (01:21:07):
Lots going on, more betting scandals, this time baseball sees
itself hit.

Speaker 2 (01:21:15):
James.

Speaker 12 (01:21:18):
Have you ever.

Speaker 11 (01:21:20):
Accidentally given up a lot for a little Have you
ever like, I don't know, maybe you've got a bowl
of ice cream and you reach for the sprinkles because
you're like, ah, this ice cream is great, but I
want sprinkles on it and you're in reaching for the sprinkles,
you drop the whole bowl of ice cream or something
like that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, I've had those kind of stuff happened
in the kitchen far too often.

Speaker 12 (01:21:44):
Yeah, that's always a bummer, right.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:21:48):
Well that's what we're talking about with now this baseball
betting scandal, because I want to make sure I get
the details right, but two players, Emmanuel place Class and

(01:22:08):
Luis Ortiz, had both been indicted for allegedly rigging pitches,
specific pitches in a Major League baseball betting scheme. Either
of these guys could face up to sixty five years
in prison, which of course grabs the headlines for you.
They're not going to do sixty five years in prison,
but prison time does potentially come with these charges.

Speaker 12 (01:22:32):
And on top of that, this is what bothers me most.

Speaker 11 (01:22:38):
They were allegedly given five thousand dollars to throw a
ball the first time, and then the second time seven
thousand dollars to throw a ball. Now, the allegations say
that it caused the five thousand dollars that he got
was offset by seven hundred thousand dollars of profit in

(01:23:02):
an illegal betting scam and in Ortiz's case, it was
only sixty thousand dollars, but these are twenty million dollar contracts.

Speaker 12 (01:23:17):
These guys are on What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
So this is this is to throw a ball instead
of a strike. Yes, that's what you're saying. That was
the prop bet or something.

Speaker 11 (01:23:26):
Is a prop bet to throw a ball instead of
a strike, like first pitch is a ball or whatever,
and you get five grand.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
It just seems like there's a simple way to make
this happen less often. But then maybe it's not so simple. Maybe,
but like, can we ban more of these player prop bets?
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:23:50):
Player prop bets is where it can get really dicey.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
Yeah, but again, but back to your point. Sorry, giving
up twelve giving up you know, millions of dollars, even
if it's a million dollars for a five thousand dollars
bonus from some illicit situation.

Speaker 12 (01:24:08):
What are you doing? Yeah, that's not that's not enough, right,
you gotta be.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
You gotta really. I would think that if I were
in that situation, and I say I would think because
I've not been in that situation and so you don't
really know, right, but I would think that I would
if I were in that situation, I would not take
that kind of risk unless it's something really boosting my salary, right,

(01:24:35):
like something comparable to my salary, And five thousand dollars
obviously is not for these guys.

Speaker 11 (01:24:42):
Five year, twenty million dollar contract for a manual and
he's a three time All star. So what's that that
four million, four million a year in twenty twenty five,
maybe a four and a half million dollar Like it's
an escalating contract twenty twenty five, four and a half
million dollars. Yeah, that's just two pitches, terrible judgment. Twelve

(01:25:03):
thousand dollars?

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
What are you doing that? Do not take that kind
of risk.

Speaker 11 (01:25:09):
The only I mean, look, the only the only thing
that would explain this even halfway is if you somehow
got into bad debt with these people and they're like,
you gotta do this.

Speaker 12 (01:25:19):
Yeah, I mean I guess. But even in that case,
you're like, what are you doing?

Speaker 5 (01:25:23):
Man?

Speaker 11 (01:25:24):
How are you associated with the wrong type of people?
When you have twenty million dollars, you can be above
all of that with that kind of money. If you
can move into a gated.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
Community and hire twenty four to seven bodyguard with that
kind of money, Like, what are we doing here? People say,
it's a similar conversation to someone who is, by the way,
suspended again in the NBA, John Morant, where it's like,
why are you sink? Why you're allowing yourself to sink
this low when you have enough money to protect yourself

(01:25:56):
from all of the nefarious stuff, Like, just do it.
I understand, we're all human, we make mistakes, right, we
want we don't want to have a boring lifestyle just
because we're above some of this other stuff that we
might have been involved in before we had this kind
of money. I can understand that mindset to an extent,

(01:26:17):
but like not risking everything millions of dollars a lot
more money for John Morant than these pictures per prison
for time, prison time for this low of payout, for
for whatever reward Jaw thought he was getting in his case, right,
And back to the betting scandal, it's just.

Speaker 11 (01:26:36):
It's absolutely insane and uh again, I don't have the
solution for it. I also didn't know this that last year, Yeah,
twenty twenty four, the San Diego Padres banned an infielder
for life.

Speaker 12 (01:26:54):
Did you know about that?

Speaker 11 (01:26:55):
I miss this Toko Pizza Marcano all Right banned for
life for being involved in betting, betting in games that
he was not involved in. The Athletics had to suspend
Michael Kelly, same thing, Jay Groom, another Padres player, left
handed pitcher. The Dodgers had to fire an interpreter if

(01:27:17):
the Dodgers, sorry, the Dodgers had to fire an interpreter.
Philadelphia Phillies infielder Jose Rodriguez, Diamondbacks left left handed pitcher
Andrew Salfrank. All of those guys in twenty twenty four
were suspended for gambling.

Speaker 5 (01:27:32):
This is this is.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
Becoming a very under the radar. This is becoming a
giant problem from Major League Baseball. It's funny that none
of that really made national headlines. But Damon Jones and
Terry Rozier obviously Chauncey Phillips being involved sure may and
the fact that his part in it had the mafia

(01:27:54):
being involved makes it a much more sensational story. But
still like the there's three guys, well four if you
count the Johnte Porter thing, and then MLB has like
two or three times that many and in less time,
and we're just like, yeah, not a big deal until.

Speaker 11 (01:28:15):
Now Also, this is very interesting, right, because that those
suspensions happened in twenty twenty four and flew I think
because they're low name value people flew under the radar
for a lot of us or are not hardcore baseballers.

Speaker 2 (01:28:27):
And baseball is not where it was and it used
to be in this country. Yeah, and then in May,
Rob Manfred what did he do?

Speaker 11 (01:28:36):
Right twenty twenty four, we're coming down hard on gambling
twenty twenty five. It's November twenty twenty five. Hey, guys,
we're coming really down, really hard on gambling. These guys
threw four bad pitches. What did he do back in May?
What did Rob Manford doing? May he reinstated Pete Rose
and the nineteen nineteen Black Socks.

Speaker 12 (01:29:00):
Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Eligibility for their and obviously that was all gambling related stuff.

Speaker 11 (01:29:04):
Now again, I don't have the answer for you. I
I because I look, I can bet on something and
not have it be like it doesn't. My dopamine receptors
don't do that. I don't get addicted to gambling. I
like playing poker with my buddies because we hang out
together and we put a little skin in the game.

Speaker 2 (01:29:26):
Like I would still play the poker with them if
there was no money. I would still go play poker anywhere.
If there's no money, I like, it's fun.

Speaker 5 (01:29:34):
Right.

Speaker 11 (01:29:35):
I can sit down on a slot machine. I don't,
but I could sit down on a slop machine. I
could put a bunch of money in there and pull
that lever. You don't even have to anymore. You just
push the button.

Speaker 12 (01:29:44):
And I'm not getting whatever it is gambling addicts get
from it.

Speaker 5 (01:29:47):
I'm not.

Speaker 11 (01:29:48):
Well, maybe it's because there's no lever. Now, maybe that's
probably why I need a lever.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
Right.

Speaker 11 (01:29:53):
I could put ten bucks on a game, James, you
and I could be like, hey, let's let's bet on
this particular team. Let's see what the Colorado Buffaloes are
going to lose this weekend. I got five bucks on it,
and if I win an extra five bucks, I would
be got cool. If I lose an extra five bucks,
I would be like, dang it. And that's about as
far as it goes for me. I know it's not
that way for a lot of time people. Yeah, no,

(01:30:15):
that's it really is. It's different for a lot of people.
It's just like any almost any other addiction. Right, Like
certain people have a higher tolerance for addictive things than
other people do.

Speaker 2 (01:30:28):
Right, this is a it really is, and I'm glad
that you've taken the angle of like it really is.
The thing that we need to be debating is whether
or not there's too high a costs for these leagues
and teams to be in bed with gambling companies for
the integrity of the game. Is that too much of

(01:30:49):
a risk? I think that it might be.

Speaker 11 (01:30:51):
Well, and then and then the counter argument, because we
should present both, is that, well, now that whether you
make it legal or not in the leagues, it is
part of American culture, right, probably going to happen, So
it's probably gonna happen, certainly. The counter argument is that
it's actually better to have it be legal and to
have companies like these are multi billion dollar companies, and

(01:31:14):
part of their return, the investment that they return into
sports instead of just taking taking taking, is that they
help pay for these watchdog organizations. They police it because
they don't want outcomes to be doubted. They don't want
corruption to be accused because then they lose money. Right, So,

(01:31:35):
in order for DraftKings, fan Duel, Ballys, Caesars to function,
you have to believe that you're betting on undetermined outcomes.
As soon as you're like, oh, that game's fixed, as
an average better as someone who's not in on it, right,
you're just going, I'm not putting my money on that.

(01:31:55):
If they're fixing things, if fights are being fixed, like
we've talked about last week in the UF see, if
games are being fixed. Now, I never in a million
years would have thought that someone could make seven hundred
grand on a ball being thrown in baseball. So obviously
I don't have a deep enough understanding of this to

(01:32:16):
tell you one way or another what really should happen.

Speaker 2 (01:32:19):
But not a ball in the World Series. By the way,
this is regular season, regular season game like this is.
It is crazy and.

Speaker 11 (01:32:26):
By and guess what, guess what If you're a bubble player,
right and someone's like, hey, dude, you're you're a first
year guy trying to make an NFL team, all right, room,
you're a you're on a rookie minimum pay scale, or
like you're on a two way contract in the NBA.

(01:32:48):
Just go miss two free throws for me. I'm we
gave you fifty grand, all right. That's maybe tempting if
you're one of these moron pitchers who's been an All
Star three times and you've got a twenty million dollar
contract and someone's like, I'll give you five grand. Okay, No,
five grand doesn't make a difference if you're making four

(01:33:08):
and a half million dollars, it doesn't.

Speaker 12 (01:33:10):
I am the cheapest dude in the world.

Speaker 11 (01:33:12):
I want every dime I can squeeze out of life
for anything. But I am smart enough to know, like, wait,
that's a pretty hefty risk. It's like something me like, hey,
you walk up to the seven eleven and there's some
teenager there, just be like, I'll give you ten bucks
if you go buy me a beer, and you're just like, no,
that ten bucks is not worth the risk.

Speaker 5 (01:33:33):
Kid.

Speaker 2 (01:33:34):
Sorry, that's like a quarter of a beer, by the way,
depending on where you're buying it. I guess yeah, that's Uh.
It just drives me insane, dude. It's terrible judgment.

Speaker 12 (01:33:46):
It's absolutely nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:33:48):
All right.

Speaker 12 (01:33:48):
Another story.

Speaker 11 (01:33:49):
I wanted to make sure we got to because as
long as we're talking about money. Brian Kelly fired by
LSU Oh yeah, uh, you know how much money was
left on his contract? Fifty four million? Fifty four million, dollars. Now,
it's makes me. Scott Woodward, who was the athletic director
who was tasked with firing him and who has now
been fired, and that has also been fired because the

(01:34:11):
governor was just like, you suck at your job.

Speaker 12 (01:34:13):
You can't do it.

Speaker 11 (01:34:14):
Scott Woodward in the firing situation, said, hey, how about
we do a settlement. Because Brian Kelly or his representatives
in some kind of correspondence email like, ha I look
forward to a resolution to the situation and settling up
and everything being fine, Woodward offered him twenty five million
dollar buyout.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
Like right now. The implication is this fifty four million
is probably gonna take a few years for us to
We're gonna have to make some payments to you, and
he Woodwards like, we can do twenty five now if
you agree to leave the other thirty million basically off
off the table, which.

Speaker 12 (01:34:51):
Is a lot of money to walk away from.

Speaker 11 (01:34:53):
Now, Brian Kelly already has a lot of money, but
thirty million dollars is not like the five thousand we
were just talking about. I don't care how rich you are.
Thirty million dollars is a lot of money that does
make a difference. Right, it's also more than what the
lump sum would have been. You're telling him to walk
away from more than what you would have given him.
So Brian Kelly said, new, and that's probably what everyone

(01:35:15):
would have said. Now Woodward said.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
Okay, Governor said fire and for offering him that that
terrible bias.

Speaker 11 (01:35:21):
So Woodward said, well, hold on, what if I say
we will remove the language in your contract that if
you get another job elsewhere, our obligation to you is reduced.
I don't know exactly what that number is, but right now,
in Brian Kelly's contract, if he gets another coaching job,
if he's a head coach somewhere else, then they don't

(01:35:43):
have to pay him the full buyout, which is very
common gets less. And this is a very common thing
in coaching contracts.

Speaker 12 (01:35:50):
You've seen.

Speaker 11 (01:35:51):
There's coaches locally who you've seen sit on a shelf
for a year because they have this in their contract.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 11 (01:35:58):
So Brian Kelly considers that, says, wait, okay, so I'll
take a buy and o En Woodward said, and we'll
increase the buy out the settlement to thirty million. So
we'll take the language out of the contract that says,
you can't coach anywhere else, and I'll give you thirty
million bucks objectively a much better offer, way better. And
Brian Kelly says and new so he says, I want

(01:36:22):
my fifty four million bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:36:24):
And by the way, he's kind of at that age
and he's been around long enough and if it doesn't
work at LSU and he didn't win the ultimate prize
at Notre Dame, where can you really do it?

Speaker 12 (01:36:34):
They're not firing Marcus Freeman to rehire him.

Speaker 11 (01:36:37):
Like I mean, Brian Kelly's not getting a better than
LSU job at this point.

Speaker 12 (01:36:43):
And he's what late sixties.

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
Yeah, he's at the age where he could be like,
you know what, maybe I want to retire geah me
all fifty four million. So instead he's going, guess what, guys,
you owe me fifty four million bucks.

Speaker 11 (01:36:55):
Well, it's going to take us to twenty thirty one
to pay you. That's fine. I'm just gonna be fishing.
I'm go, I'm fishing.

Speaker 12 (01:37:03):
I'm gona buy you. He's fake accet and all.

Speaker 2 (01:37:05):
He's just gonna go buy himself a boat and do
it like this is this is why these buyouts. When
I ranted about this when we found out Scott Woodward
was being fired, the adults in the room being like, hey.

Speaker 12 (01:37:20):
We're fully guaranteeing.

Speaker 11 (01:37:22):
Even this guy sucks, We're fully guaranteeing his contract because
that's what the market has dictated, and we're gonna pay him,
you know, ninety five million dollars over ten years, that's
what his contract was. So wait, you're gonna pay this
guy until he's seventy two years old, nine and a
half million dollars a year. Yes, get him to LSU.

(01:37:42):
Were doing it all right, and I know that like,
it wasn't a bad hire at the time. Brian Kelly
was not. It would none of us look back at
and say, oh, you can't hire Brian Kelly.

Speaker 13 (01:37:52):
Now.

Speaker 11 (01:37:52):
We immediately started to question when he's dancing on those
like platforms with kids and he's doing fake accents, whether
that fit's gonna be good. But the idea that you
are you're gonna trick some coach who got a ninety
five million dollar contract into taking a fifty percent buyout
when you are legally obligated to pay him every dime

(01:38:13):
of it, it's insane.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
Yeah, I I'm not on Brian Kelly's side most of
the time. But I'm I will take his side in this.
I I I will say, yeah, this is absolutely a
good decision by him to be like, no, you give
me all the money you owe me. And by the way,
he could he could hold out not take another job

(01:38:39):
for six years until they until LSU has finally finished
paying him every cent that they owe him, and he
is he'd still be young enough to take another job.
If that's if he wanted to do, if he wanted
to take that route. I'm not sure that that happens
if he really does take that route, I'm not sure
that he coaches again. But theoretically he could, and he

(01:39:02):
could get the best of both the world. Hero see,
he could get another great contract and get all this money.
I think that's the right move for him. Maybe seventy
at the time. Yeah, so look, he's sixty four. I
think he's younger than I thought. But the point stands,
this is a dude who sees a fifty million dollar
train coming and the prospect is you can go back

(01:39:25):
to work and take thirty million, or you cannot work
and we'll pay you fifty four million.

Speaker 11 (01:39:31):
And he's not forty, he's not fifty. He's sixty four
years old. He's approaching like if he's a pilot, he
can't fly anymore. He has to retire, all right. I
know coaches are wired differently, but this is a dude
who's now been at Notre Dame and at LSU. Those
are two programs that it's really really hard to beat.
His option is now to go back down the ladder

(01:39:54):
or to just let the gravy train keep coming. By
the way, I assume on a monthly basis a year.

Speaker 2 (01:40:01):
Younger than Kyle Whittingham, who what have we been saying
all year, is probably retiring for good after this year.

Speaker 11 (01:40:06):
So yeah, and we have not even touched on that's
to say absolutely nothing of Brian Kelly's reaction to the
changes in college football.

Speaker 5 (01:40:15):
Right.

Speaker 11 (01:40:15):
You think this guy who is like the most impersonal,
he's like a bonafide.

Speaker 12 (01:40:23):
Hater of human beings, it seems.

Speaker 11 (01:40:25):
You think he wants to keep coming back and going like,
I'll promise you a million dollars seventeen year old, I'll
promise you two million dollars eighteen year old. You think
this is a guy who seems to enjoy that type
of stuff. He just spent the last week reading articles
about how everyone who's ever been in contact with him
in college football hates him.

Speaker 12 (01:40:45):
Or do you think he's like thought that he hated them.

Speaker 11 (01:40:47):
You think he's just like I would love to jump
back into a coaching job instead of taking this fifty
four million dollar free pay. Yeah, James, if I fire
you today, and then I provided you with multiple, multiple,
multiple examples of people who are just like James should

(01:41:09):
never work in radio ever again.

Speaker 12 (01:41:12):
And then I came back to you besides from our
text flood.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:41:15):
And then I came back to you a week later
and I was like, hey, James, uh, you know that
severance we owe you? What if I cut that in half? Bud,
But you can take this exact same job somewhere else.
And You're like, I've been reading for a week about
how I should never have done this job in the
first place.

Speaker 2 (01:41:33):
Yeah, I'll take the money. I'll take the money. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:41:35):
This is.

Speaker 2 (01:41:37):
If, like you said, this a whole different thing if
it were ten years if it were ten years ago
this happened. He's fifty four, fifty five, he might be like, yeah,
I'll take thirty because because uh, Penn State's gonna hire
me this cycle. He's he's gonna be like, this is
my retirement package. I'm not I'm not letting go of that.

Speaker 12 (01:41:59):
You mean I have to take.

Speaker 11 (01:42:02):
Fifty four million dollars or go coach uab for a
twenty million dollar discount.

Speaker 12 (01:42:07):
No, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:42:09):
Anyway, fascinating stuff speaking of college athletics. Had nothing to
do with what we were talking about. He's the running Newts.
Do you a bet their win on Saturday? Yes, they're
two and all on the season. Maybe the scene first
week they got Holy Cross tonight another that would that
seems to be a favorable game, uh six thirty pre

(01:42:32):
game tip off at seven, right here on the station.
So now listen, I think it's valid that some of
you might be going. I would have expected a little
bit more, but a little bit bigger of win against
the against the mid major, lower mid major like we
were State. But this is this is a first year
of a total rebuild. You take a two and oh week, right,

(01:42:52):
Oh see, you absolutely do.

Speaker 11 (01:42:54):
And we were State, we were stay great, great, great,
that's a respectable basketball program. All right, that's the fighting
Dave Lillard's he's their uh GM now GM, he's their figurehead.
GM they're gonna try to make some noise themselves. And
and yes, when you're rebuilding a roster and you're rebuilding
a culture and you're building back, it's not going to
be pretty quickly, all right. It's just not Utah basketball

(01:43:18):
fans and U Taugh football fans like this is a
nice little trial run for you. I think there's gonna
be a lot more continuity in the football world when
a coaching change happens. But there is going to be
some shake up, all right. There is going to be
some kind of ripple effect. The need for patients is
gonna be is gonna have to be there. Yet it's
something that we and and I understand why because your

(01:43:40):
tickets are more expensive than they've ever been, your gears
more expensive than it's ever been. We all want immediate
results in everything we do in life. Where impatient in general,
our intention spans last all of a TikTok video. But
don't forget that Alex Jensen is doing it the way
that you wanted him to when you came back, in

(01:44:01):
the right way. He's doing it in a sustainable way,
in a way that makes sense for this program. That's
why you wanted it to be him. He ain't going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:44:11):
Yeah, but by the way we're gonna get We're going
Alex Jansen on the show on Wednesday. Love that, so
stay tuned for that. We'll talk to him hopefully about
about a three and oh start after tonight's gaming again
to Holy Cross.

Speaker 12 (01:44:24):
All right, ummmm, you know, let's double up here, James.

Speaker 11 (01:44:29):
Let's get to our number three and this is where
we're really going to get into some craziness in the
college football world.

Speaker 12 (01:44:35):
The Big Ten is selling out college football quite literally.
I'll tell you what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:44:43):
Next, it's the Sean O'Connell Show on you tel number
one Sports Talk ESPN seven.

Speaker 1 (01:44:55):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source
for the best youth football. Here's oc from the Murdoch
Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
one half an.

Speaker 11 (01:45:22):
It's important to not let these little stories fall under
the radar because we're reacting to actual gameplay and the
fun part of a sport. We're going to dive deep
into Utah versus Baylor. We're going to talk about how
BYU bounces back. We're going to get to all of that.
I actually in this segment, I want to have a
little bit more of a discussion about how we should

(01:45:44):
compare Utah's lost to TCU excuse me to texta tech
and byus lost to Texas Tech. See if they tell
us anything about either the Red Raiders or the Utes.
But the Big Ten is closing in on a deal
with a California pension fund with a private capital, effectively

(01:46:08):
a two point four billion dollar deal that sells part
of the conference to private money.

Speaker 12 (01:46:16):
It removes part of the.

Speaker 11 (01:46:23):
Longstanding power in college football and hands it to financial
institution that is, like every other purely financial institution, geared
toward doing one thing and one thing only making money. Now,
the interesting thing about this, or one of the many
interesting things about this, is that the Big Ten closing

(01:46:46):
in on this deal. Apparently November twenty first is when
it's supposed to all go through. Michigan and USC don't
want the Big ten to sign off on this. Michigan
and USC are like, no, no, no, no oh, let's
keep it all in house, let's not do this. And
the Big Ten has told two of their biggest brands.

(01:47:09):
You could make an argument that the two biggest brands,
although I think Ohio State probably would have something to
say about that, but they're two of the big boys
in the room are saying no, we don't want this,
and the rest of the conference is like, well, you
got to get on board because it's happening, and so

(01:47:30):
USC and Michigan are going to end up getting on board.
The only like tiny silver lining for me here is
that USC is the one that ruined the landscape of
college football from a regionality standpoint with their decision to
jump into the Big Ten, and so it is there
is some satisfaction knowing that now they don't have the

(01:47:50):
power they think they deserve. But that's like a one
percent kind of feel good. The rest of this is
just scary for college football. And if the Big Ten
does it, guess who else is going to do it?

Speaker 2 (01:48:05):
Er body?

Speaker 12 (01:48:07):
Two point four billion dollars.

Speaker 11 (01:48:09):
Guess how much each school would get in an upfront
payment if this deal goes through.

Speaker 12 (01:48:15):
This is not this is an upfront payment. This is like,
you sign this deal.

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
Oh, this isn't divided by eighteen or sixteen whatever it is. No,
it's not like, is it eighteen schools now eighteen schools
in the in the Big Ten Conference?

Speaker 11 (01:48:30):
I have no idea what would what would the upfront
one hundred and thirty five million dollars. That's why UCLA
is like, where do we sign UCLA tear like we've
been it's been reported over and over again in huge
amounts of debt.

Speaker 2 (01:48:47):
They're like, wait, one hundred and thirty five million, we
need that. Let's do this. In exchange, you get a
ten percent stake in Big ten Enterprises, which is the
financial arm of the Big ten and oh yeah, the
BT and A and a ten year extension of the

(01:49:07):
current grant of rights, which is another reason why Michigan
and USC are like, guys, whoa, we're extending this grant
of rights, which extends our partnerships with one another, which
extends you know, like hey, if this super conference ever happens,
the grant of rights, like now, we got to bring
Rutgers along with us if we're going to be.

Speaker 12 (01:49:29):
Part of something.

Speaker 5 (01:49:30):
Right.

Speaker 11 (01:49:30):
So there's I mean, there's there's valid reasons why this
beyond just being like, hey, we don't want someone from
the outside having control of our sport, having control of
our conference. There's valid reasons beyond that ten years is
an eternity in the current landscape of college football. Remember
like four or five months ago, and we were all
killing the ACC for their way too long a grant

(01:49:52):
of rights agreement. Yeah, this, that is what that's part
of what the Big ten would be trading for this
uh financial influx. Yeah, but one hundred and thirty five
million dollars is exactly what you said, James. That's the
reason enough for everyone who's currently in the Big ten
to say, yes, we want that, because we're all trying
to keep up. Now, if the Big ten does this,

(01:50:16):
and if Georgia LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma State, Utah BYU,
if they all watch, if we all sit back and
we watch Oregon get handed another one hundred and thirty
five million dollars, and more importantly, Indiana get handed one
hundred and thirty five million dollars, Michigan State being handed

(01:50:38):
one hundred and thirty five million dollars. Suddenly everyone's gonna
be like, wait, how do we make that happen? Only
we all we got to give up?

Speaker 2 (01:50:46):
Is ten percent?

Speaker 12 (01:50:47):
Right, it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
It's not a controlling stake. This California pension fund.

Speaker 12 (01:50:53):
That is the money.

Speaker 11 (01:50:54):
They're not actually getting any kind of power here. It's
like the weirdest part of this is the is the
hedge fund.

Speaker 2 (01:51:01):
That's it's the hedge fund is the University of califorund
it is the University of California, specifically the UC system
that we talked about so much during realignment. The reason
that CAL and UCLA, like Cal's getting money from UCLA
in their exit fee, Yeah, because they're like, hey, you
left us behind, and we're supposed to be part of

(01:51:22):
this thing, the financial body behind this.

Speaker 11 (01:51:26):
And again this is way above my pay grade to understand.
But like the universities themselves don't actually have any control
over what the money that funds their pensions does. So
this pension fund is like, well, this is profitable. These
guys are profitable. We're buying ten percent stake in a
wildly profitable venture and that means that our pension fund

(01:51:48):
is going to grow, and that means that your pension
is guaranteed and we get more profit.

Speaker 12 (01:51:52):
And like everyone, so.

Speaker 11 (01:51:54):
Even if you had a protest at like CAL, you
just what the heck. Guys you're a professor at CA,
like why are you buying into the big ten? They're like, well,
so that we can pay you your pension when you retire, idiot,
you know, okay, never mind, actually and and you know,
a much bigger pensions just then it would have been
before we did this.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
Oh okay, I think it.

Speaker 11 (01:52:16):
Actually how it works is that you get the same
pension and then the fund itself was just more profitable.
So the people who it's actually not like this won't
actually help, Like the janitor who's getting the pension.

Speaker 2 (01:52:27):
He's going to get the pension that he was he
agreed to. But the sorry I use I use logic
in something or is not that is completely illogical.

Speaker 12 (01:52:36):
What this does is this makes the bonuses kick in
for the the.

Speaker 2 (01:52:41):
Fun running the fund, not the people benefiting from the
fund got so that that makes complete sense.

Speaker 11 (01:52:49):
So now you've got two point four billion dollars of
private capital coming into college football. And this will be
despite the objections from USC and Miss Chigaan, who were
told by the rest of the conference, if you don't
want to be part of this, fine you won't get
the one hundred and and thirty five million dollars. We
are going to extend the grant of rights, so when

(01:53:11):
the current one expires, you will have to go find
a new home. Yeah, and we'll just spread We'll just
spread that two hundred and sixty million that would have
been two hundred and seventy million that would have been yours.

Speaker 12 (01:53:23):
We'll just spread it amongst the right.

Speaker 11 (01:53:24):
If you're like Illinois, you're probably like, please don't take it,
Please don't take it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:27):
You'll take well, certainly, I mean certainly UCLA speaking of
University of California system, like they they need the money
probably more than anyone else. But yeah, Illinois, Rutgers, the
even the like the Washington's in Oregon that are doing
fine but are only getting a partial revenue share because

(01:53:48):
of the because of when they came in, Like they're like, yeah,
let us have more of this.

Speaker 11 (01:53:53):
So Brett or Mark has been very creative and trying
to find ways to bring revenue into the Big twelve
comp friends. So far, everyone publicly at least has been like,
let's chill out on this thing. But if the Big
ten does it, if they're the first movers here, which
it sounds like they're going to be in two weeks,

(01:54:14):
this is now the norm very rapidly in college football.
As soon as they do this, as soon as the
trigger is pulled on this massive capital influx. Everyone's going
to be looking for the same, and I do mean everyone,
everybody the group of five conferences are going to look
for the same. But yeah, I don't know, don't know

(01:54:34):
for sure if your mark has been trying to lobby
for this sort of thing, but the people around him
said no, let's hold off. Whether it's him or whoever
in the room in the Big twelve that was lobbying
for that may or may not have been lobbying for
this sort of move. Now that they know that the
Big ten is about to do it, they're absolutely going.

(01:54:55):
All right, guys, I told you we should have done it.
However many months ago, year, a couple of years ago. Uh,
never too late to do the right thing. Let's do this.

Speaker 12 (01:55:06):
Some breaking news happening in Ogden, Oh.

Speaker 11 (01:55:10):
Weaber State has parted ways with their head football coach,
Mickey mental Ah.

Speaker 2 (01:55:14):
One of the one of the better names. Yes college football,
so coaching. That's too bad the Wildcats. We were stayed,
We stayed great, great great. Looking for a new head coach,
Jay Hill's immediate successor there j Hill back to Weaver State.

Speaker 12 (01:55:29):
Breaking.

Speaker 2 (01:55:31):
No, that's it, but that's it's not it's not quite
you never want to follow the legend. But it's it's
that's tough to follow a guy who as much success
as Jay Hill had And we were stayed absolutely so
that that's it.

Speaker 11 (01:55:46):
I was about to say something, so Mickey Mental's base
salary was only two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. Oh yeah,
only that that's not that's not very much at all. Well,
it's not for not for a head football coach, right right,
because I like, all right, well, who do we know
who's around that has ties to that we stay program.
Colton Swan, linebackers coach at the University of Utah, spent

(01:56:09):
time up there as a position coach, as a coordinator,
et cetera. Like would he want to go back? And
the answer is no, because he's making more money than that,
significantly more money than that. Even if he even if
he doesn't get elevated on Morgan's scaley staff like still
make more money.

Speaker 5 (01:56:25):
You.

Speaker 2 (01:56:25):
The only reason Colton Swan or anyone or a position
coach at any power forward school would take a job,
a head coaching job like that is if they really
want to be a head coach.

Speaker 11 (01:56:36):
Yeah, and which I totally understand why people do because
that is definitely one of the ways that you can
prove to people that you're the right guy. Like, that's
one of the ways to climb the ladder to be
a head coach is you be a head coach, and
you have to do it sometimes at like a really
low level. The gap though, the gap now between especially
Power four and even really Group of five and these

(01:57:00):
FCS programs, it's pretty drastic the money that continues to
pour into that we were just talking about with Power
for Football. It does not trickle down to Weaber State.
It does not trickle down to SUU. It does And look,
I think that can be a great job. They have
amazing facilities. You've got a really fertile recruiting ground that

(01:57:24):
when you fill your roster with Utah kids at a
place like Weaver State. That's why Jay Hill was so successful,
That's why Ron McBride was so successful. The worst thing
that can happen at one of those schools is where
you've got a coach who doesn't really know the area
that well, and so he's like, I'm gonna go get

(01:57:45):
the tenth best player at this position from California instead
of getting the guy who wishes he'd gone to Utah,
to BYU, to Utah State and he falls through the
cracks and so he's like the fourth best safety in
Utah and you get him at Wevers State eight. He's
way better than the tenth best kid from California. Hello,
Jack Kelly. A different position. But that's again that that's

(01:58:08):
the poster shout for this. It's exactly what we're talking about, right,
And I mean it could be a good job. You're
just you're gonna want to hire fere Weaver State. You
gotta find like a twenty seven year old dude on
the rise or like or.

Speaker 2 (01:58:26):
Yeah, probably probably around the same age, but like the
best high school coach in the state, because you're probably
not getting we need to think outside the box. Brian
Kelly to Weaver State. He does, yeah, and he's calling
his reps are calling els you.

Speaker 12 (01:58:44):
You know what I take out.

Speaker 2 (01:58:45):
We'll take the thirty take out that mitigating stuff that
you were talking about. We got this job that just
opened up. We must want You.

Speaker 11 (01:58:54):
Could have fifty four million dollars to not do anything,
or you can work eighty hours a week in Ogden
for two hundred grand.

Speaker 2 (01:59:01):
Plus thirty million from your buyout. So thirty million, two
hundred plus two hundred grand. How about that thirty point two.

Speaker 11 (01:59:12):
So Mickey Mental by the way, the Weaver State head coach,
two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars per year. Mickey Mantle,
the iconic baseball player. What was his career innings? What
do you what do you think his highest career highest
season pay was?

Speaker 2 (01:59:28):
Okay, so it's fifties into the sixties, a little bit
right into the sixties. Yes, eighty thousand, one hundred and ten.
All right, that was my next best. My next guy
is bananas.

Speaker 11 (01:59:44):
We still talk about Mickey Mantle, the Mick incredible, all right,
speaking of a Jack Kelly incredible game on Saturday. Two
sacks pretty good well and the at least certainly in
the first half, the coverage, the job he was doing
in coverage, like every every defensive play, it was something

(02:00:07):
Jack Kelly did that caught the cameras or that caught
the camera and Chris Fower and Herbie had to say, hey,
this guy's really good.

Speaker 5 (02:00:16):
It was.

Speaker 12 (02:00:17):
It's fun to.

Speaker 11 (02:00:17):
See that when you know again, because we were just
talking about that's a guy who started his career Hearn's
high school Weber State BYU nationally televised game. The big
boys are talking about you because you're making plays on
that stage.

Speaker 2 (02:00:31):
That's really really cool, and not in the ways that
we all primarily are like, yeah, he sacks the quarterback. No,
like he's he's covering the running backs really well as
a giant lineback. He's a really good football player, and
he is not one hundred percent healthy even and he's
doing it like this. So Jack Kelly, I think Jack

(02:00:52):
Kelly's gonna be one of those guys who probably has,
like he quietly has like an eight to ten year
NFL career because he just plays hard, gets through it,
does things the right way. I don't think he's ever
gonna be like it because he doesn't have the plus
plus plus athleticism to be like what Fred Warner is
in the NFL. But I could see him having a

(02:01:14):
really nice NFL career. And by the way, it's a
good transition to I promise we would talk a little
bit about the comparatives that you pull when you're a
sports fan. All right, Well, Utah's game against Texas Tech
ended up looking like kind of a blowout, but it
was a really close game for most of that game,

(02:01:34):
which is true b Whyu's loss against Texas Tech was
more like a traditional kind of like you got beat bad,
you weren't. You didn't take the lead, you didn't score
late in the game to put you in a control position, which,
by the way, for me, is not a consolation prize.

(02:01:55):
It's not something that makes you feel better. For me,
it makes you feel a thousand times worse.

Speaker 11 (02:01:59):
Because Utah had a real shot to beat Texas Tech,
BYU never did.

Speaker 2 (02:02:05):
The only argument you can make for BYU is that
their defense did a really good job in the red zone,
limiting them to field goals, which which kept them within
a couple of scores for most of the game. If
but the fact that you got a goose egg on
the board unil about seven minutes left in the in
the fourth quarter makes I don't know it. Utah at

(02:02:28):
least had it within three points in the fourth quarter, right,
Utah took a lead in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 11 (02:02:38):
And then immediately allowed the corresponding drive to go for
a touchdown against Texas Tech.

Speaker 2 (02:02:43):
I mean, there's arguments for why BYU, from a defensive perspective,
should feel good about how they hung with them for
a little while but you gotta Utah's performance was a
lot made it a lot closer.

Speaker 12 (02:02:58):
BYU's first half defensively was.

Speaker 11 (02:03:04):
Better than it looked because there were five red zone
trips for Texas Tech only scored on one, and they
scored a touchdown on one, sorry touchdown on one, and
they yeah, they they what sixteen and a half and
they stopped them.

Speaker 2 (02:03:20):
They prevented it from being twenty to nothing. They stopped
another scoring opportunity right at the end of the half,
so so they it was thirteen to nothing at half time.

Speaker 11 (02:03:28):
Okay, So BYU defensively did some really nice things in
that first half. If BYU's defense wasn't as good as
BYU's defense, is that game because of the turnover issues?

Speaker 12 (02:03:41):
Right, muff punt?

Speaker 5 (02:03:42):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (02:03:42):
Isn't it crazy how those are really big plays.

Speaker 11 (02:03:45):
In a college football game? Right because Bear Bachmeyer actually
turned the ball over in this game. If the BAA
defense isn't as good as it proved to be, that
game is twenty eight to nothing and a half or
thirty five to whatever at half, that's and it's like

(02:04:05):
forty something to seven at the end of the game
instead of twenty nine to seven. That's a real that's
like all we got our our doors blown off type
of game. The defense. And again, it's a team game,
so you don't get to as a defensive unit today.
You don't get to sit down and film and say, well,
we did our part. Where are you guys, That's not
how it goes you. Guys lost, We didn't lose. Yeah,

(02:04:25):
that's not like you do have to highlight Hey, they
kept us in this game, guys. That kept us in
this game.

Speaker 12 (02:04:30):
Guys. It was in a lot of ways.

Speaker 11 (02:04:32):
It was that replay that you saw against you know
when when Utah played Texas Tech at reyce ecl Stadium,
the defense was making plays to keep it within striking
distance and then finally, finally, finally the offense woke up
and the sigh of relief that the defense breathed ended
up being a curse. Now by you never had that

(02:04:54):
exact situation. But if the high water mark in the
Big Twelve Conference now is Texas Tech, and it very
certainly is, what does that say about the rest of
the conference? And really, who is the second best team
in the conference today right now? Based on where you're trending.
Everyone's gonna want to say Utah is the second best

(02:05:14):
team in the Big Twelve conference. I don't know if
the College Football Playoff Committee is gonna tell us that.
I think that there's a real possibility that that group says,
all right, BYU was not good. They're gonna say BOE's
defense is good. But because the offense was as bad
as it was, and because the offense that normally like

(02:05:36):
Utah could rely on a running game to show up
like they had sixty seven yards on the ground, BYU
had a bad day on the thing they're supposed to
be good at offensively, right, So if you're on that committee,
you're looking at and you understanding, like, ah, they're not
as good as we thought they were. I think they're
gonna be very punitive. I think they're gonna look at
their their yards per play numbers. I think they're gonna

(02:05:58):
look at how much they've relied on turnovers. I think
they're gonna look at how they relied on certain scenarios,
like even against Utah in order to squeak out a
winning that game. And they're gonna say they've been fortunate
and we are now not believers in BYU. Now can
they play their way back into that conversation. Yes, but

(02:06:19):
I I'm really curious to see what the committee says
about BYU after this loss, because they're not punishing Utah
for the loss of Texas Tech.

Speaker 2 (02:06:30):
Even though the final scores were very similar and you
could say similar things. One team's offense did not show up.
I think the defense did. And look, it's why losing
earlier in the year is more fortunate. Yeah, right, Like
timing is everything in college football, especially with these rankings,

(02:06:50):
and you can't afford to stumble late.

Speaker 11 (02:06:52):
You can't afford to stumble early. Alabama lost to Florida
State early in the year pretty badly. Like that was
there were people talking about firing Kaylin to Bor after
Week one.

Speaker 2 (02:07:03):
Yeah, you had three losses last year and then you
lost this game. Yeah. And Florida State, they have not
benefited because Florida State has turned out to be a
good team. They've just benefited because they had more games
to play and they've beaten a lot of really they've
beaten a lot of really good teams.

Speaker 11 (02:07:19):
So Utah has washed the bad taste out of the
committee's mouth. I don't know about all the fan base,
yeah right, but they've washed the bad taste of the
Texas Tech loss out of the Committee's mouth. Clearly, that's
why they put Utah where Utah was at, right outside
the playoffs, right out right on the outside looking in. Now,

(02:07:40):
the BYU loss, the lone loss on the season, is
going to be fresh. That bad taste is a fresh
bad taste, no mouth washed yet for the committee, and
Uyu is going to have to provide that by showing
up smashing the rest of their competition, going out and
beating a Cincinna team that still has the Committee's respect

(02:08:02):
on some level.

Speaker 12 (02:08:03):
BYU's gotta gotta do that.

Speaker 11 (02:08:05):
And of course, if they end up because they're still
in the driver's seat, if they end up back in
a conference championship game against Texas Tech, then they can
do some things. But if that's what how it plays out,
If that's what happens, you know what that line is
gonna look like. It was already eleven and a half.
I think it closed it like thirteen.

Speaker 2 (02:08:25):
And a half. Unless BYU isn't just crazy dominant the
way that Utah has been against much lesser opponents. When
you when you're talking about playing TCU and Cincinnati, who
are good teams now, unless they're not that dominant. Unless
they're that dominant, I don't see that like that line's

(02:08:46):
gonna grow. Right. The other thing I want to ask you,
because I agree with you, I think they're gonna be
pretty punitive. But do you think because I'm not sure
Utah moves up in these playoff rankings, I think they
probably stay the same yet thirteen, I would imagine. So
do you think BYU there's not a chance that BYU
falls below Utah?

Speaker 5 (02:09:06):
Right?

Speaker 12 (02:09:06):
I bet BYU will be twelve and Utah will be thirteen.

Speaker 2 (02:09:08):
That's I would think as low as twelve as I
could see BYU going eleven or ten at the highest.
But I don't see them dropping lower than twelve. It
would be it could happen, but sure I see it.

Speaker 12 (02:09:26):
You want to if that.

Speaker 11 (02:09:30):
If that happens, Okay, if if Utah leap frogs BYU
after BYU lost to Texas Tech and the committee puts
BYU underneath Utah, I'm not even gonna do a show
where I give you my own thoughts. I'm just gonna
go to Cougar Board and read every comment that comes
up on cougar Board.

Speaker 2 (02:09:48):
And by the way, I think both of us would
be agreeing with the BYU fans and thinking that's that's
a terrible move to do, because head to head should matter,
especially because the head to head was not like ancient
history a couple of weeks ago. Here's the thing.

Speaker 11 (02:10:04):
I believe that I believe that this committee wants to
put Utah above b YU.

Speaker 12 (02:10:11):
I really think they do.

Speaker 2 (02:10:12):
I also think because of the metrics are they are
And look, I think what.

Speaker 11 (02:10:17):
We saw in week week one of these rankings is
that they this is just this is a committee that
drinks the Utah kool aid like they are this They
probably listened to our show. I bet the whole committee
has this show on, and it's like, you're right, Kyle
whitting Man.

Speaker 2 (02:10:34):
Took their if they took their CFP hats, they took
their CFP hats, put them on that stupid hat rack,
and they started their meeting and they turned on the show.
They turned on the show and they're like, let's just
have this playing in the background, and the subliminal messaging
of me being like, do you realize that Kyle Whittingham
is one of the best coaches in college football even
when he makes mistakes, drive one of the best coaches
in college football, and yes, Bence is always talking about

(02:10:57):
tut the advanced metrics, so they're top ten. How according
to those, their top ten team in the country. As
there as they're.

Speaker 12 (02:11:03):
Okay, where's who should we put it? Number thirteen?

Speaker 2 (02:11:05):
In the background, they just hear very faintly Utah has
won a four ties in a country that has top ten,
top ten defense, and.

Speaker 12 (02:11:13):
Someone goes, what about Utah? Then boom there there it is. Okay,
so you're welcome.

Speaker 2 (02:11:17):
Honest, I don't know what, I don't know where this
is coming from, but what about Utah?

Speaker 11 (02:11:22):
I think I think they want to rank this Utah
team like right up there. I think that if Utah
wins their next three games, this community is going to
put them at like nine.

Speaker 12 (02:11:32):
And then you're gonna have to figure out.

Speaker 11 (02:11:34):
Okay, well, what about the automatic qualifiers that the ACC?
Thank you this past day Notre Dame went out if
this past weekend this just like just this weekend, this
past one that we got over. The ACC played themselves
out of any possibility being a two bid league.

Speaker 2 (02:11:52):
They really did.

Speaker 11 (02:11:53):
It was this last weekend with Louisville and Virginia. They
were just like, all right, whoever was the champion is
the only went in.

Speaker 2 (02:12:00):
Can I just say I told you so about Virginia,
By the way, they they have been eking by so
and so teams. They barely beat North Carolina, they barely
beat Washington State, which, by the way, Ole Miss barely
beat Washington State too. But Ole Miss has had a
resume full of being really dominant against better teams than that, too.

(02:12:21):
Virginia doesn't really have that, and it finally caught up
to them. Not that it matters because a group of
five automatically has to get in. But Memphis, after seeing
themselves in the bracket, they go and they just poop
down their legs. So Memphis is no longer gonna So
now it's like four other teams, like teams in North Texas, Florida.

(02:12:43):
So now it's one of those, right, So okay, So
now here we're we're recalibrating, and it's just like all right,
I think this committee wants Utah to go smash Baylor.

Speaker 11 (02:12:53):
If you get like a forty eight to fourteen win
in Waco. I think that this committee is like, yes, Utah,
yes again the Jack Nicholson gift, Yes, Yes, the over
enthusiastic like, yes, it's the fanatical, maniacal grin on the face.

Speaker 12 (02:13:13):
That's what this committee wants from Utah.

Speaker 11 (02:13:15):
And I think, weirdly this is all hunch okay, but
I think this committee is gonna be like BYU. So
it might happen this week, but I promise you one
dominant Utah performance, and it's just like an okay BYU performance,
we'll see a flip flop. We'll see a swap if
it didn't. If it doesn't happen this week, I don't

(02:13:36):
think it will. I don't I don't know that it will.
I don't think it should yet. But like if we
come to this conversation next Monday, next Tuesday, or maybe
the final week of the going into the final week.

Speaker 12 (02:13:50):
Of the season, I just think that I don't eve
think we'll have to wait that long.

Speaker 11 (02:13:53):
I think it BYU wins like a seven point game
and Utah wins by thirty, there'res just gonna be yep,
you tell is better right now.

Speaker 12 (02:14:01):
And by the way, they'll have a.

Speaker 2 (02:14:06):
Million different things to support that argument, but these are
all big ifs. And Kyle Witting have focused on that
in the press conference, which of course you can hear
on to man at ESPN seven hundred sports Dot comment
on the app, he was asked about, Hey, what do
you think about the at large thing?

Speaker 11 (02:14:20):
And he was just like, guys, really though, and this
is when coach speak is good. There's something behind it,
like you really just because all of this is moot.
We've gotten now like twelve hours of content about the
oh what if, what if?

Speaker 12 (02:14:36):
What if? For Utah that is all gone.

Speaker 11 (02:14:39):
It evaporates, it disappears instantaneously if they don't go beat Baylor,
and really if they don't go smash Baylor because Baylor's
not good. Baylor is a bad football team that has
a good passing offense. Oh it's so fun, though, Sean
O'Connell show lots left to get to. We have trivia

(02:15:01):
coming up up next. Our tickets that we're giving away
in trivia is the Fierce Fighting Championships that's happening at
the Masonic Temple. Zach Partridge, who's the matchmaker and kind
of runs out organization. He's gonna join us next to
tell us what's coming before I take a break, though,
Big o Tires, I've been telling you the weather is
about to turn all right.

Speaker 2 (02:15:22):
I thought it would be turning this weekend a little bit.
The weather's about to turn.

Speaker 11 (02:15:25):
It's gonna get wet, it's gonna get rady, it's gonna
get slushy. You're gonna have the freeze. You gotta make
sure that your tires are where they need to be
in terms of the depth of the tread, the traction
that you're getting, and beyond that. Big old tires can
help you out with the fluids. The worst thing ever
is when you get that first frosts on your windshield
and you go to push the button, you get the U.

Speaker 2 (02:15:47):
Because there's no bug juice. There's nothing to melt that
ice on your wind shield. Big o' tires will take
care of all of it for you.

Speaker 11 (02:15:55):
And right now on tires, they've got rebates instant and
mail in rebates going on all four tires from national brands.
I'm talking Pirelli, I'm talking the big boys. All right,
Head down to any of the Big O' Tires locations
across the wahsat front Tellamosi sent you. They're gonna hook
you up. You need an oil change, you need the
fluids checked, you need the brake pads, you need the

(02:16:15):
tires and the wheels. Big oh as you covered Zach Partridge.
Next on The Shaan O'Connell Show. It's ESPN seven hundred
ninety two onefl.

Speaker 1 (02:16:29):
You're tuned to The Shan O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
one a half.

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
M Peers Fighting Championships Friday Nights at the Masonic Temple
in Salt Lake City.

Speaker 11 (02:16:47):
Starts at six pm, goes to eleven ish. That's this
coming Friday. Get there if you can. We'll have tickets
to give away coming up in topical trivia. Talking about
the card, Zach Ourtridge, the man, I'm gonna call him
the brains behind the operation because I know Cody won't
like to hear me say that.

Speaker 12 (02:17:05):
But Zach, welcome the show.

Speaker 2 (02:17:08):
How are you?

Speaker 15 (02:17:09):
Thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (02:17:10):
I'm good. How are you doing? Good? Man?

Speaker 12 (02:17:12):
Tell me about the card coming on Friday night.

Speaker 15 (02:17:15):
Yeah, we have a really fun out. These are one
of our Challenger series, which is a lot more amateur
fighter highlighted, but it's one of our better Challenger series
we've ever had. Our main card features two pro fights
at the top of the card and then three amateur
title fights. It'll be a lot of fun. And then
six six fights on the undercard, So doors open at six,

(02:17:36):
fights start at seven, and yeah, we'll go tell probably
about ten ten thirty. It'll be great.

Speaker 11 (02:17:41):
So tell me about you know, one of the fun
things about being an MMA fan, and I'm trying to
kind of spread the MMA gospel here on the show
for obvious reasons, but one of the great things about
it is if you get involved in grassroots MMA like
you guys are doing, you get to see these people
live before they become something big.

Speaker 12 (02:17:59):
Now everyone does.

Speaker 11 (02:18:01):
Most people don't, obviously, but a lot of us, you know,
remember watching the early days of Utah MMA and watching
guys like Josh Berkman on the local shows, and he
obviously went on to great success. Me and Court McGee
fought together on a bunch of cars and Court is
still in the UFC. So I get to say I
knew these guys back when, and this is the very

(02:18:24):
beginning of a lot of these people's careers. So who
are you, because it's part of your job as a
talent evaluator, who are you looking at and saying like
that might that person might be on a big show.
One day, I might be watching them on TV and saying, hey,
I saw that person at the Masonic Temple in a
random November card.

Speaker 15 (02:18:39):
Yeah, I mean, I mean on this card. I mean
were full of them right early on pros and and
debut and amateurs now. But I mean we have a
couple amateur champions. Our amateur heavyweight champion, Drake Anderton is
defending his belt. He's one of those guy. He's a

(02:19:00):
giant problem for heavyweights. He has a skill set where
his striking is good, but his grappling is a problem
to deal with. Most heavyweights can't just haven't been able
to deal with it. And uh, you know, he's doing
a lot of good things. We have a kid that's
two and oh. His name's Jet Swain. He made his
he went from college wrestling to making his debut in

(02:19:22):
September fighting again October. Nobody would fight him at one
eighty five. So he's going up to two oh five
and fighting for our title against a three and oh
kid from Montana. He's really special, really athletic. Like that
is one of our goals, right is we are We
are at that springboard to be able to put guys

(02:19:44):
into the bigger show. So every single fear show there
there's there's a couple of prospects that when we believe
it's going to be the next people like yourself, Court
McGee whatever, winning you know, big titles on big shows in.

Speaker 5 (02:19:59):
The year's on the line.

Speaker 12 (02:20:00):
Okay, this is probably unfair to ask you. You might
not know.

Speaker 11 (02:20:04):
Is Drake Anderton related to Dave Anderton? Is he like
Dave Anderton's son, Because back in the day there was
a really really good heavyweight named Dave Anderton.

Speaker 2 (02:20:14):
This he's kind of about that age where this might
be his kid. Do you know if they're related.

Speaker 15 (02:20:19):
So I don't know his dad's name, but I know
his dad used to wrestle when it was Rix before
it was Buyu Idaho, and I do know that he
wrestled against brock Lesler in the NAA tournament.

Speaker 12 (02:20:29):
That's Dave Anderton. He beat brock Lesler. I think maybe
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:20:33):
Yeah, dude, that's that.

Speaker 15 (02:20:36):
Then heck yeah, that's I love that.

Speaker 11 (02:20:40):
Again from someone like me who's been around the city,
that's a reason enough to come out and see what
Dave Anderton's kid is like as a fighter.

Speaker 12 (02:20:49):
That's really really cool. Can we talk for a.

Speaker 11 (02:20:51):
Second about the Masonic Temple as a venue, because we
had Scott Mitchell on earlier today and I was He's like,
kind of like on MMA five, but I tell him
that's at the Masonic Temple. He's like, well, now I
kind of want to go to see what it's like
to watch an event at the Masonic Temple.

Speaker 15 (02:21:06):
I've been to a couple of these, Mitchell. You tell
Scott Mitchell, the guy who's running it is a giant
Lions fan, so he needs to come check it out.

Speaker 2 (02:21:16):
I will tell him. I'll text him that, I honestly will.

Speaker 11 (02:21:18):
But for for the non Scott Mitchell types, you can't
just drop their name because they didn't play for the Lions.
Like it really is kind of reason enough to come
see these fights. It's such a cool venue. You guys
do an incredible job. Your vendors do an incredible job
bringing in food and things like that. I mean, it
really is a great show, especially if you're just looking
for something to do on a Friday night and you're

(02:21:39):
not all the way sure, if you want to go
out in a big, crazy parking situation, it's easy, it's convenient.
It's right here, just east of my studio in Salt
Lake City, and it's a cool, cool venue.

Speaker 15 (02:21:52):
But yeah, what people don't know is like Masonic temple.
They you know, when they think about it, they're like,
that's a weird place to hold fights. It kind of is,
but they're on a I think is one of, if
not the best venue to watch fights in Utah that
I've been to. The cage kind of sits down in
a pit a little bit, so you're not looking up
into the cage, you're looking right through it. There's not
a bad seat in the house. Like you said, we

(02:22:14):
get vendors like R and R Barbecue and and uh
and some you know, so you get real good food
in there and and and the fights are great. The
atmosphere is great. I tell people all the time, if
you like watching you know, the UFC, PFL the big
fights at home, but you don't come out to the
local stuff like coming out to the local stuff. It's
just different and it's close. And if people that I

(02:22:36):
don't know too many people that come check it out
that don't end up loving it. So if you can
try and win some tickets or get on Fierce Fighting
Championship dot com and and come out and check it
out if you want to watch, if you want to
get ready for the big UFC card this Saturday, come
out Friday night and come check out the local scenes
because all those guys on the big UFC card, that's
where they started these types of shows.

Speaker 11 (02:22:58):
Yeah, and I'm telling you, like, I've been around long
enough to know how many how many stories you hear
when you're out on the road, when you're at a
PFL VEN or UFC event and you know somebody like
I watched Connor McGregor's first fight in Ireland, You're like,
no way, Yeah, that's a cool sit you you have
that opportunity on Friday night. Maybe one of the next

(02:23:18):
big things in American m m a Utah and may
certainly fighting on Friday night at the Masonic Temple. All right,
first fights at seven. How many tickets are still available?
I'm assuming how many you got left? Like, do we
need to get people?

Speaker 15 (02:23:32):
Yeah, we're we're on track. You know, it's it's Monday,
a fight week. We're on track. We're on pace to
get to a sellout or near sellout. So don't wait
till Friday. Come to the door, go to Fears Fighting
Championship dot com and go to the events page and
do one for this Friday. Click on those tickets or
quick on the link and get yourself some tickets. But yeah,

(02:23:52):
I mean it's projected to sell out. It'll get wild
and rowdy and then for sure.

Speaker 11 (02:24:00):
You can also go to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com.
We have some VIP ticket links there, so check them out.
Fierce Fighting Championships at the Masonic Temple on Friday Night.
First fight is at seven. Zach, It's always great catching
up with you, dude. When's your next fight?

Speaker 15 (02:24:17):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 13 (02:24:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 15 (02:24:18):
I fought. I just fought two weeks ago in New
Jersey and uh. And my oldest son is getting ready
to get ready for a junior high wrestling season, so
that's kind of where our focus is on because he
thinks he wants to fight when he turns eighteen now,
so we're we're going all in with wrestling in junior high.

Speaker 11 (02:24:36):
For people who know Zach MMA fighter himself, he's done
a little bare knuckle, so a guy who's not not
real shy about mixing it up, and that's the right
person to have making these fight cards.

Speaker 15 (02:24:47):
I'll say that appreciate it.

Speaker 12 (02:24:49):
All right, dude, talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (02:24:51):
Thanks, thank you.

Speaker 5 (02:24:52):
We'll see it.

Speaker 11 (02:24:54):
You know what, Let's give away some Fierce Fighting Championships tickets. Next,
we'll have a little trivia question for you. We'll wrap
up the show, and is Spence around. I don't know
if he's on, he's on remote today.

Speaker 2 (02:25:06):
Okay, maybe we'll talk to Spence Checkets Sean o'condall show
on you Tell number one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred
ninety twoe FM.

Speaker 1 (02:25:22):
You're listening to the Sean o'conndall Show for the Murdoch
Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one.

Speaker 7 (02:25:29):
A f M.

Speaker 12 (02:25:35):
Sean O'Connell show coming to an end.

Speaker 11 (02:25:37):
Here on the ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM,
we turn you over to the Drive with Spence Checkets.
Here just a couple of moments, but first we have
Fierce Fighting Championship tickets to give away. You can also
go to ESPN seven hundred sports dot comridge sort to
win VIP tickets. Good trivia question for today. All right,

(02:25:58):
Brian Kelly has turned down any buyout options that LSU
offered him because he has owed how much on his contract.

Speaker 12 (02:26:08):
How much money does LSU still owe Brian Kelly.

Speaker 11 (02:26:10):
We spend a lot of time talking about this in
one of our segments today, and the hilarity around asking
someone who's approaching retirement age to take less money just
so he can keep working. Eight seven seven three five
three zero seven hundred If you know the answer to
that trivia question. Two tickets to the Fierce Fighting Championship
at the Masonic Temple on Friday Night. First fight is

(02:26:33):
at seven pm. Spence check its in the drive go
from two to six today on ESPN seven hundred. He's
here in our Broadway studios high Spence.

Speaker 16 (02:26:41):
Did you ever fight in the Masonic Temple? No, I
kind of wish. Yeah, it's such a cool venue.

Speaker 11 (02:26:47):
They weren't doing them there back when I was fighting still,
and I've been to a couple of these events and
it's a really cool spot. I not had cause to
go into a Masonic temple until I went to these fights.

Speaker 16 (02:26:58):
You don't say you don't dabble in Masonic temple, you
know whatever they call those things they do there.

Speaker 2 (02:27:05):
Yeah, I've never been a ritual No.

Speaker 16 (02:27:07):
Yeah, because when I first heard they were doing it there,
party means like, why would you hold an event in
a place like are they hard up for cash? Are
the Masons looking for a little side hustle?

Speaker 11 (02:27:19):
As you know, the Masons have really had a hard
time staying alive throughout history.

Speaker 9 (02:27:23):
Yeah, it's been a rough run for them.

Speaker 12 (02:27:24):
They haven't really had any kind of power and influence ever.

Speaker 16 (02:27:27):
So hey, we currently have a client. They can help
you with side hustles. I gut leo seven figures funding.
Maybe they can help the the folks over at the
Masonic Temple.

Speaker 12 (02:27:34):
It's I don't know how. I know Zach who we
just had on.

Speaker 11 (02:27:37):
I know Cody, the guy who owns the organization as well,
and I think they just know the right people and
figured out it's a really cool spot to go watch fights.

Speaker 16 (02:27:46):
Yeah, and like the undercurrent of like religious rituals have
happened in the building and then people are fighting to
try to hurt each other.

Speaker 11 (02:27:54):
It's kind of like it's actually really neat because what
they do, like the it's dark, They've got this like
sort of ominous spot light situation happening. You're in like
the Grand Hall. Your mind goes to what the other
kind of weird stuff is happening here? And yes you're
watching a blood.

Speaker 9 (02:28:08):
Support so it's fun.

Speaker 16 (02:28:09):
Yeah, I mean there's the whole Should we talk about
Joseph Smith and his connections with masonry or we've probably
steer clear. Okay, let's segue to BYU then there it
is more about tech or more about BYU, more about tech, Yeah, yeah,
for sure.

Speaker 11 (02:28:24):
Yeah, they're just their defense especially is just really really good.
And I mean there's flaws to that tech team that
are just hidden by what their defense can do.

Speaker 9 (02:28:32):
Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 16 (02:28:34):
It's always interesting, you know, the fallout because BYU hasn't
lost like that in a while November of twenty three.
I think it was Iowa State who got it in
provo by thirty or something. But the losses they've had
over the past few years have been nail biders, right,
So they haven't been they haven't had their breaks blown
off like that for a few years, and so I
always am eager and curious to follow the fallout of

(02:28:58):
a loss after that. And I heard a lot. Look,
there were some drops. Jojo Phillips had a horrible drop.
Chase had a couple of uncharacteristic, uncharacteristic drops. There's the
Parker Kingston fumble on the Pott return. So I heard
a lot of like and you chase himself, and look,
I respect Chase as a competitor who said after the game, like,
we left a lot on the field.

Speaker 9 (02:29:17):
We want to see him again. Tech kicked five field goals.

Speaker 16 (02:29:21):
Like, if we're going to talk about what was left
on the field, Tech left points on the field left
and right. You know what's interesting is that half? Yeah,
and you know a huge fourth down stop right before
the half. But I just heard all this spin like, hey,
we left so much.

Speaker 12 (02:29:37):
I'm like, dude.

Speaker 16 (02:29:38):
Tech kicked five field goals and credit BYU's defense for
stepping up in the red zone, which, oddly I didn't
know this until I was prepping for the game.

Speaker 9 (02:29:46):
Texa Tech is ninety eighth in the country in red
zone offense.

Speaker 2 (02:29:48):
Yeah, I'm not good.

Speaker 9 (02:29:49):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 11 (02:29:50):
It's a very strange thing. Again, like I said, there's
flaws to this Tech team. So you look at him
and a lot of the numbers and the results certainly
point to this is absolutely a top ten team. You
can make an argument that they're a top five team,
but they're not flowed. Like right now, you look at
A and M Ohio State and Indiana, and you're like,

(02:30:11):
Who's who's gonna beat them? I mean, Indiana showed some
warts on on Saturday, but they Penn States. I mean
they were supposed to be they were supposed to be
two or three ten. Last year got like seven NFL
guys on the squad. Like that's not suddenly a bad roster.
Just obviously the guy in charge, you know, couldn't get
it done, so he lost his job. So but you
look at some of those teams just like I don't

(02:30:32):
know where their flaws really are. And this Texas Tech
team is they're just really good at making you forget
what they're not good at, like that like the red
zone offense, because they they're not going to let you score.

Speaker 16 (02:30:47):
So if I asked you the Sean O'Connell, whatever you
want to put into it ranking. So the top three
teams in order in the Big twelve right now, you say.

Speaker 12 (02:30:55):
What Utah one, Utah two?

Speaker 11 (02:30:57):
You know us sign I think, look, Tech Tech is
they clearly deserve the number one spot. The way that
I framed it today, and so I'm copping out and
answering in a direct fashion is if I'm the rest
of the Big twelve, and I'm like, we can't let
these guys buy a championship. Who is our best shot
to get them out of that spot? Who is our
best if we can throw anyone at him? Tie breakers

(02:31:20):
be damned, Conference record be damned. Who are we sending
to Arlington to make sure that Cody Campbell doesn't get
what he paid for? I'm sending Utah.

Speaker 9 (02:31:29):
Over West Virginia, you know, honestly barely. And look, I
try hard not to be a homer.

Speaker 16 (02:31:36):
I mean, we're the home of the Utes, and I
love the partnership and it's a great tie for us,
and we want to make sure that we're handling our
business to take care of our partners. But I truly
believe it is Utah in my heart of hearts. I've
said this before, I'll say it again, and I will
lace it with a Sean O'Connell moniker of all due
respect to Kolonie Satake and Aaron Rodrick and j Hill.
I think if Utah and by you good, here we go,

(02:31:57):
shout out talladega Utahn BYU. I believe this to be true.
Play on a neutral field ten times this year. I
think Utah wins about seven of them. That's how I feel.

Speaker 11 (02:32:07):
Look, they're both really good teams. BYU is, especially defensively.
They are what you want to be as a football team.

Speaker 9 (02:32:14):
At jack Elly Kidd is a beast man, He's a monster,
he is everywhere.

Speaker 5 (02:32:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (02:32:17):
Yeah, former Weab State wildcat. That's what you get.

Speaker 11 (02:32:20):
Like, they're just a really they's just a really interesting team.
But you have to in college football. You have to
be prisoners of the moment because the moments are what matter.
And how you're playing right now, how healthy your team
is right now.

Speaker 12 (02:32:33):
Look, l J. Martin's not healthy.

Speaker 2 (02:32:34):
It's not all the way healthy, and that matters, right,
and his backup is gone.

Speaker 11 (02:32:40):
Yeah yeah right, and so you're going to the nowaheen
a kid who's not ready to play at that level yet.
And so yeah, the for all of what BYU has
done to help their roster, the depth might not be
its number one strength this year, at least offensively. I
think their offensive line is that are more banged up
than we've been hearing about. And because health does matter,

(02:33:00):
like that game is a lot different.

Speaker 12 (02:33:02):
If LJ.

Speaker 11 (02:33:03):
Martin is all the way help me, right, the same
has to be said then of well, if Devin dan
Pierre was at his best or healthiest when Texas Tech
played Utah. Would that have changed the outcome? I mean,
I will beat the dead horse at trillion times. You
took the lead in the fourth quarter in that game.

(02:33:23):
You can't surrender it because you're not built like BYU
is not built to come from behind.

Speaker 12 (02:33:29):
Utah is not built to come from behind.

Speaker 11 (02:33:31):
So if you're gonna beat Tech and Arizona State figured
out how to do it, nobody else seems like they're
ready to. You can't let that stifling defense get out
ahead of you because they're You're just You're not gonna
score a bunch of points in short order against that team.

Speaker 16 (02:33:48):
Yeah, I'll cut you loose after this, but I'm gonna
be really interested to see what happens tomorrow night. Because
S and P plus FBI the two metrics, we continue
to talk about precipitous fall once again. For By seventeen
and twenty two. Yeah, twelve in the AP. I think
they felt four spots. I believe it's twelve in the AP.

Speaker 12 (02:34:05):
Utah's fifteen in the AP.

Speaker 16 (02:34:06):
You toss fifteen in the AP, but their top seven
in Football Power Index and S and P plus and
I don't know if this is going to happen, but
the persecution complex outpouring from provo. If somehow, some way
the committee favors Utah over BYU, whether it's I don't

(02:34:28):
care if it's tomorrow or in two weeks, when, if,
and when that happens, Oh man, Chef's kiss. If people
are going to happen, people are going to be up
in arms.

Speaker 11 (02:34:40):
I've made the promise if it, when it happens, I'm
going to just I'm going to open the mic and
I'm going to go to Cougar board dot com. Oh
dear or nat or whatever it is, and I'm just
the wrong I ask, and I'm just gonna read comments
for the first hour of the show. Yeah, because there's
enough people on this in this fan base that would

(02:35:00):
just like to bathe in cougar tears.

Speaker 12 (02:35:02):
But I don't think now is the time to do it.
I think, I mean, now, there's a lot left.

Speaker 2 (02:35:06):
This BYU team should should be in Arlington for a rematch.

Speaker 16 (02:35:11):
I and I honestly think they will. I don't think
they'll let Texas Tech beat them twice. The scenario that
the DV inside of me wants more than anything is
for BYU to get back there. Utad went out Tech
to hammer them again and then see if Utah gets
in as an at large and by he does.

Speaker 11 (02:35:29):
Look, I promise you if BYU loses twice to Texas Tech,
yeah they will not be involved in the College Football Playoff. Now,
whether or not Utah does is heavily depending on how
U Tap performs and a lot of other things, which
is why it's better to control your own destiny, which.

Speaker 2 (02:35:46):
Is why BYU beating Tech would have been better for you.

Speaker 12 (02:35:49):
You fans talked about it all last week.

Speaker 11 (02:35:51):
But like and again, if Utah somehow makes it to
Arlington and gets beat in a conference championship game, you
can't lose twice to the same team and then get
be brought into the college football Playoff.

Speaker 12 (02:36:05):
No committee is going to allow that, I wouldn't think.

Speaker 16 (02:36:07):
So it just continues to be fascinated how these metrics
are clearly making a statement about how much they favor
Utah over BYU, even though BYU as the dead.

Speaker 11 (02:36:18):
Stay tuned for the drive with Spence checkets, I could
tell he's got some stuff on deck for you. He's
he's got that little glint in his eye on a Monday.
Thanks for listening to The Sean O'Connell Show. By the way,
the answer to the trivia question is fifty four million
dollars baby, WHOA.

Speaker 12 (02:36:34):
Get that money? ESPN seven hundred ninety two one f

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 11-10-25