Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 11-13-25

OC talks Utah FB with Devon Dampier in a new Dishin' with Devon, More Utes talk with Eric Weddle, He talks Jazz & the NBA with Gordie Chiesa, Baylor FB with Brice Cherry, Baylor AD stepping down as CFP Committee Chair amid drama with a football player + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
He's the Shan O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
Willies on Utah's number one sports Talk and HOMA B
ESPN seven ninety two one af AM, a proud part
of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Every Thursday, Everybody, Welcome to The Sean O'Connell Show on
ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM BROB, part
of Utah's ESPN Radio Network, and a show that is
brought to you today and every day by our friends
over at Big Willies.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Big Willies is.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
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They've got the rare bourbons, they've got partnerships without law distillery,
They've got things you can't get anywhere else. If you're
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Speaker 3 (01:23):
They'll have a special menu.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
They'll have drink specials, food specials, and if you tell
them that OC sent you, they will make sure they
get you the best table in the best spot to
view those fights. It is a big weekend for a
lot of different reasons. The NFL is getting more serious,
right the wheat separating itself from the chaff, so to speak.

(01:45):
In the playoff picture taking shape Utah Jazz, Utah Mammoth
BYU in action in a what is a very winnable
bounce back spot after they got embarrassed a little bit
by Texas Tech and Co. Of course, most importantly, your
University of Utah football team coming off of by taking

(02:06):
on a vulnerable Baylor Bears squad, that should present an
opportunity for Utah to further bolster its resume with the
College Football Playoff Committee and further bolster its reputation through analytics.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Ooh, I don't use that word very often.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
But through all the metrics, this Utah football team is
poised I think for a nice little stretch run. But
you gotta go out and do it. There's absolutely no
reason why against the Baylor Bears. You should not look
like a world beating squad you match up well, it's
kind of like we talked about with the Cincinnati game

(02:44):
when it was a Friday. In the Cincinnati case, today
is unfortunately my Friday. I gotta be out tomorrow for
a little PFL situation. Again, the the matchups in college
football are the most important things, and Baylor does not
have what it takes in my opinion to threaten this

(03:07):
Utah team in a way that as long as you
show up and you play the way you're supposed to play,
and you don't let the distraction of being in Chip
and Joanna Gaines's backyard affect you. I don't know, there's
there's probably a lot of guys on this team who
are big fixer upper fans.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
They just shouldn't be able to touch you.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
And I know I run the risk of sounding dismissive
or arrogant or in some way over zealous about what
Utah football has showed us in these last couple of weeks.
But your offense is better than their offense, Your defense
is significantly better than their defense. If there's some kind

(03:54):
of an equalizer for them, it's the special team situation.
But that's only we talked about. We ranted about this
earlier in the week. Paying attention to special teams in
the kicking game is obviously massively important, but it's only
the one third of the game that is actually represented

(04:15):
by like six percent of the game. In any case,
from a number standpoint, from a eye test standpoint, from
a what you know about the storylines right now in
college football standpoint, Utah should be at a pretty significant
advantage here. Now, Baylor is not awful in the passing game,

(04:39):
especially in fact, they're the number one passing offense in
this conference. Twenty six touchdowns through the air. They've only
been intercepted seven times. The twenty six to seven is
a pretty solid ratio. I've talked about it. Three hundred
and twelve yards. It's actually closer to three thirteen through
the air every game. But if that's your strength, right,

(05:02):
if that's Baylor's strength, I should say, then the worst team,
the worst matchup for you, the group that you would
like to avoid on your schedule if you could, is Utah,
because Utah is the best pass defense in this Big
twelve conference, and the X factor here, if you want

(05:24):
to call it, that is the fact that any offense
that relies heavily on dropping back and throwing the ball
around the yard exposes itself to difficulties in protection against
teams with potent pass rushes or defensive coordinators who like
to bring pressure or whatever else. Utah checks the boxes

(05:48):
for Baylor's nightmares, long athletic corners that can make our
guys that could actually man up on our guys. All right,
they got a couple of those. And shout out to
Sharif Shaw. Like I said a couple weeks ago, I
think this is maybe the best year of coaching that
we've seen from him.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Oh man, they've got.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Do they have one or two guys that we really
got to account for in the blocking scheme? Nope, Sorry,
Baylor offensive line coach. Utah doesn't have one or two
guys that you have to account for in the blocking scheme.
They've got five or six guys that you've got to
account for in the blocking scheme and on any given
play and any even snap. Morgan Scalley might make that

(06:34):
seven or eight guys that you gotta worry about, because
there's plenty of times, especially if Utah defense wins on
first and second down where it's third and thirteen, it's
third and nine, it's third and ten, whatever, And it's
an obvious passing down. And now Jackson Benny's coming, Cotton

(06:56):
is coming, Lander Barton is gonna show his face in
your backfield. Oh and by the way, we've replaced the
defensive line package to be four defensive ends, to be
four pass rushing specialists. Holtz Clause now playing defensive tackle.
Paul Fitzgerald is in there, and they're running a stunt
in the middle, trying to create a speed and agility

(07:19):
advantage over your center and guards. I'm not It's like
I said after week one, I'm I'm I've returned to
the point why I am not just drinking the kool Aid.
I am the nine year old kid on the corner

(07:40):
of your neighborhood street who's selling the kool aid, who
is mixing it up in that jar, that jug that
never quite gets clean. You pull it out of the
bottom drawer in the in the kitchen and it's like,
how what was in this last I can still kind
of smell it, And I just dump in twelve kool

(08:00):
Aid packets and then I pour in a pound of
sugar and I get water from the hose, and I
mix that bad boy up and I go out on
the street corner. I set up a little folding table
and I try to sell it to you for fifty
cents a cup, which is drastically overpriced. But if you're
a good neighbor, you're still gonna stop. You're still gonna
give me fifty cents, or I guess now you probably
have to venmo those dang kids, and you're gonna participate

(08:24):
in one of the rites of passage. I'm I'm back
on that level of hype for this Utah football team
because despite the warts that they showed against Texas Tech,
and despite the painfully fixable things that happened against BYU,

(08:45):
your only two losses of the year, you look at
what we've seen against Colorado and then Cincinnati, and this
is a team that against inferior competition. Now, when it's
when you're up against someone who's got what you've got,
like by You does and like Texas Tech does, and
it's a heavyweight fight and you're slugging it out, it's
a bummer that you didn't come out with a win.

(09:07):
Even right, you're zero and two against those against your
equals or even maybe in Texas Texas case, you're betters,
but against inferior competition. This year, Utah does what excellent
teams are supposed to do. You dog walk that inferior competition.
You embarrass them, You make them look like exactly what

(09:30):
they are lesser than. It's one of the great characteristics
of teams that you see in the top ten, top fifteen,
and as you get later in the season, it's really
only the top ten teams in college football. You start
looking at it and going, man, how's Ohio State's resume

(09:52):
look well? Against inferior teams? They're making people look bad. James,
you probably know this. How many one score games has
Ohio State, the number one team in the country played
this year.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
I think it's just Texas. It's just Texas.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
They beat Texas, who was again the preseason number one
and has an incredible defense.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
It's the defense has not been the reason why Texas
has fallen off.

Speaker 6 (10:19):
There.

Speaker 5 (10:20):
It's been it's been arch Manning not being quite ready
for the for the moment. He's gotten better throughout the
season though, anyway, So that's part of the reason why.
The other the other part of the reason is Julian
Sayan was basically Arch manning for Ohio State, and he's
had to ramp up just like Arch has.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
To be better at offense.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
So that, I mean, that's the one that's the one
to one score game for those reasons. The rest of them, they've, yeah,
they've been dominant in every game, similar to Utah, except
that Utah has had those two those two losses to Texas.
Like opponents.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
Ohio State fourteen to seven over Texas and everyone else,
they've just kind of they've kind of smashed. Indiana has
three to one score games on the resume, so there
may be a little bit more realistic of a comp
Texas A and M, the number three team in the country,
has two to one score games on the year. Now,

(11:17):
these are undefeated teams, right, So I'm not saying Utah
is in their neighborhood because these teams have not only
won every game, but they've been dominant, especially against inferior opposition.
Texas A and M beat Notre Dame by a point,
Texas A and M beat Auburn by six points. Excuse me,

(11:38):
They've got three and they beat Arkansas. But these are
all wins right against even quality competition like LSU, Texas
A and M's found ways to pull away. When you're
talking about when one of the measuring sticks of hey,
is this team really a great team in every sport
should be well, how do they look when it's easy

(11:58):
to fall asleep? How do they look when you could
be kind of like, uh, I don't have to.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Go so hard this week? What do those games look like?

Speaker 4 (12:10):
We've seen it in the past, right where even really
good Utah football teams going up against like the kind
of mid mediocre Oregon State teams or Arizona teams of
the Pac twelve era would not show up one day
and suddenly you're fighting and clawing and overtiming your way

(12:33):
either to a victory or heaven forbid, you're stubbing your
toe in an unnecessary and unacceptable way in a loss.
It's not only Utah, obviously, and it's one of the reasons,
by the way, why people are not big believers in
BYU and but why a couple of years ago there
were plenty of people who all the way up until

(12:54):
the National Championship Game were not big believers in the
University of Washington coach by Kaitlin de boor because part
of the eyeball test, part of the do you check
every box that I need to call you a great team.
Part of that is when you go up against a
five hundred squad or a sub five hundred squad, or

(13:16):
a team that's six and three and doesn't have the
athletes that you have, even if they're overachievers, you make
them look bad sportsmanship. Unfortunately, at this point, be damned.
That's what Utah has got to do against Baylor this

(13:36):
weekend in Waco. You've got to make a bunch of
people in Texas think that, man, I don't like folks
from the state of Utah. This Kyle Whittingham guy that
everyone talks about is being like a pretty, you know,
old school decent cat. He was still passing the ball
when they were up three scores on us with six

(14:00):
minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, you kind of have
to do it that way, and you are more than
capable of it. If you're a University of Utah football
team heading out of a bye week, getting as far
as we know, as healthy as you can reasonably expect
to be this far into a season, with a home
stretch of three very very winnable games. You're going to

(14:23):
be favored in all of them. You're a bad matchup
for Baylor if you show up and you be yourself.
There's just no other way to put it. Really, what
does it actually look like, Well, my hope is what
it looks like is the pass rush that didn't have

(14:48):
a ton of opportunities against Cincinnati and found a lot
of ways to cause problem against Colorado. I hope it
looks a lot more like that Colorado game because Sawyer
Robertson is a little bit more traditional in the sense
that he will drop back, he'll hold onto the ball,
he will not try to do what Soresby did, or

(15:10):
he's just offloading that thing instantaneously, or he's pulling it
down and running it. Baylor is seventh in the conference
right now, tied for seventh in the conference.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
I should say in sacks allowed.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Cincinnati, by the way, still and this is just as
much a Soresby thing as it's an offensive line thing.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
We've seen it now you've watched it firsthand.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Cincinnati has still only given up two sacks on the year,
two sacks all year long surrendered by Cincinnati. Utah's number
two in the conference seven surrendered. Kansas State is third,
BYU is fourth. I don't need to remind you, or

(15:56):
I don't need to point out, but I'm going to
because I like to draw attention to the obvious that
every single one of those schools at the top has
something in common. Quarterbacks that have a natural tendency for
elusiveness and running ability. Cincinnati's guy is about forty five

(16:19):
pounds heavier than your guy, maybe forty. Devin dan Pierre, obviously,
when he's healthy, has shown us many, many times exactly
what you saw on tape against not against but at
his previous stop in New Mexico.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
The dude just has that spidey sense, right.

Speaker 4 (16:40):
There's been a couple of games where the spidy sense
has been hampered by a kind of rhino leg and
he hasn't been as quick. And then, of course Kansas State,
when Avery Johnson's not breaking up fights between his own
brother and his own dad, he's pretty dang good running
the ball around. Baylor doesn't have quite that. They've surrendered

(17:04):
sixteen sacks so far on the year. If Utah comes
away with fewer than four, I will be shocked and dismayed.
I think that four is the bare minimum. If I
was doing over unders today for how this game should
play out and what Utah needs to do in a

(17:24):
game against Baylor, that's where I would set that number.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Three and a half. You gotta have more.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
And you know what, four and a half is probably
where I'm really feeling, if I'm not trying to be
excessively excessively reasonable. We are to a point in the
world of college football now where you kind of have
to stop being being decent about your own standing and

(17:59):
about where you're oponents are. You have to go into
these games, these final three games, with the mentality that,
like man, the goals that I have set out for
myself are only attainable if not only do I win,
but I demolish.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
It's like.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
A three point win against Baylor, a six point win
against Baylor is going to start to cast a little
bit of doubt, which sucks and it's probably unreasonable, but
starts to cast a little bit of doubt in one
or two minds in that college football playoff committees in
that room. If you follow that up with, you know,

(18:42):
a four point win against Kansas State, now half the
room is starting to wonder, are they as good as
we thought they were.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
You gotta go to overtime against Kansas Eah.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Your ticket is not booked, unless, of course, insanity and
Susanne ahead of you, and BYU loses two games and
sitting it. Cincinnati somehow loses everything outside of YU at whatever.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
You gotta kind of be unreasonable.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
And by the way, one of the biggest splash stories
of the week came down really last night. I don't
know how it will I really, I genuinely don't know
how it will affect performance on the field, because it shouldn't.
These things should be insulated from one another, but in
reality they're probably not. Mac Rhodes is the athletic director

(19:38):
at Baylor University. He is the chairman of the College
Football Playoff Committee. He is the guy that stands up
after they make their announcements and he answers the questions.
He is right now, as of today, on leave quote
unquote for personal reasons from Baylor University after and a

(20:00):
September twentieth on field incident.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah you know the personal reasons, right, Yeah. This is
Baylor trying to allow him to save face. Oh man,
personal reasons.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
This is a very very poorly veiled suspension where mac Rhodes,
in front of many many witnesses, was confrontational with an
assistant coach and apparently got physical with this assistant coach,

(20:34):
not in like I'm fighting you way, but like grabbed
him in a way that was like, wasn't hands near
the neck or something? In the way that I read it,
it sounds like he had grabbed his arm and grabbed
like kind of up around his neck, maybe the back
of his neck, not.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
Like choking him or trying to choke him out, but
like he put his hands up there.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
But look, this is there.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
Are there are grown man things you're not allowed to do, no, right,
especially with cameras on you, especially with like this assistant
coach's family standing right there right and by the way,
it apparently started with some kind of problem that mac
Rhodes may have had over Michael Trigg, who is a

(21:15):
former USC tight end who has transferred to Baylor.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
I was going to say, is that the assistant coach, No, that's.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Michael Trigg is a player who was wearing like you know,
Baylor is green and yellow, yea and white.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
Well, well they've got that what's the what's the color
of gray that they have too? That they made those
awful uniforms.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
With and they they sometimes go with the like chrome
gold helmet, which is beautiful actually, But in any case,
apparently Michael Trigg is wearing like a yellow under armor shirt.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Okay, like a long sleeve.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
That's either I think it was trying to cover up
that he was wearing a shoulder brace. He was just
trying to draw less attention to It's like the Allen
iverson arms sleeve to cover the ten And the way
I read it, it seemed like he didn't like this
athletic director right talking about micromanaging, didn't like what he

(22:09):
was wearing, Like why are you wearing that shirt?

Speaker 5 (22:12):
It's not that Baylor's not an under armer school right there.
That's not the problem is I mean, look, Nike makes
are you're you're you're saying that as the not the
materia was the brand that was the type of sure
it gotcha, I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Like whether it's Russell athletic or like who cares well.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
I would just say it's a little bit valid for
him to be upset if the brand of well, they're
a Nike school and the different brand is showing.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
But that's not the case, that's not what this is.
That's not what this dispute was about.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
It was he didn't like, for whatever reason, what are
you wearing that shirt for? And I think that's where
the assistant coach gets involved, like, hey, athletic director, stay
away from my player.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
My guys getting ready.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
This is pregame war, which, by the way, is the incredibly,
that is a wholly appropriate response, even to someone who
is like four levels higher than you on the food
chain at Baylor, if your athletic director comes down and
I know people, right, I know, people are like, whoa
what are you saying here? If your athletic director comes

(23:19):
down and involves him in a game day situation like that,
he's coloring outside the lines.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
And anyone who might be thinking of something a certain
other situation, we say that about that too.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
We fully acknowledge that that's that was outside the lines.
And obviously the conference thoughts, so right, yeah, but so
is This guy is the most visible athletic director in
the conference.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
He is the chair of the College Football Playoff Committee.
Mac Rhodes.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
They do an investigation at Baylor, they get the fact
finding done, They talk to the witnesses, they talk to
the assistant coach, they talk to Trigg, they talk to
the family, they talk to players that were around. And
mac Rhodes is allowed to take a leave of absence
for personal reasons, allowed to call it personal reason. We

(24:08):
will not make further comment. Dave Randa asked about it.
That's an HR thing I am not going to talk about.
It will not affect us, and.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
He said it, no doubt, as calmly as any human
can say it, because he just has that.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
He Dave rand if he wasn't a college football coach,
would be a Buddhist monk. He is just like some
kind of some kind of pastor. He is a steady eddie,
And like that's great. But this is all like this
is the backdrop where now every player of any kind
of import and every coach more importantly at Baylor is

(24:47):
being asked things about this. Hey, what's your relationship with
mac rods? They're getting text messages in their phone. What's
what's his problem? And I will say this all right,
Mac Rhoades, every other sports information person, every other athletic director,
associate athletic director, every other member of the brass on

(25:10):
any university campus, your student athletes, and your coaches need you. Right,
your job is incredibly important. They need you to be untouchable,
They need you to be infallible. They need you to
be someone who always has the right answer and always

(25:31):
portrays the right look. That is a desperate need in
an athletic department because of how tiny the margin for
error is.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Right now, what.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
This can do and might do for Baylor, Right, They've
got a bunch of big money donors. There's a lot
of money at Baylor, like there's a lot of money
at Texas Tech, and they come from the same industries.
In a lot of cases. You got a bunch of
doctor Pepper money down there.

Speaker 5 (25:55):
Whatever, Hey, they got the fixer they got the Magnolia
Fixer upper money too, with the gains exactly.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Chip and Joanne.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
I make a jokes about them all the time because
they're like the celebrity boosters, but they are boosters.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
He was.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
I think Chip was the celebrity guest picker the last
time they're at they came out.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
He loved me Chip, and I love me some Joanna.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
So I'm fully on board with all that, right, But
you're as a student athlete, as a coach, as a
ticket seller, as especially someone working in the GM slash
uh collective role. Yeah, you need your athletic director to

(26:34):
be somebody that nobody looks at, not one person in
your fan base or more importantly, in your booster base
looks at and goes, what the hell is this guy doing? Yeah,
you desperately need that. There is no wiggle room right now,
because if you are one booster away, which means one

(26:55):
donation away, which means one nil deal away from being
a five hundred team in the Big twelve Conference, and
that Brewster, that doctor Pepper executive, that Chip or Joanna
Gains goes, you're putting your you're putting your hands on
assistant coaches, You're yelling at kids over shirts that they're wearing.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
I'm not supporting this anymore. I can't get behind this.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
Like, no university, especially on the Baylor level, can afford
this right now, not one. There's not one out there
that is looking outside, looking in at the blue blood
picture and can afford any minor scandal, any minor infraction,
any minor questioning of leadership.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
You can't afford it.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
So poor Dave Randa has to answer questions for his boss,
who is the most visible athletic director in the conference
right now.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
It's why.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
It's why when Kyle Whittingham was asked about comments made
that Mark Rlin ended up being penalized for I don't
want to bring up old stuff from last year, but
you guys all know what I'm referencing. It's why Kyle
Whittingham's response was exceedingly correct.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
He said, ask him, I'm not accountable for it.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
These coaches can't be asked like yeah, the same way
players should never be asked like, hey, your head coach
went out there did some crazy stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
What do you think. I don't know. He's higher on
the food chain to be man. Ask him.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
Asked the coach, and Dave Randa also had a great
response saying, hey, that's an HR thing.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
It's above my pay grade. That's an HR thing.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
But you know how bad that sucks when they've got
a big game this week, and and it sucks, by
the way, for the Big Twelve Conference in a way
that it affects Utah, it affects b Yu.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
He is he going to be allowed to the CFP
the rest of the season. Probably not chance, not while
his own school has put him on administrative leave.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Absolutely there's no.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Open way that the College Football Playoff Committee's gonna be like, yes, go.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Be our spokesperson. Yeah, there's no way.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
So they're gonna they're gonna do the the the sec
A D that's on that's on the committee or something
instead like this is this is a This is a
problem for the Big twelve the rest of the year,
especially when you have one team that's securely in the
playoff and two that are on the bubble.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
And I don't want to look not that that.

Speaker 5 (29:23):
Not that the chair of the committee is trying to
sway people for their own conference.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
That's not what they're supposed to do.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
But supposed to recuse themselves from from the conversations about
their own schools.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
But I don't think about their own conference schools.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
But they can have an impact, even if they're being
even if they're being partial and professional, they can have
an impact on that. They can they can give some
insight that the other ads don't have.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
And if you don't, if you don't think that there's
like a SPIKEE factor to this for the College Football
Playoff Committee.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Oh, this moron embarrassed all of us.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
So you know what, how do we punish him.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
You can't kick Texas Tech out. But you know what,
we just we just won't. We just won't. Really, folks
can't handle the spotlight. Yeah, we just want to entertain
Utah and Bayu. How about that.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
Maybe maybe these maybe these podunk flyover conference type people
can't handle the pressure of being in a situation like this.
And guess what if you're in any kind of like
shake hands, kiss babies, leadership, administrative role, don't drink at
the tailgate or the halftime anything or the whatever, don't

(30:32):
do it. Because mac Rhodes, there's absolutely no way you
can explain that behavior other than I probably got a
little loose. Sorry, don't do it. You're working dog, all right,

(30:54):
Enough of my rant. Sean O'Connell show continues with Gordy
chi in an NBA guru swings by. We'll talk Utah,
jazz and the rest of the stuff around the association.
You know, Gordy and I love talking about Victor Webbin Yama. Well,
web Minyama goes off, and guess what, so does his
former Rookie of the Year teammates. The spurs are a problem,
Ladies and gentlemen, ESPN seven hundred ninety to one FM.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Peace out.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Let's get the latest on the Utah Jazz with former
Jazz assistant coach Gordy Chiasa. She's forgotten more about the
NBA than any of us will ever know.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
It's not get crazy. Come for the.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Hoops talk, stay for his list of the day we
list today. Here's o C with basketball Samon Gordy Chiasa
on The Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
Have been correctly chastised.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
By ninety six fifty three on the text line. Mark
Harlin is the nominee for the Big Twelve to replace
Mac Roads on the college football Playoff Committee, which makes
a heck of a lot of sense. He's been in
that capacity before, and obviously he's highly thought of, and

(32:12):
he's well tenured and things like that. Thank you ninety
six fifty three. You don't have to be so mean
about it next time.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Just kidding. We deserve that in any case.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Moving on to a little NBA basketball with our good
friend and resident NBA guru Gordy Chiasa, who swings by
a couple times a week to talk about the association.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Gordy, welcome, How are you, sir, Sean.

Speaker 7 (32:36):
I'm doing great? Thank you.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Look.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
I know I should stay as local as possible, but
Victor wembin Yama Stefan Castle, this is a problem for
the rest of the.

Speaker 7 (32:49):
League very much. You mentioned two young guys that are
absolutely sensational performers, and in Ween beyond, but we've never
seen a guy like him to be that tall, that's
skilled in the all around game and he does play hard.
And in Stephan Castle, the four pick of the draft

(33:09):
two years ago, he's making that maturation from being a
scoring guard into an eight guard. And last night's game
and they both had a triple double, which is unbelievable
to do. And unfortunately from the Spurs point of view,
they lost that game because Steph Curry refused to lose.
So let's not forget how the brilliants of Steph Curry.

(33:31):
Besides the emergence of the Spurs, step goes to forty
six points on the road to knock out the Spurs,
and that was the Spurs shown first home loss. Has
quick numbers for Steph Curry forty six points, five rebounds,
five assists and two steals. The counted the two great
performances by the Spurs Duo.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Cordy, you've been around the NBA for a long time.
What was the greatest kind of veteran keeping the young
dogs at bay performance that you've ever seen, Because that's
effectively what we saw from Steph Curry, right, like the
obvious changing of the guard that will happen eventually, is
that Victor wembin Yama, he already is a star, but
he will eventually be kind of the face of the

(34:14):
league megastar.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Steph Curry has been in that role.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
And you know, there are opposite ends of the spectrum
in terms of the timing left in their career. But
in a case like this one, and we saw it
with Kobe, we saw it with Michael, We saw it
with guys before them. You know, when you're in your
mid to late thirties, you still got enough juice to
let these twenty somethings know not yet young fellas. So
what's what's the best example of that that you were
around or saw or coach Tim Duncan.

Speaker 7 (34:41):
Yeah, with Tim Duncan, you know, we he refuse to
go away in a great way. Let's have to get
Tim Duncan was the only player in the history of
basketball to win championships in different decades back in nineteen
ninety nine World champions the twenty ten they win three championships,
and than ten decade they were another championships. So Duncan

(35:04):
is the classic example as run beyond but takes over
now that mantle, even though for the few years removed
that Duncan refused to go away.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
How long can Steph Curry do it at the clip
he's doing it? I mean, we've asked this about Lebron
for a couple of years. Steph has that kind of
sustainable game with the predicated so much on his shooting,
which doesn't go away for a long time, but you know,
it take it takes some quickness to be able to
create your own shot at the very least, how much
longer can he do it at this level?

Speaker 7 (35:39):
Two more seasons after this? Yeah, he's right now. This
is seventeenth season in the NBA. I'm saying too, but
it might be three only because often a lot of
times guys want to play have a twenty year career,
and so contractually his contracts only only this year and
next year. Obviously they could redo that to say the least,

(36:02):
So Steph's on the contract through the twenty sixth twenty
seventh season, So I think that if he's still playing
at a high level, which you will, he'll try to
get another two years, maybe possibly showing a hometown discount.
Which so Steph Curry's making next season the twenty six

(36:22):
twenty seven fifty two point five million, and so I'm assuming,
again not being naives, but he takes a slight pay cut.
With Joel Relative speaking to play for the Warriors again,
he said publicly he will never not play for the Warriors.
So if he does retire, there'll be a Warrior. So
I'm saying, I'm saying two more tremendous years. See Steph

(36:42):
Curry is that he played the game on the ground.
So a lot of times people that are elite of
scoring talents they play airborne. He plays. He plays. He's
a grid court of gravity scorer where he scores points
on the ground with his unbelievable shot making and dribble skills.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
As are hosting the Hawks, a seven and five Atlanta
Hawks team that, as you know, I've asked about plenty
of times, is the ultimate head scratcher for me, why
that's not one of the great franchises in the NBA.
But you know, they're quality team this year. What do
you expect to see in this matchup?

Speaker 7 (37:18):
First, they won three games in a row, so they
last night they blessed the Kings in Sacramento one thirty
three to one hundred, and that shows you that their
ability to play interesting with the With the Hawks, the
road records shown is five and two, so usually speaking,

(37:38):
teams have a much dominant home record, they're the opposite
where they're five and two on the road. So they
come it's all like city though a back to back.
They come with a lot of different energy and more important,
besides the energy, they have confidence and they're they're led
by interesting where Trey Young, their franchise player, is hurt. Now,

(37:59):
in some circles you might say that's bad, but in
this situation where slightly additioned by subtraction, not based on talent,
but it's based on overall team goodness and chemistry, him
not being there has helped emerge them into a more
roll rounded unit. So they've got this guy named Jellen Johnson,

(38:22):
so he'll be a tough cover for the Jazz tonight.
He's a he's a fifty year player, he's vastly improved.
He'll get some votes to be the most improved player
in the NBA. He's averaging twenty point five points a game,
fifty eight point six still go percentage, five point five assists,
eight point seven rebounds, and most people don't know who
he is. And so he's a young guy via Duke

(38:43):
University that's played tremendous for them. So that next two
guys I go through quickly. Former Jazz man. I remember
this guy, Niicle, Alexander Walker with the Jazz had here
for two years and twenty one through twenty three. He
only played fifty one games. He's happening seventeen point two
points per game, and he's really a tremendous defensive player.

(39:04):
And the last guy, his first team All Defense is
Dyson Daniels from Australia, and this guy steals the ball.
He could defend on off the balls. He'll be guarding
tonight a Kante George and also be guarding probably a
little bit of an Acepelly. And so these three guys
have helped him tremendously, besides Zachary Bischach, who we talked

(39:28):
about him, the young Frenchman who's a tremendous ball skills
as far as all around player, and he's emerging as
a force right now. He's having twelve point nine points
per game. So they're a good team. It's gonna be
a good match for the Jazz. The Jazz, you know recently,
they just destroyed the Indiana Pacers on Monday night where

(39:48):
from the second game started, they're ready to go. One
note about the Jazz though, Aceplly aged nineteen years old
Sean in the month of November, which has only been
six games so far, but Ace has really improved just
by getting playing time and being slightly more confident. He's
averaging ten point two points per game, forty six point

(40:08):
nine filga percentage from the foul line, ninety percent, three
point eight rebounds, and twenty two point three minutes in November.
So we're seeing the beginning of Ace Bailey truly possibly
becoming a Jazz cornerstone.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
How much different for a young player are, you know,
those bench minutes and starting minutes in a case like
you know, for Ace Bailey as they play with his
role in this team and in this lineup, how significant
of a challenge is it to adjust to one or
the other when you're already new to the NBA game.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
Difficult. So with young players, if you don't start them,
then they've got to be in the game with the
starting point guard because usually speaking the starting point guard,
so right now be Count de George, is that just
generally speaks just generally, that they'll feel more comfortable, that
there'll be more on time on target passes versus the

(41:09):
second unit. If just generally speaking, the second unit most
times is a little bit more offensive minded and a
little bit let's say, a helter skelter. And so with
younger players, they perform better when there's an element of structure,
especially on perimeter. Most young big guys is different where

(41:31):
they can battle inside. You know, they can throw some elbows,
they can get themselves involved as far as a physicality
versus a perimeter guy where there's an element of skills involved,
but also the defense is trying to stop you, and
so versus inside, well you can use your just the
power to try to go over the top of the people.
So it's important, as I said all the time, is

(41:52):
that for young for young performances, they need somewhat structure
on the court. So when they do make shots, it's
out of the flow versue what only only out of
a pure talent.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Gordy Chase and my guest here on the Sean O'Connell show.
Conversation with Gordy brought to you by Aladdin Industries, your
Utah v.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Lux Steeler.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
So, Gordie, you know you were the most optimistic of
all the prognosticators about this Utah Jazz team, and I
probably pushed back Everyone's like, whoa are they really? They're
really going to be as good as Gordy thinks because
a lot of the fan base does he.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Want it to be as good as you think they
can be.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Now that we have a little bit of a sample size,
it seems like you know, you're more correct than the
rest of us, which we're not surprised by. But are
you confident or has your expectation changed at all to
this point?

Speaker 7 (42:43):
No, not at all. Is that the Jess absolutely good players?
I mean, Larry Marketing should make the All Star Game?
Should If I'm voting, I'm voting to Larry Marketing. And
he's having twenty eight point five points per game, and
you get this feeling there when he has the pull
the shot, Oh he's going to go in and then
again Isaiah College is coming back now and you know,

(43:04):
last game he gets eleven assist. So getting back to
Ace Bailey when College's in the game, even as the
second Unite guy, that he's pass happy. And so the
Jazz have some good young players and one or two
players in their prime, and so other teams they're this arrayed.
The Jazz are trajectorily going upward, and I'm not surprised

(43:27):
at all, but I do think if the Jazs are
going to keep improving, they've got it. There's two things
that I'd be still concerned about. They're twenty eighth in
the NBA in most turnovers sixteen point four per game.
The only two teams worse as far as turnovers are
the Hornets and the Wizards, and the Wizards have only
won one game this year. And the last part about

(43:48):
that is, yes, I'm a three point shooting advocate, Yes
i am, but the Jazz right now shooting accuracy from
three point range, meaning misfire the twenty eighth in the NBA.
It's three point accuracy, they're only shooting thirty two point
two percent. The only two teams that are worse than
the Jazz is three point range are the Mavericks and

(44:09):
the pacers. We show the paces of dis array and
the massive disarray. And so when you want those are
two areas that the Jazz if they can improve that,
there will be even more as far as they're dramatically
as far as upgrade. So in jazz basketball, the future
is bright, but there's still much, so much more work
to do.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
Lordy, what's your list today?

Speaker 7 (44:33):
All right, let's today, Sean. It's about Duke University living
that Quinn Snyder coached the Jazz very well for eight years. Here.
He's a Duchy the class of nineteen eighty nine. And
so there's a lot of Duke guys in this game tonight.
And also just generally speaking, there's a lot of Duke
guys in the NBA. There's annual lists, Joan of the
former Duke players currently in the NBA. There's twenty five

(44:56):
Duchies that are playing in the NBA as of this morning.
I bet you want new Sean. You and James, are
they the most in the NBA? The twenty five? No,
they're not the most players from an NBA from a
college team. Presently University of Kentucky they have twenty nine.
So Kentucky's won and Duke's number two. Here we go.

(45:18):
Dukie's in the NBA this year as we speak, from
the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg, Derek Rively from the Magic,
paulovn Caro, Wendell Carter and Tyas Jones from the Sons,
Grayson Allen, Mark Williams and Common Mellowatch from the Hornets,
Seon James kan Kneppo and Mason Plumley from the Raptors.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
R J.

Speaker 7 (45:43):
Barrett and Brandon Ingram from the Hawks pre mentioned right now,
Jellen Johnson mentioned earlier, and Luke Connaught from the Jazz
Kyle Philipowski from the Wizards, Rovin Bagley from the seventy Sixes,
Jared Mca from the Celts, injured Jason Tatum from the Bulls,

(46:04):
Trey Jones from the Pelicans, Signed Williamson from the Pistons,
Wendelmore Junior from the Bucks, Gary Trent and Leslie from
the Cavs. Terse Proctor quickly Jazz basketball duke connection. That's
not forget Carlos Bowser, presently a Jazz College talent evaluator,

(46:25):
two time All Star back in two thousand and seven eight,
an Olympic gold medal winner in two thousand and eight,
and Beijing was probably the best jazz player ever to
play for Duke to wear a jazz uniform. Last point
about that, who were the three best NBA players that
play in the NBA career wise from Duke University Number

(46:46):
one best Jason Tatum, Number two Grand Hill and number
three Kyrie Irving? Go do geese.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
That is an unbelievable lineup of players from one at university, Gordy,
how many uh, how many former utes in the NBA
right now?

Speaker 7 (47:06):
Okay, in the NBA right now? All right, Kouzman, that's one, Yes,
Brandon Carlson. Two helped me out my mind's flank.

Speaker 8 (47:20):
This is.

Speaker 7 (47:22):
Yeah, pearl Yeah, three screaming three yaka Purdle or you'll
like right as you speak, right now.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
Who's not the lawn? Right he is not in the
NBA right now?

Speaker 7 (47:36):
It's not No, he's right now. He got waved the
other day and so he's looking for a job right now,
yeah the lawn right?

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Well, all right, so three, So this shows you.

Speaker 7 (47:45):
How, hey, making the NBA. It's hard making the NFL.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
It's hardy.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
The wow, Gordy, you're the man I always appreciate your time.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Thanks so much.

Speaker 7 (47:58):
Thanks Sean peace out, stay well.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Duke Kentucky. I mean some of these blue blood programs
that have just become NBA factories. Okay, wait, so we
decided it's three uts. With Delan being recently ousted. How
many BYU Cougars we know what they're creating right now.
How many BYU Cougars are currently in the NBA on

(48:24):
an NBA roster.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
We'll figure it out. We'll come back with that answer.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
Also a junk mail update official Utah football email.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
I'll tell you what it says.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
On ESPN seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM Hot Lunch is coming.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
New tunes of the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
one a half M Hot Lunch.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Here on the Sean O'Connell Show, we got some official
junk mail that is company letterhead type email coming from
the Utah football program and their head of Communications Assistant
Athletic Director for Strategic Communications. Is the proper title Keeler

(49:23):
mcjenkin junk mail. The Utah football offensive line has been
recognized as a semi finalist for the Joe Mora Award,
presented annually to.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
College football's best offensive front. Let's go mayby.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
Yeah, Jeff Schwartz, your compensation is on its way.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
Now, one of ten semi finalist units for the award,
which is named after Joe Moore. Why the regard as
the best offensive line coach in college football history and
the only major college football award to honor an entire
position group or unit to the Joe Morral Trophy is
this three hundred pound bronze statue. It is a big thing,

(50:06):
especially in the offensive line community, and Utah has played
well enough on the offensive front to justify in the
minds of this committee some of the hype that they
came into the season with. Now you're one of the
final ten. So that's that's tough. Texas, A and M

(50:30):
and Vanderbilt are on the list. Cincinnati, who's only given
up two sacks this year. As we already talked about,
Duke Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa. I think Iowa is automatically
a top ten offensive line every single year. I think
they're Joe More Award semi finalist in perpetuity. I'd love

(50:53):
to know how many years they didn't have Iowa on
their offensive line semi finals at least Michigan, Oregon and Utah.
Guess who won it last year, James is Army, right, Army. Yeah,
I mean they had an incredible season last year. They
were undefeated at this point.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
I believe they were still undefeated at this point last
season into the November. But yeah, not not like anyone
in the SEC, not anyone in the Power for Army.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
I actually love that from the committee because look, Army
is not winning for any other reason than their offensive
line is phenomenal the way that they played football. You
have to have an incredible offensive line if you're gonna
have a good year. So pretty cool that Utah gets
at least the recognition of recognition to be semi finalists.

(51:45):
Spencer Fano has been on you know, semi finalist list.
Now we've talked about John Henry daily yesterday and now
the entire offensive line unit. And this, by the way,
this is an award that Jim Harding wants desperately. Every
offensive line coach in the country wants one of these.
But Jim Harding is like, this is a box he
wants to check in his career. The way that Kyle

(52:06):
Whittingham wants to say he went to a college football playoff,
Keep your fingers crossed that they can finish out strong
and look to win it. To win it, you probably
have to be a college football playoff team. You probably
have to finish out this year with surrendering no more sacks.

(52:28):
Easier said than done. All right, we'll take another quick
one here. Thanks for listening to the first hour of
The Sean O'Connell Show. At noon on Thursdays, we go
to audition with dev QB number one from our University
of Utah football team, Devin dan Pierre. Next on Utah's
number one sports stock, The Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN

(52:49):
seven hundred.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
It's time to talk to Utah quarterback Devin Dapier. This
is diitioned with Devin on The Sean O'Connell Show, brought
to you by America First credit Culligan Water of Salt
Lake City experienced the Culligan Difference, poly lift, concrete lifting
and peering, and aar up blood services. Give Local, Save Local.

(53:11):
Now Here's oc with ute signal caller Devin Dampier on
Your Home of the Utes, ESPN seven hundred and ninety
two to one a f M.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
It is that time again on the Sean O'Connell Show.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Audition with Dev QB one joins us in studio every
single week except for the bye week, So it's been
a couple of weeks since we've had a conversation with
Devin damp Pier. This conversation every week is brought to
you by Culagan Water of Salt Lake City experienced the
Colagan Difference America First Credit Union, Polylft Concrete Lifting and
Peering and ar Up Blood Services give Local, save local

(53:47):
lots to cover with number four Dev.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
How are you, sir?

Speaker 8 (53:50):
Doing good?

Speaker 3 (53:51):
How are you tell me how the bie week was?

Speaker 9 (53:53):
What you do with Arizona, seeing my parents, see my
younger brother. Just got to spend that quality time with
nice little reset when you get to do that in season.

Speaker 8 (54:02):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's football is a grind.

Speaker 9 (54:05):
It's one of those sports you know, you don't really
focus on too much more than just football. So just
to have that breakaway was pretty nice.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
Well, I'm gonna have to apologize in advance because I
know you have moved on many many days now, but
we haven't got a chance to catch up on the
Cincinnati game.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
You did it.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
You shoot the monkey off the back, the college game day,
big noon kickoff, all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
The people here were so superstitious about you.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Guys went out and you blew out the Cincinnati Bearcats,
who at the time were ranked seventeen. I do think
they're still a good team. The College Football Playoff Committee
thinks they're a good team. Forty five fourteen. A complete offensive, defensive,
special teams performance by your squad.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
How did it feel? It felt great?

Speaker 9 (54:51):
You know, again, we've been preaching that to our team,
to play as one and just go out there, you know,
play with no regrets.

Speaker 8 (54:58):
Make sure you know you leave everything on that field.

Speaker 6 (55:00):
You know.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
I thought we did a great job. But of that
last week, was that your best game as you? Statistically
it wasn't your best game as you but you made
like really timely plays, big plays when it mattered. And
there were a lot of people who came away and said,
oh man, it's really good to see dev back healthy
and playing like that. Did you feel like it was

(55:20):
at least up there is one of your best games.

Speaker 9 (55:23):
I think just I don't know, I got a hard
time grade with myself I'm a really tough grader on myself.

Speaker 8 (55:31):
Now, I just thought Lou went out there. I think
my teammate told me a lot.

Speaker 9 (55:34):
Also, just the way we came out as a group,
it does make my job easier.

Speaker 8 (55:38):
And the other ten guys are playing pretty lights out.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
So one of those guys that was playing lights out, well,
there's a couple. We'll get to all of them. Your guy,
Ryan Davis Ardi. We've talked about him plenty in these conversations.
Eight catches, one hundred and thirty two yards and a touchdown,
and I think finally, more than what we're three quarters
away through the season, finally people are starting to put
a little bit of respect on his name, like, oh,

(56:03):
he's not just like he tries hard, he's a fun
little story, came up from New Mexico. He's like a
top five receiver in the league right now.

Speaker 9 (56:10):
Yeah, yeah, no, I'm happy he's in the respect because, yeah,
he's a baller.

Speaker 8 (56:15):
You know, you look at him.

Speaker 9 (56:17):
A lot of people are you know, they're big on physicals,
how tall, how strong and this and that.

Speaker 8 (56:23):
Ryan's one of those guys.

Speaker 9 (56:24):
You know, obviously he doesn't have that one exactly. When
you look at him, but just the way he plays
on that field, the swagger, the control, just everything he
does on that field is you know.

Speaker 8 (56:33):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
Way Shan another one hundred yard game for him, six
yards of carry and a touchdown in this one, seventeen
for one hundred and four against a Cincinnati defense that
was like solid against the run, not one of the
best teams in the Big Twelve against the run. But
I think maybe more importantly for me, the running back
room got a little more crowded with the emergence of

(56:56):
Daniel Bray, and it's like maybe ignited a fire a
little bit because coach Witt even said in the press conference, Yeah,
like we now have a running back number one. Came
into the year, first five six games of the year,
it was like by committee, let's see who emerges. And
whether it was because of Bray or whatever else, way
Shawn has really separated himself.

Speaker 8 (57:16):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 9 (57:17):
You know, I think just they getting that grind and uh,
you know, just the first time in this offense, I
think he's got to a point where, you know, he
starts to feel comfortable. And I mean when when your
trust is up there, when you're doing good stuff, you know,
you keep getting the ball, and I think he knows,
you know, if if he keeps balling out there, he's
gonna keep touching the ball, and that's just more motivation

(57:39):
for him.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
How much did you clown on Smith's noden for getting
an interception and then fumbling the interception?

Speaker 9 (57:44):
But I got on the righted halftime. He was throwing
me at halftime to warm up. I was like, Bro,
you've played offense before, like you fumbling the ball and stuff.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
Oh, I know that one hurt him, but still look
great play, great game. You all smash Cincinnati, and it
for the fan base, it kind of reignited a lot
of optimism, a lot of passion like, oh my gosh,
this really is a good team. And obviously then you
head into a bye week with a home stretch of
three games, you only get to focus on the one.
Was still a lot to play for, right, I mean

(58:20):
seven and two? How much is the College Football Playoff
Committee rankings like a part of conversation in the locker
room because I know you guys are trying to focus
on what's in front.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Of you, but that's the thing that matters.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
That's like, that's one of the stated goals of this
coaching staff, let's make this college football playoff and you're
right there.

Speaker 9 (58:38):
Yeah, you know that there's no way for us to
ignore it. We don't overly talk about it. But obviously
our goal is to get in the playoffs, so you
know that that' SPoD matters. But we don't get there
unless we handle our part each and every week. So
I mean, that's what comes first. But for sure, you
know that's always in the back of our mind because
we do want to make playoffs.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
Does it feel accessible?

Speaker 4 (59:00):
I mean, when you see your name at thirteen and
obviously it's a twelve team playoff and knowing that you've
got an opportunity with some very winnable games, does it
feel like, oh, if we do what you just said,
if we do handle our business, then we're at least
in that conversation at the end of the year.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (59:16):
Yeah, for sure. We're just upset though. You know, we
made it where we need other people to help us out.

Speaker 6 (59:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (59:23):
I hate to be in that position, but you know,
we think things are going to fall in place for us.
But yeah, again, we got to handle we gotta handle
our stuff first.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
I don't want to get too all over the place here,
But I want to talk a little bit more about
the Cincinnati game.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
So I was watching as a fan.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
Our guy Eric Weddle was in town, so I was
sitting with him and we were just hanging out having fun.
And you know, it's different to be in the stands.
I usually watch from the Sideline's different to be in
the stands. You get different angles on things. We were
having this conversation. He's a coach, obviously, he played in
the league for a very long time. We were having
the conversation about the deep passing game for your offense,

(01:00:00):
and I know it's something that everyone has stated they
want to get better at. Coaches always say we want
to be better with the downfield threats. Against Cincinnati, there
were some that were really good, you know, explosive plays,
and there were a couple that a couple of throws
or whatever that you know, I don't know if there
was a route situation, a timing situation, And we got
into that that talk while we were sitting there watching.

(01:00:22):
There is the arm strength conversation, the actual like mechanics
of the throw, and then there's the timing right and
you know this way better than me at playing the
position when a ball gets underthrown, or a ball gets
thrown like where you don't catch somebody perfectly in stride
when you go back and watch it on film. Is
it more of a timing thing? Is it more of

(01:00:44):
a I didn't see him at the right juncture in
his route, Like, explain for me when you want that
throw back, why it happens that way?

Speaker 8 (01:00:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:00:54):
Sometimes, uh yeah, sometimes the ball just didn't doesn't go
where I exactly wanting to go. But there's also another
point where depending on who's out there, you know, for me,
JJ and Dollen, you know, those are tall, really physical guys,
so when you underthrow them a little bit, it gives
them a chance to gaut of their feet and jump

(01:01:15):
for it. And normally the dvs are the runner pretty
full of speed at him. So sure pis knowing me
get called during that time kind of get the best
of both for us, it is really gonna be a
PI or a catch. So yeah, just depending on who
you're throwing too is just kind of dictates how I.

Speaker 8 (01:01:31):
Put it up there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
It's probably an annoying question, but the reason I ask
it is because when we're sitting there watching, none of
us have played the position at that higher level, right,
you think that it should just be an easy thing. Oh,
he's you know, a step behind the dB. Let's put
that thing sixty yards through the air, right, Like everyone
acts like it's a simple thing. I think that the
timing of it matters just as much as having a

(01:01:52):
big arm or whatever else. But I want to give
a quarterback an opportunity to explain what he sees and
what he does.

Speaker 8 (01:01:59):
Yeah. Uh yeah, that's probably the investigating explain it, to
be honest.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Yeah that's fair. But yeah, all right, so.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
You get this dominant win over Cincinnati, and I think
for the most part, everyone's healthy. Kyle Whittingham said that
in the press conference there was a scary moment for
fans in that game where Spencerfano gets carried into the
blue tent. They cover him up on the sideline. When
you guys are you know, on the sideline in the

(01:02:29):
huddle whatever, what's that like? When you're like, okay, I
hope he's good. And he came back in the game
and he finished out the game, so you know, knock
on wood, it's all. But give me, give me your
sense of a moment like that when one of the
best guys on this team goes down even temporarily.

Speaker 9 (01:02:44):
Yeah yeah, I mean again, he's a big part of
our offense. Obviously, he's one of our energetic guys. So
just know you Uh, Like in my head, I'm like, Okay,
I gotta I gotta kind of fill his spot in,
like I gotta bring that to our offense. So, but
Spencer is one of the toughest guys. I know, he
gave me a sign that I got you, Dev, I

(01:03:05):
be right back, like just stuff like that, Like, uh,
you know, you know he's hurting, but uh you know
the fact he's going out there and he puts his
body on the line for me.

Speaker 8 (01:03:16):
Uh yeah, I just love that guy for uh.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
Devin Dan Pierce our guest here a Dished with Dev
brought to you by Culigan Water a Salt Lake City
tastes the Culigan Difference. America First Credit Union, poly Lift,
Concrete lifting and Peering, and aar Up Blood Services, Give Local,
Save Local. All right, So turning the page, you get
through the bye week. Uh, it's three days of practice
during the bye week and then they give you the

(01:03:39):
weekend off.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Is that how it works? Yep? Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:03:42):
SAT Day Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we went Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
Okay, so far so Saint's kind of same as the
first bye week of the season. Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Does it feel like that formula, I mean it worked
the first time. Does it feel like that formula is
kind of right for you to at this point in
the year. I imagine there's bumps and bruises all over
the place, but you feel refreshed after the bye week.

Speaker 9 (01:04:01):
Yeah, for sure. I think it's great for me and
just the team in general. A little small bruises and
just the amount of increase you can get in in
that week of a body part that that's hurting or
something you know, you get to get pretty good percent
just goes a lot more higher up.

Speaker 8 (01:04:21):
So I think it's good the way we do it
and the way we handle it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
I know there's a lot of football left to play
in this season, but you've got eligibility, right, and you're
you're now playing regularly in an offense where freshmen are
being used a lot, right. I mean, you've got JJ
who you mentioned, Daniel Bray who I've mentioned a bunch
of times. There's a lot of young talent on this team,

(01:04:45):
like young dudes who seem like they're going to be
bright spots moving forward. Is that something that I mean,
even in the thick of this season, you look at
it and say, man, if I can develop more chemistry
and more timing with this guy, we got years of
this in front of us.

Speaker 9 (01:05:01):
Yeah, you know, I think they're putting themselves in a
great situation, especially again for next year. I think I
was gonna be the dudes for sure. But I mean
they're dudes right now. There's a reason why they're playing
right now. They earn their respect. So he shout out
to our young guys.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
I need I lied. I do need to ask one
more thing about the Cincinnati game.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
Uh Bird had a rushing touchdown where it looked like
he got maybe knocked all the way unconscience.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
I don't know if he.

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
Did, but he got he got hit hard right in
the side of the helmet and then he got laid
there for a second, ended up popping back up. But
when you're watching that on film, like digesting, I know
that you're both running quarterbacks, right, you're a little bit
more seasoned in that regard. Is there something you could
tell like, hey, you don't have to take that hit.
There's a way you can get to the end zone

(01:05:51):
without taking that hit.

Speaker 8 (01:05:53):
Yeah, yeah, I'm really close to bird. Yeah it was
joke to us.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Okay, come bru found them a little bit for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:06:03):
Yeah, I definitely told them the next time you got
just go out of bounds or uh yo to find
somebody to throw the ball to you. You gotta take that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Yeah, that was a it was a big hit. But
he got in the end zone. Yeah, he got in there.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
He did what he had to do. Added to that point.
Total forty five to fourteen was the final. Uh tell
me what you've seen with Baylor. What do you think
of this Baylor Bears team?

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
I look at it. They're a little bit bipolar honestly.

Speaker 8 (01:06:29):
YEA.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
Offensively, they can put up some big numbers and look like,
oh hey, that should be that should be a team.
Like at the beginning of the year, in the preseason,
people put them in the conversation as a contender in
the Big Twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
It has not played out that way. But there's not
a lack of talent on.

Speaker 8 (01:06:43):
That team for sure.

Speaker 9 (01:06:45):
Kind Of just like you said, you see games where
you know, they're flying around all game, and then there's
times where they saw that down during games also, so
I think they're a talented group as well. I don't
disrespect any your opponent. You're really good on the defense
out side.

Speaker 6 (01:07:02):
Of the ball.

Speaker 8 (01:07:03):
So we got to be on our a game.

Speaker 4 (01:07:06):
And how do you maintain consistency after a bye week.
We always talk about the advantages of a bye week
and like healing healing up and things like that. But
you guys are coming off of one hundred points of
offense in two weeks basically, right rolling. That's momentum that
you might not want to interrupt, and hopefully the bye

(01:07:27):
week doesn't. So how do you make sure that you
maintain your production that the offense maintains its production after
you know, some time off.

Speaker 9 (01:07:36):
Just mentality, Honestly, when the energy's up there and we're
grinding during practice tends to have good results for us
at the end of the week. So just I mean,
we preached it already, you know, every practice it's got
to matter. So I think we've been doing a good
job of that during this week, so it should should

(01:07:58):
be able to show it on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
I asked you this before we started recording. If you
watched BYU Texas Tech, you said yes, A game like
that is frustrating to watch. Expound on that, tell me,
tell me what you were thinking and feeling as you're
watching that game.

Speaker 9 (01:08:13):
Yeah, I just think we didn't capitalize on our big
moments both of those games, against both of them. So no,
you just watch it. Just man, I want that, Just
want a couple of plays back. Just things like that
go on in your head. But you know, respect to them,
they won against us.

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
But yeah, in a perfect world, in a perfect world, right,
let's say that the way things play out, Because these
are both possibilities, it's gonna be hard to make it happen.
But let's say that you can get into the college
football playoff finishing ten and two. You don't go to
the Big twelve championship game, but because you have three

(01:08:55):
impressive wins, you get that at large bid, that final
at large bid anyway, or you get a chance at
revenge on Tech or on BYU. In Devin Dan Pierre's
perfect world, what is the best way to finish out
a great season?

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
Who would you want to play at that championship? Smile
And I know I don't know what you're thinking about.
How do I answer this diplomatically? Your coaches don't listen.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
I've already asked them, so, so so tell me what
would be would you rather like, give me another shot
at Tech?

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
Give me another shot at BYU.

Speaker 4 (01:09:29):
I want that big twelve championship, or I mean the
bigger thing, which is not my favorite in college football
right now, but the bigger thing for a school in
a program right now is making the college football playoff,
whether you win the conference championship or not. Ohio State
didn't win the conference championship and they won the national championship,
So your perfect world, how do you get there?

Speaker 8 (01:09:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:09:52):
Yeah, I'm duck smoke. I love I love playing against
a good teams, so that'd be funny either way. But
play playoffs is number one. That's something that's something I've
been dreaming since I got here. Literally, it's uh, it's
been the plan since I got here, why I came here.
So whatever, whatever makes it happen.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
You know, when you're watching by U, Texas Tech and
you're seeing how that plays out, which of those teams
are you like? I hate these dudes. I want another
crack at them. I know that if I would have
done this or I would have done that, that we
would have beat them. Which one was like more in
your mind?

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Uh?

Speaker 8 (01:10:32):
Just both.

Speaker 9 (01:10:35):
Uh, not just the hating standpoint, just like we we
just should have played better on our side of the ball.

Speaker 8 (01:10:42):
For sure. We had the opportunities, so they just wish
we capitalized a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
All right, Back to Baylor, I'm putting you in a
bad spot here. Back to Baylor.

Speaker 4 (01:10:52):
This this team, like we said, there's there's ups and
downs for him. Uh, it's on the road in Waco
to normal like the way there shouldn't be a factor,
that he shouldn't be a factor. And we've seen really
in these last couple of weeks, especially the run game
kind of carry things. Passing has been good as well,
it's been a balance, but the run game has emerged

(01:11:13):
in a way that really made it so that Colorado
was never a game, Cincinnati was never a game. Is
that you your running backs? Is that something you have
to give the offensive line credit for? Is that Jason
Beck's play calling? Why these last two weeks has the
run game been so popent?

Speaker 8 (01:11:30):
Yeah, I think it's it's all we all compliment each other.

Speaker 9 (01:11:35):
Obviously, it starts with r oc I think he does
a great job of making plays different every week. Finding
things we do well and continue to put ourselves in
that position. And then yeah, I mean our line makes
it pretty much. We can call anything and it should
it should work out pretty well. Those guys are a
talented group, and like you talked about earlier, bringing in

(01:11:58):
bray ways up and up, knock still back there, quarterback
run being there, then we get good ball carriers as well.

Speaker 8 (01:12:07):
So yeah, dominating the trenches, you know, ten to win games?

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
Are you?

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
Are you paying attention to the job openings that are
happening around college football? I know you're like you're a
fan of football, but you're also focused on your own season.
There's like thirteen open jobs right now. There's been firings
all over the country. Big time programs bid major programs.
That shakes up things in the world of college football.
Is that something you're paying any attention to right now?

Speaker 10 (01:12:35):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (01:12:36):
Not like serious paying into paying attention to, but like
it's definitely like when you see somebody get fired, like
everyone's like, yo, this is crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
Like another person just got by Auburn Arkansas. I mean
everyone's wondering if Dion's gonna be there next year. It's crazy.

Speaker 8 (01:12:51):
It's a lot of teams right now, letting go, and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
Now what's happening in the NFL too, Yeah, which.

Speaker 8 (01:12:56):
Is kind of wild to me. I find it a
little crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
But have you ever.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
Have you ever had a season where you had to
finish out under like an interim head coach? No, no,
or no, anyone close to you that had to do that.
It feels like it would be such a difficult thing.
And sometimes there's you know, a team gets energized after
a firing and the interim guy comes and does the
raw raw thing, and then they win that next game

(01:13:25):
and we all pay attention to that, and they lose
like the next three, and we don't pay as much
attention to that. It seems like it'd be a really
tough thing because you're in that routine, you're in that system,
and then it probably changes a little bit when the
head guy.

Speaker 8 (01:13:36):
Goes yeah no, I'm pretty sure that's difficult. No doubt.

Speaker 9 (01:13:42):
Head coach does build a culture or at least a
standard for the culture to meet. So I know when
you lose that guy, I'm pretty sure, Pretty sure it's
a little tough.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
I asked you this also off, and you know I'm
not I don't want to get too deep in anyone's business,
but fans are we have ideas about what the NIL
world is and what NL obligations look like. And people
always like report numbers that are sometimes way crazy overblown.
And you and I have touched on this a little

(01:14:13):
bit in our conversations that there is now a businessman
aspect to playing college football. And obviously you're like, I mean,
you're one of the stars of this team. You're somebody's
deep in this community, and you're also trying to focus
on the main thing and make sure that football is
the main thing.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
And so I asked you, like, as.

Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
Far as daily, weekly, monthly obligations where you have to
do that you have to check that box in order
to keep the paychecks coming, or you have to check
that box in order to keep the collective happier, whatever
it is. Now, how much time do you have to
put into that? And I just wanted to bring that
to the air because I think that it's being managed
pretty well, or it sounds like it's being managed pretty well,

(01:14:52):
and that it's not something that takes away or distracts
from your football.

Speaker 9 (01:14:56):
Yeah, you know, I think that's the great thing about agents. Uh,
if you get the right ones, Uh, the ones that
truly care for you. They put me in a pretty
good situation. I don't I really don't have to worry
about anything. Uh during the season, strictly football, strictly playing
for my team. So I'm not in a situation where
I get to worry about any of that going on.

Speaker 8 (01:15:17):
Outside of football right now.

Speaker 4 (01:15:20):
I asked you this when we were halfway through the season.
You're now three quarters of the way through the season, right,
three games left. Has it gone by faster than you
thought it would?

Speaker 9 (01:15:30):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's fine. It means you're having fun though,
So I'm happy. I'm happy where I'm at. I'm happy.
Uh really, Rice Cycles and everyone's treating us. So, yeah,
it is crazy that we're already last three games, Like,
got to make them count.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Go one more home game, right Cycles.

Speaker 9 (01:15:51):
Yeah, we talked about that a little bit last week.
You Spencer just brought it up, you know, with his
being able to go to the draft possibly. He was like,
it coulda be my last home game, So that's crazy
to get to it. Let's make the most of it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
That's really cool.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
Crazy though, does it feel like all the goals, I mean,
we go back to August when we first started having
these conversations, you had you had goals in your mind,
you had some goals that you shared with with us,
your personal goals, your team goals.

Speaker 3 (01:16:24):
They're all kind of there still to play for.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
I mean, yes, you will need help to get to
the conference championship game, in the playoff, et cetera, et cetera.
But is there some level of I don't know, satisfaction, optimism,
excitement over the fact that we are seventy five percent
of the way through the season and all the things
that you had set out to accomplish are still very possible.

Speaker 8 (01:16:42):
Yeah, I think again. Yeah, the biggest thing for me
is winning.

Speaker 9 (01:16:48):
Obviously you want the rest of the stats to follow
that and whatever, But as long as we're winning games,
you know, that's that's kind of number one for me.
But it is pretty cool that just the way we're
playing on offense and especially defensive. I mean, obviously I'm
not on that side, but you know they're that's that's
my squad too. Uh, they're playing phenomenal as well. So

(01:17:10):
the fact that both sides are handling business, it's pretty
it's pretty good to have like a good good on
both sides.

Speaker 3 (01:17:19):
What can you tell me about Don Saunders? What's he like?

Speaker 6 (01:17:22):
Don?

Speaker 8 (01:17:23):
Don? Don?

Speaker 9 (01:17:25):
Don's quiet but like energetic at the same time. It's
it's so crazy because like I got, I got a
little inside juggle with it, like we're just always he's
a good vibe in the locker room. But he's on
those guys, you know, he was he was waiting for
his moment, you know, and I think he made He's

(01:17:46):
made the most of every time he's gone in so uh,
you know, I'm proud of him for capitalizing on every
opportunity he's getting.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
He was great against Cincinnati. I mean, like it was excellent.
They were trying to attack him. I don't know if
they had identified something and he made that play. I
think every time they targeted his guy, he was right there. Yeah,
I mean that was that was That was a Don
Saunders game in my mind.

Speaker 8 (01:18:12):
Yeah, for sure. I think the the DB's just against
who we've been playing.

Speaker 9 (01:18:17):
You know, they've had their time to be tested, and
you know they're handling better than anyone could.

Speaker 8 (01:18:25):
Everyone across the board.

Speaker 3 (01:18:26):
Do you hate on him because he also wears number four?

Speaker 10 (01:18:28):
No, No, it's love. It's all the four and four
and four turning up on both sides. Did you see
what happened? Did you see the thing that USC should
have got in trouble for where the head? Yeah, that
was crazy.

Speaker 9 (01:18:41):
But Sam, they did put him. I saw something like
on Twitter they put him. They did have it like
marked before the game. They put it he was gonna wear.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
So put him in the program as number eighty before
the game.

Speaker 9 (01:18:55):
So like, as much as you want to say they
did that, even had the opportunity to look at the roster.

Speaker 3 (01:19:01):
They did. They did.

Speaker 4 (01:19:03):
The Big ten came out I think yesterday and said, okay,
they handled the roster thing right. But it's actually illegal
for two people wearing the same number to play the
same position in a game. So like if you went
out to play corner where number four, they'd be like, no,
that's a penalty. You can't do that because you're not
gonna sun. And if don came in to play to

(01:19:25):
run like a wildcat or something, also illegal. I learned
something new every day, But after huh, it's after the Yeah,
so it doesn't matter. So if you're Northwestern, you're just like, well,
thank you for telling us.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
Yeah, we had to be the example of.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
The thank you for figuring that out. But nothing happens.
It doesn't change the result of the play or the
game or anything else. I hate when, I actually hate
when in the NFL the NBA, when they do that,
when they come out the league office comes out and
says that should should have been a penalty, that should
have been a holding or whatever. Yeah, we missed this one.
You're like, are you gonna change the result? Then stop

(01:20:04):
talking about everyone's already mad. Anyway, have you been to
Waco before, NOE? Do you know anything about Waco?

Speaker 6 (01:20:13):
Have you?

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
Do you watch Fixer Upper that that home improvement television
show us from there or.

Speaker 8 (01:20:19):
Anything like that, any sense of people don't like being
there for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:20:23):
Yeah, it's cool to go in and out, all right, Well,
go in and out, get this win against Taylor Bears.

Speaker 8 (01:20:30):
Yea, let's get the important stuff done, all.

Speaker 4 (01:20:33):
Right, Dev, it's always great, catch it up with you.
Appreciate your time. Yeah, good luck, man, appreciate it. Devin
Damn Pierre audition with Dev QB one joins us every
single week, at least every active week for your utes.
Brought to you by Coligan Water, a Salt Lake City tastes,
the Colorgan Difference, America First Credit Union, Poably Lift, Concrete,
lifting and Peering, and of course a R up Blood Services,

(01:20:56):
Give Local, Save Local lots left to get to. On
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ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show for the
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Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven
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Fighting tickets to give away for Friday Night First Fight.
We'll be at seven o'clock at the Salt Lake City
Masonic Temple. We'll be giving away tickets in an hour
and ten minutes or so. Make sure you tune in
text the answer to the trivia question for your chance

(01:21:49):
to win a pair of Fierce Fighting Championship tickets on
Friday night.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
Checking in behind Enemy Lines Baylor Insider from the Waco
Tribune Herald, Bryce Cherry, he's their sports editor. Joins us
here on the Sean O'Connell Show. Bryce, Welcome, How are you, sir?

Speaker 11 (01:22:06):
Doing well? How about you?

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
Anything interesting going.

Speaker 6 (01:22:09):
On with the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
The Baylor athletic department today?

Speaker 11 (01:22:13):
Geez, Yeah, you know it's it's a never ending news
cycle around here. Yeah, it's been been a crazy news
day with the I think what you're referring to the
mac Rohodes news. And Mac's gonna take a leave of absence.
We're being told us about probably four weeks that can

(01:22:36):
be expected, and yeah, it's kind of an interesting time. Obviously,
he's got a big job as the chairman of the
College Football Playoffs Committee and gonna step down from that.
They're calling it personal reasons. And but they have investigated

(01:22:58):
a couple of things now, one of which you know,
we're we have some details on which was an incident
involving tight end Michael Trigg at the Arizona State game
earlier this year where they kind of got into it
Ian mack and but this latest investigation still still developing

(01:23:22):
on that story.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
So if you can give me a little bit more insight,
what's being reported is that whatever disagreement Trigg and and
mac Rhodes had was about a shirt, a yellow shirt
that Trigg was wearing. Uh, that feels like a pretty
innocuous thing for anyone to either be mad about or

(01:23:44):
respond to or whatever. I don't know if that's why
an assistant coach got involved. Do we know anything more
than what's being you know, kind of reported in the
Associated Press byline type stuff.

Speaker 11 (01:23:56):
I mean, no, that's pretty that's that's pretty much it.
He was wearing a yellow shirt and everybody else was
wearing a dark undershirt, and Mac asked him about it,
but asked him in a in a way that was
not so pleasant. You know what the bleeper you wearing

(01:24:17):
kind of thing. And let me just you know, give
you a little bit of background on Michael Trigg. I mean,
h uber talented. Uh, probably gonna win the Mackie Award
for the best tide end of the country. I mean,
he's leading a number of categories for tight ends in
the in the country. Uh. Just crazy athletic. I mean

(01:24:39):
he makes one handed catches and he's gonna be playing
in the NFL. All that said, he's a little bit
of a mystery to us are in wakeup because in
two years on the team, he has yet to conduct
one interview. Baylor has kind of kept him under wraps,
and you know, He's not the first guy they've ever

(01:25:02):
done that with. But uh, you know, so we we'd
love to talk to Michael Trigg. But again they you know,
they're not making him available. We've heard that he actually
talks about himself and the first person, which sounds glorious.
I would love to hear, you know, Michael Trigg talk
about Michael.

Speaker 3 (01:25:21):
I need this so bad. Now I didn't know. See,
you're giving me me totally new information. I didn't know
that he was.

Speaker 11 (01:25:31):
Wrote in a column that he probably has gone up
to Sawyer Robertson and gone Michael Trigg says, throw Michael
Tree to the box.

Speaker 4 (01:25:39):
Oh my gosh, I need I need the Michael Trigg
one on one interview so bad.

Speaker 11 (01:25:45):
Yeah, it may happen. We'll see. Or were we literally
literally uh request him every week every week that he's
ever been he request so, uh that's ongoing and and
we'll see. But uh, you know, back to the point,
I mean, uh yeah, I think it was emotions running high,

(01:26:06):
and then you had Baylor losing a tight game to
Arizona State, uh second loss of the season at that point,
and a lot of high expectations maybe starting to uh
circle the drain, and you know, Max got a temper,
and I think maybe Michael tit Trick does too, and
so I just think maybe it was a little case

(01:26:30):
of emotions running high. You know, I've heard there's some
video of the incident. We haven't been able to acquire that.
You know, Baylor is a private school and so they're
able to kind of shield itself from some things. But uh,
but yeah, it's a it's a it's a weird situation.

(01:26:51):
It's the ongoing situation. And and then like I said, uh,
you know, it's it's kind of still developing.

Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
Is Baylor better?

Speaker 4 (01:27:01):
You talked about the high expectations, and look, we on
this show, we were among those who said, hey, Baylor's
got a chance to be a conference championship contender this
year when we were back in Texas in August.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
But they're not right now? Right? Are they better than
five and four?

Speaker 6 (01:27:19):
Man?

Speaker 11 (01:27:19):
I think you know, I think with that, you've kind
of got to trot out the old Bill Farcells line
and says you are what your records says. I mean,
you know, they're they're just very inconsistent. They've had one
game where they've kind of put it all together. Talking
about offense, defense, special teams, all of it, you know,

(01:27:41):
and that's you know, fortunately, I guess for the Bears
their last game, you know, homecoming against UCF. I don't
think UCF's great, but at the same time, they were
running the ball pretty well going into that game against Baylor,
and Baylor shut him down. And it's you know, legitimately

(01:28:03):
the only time all year where we've you know, just
really seen both sides of the ball kind of show
up and show out. You know, defense has been the
issue for this team. Obviously, uh Sawyer Robertson and the
receivers they have Bryson Washington have been a little banged up.
That's been an issue for for Baylor's running game, but

(01:28:27):
you know, they can put points on the board generally.
They have had their moments though where the offense is
kind of not shown up and maybe the defense was
playing a little bit better that that day. So there's
just been a lot of uneven performances for Baylor and
you kind of never know what you're gonna get from
week to week, and that's led to a pretty hot

(01:28:48):
heat for Dave Randa. Now I think it quieted a
little bit with with the win over UCF. I mean,
it was a really good performance on homecoming, one that
he really needed and the team needed. You know, thirty
to three. I think it was Baylor's lowest you know,
opponents score in a conference game in about twenty years. So,

(01:29:13):
you know, a good performance, you can't dismiss it. But
I think Utah coming in is a little bit different animal.
I mean, it's it's gonna be tough for Baylor's run defense,
which ranked one hundred and thirteenth in the country even
after the UCFK.

Speaker 4 (01:29:31):
So we're talking the Baylor side of this Utah versus
Baylor matchup with Bryce Cherry, Baylor insider. So give me
the give me the Bears perspective on this Utah team
when you're scouting this particular matchup. You know, we've these
last couple of weeks. Come to think that Utah is
pretty solid right now, and I think this is a

(01:29:53):
good matchup for the Utes. But tell me the Baylor
perspective on it.

Speaker 11 (01:29:58):
Yeah, I think it's it's I think they have the
utmost respect for the youths. I think they look at
him similar to a lot of Kyle Whittingham teams in
terms of strong and physical tough upfront on the line
and able to run the ball. I think there will

(01:30:18):
be some strength on strength in uh Utah's pass defense
against Baylor's passing attack. I mentioned uh Sawyer Robertson. You know,
there was a stretch early in the year where you know,
his name is starting to pop up in some early
Heisman lists. Obviously that's kind of died down just because

(01:30:41):
of Baylor's record, but he still I think his third
in the country and passing, you know, as we speak today,
led the country and passing for a lot of the season.
Sawyer is incredible. They've got a lot of talent at receiver,
so I mean they're gonna they're gonna challenge Utah's defense.
But we know at the same time, like I said,

(01:31:02):
that's strength on strength. That's something that you saw as well.
So yeah, I think they have a lot of respect.
I know Dave Randa, we asked him about Kyle with
him the other day at his press conference, and that
Dave is such a unique guy, just to say the least,

(01:31:22):
not like a lot of coaches that you've ever been
around in terms of just very much more quiet, much
more introspective, thoughtful. He's about it I guess self deprecating
or self analyzing a guy I've ever seen in terms
of like I screwed this up, I should do this better,
you know, that kind of thing. He owns his stuff.

(01:31:45):
But anyway, we asked him about Kyle the other day
and he mentioned, you know, sitting next in at some
Baylor Big twelve event. Maybe it was media days, I
don't remember, but and he's talking to him, and and
that in itself is you know, again, Dave's not really

(01:32:07):
talkative guy, but I think he you know, uh, he's
probably a little different around coaches. But uh, and he mentioned,
you know, I'm I'm kind of trying to get it
knowing better. And and Kyle shows me some pictures on
his phone and he's talking about what Zeppelin albums and uh,
like his favorite guitarists and stuff. And I so I

(01:32:31):
have one point, I asked Dave. I said, but what
what are the photos on your phone? And uh, and
he says, not hard dropped, That's all he say. I
don't know, Dave's just a different cat. But but yeah,
I mean I think, like I said, I think Baylor
has a lot of respect for Utah, and you know

(01:32:51):
that respect is well earned and deserved.

Speaker 6 (01:32:56):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:32:56):
People here in the state I think have some leftover
affection for for coach Miranda from his time at Utah
State and before that, Southern Utah, his association with Gary Anderson,
things like that.

Speaker 3 (01:33:08):
So I think that it's weird.

Speaker 4 (01:33:10):
I think there's a lot of people here in Utah
that kind of want to see Dave Randa be successful.
Not this weekend, not in the head to head matchup,
but we've followed his career probably as closely as an
out of state outlet would want to. Before I let
you go, I want to ask you about the destination
that Waco is in the Big twelve. I know that
when when Utah became a member of this conference and

(01:33:33):
we asked the question of like, all right, well it's
not the Big it's not the Pac twelve anymore, so
what's the city you're looking forward to visiting and things
like that, and Waco kind of pops up because obviously,
you know there's some some celebrity draw with the the
fixer Upper and things like that, the silos, and you know,
people are buying the stuff at Target. You might as
well go down to Waco where it all started. Is

(01:33:56):
that something that is like, I don't know, do they
lean into it. Do the Baylor Bears lean into that?
And you know, is Waco as a host city kind
of a thing.

Speaker 11 (01:34:04):
Now, Yeah, I think so. So I've been here, i
mean twenty seven years at the trip, and I've seen
Waco change a lot in that time. Obviously, the Chip
and Joe effect has has kind of transformed the town

(01:34:25):
in a lot of ways. A lot of us who
lived here before that, you know, loved it and appreciated
it back then. You know, there's a lot of good
going for Waco in terms of centrally located in Texas.
I mean, weather's pretty good, it's hot, it's Texas. But

(01:34:46):
you know, but yeah, you know a lot a lot
a good place to raise the family, good college town,
all those kind of things. But when you know, when
Fixer Upper kind of blew up, there was a time
where there was some study done. This is probably five
ten years ago, maybe at the height of Fixer Upper

(01:35:09):
and stuff, when some magazine did like top tourist destinations
in the United States. It was like Honolulu one, Waco two,
and we were like what, Like, even those people that
lived here, we were like what but uh, but the

(01:35:29):
Chip and Joe effect is real, and people flock to Magnoia.

Speaker 6 (01:35:34):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:35:34):
Again, the old timers like us have been around while
grumble sometimes, but it's still been good for the town.
And hotels are like, you know, have popped up, you know,
more plentifully in that time because they realized, oh man,
you know, more people are coming here, we need to

(01:35:54):
have more rooms for them. So yeah, there's a lot
of cool things to see and do. Like I said,
I still think at its heart it's a college town.

Speaker 6 (01:36:03):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:36:04):
It's it's not Austin. It's not not Houston, you know.
I mean, uh, which obviously those have you know, school
universities in their in their cities too, but like Waco
is like, you know, it's like College Station, It's like
Aims is. It's you know, it's a town that's built
around you know, the university. Uh that's said, not everybody

(01:36:29):
here as a Saylor fan that lots of agg he
lots of long horns, you know, everything else under the sun.

Speaker 9 (01:36:35):
So uh.

Speaker 11 (01:36:37):
But as a long answer to your question, but I
do feel like, you know, more people are looking at
Waco like, oh okay, yeah, I'll go to Waco and uh,
you know that'll be okay.

Speaker 4 (01:36:50):
As a college town, you got to have like a
thing that someone's supposed to come in if if you're
visiting for game day, you got to eat some one
particular thing a desert or a pancake or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:37:02):
What is that in Waco?

Speaker 11 (01:37:04):
Now see this is now you're talking about language. I
mean you're talking to a sports writer. I know how
to eat.

Speaker 6 (01:37:09):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:37:10):
So, man, there's there's multiple answers to this question. Uh,
but I would say if you're coming to Texas, you
probably want some Texas barbecue, and the best barbecue in Waco,
some of the best in the state, which that's a
hot that's high praise because technically great barbecue all around

(01:37:32):
the state is located at Hellberg Barbecue, which is just
outside of Waco. It's a little community called China Spring,
but it's a suburb of Waco, and uh, they really
do their barbecue uprights. I would recommend anyone coming to
Waco go check out Helbert.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
We will endorse that recommendation and appreciate you for your time.
Thank you so much. Enjoy the game this weekend, YEP,
appreciate it.

Speaker 11 (01:38:03):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 4 (01:38:04):
Bryce Cherry is a Baylor insider for the Waco Tribune Herald.

Speaker 3 (01:38:08):
He's their sports editor down there, and.

Speaker 4 (01:38:11):
Sleepy little Waco, Texas is kind of front and center
in the college football storyline because their athletic director, Mac
Rhodes has stepped down. He's on a leave of absence
from his athletic director job at Baylor, and he has
stepped down from his position as chair of the College
Football Playoff Committee. The Arkansas athletic director will step into

(01:38:33):
that role, and the Big Twelve representative will be Mark Carlin,
assuming that the committee approves these changes. They do have
to change him. They do have to approve the change. Yeah,
that's what's been proposed to move forward the conference. It
sounds like I'm learning this in real time. Sounds like
the conferences are allowed to they recommend a person within

(01:38:56):
the committee presumably has to vote to.

Speaker 3 (01:38:59):
Approve of it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:00):
That they're probably gonna go with who the conference recommends, though,
So and and Mark Harlin was on that was it
last season or was it the year before that he
was on the committee.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
He's done it before anyway, James, I like.

Speaker 4 (01:39:14):
To do this every now and again when we're talking about,
you know, going to visit a place I look at
the home prices in in the community, the communities that
Utah is playing at or whatever, they're probably dirt chief
compared to most other places. Now this, by the way,
this is even after the the boom of like half

(01:39:35):
of these damn houses got fixed up on that television show. Yeah,
all right, I've found I found us a spot, James,
for when when we relocate the show to Waco, Texas.

Speaker 5 (01:39:46):
Okay, still still beyond Salt Lake City airwaves. We'll just
do it remotely from Waco.

Speaker 6 (01:39:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:50):
Yes, it's a seven acre lots Honolulu of Texas.

Speaker 4 (01:39:54):
A here six point nine seven acres, Okay, modest, regular
ranch house, ranch style house on seven acres. It's got
an above ground pool in the back, which we'll dig
it to be in ground.

Speaker 3 (01:40:07):
Okay, I don't like the above ground. What do we
do in seven acres?

Speaker 4 (01:40:10):
You got room for a four bed, two bath twenty
five hundred square feet. It's a nice little spot, okay
on seven acres. Seven acres is a lot. What do
you think that costs in Waco? Text, let's see here
in Utah, that's in the millions. Seven acres anywhere in
Utah right now, at least on the I fifteen corridor
is absolutely over a million dollars. If it's in the

(01:40:34):
Salt Lake Valley, that's probably high three million dollars. If
it's up in Park City or Hebrew or one of
those places, that's three to five million dollars with a
house on it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:43):
So given that, I'm going to say seven hundred grand.

Speaker 4 (01:40:49):
In Waco, Texas, four bed, two bath, twenty five hundred
square feet on seven acres, three hundred and seventy five
thousand dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:40:57):
Oh my gosh, I did not think that. I I
went double what it was with that guest. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6 (01:41:05):
We got it.

Speaker 3 (01:41:06):
We gotta it probably needs a little bit of a remodel,
but like you could move. We just called ship. Yeah, ship,
We're new. I mean, here's one that is fully remodeled.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
Like this is a beautiful home on one and a
half acres, four bad, three bath, thirty one hundred square feet.

Speaker 3 (01:41:24):
Five hundred grand. Unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:41:27):
Let's go, baby, all right, I gotta take a quick one.
Eric Weddall is going to join us at the top
of our one o'clock hour. We'll do a real quick
PGA Tour leaderboard update. Next on the Sean O'Connell Show
ESPN seven.

Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
Another one. This it's the Sean O'Connell Show. You were
home of the best inside of your units. Let's get
back to OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN
seven hundred ninety two one half Am.

Speaker 4 (01:42:01):
Butterfield Bermuda Championship is our PGA Tour leader board up tape,
brought to you by you went to golf new PROB
one and PROB one X, bringing you more speed and
control than ever before available. Now at you went to
golf shops by Worldwide Golf. Who's in the lead at
the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, James. So this is a little
premature to mention this guy's name, and you'll you'll understand

(01:42:23):
why in a second. Adam Hadwin is your leader. He
has not yet won, but he is Adam Hadwin.

Speaker 3 (01:42:31):
I get it, I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:42:32):
He's at five under, a couple holes left in his
opening round. Riohisatsine is. He's finished with his first round.
He's tied with Alex Smalley for second at four under.
And then let's see the rest of the top ten here.
Tied for fourth, Max McGreevy is among a handful guys

(01:42:53):
tied for fourth, or excuse me, he's tied for eight.

Speaker 3 (01:42:56):
That two under, tied for fourth. You got guys like.

Speaker 5 (01:43:01):
Christopher Ventura at three under and then Max McGreevy and
a few others including Thorborne, thor Bjorn Olison excuse me,
tied for eighth at two under.

Speaker 3 (01:43:14):
That kind of rounds out the top ten.

Speaker 5 (01:43:17):
A lot of these guys still playing in their opening rounds,
so it's definitely a chance to improve their scores. Some
of the Let's see of our Utahns in the field,
Zach Blair has finished his opening round at even.

Speaker 3 (01:43:30):
He's tied for thirty second.

Speaker 5 (01:43:32):
Right now, let's see there's a There's been a couple
of former BYU golfers have been in the field the
last few times.

Speaker 3 (01:43:41):
Patrick Fishburne one of them.

Speaker 5 (01:43:44):
At even as well and finished his rounds so tied
for thirty seconds.

Speaker 3 (01:43:49):
So there you go.

Speaker 5 (01:43:49):
That's your PJ Tour leaderboard update, brought to you by
you went to golf from the Butterfield Bermuda Championship with
some call it the twentieth Major.

Speaker 3 (01:43:59):
Oh see, okay, I haven't heard that, but I will
take your word for it.

Speaker 4 (01:44:04):
Eric Weddle joins us to start off our number three,
don't go anywhere as Utah's number one sports talk to
Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
one FM.

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
We you were listening to the Sean O'Connell show, your
source for the best utes football company. Here's oc from
the Murdock Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety
two to one a f M.

Speaker 3 (01:44:31):
No Dogs, Welcome to our number three.

Speaker 4 (01:44:40):
Welcome in our good buddy in the Utah football and
NFL legend, Eric Weddle. Conversation with Eric Weddle today is
brought to you by Baskin Robbins. They've got a Baskin
Robbins ice cream cake giveaway coming back, a Turkey shaped cake.
All you have to do is you text your score
prediction for Utah versus Baylor with the correct winner eight

(01:45:02):
seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. Who's ever
closest wins a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake that looks
remarkably like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Speaker 3 (01:45:12):
Eric Wedll, Welcome back to the show. How are you sir?

Speaker 11 (01:45:15):
My brother right?

Speaker 6 (01:45:18):
How's my guy doing that.

Speaker 11 (01:45:19):
A nice little week off after our big win, and.

Speaker 6 (01:45:22):
You're back in the in the blow of things.

Speaker 4 (01:45:24):
I see back in the saddle, very excited about an
upcoming matchup against the Baylor Bears. But we had a
great opportunities, lovely to watch a game with you, to
hang out, to catch up with you, to catch up
with your son, Gage are your old teammate John Peel
also there, of course the illustrious and legendary Justin Hanson.

Speaker 3 (01:45:47):
And you know it's you probably don't appreciate this.

Speaker 4 (01:45:50):
You probably don't realize this about watching football with yourself,
but you will make comments during a football game about
things that maybe other people don't notice. And that was
something even in a really good performance against against Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:46:05):
You know, you made a couple of comments while we.

Speaker 4 (01:46:07):
Were watching about the some of the long throws for
this Utah football offense. And I don't want to be
overly negative, because obviously it was a great performance and
they won in convincing fashion.

Speaker 3 (01:46:20):
But I asked Devin Dampierre about this.

Speaker 4 (01:46:23):
It's something that you know, I want to flesh out
a little bit more when you can only hit on
like two out of five deep throws in a game,
you're you're limiting the offense and it's something that we've
asked for improvement on from this passing game all season
and you were in stadium and you got to see
it up close.

Speaker 3 (01:46:41):
What are the deep throw issues for Utah's offense right now?

Speaker 6 (01:46:46):
Well, I think it's I don't I haven't studied nor
watched enough and been there, So I'm not going to
get I'm not going to see her and say like
I have the right answer. It just like a lot
of times he's he's not centered and really stepping in

(01:47:06):
like momentum to the target right, Like a lot of
times he's backing up and it could be timing and
also trusting that you know, high and outside is always
a great throw, right because it's either incomplete or it's
it's it's catch. A lot of times he's throwing these

(01:47:28):
he's throwing these passes underthrown and they're having to come
back to the ball. So I don't know, Like when
you're a when you're a run and a dynamic offense,
I guess on first and second down, I mean we're leading.
I think we're top hiding the country on third and
short of just having third and I think it's an
average of third and five. I think or third and
four and a half. Like that's insane, And it's so

(01:47:49):
good when you're playing complete team football, but when you
have those shot plays, when you're getting single higher, getting
man a man, that you have to hit on them
because it's hard to generate. It's hard to generate big
plays in general, but as an offense, when you are
methodically going down the field at a ten, twelve, fourteen plays,

(01:48:11):
it becomes more important to hit on those big plays
to help generate easier offense.

Speaker 4 (01:48:22):
So demolition by this Utah offense and the defense played great,
you get excellent special teams plays and back to back weeks.
Now we saw Utah smash Colorado, we saw them smash
a ranked Cincinnati team and shake kind of the game
day monkey off the back, the big game pressure off
the back a little bit, and then they head into

(01:48:43):
a bye weekend. Now, the College Football Playoff Committee has
sent this message that we like your resume, we like
your numbers, we like what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:48:51):
We're putting you just on the outside looking in.

Speaker 4 (01:48:55):
It feels like if Utah finishes out in convincing fashion
that they'll be at least part of the conversation for
a college football playoff spot when we get to there,
you got to win these games on I think you
got to win them with some style points.

Speaker 6 (01:49:08):
Yeah, you're one hundred percent. I think they look at
us as a team that's on the on the incline, improving,
playing our best football towards the end of the year,
and and they understand that, they understand our two goosses.
I think they take an account that for up until
nine minutes left in the textas tech game, as a
three point game, and then they pulled away, and that's

(01:49:31):
a really really top notch team. But you know, something
didn't go our way and injuries and et cetera, et cetera.
So and then obviously the b YU lost. I was
actually palling for BYU. I think it was a much
easier road to get to the Big twelve Championship with
them winning out than the ladder. So uh but yeah,

(01:49:53):
I mean we were in a good position at the
end of the day. You go ten and two and
you miss out of the playoffs, and that's just unfortunate.
I think I think we'll have a strong case. There's
there's some games this weekend like Georgia Texas, one of
you know Texas, I think UH is gonna is gonna lose,
so they drop them out and and some other some
other matchups they're going to cancel each other out that

(01:50:16):
that might slide us in and you never know, three
week three games left that we could get into the
big Toal Championship, which would be awesome, but I don't
think it's uh. It may not be necessary if we
go out and destroy every opponent left and see what happens.

Speaker 3 (01:50:30):
With what you've seen.

Speaker 4 (01:50:32):
I guess post the BYU loss, how confident should we
feel that went healthy? This team is capable of, you know, Baylor,
Kansas State, Kansas going out and taking care of business
that way. I mean, I keep I look at these matchups,
I look at what we've seen from these last two performances,
and to be overly reductive, I say, if you can
play like that, you can beat anybody in the country

(01:50:52):
right now. I know it's easier said than done to
maintain that level of performance, but it feels like, you know,
the recipe is there if you stay the course.

Speaker 6 (01:51:06):
We play our we play together, play clean, stay ahead
of the chains, don't have some mishaps offensively, make them
compete on their offense against our defense, it's hard to score.
It's hard to go up and down the field. Like, yeah,
they're gonna hit a couple of shots up the field
because that's just the style of football we play. On defense,

(01:51:27):
We're gonna get after, you're gonna preshre the quarterback, and
we play great man and man defense. So at times
you're gonna get a slot bad or a goal ball.
But over time, like, look at what we've made that quarterback,
I mean, thirty percent completion and going into that game, Uh,
you know we were I was able to hang out
with the coaches and whatnot on Friday and spend some
time with them, and Gale said, the exact weakness of

(01:51:50):
his game where outside the numbers of vertical throws and
how many incompletions did you see where they weren't even close,
like ball going out of bounds and really taking advantage.
So you know, we're gonna make opponents, opposing offenses do
what they least like to do and what they're not
efficient at, and over the course of a game, it's

(01:52:12):
gonna it's gonna your inability to be successful on whatever
that is is gonna show its face when we play us,
So I don't I don't foresee any hiccups as long
as we stay the course. The team looks like it's
peaking at the right time, and let's go see what
we'll see what will happen.

Speaker 4 (01:52:29):
Eric Wedda's our guest here talking a little Utah football
on the Sean O'Connell Show. Now, Baylor's interesting because they're
the number one passing offense in the Big Twelve Conference.
They've got especially a tight end. He's their leading receiver.
He's a freak of an athlete. He started his career
at USC. I don't know how much you've seen of him,
but this Michael triguecat is like he's a freak at

(01:52:52):
He's gonna be an NFL tight end and they can
line him up anywhere and they can do different things
with him.

Speaker 3 (01:53:00):
Would you, as a safety rather face if.

Speaker 4 (01:53:02):
An opposing team's number one threat is like a traditional
wide receiver, build if it's a tight end.

Speaker 3 (01:53:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:53:11):
There were some teams that their best past catching threat
is like a slot receiver type guy, which one.

Speaker 3 (01:53:16):
Is easiest or hardest to defend. When you're play in
the safety position.

Speaker 6 (01:53:22):
Well, I think schematically it's much more difficult if you
have a stud receiver outside that you literally cannot leave
by himself. Like every coverage, whether it's single higher, whether
it's two shell role coverage, like, you have to have
a playing plan so that guy doesn't ruin the game,
you know, like when we played Tyreek Hill in his

(01:53:44):
prime days, you weren't gonna leave him by himself like that.
It just was a non negotiable. And then it limits
what you can do on defense, Like you could still
Jimmy Rigge as best you can, but there are times
where we have a pressure called and the post player
needs to be shaded out side, but you're on the
opposite hash. So you either get out of there, out
of the disguise and run your butt over there, or

(01:54:06):
you chance it and now you're giving the opportunity to
get a go ball or one on one outside. So
I think it's much more difficult to stop those guys
than tight ends. You can combo, you can match coverage,
you can play zone with those guys because they're interior aligned,
so a lot of guys can get their hands on
them if they move them around. You know, you live

(01:54:30):
with it because you're not so worried about the guy
just running by a corner for a touchdown for eighty right,
Like that that's the difference from a stud wide receiver
than a tight end. Like, yeah, he may catch a
go ball for twenty twenty five yards, Okay, so be it.
The guy catches a go ball for eighty for a touchdown,
that'll ruin the game.

Speaker 4 (01:54:50):
So I mean, Morgan Scalley knows how to scheme these
things up. I think probably just as important that he's
got the personnel that should be able to take the
way a guy like Trigg, even if he is, you know,
a top three, top five tight end in the country.

Speaker 6 (01:55:07):
Yeah, of course. I mean you gotta remember as much
as these offenses and and players and scheme they have
just the amount of emphasis on handling what we do
defensively and handling our scheme and pressures and different looks,
and understand that you're not just gonna have four seconds

(01:55:29):
to throw the wall. So yeah, it may sound all great, Hey,
we're gonna move him around, we're gonna stack him, we're
gonna io him here. Okay, did you spend any time
picking up our pressures and blocking our edge guys and
this and that. So at the end of the day,
you try not to get so much enamored with the
opponent and understand that we fear no one right. You

(01:55:52):
try to implement that in that mindset and in our
player's minds. And I think they they understand that that
we play our game nobody can can handle. And so
let's go out next to b us. Don't try to
be thrown or not right, and go on next to you.

Speaker 4 (01:56:08):
The offensive line at the University of Utah got news
that they've been elevated to semi finalists for the Joe
Moore Award, which is an award handed out to the
best offensive line in the country every year. They're one
of ten finalists, and obviously we came into the year
talking a lot about them, and we've seen them have
incredible games like Colorado, like Cincinnati. We've seen them in

(01:56:31):
some other games we're probably wished a little bit more
could have happened upfront, or you would have won the
line of scrimmage a little bit better against a team
like Texas Tech, whatever. But now that you've seen them
in person as well as watching them on TV, how
good is this offensive line?

Speaker 6 (01:56:47):
Man? Seeing them live. Just seeing their work. I know
the atensions detail Coach Harding and Coach Beck and that scheme,
and man, it's just it's crazy to me, the athleticism
and just the size and strength that these guys are.
I feel either I am getting smaller as the years

(01:57:10):
go on, or these freaks are just getting bigger and
stronger and faster. I don't really know. And then and
then I take a step back and said, how in
the world did I ever play this game with these
guys out there. It's it's really humbling to see first
and and just really as a fan and as a supporter,

(01:57:32):
just just proud of the work. I know how hard
it is and how much work and sacrifice goes into
it to be at the top of your game, and
that unit is one of the best. So it's nice
to get their recognition and just to see them lead
our team. I mean that they're It comes down to
the to the big boys in the old line, D line,
in the trenches, and if you have if you have

(01:57:56):
excellent playing in the fronts, you always have a chance
to win. And that's where the games won and lost.
In my opinion, it's never going to change you either
win the line of scrimmagery, don't now.

Speaker 3 (01:58:07):
Look, I don't know. A lot of stuff has to happen.
You already alluded to this.

Speaker 4 (01:58:11):
There still is a mathematical possibility that UTAH could be
in the conference championship game. And we had Devin dan
Pierre on the show earlier today. I asked him the
same question. It's different when you're an active player versus
an alum. But if you could, if you could get
a second crack at either Texas Tech or BYU in
the conference championship game. And let's also throw in there

(01:58:35):
that if you lose the conference championship game, you're definitely
not going to the College football playoffs. So which of
those teams do you want to see in Arlington?

Speaker 6 (01:58:43):
If you got the choice, I better side at winning
would be BYU. In my opinion, I don't think there
is talented or as good overall. And that's no slight

(01:59:03):
on BYU. They they're freaking good. I think text Tech
is really really good, and so I'd rather play BOYU
if I'm trying to see what gives us the best
shot of winning. But either or, but you never know, honestly,
like we match up well with Text Tech in my opinion,
and honestly, the starting quarterback that's playing in the backup

(01:59:25):
that got hurt. I actually think it's he's not the
better quarterbacks and we shut them down for the most part,
and if we get just some competent offensive play, I
don't think it was close in my honest opinion. We
talked about that some odd weeks ago, so I don't know.
They're both really good teams. Let's just hope we get

(01:59:45):
a crack at one of them, and if not, then
we should have beat one of them when we had
the chance.

Speaker 4 (01:59:51):
Eric Weddle for just a couple more minutes here on
the Sean O'Connell Show, let's talk.

Speaker 3 (01:59:55):
About the important stuff now.

Speaker 4 (01:59:56):
Dub playoff win for your rancho, Bernardo Broncos last week,
first playoff win as a head coach.

Speaker 6 (02:00:05):
How to feel, Yeah, man, we're a lot like the
youths were. We're coming together after we're getting our butts
kick against Mission, and I think that was more of
an anomaly than anything. But we took it, and we
took it on the chin as coaches, as the head coach,
and looked at myself to improve and to get better

(02:00:26):
as a coach. And have my boys ready to play.
That's ultimately on me, and I think we've done that
the last two weeks. Against our rival against Powaway, we
all played them and smoked them. And then against a
league opponent who really at their place in league play,
was a tough matchup. We beat them by fourteen, but
it was a tight game going in the fourth quarter.

(02:00:48):
To completely demolish them, you know, having them quit mid
second quarter was a sight to see. And that goes
back to the execution and the belief and the confidence
that these kids are playing with. And we're excited. We're
excited for the challenge. We've got Granite Hills at their place.
They've either won Division one or Open the last three years,

(02:01:11):
been a state champion.

Speaker 3 (02:01:12):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (02:01:13):
This is a this is a juggernaut of a program,
really good players, talent across the board. But I like
our chances. I really do. I really do. I like.
I like the mighty thirty eight guys that we've got.
We're up to about forty five now, and boys are
playing hard, playing together, and I can't wait to watch
them tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (02:01:34):
Granted, Hills, you stink, all right.

Speaker 4 (02:01:36):
We hate the Granite Hills Eagles and guess what their
their logo looks stupid. It's it's like an interlocking GH
but you can't tell if it's a G.

Speaker 6 (02:01:45):
Or A like exactly. That's what are we talking about?
What do do it?

Speaker 4 (02:01:50):
Granted Hills, you're not cool Broncos. Before we let you go,
some interesting things happening in the NFL. The coaching carousel
starts to spend their dables out with the New York Giants.

Speaker 3 (02:02:05):
How appealing is that job?

Speaker 4 (02:02:07):
Like we saw some articles and you know they're trying
to suss it out and talking to people anonymously, and
obviously they got a lot of young offensive talent. As
an organization, there's some things I think left to be
desired there. What do you think of the Giants as
a franchise?

Speaker 6 (02:02:24):
Oh? Man, I love the idea of those pieces in
that quarterback and you know, the defensive line. There's there's
a lot of a lot of nice pieces to work
with and but man, they are just in shambles. I'm

(02:02:44):
kind of shocked that they fired day Ball and not
and not the GM along with them, Like, what are
we doing? The jam put this team together? So how
does he get a pass? And I and I like
I don't have anything against him. I'm just saying, like
the coach always gets usually gets a shaft, and I

(02:03:06):
think Dave All's a good coach, but really, you haven't
done anything in two plus years, and at the end
of the day, you don't win for two plus years,
you're gonna get fired. And he probably knows that. Coaches
know that you gotta you gotta show improvement, you gotta
you gotta win some games. And too many games this
year for the Giants, they've lost at the end of
the game, just in inexcusable type losses. So I think

(02:03:28):
it's a great looking job. It's the Giants, it's New York.
But you never know, man, some of these organizations are
trash buckets. And I don't know if they're that, but
they're they're not as well as what they once were,
maybe a decade ago.

Speaker 4 (02:03:46):
The uh Jackson Dark concussion situation. He's been evaluated for
concussions now four times.

Speaker 3 (02:03:55):
And this time.

Speaker 4 (02:03:58):
You got hit, he went back out, he played a
couple more plays, and then they're like, well, something's not
right with this dude.

Speaker 3 (02:04:03):
Now, let's go check on him.

Speaker 4 (02:04:05):
So they're being investigated for the hand, how they handle
the concussion protocol, that kind of stuff. As a teammate, right,
you're all professionals, and there's fifteen other people in on
the sideline and in the stadium that it's their job
to watch out for that kind of stuff, not yours.
As a teammate, when you're seeing something like that kind
of unfold and a chronic problem maybe starting to show

(02:04:27):
itself with especially a young guy, especially at a position
that's so so important, how do you handle it as
a teammate?

Speaker 5 (02:04:37):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (02:04:38):
And I don't. I don't really worry about it me
as a player. I'm I got a job to do,
so I'm I'm not really concerned with other guys and
are they out there? And if you're out there, you
can help us. If you're not, then the next guy's
got to go. So it's a little it's a little cutthroat,
but that's just the reality. The next guy's got to

(02:04:59):
be ready to go, and if he's not ready, then
you're gonna get fired. Uh, because you're not you're not
ready for your opportunity. So I don't know, Like it's
so much has changed and the injuries and this and that.
I mean, I deal with it at the high school level,
Like the guy gets banged up and normally like it
wouldn't even be anything, but then they go to the doctors.

(02:05:20):
Then the doctors won't claar them, and and like you're
dealing with like a spray ankle or something and you're
out for two weeks. It's like what are we doing?
But I don't even I don't even like really fred
about it. I just move on to the next player
because it's not it's not worth the fight nor getting

(02:05:41):
fired over it, So I just move on. And I
think I think at the NFL level, they're they're watching
that stuff. It's definitely not on the players or anybody
else to be worried about can the guy player or not?
Or should he get checked out or not? Like we're
always going to push through it. And if I'm a teammate,
obviously if he's not himself, I would I would hold
him out out. But if I know the guy and

(02:06:01):
I know like he can shake it off in a
player two, like we're gonna keep on rolling. That's just
the way the way it was and the way it
is for us old school guys.

Speaker 3 (02:06:10):
I guess all of your.

Speaker 4 (02:06:11):
Old franchises in the NFL in your career. Are on
some win streaks right now. Baltimore is honest, Baltimore's most
interesting one for me because it was looking pretty grim
there for a minute, and now they've won three in
a row.

Speaker 3 (02:06:25):
They you think that this is sustainable?

Speaker 6 (02:06:29):
Oh yeah, baby, it's uh. I mean, I think I
brought I brought it up on the show. I think
they can get on a run. It's hard to do.
They've done it in the past. We win six games
six one six in a row Lamar's rookie year to
make the playoffs and win the division and then they
went on like crazy fourteen to two the next year.
So streaks can happen. You just have to win one,

(02:06:50):
right and just get that feeling of winning and finding
the way, and then one turns into three and now
shoot three is gonna turnt six. Their next three games
are a bunch of a bunch of bumps in the
league right now, So you're gonna look before you know,
they're gonna be They're gonna be seven and five leading
the division, and we're gonna all gonna be like watch out. Uh.

(02:07:12):
The same thing happened last year with the defense. They
were terrible the first quarter for six games, then they
were a top five defense second half of the year.
They figured out the biggest improvement they made was trading
for a low heat from the Chargers, being able to
put Kyle Hamilton down in the box and let him
be a difference maker. And that's been the single most
best offseason mid season trade addition for any team because

(02:07:37):
it's allowed the Ravens to get back to being the
dynamic defense, and getting Lamar back healthy obviously makes any
franchise a competitor.

Speaker 4 (02:07:47):
I don't want to talk about the rams most recent
success because it was against by forty nine ers.

Speaker 6 (02:07:51):
Yeah, oh wait, wait wait, wait, way.

Speaker 3 (02:07:54):
No, it's fine. We don't need we don't need to
discuss that.

Speaker 6 (02:07:56):
That's fine, okay, okay, we don't want to talk about
the MVP, and I want to talk about the MVP.
Your MVP maybe, no, no, no, no, Murph that we
know who the MVP of the league is right now,
I'll just give a quick shout out and it's funny.

(02:08:17):
I bet the listeners will get a kick out of this.
You know, obviously we're all watching the game as prime time.
This was a must win for the Rams and it
showed by the focus and how we came out. If
we lost that game, then we got really no shot
at winning the division. So was the must win. But
I'm in the in the fourth quarter and the Rams
just went you know, the Niners went down and scored
out of the half, right, Rams came back and scored.

(02:08:40):
The Niners scored in the Rams and those three scoring
gives the Rams was some of the most magnificent play
calling I've seen from Sean. And I texted the mid game,
I'm like, you are in your bag right now, I'm
taking notes. I love what you're doing. Love you, And
then literally twenty minutes out of the game, he says,

(02:09:02):
we got him. I love you, brother, I fight. This
guy is awesome. So to your demise the Niners, they
think too many injuries the Rams. The Rams are going
all the way hopefully, and they're they're playing some good
football right now.

Speaker 4 (02:09:20):
Did you have any any memorable interactions with Antonio Brown
and your shared years in the league.

Speaker 6 (02:09:28):
Honestly, always competitive on the field, he was an outstanding player, dynamic,
obviously one of the best. He I mean, he had
a crazy run of six seven years that was just insane.
So we've we had our battles, and it was always
you know, Pro bowls were cool.

Speaker 11 (02:09:48):
It got it.

Speaker 6 (02:09:48):
We got into a little after after the fact, when
you know, we get into Twitter and this and that,
and you know me, I speak my mind, and when
people are acting dumb or saying dumb things, I'm gonna
call him out on it. So we had a little
we had a little whatever that was. It's nothing because
it's not real. Twitter's not real. You know, most of
the most ninety nine percent of the conversations go on

(02:10:10):
you'd never say face to face, I'm not I'm not
talking about myself. I say what I say no matter what,
but most people would never say what they say on Twitter.
But outside of that, it's I hope what's going on
in his life. I hope he can. On a serious note,
I hope, I hope things will get right because I've
had too many guys that aren't here anymore that I've

(02:10:32):
either been teammates with or players that I've played with,
been competitors against, that aren't here anymore for the struggles
that they're going on inside their mind or inside closed doors.
And we always got to make sure we're checking in
on each other and telling each other we love them,
and then we're here for him. It's harker guys to
swallow their pride and ask for help. Uh, And we

(02:10:55):
kind of make sure that we're there for each other.

Speaker 3 (02:10:57):
How is your head? A lot of years in the league.

Speaker 4 (02:11:01):
You've had a great college career, and you know there
are sometimes costs to that. I know that you got
bumps and bruises and creaky joints here and there, but
what about the brain stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:11:12):
Do you feel like you escaped the CTE thing?

Speaker 6 (02:11:17):
Yeah, I mean I don't. People will probably get MAdM
me for saying this, but I don't. I don't. I
don't think ct is right, but I think it's a crutch.
I think it's an excuse in my opinion. And I
know it's it's not true. I know it's it's real.
But for me personally, yeah, I mean there are moments
where I'm on edge and and I can be a

(02:11:42):
little flustered, but I try to stay I try to
stay with it. I know why I'm here, right, and
I know the bigger pitcher. I know that football isn't
who I am, it's just what I did. I'm much
more than that, and I try to stay sharp I
work out every day, not so much other than to
make myself my mind, body, and spirit feel better. And

(02:12:04):
I do a lot of reading, and I just try
to stay sharp. Man, I try to stay sharp. I
don't that's not gonna be the reason Eric Weddle's not here.
I'm gonna live till one hundred plus. It's a goal
of mine. I believe it in my heart, and I
love life. And there's so much more to this life
to give and to help and to see it through.

(02:12:24):
Uh So, yeah, I mean, I think it's just a
lot of guys struggle with the next step and what's
what's next for them, whether it's family or direction or vision,
or what's my purpose or you know, faith and things
that are bigger than myself. So I think a lot
of guys struggle with that and then they just go
down a spiral that it's hard to come back from.

(02:12:47):
But I'm good man. I appreciate you asking, and it's
good having a great circle of family and friends like
yourself that are always there and just to call away
to talk to each other and vent and get things
off our chest and move forward.

Speaker 4 (02:13:01):
Well, to end it on a lighter note, since you
do like reading. Have you started reading the book yet?

Speaker 6 (02:13:07):
I'm almost I'm like twenty pages left of the Misborn
series of book three, and then I'm the next book
or two books will be yours, and that will be
a read that I look forward to reading.

Speaker 3 (02:13:20):
So I look forward to you.

Speaker 4 (02:13:24):
That's I look forward to it because I know that
you will tell me what you really think about it,
and everyone else is kind of like, it's like my
grandma being like, this is the greatest book I've ever
read in my life, and it's like, you can't say
anything else.

Speaker 3 (02:13:35):
Eric Weddle will tell me the truth.

Speaker 7 (02:13:38):
I mean, I tell you what I like.

Speaker 6 (02:13:40):
I love to read, and it's uh, I'm looking forward
to it. I mean, it only took you, I don't know,
a decade to finally send me your book, so I
guess I'm finally in the inner circle of the Murph.

Speaker 3 (02:13:53):
I don't use the mail service that often. That's what
I'll blame it on. I don't. Uh, that's I should
have just handed you a hard copy myself. But I'm
glad you got it.

Speaker 4 (02:14:02):
I look forward to your criticisms and critiques and uh
love you dog.

Speaker 6 (02:14:07):
Love you too, brother. I appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (02:14:09):
Eric Weddle, Utah football legend, NFL football legend, head coach
of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos, who are in action this
weekend against Granite Hills for a round two matchup. They
killed Del Norte in the first round of the playoffs,
and as we have said many times, he's done a

(02:14:30):
great job with that team. Who likes Eagles anyway, Yeah,
by the way that one likes the bird.

Speaker 1 (02:14:38):
I do like to.

Speaker 4 (02:14:40):
I do like to just like facetiously hate on all
the teams. But seriously, Granite Hills logo it sucks.

Speaker 6 (02:14:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:14:47):
It looks like an interlocking ch instead of a GA.
It looks like Copper Hills out in West George. Correct,
shout out to Copper Hills. No, it's a jarm Jordan
former Copper Hills Grizzly. Hey, that's right, I forgot it.

Speaker 5 (02:15:01):
You guys graduated the same time, right, or within a
couple year or two of each other. Yeah, you have
to look at it closely to see all the little
Sarah part of the h is also the rest of
the g It's bad. It's bad to good. Yeah, so
they don't deserve to. That's why Rancho. Another reason why
Rancho Bernardo is way better than you, Rancho Bernardo. You

(02:15:24):
can tell that it's an RB anyway. Big thanks, Dereic Weddle.
Don't forget to text us your predictions for Utah Baylor.
Pick a winn or pick a score.

Speaker 4 (02:15:33):
The most accurate prediction wins a basket Robin's ice cream
cake that is shaped like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Speaker 3 (02:15:40):
It's a work of art, a delicious work of art.

Speaker 5 (02:15:42):
If you want to Texas predictions to the Rancho Bernardo game,
too fine, you don't. You don't get entered in the
ice cream cake. You'll get James Peterson bonus points for that.
All right, we didn't do the Daily Dump earlier, so
we'll do it next. There's a lot of strange stories
in the world of sports. John o'connells on ESPN seven NF.

Speaker 1 (02:16:05):
Dealing out of the loop. Let's catch up on today's
biggest headlines about daily news Dunk 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 a half m brought to you
by Bally Plumbing. Just look for the truck with.

Speaker 4 (02:16:23):
The duck right right, any plumbing or drain cleaning needs
that you have, check out Valley Plumbing. The truck with
the duck will take care of you. ESPN seven hundred
ninety t ONEFM Quick Daily Dump here on the Shan
O'Connell Show. A reminder by the way that if there's

(02:16:45):
any games you want to watch this weekend maybe you
don't have tickets tonight to see the Utah Jazz, go
to Big Willies. Watch that basketball game, hockey back in action,
your Utah man with this weekend Big Willies. They'll do
a little mini watch party for you. They'll hook you
up with delicious food, crap cocktails, cold beers on draft,
every bottle you could imagine in their coolers as well.

(02:17:05):
If you just want a soft drink and to enjoy
their incredible food menu, they've got you covered there. During halftime,
go into the newly refelted pool tables, shoot a couple
games of pool.

Speaker 3 (02:17:14):
Come back.

Speaker 4 (02:17:15):
You don't have to worry about cleaning up after yourself.
They'll take care of it for you. Telemosci sent you.
And of course, if you're a fan of the rare Bourbons,
they have that rare bourbon selection there. They've got partnerships
without law distilleries where they have special cocktails that are
available on a limited basis. It's just a fun little
atmosphere to watch sports. They're gonna have the watch party

(02:17:37):
for the big UFC pay per view this weekend. Those
things are way too expensive to be ordering at your
house if you're not rich, So go to Big Willies.
Get yourself some food. You can order you, yourself, your friend,
your significant other a delicious plate of food and some
drinks at Big Willies for the same price of just

(02:17:59):
getting the pay per view for the UFC card this weekend.
So go down to Big Willi's telemos he sent you
all right. Uh Cy Young Awards have been handed out.
It's school ball and Skeens. Skeens was the unanimous Pittsburgh
Pirate Cy Young Award winner. There's been some like rumor

(02:18:22):
in innuendo out there that Skeens wants to play for
the Yankees now et cetera, et cetera. Uh Tarrek school
Ball will see what happens with him. But it's kind
of nice to see a guy who is in uh
I will call him like a mid major baseball market
getting this kind of love for Skeens. He's obviously life

(02:18:43):
is going pretty well for him. He's he's the new
Tom Brady of baseball, got the high profile significant other.

Speaker 3 (02:18:52):
Yeah, hopefully treating his family a little better than Tom
Brady did. But yeah, well.

Speaker 4 (02:18:58):
That's not a flattery comparison anymore. Here's another piece of
news for all you basketball fans out there. Lebron James
on the men from his sciatica problems. He is he
started to practice with the G League team. Guess what,
here's my conspiracy for you. This is Lebron James's way

(02:19:21):
into college basketball. He realized he can't wait long enough
to stay in the NBA to play with Bryce, his
second son. So the only way to play with Bryce
is to play college basketball. Lebron never played college basketball.
All of his eligibility is intact, and now there's precedent
for people going from the G League back to college basketball.

(02:19:45):
So Lebron is just gonna he's gonna practice with the
G League team. He's gonna be like, I can't really
get back into NBA shape here, I'm gonna stay in
the G League and then little just.

Speaker 5 (02:19:55):
Wait, I've never won a G League MVP, So that's
always been one of my goals.

Speaker 3 (02:20:00):
We're gonna hear that, Brian.

Speaker 4 (02:20:01):
He's gonna be like, well, now I'm going I'm just
going back down the ladder. I'm going from NBA MVP
World champion to like, oh, let's see what happens in
the G League to a the G League's not working
out for me either. I'm gonna play college basketball market down.
Lebron James will be playing for USC next season.

Speaker 3 (02:20:20):
So Bryce did he commit commit to USC? For some reason?
I got Arizona in my head for bred.

Speaker 5 (02:20:25):
I think, actually, you might be right, so he might
be a wildcat if that you know, obviously that's not happening.

Speaker 3 (02:20:31):
But don't say obviously you don't know for a real
world you don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:20:35):
Yeah, you're right, Well, I mean, clearly, clearly it's not
happening because they're only allowing guys who didn't have an
NBA contract to go to have it and see a
way of eligibility they've put they put clear line, they've
made clear lines for this OC that will certainly not
be crossed.

Speaker 3 (02:20:54):
It will never ever be smudged.

Speaker 4 (02:20:56):
I mean, obviously, I say this facetiously Lebron is not
going to get his way back into college basketball, but
he is practicing with the G League. I did, and
he's expected to join the Lakers lineup soon enough.

Speaker 5 (02:21:07):
I did chuckle pretty good when I saw that on
the rundown, though, so good job by you.

Speaker 3 (02:21:11):
There's a way there's a path for Lebron James, or
you know.

Speaker 5 (02:21:16):
Maybe Alex Jinsen says, hey, hey, remember we coached against
against I coached against you a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:21:21):
Remember my NBA ties? You want to, Hey, you want
to you want a couple?

Speaker 4 (02:21:26):
Well, if this is you better hope Lebron's not coming
back to basketball because because BYU would give him like
forty Yeah, why don't you come play with aj ah
the uh, this is a hilarious thing. Have you been
taking in any maction?

Speaker 3 (02:21:44):
James?

Speaker 6 (02:21:45):
No?

Speaker 4 (02:21:46):
Not really, Okay, I actually turned I turned on the
Action last night Buffalo versus the Chippewas, and you know,
my daughters were like.

Speaker 3 (02:21:55):
Why are we watching football? And I was like, well,
that's actually really good question. So I turned the TV off,
like I don't really need to watch this game. You're like, yeah,
what do you want to what game do you want
to play?

Speaker 4 (02:22:04):
They enjoy watching like they know Saturday mornings, yeah, I'm
going to fire it up. They like know that it's
kind of like a weekend thing football, But at night
on a Wednesday, they're just like, why are we watching football?
Or anyway, this is why there's not news by any
stretch of the imagination. But it's just something hilarious. I
didn't watch it live. Got this off Twitter. You MASS

(02:22:28):
is once again the worst team in college football. All Right,
it's actually quite embarrassing for any one of us who
made it through a football career of some kind that
like I didn't get a scholarship off or even to
a place like this. They are so disgustingly bad. If
you're a walk on right now, or if you're somebody
who's like having to go to an FCS school or something,

(02:22:51):
it's probably you just don't want to acknowledge that you
MASS exists, because if a team this bad is not
giving you a scholarship, you just hate yourself or are
you just having your reps like call them and be like, hey,
like you I could make your team better, Like your
team couldn't be any worse, so give this kid a
scholarship instead. Right, they're they're zero to ten on the season.

Speaker 8 (02:23:13):
Uh they.

Speaker 4 (02:23:14):
They had they they were down forty five to nothing
against Northern Illinois with six thirteen left to play. All right,
they kicked the field a field goal. I don't know
why you're kicking a field goal or you're getting out
board down forty three, but successful field goal.

Speaker 3 (02:23:32):
All right, No shutout, can't shut us out, and uh
you mess.

Speaker 4 (02:23:38):
They let if they lit off the you know how
like when when Utah will score, they fire the canon
or they'll be the pyrotechnics.

Speaker 3 (02:23:44):
So it's it's in you. It's at you, Mass, at
you mass.

Speaker 4 (02:23:47):
They scored three points, boom, pyrotechnics fired, cut it to
forty two point deficits.

Speaker 5 (02:23:55):
So we get a turnover here, and then another turnover
and then another turnover and then.

Speaker 3 (02:24:00):
Ten six minutes left to play.

Speaker 4 (02:24:03):
So let it be a reminder to all of us
to to, no matter the circumstance, celebrate your little.

Speaker 3 (02:24:08):
Wins in life, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 5 (02:24:10):
Hey, you can't shut us out Northern Illinois. Good try,
nice try.

Speaker 3 (02:24:14):
We got it to within forty two. You're Northern Illinois.

Speaker 5 (02:24:18):
Remember two years ago Dion's first year, they beat TCU
and and he's doing the victory lap in the press conference.

Speaker 3 (02:24:25):
Do you believe it now? Yeah? You believe so.

Speaker 5 (02:24:28):
I was probably one of many people when they got
destroyed by Oregon. They were still undefeated, ranked and that's
the you know, rooted in substance, not flash game. They
beat him like forty to seven or whatever. I did
the I did that.

Speaker 3 (02:24:44):
You believe us now?

Speaker 5 (02:24:46):
When they when they finally got when I was like
forty to nothing, and when they've scored I'm like, hey,
come on now, I love me some.

Speaker 4 (02:24:52):
I love me some, Dion. But when he did that,
like two games into a season, I was like, oh,
don't don't do that.

Speaker 5 (02:25:00):
Not even into the conference season yet, Like, don't a
lot of people go three and zero non conference?

Speaker 3 (02:25:06):
Do you believe now?

Speaker 4 (02:25:07):
Oh no, actually we don't yet. And you have been
at the very very highest level of football. You should
know better than this. Yeah, caught up in the moment,
just like U Masses Pyrotechnics operator was against Northern Illinois.
All right, it's awesome, last break and then we'll come back.
We will give some tickets away eight seven seven three

(02:25:28):
five three zero seven hundred A trivia question coming for
a pair of tickets to Fierce Fighting Championships at the
Salt Lake City Masonic Temple on Friday night. That's tomorrow, Friday.
First fight will be at seven o'clock.

Speaker 5 (02:25:43):
Yeah, just real quick, I feel like we should reset
some of the big Utah news that we already we
touched on, but which is reset it a little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:25:51):
So Big Twelve's.

Speaker 5 (02:25:52):
Recommending Mark Harlin to replace Balor's mac Rhodes on the
CFP committee, not as the chair that like was that's
the Arkansas is going to be elevated to.

Speaker 3 (02:26:03):
That will be that's the recommendation.

Speaker 5 (02:26:05):
The Management Committee are the ones that vote on this,
So not the other members of the committee, but the
like chancellors and commissioners that oversee the business part of
the committee. They are the ones that are going to
vote on that. So Utah's ad probably back on the
committee here soon after being there before. And then the

(02:26:26):
junk mail we got earlier, utah Zo line named semi finalists.

Speaker 3 (02:26:30):
For the Joe Moore Award, which we heard.

Speaker 5 (02:26:32):
We've heard Spencer Fono and others on that line say
publicly they really and you said this, Jim Harding really
want this award.

Speaker 4 (02:26:41):
I mean, every line in the country so this is
a big deal. One of ten finalists. Uh, let's see
Michigan's won it. They were the first back to back winners.
It's only a ten year old awards. There's not a
ton of history. Last year it was it was Army, Army,
and it's the big as you've said before, it the
big maybe the biggest trophy.

Speaker 6 (02:27:03):
It's you.

Speaker 3 (02:27:04):
It's like three hundred pounds. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:27:06):
All right, Uh again, like I said, last break and
a trivia question for Fierce Fighting Championship tickets. When we
come back, John O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred ninety
two one FM.

Speaker 1 (02:27:23):
You tune to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two one A.

Speaker 3 (02:27:31):
M all right, here is my.

Speaker 4 (02:27:37):
Trivia question for today, a pair of Fierce Fighting Championship
tickets at the Salt Lake City Masonic Temple. If you
know the answer to this question, you gotta go all
the way back to our conversation with Gordy Chiasa. That's
when we covered this, all right, eight seven seven three
five three zero seven hundred. He was talking about Duke
and the proliferation of Duke players that are now in

(02:28:00):
the NBA. How many former running utes are currently on
NBA rosters eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
And I'm not trying to trick you, but it might
not be the exact number because somebody was in the
NBA no or not in the NBA officially. So eight
seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. If you

(02:28:21):
know the answer former running utes currently on NBA rosters,
Bence check it's in the drive.

Speaker 3 (02:28:27):
Are next?

Speaker 4 (02:28:28):
He's here in studio, right in front of me, pondering, contemplating,
seeing if he can.

Speaker 3 (02:28:32):
Get the answer.

Speaker 12 (02:28:34):
Yakub Kuzma. Delon anymore? Brandon Carlson.

Speaker 3 (02:28:42):
Delan's not right now on an NBA roster. Oh did
the Knicks let him go? Huh?

Speaker 12 (02:28:49):
Well, I don't want to give it away, but did
I you just gave it away? So it's not four,
it's three three?

Speaker 3 (02:28:54):
All right? Shout out to everyone have fun at ten.

Speaker 4 (02:28:56):
Shout out to whoever run have have fun at the
UH Fierce Fighting Championship two seven seven three zero seven?

Speaker 12 (02:29:03):
Is Delann under contract anywhere? Is he playing overseas? He
played for the next last year and actually played pretty well.
I'm surprised.

Speaker 3 (02:29:09):
Yeah, he played well.

Speaker 4 (02:29:11):
They just never brought anyone off the bench in New
York last year, so when he got to play, it
was because someone was injured.

Speaker 3 (02:29:19):
That's true.

Speaker 12 (02:29:19):
That's the Tom thibott Away Delane right currently currently, as
I pulled this up, drafted by the Oh. Yeah, he's
not in the league. It looks like he's just staying
in shape hoping for a call. That's too bad, because
when the next actually gave him some minutes in the playoffs,

(02:29:40):
he played pretty well for them.

Speaker 3 (02:29:41):
Here's another trivia question for you.

Speaker 4 (02:29:42):
How many how many NBA franchises has Delon Wright played
for since he entered the league in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 3 (02:29:48):
What a good question. The answer is a lot. It's
a lot.

Speaker 12 (02:29:53):
I want to say at least seven or eight more
more than eight teams? Is it ten?

Speaker 3 (02:30:00):
Nine?

Speaker 12 (02:30:01):
Nine teams? Man Delan was he's a hell of a
college point guard.

Speaker 6 (02:30:06):
Dan.

Speaker 3 (02:30:06):
He's a really really good player. And by the way,
I want to make sure that I make this clear.

Speaker 4 (02:30:10):
If you are a journeyman in the NBA or in
any other league and you end up bouncing around and
playing for seven, eight, nine, ten different teams, but you
stay in whatever that league is for ten years, Benson, baby, dude, Yeah,
you are one of the best players in that sport
on the planet. Even if you're the worst guy in
the NBA. Ten years in any league where it's so

(02:30:31):
hyper competitive is crazy impressive, even if you never end
up being an All Star.

Speaker 12 (02:30:35):
No, it's always been wild to me. And this is,
you know, through my prism of playing as much as
I could until I actually played against pros and realized
what that looked like, and then being around the league
my entire life. Like if you go to a twenty
four hour fitness on a Saturday in like Washington, DC
or any big city, it is full of people in

(02:30:57):
that gym that swear on their life if they could
get a ten day contract in the NBA, they would
show that they could play with those guys, and you
very much cannot. You would be lucky to get a
shot off. You know, Like the line between really good
college players and pros, there's actually a massive gap.

Speaker 3 (02:31:15):
It's not a fine line.

Speaker 12 (02:31:17):
There's a massive gap between really good college basketball players
and like legitimate NBA guys. We were talking about this
with Joe Craves in the studio. How majeris always thought
Alex Jensen was going to be a ten year NBA
vet because of how cerebral he was, how skilled he was.
Alex could not make an NBA roster and he was
an excellent college player, very good overseas guy. You know,

(02:31:39):
we could go over example after example after example, but
the gap between really good college players and legitimate pros
in basketball is very, very large.

Speaker 4 (02:31:49):
Have you ever watched any of the Scalabrini the Scallenge? No,
he plays Brian Scalabrini plays like pick up hoops against
dudes who are exactly what you're talking about, like weekend Warriors,
hometown heroes.

Speaker 3 (02:32:03):
You think that they could have survived in the league.

Speaker 4 (02:32:05):
And of course it's Brian Scalabrini, whoever was just like,
you're like a big, pasty non athlete.

Speaker 3 (02:32:10):
Yeah, and he just smokes, Yeah, I'm sure easily most
of the time. It's eleven zero. He's not nice about it.
He just he kills him.

Speaker 4 (02:32:19):
There was a time when you could go to the
twenty four hour fitness in Sugar House and yeah, and
his brothers would be there make it doing runs at
that Yeah, there are probably a lot of guys who
learned the difference.

Speaker 12 (02:32:32):
Occasionally at that twenty four our fitness because that used
to be my gym and I used to go getting
runs every Saturday. Like the ex college you guys would
come back. I was never there when Millsap was there.
I'm trying to think who the ex college guys, Like
a couple of ex utes would come play. Johnny Bryant
back in the day showed up and played. And you know,
it's one thing if you think, you know, you played

(02:32:55):
high school basketball, you were pretty good in high school,
maybe played a little AAU, and you think you're on
that level, and these guys show up first of all,
and I'm sure you ran into this from time to
time in the cage, Like the elite guys are just
built differently.

Speaker 3 (02:33:10):
Number one.

Speaker 12 (02:33:10):
Yeah, you know, even a guy like John Stockton who's
six' one, massive hands, you know, like I remember the
first time I shook Donovan Mitchell's hand, and Donovan is
not one of the bigger dudes in the lague. He's
like six to two, unbelievably long arms, big padded hands.

Speaker 3 (02:33:27):
Insanely wide shoulder. Yes, they're just not number one. They're
just built differently.

Speaker 12 (02:33:31):
And if you combine the build and the god given
athletic ability with a work ethic and skill. It's a
different stratosphere, dude, it's a different atmosphere.

Speaker 4 (02:33:39):
We just were just half well, I guess forty five
minutes ago, we were having this conversation with Eric Weddle.
He was like, I I don't know if I'm getting smaller,
but he was talking about the Utah Cincinnati game, going
down and talking to the offensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (02:33:53):
How did I play with guys that were this big?

Speaker 4 (02:33:55):
Yeah, they are mutants, they are aliens, and it's awesome
that we get to watch them run around for our entertainment. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:34:01):
We and we continue to evolve in that direction.

Speaker 12 (02:34:04):
I can remember when I saw the first picture of
Victor Wimbanyama standing next to Gobert.

Speaker 3 (02:34:08):
I was like, he's three inches taller than rude. It's like,
what's going on?

Speaker 4 (02:34:12):
And by the way, they added an inch on the
official game programs to his height this year in San Antonio,
he's taller than he was last year.

Speaker 6 (02:34:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:34:20):
No, he's twenty and he's still growing.

Speaker 1 (02:34:21):
Right.

Speaker 12 (02:34:21):
And there's a kid who's playing for I think Kansas
who's like seven to nine or some kid, the Florida
kid yeah, yeah, what Like, I just think I was
short at five to eleven because I was trying to
play up, you know against like six four six five guards. Yes,
and now it's just you know, if you've ever had
that opportunity. I always love this as a topic, if
you've ever had the opportunity where you think you're really
good at your sport and then you go up against

(02:34:43):
one of those dudes that's a pro and how quickly
you're humbled and reminded like no, like yeah, you think
you're good at this, and then you actually compare yourself
to somebody who's a lead at it, you get humbled
really really, really really quick.

Speaker 3 (02:34:56):
Bring back the pros versus Joe's on the old Spike TV.
That great, great show. Yeah, that was a great show.

Speaker 4 (02:35:01):
And stay tuned for the Drive with Spence check its
Bryson Bannucci will be filling in for me tomorrow. Thanks
for listening. Go utes, it'll be a big one against Baylor.
It's The Shawan O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred ninety
two ONEFM.