The Utes legend and host of the Down & Dirty on Utah's blowout win in Morgantown, How do you win the bye week (?), Is Utah utilizing all of their offensive talent (?) + more
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Time to bring in the big leftie.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You have to start thinking about it. Somebody else off
utes legend and longtime NFL quarterback Scott Mitchell's talking pig
Skin on the Sean o'connells show. Now Here's oc with
Scott on ESPN seven hundred ninety.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Our during the Shan O'Connell Show. Here on a Monday,
we welcome in Scott Mitchell, you tall football legend, color analyst,
and all of our Utah radio broadcast right here on
ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM. You can also
hear his show Down and Dirty immediately preceding us and
uh you can find it at ESPN seven hundred, sports
dot Com, on the ESPN seven hundred app and wherever
(00:59):
you get your podcasts. Scott Mitchell, welcome back to the show.
How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I'm doing pretty good today. Thank you for having me.
It's a good Monday after a win.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So how good of a win was this one? We
know that West Virginia is not among the best teams
in the Big twelve, but given the context, the timing
of you got to get right after that Texas Tech loss,
and it is a road trip that isn't the easiest
road trip in the world to make. How big of
a win is this? How good of a win is
(01:31):
this for Utah?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I think it's a huge win. And every win the
rest of this year is going to be huge. It's
going to be a tight race in the conference. So
you always want to take care of your business, no
matter where you're going, when you're gonna play, or who
you're gonna play. And what's kind of cool is like
this team is coachable by like Devin dan Pierre is coachable,
Jason Beck is coachable. And because you always say, hey,
(01:56):
throw the ball down to feel a little bit more,
throw the ball over the middle of the field, a
little bit more, run straight out. People don't run laterally,
you know, run downhill. And you saw all of those
things and it was a flawless execution. He thought it
didnt even punned it all. I get West Virginia's not
very good and they're not very good, but it's always
(02:16):
awesome when you have an answer back, and that that
was the biggest thing I wanted to see. How does
this team, how does this offense answer back after such
a tough outing last last week?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Get take me inside of the quarterback mentality specifically, because
when you're Devin Dampier and you know, you have this
opportunity for this big national television coming out party, and
unfortunately you and the rest of your team don't perform
to the you know, the best of your ability. It's
not doesn't work out the way that it could have
or should have it in some people's minds against Texas Tech.
(02:55):
And now you know, you're going on the road and
you're gonna take on a West Virginia team that is
probably going to try to force you to throw the
ball downfield because it didn't look like you were really
good at that against Texas Tech. And you're not one
hundred percent healthy, not as evasive, elusive fast as you're
used to being. I mean, how do you get your
(03:17):
own mind around a game like that and perform the
way that Devin did twenty one to twenty six, two
thirty seven, four touchdowns. We'll get to the bad interception
here in just a second. I mean, he was twenty
one to twenty six with a couple of drops. So
how do you fix that the mind?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, how you fix it is, you know, you you
have to move on from it, and you have to
forget about it. But you also have to be honest
with yourself and just say, hey, look this is what
I'm doing poorly, this is what I've done poorly, and
understanding this is what you're going to see. So you
either make friends with it, you deal with it. But
(03:57):
you've got to have those honest convert conversations. It's not like,
oh yeah, man, I got this, I got this. It's like, no,
we sucked throwing the football against Texas Tech, and we
have to do better, and I have to do better,
and I think even the coaches had to do better,
and that is they called they called better plays. I
mean there were there were legitimately called passes down the
(04:19):
field and that and that was a better thing. But
it's it. It certainly starts with that honest conversation, and
then it's it's really all all about your preparation. You know,
for me, when when when I had a bad game,
I brought this stuff on my show earlier, or or
you know, you're kind of out of source whatever. You
really go back to those fundamentals of you know, your drop,
(04:42):
your your throwing mechanics, and you really just focus on
those foundational basic things that you you know that you
need to rely on and build from there. And and
that's really it's really a good way to bounce back,
to start over to really you know, don't don't overanalyze things,
but just just to do the fundamental things right and
(05:05):
and things just fall fall into place. But I'll tell
you the biggest impression or the most impressive thing to
me though, was Devin dan Pier throwing the football, and
it was it was markedly better. It's probably the best.
I'm not gonna say probably, it is absolutely the best.
He's throwing the football all season. And he's shown an
(05:26):
ability to throw the football in you know, other than
five yards into the flat. So there was a there
was some nice, nice throws in this In this game.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
He had one hundred yard receiver Ryan Davis. I think,
I mean, I don't want to keep talking about him
as a possession receiver. He's a guy who's got you know,
some quality yards after catch. Now. I know that his
physical profile means that he's going to be kind of
put in that category, but I think he's established himself
very clearly is the best wide out on this team?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, I don't, Yeah, it's close. And that was another
thing that we saw you know, some deeper intermediate throws
to to Ryan and when Devin, you know, he was
a little bit erratic in his uh A location early,
but as he got dialed into the game, he was
he was really throwing the ball in good locations, which
allowed Ryan to very easily get yardage. And you know,
(06:21):
some some receivers have a knack for it and some don't.
And and Ryan, Ryan Davis is showing an ability to
immediately make a positive move, an attacking move once he
catches the football a field. And and that's what you
love to see, you know, you don't you love to
you don't want to see wasted motion. You don't want
to see, Oh, thank goodness, I caught the ball. You know,
(06:43):
I jump up in the air and catch the ball
in my stomach kind of thing. And and and you know,
his feet are planting on the ground. He catches the
ball and boom he gets a field and so and
and part of that is, you know, he's been catching
a lot of passes, So guys get comfortable doing that
kind of stuff when they're you know, when they're seeing
the ball. You know, some of these guys don't see
(07:03):
the ball a game. They're just like just catch it,
just don't drop it, and they don't even think about
you know what happens after you catch the ball, and
so that that feeling confident, feeling comfortable. You're starting to
see that with Ryan, and I love that they were
getting the ball to him down the field.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Further, I know it's unfair to do when we're talking
about a true freshman, but I just jj Buchanan has
showed me enough that I think that he's got an
opportunity to be like a really, really great player for
this Utah football team. We were having a brief debate
earlier about whether or not you pack weight on him
(07:40):
and trying to make him more of a tight end
or whether you just let him be two hundred and
fifteen pounds and be a big body, wide receiver. His
touchdown catch despite the pass interference is exactly the reason
I'm overreacting the way that I am. You are better
at analyzing these things than I am. But what do
you think jjba in future is going to be well?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
For someone who came in and uh just in fall
camp and made a huge impression and has gotten himself
on the field, I think that speaks a lot of
his talent and his maturity. He's a mismatch, you know,
no matter where you put him, and that that's a
that's a nice thing to have. Hopefully you talk can
(08:23):
continue to utilize that. And not just in the red zone.
I mean there's there's a lot of throwing opportunities you know,
out on the on the on the you know, the
in the regular field.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
But but it's also if you can effectively run the
football tight ends meshing with running the football and play
action and throwing the ball over the middle of the
field and having.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Uh, you know, a nice target, and Devin gets really
comfortable with tight ends, they become your very very best
friend in the world. I think the master at that
was certainly Tom Brady, and a very very close second
is is certainly Pat Mahomes understanding, uh, when you create
that mismatch and and so he jj is the kind
(09:06):
of player that can do that and if and if,
you know, then if he becomes a guy that they
have to kind of account for, then it opens things
up for everyone else. So whether he has it or
he doesn't. And that's the potential of this, you know,
where it could. It's not there yet, but it's certainly
something that if they if they scheme this right, can
really create a very potent offense utilizing the tight ends.
(09:32):
And and I think they can still do do that
this year. The other thing that really stood out to
me he's kind of speaking of tight ends and touchdowns
and is Devin's uh been very accurate throwing the football
in the red zone into the end zone and he's
made some I just think through through all the different
games so far this year, he's had some special throws
(09:55):
and there they are those unique throws. It's almost like
your short game, you know, and on a golf course
where you know you're chipping into a green or you
got to get get the ball out of the sand.
You know, he's got some some creativity in in some
of the throws that he's made, the one touchdown to
way Sean Uh, you know where he's kind of loves
it over the defender. You know, those aren't those aren't
(10:17):
necessarily easy to execute, and it's it's the location of
the passes that he's throwing that he you know, I
think of the one throw to Larry Simmons against Wyoming,
and there was a throw to Jake Bentley or not Bentley.
But uh yeah, was it no Dylan Dylan Bran Brentley,
Uh yeah, sorry, Dollon Bentley. Man, there's there's Jake's, Dollon's Dylan's.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Who we got. We got to get with our naming
of no kidding, Yeah, targets.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
What's wrong with thing one and thing two? You know
that's the names you need right there. Anyway, Thing one
made a nice catch. They we'll call the tight ends
thing one and thing two. But but it's accuracy and
it's like throwing the ball to a tight end and
in the end zone is an art and a lot
of quarterbacks can't do it. Utah couldn't do it last year,
(11:09):
and they had this size mismatch and and so you know,
not only are these great talents and weapons to have,
but you got a quarterback who's got some creativity and
accuracy in the end zone, and that's that can be
a deadly combination.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Scott Mitchell is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
the Utah football quarterbacking legend and color analyst on all
of our radio broadcasts here, also host of The Down
and Dirty immediately preceding this show, How do You Win?
The bye week. If you're this Utah football team, what
is the you know, the Scott Mitchell model for success
in a bye week where you got some bumps and
(11:47):
bruises to significant players and you got a big test
coming after the bye week in Arizona State.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, and you know a lot of it is self evaluation,
you know, if you can really again, it's so honest
conversations you can have with yourself and look and go, okay,
what are some of our tendencies? You know, they broke
a little bit of that when they when they threw
the ball in their big jumbo power eye formation, and
it's stuff like that, you know, where where are we?
Where are we tipping our hand? It's also you saw
(12:19):
Daniel Bray who showed us a burse actually asked coach
Whittingham about him after the game. He said, you know,
we we feel like he's a guy that's going to
get more and more involved in what we're doing offensively.
So it's an opportunity to get him more reps. You
got some guys bumped and bruised on defense, you know,
so that's the thing. But but also you know Nate,
Nate Richie's out rabbit Evans is out and now someone
(12:42):
new is in, or maybe you shuffle your secondary round
and you know, maybe maybe Smith Snowden starts playing a
different position. I don't know what their answer is, but
they'll have time to figure out that answer and get
someone some quality reps to get up to speed. Because
Nate Ritchie actually went out of the game and it
changed the texture of the defense, and and and and
(13:05):
they they started to move the ball and the game
was in hand for the most part, but you don't,
well it was. It was when Jackson, Benny and Nate
went out, and those are two key guys in your secondary.
So it's it really is about shoring that up a
little bit and all that does down the road. It
just gives you more depth because you've been forced to
play guys. Now you're playing them, and now they're getting
(13:26):
that experience. And then hopefully, I don't know what the
status of Nate Richie is, but hopefully it comes back
and in a few weeks and again you have another
bye week and you've got a lot you know, this
is the meat of the schedule of the of the
your season coming up, and you really want to make
a push in these next four games to get to
your next by So uh, it's it's all of those things.
(13:48):
It's getting Daniel Bray caught up and hopefully get him
more implemented into what you're doing. It could even be
expanding on some of these Lander Barton packages and Smith
Noden and even even Jackson Benny because you only have
so much time regularly and now it's like you you
(14:11):
have some found time. You know, you get some a
nice reprieve. So I know that's a long list, but
these are these are things. Boy, if you can really
utilize your time doing all of those things, it's just
really going to help you out the next month, for
the next month.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I thought you made a really interesting point on your
show this morning where you said you're not convinced and
I'm paraphrasing here, not a direct quote of your own words,
but you know, not convinced that this offense is even
like fully aware or fully convinced of its own talent
because of the use of guys like Lander and Smith
(14:48):
and Jackson Benny on offense. I thought it was accurate
and are we seeing enough with like the emergence of
Buchan and maybe as more of a weapon that you
can really on it, and Dallan Bentley being perhaps a
better tight end than we had given him credit for.
And I don't know even maybe Daniel Bray, like, is
there a way that you can uh see these other
(15:11):
offensive weapons that are maybe less expected emerged to where
you don't have to use those defensive guys on the
offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well you, I mean, I would hope. So personally, I
just think it's better. It's better keeping your guys fresher,
you know, I mean, the defense got tired a couple
of weeks ago against Texas Tech, and and so you
you don't want to you don't want to have them
get tired as the season goes on. But you also
(15:40):
you have to win games. And so you just have
to ask your quote yourself, are you are you better
off with maybe as talented guys like Daniel Bray or
JJ Buchanan who don't have experience and as opposed to
some some very talented players who you know, will you
you have confidence can get the job done, but they're
(16:02):
limited because they can't practice and get all the refs
they want. So, you know, I think these young guys
are showing and have shown an ability I think I
think Ryan Davis for these coaches was also an unexpected production.
(16:23):
I don't. I don't think they thought, you know, and
I think if they said that, I'd say they're lying.
But uh, you know, he just has emerged as that
guy for whatever reason, and and he has and so, uh,
you know, when you start finding the production, I mean,
the real production is in the running game and and
that's where that's where Daniel Bray could really help this
(16:46):
team out. It's just a different it's a different motor,
it's a different skill set, and it's a very talented one.
And if he has that ability to to add to
your offense, you know, maybe you don't need to see
Smith Noden on fly sweeps or some of those. Maybe
that guy becomes Daniel Bray.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Should we be concerned at all that you gave up
two and sixty yards of rushing to West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Well, you know, when you have the injuries, and that's
what I mean, you lose that continuity because you can
only get so many guys ready for a game, and
losing both of Nate Ritchie and I really think it
hurt the team to some degree. You know a lot
of you know, a significant amount of that yardage came
later in the game. I mean it had the big
reverse that was you know, kind of after things were decided,
(17:38):
it really felt like defensively Utah had West Virginia under wraps.
It didn't feel like, you know, early on in the
game when it was really intense and really being decided
that Utah was in any kind of trouble. There still
was some mistackles and that's something that keeps showing up,
and honestly, I don't know what it is at this
(17:59):
point point. I mean, when you know, when you've been
through this this much of the season, you should be
in tune with that, but it just seems to continue.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I don't want to interrupt you, Scott, but I think
it's because they didn't tackle in camp and once you
get into when once you get into the season, you
can't really say, Okay, now we're going to start tackling
a lot and practice guys, because now is when you
actually have to keep your players healthy. And this is
this is something that I know that every coaching staff
(18:28):
tries to find the exact right balance, but we've seen
it for Utah in the past be a problem where
you know they don't tackle a lot in the preseason
camp because they're worried about injuries. And then you miss
a bunch of tackles in a game and then you're like, okay,
well the next game is a little bit better. But
if it's something I mean, football can only be practiced
with football, tackling could only be tackled practice with tackling,
(18:50):
it's not something that you can really do at this
point in the season. I mean, maybe you use some
of your younger guys to be tackling dummies during a
bye week, but it's just I don't I think that's
I think that's the explanation. And that's why I hate
every time we get into this conversation about like, all right,
well you gotta you don't have as much depth on
(19:11):
this team, so you got to keep everyone healthy. And
then they say, coming out of camp, you know, we
hardly did any full contact tackling. We hardly ever tackled
to the ground. I just don't know how you make
up for that once the season begins.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That's a great point and one that I don't I
don't know that I have the answer. I mean, maybe
the answer is tackling more, but you know, it's really
a risk. I think you just kind of manage risk, right,
And so you you look at what's the lesser of
two evils and say, well, it's better to have our
guys on the field than to have a bunch of
second and third teamers, you know, making great tackles or
(19:50):
or not even being in a position to make a
tackle in the game. And so I think it's it's
you know that I think it's the better choice of
the two. You get into the pros, and and these
guys they just they're they're hired assassins, they're trained killer.
You know, those guys just know they don't need to tackle.
They know how to tackle, and and there there's there's
(20:11):
certainly an art to it. It's fun having conversations with
Stevens and Sylvester, you know, about how do you tackle people?
And and and it's quite quite an interesting conversation. But
I still think you can get better. But the tackling,
(20:32):
hopefully through the season, maybe not going to be perfectly great,
but but at least you can get a little bit better.
And and and you just kind of have to live
with it, and and you know, hope, you know, it
doesn't hurt you down the road. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Before I let you go. Should NFL games end in ties?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
No? And and hell no. Uh, this is like and
this is about. Look. The only thing they let things
end in a tie, or at least that I'm aware of,
is soccer. And I don't like soccer. There's not enough scoring.
It's like, you play these games either win or lose,
and and figure out a way. I don't care if
(21:12):
you flip a coin at the end of the game
to figure out who wins. It needs to be a
winner and a loser. It's basically saying, ah, we didn't
really we didn't really do anything. We put all this effort,
all this energy into it. I think Jerry Jones is
behind this. I think he said, how can I create
the most drama with the player I let go of?
It will end using in a tie, and that will
(21:33):
just throw everyone in its dizzy. And and so I
think it's I think it's Jerry Jones' fault that this
is this happened. But I never in a million years
would have expected a tie between these two teams, And
quite frankly, I would have expected a very decisive win
with the Green Bay Packers. And you just it's just
funny how the season it starts out and it looks
(21:53):
like it's going to be one way, and then and
then it kind of flows another way where it almost
feels like that the Cowboys are trending in a better
direction and the Green Bay Packers are not, you know,
and you wouldn't have said that at the beginning of
the season, which is why the NFL, to me, is
just so compelling and so fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Scott always great hearing from you. Thanks for your time, sir,
you got a buddy. Gott Mitchell hosted The Down and
Dirty right here on ESPN seven and ninety two one FM,
and he was there on the call in West Virginia.
Time to bring in the big leftie.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You have to start thinking about it. Somebody else off
utes legend and longtime NFL quarterback Scott Mitchell's talking pig
Skin on the Sean o'connells show. Now Here's oc with
Scott on ESPN seven hundred ninety.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Our during the Shan O'Connell Show. Here on a Monday,
we welcome in Scott Mitchell, you tall football legend, color analyst,
and all of our Utah radio broadcast right here on
ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM. You can also
hear his show Down and Dirty immediately preceding us and
uh you can find it at ESPN seven hundred, sports
dot Com, on the ESPN seven hundred app and wherever
(00:59):
you get your podcasts. Scott Mitchell, welcome back to the show.
How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I'm doing pretty good today. Thank you for having me.
It's a good Monday after a win.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So how good of a win was this one? We
know that West Virginia is not among the best teams
in the Big twelve, but given the context, the timing
of you got to get right after that Texas Tech loss,
and it is a road trip that isn't the easiest
road trip in the world to make. How big of
a win is this? How good of a win is
(01:31):
this for Utah?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I think it's a huge win. And every win the
rest of this year is going to be huge. It's
going to be a tight race in the conference. So
you always want to take care of your business, no
matter where you're going, when you're gonna play, or who
you're gonna play. And what's kind of cool is like
this team is coachable by like Devin dan Pierre is coachable,
Jason Beck is coachable. And because you always say, hey,
(01:56):
throw the ball down to feel a little bit more,
throw the ball over the middle of the field, a
little bit more, run straight out. People don't run laterally,
you know, run downhill. And you saw all of those
things and it was a flawless execution. He thought it
didnt even punned it all. I get West Virginia's not
very good and they're not very good, but it's always
(02:16):
awesome when you have an answer back, and that that
was the biggest thing I wanted to see. How does
this team, how does this offense answer back after such
a tough outing last last week?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Get take me inside of the quarterback mentality specifically, because
when you're Devin Dampier and you know, you have this
opportunity for this big national television coming out party, and
unfortunately you and the rest of your team don't perform
to the you know, the best of your ability. It's
not doesn't work out the way that it could have
or should have it in some people's minds against Texas Tech.
(02:55):
And now you know, you're going on the road and
you're gonna take on a West Virginia team that is
probably going to try to force you to throw the
ball downfield because it didn't look like you were really
good at that against Texas Tech. And you're not one
hundred percent healthy, not as evasive, elusive fast as you're
used to being. I mean, how do you get your
(03:17):
own mind around a game like that and perform the
way that Devin did twenty one to twenty six, two
thirty seven, four touchdowns. We'll get to the bad interception
here in just a second. I mean, he was twenty
one to twenty six with a couple of drops. So
how do you fix that the mind?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, how you fix it is, you know, you you
have to move on from it, and you have to
forget about it. But you also have to be honest
with yourself and just say, hey, look this is what
I'm doing poorly, this is what I've done poorly, and
understanding this is what you're going to see. So you
either make friends with it, you deal with it. But
(03:57):
you've got to have those honest convert conversations. It's not like,
oh yeah, man, I got this, I got this. It's like, no,
we sucked throwing the football against Texas Tech, and we
have to do better, and I have to do better,
and I think even the coaches had to do better,
and that is they called they called better plays. I
mean there were there were legitimately called passes down the
(04:19):
field and that and that was a better thing. But
it's it. It certainly starts with that honest conversation, and
then it's it's really all all about your preparation. You know,
for me, when when when I had a bad game,
I brought this stuff on my show earlier, or or
you know, you're kind of out of source whatever. You
really go back to those fundamentals of you know, your drop,
(04:42):
your your throwing mechanics, and you really just focus on
those foundational basic things that you you know that you
need to rely on and build from there. And and
that's really it's really a good way to bounce back,
to start over to really you know, don't don't overanalyze things,
but just just to do the fundamental things right and
(05:05):
and things just fall fall into place. But I'll tell
you the biggest impression or the most impressive thing to
me though, was Devin dan Pier throwing the football, and
it was it was markedly better. It's probably the best.
I'm not gonna say probably, it is absolutely the best.
He's throwing the football all season. And he's shown an
(05:26):
ability to throw the football in you know, other than
five yards into the flat. So there was a there
was some nice, nice throws in this In this game.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
He had one hundred yard receiver Ryan Davis. I think,
I mean, I don't want to keep talking about him
as a possession receiver. He's a guy who's got you know,
some quality yards after catch. Now. I know that his
physical profile means that he's going to be kind of
put in that category, but I think he's established himself
very clearly is the best wide out on this team?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, I don't, Yeah, it's close. And that was another
thing that we saw you know, some deeper intermediate throws
to to Ryan and when Devin, you know, he was
a little bit erratic in his uh A location early,
but as he got dialed into the game, he was
he was really throwing the ball in good locations, which
allowed Ryan to very easily get yardage. And you know,
(06:21):
some some receivers have a knack for it and some don't.
And and Ryan, Ryan Davis is showing an ability to
immediately make a positive move, an attacking move once he
catches the football a field. And and that's what you
love to see, you know, you don't you love to
you don't want to see wasted motion. You don't want
to see, Oh, thank goodness, I caught the ball. You know,
(06:43):
I jump up in the air and catch the ball
in my stomach kind of thing. And and and you know,
his feet are planting on the ground. He catches the
ball and boom he gets a field and so and
and part of that is, you know, he's been catching
a lot of passes, So guys get comfortable doing that
kind of stuff when they're you know, when they're seeing
the ball. You know, some of these guys don't see
(07:03):
the ball a game. They're just like just catch it,
just don't drop it, and they don't even think about
you know what happens after you catch the ball, and
so that that feeling confident, feeling comfortable. You're starting to
see that with Ryan, and I love that they were
getting the ball to him down the field.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Further, I know it's unfair to do when we're talking
about a true freshman, but I just jj Buchanan has
showed me enough that I think that he's got an
opportunity to be like a really, really great player for
this Utah football team. We were having a brief debate
earlier about whether or not you pack weight on him
(07:40):
and trying to make him more of a tight end
or whether you just let him be two hundred and
fifteen pounds and be a big body, wide receiver. His
touchdown catch despite the pass interference is exactly the reason
I'm overreacting the way that I am. You are better
at analyzing these things than I am. But what do
you think jjba in future is going to be well?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
For someone who came in and uh just in fall
camp and made a huge impression and has gotten himself
on the field, I think that speaks a lot of
his talent and his maturity. He's a mismatch, you know,
no matter where you put him, and that that's a
that's a nice thing to have. Hopefully you talk can
(08:23):
continue to utilize that. And not just in the red zone.
I mean there's there's a lot of throwing opportunities you know,
out on the on the on the you know, the
in the regular field.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
But but it's also if you can effectively run the
football tight ends meshing with running the football and play
action and throwing the ball over the middle of the
field and having.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Uh, you know, a nice target, and Devin gets really
comfortable with tight ends, they become your very very best
friend in the world. I think the master at that
was certainly Tom Brady, and a very very close second
is is certainly Pat Mahomes understanding, uh, when you create
that mismatch and and so he jj is the kind
(09:06):
of player that can do that and if and if,
you know, then if he becomes a guy that they
have to kind of account for, then it opens things
up for everyone else. So whether he has it or
he doesn't. And that's the potential of this, you know,
where it could. It's not there yet, but it's certainly
something that if they if they scheme this right, can
really create a very potent offense utilizing the tight ends.
(09:32):
And and I think they can still do do that
this year. The other thing that really stood out to
me he's kind of speaking of tight ends and touchdowns
and is Devin's uh been very accurate throwing the football
in the red zone into the end zone and he's
made some I just think through through all the different
games so far this year, he's had some special throws
(09:55):
and there they are those unique throws. It's almost like
your short game, you know, and on a golf course
where you know you're chipping into a green or you
got to get get the ball out of the sand.
You know, he's got some some creativity in in some
of the throws that he's made, the one touchdown to
way Sean Uh, you know where he's kind of loves
it over the defender. You know, those aren't those aren't
(10:17):
necessarily easy to execute, and it's it's the location of
the passes that he's throwing that he you know, I
think of the one throw to Larry Simmons against Wyoming,
and there was a throw to Jake Bentley or not Bentley.
But uh yeah, was it no Dylan Dylan Bran Brentley,
Uh yeah, sorry, Dollon Bentley. Man, there's there's Jake's, Dollon's Dylan's.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Who we got. We got to get with our naming
of no kidding, Yeah, targets.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
What's wrong with thing one and thing two? You know
that's the names you need right there. Anyway, Thing one
made a nice catch. They we'll call the tight ends
thing one and thing two. But but it's accuracy and
it's like throwing the ball to a tight end and
in the end zone is an art and a lot
of quarterbacks can't do it. Utah couldn't do it last year,
(11:09):
and they had this size mismatch and and so you know,
not only are these great talents and weapons to have,
but you got a quarterback who's got some creativity and
accuracy in the end zone, and that's that can be
a deadly combination.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Scott Mitchell is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
the Utah football quarterbacking legend and color analyst on all
of our radio broadcasts here, also host of The Down
and Dirty immediately preceding this show, How do You Win?
The bye week. If you're this Utah football team, what
is the you know, the Scott Mitchell model for success
in a bye week where you got some bumps and
(11:47):
bruises to significant players and you got a big test
coming after the bye week in Arizona State.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, and you know a lot of it is self evaluation,
you know, if you can really again, it's so honest
conversations you can have with yourself and look and go, okay,
what are some of our tendencies? You know, they broke
a little bit of that when they when they threw
the ball in their big jumbo power eye formation, and
it's stuff like that, you know, where where are we?
Where are we tipping our hand? It's also you saw
(12:19):
Daniel Bray who showed us a burse actually asked coach
Whittingham about him after the game. He said, you know,
we we feel like he's a guy that's going to
get more and more involved in what we're doing offensively.
So it's an opportunity to get him more reps. You
got some guys bumped and bruised on defense, you know,
so that's the thing. But but also you know Nate,
Nate Richie's out rabbit Evans is out and now someone
(12:42):
new is in, or maybe you shuffle your secondary round
and you know, maybe maybe Smith Snowden starts playing a
different position. I don't know what their answer is, but
they'll have time to figure out that answer and get
someone some quality reps to get up to speed. Because
Nate Ritchie actually went out of the game and it
changed the texture of the defense, and and and and
(13:05):
they they started to move the ball and the game
was in hand for the most part, but you don't,
well it was. It was when Jackson, Benny and Nate
went out, and those are two key guys in your secondary.
So it's it really is about shoring that up a
little bit and all that does down the road. It
just gives you more depth because you've been forced to
play guys. Now you're playing them, and now they're getting
(13:26):
that experience. And then hopefully, I don't know what the
status of Nate Richie is, but hopefully it comes back
and in a few weeks and again you have another
bye week and you've got a lot you know, this
is the meat of the schedule of the of the
your season coming up, and you really want to make
a push in these next four games to get to
your next by So uh, it's it's all of those things.
(13:48):
It's getting Daniel Bray caught up and hopefully get him
more implemented into what you're doing. It could even be
expanding on some of these Lander Barton packages and Smith
Noden and even even Jackson Benny because you only have
so much time regularly and now it's like you you
(14:11):
have some found time. You know, you get some a
nice reprieve. So I know that's a long list, but
these are these are things. Boy, if you can really
utilize your time doing all of those things, it's just
really going to help you out the next month, for
the next month.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I thought you made a really interesting point on your
show this morning where you said you're not convinced and
I'm paraphrasing here, not a direct quote of your own words,
but you know, not convinced that this offense is even
like fully aware or fully convinced of its own talent
because of the use of guys like Lander and Smith
(14:48):
and Jackson Benny on offense. I thought it was accurate
and are we seeing enough with like the emergence of
Buchan and maybe as more of a weapon that you
can really on it, and Dallan Bentley being perhaps a
better tight end than we had given him credit for.
And I don't know even maybe Daniel Bray, like, is
there a way that you can uh see these other
(15:11):
offensive weapons that are maybe less expected emerged to where
you don't have to use those defensive guys on the
offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well you, I mean, I would hope. So personally, I
just think it's better. It's better keeping your guys fresher,
you know, I mean, the defense got tired a couple
of weeks ago against Texas Tech, and and so you
you don't want to you don't want to have them
get tired as the season goes on. But you also
(15:40):
you have to win games. And so you just have
to ask your quote yourself, are you are you better
off with maybe as talented guys like Daniel Bray or
JJ Buchanan who don't have experience and as opposed to
some some very talented players who you know, will you
you have confidence can get the job done, but they're
(16:02):
limited because they can't practice and get all the refs
they want. So, you know, I think these young guys
are showing and have shown an ability I think I
think Ryan Davis for these coaches was also an unexpected production.
(16:23):
I don't. I don't think they thought, you know, and
I think if they said that, I'd say they're lying.
But uh, you know, he just has emerged as that
guy for whatever reason, and and he has and so, uh,
you know, when you start finding the production, I mean,
the real production is in the running game and and
that's where that's where Daniel Bray could really help this
(16:46):
team out. It's just a different it's a different motor,
it's a different skill set, and it's a very talented one.
And if he has that ability to to add to
your offense, you know, maybe you don't need to see
Smith Noden on fly sweeps or some of those. Maybe
that guy becomes Daniel Bray.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Should we be concerned at all that you gave up
two and sixty yards of rushing to West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Well, you know, when you have the injuries, and that's
what I mean, you lose that continuity because you can
only get so many guys ready for a game, and
losing both of Nate Ritchie and I really think it
hurt the team to some degree. You know a lot
of you know, a significant amount of that yardage came
later in the game. I mean it had the big
reverse that was you know, kind of after things were decided,
(17:38):
it really felt like defensively Utah had West Virginia under wraps.
It didn't feel like, you know, early on in the
game when it was really intense and really being decided
that Utah was in any kind of trouble. There still
was some mistackles and that's something that keeps showing up,
and honestly, I don't know what it is at this
(17:59):
point point. I mean, when you know, when you've been
through this this much of the season, you should be
in tune with that, but it just seems to continue.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I don't want to interrupt you, Scott, but I think
it's because they didn't tackle in camp and once you
get into when once you get into the season, you
can't really say, Okay, now we're going to start tackling
a lot and practice guys, because now is when you
actually have to keep your players healthy. And this is
this is something that I know that every coaching staff
(18:28):
tries to find the exact right balance, but we've seen
it for Utah in the past be a problem where
you know they don't tackle a lot in the preseason
camp because they're worried about injuries. And then you miss
a bunch of tackles in a game and then you're like, okay,
well the next game is a little bit better. But
if it's something I mean, football can only be practiced
with football, tackling could only be tackled practice with tackling,
(18:50):
it's not something that you can really do at this
point in the season. I mean, maybe you use some
of your younger guys to be tackling dummies during a
bye week, but it's just I don't I think that's
I think that's the explanation. And that's why I hate
every time we get into this conversation about like, all right,
well you gotta you don't have as much depth on
(19:11):
this team, so you got to keep everyone healthy. And
then they say, coming out of camp, you know, we
hardly did any full contact tackling. We hardly ever tackled
to the ground. I just don't know how you make
up for that once the season begins.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That's a great point and one that I don't I
don't know that I have the answer. I mean, maybe
the answer is tackling more, but you know, it's really
a risk. I think you just kind of manage risk, right,
And so you you look at what's the lesser of
two evils and say, well, it's better to have our
guys on the field than to have a bunch of
second and third teamers, you know, making great tackles or
(19:50):
or not even being in a position to make a
tackle in the game. And so I think it's it's
you know that I think it's the better choice of
the two. You get into the pros, and and these
guys they just they're they're hired assassins, they're trained killer.
You know, those guys just know they don't need to tackle.
They know how to tackle, and and there there's there's
(20:11):
certainly an art to it. It's fun having conversations with
Stevens and Sylvester, you know, about how do you tackle people?
And and and it's quite quite an interesting conversation. But
I still think you can get better. But the tackling,
(20:32):
hopefully through the season, maybe not going to be perfectly great,
but but at least you can get a little bit better.
And and and you just kind of have to live
with it, and and you know, hope, you know, it
doesn't hurt you down the road. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Before I let you go. Should NFL games end in ties?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
No? And and hell no. Uh, this is like and
this is about. Look. The only thing they let things
end in a tie, or at least that I'm aware of,
is soccer. And I don't like soccer. There's not enough scoring.
It's like, you play these games either win or lose,
and and figure out a way. I don't care if
(21:12):
you flip a coin at the end of the game
to figure out who wins. It needs to be a
winner and a loser. It's basically saying, ah, we didn't
really we didn't really do anything. We put all this effort,
all this energy into it. I think Jerry Jones is
behind this. I think he said, how can I create
the most drama with the player I let go of?
It will end using in a tie, and that will
(21:33):
just throw everyone in its dizzy. And and so I
think it's I think it's Jerry Jones' fault that this
is this happened. But I never in a million years
would have expected a tie between these two teams, And
quite frankly, I would have expected a very decisive win
with the Green Bay Packers. And you just it's just
funny how the season it starts out and it looks
(21:53):
like it's going to be one way, and then and
then it kind of flows another way where it almost
feels like that the Cowboys are trending in a better
direction and the Green Bay Packers are not, you know,
and you wouldn't have said that at the beginning of
the season, which is why the NFL, to me, is
just so compelling and so fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Scott always great hearing from you. Thanks for your time, sir,
you got a buddy. Gott Mitchell hosted The Down and
Dirty right here on ESPN seven and ninety two one FM,
and he was there on the call in West Virginia.
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