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October 10, 2025 23 mins
Catch “The Drive with Spence Checketts” from 2 pm to 6 pm weekdays on ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM. Produced by Porter Larsen. The latest on the Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, Utes, BYU + more sports storylines.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our next guest knows a thing or two about night
games or rise Eco Stadium because he played in them
once upon a time. Former Utah safety played in the NFL.
Robert Johnson, Rojo, Happy Friday, young man, How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing good?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
How are you doing good?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Man?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
So from a player's standpoint, because we talk about this
all the time, you know, I think a lot of
fans like earlier games so they can get some stuff
done after the game, where you kind of go to
a football game early afternoon, go to dinner afterwards, or
whatever it is. As a player, what part of the
day did you like playing in the most and why?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, for me, it was, I like the mid the
mid evening, so like the six o'clock is seven, Like
six six o'clock seven is where it's still it's still
a daytime, but it's like going into the night game.
So like for me, having that getting yourself prepared for
everything was always nice whenever at that time, and then

(00:56):
like as soon as the second to fourth quarter hit
is night, So it was like now you know that's
when you already warmed up, You already know where you're at,
you know what the score is, and you know what
to do. So that's that's what my suggestion, what I
like to recommend was like that's six o'clockish, that's fallen
into the seven at seven to eight o'clockish.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
I see, I see. So it looks like ro Joe,
it's going to be rainy and cold.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
There's about an eighty three percent chance of rain around
kickoff time. Now it's Utah, it could shift, you never know.
But if it is cold and if it is rainy,
how does that affect the field? How does it affect
the mentality of a player?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
It changes, It completely changes because now you got to
remember that like the ball, Like me playing defense, I
understood that the ball is wet. So I want to
go for the ball. I want to try to cause
more fumbles, cause more like you know, cause more chaos
that you're supposed to cause on defense. But you have
to remember that your offense has the same type of

(01:54):
thoughts that they trying to hold on to the ball
a wet ball. And you know, it's fun when you
in the turnovers, but it sucks when you're the one
that's given up turnovers.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, no, for sure, do you anticipate let's operate.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Off the assumption that the forecast is correct and the
radar is telling us the truth. Do you anticipated ground
and pound games? Is this pretty much eliminate any sort
of a deep throw threat. If it is rainy and cold,
Are we going to see just three yards in a
cloud of dust from both teams?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's possible, But then you got to remember that some
offenses are built around any weather that they can throw.
Like okay, like think about I mean, our coach love
with our offensive coordinator a couple of years back. You know,
like our offense was really not really a deep, a
deep passing type of offense. It was always just five
yards here and there, a little quick slants, you know,

(02:47):
you know, throwing the smoke screens. I feel like when
it comes to this type of weather, you want to
do the exact same thing. And then you know, every
blue moon, hit somebody deep to see what happens, to
see what can come out of it. But it's one
of those things that you're on defense, you just naturally
know that this is gonna be one of those games.
There's just hey, he's gonna be small, small passing and

(03:08):
a lot of running. And when you get to the
point where a running back is getting sixteen twenty to
twenty five carries. It is tough. It's tough.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Tell me what you've seen from Devin.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
From Devin damp Here, Utah's quarterback who in the four
Utah wins against competition that probably isn't on par with
what they'll see tomorrow night. He's been really good and
very accurate. Turnovers have been low, completion percentage has been high.
We know he's dynamic and he's a dual threat, But
tell me what you've seen from him so far and

(03:41):
what do you anticipate seeing from him tomorrow night when
they play another very good team in Arizona State.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
I feel like he's a really good quarterback. He's doing
really well. You know, it's definitely I'm a blessing to
have a player like that on your team because he's
such unique in his own way. And what I will
say is that sometimes confidence, you know, the confidence is
something that a lot of people forget that's really important
when it comes to a quarterback. All our wins he had,

(04:09):
he was very confidence. He was very confident and his
throwing and his running and he was making really good decisions.
And then you know that Wyoming game, it was it
was tough. It was tough. It was you see it
and it was like what is going on? But then
the confidence from what I feel, wasn't and strong, and
then you know Texas Tech it was it was just

(04:29):
confidence just not there at all, like some of the
throws I think that he was meaning it was some
people that was open that he could have hit and
he didn't really see him or he didn't get to him,
and I'm not fully sure. I love him, he's a great,
great young man, and love the way he played and
loved that he's here with us, but this would be
another game that we're going to have to measure where

(04:52):
he's at with everything because this is a really good team,
Arizona State. We all know that Arizona State is not
a pushover team. Always find ways to make games close
and find ways to win some of those games that
they have been in. So I'm hoping that he steps
up and be confident to know that you had a
home field adventis use it, you know, be very happy

(05:12):
about where you at. That's what I'm hoping.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, you're not wrong about Arizona State. After Kenny Dillingham
took over, and I wonder what your impressions have been
rojo of this team and this coach because he took
over after HERM Edwards left it behind in shambles and
a lot of people thought it was going to take
four or five six years to get that thing back
and ticking because they were facing some sanctions. Most of

(05:37):
the sanctions went to the former coaching staff because they
clearly were doing things that were against the rules. In
Kenny Dillingham, since he has taken over, has really studied
this ship and bright young guy. Coach Witz speaks about
him in glowing terms. What do you make of the
job he's done down there in such a short time
to get this program back to one of the top
programs in the entire Big twelve.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
The biggest thing, once again, like I was talking about
Dan Pierre, confidence, The biggest thing that comes to a
team is belief. It's almost like you know, Ted ted Lasso,
Like if some of the fans are the listeners out there,
if they ever watched the show Ted Lasso, It's the
exact same situation of the coach that's in Arizona State
right now, is that he came into a situation where

(06:19):
it was tough, it was gonna be one of those.
Like you said, from the outside looking in, it was
going to take a couple of years before they can
get back to a competitive a competitive team. But he
stepped in and he made the current players on the
roster believe. And sometimes that's one of the biggest things
to do for players. Like if you can make a

(06:40):
player believe that he can run through a wall, even
though that wall might be cement, then that's the best
feeling as a coach because now you know that you
can say whatever you want and get them going and
they're gonna find ways to win. So it's been one
of those amazing stories to kind of hear that this
young man, I think he's my age too. The coach
is like, I'm thirty eight. I think he's around my age,
and he has these players playing so hard for him,

(07:03):
and he has the fan base believing in him. So
it's a story of the word belief, you know. To
last O favorite line.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well said, yeah, big fan of the show, So I
wonder what your thought is on this dynamic road, Joe,
because news broke well this morning it came down that
Sam Levitt was questionable and then about forty five minutes ago.
It's now official that he's out. Okay, so the backup,
Jeff Simms is going to step in and play. And
Jeff Simms, for any college football fan, you know the

(07:33):
name because he's played college football.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
This is his sixth year, right or something like that. Well,
he started.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
He started at Georgia Tech, and then he transferred to Nebraska,
and then he ended up at Arizona State, where he's
only played four games. He had one start last year
in a game they lost. And look, if you've watched
him and then you look at the numbers, his career
completion percentage is about fifty seven percent. He can run
a little bit, but he's not an elite at that. Like,

(08:01):
this is not near the same option under center as
Sam Levitt is for Kenny Dillingham. From a player's perspective,
since you played the game, when you hear the news
that it's the backup not the starter, what's the biggest
challenge to make sure that you stay dialed in regardless
of who the quarterback is.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I mean, back then, when I was playing football at
the University of you saw if there's a backup that's starting,
I'm like, I'm licking my tops I'm like, yeah, this
is about to be great because I know that he
hasn't seen coverages. He don't know me. But then as
I'm mature now, you know, and I'm looking at everything,
you got to look at the backstory behind this quarterback.
Like I think, Georgia don't just give out scholarships to anybody,

(08:40):
especially at the quarterback position. So it's something about this
quarterback that's special, and hopefully he don't find it against us.
That's the whole goal, is that he don't all of
a sudden just play out of his mind. But backup
quarterbacks has been a a big struggle for us here
at the university that you thought. To be honest, the
more I look at our record and everything as a
backup quarterbacks, it seemed like we didn't get enough film

(09:03):
to pick up on that quarterback. So I'm really hoping
that he just don't play as well, he just play
as he play as a backup. That's what I might
hoping that he plays as a backup and we play
as the starters.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yes, well said, let's move over here, because you were
a guy that played in the defensive backfield, a major
living in the defensive backfield and Arizona State rolls into
Reseco Stadium with one of the best wide receivers in America,
not just the Big Twelve. Now it changes, it changes
a lot of things, ro Jo, as you know that

(09:41):
it's not Levit back there, and it is Sims. But
when you have a player like Jordan Tyson, you've got
to try to force the action anyway because he's just
that good. He has thirty nine catches on the year
for eighty three. He leads the Big Twelve in every
receiving category. He already has seven receiving touchdowns. But he
is really their only weapon on the outside, and there

(10:02):
really hasn't been a second weapon that is manifested from
a wide receiver standpoint. The Shaman mateyor kids they're tied
in who has seventeen catches. They do use releak brown
out of the backfield a little bit, but only for checkdowns.
He has nineteen catches, just over one hundred yards averages
about five point five per Take us through how you
stop one weapon, because it looks like Utah's defense on

(10:25):
the outside just has to stop one weapon, and that
is Jordan Tyson.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
How do you do that?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
You can't you can't stop a good player like that,
like the Jordan Tyson kid. I've seen some plays that
he made and he's the NFL call of a receiver.
The only thing that you can do is just maintain
and just play ben don't break defense. What I mean
by that is that Jordan Tyson, he will get his
his catches, he will get his yards, but catches in

(10:51):
yards doesn't put points on the board. So the thing
that I will like how I play when I played
back then with these good receivers, the goal is always
they're gonna get there. So just what it is the loans,
they're not touching that red zone, like that's all what matters.
So he can walk away with the game with twelve
catches probably one hundred and eighty yards the longs he

(11:14):
got zero touchdowns. It's a win in my books because
you have a higher chance of winning those type of
games because you have their star player that might get
frustrated that he's not getting in the end zone during
the game, and then you just basically start homing in
on them of like make sure this player don't beat us.
That's what it always would turn into, especially in those
type of situations where it's a backup quarterback because he's

(11:36):
gonna look for the weapon, like he's probably been told
look for the weapon, which is Jordan Tyson. Now you
take the weapon away, it can maybe put that quarterback
at a point where he don't know who's the next
person or who's the next man up, and to give
us a higher chance at getting to win. As you
think about a quarterback holding the ball longer than what
he's supposed to and our D line is not no

(11:56):
pushover D line. They're gonna get there and then they're
gonna get to him.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
So we've seen Rojo coach Beck utilize some defensive players
on offense kind of intermediately intermittently, I should say, over
the course of the season so far. Not as much
against West Virginia. I mean, they didn't need him. They
ran away from West Virginia as you know. But again
you played in the secondary. Right now, Utah with the

(12:21):
Nate Richie News has three players in the secondary, two
out for the year and Nate out four who knows
but certainly is not going to play tomorrow night. Do
you think because of the injuries piling up in the secondary,
maybe we don't see Smith on offense because he is
just that important stay upright on defense.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
I will hope that we don't because I feel like
he's gonna be the person. He's gonna be our guy
that's gonna probably roam around with Jan roam around covering
Jordan Tyson. That's what I will hope. But you never know,
because like we just was talking about, it's a lot
of variables that kicks in when it comes to these
night games. The rain, you know, the weather, the crowd,

(12:59):
like it can be a lot of different things that
can happen. But I'm hoping that we just our offense
can just do what they did, you know against west
Or Jane. Like you just mentioned, I don't think any
of our defensive players scored that game. It was more
of our tight ends and some of our receivers. So
I'm just hoping that we can play it that way
without having to use our defensive players, because especially not

(13:22):
our secondary wise, because we really need them for Jordan
Tyson and the rest of their cruit that they bring
it in.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
So I haven't spoken to you, Rojo since the Texas
Tech game, and you know, after that win, and I
think so far I've said this number of times on
the show when you look at every Big twelve team
and you dissect their records through five to six games,
depending on which team you're talking about, everyone's played five.
I think if like k States played six, Colorado West

(13:50):
Virginia too. If you analyze every win, Tech Tech win
over Utah and Salt Lake, I think is the best
win that any team has. There was not a lot
of success in the non con. Maybe if UCLA was
the team that they were against Penn State Utah has
went at the Rose Bowl, would have looked a little
bit more impressive. Nonetheless, after Tech rolled in the Salt

(14:11):
Lake and beat Utah the way they did, pulling away
in the fourth quarter, most people believe now that this
conference is theirs to lose.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Do you believe that?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yes? I fully do, because Texas Tech came out of
nowhere like they like, I wouldn't say they came out
of nowhere. Well, I know there was a pretty decent team,
but I don't think anybody knew that that quarterback was
going to play the way that he's been playing, and
then all of a sudden against US, it was like,
oh yeah, he got hurt, he had a chance. Then
they backup, quarterback stepped in and started doing really well.

(14:41):
So now Texas Tech has a two quarterback system. From
last time I checked, they been playing their backup now
a little bit more so in my in my eyes
and my eyes, all they have to do is this,
They make a one mistake by losing the game, and
then the conference is right back open. So yeah, that's
one hundred percent correct. It's a conference that up to

(15:03):
them to lose it. It ain't really up to anybody
to beat them, is just up to them to lose it.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
I feel like, all right, So that leads me to
my next question, which is, if Utah is unable to
get it done tomorrow night, that would be their second
conference loss. Now, I don't think two conference losses rojo
is an absolute nail in the Coffin death sentence, but
it might be right, especially if your two losses are

(15:29):
to one Texas Tech, who will have something to say
about this at the end, and two Arizona State, who
also probably will be.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
There at the end. Because what that means is rojo.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
As you know, you lose the tiebreaker to both Arizona
State and Texas Tech. So does it feel to you
that tomorrow night is a must win for Utah if
they want to win a Big twelve championship this year.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I feel like every game that's less in the season
is important because you got to remember, we still got
a run into the team down South, and you're or
were just discussing about the belief symbol, like coach the
Tager love him, he got people believe in and sometimes
that belief should be overpowering to some of the some
of the talent that you see. So you know, we

(16:13):
just got to stick to what coach with has always
taught us and some of my own some of my
my ex teammates, my my old teammates I played football with.
They know Coach with saying one game at a time,
and right now I feel like they we need to
take it one game at a time. Let's worry about
this game. Let's not worry about what happens in the conference.
Everything the dominoes will fall the way is supposed to

(16:35):
fall when is time. So focusing on this game. We
just got to hope everybody else die out. We we
just got to hope everybody else die out, not die out,
but lose lose a lot of games.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
One of the things we haven't seen from the offense
a lot of big chunk plays. I mean, most of
the big chunk plays have come against teams you know,
cal Poly or what have you.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Does that concern you at all?

Speaker 1 (16:55):
And why do you think we haven't seen you know,
you know, they're among the last in the conference in
explosive plays of more than forty yards. Is that concerning
to you or do you think that's by design? There's
nothing wrong with being a ball control offense, you know,
moving the ball up the field incrementally, taking care of
the football, giving your offense some rest.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
So I don't know that it's a huge deal.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
But are you concerned that the lack of chunk plays
that we have not seen just yet for this offense?

Speaker 2 (17:22):
I am. I'm a little bit concerned because I know
that our offensive offensive scheme is very explosive, supposed you know,
supposed to be explosive. That's that's how it's supposed to be.
But I'm not seeing the big, the big plays that
I was assuming that I'll see. But then also I
have to remember that this is our first year in
this system, and me just looking at looking back at

(17:44):
that Texas Tech game, I feel like some of the
cornerbacks that's in the peck is in the big twelve.
They ain't got a whole lot better, and they got taller,
Like I feel like most of the corners are like
six two and up now, and it's like, if you're
not six, if you're not six two, then we can't
put you in a corner. But I'm more concerned about it
because it seems like now you got teams that's homing

(18:05):
in on our run game, and I'm just hoping that
we could start opening up the playbook more if there
is even more plays in the playbook that could be open.
But it is a concern for me because that was
going to be the special thing for the University of
You saw was these new explosive plays, these new designs,
these new ways of scoring, and it seems like it's

(18:27):
been a little bit tougher to see some of them
being scored.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Are you concerned about the depth on Utah's roster? Rojo?

Speaker 1 (18:34):
I asked you that because Trevor Riley was in the
studio this week, and Trevor goes to practices, he watches
the game from the sidelines, and what we have in
the modern day and age, in current landscape of college football,
like I'll give you. For instance, Slane Kiffin gave an
interview to ESPN last week and he said that the
days of dynasties are over, and he's talking about some

(18:55):
of the bigger teams in the South and the SEC
that don't have the depth D used to. You know
the deal Like back in the day when Saban was
at Bama, if he lost a defensive end, he'd be like, Okay, fine,
I've got two five stars sitting behind him. And now
if you're a five star and you're not getting playing time,
you're gonna get a phone call from a coach. It's
going to offer you a paycheck and offer your starting job,

(19:17):
so you just leave. So it's not an issue only
for Utah. But you are you concerned about what Trevor
Riley believes is a lack of depth on this roster.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, A certain positions at certain positions to sit like. So,
I'm not fully into our recruiting process and everything. I'm
not like all the way in there to know what's
being what's happening and things like that. But what I
do say, un Phil, is that some of our players
are not built for the new offensive playbook that we
we acquire through having back and everything. I feel like

(19:52):
the depth is not going to be there because you
have to pick, you have to recruit players that sit
those positions. And I feel like right now the positions
that we have that need to be filled is not
being filled, or maybe the players are not. We haven't
found the star players. Like I mentioned a couple of
weeks ago about our receivering coreps, like our receivering room,

(20:13):
we don't have that player at that player that's like,
we don't have the Jordan Tyson. That's like you have
one receiver, it's like you know that this is a
really good receiver. But for this offense to go the
way it's opposed to, I feel like we need to
have some of those and right now the depth is
not good. Like we pointed out, our offense is picking
up some of our defensive players just to kind of

(20:35):
cover some of the missing pieces that we don't have.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
So almost every week, Rojo, it's been surprising to see
missed tackles from a defense for a team who's head
coach is Kyle Whittingham and who's defensive coordinators Morgan Scalley.
The coaches themselves have said this is a point of emphasis.
We have to clean it up. You were a defensive player,
How do you improve on this? What do you do
during the week to make sure that when the game

(21:02):
time comes, you're not missing these tackles.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Go back to the basics, that's the main thing. Go
back to the basics, like tackling dummies, being like taking
taking one step, being able to get your head on
the football when it's time to make a tackle, and
things like that. It's a you know, it's one of
those it's one of those things that us players we
hate to do it because it's like we've been doing

(21:28):
this for so many years. We don't need to go
back into time and go back to when we was
playing little kid football and you got to learn how
to tackle and take the legs or do this. But
in these type of situations, you got to take that
step back and go back to the basics. And it
does make people. It makes some players uncomfortable because they
hate doing it. But man, if you hate doing it,

(21:50):
then you need to make the tackles when it's time
to make the tackles. See so going back to the
basics is something that I believe the coach will do.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
All right, buddy thing and I'll set you loose simple
simply put give me two three keys to the game
for you tah to get the win themorrow night.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
I mean the main key. This is always one of
those games where it's a night game. Our fans are
really important to us, and this is one of those
games where the fans is going to be the most
important piece. We need to get some false starts, we
need to get that set backup quarterback uncomfortable, and it's
not going to be just the football team to do it.
It has to be the fans as well. So I mean,

(22:30):
I will probably put out a challenge that you said,
like what would be the keys? I mean, the challenge
should be more of our fans being there and continue
to support us like they've been doing. And on top
of that, be loud and may understand that there's a
backup quarterback that's coming into our stadium. They come into
our background, in our backyard, so they need to step
up and do what they need to do as the fans.

(22:51):
So hopefully the fans are listening and they can spread
the word get to the game, you know, and really
make the quarterback know that Salt Lake City is not
something in a mess with.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
All Right, ro Joe, Well you're the man.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Appreciate the time today, have a great weekend and enjoy
the game.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Okay you to thank you so use all right.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Robert Johnson, former Utah safety, played pro football as well.
Always appreciate his time to provide some insight and break
down the game for us on the program on a
Friday
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