September 12, 2025 • 21 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):
University of Utah football with a potentially tricky road trip tomorrow,
heavy favorite against Wyoming. It's weird and laramie though, as
we know from the old Utah Wyoming days.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our next guest, it's been too.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Long one of my favorite college football riders for a
number of years. Spencer Hall Friday Afternoon, Spencer Happy Friday Man,
how you been?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I've been great to this football long ed. Also, I'm
greatful because I definitely have something I can talk about
with you locally, which is Devin damp Pier. Like that,
we've got we got to start. We have football.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is going to go well, yes, sir, So let's
get right into it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I mean, I don't know how good UCLA is, and
I'm quite sure Kyle Poly's not very good, but you're right.
After a couple of years of frustration under center because
of lack of health for Cameron Rising, this young man
has inspired a lot of hope here through two games.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
What are your impressions of Devin Dampier, Spencer.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
That this is finally Kyle Whittingham's like like the paragon
of I think what he wants and a quarterback. Because
the one thing that you're going to do. Your production
suffered against cal Poly, so let's not slanger them too.
But remember against UCLA, I'm pretty sure you were up
around ninety percent in terms of third down conversions, and
(01:16):
you slip to nine out of thirteen against cal Poly.
You really need to get that cinched up before you
take on Wyoming. That's insane. That's a crazy number. That's
the number that I put up in EA College Football,
the video game when I'm trying to annoy my opponent
and I'm trying to just hold the ball for six minutes,
which in real time would be like a fifteen minute drive. Yeah,
(01:39):
this is I love watching this offense. I love what
they are doing, and I think it's everything that they
want to back up what Utah already had on defense.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And just like Oklahoma Spencer, we have an offensive coordinator
who brought his quarterback with him, and so the familiarity
between Devin and Jason Beck has bred some really fun
and early season results. You make of that dynamic, and
is this a blueprint you think other programs will look at.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I think it's something that other programs are already doing.
It's something that Zach Kittley's doing at FAU with his quarterback.
It's something that wherever Lane Kiffin goes next, it's probably
gonna check Austin Simmons with him if you can. This
is definitely something that you want to do because more
than more than ever, college football is about bringing some
(02:26):
gear with you. There's not a lot of team cohesion anymore,
at least not the kind of four year type cohesion
that you might have seen twenty thirty years ago. What
there is, though, is the chance to very quickly put
together a series of systems and pieces that you already have,
and the biggest pieces that you can do that you
can bring with you when you do that, it's the
(02:46):
quarterback right on offense, and if you're I guess it
would be safety, your middle linebacker, if you were a
defensive coordinator. I would be interested to see if other
people had done that, and I might have to look
that up. But I love what Beck has done with
the offense thus far. To me, Devin dan pier Is,
we talk about the negatives of the nil and transfer
aero a lot. Let's talk about the positives. Man, he
(03:09):
was just sitting there. It wasn't like, you know, it
wasn't like it took a tremendous amount of proaching from
you know, another power for program. There's plenty of talent
at that like group of five, even FCS level, we've
seen that, you know Miami last year, Miami got a
guy out of Incarnate Word indirectly he came from Wazou first.
But even at the SBS level, there's all of this
(03:31):
talent that I think we either misscouted or that has
developed to the point where it really can't make an impact.
At the FBS and at the top tier of the.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Sport, positional group that was most covered and talked about
prior to the start of the season for Utah football
was the offensive line, with Spencer Fatto potentially being a
top ten pick and Caleb Lomu eventually believed to be
that as well.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He's only a sophomore.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I had a friend compare them to bar bouncers as
we were watching the cal Poly game, because they just
picked dudes up and around. So of course, Devin has
played very, very well, but it helps when you've got
four or five six seconds in the pocket, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It does, And I know there's still concerns about you know,
playmakers on the perimeter, and that's something that people do
when you're playing well and you're looking for things to
be upset about. I get that. However, if you have
a functioning offensive line, congratulations, you're better than sixty percent
of the teams out there at at the FBS level.
If you have a really good offensive line, which I
(04:30):
think sneakily I think Utah might have a great offensive
line this year, then you're better than ninety to ninety
five percent of the teams. Everything else could be just
a matter of scheme and making sure that you keep
your quarterback up right. And Devin dan Pier is crafty enough,
I think to decide when and where he's going to
take the abuse that a quarterback who sometimes runs the
(04:51):
ball and runs it really well is inevitably going to take.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So I know you're a guy that enjoys the college
football dynamics that can get weird from time the time,
and Larry Mee Wyoming Spencer can get weird. They beat
Texas Tech up there a couple of years ago. Texas
had to rally in the second half not too long ago.
Utah is a healthy favorite, and as I continue to say,
while we wait for conference play to start, Texas Tech
will be in Salt Lake City and you know next
(05:16):
week with Fox Big Noon here without really fully understanding
whether or not this team has been tested, all they
can do is do what they're supposed to do, which
they've done so far. What should you fans hope tomorrow
night looks like.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
They should hope they don't remember this game in a month.
That's what you should hope. You should hope that you go, oh, yeah,
we played at Wyoming and it was fine. That's what
you really want to hope, like, get get damp, your
out of there healthy, Make sure that you get you know,
more reps for everybody, make sure that you work some
depth in and get some of your second stringers and
third stringers in. Should you get a substantial lead. It
(05:52):
is one of the enduring miracles of college football that
Wyoming not only has an FBS program, but that they
are some times pretty good and weird things can't happen.
It is one of those it's a Lubbock. Well, you know,
and now that you're in the Big pin, in the
Big twelve for a while, you're familiar with that term.
It's a Lubbock. It's one of those places where when
(06:12):
things get weird, they get real weird. It's not you
don't get like, it's not possible to just get a
pint of weird. There, you get a whole keg of weird.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Usually yes, yes, and potentially several kegs. In Wyoming they
larre me tomorrow night. Who's good in the Big Twelve.
It's the second straight year where we're just like trying
to figure it out, and they took the right away
from us to vote preseason, so there's no Big Twelve
preseason media poll after we were all completely wrong. It
feels like Iowa State's good, it feels like Utah's good.
(06:42):
And then beyond that, I think a lot of questions
maybe TCU, who do you think is good in this
conference this year?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah? UNC was so bad opening week that it's difficult
to state just how good they're going to be. That
feels and that's just me being kind of conservative with them.
They look great. They finished the assignment the way that
they were asked to do. I'm pretty sure Iowa State
it's good already. Three and Ozho played a lot of
(07:09):
different kinds of games against some different kinds of opponents,
and they've already had one of you know, like the
toughest matchups they're going to have, and they sort of
getted through that they sixteen thirteen win over Iowa, So
I trust them to be if you if you're looking
for like a reliable football product, they're probably your steadiest
bet at this point. Right, I'm interested to see tonight
we've got Houston, Colorado, and I am very interested to
(07:32):
see exactly what Houston might have steamed up because I've
never seen a Willy Fritz team struggle for long, and
they're always real mean and their defense manages to go
take big leaps from year one to year two. So
I'm really interested to see that Utah is as bankable
as you can get. Like I said, I'm charter member
of the Devin Daan Pier Fan Club high I'm willing
to sign off. You guys have an offensive line of
(07:54):
defense and a quarterback. Everything else I think you can
work around. I'll take that. The most team for me
at this point is Kansas, just because I want to
see if Jalen Daniels can continue. He's even at a loss,
he's managed to play pretty well, and with that kind
of experience and play making ability at quarterback, it's the
kind of thing that in a league where nobody has
(08:14):
every single duck in a row, your quarterback can make
a big difference. So experience and like explosive potential there,
you know, Kansas is always worth keeping an eye on. Here.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I want to ask you about a couple of other teams.
Oklahoma State goes to Oregon and when Dan Lanning wants
to put it on you, Dan Lanning's going to put
it on you, and Mike Gandhy probably should have been
a little bit more careful poking the bear. Deon Sanders
learned that year one at Colorado sixty nine to three,
and it was after three quarters. If they wanted to,
they probably could have hung a hundred and maybe Oregon's
(08:47):
the best team in the country. I don't know, But
how do you articulate, just as how far Oklahoma State
has fallen under Mike Gundhy.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
That situation is bizarre to me because the primary friction
a couple of years ago at least was was the
major booster for the program, Tiban Pickens versus the head
football coach, Mike Gundy, who felt unappreciated Tivan Pickens passes away.
Suddenly politically the land is clear for Mike gundhy to
do exactly what he wants with the football program without
(09:17):
much complaining, without much friction with his backers, and things
have only gotten worse. He's been a coach who has
not evolved at all to deal with the nil era,
and I do not think, by the way, that they're
going to tolerate that for that long because everybody who
Mike Gundy had credit with they've either retired, they've either
(09:40):
moved on, they've either died, or they are fed up
with him. That's the reality of where he sits. So
I'm interested to see where they land in terms of
of patients with Mike Gundy, because I think another byproduct
of the nil era is if we see clearly that
(10:01):
you can't manage your roster and you can't develop that
talent and prospect, and you're unwilling to and you have
already twenty years of experience at the program, the assumption
to me seems you've got to go get somebody else,
and you got to do it fast, because not only
are you going to start losing to Oregon by sixty
points quickly, you could turn it around quickly. So the
(10:21):
potential of being instantly better, which is possible in the
ILR and also being real bad, real fast that can make.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Things very of all theatile BYU like Utah's clean through
two weeks, but Portland State would probably lose to Corner Canyon,
one of our better high school teams in the state.
And Stanford is in the mix of trying to figure
things out with Andrew Luck as the GM and Frank
Reich as their interim coach for one year. But they're
starting a true freshman quarterback in Bear Bachmeyer, who wears
(10:47):
number forty seven, is built like a linebacker. I feel
like that's something you would appreciate. I don't know where
they exist in the landscape of the Big twelve. I
think if Jake rehtz laugh would have not been suspended
and ultimately transferred, maybe people would be higher on them.
But your thoughts for BYU football through two games.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That they really shouldn't judge them through three because they're
about to take what is a difficult road trip, not
that BYU is ever scared of taking those difficult road trips,
but the west to east road trip to go play
at a place that is live East Carolina if one
has if one has never been to Greenville, and never
(11:25):
been to the Pirate may Those people are lunatics, So
this is gonna be a very tough home environment for
them to come into for BYU. So with bear Backmeyer
a freshman on the road, the training wheels on firmly
on in terms of play calling there. Don't judge them
(11:45):
with what happens in this game. Hope to come out
with a dub if you can, because I think this
is a bigger challenge than maybe they realize. You know,
wait till we get through to your Colorado's, to your
West Virginia. Is everybody coming up on the schedule with
a freshman quarterback. It's something that like this is another theme,
by the way, that this year we have to have
(12:05):
patience with our babies, because there's some very big, very
pedigree babies on the line. Like you've got Bryce Underwood
at Michigan, You've got arch Manning at Texas, and inevitably,
no matter how good we think you are, no matter
how much we like you, you're gonna look like a freshman,
whether it's in game one like arch Manning did. By
the way, what were we doing judging somebody going to
(12:26):
Ohio State in their first road game as a starter.
I know he's not a freshman, but like their first
still really young quarterback only a year on the bench, right,
goes into the directly into the frying pan with a
lot of new parts of Texas. I'm amazed at how
quickly people might jump to like judgment there.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Well, same thing with what Brett Venables did to Bryce Underwood.
I mean, he's a he barely turned eighteen, Like he's
a freshman, but he's just barely eighteen. And I think
a lot of people around here as we anticipate a
BYU Utah game where you could have two teams that
are six and zero. I mean, Morgan Scalley's got to
be licking his chops at the thought of potentially scheming
against a true freshman quarterback in Bear Bockmeyer.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I'm sure it's something that he is absolutely salivating over.
By the way, I don't want to hear from anyone
about a first year starter or a freshman quarterback unless
you're facing a Brenton Bennables defense. Unless your Dance Dance
Revolution score is like ninetieth percentile or above, unless you're
pattern recognition and your quick twitch is that good, I
don't want to hear it because if you look at
(13:30):
what he would looking, what he was looking at and
what he was seeing pre snap and then post nap,
they do some very very heinous things to a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
So since we're in the space I reference the dynamic
and if you watch John Mattier at Wazoo, it's not
that surprising that he's looked the way he's looked. But Oklahoma,
what are you willing to say about them after just
two games?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I'm willing to say that the defense is very very
I think they've gotten much much better, and they were
already pretty good, but they've gotten much much better at
doing a lot of the slide of hand and pre
snap messing around that Venables likes to do, and they've
gotten even better at executing it. So that's that's super
(14:16):
promising for Oklahoma because they do appear to have at
least the passing games game clamped down. And whether they
can stand up to a burly running game, I don't know.
We saw in Michigan they allowed yards on the ground,
but it wasn't, you know, two hundred yards. It wasn't
something that they could live with. That's not the side
of the ball that I'm concerned with right. It'd be
(14:36):
interesting to see it stress tested a little bit more,
especially with a more potent passing game, because that is
something that going back to Venable's days at Clemson, that's
been where he's managed to take a couple of l's.
Is when teams really open up and just start passing
into all those open spaces that you get when you
blitz and you constantly pressure and you're fainting before the
(14:58):
snap and everything. What concerns me about Oklahoma is the offense,
and not in terms of execution, because you've seen they
can do it. It's keeping John Matier up right because
Mattier take a lot of hits. Because Mattier is not huge,
all right, he is not. He's not Bachmeyer size. To
put it in terms of your listeners will understand. He
(15:20):
is definitely somebody who missed time last year due to
injury and plays an extremely risk not risk averse, a
risk friendly form of football. So keep him up right.
That's what I really would like them to see is
I would like to see both the offense call plays
where maybe he's not exposed to as much as much
(15:40):
damage and where Mattier himself starts to go man, I
don't really need to go head first into that linebacker,
which he still did against Michigan. You know, a team
that has absolute bruisers front and back in that defense,
and I'm thinking, John, Buddy, We're like, make it to
game six, make it to game seven.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, because some people feel the same way about Devin.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Luckily, you only had four carries against cal Poly after
having I think sixteen against UCLA.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
That's a tough thing, though, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Because you coach them to get down and slide and
then the danger is do you do you kind of
cut a little piece of what makes them special off
their game, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I think there's a difference. Yeah, I mean, I think
that's absolutely true. I think that generally that sweet spot
that you want is somewhere between eight and fourteen carries,
eight and twelve carries. You hear coaches say that a lot.
You want them to actually carry the ball that then
you want them to threaten to carry the ball, you know,
twice that much. You want plays where that's enough of
(16:39):
a danger that they have to honor that, and thus
it opens up lanes for other runners, or it opens
up passing lanes downfield, So you don't want to limit that.
I think there's just some players you can't. A lot
of what's happening out there is so innate at a
certain point that once pressure comes, they're gonna take off.
But when it comes to like being close to the sideline,
(17:00):
when it comes time to you know, if you're past
that marker, go ahead and slide good, it's really not
worth it.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So we had you on Spencer shortly after Calen de
Bor was hired to coach Bama. Of course, he's a
former Pac twelve friend of ours here in this footprint,
and it's tough to take over for the legends no
matter who it is, especially a guy like Nick Saban.
Do you think this is going to work? Is there
a personality mismatch here? What do you make now that
we've got a season, a couple games of a sample size.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
I think it could still work. I do, But I
think that what they need to do in order to
sell the product, you know, you have to sell hope.
Most people don't think of it this way because usually
the guy who has to sell hope for a program
is the guy who comes in after the failure. So
he's following up a following up a legend. So why
(17:55):
should he sell hope? Well, you have to sell hope
because right now, the worst thoughts of an Alabama fan
are the bottom three and eight. For you know, they
that's the old Like I say three and eight because
that is the record that Mike Dubo had in his
worst year when they lost to Central Florida back and
I believe I want to say that's two thousand and one,
(18:17):
two thousand eight anyway, a quarter century. That's the thought
in the back of the oldest Alabama fans head. I
think they need to sell an exciting brand of football
that wins, that makes people not want to sell your
house out from under you, right, don't put for sale
signs in my yard quite yet. And I think that
(18:38):
a lot of that hinges on the quarterback position. For them,
it's really whether Ty Simpson can become something that so
far he has not been as starter, and whether they
make it change their long term all.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Right, before I say you lose.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
You know, it's such a difficult sport to predict, it's
such a difficult sport to project that you can only
just kind of go off of what you've seen and
what teams have done. And South Florida beat Boise State
in Florida. Do they all puncher's chance this week in Miami?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Absolutely? Byron Brown alone gives them a puncher's chance. Additionally,
I don't think you've seen Miami really. I don't think
you've seen Miami pushed. And I say that because their
primary test thus far has been Clemson. Correct.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yes, And.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I think when you go okay in terms of explosive potential,
are we really looking at a team that is superior
to Clemson. Yeah, in every single way, especially offensively. Kate
club Nick does not run for the tough yards that
Byron Brown does, nor does he move around and open
up the kind of fields. He's closer to Devin dan
Peer than he is to Kate club Nick. And that
(19:48):
is very difficult for a defense to defend in three
second increments, much less if the play extends past that. So,
and also, I think you're seeing a higher like a
higher grade, higher caliber play caller there. I think the
things they do offensively are way smarter than what Clemson does.
Their receivers get more separation. That's one thing that's been
Danny Clemson is they have been unable to develop the
(20:11):
kind of receivers they had back during Clemson's you know
late two thousands, early aughts, you know run where they
had you know, your your new Hopkins all over the place.
That's just justin Ross was kind of the last flash
of that at Clemson, and then we haven't really seen
anything like that since USF has those guys Nimrod in
particular the Tennessee transfer he's been he's been incredible. They
(20:34):
have a very mythological offensive like receiving corps. They've got
like Nimrod and a guy named Niptune. So not only
they call it for, they do get open and that's
a problem, and it'd be interesting to see because Miami
defensively has been greatly improved, but I don't think they've
really been tested, so I'm interested to see about that.
I'm also interested to see whether that soft order defense
(20:57):
can get Carson Beck to make some mistakes, because they
did do some things that really limited Florida's ability to
stretch the field even more than Florida did.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
If Utah and BYU were undefeated in October and six,
and oh, could we get a Spencer Hall appearance, a
reappearance in the state of Utah, potentially.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Oh man, Yeah, I mean that's a possibility.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
All right.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
That sounds that sounds, that sounds delightful. I had it,
by the way, again, the right echoed, and Salt Lake
as a venue underrated would imply that anyone has not
rated it. No, properly rated great like a phenomenal game
day environment, would would repeat.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
But no, Look, well we'd.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Love to have you if if it happens, let us know.
We'll get you in studio. Spencer, I always appreciate the time.
Have a great weekend. Okay, all right, you two, all right,
Spencer Hall. He has long been one of my favorite
college football writers. He has a newsletter called Channel six.
He's got a podcast.
University of Utah football with a potentially tricky road trip tomorrow,
heavy favorite against Wyoming. It's weird and laramie though, as
we know from the old Utah Wyoming days.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our next guest, it's been too.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Long one of my favorite college football riders for a
number of years. Spencer Hall Friday Afternoon, Spencer Happy Friday Man,
how you been?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I've been great to this football long ed. Also, I'm
greatful because I definitely have something I can talk about
with you locally, which is Devin damp Pier. Like that,
we've got we got to start. We have football.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is going to go well, yes, sir, So let's
get right into it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I mean, I don't know how good UCLA is, and
I'm quite sure Kyle Poly's not very good, but you're right.
After a couple of years of frustration under center because
of lack of health for Cameron Rising, this young man
has inspired a lot of hope here through two games.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
What are your impressions of Devin Dampier, Spencer.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
That this is finally Kyle Whittingham's like like the paragon
of I think what he wants and a quarterback. Because
the one thing that you're going to do. Your production
suffered against cal Poly, so let's not slanger them too.
But remember against UCLA, I'm pretty sure you were up
around ninety percent in terms of third down conversions, and
(01:16):
you slip to nine out of thirteen against cal Poly.
You really need to get that cinched up before you
take on Wyoming. That's insane. That's a crazy number. That's
the number that I put up in EA College Football,
the video game when I'm trying to annoy my opponent
and I'm trying to just hold the ball for six minutes,
which in real time would be like a fifteen minute drive. Yeah,
(01:39):
this is I love watching this offense. I love what
they are doing, and I think it's everything that they
want to back up what Utah already had on defense.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And just like Oklahoma Spencer, we have an offensive coordinator
who brought his quarterback with him, and so the familiarity
between Devin and Jason Beck has bred some really fun
and early season results. You make of that dynamic, and
is this a blueprint you think other programs will look at.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I think it's something that other programs are already doing.
It's something that Zach Kittley's doing at FAU with his quarterback.
It's something that wherever Lane Kiffin goes next, it's probably
gonna check Austin Simmons with him if you can. This
is definitely something that you want to do because more
than more than ever, college football is about bringing some
(02:26):
gear with you. There's not a lot of team cohesion anymore,
at least not the kind of four year type cohesion
that you might have seen twenty thirty years ago. What
there is, though, is the chance to very quickly put
together a series of systems and pieces that you already have,
and the biggest pieces that you can do that you
can bring with you when you do that, it's the
(02:46):
quarterback right on offense, and if you're I guess it
would be safety, your middle linebacker, if you were a
defensive coordinator. I would be interested to see if other
people had done that, and I might have to look
that up. But I love what Beck has done with
the offense thus far. To me, Devin dan pier Is,
we talk about the negatives of the nil and transfer
aero a lot. Let's talk about the positives. Man, he
(03:09):
was just sitting there. It wasn't like, you know, it
wasn't like it took a tremendous amount of proaching from
you know, another power for program. There's plenty of talent
at that like group of five, even FCS level, we've
seen that, you know Miami last year, Miami got a
guy out of Incarnate Word indirectly he came from Wazou first.
But even at the SBS level, there's all of this
(03:31):
talent that I think we either misscouted or that has
developed to the point where it really can't make an impact.
At the FBS and at the top tier of the.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Sport, positional group that was most covered and talked about
prior to the start of the season for Utah football
was the offensive line, with Spencer Fatto potentially being a
top ten pick and Caleb Lomu eventually believed to be
that as well.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He's only a sophomore.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I had a friend compare them to bar bouncers as
we were watching the cal Poly game, because they just
picked dudes up and around. So of course, Devin has
played very, very well, but it helps when you've got
four or five six seconds in the pocket, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It does, And I know there's still concerns about you know,
playmakers on the perimeter, and that's something that people do
when you're playing well and you're looking for things to
be upset about. I get that. However, if you have
a functioning offensive line, congratulations, you're better than sixty percent
of the teams out there at at the FBS level.
If you have a really good offensive line, which I
(04:30):
think sneakily I think Utah might have a great offensive
line this year, then you're better than ninety to ninety
five percent of the teams. Everything else could be just
a matter of scheme and making sure that you keep
your quarterback up right. And Devin dan Pier is crafty enough,
I think to decide when and where he's going to
take the abuse that a quarterback who sometimes runs the
(04:51):
ball and runs it really well is inevitably going to take.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So I know you're a guy that enjoys the college
football dynamics that can get weird from time the time,
and Larry Mee Wyoming Spencer can get weird. They beat
Texas Tech up there a couple of years ago. Texas
had to rally in the second half not too long ago.
Utah is a healthy favorite, and as I continue to say,
while we wait for conference play to start, Texas Tech
will be in Salt Lake City and you know next
(05:16):
week with Fox Big Noon here without really fully understanding
whether or not this team has been tested, all they
can do is do what they're supposed to do, which
they've done so far. What should you fans hope tomorrow
night looks like.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
They should hope they don't remember this game in a month.
That's what you should hope. You should hope that you go, oh, yeah,
we played at Wyoming and it was fine. That's what
you really want to hope, like, get get damp, your
out of there healthy, Make sure that you get you know,
more reps for everybody, make sure that you work some
depth in and get some of your second stringers and
third stringers in. Should you get a substantial lead. It
(05:52):
is one of the enduring miracles of college football that
Wyoming not only has an FBS program, but that they
are some times pretty good and weird things can't happen.
It is one of those it's a Lubbock. Well, you know,
and now that you're in the Big pin, in the
Big twelve for a while, you're familiar with that term.
It's a Lubbock. It's one of those places where when
(06:12):
things get weird, they get real weird. It's not you
don't get like, it's not possible to just get a
pint of weird. There, you get a whole keg of weird.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Usually yes, yes, and potentially several kegs. In Wyoming they
larre me tomorrow night. Who's good in the Big Twelve.
It's the second straight year where we're just like trying
to figure it out, and they took the right away
from us to vote preseason, so there's no Big Twelve
preseason media poll after we were all completely wrong. It
feels like Iowa State's good, it feels like Utah's good.
(06:42):
And then beyond that, I think a lot of questions
maybe TCU, who do you think is good in this
conference this year?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah? UNC was so bad opening week that it's difficult
to state just how good they're going to be. That
feels and that's just me being kind of conservative with them.
They look great. They finished the assignment the way that
they were asked to do. I'm pretty sure Iowa State
it's good already. Three and Ozho played a lot of
(07:09):
different kinds of games against some different kinds of opponents,
and they've already had one of you know, like the
toughest matchups they're going to have, and they sort of
getted through that they sixteen thirteen win over Iowa, So
I trust them to be if you if you're looking
for like a reliable football product, they're probably your steadiest
bet at this point. Right, I'm interested to see tonight
we've got Houston, Colorado, and I am very interested to
(07:32):
see exactly what Houston might have steamed up because I've
never seen a Willy Fritz team struggle for long, and
they're always real mean and their defense manages to go
take big leaps from year one to year two. So
I'm really interested to see that Utah is as bankable
as you can get. Like I said, I'm charter member
of the Devin Daan Pier Fan Club high I'm willing
to sign off. You guys have an offensive line of
(07:54):
defense and a quarterback. Everything else I think you can
work around. I'll take that. The most team for me
at this point is Kansas, just because I want to
see if Jalen Daniels can continue. He's even at a loss,
he's managed to play pretty well, and with that kind
of experience and play making ability at quarterback, it's the
kind of thing that in a league where nobody has
(08:14):
every single duck in a row, your quarterback can make
a big difference. So experience and like explosive potential there,
you know, Kansas is always worth keeping an eye on. Here.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I want to ask you about a couple of other teams.
Oklahoma State goes to Oregon and when Dan Lanning wants
to put it on you, Dan Lanning's going to put
it on you, and Mike Gandhy probably should have been
a little bit more careful poking the bear. Deon Sanders
learned that year one at Colorado sixty nine to three,
and it was after three quarters. If they wanted to,
they probably could have hung a hundred and maybe Oregon's
(08:47):
the best team in the country. I don't know, But
how do you articulate, just as how far Oklahoma State
has fallen under Mike Gundhy.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
That situation is bizarre to me because the primary friction
a couple of years ago at least was was the
major booster for the program, Tiban Pickens versus the head
football coach, Mike Gundy, who felt unappreciated Tivan Pickens passes away.
Suddenly politically the land is clear for Mike gundhy to
do exactly what he wants with the football program without
(09:17):
much complaining, without much friction with his backers, and things
have only gotten worse. He's been a coach who has
not evolved at all to deal with the nil era,
and I do not think, by the way, that they're
going to tolerate that for that long because everybody who
Mike Gundy had credit with they've either retired, they've either
(09:40):
moved on, they've either died, or they are fed up
with him. That's the reality of where he sits. So
I'm interested to see where they land in terms of
of patients with Mike Gundy, because I think another byproduct
of the nil era is if we see clearly that
(10:01):
you can't manage your roster and you can't develop that
talent and prospect, and you're unwilling to and you have
already twenty years of experience at the program, the assumption
to me seems you've got to go get somebody else,
and you got to do it fast, because not only
are you going to start losing to Oregon by sixty
points quickly, you could turn it around quickly. So the
(10:21):
potential of being instantly better, which is possible in the
ILR and also being real bad, real fast that can make.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Things very of all theatile BYU like Utah's clean through
two weeks, but Portland State would probably lose to Corner Canyon,
one of our better high school teams in the state.
And Stanford is in the mix of trying to figure
things out with Andrew Luck as the GM and Frank
Reich as their interim coach for one year. But they're
starting a true freshman quarterback in Bear Bachmeyer, who wears
(10:47):
number forty seven, is built like a linebacker. I feel
like that's something you would appreciate. I don't know where
they exist in the landscape of the Big twelve. I
think if Jake rehtz laugh would have not been suspended
and ultimately transferred, maybe people would be higher on them.
But your thoughts for BYU football through two games.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That they really shouldn't judge them through three because they're
about to take what is a difficult road trip, not
that BYU is ever scared of taking those difficult road trips,
but the west to east road trip to go play
at a place that is live East Carolina if one
has if one has never been to Greenville, and never
(11:25):
been to the Pirate may Those people are lunatics, So
this is gonna be a very tough home environment for
them to come into for BYU. So with bear Backmeyer
a freshman on the road, the training wheels on firmly
on in terms of play calling there. Don't judge them
(11:45):
with what happens in this game. Hope to come out
with a dub if you can, because I think this
is a bigger challenge than maybe they realize. You know,
wait till we get through to your Colorado's, to your
West Virginia. Is everybody coming up on the schedule with
a freshman quarterback. It's something that like this is another theme,
by the way, that this year we have to have
(12:05):
patience with our babies, because there's some very big, very
pedigree babies on the line. Like you've got Bryce Underwood
at Michigan, You've got arch Manning at Texas, and inevitably,
no matter how good we think you are, no matter
how much we like you, you're gonna look like a freshman,
whether it's in game one like arch Manning did. By
the way, what were we doing judging somebody going to
(12:26):
Ohio State in their first road game as a starter.
I know he's not a freshman, but like their first
still really young quarterback only a year on the bench, right,
goes into the directly into the frying pan with a
lot of new parts of Texas. I'm amazed at how
quickly people might jump to like judgment there.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Well, same thing with what Brett Venables did to Bryce Underwood.
I mean, he's a he barely turned eighteen, Like he's
a freshman, but he's just barely eighteen. And I think
a lot of people around here as we anticipate a
BYU Utah game where you could have two teams that
are six and zero. I mean, Morgan Scalley's got to
be licking his chops at the thought of potentially scheming
against a true freshman quarterback in Bear Bockmeyer.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I'm sure it's something that he is absolutely salivating over.
By the way, I don't want to hear from anyone
about a first year starter or a freshman quarterback unless
you're facing a Brenton Bennables defense. Unless your Dance Dance
Revolution score is like ninetieth percentile or above, unless you're
pattern recognition and your quick twitch is that good, I
don't want to hear it because if you look at
(13:30):
what he would looking, what he was looking at and
what he was seeing pre snap and then post nap,
they do some very very heinous things to a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
So since we're in the space I reference the dynamic
and if you watch John Mattier at Wazoo, it's not
that surprising that he's looked the way he's looked. But Oklahoma,
what are you willing to say about them after just
two games?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I'm willing to say that the defense is very very
I think they've gotten much much better, and they were
already pretty good, but they've gotten much much better at
doing a lot of the slide of hand and pre
snap messing around that Venables likes to do, and they've
gotten even better at executing it. So that's that's super
(14:16):
promising for Oklahoma because they do appear to have at
least the passing games game clamped down. And whether they
can stand up to a burly running game, I don't know.
We saw in Michigan they allowed yards on the ground,
but it wasn't, you know, two hundred yards. It wasn't
something that they could live with. That's not the side
of the ball that I'm concerned with right. It'd be
(14:36):
interesting to see it stress tested a little bit more,
especially with a more potent passing game, because that is
something that going back to Venable's days at Clemson, that's
been where he's managed to take a couple of l's.
Is when teams really open up and just start passing
into all those open spaces that you get when you
blitz and you constantly pressure and you're fainting before the
(14:58):
snap and everything. What concerns me about Oklahoma is the offense,
and not in terms of execution, because you've seen they
can do it. It's keeping John Matier up right because
Mattier take a lot of hits. Because Mattier is not huge,
all right, he is not. He's not Bachmeyer size. To
put it in terms of your listeners will understand. He
(15:20):
is definitely somebody who missed time last year due to
injury and plays an extremely risk not risk averse, a
risk friendly form of football. So keep him up right.
That's what I really would like them to see is
I would like to see both the offense call plays
where maybe he's not exposed to as much as much
(15:40):
damage and where Mattier himself starts to go man, I
don't really need to go head first into that linebacker,
which he still did against Michigan. You know, a team
that has absolute bruisers front and back in that defense,
and I'm thinking, John, Buddy, We're like, make it to
game six, make it to game seven.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, because some people feel the same way about Devin.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Luckily, you only had four carries against cal Poly after
having I think sixteen against UCLA.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
That's a tough thing, though, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Because you coach them to get down and slide and
then the danger is do you do you kind of
cut a little piece of what makes them special off
their game, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I think there's a difference. Yeah, I mean, I think
that's absolutely true. I think that generally that sweet spot
that you want is somewhere between eight and fourteen carries,
eight and twelve carries. You hear coaches say that a lot.
You want them to actually carry the ball that then
you want them to threaten to carry the ball, you know,
twice that much. You want plays where that's enough of
(16:39):
a danger that they have to honor that, and thus
it opens up lanes for other runners, or it opens
up passing lanes downfield, So you don't want to limit that.
I think there's just some players you can't. A lot
of what's happening out there is so innate at a
certain point that once pressure comes, they're gonna take off.
But when it comes to like being close to the sideline,
(17:00):
when it comes time to you know, if you're past
that marker, go ahead and slide good, it's really not
worth it.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So we had you on Spencer shortly after Calen de
Bor was hired to coach Bama. Of course, he's a
former Pac twelve friend of ours here in this footprint,
and it's tough to take over for the legends no
matter who it is, especially a guy like Nick Saban.
Do you think this is going to work? Is there
a personality mismatch here? What do you make now that
we've got a season, a couple games of a sample size.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
I think it could still work. I do, But I
think that what they need to do in order to
sell the product, you know, you have to sell hope.
Most people don't think of it this way because usually
the guy who has to sell hope for a program
is the guy who comes in after the failure. So
he's following up a following up a legend. So why
(17:55):
should he sell hope? Well, you have to sell hope
because right now, the worst thoughts of an Alabama fan
are the bottom three and eight. For you know, they
that's the old Like I say three and eight because
that is the record that Mike Dubo had in his
worst year when they lost to Central Florida back and
I believe I want to say that's two thousand and one,
(18:17):
two thousand eight anyway, a quarter century. That's the thought
in the back of the oldest Alabama fans head. I
think they need to sell an exciting brand of football
that wins, that makes people not want to sell your
house out from under you, right, don't put for sale
signs in my yard quite yet. And I think that
(18:38):
a lot of that hinges on the quarterback position. For them,
it's really whether Ty Simpson can become something that so
far he has not been as starter, and whether they
make it change their long term all.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Right, before I say you lose.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
You know, it's such a difficult sport to predict, it's
such a difficult sport to project that you can only
just kind of go off of what you've seen and
what teams have done. And South Florida beat Boise State
in Florida. Do they all puncher's chance this week in Miami?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Absolutely? Byron Brown alone gives them a puncher's chance. Additionally,
I don't think you've seen Miami really. I don't think
you've seen Miami pushed. And I say that because their
primary test thus far has been Clemson. Correct.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yes, And.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I think when you go okay in terms of explosive potential,
are we really looking at a team that is superior
to Clemson. Yeah, in every single way, especially offensively. Kate
club Nick does not run for the tough yards that
Byron Brown does, nor does he move around and open
up the kind of fields. He's closer to Devin dan
Peer than he is to Kate club Nick. And that
(19:48):
is very difficult for a defense to defend in three
second increments, much less if the play extends past that. So,
and also, I think you're seeing a higher like a
higher grade, higher caliber play caller there. I think the
things they do offensively are way smarter than what Clemson does.
Their receivers get more separation. That's one thing that's been
Danny Clemson is they have been unable to develop the
(20:11):
kind of receivers they had back during Clemson's you know
late two thousands, early aughts, you know run where they
had you know, your your new Hopkins all over the place.
That's just justin Ross was kind of the last flash
of that at Clemson, and then we haven't really seen
anything like that since USF has those guys Nimrod in
particular the Tennessee transfer he's been he's been incredible. They
(20:34):
have a very mythological offensive like receiving corps. They've got
like Nimrod and a guy named Niptune. So not only
they call it for, they do get open and that's
a problem, and it'd be interesting to see because Miami
defensively has been greatly improved, but I don't think they've
really been tested, so I'm interested to see about that.
I'm also interested to see whether that soft order defense
(20:57):
can get Carson Beck to make some mistakes, because they
did do some things that really limited Florida's ability to
stretch the field even more than Florida did.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
If Utah and BYU were undefeated in October and six,
and oh, could we get a Spencer Hall appearance, a
reappearance in the state of Utah, potentially.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Oh man, Yeah, I mean that's a possibility.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
All right.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
That sounds that sounds, that sounds delightful. I had it,
by the way, again, the right echoed, and Salt Lake
as a venue underrated would imply that anyone has not
rated it. No, properly rated great like a phenomenal game
day environment, would would repeat.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
But no, Look, well we'd.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Love to have you if if it happens, let us know.
We'll get you in studio. Spencer, I always appreciate the time.
Have a great weekend. Okay, all right, you two, all right,
Spencer Hall. He has long been one of my favorite
college football writers. He has a newsletter called Channel six.
He's got a podcast.
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