This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jag and Zaliz on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Insurance Services. I'm sure your most prized possessions, Katie z are two sad at iHeart radio station.
Yet.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Riverta, He's jagins Allis and today we have one today on a Friday.
How are you doing? Goodie two shoes.
We haven't seen any one, y'all keep canceling on me fridays.
Man. We got big long weekends.
We've got stuff to do.
Yeah, you're right.
We took it on the other we turk it on the back to.
Well.
I appreciate, appreciate the fact that you miss.
This or you'll be working you working media tomorrow. That's cool.
Get are you excited?
Oh, I'm very excited.
I'm always excited for that seasons.
Yeah, okay, you're doing stuff for who again? Easy desert swarm? All right? And what's it? What are your responsibilit ladies tomorrow?
That's a good question.
I'm going to find out tomorrow.
I know exactly what.
Visiting locker room. I'll be there to help visiting locker room.
Okay, well, congrats, have fun and it's work, right, it's called work.
I think your the first locker room you ever went into. You remember what that was and what that was? Holy crap?
Uh yeah college like a post like a postgame locker room. Uh yeah, well in college in college. Yeah, it was probably a loss in New York State, didn't win very much. Just remember how awful it was because the guys are jerks and when they lose, you know, and it's better to cover a winning team than the losing team.
Wow. That and that's that was my experience. I had just started as a sports writer, so I wasn't I wasn't doing it, you know, I wasn't the backup guy for football or anything like that. So a guy that used to worked at the at the start and name I remember his name, Wendell Barnhouse. And I remember Wendell Well, he was in he was in Dallas, Fort Worth Rank. He was in Dallas, So they need.
Us here, he was here, he was here.
Yeah, he was at the start.
Oh I didn't know that, yeah, early early eighties, because he was there when I was a child. Anyways, so this is in the eighty five season and they needed somebody a stringer to SMU was coming to town and they needed somebody to cover the game. And so he called me and asked me to cover the game. Well, Arizona beats them. They come in ranking like number five or something like that, and you know, Larry Smith and
Arizona beats them. That was my first locker room. I had to go to the SMU locker room quotes or no.
Do the story. I was doing a story.
I had to write a game story for them, but it was it was a game story on SMU, not on Arizona. So my first locker room was to have to go to that.
Uh. You know, they had gotten upset here.
You remember the the lock the locker room where they had to go down the steps in the corner of the of the stadium took forever and in that corner fans were throwing play money at him. You could not see the track because they had to cross on the track. The track was covered with playmen. Because this is at the height of the nineteen eighty five scandal.
Yeah five, was it eighty six.
Eighty five? There was only one twenty eight to six. Yeah, it wasn't even close. Kick their asses, beat the hell out of them, packed owles.
Should you choo?
Thousand yep?
Wow, okay.
And that was right after all the scandal stuff, during the scandle stuff, and that that was. That was my first locker room, having to go down there.
That was it was.
It was first of all, I remember that locker room. It was just tiny. We're all jammed in there. It's sweaty, it's gross, and they were pissed. Yeah, they were all It was dead silence. I mean, I'm I'm you know, you know, the coach is standing in there answering questions and you could have been on the far side of the locker room. You could hear every word he was saying. Yeah, it was so quiet.
No, those are not fun. The worst locker rooms I had ever been in were the two Son Toros, oh back in the eighties. And it wasn't just one or two or three times. It was a lot of times. Because they had a lot of games, right, and some of the guys were jerks, and that's the reason why. So you know, you go to the guys that were talking blah blah blah. But you know, there were some jerks, big times, my all time big jerks.
Yeah. It's funny because another another locker room. I was the locker room guy. Uh No, I wasn't like I was the beat guy. Oh here, I'm trying to remember where I heard it. I was the beaty when Arizona beat Oklahoma, right, and we were on there here right here, right, We're on the sidelines, we're over by the lock so
they kicked the field goal win the game. You know, the team is still on the field, and an Oklahoma writer standing next to me says says something like, I don't want to hear from Gary, Gary Gibbs, the coach. I don't want to hear one word from Gary that this was a good football team that they lost to. And I thought, well, they kicked your guys. He's going to say that. He's going to say that was a good football team out there. Sure enough, it was sixty three sixty three, it was I was. I was the
guy that was a slug fast, Yeah it was. Yeah.
We've had Doug Faff on the show a few times. His claim to fame, right, yeah, big time claim to fame. Okay, let's start today. We have a pretty good show. Today, we have a beat writer from New Mexico, Will Weber from the Santa Fe, New Mexican. He had a pretty good column after the first lost last week, you know thirty basketball season, and we'll talk to him about that. And then our guy here, Justin.
R Justin Spears, will join us, and you know, finally we're down to it. You know, he'll be the last guest before game one and we'll get you know, his thoughts. He's he's been having to write all summer long about this team, and so we'll say, okay, the games tomorrow, what are you thinking? So we'll find out from him, right, is this his second or third year? Second year? We'll
talk to him about that. You know, I tease him about he's just happy to be here because there there kids who you know, are enjoy their life and know us we're just kind of grumpy old man. You know, we've seen it all. You used to have to be an old, grizzly veteran to have that job. Yeah right, I mean, well he used to have to be around for a while.
Jay.
I don't know if you've noticed the TV stations and the newspapers, they all have young.
Kids, their children. I get that, but it cannot afford the old That's my point. You used to have to be that guy, you know, you had to work your way up to that, and that's kind of like you get it.
Yeah, not to not to down play Justin. He does a great job, but he's a child. Yeah, he's a babe.
Yeah.
Seven.
My wife has to take care of him and give him some screen and stuff.
Like yeah, the redhead.
Okay, So we'll talk to him then and then we have our picks some first weekend of picks.
I have five Friday picks. I'm scared.
Yeah, you shouldn't be scared. Even though I had a little parlay last night. I took North Dakota State and I had I had San Jose Steak pushed on the North Carolina game.
So my three teamer became.
Were you at any point worried about Colorado?
Yeah?
I thought I didn't, you know, I didn't think there was a point. I didn't think North Dakota State was going to cover because they were down eleven. They're down eleven, and I thought they need to go get a score. And actually I had gone out to dinner with my wife, went to a place that had TV's. The TV was behind her, so I could kind of look at her look up, look at her look up. But hey, dude, that's how you keep a marriage together, right, that's how
you keep a marriage together. You line her up with the TV so that you're always looking in that direction. Would you just say, happy, happy wife, happy life. No wife, very nice.
Don't listen to him, Do not listen to him.
I remember that.
I take no wife advice from from Steve. Anyways, Yes, I thought it was for you. I was big worried. I didn't think they were gonna come.
Yeah, No, it was close. It was a pretty good game.
Otherwise, I heard it on the radio or on you know, I'm like in the car on the way home that they scored the touchdown and I'm driving and trying.
Not to throw a fist up.
Well, when she was with you, right, she well, she she she knows.
I mean, yeah, it's it's ten thirty at night and I've got the San Jose Steak game up at the house.
She knows he's just played it cool.
She you know, she didn't say she she loves it.
She loves be in denial.
She she loves me.
She loves me for more, for better or worse more, with all my flaws and scabs and scars for more marriage ships, just call me. It started football season, and I'm playing with house money, all right. I guess I got money left over from from last year or from basketball. Actually, okay, so I'm playing with house money.
Were going five dollars a week again.
Five bucks a week, and then we're also playing for the sixty dollars.
Oh yeah, entry, which I paid yours. You gotta do your audit from last year. Still from the five dollars a week?
Think, Yeah, I got Yeah, I guess I got to figure.
That out before we come forward.
You know, I'll get it to you. So then we start playing.
Okay, cool, I'll take a check or whatever.
You don't want to check. Yeah, I remember the last time, remember really? I still I'm still I can't remember. No, I don't even know if we have checks. I just got a new batch for me. Yeah, taking from.
You know, get into the twenty first century. Well yeah, hell no, dude, I'm gonna go with a kicking and screaming. I'd still do other things, but I still need checks anyways, Okay.
Yeah, five Friday picks in the last segment. One, you can and make fun of us when we do this because you're you're you're, you're a Friday guy. And I was awful last year. He was the worst. I was awful.
There was about eleven hundred, just roughly eleven hundred. I don't know where you actually felt, but you were in the last ten percent.
Yeah, I was over. There were one thousand and fifty seven in our pool, and I.
Was in the nine hundreds.
Oh were you rallied?
I rallied the last last couple of weeks in.
The season for this eighty seventh.
Yeah, Steve Cash, I did not.
Yeah, very nice.
So that's why he's got to count his fibes five a week. We do a weekly five dollars bit.
We go a weekly five dollars bed, and then it's it's sixty dollars for the season.
Because that's the entry for this.
There's still time, there's still time on Yeah, you got you got games.
I'm not I'm not allowed to corrupt you guys. That's one thing my wife says, do not be corrupting the entry. But one if you want to join, if you want to get in on it, no pressure.
I'm not going to stop you. I'll be able to say, one, asked me. He asked, he.
Said, that's a was like fun, interesting, interesting.
Then yeah, okay, okay, I actually have I actually have it right here, Steve. So let's see, I won three weeks, we tied one, two, three, four, five weeks.
Okay, so that means you won the.
Other eleven weeks. So I owe you fifty five dollars. Yes, no, no, no, I don't know you fifty five dollars. I owe you forty dollars because I won three and you won eleven weeks.
Nineteen weeks.
I won three, you won eleven week tied right here. Okay, so I called up last year's thing, So I owe you for eight weeks. I owe you forty dollars. So you wont one hundred dollars off me last year.
Yeah, not bad, Okay, cool, that's cool. Forty dollars that I could spend one.
I was thirty eight percent last year, and that was with a rally over the last over the last few weeks. In the last I went, I went, I went six eight, I went eleven out of I won eleven and nine over the last three weeks.
No, you did it four week rallied to stay out of the basement.
I went, oh, no, I was looking at Steve's. I went two, four, six, I went twelve. I went well twelve and thirteen over the last few weeks. But after going one for four to one for four, one for four, one and one for five and five, went in four to one and four. It was terrible.
It was a terrible, terrible.
It was good for me.
Hey, just real quick, if anybody hasn't seen the Facebook, I want to have a show tomorrow from five o'clock. I know you pushed it on your Facebook or did you tweet it out? For No, I didn't not can could you? Because you're the tweeter guy, I'm the tweeter. You're a tweeter guy. I've been called you're a tweeter. I have a show with David Adams and Brian Neverans starts at five tomorrow on this station. Uh talking about the game on Saturday, a pregame show, kind of an
alternate to the other guys. Uh So they wanted to do one, and they asked, and so we're doing it. Should be uh So we're gonna have fun for about an hour. I'm gonna call in five to six. We we're taking calls. Because we're taking a call, I call it call it from the from the from the tailgate. That's the one thing I'm gonna miss because I can't get out to the tailgate. But it'll be good to I've never really spent time with Byron, but it'll be fun. David, I have to control him.
Yeah, so.
Wish me a little luck.
I'm gonna wish you no.
Lou, I would have say please don't cuss because.
You know what I mean, because one I'm gonna Say'm gonna say whatever you get, you deserve.
Well, wish me luck.
Anyway.
So that'll be from five to six tomorrow before the game. If you have a chance to listen in it should be a lot of fun with the guys. Okay, let's move. We've got two hours two minutes here. We got Will Weber in about five minutes and justin like you said, uh last night, did you see uh.
Wait one more point on last year I finished in nine and ninety third place. Yeah, I would be quiet fifty seven. Yeah, it was awful.
That was that's less than ten percent. That's eight percent. Probably terrible. All right, what are gonna say, uh, last night's game with with the Colorado Uh, Dion of course wins, so you can talk a lot of crap. He was upset though, Yeah he was upset. He should be, yeah, you.
Know he I didn't catch all the press conference. I just caught the highlights of it, the part where he said, you know, I'm upset with how we played. I'm upset with what we did, but I am happy we got the w. So there you go, and look and that's in a way to me. I don't know, give the other team some credit. They're good, No, they are. We saw them.
We saw them.
They're really good.
I mean they they punch you in the face and they just keep coming at you no matter who you are. They say we're gonna run the ball, and they did. And you got to give him credit for that. And Dion, instead of saying, oh, we should have beat him worse, he should say.
You know, they're good.
We won the game, and you know this is a good team. You know they're every bit is advertised. Nice job. We're happy with the win, instead of oh, we you know, I'm pissed off, because you know what, take the win.
Well, if you're if you're one of them. If you want fans, we only got a minute left. Uh, I think you're concerned. You're concerned about how good this team could be. You're not going to be because it's a lot like last year.
But see Steve, I was not concerned at the time Arizona beat him by three what nor touchdown.
It's a different it's a different situation. Back when Arizona beat them and struggle to beat them, they were still on the rise. They were trying to still kind of find their footing. Colorado's kind of like been hyped a little. Your your circumstances are different.
Well, let me put it this way. If Arizona was playing North Dakota State next week and they won by the score of the Colorado being, No, I'd be happy because North North Cota State is good.
No. No, I think you're your Your situation is different.
I would not expect I would this year. This year, Oh wow, I would.
I would think that they would by.
More more, more, because it's about more, because it's about North Dakota State than about Yeah.
No, no, I think I would be comfortable with I think it was just fourteen years ago.
Three years ago, they had their first round draft pick a quarterback. Yeah, regards of whether they deserve to be one.
Yeah, it was one. We gotta go. I'm glad we're arguing about that.
We're gonna argue, Yes, go right to hold the Will Weber Well, wherever the Santa Fe New Mexican, you'll be here and we'll talk about those lobos coming into town.
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Steve Rivera and Jagen Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stag yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeart radio.
Wapp Hey, welcome back to win the ball. Here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jacinsausw On the phone. We have Will Webber, the sports editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican Just saying that Will makes me teary eyed from my hometown. How you doing? How long you're going to you? I didn't know you. I didn't know you were Santa Fe native or are you?
Yeah? Well like yeah, I grew up in Santa Fe, went to Saint Mike's. Yeah, I mean you know, you know, Steve, it's there. The hundredth burning of it is over tonight, Yefe, which, of course they scheduled two high school games in town. Wow, Wow, traffic arm again, Tray, it's gonna be just terrible.
Okay.
For Jay. Jay's been in Tucson of his life. He's never left, So tell tell him about that, because to me, it's it's a huge thing.
But you know, Santa Fe prides itself in being an old school Catholic town. But it's interesting because every August September, around Labor Day, they have this huge pagan ritual where they burned a forty foot puppet and and it's they they call him old Man Gloom and when he goes up in flames in every way, I mean, they get thousands, tens of thousands of people out there. You're supposed to come out of feeling happy, but anyone who lives in
Santa Fe tends to avoid it. It's more of a tourist thing because, oh my gosh, that that that area of downtown turns into a zoo at night. Oh man, if you've never seen it, it's it's like burning man with a New Mexico flavor is basically what it is.
Right. They used to have this on Liberty Weekend with a lot of festivities. They moved the fiestas to next week because it got so crazy. Things happened, and yeah, so here we are. You are okay, well, alcohol consumption welcome. Yeah, any normal data that would be the case.
But this is we can.
Well, let's talk about the Wildcats and the Lobos. I thought your calm was a very good one after the loss to Montana State. I guess last week it's already basketball season and Abuquerque.
Yeah, yeah, you know, you can't lose to an FCS team. I understand my Panas State comes in rank. They were four in the SCS and they were actually a thirteen point favorite, but my goodness, the way they imploded in the last five minutes. They had him on the ropes throw up by ten and gave up a ninety three yard touchdown run and then just they had this horrible dropped pass. And I'll say this, you know, Danny and Zales,
your your defensive, your linebackers, and special teams. Coach little Wildcats coach here the last three years, and he knows that team better than anyone on earth, and plussed. He took his best running back with him to Arizona, too, which is it's gonna make for a long Saturday night.
So so my partner here text me about half time. I'm just about half time and what did you say?
It was? It was, I say, I said, I said, look at the Lobos. The Wildcats are in big trouble.
So is that right? Well that gave that gave the Lobos the kiss it death.
I'm known as the kiss of death.
Well, friends texting me, he said, oh my guys, looking, they're going to blow him out, Like, yeah, the game's not over. They're by seventeen. It is definitely not over.
Yeah.
Well that well, that's when I texted Steve because I was golfing, I mean California, and I was golfing and then I just got curious and looked up to the score and they were up by seventeen, and so I texted Steve and I said, what the hell? I didn't realize because I hadn't been watching the game, I didn't realize two of the touchdowns were Fumbel recovery, so it wasn't like they were running up and down the field on them. They just got a couple of breaks exactly.
Yeah, and you look, I mean Montana State. They just shredded him. Ran for three hundred and fifty yards they just killed them on the ground. So it's it's it's a new coach, it's a brand new system. They got a lot of new players, and the fact is they're they're a bottom feeder in the Mountain West Conference, and so it's it is truly just a it's a perpetual rebuilding project for the football program at un M.
Did did Gonzales This may be a dumb question, but did did go Zalees get a fair shake? Or no? Or anybody there is going to have trouble?
Yeah, And here's the thing is he came in right at the start of the pandemic, so his first year he faced just an incredible challenge. It's really unique because they that team had to spend the entire season in Henderson, Nevada, which is.
What you know, oh yeah, Las Vegas.
They were out there for all seven weeks. They played every all seven of their games out of state, and they were sequestered in a hotel in Anderson that entire time. So the team never had a chance to leave. They never had they never had fans at any games, and they were the only team that played the every game on the road that season. So you kind of give them a mulligan for that first year they went two and five. They won the last two games, so you're thinking,
all right, they got some momentum. They come back and it was just and never really got going after that. And I don't know if it's his fault or if it's a systematic thing, but Dan, I'm sure Danny would tell you off the record that it's there's just not the kind of support at U and M financially that you're going to get at a PAC twelve. I remember I did a podcast with him when he first started.
He said, look, you can go to the lowest level Pack twelve school and go to their facility, as in their facility there are five times better than the best thing you're gonna get in the Mountain West. And that's the fact of life. And so you can do the best with which you can and recruit the best you can to Albuquerque, which is not easy for a kid to fly over hours of desert to get to New Mexico to see this place and to understand that you're playing for a team that always seems to struggle. So
did he get a fair shake? You know? I think they get some opportunities to win, but The bottom line is it is it is not an easy place to succeed in football at UM and M.
Well, it just you know, I don't know if the right words culturally or as a as a as a as a university that I mean, are you do they not really care about it? Then?
Is that?
Is? That?
Is?
That?
Are those the signs that you're getting in? And that just let zero in on basketball kind of like what's happened over Yukon and maybe a couple of other schools that were basketball.
Is the deal? I mean? Do they just not care enough about it?
Yeah? Yeah, Well that's it's just the facility is not great at you and M either. The seats thirty seven thirty eight thousand, and it's just it's outdated. They really haven't done any major upgrades to the place. You know, they do some cosmetic stuff like new turf, from lights and all that, but Albuquerque, you're talking about a metropolitan area that's close to a million people and they they
struggle to get fifteen thousand fans per game there. You could you could basically give away tickets and people just aren't going to go. And that's just the way it is. Twenty years ago, they averaged had a three year stretch where they averaged about thirty five to thirty six thousand fans for three straight seasons, and that was definitely the high watermark of football interest in the city of Albuquerque. But at the same time, the men's basketball team was struggling,
So while that part waned, it grew for football. But very rarely, if ever, do you ever see football and basketball succeed at the same time at the University of Mexico. And historically it's a it's a basketball school and they football is I would even call it an afterthought. It's just it's just something to do to pass the time until you get to the first game of the basketball season.
Wow.
So I asked you if you were going to come down and he says, no, I think I'm going to pass after had they won, Had they won, you would have been here. You would have been here.
Yeah, I don't know. Look, you're talking about playing a nationally ranked team. It's not going to be good. I would say this. Corey Krossy Merritt is one of the better running backs New Mexico has had in the last probably two decades. And this guy, he has run against that defense every day for the last three or four years. And this is a guy who's never really had a great offensive line blocking for him, and you put him in that system where they're going to feature him against
a team that he knows better than anybody. I'd say, Jacorey, just hydrate yourself because you might get cramping on the second quarter. Because this kid could run for two hundred and fifty yards tomorrow. And so it's hard to sell that when the newspaper industry is what it is. When I go to my editor and say, hey, how about sending me down to Tucson to watch a game where you and m could lose by fifty points at a game that starts at eight thirty our time on double Yeah, that's a hard sell.
Yeah, well, you're saving the money, You're saving the money.
Yeah yeah, Well well okay, so what so what are we going to see tomorrow? I think that you know, I mean, we saw what we saw on Saturday, but I believe that, you know, there's a there's a little advantage to having played a game you come into Tucson. I'm not saying that they're gonna beat him, but I kind of feel like they'll put up a fight.
Yeah, and they could. And here's the thing is is Bronco Menenhall is he is the best coach that they could get at that time. And the thing is Bronco has taken over a couple program. When he took over by U and then we took over Virginia, he walked into two places that already had some infrastructure in place, they had talent, they had some debt. He doesn't. He didn't have that here. And his roster has got a
lot of young kids on it. And bottom of the thing is New Mexico and schools like it, like San Jose State. There are number schools throughout the Mountain West. They are essentially triple A teams to the bigger schools. And you have success at a skill position or something like that, the bigger schools are going to come take those guys away from you, Like Corey. That's an example right there. So you do the best you can with what you have. And I think Bronco. Look, Bronco is
a tactician. He's not a raw rock guy. Danny was a raw rock guy where he could get a guy to light himself on fire and run through a brick wall. Where Bronco Menen Hall is more of He's very easily. I've described him like this, He's like an empty cardboard box. He's got that kind of personality. But the guy knows football, he knows the X and knows part of it. And if he can get these guys to buy into the mental side of it, I think they could be okay.
But let's face it, they're not going to win that game tomorrow and they're going to struggle to win two or three games this season. But it's a start, so we'll see where he goes from there.
And we're talking to Will Webber, the sports enteror of the Santa Fe New Mexican So what's the outlook? What did you think going in for the season? What how many games do you think they're going to win?
You know, I really didn't think they're gonna beat Montana State, even though Monte like a research in Montana State, and they're tough, they're they're they got some size and they do run the ball hard and they're just a team that plays with confidence. But I thought New Mexico could win that game. I think they could still be New Mexico State because they lost their head coach and they're
kind of look. New Mexico State is the little brother in the state of New Mexico, so I think they could win that one and maybe it seems like historically you and M always picks off a team inside the conference. Last year they knocked off Fresno State. I have no idea how that happened, but they This is a team that hasn't won more than four games since Bob Davy was a coach back in twenty sixteen. So I think the high water mark for any team going in any
season is maybe four and eight. But I thought the team would probably go two and ten, maybe win one game the conference. But after losing to Montanna's DY, now I'm kind of rethinking that maybe they might just be the Mexicas Dy and go one and eleven.
Yeah. No. In fact, we had Bob debut on the show maybe a year or so ago, and I'm having known the New Mexico program. I said, you go there kind of you have to do really well and get the hell out because it's a job that you go probably to get fired.
Yeah. The thing is, like Bob. What I loved about Bob is during his weekly press conference, he was so good at having fireside chats. Boy, he would get there and he would tell stories about his days a textas a and m in Notre Dame. But you're like, okay, Bob,
let's talk about New Mexico. The message that he had was, it's like this, the toughest part about coaching in New Mexico is the recruiting, because you can if you can get a kid in an airplane to have him come to Albuquerque and sell him on the program, that's a win for you. But the problem is actually getting him to come to New Mexico, to put him on an airplane to get here, because unlike recruiting a kid to a Texas school where the kid might have a family,
has to drive a few hours. There is no direct route to Talbuquerque. You're you're you're driving hours and hours upon hours to get to this the state, so you're in a lot of ways, you're kind of on an island. And he said that was the toughest thing is to convince a kid to leave a place that has a lot of people to come to a school that doesn't and see what you can do. And plus there's not a lot of history here, so that it's the mentality of us against the world and let's build something special.
But that's become the rallying cry for this program for years, for decades. Well, sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn't.
Well, Jay, what was rich Rod's the thing here?
Yeah?
Yeah, you got to get him, you gotta get him here, just got to get him here. Now, the difference that rich Rod said was if you get him here, you go. You got a good chance of keeping them here, which you know, I mean he had some good players and there have been some good players have come through here, but you know too soons in a lot of ways like that. It's hard to get here from a lot of places. But uh yeah, you know, I don't know.
I don't know how Jed did it, how Jed Fish did it, but he got some guys and that's what Arizona's gonna put on.
How I feel tomorrow?
How is the NIL up there? Because I've heard some commercials up there when I've been home a time or two. At least start making a try up there.
Yeah, the NIL, I'll give them credit. They did structure it. They were one of the first schools to really have an infrastructure in place for the NIL, and they were lucky because there just happened to be an attorney here in town, Kurt Roth, who understood the contract part of it, and so he built an NIL system that was really strong and very well developed. And look, they've got enough money to pay some players in basketball to keep some
guys around. They're fairly competitive, and they're more advanced than a lot of the other Mountain West schools, which gives them a huge advantage. But it's when the New Mexico basketball team was a NANCAA tournament they played back in Memphis in March, and I sat down with this guy and he said, the biggest challenge for building me here is there's no Microsoft, there's no Starbucks, there's no FedEx plan,
there's no huge corporation in Albuquerque. So you're relying on donors, the individual donors of the alumni to come forward and contribute a one hundred bucks a month or whatever it is and do that. He said, But it's a fair
weather place. People will support that. They'll give money for the basketball team, but they don't want to give money to the football team because they want to wait and see where their money's going to go and if they can actually buy a running back, and so they're having a hard time getting enough money to really build a solid anil for the football team, but the basketball team is separate. The basketball team is actually doing pretty well
with that. And it's funny because men like, look, I'm old enough to have worked in the newspaper industry to remember the olden days when it was a huge violation to pay an athlete. Now you show up to practice and these guys are driving in in Tesla trucks. BMW's like, Holy, this guy's got a car that's more expensive than my house. Yeah, but that's the nature of the nil these days, is there. There's a lot of money to go around, but you have to be doing the right thing first.
Yeah, I'm glad you didn't say the named Clemson because the people here still fuck out about Clemson. You and him couldn't beat up neither to Arizona. Yeah, hey, Will, thanks a bunch of I know, the Gonzales Gil Gonzalez family wanted me to say, hello, all right.
There you go, Yeah for sure. Yeah, yeah, I'll keep a candle burning for you.
Stay out of trouble. Remember, yes, pie for me.
Thanks, that was fun. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Will talk to here, all right, Yeah, we'll well, we'll weiber.
It just sounds like they have no hope.
Well it's it's in a way, he's talking a little about Arizona, except Arizona is better, if that makes any sense. Yeah, I've always said that ariz Albuquerque's like Tucson with snow. But here's you're in the pac twelve. You have to compete. I have no choice but to compete. But being in the Pact weelve help help helps, no question. That's one of you guys wanted to get out of the mountain West of the.
Exactly and that that that's exactly it. You know, you know if Arizona's still in the Mountain West, they're in New Mexico.
The New Mexico.
They're New Mexico, the Colorado State, their Wyoming, Utah is the same thing you have been the same thing.
Yeah, yeah, no, no, it's all of a sudden you can buy me love right whatever he is what he is, but he got noticed right either by pay and he got noticed and he was big time.
He was a big time.
That's Arizona compared to these that that.
I mean, that was the discussion all the way back when Arizona did go to the pack pack ten and they said, we need, we need to put on some big boy pants.
Well and issue wanted to no, you don't. Yeah, we we like our pants right where they are, because exactly we gotta go and come back.
All right, we're gonna take a break. We'd love to take your calls, and I'm gonna argue with Steve some more about North Dakota State. Yeah, okay, we'll be right.
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Live, I Mean iHeartRadio app. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen.
Fifteen.
Hey, welcome back to my in the ballgirl Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's chicken saws. Got a guy one today. Kind of want to give him a car and go to Santa Fe. Get there just in time for the big events.
You got to google.
You got to google.
You'll see what is second out.
Yeah, okay, No, that was a lot of fun. We kind of know that they're not good. It's gonna take it. You go there to get fired, dude. We talked to the UTEB guy who's the former of the former U big coach here who eventually fire remember last year. Uh, those those places are just very difficult, man.
And I guess I wonder what the expectations are, right, I mean if a coaches comes there and you're not giving them the resources and the ability to win, and why are you firing them?
What do you think?
You know, unless they're just like terrible people and they're not treating their players, why do you why do you keep firing guys?
I think because well I think you know, we talked to Nunaz, right, and you have those ads who want to win too, uh desire he said, talked about it. They want to win championships, right, What's what's the thing to do here? Win championships? I do think you just want to be competitive in your own league, right, and if you're not even doing that, that's the difficult And he said tenth, he wanted the bottom beater of the league.
Ye.
God, you got to give of a not a very good league.
League, right, and it's still a Division one kind of a pretty program, pretty big deal at least in basketball.
It is.
It's tough, man, It's it's tough. Like that whole quarter. They did a big story on the I twenty five Mexico State, uh, New New Mexico and up the road Colorado State up alleyway where.
It's it's difficult and it's tough to get.
It's different, and you are kind of like the second second string or you know, uh, because you Colorado State's second to Colorado, New Mexico State, second to U and M. And even then that's there's a it's sun.
It is what it is.
But I don't know if it changes, yeah, I hear you.
I just well it did here because forever it wasn't a SU the big brother. Right, it changed here, it did, but it took. It took special coaches to do that right, right, and took a special coach. It took Larry Smith to do that, and he right and then he left, but he he came here, you know, famously said the number one priority is to beat a s U because it was like a no other things aren't possible until you can.
Start beating as And how long did it take?
Uh?
He beat him in his.
Second year after losing to lose in Arizona had lost like fifteen of the previous sixteen.
Or something like that. Okay, so yeah, you have to make that other priority.
Yeah?
Yeah, how is the how is the fan base back then? When it when the Arizona when they couldn't beat the issue, we hated it.
Oh it was awful, I mean, but it wasn't a give up kind of thing. It was a what the hell do we have to do to beat those guys?
Right?
Uh?
Arizona fans hated that the ASU game would come up and Arzona just get their ass kicked every time. But it wasn't like it wasn't a hopeless feeling. It was we got to do something to fix this. Yeah, And when Larry Smith made that a priority, people loved seeing that become a priority, and then when he fulfilled it by by starting to beat them in uh in nineteen. It was his second year that they beat him in eighty two, you know, And it's funny because his first
year a SU kicked their ass. Is here forty four to seven, beat the hell out of them, and then Maxwell was a middle linebacker played in the NFL. They just beat the hell out of Arizona. The next year it was it was a close game. I think it was like twenty four to thirteen or up at ASU. Yeah, but ASU wins. Then the next year ASU comes down here. All they got to do is win and they're in the Rose Bowl and Arizona bludgeons them.
And that started that streak.
So you know, there was a feeling that Arizona was gaining on him the minute Larry Smith got here. And so you know, and that's what and you know, what Larry said was true that no other things were possible. Arizona could not become a program that deserved any respect until it started beating. It started beating it's in state rifle, and that's what happened. Still never got to a Rose Bull. But while ACU did but nonetheless, you know a lot of people considered Arizona from that point on the better
program in the state. Yeah, so it took a coach.
I mean, Arizona ACE.
Has been to two Roseballs and Arizona's been to none. But those are the two outliers for ASU. Arizona's been better than them every other year. Yeah, wow, excepting years.
And most most years and then very much. And basketball was the opposite. There was on a dominated right.
But I guess, but was never caught up to Arizona in that Yeah, not even is not even. I mean the gap just keeps getting snighter and wider in the whack years leading up to that issue, in the early PAC ten years, yeah, it was ASU. The tail end of the Fred Snowden years, and even during the Friends Zone years, ACU was really damn good and Arizona had a tough time, a tough time with them, and Lou turned that around as well.
Yeah, Okay, anybody want to call me how some time we got about nine minutes five two zero four one, six seventy four forty I.
Mean, what one more point on that?
I mean, if you ask any Arizona fan whether they're a football fan, or a big basketball fan, and you you ask them, you know what matters, and they'll tell you, well, first we got to beat a c O. You know. It's kind of like when when all that turned around, that made that made Arizona fans in both sports, you know, begin to believe that they could they could do something. Yeah.
Yeah, well the good old days, the good old days, and here we are. Okay, you want to talk about North Dakota State as well.
I just continue to make the point North Dakota States, Notuth Dakota State, even Montana State.
They're really good programs.
They they're probably you know, they're they're probably middle to high level. No, if a group of five teams, right, they're in the Whack or the or the Mountain West, they're in the upper in the upper half.
Yeah, no question.
So you know, so to me, and if you're in the upper half of say a Mountain West, then you can beat Colorado. Now you might not beat them, you may beat them two out of ten, but you can beat them.
Yeah, I'll give you that.
And so so my point of of.
Dion being pissed that they barely beat them, take the win, give the the team some respect and otherwise, shut the hell up, is what I'm trying to say.
You're asking for too much.
I'm to shut the hell out too much. What do you think the thing that flies?
We talked about how Arizona played North Dakota two years ago. It was a different situation for us. We were on we were trying to still trying to get out right for Colorado. They're saying they're here right now.
And they're not. They're not, They're not.
That's that's my point point.
Although I will make the point because I know, you know, I've been beating the drum that that no Fa is better than she Door Sanders, and yet why should do Sanders getting all this attention?
He's really damn good. He's really good, and.
He has actually the one two combination up there is just similar to what Arizona's and they're gonna be relied on both.
Because Travis Hunter is really good too.
I think Arizona's got more skill players, more talent, but those two guys are pretty damn good. So you know, I mean, well, in the first I think the first five play offensive plays, they had a seventy one yard touchdown and a forty some yard touchdown.
Well, it was clear last night. Last night, well, it was very clear that they were more athletically gifted of the top to bottom. Right, But in North Kinta State had some pedigree kind of like football pedigree that kept them in the game and kept them smart. The quarterback was pretty good too.
Yeah.
Well, and in North Dakota State. And then again, the concern that I guess if you're a Colorado fan that you have is the way North Dakota State pushed them, pushed them around on the lines. Yeah, which is what they did Arizona two years ago, right, I mean we walked out of that. I know, I walked out of that game. They came Arizona's got some issues on the line, and they did. But you know they managed, you get five wins out of that team.
And that game was privotal because they won the game. They felt good about themselves and you can kind of see the progress. Have they lost that game, maybe the trajectory changes a bit. Yeah, Hi, you're on the air and nine the ball.
He's Richard.
How you guys doing Richard?
What's up?
Uh?
Jay, listen, be careful. Steve is completely trying to uh pull the wool over your eyes. He's down playing New Mexico intentionally. He's completely sandbagging on this game. They're no good. They're a good team and they're gonna get Arizona hard time for a while.
Richard, he's sand bagging.
See Jay, he he is a New Mexican in the end, he's over here in Arizona and he's a local, local steate.
Guy and everything.
You know he is from New Mexico.
Wait wait, wait did we watch We didn't screen this coming, Richard, this is you blink twice because I don't know if this is Richard. You know better than to say this team sucks.
Listen, he's completely he's just sandbagging. He's Sanda Bagon. No, let's see so tonight we Oh, here's my prediction for the football season.
Uh, you're gonna like it.
Jay, Oklahoma is going to make it.
To the playoffs.
Uh, and Arizona is too. We will rematch in the Rose Bowl. This is over there, man, it's going to be a huge party.
See this is not Richard.
Richard, you say those things to me, and I feel like I need to leave the room and go, you know, do some things.
Well, the problem is Oklahoma's going to win yeah, and.
You really yeah, okay, truthfully, truthfully, do you really, I mean really tell me what you how you think they'll do in the SEC this year?
You know, I think we're expecting, we're hoping to finish third, and that's that's a typical and the Big Twelve we would we would always expect to win. So our expectations are different now and so we'll just see, you know, it's going to be a long, grueling battle season, so we'll see how Jackson.
Arnold does you know?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
That's the key because he's as good turns out to be a Baker Mayfield or Sam Bradford. We got a good chance to finish the second or third. You know, we've beating all those teams before, every single one of them.
Yeah, yeah, well that's.
Yeah, he'st coach.
He's recruiting at a very high level right now.
Yeah, so.
You must be happy that Riley is probably going to be struggling.
I'm predicting he beats l s U.
Really mindy is that mondy?
Uh?
Yeah?
Game with this quarterback, that's your great passor I've bet linked is ready for that game. And don't let's you lets you starting a new quarterback, so that's a big disadvantage for them.
Yeah all right, man, okay.
Great, Hey Richard, alright, I'm not sure that was rich.
I couldn't be rich if someone kidnapped come up with these theories to be to be well, I'll talk about this later because I have that game. I have that game, okay, but we'll see what happens. Rochard Richard doesn't call this that he brings ustule, you know what.
I love the juice we're getting about football season though.
This is great.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a good way to start.
I'm happy, you know, football seasons here. We've been talking about it for so damn long. Let's get it started. I you know, you know, God, after talking to Well, I just feel like, you know, Arizona should win like fifty to nothing. I don't know, you know, and I well, I remember, but I'm not. I'm not even thinking about, you know, giving the points in that game. I just don't know too many for a first.
When when I made then announcement, I don't know, a month ago or something that I can't remember what it was I said, I put the game up and blah blah blah. First game and someone asked me, what do you think the score is gonna be. I think it's gonna be like forty eight to ten. And they said, oh really, and this is a month or so ago. Now I'll stand by that number. Yeah, it's a it's a cover, but it's maybe a pre curious.
Well when I hear from from from Will Weber that month, I didn't see the statute, but that Montana State ran for three hundred plus yards. Was going to try and run the ball on them, and if they can, they're gonna keep running. Sure, now they're gonna you know, they're gonna ring it out too, because they're gonna do They want to do a lot of stuff, right, They want to run the ball, run, run the passing offense and
stuff like that. But if they can run the ball and start doing things that will who knows what happens, right, And.
It's a whole game. It's a first game. We'll see how many people show up. Probably about forty five, forty seven maybe, Yeah, I heard tickets are in the in the low forties, full forties. Yeah, no, shock, right, it's a weekend. If it's La Tucson big weenies, damn it. Oh excuse me, Are you generalizing? Are you generalized?
I am generalizing?
Yeah, yes, did you did you dump that one a bit ago?
Yeah?
What what was?
What was?
I'm gonna have to check it out.
When did you hear?
I thought he said the S word.
No, I don't think so.
I don't think so.
He either said shoot or yeah.
I think he I think I didn't.
He might have.
It might have been.
It was close.
It was close enough that I thought we needed to hit the dump.
I looked at it. I looked at it. What did he say?
He either said shoot?
I think yeah, yeah, No, I think he said shoot.
Uh.
You know he's a good Catholic boy.
What are you talking about?
I'm a good Catholic boy.
No, that's good and catholic for you should not be in the same sense.
Okay, I'm a Catholic boy. Well I'm kind of not even that. I'm kind of a heathen.
What can I do?
So right there? Tells me exactly what I know. Okay, we gotta go. This is the first hour was pretty fun.
Yeah, this is fun. We're still gonna get Justin Spears will be joining us.
Uh.
In the second hour, one's coming up with breaking news, and then in the last segment our Fab five Friday Pick, so be sure to stick around