This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagan Zalaz Sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt z R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jagin's also Welcome to Friday. And I would never get here.
You know, it's been a long week for US Dodger fans, so it's gonna be the three hundred and sixty four days now, whatever it is. I'm exured to see what they're gonna do. Right, they got a lot of pitching issues, and we'll see what they gotta do. But you know, look it takes the pressure. I know that the next tailgate we'll be watching football instead of the World Series. So that's part of you kind of knew that anyway, Well, we only have one TV. We used to
have two TV. What happened, Well, we we reduced our our tailgate. We don't have We don't take two TVs to the tailgate anymore. No, he just was here one TV tail game Family helgate again. Yeah, Okay, hey, hey, big weekend. Obviously, I think that no one's really talked much about this. I didn't go to the press coverers, so I didn't really get a vibe. No. I went Monday. I think I went Monday to jed. Uh, there's eight point dogs, seven
a half point dogs, but it's gone down from whatever it was. Teddy leven. Not much is going on. We're gonna have two guys who kind of know their teams right now. Justin Spears. Justin Spears coming in at at the top at the in the first hour, uh, obviously being writer for you know, covering the Wildcats Arizona, I mean for the Star. So we'll get we'll get with him and get his thoughts on on the Arizona side of it. And then Greg Woods, who is the beat writer for
the spots UH, the Spokesman Review newspaper out of Spokane. He's the beat writer for UH covering Washington State. You know, I was putting those guys pictures on our social media thing. I thought you can add up their ages and they still don't get to mind. I didn't think that, but I thought something similar since holy crap, see this is what journalisms started to no disrespect. Yeah, but it's a bunch of youngsters. Yeah. Well you put the picture of the kid from you a see, Yeah, and he
was like twelve, he was like twelve. No, no, And we were young at one time too, so I'm sure the guys before us, you know what, I didn't look that young, no, you when I was that young to say no. But that's just the way it is. I mean, we were I was at a media conference last night Newsworthy. I don't know if you heard. Trustworthy Channel four was kind of part of it, but it was a national thing, very good show about how people
watch the news now. But you were you were in your late twenties when you were you know, you were covering the beat for you know, football. No, No, I was since I was twenty three years old, so I was still young doing that. Uh yeah, yeah. I was twenty seven, twenty six, twenty seven when I covered you a lout, And that's kind of felt young covering Dick was not that it was not that
bad. Twenty three you were there, you were you were twenty thirty eight, yeah, twenty eight, Yeah, I say about five years when I started covering football, I was twenty twenty six, twenty seven, twenty seven, when I started covering basketball. Yeah, I felt young there. Yeah me too, Me too because Jack Rickard, you know, the old veteran guy, he was young. He was on the other side of sure. For me, I did feel young. I was not intimidated, but I
just felt pretty young to be doing this. I felt the same way. I felt the same way, and I didn't want to. I didn't want to take that job because it was too intimidating for lude and the words I had heard about the media. But it was fine, It was fine. Let me ask you something, because the media is what it is. Are we ready to pay people ten thousand dollars to come on the show, much less a million dollars to see that man, much less a million dollars. No, if we got to pay you to be on our show, then
you're not gonna be on our show, probably, I've heard. Yeah, exactly right, exactly, you know. I mean in the end, we're still kind of Newsy, you know, And if you pay somebody then it's kind of like you're paying him for what to say certain things or information. That's I found it very not very well. I found it interesting, obviously, we're talking about the Pat pain no wonder, no wonder he was buddies with, Yeah you've got all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, he was
paying for his information, for Saban and for uh Aaron Rodgers Rogers. You know. Well, on the one hand, if that if this had happened, if this we found this out twenty years ago, needs me to would have lost its mind. Sure, everybody lost their today. It's kind of like that's how you gotta play the game. Yeah, but you don't. But you don't, you don't have to. But but people do. And it's not I don't think it's as big a deal because okay, uh,
what's his name that does that? Tom Brady? Uh think you know, Tim Jim Jim Gray, you know, does you know has time? Whoever's paying who? Somebody's getting paid, you know, or maybe it's Tom Brady's thing, you know, that's right, that's his thing. But you know, I think the only the only thing about it is that if Pat mcafew wants to be taken as a analyst, journalist whatever, you know, because he's on Game Day now where Herb Street and and those guys are providing an
analysis and stuff, and he's paying people to give him information. That takes a lot that I think that takes away a lot of the credibility of a guy, like he had zero credibility with you. No, I hear you, and that's maybe he's he's a hit guy with the youngsters, your son like a group, you know. I watched the show recently a lot, not a lot, but a lot more than I ever have. I like to show it's it's it's maca. I like to show from tend to whatever
it is. Sometimes they get some bombs in there, some some Chris words in there. I'm thinking, oh wow, really cool. But h but I think we had we talked about this, so maybe a year or so ago when I a possibility to come on the show, And what did we say. I don't think so. I don't think I don't think so. You know. But what they get from us and what we get from them is kind of tree. They get to come and tell their story and we and you know, people listen to us to hear them tell their story,
right right. If that was the case, you and I would be the only well no, we we know who to ask, right. Yeah. Some people have said, you know, do you pay No? Sorry, we don't. We don't, Sorry, don't who don't have the money? No, would we We're not. Yeah, we wouldn't even if we did.
Yeah, if there's some rich show, you know, if we were the pet I mean no, I'm not good, you know, no, not not gonna yeah to me as as a journalist that still says, you know, we're trying to get information clean, unbiased, you know, you know, say whatever you're gonna say. We know, like we know when we go to the Jetfish press conference, he's got an idea of the information
he wants to put out. Sure, and if there's something he doesn't want to put out, he doesn't does and he knows he's only got to do it for fifteen minutes, sure, twice a week. Sure, that's it.
He's only got to as opposed to sitting down with you and me and other reporters individually for twenty minutes a half hour or whatever like they used to or the press you know the Tuesday uh you know media session that we had, yeah, you know with with Loot and then and then and also with with the football coaches with well, we'd be there an hour and a half. Sure, Sure, and we get him on on our own right, Yeah, you get him one on one, you get players one on one.
Yeah, you get him at you know, so, uh, you know that's that's the way it should be. That's the way it needs to be, at least as as much as you can in terms of the information that you're getting. They control it enough already without letting them control of the war. Sure, sure, sure, No. I just found that to be a surprise. Well surprise, not surprise. I was not surprised. Yeah, well if you found out. Yeah, when I heard that Pat McAfee was paying you want to be on the show, I'm like that that
that tracks. No, no, it does, you know you know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you found it interesting before. Now you say, oh it makes sense now yeah yeah. Okay, we'll have the two guys in today. We're also gonna have Judge Fisher jab three five ish. He checked with me this morning. Yeah, yeah, he was out last week, so he's coming back today. We'll talk to him about the
Washington State game. He was part of that boogaboo whatever you call it, bad vibe thing with Washington State, right, bad lost and then win the big game next week and one. We'll talk about that. So okay, cool. Yeah, Now anyway, so now I'm you know, it's funny because there there was a lot of buzz up to the Washington game, a lot of buzz for the USC game. Not so much. It's on the road. It's one thing that that might be part of it. Also just
just the fact that it's Washington State. They don't get people's attention, right, even though it's a hard it's a hard game to win. Yeah, it doesn't ra r. Yeah, you don't get people's attention with that with with Washington State, right, No, but guess what if you don't have their attention, you're gonna win the game. And and and here they are against against thetty good team. They're pretty good. Do you know that they are good? And this is one of what we talked about this all the
time. This is one of those games that they had to have to win to get to six. One organ stated to me, I think I put three of them together now and they and they they don't have to get two, but they definitely got to get one. But if they if they only get one, that that's the next three Washington State, Oregon State, U c l A. They don't get one of those and then then they gotta
win their life. You give me the plan to six they get. If they get one of those, then they got to get two of the last three, and that gets them to say, is Utah Colorado ISSU or Colorado Utah? Is Colorado Utah at Colorado Utah? Possible? Yeah? Yeah, uh okay, I would like in order to feel get a better have a better feel for it, because then this is how you put it together. When one of these next two Okay, now you've got four, win one of the next two after that, which is uh which is Colorado uh U
c l a Colorado? Okay, one at home, a winnable game on the road, Win one of those there, and then win one of the last two ideally a s U. That gets you to six, right, if that's the magic number. Yeah, still possible, Still possible. I won't still very possible. Yeah, yeah, yes, I won't argue with that. But if they don't they don't win then and two in these next two, and they got to win three of the last four. That's gonna
be hard, and that two is possible, but that's still possible. Yeah, dude, it's possible for them to go oh and six yeah, and it's possible for them to go six. Let me ask you, yes, Okay, let's let's assume this. And I hate to do this, but let's say they go oh and six or one and five to finish four and eight or three and nine. Well, that's very bad. But they're still better, well, at least right now, they're better. Maybe not.
No, if they if they go down and go and lose, lose all those games and lose to a su you're not gonna say at the end of the year that they were better than last year. They're better, though right now they're better. They seemed to be better, Okay, right, okay, yeah, but but here's the thing going on. Six is not gonna happen. I just that's not gonna happen. They may go to and four, right, they might go to and four and not go to a bowl game, okay, to but they're not going on this get him to five
and seven. They're a better team. But the league was just better. Yeah, and like like I said before, and better, but the league was better and and they ran into it. I mean, and everybody everybody's went to the week we said that at the beginning of the year, they could be a lot better than they were last year and not have a better record than they had last year. We've known that all them. I've said
that, all of them. That's why five to me was the number that and I didn't know how good Colorado was going to be, and I still kind of don't know. We still don't know. We'll see the game this weekend. Yeah, they're you know, they're starting to get their guys back. I think uh Hunter, Travis Hunter, he's a game time decision. Shiloh Sanders supposed to be back also, So we'll see what they look like this week. They got Stanford, right, I don't think they're going up
to know they I think Stafford's coming to their place. Yeah, it is, Stafford's going there. It's a late game of eight o'clock game. Okay, So you know, you'd like to think that they're gonna they're gonna hit that. No, that's not what it's. Yeah, he bitched about the eight o'clock game. How he said, how is this happening? Blah blah bah. That must be a down the road because I think they're I think they're like a like an early game. I'm not too sure. I think
it's because he was talking about why is this game late? Leyada, YadA, and it says, well, welcome to the PAC twelve. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. I don't see them on our schedules. I think there have to be Yeah, oh it's tonight. It's okay, Well it's eight o'clock their time. Yeah, it's seven o'clock our time. Yeah, it's tonight. Okay, it's because you're playing on Friday night. You know, get what the program Friday night game is always late, and you
got an extra day off. Shut the hell upend this tip. Brian. Hey, right, he's gonna go to bryanon what's your boy doing? Okay? No, cool, we got about a minute. That's that. Yeah, okay, why don't we? Uh said, we're running out of steam here. You want to get to the lines. We'll get to get to Justin. Let's get to Justin Justin spears Daily Star, uh beat writer. We'll talk to him about you know what he thinks about this game coming up
tomorrow. I think it's gonna I think it's a very interesting game. I think, man, anything, anything can happen. Arizona can blow him out, get blown out close game. Either way, anything can happen what I think, So all right, We'll be right back with Justin Spears and there's a Daily Star. Don't believe, just Line, don't believe, Just Line.
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Learn more at GAP tax Credit dot com. Steve Rivera and Jacin saliz they have their eye on the ball on Tucson's sports stag chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live I mean IHID Radio, WAPP Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jacinsauce. No wonder if we have the Arizona Daily Stars justin Spears. How are you justin? What's the guy? Good afternoon? So you you covered Jed
pretty thoroughly. Obviously we're kind of on the outside looking in. Really, did you get a sense of how important or the vibe is not from the team but from the community, because it seems like some of the vibe has worn off just in terms of the importance of like the football program again, but just the week, just a week, this particular game, because you know, there was some buzz to the Washington game. It was a home
game. People there. Then it was usc you know, with the way we talked about at least the way I talked it up with that I thought Arizona had a chance to win the game. So there was a lot of conversation about it. But it's kind of like it seems like that's died down because it's Washington State. From our end, what do you see? What
do you see? Yeah, honestly, I I think just in terms of you know, from Arizona fans perspective, I think they're very cautiously optimistic right now, because you know, you look at the three losses this season.
We're talking about an overtime game in SEC Country to Mississippi State. You lose by a touchdown there, and who knows what happens if Jaden Dolora picks up that first down there in overtime, and then you know, the other game is a seven point loss to pretty much the best team in the Pac twelve right now, in the Washington Huskies. And with their great quarterback and their great offense blah blah blah, they had a lot going for them going into
that game. And Arizona it was the first time that they had rolled out no Fafiita as a as QB one as the guy starting and playing an entire game, and he got Arizona to win in a touchdown. They fell behind early and they were playing catch up the entire game. I think that's ultimately what cost them. They had a chance there towards the end. And then,
as you guys all know last week against USC, triple overtime. I mean, USC gave those guys that game on a silver platter with the field goal of debacle at the end with you know how overtime was set up, Jetfish could have easily gone for two on that first overtime and won the game.
Just so many things. And you know they talk about how football is a game of benches, but like, man, there there are a few things this season that, man, if it had swung just a little bit of an Arizona's favors, then maybe we're talking about this team being five and one at this point, and being five and one with this game coming up, going into a bye week, you can feeling pretty good right uf here Arizona. But right now they're three and three. They've just lost two in
a row. And I'll tell you what, guys, losing three in a row and going in three and four is a lot different than four and three and snapping a losing skid. So there's a lot I feel like at steak with this game. And then as we all know what the whole quarterback situation, you know is, Jaden Delora is a Nolfa Fida and I feel like a lot of people they liked what they saw out in Alpha Fieda in those
two games, and they wanted Arizona to ride the hot hand. Heck, even former players are out here proving on Twitter that they think that Arizona should ride the hot hand and keep No Fafiita in there. But Jetfish has said that when healthy, Jaden Delora is the starter. Now how healthy Jaden Delora is, I don't know. And Jetfish is doing a really good job this week of keeping his cards close to his chest. But yeah, I think a lot of fans they wanted Arizona to make that quarterback change. And you
know, so many of us football watchers tend to be the coach. We like to be that that quarterback that sits on the couch. But I think that Jetfish what he wants to do is give Jaden another shot when healthy. But at this point that leash is very very short, because now you know exactly what no FAFA can bring you. And jet Fish even said during his radio show earlier in the week that he is not opposed to making a quarterback
change mid game. So I kind of feel like going into this game, there's just a lot at stake here for a lot of reasons, and this could determine how the rest of the season is going to go. Well, what if Jaden is like ninety nine point five percent healthy or ninety seven percent healthy. You know he did. He leave himself an ount for going ahead and playing, you know, starting Forefeta one more time, even if Jaden
is really close to being ready to play. See, I don't. I don't know, man, because I think if you're at that level, you know you're going up against your former team in Washington State. I feel like this is the ultimate prove it game for Jaden Delora to show that, Okay, yeah, I could still be the guy. I could still be QB
one and lead this team to wins. Because that's the thing here is if Jaden DeLaura goes out and throws for three to four touchdowns, runs the ball very well, and Arizona pulls out a win, which is I mean, it's all tasks because let's be real here in Washington State is a really good team. I think that then you know, we'd be going get into the bye week and everyone be Okay, Jaden Dolaora is that guy. No Fafida
is the quarterback after this year. But then you get into a situation where you know Jaden Dolaura is also he still has eligibility lift I just I don't know where Arizona's going to be at in terms of quarterbacks this year or after this year. But I would imagine that nolh Flafida is the starter moving forward after this season. But you never know. But I like going back just to you know, this Washington State game, I think Jaden will start.
You know, he look good in pregame warm ups against USC when he was wearing just cleats and he was you know, kind of rolling out and doing some scrambles and stuff like that. And that was a whole week ago. Now after rehabbing, and according to Jetfish, he's been practicing in full pass all this week, has been running with the team offense. So I think
that's an encouraging sign for Jaden the Lord to be available. But man, if he goes out and he throws three interceptions and they're like legitimately his fault and Arizona gets in a hole and the or the offense sputters like it did against Stanford, then does Jetfish look over his shoulder and go, maybe it's the FETA times. I don't know, that's something to monitor. So justin you said that we're all coaches sitting on the couch, what does coach Justin
Spears. Do I know what I do? Well, I do the same thing. I sit on the couch and he ships, well, get off that couch and get off that couch and make a decision. Who's going to start for Justin Spears. If I'm making the quarterback decision for Arizona, yeah, I would start Flafita. Honestly, this I listen. I know that Jayden has a very high feeling. And again it's like you have to weigh
two things here. You have to understand that Jayden at this point in his career, actually has a higher feeling than Noel Fafida, but he's also got a lower floor than him too. Noel Fafiita is you know, he may not make all of those splashy plays that Jayden Dolaura makes, And I think Jayden Delare is a little bit of a better runner, but nol Fa Fieda
makes Chris throws. He plays very clean. I mean, with the exception of those two interceptions against Washington and USC, He's completed about seventy two percent of his passes and he just won packs one fresh in the week. I mean, the way he demands the offense and the guy's rally around this guy. He just has something to him that makes guys just play better. And you know, all of a sudden, you would know fa Fida as Arizona's
quarterback. Jacob Kelling has all of a sudden, like really come back to life after having a somewhat sluggish start. Team AC I think has been Arizona's MVP on offense this season. But Noah is to me the future. He's playing very well right now and I truly believe that I think no fa Fida should be the guy starting. But what I think is gonna happen is Jaden DeLaura will get his opportunity and if he fumbles it then that's it. Then Nofafida era is officially here at at Arizona. Yeah, I mean this is
this is you know, Nick Foles, Matt Scott all over again. Uh you know, going back to you know, you had two guys who you could play, so you know, you play one or the other. I don't see a situation where you would you would do both though, right, he's a one quarterback guy. It's as far as Jed Yeah, yeah, there's no way they can roll out the two quarterback system that you know, as you guys know that hasn't been done around here since nineteen ninety eight.
It just it just does not really work out. And so and if you're Jaden, you know, if no if a Fida is getting those starting reps, you have to understand that, Okay, well, no Flafida is the guy. And if you're No a fa Fida and you know Jaden DeLaura comes back another season, you know, what do you do? Do you transfer? Do you try to beat him out as as the starter? I don't,
I don't know. I think the plan is that Jayden Dolaura is going to leave one way or another, and then Nolhafida will take over like he has to because this guy is a really good quarterback and I think in Arizona can really right on this guy's shoulders for the next couple of years. They're going to win a lot of games. Agree, totally agree. It doesn't seem like I love Michael Wiley. I thought he was a key to this team being good this year. He's been injured, But I also love Jonah
Coleman. They really haven't missed a lot with with with with Wiley being out either, No and Michael Wiley is to do it all back that headlines everything, and this is actually a really good opportunity for you know, guys like Jonah Coleman or even DJ Williams, who I thought had some impressive runs against USC with the exception of that last play at the end that was just a complete train wreck. But the running backs have been spectacular and they're also really
benefiting Arizona in the passing game too, you know. And you know, when you look at the the third task catcher beyond Team Mac and Jacob Cowan, it's kind of been by committee between the running backs between Montanelmonius Craig, who I thought would be putting up a lot better numbers, But you also have Tanner McLachlin too in Arizona's tight end, and that number three spot is
just kind of depending on who's got the hot hand in the game. It could be a running back, whether it's Jonah Coleman or Michael Wiley earlier in the season, or they could be Tanner McLachlin, who we saw, you know, when Arizona's offense was really struggling come to life and scored that touchdown
there in that first half. So the number three option at receiver that's you know, like I said, it's been by a committee, but those running backs have had a huge hand and what they do offensively, and I think, you know, for a guy like Noahlafida, he's a smart quarterback and if he is in the game, he's not going to make those those risky throws like Jaden normally makes. And I think that he would be smart enough, and we have seen him being able to use the weapons around him,
like the running backs in the Titan. So at the end of the day, who do you think is gonna win the game? Oh boy? This is a tough one, man, because when you look at Arizona and Pullman, the last three trips, they've been outscored I believe one hundred and eighty two to fifty three. We're talking about two sixty nine point games. I mean, they have just not played well in Pullman. But normally when they're up there in Pullman, it's in November, it's a late Friday night game,
it's rainy and cold. This is is such a weird scenario. This is four o'clock in October, and I like the way Arizona defense has been playing. I think that with this three game stretch that Arizona is on right now with the ranked opponents, I think Washington State is definitely the worst between three. Now you're on the road, you're playing in Pullman, which you haven't had really had much success there. But uh, I'm going with Arizona's
defense to put up an impressive performance. I think Johnny Manson will have a great game plan and Arizona defense will create their first interception of the season, they might get another takeaway, and I'm going with Arizona defense to step up. Hey, Teddy Bruski is in town, guys, so that's gotta be like, uh, like a lucky rabbit's foot, that Arizona defense is going to go off the Pullman and just shut down the Cougars. So I'm gonna
go with Arizona thirty eight Washington State thirty five. Wild Cat off the upside, They didn't like, take off Teddy's shoe and like rub his foot at the at the Arizona Bowl lunch yesterday or anything like that. Did they just nothing like that? If they did, that's weird. But we just want to we just want to rub your toe, Teddy. Well, I I can't make up my mind whether or not any think they're gonna win this game. It's an it was an eight point spread. So I don't know.
I have no feel for this game. You know. I put so much into the int my thoughts on the USC game and I hit it on the nose. I've hit nothing else on the nose, just football season. I hit that one on the nose almost to the point of getting the score right. But I got nothing on this and you know, going up to look, I've I went up to Pullman and Washington State at the time under Dennis Erickson, where they were really, really damn good, and Arizona won a
game that completely unexpected. So but then again, I watched those two sixty nine point games, I think both. We were in Vegas for both of those, and it was awful to watch, so bad memory. So I don't know. I have no idea. Yeah, and I think that with Jaden de Laura and the whole emotional factor that's going to play into it, you know, I think I'm not going to be feeling quite as good about my prediction if Jaden Dolaura is in fact playing, because we've seen him in
these type of situations. He plays a ratic plays out of responsibility and throws interceptions and it gets Arizona into a hole. But we've also seen him and this is where I give Jaden a benefit of the doubt here, You've also seen him play like he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country, like last year when Arizona went on the road and be Eucla on the road and even in close losses last year, Jaden was a really good quarterback. So
I don't know what Jaden Dolaura we're going to get. If he's one hundred percent and he's playing, I think if Noah Flafida is playing that I mean that allows Jayden Dolaura to get another week under his belt, rehab, go into the bye week and really come out feeling and strong if Arizona wants to go with him. But if he goes out and he plays, this could be a game that determines who's gonna be arizona starting quarterback moving forward. Yeah,
yeah, I agree, I agree? Okay, Justin, justin, thanks much, man, appreciate it as always, as always, got appreciated. And uh, jay Man, our Dodgers man, what are you gonna do? You're a Dodger guy too. I'm a fair Weather Dodger fan. I'm not a diehard as gay. Well, you know, between the podcast, I get the dust off in September and get ready for so between the Chargers and the Dodgers. Now, we got to get you out of this system here, team, tell them your teams are just fine. Man,
your teams are just fine. Just all right. I love your team. Hey, thanks much, man, appreciate it. Thank you. Justin we gotta get him a therapist. This is serious stuff. Yeah, well yeah, but you know, dude, I'm a Dodger fan in an Arizona fans, I mean, what the hell, You've got enough? Calen your com My heart is callous. All right, we're gonna take our break way to come back. We'll take your costs on. Sorry, Jake Fisher coming right. I forgot about that. Jac can be joining us. We'll get his
take on the game this weekend. Check around five. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Loudolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters
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High dot org. Extreamly live Honey, iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacobsalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my iin the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacob Zaus. Now on the phone, we have former ub A football player Jake Fisher, one of our great sponsors. Jake, how are you so well? As always that about you. We're doing fine. Thank you. Always good to have you on the show with your great insight.
Tell me what you see this weekend with the cours. Well, to be honest with you, I think it's about what they're going to try to do. I think that if we lean on our offensive line, and if we Noah as the starting quarterback, and if we could take some shots downfield, I think we could control the clock. I think we did a pretty damn good job of that against USC on the road last week. We actually had a fast start, which I also think is important for the majority of
the games this year. We got off to a slow start and you know, we punched the top ten team in the mouth. They came back and you know we lost obviously in triple overtime. But if we bring that kind of mentality able to run the ball in them sustained long drive, and if our defense does play as well as they did against probably the pie and winner this year, then I think we'll be fine. So Jake as a player, so you know, you had these two games top ten teams Washington and
USC. You know, get sky high for those, and I get it, Washington State is still ranked. They lost last week, but they're still ranked, but it's also still Washington State. How do you avoid sort of a come down from that? How do you stay high enough to get in there and be sure that you know, you don't have any kind of at least an emotional letdown from you know, after the last two losses. Well, I don't think there's going to be an emotional letdown. I mean it's
not like this team that five and one or six to Oho. So you know, coach jet Fish is going to continue to basically say, guys, we haven't arrived yet. We still have to beat these teams. We have a good chance this here, but if we don't show up and if we don't play as well as we did against that ste maybe a little bit better. You have a chance to lose to anybody in this league. Back of all, is as good as it's been in the last five to ten years
of my opinion. You have probably the top you know, three of the top four leading candidates to win the Heisman are in the conference. You have just a plethora of teams that are in the top twenty five. Arizona's probably the best three and three team in the entire country right now. I put my money on that, to be honest with you, I mean, you've got, you know, a litany of folks that are going to be playing at the next level on their roster. It's just putting it together. Now.
They haven't won yet, you know, it's last year. If they were coming off a Bowl game, then three and three, yeah, I'd be a little bit down. But it's one of those things where they have to go out and prove it. There should be no lead down And to be honest, to be like, if they come out like I think they should, and I think that they're new too, I think we're probably going to win this by ten plus points. All right, Okay, so we asked you off there. We asked you off of hey I love it.
I love it. No, hey you know I love it. So I did ask offair how many times you went to Washington State? You said a couple of times. What do you remember about those? Not just the game, but the trip of going up to Washington State? Man if Yogi Ross said something on Twitter earlier. He said, like, driving up there in the morning is unbelievable. The only times I've been there, it's been gray,
cloudy and cold. So I think he's full of it. Just I think he's just being nice to go Washington State fans, to be honest with it. No, it's weird, like you literally have to stay across the state line in Idaho. I completely forget what the name of the city is. There's no hotels close to Washington State when I was going there, so we would be in Idaho. Then we would be probably on the road for like thirty five or forty minutes. It's kind of weird, like kind of
rolling hill. It's not like Seattle at all, doesn't look anything like it. The weather is, you know, kind of similar. Uh, But then pulling up the campus obviously in some Washington so it's beautiful. And then you know, the stadium was tiny. I mean, I know they did a lot of work to it, but the stadium was small, and their
team at that point wasn't all that good. And then the last time we went up there, if I remember correctly, it's a game that Nick Foles got someone jumped into his knee and he dislocated his knee and then miraculously, like two weeks later, he came back at full strength. It was just a weird night. We were up twenty eight zero, offense really wasn't clicking, and next thing, you know, non a clinic and I think we
ended up winning twenty eighty seven. But it was a weird game. And to be honest with you, you know now that Washington's you know, stayed to down kind of a level of success over the last few years. It's obviously different than I went up there. But when you go up there, you got to be able to run the ball. I mean, these guys, they got athletes, and they got a lot of three and four year guys that they developed because they're not out recruiting a lot of these pack twelve
teams. So you got really good coaching, you got guys that you know, they bought into a system and we got to hit them before they hit us. So I think it was cold, dark and gloomy because you guys lost the last time I went up there. We didn't. They beat us the last time we played them, But the last time I went up there, we won. Okay, Yes, Steve, Well, he's always he's always looking for the bad stuff. Joe, you don't know what to do
about it. You guys are all sunny and optimistic while I'm on the phone with you. Yes, well, thank you very much, thank you very much. You know you mentioned, oh here's well, got to ask you that you mentioned in there that you thought, you know, you hope a fee to start. I mean the whole quarterback thing is that is that unsettling
for a team, you know, not knowing that kind of stuff. Well, to be honest with you, both of them have started, so the team knows they can win with either or I just think that when a kid comes in and against two top ten teams basically shoots it out or outperforms both of those quarterbacks who we're going to be in the NFL next year, you know, eight touchdowns to two interceptions over the last two games. One at home obviously we got off to a slow start, and then in a second
start, obviously he showed you what you can do. He's young, so he makes you know, a big mistake every game. But I mean, shoot, he's more level. It's not going to be the three touchdown game or the three interception games, right. I like that out of him, at least he hasn't shown that yet. But you buy into both quarterbacks, especially like because this is the thing, like from last year. Obviously, you have a solid offensive line, so solid running backs, solid receivers.
If the guy can just get some time to get the ball out, he's fine. Offensive line takes care of that. But now instead of having probably the worst defense, like second to third worst defense statistically, you actually have a pretty damn good defense. I mean they were getting after Caleb last weekend. They did pretty well. You know, those young guys in the secondary are playing damn well. So I think with the other quarterback, you know that you can keep it to a one score game, and then what you
gotta do is make a playdown stretch. Okay, Jake, we had to go along with Justin, but thanks for calling in. Are you expecting mister Sunshine is picking a win. I expecting that we are going to win by ten plus points. Okay, all right, yeah, all right, give us give us a little plug for your business, Jake. Okay, Arizona Health. That was not expecting. It's all you gotta do is you gotta go to Arizona healthoncenter dot com buy health insurance from you know your favorite wildcout
on the radio. Here. Uh, we got plans with zero outfature deductible zero cope. It's going to be about half of what you're paying right now. Small businesses, families, individuals, if you're healthy, you can get underwritten. You can get the best plan in the state of Arizona. As everyone knows health insurance at least the selection in Arizona is not very good. There is literally one plan that is like a pre Affordable Care Act plan that
you will absolutely love. So give us a call. Five to zero eight five zero six eight sixty six. Five to two zero eight five zero six eight sixty six bear down, Jake, appreciate that your weekend. All right, I have a go one. Yeah. I was good to talk to Jake. He gives like we get really good insight. From him. I love picking his brain as a guy who played. It's one side. It is, like, what's it like? I just because I hated traveling diployment. I had to go a couple of times, but I know I hated
that. I dreaded the trip. Getting the right leaving was just as bad because it was stolen. And but uh, you know, but I love hearing just you know, the kinds of things that you know go through their brains and they're getting ready for games like this because Paul, Washington State has been good over the years. I mean I went to the Rose Bowl. Right, you still think about think of them as Washington State and not. They're not USC they're not U. C. L A. They're not Washington,
they're not Oregon. You just got to like eah, right, and you know, going to Pullman and he's right, you're stay in Moscow, Idaho. So that's not it's just it's not great. It's not far. All right, We're gonna take our break, We're gonna be back. We'll break out some breaking news for you. Kick around