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Friday, September 20, Hour 2

Sep 21, 202453 min
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GUEST: Barrett Baker, Arizona Football 1997-1998

Transcript

Speaker 1

Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage. Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean iHeart radio.

Speaker 2

Wam Hey, welcome back to Ian the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jakin's as now we have one with breaking news.

Speaker 1

This is I on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Speaker 3

Look at you man with the with the fade on the on the intro and all that stuff. Man, you're killing it over there today. I try.

Speaker 4

Good Friday afternoon to everyone out there, yours truly mister grey two shoes here on Jday. You gotta start breaking news with something I like it. So show hey Twani's historic fiftieth home run this season auction auctioneers are estebaniot to be around five hundred k.

Speaker 3

Wow, you know I Yet this morning I started looking to see what happened with the ball, right and I first of all, there's a great video of the wrestle wrestled for it. But then there was a like an eighteen year old kid that was there, and the guy that got the ball was like a fifty year old guy and the kid got interviewed because the kid had it in his hands and the guy took it from him. Well, who's the one that raised the fifty year old guy

in the T shirt five oh five over? So they were both underneath the table grabbing the ball, and the seventeen year old seven I think seventeen or eighteen said that he had it in his hand, but that the guy had his arm between his legs, so the ball was kind of sticking up between his legs, and he pulled the ball from him, and he knew that he you know what it meant, He knew that he had possibly a million dollar baseball, and the other guy took it from him and then went up and they got it.

Then they they took him away and they validated the ball and he kept the ball. So he's going to do something with it. But but he, uh, the kid talked about the fact that he had it and it was in his hand and the guy took it from him. What would you do with it?

Speaker 2

Me?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I don't know. It depends on how much it's worth.

Speaker 2

Honestly, you said, what what was the prices?

Speaker 3

Would you do that? I keep it? I do? I keep it to auction. It's like that's life changing, right, Sure, you know.

Speaker 2

It's also greedy, but but but but that's what I'll be greedy.

Speaker 3

All the way to my five hundred k and cast that check at the bank. Right. Who yeah, well you you kind of agreed on you. So I'll tell you what. Hold on, I'd offer to show Hey for four fifty.

Speaker 2

Okay, no, no, no, that's I wouldn't go I wouldn't go.

Speaker 3

Crazy with it.

Speaker 2

But okay, yeah, no, I Hey, you're talking about the same guy five hundred four hundred.

Speaker 4

Yeah, you were looking at me like, as a former athlete, I would definitely want that ball. So, like, you know, I'll definitely offer it to show Hey for sure, but an.

Speaker 3

Amount, right, Look, he's got seven million dollars. Definitely coughing some money.

Speaker 5

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Well you know, you know you saw to fight for five hundre it's worth one point five. It's gonna go to some dude with a lot of money who's gonna pay three times four times.

Speaker 3

Well that's yeah. That's the other thing that I heard was that if this guy keeps us for like five years, yeah, it'll be it'll be worth a lot more than it is. Sure today. So if they're saying today he can get five hundred thousand dollars for it, in five years he can get a million, and in ten years he can get that's how long do you want to wait? I'm selling it today today for somebody who wants it for five hundred thousand dollars. And if show he wants it,

he's my he's first on my list. Yeah, and I broke I'm I'm not gonna broke him back. I'm not giving it back to him for a jury assigned jersey and a baseball bat and stuff like that. You can include that in the five hundred thousand. Well if you what you know, okay, five hundred k and a picture in an autograph, you know, a picture of me with him and he autographs it. That's legit. That's what I That's what I'm going for. But I am gonna try. I think that's trying to make some money. I think

that's fair. I think that's fair.

Speaker 2

If you go crazy with it, that's kind of sad, But it's it's life.

Speaker 3

It's what it is. The market. It's the market.

Speaker 2

I'm being kind of silly, but that's how I feel.

Speaker 3

Yeah, but yeah, it's it's very cool. You know, they're talking about all the Basically, they basically stripped him down in the dugout. They took his you know, all the pads and things that he wears. They took his batting gloves, they took his shoes, they took the bat They took all of that stuff to put it in that I guess, to put in the Hall of Fame. They even took you know, it was it was in it was in Miami.

But they even took third base because he stole third to break the record, you know, to get to fifty. And so you know, they it's it's become a thing now where that's on everybody's mind when something like this happens. But you know, but yeah, the baseball was it was an interesting story. I'd go hunt the guy down and probably do something. Well that's I mean, yeah, his pissed or if I'm his dad, right, if I'm his dad, it's like, you know, but what are you gonna do?

I mean, and the kid is actually was actually it was a really good sport. But he said, hey, look the guy got it for me. It's you know, he got the ball. I had it. He got it that's the way it goes. And so he was Actually the kid was way more mature about it than I think I would have been.

Speaker 4

Yeah, definitely more than I would have been. Yeah, I would have been all over the news. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To the NBA, Joel Embiid in the Philadelphia seventy six ers agreed to a three year, one hundred and ninety two point nine million dollar maximum contract accession that guarantees him two hundred and ninety nine point five million through the twenty twenty eight twenty twenty nine seasons.

Speaker 3

It's that sixty million dollars a year or so, a lot of money. I don't have that math. I don't have it. I don't have cras, I don't have a missing Okay, it's that money. Is he worthy of that? And just because he.

Speaker 4

Got the MVP, he brought it to Philly. Yeah, brought something, finally, finally brought something to Philly.

Speaker 3

In my opinion, well, I'm old school and nobody's worth that. But I mean I'm talking about in the current context of what salaries are, is Joel Embiid that guy Matt saying not.

Speaker 2

Well, that's the thing in what's the biggest contract now? Someone told me in about five years, the contracts are going to go to about ten one hundred million dollars a year of football, baseball, whatever, basketball. Maybe it's just crazy. It's just crazy. I know, you guys are getting into the sports world right after college, and.

Speaker 3

We're glad we're getting out because it's crazy. I mean, it's just crazy.

Speaker 4

Every other day there's someone getting another I'm extension.

Speaker 3

I'm just a little I'm a little pissed of myself for not committing more to my golf game when I.

Speaker 2

Was when you're a teenager. The one thing I don't know why about this. I was thinking about this driving to work this morning, and back in the day when when Luke I covered in the nineties and you covered him in the eighties. How after a game? Where do we go after a game? Where did we go after the buzzer? Where did we go?

Speaker 3

Locker room? Right?

Speaker 2

Yeah, ten minutes, went to the locker room. Who'd you get to talk to anybody?

Speaker 6

Want?

Speaker 2

Anybody who wanted to Then we race to talk to lude right right, That's how it was for the whole time that I was there with him. Now we got guys, and you have to deal with this we talked to people who they send to us, they pick and it's just criticism.

Speaker 3

But I don't know why I was thinking this.

Speaker 2

And the first game, the first game, who had oh, Team ACTA had this record thing and did you see it?

Speaker 3

You knew what?

Speaker 5

You know?

Speaker 2

Where we're going with this? Yeah, he was not available. It doesn't make sense anymore to me. It doesn't in the in the world of news.

Speaker 3

He was available to ESPN, well yeah, yeah, people quoted him from you know, the postgame, but on the field right there and then after that, nobody else hadn't shot at him until they brought him to the press conference the next week.

Speaker 2

And that's where I was going with it's changed so much in the last ten years, five years to what we used to do with thirty years.

Speaker 3

Right. Well, and again we've talked about this that that who the people that are the ones that suffer from them. I don't know what the right word they they. You know, the fans out there don't have the benefit of the stories that you aren't being told anymore.

Speaker 2

And I still believe that the players suffer it too, and that's not they want to tell the stories because they want to tell their story and guess what most of them turned into be they're going to be taking your jobs because they don't get a journalism degree.

Speaker 3

But they played.

Speaker 2

They're the Tom Brady's who played all these years, and guess what, they just show up and do the job.

Speaker 3

Because they played. They know. And the thing is that those guys, it's being a member of the media is not something that anybody can do. Not have to have a certain approach, certain mentality. You have to have a there are some rules too, right, And there are rules. Although a lot of people think there are no rules, there are rules and there's ways of doing things. And you know, there's some people who just can't be very good at it because they're just not that kind of

person for sure. I don't know why I went it, but I know you did. Yeah, it was a good place to go though.

Speaker 5

It's fun.

Speaker 3

I liked it, Okay, all right, cool to the NFL.

Speaker 4

Last night, Thursday night football, the Jets and the Patriots played, and the Jets came out victorious twenty four to three.

Speaker 3

I'm sure you studied an interaction with Rodgers and the coach when he pushed the coach.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, you do. You did you read too much into it like everybody else. He gave him the sidey well, he gave them because he's Rogers. Right, you found this perception of Rodgers, you think that he's a bunk.

Speaker 3

Well, at the first when I saw it, I thought, oh, what a jerk, And then what he tried to say today about it, where he says, no, we just have a thing where, you know, when we do something good, you know, you the two hands to the chest thing. He said, it was that, but there was kind of confused that that that the coach was going to hug him and he was doing the you know how guys when they get excited and they push each other, that he was doing that. The coach was trying to give

a hug, so it looked awkward. He said, there was nothing to it, That's what he said. But Aaron Rodgers and being the guy that we see that he's become, you just kind of never know. But yeah, I did see that. I thought it was kind of funny.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because it's the people that kind of look, well, what happened?

Speaker 3

Sometimes nothing is there? Times it's nothing. Sometimes it's not like the time that Caleb Tarziski yelled at you know, yeah, you know yelled at at Sean Miller, and there was not you know, it was like, okay, yelled at him in the heat of the moment, in front of people, in front of people, but they were all they were fine, yeah, right right. And then the time that that Zula said, they kicked our asses, right, And then Sean Miller said, oh he said that.

Speaker 2

No, no, no, no, no, it was something else that he says, Oh they were they were not they were not prepared. They were not prepared.

Speaker 3

Oh really, And we said all the next practice, yeah, let's go watch the next practice. We just weren't prepared. What time. Okay, we'll be prepared next time, all right.

Speaker 4

Staying in the NFL, a laundry list of injuries, people going going out. Forty nine ers, the forty nine ers playing the Rams this week are more than likely gonna be without Kittle, and then Deeble Samuel and McCaffrey.

Speaker 3

So and and then and then the Rams are without a Poka Nakua, without uh Cooper cup. I think there was somebody else there. There was a list of guys who are out of that game. That's like, this is a minor league game. It's just like there's nobody left who else?

Speaker 2

Uh?

Speaker 4

So Justin Herbert is listened as questionable today with the high ankle sprain. So really they play.

Speaker 3

I gotta do my picks because I was looking at that game.

Speaker 4

For it said, he said, to be a game time decision. Uh, the pain in his ankle is not great and he walked with a limp. Interesting but uh And with all these people being out questionable, the Bengals wide receiver T Higgins, who's dealing with the hamstring injury, does plan to return Monday night against.

Speaker 3

The Okay, he's my boy. I've got I've got I've got two bottom of the barrel receivers on my fantasy team because I've got T Higgins and I've got Pooka Nkul. Higgins hasn't played at all and Nicole has missed the last miss last week. So all right, and then some good games. This is a week for the NFL.

Speaker 4

You got the Texans and the Vikings, both two and OH teams, the Eagles Saints game. See if the Saints are legit, the Eagles are good team. You have the Lions and the Cardinals. Cardinals should be too, and both teams should more than likely be to and OH heading one to one could change the direction of their season.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not a believer in the Vikings, even though they beat the forty nine ers last week. I just I just don't think Sam Donald gets you to the Promised Land. No to college football. Unfortunate news for East Carolina. Their cornerbacks Chavon Revel Junior, one of the top prospects in the upcoming NFL draft, toward his ACL in practice this week, and we'll miss the will likely miss the remainder of the season, too bad. Hate to see that for sure. I don't know if you saw it this week.

Speaker 4

Early this week, Wake Forest canceled there the second half of their home and home series with Old Miss. They were going to go back to Oxford because they played last week at wake Forest. They canceled that and they replaced it with Oregon State today just.

Speaker 3

Because they don't want to go play Mississippi. Ye big Wienis, big Wienies. Come on, man, go play the game. Week three in college football. I got some good games.

Speaker 4

Yeah here there good stuff USC going to ann Arbor Fishing in Michigan. You got Utah Oklahoma State, pretty big, big twelve game right there. Tennessee, Oklahoma, which you guys will talk about the last segment, and I think one that's going to be real good in Kansas.

Speaker 3

State and BYU at b YU you think, huh? I think so, Okay, that's on my list right now. Those to pick. Yeah, that's on my list is Kansas State. I haven't finalized it yet, but I'm thinking hard about that. And what I'm trying to avoid is not to be clouded by what they did to Arizona. It's a road game BYU is undefeated, so I don't know. Yeah, we'll see. We'll find out the next hour or at the end of this hour.

Speaker 4

And then shout out to some Arizona athletics. On the women's side. Uh, the volleyball team remained undefeated. Defeated North Dakota State three nothing last night.

Speaker 3

That was a big twelve game. Is that right? Was that a big Dakota State? Yeah, which makes no sense to me.

Speaker 2

Steve Quiss talked about that the North Dakota States.

Speaker 3

I don't I don't stand.

Speaker 2

Maybe he was just being facetious, but he was here again last night doing that game. Probably not, maybe he just needed to say that. But then women's soccer also defeated Baylor one. Right, that's the first one ever, the first Big twelve win.

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, maybe maybe that's what it was. Steve that a little confusion.

Speaker 2

No no, no, he talked about it because he was already didn't people.

Speaker 3

I'm looking up the Big twelve volleyball standings. Uh No, North Dakota stadents not in the Big twelve.

Speaker 2

Yeah, maybe he maybe he misspoke or nonely spoke.

Speaker 3

He wrote it down. Roll on Facebook, Okay, it is what it is. Well, got on Arizona because again they were bad last year, you know, intritis to the first year. So they're ten and zero and that's a that's pretty good, very good for them. Okay, you ready to go. We're good. Fourteen after Oh we are. Oh we got to get out of here. All right, Hey, good stuff, thank you. All right, we'll be back. We're going to have a Barrett Baker, remember that nineteen ninety eight Arizona football team

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Speaker 1

Streaming live I Mean iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Speaker 2

Hey, welcome back to I'm the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jay going Zellis now would probably have Barrett Baker team member from the nineteen ninety seven ninety eight at you of a Barrett.

Speaker 5

How are you great to hear from you guys. That's weird to have a Saturday with no Wildcat football, but we will get through it.

Speaker 2

Well, you know along those lines, how have you gotten through the last three weeks?

Speaker 5

It's you know, you have such high expectations, obviously coming off a magical year like we had last year, and when you look at football, you know there's there's pretty wins and ugly losses, and pretty losses and ugly wins, and so at the end of the day, I think when you really looked at the schedule, most folks probably thought we were going to be two in one after the first three weeks, and we are two and one, and so I can break down obviously where I would

like us to be better and things that we need to clean up. But that was a tough place to play, and we came out on the short end of the stick. But there's no time to dwell on that. Quite frankly, it was some things that we obviously need to really work on moving forward, but this was a good time to have a bye week, and I expected, you know, we're going to fix some of those things and hopefully come out against Utah next week and really kind of see what this team has made us.

Speaker 3

Well, Bert, let me take you back down memory lane, because, as I recall, in that ninety eight season, the one game, the one loss, the UCLA game was a twenty four point loss. You know, they blew up on you guys in the second half. That was the only game you lost the aftermath of that game. You know, as you said, you just got to move on to the next one. But what was that week like coming out of that game?

And how did you guys sort of just keep your wits about you, keep your momentum going or whatever so that you got back on a role and won the rest of your games. What happened that week? How did you deal with that loss? I guess is what I'm asking.

Speaker 5

Sure, that's a great question, Jay, If you don't have national championship aspirations at the beginning every season, then you shouldn't be playing the game. So that is first and foremost what you're always looking for. We went into that game and we were four to zero, and we thought we had something special. For sure, we played three minutes of bad football. It was thirty one to twenty eight. We missed the field goal, and for about three and a half or four minutes, it just spiraled. And it

happened that fast. But I don't think that we fractured. And it's really important at that point in time to see what type of team leadership do you have? And then from there, Okay, you got six more games to go, and for this squad, we are two and one, and we've got a boatload of football left on the schedule.

And so as long as we've got internal leadership on this team, because I know the coaches believe in it, and I know the players believe in the coaches, then you just reset and there's no review mirror, and so you can't change what happened to Kansas State. You just have to fix it. And I think obviously I go online after the games and it's very frustrating, right because candidly, I mean, there are people jumping off the boat and calling, let's be real, fire coach Brennan. You know, obviously this

team doesn't have what it takes. You know, this is a failed attempt. It's like, can we hit the pause button here and like give the team a chance to become what they are going to be. Because if you rewind three hundred and sixty five days or where were we last year? We got whipped against Mississippi shouldn't say we got whipped, but we had a very very difficult loss against Mississippi State on the road, and we stunk it up against Stanford and barely came out with the win.

And you know, did we look much different comparatively than we do right now. And yet somehow the team came together, the buttons started coming, you know, being pushed correctly, and we got some momentum going, and you know it came out to be obviously a fantastic season. Don't give up on this team. You know, we've got some some real players that can really excel. I would say my biggest concern, if I may, just when you've got Tanner McLachlan and

you've got Jay Cowing and Jacob Morgan. Those are three guys that are in the NFL that made a fifty three man roster at the highest level that you can play at. Now who has replaced them? And the fact is, productivity wise, we haven't come close to what they provided last year. So when people are upset about the offense, and I get it, you don't have to look very far to see that it's difficult to replace NFL talent and right now we are still struggling to find that.

And I think Key Burnett has all of the potential in the world. And if I were to break down the game film on Sunday after a game and find out why he has not been as effective after three games that's something that they need to solve. You know, you've got some weapons at the tight end position that

we have not utilized yet. So I don't know if they're not getting open or if Noah is not seeing it and they're not throwing on time, but you got to get some productivity and it can't just be tea mac and I guarantee you that they're working on that right now. So but circling back Jay, to finish your your initial question, it's team belief. It's internal belief from from the players. It is believing in the coaches and

coming out that next game. We played Oregon State, our next game on the road in corballis we took care of business, got right back on track and it's going to be a big test. But you know we we we have our way with Utah last week or excuse me, last year, and listen, why not do it again?

Speaker 2

So when you go to the game, and I know you you watched the games a lot, how do you look at it? Because we always talk about the formal players. Do you watch you with a key? Do you watch it with a fans eye? A former player's eye, and you you could probably see where they're deficient, you know, maybe offensive line, defensive line, stuff like that. Is it an enjoyment for you or are you just going to you know what I'm saying because past players watch it differently, well, I think.

Speaker 5

That you're always interested because of the fact that those film breakdowns the day after the game, when you watch it as a team and you have to be accountable to your teammates as to why you did something on a particular play, and then you go from the team breakdown and then you watch it with your position coach, and every play is watched four times and every player is graded in the defensive secondary and there's accountability with that.

So when I watch games now and if we lose the corner, if we lose the edge on run contain, you know, you're interested in why that happened. And so I think that you're always looking, especially on the negative plays, why it didn't happen or did happen. The same thing with the positive plays. You can I think kind of pinpoint it was successful or a failure, and you could

have the greatest play called in the world. But if your left guard wiffs on his block or holds, or your right tackle gets beat on a speed rush, then it's not a great play call. It only is a great play call if the execution works, and that's based off eleven guys doing what they're supposed to do every play.

Speaker 3

Maybe it was you that posted that because I saw something to that effect where somebody said a great play is a play that works, and you may call the the best play that you can run and it fails, well, then it wasn't a good play.

Speaker 5

It just right. We're only judged based off of the results, and you could literally have the best you know, if they're blitzing and you get a perfect play call and call a screen of some sorts and one guy slips and falls and doesn't make the key block, then it's a four yard loss and everyone's wondering why the heck you call? Well, so, I mean it's chess, right, It's

not checkers. It's chess, and it boils down to some luck, and you look at tendencies as to what they do on certain down and distances, and you're always trying to match personnel, but ultimately it still boils down to eleven guys on either side of the ball taking care of their assignment and trusting that the other ten are going to do what they're supposed to do as well.

Speaker 2

You talked about the team kind of banding together, getting stuff straight and all that.

Speaker 3

It sounds easy. How difficult is it?

Speaker 5

There is some difficulty in this regard. You can't start finger pointing, and I don't think that we would obviously be to that stage yet, but you know, you do have to be able to be forgiving, and you have to understand that not everyone is going to have their best game, and unfortunately we've been a little bit unlucky if you look at the secondary, which was supposed to

be the strength of this team. In the first game we lose Gunner, in the second game we lose Dalton, and in the last game we lose Stokes and Trey. You know, all three of those guys are extremely high produced, productive players, and so when you lose one of the three components back there, it's going to have an impact on the defense on the whole. And this is not to obviously make him feel bad, but when Stukes goes out last game and Goff comes in, he did not

play at the level that Stukes does. And so there was three times, probably on one particular drive, where the tight end got the best of that matchup, and so we need to get healthy and then the trust and the coaches to make sure that if things are breaking, and I mean right now, I don't think that there's obviously anyone in Tuson that is happy with the offense.

And when you look back and say, well, man, last year we were blah blah blah blah blah blah, and this year we're da da da da da Again, the folks that we lost on offense, that was NFL production, productivity, excuse me. It's very difficult to replace that. So I'm sure that coach Babers, you know, Coach Carter, Coach Wade, Coach Oglesby, the whole entire offensive staff is working on how do we fix this? And that's what's important for

the fans to know. It is more important to that team, the coaches and the players than any fan that lives in Tucson. And so we just have to trust and hope, you know that they are coming up with solutions to where we get more victories than losses.

Speaker 3

For sure. You know, it's funny that you talk about that and those three guys, right. We had an interesting conversation with with Dwayne Nakuina before the season started. And I've had this whole thing because I've said, I've been as a fan, been through all these ten win seasons that Arizona's had. For the next year, it's not been so great, right, particularly the ninety nine season, after that great ninety eight season, And so I just said, I said,

I said, dwank, what happened? Why did that? How did that go south? And he goes, he goes, we got in over our heads. He said, we as coaches knew that playing Penn State was a really bad idea because we didn't have Chris McCallister anymore. And it was that's simple to him.

Speaker 5

That's a merit to that. There is merit to that. And we can always say, well, you know, we've got Noah coming back, we've got Team at coming back, and we've got Manu coming back, and we've got the secondary. And I understand that, but we can never sell short the impact of NFL and on that particular team in

ninety eight. We had NFL talent on that team, a lot of that, we had a great locker room, and so there's always that challenge of replacing I mean, Jacob Morgan is an NFL offensive tackle first round who's playing for him? Rhino? Rhino could get there someday. But Rhino got hurt in the first game, and so now he comes back in a very challenging environment and he's not one hundred percent, and so you have a very young left tackle and he didn't have a great game. Okay,

can it be that simple? If Noah is constantly getting flushed out of the pocket and he doesn't have a clean pocket and he doesn't have time that's go and he's running to his right consistently, he didn't have to do that last year. So we have to understand that as fans, that it's so simple to say, well, we just were not doing it this year. Well, not everybody can have an Alabama to where you have that next blue blood, five chip or five star recruit that steps

in and you don't lose a beat. And so we'll get there. Rhino will get there. It's just gonna take a little bit of time.

Speaker 2

So you know, you know, we're two old dudes. You're a fairly young dude. Did you grow You didn't grow up here, right Mare, You didn't grow up here.

Speaker 5

I grew up in Pine Top, up in the White Mountains for the most part. Yeah, so Blue Ridge a heck of a program up there. But I've been in too soon since eighth grade, so I would still consider myself a hardcore two on them.

Speaker 2

So do you believe in in ghosts and curses? Because I've long said this program is cursed? How else could you not go back to back with great sensational seasons? And I've read some books before that you know, there is a hint of you know good, No, you're not gonna let.

Speaker 3

You have be good two years in a row.

Speaker 5

Yeah, I think that's just the program on this, you know, on the whole. And I say this in all sincerity. Kansas State is a tough game to play your third game of the season on the road, great environment, and they're a great program, and it wasn't a great matchup for us in this regard. I mean, they've got another quarterback that really stresses the edges and we paid for

that a little bit. And so if you are an set SEC team and you get to schedule Appalachicola State, you know, and get a couple of rummies right off the bat, well you work out the kings. And so we didn't have a real chance to work out the kinks and all of the things that we need to reload and find out who are going to be the

kids on this team to really step up. But again, if you look at the prognostications pre season, I would get I would tell you that there is a good majority of the people that looked at that schedule and thought, well, this we're probably going to be two and two. And then we got to get things going and hit that middle part of the schedule and take off. And Okay, if that's the worst case scenario and we go up.

We want to see improvement. Obviously against Utah, and I still think that we can beat them, especially depending on what happens with Rising. But man, if if we can beat three and one, then all of a sudden, you start working out, uh some of those little things. We get some of that, uh, some of our guys healthy and back, especially in the secondary and and now if we can catch fire again, uh, then you never know where the road's going to take us. But I'm certainly

not giving up on this team. I don't want the fans uh to give up on this team. It takes a village and it's you know, it's gonna there's gonna be highs and lows. But if you're a fan, you got to you got to believe that these guys are doing everything that they can behind the scenes to make sure that will come out with wins on Saturdays.

Speaker 3

The village is losing residents.

Speaker 5

Yeah, a couple couple people just checked out, and I think they'll want their hotel room back here. Pretty sure.

Speaker 3

On the bandwagon. Yeah you hear from you. Very good, always good to talk to you. Okay, Steve J.

Speaker 5

Bear down. Then let's get back on the winning streak in two weeks.

Speaker 3

All right, great, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2

Eric bart Baker one of the great guys from back in the very levelheaded guy, very levelheaded guy. Yeah yeah, yeah, very more more positive than negative obviously.

Speaker 3

Just well again a guy who's been through it, yeah, right, and been through exactly what is going on with this this season? Right big you know, uh, you know, a team that was, you know, looked like it could be great, lost a game and got the hell beat out of him and had to come out of that.

Speaker 2

But you know, to his's point, to your point, to our point, at the beginning of the year, they were not going to win this game.

Speaker 3

I didn't think it looked bad. Okay, so let's go out so much that they lost. That's how they lost. People all worked out.

Speaker 2

You know, first time it's a mistake, we'll say that's a mistake. Yeah, if they do it again, they get it, then then you've got to say, well, okay, man, if you.

Speaker 3

Top beats the hell out of them next week, you know, if it's a thirty eight to ten game or something like that, then you then you start going, okay, what the hell's going on? What's going on?

Speaker 2

And then then you think, because we thought this, they go two to two, well that's what we thought, right.

Speaker 3

I thought they could get to eight wins even going to intend.

Speaker 2

And they could possibly do that. But now they have to step it up after the next game. So okay, we're good to go. Yeah, we're good to go.

Speaker 3

Yet' go. Thank you great. We're very back. If you're an.

Speaker 2

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Speaker 1

Steve Rivera and Jacin Salles, they have their eye on the ball. On Tucson Sports, stay yet, Fox Sports fourteen fifty, Hey.

Speaker 2

Welcome back, toy on the back, Carol, Fox Sports fourteen Cookie I'm Steve Riverta. He's Jakinsaws. You've got our guy one with us today and we're near the end of the show. This is the point where we go and do our picks, and it's when I'm tied with Jay. It's a miserable time.

Speaker 3

So I already have already.

Speaker 2

Haven't beat by now in the last two weeks have been miserable. And this is your last Hurrah lives not.

Speaker 3

Last live, you know. I mean, I'm doing live last time as part of the show, but I'll be I'll be here. You've been calling him. We got along. We've got a long way to go. It's only week four of twenty one weeks, Dave. So there's a guy who's perfect still no, no, he got he had one last yeah. I had two perfect weeks and then got a one. Yeah. Okay, go ahead. You you're the one that's on the all right, Well we're tied, uh, Steve. We both had only one

point last no, I had one, Steve had zero. So I'm up two weeks to one on you right now, Steve, So just say, you know, at the end of the day, we're tied, but we're tied seven seven points apiece. We're trying to be average three a week, so we're trying to be at nine uh after the going into this week, so we're both to two off the pace of what we're trying to do. Okay, so here we go three. I'm going three college two pro. As we mentioned, we've got to both pick the Tennessee Oklahoma game, so I'll

have that as my last pick. But Steve, I'm going to stay on the Texas bandwagon even though it's an unbelievable point spread of forty four and a half. That's a hell of a lot of points. They're playing Louisiana Monroe. But here's why I took it, because if I don't take it and they cover that, I'm gonna be pissed at myself. So not because I really think they're gonna cover it, just because if they do and I'm not on it, I'll be mad at myself. So I'm gonna

go ahead and take it and stay with them. They've they've hit for me all three weeks, and I'm gonna hit I'm going for him again.

Speaker 2

Okay, Okay, I think that's a pretty good pick because they crushed the last week, right, Yeah, Okay, let me let me kind of go through.

Speaker 3

I know what's his name, the Manning kid. What's his first name? Yeah, arch arch Manny, So we have the kids with us. He is he is starting because uh, Quinn yours is out. But he looked pretty damn good against a bad team last week, so I'm staying with him. Okay, Okay.

Speaker 2

My first pick will be I'm doing something different to I'm going through college and two wow look at you. Okay, yeah, only because I felt more confident over there. I'm gonna take Arkansas on the road, play three against Auburn. Arkansas'll played a pretty good first game and then they blew it, So I think that Inn Auburn's not that good. When you can when New Mexico or whoever can stay close to them, you're not good.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

All right, So Arkansas minus plus three against Auburn.

Speaker 3

On the road. Okay, all right. My second game, this is the one that I was deciding. I was thinking about taking Kansas State. And as much as I hate to take these guys because I still think they're all a bunch of criminals over there, but I'm gonna take Miami Florida giving sixteen and a half to South Florida. It's at South Florida. But that's kind of like you're playing at South Point to now you're gonna go play at Micah Mountain. It's just down the street. So Miami's

giving sixteen and a half to South Florida. I think they're really good. I think they're a national championship contender. They've looked good at the start. They beat the hell out of Florida a few weeks ago. I and I just decided I was too clouded in my judgment on Kansas State because of what they did Arizona. I like Kansas State giving up six at by U, but you know, be one, you might be all fired up for this game. So I'm taking Miami Florida minus the sixteen and a half. Okay, Okay,

I'm gonna go with USC. They play Michigan, right, they're they're at Michigan. Let me take USC.

Speaker 2

That might be my picture a little sketchy to me, but USC, what's what's the spread there?

Speaker 3

Five they're giving they're giving five at Michigan. I'll take us.

Speaker 2

Michigan is not your it is not your national title team anymore.

Speaker 3

So I thought about that game only then I thought about, why am I playing the Michigan USC game just because I think it's an interesting game. I thought that's a bad reason to take a game, so I decided not to take it. I'm I'm but I think, yes, he's going to cover that one too though. But you never know. USC they can go take a you know what, anytime, right, Michigan maybe a little fired up because they you know,

they got beat last week's I don't know. I'm on I dance a good pick though, all right, going to the NFL side because we're taking Tennessee and Oklahoma last my lock of the week. I just think your boy, Josh Buffalo, Yeah, what's his name, Josh all Matt. Matt helped me out, man, I appreciate it. Josh Allen. I think he's just too damn good for the Jaguars. And they're gonna they're giving up five at home, uh to the Jags, and I'm gonna lock them uh in that game.

Speaker 2

Okay, Yeah, good luck with that. Bill's messed with me in the first game with against against the Cardinals. So I'm not too high on the Cardinals yet, even though they played really well last week. I think it was when they crushed the Rams. I'm gonna go with Detroit, and that's gonna be my lock. Detroit on the road. I think they played, right, they played in Phoenix.

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, they're in Phoenix.

Speaker 2

So I'm gonna take give Detroit. Detroit's we don't want the coach to get shot or in Detroit, so we said.

Speaker 3

Easily a little more motivated, right, Detroit minus three minus three over Arizona. So that's my lock. All right. I again, the Cardinals to me are like ASU, right. If I pick them, they're going to screw me either way. If I pick them to win, they're going to lose. If I pick against them, they're going to win. So I just try and stay away from those guys. So all right, I don't have a feeling either way on that game. They looked pretty good last week, all right, my second

NFL game. We were just talking about it, and I'm Juan, this one's on you, okay. If you hadn't told me that Justin Herbert was hurt and was questionable, I probably wouldn't play this game. Now, if I had to play this game, I'd be taking the Steelers because they're at home. You got the Chargers West Coast team going to play an early game on the East Coast. I heard a big conversation from one of the somebody who was a

guest on a on a show this week. An NFL player said that game West Coast teams that have to go play on the East and then don't play the afternoon game played the well, the one o'clock game on the East Coast ten o'clock their time. He said, it is a thing and it is really hard to do. So what even if Herbert is playing but on a bad ankle. I'm I feel like the Steelers are gonna are gonna win this game, and they're only giving a

point and a half. So I'm taking the Steelers at home given a point and a half to the Chargers. But if I see if it's screwed up one, I'm coming after you. You know where I'm at. You know where I'm at. You have a game, right, did you get you? Okay? All right, So there's it's a Yeah, it's an early game. It's a it's a it's a it's a one and well one o'clock East Coast time.

Speaker 2

Okay, Okay, so Mike go, I see it right now. My next game another iffy game. I'm not sure why because they haven't really played well, but they win Kansas City the Chiefs and then cover last week. They haven't there. Yeah, they look kind of shaky, but sometimes they're gonna do it. At some point, they're gonna do it. I like them, I I you know, I took them last week and they pooped it. So I'm off of them and a minus three and a half. That's the Sunday, the Sunday

night game against the Falcons. You know, the Falcons feeling pretty good about themselves after what they did with the phil You haven't said a lock?

Speaker 3

Which is your lock? Detroit? Then okay, all right, all right, now we gotta pick, uh, gotta pick the Tennessee Oklahoma game. I'm just gonna say it. I'm taking Tennessee. I just think they're really damn good. Oklahoma's looked looked a little shady. I know, Oklahoma's at home and they don't lose at home and those kinds of things. I just think Tennessee is that good.

Speaker 2

Well, unfortunately, I'm gonna go with you on that one as well, for probably all the same reasons. I'm thinking Richard might be able to call us in and let me know or let us know what we're thinking on that one, because Richard's the Oklahoma guy.

Speaker 3

But I agree with you Tennessee, all right.

Speaker 2

So I'm not too positive or whatever on my picks, but those are my picks.

Speaker 3

I felt good about my picks the last couple of weeks, but not you know, again, it's after getting beat up last week. You know, I got I think I got two games right, but I didn't get either the lock or the special, so I got got beat up a little bit. Okay, Yeah, so we're both seven wins and eight losses, Steve, So just so you know, and you don't have to remind me, all right, don't have to

remind me, all right, quick recap. I've got Texas minus forty four and a half against Louisiana Monroe, Miami Florida minus sixteen and a half against South Florida, the Bills minus five against the Jags, Steelers minus one and a half against the Chargers in Tennessee, minus seven against Oklahoma,

and the special. Steves also got that. He's taking Arkansas plus three against Auburn, USC minus the five against Michigan, the Lions minus the three against the Cardinals and the Chiefs minus three and a half against the Falcons.

Speaker 2

Got a bunch of road teams. Steve, Yeah, last week was a blood bath for a lot of the teams. I know they have the at least the friends I have in my suicide. I didn't get into it's too crazy suicide. The games they started about one hundred and sixty survival one hundred and sixties.

Speaker 3

I have them down to twenty six because all the obvious ones from last week got beat.

Speaker 1

Be.

Speaker 3

They not only didn't cover, they lost. They lost. Those teams lost. Yeah, no, that's where it is, all right, Steve. This is that man, Yep, yep. Got about five minutes.

Speaker 2

We're gonna be like two dudes running at each other in the cornfield, running over.

Speaker 3

The wheat field. Oh don't, oh what you know?

Speaker 2

Slow motionly because we can only run in slow motion.

Speaker 3

We know, he We don't run and be, We don't jump in anybody's arms. Nobody wants us jumping in their arms. They fall down and we knock them down and all those things.

Speaker 2

Well, there's always We're always gonna be together in terms of every Friday.

Speaker 3

And then again at the casino. Yeah, so yeah, I'll still be around enough to cause trouble, to be a pain, to be a pain, you know, as you said, coming in on Friday to do the picks. We'll do the Thursday things. Would love to have you come down to the half people come down to the casino that'll sold sports book, uh, to see us on Thursdays. We're gonna we're trying to set it up and get things done to be there this coming Thursday, which would be a lot of fun. Yeah, it would be a lot of fun.

Speaker 2

We'll make our picks stand, make our pics on Thursdays when we're there, yea, involve them hopefully.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so it should be fun.

Speaker 2

But Steve, we'll have some drinks, but I don't know if they can do drinks specials in the mall.

Speaker 3

Drink special Maybe it's been a fun run, Steve. Four years, a little over four years, I was telling Matt the story about how how this all happened. You call me, what are you doing? What do you mean?

Speaker 5

What do you mean?

Speaker 3

The day that I got laid off by the Sugars Culls, the first of two times I've been fired by them. What are you doing? Nothing? Nothing? What do you asking me? You want to Yeah, because I don't have a job. That was it. I didn't have a job and I haven't had a job. So you were nervous. You're still kind of nervous. I was a little nervous early on, you know. But uh, you know, I think I think

we got into a pretty good groove we've had. I think we've put together a good, good show with some incredible guests who we have time minutes per form minutes about three minutes. So so looking back, what are your favorite guests? Well, you know, the the the first of all, the local guys who just would always come on anytime we needed, you know, justin Michael lev Greg Hansen, Wilner not local, but was a local, you know, Troy Hutchison, I'm gonna leave out you know, a bunch of those names,

Brian Peterson. Those guys are always great, reliable, they'd come on the show, they gave us a lot of the time. But when I think about the show that I thought, Okay, we really did something special there, right, Bill Walton, Steve Kerr, what about Herman Garry Francona, Herman Harrison, he brought us to tears right, I'm Sean Elliott. You know coming on. You know those guys, Pete Williams all the time that he came on and was just very enthusiastic with us.

And again, this is like that Academy Award speech. You know, you know you're gonna forget somebody. But you know, so many people that that did come on the show were great with us. We had a lot of from Jake Fisher, you know, guy always always, and we were always picking his brain. We were trying to get into his head in terms of what it was like to be a college football player. Right when he when he called in

this Morning City couldn't be on. I figured, OK, Baker kind of fits the bold of you know, the time of Dia Barnes announced her pregnancy on our show accidentally, and my son who was her pa, her media relations person at the time, he was like, what the hell just happened? On my dad's use everybody a lot of moments like that, and again, just so many people.

Speaker 2

You know what I wanted to when I was thinking of this, mort we should have had the president. I'll try to get the president done before he leaves, uh, and maybe we do it from the casino, maybe have a call in, maybe invite him down there.

Speaker 3

Maybe you've hate him down there, but you know another one. You know, Dave hekey all the time, the time he gave us. All the folks from Pima came on the show. You know, just so many people, and I think we I really do feel like we put together a great show for people to really cover local sports, talk about

high schools. I was telling Matt that, you know, our listenership would go up when would bring somebody from one of the high schools because they would get the word out to their families and their friends and and stuff like that. So I just really, I'm really proud of what we did in that regard because we gave a lot of visibility to to those people, right no, and they loved it.

Speaker 2

The one time we got the call from the Sunnyside somebody. So you don't talk enough about the coach last week?

Speaker 3

What are you talking about?

Speaker 2

So you know obviously the PEMA people and the national titles with all that too. Yeah, it's been fun. Yeah, Dave Cosgrove and all those guys.

Speaker 3

All right, Well that's it, man, I'm done for the regular show, but I'll be around.

Speaker 2

Oh you know, you took the richer who was gonna call with the line you put the lines on old.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I told you.

Speaker 2

All right.

Speaker 3

Appreciate it, and I appreciate everybody who called in over all this time. So thanks so much and I will be around and Steve good luck. Thank you, thank you,

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