Monday, January 15, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalaz sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Possessions kt c R two SA and iHeartRadio Station. Yet. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagan Zaws got Kevin in the house with us. Glad to see both of you guys have not entered the transfer portal that are with

me today. That's a slow news day, but not really a slow news day because a lot of stuff is happening. Where do we start, right? It was a weekend to remember. First, the Cats basketball team stunk it up in Pullman, which was a another shocker. Yeah, you know not, you know, the more I thought about Steve, not sho how because go ahead, you're gonna you're gonna lose games, and the way he didn't, I mean didn't when Arizona last week. The whole top ten lost

last oh yeah yeah, including Histon twice. Right, so you know, when when you put it on in context, you know, not not super shocked. I mean, yeah, I think do I think they should have won the game. It happens. Do I think they're better than Washington State? Yeah, but you know, as we always say, Arizona is always getting everybody's best shot. They go to a place like Washington State, a terrible place to have to go in the winter time. Sure, and they

didn't play well. And if you don't play well, well, that's part of the problem. You know, somebody can beat you. That's part of the problem. And I think that's the scare of everybody who follows them. Me. You know, I've seen them happen, go up there and get beat with two people in the gym. That's how they usually, like you usually lose when there's nobody in the gym. But this is a team that that should be playing better now and and kind of always, they're not.

And they're not. That's the concern. They're just not. Let's let's go to the subject that. Let's change that. We'll come back to that later. Big news over the weekend, obviously, Jedfish is gone. And it happened in a moment of a few hours and maybe not in his timeline because maybe stuff Johnson Baseball Johnson, Jay Johnson, we don't know the full context of what happened there, But it seems a lot like it We want you you want in Okay, Yeah, I mean it happened quickly. It cuts

you a little bit surprise because we were at each other. It did because for a lot of reasons. There's so many layers to this. But where where I where my where my brain was on whether or not he was gonna take the job, was thinking he's leaving at some point in fact, you know, with what's happening at Florida, I'm thinking he's leaving after next year. He's gonna you know, he's gonna coach another year here. They're gonna

have a really good season. The Florida job is gonna clear because Billy Napier's on the hot seat. You know, he's done. He's done a terrible job over there. They're not winning enough. It's his alma mater. He's gonna wait for that job, and there's no reason for him to jump to another job when he's got so much going on here and he can he can get seven or eight million, nine million at Florida if he just waits a year. And what's wrong with waiting a year when you're making three and a

half million dollars. That was my very logical thinking of what I thought was gonna happen. Logical, But you're not jet but I'm not. I'm not jet fishing. Oh no. I was just gonna add to what Jay was saying about how not only is it a logical it's a logical decision from a financial standpoint, but also the team is good. The rosters are turning a lot of good players, and I are going to a Washington Husky's roster that's kind of gutted from what it was like. It's gutted, but but he

can take everybody with him, and that's what might happen. So so my whole thing was money situation here. Obviously he's gonna make a tunnel with their seven point seventy five here, he would have made it at least at the most close to five maybe maybe. How much do you think that the financial situation? I didn't write about it yesterday in my column because I didn't think

it played a big part in it. But zero you're saying zero zero because and I went on so I went on on on on Twitter yesterday because so many people were saying, oh, if they would have gotten the contract. Shut the hell up. That means nothing. It had nothing to do with the contract. Thing that frush would be frustrated to be the most, Shane is exactly what you did and I did yesterday and probty Kevin, all this, all this bs on Twitter and Facebook with Joe Blow going on and this

and this. No, no, no, let the professionals handle this. Yeah. Yeah, that's what frustrates me the most. No, it was the contract had nothing to do with it, you know, I do, I don't know, but I'm talking about the overall, the overall yeah, you know, people calling them a scumbag and you know, so many things. I'm like, you know, look, was I angry at some point? Yes? Am I still disappointed? Yes, but he brought you a lot of joy, right, I'm not And you know what, I'm not

disappointed. I guess I'm not disappointed in so much in Jed Fish as I'm disappointed that, as you know, we're gonna have Anthony to Jemino on you know later and what he said in his clumsy Arizona can never have nice things. I'm disappointed about that. You talk about that, Yeah, I'm disappointed about that, about the fact that here we were unexpectedly had this great season, looking forward to potentially another great season, and now that the rug's been

pulled out. So I've got disappointment. I'm frustrated at and this is a conversation I've had with a bunch of people. I'm frustrated at what college football, in college sports, mainly college football college basketball, have become right that not only do you lose your coach in a heartbeat, but you can lose your entire team with a heartbeat, and they can take everything from you by taking just taking your coach. Let me ask you this, I'm gonna give

you. I'm gonna sit you back thirty seven years maybe more. How did Smith do this? I'm sure it hasn't really been. It's different now but the same. There are some similarities, and I thought about that immediately,

immediately thought about that. But you know, as as Greg Hands reminded us on Friday, when we're talking about Arry Smith, the difference there was one while it was USC but a big difference was but because of state law, Larry Smith could not get more than a one year contract in USC was offering him five. I think, why wouldn't you take that of course you're going to take that. Well, same with same with j You know in dead now you know he could get a five year contract. He was gonna get

five million. I think the reporting five point one million a year over five years. There's plenty of money. The thing about it is is that. And that's the reason I thought, you know, he would stay, because he's going to get enough money to be here at least for one more. Right, the question is why would he jump at this job if I still don't think Washington is his endgame? No, of course, not right, dude, If he has you could, I think the NFL is his end

game. I think eventually the NFL will be the end game after he's if he does well here, after he goes to Florida, I think he's gonna have to go spend a couple of years. Well May and maybe and maybe he goes and spends three years at Washington and now and they do. But the thing of it is Washington is a rebuild. Well, here here's your thing. We don't This is maybe a naive of me to say this,

but we don't know how good of a football coach he actually is. Wow, And I was just reading Michae Lev's column that just went up a little bit ago. Washington has taking a huge risk because how many times have I said I'm worried about next year at Arizona, that that that that that that everything will come crash into the ground, because it always does at Arizona. We don't know how good a coach he is. Was he was he what Arizona needed? Yes? Was he? You know what? Was he able

to pull things together at Arizona quickly? Yes? Right? But Washington's a whole different beast. I thought that too. And he's gonna have a hard type. He had hard type here and more part to him because he did a great job. Uh, he's gonna be and we're gonna have Jim Moore from the radio, an old fan of ours mine. He's from a radio station up there. He's gonna be third or fourth fiddle, huge market. Well, yeah, I see. I disagreed with the one thing that Michael

Lev said that Washington football is top dog over there. No, it's not. It is not. The Seahawks are are much bigger Seahawks. The Mariners are pretty big deal after being pretty good. The soccer situation up there is pretty good. Uh, there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff. You know, is Washington you know in play, Sure it is, But I disagree with Michael. The Seahawks are way bigger deal than we'll talk to.

But you know, you know, getting back to what I think you're you know you're talking about, is that you know, this is a It's a completely different thing. He jed Fish was under zero pressure to win here. He had all the time in the world, sure to start winning. The fact that he did it, you know, as quickly as he did next year, was there gonna be pressure on it more than this year,

But not what he's going to face it. They were just in the National Championship Game, and I get I know people are smart enough up there to understand, you lose your whole roster. We don't expect you to be in the National Championship Game, but we don't expect you being finished eighth place in the Big ten either. He's going to be under a lot of pressure, and how he handles that remains to be seen. Well, seven point seven five million dollars will use that pressure for a year or two or three will

and we'll see what happens. Do you think and this is a dumb question, maybe a naive question. Again, it was a money grab, Okay, I would I would think it would have to be. Well, let me take it back ninety eight percent. The other two percent is he he this he might have come to come to the decision that this is a quicker path to where he wants to get to and getting paid to do it right

and get and I think it's mostly a money grab. Which when I talk about the part about when I was angry about this, that you know what what people are saying say. Okay, so if you if you knew you were going to leave at some point somewhere for bigger money and a bigger program, then why were you coming in here selling family loyalty? Yeah, that was the say, you know, don't sell that if you're not gonna if you're not gonna stick to it. You know, we've been in this business

a long time, Jake. They say stuff just to get you away and then change your mind. A week later he said something's to rom and somethings to to New Highslan whatever. On a Monday Tuesday, it was totally different. That's just I love you. One day, Yeah, I met somebody better I gotta to get out of it. But the problem with that Steve that I see and he you know, he came in here. You know, I love the community. You know, I'm want to be a big

part is this. If he understood the community, he would understand he would have understood that selling that this community was guloble to that. You know, did we believe all along that at some point he was going to leave after sure? That was my whole column yesterday, right, we all believe at some point, but this community did not believe he was gonna leave like this. No, and and and that's the part that that's the part that stings

to this community. You're missing We got four minute stuff on this on this moment segment here. But let me tell you so you saw the departure, correct, Yeah? How did that's it? That was going to ask you to if what you guys made of the video and the I don't know, but it wasn't kosher. It wasn't good. See. And that's the thing. You know, people, you know, people remember as much as they loved him two weeks ago, they hate him that much now he he crapped

on this community. And this community does not like to be crapped on. No community likes to be crapped on, but especially as it relates to its football run. It's basketball. He crapped on us, and give some context. Please, Look, you know this this community is its no no, no, no no. Andalking about the video, well the video, well you know the the you know, having the having the signing, the signing

of the contract. You know in here, you know, the Washington guy rings the doorbell with an a logo next to the doorbell, walks in Jed's all smiles. They signed the contract. How long ago did this contract get done? Right? And and then you know, for the Washington guy to come here, you know, him to take a video of himself at the airport in front of the private private plane that he's he's jumping on to get the hell out of here, all of that stuff. You know what,

I get it. You're left, you got your money, You're going have a little respect for the community that helped you get to hear right, I get it. That's it. And what did you guys think about the the what the three minute meeting with the with the players. Yeah, I don't know how normally those things go, but that's in context. That's not good

either. See and that and that that. That was one of things that was said to me was if you're going to do this to these guys who you asked to trust you, to come here to a place that they could have gone to better places and to put up with two years of crap before they you know, found the the glory of it in this last year, then damn it, go to that meeting and stand there and answer all the

damn questions. Okay, so you know this, and you're you're a player who's played for him three four years whatever, three years and and and gone through a lot. Now and you went through this three minute thing, and you've seen the videos. Do you go? Do you leave this place and go with him? Knowing what you know? Well, yeah, I don't blame well, I don't know. I don't blame anybody that does. But also don't blame anybody that doesn't. It says, wait a minute, this

guy's not who I thought he was. Right, that's a very fair assessment. I think it's I think it's totally individual, case by case basis and what they think will be best for them in their future. But I think you cannot be upset with them if they do go, because yeah, I mean the two guys that are sticking out on this right now are are are

north of Fida and and Tatoo McMillan. Those guys I know, but but so those are the two that you know coleman Manu, all those guys are kind of like you know, the price that the guy the visible, the highly visible guys that put the program, the people's the marquee guys. Are those two guys you know? For them, you know, you go to Washington because the path that they're trying to be on is better from there. But the question is, and maybe they go because they know Alli got is

another year or two that he's got to stick around. So I'm good. I don't know, I don't know what they'll do, but that you know, we'll we'll obviously be finding that the next So let's take the break. We'll get a whold little Jim Moore from Seattle, see what the perception is up there, and carry on with this conversation. It's a it's a yeah, it's a lot of fascinating aspects to it. So yeah, we'll have that with the Seattle viewpoint coming right up. Make the right choice for your

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Fox Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live. I mean I hid radio. Wapp Hey, welcome back tooinning the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jigginsaws. Now on the phone, we have Jim Moore from Seattle. Jim, how you doing doing great? Steve? How are you? Thank you? What's going on in Seattle? Seattle Seahawks? You but your bunch of Steelers up there? What the hell? Jim? A? Yeah, boy, A lot of a lot going on last week.

I mean, the Huskies lose the National Championship, and then Kayla de bor goes to Alabama, and then Jed Fish hired all in one week, and then Pete Carroll they reave him of his duties. I guess I'm giving you a news Jordy know about. But yeah, it's been pretty active in Seattle, for sure. What can what can Jetfish expect from the from the media up there? What can you expect from the media? What is he going to be treated nicely? Fairly? Gonna is he gonna have a tough time

with the media. What is it? Come on, come on, Steve, You remember me, right? That was always nice and fair, wasn't I that's for another day. Well, actually, actually I'm writing a column that's going to be in the Tacoma paper here shortly basically saying that, hey, Husky fans enjoyed Jetfish while he's here because he's probably gonna go to Florida next year. We just talked about that. We were just saying that. We were just talking about that, Jim and and so, I mean,

how much do they know about Jetfish or do we do? You know how much they know about jet Fish? What's the perception right now of all of that? Well, you know, I'm not sure. And you're talking to a crude man. I mean, so it's not a Husky point of view here. I mean, I want complete chaos over there if I have my way. But I think most people are feeling like it's a good higher.

They like what Fish did. And Tucson this year, I mean, you guys with I mean, the Wildcats go ten and three, bear down and beat Oklahoma, and I just I mean to me, I'm just going, God, why would you want to leave Tucson to come to rainy Seattle. Is that really a move up? I guess, but it doesn't seem like that great a one to me. And maybe Husky fans haven't checked out his Wikipedia page like others of us have. I mean, crush almighty. I

mean that thing goes on forever. All the jobs he's had, so what Tucson is the longest he's been anywhere. And you look at Billy Napier and what he's doing in Florida. He's had two losing seasons in a row. If he loses again this season, I mean, good fish is going to be at the top of their list down there. And I'm sure he would take it because we all well, you know anyway, and I'm just finding

this out. He went to Florida, he loves Florida. New Jersey kid, he went down to Florida, loves Steve Spurrier, and you know, I was leaving notes on his windshield and everything, and so like what he's gonna tell everybody at this press conference in Seattle tomorrow about boy, what what opportunity of a lifetime to come here, you know on purple and gold and

go dogs and bow down and all that stuff. And then I'm gonna be thinking, well, wait a minute, man, next year at this time, you're probably gonna be down in Florida wearing an orange tow instead of a

purple one. Well, and I guess that's that's what what Steve was was asking about, in terms of how the media is going to take all this, knowing that, for instance, in all the jobs he's had as a coach, the longest he stayed at a place, somebody did the math one point five three years, you know, so you're right, he stayed here twice as long as he stayed at anywhere else. Will he get called on that or will he get asked about that? Will that be the kind of

image that's created about him? I hope so. But I mean I include myself in this. We're typically soft the Seattle media. There really aren't too many tough questions asked. You know, tomorrow, I suspect it'll be like, hey, you know, we're going to have a reset here and we think that Jedfish is the guy to lead us. You know, I thought sure that they were going to hire Ryan Grebb. I thought that would have been a better hire the offensive coordinator, so you'd have some continuity. I

mean, so many feelings hurt by Kayln de Borer leaving. I mean, some people understanding, boy, he had to take it. It's Alabama, and others of us are going, hey, come on, man, really, you could win a national championship at Washington. And to me, again being a Koog, I'd rather beat the king rather than be the king, you know what I'm saying. I mean, I just would rather be the underdog who knocks off the guy that's always been on top. And I just

don't understand why that's just so attractive to people to do that. And I don't think Caylen Debor is going to be a huge success down there. And I have no idea what Fish is going to be. What he was there for three years in Tucson, he had two bad seasons and then one good one, and it's just you know, what have you done for me lately? And I guess you get hired off of that. And I just feel the other thing I hate is the thought of I mean, you guys probably

love Forfeita and what he did down there. I just think it's so wrong if that kid ends up going to Washington, and he probably will. I mean, I don't know what you guys are hearing about that. But Will Rogers transferred in from Mississippi State to Washington and then he transferred out as soon as the border went to Alabama, and so his status is up in the air. So I'm sure. I mean, there's a position open for fefeed if he wanted here in Seattle. Yeah, we were talking about this before

you came on as well. Okay, in the landscape of sports in Seattle, where does Washington football land? You know, Steve, I was just talking to my co host about that, and it's mostly Seahawks now. It used to just be a huge Husky town and now it's Seahawks, Seahawks, Seahawks all the time. The station I used to work at, we probably talked about the Seahawks eighty percent of the time because I mean, the NFL

is just so huge that you just go with that. But I still think, you know, the Huskies, especially in light of what they did this season, it's a big deal too in town. Okay, who are the Mariners and the rest of it below he's laughing, He's laughing really hard. No, I mean, the Mariners, the only team in Major League Baseball had never been to a World Series, and then the off season that they've had with bringing in you know, a bunch of no namers, you know,

and everybody's like, well, wait a minute. You guys said you're going to make a big splash in free agency and in the trading market and you and these are the guys you're bringing in. So yeah, I mean, everybody's into the Mariners and keep thinking, Okay, this will be the year, this will be the year. But they've been saying that since nineteen seventy seven and it hasn't been the year yet. Okay, good enough? Have you heard one way or another? What? Uh? You know?

Were there other guys ahead of Fish in line like Lance Leipold, the guy had got Kansas? Anybody else? Uh? You know? What was jetfish down the line? Or was he the guy from the from the get go? I you know, I don't know the answer to that, but I would assume that he was the guy from the get go. I think they like what he did this year. They like his his recruiting ability, He's got West Coast connections, and he just seems to me like he was the

guy they were targeting all along. So wouldn't you see your jet and you're doing this interview. Well, who's the who's the ad? The new guy? He's only been there like five months? Well at Troy Dannon d You know, if I get this job, I'm going to bring a pretty good quarterback, a putty good receiver, and some other guys that are pretty good. You know, he's saying this. Oh he had to be oh probably. You know. It's just I don't know if it's just me being old

and burned out or whatever. I think younger people are upset with it too. Everything that's going on in college football. It just kind of sickens me, you know. I I just you know, Caitlin de Born up here, you know, talking about love for each other and togetherness and loyalty and commitment, and then he bails. And then what I heard that Fish talk to his players for three minutes or something, and he was probably saying all

the same crap. And then and then I heard that he was on Jim Rome's show and saying, boy, you know, we're working out this contract extension. Want to be here for a long time. Nowhere else I'd rather be. It's just all a bunch of crap. Steve, I just you know, I mean, I really hope, like, Okay, go ahead and take the job, Jed, you know, if you want. I don't know how you guys feel about him coming to Washington, but okay, go ahead and take that job, but leave leave the players behind. He

just has some decency about you. And I know this doesn't work that way. Come on, man, it's a business. Don't be naive. You're listening to probably saying that, who's this idiot you have on the air from Seattle doesn't even know how this works? Yeah, I know how it works, but I don't like it. Right. Well, that's the thing. Jay talked about this just a week ago. Two weeks ago, Jetfish was

adored in this town. Now, I don't know if they have too many people who like him because of all that, because of all that say this and then well it's the same with Debor here, and you know what the reason is, Steve, Like if it was a guy like New Hive or something like that, where you kind of go, hey, he's got some slipperiness to him. I mean, Caylen de Boor seemed like salt of the earth, man. I mean, he just seemed like just a well grounded

guy. And every time he said something. You thought, man, I'd like my kid to play for him, and now you find out that he's like all the rest, and you just go you throw up your arms and you go, okay, well, you know, I don't know what to say about that anymore, but you're the same thing here, though. Kaylen

de Bor was like, are you kidding me? They were, you know, one game away from winning the national championship, and so everybody adored him here in Seattle, and then two days later they're going, what a sellout he's going to Alabama. Well, and I think that's what you know was going on here. Look, you know, Arizona's got both in flipball and basketball. You got lude Olsen who came here. Could have gone a million places the whole time he was here, and he never did. Dick told

me the same thing. Had opportunities, and people thought they possibly had a guy like that in Jed Fish. Steve and I were saying, don't think that, because he's not guy. You know, he's the i'll use the word carpetbagger, and that's what he's been his entire career. And he turned out to be exactly who we thought he was when he got here despite what people were hoping he was going to be that he was going to be the guy that kind of, as you say, assault of the Earth guy who

was going to stay here and and and you know, do this. Instead he be he ended up being who he was, who we thought he was when they hired him, and people were upset when he got hired. To your point of your column, right, well, pretty much, you know, I can't wait for this news conference tomorrow because it's gonna be just you know, one of those where you're sticking your finger down your throat basically, because everything that comes out of this guy's mouth tomorrow will probably be bs.

It'll be something his agent or PR people tell him to make sure, you know, he'll say something like, you know, you guys were one game away from the national championship this year. We're going to get past that hurdle. You know. That's the thing we're gonna work on. We're going to bring a national championship to Seattle. And then next year he'll be in Gainesville saying the same thing. And what an honor it is for him to be the coach at is Alma Modern. I hate to be so cynical, but

it just it's a hanging curveball, isn't it. Yeah, it's hard not to be cynical right now. Yeah, we've got to see it before. It's like you say, the way of the world. It's hard not to be in this profession. Yeah, I don't know what happened to be along the way, because I still you know, I'm a fan. I love

my school, Washington State. But like people, you know, I saw some rumors on Twitter going that Jake Dickert might be a candidate at Arizona, and then you've got a bunch of people going, Oh, no, that won't happen. That's not gonna happen. Dickert just donated fifty thousand dollars to the Cougar Athletic Fund. He's not leaving. And I'm going, really, you really think that our coach isn't going to go somewhere like at Tucson calls and goes, hey, come on down here and we'll have an interview with

you. You don't think that's possible. I mean, he was probably. I think he was after we beat Wisconsin this year. I think he was a hot name in the coaching market, and there were rumors that Michigan State was looking at him rather than Jonathan Smith at that point. Then we you know the good thing about losing seven in a row your coaches in a candidate. That's true, That's true. J Jen was nowhere to be found three

months ago. Let me ask you real quick, because Arizona is going through a financial crisis, as you know, the university wide and in the It's like I was reading to Callum today from somebody maybe the Times, that Washington is going through some issues too financially. Yeah, they are, and Steve, I don't know the details on all of that, but it's not like

they're flush with cash either. They they wanted to get rid of Mike Hopkins, the basketball coach for a while now, but felt like they couldn't afford it. It was more about they understood that the performance wasn't there from their coach, but they were like, well, we can't really afford to get rid of him. So it's an issue. But they still manage. I mean, they were going to give the board like nine point four million a year for seven years, and I think they're given what fish like seven and

a half and seven five. It's they might not be fresh with cash but they've got enough to throw around at some of these coaches anyway. Yeah no, yeah, you know, and and that and again you know, getting bad back down to the brass tacks of it. This is from here on out and in at least in college football, major college football and and you know basketball, this is always going to be about money. Always, money's

going to rule. And and right now the Big Ten and the SEC have the most money, and you know they're the big dogs, and this is gonna this is you know what a situation that you know, Arizona is in situation that Washington State's going to be in as whatever develops there with you know, with them in Oregon State. I mean, it's always gonna be about the money. And if you're not in the Big ten and one of the

top teams in the Big Ten, you don't have the money. Now You're you're absolutely right, But you know, I have a hard time understanding that just because I mean, Steve, I mean, I was a sports writer for thirty years, you know, and I never was driven by money. I I mean, if I was driven by money, I wouldn't have been

a sports writer. I mean I was making five figures for thirty years, you know, and so I just and you know, people when I go well, you know, if Sports Illustrated called or Washington Post or the New York Times, you would have gone there in a heartbeat. And I'm going, eh, you know what, I was perfectly fine at the Seattle Post Intelligencer. I didn't need to keep climbing the ladder. I was high enough up on that damn ladder that I didn't want to sacrifice you know, quality

and living to go to the East coast. Right. No, we have all been there, been there, done that, Jim as usual. Thank you very much. Good luck up there. Well, we'll take a look at your call him once you're press punch right there for you know. Okay, okay, thanks for having me. Guys, good dear your voice. See you take care, Jim Moore. It's funny. I mean, he's right where we are. Yeah, he's thinking all the same things that we

are. You know, from their standpoint, you know, losing the boor you know, yes they yes they got jet fish and there you know there but you know, as he said, and as we said that, you know, fish is a huge risk for them. Sure he really is. Sure. Okay, all right, let's take our break, take a last take some calls in the last second zero four one six four forty. We really want to hear what you've got to say about Top of the Holway. You get a lot of breaking news, with a lot of developments already.

Yeah, right, correct, correct, breaking moon. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen 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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iHeart Radio. Wow. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I'm the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen to fifty. I'm Steve Vera, He's Jacobs as good Kevin in the room with us to may men on the board. If you want to call us, please do five two oho four one six seventy four forty. Let me we don't have any judkins. Let me ask you questions. I asked you about jet Fish. What do you know about

Jetfish? What comes to mind? Well, I I we obviously don't know what we thought we knew. But what did you know before or before did they hired? What were your impressions of it before all? This good guy? Yeah, seem it seemed good guy, straightforward guy, kind of a guy who really was was doing a good job of kind of understanding what was important to this community and to the program and the players and the fans and

whatnot. That the guy who you felt got it about what Arizona is, all right, and and and he was using that to you know, to try and build a you know, a successful program. And he did a really good job. But when it comes to me, I'm just gonna say because I don't, I guess that. But my thing is that he was a good CEO. CEO. Yeah, that's how he ran it. I don't know how good of a coach he is. I really don't, because he had some pretty good people running the show too. Yeah, but you

know what he became. I think he became a really good play caller. I think he ran really good offense, right, I do have I do I do question question his talent evaluation because he was going to the mat with Jaden DeLaura. Yeah, and had he stuck with that, he wouldn't be at Washington, right. No, that's the funny part of it. He

kind of got lucky. He got very lucky with somebody. He got lucky like rich Rod got lucky with with with little Ta you know, brand Brandon Brandon Dawkins got hurt in a game, A little take came in and that was that. Yeah, got a call. Let's take this call. How you're on the air and I on the ball. Hey, how's it going today? Good? How are you man? What's up? Well, it's not a big surprise. I mean it's surprised in the sense it wasn't next year or not this instead of this year? Is bright? Wait, Brian,

you sound weird? Is that you Are you sick too? Oh? No, either that or you on a better phone that they might be that were you really depressed? No? No, I mean it's just it's just the nature of the job now, that's all it is. Yeah, you do you fault him? Do you not? Where do you sit? I don't fault him. I maybe maybe, because uh, just the way football is now, and it's just the system what it is, that's all it is. And we have to understand the next person we get here, no

matter we go young or we go old or whatever. Weird just a stepping stone to the next position. You know, this is not a top tier program like everybody seems to when I think it is. We are just a average, middle of the road football program. Did I talk about that with you, Jay, and you will agree with you. Brian, Did you think that? Have you thought that for a long time? Oh? Yeah, okay, are you real? Yeah? I mean it's just that we

didn't think he'd leave after three years. You know, anybody may need you buying Nick Saban for all this well was starting the domino. But you also didn't think that he'd go ten and three the third year, right, No, I didn't. I thought he'd want to. I'm more of a thought like you thought, said that he was looking to the Florida job, and I thought maybe he'd need one more year to really prove himself because he's going

to have a tough time. I mean, even if he takes half the football team with him, he's going to have a tough time in Washington. It's not going to be easy because he's that that program's got it too, and going into the Big ten next year is not going to be easy for him. Yeah. That well, yeah, and as we were saying earlier,

you know the expectations there. He has no idea what that's going to be like because it wasn't the same as the year right, right, It's gonna be much harder for him up there, even though he got the nice, cushy seven year contract. There's a lot more pressure on him there than there ever would be here. Yeah, without question, that, without question. Yeah, yeah, okay, thanks Brian, no problem. It's a get well but you you're fine, So thank you, but I appreciate it.

Ye. Yeah, anybody else want to call, please do fight two O four one six seventy four forty. We'll take your call. We got about ten minutes. How do you think Gabe's taking this? Oh man? Yeah, oh Scott, watch your language you call if you call in uh but okay, So that's what your impressions of Jed Well, yeah, yeah, I mean again, I I just thought he was he he seemed trying to think he was really genuine and what he was saying. I was having

a hard time believing he was that genuine. But I was thinking, like, he's not showing anything other than he's showing. You know, what we see seems genuine. But then it turns out we all, like I said, we all, I think we all got taken for a ride. Yeah, and I think my I think my perception of it was similar to that of Jay's, where I feel like he did. I thought he did want

to build something within the community before moving on to his next location. It didn't seem like he was always destined maybe for a different location than here, but maybe not so soon. But you'd have to think that because that's who he is. Let me put it this way, Steve, he touched. He touched all our soft spots, right he you know, he he figured

out this community pretty quickly. Well, I think, and then and and he and he poked at all of those things to get this, you know, this affair going for him, and then he turned out to be again who he thought he was coming. Great segue for my question to you guys.

So you you find this girl, I'm very attractive, you date her for three three years or whatever, and she said, if, if, if you're gonna have this great time for three years and this wonderful time, you fall in love and then she breaks your heart, would you do it again? You damn right, you're gonna do it again. And he he, he found this place and I'm not defending him. He found this place at the bottom, at the bottom bottom and put you guys through a pretty

good ride. Would you do it again? Well, yeah, so there's gonna be but but but the thing is, the thing is though now this this fan base is gonna be skeptical of the next guy, right if, if, if, whoever it is, Brent Brennan or the guy from Texas tore whoever comes in and tries to sell the I'm here for the long haul people are gonna say, I don't want to hear that. It's gonna be the first question you say. I want you to tell me that if you do a great job, you know, nothing's off the table. I bet

you ten bucks. Whatever the bucks in the first six five questions, five six questions that that question is going to be brought up. Do you plan on being here a while because you have to? That's a question that needs to be asked and what he should say it, what whoever it is should say is and what Jed should have said to Jim Rome when two weeks ago he said, you know, I have no you know, I don't want to be anywhere else to say, Look, this is a business like any

other business. Guess what. Guess who asked I'm gonna give you little props in the back two and a half months ago, whatever months ago it was, you asked him, your name is coming up? And what did he say? Well, when you do well your name, that happens, and that's all. That's all. He would have just kept saying that, people wouldn't be so upset with him. I was about to call you, Adam Stee. If he would have just kept saying that, right, people wouldn't

be so upset right now. I was going to but he two weeks ago he said, I'm here to stay, and that's why people are upset. How much of the anger do you too think is on social media? Because of the way in which it happened. It happened so fast. He had he built a lot of trust in the community, and I think I have a lot of fans finally had bought in. Look, there's never a good way to leave when in this kind of a situation, and in fact, it's almost better. It's like, okay, just just you know, cut

my hand off and bandage it up and let's go. You know, it's like, just just hit me hard so I can get past it. And so you know, if this would have stretched for a week or yeah, four days, people would I think it would have been worse. But going back to Stee's point, and I guess, and you know we've gone in circles around this, but if you just would have kept saying, look, you know, my name's going to keep coming up. And even if he said, look, I owe it to my family to always check things out,

wouldn't you put it back on us. Didn't every one of you in this room, you know, if it's media or whatever, every one of you in this room, if somebody, if some much better job came came looking for you, wouldn't you at least look at it. I think people would have respected that. In fact, he did the opposite. He did the opposite. He said, I'm not going anywhere. I can't move again.

I move. I'm not going anywhere. You know, I owe it to my family and my kids to stay here because they've moved all over the place with me. Well you obviously through the finger of your family too, you know, I mean that that that and that's what's got people upset. To me, if from the time that they started winning games and his name started popping up for jobs, if he would have just gone with the look, you know what, I'm just not going to even talk about it or

deal with it. And so what if people say, oh, he's looking, so what he's looking? Who who? Who would think he didn't have the right It's part of the job, and it's part of the job. And if you do well, guess what it's gonna happen, right and and and again, you know from Stephen, we've been saying that, you know how many times that you know, Arizona is what what did Jim Moore saying, Arizona's not a destination? Well not, it's for oh bright, Arizona's

not a destination. It never will be a destination for football ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, even if j even if jed It's take a special kind of person for it to be a destination for like a Dick Tomy. And I think people really wanted Jet Jed to be the next Dick Tomy here and and you know what, you looked a history that was never

gonna happen to happen. Well, you know, I think you were in the room when Greg came into town and became the a D. And he had all these projects blah blah blah, And we asked he was the guy who was a climber. Yeah, it was very apparent. And who set all this up? Talking about another guy who took another hit in this town. That's not his fault. His coach retired and you got to do your job. He had, he had to go get the best guy that he

needed. Look, and I don't blame any of those guys. Do I blame the Washington a D for this is a non blame even with Jed. You you can't blame Jed for doing this, taking the job. It's just the way it the way it came out, the way it came about, that's what's That's what Gods people, I'm not upset that he left. I'm upset that the part of me that's upset about this is upset because of it. You know, you don't come and sell us something and then do something

else. And that's the and part of that is the window of saying that you're not This is the window of saying, yesterday you said you loved me. Well, you know it said that about you, it's about me, you know whatever? Whatever, No, I I you know, look, we can we can keep going going around in circle. I'll tell you who this is taking the pressure off of Tommy here. I will talk about that more next hour. Because the basketball team has its own issues, which and

of course for me or may not see some change. Just hey, why not stir it up a little because right now you're seeing a mediocre team. Yeah, and well, and as Tommy Light said, we're average. So this is He said this in the postgame radio at least, And we talked about this last week because I asked him about this with with with Caleb, not Caleb, but with Boswell, you know, wasn't it glad to see him come out? He says, well, listen, guys, he's only

eighteen. And then we said, I said to you the same question. I said, he's no longer eighteen. He's eighteen, but he's got forty some games behind it. There's eighteen year olds and there's forty game eighteen year olds and now he's back to and he called him out that he needs to figure out. So either he is or he's not, or he's not. And that's from the coach's mouth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

that was that. That was a frustrating game to watch. And again one of those games too where you know, pretty early on in the first before the first media time out, I thought, oh no, this is looking

like one of those games. Yeah, just the way, just the way it looked physically, the way it looks this is this is a game that they could lose, they could do so and and and they did, and they did and then the DIA Barnes didn't have a good weekend either, you know, close but close, but well that that game against Oregon State that they butchered the hell out of that. You know, if they'd gotten and

gotten split up there, that would have been incredible for them. They butchered the first We have a minute left, so we'll talk about this later on the other side. But just the state of the program now, we'll talk more about that, because it was pretty good. I had. I had some say it's in disarret, we'll go there, and I try to say it's not really, but okay, I can see why you think that means. Right, take the break and we'll come back and talk about that.

Yes, yea, So stick around, and we've got we do have Anthony Gimino, uh from Phoenix Sports coming in, uh long time beat right for football, so we'll get his take on off the jet fish stuffs. So stick around.