Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio while this is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Hey, welcome back to Win in the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Vera, and today with me as a co host is Blake Eager from the Southern Arizona.
Sports Tourism and Film Authorities. We're getting this down. I think we're gonna take it on the road after this.
Yeah, we're in some potico here and now we have one with breaking news.
This is I on the Ball, Breaking News on Fox Sports fourteen.
Fifty Happy Monday to everyone out there, Happy New Year to everyone out there. Here's truly mister goody two shoes back here on a Monday. Hopefully going to be a standard going forward on the Mondays and Wednesdays. Storry to off breaking news with something that you want to start with Steve. Rutgers star guard Kyomi mcmiller. Her transfer talk is starting to heat up after her benching previous previous
to the number four USC matchup. Yeah, Rutgers went on to lose big time and their biggest loss in program history. She posted about it right before the game and she was gonna be she was she would not be playing the game.
This is what I would like to apologize to my fans.
I will not be playing today's game versus USC, which is number four in the country. This decision was made by my head coach, Coke Eest Washington. Thank you for your continued support.
God bless So you're you're a former coach and I found this to be interesting for just this conversation.
Okay, so now you have.
Kids who are getting paid, right, they have more power than they've ever had before. Now there's a thing that they might play. Give them five years instead of four to play all five whatever, and they're getting paid more money. You're a coach. You decide not to play this person, and then they in turn do this. How would you? How would you deal with it? You know, Steve Rivera, the star player, blah blah blah, you're not playing me. Coach Eager has decided not to play with me. Blah
blah blah. Didn't explain why or whatever. Didn't explain why. I'm in trouble. But this is the world we live in. Now they have this this entitled entitlement may not be the right word, but this have this power.
Yeah, I mean the power is probably a better way of putting it right, because you're a professional athlete. At this point, they're professional athletes, they are, no question so, and they're making some are making more than their actual head coaches making at times. But you talked about it earlier, Fork in the Road, Right, you can go one way or other. So what do you there's obviously something that happened that she's not playing. Sure, whether it's clubhouse, whether
it's practice, whether it's effort, uh, whatever that is. Are you going to take and that player might decide You're you've got to make decisions. That player might decide your your season.
Right.
Sure it looked like it did, right, Yeah? Absolutely? Or I mean who's more important that one person or the fifteen people that you have on the bench. It's a tough decision to make, and at this point, I from the coach, from a coaching standpoint, you've got to sit down and you've got to be honest with that person and see the reaction is I mean, the old school mentality is either suspend them, right, but you've got to set a standard that's across the board. There's a code
of ethics that everybody has to follow. It's gonna it's a difficult decision.
Well, first of all, I'll say this as a player twenty years ago, three years ago, five years ago, you don't do that.
No, you're done.
Yeah, you're done.
So you see people leaving, like quitting on the team in games now, Yeah, I mean requesting trades meets like that was just not the life that I ever lived in.
No.
No, And and you're asking them to pay you said people to pay you to play? No, I don't think so. I mean that's kind of that's going to be the distriment to everything. You know, why would they Why would people support you at the next stop if you couldn't handle the first stop?
I mean, I think that's where people ask me that question all the time. Is that from a payment standpoint? Like I can't wrap my head around the nil like I've had I've had conversations, I've been at tables, I've been in meetings with people and I walk away and I go this, this doesn't sound legal to me.
I don't know what to say.
And it is.
It's completely legal. It's just a different world now. If we're talking about a professional athlete like that's just it, you know, I want them to make as much money as you can. Sure, it's a business, as you said, right, who's going to look for out for the athlete, the owners, looking out for the team, the brand, Like that athlete should make as much of money. I just don't know how they do it in college anymore. Like there's so much money being involved that if you make the wrong
decision with that player. Let's say she does transfer, right, she's out to send a tweet before the game is unheard of to me, But from a coaching standpoint, there has to be repercussions.
Sure.
Sure.
Apparently in some of the stories, I guess in New Jersey, they were talking about she had gotten a fight with a teammate or something, and then the coach was saying, at some point, you're there to teach, right, you're learning lessons in college. You do these for a reason. It's like being a parent. You know, you have to discipline your kids for a reason. It may hurt you now or hers more than me, you know, whatever, but that's
what you do. I mean, you have to do it or or the rest of the team season says, well, you did.
It for her.
Yeah, it's got to be across the board. Yeah right, Jay, is she freshman this year?
Yeah?
I mean that's star. There's there's as a coach, what you're looking as you're looking for seniority to take over in that clubhouse. So like you might not be the person to have that conversation the veteran that senior or fifth year senior needs to be having that conversation.
Well, were you here when we talked about McConnell and his the story about him and Johnson. I don't believe so so so mcconne, I don't know if you heard the story on the air. So McConnell's a senior Johnson Johnson, remember Johnson, tell me, Sammy Johnson comes here and he's this star guy, he'll be one and done blah blah blah. And he was acting like a one and done and my stuff doesn't stink blah blah blah. And McConnell said, this is not about you. Don't screw up my senior
year because you think you're who you are. You know that ain't gonna happen. You're gonna be part of this team and act like a teammate. And it took a guy like McConnell. Who you who I think is fantastic to say grab whether he grabbed him by whatever and said, no, I'm the I'm the senior here, I'm the boss here or whatever. Captain, I don't care how good you are, don't.
F with me.
It's gonna be an I mean, that's a clubhouse you've got to be.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And baseball it's different because those dudes are those dudes to me the worst players.
How can I say this?
Uh?
I covered triple A baseball. Baseball players are paid in the asses, but sometimes in a good way where they have that to talk to stop staron and they have that mach you know what I'm saying, machismo And and you said don't f with me or else.
I mean, there's there's all you know, like the Bob Gibson story, where man, how am I frigetting? I just had this conversation with my dad, my uncle. Uh McCarver goes out there to talk to him and and Bob Gibson says, get the f back he goes That's the only time I ever went out to talk to him again. There's got to be that mentality because it's really you
versus me situation. So, but in a in a clubhouse environment, especially with basketball, that senior has to lead the team, and that senior is not bought in the whole team's gonna go away.
Right, And a lot of teams that don't do well have issues like that.
Yeah, a thousand percent. Yeah, and it's besides, it's it's it's people. People don't know that. Yeah, this is all This team looks a little dysfunctioned. Well, I wonder what the reason is. Well, sometimes many times the story doesn't come out, and and nor should it, right, I mean, you want we wanted to sure the public wants to know. You guys want to know as journalists and broadcasters, but sure as coaches will.
Let's go back to this. You have a lot of stuff kind of okay, so catch up the reason? How much that.
Minutes?
Okay, just I can I can try to speed run through it. Go ahead, Okay, I went into some. Arizona Athletics freshman guard Lawrence Swan got her second Big Twelve Freshman of the Week award was announced about an hour ago, two hours ago, uh into And speaking of women's basketball, they had a couple of games over the break. They lost last Tuesday, New Year's Eve to Utah big time. Kind of Utah kind of controlled that from the beginning.
But then they go on the road Saturday at UCF and they win seventy five fifty three to Men's.
We've talked about it.
We didn't have a show last Tuesday, but if anyone out there doesn't know, they beat TCU ninety to eighty one at home. They go on the road to number sixteen Cincinnati and they beat Cincinnati seventy two sixty seven. And some Arizona football news, they picked up a transfer. Former cornerback Aiden Gardens from West Virginia is committed to the Wildcats to the NBA. The Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is dealing with some back issues.
He's gonna be out at least one to two weeks.
The Warriors Jonathan Kamingo will be out at least three weeks with the ankle sprain. Let's see what else. Derek Rose Jersey was retired over Saturday. They kind of it was a surprise to Derek Rose and they ended up winning. Actually, so they won on Derek Rose night. That was that was nice to see. Going into the NFL. So coaching carousel happening right now. The Bears have requested to interview Cowboys Mike McCarthy.
Cowboy fans are saying, please take him.
Probably probably some injury news.
Uh.
Packers wide receiver Christian Watson had a season ending a cl injury and they're lost to the Bears. Yesterday the Jaguars fighting there head coach Doug Peterson, but kept GM try Block after four and thirteen season. That was yeah, Rex Ryan, if he says said he if he is the next tire for the just head coaching job, it won't be the Aaron Rodgers country Club anymore.
That would be a weird hire to me, even though he coached. There's already there. I got a friend that's a Jets fan and just I this.
This tells me how dumb I am. Uh, the owner from the Jets is a you A grad.
I didn't know that either. I didn't know.
Yeah, me too. I was like, he doesn't give anything so.
Sneaky out there that you're like, I mean the guy from Netflix Suber, I mean like he's a U A gret Like there's some sneaky ones out there.
Antonio Pierce.
Uh, seems like they're there their talks in the organization are around the future of the organization. So he's doesn't look like he's going anywhere right now. I don't think he should. I don't think you should. No, I don't think he's had his team yet. He kind of inherited a team. He's done decently. He's competed in games at points. I think he's the right There's another subject. I want to talk to you about it. Okay, he's the I
think he's the right fit in Las Vegas. There were some discussions out there about Kevin O'Connell possibly leaving the Minnesota but he's made it clear that he wants to remain in Minnesota, where I have no idea.
I mean, that's a kind of a crazy one. I don't think he should be going anywhere.
Uh.
Last week in the NFL Week eight, team had some good games. The Bengals held on to beat the Steelers to keep their playoff posts alive. They needed a Miami loss as well as a Denver Bronco loss, but the Broncos did win. They beat the second string Chiefs thirty eight to nothing to go to the playoffs for the first time since twenty fifteen. There's the longest streak between
winning a Super Bowl and seeing the postseason again. And then a good one on Sunday night football between the Lions and the Vikings for a good while, and then the Lions kind of turned into the Jamir Gibbs Show.
Yeah, that was a crazy game. Vikings will put him for the first half and then still wasn't leading.
Yeah, so we're leading.
Yeah, we're gonna be going into the playoffs this week. Wild Card weekend, you got the Chargers going to the Texans on Saturday to thirty, Steelers playing the Ravens and the third time they meet this season at six pm. On Sunday, you have the Broncos going to the Bills at eleven, Packers visit the Eagles at two thirty, and the night cap will be the Commanders visiting the Buccaneers at six. Monday night four ball, Vikings visiting the Rams. Did you guys already do your picks for those games?
No?
No, you do that. We'll do this Thursday. Yeah, we'll be from the casino. And then you got some college football news.
The FCS Championship is being played to night five o'clock, North Dakota State playing the undefeated Montana State Podcast.
Yeah, those usual those usual people that played it. Yeah, are you done?
Almost?
Oregon defensive tackle and wide receiver Derek Harmon and Tess Johnson did declare for the draft today, So some high prospects out for the Ducks. Zachariah Branch and Zion Branch are transferring from uh USC to Georgia, So some ins and out with Georgia as their backup quarterback or maybe third string quarterback. And former Arizona State starting quarterback Jenna Rashata will be entering the transfer portal again.
Oh really yes, wow, he was like the thirteen million dollar guy.
It doesn't say why. I'm sure he's just looking for a fresh start. I believe the backup. How many fresh starts can you get nowadays? Yeah, you have a fresh start every day. Yeah. Former Boise State quarterback and former USC quarterback Malachai Nelson is committed to UTIP. The former number one overall recruit in the class of twenty twenty three really going to youtip? He chose El Paso. Yeah, you tip A little bit of surprised to me.
How the fallen? How do you fall? Not that it's a bad place.
Yeah, but you know, wait, you're telling me that l Pass was on part with l A. Is that what the argument that? Well, listen, I mean potatoes.
I'm not going to knock out Pass. I'm sorry.
Uh.
And then quarterback recruit Jeron can We it was difficult last name to say.
He's going back to Cal.
He committed to Cal and initially went to Oregon, and now he's back with.
The Golden Beers. Okay, so that's probably it right there.
Yeah, okay, so we won't talk about this, but I'll ask you on the other side of the next guest, and it's going to be about Antonio Pierce one and two the UA football team in a weird way because of your experience of having been a coach, having seen dugouts and and clubhouses and things like that, and the importance of chemistry and wanting to play for a guy that they don't like or whatever.
Because it exists. I know it exists. I've seen it not exist or exists. You know what I'm saying.
Either you play harder, you don't play hard, So there's always there's always border the story.
Yeah, and you were probably of that, so you really I did. I did have one more thing that I did miss. Obviously.
College football playoffs happened over the break. I had a four games. Penn State did be Boys to stay in the Fiesta Bowl, Ohio State routed Oregon from the very jump in the Rose Bowl, and Texas want a bar and burner in Atlanta against Arizona State. And then one that was supposed to be played New Year's Day but was rescheduled due the tragic events in New Orleans.
Notre Dame beat Georgio in New Orleans.
Yeah, that was the big one.
That was a big, strange one. Do you where we gotta go?
Yeah?
Yeah, So we'll go talk to Memodinal talk about recruiting you a football and basketball and then come back and talk more about the other stuff on the other side.
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Breaking down all the uses and os, This is I on the ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
They that cos, hey, welcome back. That's why I in the ball U Fox fourteen fifty. I'm Siavera in with me. Today's we'll see this multitasking thing for you is becoming right. Let's let's let's let's do that one thing at a time. You have list is Steve, and thank you for having me.
Yes, of course you cut on pretty quickly and noticing that.
Straight for my wife thinks I have a T A A D T A D A d h D because I always have to be doing like seven different things right.
Well, I don't know why people don't because you see, especially people who white sports. Now you have all the scores, you know the ticker, and you know, you know phone calls and your text team blah blah blah.
I'll call us. I'm just we're waiting for met but call us, call us.
Okay, yeah, we can talk more about the transfer portal. Have you been you following yea in all the lists because they just had an updated list, you guys may have, I mean.
The latest update was the cornerback from West Virginia. I haven't seen the rankings yet.
I don't.
I didn't have the time to look at Twitter yet today or yeah, but as of right now, everything we've gotten, everything they have gotten from the train for portal is looking good on paper.
Sure, sure, here we go.
Do you get an offensive lemon from Georgia Tech?
Right?
I believe so?
And they got one from Michigan too, But.
Yeah, the guy who know is Matt Bno, he's on the phone, and Matt, how are you good?
Thanks?
Thanks for taking some time. We're gonna talk a lot about football, some about basketball.
So what do you think?
Uh? Is Arizona done with the transfer portal? What do you think?
You know the answer to that, Steve?
You know they're never done.
You know, you don't know. The team has never done. The transport will never close. There's never any dead period. It's all ongoing at all times. It's tiring, but it's right. No, they're not done. Okay, okay, so long ago.
Okay, so and in this time now, how would you assess what's going on?
I think they've done pretty good. I mean it's really difficult to judge. I mean, it's just it's just how this process all works. And every program right now probably feels like they have a a good idea good handle of what they want and what they've added, and feel pretty good about the pieces they have in place. And I think it looks pretty good on paper, But for every program, you just don't know until you get those
guys out there. I mean, we could have said the same thing last year that Arizona had a really strong offseason and added some really quality pieces, and it just didn't turn out that way. And so because this whole process is really counterintuitive and counter to kind of what we've known for many, many years. On the recruiting side,
it's just too hard. It's just too difficult to tell and figure out exactly what it's going to look like, because sometimes you're taking some chances on some guys, some guys are moving up to the level, and you don't know if that production is going to carry over. But I think on paper it looks really good. I think they've done a really good job. I think they've adjusted our you know, attacks, kind of what they need to and really added some pieces to to fill some holes
that they've had and address the needs. And I think that's been a big part of what they wanted to do. I think often and so bline wise, I'd probably say there's some improvements that we may I would still like to see them get another really talented offensive lineman has proven and has done some really good things, but those are difficult to find and every program wants those right now, and so I think if you take that into account,
they've done some really good things. And one thing I will always rely on and something that I will always say, if you're going to air on one side over the other, I would very much air on the side of when you're talking about portal players, even high school guys, but portal players in particular, I would air on the side of production over potential, because at this point, you know, unless you're a first year guy, unless you're a freshman who just went in and just can get your shot
this season, most of these guys kind of are who they are, and yes, a coaching staff feels like, yeah, I can change that guy, and I can be the one to develop him and take them to the next level, maybe realize some of that potential that everybody else saw. But right now, if you're taking players, I would lean towards taking players who have produced, and Arizona has a lot of those guys. And yes, they're going to be taking a step up in competition in a lot of cases.
But man, a lot of these guys have really produced at their previous schools, and I think that they've hit a couple of home runs with with some of these guys that they've added from some of these smaller programs.
Do you have the question about the Georgia Tech guy, Yeah, hey man, it's a blake eeger. Did did they pick up that offensive lineman from Georgia Tech as well?
Yeah, Jordan Brown early on in the process. And so they've got it. A couple of guy who start, Yeah, they've got it. They've added a couple of guys who started, and that's that's definitely something to be aware of. But if you're losing a starter from a place like Georgia Tech, and you know, you're like, okay, what's the what's the question there? And the question is they're bringing in some guys and he probably wasn't gonna have to spot or he's gonna have to really battle.
For his spot.
And so someone like that I think has a lot of upside and there, and you've seen the production he started. That's a big deal. That's important Arezona needs those guys, and he's not probably one of the guys that I'm saying like, oh, maybe they have they took a chance on him. I think that's a that's a very solid pickup because you're picking up somebody who started at the power floor level in acs in school. Georgia Tech had
prett good offensive line this year. So that's I don't think that's a reach by any means, am My soul. He's going to be you know, someone like Wendell Wendell Molly. Probably not, you know, that's that's a high level. But if you can add a few of those guys that have started and have you know, played some games and done some good things at other power forward schools, like
that's not a bad addition at all. Again, I would like to see them kind of add somebody that you know is going to be a true like this guy is gonna you know what you're gonna get from every game. And so that's kind of the dance, the song and
dance that these coaches stuff have to do. And you're battling and you're bagging on the programs, you're battling, and I always kind of part of this whole process as well, but you're trying to build relationships in a matter of days and so it's really difficult to get it right. But yeah, I think that you know, Jordan Brown is a is a solid pickup. I don't don't mean to
kind of demean that anyway. I mean, you're obviously picking up someone who started, but I still would like to figure out exactly kind of what he brings to the table overall. And that's not something you're gonna see until he gets out there on the field. But I would count it as part of that group of solid pick ups for Arizona this offseason.
Who maybe could you give me maybe one or two the best gets by them?
And it's gonna be interesting because I think people are like their name, the names of their schools don't mean much to me, you know, as an Arizona family going uh And I've thought I've seen that like on social media when they picked up to these guys, they're like, oh, well he's coming from ex school that I kind of don't really pay attention to. But the running back Ismael Madi from Texas State produced every year was all American a couple of years ago, just a very very talented piece.
I thought running back was one of those positions where Arizona really needed to address in a big way this offseason. They lost some guys you know, to both whatever the portal and you know, just losing their eligibility being done with you know, college, and so they needed to address that. And I think someone like that is exactly the type of player you're looking for if you're at the level
of Arizona. You know, not everybody can be Oregon and Ohio State and some of these programs Tennessee and some of these other schools that have kind of unlimited nil pockets, you know, where they're competing for whoever they want. You have to be a little bit creative. You have to find some guys that uh maybe fell through the cracks of some other programs with something like that. I mean, Arizona's compete with Arkansas for is Melmody and you know that's an SEC program and so I think that was
a very very strong pickup by the staff. If there's you know, a coach on the staff that I think you can bet will go toe to toe with any other program in the country and go head to head with any other coach in the country from recruits perspective as Alonzo Carter and so obviously that's his posion that he's recruiting, and you know, that's a that's a very
quality pickup. And I think somebody again looking at production, that to me is like you can you can usually count on that, and based on just his numbers and they fell off a little bit this year, but based on his career numbers, you look at the player like him and he goes, he's gonna be able to do something for this team. And so I think that was
a very very good pickup. Blake Gotcher from Northwestern State, I mean, was you know, one of the finals for you know, basically the SCS Heisman and you know, Defensive Player of the Year and really just put up some crazy, insane, gaudy numbers. They had over one hundred and sixty tackle this year, and again just peer production, you look at that and you go, that's somebody that can play, you know,
at the powerful level, can really do some things. I think in this scheme and kind of base on what we've heard what they're going to be looking like this year, I think he's going to be somebody who benefits from that. And you know, you can throw them in that middle of that defense, and he's going to be a very very productive player. I really like what he brings to the table. I think it's it's really impressive. And I think, again, just going back to the point I've been making a lot,
it's just the production. You look at that and you don't anticipate somebody going from one hundred and sixty tackles to like forty tackles, Like it's just just doesn't happen. And so he's probably going to be very highly productive, you know what Arizona, And so I think got somebody
to get excited about. And then Chris Hutson, maybe on a different note, you know somebody who was at Washington State, you knows that organ before and you know, highly tied recruit, somebody that everybody knew coming out of high school, had to maybe take a little bit of a different path, but feels like a really nice fit for this offense.
And you know, has one year at receiver, is gonna be able to kind of go out and show what he can, to prove what he can to NFL scouts, and you know that's obviously he's coming in with that goal like hey, I want to be featured in this offense and have an opportunity to show the next level what I can do. And kind of on that similar note, maybe my most my favorite guy in this class was the first one to commit from the tranch support of Luke Wisong for New Mexico. I'm sure it's been said.
I know a lot of people are kind of having the same conversation, but he just feels like a perfect fit for what they're going to want to do offensively, you know, under the offensive coordinator. And I think it just it's kind of a perfect marriage of a player who produced that at a lower level, I guess you could say, but produce at a different school, and combining that with the system that I think is going to
fit him very very well. I would be surprised if he doesn't put up big numbers at Arizona this upcoming season.
Okay, did we this is a sorry, a dumb naive question for me. Did we ever figure out what's gonna come of the kid who came from New Mexico but only play a game or two?
Is he done?
Yeah? Point, I think it's just it's such it's such a it's such a confusing situation, and there are so many different elements to it, so many different things that kind of kept changing that I think it's at this point, you know, he declared for the draft. At this point,
I wouldn't anticipate him coming back. I know, there's you know, things continue to change these I mean, junior college players are now getting an extra year and that wasn't known you know, a few weeks ago, and so or a month ago, and so a lot of things change, and so you can never say never, I guess, but I think at this point, the anticipation is that he won't be you know, he won't be playing at Arizona, and maybe he finds another way to get eligible at another program.
But I was really unfortunate because you know, when when he was able to play for that brief moment, he was really good. He was really good, and so I think Arizona kind of showed why they paid so much attention to why they actively tried to figure that out, that situation out and see if they could get him eligible. But at this point, I just I wouldn't bank on him coming back. But it's it's unfortunate because he was a very very good player.
I think, Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to talk about it.
Can we just talked about one thing I want to ask for? Sorry? Man?
So, I mean as a casual you have a football fan at best. My question is in this situation, how long do you get as a coach to establish culture and when you have to every single year recruit your own players and then recruit and then worry about trying to get guys out of the portal?
Like how long?
What is that? What does that time span? Do you think? Nowadays?
Yeah, it's honestly, it's kind of changing as as we speak, I think, and it all depends on on the administration and the support and obviously you know, the boosters at this point because NIL is such a big part of this.
And obviously we're changing now this next you know, academic year into a different type of format where there's almost kind of a salary cap situation and play and so to speak, and so that is different too, And so there's so much change that it's really hard to kind of pinpoint any one time frame to be like, oh, yes, if a coach doesn't figure it out in this amount of time, you know he needs to go. But I used to be someone that was like, you have to
give him four years. You have to give them a chance to go through, you know, four recruiting cycles, to really build a roster, really have an entire team that is their guys, to kind of determine if they're going to be good, if they're going to be the right man for the job. And I just don't think that's the case anymore. I think, you know, teams have shown that they can go from really bad to really good in this course of an off season, and so I think that's sped up. I still think you have to
give a coach at least a couple of years. I'd probably Eric towards you know, three years. If you don't know by three, like year three, you know, that's that's the problem. And so that's probably the new timeline as opposed to, you know, kind of four years and going through an entire cycle, because you can go through this process so quickly and you can really change, you know,
in the course of an offseason. Arizona could look a lot better, you know, this upcoming fall or next fall, I guess, and and you know, just because of what they did through the portal and what they did through recruiting and you know, more important to the portal because those guys are all going to come in and the
expectations are all going to play. And so I think the timeline has definitely sped up, and programs are probably going to be less patient about, you know, turning around a program, especially a place like Arizona, where you had a ten win season, you know, in twenty twenty three
and you had high expectations. Yes, you know, your head coach left, but you still had a lot of the pieces that were part of that team in play and in place, and so I think you have some different expectations, you know, if you're out of place like Arizona, if you're an Arizona family, you go, hey, we know what,
how how can kind of come together? And now you have this whole idea of the portal and and how how much a roster can change over the course of weeks and you know, as opposed to years, and I think you have to maybe look at it a little
bit differently. But I still think you have to give a coach a couple a couple of recruiting cycles at the very least, but probably like three years if you don't know in three years, it's probably an issue and you should kind of want to know in that time frame to decide what you're going to do.
So, I mean, I'm going to ask a you know, a difficult question from our standpoint as a fan, the expectation, what is our expectation as because you brought up expectation a couple of times? What's our expectation from a fans standpoint for you of a football Should we be an annual bowl team, an annual top twenty five or should what? What where should our expectations be with a program moving forward? How lou wait, wait, wait before you answer that, is that too our No? No, no, no, We'll have been
your expectations for the last forty years. Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm a Tony guy. I mean I was very fortunate enough to not Tony later on in life as well. So like our my expectation is always going to be that where we're a top twenty five team one out of every three years, and where we're we're competing for a.
Bowl every year.
I think, Okay, is that is that a wrong viewpoint or is that just me say I was.
Probably gonna go even part of that going like there's no reason to be there is, and it can't be you know, a top thirty five team every year. I mean, it feels like they have all the pieces in place.
I think there's enough in terms of nil and you know, appeal for the program that that you know, you can build, you know, a top thirty five program and if you I've always kind of talked about that with them in terms of the recruiting rankings and you can kind of carry that over into you know, the current world and you know what we're.
Living in now.
But if you can have a program that's you know, finishing top thirty five, even if you're number thirty five every year in the recruiting rankings, you're going to be in position to regularly win ten games and compete for conference titles. And that's kind of where most programs want to live. You know. Again, not everybody is able to compete for a college football payoff, and you hope that you can make you know, a run like that every ten years or so or whatever it is. That's kind
of the reality. I know that's not what fans want to hear, but that's kind of the reality is you'd hope, you know, once every ten years you can kind of make a deep, deep run. But I don't think there's anything holding back Arizona from being kind of a top thirty five, maybe top forty team. But I really think top thirty five is realistic for you know, what they have on board, the support they have, where they're located, the conference, all those things. I think you can take
that into account. I don't think there's any reason to believe that they can't be that now. Achieving that as a different story. And that's what I think Seas alluding to a little bit is that, you know, there's been a lot of programs, there are a lot of teams that have come to the program that you go there, they are you know, they have high expectations. You're expecting to be, you know, a top team, you know, year
and a year out, and it just doesn't happen. And so you know, I've realizing that versus kind of what they could be are two different things. But I don't think there's anything holding them back from being a program that competes to be in the top twenty five every year. It's just a matter of kind of making that happen and figuring out all the right pieces to make that happen.
Well, wait, okay, we got to go on that. You said top twenty five, right, top twenty five five, and you said thirty five a couple of.
Time, thirty five, Yeah, thirty five. Okay, so yeah, thirty five. But when you're thirty five, it's like finished second in a poker game.
You lost.
Hey, thirty five is better than seventy.
See, yeah, you're absolutely right on that. Well, you're not a seventy.
You should never be a seventy program, even though though maybe this year you were. Do you know what I'm saying? There was one I guess, could I guess? I guess maybe I'm being too tough as always?
All right, thank you, Matt, Yeah, absolutely, thank thanks.
Thanks.
Let's take a break and come back and talk more. I want something that we want to I wanted to talk about with you, former coach, and kind of those things behind the scenes that happened with you, probably about what could be going on with other things.
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Steve Rivera, he's got his eye on the ball on Tucson Sports station Fox Sports Sports em Biddy, Hey.
Welcome back to one of the ball hero Fox Sports Fortune Tiffy. I'm Steve Rivera.
You're blaky. You're from the Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority and we have one work on the board here mises, thank you, mister good shoes.
I like that.
Yes, yes, Oh I tell my my Hispanic friends that with their moms are love.
Is free.
See yeah. Okay, Hey, hey, so, so I want to talk about Peerce you a former coach.
How long did you coach up until it's like two years ago?
Okay, so a while. You have some experience and you played, so you know both heads. So you're talking about Peers coming back or whatever. I'm a firm believer, firm believer. And I'm sure there's an exception or two that I may or may not know that once you hire the assist once you hire the substitute teacher, things change. It's
very difficult to win for the substitute teacher. And in the case of Peers, whether he's a good coach or not, I do not know, but it's hard to hire the assistant who kind of interim guy comes in and then does even though you played really well at the end of the season, we've got to give it the job because you're playing. It doesn't work. It just doesn't work. I don't know how you feel about that. You've probably seen it work or not, but in my mind, I've rarely seen it work.
Yeah, I mean, well, there's a couple of different circumstances you can point to that it's really successful. You're looking at Murphy with the Milwaukee Burgers taking over for counsel and assistant coach role and they, I mean, the Brewers went to the playoffs last year, so that's successful. I think you have to give uh. I think you have to give pairs of the opportunity. After the end of the season last year with Las Vegas because he did
so well. But the dynamic, though, with me, it's to me, it's an assistant, it's a substitute teacher.
Coming in, and the respect is different. It's different as a substitute that you come into the seat now and you think you're not the assistant anymore.
You know what I'm saying. The dynamic changes.
Yeah, I can understand that.
I think it. I think the bigger question to me is like, and that's why I was asking Matt earlier, is that, what's the change of your culture compared to the head coach And how much did that head coach control everything where it wouldn't give you a voice.
Maybe that's a.
Little bit difficult, but uh, yeah, the substitute teacher. I don't know if I wouldn't make that jump, but I can understand where that jump comes from.
Yeah, and you've seen it. I've seen it in your day to day back in the day.
We've never got we've never had a coach fired or let go like mid season and had somebody brought in. I seen it just from a playing standpoint. We might have had it once. But it's yeah, it's difficult because now you know it also depends on how that clubhouse is going. Right, So if you have you have a
distracted clubhouse, that head coach has to go. You've you've lost the clubhouse, like you're not going to get that back, and then you've lost the vets, right, who are leading the internal So maybe those vets are going to the assistant coach saying like, hey, or the GM whoever may be, like, we would play for that guy. We would, and maybe that's what they did in Vegas. That's my understanding, is that's what they did in Vegas, right the first time? Yeah,
last year? Yeah, I mean, that guy's been through it, he knows how to do it. We want to play for him and listen to him. But then once you actually get that position right, you're not That's another thing about that guy. You don't know you're not that guy anymore. So you're not the guy that's in the clubhouse having those conversations. You're the manager. You've got to oversee all
these aspects. It's a different role. So if you don't have that second command now to take over for you, you're you're moving in a different direction.
Your role is different.
Before you might have been the guy who you know, Hey, everything's gonna be like you put your armor around his shoulders and everything's gonna be okay, you know, blah blah blah.
The head guy is whoever it is.
And then now a few months later, you're that guy who you're no longer put in the arm around and you can't, right, you can't. There's not a good cop, bad cop, but it's kind of a good cup back cop.
I mean, look at what's happening in Miami, right, I mean that I think that's a good cop, good cop that's not working out currently. And obviously you can point to the injuries, right, I mean two is not gonna play. Yeah, I mean, but that I mean it's just that system right now is a little bit broken, and it's good cop, good cop. There's no bad cop there, right, So it's
it's how people can step into that role. Pete Carroll's a I think a really good example of playing good cop like that guy was you know, the let's go surfing after the game and let's hang out, and it worked for the culture that he had.
But you know, it's just different.
You're talking about you a c or Seattle are both both until until what until it didn't well, I mean, there were some mistakes made there and that you can definitely point to, like you're not giving Marsharn Lench the ball.
I mean, that's that's going to divide the clubhouse exactly. Well, this isn't the guy I thought he was. Yeah whatever, Yeah, yeah, okay, So no, let's kind of apply that to football.
You you watch it. You watch more basketball than you do football.
Right, So, I mean, wait, we're talking college basketball coach, I mean talking about you.
So, so everyone who listens to the show knows that I've always said from the first three weeks there was some disconnect between the players and the coach, that the guys that he had inherited or whomever just didn't play hard for him or whatever. I don't know what the disconnect was, just my philosophy or more observation. It happens correct where you have a new coach coming in and the players who aren't his players kind of the saale, you know.
I don't know, Yeah, I mean, especially now, right, it's a it's a question of how much effort am I going to give. I don't trust this guy, he doesn't trust me. We haven't had good interactions.
I don't know. What a system for all those reasons.
Yes, you're you have all these questions that you're trying, like this guy didn't College is a weird world. This guy didn't recruit me. I don't know, even with all this stuff, yeah, even without without this. So, I mean one of the best advices that the best advice I ever got was that you're not always playing for the team you're with. You're playing for the other twenty nine teams. Right in college football, you're playing for I don't know, one hundred other teams potentially for an IL. So it
shouldn't be that circumstance. You should be out there performing. But that clubhouse culture aspect, no question. I mean, why are those guys why do they give it? You know, why do they care? If they're they're going to leave the next year anyway, So he's not gonna sit me. I'm a star player. What's the point of me buying into the system?
Those are?
That's that can be the mentality? Yeah, your thoughts, I mean, I think you shaid everything on point. It's very hard to get players to buy in nowadays because of the money, because there's so many options out there. Maybe I don't want to say experienced it, but I did get a really short chance at being a coach in high school as a as a manager my old high school or the high school coach kind of gave up on this season. He said, you know what, you run this next practice.
I said, okay, Well, we ended up winning the next game. But this typically happens.
Yeah, And.
Even even just that moment, I could see some of the some of the freshmen, they're they're there to get the the pe credit, you know, and it's pretty obvious. So it's hard to get them to go through a whole season like, hey, there's still people here trying to win, trying to get better, even though you're just here to be here.
Right. It's funny.
I saw something yesterday. I think it was a Calipari thing with Arkansas. I've never thought of him as a good coach. He gets great players and he kind of lets him play blah blah blah. But now in this age of pay, if you're getting paid blake, what's he instead of the play hard, you're getting paid.
I think the programs at that level your incentives to play at the next level.
Right, So yeah, sometimes you're getting paid more here than you're going to be paid.
I mean, you're you heard, I mean Rob Gronkowski talk about rookies getting you know, less money than high school I mean college juniors and seniors or even you know, freshman at this point. Uh, that incent you listen, it's it's a burning desire inside that athlete. And I think as a coach, you recruit that along with the money. And you're you're right, go ahead, No, no, no, you're you're exactly thinking what I'm thinking. So from a Calipari standpoint,
I would agree with you. I've never thought he was the greatest coach. I think he's the best recruiter arguably ever in college basketball. But you have to have this mix now where you have you have high paid players, and you have to have the other players buy into the system when those players are making more money.
Than you want.
So to my point of did you listen to the or have you listen to the Lopez stuff and the the the one, twos, threes and fours? Oh?
Yeah, of course, And that's what you're talking about ones?
Yeah, yea.
Once you recruit the ones, yeah, uh, and you you hope you get a bunch of threes. You don't want the.
Two because the twos are going to cause problems because they're not a one and they think they are.
Yeah, so you did listen, you did, I know?
And what should be?
That's fantastically brilliant because the two's are I think they're they're the wide receivers.
Throw the ball.
Throw the ball because you getting the ball to me.
Yeah, yeah, well we were, you know, we were talking about earlier and I want to bring it up at the coaching carousel right now. It's it's mind blowing to me, like I related to the Premier League. I don't know if you guys watched soccer at all, but it's it's the same thing, NFL, same thing, right, So, but it's you're rebranding the same product. Like why for my question, why would you want to interview Mike McCarthy, Like you you know his brand, His brand has not changed, So
why are you why are you going back? And just it's just the same thing. You know what he's going to provide, know what he's going to provide you. Yeah, well it's it's incestuous at that, Yeah, which makes no sense. All you have the experience and all that. Okay, but here's the resume. What impresses you about the resume. Yeah,
I know that's a good point. I mean you look at guys like Dan Campbell now where I mean, even if you're just a casual football fan like it's I mean, thankfully i'm not, But I mean watching guys like that coach like I'm inspired, Like I would go right now, I would go get my hip blown out for that guy. And it would take one hit by you know, the punter could run into me and I'm breaking hips out there.
Well, here you go, because because now he set the standard of what you're looking for in a coach. Yeah, right, Not everybody's like that, No, and there are a few. And now you know I'm older. Now you're still young, dude. But now the trend is going young and going to people who can relate to as they say, you know, learnegus of the college world and the benets don't want any part of it. But you know, going younger seems to be the thing because they know how to handle the kids today.
Okay, let's see how that works. Sometimes it doesn't, No, it doesn't. And I mean the mind blowing thing to me. You look at like the Steelers, right, They've had three head coaches since nineteen sixty nine. Like, that's crazy. You're not going to see that ever again? Right, what's the standard?
Now?
What's the expectations? And that's why I was asking man for a guy like b at u of A, like, what's expectation? There is your expectation to be a top forty team every year. And if you meet that standard, is that it?
Well?
You Pittsburgh's a perfect example. Yeah, they're they're they're mediocre to good, yeah, media to good. And there have always been that since the good old days when they were really good, obviously very good.
Yeah.
Now now is the standard going ten and eight and making the playoffs and then losing?
Yeah, I don't know. I mean you're getting into the playoffs.
I guess anything can happen.
That's why I was saying earlier, like the biggest surprise to me this season is Cincinnati because I think they're arguably in the top five teams right now in the NFL. Well they were major yeah defensively right, yeah, I mean you started off the season one to five, yeah, and then when the last five yeah, whatever, okay, we got to go all right, that was quick.
Thanks for coming in.
Is that in?
Yeah?
We talked about a little bit of the WBC before we hang up. Oh yeah, sure, sorry, I just I mean, unless you want to have me back. Yeah, yeah, but you're coming back a few times. Yeah, so I mean, I listen. We're really fortunate we went down the way with spring training in professional baseball for long, but to have Major League Baseball players playing meaningful games in March in Tucson, that hasn't happened since two thousand and nine. And I'm just saying this. It's an experience that I
think everybody should experience. But it also sets us up along with things like the Mexican Baseball Festa, to bring professional baseball back and keep at the standard, and something that I'll hopefully be able to tell you about sooner rather than later. Yeah, for twenty twenty, so you'll come back a few times before the March deadline. So yeah, hopefully a great thanks there we go one. Thank you, Steve, Thank you.
Yes,