This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure your most prized possessions.
Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, and today with me is Troy hutches Sen. That's the controls and we'll blame it all on you, Kobe. Anything bad happens. Hello, everybody, welcome to Thursday show. Should have a pretty good one. Uh we have who do we have? How do you say?
His last nay seth dage, daggie dagdag not doggy daig good to know daigi dak sign and oh sign and everything except the G you okay? Cool.
That'll be at the three seventeen hour. He'll call us, talk a lot about twit's going on, and his thoughts on the Arizona offense.
Probably the biggest thing we'll need to know, right Yeah, I mean last year the defense wasn't bad until it got banned up and the offense well reminded me back in Mike Tubes first a couple of seasons where they could do anything offense. Oh, I thought you's going to go back to the Toby Arras. I think homes was a little bit better than last year. Wow. Wow, Okay, so we'll do that.
And then at the four forty hour there was a not a misprint, just bad information on the on the site Today four forty we're going to have the world's best men's pick a ball player and I found him. There's a big, big, a national tournament going on at the Tuo Cell Racket Club and Fitness Place country Club, and so he's going to be the guest at the Ben Jhons is his name. He's going to be the guy and we're going to talk about all his career. He's I guess he's about twenty five, less than thirty.
Everybody was out there was fantastic, perfect weather. Matt, have you been there? No, I've been there for playing racketball, but I haven't.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's great, it's great. I was like, it's not your grandfather's place anymore. No, it's nice. It's nice now. Not that it was nice before, but it's nice now. So we'll talk about that on the four o'clock for forty hour. Hear from him. He's in town.
A bunch of professionals, pickleball players, and it's not like what you know or think. It's pretty intense, you know, pro players, pron players, stuff like that. Okay, welcome everybody. What's going on, Troy in the world of oops and everything? All right, they won the other night. Everyone's happy. Yeah, I think everybody's pleasantly surprised. I think if you talked to a lot of U of A fans, that was the game they thought they're probably gonna lose this game,
maybe come home and beat Texas tack. But it seemed like that BYU game was the I don't want to say trap game, but a game where a lot of things could have gone wrong and they didn't. No, no, no, no.
I think, and I've said this yesterday most today in talking to people, I thought that was probably the best game of the year, not maybe start to finish, but impressive, I should say, because BYU at home is tough. Arizona had kind of struggled a little on the road circumstances, right, They'd been playing well and they want it kind of going away.
Yeah, and you know, I think it was their first taste of a big twelve road environment where you're not going to get a lot of the Arizonta okay, where you're not going to get a lot of U of A fans. I know there was some U of a chance in there near the end of the game and their small little section, but it's not like the Pack twelve days, where you know you'd have a huge section of the U of Avans. Yes, no, no, no, you're right.
It's nothing like the Pac twelve by have Pack ten when I covered it Pack twelve. No, these places are tough to play.
And you're gonna get that. I always stay Kansas State.
Just crazy, just crazy, and then you're gonna have to play out of your mind and Aarazona did collectively, not so much individually, colllectively.
Well, and then that second half by Jaye and Bradley's seventeen points, Yeah in the second half. I didn't realize he had that many. At the end of the game. Yeah, he was attacking.
He's the Bradley that you and I have seen last couple of years, attacking, getting in, getting the lane, going downhill, doing a lot of things. I think he needs to do that more efficiently. And if he gets scores twelve fourteen with a you know, seven assists, a couple of turnovers, whatever, this team will be good. You know, there's there's a lot of things need to be peppered in, and that
was the peppered in game. Yeah, because Visar played crazy great. Uh, Caleb played okay, you know, better than usual, better than usual in terms of if you want to have a down game, that was a down game, and you're right right, six for sixteen yeah yeah, percentage wise and everybody else whuaka again solid solid Yeah, and that's all you need for him, right, You don't need solid.
If you get solid, you get solid. Townsend is kind of like still kind of wishy washy, but everybody else is okay, all right, so we'll see.
I would you would you agree with this statement because more people are saying this to me. If Arizona plays like this, they're going to be tough to beat. Could get to the Final four. I think, could get to an Elite eight final four. Caleb Love has got to play out of his right. I totally agree, And I just don't trust the juckle and hide of Caleb Love as you should.
Right, no, no it.
They'll go as far as he goes. And if he gets hot catches hot, they could be a Final four team.
I'll say this, they haven't had in terms of complete from front court to backcourt in a long time. I think this is the most complete team where you can get something offensively, something defensively front and back court since maybe the Selene Sido minor team where you have Shannon Fry up front, Selim scoring in the back. They do stuff defensively, Hassan Adams in the back court, Chris Rodgers
in the back. Well, tell me that. Tell me that breakdown again in terms of complete team front and back court offensively and defensively.
So you're not talking about t J and uh No, because.
I think the front court wasn't that great offensively towards Uski was in very good offensive Okay, what about their force Gordon Gorton very very good when needed to be Gordon, and then Nashty when he was Okay, Yeah, I think that's a better team. I'm just saying complete in the sense of it that you can get stuff on both sides of the ball offensively and defensively where you don't have an offensive liability out.
Well, that's that's the case, and they play really well. That could be a Final four team. The thing about it is.
Everyone knows what they Everyone knows what they drive, right, they drive this nice car or not so nice car.
They don't watch what the neighbors drive. And that's who you're competing against. Yeah, and then they say, oh, my car is the best album. I get to date the best looking girl in the world. How far have you left the world? Have you ever left Tucson? Have you ever left Arizona? Have you ever gone to the south from You're right right?
Yeah, yeah, don't tell me that unless you've left the you know the five oho two?
Yeah, because but you hear that, right? Hell, who knew about Florida International two three years ago?
Right? And they never seen him before? Who's this team they get to the final four? Who are they? Well, we don't know. I think one good thing, well, one good thing and one bad thing. Really, there's no dominant team in college basketball. Maybe Robert maybe I was thinking of that yesterday. Maybe maybe that, Yeah, but not even you can't.
Even wish to watch it with that. But maybe Auburn only because they've sustained it this far.
But it's not like this team. It's just a juggernaut that you're like, you can't beat this thing. No, no, you're twenty one and O thy eight and ol whatever, we'll see.
And that's a good part because if they catch hot, you know, everyone you want to say, well, ninety seven they finished, blah blah blah.
Uh, it's catching hot. And then but no one talks about ninety eight. Well, and my favorite part about ninety seven. Are they the four or five? What was the four? Are they a four seat? Are selling Miles Simons doesn't get suspended? Uh? Depends? Are they higher?
Depends? Are three or four group? That's a good question. However, I think they needed Miles to be suspended. Uh in a sense that Uh, Dickerson.
Emerged, everybody else had everybody e Dickerson emerged as an upcoming star, Biby did what he did, and everybody else had to increase their games, and then Miles just filled in and then then kind of took over, which you know, but then again, you know, all this is running hot at the right time, and they ran hot at the
right time. They finished losing the last two games of the regular season, barely won the first round, and got lucky in a couple of the other games, and one the title surviving Evans's that's basically what it is.
Yeah, and if you're hot, you're hot. Uh, And everyone's gonna talk a momentum. Every game is a season.
Every game is different than the previous game because everybody else is in the same momentum. Is it whose momentum is better or just whose teams better that day? And who's what are the matchups? Yeah, that's huge too. That's huge two because they could be a good defensive team. And what is Arizona's was Arizona's kryptonite? I half court, half court? If you can light it up from the
three point, slow it down. And you mean to tell me there's not teams up ahead, whether regular season or tournament, they're not going to be there. A team like that could not only slow down, but if Arizona gets out in transition, they're comfortable, they're like, yeah, okay, we can do that. That's why, b what you was kind of was a false favorite. And now that I look back at it, you know, hell, I'm a seismologist. I can
tell people what happens after the earthquake. Everybody's like that way, but it was buy you love to play fast, and that was what I was saying. Come on, baby, just do it and slowing it down. There was a lot of io for them. Yeah, and eventually yeah, and this goes into another discussion, but eventually kJ Lewis went on their best offensive player at the time and that's the game. Yeah, game over right, and that's all you can do. Right, So we'll see. You know, we got nine more games, right,
I think in the Big twelve. So if they go five and four, that's gonna be a victory, I think, because you know, Kansas would be tough last game of the regular season.
Iowa was State gonna be very tough. Be what Baylor is gonna be tough over there? Maybe sprinkling a game or two. Houston at home, Houston at home. Yeah, although I think they could win that game. I'm trying to get ahold of a. I'm trying to get Kelvin as Sampson on the show next week, trying to get get them from my relationship with them in the Pac twelve. So I'm hoping we're still working on that. Okay, again, who are we gonna have at the first.
Hour and to have seth dagi dag got to correct myself there.
When I introduced yeah, will be fun, will be fun? Because he's been on every other show. I think he's probably sick. What do you want me to talk about now? Oh, we just go rehash a lot of stuff.
He came from Marshall, right, came one year at Marshall's offense coordinator. Did you have did you do anything with him when he first was announced?
Uh?
No, I actually got to talk to him yesterday. We all after Brennan, they had all this assistant coaches there after Brennan was done. He told uh Arizona, hey, let let the media talk to everybody real quick and we'll get that together. And uh so we got to talk to him the assistant coach and nobody came over. So it's just set day and I for a great How was it very good?
Pretty good?
Okay, So you'll you'll ask some questions, some good questions. I'm sure I'll ask whatever I want to ask. Ka, I don't even know what I want to ask right now. Okay, what time do we have. I'm going to get out of here in about a minute or so, so he'll call exactly about three seventeen. We'll go down three thirteen. Okay, so we'll call and again the pick aball player that was just random. I just thought it would be And
I said, Tommy, where are you? This is tom Tommy would be in heaven at the pick Aball tournament.
Hey, maybe maybe he can challenge Tommy Boy. Yeah.
Yeah, I got there and I watched these people my age, A lot of them my age, a lot of them younger. They have the world's best eighteen year old there too. She's a fantastic and you know what started hurting right away, my achelles heel. I'll think if I got in the cord now, I'd bust that baby in by two minutes.
You gotta be in shape. Everyone thinks it's that. No, you gotta you gotta be in shape, and you gotta movie literally and all that stuff. Angles people know. I'm gonna ask him.
I'm about the angles strategy things like that, because every game has a secret.
Yeah, and then you just kind of have to master that secret. But I love playing racketball, and everybody's like you play rackball. Yeah, I mean you can be a little out of shape and still be pretty good. So are you a little out of shape or a lot of a lot out of shape? So you can play it even a lot of out of shape but you know what, I can still go out there. Yeah, a good performance for one game? Sure that what I do with table tennis or I used to do. I used
to be fairly good. Okay, anything else, trades. We'll get breaking news later. Okay, okay, breaking news, anything else women's basketball, and we'll talk game tonight tonight. Did they play the last name with color was last night? That's what Colorado? And they lost? Yeah? Okay, who's this? Who's that? Oh?
Vic?
Real quick? Vic? What do you got?
Vic?
You're onon? No? No, I can't hear the Vick. Are you there?
Hey? Vic?
You never give us call back because we're gonna have no not a whole lot of time. It's three thirteen. Now call us back after our interview with coach Dagi, right yep, Okay, well we'll go to break here, go and let him go and then we'll come back.
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Streamy Live on the iHeartRadio WIP. This is I on the Ball with Steam Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
He welcome back to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
You're Troy Hutchison from Goyasy Catch to Cup and we're waiting for coach Dagi's call. And he's second now, so my guy here, Kobe is keeping an eye on the phone, hoping he calls not to ask. Obviously, he's been probably asking every question imaginable since he's been about.
A month but amount a month, you know, busy recruiting, you know, mission out that recruiting class label to get a couple of quarterbacks in that class and round out with some speed on the receiving side of the ball. Uh and the running back area as well.
Is this is this?
I should know?
This is this?
Ffitas last year?
Anyways?
He has one more year technically, Okay, will it be his last year in Tucson? Maybe I don't know.
Yeah, no, No, he's a junior then yeah, right, so he has a new year after this. I'm sure he'll stay. I mean, come on, I.
Mean, if he has year, it's quarterback classes bad in the NFL. Okay, maybe you know. Yeah, we don't know too. We'll get there later, a long way away. Sure, of course, things have to happen. And now number number one, no, I no longer number eleven. Yeah I saw that. Did he say why? I don't think he said why. It was part of the announcement with his brother Committee's Arizona dashed, if eleven or something. I don't know. Maybe here I'll
get to number one, you know, as the freshman. I don't know if you get to pick the number when you get there, so you kind of get stuck with a number number eleven. Who was number one before? As a quarterback? I can't think of a Alfred Alfred Jenkins, who was the last one here last year? Who's one? Who's one? Who was one? Who was one? He used to give it out like number one. Yeah, it used to be like an earned number one, and some players
want and some players kind of didn't work out. Nobody cared to be honest.
Number one. Yeah, number one on our hearts. No play like we play like you mean it.
The last elite, elite number one. Maybe h Robert Golden, okay, yeah, defensive back, right, Syndric Steptoe, it's another number one. You you would know your geeks to follow this stuff. Pay attention to this stuff. Hey, you covered, I covered, but I didn't pay attention to numbers. It's not part of the story. Number one did really well, it's not part of the story. Alfred Jacobs did really well. Okay, So that's cool. That's cool.
Number change in cod Caleb. But Caleb got a haircut, and maybe it's a haircut. He's a little bit different.
Yeah, you know, I mean you saw the dreadlocks skill away from Samson Samson. You read that Samson in jail sat Samson the hair's cut and he lost his powers. Oh you're never reallyis some someone? Oh yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah. So you know there's ten commandments, yes.
I do.
Yeah, they dropped five of them. But I was gonna I was gonna say something. I didn't want to do that. Okay, I'll let you say that, okay, uh no, oh yeah, okay, just in case. Yeah, we'll see, we'll see. So we're gonna try to get ahold of it and see what happens. See what happens. See we get ahold of him even for a few minutes. Uh here on this in this time slot basketball. So we wait a couple of days, someone posted from Texas Tech some something really stupid. Uh.
And that's what I don't like about X and Twitter, which is obviously one of the same, is that people can say whatever they want to say and that people take it as fact. But earlier today some guy from Texas Tech, I'm assuming, said that it took because Texas Tech is sold out for Saturday, and it says, well, wow, it took us, took Texas Tech.
So they said that he did call that didn't go through, and no, was number one in high school. Okay, I forgot so could he call back? Could he try it? We were waiting for his call. Yeah, okay, just keep an eye. Yeah, oh yeah, maybe that was was that?
Maybe?
Okay, it was BIG's number. I saw, I saw the name.
Okay, I was gonna say, oh, some guy from Texas Tech said that he it took Texas Tech to uh for Arizona to have its first sellout, and no one really knows what the hell that meant, because that makes no sense for twenty twenty five years ago. Answer it just answer Hello, you're on the air and eye on the ball.
Is this coach?
This coach man? Sorry about that, no.
Problem, They're good to have you on the shows. This is a coach Daggy from the U of A Arizona Athletics and the offensive coordinator.
Welcome to Ducson. I'm sure you've been told that a thousand times.
Yeah.
Well it's been awesome. Everybody's been super supportive. Everybody's been super nice. And then my wife actually called me yesterday and told me, thank you for bringing me to a place that it was.
The sunshines every day.
I was outside you, I was going to go there with you. Outside today it's like eighty five, right, i was at the pick Aball Championships and I'm thinking, for anything.
Other than this weather. Welcome to Duson because it's it is what it is.
Oh man, it's it's beautiful. Yeah, I'm super excsted to be here.
So when you first got the job in Seth and you had a chance to talk to no fa Fida, what were those conversations like? And you know, you guys were able to win Noah over where he stayed with Arizona. I'm sure you guys went through a lot of conversations and details of what the what the path was going to be for him.
Yeah, obviously he was a priority for me as soon as I said yes to the job, and so as soon as I got on the phone. You know, the thing is is we knew each other through his his high school recruitment because I was at USC during that time, and you know, I felt very strongly about him then.
I think it was one of those things where at USC can you can you go on a guy that's you know, that's five nine and and and Graham And I thought yes, but at the time, you know, I think in the building it was like, well, we can't take that that risk. So it doesn't surprise me that he's had the success that he's had so far. And you know, I've always felt like I believed in him as a thrower, you know, as a quarterback. He's he's pretty natural and very skilled, you know, and and in
what he does. And so, you know, our our conversations we were great. I mean it was we viobbed the whole time. We bobbed when he was in high school and and so, uh, there were easy conversations. You know, I have a vision for him and and I think he obviously has a vision for himself as well. But the the message was, listen, dude, I think you know, I believe in myself, and I believe in that I can get you where you want to go.
And and he felt the same way.
He's very excited, you know, after you know a few weeks of being together and installing.
I mean, he's he's as fired up as I am. And uh, and he's got these guys rolling around here.
Obviously with the changeover and the roster and bringing in new transfers and new freshmen and and and new faces. He's been his leadership has really shown, and I think that's where he wanted to grow, you know, kind of moving forward, and he's really done a He's done a nice job of kind of taking taking control of the of the building.
And making it hit it hit his own.
And so I'm super super excited to work with. I'm having a lot of fun and I can't wait to get the spring ball so we can actually start really really practicing.
You use the word installing. Is that a gradual thing? Is that a you know, how do you approach that with with a guy like him?
Obviously, you know you have your set ways that you've done in the past. For me, that's always that you've always adapt that because there's always new there's new trends, there's new ways to do things, and so you're always self scouting yourself. So within that self scout, we've had conversations of like, hey, how do you see this right?
What have you had success with? This? Is how I've always taught.
This, But I'm not saying it's the only way you can teach it what hits your brain and make in that way, maybe I can adapt the teaching on that specific concept or the way that I teach it doesn't make more sense than the way you've learned it.
Or have you never heard this concept?
Or have you have you ran this concept and you can't you don't see it the same I do. There's a bunch of obviously conversations you go through that, and then the install processes. You know, I got to figure out what's best for our personnel, right, so just because I ran some my Marshall doesn't fit you know, what we're gonna do here at Arizona. So there's a concept self self scout going on to figure out like what
can we do here? But for the majority of it, especially from the past game standpoint, you know, I'm fired up to kind of get back to those kind of roots with some creativity of kind of the stuff that I've that I've learned and been able to adapt to, you know, over you know, the last couple of months, just by watching different teams and then talking to Noah, and so it's.
Gonna be fun. Man, I can't wait. He's you know, like I said, he's he's just a natural fit for what I truly want to do.
No, it must be a perfect marriage. Then, of course, let me ask you, so, you know, do you go.
Back as a coach and say, Okay, I'm gonna look at last year's film. We all know what he's capable of. Right the year before he was fantastic. The whole team was fantastic. So do you go back last year in the film and says, Okay, maybe this is why it didn't work, this what didn't work, and this wo worked and whatever, or you say, what the hell, I'm scrapping it. I'm going to go with what I know and what he knows and move forward.
I think we just we just got to be on the same page and communicate, you know, what what works and what doesn't.
I think, uh, you know, I think the.
The tighter me and him are and the tighter I am with the quarterbacks, where we have like a real relationship where we can actually communicate and manage, you know, obviously as quarterbacks, and I view as as being the OC as being.
A quarterback as well. All quarterbacks have to be confident.
All quarterbacks do have somewhat of an ego, because if you don't like, you're not going to play that position
very well. I think the biggest thing is we got to be able to manage our egos and create real and transparent trust with one another, to know that we're just trying to do what's best for the quarterback position to play the team, and and and create a relationship to where you know, we feel very comfortable having conversations on what works and what doesn't and where we need to go and where we need.
To what what don't we need to do.
So I think that's that's huge, and that's that's part of the process. Like I said, it's been a little bit easier, you know, for me, just because I've known Noah for a while. But we've we've kind of already hit that ground running and you know, I'm actually going to see him here in a little bit. So he's a he's a stud and he's he's done everything I've asked.
So, like I said, I I'm very excited for him.
One thing that I think fans notice when they look at your bio is air Raid Offense, Texas Tack Mike Leach the success. Obviously, you had a Texas stack as a quarterback. But can you give us one of your favorite Mike Leach stories because every everybody he loves to hear Mike Leach stories. And we only have ten minutes.
Yeah, I was about to say, well most of them, some of them aren't appropriate for but man, you know, I think you know, the fun of the The thing that sticks in my mind all the time is, you know, he he you know, obviously he he marched to his own drum, right like he he was in his own like world at the time.
And I remember, you know, when I was younger.
You know, he would come in a little bit later, and they says, say, position meetings started at three thirty, and the quarterbacks show up and we're sitting there waiting on him. Well, he not showed up until like three fifty, right, and and it was almost like, well that's just normal, like nothing ever happened. And he would just look at us like why are y'all sitting there, like let's go, let's go, like we got to meet, and.
We're like, well, coach.
We went on for twenty minutes, you know, and then we would go into the meeting room and so we start watching some tape and it might get like five clips into it, and one of the quarterbacks might have said something, or something that he said might have, you know, sparked an idea or sparked a story, so he might go into the story for a whole another hour about this.
You know politician he met back when he was in law school that he used to play tennis with that now knows Donald Trump, and Donald Trump told him this and they ran into each other at this hotel and then something crazy happened, and it was just this long story, right, it's really actually entertaining. The next thing, you know, Lincoln Riley will show up in the quarterback meeting and say, hey, coach, like like, we're ready for practice.
Everybody's on the field, right.
And we kind of look at the time, we're like, oh no, like it's it's time to practice, and we're still in the meeting.
We haven't we're not trade, we're not dressed yet.
I mean, we haven't gotten to the locker room. I mean they're out there waiting on us to start. And Leech is like his his favorite line. The Lincoln would always be like, well, you know, you can't start without us, and so he would just send us to the locker room, we go get changed, and when we got out there, we start practicing.
And so it's just so different than most people.
You know, like most people, if you can't start practicing on time, Oh it's a complete freakout session.
Oh no, we're We're not in routine. It's for him.
It was just like, hey, we're gonna get our work done. Everybody, relax. This is my program. I'm running the show anyway. So when I when I blow the.
Whistle start, I'm the boss.
Leave me alone.
So you've you've been around a few places already, you know, obviously paid a Texas stack CA and was there Marshall USC, And what's what's the perception what's your perception of Arizona before you even got here? Football wise? You know, basketball has a different situation, but football wise is a sleeping giant? Can it get done? Things like that? What's the perception?
Yeah, So the only the only experience I've had here was obviously, you know, maybe being on a vacation and then when we were at USC, we played here, and I've always felt like this state was a really cool state, right like being here, like I said, either, you know, just visiting on vacation or we played here. I always felt like, why can't you win in this state, whether it be you know us or you know the team
the other team. And you know, when I took the interview, I was really excited because, like I said, I've always been intrigued by living in Arizona, and when I took the job, I mean I was just like, there's no reason you can't win here, right when it comes to like we talked about earlier in the show, the weather is phenomenal. I mean, this town has everything you need. And then you walk up on the football facility, it's just as nice as anybody's.
The people are great.
The school is beautiful, I mean has and and it provides all the resources you need.
Right. The support is awesome.
The kids love like fans love, you know, Arizona foot players on a basketball whatever it may be. I mean, there's just a lot here that you should be able to win with, right, And I just think it's very similar to me like Texas Tech. It's a community that doesn't have much but.
The u of A to it, right.
So there's a lot of support, but it's going to take special people to make it happen too right, And so part of the reason that I that I jumped on this job was is I believe in coach Brennan. I don't think there's many like like him in the profession. I think he's got a genuine heart, and I think he cares about kids and he wants to see this place right to the top, and I think he's going to do everything you can to make that happen.
And so I think, like I.
Said, I think this is a is a community and a place in a school that's going to be built on people, and I think we have the right people in place.
To do it.
When you know, we talked about the air raid offense, and you and I talked about that yesterday, kind of go into that your philosophy, of your coaching style, your offensive scheme, because you get categorized as air raid but as we saw on Marshall, was much more than that.
Yeah, I think the only reason I get, you know, claimed as an ARAID guy is because I played for AID people. And yes, Graham and I, as we've worked together, that's probably the biggest mentor I've had in my coaching profession is Graham Harrold, and he's the king of you know, playing playing quarterback in the air Raid system. And so I thought like, when I initially got within the he did a tremendous job adding a run game to the air raid philosophy, right, so you actually had the ability
to run the football. And so from that, from that, and I always felt like the system that he created was the most simple, consistent system that had air raid.
Past game to it.
But also you could, you know, like I said, you could, you could finally run the ball and it still be simple and consistent, which the philosophy of being an air Raid team is is not having the best three hundred plays of the work in the world, but having an identity and being really good at it, okay, And so.
I feel like I've just kind of taken that.
And I've been at Old Miss where I learned how to really run the football, like with tempo and play with tempo, and and and being able to adapt to some of the some of the rules and concepts that I learned there from from coach Kiffen and Charlie Weiss. And then obviously, you know, with my own studies in my own flavor. So I don't know if I'm truly an ARAA guy anymore. But I do think this.
I think.
The way I've kind of put all those experiences together and schemes together, it's still simple and consistent, a lots our guys to play fast and free. But at the same time, it's flexible to our personnel. So who what who what what?
What? Who are our best people and what are they good at? Right?
If we're good at running the football, then let's let's go that direction. If we're good at if if Noah's out here is spitting it left and right, he's very accurate and he's getting the ball out of his hands correctly, and uh, we got guys on the perimeter making a ton of plays. Well, let's go that direction.
Right.
So I think it's flexible to who you have in your building, and I think it's flexible game by game. I think there's gonna be games, you know, next year, we're gonna need to run the football to win, and I think we're gonna have the ability to do that. I think there's gonnay games where we're gonna have to throw the football to win, and I think we have the ability to do that just because it's gonna be simple and consistent and our guys are gonna be able to execute at a high level.
Right right, Well, welcome to Tucson. Thanks for joining us. You're probably hitting the ground running. You already have and now you're probably looking for a place and all that to get settled.
Yeah.
Man, it's been Like I said, it's been awesome. Everybody's been great to me. I'm super excited to be here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now. So this is, uh, this is exactly where I want to be.
If you score points next next, next season, you're going to be the most popular man in the town.
Well.
Well that's I tell the kids all the time. We expect to score That's just part of who we are, you know what I mean. Right, So, so we expect to score points.
So I want everybody in the everybody that's a u A fan to expect the score as well.
Super love to hear that. Thanks coach, Appreciate your.
Time, Yeah, appreciate you. Appreciate you guys, Yes, thank you, Thank you.
Coach Diggy from the UNIU a offensive coordinator, right, you know it sounds like a good dude, young dude, right.
Very young, but very like you can tell the details that he understands the details I think they need. I'm an old dude, right, you're a young dude, and I kind of bagged on you young dudes a little because you know, I used to be young and stupid. Uh, and I'm still old and stupid.
But my point is it needs some of that fresh kind of fresh faces, Christan ideas, things like that on innovative miss new ways to do things.
Yeah, and I get that. Now get off my laun let's got a break.
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Breaking down all the epsys and ohs. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I'm the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Troy Hutchison, your Kobe, and here we are. I was gonna really, you know, it's hard to ask him a lot of things in that short time, So we'll get to know him more down the road.
Not only that, I mean there hasn't been a game yet, so you don't know his coaching style. You know, you can say this is how it's going to be. This is going to be my style. When lights go on, let's see how it is, right, No, No, we'll see and he could be the most popular guy here if they score some points, oh easily, especially after last season, right, yeah, because he didn't score many points as Yeah, so we'll see what happens. Good him.
We're trying to get to sell a baya. I tried to maybe next week, Yeah, so that'd be good, just to see, you know, welcome him back to he's been here a while now.
But let me ask you how important is the season? Not obviously for Ariazona football, it's important, Brennan, But how important is the season for a guy like no Fafida? Not necessarily for the NFL, but his legacy and he's on his wild cap. Mm hmm.
That's an interesting question. His legacy. I don't think it's important to you. Do you think it's important to him? I don't think it's it is, But he's he's like the face. He's the face of the team, right, I'm sure I would guess that he's making half.
A million dollars maybe who knows.
I just I guess we got a call this, I'll answer that if I can't, and there's Hello, you're on the air and eye on the ball straight, Vig what you were voiceless on the other time at the time you call?
What's up?
Try? What's going on? Man?
How you doing? Vic?
Good?
Good?
Good?
Hey?
I just called to tell you. What do you guys think? Renn? And I know they haven't played. You guys just said it, but he's pretty much won the off.
Season doing your think, Well, what are you measuring against himself?
Because yes, yes, no, I'm measuring it actually from last year.
And I was one of those guys that thought they were going twelve and oh.
So yes, no, no, he of course. I mean he he had to hit a home run. Well, I just or throw a hail Mary, and he did. I mean you had to clean house, because it's it's either you clean house or its you. So so Victor, let's say this because you you coached, and you played and you watch and you observe. I'm okay with that. But if I'm if I'm the best looking dude in the room, something's wrong with that room.
So so you know what I'm saying if I'm if I'm the last best looking guy in that room, I need to improve. Last year Arizona was not the best looking guy in the room. It was maybe the tenth best guy looking in the room. And guess what, those other nine are getting better looking to So whether you get better looking or not, you still have to compete against those nine.
And that's a that's a way of life. Obviously, that's in the job market or righte google or with anything. And so I think he understood that. And it's and I hate to say that because I'm one of those guys that you don't learn from losing. But he he's done. You know, he's more in the community. I see him. I'm going on the way to the softball game right now, and he's at the women's basketball games now where he didn't do that last year.
Do we know that he didn't do that? Do we know that he didn't do that? No, he was there.
I never saw him.
He was I don't know if he's stayed the whole game. Is they were very busy.
Well, I don't think that he was out at least I don't know this to be fact that he was out in the public And I'm not saying the games, because when you're at the games, you're still in a controlled environment. But you know, I'm talking about the Fries. I'm talking about the you know, the Foothills ball you know.
But but you saw, you saw with with Jed how he put those stupid little tweets with a dancing cactus and all that, And and Brett didn't do that. He didn't engage in.
The public at least in my eyes.
And and uh now he's got staff out there and and Joe and and you can already see Joe's a hit and Tucson from his things that he's done on on podcasts and interviews and all that. So that guy is gonna be a dynamic He's gonna pay off year one.
Yes, to answer your question, yes, what that means because he you know, he has to play against other teams that are getting better too.
Well, that's for sure. I mean obviously, like I said, we haven't we haven't played one game yet. So and you said it right now too. You're the most popular
guy in Tucson. But but hearing staff and hearing Joe at least say they're talking about like what they're gonna do and and and those other guys last year just didn't didn't have any kind of personality or I guess I've heard all you guys say identity and right now, you know he even said, hey, when Noah's throwing, we're gonna throw and we have to run the ball and blah blah blah. And I don't know the ins and outs, but like I said, I think Brandon's one. He's won
me over. And I was one of those ones that I said, I ain't going to no more games and blah blah blah, and Troy knows my nephew, and we were all saying, hey, we're not going no more.
Well, I was some of the joy the de Vicus was probably out of eight of ten people who had some reservations about Brent, he's been won over eight of ten.
Yeah. Now the other two are saying, prove it to me. Well, I think even won over right now. It's like, okay, this is a nice little yeah, getting you back of the honeymoon phase. You better start winning because if you don't, if it's the same as all yeah, you're well, that's that's the thing that because last year he was like and we know that we've known these guys. Oh he's a good guy. He's a good guy. He's a good guy.
But when you're getting your ass kicked all these times he's a good guy.
It's kind of like.
It's like this guy, a good friend of mine is Steve Lavin a great guy, but you know not it's like solid, solid coach.
But I get it. But like I said, I'm just hoping that they uh and and yesterday I was hearing like the marketing thing, they've got to get better at a lot of things they really do.
Oh yeah, I think don't you think, Troy that they have to They know that, they realize that now. I think they've known that, but they just don't They didn't know how to go about it in a certain way. When you have the same people in the same room for a number of years doing the same thing, it's hard to change it up. It's it's hard to be innovative, innovative when you have the same ideas being bounced around. Yeah.
Yeah, like I said, I I think he's won the off season and and he will be their opening day for sure.
Yeah.
No, I agree with you. I think a lot of people will be curious until they're not curious right until they're until either no, no, not curious enough to word disappointed or happy. And what is the expectations to Is the stadium going to be filled when they're I don't know. Let's say six and five and the Asus coming in fus On and you're looking for that. That's seventh win.
Let's let's be realistic. That's six to eight win. Mark is probably as good as it's going to get, right, that's and that may be unrealistic.
Maybe, yeah, I'm going eight. Mark me down.
Yeah, you just said you went twelve last year, so shut up.
Okay, great show, you guys.
I mean that with love, you know, I mean that with love. Eight wins would be kind of like crazy crazy good. But you know, come on, let's be a very good turn. Let's hope that we see a fifth fifty five hundred the very least you need to see. Slow last year was kind of well again, well.
Let's say they score a lot of points but you lose a lot of games. Well, then you have the defensive issue and it's back and forth, back and forth. No, honestly, I think the defense is going to be fun. I really do. Dan, So okay, so before you say that you saw the schedule, I'm sure you already backed it out. We got to go. We'll get a call. Okay, we've got a call. Hellow you're on the air and nine the ball.
Who's this?
How the guards with Brian? I don't know, you know, the football thing. Let's see who transfers after the spring practice. Let's see who shows up day.
One in August for practice. Then we can make a determination on the team.
And it was tough for benn In last year because he came in late. Half the team left and it was too late for.
Getting geting a recruit. And we don't didn't have probably we don't have any nil money unless you know, Jay decided to open up his wallet now that he's working.
That wall is still dusty. It's a dusty wallat.
Yeah, I'm okay, I'm sure it is.
I'm sure it's got.
I was reading about that kid from the basketball player from b YU, that number one recruit that supposedly they were talking about that all. There's a lot of rich boosters in the Probo area, I guess, and they gave this kid an eight and a half million dollars.
You know, I mean those they're very skinned numbers.
Yeah, Austin, they're going, you know, if that's what we're up against, you know, thank goodness, Tommy Lloyd can recruit.
You know, European players who don't get the money or.
Some other you know, find find the diamonds in the.
Rough, you know.
Right, we'll see it's it's gonna it's gonna be hard for our.
Football team to match anybody.
And I think if, like you said, you get seven eight wins.
You've had a very successful season.
Yeah, especially after last year. Hey, Brian, we gotta go, we gotta g're up against the here. Thanks for Paul, and will appreciate your time.
Yeah, cool, cool, cool, Yeah, realistically it's way too early to tell. Well, we know, we won't even know after spring break. No, I was gonna say, training camp. Midway through training camp and people are gonna come and go. Still Oh yeah, portal portal opens and closes. Yeah, they really got to fix the transfer portal. But yeah, when you open Pandora's box, it's hard to close it. Yeah, yep, okay, that's are we ready to go?
Are we ready? Okay?
Cool, we'll take a break here. We're gonna break your news.
Uh, and then talk about pick a Ball National The best The world's best players are here in town now for the weekend