This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R two sad at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacin Zawis got our guy Kevin in today with the Revolving Kids.
Bring your kids to work today. Thank you, Kevin. Hey Jay Jdsfish continues to be out in the name which is good, good things, not bad things. Did you from our press converence yesterday? I know a lot of people are reporting that his contract is going to be renewed and more money. It's obviously going on behind the scenes, and nothing related to any of the deficit that Arizona has because it comes from a different pool. So we'll
see eventually what happens. I didn't realize that he has his to the twenty twenty seven. Well, he got extended after last year year right, right, So yeah, so he's he was already extended, but you know now it's about more money, significantly more money. He said three point five I thought it was like two point something. Well, and then with bonuses and stuff, you know, with with incentives, you know, and then there's the shoe stuff, TV's contract, all that kind of stuff didn't make sense.
But you know he had to earn a bunch of that, which he has done, right. You know this year was it was it here yesterday that we were talking about the whole thing about why he keeps talking about the pack Pulf South Championship. Yeah, I couldn't remember if I had the conversation with you or somebody else that I talked to you. No, Yeah, you brought it up because Brian Peterson put that out in the Twitter world, and you know he had had there been a PAC twelve self, yeah,
he would want it. Yeah. Well, you know, it did come across today that Jonathan Smith up at Oregon State was getting four and a quarter four point two five million, and his contract with Michigan State is going to go up over seven. So you know, if Jonathan Smith was getting four and a half million or four point two five million, that's kind of a number that I think Jed Fish sure is shooting for sure. But the circumstances of events, they had a guy who was making pretty good money and they
had to pay him off to get rid of them. Yep. So you know, you you you don't want to get bit twice, right, you know you don't want to get a bit twice. And Arizona's been a bit a few times in the string of coaches since since the sin Yeah, well yeah they have been, you know, but look, everything looks look everywhere I go, Like I had my breakfast club today. Yeah, and those guys, more and more, I'm getting my ear talked off about about football. You know what you do? Yeah, well they do, and so
they think I know more than anybody and they don't know. But you know, those guys are you know, they're coming up and I mean I had long conversation with some guys today and they're all talking about football. Well, those are the guys and I'm I'm not I know some of the guys, but they're not. Those are some of the guys that Arizona depends on right to get Hey, reach you reaching your pocket. These guys are business leaders in the community. They you know, they own their own companies and they're
part of this business group that I'm that I that I work with. And these are guys that you These are the guys you need to impress. Sure, right, sure, and and they're being impressed, and they're they're asking things. Now they're talking, you know. I mean, I have one one of our guys who when Jedfish got hired, he just said, that's not the guy. He said, he's not the guy. Today he said, I'm sorry, I was wrong. Come on, how many times have
you heard that? Yeah? Honestly, you and I could probably say we were on a we were on a press comment school. The initial one one of the initials. And you're thinking, hmmm. I did think that the more I listened to him, the smarter he gets, or maybe the smarter I get, because he's making you smarter. He was great, he was great. You just his presentation. He's not a he's not a guy who overwhelms you with words, but he tells you what you need to hear or
and just tells you the story without pontificating. Right. He's measured, and by that I mean he he knows what he's gonna say, even before you ask the question, he knows, or as you're asking the question, his his his wheels are spinning right and not to the length of Sean Miller, because Sean Miller already he just he was gonna tell you what he's gonna tell you, no matter what. How's how's that sky blue? Well, you know, a little red today, but that's who he was. But Jed
does it in an every day kind of guy. Yeah, and and and it's you know, I think I think the media likes that. You know, you feel like you get answers, no question. Now we don't get enough time, no question, but the time we get, we get answers. You know, I'm happy with that. But man, you know, get in a question and you know, it's tough. It's tough to be able to, you know, to go in depth in anything. I don't know what time he'd have to get back to, but I think that more
that he succeeds, the more people are gonna want him. Well, well, people say, is you know, screw it. He doesn't have to mess with you guys. He's out there figuring out how to win games, so screw you. True, right, what are the last people on the list? But this is another catch twenty two. If they go back to not winning, who do they need the locals to write stories about to get people in the state. It's a catch twenty two. It is. But you you know what, I know it because we live it, right.
But you know there's the people out there who think the media are the enemy. Yeah, you know, don't don't think think of it. And come on, you're a dusty Tucson, Arizona. Yeah, there's no enemies. Yeah, in fact, in fact, Kevin, and you get a degree from you of a. Here's the desk. People are cheering under the desk that they're doing well, am I am I wrong? You're absolutely right. You're not right, You're not wrong. Yeah, you're your arm percent correct.
And whether that's good or bout, I don't know, but that's what's happening. Well, and that's the thing is, you know, it's like it's hard to get the stories. You're not gonna you're not gonna go after somebody for something negative going on because you might not get any more stories. Well, it's kind of the USC Lincoln Riley guy. Yeah, right exactly. So you know, but look, we are where we are media wise.
You know, fans they get their media from where they choose, right, if they read Rivera or if they read Brian Peterson, Troy Hutchinson or Sheer or Justin or whoever you know you're gonna choose. I do that with my news, right I've got news sources that I believe and that I trust, and I and some that I absolutely do not. So I choose where, you know, where I get it. And that's what people do now. And I don't follow college best college football like you do because you listen
to all these people. But I don't know. I don't know, and maybe I'm wrong. There's a better story in college football than Jed Fish and Arizona football right now, I do not, and there could be. I don't know. Well this week, no, this week, there are because they're talking about all you know, what's gonna happen with the playoff and all these things, because that's it, that's all you're hearing about overall in terms
of the overall college fotball season. I've heard multiple people say Arizona is, if not the best, one of the top three stories in college and what would be the other two? Therap went on in Michigan. Yeah, Michigan, No, no, no, I'm talking about but feel good story stories, the movie stories, the movie stories. But yeah, I mean,
yeah, if you're looking for field good stories. You know, maybe you feel pretty good about Sarkesian over at Texas because of all the you know, how bad they've been and now you know he's yeah, but they build himself together. But they're still like that program, right miss and the SEC pretty good Missouri. So there's been a couple of things like that, but still to a degree under the radar, no question, no question. Uh So we'll see. He talked up the games that they might go to. He
even threw a sneaky fest in there, said the f word. Man, he said, festival. You might have to get up there. We haven't been up there since the festival. You know that. That's that's the thing that you know that we can do. It'll sell tickets, they will, they will. So but I you know, look, I just I've been
listening to all the all the all the college football playoff talk. There's almost zero chance that that, with all the teams that are going to be available, that both Washington Oregon get in. Something dramatically stupid has to happen, Like okay, here, here's here's the path. Georgia. Georgia beats Alabama. Alabama's out Florida State loses, Flora State's out, all right, Texas got to lose to to Oklahoma State, right, and then Oregon and Washington
have to play a very close game. That's how Oregon and Washington both get in. And then who would be in Georgia Georgia, uh, Michigan and then the two Patard's the only way I heard Yogi coming in on twelve ninety. So we're gonna have them on. We're gonna trying to That's the only way all all of those things happening doesn't seem. In Michigan has to win, right, all those things happening doesn't seem That's about as likely as Arizona
was hoping that Oregon was gonna lose Oregon State. It's just it just wasn't gonna happen. You know. I still think whoever, Well, I like Oregon most in the PAC twelve, possibly getting further than Washington. But if they get to the final four, yeah, I like their chances better than Washington, better than Washington. Yeah. And even if they play the only thing I don't know if they'll be able to handle is Georgia in the physical
part of it. Yeah, But Oregon Orgon's fantastic. Yeah, man, I just can't get I'm kind of being dragged, but I can't get off the Washington bad Way. Well, I don't just feel like, you know, there's still twelve and oh they've beaten Tell them you like you're twelve and oh they've beaten Oregon. Why why do we think Oregon is so much better? It's it's the analogy of the horses brought you yesterday. It's a horse
of gun in a bad lane, couldn't get through. They played them in Washington, played them tough, lost on a field goal last second on the road. All that this horse is ready to run against. And it was game day in Washington. Washington was up for that all theme. The coach was on game day like two hours before, screaming to the fans he was ready for that game. Ready, ready. Yeah, So you know, we'll see. I'm excited about the weekend. It's gonna a lot of intrigue,
you because all these weird things can happen. You know, what if everybody wins. What if Florida State wins, What if Washington wins, What if Florida State wins, Washington wins, Texas wins? All right, and then Alabama beats Georgia. All right, right, now you have two one lost wins in the SEC in Michigan, you've got three undefeated teams, and then Texas who beat Alabama, who beat Georgia is the SEC out? Oh no, no, I love Georgia. Okay, but but are you gonna
leave Georgia in and Alabama out? After Alabama just beat him? And then if you're gonna put Alabama in there, why wouldn't you put Texas over Alabama because they beat him at their place by ten? My head's gonna explode. Leave me a little bit. But it kind of speaks to why this college football season is no fun right because there's been a lot of parody. It
hasn't really been a star driven year like there hasn't. If you look at the highs and race, it's kind of like, Okay, if you like Oregon, you like oo Nicks, that you're gonna do Daniels if you feel people who are following in Arizona saying that if there were the top twelve, I think there was only fans. I was speaking, well, I think we're good enough to beat most of those teams, you know, up, I think a bunch of them. Yeah, I don't think probably, I
don't think the top four four. But let me tell you you would remind me because I don't remember the years for football. When Dick said at the end of the year they were probably ninety eight best teams in the country, Yes they were, and they were finished. Would they finished fourth the rank? Okay, I went, I went that National Championship game was up at the fest was the first year of the BCS in ninety eight, when Arizona went twelve and one. I went to that Tennessee Florida State game. Arizona
could have won that game. First of all, Florida State backed in. They weren't they had they had two losses. They backed in because you see La lost and somebody else and somebody else Florida State back then, I know Arizona could have beaten Florida State in that game, and I think it would have been a really good game against Tennessee that that Remember that Tennessee team game was a year after Peyton Manning. They had tem Martin was the was the
quarter of them. Yeah, so you know that team Arizona, you remember this stuffer. You can't remember Craft who's on the show today. I don't know what the hell we were at in that so that we can remember. But you know, Arizona could have won that game. I thought Arizona was one of the best teams in the country year. They every weekend they're impression the hell out of me, and I'm thinking, what the heck is going on here? But they have talent, they're playing happy Come on, you
know this just like a happy marriage. If you're happy in a happy marriage, nothing can go wrong. Let's start having some kids. Screw this up exactly those who know, no, I love my kids, but you don't see you're exactly right. But look the intrigue of this week. Well,
first of all, the playoff rankings come out tonight. Okay, you know, yeah, I think what I think they should do is, you know, Georgia Michigan, then the two pac twelve schools, whatever whichever one order you want, so that you know that the winner of that goes in stays in, and you can drop the loser outa Texas right now, then I think you go. I think you go, Texas, Alabama. Well, there's a lot to play for you, right, It's going to be a
fun week. You have to keep you have to keep Texas ahead of Alabama because they beat them, and they didn't just beat them, they beat them at their place. Right, we'll see what happens. Let's get to our guests this weekend to night. John Whittaker, known to you as Big Game Boomer, he'll be joining us. He had an interesting ranking of the top fifty quarterbacks in the country for the season, not just in the last week.
We'll talk to him about that. He's got a he's got Arizona bowling against against like everybody else does against Oklahoma, his Oklahoma Sooners in the Alamo Ball, and a bunch of other stuff that he's been doing over the last
well over the over the course of the last several weeks. So we'll have him and then Blake Eager, who is the executive director of the Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority, right right, just to see give a catchup up, what's going on on the string, spring training possibilities, maybe some Triple A baseball possibilities with the things that are going on with the Oakland as we're moving to Vegas. So we've never had him before, so I'll talk
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mean, iHeartRadio wams. Hey, welcome back to I'm about you know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Ribero. He's jacobsaus Now on the phone. We have big game Boomer, John Whitaker. How you doing, John Song? Guys doing great? How are y'all? Are you doing great down there in Tucson after that nine to three record? That's unbelievable. A little bit just in the media, we're not cheering for We're not cheering in the prints box begins. Hey, but we're going to break some news here.
You're going to be coming to Tucson here pretty soon. Absolutely, Yep, I'm coming out there. I said I was going to come out there for a basketball game. So I'm coming out February seventeenth to see y'all beat up on those Arizona State sparky. Oh god, well, the question, the question is going to be whether they'll beat him by more than Arizona beat him in football, because that was up that over the weekend. So well, it's good to have you. Good to have you, John, you know,
as always, you know out with the rankings and stuff. So you threw in the you throw one out today on the top fifty quarterbacks of the twenty twenty three season, and lo and behold that I see Arizona near the top of the list with norf Fafieda. Just your thoughts on the on the on the whole quarterback thing, and to me, most notably the fact that you you ranked Fafita above Caleb Williams and JJ McCarthy. Yeah. I just thought he was more, more impressive. I mean, he put up some
gaudy statistics. I mean, twenty three touchdown passes, five interceptions, a very high QB rating, just extremely impressive. I mean, because he I'm trying to remember when when exactly he came in. It was this the was this the Washington game that first game, Well, he came in in the late in the Stanford game, uh, when uh Delora got hurt and he and he generated a game winning touchdown drive. So that's when he came. He came in, and then he started the next week against Washington and never
let go of the job. That's what. Yeah, okay, and then yeah, and then he had five touchdown passes against USC which I mean that doesn't say much. Their defense was terrible all year, but just consistent, I mean off the board, I mean, very high QB rating almost every week. I mean, just very impressed with him and they the kids only a freshman. I mean, we're gonna be talking about Noah Flacida as a dark horse Heisman next year. That's that's how impressed I was with with really
Arizona and everything. I mean, I I get a lot of stuff wrong, guys, I'm wrong, way more than I'm right. But I said Arizona was gonna go eight and four before the season started, and went nine and three and probably could have gone ten to two, eleven and one. Some of the games go go a different way. So very impressed with everything that they've done down there. Jed Fish has done a tremendous job. Obviously up for getting Head Coach of the Year. So it's been a good year
down there in Tucson. Well, you mentioned a FAO for Heisman, but he comes with a tendem. It's kind of like a group guy with t Mac because there's not one without the other. Yeah, no, t Mac. They go to the same high school. Yeah, okay, so that yeah up out in California. Yeah, great package deal. I mean, just all the guys, I mean Coling, I mean the way that the running backs in that offense are able to have good production on the ground as
well as catching the ball. I mean Jonah Holman, he was probably said second or third best receiver on the team this year. Him and Michael Wiley, You're both great back out of the backfield. To me, the most shocking game was the Utah game. I mean, I remember I was in I was in Ames, Iowa at the Iowa State Texas game, and I was just kind of checking my scores watching some other games, and that game
is on the PAC twelve network, which nobody seems to have. So just how that they just throttled a very physical Utah team, I mean that was just that was impressive. So Arizona's no joke. This is no fluke as long as you can keep Jedfish in Tucson. This is gonna be Arizona's gonna be a problem in the new Big twelve. Well, I'm looking at I'm looking down at another thing that you put out yesterday, Your your Big Your
Week thirteen takeaways. You said Arizona's playing best football in the Pac twelve, would beat Oregon and Washington. That's what the kid. They definitely could, They definitely could. I mean Washington right now, I feel like it's just squeaking by. Uh. If Arizona played then today, I think the Arizona wins on neutral field. Oregon is looking very good. I think they're the
best team in the Pac twelve. But if those who played right now, I think Oregon's defenses have a tough time with the offense with Arizona's offense. So I mean, right now, Arizona and Oregon are playing the best football in the Pac twelve. It's uh, you know, just Washington is undefeated obviously, and they they're they're winning, but it's it's very ugly. So it's definitely Arizona and Oregon are my two are the two best teams right now.
So you were across the country, you went to a different number of places as who was the best team you saw in person? Gosh, yeah, I went to ten games this year all over the country. Man. I when Oregon State beat Utah in Corvallis, which I think I talk to you guys. Yeah, the week I was going to that game. That was impressive, the pretty defensive performance. They beat Utah twenty one to seven. That was a good game. I went to Virginia Tech. I saw
Virginia Tech beat up on On on Syracuse. That was that was impressed with that atmosphere there, incredible atmosphere. Blackbird. How cool is that? How cool is their entrance because I've seen that on videos. Oh yeah it was great, Yeah, yeah, very very cool. I mean enter standment. It lives up to the hype. It's wow. The stadium shaking. Everyone's just jumping up and down. Like I was sitting next to some a couple of old dudes and they were just like jumping up and down like they were
college kids. So it's it's a culture up there. You you go to school there and everyone just kind of embraces that inner Sandman deal and it's wild. It's a cool venue. Definitely got to go to if you haven't been okay, no, so okay, So now we're well one more one more thing, because you're predicting Arizona to face your your Oklahoma Sooners in the Albumala, Yeah, how much fun would that be? It'd be fun, man, the Alamo Ball. I mean, of course, it's all the coaching
changes and opt outs. You never know who's going to play, what the game is going to look like. But it'd be a good matchup. I think two high powered offenses going up against each other, it'd be it'd be a fun matchup for sure. San Antonio. You guys have been down there for the Alamo Ball. It's a great They do a great job down there hosting that ball. It's fun, it's a good time, and I think that'd be a great bawl, a great matchup. I think a lot of
people want to watch. So are you going to any of the Bowl games? You know? I don't know, man, it's been I went to ten games this year. I like going to games on college campuses. I went to like four or five bowl games last year. We'll see. I may sneak down to San Antonio fo you plays Arizona, But as of right now, I don't have anything planned. I'm kind of getting ready for gearing up for basketball season now to get ready to playing those trips and when will
be down here. So Purdue plays Arizona next week I think or soon December sixteenth. Yeah, so you know, the two or three weeks, if it all holds out, it'll be one versus two on a bad TV channel. So what are your thinking? What are your thoughts on that one versus two this early in the season. Yeah, I mean that's a great matchup for sure. I mean Purdue, it's all about you know, Zach Eadie. I mean, they they you know when you watch them, they they
they just they revolve around around Eadie and shooting free throws. When they played Tennessee last week over Thanksgiving, I mean they shot like fifty free throws or something. And that's Big ten basketball. It's very physical. Reps get call a lot of fouls, so there's a ton of free throw shooting. So with without the free throw shooting, that's that and that's why they get burned in the in the tournament every year, which is because they don't have the
guard play. It's all around eating. So it'll be that would be a fun fun early matchup. I mean Arizona is ranked number two in the country right now. I mean Arizona is definitely one of the best teams in the country, and that that'll be a heck of a matchup. I think Arizona is more athletic, so I would I would nodge to to the Wildcats in that matchup. You were kind of talking about how big that matchup could be
in terms of the national rankings. Arizona plays three top twenty five teams, UH, Purdue, Alabama, and FAU just in the span of like a week and a half. If all things shake out, Like, how impactful do you think that week and a half could be for Arizona's season going forward and as we look towards March, Well, it's huge. I mean I
don't think a team like Arizona is gonna need these games. I think these games are kind of build you up for the tournament because let's I mean, the Pac twelve is not the deepest conference in college basketball, so it's to have to get these get these games, and to get these wins for Arizona will be huge for building their resume, whether or not they get up one
seed or a two seeds. You know, I'm splitting hairs here, but I think that playing these games helps a school like Arizona that doesn't have the top conference schedule that you know, a Big twelve school would have. But y'all, I'll tell you what, y'all better enjoy it this year playing in the Pac twelve because once you get into the Big twelve, man every night is a lug fest. We can't take care. We are really looking forward to it. Actually, I got a guy that a good friend of mine
who's a huge Kansas fan. I saw him this morning. I didn't even let him walk in the room, and they said, you're always lost, and he said, he said, I knew it was coming. I was waiting for it. I knew it was coming. But you know, I'm excited. I think we, I think the fan base as a whole. Yeah, it's excited, not worried, you know, excited about being able to play those kinds of games weekend and week out of the league. Every
yeah, every every night. I mean even the worst team. I mean, I guess adding UCF Cincinnati, Yeah, well, I guess to Houston's good too. It's not they're They're not as bad as they are as they were in football. So yeah, I mean, gosh, it's a tough The worst team is good in the Big Twelve and you don't have that in other conferences. There's no nights off at all. It is a meet. I mean, it is a grinder, it's it's it's a fun conference to
play in. Yeah, no question. I think that's what we're looking moved forward to. Is that basketball. You know around here, it's kind of like everybody knows whether UCL is good or not. That's a huge game, you know, for for for the for Arizona, uh, and then it's like you hope somebody else is going to be pretty good to have to have
some other interesting home conference games. You know. That's why I think, you know, fans are gonna be excited about you know, Kansas coming in and Houston Houston and Texas Tech and Kansas State and Baylor and Oklahoma, you know all these teams that were you come to the arena and you don't know what's going to happen. I think fans are actually looking forward to that.
Yeah, I mean because like for you guys, it's really what u c l A is like the main matchup that that you guys look forward to Yeah, and then you hope, you hope Oregon is going to be good, or you hope Utah is going to be good, or you hope usc is gonna be good, but you don't know if they're going to be good. Whereas you know about so many of these teams in the in the pack in the Big twelve. Yeah, I mean, is the only ranked team in the pack telve right now? Right might be? Yeah? So yeah,
I'm checking. Have you have you thrown anything about Arizona? Did you have a beef with him? Maybe a month or so good that he the Big Game became a messed up with I know, we we got on you for the Arizona being hotter than Phoenix because it was more south. You'll find going to be like down there in February. Bring golf club be bringing your golf clubs. If you golfer, be ready to do something outside, ready to believe, and be ready to eat some some great Mexican food will take you
to no place or to no heavy coats, none of that stuff. Heck, yeah, that's I'm all for that. That sounds good, Okay, Yeah, I mean I was out early this morning. I put on sort of a a thicker sweater and I'm like sweating in it this afternoon. So it's you know, and it's seventy five. Yeah. Nice. Well, so come on down, let us know, give us plenty of advance. So we'll talk to you before definitely to get from basketball and then see you down here. Take you so real quick some of the some of the coaching
things going on. You've got Mike Alco going over to over to Texas A and m Jonathan Smith over to Michigan State. Uh, you know, all the stuff that you're hearing about. Just some of your thoughts on the care cell as it is right now. Yeah, it's wild as always. I mean, I hate what happened to Oregon State, the way that that went down that I just don't I hate it for Oregon State. I went up there, I've met so many of those fans. That's a good fan base.
I hate seeing what's happening to them right now. And I'm just as a No. U guy like I saw Lincoln Riley leave and go to USC. I feel that pain that they are feeling right now. So I hate that. It's a good hire from Michigan State, but I don't like Elko is a good safe hire for Texas A and M. I think he's on par with Mark Stoops, who they were going to try and hire from Kentucky.
Stoops has more experience, but I think the ceiling is higher with Elcho just because we don't know really what he's going to be like in the SEC. Stoops does have that losing record, but I mean he did well at Kentucky, So Elko is a good hire. You know. I saw Sean Lewis just got hired from and Diego State that that's the one. It's just it's wild this this time of year for the coaching changes, the transfer portal, and then the early signing period. I mean, it's just nuts.
And then he put on top of that, we got college basketball that we're talking about. So it's a it's a fun time, plenty of content to talk about and uh, you know, I I enjoy every second of it. So real quick, last question, were you you grat? Are you Oklahoma grad? Yeah? Okay, so yeah, I want to you. I know you're not a philosopher or a psychologist on on on the radio,
but let's nick you one. Uh. So, Lenko and Ryley went through what he's gone through this year, got in in a little ten of tent with a reporter, all this, all this other stuff with with his team. What what do you make of all that? Having having covered him or followed him that, I'm not surprised at all that. I mean, he's very closed door policy. I mean, gives the media just hardly any access. So when I saw that you with with the reporter, what getting reprimanded
hy usc for. I didn't read the article, but it wasn't that he was suspended. He was suspended by the Sports Information Office. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean that I think that's just ridiculous. I mean, that's my problem with beat writers. It's like they if they they're they're under such a microscope they can't say anything negative about program or they lose access.
So but yeah, I wasn't surprised at all. Lincoln Riley he did that the same thing at OU. So that's just that's that's the policy strict on the media. Yeah, okay, thank you, John. All right, Well we'll talk to you again before you come down for sure. Yeah, no, looking forward to it and enjoy the holidays. Absolutely, You'll be with John Whitaker. We always love having him. Got a lot of good stuff too. You know, he's a The amount of time and effort
he puts into we talked about it before. It's crazy. Thank it's fun to watch. All right, Let's check our break. We're to come back. Take your calls BYCU zero four and six seventy four forty. We might have some leftover stuff from Jet's press conference that we didn't cover yesterday. Sot's stick around. S If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Loudolsen
era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one, Email me at Steve dot Rivera
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iHeartRadio WAF. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to the ball Here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty of Steve Rivero, p Jagins, Alice Gotder got Kevin with us thirteen minutes left. In this segment, you talked about Faffeda.
Yeah, well, you know again you're talking to Big Game Boomer, and you know he posted this ranking of the top fifty quarterbacks of the season in order, Jade Daniels at LSU, Boone Nicks Oregon, Michael Pennix Washington. Those are the three guys. One of those three guys are gonna win the Heisman Trophy, right, And then you got Jordan Travis at Florida State, who's now out, Dylan Gabriel at ouh. Oh, you I'm coming
like like I'm an Oklahoma guy at Oklahoma. And then number six, Noah Fafida ahead of guys like Jalen Milroe, the quarterback at Alabama, the head of JJ McCarthy, the quarterback in Michigan, the head of Carson Beck, the quarterback at Georgia, the head of Caleb Williams, the quarterback at USC Jackson Dart, who was highly thought of it wound up a Mississippi, and
then after that Jordan McLeod former Arizona guy, James Madison. But you know, getting back to Northfilfida, it's just incredible when you're an Arizona fan, had been here Ozon fan as long as I have. We never talked about their quarterback. You just don't. We've never had a chance to do that. You know, Nick Foles is kind of like the guy that stands out there and how long did it take for Arizona to get an NFL quarterback?
Right? Yeah, And then you know there've been there have been some really good quarterbacks, but none that have been at this level of the conversation. So yesterday Jed Fish was asked about Noah Flafieda and why he thinks he's been so good this year. Well, we threw the ball really well in the
game, that's for sure. Had a couple opportunities that we missed that you know, certainly had a chance to probably have a touchdown at the end of the half that we just didn't come down with the ball that third down play, and then through an interception on the five yard line which should have hit Jacob for a touchdown there. Outside of those couple plays, I think he was pretty close to perfect the way he played. One of the ball that
Jacob didn't come down with was a was a perfect, perfect ball. The decision there and the goal line was not. But you take those couple of plays out, he was as good as any quarterback that I've been around in regards to decision making, in regards to accuracy, getting out of trouble, completing the ball down the field, completing the ball mid range, and I mean obviously finding t Mac, finding Jacob, finding Tanner, finding Mike.
All those guys had big, big games. Boy did they. I thought one of the good questions was from from DK and how tam got so open one of those play He was there was no one in the nobody in the neighborhood, and we'll plan in a second. But then he was asked about the connection between and tam Ac that one. So just again, these guys have been playing together since the eighth grade. So it was interesting his interesting
conversation about that. Yeah. I mean I think we've you know, continue to talk about those two guys, and I mean the story is the story, right, They've played together since eighth grade. They're best friends. They've had a great connection in terms of where they're going to be on every single play when the balls in the air to go attack it. But I think that they're both separately very good players too. Uh. Sometimes we're just kind
of like combining them and they're one is not good without the other. I don't think that's the case. T Mac was a phenomenal player last year, phenomenal player the first four games of this year. Noah has obviously played extremely well since he stepped in. Having t Mac as a as a receiver for
him is obviously something special because they've done it for so long. But in the end, you know, they they find each other, they work together with each other, but you know they're both independently outstanding football players, not just collectively. Yeah, and that was a good way. He's so politically not politically correct, but he's so thoughtful in what he says. He's intentional, Right, Yeah, yeah, No, that's a good words, great
works great words. Let me ask you this because I was talking to somebody last night, just randomly. I don't know why, but the guy who would know off the top of your head. No, I'm gonna throw this question at you. The best football player to come through here, who would you say? My? Okay, my first thought, yeah, my first thought came, it could even carry. Oh okay, so that name was mentioned, that name was mentioned. So no one said Ricky, no one
said Chuck. Right, because you think offense first, right, you always think, let me tell you something. I've been here thirty five years. I haven't covered him exclusively, but t Mac to me test neighborhood another year. He'll probably convince me that he's And I know I saw Kadeem, but this kid is good. Yeah see, And I think my brain went to
kadem because it went to offense first. Because when you say guys like Ricky Hunley, Byron Evans, Chuck Cecil, you know some of those guys who you know played on defense, Rob Waldrip, Teddy Bruce Ki, you know some of the greatest of all time Hall of famers right opench Hall of famers. But our brain always takes it to the offensive side of the bad choice when you're talking about best ever. But Kadeem had one one of the greatest
seasons of any Arizona football player. Sure, and you didn't even mention Folds. Who's who didn't you know he ran? But but let me tell you, I remember watching Nick Foles and thinking he can complete any pass he throws. It's going to depend on if somebody blocks for him and if somebody catches
the ball. Well, I'm the guy in my leading the clubhouse in the time I've seen this team Mac who gets you a catch whenever you need to catch some of those some of those catches that he makes where he goes up he ball one handed catches you know, you know you can throw, you can throw, and the ball hit him in the hands and somebody will hit him in the hands right away and he hangs on too. The there was one in the end zone the Saturday where he didn't catch it. I'm thinking,
how did that happen? Yeah, it was exactly that. He was in traffic all that, but he had a hand on it and somebody knocked. How did he not catch it? Because he catches those all the time. He does. He does the strength of his hands or because again, you gotta have strong hands to make those one handy catches then makes right. So he's and you gotta have big hands too. I'm sure he's got not not Harold Carmichael hands, you remember Harold Carmichael, but pretty big hands.
He's a he's a tall, lanky dude. So you know he's got to have, you know, long fingers and big feet in the whole bit. But you know, you see a kid like that who's got all the physical tools and then he's got all the mental tools to go with it to make him what you know, on his way to possibly being the greatest football player at Arizona. Yeah, he would be my bet. Uh And it's still
who's gonna cover him next year? Doing the big twelve can cover receivers like that, they're they're his historic for not being able to play the defense that they're gonna need to play. The guy that I can only compare him to recently was the USC kid Boston. Is it Boston or London? Drake London Drink London A big but you know, a talented obviously. Yeah, but Arizona doesn't see these guys. Yeah, they don't see these types of guys yeah, no, Arizona doesn't get those guys. I mean, look,
and they've had some great receivers over time. Sure, the the Dennis north cutt Uh darn Crying Hills, Austin Hill, Jeremy McDaniel. You know, you go go back to you guys like Hill. Uh, you had Derek Hill. You know, John Horton was a really good receiver. You know for a long time Van Johnson should have played receiver, but he was a running back. But you know, there have been some really, really really good receivers over time. Have there been any what you would call great ones?
And by that I mean somebody better than all those guys, know, I mean think you know, I think we're looking at him, right, Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. And and you know what, he's fun to watch. I watch him away from the ball, you know, during the game. I watch him coming back to the huddle. I watch him when he goes to the bench, and he's so kind of nonchalant about stuff, but to the point where you think, like
he's going, this stuff's easy. That's what makes him likable, right, that this stuff's easy, but not in a not in a way where you think he's cocky or over confidence. Who's just going I can do this, I'm good at it. It's easy, and he just makes plays. It's not arrogance, it's assertiveness, right, Like he just knows who he is when he's good at what he's gonna do, right, and he goes out there and does it, and he's not much flash. I mean I could
see you, you know. He he goes out white and he looks at that guy and he's looking at him and say, you can't cover me? What do you think? Right? There was a there was a play last year against Cal I don't know if you remember up the middle in the end zone. I think it was that there was one who needed to catch in the first half when they're playing really well. And I said, I even wrote this, I tweeted this or whatever. That's why they got this guy.
If he doesn't catch another pass the rest of the year, that's why they can win. And got this guy. He's special. Let's play Jad's clip on on TM mac uh because he you know, somebody just asked him about Team AC and again, why is he so good? Well, we uh, he's really good number one. So he's a really good route runner.
He's found ways to get open against anybody. Uh. Number two, we moved him around the whole game, and we put him in a about every different possible spot you could play in, whether that be through motion or through stacked alignments or bunch of alignments, or to try to get him different. Uh, so they can't really find where he was at. And the guys made a ton of plays for us down the field intermediate, uh in the screen game. And uh, we just continued to do that during the
game. You know, those comments both about Fifida and and Tamac were kind of in relation to, you know, how did they how did these things happen? You know, in the A game. But I like what what he what Jed said about they just move him around. That tells you that's a sign of a good true And you know coach right who just says they're not just going to run them out, you know on you know wide left and the same guys are gonna cover him the whole game. They bounce them
around and they make him hard to find. Sure. So, so I got a text just now and you I don't know, I don't know. I won't even disparage your age. Did you ever see our Dopino no ahead like Ways of the fifties. So that name, that name, and people say that because he led the n Cuba and rushing two years in a row. You know, he was, you know again our greatest of all time. You know, my my history in watching Arizona football begins with the Jim
Young years, the seventies twos. T Bell another one of the great receivers, right uh, and Arizona played in the end in the NFL. Was with the Steelers and and I think a couple other teams, you know,
but you know that's where my history begins. I didn't see anybody really before we mentioned Yeah, yeah, well ted you know again, Teddy was you know all American leed you know, set the set the sacks record and you know in the career sack Creckerds. Those guys were all great football players and got helped get Arizona to where you know it could be in the Pac twelve or the Pac ten and and all that that stuff. You know again, Ricky Honley, Lamont Honley, Byron Evans. We mentioned, you know some
of those guys during during that start. So so I know that Justin had a pole yesterday. You see just as polar I did best team. So I don't know anything about the years except for you know local, uh have you met eighty two, eighty three? Well, eighty two, one, six, four and one. They had some really good wins. They beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame that year and then they beat So what was the what was your ranking? What was your I still believe ninety eight is the
best team. But you know this team, Okay, this team this year is like the ninety seventeen basketball team. They won the national championship, but they weren't you know, you know, they weren't exactly a year ahead. You know, there were there were a couple of a couple of teams. The eighty three team obviously really good. You don't have that, But this team is kind of like they didn't quite have the record, but you still think they could beat a bunch of those teams. You know. The eighty
six team was really good. You know, again, a horrible loss that cost them the Packed Well you know they against Ucla and eighty six, yeah, they cost them the Rose Bowl. They're beating the hell out of UCLA at halftime and lost the game. So just a bunch of you know, there's a bunch of good teams, but I still think ninety eight still ranks is the best team ever. We'll see what happened with this team next year. All right, well, we'll be back. Kevin's got to break you
news. There's lots of it, so be sure to come back. And then we're going to talk to you, Blake Eager, talk about some of the sports stuff going on around the state of Arizona.