Time to catch up with a voice, the voice of the utes, and the Bill Riley mullet Watch continues as Utah is now three and oh Ryle's happy Tuesday.
Man, how are we doing?
I'm not doing as good as you are in O town with your bling and your boom.
Hey, look, you know me.
I'm about the bling, I'm about the boom. I'm about America, I'm about football.
You know you know me? Bill, this is right down my alley.
Well it is. And speaking of mullet Watch, it's only appropriate to bring mullet Watch up as we head to Oklahoma State this weekend, where the guy that rocks the mullet from back when, back in his playing day is still rocking it today. Mike Gundy is the head coach.
So we do need to reset, Bill, because you join me preseason. And I said, Bill, in honor of Mike Gundhy, in honor of the Big twelve. Quite frankly, we're gonna see a lot mullets this year, Okay, more mullets than we're used to. Will you agree to grow a mullet if Utah goes twelve and oh and your response.
Was absolutely yes, sir, grow a mullet out. I will party, you know, business upfront, party in the bag. If the utes go twelve and zero on the regular season, that that spends check its is my pledge to you and I will come out on a remote bling and boom or nod, and we will sport that mullet next fall.
We have to plan.
I'll rocket the entire off seat. Well, I won't say the entire off season. I'll rock it to a point, but you can. You can be the judge and jury of how long I keep the mullet.
Bro you almost just buried yourself.
I was not expecting you keeping the mullet all off season, but you almost put that on the table.
That's why I just let you go. I want to see if you'd actually do that.
The fact of the matter is the remote that you need to come on when you have your mullet is the blinging boom special.
It feels right.
Well, you know, we probably should move it up to Smith and Edwards. I think the mullet probably fits better at Smith than Edwards than it does at the jewelry store.
Fair enough, fair enough, moving on.
I just wanted to re establish the Bill Riley bulla watch on our little old radio show here, all right, Bill, I thought Isaac answered a lot of questions. Man, I thought he met the moment. I was skeptical. It didn't look great against but Baylor. It didn't look great to start. But I sounds weird to say as private the kid man. I thought he answered a lot of questions on Saturday.
What are your takeaways?
I thought he looked really good. It's amazing with you know, another week of practice, when you get most of the reps and you know, you get you know, you know, the game planned yours. I just thought he was really good. You know, it was a little I won't say shake y. I think he was just there were some nerves early when the ball was sailing on him, but once he got dialed in, you could really see him. And you know, there were two throws spins. He made two of them.
They were almost the same throw that in between the safety and linebacker, in between the linebacker and corner, throw that he dropped in a couple of times on the sideline to Money Parks. Those are high level throws. And I thought he did a heck of a job.
Yeah, no, I agree with you.
So, you know, with the sensitivity of injuries, shout out coach lud I know they don't talk much about them. I just I need to know where we're at with Cameron on a Tuesday. All the intel I have, all the intel most people seem to have, is that he is good to go. He's planning on playing quarterback against Okay Staton still Water.
You're the voice. What's the update?
They do the coaches show tonight, so I'll be heading over to the facility in a little while. I'll get a better update. But I think Dorian Singer said to the media yesterday, maybe the Josh Furlong from KSL, that he was expecting Cam to play this weekend. So I'm not sure if Dorian got the memo, the Andy Ludwig memo and the Kyle Whittingham memo about not talking about injuries. But I think he build Josh Furlong he's expecting Cam to play. So I'll have better feel for tonight. I
have to talk to to Kyle. But I think that's kind of what everybody thought, unless there's some sort of a setback that I think everybody was kind of circling this date. Brett McMurphy had reported it last week, could Action the Action Network, and then you know, I think it was Dory and Singer who said something yesterday. So I think that's the expectation this weekend.
Okay, fair enough, That's kind of how we're operating on the show as well. So recently, Bill, you became a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, so I want to ask you a question about Obviously, kid, Bill's been a lifelong Chiefs fan. I felt about Utah the same way I felt this weekend about watching the Chiefs. I never thought they were going to lose. Were you ever nervous on Saturday? Did you feel like it was getting to the point where this upset could potentially go down?
Uh? No, I didn't. I just thought Utah was better. I thought Utah State treated it like it was their super Bowl, and they played out of their minds and Bryce and Barnes made some really nice plays. I thought they schemed things up really well. But I never got the sense that they were going to be good enough for four quarters to beat Utah. Maybe I didn't think they'd put twenty one on the board, but I thought that they had a really good game plan and they
ran it. Okay, and Barnes used his legs and made some nice throws, but there was never a point where I thought that Utah might lose that game. Conversely, there were several points where I thought maybe the Chiefs would lose. But at this point in time, I think I should just understand that both Mahomes and spec Nolo's defense are really good. So they you know, good teams find ways to win, and the Utes are good, the Chiefs are good, dud.
At this point, you should watch Chiefs games with no anxiety. In my opinion, they just always seem to figure it out. They'll stub their tow here there, They'll be there in February.
They're probably gonna win the damn thing again.
But anyway, moving on, I don't mean this disrespectfully to Rasulo Faison, who is a very competent back. He goes for a buck fifteen. But Utah's about sie Ali Gordon, all right. He won the joke Walker, as we all know.
And I would imagine if you're Morgan Scalley, I would imagine if you're Kyle wouldn't You're watching that game film and you're a little bit concerned about Utah State going for what three eighty five on oh I would imagine this week the defense has a pretty intense task to improve prior to Saturday.
Well, it's funny because you can't really just logging. Alan Bowman's a good quarterback now. He's as old as Cam Rising. He's played more football than Rising. But he's good. And they've got good receivers. They're pretty balanced. But yeah, you're always gonna hear coaches. He'll probably say that on the Coaches Show tonight. Get to stop the run first. And Oli Gordon ran for seventeen hundred yards and twenty one touchdowns a year ago up to a little bit slower
start this year. And I'm not sure why yet. I haven't kind of dug into Oklahoma State stuff yet, but he's really good. And I think part of its spence is Krenie Reid didn't play Saturday, and he missed the second half of the game against Baylor the week before. And as good as Lander Barton is, Karennie Reid's kind of the kind of the heart and soul and the eyes and ears of that defense getting everybody in the
right place. And I think there was probably a little bit of an adjustment period without KRETTI read last week, so whether it's so Ony fo two or it's John neu Hall this week that steps in ato that linebacker spot. Whoever, it is more responsibility on Lander Barton because he's kind of the veteran in there. But those guys have to be in the gaps and tackle better than they were a week ago. Because you're right, Faison's a solid running
back oli Gordon's and NFL. He'll be playing on Sundays running back and if you don't doesn't stop the run. Oklahoma State will run it all day long.
So just to follow up, is the anticipation that Utah goes is still water without Karena.
I think so. I saw him last week and he had a walking boot on, so my anticipation is, yes, that's probably the case. I don't know. Again, I haven't been over the facility yet this week, but when I saw him last week, he was in a walking boot and said it might be a little while, so we'll see what happens.
Okay, all right, So now I kind of feel about the running back position as I do about the quarterback position.
It's pretty clear.
Mackay is the guy. But the more and more I watched Mike, I think there's a lot to like. So does it feel like it settled into mackay and Mike and then maybe with a side I'm not going to do the mustard joke I almost did, but with a side of Dijon Stanley outside of those two, does that feel like that's where we've landed.
Yeah, I think so. I mean McKay's established himself as running back one, and really Mike Mitchell has been good. He's just got to I think Kyle's noted it a couple of times. He's got a little bit of a nagging ankle thing that will flare up during games. But I thought he ran really well last week. I really did. I thought he ran the ball really really well. He had seventy five yards, made a tough inside running. But yeah, I think those two have established themselves as RB one
and RB two. Then you've got Djon Stanley, a little Charlie Vincent. Not sure what's going on with Jalen Glover. Didn't see him last week, but he's got some experience too. But I definitely think it's Bernard and Mitchell as one and two.
Let me follow up about Jalen, who we saw go for a bucko seven against Colorado last year. We saw him with a really good game and a tough win against UCLA a year ago. And you even go back a couple of years, you know, twenty carries seventy six years on the polue in a big win thirteen sixty two.
A touchdown at Colorado.
We've seen Jalen Glover play the running back position at Utah very efficiently at times. Is this just like, hey, the room's crowded or is there anything else beyond that that you're hearing that.
I don't know. I think it's a crowded room as much as anything else. I think Jalen is one of those really solid running backs, but a couple of the other guys might just have a little bit more juice. But I don't I haven't heard her known anything that would say anything otherwise. I just think right now that Mitchell is a young guy who really if he would have played last fall, he kind of red shirted last fall, might have popped just a little bit. He was kind
of learning the whole position. But they just love his overall skill set. And you know, Mackai bernartchman in the program for a little while.
You know, BI most smart people who follow sports know that basketball players just do it better.
You know.
That's not me, that's other people that follow sports. So I mean, it's just kind of a decent take here. I gotta say, man, first of all, respect to Caleb for even trying this.
You know, basketball player at Utah.
BYU and Baylor, and I can remember watching him all the way back in high school and just thinking like that kid is an absolute beast of an athlete who needs to learn how to play basketball at a high level, just with a more complete skill set as he decides to level up. If he ever wants to be a pro basketball player, he's got to just get He's never had a great feel for the game overall.
He was never a great shooter and never a great pastor.
But what he was is an insane athlete that would dunk on your head and go get fifteen boards, you know, while napping through a game.
So the skill set translates.
I give him a ton of credit for trying this beautiful ball from Isaac another red zone target for Caleb. It feels like coach wait, Coach loved, They've got themselves a pretty special red zone weapon.
Doesn't it. It does? And he just the athleticism, pops. I love the fact that they called that plate dunk. We talked to him after the game and Isaac said, they called that plate dunk, So it's throw it up to the big guy and let him go get it. The funny thing is two spence when you see him running around and you don't see it as much in the game, but you're a little bit more in the game now. But when I saw him running around to practice this fall, he just looked. I mean, he doesn't
look out of place. That's the weird thing. Is he a fluid yet? As Brand keeth, he will know, but Brand's, you know, an All American caliber tight end. Caleb Loner hasn't played football since seventh grade. Seventh grade was the last time he played football that he turned into a basketball player. So for this guy to be able to come out having not played football since seventh grade and make a tangible impact on the field with really one fault he didn't play in the spring one fault camp
under his belt's pretty amazing. And any other great part about it is is that tight end rum is loaded. Carson Ryan kind a touchdown pass and you saw his hands saturday. We know what Keathy can do. Heck Landon King, who I thought was going to be poised to have a breakout maybe still could, doesn't even have a catch yet this year we saw how good he was. Last year when Keithy didn't play, They've got kind of an embarrassment of riches in that tight end room.
So through three games, Bill, I always talk about this up until conference starts, and then even maybe the first couple of games of conference play when I just say observation not conclusion, you know, like that's why I wasn't concerned about Isaac. You know, after the SUU and then the Baylor game, I said on air it had to be better, and it did, but it was I mean, what you look for, as you know as well as anyone, is just week by week improvements.
Are you seeing through three games? Have you seen week by week improvement?
And attendant to that, what do you feel like you're confident today to say that you know about Utah through three games, and what do you feel like needs to get better?
I think, well, consistent quarterback play, meaning pick one guy. But I think we get that back that. I think we get it back this week with Cam Rising. Although I will say and back to your point we started off talking about Isaac Isaac Wilson. I think if you're a Utah fan, you've got to be thrilled with what the potential for the future is. And it's always kind of been year to year when quarterbacks left, it's like,
what do we have coming with this next one? I think we know with Isaac Wilson, I've been most impressed, I think Spence with the improvement of the secondary. I think it was probably a little bit unsure of that
with the two safeties they lost in the corners. You know, they lose Kennan Johnson in the first game, but to see Zamaya Vaughn and to see Scooby Davis and to see Ko Johnson, and to see you Nate Ritchie, and to see that kid Cameron Calhoun come in and get his first real bit of playing time and have an interception in the past breakup. I think I've probably seen
the most improvement in that secondary. What I want to see being a little bit better probably playing the run game, just because Baylor had some moments and then Utah State had some moments, and we both know that Baylor and Utah State aren't quite the caliber of Oklahoma State. So if anything, if I want a nitpick, I'd probably say, let's see how they play against the run this.
Week, all right, before I say you loose. Utah is now a two point favorite. That could change.
That line has moved like four times, opened up slightly in the direction of the Cowboys, swung the way of the Utes.
It's now settled.
Utah minus two, never been to Boone Picking Stadium, never been a still water maybe one day if dreams come true. But what ultimately do you feel like Utah needs to do to go on the road and get what would be a massive early statement whin to the rest of the Big twelve.
Well, I think they need a good start spence. They can't fall behind like they did to Utah State, because that place is going to be loud. It's a little bit just slightly bigger than rice Ecles, but it's right in that same range. But it's loud and it's it'll be full. And those are the Oklahoma State fans, a great fan. So I think Utah offensively, you know, needs to get some some some momentum going early. And I think you again, just a heartback on what we've talked about.
You know, make make them throw on you a little bit, make make them drop back. Alan Bowman has played seven years of college football. He's played at Texas Tech, He's played at Michigan, now he's played it at Oklahoma State. He's a good quarterback. But let guys like Fillinger and O'Toole and Fano and you know, Tofoon and those guys
up front create a little bit of pressure. And if they can do that, I think you taught has a real good chance to go in there and hang with Oklahoma State and get a win.