Probably the last day that you're in charge of our musical selection.
But there's a method of your madness here.
Vince Gill is the artist and Bill Riley is our guest. So what's the reasoning here? I'm gonna let you explain it. What's going on?
I guess not much of a hipster country thing like you were saying, No Vince Gill, Bill Riley, louse, stoppelgangers.
Oh, there's some.
Certain pictures of Vince Gill you can find, and it looks like Bill Riley belting out of country too.
It's awesome.
I have a feeling that our next guest is going to take on bird with that. Bill Riley joins the program. Have you ever heard Ryle's that you look like Vince Gill?
Hello?
Bill, People stop me, Spence, gotcha, gotcha?
Go ahead.
I've had people stop me in airports and places saying I look like Vince Skill.
Oh. Porter Larson is on it today.
Okay, okay, Well we're continuing.
Ryle's a very important hour on the program because last segment we had Craig Bowler Jack who has won the UTAs Sports Broadcaster the Year three times, and you Bill have one Utah sports broadcaster the year three times? Have you guys been able to get together with the robes and the brandy and the stoves to celebrate.
Yet we were going to come in studio and where are Hugh Hefner smoking jackets? And if Steve Johnson would let us maybe fire up a stogy, have a brandy sniffer, one of those type things.
I'm gonna go out and limb and say Steve probably wouldn't be thrilled if we're just smoking cigars in the studio.
But your point stands.
My follow up question is, have you guys cultivated the handshake like they have at SNL for the five Timers club where you just go one, two, three, You're great, You're great.
Have you and Boller done that yet?
No? But I will let you know. I will let you know that someone that you know that is close to you may or may not have shared a secret handshake with.
Me that you would know.
Oh no, was it Morgan?
It was just not Scaley, No, it was that Scaley.
Are you gonna tell me who is share the name.
With you off air? Because I don't want to. I don't want to out him publicly.
Okay, Well, just so you know once you share the name, he's getting dinged. We're kicking him out because that's not allowed. Bill, that is not allowed.
He's one of your guys, though, he is one of your guys.
Okay, all right now my mind is spinning, but we we shall move on.
Bill.
How you been man? What's going on with you these days?
I've been good.
I was hoping. I'm glad that Porter brought me in with Vin skilled today. I was hoping for some third eye blind though.
No, we hit our quota. Porter got loose with the third eye blind. We had like five third eye blind socks the other day.
But but what's let's let's get an update.
You know, obviously you're busy up there, and it's a new it's a new world. So we it's been a while since we've checked in with you as far as all of the things you have going on as the director of broadcasting at the University of Utah.
Get let's get an update.
There.
A lot of baseball as of late, did some softball yesterday Weber State and Utah softball. Lots of prep going on for the big spring football game coming up on Saturday, A chance for Utah anwich. I'm sure, we'll talk about here momentarily, we'll get to see Devin damp here in all his glory and the rest of Utah football and just kind of winding down the season a little bit and then really ramping up for next year.
We did. We're on our way to about fifty.
Events this year on ESPN Plus, and next year we'll have in the neighborhood of one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty events. So it will be it will be a big lift next year.
Very nice, very nice.
So let's stay in the football space, and let's start the football portion of the conversation with the fact that the transfer portal has once again opened up, and it's a small one. It's I think it's only ten days. I think it'll close on the twenty fifth. And you know, you hear some of the interviews and some of the sound from coach Witt and others. But what do you anticipate, if anything Utah football doing over the next ten days.
I you know, when spring football ends this weekend, they'll probably be some departures from the program.
You know, that's always going to be the case.
Some of the guys that figured out that they're not in the two or the three deep, and they probably want to move on to go someplace where they can play. But I think Utah will probably be a little active. They've always been a little active in the spring portal, and I could see them targeting some folks.
I could see them maybe adding a little bit.
I don't think that they're necessarily going to be out hunting for somebody that's going to be an a one top line starter, but I could see them probably looking to add a little bit of depth on both sides of the ball. I'm not sure where it would be yet. You've got to talk to Jason Beck and Morgan Scalley after football kind of wraps up in the spring.
But I would anticipate, as they've been.
The last couple of years, I could see Utah probably going out and doing a little shopping and probably adding some depth on both offense and defense. You know, I wouldn't expect double digits, you know, I'd probably expect maybe a handful of guys, four or five guys. Maybe they would add the portal, but again that's just guesswork on my part.
What about wide receiver because just you know, on paper and look on paper, there are so many new players that we still need to kind of understand what sort of hand we've been dealt. And honestly, Bill, you know this, we won't know until fall. You know, spring is spring and springball springball. And I'm excited to be up at Rice Ecles on Saturday in the spring game Forever twenty two. Game is always fun. Go to Utah Youth dot Com
for tickets, but just on paper. And then what coach Witt has said during media, it feels like wide receiver might be a position of need. What tell me your thoughts on that.
Yeah, I think they're trying to I think they've got numbers right now, Spence, and I think what they've been trying to do through spring and that's why it's going to be interesting for me to talk to Beck. I'll get a chance to talk to him over the next day or two leading up to the game. Is where are You're at? The one name that's come up consistently
through spring football has been Zacharias Williams Zack. They call him Zach now, but Zach Williams I think has kind of separated himself as kind of the wide receiver one, as the guys that they have right now, but they've got a bunch of other guys. You know, Zipper who has been in the program, Otto Tea who's new to the program, the Ryan Davis kid who came from New Mexico. With Jason Beck who's been in the Pro. There's some guys that have been there. But I think that they're
trying to figure out what the hierarchy is. So it's gonna be really interesting for me to be able to talk to Jason Beck and see what he's seen over spring football. But to your point, because there haven't been a lot of names that have really jumped out, it wouldn't surprise me if maybe wide receiver was an area they look. Now, you know, here's your problem at wide receiver.
Your problem at wide receiver is the elite guys are probably on teams and if an elite guy comes out, then you're gonna you know, it's going to be a bidding war for somebody like that. So I think that they would look to add somebody who's probably got a little bit of a resume already that's probably played and produced some places. But I think wide receiver might be an area that they could look. But I'll find out a little bit more. After the talk, I am able to talk to Jason Beck.
Tell me what you're hearing about Devon, about Devon damp here. And you know, we've had an opportunity over the past couple of months to both Jason Beck and coach w and Morgan too, who joined last week. But I you know, I asked Jason, and I asked Kyle this too.
I'm not sure how much he loved it, but I asked.
Both of them, like, Devn's the guy, right, like based off of just the difficulty.
Certainly the health has been the biggest thing.
But you know, we certainly have a Utah football fan base that I think at times were frustrated with the lack of information and the ambiguity surrounding your starting quarterback under center. And I'm not putting that on any one person, and I will maintain that Cameron Rising should never pay for a beer again in Salt Lake and should be remembered as a legend as he exits stage left. But you know, Jason said, yeah, the jobs Devn's and Kyle said, yeah,
if we were playing tomorrow, Devon's our starting quarterback. So at least there there's no ambiguity around.
The decision, at least as of now.
Tell me what you're hearing about the progress of Utah's quarterback Devin damp Here.
He's he's spectacular spence in the times I've had a chance to watch him, and I've I've been able.
To get over to a number of practices.
He is electric. I can't think of a quarterback Utah has had in the last twenty five years that's comparable to his skill set. And I say that from an athleticism standpoint. As good an athlete as Tyler Huntley was, Devin Dampier is a better athlete than Tyler Huntley.
He's just got.
The ability to do and move and do things that other quarterbacks haven't been able to do. Now again, he's doing it in practice against a defense that's been relatively vanilla. You know, Morgan Scali will dial it up from time to time, but he is a very unique athlete and his passing and I watched a lot of his stuff from New Mexico a year ago. His accuracy, at least in practice and on the practice field looks like it's gotten better to me. But here's the thing you've got to love talking to the.
Coaches up there. He is a leader already.
Now, some of that has to do with the fact that he knew the Awe offense coming in. That's the leg up he had on everybody else. But he is a guy that people have kind of been attracted to. He's been kind of a teammate magnet, and he is most definitely a leader on the field and in the in the classroom as well in the in the film room, and in the offensive meeting room.
So I've not heard one.
Thing on or off the field that is in any way, shape or form negative about Devin dan Pier. He has been really impressive this spring with his new teammates.
When it comes to just the dynamic bill of spring football, what over the years, since you've been doing this for as long as you have, because you're really old, what are some of the things that are real that you would say to the fan base, Because for me, it's always just been an excuse for those of us that are in this space to do this for hours every day, to actually talk college football in the spring, and for college football fans that are chomping at the bit always
because they're crazy people in Addicts reminded that it is coming back. But what are real things that the coaching staff is trying to implement that we can actually learn from spring ball.
Well, I think it's athleticism more than anything else, and football moves. It's not that somebody breaks a fifty yard touchdown in practice. It's how they break the fifty yard touchdown. A guy like Wayshan Parker who's able to he looks the part of running back one. They've got four really good running backs on the team right now, but Parker looks different than the other three. Maybe that's because he
had a really good freshman year at Washington State. But I think when you see guys out there athleticism and you know the freakishness that some of these guys possess, that's what flashes for you. It's not the fact that they score a touchdown or they do well against the ones or the twos. It's when you see a guy come out of a break and he leaves the defensive back of the dust, or you see a defensive back make a break on a ball and a really nice
play against the first team offense. To me, I don't look at the overall results because again, those can come and go in spring football. It's how they got there. It's how they made the play. It's out jumping somebody or outrunning somebody, or just looking the part. So that's to me what usually translates. It's not that they, oh, they had a ninety yard touchdown run.
That's not it for me.
I asked Morgan this question last week, and you know, it was a typical coach answer, which I expected when it comes to preseason expectations.
And look, we all know the truth of the matter.
Coaches and players tell us they don't read, they don't listen, they don't watch, and they do they pay attention. And certainly in this day and age where we all have computers in our hand and the ability to be inun data with information twenty four or seven, you're going to be curious about what other people are expecting from you in this ecosystem. And last year, everybody expected you tough football to win the Big Twelve. Everybody expected you tough
football to go the expanded CFP. This year, Bill, the pressure to do that is not there at all most of the way. Too early Big twelve predictions have utah about mid tier, about mid table, five, six or seven. Does the lack of pressure, take anything off the plate of these players and coaches, because coaches, whether it's Kyle or Kalani, we always hear the moniker in the message nobody believes in. You play with a chip on your shoulder. Remember everyone picked us six, seven, eight, not one, two
or three. Does the lack of pressure do you think it bodes well for Utah football this year?
Maybe a little bit, Spence, But what I would say is there's a lot more internal pressure. I think the lack of results, or the lack of usual results last year dials it up more internally because the bar has been set so high within the program. I could tell you Kyle Whittingham and those guys on that staff were really disappointed with how last year played out. Some of it was out of their control, like injuries, but you know, a five win season is not, you know, good by
Utah standards. And so I think that there's a lot more internal pressure this year to have a bounce back year than there was any kind of external pressure even last year, because you know, Kyle Whittingham is not going to coach forever, and I don't think that he wants to have back to back down years toward the end of his career. So I just I think there's a lot more internal pressure to do well.
But here's what I.
Will tell you too, And I think you and I may have talked about this on prior hits about spring football. There's a real energy and a real kind of vibe around this team this spring, and I think some of it's the disappointment of last year, but I think some of it's the new blood and the new energy that stuff, you know, that that kind of Jason Beck and Micah Simon and Mark out to Why have brought in with the offense, and I think with this new offense, it has kind of brought a little bit out of the
defense as well. So yeah, going back your original point, I think, you know, externally, there's not a lot of people talking about him, though some people are, but I think there's a lot of internal pressure to get back to where they've been the last couple of years.
You know, it's really interesting you reference that because I had a list of things I wanted to kick the tires with you today and one of the things I wanted to ask you about is, you know you listen.
To Kyle Morgan.
You know you listen to all the coaches after practice and during their media availability, and ninety nine percent of it is coach speak. Ninety nine percent of it is just kind of them filling their obligations, and I get it. But sometimes Kyle will say some things that kind of, you know, make me perk up a little bit.
As my my antennas buzzing a little bit.
And on a number of occasions, Bill, not once, not twice, multiple times he has said there's more positive energy in this building than we've had in quite some time, which struck me because Kyle's not one to run down former players. I'm not saying he's doing that, and he's not one to run down form or whatever, but just his expression of this positive energy around the club, the football team has caught me. It's got my attention on multiple times.
So elaborate on that and maybe specifically what you've seen and felt from Kyle himself.
I just think that there's some people that I think the new offensive staff brought a new offensive energy and kind of a new excitement around the program, and that certainly jumps start of the offensive side of things, but I think it's been kind of contagious on the defensive side as well, because they're seeing all this energy in this everything that's going on over there. And I think there's some of it too, is there's a lot of
new faces on this team. There's you know, your roster, whether you're Utah or your BYU or your Tennessee or you or your Alabama, you're turning your roster over. So I think some of the new faces, to go along with some of the new energy on the offensive side and some of the new terminology has really done that. And I think it's permeated through the players and the staff, and I think the head coach has felt some of that too, and I think there's an excitement about that.
I think Kyle decided he was going to come back to coach again. I think he felt a little re energized by it. So I think he's brought that with it.
All Right, a couple of minutes left, so let's do a little basketball as Alex Jensen will potentially be coaching his last game with the Dallas Mavericks tonight, so you know, potentially we'll see that they win. They're going to maybe have one other game, but Alex might be a week away from leaving Dallas behind and moving here, moving back here well where he will be the seventeenth head coach
in the history of the Utah men's basketball program. Before we get to the specifics, bill from your vantage point thirty thousand foot view about a month, month and a half of Alex's tenures so far.
What are the main takeaways.
Well, I think that he's finally beginning to get his staff in place, and I think that's important. I think the HighRes this week and getting close to completing his staff are big. I do know, though I don't know a lot of exact names. I know that they've had a lot of visitors on campus. I know that the coach, the staff that's here, Chileus, the GM, some of the other staff members are really working hard right now. So I think that they're they're vetting. I think they're doing
their time. They're kind of doing the work and vetting these guys. I don't think they're just going out willy nilly and grabbing guys, because I think that they want to you know, as Alex has said, and I think he's probably said it with you and said it on Sean Show too.
He wants to build it the right way.
And doesn't want to just grab guys for the sake of grabbing guys, because I think we've seen how that's worked in some other places and it doesn't necessarily work. So I think that the I think he's had a plan. I think a lot of people have maybe not necessarily felt it because he's not here full time. But the sense I've gotten is he's working a lot behind the scenes,
and he's got the staff in place. It's working too, So I think as he's filling out this staff, I think we're going to be starting to see more and more players. I think we've got, you know, four commitments right now, or four guys they got a commitment today according to some of the reports, and then you've got Dawes and Terence Brown and James o'conno who have committed publicly. So I I think that some of that stuff is good for them, and I think it's very interesting to see,
you know, how he's putting this thing together. But I like the patients that they'd come forward with.
Does it feel like there you know, we talked about the positive energy on the football side of things, and I didn't talk to one person who felt like market landed on the right the wrong choice with Alex. It's one of the rare hires for my prism where everybody felt It felt to me like everybody was on board.
Do you have any context as far as the positive energy around the basketball program, whether or not they're receiving phone calls for seizing ticket deposits and you know, a basketball community build they're quite frankly has been more or less dormant since Rick left. If we're honest with truncated moments here or there, what has been the buzz in the building around the new era that we're in now with Alex Jensen as the coach.
Everybody here is excited about expense. I haven't talked to ticketing per se about you know, whether their ticket numbers are up, but I just know that there's a real buzz and talking to some folks in the Crimson Club, they've gotten great feedback and positive vibes from it too, So I think everything has been really really positive. As you know, I mean, Alex is beloved here as a former player and former just a local guy that's got
such great ties. But everything to this point in time that I've heard or been talked to about is really positive about the hire.
Last thing, what to you will indicate next year? Because I've been asked this a million times, and first of all, we don't know who the players are going to be, so it's impossible to analyze how good the team is going to be. But if you look at what the Big Twelve could be next year, Houston is going to be impossible. Again, They've got a bunch of transfers coming in to replace some of the players that are leaving your rock Chop Jayhawks are bringing in a tremendous amount
of transfers and talent byus open up the checkbook. And there's a rumor that they're going to grab the Williams kid from Texas Tech, which might make them a top ten team in college basketball next year. So I'm trying Bill to be very diligent to set expectations year one so Alex doesn't get a bunch of heat on him if he's not one of the top four or five
teams of the Big Twelve. So, just generally speaking, what will you look for next year to indicate that this thing is at least moving in the right direction.
But I think it's being competitive in the Big Twelve and winning.
Games on the road and.
Being you know, being in contention for you know, a being in the top half of the league, because if you're in the top half of the league, you're then in contention for an NCUBLEA tournament first. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, once the rosters put together, how that looks. But I think that's progress. I think being in the top half of one of the best leagues in the country and also being talked about, you know,
when joeln already's putting bracketology and stuff together. That's that's important too, because I think that's the standard that you know, Mark Harlin and and Taylor Randall said they want to be an nc Double eight tournament team. So I think competing for an NCAA tournament birth and being in that conversation, that's progress.
Wednesday, June twenty fifth, the NBA Draft will take place, and a little birdie tells me that we might see the triumph return of the former program director and longtime host over here at ESPN seven hundred to do a little radios can you coroborate those reports?
Bill?
You know, it sounds like I was extended an invitation on the air while I was listening to Third Eye Blind and you and and Porter talking the other day.
A chance to be.
In studio with you and Gordie to talk about the draft. I mean, I you know, maybe at full six, maybe we do just six seven hours go into the wee hours of the morning. It sounds like something that would excite me.
Love to see it, love to hear it. We'll look forward to catching up with the Bill. Thanks for your time today, and have a great week.
Okay, see a Saturday expense.
Bill Riiley, Voice of the Utes. Saturday is the spring game Forever twenty two game. Go to utah Utes dot com to get some