Always excited when we have the opportunity to do what we're about to do for the next hour, even though it is snowy and it is cold. Doctor Chris Hill made a sojourn downtown here in our studios. Doctor Hill, did you have to shovel this morning? This was quite a snowstorm. Yeah I did.
I don't know where the guy went that was supposed to help.
Was like, it was heavy.
So that was almost my exercise for the day for sure, for sure, But boy, not much, not much.
Yeah, yeah, he it wet, heavy snow. Luckily, my son is in town and so I woke up. I said, Pal, get out of bed. The shovel's right there, do your thing. So he was able to help me out, which is good. But it is wild. I mean, if you've lived in Utah for longer than a couple of years, you know March can bring a lot of different weather patterns for sure. That's fun. Good to see you, my friend. Thanks so much for the time and a perfect time to have
you in. Alex Jensen officially announced as the seventeenth head coach in Utah men's basketball history. I have not had a chance to discuss this with you, so what do you have to say.
Well, you know, I wanted him to have his press conference and not talk about it as all that stuff because but it's been fun for me because I'm excited about it. And as I mentioned off air, he called me, you know, on a Saturday before and we talked for a long time. Then talked about our families and everything. That group of you know, they weren't just good in the nineties. Rick didn't travel with the team, so guys like me got to know the guys and it was
really fun, you know. So we had a nice conversation about a lot of things. I was happy that he wanted the job, you know, but again, when you care about somebody, you don't want to tell him take it or do this or do that. But he was any smart, he kind of We talked about stuff he knows. I mean,
the world has changed. He knows that, you know, and he's watched it from both ends now and you know, he's got to find he knows, he's got to find some guys that or a general manager, you know, that's paid well, that doesn't want to be a coach, that knows how to deal with agents and all that stuff. Yeah, and that person as opposed to the NBA needs to report to that coach.
You know, in the NBA, I.
Feel sorry for the coach here because you know, the GMS aren't helping him win games.
I don't know if that's a secret in town or not, but they're fifteen and they're like fifteen and said it's not a secret, doctor, Oh.
Really, Oh my gosh. I thought they were just having a bad luck. I streak, you know, fifteen and fifty four. I think the fan base gets.
It by now. Yeah, so you do. There's an example.
You want to make sure the GM goes to the head coach and you know he'll put together good staff and you know, I mean I used to say in the AD UCLA said to me, John wouldn't ain't walking through the door, and Rick Magerias ain't walking through the door.
So let's get over it. Yeah.
Rick kind of ruined it for everybody, you know, because I mean, if you add up the wins he had in the NCA tournament, you could have like four states together and they wouldn't match up with it. I mean, he just won games. Yes it did, and so you know, and he was a savant at his time.
But you know.
I mean, I mean, it doesn't mean you lower expectations, but you have to look well you do.
I mean, you can't expect that to happen. You hope for it, but to expect it is just unfair to Alex. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I expect him to do well.
I think they'll get kind of in the top five or six of the league and kind of that may be their birthright, you know, and they can do that. Yeah, But I'm just excited for him, his family. You know, it's just different because he's kind of not a star in front of the media. I mean, he's a good guy and all that. He also he's a family guy. One of the things he's concerned about is, boy, you come back to Utah, you're head coach, and I want
to watch my daughter play soccer. And thirty two thousand people are coming up talking to him, right, And how do I get Dallas.
I got to sit there and nobody knew.
But if you you know, you want to move up the food chain, that's the way it goes. But you know, I told him, you got to learn how to have polite leaving behavior. So you can say a lot of me because he's I said, Alex, you could be there all day talking to people because you're so nice.
He's that nice guy out. Yeah, so you got to figure out how to be nice.
But at the same time, they get the message that, oh, Alex wants to watch his daughter play, right, you know, gotta have So that's an interesting thing for him. But you know, and his his mom's still here, and he said she goes to jazz games and stuff, so it would be great to see her there for sure, you know. So it's it's fun. I think he's really smart, he's really tough. Uh, he's today's coach. I think you know, he understands that you just can't treat kids like you
did twenty five years ago. Yeah, you know they you know, a little Johnny. If he doesn't like his team, his dad just puts him on another one in you so you know, it's like, you want me to play defense, are you kidd me?
So?
But I think Alex will put it together. He's learned a lot from Rick. And I'm not just talking excess his nose. I learned a lot from Rick, you know about running what I did amazing. It's so there was things to apply for sure.
I mean Rick was a very intelligent, conflicted, brilliant, maniacal person, you know, for better or for worse. And it was it was interesting listening to Alex talk about and Josh Grant has said this as well, that Rick ruined the game of basketball for him because and when you hear that sentence, you're like, well, that can't be a good thing. And then Alex unpacked it and said, every time he watches a basketball game, he watches it through the prism of how Rick used to watch.
Well, it's just like an you know, I learned so much from But what you're just saying is we had an expression that I would tell people that Rick was an.
Interesting collection of people.
Yes, and even he didn't like and he told me even I don't like myself sometimes, but I learned so much from Rick, and it, you know, like, I'm sure it was Josh. But role definition. Rick's teams in anything you do, his team's had the role definition.
Great.
Yeah, sometimes he rudely assigned the role and let him play. And people do play outside their role. They got along. It's a genius they get along. You think of a company, everybody knows what their job is. Everybody's doing that and I remember one practice one time, Josh, and I'm pretty sure it was Josh.
I have to ask him this.
So Josh gives up a wide open shot to make it past to somebody else. Rick freaks out, Do you think you're here to play defense, You're here to shoot the ball. You are selfish?
What does he thought?
Drew so and so became agra set that screen for you. He give it up, bought it for you, and you're you're selfish. That's what you gotta do. And I'm thinking that said so much because he's praising the guy to set the screen. Sure, he's also saying, you know, I'm not going to be in love with his high score all time, but he's also staying a high score. This is what you're here for. Don't look anywhere else. And I thought, you know, that's what part of what I
put took from it. And then all the little things, I mean, your hands have to be so I mean, he you know, was he was crazy, But that's like person I would consider a expert or something.
You know, you know I didn't have. I mean, I went to Rick's camp for four or five years growing up, you know, through middle school and high school, and then had a brief experience within my freshman year at the U before I decided that. You know, when you try to guard Andre Miller and you're a five eleven white kids, you join it fraternity and figure out other things to do.
But my brief interactions with him and then just listening to him talk about the game was how detailed he was about everything.
Yeah, and that's what you know, that's what I really you know, moving more with Alex is that's what I like about his People will get that, he'll he'll it's hard to deal with the details. I couldn't do it, you know, like you've got to defend this way. Your feet need to be here, That's how you have to do it. And now it's going to be an interesting
challenge for him because kids are in detailed now. You know, they just want to play and want to shoot the ball, and some of that you do have to give up. You know, you can't coach like Rick because kids attention spans aren't that long, right, you know, and so and what they want to do is different you want them to do. And offenses are defense. Bottom line though, is you got to defend, rebound and move on. Is what we used to say in the tournament, right.
I wonder and doctor Hill is with us. Doctor Chris Hill, former ad at the U, hired Rick Majaris and was you know, around for a long time making a number of great hires, not just Rick. And we'll get to some football coming up in our second segment, but you hear a lot about the relationship between Rick and Alex right. And you know Britton Johnsonho's a dear friend of mine. And Britton and I did jazz radio together for seven years, got to know his family. I mean, Britt's the sweetest
guy in the world. Oh yeah, you know, I love Britt. Now. He and Josh Grant on the show kind of went back and forth a little bit the past couple of weeks. But it's all in good good nature. They are both legends, right. But Britton always would tell his stories because one of my favorite things, like if we're at a jazz game and the jazz was by thirty or whatever, I'm like, hey, let's just have fun during post Let's tell let's tell
me Jered stories. Let's talk about rec right, And almost every time we would enter the Majeris landscape of conversation, he would talk about how Rick would go at everybody sometimes in a very uncomfortable you know, uh level. That really made people feel super uncomfortable, as we all know, except for Alex, like Alex was and Audrey shit, and Audrey too because Andrea was awesome. But there every alum that I've interviewed about that team always said Rick just
had this thing for Alex. And Rick is on the record saying he's the smartest player that he ever coached. Then obviously when al got in a coach and he coached with Rick, but shed some light on that relationship as you understand.
It, Well, I think part of it is, you know, Alex was competitive as heck.
He followed the details.
Yeah, you know, he he's a detailed guy, and you know, he wasn't any kind of emotion that sent a stinky eye to the coach or anything like that. So you know, it's kind of like I always tell somebody, yeah, well he favored Alex, Yeah, because Alex did what he had to do. Phil Jackson probably favored Michael Jordan. I don't know, maybe he didn't, but uh yeah, it just was somehow, and I think it just legend grew on top of it, you know, all of a sudden, it's this and it's that.
But you know the reality is Alex did what he was told all the time. And there are other guys on the team that they were like Drew Hansen's one of my favorite guys that that Alex played with and they got along so well and they were very similar. Now, if Drew were as good a player as Alex, Drew might have been his favorite.
Sure.
Yeah, so it's kind of player play. Well, he did speak about roles when he was in the game. No fast breaks job, and that's what Alex get when you need to talk to me, he says. You know, that's why you have to put together your staff. Would what roles people are going to play? You know, you got to have now pro guys, which his story the world is and that's I think it's smart. But you need some college guys that know how to get into the
nil and also understand part of the college game. So I think Alex because you know, it's not saying Alex that's what we.
Used to call him sometimes, but that's awesome.
But you know he's going to take what he has some rick and he's a new age kind of coach and it's not Rick anymore. It's Alex, right, and that's hard for everybody because you know, Rick not only was a good coach, he was a national figure, you know, and Alex, God bless him, He's probably not gonna be a national figure.
I don't see Alex getting into broadcasting. I'll just say that, like Rick took a little little bit of a time to do some draft stuff and broadcasting. Yeah, he was out right, right, he was too detailed for it, right, right, right, But anyway, I'm excited about I'm excited about he's going on.
It's kind of it's gonna be fun to see the team grow. And I think they got a chance, you know, the Big Twelve. Although you know they have been great, they're still good. But you know there's some teams that Utah's birthright can be more than and they can get there if they have the right support.
Well yeah, yeah, oh sorry, go ahead, no, no, no, I got you. I was gonna say. You referenced maybe top five or six in the lead. Guess what that is. That's an NCUA turn it too. You're top five or six in the Big twelve, you are dancing, and maybe even top seven or eight. But you reference filling out the staff, and you've alluded to some of the dynamics already so far in the conversation. But let's dig in a little deeper. I kind of push back at the notion that every seat next to Alex has to be
filled by former units. It feels like there's some momentum that way. And let me just say this, if Andrea wants to come, you hire Andre Miller, Yeah, because right for sure. I mean I'm a gen xer and I was in school during those runs. And for me, if you walk into a gym with Andrea on your bench, that's instant credibility that you can't get in very many places.
But Alex has been in the pros for almost twenty years and Kevin Young own of BYU his entire staff, not just coaches, strength and conditioning, administrators, nutrition, they're all XMBA people. I think that's kind of the way to go. Tell me what you think.
I think it's a way to go. I think you still need some person or two on the staff that kind of has been in that recruiting cycle, AAU people that kind of stuff, and you just don't need to go next door and get somebody you know, you need to really be thoughtful about how you want to put together. You have to have a match with them.
You know.
There's a lot of things you have to have. And of course it's going to lean towards the pro model more, you know, and that's what kids want to do and everything. But you need the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh guide a team to be good, you know, that's what you need to see. You need somebody to understand that, you know. And so yeah, you need the pro model with the strength coaches and the nutritionists. And they have those folks in college, but they don't pay the ton of money,
you know, in the NBA. So you got somebody that's really good as a college nutritionist, but then the other person's off the chart, you know, and you know how those bodies are you're playing and stuff. So you know, I mean, I think it's it's got to be that.
And I'm repeating myself a little bit, but I think there's gotta be a little bit As I look at the teams and you put teams together, you got to keep some guys that are the Drew Hansson's that are going to set the screen do this and maybe more mature. They're there for three four years plus, I would help the fans more. I think, you know, we all fell in love with the guys that played for four years, yep, and that was the deal.
But now, and I always wonder.
How many of the one and Don's are at the Promised Land at the final four?
Yeah, you know, how many?
How many of those guys I mean, Cooper will but how many guys have brought them to the Promised.
Land outside of the unicorns? You're right, Cooper Mellow Syracuse. I mean, if you go back and look at it, most of these teams are veteran teams that have had players there that understand the system. Your point is well taken.
Yeah, but they need those You can't win an the NCAA tournament now, guys that are either going to be pro next year or not. I mean, you know, you can't pick the ideal thing. But some guys would stay you know, some guy it's late second round or may stay in because of the nil stuff. So that's why you got to know all that general manager stuff, all those agent stuff, you know, and you got to put it together. It's a business, it is, yes, you got to do it.
So tell me this. We're we're a good basketball state. You know, we have a lot of talent at the high school level. And I'm not over. I don't do a ton of high school football bat I'm busy, in fact, I don't have time to dig in all of it. But people that cover these things in a day to day in a way that I don't say that. You know,
the junior and senior class in state's pretty good. And Josh Grant joined the show a few weeks ago and talked about needing somebody on the staff that understands the state and needing somebody on the staff that understands how to recruit Utah. Now I apologize once again to go back into well, Rick did this, Rick did that. But Rick was able to go get van Horn, he was able to get Andre, he was able to get Hano, he was able to get both. It was a Rick
recruit that Ray coached. And to your point, more often than not, when you look at teams and not just make the NCBA Tournament, but go on runs to the final four, at least two or three NBA guys and at least one or two European guys, it's usually three or four pros. So talk about that balance. Where do you believe that Alex, who is a local kid from Umont,
understands the state. Does he need to add more local flavor to the bench to recruit Utah or is this more of a priority to follow the pattern where you find an andre and Compton or you go over season and get a medal U right, I mean tell me your thoughts.
One, well, you know, okay, I'm being introduced as the ad as a coach in any state in the country. I'm going to go for the local kids first. I'm going to go for the local Well, you have to, you know, and if you hit the lottery on somebody that's great, like Josh or Britain, you know they're your one, two and three, right then you also have to look at the other guys that are good players. But at the end of the day, this place is that weird
where you can't learn for sure about the community. We learn how to go in and talk to the coach out to high school or tim few. I mean, you know, I mean, I don't want to make it sound like Josh and I could have this discussion because I kind of agree with him, But that's not the end of the day. For me, you got somebody that's really sharp, that wants to be in this community, learns doesn't have the ego in the way you know, they can learn pretty quick.
Yeah, you know.
And you know, and I used to say that with football, Well he's from you know, Lower East LA. And I thought, well, he's going to go into a college school. He doesn't know the people there. It's another place, right, So you don't. I don't want to be wishy washy about it, but I'd love to have Josh right here and have the debate with him, because you need the best players in the state period. Anybody can help get them. Yeah, No, I tend to agree.
I think, you know, and I think coach Waite has talked about oftentimes wanting diversity on his staff, not just simply Utah. And there's a lot of Utah people on coach with staff, but he also has coaches that have coached in other state. It's a bigger program, so maybe there's a little bit of a parallel there. What do you You've already alluded to what you think could happen next year, and this is impossible to know. I just expectations are the result of misery for sports fans all
the time. Right, you've tough football this year, Vegas favorite Big twelve chant rough season. Everybody's miserable. So you've done this, You've did it for a long time. On the administrative side, when you hire a new coach, what do you expect from them right out of the gates? What's a reasonable expectation next year?
Well, it depends on where your program is, but you know you want to coach first of all the expectations next year in this day and age, let's talk in September.
Sure, who's on my team one hundred.
Per se But when you go look at Alex's team, do they have a game plan? Can you tell is the worst shooter on the other team the one that's open?
You know.
So it's February and team's not doing great. But is everybody working hard?
You know? Is everybody getting after? Is everybody unselfish? You know?
So there's parameters that you can say after the first year, did the play team play together?
Did they play hard? You know?
Do they know their roles? All those things? You'll know even if the players aren't as good, and you'll know that they know what they're doing, how they when they're on the court, are they, you know, moaning about the referee or are they just getting after it? You know, all those things need to be set up and then you do what they're told. You know, they don't shrug their shoulders and that sounds like old school, but it's not all school. People want to be coached and they
want to get better. And so my my thing, if I were to look at it, depending on who's on his team, I think long term, I think I know where it can be. But it just depends if you just want to a now, are they playing right? Are they playing all the things I just said? You know, are they being talked? Are they better? Now?
Here's the one.
Are they better in March than they were in November?
Trending up? Then you know he can coach him up. Let me ask you one more thing here and then we'll move on and take a break, because I do have some football questions for his springball on the hill about to get going for the utes. Alex is a introspective guy. I don't know that he's an introvert per se, but he's not like he's not gonna do He's not You're not gonna hear Alex do what Jim Boylan did at halftime of football games and try to, you know,
motive like pump up the crowd. And Jim had a lot of energy in a way that Alex just doesn't. And Craig was a little front facing with his energetic approach in a way that Alex isn't. I don't think it's a good or bad thing. It's just who he is. Is he gonna have to be a little bit more willing to put himself out there in more of a front facing manner in order to recruit or just be who you are, period, end of story.
He can't fake it, right, you know, because kids, no, yeah, I mean, nobody's more critical than not critical, more observant can read through you than an eighteen year old. He'll get out going enough, but he's the kind of guy that when there's five people in a room.
He's outgoing, dry sense of humor, yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole bit.
So when you're recruiting, you got to do that. But you know, he is who he is, and he's going to do that. And he's if I'm a parent and I sound too high on him, but you know, I mean, yeah, he's going to bring it together and the kid, and he's got that cachet.
He does. Yeah, and if you want the front facing personality, you go to his better half. Natalie will provide that. Oh yeah, yeah, Yeah. She's an actress, Yes she is. And she's a delight. She's lovely. I really love them both. So Doctor Hill Live and Studio, we're going to catch a quick break. Springball Up on the Hill starts this week. The spring game, the Forever twenty two game is still on the schedule. How long will that last? We'll talk about that coming up next. The segment to You Buy
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Burt Brothers doing it better since day one. More information online at Burt Brothers dot com. All right, more coming up with doctor Chris Hill Liven Studio on a Tuesday right here on ESPN seven hundred, Doctor Chris Hill Live in studio for another big segment on this snowy, cold Tuesday afternoon. You guys thought you were out of it,
didn't you. You thought spring was here, didn't you. Well, marching Utah if you're new around these parts, oftentimes will bring exactly what it brought over the past twenty four hours, and then it's going to be seventy next week. That's just how we roll, all right. Last segment, a lot of conversation about Alex Jensen officially announced as the seventeenth
head coach in Utah men's basketball history. Spring football yeah, doctor Hill from the spring Yeah, go ahead, right, I look outside, Spring is here from an athletic director's standpoint, spring football spin the beanie at all gets you excited? It all like, ultimately, what what are the boxes you want check during springball?
I'm not a big fan of the spring game, okay, you know, I mean if spring is to find out who your players are and this and that, and you kind of feel like, well you need to. You feel like you need to give the fans something, you know, to keep them interested. But it's different now. Football is interesting all year long. And I don't know, I don't blame any coaches if they you know, they don't play
anybody there. It's you know, it's not like you leave the games that o'minta by season tickets now that I've right, right right, you know. So it's kind of like, I don't know, it's it's just not something excites me.
Never did. Yeah, you know, so.
For me, I hear around the country and I'm starting to think, yeah, maybe yeah.
Yeah, I mean selfishly, because we all just want to do what's best for our own day to day existence. Springball has always just been kind of a fun content thing. Yeah, right, you know for us self serving media, right right, Yes, yeah,
that's where we are. You know, ultimately, we want something fun to talk about on air, and I think for fans it's kind of fun because there are so many people and probably more people in our market more than ever, that just love college football so much that they just want that little fix to remind them, hey, just wait, it's on its way. Yeah.
I mean, you know, when I put on my hat of being you know, more business and thinking about it and all that stuff, you realize, yeah, fans like it. You got to respond to the fans. You can't just do that. And I think for fans, I've seen people tailgate now and they do all those things, and that makes.
A big time football program.
Yeah, it kind of makes you in flect your muscles and say, hey, yeah, we've got a lot of people are spring game and da da da dah.
But I also feel, you know, like it. It's tough. It's tough, but fans like it, so why not? I guess yeah. And you know, I'm looking at this real quick because a topic just kind of turn on in my brain that I wanted to talk to about that I forgod, because we're obviously in the midst of March madness in college basketball, and alex announced yesterday, and Utah has clearly moved into a space where for a long
time it has been labeled as a football school. Right, but you don't have to be one of the other Doctor Hill Right. So number one overall seed in the NCAA Tournament is Offurn, Okay, Tennessee is two seed, Florida is a one seed. They might go win the entire thing. I could keep going. Bama has a great program this year. Georgia has a top ten seed. I mean, there are a grip of schools that have been able to capture both, which of course should be the goal. What are the
challenges from an administration standpoint? You don't want to label yourself one of the other you no, no, no, no no.
And we had it for a while off and that. Yeah, we had pretty good years. We both did well, for sure. I Mean the classic is bo getting alex Man number one picks. Yeah, but you know you need to have them both. You can do them both, but there are some that can't. I mean, I think they just get there. And that's one of the things about the job here is when somebody takes the basketball job. They go, well, they've done it before, so maybe we can do it again. And you don't have to be one of the other.
What's funny better ad if if you have a basketball background, the football coach can always say yeah, but he's a basketball guy, right right right, and that's like their card that they can stick it to you, and the same the other way around. Basketball guy, he's a football guy. You don't understand, you want to say, you're wait.
I understand that a full stadium makes me a lot smarter.
I'm a self serving standpoint.
I'm gonna want that program to do well. But you can be both. You don't have to be where.
There's no reason. There's no reason why you can't. We've been there before, We'll be there again. Yeah, you know, I mean that's just the way it is. And it's I mean, I'm bullish on you know, the university's potential where we live only going to get better, you know, So I don't I don't see why we can.
You know, we have.
You know, we for a while with football was like nobody invested, you know, nobody did that. But now our high school football is really good. It is, it's it wasn't that way, you know, nineteen ninety ninety five it wasn't. But now it's it's really good. Yeah, and basketball has always got some and you only need a few from the state, right and then you build like we just talked a half hour ago, you know, so I think Utah can be good at both certain questions.
A couple couple of things here on the basketball side before we get back to a spring football question that I have because news came down about two weeks ago that it looks like the John M. Huntsman Center is going to get a little facelift, and your thoughts on that. I mean, I feel like it's it's kind of needed and has been for a little while.
Yeah, it's needed, it's needed, and you know, I don't know, you know, I've read about the plan and talk to some people and maybe you know, they're going to build things there that could actually provide a profit to maybe help pay for something you know, you really became. You know, I think the legislature would like that if they put things in there that would you know, help pay for it. Never and then they got to cross that line between
are your charity or not? But you know, hard for me hard for people that you know, I've walked through that door into my office a lot more even before that. But it's really nice when you sit inside. But the rest is, we always thought we need to do something. We felt we needed to just take all the athletic offices, build an athletic office complex. Wouldn't have to be big for all the other coaches and all the ministries off and it has got the thing and get the concourses whatever.
But it's too big. It's too big. I don't care what people say.
It's too big, right, yeah, and there there there Why use a different story, for sure, the different story for sure.
And I never worked there the way you did. But yesterday I did my show there prior to the presser. And even when I walk in that billary, I'm like, man, this place is really cool.
Oh there's so much history there. Oh it's it's so much history. It's a beautiful place. Locations great, and it just there's a lot of history there. And I have a lot of good memories, you know, of games that were there, and Joshua is one of them, one of the plays I remember the most. But he there's a lot of fun memories. It's it's got a lot of great history. I'm repeating myself, but you know, I mean,
life goes on. You know, you want to do it's best for the programming, you want to do it's best for the fans, and it needs either a big time remodel or whatever needs to be built all over again, you know, which is seems like a be a little waist down the road.
Yeah. Yeah, and well obviously a lot of steps still need to be taken before there's a shovel in the dirt. But we'll see how it transfers, you know, to kind of unfold. Let me let me ask you this, and I've asked a lot of my guests this over the past couple of weeks. I'm I'm not a huge like you've got to win the day guy, Like you got
to win the press conference guy. When you hire a coach, Like if you have not seen Nick Sirianni's introductory press conference when he was hired as the coach of the Eagles, go watch it. And when I saw him, like, can
this dude even formulate a sentence? And they just won the Super Bowl, right, But I felt like with Alex it was a win the press conference dynamic and a needed one at that after the new came down that they were moving on from Craig and a team that was actually better than people expected them to be this year,
which is kind of lost in the narrative. But I wonder if, because for me, wherever you're at in the ecosystem, if you're a former athletic director like doctor Chris Hill, if you're a former player like Josh Granta Britton Johnson, if you're in the current administration, or if you cover the team like I do, I feel like this hire of Alex has just been consistently applauded by everybody. Yes, is that kind of the feel you get? Yeah?
I think it's you know if yeah, sure, yeah, I mean it's just the way he's some buzz and it's attracting the buzz and you know he uh and it wasn't a press conference it would do it. It's just who he is and what you do and sure know who knows. But so yeah, it's it helps the buzz, that's for sure. Now, you got to play, right, right, that's the greatest marketer going.
Who's kid new? You got to play? But we need people in those seats. I mean I think one of the things that Kyle has Coach Wit has in his back pocket is on a Saturday night. Well, I was about to say, when USC is in town, Now I'm gonna cry. But on a Saturday night, when Kansas State is in town or whatever, not the same. But on a Saturday night, let's say b Yu's in town. It's a rival game in Slake. You're a high school player, you're a running back at East time, and Coach Wit says,
come here, stand on the sideline. Look at that crowd, look at the musk, look at this. Don't you want to play here? It's hard to say no, because rice ecles these days. For the past number of years has been a tremendous environment, and it's been a while since the Huntsman felt the way it did when he was ticking. So how do we get people in the stands in order to help Alex recruit players players want to play in front of in front of fans, doctoril they just yeah. You know.
First of all, Lavelle Edwards, one of his things he said, is one of the great best things I did is I made Saturdays important in Provo, and you know called me that I left as a pretty smart guy. You know, I don't want to be too cynical, but I will be because you know that's the deal. Rose Post didn't hurt for sure, Urban didn't hurt for sure, Rick didn't hurt, right, and you know you got to win, you know. I mean,
I'm sorry. I mean the marketing we started to spend hardly any money on football when I left marketing, didn't have to do a thing, you know, And yeah you can't.
Not everybody can win.
Buts like went to a meeting one time on a Sunday with some presidents universities are running. It's just you know, it's Saturday in football every because against The problem is half of you lost and half of you won, and seventy five percent of you were supposed to win, you know. So I mean they can do things, they can get it excited. But you know, did you see Oklahoma state stands this year?
Yeah?
Nobody there, yep, five years ago, no fact. And I don't I don't want it to Well, that's you asked me a question. Here's what I think. Okay, I think if you win, yeah, you're fine.
Yeah.
And if you don't win, you know, they're not fair weather fans. That's everybody for She don't want to go to the game and not be able to say that's my team and look how well we did.
And yeay me, yeah, you know, no, no, no, you're not wrong. I hear you. All right, let's shift back to a couple of more football things for us that you lose. So I referenced the Forever twenty two game, the Utah spring game. It's coming up. You can get tickets online, check it out for sure, but at last check, and I'm not going to get all of them right, but USC, Nebraska, Florida State, like some of the biggest big dogs in college football are just like, we're not
doing the spring game anymore. As you referenced earlier, the last I don't know, six seven or eight years or whatever. Most of the ones and the twos don't get a lot of run. Some of them do, but mostly these are walk on young players just to kind of show the fans, hey, we're here. This is fun. But we can't have our starting quarterback, as we've learned in Salt Lake, so let's put them on ice. Before I get to
Dion's idea, which I think is actually pretty good. Do you think this trend of spring ball, not spring ball going away, But do you think the trend of the spring game going away is something that could permeate throughout the entire country.
There's a good possibility. I mean, you know, think about what we talked a while ago. There is the fan factor, you know, saying, hey, I have a responsibility as the athletic director and the people they love football to give them something to you know, have a group hug in the spring. And you know that's important from a very practical standpoint. There's really no upside from the actual coaching
of the game. They'd rather have a regular practice if you're just worried about the coach of the game.
And so.
But I don't know how many are going to keep doing it. They got to do something in spring. But what it would become the spring games, it's going to an event that's exciting is what the fans want. They're not going to the game anymore than you know, fans that really know, you know, what's that new guy like and what's just like? They really just want to have get together and watch football. Yeah yeah, yeah, and that's it.
I should reference the forever twenty two game will be on April the nineteenth at one o'clock PM, and tickets can be found at Utah tickets dot com. Ten bucks for a bleacher seat, twenty two for a chair back, and fifty bucks for a premium seat. Utah will have fifteen spring practices and that gets rolling this week. So let's let's move over here for a minute, because look, it's not a reality now, but I do think at some point over the next I don't know, three to
five years, the FCSFBS games will go away. The smaller schools who come up here for the paycheck and the kids get their heads kicked in before they go back down to Southern Utah or whatever. Those things are going to go away once college football settles into the landscape of whatever it's going to be. Right. We talk a lot about the NFL mob with afcnc IS at SEC Big ten. They're already holding meetings without everybody else, right,
and so we're moving in that direction. Dion's idea for Colorado spring game is to kind of do what they do in the NFL when you have like the two a day practices with the Patriots and the Jets or whatever, and then they scrimmage at the end of the two a day practices after like three or four games. And his idea is to supplement the financial needs of some of these smaller schools, to have them come to Boulder practice against Colorado, and then have a game where fans
can attend, where you scrimmage those teams. I actually think there's something here. I think it's kind of a decent idea from Dian. What do you think?
Yea, this is the first I've heard of it, you know, a couple of days ago.
Yeah.
Yeah, let me flip a coin and tell you what I feel. No, I think that there's, like I said, I'm repeating, there's some attitude towards that. I'm really glad that he that they would pay those schools because that they need that money for sure, and it's only fair, and well who cares about fairness now, I guess. But you know, I kind of like the thought of that because it's different, and you don't have to play your top line players either, but it kind of gives you
a little shot at it. And and because what you're saying is the f C yes are not going to be playing big time schools for paychecks.
You's thinking to fall anymore? I don't think so. I think once this new super league actually comes into reality, they're just going to play each other. It's going to be like the NFL. Yeah, it's going to be like the NFL.
And college are a little different because it you know, good old State U you used to be intended to right and you know six and six six.
And six could get you into the playoffs and go to the super Bowl in the NFL with six losses. Though, I mean, I just think, doctor Hill, this is just my opinion. College football is starting to be run like a hedge fund. It's starting to be run by private act like private equity businesses, where the bottom line is the bottom line, and powerful TV executives are saying to them, no more Alabama mercer. Okay, I want brand names every
single weekend. And therefore the Utah against Southern Utah dynamic I think is going to go away.
Well, you know, I used to say to his staff when something came up like that, I you know, say something that would be so obvious, nothing personal.
Uh huh.
I would say, I have a great grasp the obvious spence, you have a great grassy obvious.
It's going to be it's a pro deal. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
If it doesn't go that way, I'll be shocked, right, And that's the way, you know, that's the way it's going to go, and you just have to accept it and plan from there, is what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, so what's the deal? What are we going to do with this type of thing? And I think that's just thinking about it. I think that's probably a pretty good idea to do that.
Yeah, I mean live TV rights or that's what is bank rolling sports now. Yeah, you know the TV contracts. Like I think the NBA has a massive issue with their star players not wanting to play basketball, which is their job description. But they're about to enter a new seventy to billion dollar TV deal, so they'll say to me, what's the problem. What problem do I have? Exactly? Oh,
you're mad that Luca didn't play tonight. Guess what, we just signed a seventy two billion dollar TV deal, and I feel like college sports is moving to that reality. Oh you're mad that Southern Utah isn't coming up for their paycheck. Okay, we'll look at this TV deal we just signed because we don't have to televise that game anymore, right, which sucks. I'm with you, like I guess what's fair
anymore is out the window. But part of me has always loved working in sports because there is an altruism to it where you don't want to just be in an ecosystem that's motivated only by the almighty dollar. There are plenty of jobs that only do that, doctor Hill. It's why I wanted to do this, you know, not to be in that kind of existence day to day.
Yeah, it's I agree that it's going to be like the pro model. It's going to be more and more exciting, you know, college good Bye to Alex. Alex told me so I understand the deal now that football is the big deal, sure, you know. And just so college can grow and grow and grow within just an infrastructure of thirty or forty school TV contracts will be bigger, yep. And they'll be shared with fewer people and maybe everybody else will run maybe what they heart says they used
to do, you know. And so I fully agree that it's going to be the big time is going to be narrowed down, big time.
Last thing that I'll set you loose so you can get back out. Oh my gosh, it's snowing again, nuts sticking, So drive safe out there. I have not spoken with you, and I didn't cover the whole like is Kyle coming back or is he not? Intensely, because Kyle's under contract and he's just a coach that is still currently employed, and I just figured he'd come back. But it was enough of a story that they did release a statement. This is essentially saying coach Wait is back for another year.
So I haven't talked to you since that announcement. I just wonder what your reaction was.
I'm not surprised, not surprised, And you know, I feel for a little sympathy towards coaches are at that situation where you know, how you're not going to ask that question, sure, you know, And I was in that position, and I first thing I'd say is I understand you have to ask that question, but I'm not ready to give you an answer, you know. And so Kyle wasn't being cute.
You know.
If he knew he'd do it, that's who he is, sure, you know. So if he knew he wanted to leave, he'd leave. He knew his day. But it's confusing, and you know, and it's you know, college sports is a drug. You know, you love it and you get addicted to it. And you know for him, you know, now everybody said, oh, he's done, next.
Year's done next year.
I don't know who knows, right, he has the right to do it what he wants to do. And you know somebody has a theory. Well, he wanted to end with a good, winning season. He wanted to you know who knows he knows? I always doctor Hill. I always go back to Greg Popovich who said in two thousand and ten.
Or something, he pointed at Tim Duncan because somebody asked him during the practice, Hey, how long are you to do this? He pointed Duncan and he said, when he's done, I'm done. Then Duncan retired, and that offseason he signed a new five year extension. Right, and then during pre season media they said, you told us that you were done when Tim was gonna retire, and Tim is retired, but you signed a new extension. And he said, they pay me pretty well, and I still enjoy doing this,
so I'm gonna keep doing it. End of story, right, It is that simple, end of story. Well, just coach as long as you can coach and tell somebody.
Like anybody else. Your enthusiastic about what you do, you like what you show. You come here. It's not work right, and you know why not if you feel it. That's the thing. If you can add up the whole yellow notepad, pluses and minus and pluses, and at the end of the day, it's the biggest decision you'll make except family things.
And you didn't get America.
Your wife had a you know, health test, or she has good teeth, she's healthy, or this and that you fell in love. Well, a job like that. You know they're passionate and you can't add it up plus or minus. You're gonna have to put it like Papavitch. That's a great example.
Yeah, I like it. Yeah, they takes me a lot of money. What did I tell you? How am I going to make ten million year doing something? Okay, you do your thing. Man, Hey, always great to see you. That's good to see you. Thanks so much for the time. Thanks for having me. And drive safe out there. Okay, I'm not a good driver.
Anyway, I'm wondering a few guys that admits they're not a good driver. Okay, well, so yeah it is, uh it is. Harry we thought we were out of out of the snow, and Utah reminded us.
Great to see us so careful. Thank you doctor Chris Hill. Always great to see him live in studio for an hour before we catch a break. Let's welcome our guy dug in from Farmer and Chemist on a snowy Tuesday afternoon. Doug, Happy Tuesday, sir, how are you Spence?
Happy Tuesday to you as well, Happy snowy Tuesday.
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Doug, thank you sir for the time. Be safe out there and we'll chat soon.
Thank you. Have a great day, all right.
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