All right, what is going on? It's drivetime, it's a Monday. It's about eighteen minutes past the hour, two o'clock. We got a little loose on Cross Talk today, myself and Sean O'Connell.
Too.
Happy bunday to you. Hope you had a great weekend, and as it is every single day, it's gonna have you along for the ride. Spence check, it's beyond the mic. That's Porter Larson beyond the Glass today. Dam pac Man love Monday shows in the fall. We got a lot to do, of course, a lot of it will involve the college football weekend that is now behind us and looking ahead to a massive, massive week for both Utah
and UYU as Big twelve plays upon us. So a lot to do on this Monday afternoon edition of The Drive. Pro Football. The NFL Week two will culminate tonight with their little Monday Night football that you can hear on this radio station. It is the Eagles hosting the Falcons Philadelphia five point five point favorite the over unders forty five point five. A lot of crazy offsets in pro football. We'll talk some NFL on the show today, of course, a lot of college as well. DYU went up to
Laramie and had no problem, no problem at all. That game was over early BYU jumped on Wyoming and made sure they had no chance in that game, which they didn't. It was a very impressive performance of both the PYU and Utah. Now into our Big twelve game week YU host K State on Saturday night at eight thirty. Utah is on the road at Stillwater taking on ok State. Both those two teams of State clean and Utah and BYU State clean in the non con So away we go, Away we go, and we'll talk a lot about all
of that on the program today. RSL got stopped by the Houston Dynamo, of course, because that's kind of a deal now, So get into somebout on the program today, good guest list, as we do every Monday in the afternoons here on your home of the Utes, we played Coach Witz Presser. If you missed it from earlier today, we'll bring that back around to you coming up. Then we're gonna bring you in. Josh Furlong on the program today, Josh to stop buy It covers the Utes for OKSL.
Our good friends over at KSL give you our Big twelve power rankings. You do it every Monday on the show. A little bit of a shakeup for me. We'll see what Porter has to say. That comes away at three point thirty, and then Tony Parks live in studio. Always enjoy catching up with Tony later on the show. So we'll bring you a little coach with we'll chat with Josh Furlong, we'll do our Big twelve Power rankings. We'll
bring in Tony Parks, Me Spence Check. Its all of you, the great listeners, and that guy Porter Larson on a Monday afternoon. So the young man looked pretty good. Isaac performed pretty well. That was a anxious start, you could feel it for youth fans, but ultimately they handle their business. Yeah.
Yeah, obviously didn't get going the way that you would have liked, or you would have intended if you are the utes. But you get out of there with a win, You get out of there no real injuries or long term issues to speak of in that regard, and you do get Cam rising back by all reports in still water. So the result is no way to spin in any
other way than positive. But if you do want a nitpick, if you do want to dive into the specifics there are, you know, a lot of things that you talk and still grow on, a lot of things that they looked really good with, including the development of Isaac Wilson, and that's something to be optimistic about. So yeah, a lot to get to, including the utes over the weekend on this Monday show.
No doubt. So we'll bring you a coach witch presser right out of the gates. But before we do that, courtesy of our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, Standard Restaurant supplies your tailgate headquarters. You get everything you need to make your tailgate epic. Standard carries everything from serving dishes,
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Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's number one Sports talk Now into the studio of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply, thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.
The anxious moments over the weekend for youth fans, certainly as Utah State up in Logan was able to take a fourteen to three lead before the youths kind of got their footing underneath them. So it took a minute as far as that slow start for Utah football, but they were able to find their footing and ultimately get a pretty comfortable win over the Aggies thirty eight to twenty one. So Utah had not been up north to play Utah State in twelve years. So the Battle of
the Brothers is the wagon wheel BYU Utah State. Is there a wagon wheel involved in this one?
I think that's the wagon wheel. It's Eyuutah State Battle of the Brothers or something.
I'm on record. Whatever it is, I'm on record saying that's the dumbest gift to give as a reward in all of college football, really, so ergonomically incorrect. Who's in charge of getting it back down to provo? That would be a horrible assignment anyway, you know, battle the Brothers. The one hundred and twelfth edition of Utah Utah State goes Utah's way. So let's dig into a little bit. We'll get to some yu before he played coach quick
coming up. So the questions heading into the game certainly were surrounding the quarterback position, as they have been and will be for a while. So we told you on our show last Monday that I was told Isaac was getting the reps with one. So I wasn't surprised to see Isaac hunder center. Cameron Rising was dressed, he did warm up. They go with Isaac Wilson, and it was a little bit of a shaky start, but man, did
this kid settle in. And according to our friends at PFF, Isaac Wilson highest graded true freshman running back from Week three, a PFF grade of seventy three point five. And it was good news for so many different reasons. Let's get into a few of them. First of all, let's say most of you probably do not bet, and you shouldn't. As I say on the show, do not gamble on sports. You work too hard for your money. Keep it in
your bank account, keep it in your pocket. But if I said to you, you have to bet your next paycheck on whether or not Cam Rising is going to play in every game moving forward, what would you bet it on? We would all bet it on probably not. Nobody wants him to get hurt. Certainly we all want to see Cameron under center, as porter referenced earlier, all of the reports and coach with himself saying they expect him under center in Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State.
Oklahoma State has stayed clean. They trounced Tulsa over the weekend after getting a win over Arkansas that was really hairy for them. Quite frankly, they were lucky to get that done. They beat South to go to State to start the year. We'll get into Okay State throughout the course of the week. On this show, he kind of
start to turn the page closer to Wednesday. They can really run the football, and right now Utah has some things to fix because Utah State was able to get yards on the ground with Rescuo Faison, who had one hundred and fifteen yards on nineteen carries. But Isaac specifically answered so many questions for so many people on Saturday, and yes, Utah State is not a P four team, it's not a big twelve team. Nate Drawling's a defensive coach, so you know that their defense was prepared and they
did cause some problems for Isaac. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't perfect on out of side of the ball. Kar Karen, I excuse me. Karn A. Reid also sat he is expected to play against Oklahoma State, but that was an issue. Utah sacked Bryson Barnes once Utah State was able to grab three eighty five of total. Oh that's way too many yards. I'm sure coach went Morgan Scalley not thrilled about that. So certainly things to clean up prior to this road trip, which is so big for so many
different reasons. Utah, by the way, is the favorite out of the gates in Vegas. Utah in Stillwater as of now is a one point five point favorite. The over under is fifty one point five. It is supposed to be super hot down there next weekend. The AC game time weather as of now is ninety three degrees. And remember you usually get about three points built in as the home team, so Vegas thinks Utah is about four and a half five points better than Oklahoma State. We'll
see whether the wise guys think. We'll see where the sharks think. We'll see if that line moves. But Isaac has answered a question that was simply never answered last year, and that is, if Cam is unavailable, and last year was also if Brandon Rose is unavailable, the first two guys go down early, what does that position look like? It was never fully answered. It was Bryson, then it was Night, then it was both of them sometimes, then it was my guy, the Ferrari Batari for a minute,
we just never knew what to expect under center. And the nice thing about what we saw on Saturday is should Cameron have to miss time? And let's hope he does not. Let's hope he's ready to go on Saturday and plays every single game the rest of the way. But again, if you're a betting man, what's your confidence level if that's going to happen? And right now, the best team in college football is dealing with their own situation. Quinn yours is week to week Arch Manning. We saw
the next great Manning QB. Five total touchdowns, including a ridiculous scamper, the longest touchdown ron of a Texas quarterback since Vince Young. So Steve Sarkisian got some answers on Saturday from RCH. Kyle Whittingham got some answers on Saturday from Isaac. And it doesn't matter who you are, which team you are in football, chances are no matter what the position is, you're going to need multiple players to be able to step up and play that position, not
just one or two, sometimes three or four. We learned it last year with his quarterback stuff. That was such an emphatic answer for me of what Isaac has in him that we can debate all the other stuff. The run defense wasn't great. You didn't pressure the quarterback. You know, you allowed too many tenuous moments against the team. You're clearly better than We can get into all that stuff.
But ultimately, I'm sure Kyle and Andy and the whole coaching staff on that bus ride back down a Salt Lake had big smiles on their face because their young freshman quarterback, the fifth true freshman in Utah football history to start a game, set a true freshman record with three touchdown passes and answer the question of what do we look like when we don't have our starting quarterback? When Cameron is not right, what do we look like?
And the goodness is this year, at least for now, it seems like they'll look a lot better than they did a year ago. All right, over to BYU real quick. Like I said earlier, they jumped on Wyoming. It was over quick, and that crowd, which gets loose, certainly had nothing to cheer for. Reetz left comes out, he throws the pick and you're like, oh, dude, And then Bohanna was actually warming up before this thing got out of control. After Jake threw another pick because Aaron Roderick last week
he said turnovers will be eliminated from my offense. Jake throws a pick. Are they going to throw by handing in? They didn't, and Rehet's left bounces back, throws for two ninety one on three touchdowns. He did have that one pick QBR of seventy five, which is fine, but Wyoming had nothing. And as soon as BYU had that kickoff return for the touchdown on the other side of halftime, it was curtains there was no comeback to be had.
So both BYU and Utah stay clean and the non con and now they welcome in two of the best teams in the Big Twelve that Lavelle Edwards is going to be eight point thirty on ESPN, Kansas State rolls into town as a seven point favorite and the over under is forty seven point five. All right, Coming up on the other side, as we are wont to do on this radio show, on this radio program, we are going to be joined live in studio I believe by doctor Angela Peterson, right, yes, yes, so let's get her in.
We'll be joining studio real quick. And then coming up on the other side, we are going to catch up with coach wit. If you miss Kyle Whittingham's press conference from earlier today, as we are wont to do on this show, we bring it back to you in the afternoons just in case you got distracted did not have a chance to check it out. So Josh Furlong will stop by give you our Big twelve power rankings. Tony Parks live in studio, we'll get to some NFL stuff, a lot of locals in the NFL making some big
time plays. Tim Patrick. Tim Patrick with a couple of catches for the Lions, first time Tim had catching an NFL game since twenty twenty one. So some good stuff as it pertains to what we saw in the NFL over the weekend with some local players making plays. Catch it a lot of strays today. Did you have a chance to tune into cross talk or were you busy, you know, producing a radio show.
I actually did not get to hear much of a crosstalk.
Love is the te Let me love it out and we'll get to coach with and maybe we'll readdress this later. Based off some feedback, Sean on his show was giving away tickets to Disney on Ice and made a statement along the lines of, you know, great thing for your kids, or like if you don't have kids and you want to go something along the lines of that. And I made the statement that Disney adults adults that do like the full Disney thing, right, And I'm not talking about
watch a Disney movie. I'm not talking about maybe go there one day or something. I'm talking about, like, you plan the trip. It's like a week long trip. You're either Disneyland, Disney World. You're at resort hotels, so you're spending probably ten thousand dollars start to finish, and that's the deal. And you get together with your boys, or you get together with your girls and you're like, hey, we got to do the Disney thing, and that's the thing that you do often and spend your time and
money doing often right without children. I find that to be form of mental illness. Oh is that too strong? I'm getting feedback. That's a little strong.
I would say it's a little strong, Okay, I will say. And it's interesting because you're in a market that, let's be clear, loves Disney.
Yeah, but most of people that love Disney have a bunch of kids, or just some kids, or a kid like me. I have one. I took him out of Disney Cruise. I enjoy Disney, but I can't picture. I can't picture like calling my buddies and being like, dude, what are you guys doing? Third weekend of October. Get ready for a little it's a small world. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna crush Space Mound like seven times.
We're going. We're going to Anaheim. We're standing at a Disney resort hotel and I'm going to introduce you to what it's like to ride on the Peter Pan Ride. Yeah. Together, I'm with you, and you buy a sandwich and a soda and it's like forty five dollars. It's not like my cup of tea.
If you're not a sports fan, maybe you're not like a big music, live music person, then you gotta find your your entertainment somewhere. I I can't get with it. I you know, I had my my Disney landfill when I was a young child, and it happened quickly. But hey, to each their own, each their own.
I feel about Disney the Disney experience the same way I feel about Star Wars movies. I loved them, and then I turned ten it was time to move on.
Yeah.
OK, I'm not anti Disney. I just think the adults that are crushing Disney often like for weeks at a time, I think it's an interesting look. How about that?
Okay, okright, that's better than than mental illness. You know, maybe some things to chat about a professional about as well, if you want to.
Yeah, maybe I'll dig into that at some point, some childhood stuff you want to maybe address. Scoop of vanilla ice cream with making with Mickey Mouse. Here is forty seven to ninety five. Thanks for coming to Disney World. It's insane, man like the money that people spend there is nuts. I think you should go again rekindle your recapture my inner child, your child. Yeah, thanks for the advice. There you go. All right, So we're gonna bring in
Josh Furlong today. We have tony parks later on, but as we do every single Monday during the college football season. If you missed it from earlier, here's the head coach of the utes coach you wit.
All right, hard fought game up in Logan against Utesh State this past weekend. A lot of positives coming out.
Of that game.
For small it was great to see Isaac have success. And uh I thought he Berdy managed the Uh not managed, that's probably the wrong word. He played exceptionally well in the game. Uh once he got settled in. Uh we got kind of a slow start as a team. UH no explanation for that. They they uh did a good job getting their guys ready. Uh the Aggies did, and they were they were uh they played very well. They were coached well. Uh and uh you know given them credit for for uh our slow start. A lot of
that goes to them. But UH anyway, we uh ended up uh gaining some momentum as the game went on, UH ended up winning UH thirty eight twenty one, and UH now it's time to get into conference play. So uh as conference play from here on out starts at Oklahoma State. UH tough place to play from what I hear, have never been there, about the same size statium that we have within you know, just a few hundred people, I believe, and so, so there's a lot of similarities
between the two UH programs. UH coach Gundys Dine a great job there for a lot of years. And UH they're undefeated three and zero, h highly ranked and as are we. So should make for a good matchup. And UH it'll be a intriguing start for us to the uh you know, as as the first conference game, official conference game in the Big twelve. So questions, Yes, Justice.
Says a great game on Saturday.
By the way, how are you planning on getting the secondary out of the compound with the Oklahoma State coming up?
Because of the game with Utah State they got torched.
So they got torched. Huh okay, well great, we UH give Test States some credit. They made some terrific catches in that first uh quarter, UH first half. I guess you could say Uh, I thought our secondary was better. As the game will on. I ended up intercepting the football a couple of times. It made some uh plays on the ball up the field in addition to the interceptions. But you tested has some really good receivers, uh Bryce and Barnes uh s can't say enough good things about him.
He's a competitive.
Kid and he uh played very well for him and UH we just you know, the entire team needs to get better. We we got uh deficiencies like everyone in the country does. That's why you go out and practice every week. But but uh we felt pretty good about our secondaries play overall. I think they were right around fifty percent completion percentage, which is uh where you'd like to be as a as a defense, you know, keep your opponent to fifty percent is uh playing some pretty good pass coverage.
So but we'll, uh we'll.
Continue to work with those guys and and uh try to make uh improvements.
Kyle, you've had a few freshman qbs over the years start for certain games. When you're looking at Isaac what a what does what does progression look like to you? And how has he kind of tracked in and kind of your estimation of who he is as a QB.
Well progression, there's uh better numbers, uh, you know, numbers that are improving.
Uh.
I thought he had his best and this is his first obviously start an opportunity to have the all the reps during the practice week and and get completely tuned up for the game. So that's uh you know what you look for is is the uh statistical uh part of it.
Uh.
His QBR was was pretty good for the game for a true freshman. He needs to continue to uh gain command.
Of the offense.
Coach Ludwick's offense is not the easiest offense to to uh to learn, but once you get it, it's it's very effective. And so he's just continuing to uh attack uh whatever that learning curve and and become more comfortable with all his reads and and the checks and the you know, there's a lover not only in the throw game, but in the run game. There's a lot of checks that need to be made in the run game. And and he's just continue to get better and.
Better at that.
After watching the tape, what did you identify as the reason the run defense somewhat struggled there against Utah State?
I would say for the game itself, we were not bad. Not our usual would they come away with one hundred and forty or one hundred and thirty yards rushing, which is typically more than we give up. But give a lot of credit to that running back. He was really he was physical, he had good speed, good quickness, He ran with violence, and he's going to gain a lot of the arts this year. He's a quality back and that's probably as much as anything else in the game
is that guy and his ability. But I thought, once again, once the defense settled in, we got a lot stingier in the run game and played much more effectively down the stretch.
Coach you obviously, Mackay Bernard settling in seems to be at RB one. But are you seeing encouraging science from Mike Mitchell.
Yes, we are.
And he's been hampered by a nagging injury that just keeps showing up every week. Uh, not enough to keep him completely out of the game, but enough where he's got to leave the game at times to to uh, to let it.
Stop hurting, I guess, But but uh.
He is uh as a freshman doing a nice job. That is a good complimentary back to McKay he's a bigger back. He's nearly two hundred twenty pounds, and and uh w'ere mckaye is uh about two hundred pounds maybe two or five. So so he's he's a good compliment, gives us good complimentary Uh rushes and k Uh carries UH in the game and UH as does uh. Deshaun Stanley.
He's another guy that contributes to the run game. And so between those three guys right now, those three guys seem to be the guys that have e merged as the the guys that UH at least for the moment that we're going with.
And we've talked a lot about Kivid Lohner and his pass catching abilities and all that, But are you seeing maybe differences in how teams are going against you when he's in the you know, field goal kicking or or what advantage does that give to have him there?
With his hype, his.
Heights, that is the advantage.
I mean, he's uh six foot seven plus giant wingspan, so that adds to the elevation he gets and he's a great leaper. So you put all that together and that makes him very effective at that role, that particular role in b at field goal block. He's got his hands on two of them. Now well would have got to I think Van got the first one in the in the in the game last week, but Caleb looked like it was right on the track for him to
get it had Van not got the tip. But anyway, he's a he's a he's effective in that role, and I think you're going to see him become more and more of a factor offensively as the season wears. I'll remember he's never well I wouldn't say never, but he hasn't played much football in his life and it's been several.
Years since he has.
And you saw that nice catch and Isaac threw a great ball, by the way, that's just how you draw that up is he's a throw it up where only he can get it, which was the result in the game this past weekend. And we're going to try to continue to expand his role and give him more opportunities.
And he is really.
A tough eager has a great desire to be to be successful, and so that's a big part of it, and that's why he's off to a good starts because of his attitude.
Kyle has sort of mentioned that it seems like the plan is to have camp play. You know, for the past two weeks, what conversations have you had with him in terms of protecting himself and going into this game as specifically conference play. You've also mentioned that you need him to win this conference. You know, what things are you looking for in terms of you know, what he might put on tape or how he needs to protect himself going forward.
Well, what he needs to put on tape is just what he's been doing for us really ever since he took over. I mean, he's a he's a terrific quarterback.
When he's on his game.
He's typically in the top ten in the nation in QBR, which again is the barometer that I personally feel is the most accurate and best way to assess the quarterback play. And you have more of the same as far as you're answer to or your question, what have we talked about, you know, as far as getting out of harm's way, just doing a better job of that. And it goes against his grain. A. He's a tough, competitive guy, as I've said you know, dozens of times, and it just
is not natural for him to turn anything down. But he's got to. He's got to be able to do that.
You mentioned offensive line play was kind of hot and cold the first couple of weeks of the season. Is that still the case. Have you seen them solidify in certain areas and where are they still deficient?
Well, it was.
Kind of like the rest of the team. They were not real good in the first quarter offensive line. That was their worst quarter of the game this past weekend. But once that was over with them, we started to get into a groove. They played exceptionally well, probably played their best football the season the last three quarters.
In the name.
We rushed for two and almost two hundred and thirty yards and five point four carry. I believe it was so what we talked about a couple of weeks ago in here, the balance that we're looking for and the ability to run the ball over five yards a clip, you know, two hundred plus yards a game. That's exactly what happened in this game. Although it didn't start out very good. You know, we were very average at best in the first quarter.
Coach Junior to film in a can a ton of asa seem to be really disruptive on the interior. Is that kind of what you're hoping to see out of them this season.
Absolutely, I thought they played their best game of the season.
And I say that it's only three games in, but of the three games that those two guys really did an excellent job this particular game. And not only from a production standpoint, but their leadership is incredible. Those two guys are vocal. They have an infectious type of leadership that wears that rubs off on everybody else. And it's not only in games, it's a practice as well, in
the weight room, everything they do. Those guys coming to the facility with a great attitude, their upbeat and uh, like I said, they're exactly the kind of guys you want to playing for.
Kyle, What have you seen on tape from Oklahoma State's run game? You know, Ollie Gordon is one of the best running backs in the nation. How do you think you guys are gonna have to defend them heading into this week and so forth.
Yeah, we're gonna have to, uh be good tacklers. He's He's a guy that breaks a lot of tackles. He's a big back, you know, it's over six feet and over two hundred twenty pounds and and just wears you out. I mean he's a he's kind of a bully back there, and uh that's his style and and uh very rarely is the first guy gonna gonna stop his stop his charge.
But but it's gonna be a have to be a concerted effort by the whole front seven to to uh gang tackle and and wrap up, in which we didn't do a good job of early in the game this past weekend, as we said, so we gotta we.
Gotta do uh a better job of that.
But but uh, he's uh got all our respect and uh all our attention, and he's a guy that, uh, you know, he's one of the premier backs in the country. I don't know what more he can say.
Coach a couple of new faces on the defense side of the ball, Jonathan Hall Rabbit Evans. What did you see from them in their first action this season?
Some good stuff, especially from John All thought he made a bunch of plays.
I think he had.
Thirty six snaps if I remember correctly the great sheets that we do every week, and really was productive. He's a very sure tackler. He's a guy that once he gets his hands on you, hits over. I mean, he can tackle as good as as anybody. We got rabbit, some hot and some cold. He made some nice plays,
a few assignment errs. He's he's still learning. He did not get here till late in the summer, and so kind of like Coach love MC's offense, Coach Scaley's defense is pretty evolved and and there's a learning curve there, so so he's working hard to get up to speed, but he's just still not quite as assignment sound as he needs to be.
But the ability is there.
He's got a lot of ability and and very proud of Camp Calhoun. We haven't talked about him and he he stepped in and and gave us some uh, very good play on Saturday. He had that one nice interception and some other really good uh coverage reps.
So he's that that's.
Huge for us to see him play like he did, and it just gives us that much more depth and one more guy that we can we can go to in the secondary.
Karan Reid seems to be a calming force and kind of a communicator on that defensive side. When he's not there, how does your defense change and kind of what are you looking for if you know, for guys to step up or what what kind of happens with Tha's up there.
Yeah, Well, first of all, has immediate replacement is the only foe.
Two.
He's the one that has taken the the reps that uh Karny, you know, by missing Coarny, and he's the guy that's filled in.
But uh John o'hall.
Is gonna be in that role as well and start to get uh more reps. Uh A lot more falls onto landerd Barton when Karnie's not in there to run the show in the front and make sure that guys are lined up correctly and and h where they're supposed to be, and that we put a lot of the onus of that uh the front onlie. It's on the linebackers to get those guys straight and you know, based on formation and communicate uh as far as where they
need to be. So so Landon Martin's got probably the biggest job when Current's not in there because it really falls on to him.
Kind of tiggybacking off of that, do you think not having corne out on the field last week sort of impacted how your run defense operated and so forth.
Anytime you lose a good football player, there's you know, there's uh some uh diminished results. And and not that the guys that played for him didn't do a good job, cause they did. But if it didn't matter who's out there, you know, it wouldn't matter. But it does matter. I mean, you put your best guys out there for a reason. And so he's a he's a team leader. He's a he's a very experienced, very fundamentally and technique sound linebacker that does everything right and uh seldom, if ever makes
a mental mistake. So he and he's one of our captains. I mean, you know, so he's he definitely provides a lot and brings a lot to the table. And you do miss those guys when are not there. But that being said, it's part of the game. So it's next man at mentality, as it always is, and next guy's got to step up as well as a supporting cast.
We talked about that last week, that handling university not only comes from your oppoland, but from within when you're dealing with injuries and things that go awry.
Coach Gundy and yourself got your jobs within a few weeks of each other back in two thousand and five. Can you compare contrast? Maybe look at some parallels that allow you guys to have the same job for so long.
That's a good question.
I don't really because, you know, being in the Pac twelve and obviously the Mountain West before that, completely separate from the Big twelve. We didn't have a lot of crossover games with the Big twelve, just a few here and there, But certainly have been aware of his success. I mean, he's done a terrific job, and that's ultimately the bottom line. If you're not successful, you're not going
to be in a job for very long. And so he's done a good job of winning and being consistent and seems to be every year.
I mean every year there there there.
You know what you're gonna get from them, and they they're guys, play hard, and they're well coached, and the personnel is good.
Coach, we know you're a big day game type guy. But the Arizona game was announced eight fifteen PM. Fans love it. What makes that atmosphere so special?
I don't know, but it is.
Uh, it is kind of magical at rice cycles and night games and and I didn't know that you just I just realized that Jordani's failed to tell me that.
But that's okay.
I I'll never complain about kickoff times, but preferences sooner the better.
I'd rather play at four in the morning if we could just get them go.
But but I just hate waiting around for you know, all day on Saturday for games.
But but it doesn't really matter what I like or don't like it.
But Rice cycles back to your question is I don't know other than the it just seems to be electric at night. And I don't have a great answer for it. But it sure is an advantage for us, a definite advantage.
All right, there you go. Coach went addressing the media earlier today and on this show every afternoon, well every Monday afternoon. We I guess we could replay Kyle every afternoon, but we usually do it on on Mondays. If you missed any of it, log on ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. All right, joining me now live in studio, doctor Angela Peterson from Lifestyle Men's Health Brand, new brand. Doctor Peterson tell listeners about the new brand, this new project. It's a new rebranding.
Well, I started a clinic in Scottsdale with some other partners. And you know, when you do a good thing, you get noticed and so that business.
Is going well.
And we are going to bring Lifestyle to Utah and.
It's going well because you get results. That's that's how life works. That's great and let's bring on Ken now Lifestyle Men's South. So Ken, I've been talking about the two products Doctor Peterson has helped me with that I can personally testify and make a big difference that is to stosterone therapy and vitality peptides. What I want to get from you today, Ken, is your experience with these ED treatments and now they can help our listeners.
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five eight nine two zero three. Now to bring you our big twelve Power rankings coming up in just a little bit.
Do it.
Every Monday on the show, we will review our Friday picks that we gave you before we said good night? Did okay? This week? Weren't as last week? We're five and one. This week we're three and two, so not bad, not great, not bad. So we're gonna do that. Coming up in just a little bit, we'll bring in Tony Parks live in studio. But let's bring in our guy. Josh Furlong covers the the utes for Ksel. Josh, Happy Monday, man, how are we doing?
Happy Monday? Good to be here? How are you?
I'm good? I appreciate your time. So what questions did Isaac Wilson answer in your opinion? Josh on Saturday?
I think it's, you know, if he's capable of being able to back up Cam rising right. I don't know that there's some er shattering question about what this projects for his future, but I think, you know, it showed what he's able to do and that he's able to actually lead the offense in a way that it gives them confidence. So I think, by and large, that's probably
the biggest question that was answered. You know, it had its mistakes, it wasn't perfect, but I think it showed that he's able to do it, and especially in a way where you have to come from behind and kind of help your team rally. So I think it was all good things for him and in his progression as a freshman.
QB tell us what I mean by all accounts. I know they don't update injury situations, but it does feel like everyone is expecting Cameron to be back or okay State. Is that your understanding, Josh.
Yeah, that's the understanding. I mean, there's always things that could happen in the course of the week, but the guess is that Cam will be able to go, and that this was an opportunity for Isaac to get the start but also to heal up Cam. And now it gets into conference plane, we're back to having the QB one back on the sidelines and the center and everything should be okay.
So what and coach Wit talked about this during his media talked about it after the game. In your opinion, what was the luck you go up, You get to win without your starting quarterback, without one of your best defensive players in Karin Reid? All good, all good, It's all good. You got to win, that's fine. But Kyle talked about the issues, and certainly this was not a super clean performance. Credit coach driveling in Utah State for playing hard and at some point giving a lot of
you fans some anxiety. What were the biggest holes, Josh in your opinion for Utah's win against Utah State.
To me, it has to be the run blocking game, right, Like I mean, the the Utah's defense didn't do a great job of filling those holes at times and being able to stop the run. Granted, Utah State has a phenomenal running back that was able to make a lot of plays and really expose some of the things that
Utah was experiencing. Yeah, some of that, you know, like Kyle said, was they're trying to mix up their defense and trying to do something so that Bryson didn't have an understanding of what was going on, But I think there's still real world things that you have to look at, right, Like, you have to be able to contain better. They've got to be able to crash the line better and being
able to get those havoc plays. And there were absolutely times where Utah was eating up that backfield and doing well, but then they're exposing this Elton lane for Bryson or one of the running backs or somebody else to get there, and so that's a big issue. Outside of that, I think it's the secondary. I think it's, you know, in an inexperienced group that there still needs to be some
better communication between them all. There were a few plays where guys were just kind of left on an island and didn't really understand what they were supposed to do and then they got beat. And so I think that's
going to come. But if that communication doesn't get there, I think that that is a world to hurt for Utah, Right Like I think the step off front will sell, you know, work its way out and everything will be there, But that secondary is really kind of my concern, and I would say, you know, you want to see a little bit more of these guys being able to go toe to toe, but Utah State has some phenomenal receivers
and did a good job. But it's just, you know, you want to be able to have those things under wraps a little bit before you get into conference play. But it's just going to be a work in progress, and it's always going to be about needing more reps and needing more film and being able to be out there. But I think you're seeing some good things from them. It's just going to take some time.
So I referenced Karente and I was on the sideline when he limped off. You know, a couple of weeks back. I did not know he was going to miss time. But do you have an update on Karena read leading into Okay State and attendant to it, any other injuries that we should be aware of, or how healthy is Utah coming in Saturday?
By and large, Utah is mostly healthy, but there's a few lingering things like the Karni stuff. You know, I think he's he's questionable for this weekend. I think just the nature of his injury is tough to be able to get in there. But you know they're going to work really hard to try to get him back because he is that vocal leader of that defense, and so if you have him out that really impacts it beyond him. Connor o' toole kind of got injured in the game.
I don't know his status yet. I haven't been able to hear anything on him, but if he's not available, that is a bit concerning. Utah does have the talent and the depths to be able to absorb that a little bit more than maybe linebacker. But anytime you're losing any of those elite you know, pass rushers, that that hurts your ability to be able to crash the line, and especially against a veteran offensive line like Oklahoma State, you need those guys to be able to be there.
But you know, all in all, Utah is healthy. It's just you know, a little nick and things that are going to hold out some guys and they may not have everybody available. But I think KARENI is probably the guy that you're praying gets back sooner than later, just because of what he does for that defense. Of the communication aspects that he brings.
Have you been able to so obviously. And it's different because Cameron Rising and brand Keith eve been playing together for years and so there's going to be a comfortability factor there, and we're going to see Cameron's eyes go towards brand quite a bit. Have you been able to in your time watching Isaac play decide for who his safety net is, who his favorite target is, the weapon who he seems to have the best chemistry with as of right now.
Oh, that's a good question. I don't know that he's necessarily had a favorite target. He's spread it out a little bit. Brand is still probably the safety net there just because of what he does, and I think Utah utilizes him in that way where they give him an easy pass to be able to get out of right. Like there was a play on Saturday where Brandt rolled out and it was out in the flats and able to be kind of that easy pass, and Isaac's took
a better shot. But I think, you know, he still hasn't found that guy that I think he trusts fool, not that he doesn't trust, but I don't think he has that you know, connection that Cam and Brandt have. But if there is another one that I would say maybe Caleb Loaner. He feels really comfortable with him in the end zone. Obviously, that's two touchdowns that the two have probably a really easy guy to get the ball to, especially since the guy's like a foot and a half
taller than everybody when he jumps up. So I think that's probably going to continue to be a main connection, and especially if Loner gets more into this offense, like Kyle Woodingham says he's going to, I feel like that could be kind of his safety net, especially when things go wrong.
I think you asked Coach Waitt the question about Caleb's I want to ask you kind of the same question because I am really fascinated with this story. Everyone else. I'm a basketball guy. I love football, I love basketball, love college basketball. And you know, Caleb was a hell of an athlete when he was high school basketball player. Athleticism was never his issue as a basketball player. He's one of the elite athletes on every team he played
for Utah BYU Baylor. Just strictly from an explosive athleticism standpoint, he's never fully, in my opinion, add the cultivated skill set to be anything other than a decent college player and maybe a European pro who knows. But now he's leaned into this thing, and I got to give the kid credit. Man that's a hard thing to do. He's shown a lot of courage, shown a lot of bravery, and I'm sure coach witness staff saw a lot of potential in Caleb, hence given him the opportunity. But it's
looked really good. What do you think this can look like, Josh, when it's fully baked?
Honestly, like the way of ease that Caleb is doing this, it almost almost makes it seem like, you know, football team should just be scouting some of these basketball players naturally, you know, like it's it should just come this easy. I know it's not that easy, right, Like I understand conceptually this isn't an easy thing, but Caleb is making it in such a way that it does feel that way. And then you see him on the field and what
kind of a playmaker he can be. You know, he's he's shifty, he's got versatility just because of how he's been able to play basketball and being able to move quickly. But he's big enough. But there's just not really much you can do to stop him unless you get a bigger body corner or some other you know guy on him.
But it becomes a great situation for Utah. Whereas if he continues to progress, you know, I don't know how you stop somebody like a Caleb Bowner, right, Like he probably went into college thinking that he's going to go play in the NBA or like you said, go overseas
in Europe. This honestly could be a situation where he could get NFL teams calling him and like, I don't want to get too crazy, and I don't want to like jump the shark, but I think if you can continue to see projections of where he's at versus where he was maybe even six months ago, there's a real optimistic side of this game where he can be an NFL player. You can go in there and you can do these things that are going to be able to
be dynamic and and help your teams win. You know, I still feel like we haven't We've only scratched the surface with Caleb. What he does in the passing game obviously is great because of his size, but I think even in the field goal unit, right where he's able to just deflect passes or not passes the field goals, but also just kind of divert the trajectory of where these are going to go because of his wingspan, that
alone is pretty phenomenal. So it's a fun storyline that I'm really intrigued to continue to watch because I think if he continues to show strides and progression, you're going to see a lot more people wanting to go get basketball players to fill their tight end room and see what they can do to disrupt what traditional college football has run.
We've seen Jalen Glover in the past have great games against UCLA and a tough win against Colorado. In a tough win, I mean we're talking about touchdowns one hundred and seven yards against Colorado. Even two years ago the win up on the polue, he had twenty carries for seventy six in a touchdown. Is he the fifth running back on this team? Any insight as to why Jalen seems to have fallen out of favor in that running back room.
I don't know if he's in the necessarily a spot right. I think it's more just kind of his attention to detail and wanting to be able to be fully engaged in the system. So, you know, I think there are aspects where he is getting passed up by guys that are willing to put in more of the work. But I think it just comes down to a guy that needs to follow the system, do the things that Quinton Ganther wants him to do, and if he does, I think he's still in that mix right in the top three.
Early on that was the case. Kyle had talked about him being in that mix and wasn't giving any indication that he wasn't. Even when he talked about Dejon Stanley, it was kind of like he was kind of more of a gadget type player where he was going to come in in certain situations. But now you're seeing that change. To me, that just is more like Utah trying to get him to wake up and trying to do the things that he needs to do to see the field, and if he's not going to do it, it's not
going to work. One of the interesting things is, you know, you could see on Saturday that he wanted to leave the field pretty quickly and there was you know, someone on on the staff that you know, kind of crolled him and brought him in with the rest of the team to celebrate the win. But it's not you know,
this is just an observed observation. It's it's not a good situation for him, right now, you know, and I think there's a lot of conversations they're going to have to be had, and if he wants to stay with Utah, you know, things are going to have to change. I don't know fully to the extent of what that is, but I think it's a situation where Clinton Ganther and Kyle Whittingham are going to want to see a lot more improvement for him to ever see the field.
Yeah, do you feel like we've landed in a spot where it's going to be mackay and Mike kind of one two? And how strong is that hold on the number one job from McKay Bernard Because there's a lot to like about the way Mike runs and you can tell Kyle likes and what he's asked about him. But of course Makai is getting more carries and he's playing well. So you think we've kind of landed on the running
back solution. It's kind of played itself out where it will be McKai Bernard and Mike Mitchell kind of one two.
It's probably as close as you're to get it this year. I think mackay has done a good job of being able to establish himself as that lead guy. I don't know that he's firmly established it in the way that Mike couldn't surpass him. I think the biggest issue there is Mike is injured. You know, he's he's got a hobbling injury with his ankle that it is kind of similar to what you saw at ja Quindin last year, where you're going to get him a few times out on the field and then he's going to have to
be you know, taped up again. I think that's what's limiting Mike. You know, there's still aspects of Mitchell's game that you want to be able to see him have a better vision, you know, hit the holes a little differently, not just go fully into contact. But I think you're seeing a lot of optimism on in his game that that leads me to think that he could surpass Mackay. I just it just isn't. I'm going to come down to help. But for Mackay's standpoint, I mean, I think
he's done everything that he needs to. I think, you know, he's he is what he is, and there's things that he still needs to learn and same type of vision situations, but he's finding ways to be able to be in an impact player in the game, and that's exactly what Utah needs, right They need somebody that's going to go in there. They're going to fight for yards, They're gonna do whatever they need to to be able to move
the ball. And that guy's micout and as long as you have him continually fighting and continually working hard, I don't know that it mattered if he's the established RB one. I think they want somebody to be there, But I think it's a good thing to be able to have, you know, guys that they can mix and match, and I think those two compliment each other pretty well.
All right, Josh, As I've referenced to you before, I am a former Twitter addict in recovery, so I do not watch games and I'm not connected to my phone the way I used to be. I do not live on the internet in a way that I used to be. So I need to know from somebody who tweets the way you do and has the poults of youth fans the way you do. When Utah State went up fourteen three and the offense for Utah wasn't looking great, what
was the panic meter like online? Were folks legitimately concerned or did it feel like most youth fans understood, like, hey, give it some time, it'll kind of even its way out.
No.
I think there was a legit panic, right. I think there was a lot of people thinking that this was over. You know, Utah was going to lose, especially with the way that Utah's offense wasn't able to move the ball and how well Bryson Barnes was able to move utah States offense. You know, this guy was falling in a large part, and that tends to happen sometimes in games. But I think it just felt really dangerous of what
Utah was doing. But I think by and large, by the end of the game, fans were pretty happy with what they saw. You saw in Isaac Wilson that really settled in, understood what it took to be able to get over the edge. And in that second half especially, he kind of he reverted back to looking like he was in high school in the sense that he was comfortable. He knew he could be on the field with those guys,
he knew he could beat those guys. And I think you leave that game optimistic in a fan, knowing that there's still some things that Utah has to correct, right. I think that was the Twitter fan based kind of looking at it. But I think it's it's always entertaining to kind of watch how fans overreact or or kind of sense these games. But you know, you get it.
That game didn't start out well. Honestly, if not for that Smith Snowden interception, which was remarkable by the way, he very well could have been twenty one three And does Utah have what it takes to get back into that one so interesting situation, but it's definitely reacting in life form to watch that on Twitter.
And I definitely get it, by the way. I mean, I said prior to the game, this one felt just a little tricky. I didn't think I picked them to win, but not cover, which is what happened. They you know, the line was eighteen. They won by seventeen. But Josh, I mean, ultimately, you know the deal. You've been covering this for a while in state game. You know a lot of those Utah staid players, and they deserve credit.
Man.
They came out and played well. They punched Utah in the mouth. You're without QB one, You're without a very underrated piece of your defense in Karred like that did have Josh some of the yellows of an upset alert watch situation every weekend in college football, tell me gets got And you know, for a minute, it did feel a little bit dicey.
I'm not gonna lie absolutely. I mean, Utes State has nothing to lose. I mean, you go into that game after a blowout loss to USC. You know it's not conference plans, but there's not really anything on the line in terms of that. But you've got an opportunity to upset a team that is expected to be in the playoffs.
So of course you're going to go out there and you're going to play with this reckless abandon in some respects, right, You're going to go out there and you're going to be the team that if you overpursue, so be it. At least you tried. That's exactly how it felt, right. Utes State put everything out at the very beginning. They were crashing the line, they were the most physical. They absolutely made Utah kind of have to reset and figure out what they were needing to do, and it shows
that they can be a good team. But this is a situation where Utah it kind of shows that if they're not always constantly focusing on what game they're they're currently in. There's a chance that they're not going to have those those post season opportunities. Right Being the team at the top of the perspective Big twelve, you're gonna get everybody's best. And that doesn't mean it's not just Utah State. It's gonna be Oklahoma State, it's gonna Arizona, it's going to be all these teams, and so you
can't have a day off. I don't think Utah was trying for a day off by any means, but I do think that they got a little casual in what they thought they could do based on that USC game. With you, Utah State, they kind of got into it and said, we're going to roll over these guys. We're gonna be okay, we don't even need Cam for this game.
We're gonna go with Isaac and its first start. Those types of things start creeping in and it becomes a very dangerous game, and Utah State absolutely took advantage of it, and there's opportunities there that they had that Honestly, Utah may have been in a much closer game if not for maybe a few mispasses or interceptions. So fun game. But yeah, I mean Utah has to learn from that moment and address that as they move forward this season.
All right, Josh, last thing and I'll set you loose. It's a big week, man, It's Okay State week. We've been circling this game for a while now. The line opened as Okay State as a slight favorite, is moved all the way towards the Utes. As of now, they're a one point five point favorite. Utah State was able to get some yards on the ground, and that's what
Mike Gunny wants to do. They have the best running back in the country, won the Doak Walker a year ago, and Olie Gordon, who's off to a fine start, but he's not dominated. He's averaging three point five carry's got four touchdowns, two hundred and sixteen yards on sixty two carries. That's not gonna be an easy place to play. Never been a still water maybe one day, not necessarily on the bucket list, but give us a little preview for Utah Okay State coming up on Saturday.
Yeah, this is for all intents and purposes, This is for the Big twelve title, right, This is probably Utah's toughest game this season, at least where they're at right now. And as we see these teams and so Utah's gonna have to go into this game ready. Well, Oli Gordon obviously is going to be their biggest concern. They're going to have to look at that and make sure that they can contain him. I always caution people to look at the first few games and maybe he's not going
off for the most you know, yards or whatever. He's going to be motivated for this game, right he wants to be able to showcase. And not that he hasn't been motivated for the others, but this being a conference game, he sees that he has to be better. This is going to be a tough game for Utah and if they have any of those issues that they had against Utah State, this could be a very long day. Outside of that, you have a quarterback that has been pretty solid.
You know, he's in my opinion, he's kind of like a Bryson Barnes. He can beat you, but he also doesn't have the highest upside. He's had a great year, but he's not a mobile So really, to me, it comes down to is if you can contain Ali Gordon. I think Utah has a good shot of being able to do this. Try to get the momentum early. Don't let that crowd into the game, because they will fight back.
They're good. Mike Gundy knows what he's doing, you know, obviously he's been in that position forever and knows what it takes to win. So you really kind of have to start that game hot. You've got to dictate it. You've got to hope that if it is Cam Rising, that he starts out really well and that they can move that offense, because if other not, you're going to have a team that's going to fight back and really battle it back and make you pay if you're not
on your best game. So it should be a fun game. I'm excited for it. Still Water seems like it's a great college town and really curious to see how these two teams battle it out and what could honestly be kind of like the Big twelve title game.
All right, Josh, thanks for the time, man, have a great week and we'll catch up soon.
Sounds great.
It's Monday afternoon after another exciting college football weekend. Settle in as Spence gives you this week's edition of the Big twelve Power Rankings brought to you by the Murdock Auto Group and Genesis of Lindon.
All Right, Big twelve Power Ranking Style. We do it every single Monday on the show. Happy Monday to you. Hope you out a great weekend. Little Monday Night football tonight to wrap up the weekend in pro football. You can hear the game on this radio station. It's going to be the Eagles taking on the Falcons. AJ Brown is out with a hamstring injury. So some Monday Night football. First, just a quick review of our picks. We went five and one last week. We went I checked during the break.
We actually went three and three this week, so we are currently eight and four, which isn't bad. All right, now, remember the Roger Federer lesson right, what did we what did we learn from? Roger Feeder gave a commencement speaks recently. He won like fifty two percent of his points throughout the course of his career. A lot of people think he's the greatest tennis player of all time. Slow burn, kids, That's all we're trying to do. So we went three
and three. We picked the Utah game correctly, said the Utes would win but not cover. The line was eighteen. They won by seventeen. We gave you Oregon over Oregon State in the Civil War? Are we allowed to call that? Is? Is that still the Civil war? We it is? We're allowed to say.
That civil war?
Holy war?
All right?
Just lean it. Well, I don't know. I mean, we're still tear down statues. I lost track. What's like, what's the deal depends on the statue? Okay, no argument there. So we lost Colorado. I thought I thought Colorado States give them more of a battle. They did not. And then Oklahoma barely covered against Tulane. We picked Oklahoma to win, but Tulane to cover. So that went the other way. So we got Utah Oregon and BYU correct, we got Colorado Tulane and the other one we picked was Missouri
to win, but they did not cover. I thought they would over Bill Bryan and Boston College. So three and three stuff to win money gambling on sports. That's why I say, don't do it almost every day on the show. All right, Porter, I cheated. I listed seven teams. Seven teams. There's seven teams undefeated. Oh really, so we got it? Okay, So I went I went, so all right, I'm glad. I'm glad you did too. So I'll give you the floor.
You can go first. You can start at seven and go to one, and then I'll give you mine.
Well at seven. And I have them in there because they have not lost a game and they have a chance, let's be cleared this weekend to jump a lot higher than seven. It is the BYU Cougars. Now, you know, it hasn't been anything ultra impressive. They're working through some quarterback issues, but the defense has been good. They've been, you know, leaning on some of their best players, and
Kloni's coached his tailoff. I think in the in the first three games they needed to be cleaned through non conference in order to kind of have this, uh, this kind of season on the table. But still nothing all that impressive to to to bump them up in the ranking. So they're at number seven. I got ASU at number six, and the thing with ASU is I like a bunch of the players that are on their roster, but just
seems messy down there. It doesn't seem real clean. And I've got them at six the top five, which is of course what we are looking at this year. Iowa State is my number five team. They of course only two games, they've already had a buy but one of their wins against Iowa that the defense is really solid, and Spence I will say, when we're looking at teams can win the conference, I don't know that I really put Iowa State in that in that conversation yet or
really will put them in that conversation this year. But when it comes to teams that can give Utah trouble, Iowa State's one that I really do look at. The three three five defense, that they run a lot, to the looks that they throw at you, that's a team to look at in that regard. At number four, after a big win over TCU, the only conference wins so far, UCF comes in at number four. I think they've got
a lot of talent. If they can pull it together, they can absolutely contend for this conference in the long stretch. Oklahoma State the youth's opponent, coming in at number three for me, and then number two. The only real reason I found any delineation between Kansas State Oklahoma State so far was because of that big win over a conference opponent in Arizona that Kansas State got, and they looked convincing in doing so, Spence. So I got Kansas State at number two and the team in Salt Lake City.
I still think it. We're obviously here on this station ESPN seven hundred, your home of the Utes, but I'd still think that what we've seen so far, if healthy, the Big twelve runs through Salt Lake City, and the status of Cam rising, the availability of some of their other players has a lot to do with that. But uh, you taught number one in the power ranking so far, and I don't really see many arguments.
To the contrary. So you're a homer. I didn't know that, all right. I mean, hey, if you raise you better than this, young man. If they're the best team, they're they're the best team. Are you really concerned about the three three five?
Not really concerned, But I do think, and especially if Cam's not fully ready to go, it is a defense that could throw some looks at you, and hey, it's just different, that's the only thing. It's It's different from what you see a lot of the times. Just give me a skinny post.
There you go up the middle, some checkdowns, swing passes, keep them on their heels. There you go. That's what you do. Against the three three five. You can do that. That's what you have to do against it. You can get you why banana up the middle hand it off a bunch too. You will also run it. Just run the rock. Yeah, and you know, you know that's what I'm about. I'm all about put a bunch of tight ends in the formation. Oh you know what. I want all tight ends on the field. We'll talked about no
running backs. We got six of them up on the hill. I just want t both on both sides of the ball, though. I just want to see a game that's all tight ends. That's how much I love tight ends. Dynamic. Nobody in the market loves tight ends more than I love tight end.
And you only you're only saying this because of a basketball player that's currently playing tight end.
That's what we've got going on. I'm just saying, like your basketball, the world I want to live in is the world where I go to a ute game and baby, it's just tight ends on both sides of the ball. I don't want to see any d lineman. I don't need a running back. Give me eleven tight ends on both ends of the ball, football sides of the ball. That's what I am football guy. See, this is what you have to do to do radio. You have to there's a contest that goes on to prove who the
horniest guy is about, and it gets really exhausting. And how many tight ends you can get on the field is a big measure. No one loves tight ends like the Drive with Spence check its loves time. We are your home of tight ends in Salt Lake. I will agree there.
Hey, no one gets in more offensive line questions than I do during the course of a youth season.
I will say that. Dude, Now you're talking O block on me. Oh stop it on a Monday, How dare you? Nobody clear? Just to get my credentials out there. What if somebody is listening that doesn't know anything about football, and they turn on the radio and I said, nobody loves tight ends more than I love tight ends. It's a weird thing to say. If you don't know about football, it could be a different show, could be all right, we see things pretty close to I now. I also
have BYU at seven. Wanted to bump them up a little bit. But man, Jake's just got to be better with the ball. I mean, he throws the pick and there are a couple of other dice. He throws against a really bad Wyoming defense, but they've survived and there was no doubt and lared me, I mean, I thought
that game. I thought the BYU game in a way was a little bit like the Utah Utah State game, where it just feels a little tricky, you know, heading up there in a place that can be tough to play Wyoming there, Monson on Friday said, why, I mean, sucks, b Y, you should roll. I wasn't ready to say that, but after watching that game, I'm ready to say that they're horrible. They didn't do anything well and Jake really spread the ball out, you know, found a bunch of
different receivers. Good to see Conto Hill getting the end zone bit a minute, Darius Lassiter, Cody Epps, Chase Roberts. Jake has weapons, man like BYU does have playmakers on the offensive side of the ball. The question is two running backs hurt, and I'm hearing that might be worse than we understand. With Hinkley, Rapotti and LJ. Martin, Jake Rehtz laugh led them in rushing. We only saw eight carriers from Miles Davis who never really got going. So
we'll see how that plays out. But it just seems like, and this is not a hot take, it's for every team they're gonna go as Jake go's and if it's not Jake, do they tried the be handing kid who's won a Big twelve championship. Because there are plenty of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. They were on display against Wyoming. But defensively, you know Jay Hill, second year Kilane, you know, he is a defensive guy who's the coordinator up here forever. Really cut his teeth underwit.
So you know, they have been winning games in a way that feels like a team that's coached by Kolonie Satake. So they've stayed clean. They go to Laramie no problem at all. So I have them at seven. I also have ASU at six. You know, ultimately, I think Kenny Dillingham is a really bright, young head coach. I've interviewed him a couple of different times. I always enjoy, you know, interactions, getting to know him a little bit port of reference.
You know, we have seven clean teams so far that stayed unbeaten, most in the non con and Arizona State did struggle last Thursday with Texas State. Texas State is an underrated program.
Man.
They were actually a favorite at one point, so it's a win you stay clean. I have them at six. At five, I have UCF and that might not be high enough. Okay, and I, by the way, I also think TCU is good. That was an awesome football game. UCF gets the win. Thirty five thirty four. I wanted to put TCU in the mix here because I do think that's a team I've heard Josh Payton others talk about this. They could win this conference that a lot
of people aren't talking about. But UCF goes down there, they get the win, so they enter my top five for the first time. At four, I have Iowa State. A random early season by for Iowa State, but they have the best win in my opinion so far in conference play. That's a win over Iowa So I still have them at four. That's where I had them last week. The top three remain unchanged for me. At three is Oklahoma State. Okay, the school that you guys are going
to see Utah play coming up this week. Oklahoma State stayed clean against a bad Tolls To team, but they're three and zero. They're tough, they're physical, they want to run the football. Utah State was able to gain yards on the ground, and you know, a win against Arkansas, albeit a really dicey one. They were getting curbstoms by the Razorbacks and needed a late miracle to come back and win, but they did. That's a non con P
four win over and s team. I have Oklahoma stated three, and last week I had Okay stated two and Case stated three. But this week I'll flip that script after really overwhelming an excellent Arizona team. So a very impressive win BYU hosting k State coming up this weekend, and then Utah hitting the road taking on Oklahoma State in Stillwater. So there you go. Big twelve power rankings. We do it every week every Monday. On the program. We're gonna
bring in Tony Parks live in studio Porter. Before we catch a break, let me ask you the question I asked Sean during cross talk and I was catching up with Josh Furlong about the situation from KSL. Just from your dvantage point, what questions specifically do you think Isaac Wilson answered with his performance on Saturday against the Aggies.
Yeah, well, I will have to identify the questions I had personally for Isaac to go in there, and some of the things that I had seen him struggling with were pre snap. Right in Isaac, I could see that when he's sending a guy in motion, and in Andy Ludwigs's offense, and in many offenses, right you're you're trying to identify things with that motion. You're trying to identify which linebacker is in coverage, which linebacker might be stunting.
Isaac was a little delayed in recognizing some of that, and then once the snap happened, that means you're a little bit delayed in your first progression, your first read.
So Zach's entire chain, if you will, is his timing chain, was was out of whack from the from the very beginning, because that basically second and a half to two snekets two seconds before the snap spence where you're usually going through your motions, you're usually you know, checking the mic linebacker, You're you're going through your communications with your offensive lineman. That all happens within the course of literally two seconds or so. That was a struggle for Isaac for in game.
Bright Lights are on and it took a minute for him to settle in. But there was a moment in Logan, I want to say midway through the second quarter where you start started to see the the game developing in front of Isaac at a speed where he wasn't behind,
he wasn't forcing things just a second too slope. Now there are still moments when you're seeing that is an issue, and I still need to see some growth in that area, but you saw that he was not completely overwhelmed by it, which I think he was a little bit against Southern Utah even in Game one, and then definitely a little bit against Baylor. So I really did see him take
steps in that. In that regard, I still think there is some pre snap stuff where he is He's not on the level that of course a Cam Rising or a several year Division I college quarterback would be, where he is actually not identifying correctly some of the coverages, and it's it's ending in you know some plays that you Todd just ends up basically throwing the ball away or handing off because they're not exactly sure what the
defense is doing. And that comes with time, that comes with his reps, not only in this offense, but also against Division one college football teams that are are up to speed with what he'll see in the Big twelve, and that only comes with reps. But I did like what I saw from the second quarter on Saturday.
I was really proud of him. Man. I thought he stepped up. I thought he met the moment. After that rough start. You could feel the anxiety around town. I'm getting taxed from buddies. We're watching the game. It's like, oh, you know, how's this going to play out? And he answered the bell man. So shout out to Isaac Wilson on this Monday. Shout out to the Black Desert Championship October the ninth through the thirteenth at the Black Deser Resort in Saint George. If you've not been there, here's
the deal. If you have golfers in your life, they've probably been blabbing their your ear off about Black des a resort. You might be annoyed with how much you've heard about it. It's everything that you've heard and probably little more. They have done a phenomenal job. It's one of the favorite golfing experiences I've ever had in my life. I've only played it once. It was a couple of weeks ago, a couple months ago actually down in Saint George.
It was hot. But the PGA Tours coming back to Utah for the first time in more than sixty years. Black Desert Championship tickets are available now at Black Desert Events dot com. You can also follow them on social media on Instagram at Black Desert Championship is where you find them. You have some clouds coming in, maybe a little storm situation, and it's fall technically we're there, so the weather's going to start to cool down a little bit.
But joining me now live in studio for an entire hour. Man, my guy, we've worked together in one way or another for like fifteen years. TP Tony Parks, the voice of the Bees. What's up, buddy, I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong bike. No, you're good. So you'll respect this as somebody who literally has done everything in radio. You can talk about the jazz or take the trash out. That's what's great about you. We've got a new board here and we've got a new setup in studio, so we're
still trying to traverse that space. So Porter asked to actually turn your mic on this will terrify you. I cannot turn my mic on her off, and we don't have a dump button every day for four hours. I'm like, don't don't say that one. Hey, there pops in your head again. Don't know, can't say that one. So I take it. Britton Johnson will not be in studio for roofful. I love that, man. Do you need a dump button
with Britton Johnson along for the ride? Longtime co host on Jasper aff and post how you been Manthe's good? I've been so good man, I love it.
Man.
Every day I get to wake up and I go to a baseball game.
And today we don't have a game, but we traveled in last night, so my wife and our newborn daughter were there at home here in Salt Lake, at our place here, and got up today and had a great morning with her.
And you know, there is nothing like it.
I wake up and I have an infant who makes fun little noises and squeals, and she just loves her puppy and she loves her life and she can't wait to see what's coming up every day. And then after that, I go to a baseball game and I get to be around great people and I love the team that I work with. I love the team that is on the field as well, Manager Keith Johnson. Just like when you have that every single day, man, you are really alive.
And it's the final year of the ballpark, a place that's very near and dear to my heart for so many reasons. And so this last week I'm just gonna soak it up. Man, six days. If you're the fan, you know, make sure to join us. You know, I'm gonna pump for tickets, just because it's it's an iconic place. The weather's going to be great, but we have all these great tributes coming up, and I am just over the moon excited for what should be, you know, a great week of being around great people.
This is the last week of the ballpark. Oh we talked about it last week. I just forgot. I played way too much mediocre golf over the weekend. It's taking the bandwidth. How you dealing with that? What's it like over there? Last week of that ballpark? Man? I can remember, we all can remember going there forever ago and Thursday Thursdays college and throughout the course, you know, like so
many great memories. Obviously, you're the guy for this. You have more memories than anyone outside of the late great Steve Cloukey. So what's it like. What's it feel like knowing that this thing is coming to an end in the Capital City.
I think it's it's very emotional for me because there's so many different chapters to a childhood. Baseball It's where we felt most safe when we made the move, my mom and I to Salt Lake City.
That was kind of our thing.
It's how I grew a big Cubs fan because we watched WGN.
No matter where we were. Greg maddox I was on Dan Giel.
Steve Stone was the star of our home mark race. Yeah, I mean I had Steve Stone and my mom teaching me the game. Anybody who knows my mom knows like that was the ultimate cheat code to have him and her together, Like teaching me the game was amazing anyway, So baseball is a big part to us. And then you know, when I got the job as the play by play announcer, I'll never forget it. I mean, I come back into the state of Utah really for the first time since Sophie was born, and I go up
to the press box. I had a Weaver State football game and Steve Clokey's calling it for radio and I got it on TV and it's the first time we'd seen each other since he retired, Like there's some there's some stuff here, and the way he grabbed my arm and the way he shook.
It around, and the way he pulled me in and gave me a hug.
And then the one thing he told me was, you know, I called the first game ever at that ballpark, and I think it's so beautiful that you get to call the last game ever at that ballpark.
So here's one thing people didn't know all year.
I had remembered him saying that, and I put something together towards the last homestand to where I was going to bring different people in to call a few innings with me, just as a color commentary conversational on the TV. Brook loved, Yeah one, I'm Frank Laden. Yeah, it's an obvious one. There's just just all these different people I was going to bring in. But the last one I was going to have was Steve Klokey, And I know exactly the way that he would set up his book.
I studied it all the way down because he has all of his books in there, and I was going to set up the game book exactly like that, and when it got to the final three OUTSAR six, depending on how the game was going, I was going to have him call the final outs at the ballpark because I truly felt that's the way it should have ended up. And so as I think about that, that's another thing that gets me emotional about this week, because I had those plans put into place.
Tell her that's a mean Tell our listeners, do you ever listen to the podcast smartlest the Bateman Will It's a funny like celebrity podcast. It's like a guilty pleasure listen, and they talk often about their industry as actors. But when they use terms they tell, they follow up to tell the guests to talk to one of the co hosts sisters who has no clue about acting. Does that make sense? So for our listeners that don't know what a game book is, oh, explain what that is.
Yeah, It's just like it's the way you have your score sheet and you have you know the visitor and the home team, and the way you list out the starting lineups and all those different things. He and I have a very similar one see, yeah, very very similar. We have very different ways which way we format it. I put numbers in unique spots and I don't label it. I just know what that number means, and so when I need it, my eyes go right to it. I got it, and I move, gotcha, And it's the way.
And he was very much the same. Now we're different in exactly what we put where, but there's a style in which we had, so I mean down to the tiniest details.
He had a unique style. I had a un ink style.
So one thing that I would do is like, if somebody pops up the first base and it's caught, it's three. But if it's a pop up high in the air, it's a big fat three.
That's the way.
If it's a line drive, it's like the straight lines, gotcha three. If it's a pop up and foul ground, it's a backwards fat three, like I do.
Like just my mind.
Automatically knows popped up in the foul ground. So there's a coding system that you have that's your own style. And I knew his style inside out, so I was gonna set it up that way throughout the game, and that's how it was gonna end.
I was going to surprise him with it. I'm gonna make sure his family knew about it.
Yeah, and let it be, because that's the way I believe that.
The final three outs and the broadcast and all that shit. I still you know, I had a pin tweet of my Steve Clocky bobblehead until like a week ago, and every time I think it, I still go, wait, ones, what how did that happen? So over there? So Oklahoma City is in town. We've got Smith's family and I coming up tomorrow, Thirsty Thursday. On Thursday, we've got to go Golden Night on Friday, fan Appreciation Night Saturday. Then the finale is on Sunday. The final game for the
Bees of the ballpark here in the Capital City is Sunday. Now, obviously you and I are of the same mind about the Miller family and the goals they have. Yeah, and the Stewards they were over a team that you and I both worked for and still to this day I cheer for in the Utah Jazz. So Steve Stark's friend of the show, friend off air as well. You know
what they're doing to build a new ballpark. You know, property deserve a bottom line for me is I live in Salt Lake and it's a bummer that it's leaving, right, but I appreciate this endeavor that the Millers have taken on and hope that at some point it does lead to a major League baseball team here in our capital city personally, which would be awesome. So as you look ahead, Tony two, what's next for this little ow ball club?
What are some of your thoughts and what's kind of the redeeming feel of the organization.
I love the big steps that were taking this year, and some of them were not witnessed. Some of them you couldn't see with your eyes, but great work from so many people who stepped into the ballpark ready to go with great baseball mindset and great business of baseball mindset. Right, you can be a baseball person, you could be a business person, but these are people who understand the business of baseball and it's going a long way. Derek Amacon a huge part of that. Cam Coglan a huge part
of that. Ty Wardle. I know I'm leaving some people out, but I don't have all day. But the point is a lot of people who are stepping in there with new roles new responsibilities. They're doing a masterful job at putting together great concepts that are helping build and go bigger because a lot of what's happening is is we're moving to major league mindset, and there were major strides that took place there. First of all, they got a
TV deal done in record time. That was amazing. I mean, the great work by from Cam coglan to you know, obviously Ty Wordle and everybody in between to make sure that that came together. We have all these games on KMYU and we have more games than I think any minor league team out there on linear or TV. I want to say, I have to double check that to be sure, but we have almost forty games right. Then
the quality of our broadcast. Then we go into the features of our broadcast, and they just kind of said, dude, you run with this.
You make it the best it could be.
Go and everybody's one hundred miles an hour to be the very best that we can be. Now, a lot of these things that were put into place behind the scenes you can't see. Next year, you're going to see things in a new ballpark that are going to be elevated to levels no other.
Minor league baseball team has.
They are very serious about not just being good, not just being the best, but they want to run up the score. It's not about everybody else, it's truly about us, and it's about creating a major league level experience in a minor league ballpark. And that's the standard that Steve Clouke had for the broadcast. That was my number one goal coming into it, as well as humanizing the broadcast and making sure that the listener felt connected to what's happening.
They're also doing that in their game presentation. They're going all the way when it comes to premium seating, everything involved. So that is I think a great runway into a wonderful campaign into giving this market the absolute best chance possible to have a major league team someday. So when you talk the stuff that you'll see, that's what you're gonna see next year. And a lot of the things that have been under the surface this year also great job by I mean, from Amy Jackson to Dustin dell In.
I mean, there's just a lot of people that have exhausted efforts, Brian Dever, everybody who's just gone all in on making this the best year it can be to give next year.
A big punch. Did you say, Derek Amercon Yeah, Mark amccray porter, will you hop on the micro quick and remind Tony what our official stances on our radio show about nepotism? Please not big on nepotism. You can't wait with them. I can't wait with them. You know, it's just now, that's just this radio show. That's just our opinion. I can't I kid marks the never met Derek. But Mark's a great guy. Derek's a star, that's awesome to hear, huge star. He's been as close to MVP as anybody
could be this year. So before we move off the be, give me the pitch man, let's get people out this week. I completely I'm getting to a game this week, so let's let's hear it.
Five dollar tickets on Sunday, We're going back to nineteen ninety four. Five dollars tickets. Unbelievable like concession items that will be at great value pricing team store items throughout the week that you're going to want to take advantage of with that, wonderful tributes all week, iconic members that'll be there, former big name people who've played there, won't give out the names yet, but you're gonna want to join us and be a part of that Friday Night's
gold Golden night. And I know that this is one that's going to hit to you personally. I mean, I know you know cancer has affected you personally. You and I have talked about this on the air. Off the air. That's a big one in the fight against childhood cancer. We're really really big on that, and my family is all in on doing what we can to support families. And so that night, you get fireworks after the game,
kids get to run the bases after the game. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you know, fireworks on Friday and Saturday. You know everything that you're going to want to have, all the fields that made this place so special.
You're gonna feel it over and over and over again.
I was putting together some different videos and just wonderful tributes, so you know, at your last chance to get there to catch a B's game, whether you started there with the Buzz or the Stingers, or whether you were even you know, the Trappers, or let's they go back to the goals. My favorite part is talking to every person giving me It's always a family story, my grandpa, my dad, my mom my, this.
That, and there was this game. They don't remember the score, they don't remember this, they don't know.
Maybe they remember one player in one moment, but they never forgot the foam finger or the foul ball. There's always something there. And I just I think that's what makes this place so beautiful. Yeah, that's what it's about. I mean I was and you referenced, you referenced, go Golden Night. So the fight against childhood cancer.
And I just said my twenty one years man, twenty one years free. But I remember, thank you very much. I just remember I was twenty five. When a doctor looked at me, it was like, you're gonna die. You have a brain tumor or you're dying, right. And so I can remember during my recovery walking up and down the hallways and it's the kids where you go, dude, what this five year old? Yeah is in here with
no hair. And I can remember in the room next to me when I was in physical therapy, literally relearning how to walk. A mom. It's hard to talk about him. Mom would come in the room every night and pray with her son, and he was twelve years old and his name was Nate, And I remember listening to her say a prayer with her son, Nate, and then I woke up one morning and he was gone from the room and he died. He passed, you know, three weeks of listening to his mother pray with him every night.
At the age of twelve. He died of a brain tumor that they could not operate on. It's just whatever we can do societally to fight our generations that thing, and that's what cancer is. I definitely applaud that. So where's the best place tell him for people to get tickets? Yeah, SLBs dot com. That's where you're want to go. SLBs dot com.
Amazing discounts, very valued pricing, take advantage of all of that. And I've been telling people, don't just catch one last game, catch multiple be there multiple times. Every Night's going to look and sound and feel a little bit different. You're gonna want to take a piece of that.
So all right, good stuff. So head over to the b's game this week. It's the final week of the best playing baseball in Salt Lake. Let's move over to the utes. But before we get there, because you just jarred something in my mind, it really is. It's one of the things that as I age and as I continue to be involved in the world of sports, I try to have perspective on it. It's very much zero some game. We're not changing the world, but the generational connections.
I lost my grandfather about a year and a half ago, and you know, Big d Big Dave, he's getting a little older, right, So I'm watching my dad age. I said goodbye to my grandpa, and we have this book that was put together for all the grandkids and all the pictures. It's me and my grandpa golfing. It's me and my grandpa to jazz game. It's me and my grandpa to BYU game. He was a Cougar club guy. And then the generational connection between my grandpa and my
father and now my son who's twenty three. You know, he's a fourth generation big sports fan. He's back East, living in New York, going a Jets games, Yankee game, nixth game, loving it. I walked through the tailgate the other day for it was prior to the Utah SUU game, and a gentleman called out my name. He listens to the station and they had a tailgate setup. It was very extensive. They did the prep, they're barbecuing that drinks
and it was packed. And he said, I want to want you to I want to introduce you to my grandfather. He's the one that started all this. And I sat down, I talk with him, and he talked about buying a ticket to the old stadium for a nickel back in nineteen forty seven. And then I'm seeing I met his son, and then I met his grandsons and they're all there at the Utah football game, tailgating prior to the kick. And you know the deal, when you get into the job,
you know, you kind of have to become agnostic. You kind of have to become immune or numb to fandom or else. It compromises the craft of what you're trying to do. And sometimes it does feel too much like a job to me. And so to be reminded of
really what it's all about. You know, the stories that you get at the ballpark of people talking about generations of baseball fans going over the years, walking through a tail gate to Utah football, where you meet the patriarch of the whole situation who's been going a Utah football game since nineteen forty seven, passed it on to his kid,
who's now pasted it on to his sons. Oh man, that it reminds you, like we catch a lot of crap in the world of sports, like you don't matter, like there's too many other things going on in the world. It reminds you why it's fun to exist in the toy aisle that we do covering sports.
Oh yeah, because what you really are in love with is the emotions you feel in the connection you have with Michigan win in the national title last year, the connection I have with that with my mom because we'd watch clubs games in the afternoon summertime during the day, well in the fall, Saturday and Sunday mornings. I would kind of take care of myself early so she could sleep in because she was waitressing, bartending, she was up late, stuff like that, and I would kind of have to
take care of myself, take care of the house. So she would get up and we'd watch football together. And I learned the game initially through Michigan football and her the cool song, cool helmet, cool everything. Oh my gosh, that was our team. They were the first team on a lot of times. So there's so much wrapped into that, and then it comes into my brother and it just expands out.
It has nothing to do with you know, Elvis Gerbach or Desmond Howard.
I mean, but it was the memory and the excitement and all of those moments that we lived through Charles Woods and soaring through the air, picking off pass in the end zone and the Rose Bowls. It's the way my mom screamed when Tommy Hendrix picked it off in the end zone against Notre Dame in nineteen ninety seven, and the celebration in our living room. It's that stuff right there. It's that it's watching her joy and excitement.
So you as a fan, whether it's going to the ballpark, whether it's the fan of the utes and all that, what it really is about is your experience in your life and that is a fabric of what makes this so beautiful. And I wish we could get back to more of that instead of some of the toxicity that comes with sports. Especially now you know where I fill in on radio and do that and do more play by play.
I've been able to really.
Absorb more into the beauty of what makes sports sports and why we love our team.
And one of the reasons why something like a stadium movie is a big deal to a lot of people. It hits you in the heart, you know, to gets you when you've grown up during these games, because that's where your memories exist. And I remember going to Be's games with my with my grandfather and all these all these games, and it's ultimately, you know, it is the toy Isle, but it's a it's a it's a great way to connect generation after generation. We'll do a let's
do a big college football segment coming up next. I want to do some Utah football. I want to do some BYU football, some Big twelve stuff. But we got a couple of minutes here, so let's do a scoch of jazz basketball. A scosh Tony, just a scosh Okay. So Bowler rolled in the studio last week. Craig and Gordon come on the show once a week for an hour, call it the Big Show, Big Hour. It's fun to
be reunited with those guys. And bless his heart. We were going over the depth chart and I was asking him what he's watching out for, and as he was naming the names of the players most likely in the rotation, I'm just like, well, good luck calling those games foul. So I mean, look, ultimately, we all know the deal. Okay. And as I saying you off air, Danny Ainge has a track record. Danny does not need me to stand up for him. Okay. His resume is out there, you
can go look at it. And the fact of the matter is things like this take time. Here's the issue, Tony, as I see it, Vegas over underwins right now in the NBA in the Western Conference, because you remember we were both working over there during the Mitchell Gobert, Quinn Dennis Lindsay ingles like that whole thing. And so the walking line at the time was we hope we're in a spot to capitalize on a window that opens when Golden State is kind of done and Lebron is a
little bit older and maybe Kawhi has aged out. Like when that happens, we hope to be in the spot to be the team with the players in their prime to maybe win something special. Now here's the issue. Vegas over underwins OKC one, Minnesota two. You're looking at this point, Dallas three. Let's see here, Pelicans, Kings, Grizzlies with jaw back, and then you get into there's the Kings, then it's
the Lakers, then it's the excuse me, the Suns. Then it's the Lakers, and it's the Warriors, and then it's the Spurs. Then it's the Rockets and the final two. The only two teams that are not thought to be close to competing for a playoff spot in the West are the Jazz and the Trailblazers. Those are the only two bad quote unquote bad teams according to what the odds tell us in the Western Conference. Here's where the issue comes in. Okac is not going anywhere forever. They're awesome,
and they're young. Jokic still in his twenties. Michael Porter Junior is still young. Jamal Murray. If you can get back like Denver still has a runway of four or five years, SODA's Minnesota. You can make an argument that the Pelicans do that, the Kings do so. Now then seven of the eight top teams in the West are better than the Jazz, and they're also young. So the window and this is kind of how you have to view the whole thing in pro basketball. When will a
window open? And can we formulate our roster construction to be there when that window opens. Now the window is like seven or eight years away, barring something completely unforeseen. I just don't see the direction forward to serious competition Tony anytime soon. If it is so, First of.
All, you're right, there is a Danny Ainge is playing the long game. You don't have to be okay with it. I've also said you don't have to pour money into it as a fan. If you don't want to, that is your chance. That is your choice. You are not any less of a fan if you don't. By the way, if you say cool, I'll wait for the long game and I'll put my money into it. When things seem to be more of the approach that this team is a threat, there's nothing wrong with that as a fan, nothing.
Wrong with that.
This can't be a process though, where you just simply wait for everyone else to get worse. So is that kind of is the described way that you're talking about that can't be it? Well, you have to believe in is your ability to identify the best players that make the difference between being respectable threatening an elite eventually. Now they believed in that process before Danny Age did it, and he was right, Tatum Brown, we can go on and on and on with the other names. And they
threatened for a good number of years. Now, that was a twelve year process, and for the first four years, I want to say, not a whole heck of a lot happening. Remember, they flushed out, they got a bunch of picks, they started over. Okay, the payoff is a ring and maybe more. I don't know if it's gonna take twelve. I don't know if it's gonna take eight. I don't know if it's gonna take I don't know.
But what I do know is they have a belief in their ability with the process to identify those players, get them in and create the situation and the circumstance that gives them that championship level success. He has the track record to prove it, but what it takes is time. Because what he did in Boston by quickly making trades and then winning the title in eight, he did it that way. I think it's gonna be tougher to do
something like that in Salt Lake City. With this, with free agency and all that, I think you're gonna have to go with your draft. You're gonna have to go with your guys, you're gonna have to be very selective and you have got to hit more than you miss, because you're not gonna be bat a thousand, But you gotta kind of be Reggie Jackson.
When you barrel one up, you really barrel one up.
And Danny Ain't just proven that while he does not bat a thousand, he can have more strikes than he does gutters. And so that's what this is that we and I love that you've just been very honest about what this is. So you, as a fan, you don't have to be okay with it now, but at least be honest with what it could.
Pay off to be later. Yeah. So in the immediate now, no no, yeah, no, well, well well said, so the hope, the sincere hope, truly, And I don't really know that I'm ready to emphatically anoint or dismiss in any of these young players. Does Cody get stronger, quicker? Is he able to take contact? Can he score on all three levels? Does he look like a promising young player? Does Kyante
he had the countess stuff? We won't do a lot of time on this County stuff is really interesting to me because there are moments where I'm like, yeah, all right, that's real, right, And then there are a lot of moments where I'm just like, I don't know that he can run a team. At least at this age, he has not shown his ability to be a lead guard. Does he show that ability this year? Here's what you got?
You got marketing and he's awesome. Okay, Yeah, so he's the one you found throughout the course of everything you gave up. And I've always been the one guy yelling into the void about the go bear deal. Okay, because I saw Rudy impact winning here in a way that he's impacted in Minnesota. And yes, they got a haul, but what does that turn into? And we still don't know. So do we see something excuse me, that we're not
expecting from an Isaiah Collier? You get my point? Like, does one of the young players popping away we're not expecting.
Yeah, I think that's something that can happen, will eventually happen.
You're gonna have progress.
The key point is how much progress do you have with some of those guys and what will happen with Danny Ainge is I do believe there's a shorter release than people would think with him, it's a hell yes, or it's to know. And I do think fans should like that because he is quick to make those moves. You were the first point that out when he first arrived. You were like, this is what's great about this. If he sees it's not gonna work. He's moving right away.
He's moving, he's not playing the Dante x him. Hey, let's you know see how this and you know he's so young and he's so and it just it's the same story.
It's the same crap. It's a different diaper, and it's over and over.
No, no, no, no, no, it is Is this getting us where we want to go?
No?
Out, can this get us where we want to go? Yes, Let's continue to process and develop. We're not gonna hang on to Alec Burk's longer.
We should.
We're not gonna hang on to Dante ex longer we should. And so that it sounds ruthless, it sounds like incredibly I don't want to say small money like somebody would think, Man, that's so impatient.
You're in a league where you can't wait.
You can wait and play the long game with the big picture to win the title. But you can't play the long game with something that you don't see getting good enough fast enough. And he has to be able to believe that he can identify what that is. No one he's wrong when he's wrong, and move Danny Ainge. I give him a lot of credit. He's been that way his whole career, and he's going to be that way with this.
Yeah, Danny understands sun cost fallacy unlike all to any other NBAHGM like when it's time to move on, it's time to move on. I do wonder what this means for Will Hardy, who's in year three, who is a very proud guy who wants to win basketball games. But he's being paid handsomely. He's obviously part of the plan. I just have a hard time seeing this turn into anything really exciting anytime soon.
I hope that they can give him what he needs going for because I do believe culturally he's doing a lot of great things. I do believe systematically, I think he's a great basketball mind. I'm not just saying this because I've had a chance to watch it up close and see what's developing. I hope that they can say, hey, you've been a part of this process as we were going through the pain tolerance. He deserves to be a part of the process to give it a chance to see them thrive.
Yeah, let's hope you gets some players because there's a reason he wanted them to trade for Dame Liller. I can tell you that, all right. I want to tell you by my friends at Prize Picks. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player staff projections and watch the winnings roll in. I want to emphasize more or less on two to six player staff projections. You only
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you play five dollars. That's promo Cody ESPN seven hundred on Prize Picks to get fifty dollars instantly. When you play five dollars, you don't even need to win to receive the fifty dollars bonus. It's guaranteed Prize Picks. Run your game. We'll do some college football with Tony coming up next right here on ESPN seven hundred. Bony Parks Live Rum Studio, The Voice of the Bees Last Chance
promo code style. As the Bees are saying goodbye to the Capital City, join the Solid Bees at Smith's Ballpark for their final two home stands, well, their final home stand of the season. Porter laughs at me because I Ron Burgundy my reads. If it's on the script, I'm gonna read it. Let's get Tony's mike when we have a chance. September seventeenth to the twenty second. Use the promo code Last Chance for discount of tickets and don't miss out on the final games ever at Smith's Ballpark.
Don't miss out get your tickets at SLBs dot com today. A bunch of great promos going on starting tomorrow night all the way through Sunday. So one last foray for the bees here in the Capitol City. Real quick, Tony, what's your opinion on I caught some strays today because during cross talk with Sean, Sean O'Connell's hosting our midday show now, he was giving away Disney on Ice tickets and he said something along the lines of, well, if you have kids, this will be great. Then he said, well,
even if you don't have kids, you should go. That's a whole lot of second and I was too aggressive with my opinion, as you know me, as I want to do from time to time. I guess this is where I'll settle on it because I was a little aggressive earlier. I don't fully understand Disney adults like you don't have kids in your calling up your group of friends and you're like, dude, what are you doing the third week of October, Let's roll to Disney for like
a week. Bro, Let's crush a little small world. It's hop on space, like you know what I mean. I hear you say it loud. I'm not judging, but it's just not my thing. And I am a father, as you know, and I've had wonderful times with my son, my young son at Disney World and on Disney cruises. But the way I phrased it earlier, I caught some pushback. People were saying I was being too harsh. What's your
not not on adult that likes Disney movies? What's your opinion on adult who multiple times a year spends thousands of dollars with his or her friends to take week long vacations at Disney resorts without children? Okay, I am not a hater on Disney adult fan. I'm not.
I'm not no hate, I'm not okay, but you better get out of the way when something for the kids ever comes up, and you better let them have the front row seat, and you better let them go first, and.
You better make it about them.
But you ever take too long with I don't care if it's a store her worst character or or if it's Rapunzel or whatever. You better make sure that it is first and foremost for them, because that's who this is for. So Nat and I did Disney on Nice once. We ended up getting tickets and it was just her and I.
Uh.
And it also was shortly used, probably three months after our oldest daughter was born, and so there was there was a little more to it, you know, And so we went there and I remember being there with my wife and the first thing we did. I mean, all these families have all these little kids, and our seats were supposed to be at the front row of this suite, and we were like, uh huh, all the kids go up there. And we sat back on the barstools and you know, sat up at the table and had a
good time. But we made sure every prize that was given out, we gave it to one of them. Like anything that was given Ah, it is for them. So as long as you keep that part in mind. I'm all about I. I I not for me, Like I'm not dropping a bunch of money on Disney. My sister's big Disney adult fan, and now she you know, she has a daughter and stuff, and so it's great. But I'm not a hater on them. But just make sure you don't impede on any child's experience.
If there's limited tickets, they get the ticket. Okay. It's good life advice in a much more serious tone than I was expecting. Bro. I'll meet you at Dumbo the Dumbo ride, and then let's hit up pirates and go to the Jungle Crew like you know what I mean. Yes, it's so expensive. You could do others anyway. Off my soapb not for me. Not for me either, Tony Parks live in studio. All right, we got we had some time here, so let's see you into some college football storylines.
And I gotta say, man, I think Isaac Wilson answered a lot of questions on Saturday. We learned the lesson around here last year of what it can look like, not just without your starter, but without your backup. Cam was hurt last year, so was Brandon Rose. And I said after the Baylor game, I said, okay, Isaac's the two. You know, you guys know your team way better than any of us do. So Isaac's the two. If he's the two, it had to look better than it did
against Baylor. Now, Dave Randa, as we all know around here, is a defensive savants. I mean, that's how he's made his way in the business. So I'm sure Baylor schematically was something that Isaac wasn't used to. But Utah stayed up in the logan is probably the most hostile environment that young man's ever played in front of I know corner Canny gets some big crowds, but I was proud of him.
Man.
I thought he stepped up. I thought he met the moment. I thought he answered a lot of questions. What do you make of what we saw from Isaac on Saturday?
Isaac Wilson is much better than most true freshman quarterbacks, and by a mile by the way, He's going to get exponentially better as the year goes on. The question is how good is he going to get and how fast? And which games are going to be the ones where the wheels wobble at all, where you know, film crew or scouts try to catch up to him from each team, right, that being coaching staffs when.
They're preparing for him.
But the big one for this Saturday, the big question is, okay, Isaac Wilson will kind of jump?
Is he going to take? I think this game is going to be.
Decided by the offensive line of Utah playing and simple. This is a Kyle Whittingham game on Saturday. This isn't an Isaac Wilson game. This is a Kyle Whittingham game. This is where your team is coming along, right, They're taking quality strides and I give this team some credit, as some Kyle Whittingham teams in some of these recent previous years kind of started a bit slow, like maybe got away with the win where they didn't play all
that well. Slow start to that game against Utah State, But those last three quarters, I really liked the way the old line grinded and the way they started pushing bodies, the way they started executing, the way they started smashing. If they play like that in this game, but they got to do it for four quarters. If they win it up front, especially against the way they line up defensively,
they get to dictate the terms. Life is much easier on Isaac Wilson and suddenly Utah with Kyle Whittingham, who knows how to get the best out of what any situation happens to be. If that happens, they win this game, this type of game. There's so many games people are going to remember about Kyle Whittingham, and they're gonna remember the Sugar Bowl, and they're gonna remember some you know,
landmark victories. To me, it's the at Washington State a few years ago, where you find out your starting quarterbacks not gonna play and you find a way to win it's the home against USC where you're down big like that you find a way to win. It's the Travis Wilson at home against USC where you barely scored anything on offense, but you keep it close and you win at the end USC last year. I know, I'm just pointing out USC games, but there's several of them that we can go to where it's like.
Man, oh, they won that game.
A hell of a job, and you look at the work of coaching and some of the guys that come through and help you in the win at home against BYU in twenty twelve, it was the field storming game.
That was a Kyle Whittingham game. Your longest drives for a touchdown were seventeen yards and thirty nine yards. You found a way to win with John Hayes like that was dude, that was some work. Yeah, And it's it's interesting. I was thinking about this through the prism, like I'm watching Chiefs Bengals, and I'm like, Chiefs will figure it out. They're gonna win somehow, someway right, And I never fully and you probably experienced the same thing because on Saturday,
I said this. On Friday, that Utah State game had some of the tricky dynamics of what an upset game could encapsulate. And I say this every Monday. One of the reasons I love college football so much is the unpredictable nature of it, and really good teams get got every week, and Utah rarely gets got in a scenario where they're not supposed to lose. So unless there is a cataclysmic injury situation like there was a year ago, which made last year a moot point, I don't even
reference it. It's a miracle that got to eight. I thought that was a great coaching job. More often than not, when Utah football is supposed to win a game, they win a game. He very rarely gets got when he's not supposed to get got. So I view Saturday ultimately as a massive success because you handled your business and it was never fully uncomfortable. I mean, they go down
fourteen three. But I always get such a kick out of football fans who in the first and second quarter are tweeting like they're about to jump off their roof. I mean, it's the first quarter. You can't be up a million to three after one, Like, give it some time. Just see Bears fans in the city. Oh sure, they're sure, But it was a combination of to your point, just
a do your job, work ethic coach, wit win. Okay, let's not get God here, Let's not get let's not get stung by an end state team when a lot of their players probably want to play for Utah. You know they're going to show up against a CFP contender to put good tape out there, and some of them did for their pro careers, Like, let's not get God here. So that's simply put showing up getting to win when
it never was fully in doubt. It just wasn't but then to know because look, Tony, I know you're not a gambler, but if I called you, I said, hey, you have no choice but to put the Tony Park paycheck from any of your seventy million jobs on the line, and the bet is will came rising play every game this season. Who is going to bet on that? Like, I don't want him to get hurt, and we want
to see camp play all year. But I think it's fair to say that there's a really good chance that Utah is going to need Isaac in a pretty tricky spot in conference play, because what's the confidence level. The Cameron's just going to be under center all year. It's hard to have that right now.
No, it really is hard to have that. So you need Isaac to just continue to progress. And I love this kid. I loved the first time I ever saw Isaac Wilson. He's playing in a game against Loam Peak and this is a sophomore game, so by no means it says varsity whatever.
He's a freshman. It's early in the season.
And he throws a really bad interception before halftime, and I mean, the coaching staff is just all over him. I mean, he was okay to be coached hard, and he took it on the chin and he owned it. He came out in the second half, they were down like seventeen eight minutes to go, and he rallied him back to win that game, and he made throws that were just insane, and I remember being like, this dude is tough.
His name Wilson. Kids can sling it, oh man, no doubt about that.
As a Jets I watched him from each piece of that not just grow a little bit, but grow so fast, so quickly. And I understand college football is a different deal. I'm not saying a sophomore high school experience is truly what's going to represent his whole but his mindset and also where he comes from and a family that has played at high levels.
You can see that he absorbs things quite quickly.
And then you have a coaching staff who's great at managing problem solving and Jason Bennetti said it last year and that came against the USC. Is there a program that's better a problem solving No, there's not. So then you have all these ingredients with a chance for him
to excel. I'm not saying he's going to hit all American level this next week, but I think he'll take a very good stride forward, and if that offensive line can play like they did during those final three weeks, I think they have a chance to have a great victory in Stillwater. Now, there's still plenty of variables. You got to perform right. You have to execute. You can't come out there on the road and get off to a slow start. You can't feel your way into this game.
You can't take what the defense gives you. No, you just got to go get it. And that old line can make life a lot easier on a QB in Wilson, who I think has great skills and talent. By the way, you now have I think a great weapon on third down, red zone, cold Weather another one and say just one but loner going up and getting the ball and Wilson with great touch, like that's that's fabulous. That's a great sign.
So this is all formulating and coming together. And if this is that week where I think they polish it for four quarters.
They win this game. And I just think it was so good for the fan base to see a dynamic in place. And look, Oklahoma State will be a different challenge. And if Isaac has to play on a random Saturday, a road game in a hostile Big twelve environment, then we're gonna see he's made of because this is a different thing. I'm not saying it's not. But for how bad it was last year when it was Rice and th Nate then Nate, than Bryson, then Nate and Bryson, the fact that the fans were able to see it
can look okay this year. Even if cam hasked to miss time, I think put a lot of fears to bed because the dude, you know the deal. The conversation for Utah football over the past three four weeks leading up into the season. Here Kyle say it. Here coach lud say it, like, we need Cam to be smart, We need him to show discretion is the better form of valor. We need him to throw the ball away, We need him to get down, we need him healthy. And he lasted a game and a half and here
we are again. Now it's not a long term thing, and we're told that he is going to play on Saturday, that's the plan against Oklahoma State. But the fact that it took a game and a half for Cameron to miss a game, not a couple of snaps, not a couple of series, He missed an entire game that, in my opinion, read a lot of anxiety around here, like, oh, here we go again. It's gonna look like it did last year. And I think Tony, at least for one day, the fan base saw that it's not going to look
like last year. In the event that came this time.
No, totally agreed, because now you're dealing with a guy with a lot more skills, and that's no slight to the guys before.
It's just a fact guy has more skills.
You watch the way he throws the ball, the different types of throws. He's more polished, he's more skilled. You don't have to protect yourself from him. It's not be careful country. It's not John Hayes where you throw it deep once each half and then try to hand it off to John White for the other you know whatever, sixty five snaps.
No, that's not it.
The preparation is going to give a more skilled quarterback when he's out there, that being Isaac a lot more confidence on what's going on. Plus, you have a great coach in Cam Rising who has no reason not to help coach this guy up right, because when Cam is fully healthy and ready, he's the guy that's back out there.
Right.
So there's a great amount of trust that's in this program. And I've seen it ten thousand times. It's very very rare in this day and age in college football right now, with depth and experience on that coaching staff that you always feel like they're going to give you the very best chance possible with what you're working with here, and what you're working with is still very good. Yeah, So I'm with you on the here we go again. It's
going to give anxiety. The one thing you got to do is exhale and say, man, we got a great coach in place. They're going to come prepared for a guy in Wilson. It's not like he's coming in there. Hey, you know, this is kind of his thing.
He's new.
We don't really know what he's made of. No, I think we've seen some of what he's made of. And I think at his very very best, he's showing you some flashes to be great, and I think he's going to show you continued.
Flashes to be responsible.
The big one there, too, is defense has got to come up with some more timely plays.
The Snowden pick was I think as big as anything. It was awesome. Yeah, like that.
I did not see a pick coming on that play. At best, they saw a PBu Like. The guy's a hell of a player, right, I chance to see him up close a lot. So it's some of that all mixed in together to get what I think will be a close road victory.
But I could see the fan being a concern.
The other thing you got to remember is be happy that you're in a conference that is not going to be like Oregon and Washington and maybe USC happened to be at the top last year, and you are dealing with a team that is well put into place to go give you a great chance the rest of the way.
Yeah, I think there's a lot to be confident about. I mean, I do think the next four games it's not an easy task. It's Oklahoma State, it's Arizona at home, then it's at Arizona State, who's been a lot better than anybody thought. I'm a big UCF guy, but I'm not super down on TCU after that great football game over the weekend. That's how UCF just beat them and the other thing and then we'll move on because I
have to wonder. Brock heword hopped on the show prior to the season, and I actually heard him talking about this on the Utah Baylor broadcast as well. It's not a slight corner canyon. It's not a slight high school football. Andy Ludwigs playbook is ten times to what you know as it pertains to what Isaac Wilson has used to study, and it's a different thing altogether. It's a different level. It's more complex and nuanced. But I thought coach lud let him go a little bit against Utah STAATEI threw
it thirty three times. So I wonder, and again, let's be clear here for people that are turning on the radio, same way they're talking about Isaac Wilson playing now, Cam is expected to play on Saturday. But I wonder if Isaac needs to get back in there. Did Andy c enough from him on Saturday to continue to give him some freedoms to be who he is as opposed to to your point, just three yards in a cloud of dust.
Yeah, I think he has. I think he has I think he has the maturity. I think he has the focus. I think he has the tenacity. I think he has the responsible mindset where he can still play with abundance with out having to be careless, but yet plays with the right amount of scarcity and understanding control and managing the game. And Kyle today was like, Okay, I shouldn't use the word managing because it sounds like we're trying
to protect ourselves fromhim. But no, he understands the full sixty minutes, the ten possessions or whatever, ten to twelve possessions, and he has an element to his game that he understands how to consume the whole game so well. And I know some of this is because I was so close to it for so many years. But I was so impressed, you know, with Zak obviously, and I'm impressed with Isaac in that way. I think he's well ahead of what most people in his position would be and
so is he finished. No, But if you end up having to go to him again somewhere, because as you mentioned like that, there's an injury situation there that exists. You're not trying to speak ill of can, but it just is what it is. You've got a lot of games left and you might need to have this again. And when you need to go to it, are you going to have Conference player of the Year type performance?
No?
All American No.
But what you will have is something that you can depend on to minimize the gap between who your starter is and who your backup is.
Because last year it was quite a drop. Let me get a quick by you thought from you before we catch a break for the five o'clock hour of the show. Last year, it just it was weird in a lot of ways for a team whose head coach was Kolonie Satake and his defensive coordinator was Jay Hill to be I think they were last in the country in sacks. They could not pressure the quarterback. It didn't look great.
Keaton Slows never fully settled in. They get off to a decent start, then they get smoked in conference play. But it was the defense that confused me. Because Kilanie that's his thing. Jay Hill, that's his thing. We were talking about David Randa earlier. Klane cut his teeth under Kyle, so did Jay. They know the deal. They know that in order to win football games, you have to be stout on that side of the ball, and they are this year very stout defensively in a way that I
don't think they were a year ago. Now, a lot of it's going to come down to Jake and I'd sit down and turn on the game. He throws that early pick and I'm like, dude, what are we doing here? I mean, a Rod last week said I will eliminate the turnovers for my program. As QB goes out, throws an early pick and I'm like, well, Hannah started warming up. It was on the broadcast, and they started warming up a hand in. I'm like, all right, they're gonna pull
the plug. But I thought Jake, just like Isaac, responded really well Manton on Friday said Wyoming sucks. B why you should roll. I wasn't convinced that Wyoming sucked, but they suck, and n By you rolled. Give me your thoughts on By's clean start.
Well, I think Wyoming isn't very good, and I think BYU is going to be tested even more so here coming up.
The big thing is can you play consistently enough?
Can you stay away from some of the catastrophic mistakes that against Wyoming you'll get away with here and there? Like Utah had a slow start in their game against Utah State, right, you can't do that against Oklahoma State. But at your best, which I think they showed during huge stretches of those final three quarters, you can dominate a team like that, and you can absolutely show the
fundamental sound abilities to control a game by you. I still need to see more from them that they can avoid some of the catastrophic mistakes that give me belief that they can have a much better season than I had originally expected. Right, some of that is still going to be a work in progress, and I think one of the big questions about them at all P four level, if you will, is can they get the players often
enough to be that kind of program that emerges and grows. Right, there was an acclimation period for Utah to the PAC twelve, and that was clearly a few years there where they were sub five hundred, didn't go to bulls, things like that, and then all of a sudden it was eight plus wins regularly for BYU. I'm very curious about that, because the acclimation period is different because you're recruiting, your situation
is unique. I do think they have as good a staff as you could ask for, with great abilities to recruit in a variety of different ways. Now the big thing is just how good is their best And I think Jay who if you look at what they do defensively, yeah, it comes from perfecting fundamentals, lane discipline, guys understanding their job, not getting outside of themselves. But on offense, you've got to be able to make big plays more often enough.
And then the other thing you're gonna need is you got to stay away from some of the catastrophic mistakes. So how they way that balance here spence against better competition that remains to be seen. And I think a Rod has a really big task on his hand to gauge and balance how that is because Kyle Whittingham, with his number of offensive coordinators that he had for years, had to figure out how to do that. With Travis Wilson, he had to figure out how to do that. I mean,
obviously with John Hayes and some other guys. He had to figure out how to do that without depth because when they would have some injuries to olign and then you have some quarterback issues all a sudden, you start one to five.
That's hard.
So I'm very curious to see how a rod works and balances that. There's a real fine amount of work that goes into that. And by the way, it was a part of some of those Utah staffs they had to work with that.
You know, it's funny some people may forget not to do the Trump thing, like everyone forgot. No, you're the only one that forgot. There was a time when it came to the Utah offensive coordinator spot where it felt like it's like, hey, does anyone have Dave Shram's number?
Right?
Like it was such a turnover right year in and year out. The coach lud has really solidified that. Let me ask you one more thing, because I think I've got your take on this, and I'm surprised. Now, let's be clear, the reporting on this is murky because nil stuff. There's some websites here there, and there's some reporting that you can look at. By all accounts, and this is
a Ryan Smith thing because Ryan's a basketball guy. But by all accounts, BYU at this point has tremendous resources invested in their basketball program, yet they have not found the football equivalent of Ryan Smith. And I just thought, i mean, look, i come from a family of BYU fans. I've got a brother who's the CEO of a company, and there are so many ex BYU athletes or just x BYU students that go on to start companies or MLMs and make a ton of money. They'll love BYU football.
I'm kind of surprised the Ryan Smith equivalent for the football program has not manifested itself just yet, at least as far as our understanding goes.
So I said this from the beginning, I was working at America First Credit Union. There weren't many people in the art office at the time. It was COVID, but there are a few people and we would talk football in It was a great time, and this nil thing really started getting big. They talked about how big a deal it could be for football, and that's what they wanted to see. Hey, there's a lot of people to support this team. They could really get behind it in
these different ways. I said, I think basketball is where they can really make it happen. Because you have a smaller number of players, you have a much better chance to garner some stars. You have a twenty thousand seed arena that you can pack. I think they have game presentation that is second to none. They're so good with their game, they're so good with their fan experience. I tip my hat to them all the time. They're really really good at it. And that's not to disparage anybody else.
I just think they really have something there that I think is very impressive, and so they've worked hard at it and they've taken pride in it.
I think if you're an.
Athlete, you love to see that in basketball, the way that they do it, And people at Utah would say, well, well why not us, Well, no, it's hard because you don't have enough people there to have some of what you're trying to build, and obviously that comes with winning, and we can go down that rabbit hole in another day. So it's kind of unfair to some of the other staffs trying to put together a good fan experience because
BAU basketball has something there. They put together some good wins there with Pope, they had a good run that you know, they went to an NCAA tournament.
Whatever. They're stacked right on paper this year, this year, this year, the.
Juice is just high man and you you did a lot with the coaching staff. So Niol with basketball, I thought was going to have the first big impact. I do think they can get there with football, but it's got to be with like a quarterback and then a key running back receiver, right, so you dial in on a couple of key positions for that and you target in on that, and that is the way it would have to happen. That I think is a slower process.
I really do believe it's a slower process there, Spence, and it's it's got to be something that's gonna come over time.
Where's basketball.
I thought they would actually have it earlier than they have until now now they're ready to go. But I remember saying that all the way back and like the fall of twenty twenty, going no, this is this is actually where they can have massive advancement.
Oh interesting, because that's been the case. All right, Tom, great to see before I say you lose hit that bes promo again. What we do, what we got get at SLBs dot com. Make sure you come out to the games five dollars tickets on Sunday. You get to run around the bases on the field. After the game.
You know what, you can probably stay longer, take a few pictures, you know, have a good time, hang out with Bumble for a few extra minutes. Let it be that sign off. Let it be something that you're a part of. By the way, weather Sunday is supposed to be amazing, so you know, it's one of those days where bring a jacket anyway, but it's probably gonna be nice. Probably don't need it. Oh and it's park at the park on Sunday. Bring your dog to the ballpark. Gets
your tickets SLBs nice dot com. There's no better place for park in the park than that place. Friday night, Go Gold Night. That is going to be a beautiful and special night. Fireworks after the game. But we have wonderful tribute set up for all the different families currently in the fight, those who have been in the fight, those who have lost somebody in the fight. Cancer affects
everybody in some way, people that we love. For me, I've got a very good friend of mine you, who you know, has has been a part of that fight, and I think of you every single time anything like that comes up. I appreciate and the conversations we've had off the air. We have friends of ours who've had children who've been in that fight, and so it's a wonderful night to come to the ballpark be a part of those tributes and UH the Huntsman Cancer, UH Foundation's
pediatric research, all of that. Big thanks to everybody over there for all that they do. So at any point, come twice this week. You know the ticket deals are gonna be good enough you can afford to come twice, and we'll have some great options for a gear that you can buy in the team store that you're gonna love the discounts there, and you're gonna love all the wonderful discounts when it comes to concessions, just everything involved with it. Make sure you're a part of it. SLBs dot Com.
Great to see him, my brother. Okay Parks Voice of the Bes,