All right, what's going on? Ride time? Thursday afternoon, rainy and cold, snow was falling up in the mountains. I know a lot of people have been waiting for that. Winter's on its way. You can feel it today. If you're like me, you've enjoyed our mild fall. But it is getting to be late October, so chilly, rainy day outside, and as it is every day, it's going to have you along for the ride. Spence check, it's beyond the mic.
That's Porta Larson behind the glass. We're back in studio after being out in about the last couple of days with our friends at the Dish Professionals and then at Bar actually yesterday. We're gonna be out with our friends at the Snowmobile Expo on Friday, and then after the show join us at Overtime Cards and Collectibles or a very special event. Logan Cooley from the Utah Hockey Club is going to be signing in autographs for fans at
Overtime Cards and Collectibles. The station's gonna be out there from about five to seven, so come on buy say hi to Scott Mitchell, Logan Cooley. I'll be out there as well, and check out the great trading cards for all your favorite athletes. Check them out online time Cards and Collectibles dot Com where you can buy and trade. We'll be out at their new location out in Sandy, so come on out and join us. Happy Thursday. One day closer of the weekend, we get a little NFL
football tonight. Don't know if this is gonna be a great game. It's the Broncos and the Saints. The Saints are badly injured. It's at the super Dome down in New Orleans, Denver's a three point favorite and the over under thirty seven point five. Not a lot of points tonight in the Big Easy, but you do get some pro football. You can listen to that on this station after we say it out about six o'clock. Ball Baseball playoff Baseball has been great tonight. The Yankees and the
Guardians from Progressive Field in Cleveland. The Guardians trying to get back in that series. The Yanks took the first couple of games. Mets fighting for their lives now down two to one after being blank yesterday. That's a series goes to Cityfield and Queens, where the Mets will host the Dodgers. One day closer to a massive college football weekend both locally and nationally. Utah trying to get right against TCU Saturday night here in Salt Lake. We'll get
you ready for that game. We'll talk a lot about that game today. As we sit here today, Utah is a three point five point favorite. That line has moved four separate times in the way of TCU. Opened up as a seven point favorite for the Utes. It's now three point five and Utah badly in need of a win. There's your hot take. On a Thursday, Brigham Young tries to stay undefeated. Friday night in Provos, Oklahoma State is in town, potentially the most disappointing team in the Big twelve.
BYU is a nine point favorite as we sit here today. It was up to nine and a half yesterday. Now it's back down at nine, open at eight and a half. That's a late kick eight fifteen in Provo on Friday night at both Utah and BYU, because they're not in the SEC or the Big Ten, we'll play late games on Friday and Saturday. Utah State welcomes in Bronco, Menenhall and New Mexico. The Aggies have been trucked and have
lost five straight games, but football on its way. We're pretty much halfway home for the most part for most teams, and we'll get into some of the bigger national storylines on the show today as well. The Utah Jazz will wrap up their preseason schedule with a Friday tilt in Portland's before starting the season for real next week against Memphis. The Athletic has done a really, really good five part series on the current state of the NBA. They released
four of them. I think they're going to release the fifth tomorrow, and some interesting things about the new collective bargaining agreement, what means for markets like Salt Lake and Adam Silver's quest to bring parody to pro basketball the way they have it in pro football. We're going to get into that today because we do need to talk a little Jazz on the program. Is the NBA is a pop on us. It'll start next week. RSL back
at action on Saturday, taking on Vancouver. With a win, RSL will set a single season point record for the club, so obviously pulling for them. The Utah Hockey Club, we have so much going on right now. Utah Hockey Club had to fly across country. Usually if you go from New York to California. In pro sports, you have the opportunity to stop once, but not for the Utah Hockey Club. And after a three and oh start, they now have
one loss, two losses in a row. They're three and two overall five to four, though they continue to score a lot of goals. And we'll get to as much as we can with the Utah Hockey Club today, Good guest, listen on a Thursday afternoon, we've moved some things around. Usually Gordon Mountson, Craig Bowlerjack Live and Studio both will be over the phone today. Gordon will start us off at two thirty. Craig joins us free Chris Comrodnie from The Athletic Live and Studio for an hour scited for that.
We'll talk mostly college football, but we'll bounce around get to some other topics as well. Chris was recently hunting for feral pigs in Hawaii with Trevor Riley. Yeah, that's a real thing. Bringing our friends at Sports Court. Then after five o'clock we'll kind of reset some things with the drive at five, so busy show on a Thursday day afternoon. Gordon Montson, Craig Bowler, Jack, Chris com, Ronnie, the Spence Checkets, all of you, the great listeners, and
that guy with a mustache and no beard. Every day I walk in here and I think like, I'm gonna have to grow a mustache. Feels like everybody's growing a mustache. I think you should. I think you should.
It's it's not a bad idea, it does seem like it's It's kind of jumped the shark a little bit, though, like we're in the twenties or something again with the mustaches.
But hey, I'm I'm guilty of it, so I can't complain. I'm also forty six, and I feel like I feel like if I grew a mustache, my friends would be like, you're trying to look like you're in your twenties. Don't do that. Yeah, I don't want to be that guy that tries to look younger than he is. That's fair. Of all of all the stuff that's going on right now, what is grasping your attention the most? Ah Man.
I don't veer far from college football when it's when it's fall time, but it's hard to not be somewhat distracted by all the busyness in the Sports World here locally.
So you you you mentioned it.
It's it's fun for me as a very much a novice when it comes to hockey, like my hockey knowledge Spence is playing the game on PlayStation two back in the day, so fun. It was kind of the same way with me with FIFA and and the hockey games. The video games are really fun. So I got to learn a little bit about the sport, but I have no knowledge of the actual leagues, the players I'm I'm learning now and that's been really fun. Of course RSL
and the playoff Push. I'm a I'm a huge fan of Pablo Mastruenny and that crew, and I think that he has a way of changing gears a little bit when postseasons on the line, regardless of who's in the locker room. He's proven he has that ability, so I'm excited to see that forthcoming. And then of obviously as a Mets fan, man, I've been kind of like anxiously shaking U the last few days. I know it's not healthy.
I shouldn't let a sports team affect me in that way. Man, I've got better, But as you just said, it's with playoff Baseball, man, the amount of anything that rides on one single pitch, one single swing at the bat. It's just different than a lot of sports, and yet it gets me going. That's probably my main distraction from college football to the moment.
I'm glad you played that hockey video game. But during the break you need to Google search NHL ninety four Sega Genesis. That's the hockey game and that's a shout out to my fellow jed xers. You probably played that if you're of a certain age. All right, Gordon Monson, our first guest today on a Thursday, right out of the gates. But before we get to Gordo, courtesy of our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, it's your tailgate headquarters.
We have three Utah home games left. Make sure your tailgate is ready to roll. Check them out Standard Restaurant dot com or thirty five hundred south West Temple On a Thursday, it's time now for your opening tip.
Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's number one sports talk. Now into the studio of Yes 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.
All Right, College football ahead NFL tonight, you can hear the Thursday night game here on this radio station. I have to promote it, even though it's the Broncos and the Saints. But let's look ahead to the Friday night till Oklahoma State BYU. Then of course the Saturday till with Utah and TCU. Of course we'll start with the Utes.
The big storyline this week continues to be the change at quarterback, because everybody wants to talk about the quarterback and everybody wants to know what's next and what it's going to look like. And you know, at this point we've kind of really beat this topic over the head. But every day it seems like somebody of note chimes in on what Cam Rising should or should not do at the end of the season. So we have to
table it for now. We just simply don't know because now we have to see what sort of hand Utah has been dealt with Isaac Wilson. And I will repeat what I have been saying, which is, to me, this is like a clean slate for Isaac. It hasn't been great so far. It's been about what you would expect from an eighteen year old. It enrolled in school in April. Been some moments, for sure, but too many interceptions, and ultimately he needs to be better with his decision making.
But more than anything else, Utah has to rally around this kid and probably start playing more in the image of who their head coach is, because the fact of the matter is they have been able to run the football. Mackai Bernard one of the top two or three backs in the entire Big Twelve, proving that nobody knew anything about this Utah football team. But the offensive line, while young, has settled in and we'll get back to them in
a moment now. TCU, the opponent on Saturday so far this season, has not been able to stop the run at all. They're okay against the past. But my guess is going to be with all the attention on Isaac Wilson and all the attention on how he's going to look now that he has job security and he doesn't have to look over a shoulder, and as Mackay himself said to the media this week, they no longer are preparing two game plans, which is not a great formula, even though it was kind of a mandate out of
necessity because you want Cameron back. You hope he comes back, so you understand that you plan for it because that's the preferred situation. But now that's off the table, and so it's all about Isaac Wilson. It's all about what he's going to look like under center. But certainly the success of this team cannot be placed on the shoulders of an eighteen year old. So I still have tremendous
faith in what this team can ultimately be. And honestly, some of the defensive numbers are a little bit cloudy in my opinion, because statistically Utah is still a top twenty defense, but they haven't been great against the run. Or is it a scenario where last week this essentially allowed Skataboo two massive, big play chunk runs, you know, and ultimately you can't give up those big plays. You know.
Ohio State learned that last weekending it'inst Oregon. You know, seven point five year yards per play for the Ducks. That's not going to get it done if you're Ohio State. But Ultimately, Utah has to get back to who they are. So all the conversation about well, a couple of years ago, they averaged thirty eight points a game. That's not happening this year. Okay, Cameron's not back. We thought for a minute he was going to be early on Southern Utah.
First half against Baylor, he looked phenomenal, and then what happened. Expectations went sky high. Oh, we got Cam back from two years ago. We're gonna have another dynamic offense, and even if the defense isn't as good as we expected, if we have Cam under center, we're going to outscore teams anyway. No longer the case, and I don't know what's realistic to expect from Isaac and the offense as
far as consistent points per game. So now it's time to call upon the way this team was built back in the day and who Kyle wants them to be. Win in the trenches, run the football, stop the rush. TCU does not run the football that well. Okay, they've got a quarterback who can certainly fling it and get some yards here there, but he has six picks of his own, Like this is a get right game that feels like as we closer and closer to kick, Utah
should handle it pretty well. If all of the conversation that's happened over the past week since the loss again Sashu and the news that Cameron is out, if everything these players and coaches have said to the media and behind the scenes as well is true, if this team has really responded, you go thump TCU on Saturday night and you show this fan base that you're going to be fine regardless of who the quarterback is. All right, my guess is the fans are going to show up
that stadium. Usually, if not at capacity is close to it, they'll announce a sellout, But how many people will be there? I'll be there, so I'll be curious to see whether the attendance is going to be a Saturday night late kick. Certainly, the muss will be the muss, and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of noise. But in order for the noise to reverbiate consistently, as we saw against Arizona,
you got to give them something to cheer for. You can't just expect fans to stay on their feet every minute for four quarters when they're watching a football team that doesn't appear to be ready to play, and unfortunately that was the case last week, you know, a couple of weekends ago against Arizona obviously on the road last week at a ISU. But run the football, stop the run, win the battle on the trenches, get back to the physical defensive team that knows how to tackle regardless, and
then take the football away. Morgan talked about that this week. You know, you've lost the turnover margin two to one to three one right, the last couple of games. Not gonna get it done. It's exactly the reason why Brigham Young is undefeated. They turned the other team over consistently in compromise situations. Then they capitalize on those situations with touchdowns not field goals, something Utah is not doing. Kyle
talks about it himself. Red zone, third down, okay, not good enough, but it can't all be on the shoulders of your freshman quarterback. You got to rally around him. And then also, I wonder how they take the pressure off of Mackai Bernard because we heard a lot about Mike Mitchell. I'm still gonna wonder why jalaln Glover are running back who's had big games and big situations for this team can't get off the pine because Mackay has
established himself as the dude. But he's not built like Zach, like Zack Moss right, He's not built like one of those backs like Tavion was built. Right. He's built enough, but I don't think you want him touching the football thirty forty times every single week. You obviously have to ride him. He's your best player right now, again proving none of us knew anything. Looking at that room, the conversation was, is there one bell cow? Will it be
by committee? Four or five running backs? We didn't know, and they've got one. That's just awesome. Kyle did tell us he was running back one. But it can't just be on Isaac. It has to be a group effort. I am really curious to see if the connection we saw between Isaac and Dorian continues. Right He was clearly Isaac's favorite target. Dorian Singer one of the most talented wide receivers we've had here in a long time. I'm sure Brandt Keithy is looking at his numbers right now
and wishing those were up a little bit. We all expected more, but with the chaos under quarterback. Point is this. Isaac has weapons, He's got upper classmen leaders, he has a good, albeit young offensive line that's performed really well. They should be able to win the battle of the trenches. They should be able to block for Makai run the ball,
and TCU doesn't run the ball that well either. This feels like a game that Utah should get at home with a ton of momentum to show the fan base that the last couple of weeks have been an aberration. Porter let me bring you in on this. Utah football pregame will start at four point thirty on Saturday. Roll up to the tailgate, say what's up. It's a lot of fun, free food from Wingers, draft cocktails from our friends at Clearwater Distilling. Porter will be there doing the
pregame show. This feels like a really good matchup for Utah, but you can't put it all on the shoulders of your freshman quarterback.
No.
Like you said, there's a lot of things that Utah does well. The run game is the most significant one that stands out that I think TCU will struggle with, especially McKay Bernard's style. His run style right, he has been he's always been good talented back. Obviously, he's been productive when he's been on the field when he hasn't been injured. Obviously that's been an unfortunate part of his
mute reality. But the way he's run the football outside the tackle, he's been patient with the line developing the run blocks in the run plays. He's matured as a running back this year, where you're seeing it's not just as talent catching the ball out of the backfield and
the spin moves out in open field. He's learning how to play the running back position, which is a whole different story about how good you are as a running back in open field, right, And that is taking him to a next level where we're seeing him one hundred yard game after one hundred yard game after hundred yard game, and very very good opportunity to have another one of
those against TCU. But on the other side, Spence TCUs a team that if Utah doesn't come back somewhat healthy on the defensive side, they can hurt you on offense as well. So I think that's the main part. As you said, defense has to be productive and not leave too much on the plate of an Isaac Wilson, who is having one of his first tests since Oklahoma State.
So TCU rolls in with three wins, three losses. They actually went down on the farm to beat Stanford opening week. A lot of people thought that was a pretty solid road win. And then they smoked the boys from Strong Island, which I didn't even know that a football team a lost to UCF. They got run by SMU. Then they
beat Kansas, but everybody's beating Kansas, sorry, Ryles. And then they're coming off a loss against Houston, and maybe Houston's playing well, they better have been playing better than they were early on. But this is a game you should win. So one of the fantasy football leagues I'm in is with my little nephews. It's the main reason I'm in it. I was only in two and then my brother was like, Hey,
your nephews want to play fantasy football. And these kids are young, so it's super fun and all they do is talk smack. Does it make me a bad person if I'm about to make a very lopside of trade with my seven year old nephew. No, okay, he's in the game. Yeah, no, I agree.
If you're not ready for the heat, spence gotta get out of the kitchen.
Yeah, stop watching SpongeBob and get on ESPN dot com and listen to what Field Yates has to say. You're seven, get in the I agree. I'm a shark in the water. I hate kid. I smell blood speaking of a shark in the water over the phone today, although I miss him in studio because oftentimes he wears a hat with a shark on it. Gordon Monson on a Thursday afternoon, Godfather, how are you, sir?
I'm doing just fine, Spence. I want you to keep something in mind though, from the from the play Lema's a rob this song, remember the pups they do grow up?
You better run for you better run for cover.
Right, I'll tell you if you're seven year old, is it your I'm sorry, is that your nest it is? It is my nestig So that the fact that he's in the league to begin with tells you that he's got some potential. I would tread carefully on that one.
He does. And he's built like a linebacker, even at seven, So you're probably right when he grows up. And I'll be like sixty when he's you know, in his twenty, So you're right Cordell. It's good advice.
Yeah, okay, but go ahead and make the trade fair enough.
Oh yeah, no, he's screwed. He's screwed anyway. All right, let's start with the Utah Utes, where we find ourselves with the second straight season of in ten years. What will probably be known is what could have been, so just your reaction to the biggest story here in the market that for the second straight year, just feels so bad for him, Cam and Rising is done playing football, at least for the season.
I recall him about Cam after I guess after the twenty twenty two season, saying that he's the second best quarterback to ever played Utah. I was so impressed with everything he ever did for the program. And man, I wonder about this. Don't you ever sit back and think how many great athletes, how many careers were cut short or hampered by injury. I mean, none of this is his fault. We've talked about how he sort of maybe run out of bounds to avoid getting hit and all
this sort of thing. But man, he's just a great quarterback. He's a great leader of that team, and for his career to be cut short like this is really I mean it's a kick to the gut, it really is. And so I got nothing but respect for Camerasing as an athlete, as a quarterback, as a team leader, is everything that he's brought to Utah's program. And that being said, I don't think he should come back next year, even if you can.
So we'll get there in one moment. But you you just sparked a memory in me. I can remember being just a because your reference A Fleets, who you loved whose careers were cut short by injury. And I'm old
enough to remember. I know you are too. When listening to games in the radio was very, very commonplace, right, and so oftentimes if we were on a road trip, my dad would have a football game in the radio on the radio, and I remember the call of Bo Jackson injury in his hit, and I can remember the announcer later on saying, they're saying in my be career ending. This is way back in I think the late eighties,
early nineties, something like that. And I can remember because you didn't have to be a Raiders fan to just adore Bo Jackson. He was awesome, he was marketable, he was dominant, and I remember the feeling of thinking like, I'm never gonna watch Bo Jackson play football again. You're right, it happens all the time, and when it does, it sucks every time.
And I wonder how many great athletes there are out there who couldn't end up being more what they could have been because of these injuries. Yeah, I mean, that's something about it. And it's a tough sport. It's a brutal sport, and I mean there's not a whole lot you can do about that. But man, Cam Rising one fantastic quarterback, and he's the kind of guy we've talked about dismiss He's the kind of guy who really did make other players both on offense and defense better because
they knew he was in the lineup. But this this up and down and back and forth has got to have taken a toll on that team as a whole. And so now I guess that question is answered for good.
So let's move over now to what you brought up. And I had Eric Weddle on the show on Monday, and I found Eric's response to my inquiry about the potential of Cam coming back for an eighth year really interesting. He wasn't taking a shot at Cam. He just said it's it's better for everybody just to move on, right, And you have experience you you know you at one point you were a serial dater back in your college years. You had to break a lot of hearts, right, and
we all know that about you. You does this feel like one of those breakups where it's just best for both parties just to go in the opposite direction, even though there's still love there somewhere.
Well, see you're asking, I have to think about that for a minute, because because it was the other person that was always still in love.
I want you to behave yourself here, Gordon. I just I know what's going through your mind. I want you to be careful what comes out of your mouth.
Well, there should be honor on both sides, yes, well side, you know, just you know, just maybe some people want him to come back, but if he does come back, he won't have the nil money that he obviously got this year. And I don't know, I'd be interested in your opinion on this, Spence, What do you think about me? Up and down and back and forth.
If he came.
Back, if he really wanted to come back, and I'm not sure that he would ever want to do that. But if he did, could he service the team in a way without necessarily being starter?
Potentially? But here's where I'm at with it, because I always try to look at this stuff like this from all sides best I can. And you know, if Cam so, Cameron Rising at the age of twenty five, if this is it for him, because I don't perceive him to be a pro football player. I don't think he's an NFL quarterback. Even when Cam was like Pete Cam, we would have scouts on the show that even back then, we're like, yeah, maybe he has a shot, probably not drafted,
maybe he can make a team. And at this point, you know, with another injury. As much as I hate to say it because I know how much he wants the chance to be a pro quarterback, I don't think that's in his future. So what does Cam Rising do next year? As far as the next step in his life. Is he going to get a job at Shields? I mean,
I have no idea. And so ultimately I think anybody if given the opportunity to just hey, come back to school, do something you love doing, and oh, by the way, you can make a million dollars, I don't know to your point. I don't know if the money's to be there, but some money will be there, So I don't think I would blame Cameron for doing it, but I'm just not sure that that's the right thing for everybody. That's
why hence the relationship analogy. It's probably best for both parties to go their way and give each other a hug and always cheer for a moving forward, but probably time for a little bit of a split. That's where I'm out with it.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on that. And look, he's got a great football like you. He could go into coaching and with the connections he's built at the University of Utah through the years, through many years, I'm sure, and he could get into all kinds of different fields professional. So he's got a lot going for him regardless of what happens from here on it.
No, I agree with that. It's one thing that Byu does really well. A lot of those ex athletes latch on to some of those companies down south that are printing money, they end up doing really, really well. So your point about his community certainly is well taken, and he will land on his feet doing something. He's a sharp guy. But probably the time is come for everybody
just to go their separate ways. Whose heart, of all the hearts you broke, which one stands out the most back in the day that you still regret that, maybe you think about from time to time.
No, I regret now.
Now.
Admitting that I regretted at this point might do me some damage with my beloved wife, now, you know, because if I'm regretting that and it makes it sound like I'm unhappy. Now, are you trying to get me in trouble?
No, No, she's You're both stuck at this point. She's not going anywhere. Come on, there's just got to be one name from back in the day.
Okay, let me let me say it this way. You're bringing back some fond memories.
Actually, no, I know, I can hear it.
The run up to the breakup was fantastic, you know, But the breakup itself, I do have some regrets about, you know, landing that plane a little less tactfully than I should have. So I do have some I have some regrets about that, but not the fact that that boom it was over. It was all you know, it was kind of like looking forward, not you know, you can't play backwards.
Sure, no, well said good advice. As always, Gordon, I missed the life advice segments we used to do. Now, no relationship analogy is necessary for what's going on down at Brigham Young as they continue to answer every single question asked of them. And at this point, you know, Vegas still likes Iowa State. ESPN did their first twelve team expanded CFP Projection show and they have Iowa State in as the Big twelve champ and BYU and Notre Dame as the first two outs. But they're right there,
and you know, the odds continue to climb. Oklahoma State might be the most disappointing team in the Big twelve, even though you fans might think at Utah it's definitely Oklahoma State. What do you think happens Friday night late kick as Oklahoma State rolls into Provo? Do we see another BYU win? They're a nine point favorite.
I would expect them to win. Yeah, based on I've seen Oklahoma State times this year, and that's the game. I would expect me want you to win. And look, you know that whole idea? Is this team for real? Is it for real? I talked to Kolony Stagi. He knew it was from real. It was real, way back before anybody else did. And he tried to talk me into it. He said, no, no, you don't know. Nobody knows. I know. I'm telling you. He went on and on about it, and I'm telling the way they played, you know.
I mean, you can say, Okay, that might have been a fluke here or there, whatever, play here or there. But after watching what they did the Arizona, I don't know how anybody can really doubt that team. Now they're unbeaten. Does that mean they're unbeatable. No, I don't think that's the case. But I would expect them to win this coming week. However, Utah fans know this that sometimes teams they do they do stub their toes somewhere along the way, you know, and they lose a game they shouldn't lose.
But that was what was so impressive about the youths undefeated seasons and four and eight that they didn't allow them able to do that. And that team down in Provo right now looks not only talented, but they look like they're together, they look like they're having fun and rets left. He made a great comment after the game against Arizona, he said, uh, when it comes down a paraphrasing here, but essentially, we know what we were doing
and we were not going to look past anything. So if a team is talented and they know they're talented, they have the confidence that they're talented, but they don't look past anyone. That's the key, and I don't expect them to do that against the Cowboys.
Yeah, every Monday, Klanie says, you know, stay humble, stay hungry. You know he just in the moment let's make our seventh statement, is how he talks about every single week. And the formula is working. You know what's interesting, Gordon is Kalani is utilizing like they're they're out Utah in Utah. I mean it's turnovers, right, They're they're turning the other team over. They're causing havoc plays. I even heard Jay Hill say four and a score. That an old John
PA's line. Like all these Utah coaches that are down there are really utilizing the model the coach Win has used to build this thing up, and they're doing it better than Utah is this year.
And that's a surprise to everybody, or garden near everybody except for maybe Kilane, but after every win, Kilani has said, we need to get better, there's room for improvement, and so he's keeping that in front of his players, like you ain't done nothing yet, keep going. He wants them to have fun, but keep going when it comes down to getting the business done, get that business done. And this is just a remarkable, remarkable coaching job by Kolonie Shataki this year. But I have to give that the
players credit. They are they are meeting that challenge and the way he's been handling these things Spence, That's the thing. And I don't want to I'm not saying that this is a team that you know, Jacob Robinson mentioned national championship for college football playoff, I'm not going to go there with it. But I'm telling you I believe, after watching the way they've played these weeks, I believe that team is far far better than anybody thought they were
going to be. Anybody else except for Kalana.
Did you buy a chance watch any of the Ohio State Oregon game.
I saw part of it.
Yeah, nobody in the Big twelve is winning a national championship. Let's just get that out of the way right now. Like watch Texas Georgia this week. I'm sorry you watched some of these big time national games, like that Ohio State Oregon game. That was big boy football. So I don't care if it's Iowa, staate Ca State BYUTA. Nobody's winning a national championship at the Big twelve. I can promise you that.
What do you think of Dan Lanning's a little trick there towards the end of that game. What's having twelve been on the field. I'm sure you've discussed that at length. Yeah, interesting take there.
I love me some Dan Lanning. So last year it was clearly a pr ploy because Dan utilized the platform the coach Prime brings to Eugene and his pregame speech before the Oregon Colorado game was awesome. I thought it was great when he talked about we're rooted in substance, they're rooted in flash today we talk with our pads, and I was like, that is that is such a great line. And I know it was for TV, but I'm a big fan. He could have gone to Bama. Obviously,
Uncle Phil's checkbook helps. But Oregon's all sorts of good. So is Texas. So's Ohio State. So any National championship talk from any team in the Big twelve. I don't care who it is. That's a fool's Errand man.
Well and you mentioned it. That money that they have there, those players are making bank, and I you know, this is maybe at some point this needs to be leveled out, because right now I think those teams they've got, they're not quite rivaling NFL rosters, but they're heading at the right.
Let me go back to the utesier and TCU rolls in into town on Saturday night. I can remember, I think I've been on radio for maybe four years, like my fourth year. End radio Game Day was in town back in twenty ten when TCU just and Andy Dalton picked apart Utah's defense, I think it was forty seven
to seven. So a little PTSD little flashback. This feels like a good match up for Utah, and it feels like a good landing spot for Isaac because TCU does not stop the run, and so I would imagine that Utah is going to start to play even more in the image of their head coach and ride McKay Bernard and hopefully in RB two to take some pressure off mackay. Run the football get back to winning the battle in the trenches, and then Isaac just kind of has to do enough. I feel like this could be a get
right game for Utah. What do you think happens Saturday night?
I would expect Utah is way better than they've played. And I know there's been all this up and down with the quarterback position, but I think I think the thing about it, there's a lot of people want to blame the losses on their camerasing playing or not playing up to the way he usually does, or not playing at all. This team is better than what had shown Spence. The Utes are a good, good team, but they've made mistakes.
They've away from the quarterback position, and my recollection is that Kyle Whittinghan usually gets these things fixed, you know, even the Rose Bowl years. Remember they faced adversity early and they found a way to overcome that. I would expect the Utes to come back strong now, although I
still don't know exactly. Isaac Wilson, Well, do you think they should use him as a game manager like you were suggesting there, or can they build his confidence and allow him to keep as kind of likes to say, the throw game in play and not just necessarily sit back and hand the ball off over and over again. I don't know. I haven't want the practice. I don't know where Isaac Wilson said it is at this point, but you're going to see mister Bernard pick up a whole lot of yardage.
Well, you know, the term game manager makes people cringe, right, I don't think it should, but it does.
For me.
It's more like you cannot put the whole thing on the kid's shoulders. You know, you can't expect him to be cam rising it two years ago, right, And so Utah football, in my opinion, they need to get back to doing what Kyle wants them to do and how we built this program on the ethos of we run the ball, we stopped the run, we win in the trenches, and then our quarterback just doesn't screw it up whatever that means. If you want to call that a game manager,
that's fine. And look, his arm is live enough and we've seen coach Ludd open up the playbook for him. It's not like he's gonna, you know, be neutered. You know, he'll have an opportunity back there to make plays. But he's a freshman. He needs help and it's time for the entire team to step up around him because Cam Rising's not walking through that door. Sorry to quote Rick Bettino, this is the deal. Now make the most of it.
Yeah, and those guys, the skilled players have to. They can be dropping balls and making mistakes or turning the ball over. But this is really I think where the guys in the trench has really come to the forefront, both on offense and defense. If that offensive line does its job and create space for the run game, then things will be well on the offense. Same thing on the defense. Like you mentioned, Morgan Skelley said it a
thousand times, as has Kyle. Their number one priority on defense is stop the run, and if you can do that, you can manage the rest of whatever's coming at you. And I think that's particularly important for the Hutes in their situation of late.
You know Kyle. You've covered Kyle for a long time, and there are more than a few people and this actually comes up often in other markets on other shows. I'll listen to people around here are scared to say it. And I don't know if he's retiring this year. I have no clue, but there are a lot of people that surmise that this is the year and if not this year, we know it soon. Morgan now has the
moniker of coaching waiting back. Do you think and I've talked about this all week, So we had a college football analyst on from CFP on Tuesday that now thinks Utah is a seven win football team this year. If Utah wins seven games, they go seven to five and they go to some you know, po Dunk Bowl or whatever. Do you think that changes the scope of what Kyle will do this offseason not wanting to go out like that or does it? It may not even matter because
that dude doesn't need to accomplish anything else. But I I if Utah stumbles into the gates this year, do you think it affects coach WIT's decision?
There's an interesting that's an interesting point because before the season started, what do we hear or Spence everybody guess since CFP goes, yeah, yeah, if he goes to the Collins football playoff, then this will be the year that he hangs it up.
Uh.
This is so much speclation about that because Kyle has said over and over again that he's not going to coach into his later years. His dad passed away at sixty four. I think that's very much on his mind. He's got grandkids, he's got family, he's got reasons to live beyond football that he's looking forward to doing that he hasn't had time to do, so I don't think it's that far off. But you know, I don't even
really think the record matters at this point. I think if he decides it's time to go, he'll go, and it will have nothing to do whether they're winning or losing.
Yeah. I tend to agree with that. All right, Gordon. We've revisited this topic every time you've joined us this week, and it probably takes a little bit of a turn this week. If tomorrow it's Utah BYU, neutral fields, who wins and why?
Boy, that question has gotten a whole lot more complicated, hasn't it. I thought if the US had came Rising and he was playing the way came Rising, can play or does play normally that, especially at rice cycles, I would pick the utes. Now. I think BYU's got the edge, But you know that games at rice cycles, and so how's that going to go? We know how these rivalry things happen. It doesn't even matter who's the better team,
although that certainly helps. But man, am I Wafflin or what I guess I would I would say at this point I'd give the nod to b Yu.
Well, it's hard to argue against that based off of the results. That's all we can now. Now. I still think like some of the some of the noise surrounding Utah I'm not here for. I still think like there's a lot of conversation about the defense not stopping the run. It's not wholly unfair to bring up, but they get there. They've been without three of their front seven, and they've been out with their you know, without their best pass
rusher and canro tool, you know, Karnny Reid. Some would say he's like the Cam Rising of the defense and the film Your Kid has been great. So they still have talent up there. But if they get healthy with their defensive front, I still believe the defense ultimately will settle in to be as nasty as we thought that they were going to be. The question just lies on the offensive side of the football. Can they move the ball with a true freshman quarterback. So there's a lot
of noise right now surrounding Utah. That I don't think is necessarily fair. I still think there's a chance that they turn it around because we've seen it from Coach Witch teams before. In twenty one they lose to BYU and SDSU and they win the Pac twelve. So I'm still holding out hope for Utah. But I'm entirely convinced that BYU is good. That's just where I'm at with both programs.
I'most you one hundred percent on that. And anybody who's still doubting that hasn't been paying attention right about the way BYU is doing what it's doing. Look forget about what we all thought before the season started. And that's what people have to get rid of because in their mind, they're going BYU can't be this good. They can't. They can't be what we've seen so far. Look, I mean, open the eyes and realize, see what's really happening. They
be there. That's a team that Utah loss to. They beat Kansas State, which is a really, really good team, and those are no flotus man. People thought because of what happened in the Kansas State game with the crazy punt returns and the turnovers and things that were outside the box. No, I mean BYU is showing that they are making those things happen. When they beat SMU down there, it was like, okay, so maybe SMU is not that good. No, SMU is good, and the Cougars beat them on their
home field. So yeah, I mean this team is for real. Although I do agree with you that Utaw, as I said, is far better than what we've seen so far, and I would expect them to get it together even though they're you know, their leader on offense is out of the question.
Gorn On, thanks for the time, man, have a great week and with you soon.
Okay, Yeah, a hard time for.
You know, I will, you know, I will. Gordon Monson, longtime columnists of the Solid Tribune, my old radio partner on our old show. We do the Big Show, Big Hour every Thursday, oftentimes with the two of them together in studio. But Gordon's old and is cold, you know, he wants to stay inside. Need some soup and that's all right. Brought to you today by clear Water Distilling. Clear Water Distilling is the only distillery in Utah County open on Sundays, great spirits tasting room and the nicest
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immerse yourself in the clear Water distilling culture. More information can be found at Clearwaterdistilling dot com. The answers no, it's distasteful, get I don't care. I don't give a rip the answer. It's a hard note today on a Thursday. I don't care what you're trying to do to me. It's a hard note.
You're the only one even bringing it up.
We all know what you're doing. You're being a bad influence. Craig Bowler Jack usually live in studio with Gordo, but Gordon hopped on the phone last segment. So we continue our big show, Big Hour, brought to you by Big O' tires. Now it's our pleasure to catch up with the TV voice of the Jazz, the legend himself Bowler. Happy Thursday, buddy, it's good.
Tell are you you guys having problems there at you and porter Man Media eight?
Well, he played a Death Leopards song because he wants yeah, exactly exactly.
Yeah, yeah, I know I know where that's going. Yeah, yeah, you know way to go? You know, I know you want to maybe share that that little piece of I don't know if it's comedy, but just insight, but yeah, probably better not.
Yeah, I'm not you know, it's just it's dumb joke. It's like, yo, what has nine? You know what? No, I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna stay away from it on a Thursday. No, I can't. I just did. I showed you I could, all right, Craig, how about uh, how about a little Jazz preseason action. I mean, look, it's preseason, right, we all know the deal, but I think it's I think it's fair to say there have been some fun games, some close games, and the crowd
was even into it against Sacramento. So one more Friday night against Portland. But what do you make of the four and one preseason starred for these Utah Jazz.
Well, we just got to Portland. Half the rookies remote. I'd say most of the rookies made the yearly trip out to Nike to get choose and stuff for friends and family and themselves. So I just jumped into the hotel and you know what they seem to be, you know, like what young guys nineteen and twenty year olds would do. And that's the the I think, just you know, learning every step of the way. Spence, Look, I've been surprised.
I mean competitive, yes, four and one okay, still not doesn't mean anything except development, which I think is key. That's what we've been talking about all summer. But There's been some good things and still some issues that have to be addressed. And you know, despite the win against Sacramento that had a real good feel to it, the crowd was definitely into it. You still got to do something with turnovers. I know they're young, but I look at the fact that, you know, the twenty five turnovers
allowed thirty two points in that game. The Jazz you know, held on to win one seventeen one to fourteen. But when you look at the turnovers, it's surely not the youth. It's actually the Vets, marketing and the Clarkson combined for eleven of those twenty five. So you can look at that any way you want. Are they not used to having new faces on the floor or is there timing not not you know, up to what it should be.
But I was impressed at titlor Hendrix didn't turn the ball over, sins of Baw didn't turn the ball over.
Uh.
And there's been, you know, some bright spots, but turnovers still I think have to be the centerpiece of just Once this team hopefully gets more in tune to who they are and knowing tendencies of their teammates, that number will drop in fact it has to issue last year by the way, as you know, at the second half of the season when they went totally with the youth movements. So but there's been some good stuff. Hendricks has had a moment or two sins of ball. Johnny Juzang when
he's on the court, has been incredible. From three, they've been able to blend Vets and JC and and John Collins, and they seem to kind of maybe got the rotation down a little bit. I'm you know, tomorrow night, have no idea what what will will do. I would hope they continue to just play and get better and get to know each other, their tendencies on the floor and how they cut and what where was the pass going to be received, all those little things that make a big difference.
So we've talked about this and we'll continue to talk about it. I certainly am going to cover it on my show quite a bit because it's a big year for Walker Kessler. And last year, you know, the numbers dipped. It wasn't some massive fall, but most all of his numbers dipped a little bit outside of blocks because that is his superpower to protect the rim. But it's year three and this is when as an organization you draft the player, and year one you just kind of see
what sort of hand you've been dealt. Give them a lot of space because you never trust rookies, and then hopefully they surprise you and you hope for a jump from year one year two. We didn't see it from Walker, and so far in the preseason I liked it will As starting him instead of John, I think that's the right call. And you know, four blocks the other night, nine boards, He's had a fifteen rebound game, and he's staying within him self offensively. I want him so badly
to finish with Forrest this year. You're seven feet, you get the ball, drop step, go dunk on somebody. No like right running finger rolls, like play like a big play, like a pivot, because that's who you are. And again, just preseason, but so far, I think there's a lot to like about the way Walker's approach. You know, the opportunity it looks like he's being given by Will.
Yeah, I totally agree. I think there's he's a great guy first and foremost, but you can't let that define you on the court. What I mean by that is it's good to have a little nasty, right, you want to, like you said, take the ball up and rock the rim and take a glance back at who you just post a rise and make a statement. I think stronger hands. I've seen that more. He's rebounded better in traffic in the preseason. Spencer, you know what, he's killing it at
the rim. I mean his percentages or sky high nearly eighty percent, somewhere in that range. And yeah, he's rebounding the ball and I'm glad he's hanging on to it and not letting it in a crowd be taken away. So you know, and I've been keeping an eye because this is something we talked about too in the summer, was he's a pleaser, and Will's talked a lot about this. Here's a guy that you know, kept looking at the
sideline and wants, I think, to know that he's doing okay. Well, look, you just don't have time to do that in this league. And the fact is if you do have a blunder or a bad play, the growth that I'm looking for is that you just play on and you bust your
tail down the floor. He has run I think Spence really the floor well, and he's been rewarded several times by Keyante, by Bryce and other teammates when the guy gets out and runs, and I think he feels better about himself when he makes a big play, and it's not going to happen every time, but he's got to be able to bust his tail and continue to run. And the pace of this team's intriguing too. It's a fast paced league. But the biggest issue is to improve
defensively on transition defense as well. And you see a little bit of improvement in that you know you only have one way to go, and that's up after being ranked dead last in the league last year in defense. But I've seen some improvement. I've seen more hustle, I've seen more speed, I've seen more defensive impact at times. But then there's at one or two minutes that they tend to tail off and the turnovers occur and they
let teams back. So I think I'll be a real focal point as we get into the first fifteen to twenty games of the season.
So it's always interesting to watch how the league evolves from an offensive standpoint, as far as who is your best offensive player, who's your focal point? You know who who who runs the offense? Is the offense formulated through you know this best player that best player. Once upon a time it was Bigs. Once upon a time it was Kareem and Will and Russell and all those guys. And then it moved into this phase of where it
seemed like every team had a great wing. Yeah, you call it a shooting guard, a small forward sixty six sixty seven, And ultimately that was the type of prototype you want. The archetype was Michael Jordan, of course, and then the Kobe years and Dwayne Wade and like everybody had a great wing. And now the league is really
interesting because it just depends on the team. Like Golden State goes through Steph, Denver goes through Jokic, so like san Antonio is gonna go through when Miyama and we could ultimately go down the list, Memphis goes through job. Not every team needs that great offensive wing that once upon a time felt like a mandate, But it's still very much a thing. And more often than not, you're
gonna need you because you reference the defense. More often than not, you're gonna need a defender that can push back against the durant or push back against a Shay or push back against a brandon Ingram or whoever the other team's offensive wing happens to be. There are several top shelf offensive wings in pro basketball, and that brings me to Taylor. Who is the guy that has the measurables to play that role. Now, Larry can a little bit. He's big and strong, but he's limited as far as
his lateral movement goes. He doesn't keep up with the faster wings, but Taylor could if he grows. Can he grow into the spot where the Jazz would have a wing defender that can make all these wing offensive players throughout the landscape of the NBA at least somewhat uncomfortable.
Well, they're going to get data points on that spence. To your point, I mean, that's the guy, Taylor Hendrix has been given that charge to say, you're the guy.
You're the stopper. We're going to put you.
On every top score on the wing and your length is going to be.
Your best friend.
And he does move well, latterly getting better, you know, put on the seventeen pounds big team makes a great point eighty two games, is rough and rugged, and does he keep that strength? You know? The weight's one thing. But as Thurle says, you know, in his experience, because he's a thin guy, still is today. I mean he had to put down ten thousand calories a day just
to keep the weight on. But do you keep the strength that you're going to need every night, Spence to guard out on the perimeter and trying to shut down baselines. You know, there's been moments again where I've seen Taylor make some steps from last year. He's you know, he may shoot the three. I don't know if he's a thirty three or a forty thirty eight percent type, you know, three point shooter. But I think defense is the focus that Quinn has right now. I want him to be,
he said this. I want him to be the guy to go out and harass and defend, and you know, you hope he grows more and more into it and that his body will allow him to. I think he's got all the physical tools, uh you know upstairs in the confidence that comes with it' spence. Uh, he's got to be an integral part of this defense in transition
as well, because he can run. You make a great point about marketing, but still not the guy that Hendrix's and length and lateral speed and able to recover right uh. And Walker is going to be a big part of it too. He's blocking shots, he used it, He's very comfortable with the left hand. And those two guys, in my opinion, are going to be if they all five start, those two I think are the centerpiece of what the
Jazz want to do on the defensive end. And then you're throwing Cody, you throw and a sens of baw. What's Drew Vubanks's role going to be? If any? I think he still has a role here because he is a tough guy and he did and obviously Will knows him well from his days in San Antonio and Wilson himself he's totally a brute, so he can come in and probably do some backup defense when needed.
So ultimately, Justin Zanik, you know, the media availability that he, Danny and Ryan did indicated that this is going to be a situation where we'll see a lot of these young players. And you know, one of the things I like about obviously Danny and Justin been doing this forever, So there's a checks and balance front office coaching symbiotic relationship in place, and that ultimately Will be up to Will.
And you know, there's always a reason when a coach clearly wants a vet, like the reports that the one guy and the Tim McMahon had the report that the one guy in the Jazz front office who wanted Dame Lillard was Will Hardy. Because of course, coaches want to win right now because they don't think that they'll ever win again. Their famous Jerry slum line where he said, I after losses, I feel like I was never going
to win another basketball game. So do you think Will is going to lean into this Let's play all the young guys or are we going to see big minutes from John Collins and Patty Mills and Jordan Clarkson. And I don't think you Banks is going to play much. But you get the point of the question.
Sure, sure, no.
Jerry Sloan, just to your point, I always thought he'd be fired after a loss.
Remember that, you.
Know, Jerry, as great as Jerry was and the respect he had and the Larry Miller trust, he still doubted about his status at times, which just amazed me. But you know, Will had his contract picked up for the five. But look, this is a short league in the sense of coaches don't last long if you get five years in one spot and get a second contract and something's right, or again they trust you in this rebuilding process, which I think again is what Justin and Danny and Ryan believe.
But I think he wants to win in spence, I mean, that's what he's hired to do and develop. He wants these guys to make the next step in a hurry. You know, I thought the same thing you did. What are the veterans truly about? And I didn't think i'd see JC and John as much as I did so far.
In the preseason.
Does that hold true when we tip it off next Wednesday night against Memphis?
I don't know.
What I'm seeing is kind of a continued rotation of ten on occasion eleven, and that does include Clarkson and Collins mixing with the younger guys to help lead. If that's the plan, then so be it. But it also gives you, you know, opportunities still for the younger guys to blend, but also you're taking minutes away, so it's really a balance, right, It's going to start in the G League most likely, you know, Isaiah Collier before the hamstring was showing some promises back up when Kyante was
out that one game with the knee spring. So you know, it's it's really one of those seasons Spence that as I go along every ten or twenty games, there will be a better evaluation point. But I'm not sure if it's totally bought in on all the time being young. But do you let the young guys watch the veterans play, mix them in and let them know what it's like
to win and what it takes to win. So those are the questions I still have for my chair, and I think they're all good questions because you know, and again I say this a lot, we do find out a lot together. You know, when guys hit the floor and you watch the rotations on Wednesday against Memphis, how will Hardy's going to play this?
So you know, we have this interesting story going on in the market right now. Of course, as you know where Cameron Rising is out for the year for Utah football and I don't We'll do a football in just a little bit, but I'm going to tie this back around to the Jazz real quick, because I hear a lot of conversations that sound like, well, he's getting paid, now he shouldn't miss time. Well, you don't watch NBA basketball, do you, Because players that make thirty times what Cameron make,
they sit all the time. Okay, And so here's here's my question, Craig. As we have, we have been in the era of load management for quite some time. It's not stopping anytime soon. Despite what the league says about them trying to curb it, it's a half assed attempt. It's never going to be fully curbed because the agents have all the power, and the agents want their young players to get to their second and third contracts because that's when they make their money. So let's keep them
healthy as long as we can. The toothpaste is out of the tube, all right. So the reason I bring it up is Tom Haverstrow, a consistent guest of ours during the NBA season, did the data and did the story about Salt Lake City being the market where stars miss games here more than any other market.
All right, Yes, yes, I will. You know, by the way it's spent, I.
Will agree with that whole heartedly. I've watched it night in night out about you know, lebron Lake, KD Phoenix, whoever it may be. They use this to stop in Salt Lake as a rest night.
Yes, yes, right, right, right right, no, no, no, all good because you're there every night. I mean, that's the deal. So I wonder if this team may do the whole like Lowry has to miss a couple of weeks with a shoulder because maybe they want to do the draft stuff. They might do that. I don't know if they will.
What I believe will happen more certainly at the start of the season is will Is gonna play his best lineup every single night, and they're gonna play really hard every single night, which leads me to wonder aloud whether or not they could even win, you know, thirty five to thirty eight games. The Vegas line is twenty seven
point five. I just think they're gonna win a lot of games against teams that, on paper they shouldn't beat, because the team's best players will sit and will more often than not, will play his best lineup and they will play hard for him. And it sounds silly and try it, but that leads to more wins in pro basketball these days.
Yes, yes, all the above. Yes, we saw it last period of times. You know, games that shouldn't have been won were one and up until about the trade deadline, and then things fell apart because.
They did go youth.
But you're right, this is a stop where players sometimes don't even climb on the plane to come to Salt Lake to play the Jazz, and it will be a day you hope that. I feel bad Spence, really because I see kids. I see dads or moms bringing families to watch Lebron.
And Wimby or what to be.
Onto to Coombo, and they're not there, or they're not on the floor, and that money they spent, you know, you still get to see basketball. They're not the stars the young people want to see. I feel bad for that, and I think the league again still has to rectify it some way.
I don't know how.
Maybe you earn an extra ping pong ball on the draft if your vets play a certain amount. I don't know, but it's going to be a long time before I think it's situation, before a final decision or they find.
The cure to it.
But yeah, I think there'll be some games handed to the Jazz because of stars not playing, not more maybe even more than one, maybe two, And that's something they're going to have to put into the equation on what they want to do, if they're really playing for a top lottery pick or if they're just going to try to play, And then you start to teeter into the playoff or the play in, and then you get yourself
a real conversation. But as long as I guess Spence, and again I'm not inside Danny or Justin's head, you know what the true purpose of development is. They have enough youth, but is there someone that can ignite them more, you know, with another draft pick? And obviously we know who that may be, kids at Duke, but it's just
gonna be interesting to me. I don't know if they want to go after another VET or they're hoping that someone pops or two of these guys pop and become I get a rotation players that are going to be make a big impact on this franchise moving forward. If I know Will to think the way I think I do.
He wants to do it. He wants to win.
I mean, his reputation and his futures on the line. He's thirty six, he can coach on forever in this league. But also it depends on what he does here. And you know what he's thought of or do they say, well, that isn't quite working out, we'll have to change coaches. I don't think he wants to hear that. But all coaches are paranoid, as you know, and their whole bottom line is they know one thing, prepared to win. And I'll be honest on the plane his coaching staff is
being is preparing to win. And you know, if you're a fan, you have to appreciate that. Some don't like that. Those stings because they want to fall off the table and grab all the goodies they can to make this team better in the future. But now they have competition with hockey. That's the other part of the equation. It will take thirty minutes of another time to discuss about
competition for the first time. I'm in Salt Lake City with professional teams NBA, NHL, and also the talk of you know, Utah Utes and BYU who's running the table right now. It's amazing time in sports in Salt Lake.
Yeah, it is, no no doubt. All right, let's do a little college football before it set you loose. As the godfather of the Big twelve in the market, you are a child of the Big twelve, Big ten. You understand this conference. You understand kind of how everything goes. My first question, We'll do just a little college football and I'll set you loose. Like you hear national championship talk this time of year when a team goes undefeated.
Jackson Robinson from BYU mention it and BYU fans as they should very feeling their football team right now after watching Oregon and Ohio State and watching you know, we'll see Texas taking on Georgia coming up this weekend. No big twelve teams should be talking about a national championship.
Like if you're watching these big dog teams play right now, it feels like and everybody's sensitive because the SEC and the Big ten are taking all the money and they're potentially going to break off and do their own thing. But the quality of play with the top I don't know, four or five teams, it seems like there's a big gap between them and everybody else.
Yeah, I would agree.
The games I've watched with Sarksian, who I got to know really well up at Washington and then he went to USC and now he's turned Texas football.
Into the real deal.
Those guys are so deep and fast physical Spence in Oregon. There's another level there of athlete. I think you would agree. It's just in numbers. They keep coming at you. And that's what I remember. Nick Saban used to say this all the time, and I've said this before in your show. He used to point across the table when he was at LSU and at Alabama when I was doing SEC football, was that, look, I've got these kids on the field now, but I got better ones over across the way at
the eight dorm, the athletic dorm. I thought, Man, they just continue at stockpile, stockpile, and that's not going to change because first you're right about the money, second about the nil the money that's going to be available to them to use to lure the five star recruits. So Utah has to work harder. BYU does as well this year. I'm just stunned of how Byus run the table. But their mistake free football, I just don't see right now
any real weakness Spence and Byu. Jake has thrown the ball well, I believe like fourteen almost fifteen touchdowns close to it. He can run out of the pocket if he has to, and the defense man they're advantageous. They stop on fourth down, they have sacks, they had what ten or eleven picks and four fumbles, five fumble recoveries.
They seem to just be on the page. This may be the greatest example with Utah and byu picked not even to sniff in the big twelve and then the top dog not delivering, and really, how about maybe just falling under the pressure of trying to be a national championship, national champion. In that conversation at the beginning of the year, no one saw Cam getting hurt again.
He did.
I am glad they'll spence. Wit came up quickly and said he's out, and Isaac is our guy, and that was huge to go there, not dragging the longest injury thing that we're moving forward. And that's the only thing I think Wick could do.
Well, said Bowler. I appreciate the time, man, have a great time up in Portland's and we'll get you back on next week.
Okay, all right, good to talk to you. And by the way, it's raining it.
Is down here too, brother, so you're in good company. All good man, all right, all right, the great Craig Bowlerjack TV Voice of the Utah Jazz, brought to you by Big O' Tires. It's their false sale right now, their fall into saving sale. You get eighty to one hundred dollars off select tires sets. Big o Tires is your true one stop shop for automotive repair. Stop in for tiles, tires, wheels, alignments, rotations and balances, oil changes, breaks, battery, shock struts, fluids
and more. Big Go Tires offers retire rotations, they do flat repairs, alignment and break checks. Make an appointment online or drop in. Get weird on a Thursday. Why not we have weird on a Thursday. Chris com Ronnie is live in studio. Now. You and I are both fans of the sunshine. Do you enjoy a little bit of rain from time to time or is this just an indicator of what we're in form The answer is yes, okay, okay, like yes and yes, it's fine.
I think we were absurdly spoiled the last month.
Yes we were.
Something that's I don't remember ever happening here, like end of September through basically most of October, where it's eighty degrees every day, like no clouds in the sky. This is fine, this is this is acceptable. I'm about it that rain and wind means like clear air, crispair, Yes it does. And at the end of the day, that's what we're all aiming for in this place.
For sure, and we have been spoiled with an actual fall, so we'll take that. Christopher, how are you man? Happy Thursday? Things good with you?
I'm good man. I'm standing straight because I know I'm on YouTube.
Chris is on YouTube. If you want to go watch us on YouTube, go ahead. We get like two people. Man, don't worry about it, you know, And that's why I keep the lights lowly.
Four it's Aaron and John Paul waiting to get screen grabs of us embarrassing ourselves.
Good point. So wait, there's currently four viewers on YouTube.
Yeah, pressures on it. Can you find out who it is?
Like? Can you see the accounts of good question? Can you porter? Negative? All right? Negative? Well, let's see the Christopher Camaraddie falk Is one is one of them, though the Chris Comaraddi in studio situation might change things. So hopefully we get to ten. Let's see if we can get to ten YouTube viewers by the end of four point thirty, which is when Chris leaves us. So appreciate
your time. Excellent shirt which features Aaron Falk on talking sports and that's the goat, Adam Miklitch behind him, correct the goat? Do you need an explanation? Yes? Please?
So when Aaron was the jazz beat writer for the Tribune, he was doing a live shot after the Joe Johnson Clippers series. They won Game seven from LA and KUTV had Aaron on live to talk about it, and they were kind of fumbling around last second to make sure everything was going to be go off all copaesthetic and Adam to make sure Aaron got his ear piece in, put the thumb behind it and shoved it basically all the way into his ear drum. So that cringe you're
seeing Aaron on Aaron's face is a legit painful. Oh I hope my ear drum hasn't ruptured.
We're down to one viewer on you? Yes, getting a oh man?
That is?
Why do? Why don't I have that shirt? Can order one?
I'll send you in Oh please do? You can pick your color and everything.
So if you want to see a T shirt with a picture of Aaron Falk cringing because Adam Mikolich just stabbed him in the ear. Drum Ck is wearing that three viewers. Now we just added two viewers. Check out our YouTube page if you'd like. Let's go all right, Chris, you know what is the sky falling? You know, before we do that, let's save Utah football for the four o'clock out. I like, and let's start with the lads. Okay, Let's start with the lads, okay, because I know it's.
In a little bit of like, you know, parking the bus, so to speak, Like if we're playing online and we're playing against a player that you know is better than you, got to kind of play from the back.
That feels like a personal shot. But anyway, but I know Trey's listening. He's crying real tears because we haven't talked to oursl and they play this week, and we'll do a whole segment of Utah Football Cam rising in the four o'clock hour, and we'll also recap your trip to Hawaii to hunt for pigs with Trevor Riley. A real thing. But as we approach the final match of the season, you'll be good with us put into context what setting a record would mean four points in a
season if they get three on Saturday. That's oh wow. I did not know that it would set a record for the regular season. Wow.
I still think that we're playing the same amount of regular season games as we did around the early twenty tens to mid tens. They had really good runs, so that obviously you can compare that fairly. On one hand, glass half full despite very lackluster last two months. The fact that you can still achieve that is impressive. Glass half empty. If they don't hit the skids in August, September and October, you wonder where this team could be.
Honestly, like I.
And this is going to be a talking point for the fan base for a long time, is what was the ultimate ceiling of this team before they had to sell Andras Gomas And I think you can make an argument that it was a potential top two seed, but as good as Andras was, and as in sync as he was with Diego Luna and Chico Rongo, it wasn't really. It was kind of masking the defensive deficiencies of this
team for a long time. I mean, we were watching very fun back and forth four two, five, three, three three games, which if you're even a casual soccer fan. You're stoked on because there's actual, tangibly cool stuff happening on the field.
It was as entertaining of a group that potentially I've ever seen here.
From an attacking standpoint.
Yeah. Yeah, And there will.
Always be a what might have been type of deal, my bet, there will always be a what type of like what could have been? But andres had to be sold because you have to pocket that money. That is an insane amount of money. It's a club record. It's one of the highest fees in the history of the league. And I don't think they I don't think they've missed
the mark with some of these investments. It's just it's always hard to come into this league in the middle of the season as an international player and hit the ground running. Look at Diego Gonzalveez, Like, this is a dude who basically owned Manchester United in a Champions League game, and he's having trouble finding his spot in starting eleven. It's not because he's not a good player or the
wrong player. It's just that Pablo has to figure out who his best attacking group is right now, and currently it's Diogo coming off the bench. It's Matt Crooks in that attacking spot. It's Dominic mark Zuk, who's been very good I think since coming over. So a very long winded way of saying, if they can achieve the points record from a club standpoint, it's a huge accomplishment. But it's just a very odd season that we'll look back on for a multitude of reasons, and it's not a
bad thing. It's just something that this club has never really had to go through before.
Yeah. Yeah, and you did a good job of unpacking it, because ultimately it might be the right thing. But I did feel like there was a chance, and I asked Kurt this, I asked Jason this, and I asked Pablo this. I felt like there was a chance that even though to your point, you can't turn down that transfer fee, they were trading the potential for something cool now for the long game down the road, which again might be
the right thing. But in retrospect, did they do that or do we still have to wait and see?
I think we still have to wait and see again, Like if Andris is here, if Carlos is here, Carlos Andres Gomess is still here, excuse me? Are they still winning five three? Games, because if you are, that's not sustainable in the playoffs. Good point, like we've seen when Ursel has had runs under Pablo, they're literally winning games where they haven't registered a shot on goal, or if they've gone on the road and the only two shots on goal that they've registered that those were two goals,
like against Kansas City a couple of years ago. Like things tighten up in the postseason. So you you you roll the dice, so to speak, in selling andris. But there's just no way you could have turned that down because the whole point for some clubs in this league is to do what ourselves doing.
That's just it correct.
Yeah, and but in I think in oursl's mind, I think ideally you're talking about homegrown players who are able to fetch that kind of cash eventually. And they've had some players here and there be you know, moved on unfortunately not for any sums of money. Guys that left early. You know, Ricardo Ledesma comes to Richie Ledesma comes to mind. He's in Holland and has been a very good player over there. Sebastian Soto. But yeah, RSL is a club
that is towing the fine line. Of competing for a MLS Cup championship while also developing to sell on.
So as we approach Saturday, there's some interesting stories to dig into, and you alluded to this. It appears that Zach has his job back. Pablo yesterday said they're going game by game, but Zach has had way too many gaffes that are so elementary and punitive that I'm sure there's a permeating nervousness in the fan base if it's Zach. But he does have this ability to be a little bit more front facing with his communication than Gavin does
at eighteen what do you do back there? And look, I want to be clear, I always want to be fair to keepers. It's never all as the work.
Listen, man, I play keeper and indoors sometimes and it is the worst. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is the absolute worst because you see every breakdown in front of your right and yes, there have been some, as you mentioned, elementary mistakes by both of those players, but it is it is an unforgiving position like it is not. It can be fun, but it is not fun.
So how much of the late game conceding of goals and therefore losing of points is on the keeper? Situation and how much of it is on the groove.
I mean, that's a good question. I think, like if you're looking at some of these goals that RSL has been giving up late in games when they've seen leads disappear, a lot of it is just guys tuning out for a split second, guys losing their marks. A lot of it is newer players being thrust into, you know, spots on the back line that you know, you're you're learning on the fly how to communicate with players that you might only have known for the last two or three
weeks or the last two or three months. That stuff takes time. I mean again, like I know it's going to always be unfair to compare eras, but the reason why you know RSL was once impossible to score on was because they had basically the same five guys on that back line for like four straight years, which is insane. If you think about like that just doesn't really happen, and you throw Kyle in the mix as well as
the defensive midfielder, it just doesn't happen. So if you're talking about who's at fault for a lot of these costly late goals and these leads being conceded.
I think it's everybody.
And it's really odd because if you think about Pablo, like, I know, he's a vibes guy, but he's a I mean, he's a defensive minded player.
That's what he did.
Yeah, that's that's how he basically cut his teeth in the sport when he was a player. So I'm fascinated to see how they look in the playoffs because if they keep these kinds of like mental errors and lapses of mental judgment going, they're going to be a quick out no matter who they play.
So who do you think should be between the pipes? I probably go with Zach.
It's it kind of goes against everything that I stand for because you know, you know, I'm all about, like, you know, playing the right goalkeeper in Major League socer.
I mean, you'll die on.
Gavin Beavers is really well regarded in the youth.
National curious a talented kid, So.
I would assume that it will be Zach, But I think this has to be the last year, like if you're going to keep if Gavin is going to be your guy for the future and a guy that you can see potentially, you know, establishing himself well enough that he could maybe be moved on overseas.
He's got to have more games. He just has to. Zach mcmathe cam rising of RSL. We'll get to that in a little bit too early of a transition. We'll get to that a little bit. All right, let's let's have a little fun here. Okay, So Pablo yesterday because I asked him, Okay, you've been on a break, and you know, the schedule has been a little bit chaotic. So we've seen a lot of Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, and therefore Diego will sit on Wednesday, and then Chico will
sit on Saturday, et cetera, et cetera. He said on Saturday he's going to march out the closest thing to a first choice eleven to prepare for the playoffs now that he's had a little bit of a break. Essenating Vera, My goodness, come on, dude, like second year in a row. I know it's such a horrible look, asked Pablo about it yesterday. But Vera's out on Saturday and he misses a playoff.
Match, So tell me, because I'm a terrible follower of the sport, are we still in a best of three in the first round or is it a one off.
Best of three? Okay, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it's best of three. We need a fact we're gon need a fact check. Her back there, Porter, Porter is our ESPN stats in the FO department. Here's the thing, the Mickey Mouse League changes. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I believe it's best of three if.
You if I hate that, I think it's so silly.
Trey's gonna call in eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred at any moment. I'm pretty sure it's best of three. But do you think you can guess what the eleven will be on Saturday if we go?
I think if you're asking me or if I'm asking you to read Pablo's mind.
Important line of delineation. You are trying to read Pablo's mind about what the eleven will look like on Saturday. If this is as close to a first choice is we're going to.
See, I'll go Zach and gold catrona set left back Justin because they have no death Right now, I'm guessing Philip Quinton next to Justin and then Andrew Brodie it right, back midfield obviously a mecca.
Hada.
So this is where it gets tricky. I'm reading, I'm reading Pablo's mind. I'm going to go Luna Crooks, Mark Zuke.
I know this is hard.
Either Diogo or Chicho. I know, No, it's Anderson or Chico right at the top.
Run me through your midfield the end.
So I'm going I'm going at the holding spots and then the three in front of them, I'm going Luna Crooks, Mark Zuke.
So crooks instead of Diogo, Gotcha okay.
And then I'm gonna go Chiacho. But it but it's close. They've looked better with and I'm not saying it's the I'm not saying it's right or wrong.
I'm just saying it's the hottest they take.
They know they just have looked better with Anderson Julio than chi Cho for the past several months.
How have they not?
Chi Cho hasn't scored and how long July seventeen, he's one goal away from breaking Savo's record for how long?
Four months? Do you think there's any shot that that.
Uh oh, there's a chance he doesn't break it.
Do you think that Pablo sits chi Cho on Saturday. Yeah, wow, breaking news.
If you're talking about if we're going off of our guy who is who is a vibes guy.
He is a vibes guy. But results have come this year.
Too, results have come. But I'm just saying, it's kind of what have you done for me lately? And the last couple of games. It is so obvious that Chiecho is so in his head that I don't know. I honestly don't know who gives you the best chance to win right now?
Are you?
Are you going with your superstar striker who is terribly out of farm.
Coach win on me best chance to win.
I'm just saying, I don't think you're you're asking me to read Pablo's mind if it's me. If it's me, I'm going pure FIFA, give me the highest overall rated players and then let me hit Turbo and see what happens.
Yeah, okay, we're on the same page then, because that's what I would do. And you, okay, do you do you think because I can remember I had you on. I think it was just a couple of days after the suspension was announced, and I remember when I got the alert that this was the deal and I you see things like that derail seasons all the time in any sport. You think there's still something there with probably because he has just not well and then he got
injured right as soon as he came out. True, But there was a stretch Chris where if he only scored one goal, you're like, what's up with the dude? And now he hasn't scored since.
He had some he had some telepathic stuff going on with Gomez where they were just always always on the same page. I mean, I think him moving really really hurt Chi. Cho's just connectivity. Like I would have to ask Trey, But I wonder of those seventeen goals, how many were direct assists from from Andras.
Let's go to our ESPN Stats and Information department for an update on the first round of the MLS playoff format.
Yes, so first round of course is as as it was last year. Round one, best of three. Of course, RSL misses the wild card, so that's well where they'll start.
All right, So best of three and home field advantage, home pitch advantage as it were. I believe that's on the line. Because you know what's interesting, Chris. On Saturday, we have RSL taking on Vancouver, and then we have Seattle taking on Portland. RSL and Sattle. It's a derby. It is RSL and Seattle are still in the mix for three, and Vancouver and Portland are trying to avoid the wildcard, which is a one match elimination, and those games they first kick is at the same time.
Listen, man, I think if you're RSL, honestly, you want to avoid Houston at all costs.
They just have their number. I don't.
I think there's I don't know what it is tack, you know, from a tactical standpoint or whatever, but you've seen different pieces come and go, but here or there, Ben Olsen's group has had the best of Pablo side. So it looks like it's going to be Houston. Right Like, if we're looking at the standing.
If it started today five, if RSL wins and Seattle loses, RSL will move up to third. Where's that Seattle game? Seattle that is in Portland, So oursel's at home, Seattle's in Portland. And if RSL moves up to third, they could see, as JP would say, the Crappits, the hated Crappits. I mean, that would be that would be good. Yeah, that would be good. That looks like it's either gonna be Houston or Colorado.
I mean, Colorado has been much improved. But yeah, I I it would be a a monkey off their back, so to speak, if they could draw Houston and eliminate them.
For sure. It just has looked real bad the last couple of seasons. All right, before we break, and we'll do a segment on Utah football, b YU football college football coming up next. He K has been in the lab. We have now a very decent sample size of what Linel Messi looks like in MLS and Miami potentially, well, they're gonna win the Supporter Shield. They're three points and they're also three points away from setting an MLS single
season record. How much of it is messy? How much of it is the embarrassment of riches and can anybody beat them in the playoffs?
A lot, a lot, and yes, okay, a lot of it is massy, A lot of it is messy. A lot of it is the insane amount of talent that they've added, albeit aging talent, and this is going to make their last stop. It's MLS. But listen, man, like you're talking about putting together like thirty percent of arguably the best club team ever. Maybe it's a decade later, but you're still talking about or sorry, yeah, I'm missing one Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquetz.
And Geordie Albo.
Yeah, like that is insane, it is, I'm sorry. And the fact that they've all managed to stay healthy for the most part outside of Messi than when he got hurt in Copa America. Like this, that team has been as good, if not better without him as they have been with him. But like in MLS, yes, can they be beat, Yes, of course they can be beat.
It's MLS who last thing, who lives in their cul de sac. I mean I don't watch enough. I only watch RSL and then I'll check if Miami's on, and of course you want to see what that looks like. Columbus. Columbus is in their stratosphere. Anyone out West I would be.
I mean LA Galaxy have been really good, like they finally ditch the superstar chasing mode. They do have Marco Royce who just came up. But LAFC, Yeah, I think if you're talking about the two best teams in the league, It's Columbus, Miami.
Easy interesting, well fall soccer is a lot of fun. Want to mind you guys. Coming up tomorrow, we have a special events at Overtime Cards and Collectibles gonna be live at their new location in Sandy. Logan Cooley will be there the Center for the Utah Hockey Club signing autographs. You can buy tickets for the signing at Overtime Cardsancollectibles dot com. It goes from five to seven tomorrow. So the format is this, I am live at the Snowmobile Expo. After my show, I am going to run over not
literally to Overtime Cards and Collectibles. Scott Mitchell will be there. Scott and I are going to do a couple of radio hits and then we're going to interview Logan Cooley on air. So we'll be there up until seven o'clock. Come on buy and say hello to Scott and Logan and check out their trading cards of all your favorite athletes.
You can check them out online at Overtimecards Andcollectibles dot com where you can buy and trade more with c K. Coming up next right here on ESPN seven hundred Clueless, the Alicia Silverstone movie. I'm getting clueless vibes with the no doubt I'm just a girl, No great song. It's a good shout out, King, It's a good shout out to gen X, my generation, the generation that you best generation. You should you fit the description you You are a millennial trapped in a gen x ER's body.
I believe that wholeheartedly, and I'm sad that I am part of what I can argue is not the best generation.
But hey, we move forward. Yeah, and nobody wants my take on it. It's well documented.
They just gen X sounds cooler. It's like if you when you say millennial does not sound cool, well and gen Z sounds cooler.
It is cooler, yes, millennials. Yeah, and we don't have to you know what, I'm not going to do that thing today. There's a certain age right now that I'm having a tough time with in life. But I think it's just just going to move on from all of that, all right, Chris. Since you and I last spoke, uh, the news became official that Cameron Rising is done for
the year. Yeah, second straight season. You had very unique access to Cam and his family for the piece you wrote that I've sent people to over and over and over. There is still this faction of our community that you know, he's a sandbagger, he got paid, he should be playing. I don't know how much attention I want to give that faction of our community, but they do exist, and the money thing does.
Can the players see it, which is unfortunately no.
No, I've been talking about that. Every time I hear a coach say, well, I'm not on social media, I say, well, guess what your players are, right, So let's just big picture where you are with this entire thing. Second year in a row, brutal development.
I can't remember the last time a local player had as many high highs and low you know, personal lows from an injury standpoint, like we don't. I guess Taysom is like would be a close like analogy, but Tasom never led them to COMPU championships.
Carlos Boozer, Yeah, yeah, but you're not wrong.
But like I'm just yeah, it's unfortunate. I mean, he shouldn't have been out there, like clearly it did not look right, and we can relitigate that till the cows come home. But he's done for the year, and my assumptions would be that the two sides, you know, hug each other, give each other thanks and say we did a lot of cool stuff, but it's time to part ways. That is just an assumption on my part, and I think that would be best for both parties involved.
I agree with you there, and that obviously has been a topic on the show. Eric Weddle was on on Monday and I asked him straight up his thoughts on Cam coming back for an eighth year, and you can go listen to it. I don't want to speak for him. He wasn't taking a shot at Cam. He echoed what you just said. Probably best for everybody to kind of go their separate ways. I do have to say I wouldn't blame Cam if he did it, Like if the nil money is still there, he's not. I agree with that.
So but if it's even there for a couple hundred grand, come, you know, be on the sideline and help Isaac Wilson as a quasi backup. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud, because what's Cam going to do next year if he doesn't play football? Gordon joined us earlier. He made a good point, like he's got a good community, if he's got an agent and he's made a little money. A lot of these guys, like X BYU players latch onto the brow companies down south and make a lot
of money. They work down there, and there is a community you have as a collegiate athlete where you're not gonna go be the assistant manager at Shields. But what does he do next year if he doesn't play football? Would you blame him if he came back.
Oh?
No, I wouldn't blame him if he came back. But I mean, he has to make a business decision at this point. Like he's made a lot of money, he's been very successful. Does it make sense for him to if he doesn't come back to Utah, does he want to pursue going somewhere else? And what does that market look like? I mean, because at this point, we don't know what the severity of the injury is and how long he's going to be out. Now, like when Kyle says he's out for the rest of the year, we're
talking six games, which is basically two months. So I would assume it's nothing serious. We haven't heard otherwise. But Cam has made it very clear to me. His folks have made it very clear to me that you know he wants to give the NFL, And like, I'm not comparing the two before people before the two people watching on YouTube go nuts.
Five five.
Who would have thought that Taysom Hill would become a very good NFL player? Totally different skill set. I get it, But I'm just saying, like you're talking about a guy who had like the same awful injury three years in a row, and all of a sudden became like a very reliable, unique Swiss Army knife healthy player in the NFL. So Cam ran into about of really crappy luck man, Like that is the bottom line. Like you can't really turn it or twist it any other way. The knee
injury was lingering two years ago. You know he heard it in that crazy USC game and it prolonged and eventually exploded. That's a that's a very big unfortunate reality. The hand thing you never see happen, especially to your throwing hand, you know, being shoved into a gatorade station and got rolled up on.
It is what it is.
Again, Like I don't want to be that guy who sounds like a broken record. Can't be mad at football player for getting hurt.
Let me follow up, and I'll just ask you straight up, outside of what you just said, what's your reaction to the portion of the community that I perceive to be real Because it's not just cowards that want to be brave online. I've hurt real people who I know say out loud that they're out on camp, like, just out on them, just over it.
To that, I would say, the term fan is short for fanatic, and that is a very fanatic approach to an existence that people have poured a lot of energy and time and money into. But I'll tell you one thing. In this day and age, people can pay attention to how fan bases treat their players. And if you're talking about a place that has historically struggled to recruit and return quarterbacks, if you're having their fan base turn on one of the best to ever do it, it's not
a great look. That's just the reality. It's not a great look.
They did lose a big time commit today as well, a defensive lineman from Spanish Fork decommitted. He was one of the best players they had in the class coming up. I'm not drawing a straight line, but you're not wrong. Let me ask you this, is there any part of the entire dynamic that it's fair to be frustrated with.
You can be well, if you're asking me, my opinion is you can be frustrated with the way Utah handled the injury quote unquote reports the situation mainly last year. I think this year people understood saw the writing on the wall, realized kind of what was taking place. But again, Kyle doesn't care. He doesn't you're talking about like, I mean, is Kyle the most powerful, like non politician in this state?
Probably honestly, Like.
He's a guy that could walk into most households and everybody would just be like, here, let me make something for you, please.
My guy Ryan might have a little power these days.
Okay, I guess, like, yeah, I guess I'm saying like a player athlete from a player coach athlete point of view, But yeah, they fans can be frustrated with that.
I do think we had.
An unfortunate bubbling to the surface of people believing that this team was going to go undefeated in the Big Twelve and that they were better than everybody else and kind of drinking the kool aid, which is an overuse cliche. But this team has a lot of flaws and they have a lot of injuries. But you know, teams also have other injuries across the country. Other teams have injuries across the country, just have better depth. And that's just the reality. We've talked about this ad nauseum.
Nick Saban two undefeated teams. Two of his national championship teams went undefeated in his entire run. Like even the best, it doesn't happen very often. I don't think I ever thought they were in that stratosphere potentially running the table, but I did think they'd have something to say about the Big twelve championship.
Oh yeah, day, yeah, if Cam stays healthy. Listen, Cam looked like his old self the first game and a half until he got hurt again, two different injuries. I'm sorry it happens, but eventually you got to turn the page. It is a cutthroat, unforgiving business for a player in college football. You can be a superstar, millionaire, nil quarterback one day and then you get hurt and then you have to figure out what's next. For Cam, that's where.
He's at and it is time to turn the page. So let's let's talk ball.
Okay. I came prepared listen. I know I'm prepared. Okay, where do you want to start offense or defense?
I want to start with the dynamic on Saturday night where TCU is not great against the run. Okay there, I think one hundred and sixteenth in the country against the run. And you can't put everything on the shoulders of your freshman quarterback. I think we see Andy Ludwig and this entire approach go old school entirely. You got to start winning the line of scrimmage again. You've got to be better against the run. And I think we're
gonna see a healthy dose in Mackai Bernard. And I think they're gonna do everything they can to surround Isaac with healthy needs instead of making him be cammed from two years ago. I feel like this is a game that they can get because TCU doesn't stop the run. I think we're gonna see a healthy dose of the Utah run game.
Okay, stats, bring it, came, came prepared. I know you did total offense right now in the country fifty eighth. This is Utah Utah rushing offense fifty sixth, which is lower than I thought because McKay has been good. Yeah, but he's really been the only like there isn't really he's.
A best player on the team. Yeah.
Passing offense sixty sixth, only ten spots behind the Russian defense. First downs tied for seventy seconds, scoring offense eighty first, red zone offense eighty ninth. And this is the craziest part to me. Time of possession second in the country. So Utah has the second best time of possession in the country, but they have not been able to cash in no matter who's at quarterback. That is a huge
problem considering the weapons that they have. And I understand fans have been frustrated with the offensive play calls and the schemes and whatnot. And there have been some very head scratching calls, you know, second and ten wildcat to brand Keithy, where you obviously know what's going to happen, that kind of stuff in the red zone.
It doesn't work.
But Andy and his staff have to figure out a way to Taylor an offense that fits who they have, and right now they have Mackay Bernard, they have Dorian Singer, Bran Keithy's looked okay, and they to your point, they have to make Isaac Wilson look comfortable because I think if you're talking about that Arizona game, like we talked about it, if you kick field goals there and don't go for it twice on fourth and goal, you probably
have a little bit of confidence. If you're Isaac, like you're bummed that you didn't get into the end zone, but shoot, it's still six zero or seven to six. That matters for young players.
And like.
Andy, this isn't Andy's first rodeo. He's done it a bunch of schools. He's done it here with a bunch of different quarterbacks. But it is odd considering the personnel that they have at their disposal. I mean, most of the injuries have come on the defensive side of the ball. Outside of camp, right, I mean, like yeah, I mean they're they're wide receivers of stayed healthy, brand has stayed healthy. Everybody's obsessed with the amount of tight ends that they have.
Like you know, you know, Cale Blowner had a good game against somebody a few weeks ago. Red zone threat, red zone threat, six to seven, Throw it up. But you don't want to say it's all on the offense, man, It's not, because the entire team Listen, Utah has not looked good in one game this year. They have not looked good in one game. We're six games in and I was looking at this up the other day. When was the last time Utah beat a good team? In your mind?
Off the top, I'll go USC a year ago, who was not a great team two years ago, SC, that's the twelve champion. That's the last time they beat a good team.
Ye And the only other time they beat a good team that year was the previous time they'd beat USC in the Crazy Cam game here and Dalton Kincaide game. Utah has not played well like and I understand.
Listen.
The injuries to the most important position on the field will derail lots of people, of course, but this team has failed to meet expectations that I think a lot of people have, unfortunately and unfairly to them, blowed it up in recent years.
Did you think Saturday Night is something that will manifest itself as a get right type situation? They get healthy.
Gotta see it. I'm not going to believe until I see. I mean, the vibes are not good, man. They do not look good.
They're not turning the other team over. They lost the turnover battle the past couple of games. Want some stats, bring it, bring it. I will say this before you levy your stats on me. I do think the rushing defense numbers are a little bit cloudy right now because a couple of big runs from the Skataboo kid, like
fifty eight to forty eight. Look, you can't let that happen, correct, But ultimately I think if they can get Karene back and Conner back, and I still think defensively, they're going to be fine stopping the run.
But if you're Utah, if you're Utah, if you are the program that is known locally and nationally to be a quote unquote badass defense every year, are two players really going to make that much of a difference.
Shouldn't be? They shouldn't be exactly.
Yeah, Okay, rushing defense forty second in the country, which is not where Utah is used to be. And you know, piggybacking off your point against Skataboo against Arizona, those kids were running like eight or nine yards every single.
Touch open for sure.
Turnovers tied for fifty ninth in the country, which is very not not like Utah. And this was the craziest one to meet. Red zone defense tied for ninety six. The opposing team scores on ninety percent of the time they get.
Into ooh not good, not good, not good.
So again, like, while people are pissed that Cam got hurt, while they're pissed about the offensive red zone numbers, this is not on one player or one group. The entire team has failed to meet expectations. And that's okay. But again, like maybe we were two not locally and nationally. Maybe people were lazy, Maybe people were like up, cam Riising's coming back. He hasn't played in a year and a half, but he's going to be the same guy that he was.
Brand Keith he hasn't played in two years. Oh, he's going to be the same guy that he was. Kai Bernard out for a year. He's looked good. But like these were huge questions around a team that had a lot of questions going in regardless.
Yeah, Kyle's built a bit of a benefit of the doubts that you absolutely there's no doubt. It's a good point. A few minutes left before I set you loose. The team that is using the Utah ethos to win games is forty miles down south Man because they're turning the other team over. They won the turnover battle every single game. Statistically, their defensive numbers not just better this year, far better. They couldn't get to the quarterback last year. They didn't
make very many transfer portal additions. They just relied on continuity and giving Jay Hill another year. And you know, I even heard Jay Hill say four and a score. That's an old John PA's Utah saying like they are using the model the Utah wants to be using and they're doing it much better than Utah is forty miles that south of the year.
How many people on that staff were on Kyle staff at one point.
Except Papina probably, I really like you.
Can go down the list, but yeah, to your point, they are not losing the turnover battle. They don't have like a standout offensive player.
They have seventeen different players who've scored touchdowns. Isn't that mind blow?
There you go? I mean they've played like eight running backs. They do have really good receivers. I mean, I'll give them that. I mean, like, but they don't have a you know, a McMillan kid, like. They have a bunch of really good receivers, and you know, Jake Reetzlof has made some boneheaded plays in the past, but he looks really good. Man like Aaron Roderick knows what he's doing, Like he knew what he was doing here. He knows
what he's doing down there. But to your point about the defense, like they didn't go out and make wholesale changes. They got really good in the linebacker room. And some of those were portal ads. The Tiger Kid came from Oregon. Jack Kelly came from Weber State. I don't know if Glasker was a transfer or not, but he's a local kid who's been really good. I mean, like, BYU has the best linebacker corp in the Big twelve. It's not even close.
It's so crazy to say, but you're not wrong.
So like, to me, the most interesting part of this whole start is if you're comparing, like you can make a comparison almost like Utah fans have been so spoiled with the success of the last twenty years. BYU fans have been spoiled from the previous success of the Lovelle Edwards regime. That like, coming into the season, people were saying Kilani was on the hot seat Spence like like that stuff to me is one it's silly because it's BYU.
There are only two coaches out there, in my opinion, in the in the NFL and college football realm, who would be considered upgrades to Kolonie Sataki right now. You want to name him Andy.
Reid Kyle Whittingham. Seriously, like people.
Who think that like there would there was going to be a better direction for the program to go live in a unfortunate reality and don't understand the the difficulties of recruiting and retaining talent at BYU. So the fact that Kilani has been able to do that, albeit there have been some down years, you know last year in the Big.
Twelve for sure, on yea, yeah, what's tough.
But they weren't getting their doors blown off them every week like they lost some brutal games the Okay State game. You know they were talking about this week time insane, Like listen, BYU fans should be throwing a party every single weekend knowing that they have Kalani Sataki as their head coach. Because it is probably the most difficult place to recruit and retain players at the P four level in the country.
I don't disagree with you. Have you ever tried a cougar tail?
I have not.
You're kind of anti sugar though.
It's not that I'm anti sugar. I just feel like I'm just gonna get a migraine.
Would you rather have beer or milk poured on you? Oh, that's a good question, both same time at the same time. If you want to party, all right, let me ask you this. You know you're old enough to know. Like Lavelle was like twenty one and two against Utah right now, there's a generation under Kyle of Utah football dominance over BYU. It's a full generation.
I'm talking about like your son's age, where they like just showed up and they're like, oh, we're gonna win.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And when I was growing up, he was the exact opposite. If the games were close, it was a miracle. Utah very rarely won those games. And for you fans of a certain age, namely mine and maybe a little bit older, there's kind of this permeating nervousness that the pendulum ishak beneath their feet. Yeah, because look, if you were a diehard youth fan the Lavelle years were painful, you never won, you never had
a chance. Oftentimes you were insignificant. And then Ronnie Mack takes over and evens the playing field a bit, and then since Urban and Kyle, it's been all Utah. Do you think we're seeing the beginning of a moment? I don't want to be hyperbolic or a prisoner of the moment, but could this be the start of the next BYU generation?
I would have to see BYU put together a few really good seasons in a row. I mean, I think like Colonne and his staff have had a couple of good seasons and then a bad season, A couple of good seasons and then a bad season. We'll see how this year finishes, and we'll see how they look next year. You're talking about a lot of mitigating factors involved in this, too, like the fact that BYU went independent and basically could not recruit to the same level as their art rival.
You're talking about moving from one head coach that wasn't very widely liked in Bronco Mendenhall to a guy that has very widely liked in Kaloni Sataki, And you're talking about the ultimate equalizer was the guy who's coaching Utah used to play at BYU played for a little Bell said no, it was Alma mater and really.
Likes beating them.
So like Utah going to the PAC twelve and BYU going independent. I mean this, that topic has been, you know, relitigated ad nauseum for decades on local radio. But I'll have to see BYU string together a couple of good seasons in a row and simultaneously see if Utah doesn't fall off the map. But if they're going seven and five, six and six, the way they were early on in the PAC twelve, then we can have that conversation.
Coach Wit retires, Kilani has a rough couple of years. Uh, no, excuse me, Morgan has a rough couple of years. Utah hires Kilani, and BYU talks coach Wit out of retirement. See what I just did. That's called sports radio black magic right there.
I mean that my wife like teases men in general by saying, like, you can't be mad at people for liking reality TV because sports is the ultimate, like version of drama and reality TV. With the fact that you're that's even thrown out there.
Yeah, without the negative influences. Oh, Yeah, there's no negative influences. Yeah, in sports there's a few, but it's not permeating throughout society and culture. No, I've always said, and you know, like old school WWE wrestling, that is the soap operas for men. Oh absolutely? Did you watch the Vincement mcmandals even started it? I need to. It's pretty compelling. That's one thing I can actually tell you they they did. Okay, that's one thing I can tell you to watch that
you haven't watched yet. Yeah, No, that's that's good. I want.
I want to watch it because I'm sure they went to Stone Colds Ranch.
They did. They did. It's right. What else you got for me as far as what I can watch right now? Nothing? Uh? Nothing? Good man.
Honestly, we are not watching any new shows.
Lose Clues and is that still a thing for the kids. Lose Clues now? Too bad? Yeah? All right man, great to see. Okay, great, Chris Camaraddie. Let's bring in Ryan from the Dish pros. Give them a call it eight oh one, four to two four Dish upgrade, save money, support local. What's going on? Ryan?
This is the time guys lower your bills and this is what we do day in day out. I had another customer almost one hundreds and fifty dollars a month. Guys, this is that simple. Call us up. Listen your cable company or your other TV provider, or even your fiber company. They don't send you big flashing lot signs that say hey we raised your bill. It just goes up. And a lot of people saw an increase on their fiber bill. It's an increase on their TV bill. Kaise, here's the thing,
call us up. You probably don't know how much you're spending and uh it's really the truth. But you probably know you probably could pay less. And that's the deal. Call us up. Take advantage of the offers. We have fantastic deals with Internet right now with even gift card
offers two or n our gift card. When you sign up as a new customer, take advantage of these free money and let us hook you up with fantastic services and the best TV solution out there with the Hopper and we'll get you installed as early as next day. I can still hook you up with the Multi sports pack free for a year, which includes the NFL Red Zone and movie channels. Plus we'll throw in dinner at JCW, so call us now. We can have you installed as
early as tomorrow. Get you set up before the weekend. Four two four Dish's eight oh one four two four three four seven four A.
There he is Ryan from the Dish Bros. I can't lie. It's a really cool interest song. It's one of the coolest scenes in college football. I've never been there, but Porter is a VA Tech fan Blacksburg. It's be going crazy Overtime Cards and Collectibles coming up tomorrow. We have a busy afternoon drive. I'll be at the Snowmobile XFO, so come say what's up out of the Mountain America Expo Center. And then at five o'clock we're gonna move
our programming over to overtime Cards and Collectibles. Logan Cooley, the Center of the Utah Hockey Club is gonna be there signing autographs for fans. Scott Mitchell will be on air while I'm driving over there, so thank you to Scott. Then I'll show up and do some radio until seven o'clock. We'd love to see You can buy tickets for the signing at Overtime Cards and Collectibles dot Com. All right, Porter, what comes our way on a Friday edition of the show.
On a Friday edition of the program, Spence, we will, as you mentioned, kind of go all over the map talking some RSL, talking some jazz preseason, Richard Smithy Smith makes his return from the Black Desert Championship talking some jazz. Maybe he talks some football as well, Real salt Lake, a front office member, probably Jason christ on a Friday.
And then of course some college football for you. JB Long talking some PAC twelve, Big twelve, NFL wherever you want to go with him, Yogi Roth on a Friday as well, and then we'll hand it over to Scott Mitchell and the folks at overtime with our friend Logan kol Utah Hockey Club.
There you go. That'll be a fun Friday show. So get your weekend started out the right way with us coming up next Thursday night, Football Denver, New Orleans. Special thank you today to Gordon Monson, Craig Bowlerjack Chris Comroddie as well for any the sound you made this from the show. Go to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Download our mobile app. ESPN seven hundred app is available for free in the app store of the Google Play Store and then download our podcast follow
a long rate review. It's called The Drive Wispence check its that's available where you get your shows. He's Porter Arms Spence saying tonight, have a great Thursday evening. Thursday night football on the other side right here on ESPN seven hundred