All right, what's going on? It is drivetime. It's a Thursday afternoon. It's about ten minutes past the hour of two o'clock. We are in the midst of some unusual, unseasonably warm weather.
Outside. It's a beautiful day.
It's about seventy eight degrees and clear and sunny here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, our Broadway Media studios overlooking the beautiful Wassaps Mountains.
Great to have you with us, it is every day. It's great to have you. Long for the ride. It's betch check.
It's behind the mic portor Larsen behind the glass.
And we got a lot to do, a lot to do on.
This Thursday afternoon to get you ready for the weekend. You're almost there, and keep your company on your drive around town or your commute home here.
On the drive.
Good guest list today, a bunch of different topics. We are still a few weeks away from kind of leaning into NBA coverage.
We like to cover the NBA on the show.
We usually like to cover the jazz on the show, so we're not gonna do a ton of it today, but there are some NBA preseason It's like NBA preseason prediction time. Our buddy Howard Beck from The Ringer wrote his piece today that he does every year on the state of every single team, and Kevin Pelton from ESPN did his yearly win prediction for every team.
In the league.
Spoiler alert, Nobody thinks the Jazz are going to be either good or interesting, So there you go.
But I did want to bring some of that on air today.
They're doing a preseason media thing tomorrow with Ange Annik and I think Ryan's going to be there, so NBA seasons right around the corner, but we're not going to necessarily lean into.
It on the show just yet.
We're pretty football centric right now, obviously looking ahead to a very big weekend for both Utah and BYU local and national college football implications.
On the line.
Start to learn about some more of these teams, both in the Big Twelve and just around the country. BYU at Baylor. Right now, Baylor is a three point five point favorite. The over under is forty five point five. Bringing me Young historically is not great with day games. I read today they've lost their last ten day games to FBS opponents, seven of those who have been on the road, and dating back historically, I think it's five
to nineteen something along those lines. BYU struggles day games for some reason, and that's maybe one of the reasons Baylor is favored, even though BYU is unbeaten. The Youthes welcome in the Arizona Wildcats. That's going to be an eight point fifteen kicktime. You can see that game on ESPN. You can hear it on this old radio station beginning at four fifteen to keep you company all the way
up until kicks. So if you're driving around town, if you can't make it over the game early, or even if you're in the tailgate lot, just fire up ESPN seven hundred listener our pregame coverage with Porter and then later on obviously Bill sli and Scott So big games for both Utah and BYU this weekend. We're going to get into it on the show today and a big slate of big twelve twelve games.
A lot of eyes on Manhattan.
Kansas case State's getting five points over Oklahoma State. The two teams that BYU and Utah beat last week will play each other in Kansas State a pretty healthy favorite at least as of now.
Colorado on the road at UCF.
I believe that is the Fox Big Noon kickoff with Joe Klatt, Gus Johnson in front of the show and the Fox gang down there in Orlando, so we'll get to a lot of college football storylines. I do want to revisit a topic we talked about yesterday, and that is UNLV losing their starting quarterback after a really good start and inserting themselves as the G five favorite to advance to the CFP. And I've heard a lot of reaction about this and I want to kind of.
Get into it today.
To some people overnight, A couple of people who work up with you, who listen to the show reached out via text. It's just clear that nobody knows what to do. Nobody knows how to handle this because the people in charge have so badly dropped the ball for basically twenty five years. And if it doesn't get fixed pretty quickly here, I do think we could have a conversation about whether or not this sport it will survive. I talked about
it yesterday. I'm not a college football alarmist. Alarmist, I know there are a lot of people out there that believe the recent happenings in the sport are bad for long term. I'm not there. It's just different now, and we'll talk about it on the show. But certainly one thing is for sure. They've got to figure this stuff out.
They've got to get their arms around it one way or the other.
Whether you're just lean into the pro model sooner rather than later. I know that they're pleading for help from Congress. As a citizen of the country, I prefer Congress's energy elsewhere at this point. But you know, we'll see how it plays out. The NFL gets rolling tonight. You can hear the NFL on our radio station. Reminder, we are your home of the NFL in this market. It is Thursday n at football from Jet Live Stadium. See what
I did there, East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Cowboys are getting five and a half points on the road against the Giants. Both these teams are one and two. Giants aren't thought to be very good this year. They're probably playing for little draft capital, so to me, all the pressure is on Dallas tonight.
But don't forget. After we SAYGA night.
At six o'clock, you can hear the Cowboys Giants game here on the station.
Big weekend ahead for Rayal Salt Lake.
All the projections as of now have RSL advancing to the postseason. Of course they've already clinched that, but maybe as a top four seed well where they're gonna get a home playoff game, which is always a lot of fun.
So we'll do a little soccer on the show today.
Utah Hockey Club continues their preseason journey after getting the win on Monday at the Delta Center, so a lot to do on a Thursday afternoon. We'll start things off with Kyle Bonnach from ESPN. Kyle has been great with a PAC twelve Mountain West Conference beef there. We say it's a beef as the PAC twelve has posted a bunch of teams, speaking of which U and Lvan Air Force will stay put in the Mountain West Conference with some incentives tied to that decision. So we'll bring in
Kyle today to talk about that. Then it's time for the Big Show, Big Hour. We do it every Thursday. Craig Bowler, Jack Gordon Monson. It will be mostly football today. We'll probably do a little jazz with Bowlers since they're doing their preseason media availability tomorrow at the Delta center, Max Bretdas stops by to talk a little RSL, little soccer.
We'll do a little sports court today.
Ton of gray topics to get to on this Thursday afternoon with Kyle Bond, a girl with Craig Bowlerjack with Gordon Monton, with Max Bredas, with me Spence check Its with all of you the great listeners, and that guy a very nervous Dallas Cowboy fan on a Thursday afternoon. All the pressures on your boys, you know that tonight Tonight it's like a sneaky big game. I don't think they lose, but this is one of those early season games where they got to get it.
Yeah, I don't believe in like when you say a must win, right and it's Week three. You're in a division that's not going to have anyone with twelve, thirteen, fourteen wins. You know, outside of the Eagles, you're probably gonna get a wild card spot if you're the Cowboys.
I I don't know, man, I don't know if I want to even go to that territory because, like I said, I'm approaching the zone of of fandom where a win means Mike McCarthy continues to just kind of flounder and do this charade in the middle, and I don't know how much longer I want that to go on. So I'm conflicted as a fan, and I know they're not a bad team. That's the point. They've had a top five roster in the NFL for a decade maybe more, and here we are.
Yep. It's kind of a sneaky big game.
I agree, not necessarily a must win, but one and three making the playoffs in pro football, it's a it's a tough amountain all right. Our first guest right out of the gates today will be Kyle Bonnager to tap college football. Before we get to Kyle, on this Thursday afternoon, I almost said Wednesday. Brought to you by good friends at Standard Restaurant Supplies. Standard Restaurant Supplies your tailgate headquarters
get everything you need to make your tailgate epic. Check them out at thirty five hundred Southwest Temple and online at Standard restaurant dot com.
It is 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 ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show.
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So, the news that UNB quarterback Matthew Sluka left the program on Tuesday night to utilize his red shirt amid claims of unfulfilled verbal nil promises from a UNLB assistant coach really send shockwaves across the landscape of people who love college football, people who cover college football, and people who are in college football. So we talked about this
on a couple of different occasions. Yesterday I actually did like a twenty twenty five minute segment on it and got a couple of messages after I signed off air from some boosters, some alumni, and one gentleman who shall remain nameless who works at the University of Utah. And overnight did some reading, listen to some pods, you know, checked out some of the shows to see how people
were reacting to this. And one thing has become extremely clear, and it's not new information, but I just have a hard time feeling anything other than you dug your grave and now you have to lie in it.
When it comes to the NCAA.
Now, I do feel bad for member institutions because it's pretty clear athletic departments, institutions, colleges across the landscape of college football just don't know how to go about their business when it comes to NIL. Specifically, transfer portal is becoming a little bit more clear if they made some restrictions, they're not as many opportunities just to get up and bounce and leave as.
There were even a year ago.
So they've made some progress with the transfer portal With NIL, it still clearly is baffling schools and athletic departments as far as.
How they go about their business to do this.
And there really is this underlying panic and anxiety about how this is going to play out, what we do to make sure that we can keep up with.
The other schools.
Look, the schools with the biggest budgets have always won at the highest levels.
That's not a new thing.
And for a number of years, you know, players were being paid in ways that we didn't see. I have so many stories locally and nationally of guys I know who played football and basketball in college and we're getting money, getting cash out of the table from you know, boosters and donors and powerful people in their communities.
So now it's just in front of our faces.
But still at this point, it really is putting a lot of athletic departments in tough situations for them to figure out something so important without any regulation.
And that's the issue.
And yes, the House settlement is thought to be on its way to being finalized. Maybe we'll get to that a little bit later on today with our friends from Handy and Handy, And when that happens, maybe we'll start to see some things settle in. But until it happens, it continues to be just do whatever you want and
ask for forgiveness later or not permission now. But for a starting quarterback to leave a program over a verbal promise which simply is your word against his, and a program that's undefeated, a player that's playing well over one hundred k and I hate the sound up to one hundred thousand dollars is not a ton of money. Now, it's a lot of money. All of us would like another one hundred thousand dollars to.
Come our way.
But for something like this, for somebody to simply just quit on his team, and I don't love that narrative. That's a little old school, like, you know, step up, you know, be the band of brothers whatever. I am the guy that for basically ten years, if not more, I've yelled about these players being compensated for what they do because that's the way America works. The NCAA simply is a serial anti trust violator. And finally the Supreme Court was like, get out of here and figure it out.
These kids now have the same basic economic rights as all of us to simply profit off.
Of who they are as people.
It was dumb that they never could, and it's better now that they can. But you had twenty five years at least as a runway. Certainly at Obannon's lawsuit was filed in two thousand and eight, you at least had fifteen or sixteen years to understand that this was coming. And your failure to prepare is putting administrators in athletic departments in very precarious situations.
Now.
Ultimately, as I said yesterday, for me, it comes down to one thing, and that is how is the product. The product is still really good, but it's just different, and will progress is not being made. You can make an argument that the anile stuff is actually getting worse when programs are losing key players as opposed to making progress to get to the point where it's actually better. You could make that argument, for sure, I would hear
you if you did. But ultimately it kind of leads into a conversation where if you're going to be a fan, whether it's college football, whether it's the NFL, whether it's the NBA, whether it's Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, or the NHL, no matter what it is that you love, as things change and things progress, you just simply have to decide whether or not you're okay making allowances for the things that make you uncomfortable in the name of consuming the thing you enjoy.
Right, And there are plenty of examples.
Right, So if you listen to the show, first of all, thank you, hello, how are you? Second of all, you know, during basketball season, you can probably plan on hearing me go on some massive diatribe and we'll put the over under on twenty. Okay, this upcoming NBA season, when Luka Doncic decides that his ankle hurts and he doesn't make the trip to Salt Lake, When Lebron James decides that LA's very nice this time of year and it's fifteen degrees and snowy and Salt Lake, and suddenly he doesn't
fly to play the jazz. And I could go on and on and on, because guess what it's going to happen, because it's already has happened. Tom Haberschrow, our buddy from the NBA Daily Assist, did the data, did the work and pulled up the data. Salt Lake almost by It's like it's almost by far is the NBA market most adversely affected by quote load management, meaning star players don't feel like going to Utah.
Yes, injuries are real.
I know we have to say that to protect ourselves, but we suffer as an NBA market more so than any other market in the entire league, with star players saying, oh it's salt Lake on Wednesday. Sorry my son's not feeling well, or oh my gosh, I think I have COVID. Whatever it is, all the excuses it's star players use to not play the jazz in salt Lake will irk me forever, right, I'll never get off that.
I never will.
And if I sound like the old guy because I say John and Carl played eighty two, and so did you ing and so did Mike. Okay, fine, then I'm the old guy once upon a time. Actually showing up and playing when you're able to play and when you're healthy matter to people, and I still think it should.
I'll never get off that.
However, I still watch NBA basketball. Right as an NFL fan. You heard a lot of people say, I don't watch the NFL because the CTE stuff I learned about, how you know, what little regard they have for their players, who are the product that we pay to watch. And since you learned about, you know, the NFL essentially turning a blind eye to horrific brain injuries for years, a lot of people tapped out right.
A lot of people did, how about Kaepernick?
Right?
You saw a guy neil for the national anthem, and you're not watching football anymore. Some people took that stance, and some people still have. Ratings for NFL games have never been higher. So they just have to decide if you love consuming the sport enough to make allowance for the things that make you uncomfortable in pro basketball are in pro basketball right now? It's basketball players not wanting to play basketball.
That's hard to stomach.
Now their profit and lost statement and their new TV deal indicates the business of basketball is good. I do think the regular season ratings suffering are directly correlated to star players not playing, but enough people still watch basketball for the NBA to make seventy what billion dollars or whatever with their new deal, you know, out to twenty thirty one or twenty thirty two. Like I can say it's a problem. They can throw whatever back in my
face about the business being good. But you, as a fan have to decide if you mind after ponying up for hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars for four seats to a Jazz game because your son wants to see Lebron and Lebron decides that the weather in la is too nice this time of year and he doesn't want to deal with Saul Lake.
You have to decide if that's okay with you.
In the NFL, brain injuries, CT, political stances, whatever it is okay, is that enough to dissuade you from watching pro football? And now we have the answer in college football because honestly, honestly, we didn't for a long time, right, it really was for a lot of people the last bastion of amateurism, even though that's not a real sentence. You're fooled into believing that you're just watching these young men essentially make old people who have been in the
business rich for a number of different decades. I'm all for them being paid. I'm not for the way it went down. The lack of regulation is alarming, and these things are concerning, But I'm not an alarmist when it comes to the future of college football, because this is the example of what you have to make allowance for as a fan. If you want to keep going to games, if you want to keep watching games, if you want to keep.
Supporting your school. It's not good or bad.
It's just different, right, And I'm with you with a lot of these things, with load management, with brain injuries, with political stances, with whatever it is with college football now, with the NIL and the transfer portal really causing a lot of cash. I'm with you that it's not necessarily as easy to consume it as it once was. But I'm trying to get to the point with all this stuff where it's not good or bad, it's just different.
And then you decide if you want to be the consumer all right.
Coming up on the other side, we're gonna bring in Kyle Barne girl.
College football coming up next.
I got mostly college football on the show today, So beautiful Thursday, it's good.
Have you with us. Keep it right here.
You weren't very excited when I laid on my idea about the Bumps today, when I said, hey, let's go, let's do a little jam band. Just do a little Northeast style jam ban. Now this is the Grateful Dead, But today I need a little I need a little guster.
I want a little fish.
I want a little string cheese incident. You can throw a little Dave in. You know, Dave technically is a jam band. You didn't seem very enthused about my idea.
They've definitely a jam ban.
There was tone there. What was the tone? There was tone there? Watch your tone?
How do I put this?
Just put it kindly.
I like most jam bands, and in fact, I'm a big fan of the Dead, much like our next guest. But but there is a time when the song could end.
I didn't say we're gonna do a little psilocybin in talking for a seventeen minute guster guitar solo.
They're Bumps they're thirty seconds.
I know, so for bumps we're doing great. But just my overall thoughts, that's you're not wrong. Kyle bonde gera definite jam band fan.
I'm gonna go out on a limb Kyle and say you enjoy a good jam ban I.
Would say, generally speak, I'm very specific to you the Grateful Dead, I don't. I don't venture out much, but beyond beyond them. So that's kind of where I sit on the whole conversation of jampans.
All right, fair enough, we can move on immediately, all right, Kyle. So ultimately, on the show yesterday and to start the show today, we've been discussing kind of the fallout from the Matthew Sluka nil dispute with UNLV, and after the show last night, I got a couple of messages from some people that work up at the U and it's just pretty clear that nobody knows what they're doing. But this one kind of sent shock waves across the landscape
of college football. What's what's your take on how this all went down.
I think it's kind of a window into what is wrong with the system and kind of what's going to be possible in the future. I think we'll see more of this, not exactly how this one played out, but I do think you're going to see more kids leaving at this at this stage.
Of the year.
You know, my minder saying is, look, it's the offensive coordinator made a verbal offer of you know, a we can get you one hundred thousand dollars, but it wasn't really a formal deal. It sounded like maybe it was just in conversation, and then there was no real follow up. Yeah, I think we're still kind of waiting on more of those details and to like show it to me and writing like, let's let's get a better sense of what
really happened. And then look, if you're the kid and you are one hundred percent under the impression that you're getting one hundred thousand dollars and you don't get if you put yourself in the in the kid's shoes, you could be you could understand why he would be upset if he's under the impression he's going to get one
hundred thousand dollars. But if you're the coach and you don't know the deal exists, you could also understand while they are, uh, you know, kind of pissed off by this whole situation as well the collective if they weren't
looped in. It's it's really just, you know, really poor communication all the way around, and I'm having a really tough time trying to figure out who's at fault here other than the NCAA and kind of letting the sport get to this point because there's just not a clear process for you.
Know, Kyle, it's kind of I was just thinking about this tongue in cheek as a as a big college basketball fan, dating all the way back to you know, the nineties. It's kind of ironic that it's UNLV that's not paying their players correctly because they were like the school under Tark that paid everybody and didn't really back, you know, shy away from it.
Yeah. Yeah, That's the funny thing, right, is that U and LV is the school with his reputation of being able to make these shady deals, and now that it's legal for them to be the school that's having trouble with it is certainly a kind of a funny development.
Sure, And speaking of a funny development, I asked you and probably ten other college football guests, Hey do you think there's any shot in do you think there's any shot, any chance that the PAC twelve falls enough wrongs, falls down enough wrongs after trying to recruit schools to their conference that they land on Utah State, right, And you know everybody said no chance, right, And so obviously things have changed, and you guys have been great with this over at the dot com side of things.
What do you make of where we find ourselves.
Now with the PAC twelve And how surprised are you that Utah State found their way to get an invite?
Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of days for me, tracking all this stuff and having those conversations to try to figure out what's going on behind the scenes. If you asked me a month ago if Utah State would be in the PAC twelve, certainly would have been surprised, right, But you know, when it happened, I was kind of expecting it because they were the next they were next up.
Once those AA schools all passed, it.
Was pretty clear that Utah State was going to be in the you know, in the crossairs of the PAC twelve, so to speak, right, And I think you know, when I was gaming it out, the AA school the AAC
schools that passed like that. That didn't surprise me at all because the amount of money that the PAC twelve was going to be able to offer them to entice them to leave, it was a gamble without a real media deal, you know, with the significant buyouts that they were going to have to pay to leave, there was not a guarantee that situation was going to be a whole lot better. So, you know, once you started looking at the numbers, it kind of made sense that Utah State ended up there.
What do you make of the decision for both the Air Force and UNLV to stand pat stay in the Mound West Conference is supposed to jump ship.
It's it's it's really similar to the decision the aa AAC schools made.
The Pactal just wasn't able.
To offer them enough money to justify what they were gonna be getting from the Mountain West. You know, I don't have the numbers nailed down, but there is a significant financial incentive being provided by the Mountain West to stay.
In the conference.
You know, this is kind of a more of a short term deal, right, and that just made it worth their while.
You're gonna look at those schools.
Now you're gonna have a chance to you know, be at the top of that conference for you know whatever it looks like. It certainly won't have the appearance of a very strong football conference, but they'll have this you know, call it twenty twenty five, thirty million dollars from the Mountain West. It was only possible because of the exit fees that the other schools in the Mountain West were responsible to leave, right and so they could either go
be the eighth team in the PAC twelve. You know, the PAC twelve, you know, kind of made it clear early on that they didn't believe that un LB should be a part of that first wave. So you could either be the eighth school in this new look PAC twelve, which still isn't a power conference, or you could kind of be the you know, the top of the heat in this new mountain, new look Mountain West with all the money that they've they've been incentivized.
With to stay.
So, yeah, it's a it's it's an interesting dynamic, and you know, there's still a lot more moving that has to happen because both conferences are still below the minimum threshold to be to be a conference by NCAA bylaws.
And that's where I wanted to follow up. Both need add one more member institution. Any thoughts on who those schools could be.
Yeah, that's what I've been spending the day trying to figure out. And there's not a real consensus yet. I mean, they think if you game it out, there's a you know, a couple of places you go Texas State, you know, other Conference USA schools, I mean New Mexico State to the Mountain West, makes makes some sense. Utah is a school that you know, look, they don't have much in the way of football history, but you know, that's kind of where we're at here, right. This is the this
is the trickle down effect of all this realignment. So we're talking about schools that don't really you know, relative to you know, the schools we're used to talking about, don't have a lot to offer. But that that's how far down the list we are. And I guess we should have expected that, right that the realignment was never going to really stop and eventually those schools were going
to be brought into the mix. But I think we're going to see is you know, eventually some FCS schools are probably going to have to elevate or going to be enticed to do so, to fill to fill out all those conferences. You know, eventually you're going to run out of schools, and so I think, you know, it's time to start vetting some of those FCF schools that might have some interest.
When the dust settles, what happens with Gonzaga, you know, because there's all this like misinformation out there. A report was actually tweeted out then refuted, and now I'm just kind of wondering, you know, when the dust settles, where there's where they're going to end up? Kyle, what are your thoughts?
Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up in the PAC twelve eventually. And I know the pactwelve has had conversations with them. I you know, confirmed that they had conversations with Saint Mary's also in the WCC, right,
but where that conversation. When that conversation was taking place, the PAC twelve was also optimistic it was going to get the four AAC schools right, and so keep in mind, if they had brought those four schools in, then the media evaluation for a potential deal was going to be different than it will be with wherever it settles on the football side, right, And so the amount of money that they could offer Gonzaga is going to be different now than it would have been with the AA schools
in the mix of the AAC schools and potentially un LB.
In the mix.
And so now Gonzaga has to then look at it again and say, Okay, like we have a pretty good thing going here, We've been able to turn ourselves into a national brand playing in this conference.
Do we leave for.
Whatever it is the pack this new look PAC twelve has to offer. I think it's a little bit of a different conversation than it would have been with those AAC schools. But yeah, I think once it's set, once football is settled, those conversations can get a little bit more serious again and they can kind of work out if it makes sense for both parties. I think the PAC twelve would like to have Gonzaga and potentially Saint Mary's if it just for like for numbers purposes for basketball.
Their payouts will be different than the football schools. Of course that should be pretty well understood. But yeah, I think we have to just wait a little bit before that. Those talks can really heat up and see how real they'll be.
One more quick expansion question, because then we'll actually get to games that are being played. What's the latest as far as you understanding goes with Yukon and their flirtation Brett or Mark East Coast guy, he wants the New York market, and as somebody grew up back there, I can tell you Yukon basketball moves the needle in a way that Saint John's doesn't, or you know, even Syracuse.
Obviously they're upstate.
But Yukon basketball would help the Big Twelve, you know, at least kind of sneak in a little bit through the side door to that New York market. Do you think that's a union that is inevitable given time? Where are you at with that?
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't have any great like first hand insight and reporting, like only the only inside I have to that is just what I've what I've read as well. Yeah, I mean it's it's an interest proposition, right, But the problem is that is that Yukon also has football, and I don't think the Big Twelve has any interest in bringing
Yukon football into the mix. I know the Pac twelve has had some discussions with Yukon, like preliminary discussions about bringing them in as a football only member to try to get to try to get them to the necessary amount of schools too. Right, So Yukon's in a weird place fitting into this whole mix. I mean, the conversations
have been ongoing for a while. My understanding is that a lot of the schools in the Big twelve were not really in favor of having Yukon enter the league, and that probably carried the days as far as setting those conversations to the side for the time being.
All right, good stuff there.
You guys have done a great job and you've specifically on kind of helping us understand all of this. Let's move over now to the Utes who start out four oh one to oer on Big twelve play and you know, camera rising. It continues to be a question mark and Isaac Wilson has been understanded of the past couple of games, but they've been able to get it done. And they
go to Stillwater where no one wins. I mean, Oklahoma State is tough to play in their stadium, but a four and oh start one and N one conference, they welcome in Arizona coming up on Saturday night, and Kyle, as you know, Arizona stopped him pretty good last year, and the coaches and players have talked a lot about that throughout the course of the week. Watching Arizona k State, watching ky State kind of bully them around the field, gives me a lot of confidence that you talk and
do the same. So where yet with the start of the utes season and what do you think happens on Saturday night?
Yeah, I mean you have to be happy with four and oh obviously right, and the fact that yeah, I mean you look, if you looked at the schedule to start the year, I mean I think the Oklahoma State game was the game that was like, oh yeah, that's that'll be the toughest game on the schedule.
It's Oklahoma State. They you know, came in with high expectations. That's on the road.
And to win that game without Cam, I think is a statement of intent about what's possible this season. I still think they need him back to make a real run at the playoff and hops the things that they think they can right that, I think they can. But at the you know, at the same time, it's I feel so like gunshy now about like what do.
You make of it?
Right, It's been the same story for for a long time with with Cam and.
Is he available? Is he not available? This one doesn't seem as serious. But at the same time, you know.
There was a there was like early last year, we also thought he was a week away, right, And so it's hard to really try to make sense of it. I'm sure that you guys have a better read into it just being there and and and and hearing from players and coaches during the week, but you know, from a national perspective, trying to monitor it is it has become really difficult. Arizona interesting team because I mean I
was really high on Arizona coming to the year. They have a lot back from a team that you know, finished the finished last year with seven straight wins. It was one of the best seasons in school history. You got this quarterback who was playing at a Heisman level down the stretch, best receiver in college football. But the last two weeks that the offense just hasn't hasn't clicked.
I mean they didn't move the ball at all outside the first drive against Kansas State and even against Northern Arizona, it was pretty dire on the offensive side, and so they had the talent to be good and to give you tall all it can handle. And you saw, you know McMillan, and I know if it beat the last year and what they can do. But you know, here we are three games into the year and they have kind of reset expectations on Arizona.
So I'm excited to be there.
I'll be there in Salt Lake this this weekend for this one. I'm so excited to check out both these teams in person for the first time this year.
Oh very nice, Well, travel safe, you can enjoy some great weather. It's a late kick, but it's supposed to be like seventy degrees at eight o'clock on Saturday, so it should be a lot of fun. Let me ask you your opinion on because you know, we've discussed the as you can imagine here in Salt Lake, we've discussed the Cam Rising Isaac Wilson dynamic quite a bit. Look, the bottom line, Kyle is money does change the equation.
It does change the conversation. And folks around here like if Cameron Rising is really being paid seven figures to play quarterback for the University of Utah. I think it changes the way people view how this stuff has been handled.
Now I am of the opinion that he's hurt.
We had coach went on the show yesterday and they're trying to get him back, and when he's right, he's going to play.
That's where I stand now. You reference last year.
It was the same stuff every week, getting close you know, needs to be cleared by the doctor, doctor Neil A. Trasha, And that was a real thing. I'm not saying it wasn't. But do you think we're high speed ahead to college football adopting the pro model of reporting injuries? Because until Kyle gets the email from the Big twelve saying you got to report, he's simply gonna do everything he can to do his one job, which is to win football games.
And if he thinks holding some information back gives him an advantage, he's going to continue to do it. At some point, do you think coaches will be mandated to report like they are in pro football.
I do think that's going to be the case, And it's already happening in the SEC, I believe.
This year.
And so look it's it's once it starts like yeah, I think a lot of those policies kind of fall into line across the country, So like, I can't imagine there's a world where the SEC is the only conference doing that into perpetuity, right, I think it's reasonable to.
Have that policy in play.
But look, I covered the forty nine ers when Jim Harbaugh was the coach, and he said something that always stuck with me is like, look, if we think something is going to give us, you know, a one percent chance to be better, to have a better chance, so when we're going to chase that one percent? And it was like something really insignificant that he was talking about at the time, But I think that applies with the
injury stuff. I mean, if you can force another team to prepare for two quarterbacks that are kind of different in style, like, yeah, there's there's probably some benefit there, Like is it going to swing the game? You know, I don't know, Probably not right. But at the same time, if you're adding a little bit more to the other team's plate during the week that they have to prepare for,
like that's not a bad thing. And I don't know, there's a real tangible benefit to announcing your starter early and so yeah, like I want to find out who's plan. It will generate interest, right. It certainly helps spetding lines and those sort of things, and gives everyone a better sense about what to expect. But yeah, I think Kyle's wealth and his right to operate that way is as frustrating as it might be.
So we might have two very elite college football teams in our state. Now I am a pump the brakes guy on BYU for now, just because of the way the game went down last weekend against k State. But k State rolls into Provo as the number thirteen team in the country and BYU just smoked them. Now, there was a insane punt return, there was a scoop and score.
There were two picks inside of the red zone.
I think BYU had like two hundred and forty nine yards of offense.
But it is what it is. They get to win.
It wasn't close there four and oh, now they were three and oh a year ago. They get into Big twelve play last year and it was just a catastrophe. They will tell you there were one or two plays from winning three or four of the games. That's great. I don't hand out participation trophies on the show. They've never won a big twelve road game. They're zero and five. They've lost their last ten day games. Crazy enough, it's a ten am kick at least Mountain time style at Baylor.
So before I set you loose, same question I asked you about Utah. What do you make of BYU's clean start? What do you think happens coming up on Saturday?
Yeah, I mean I think I think they're clearly a better team than Baylor.
Right, Like the early morning thing is interesting.
I wasn't aware of that, but yeah, I mean, like you have TOD four to oh, I think the SMU win actually looks pretty good. It was a kind of a not in a very exciting game, but look, they held a team to fifteen points that went out and scored sixty six the next week, Right, and so there's
something you know to like about that. I mean, the rest of the schedule, you know, make up what you will, but I you know, to be here at four oh, to have the win against K State and look as kind of unusual as the game was against K State, I mean, you.
Laid it out well with just all that.
It wasn't the traditional domination, but it was still a lop sided win against a ranked team that had just had its way with Arizona the week before, right, And so yeah, I mean I think it's this is always the case early in the year, Right, It's like, Okay, we're watching, we're paying attention. Now you've earned the right
to kind of be in the conversation. And now at this point of the season is where we kind of really separate, you know, and try to figure out how what to make of those early non conference results.
Cole, appreciate the time, man, enjoy the weekend ahead, and enjoy your time out here, and we'll get you back on again soon.
Okay, sounds good, all right.
Kyle Bonegaert covers college football for ESPN. Get him on Twitter at vonneger at ESPN. He's been really really good with the expansion stuff PAC twelve Mound West Conference style be in town for Utah Arizona, which, by the way, you can hear that game on our radio station beginning at four fifteen with pregame coverage with Porter Larson at the.
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It's just so.
Damn dramatic, That's what it comes down to. But man, it is time for the big show, Big hour.
Do it every Thursday.
Run about now with our friends Gordon Monson and Craig Bowler. Jack get our Healthy Car Special for fifty nine to ninety five at Big O Tires, which includes a conventional oil change, checks on alignments, breaks, bat reason more, we want to keep our customers safe on the road and help them save money on tires and service.
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Big O' Tires has over fifty locally owned and operated locations in Utah. Visit Big o'tires dot com to find a location near you. Gordon Monson live in studio. We missed it the last couple of weeks.
How you doing, buddy, I'm doing well. Thanks, Yeah, it was phoned in. You did, Bro, I'm better, I'm better in person.
You are. I say it all the time.
And our next guest who has my sincere permission to always be over the phone and not in studio because he is such a true pro Craig Bowler, Jack Bowler, how are you?
He spent some good I'd rather be setting alongside you and Gordo, but appreciate just the time to chat.
Man.
It's Gordo.
How you been man, I've.
Been all right, I mean, staying out of trouble for the most part as far as you know.
Well, Spence and I don't believe that, but we'll try to take your word for it. Today.
Well, it's great to have both you here and Craig. We're gonna take advantage of having you with us for the first segment to do just a little bit of jazz just to scosh because okay, all right, ultimately people on football, We're gonna give him college football. Gordon's been
writing about both BYU and Utah. Both b YU and Utah remain clean and you're beloved Case State alma mater had to go home with the y L. But our friend Howard Beck, who joins the show for the NBA Daily Assist every year with the Ringer.
He does this every year.
He talks about his tiers in pro basketball and trying to understand the direction of the team. It's not a win lost guess, although Pelton did that today. It's more of like, Okay, here's what the Raptors are doing, here's what the Knicks are doing. Here's what Howard wrote about the Jazz. Okay, And I'll read it in, Craig, I want your.
Reaction, yes, yes, quote.
And as for the Jazz, they might be the most confusing of all. A team that jettison it's two all stars two years ago, isn't good enough to make the playoffs, and isn't bad enough to nab a high draft pick. They could have dealt lowry market in a dozen times by now, but they instead gave Hi him an extension that makes him trade ineligible until next summer. They're neither trying to win nor they're trying to lose. The epitome of a franchise with an identity crisis. What do you make of that, Craig.
No, I think you know, he he's spun on. I think there is an identity crisis. From my chair, I'm not privy to all the inside, behind the doors conversations, but you know, we will talk tomorrow in a press conference with Ryan Smith and Danny and Justin Zannik, and maybe some of this will be clarified. I think it's very clear that they kept marketing as a centerpiece of a of a young team that maybe Danny again has something Spence and Gordo that he sees marketing able to
lure someone else in. I don't know, but you have to win to do that. And you know what I think is here is that the Jazz may fly under the radar of popularity for the first time in eons because of a hockey team in town that's going to steal a lot of eyes from the Jazz. Now do
they fly under the radar? Maybe they like that, you know, but I find it's still intriguing for me that you have two professional teams in town vne for ies, television, vying for ticket sales, Jazz and the Utah Hockey Club and sponsorship money, and you know, when you're both winning, it makes it a little easier there's so much excitement surrounded a hockey team, and I totally understand why, but
you know that doesn't give the Jazz a pass. I mean, the one thing this team's always done was trying to be a playoff team, and right now very few give them any chance of winning thirty games, maybe twenty five unless something happens of maybe oddity, that one of these six young players that have been taken in the last two years, now three this past summer and three last summer, actually one or two of them pop. And what I mean by that is that they make a huge advancement
in their development as an NBA row. I guess we'll all wait and see, but no, it is unpredictable. It is a scratch of the head of what direction the Jazz want to go. And I think, you know, we all talked to three of us, had many summer conversations about marketing, and He's right, you know, he was in every rumor. He was in every discussion, mostly with Golden State and other teams that were interested in marketing to really put that particular team over the top uh market.
And I think chose to stay here. And you know what, that's a rarity by itself, Svince and Uh, I think we're gonna get the answers we need to know here very soon. We're going to play first preseason game a week from tomorrow night, and it's gonna be let's just say this, it's going to be youth on stage. I mean, there's no there's no question about that, Pordo.
From my vantage point, and I mean this sincerely, I don't know that I can remember a season that's approaching with this little buzz and excitement about the Jazz in our That's just kind of my feel about it. Where you're at right now as we enter training camp, and as Craig mentioned, the first preseason game right around the corner.
I agree with the spence. And last year I was shocked that the building was as full as it was a game after game after game, and I wondered, how long can this last? I mean, Jazz fans are really good fans, and they have that reputation around the league. But but maybe maybe it's you know, U Tall Football BYU Football. Maybe it's Utah Hockey Club. Maybe there's other things going on that are distractions to the Jazz and Bowler.
You've brought that up a lot about what the relationship will be between hockey and basketball and whether there's a friendly competition there or how that goes as far as ticket sales is concerned. And I don't know. I agree expectations are extremely low, Bowler and and I just don't see a likelihood or any kind of high percentage or even a modest percentage that they're really going to provide a product this year that people are gonna.
Go, wow, look at this.
Yeah, there'll be little you know, tidbits here there, Keyante, you know, growing Cody popping, whatever it is, but nothing. And I think Howard's point is the right point. And I've been on it for two years. I was never like trade everybody and get rid of Dennis and Quinn.
I was never that guy.
But okay, that's the deal, all right, Then go all in on a rebuild. At Howard's point is the one I've been yelling about for two years. What is the direction? Where is your lane? And everybody's talking about this prior to the NBA season. Anyone who writes about the Jazz are just kind of like no clue man, no idea, some decent pieces here or there, you know, Craig will give you the final word, the let's do some college football.
Yeah, Spence, I think you know what maybe led us all astray was one comment last year after the season with Danny when he said he was potentially big game hunting, and I think that just kind of stuck thinking that the big move was imminent, right, wouldn't to agree? I mean that comment to me when I sat there, I thought, oh wow, Okay, now we kind of see youth with another piece or two with marketing most likely, and then
they'll let the young guys grow around a veteran. I can't say core, but you mix and you still don't achieve what you want, but you have a blending of talent and also a way for young players to understand what it takes to be a pro in this league, the work ethic right, and how to take losses and how to handle wins and balance all that that did not occur Drew you Banks, Patty Mills, you know, long long term veterans, and so that may or may not
have any role in this team at all. I just see marketing the centerpiece and around a bunch of young nineteen twenty year olds. I think I'm intrigued with Walker Kessler. Will he win games, you know, not by himself? And of course Philipowski has some talent out of Duke. This early second round pick, Cody Williams, what does he do? Does Hey does Keante bust open? Is this guy really the guy that's going to run this team? I don't know, and I guess we'll all I hate to say this,
we'll all find out together. But as this conversation continues, people I run into asking the same thing. I said, Look, you know I don't have I don't have that magic, you know magic, but you know singing ball that can predict anything. I think we just have to find out together on what what direction Danny really thinks in the evaluation of these young guys, if the actually are going to stick, or if there'll be pieces that would be
moved out before the trade deadline or next season. But yeah, it's kind of interesting to watch the Jazz for the first time in a long time not be the talking point of the fall going into camp, and to have a hockey club and NHL franchise really kind of stealing the headlines right now.
All right, let's do some college football, because Craig, I know your time is limited. I want to get some of your takes here, but Gordon will start with you on the Utes going to Stillwater and getting to win with their backup quarterback. Now, I've been talking about it all week. I don't love the lack of information, but
I understand why Kyle does it. And until Kyle gets the email from the Big twelve saying we report injuries now like the NFL and the SEC do, he's going to continue to hold information back if he thinks it gives him an advantage. His job is not to tell us who's playing quarterback. His job is doing football games.
And it just looks like the same old Utes, doesn't it, the same old coach with a team no matter who's under center, they're going to run the ball, they're going to tackle, they're going to be prepared, work hard and win four to oh one tone conference play.
Where you're at with the Utes right now.
Nowhere near as good as if came Rising were playing, for sure. I mean that's clear, clear for anywhere see. And you know, I mean maybe Cam thought he was going to have a chance play, but I was told that it was the kid who was getting all the reps during the week, So I think that was pretty much what they were planning on. But they hid that pretty well because most people I talked to thought Cam was going to give it a go. He was not.
They beat that team, one of the best teams that they'll face all year long on the road, playing Utah football, punching them in the mouth. That's what they did. And that defense, that defense is tough. And I know a lot of people wondered a little bit about, well, what happened at the end of the game, giving up two touchdowns and two two point conversions? What about that? By that time the game was over with and Amy Lovewood
was just holding back on that offense. He saw the three turnovers in the first half and didn't want to risk that with Wilson quarterback, and so he went extremely conservative. And so the youths pick up two hundred and forty nine yards rushing and they play old school Utah football,
And I think they answered this question. Guys. People wondered, can the Utes really come in from that Nandy Pamby Pac twelve and come into the Big twelve and punch these teams in the mouth the way that they are accustomed to doing and the way they have built a reputation around. That's exactly what they did on the road in the place they had never played before, and they showed the Big twelve what you tall football is all about.
And the thing is, when Cam Rising is back, that team is going to elevate in a way that is going to be pretty interesting to watch because Cam Rising's presence on that team lifts everybody, even the defense, I think, because all the players rally around that. Yeah, they're giving the kid the chance and he's coming along and he's he's a talent, he is, but he's just not ready to take the Utes to the level at which they can play. And when they are at that level, watch out.
I could see this team winning out.
One of the three of us went to a school that is in the Big twelve and it's familiar with the land Escape of the Big Twelve and Craig Bowler. Jack, you know that Mike Gundhy does not lose in Stillwater, he just doesn't. That's a tough place to play and you roll in there with your backup true freshman QB.
You get a win.
Where are you at now at the start of the season for the Utes.
I'm impressed, Gordo said, it the ground game with Micah Bernard blew me away. His strength is ridiculous. Guys, after the initial hit, he's averaging about seven yards of carrier. Then Mike Mitchell gives you some strength on the goal line too, But you know the defenses where it's at thirteen points a game allowed on a four and oh start. You know, I think for me, I get so many people and guys, I think this Cam Rising thing has
angered some fans. Look, I don't know when he's coming back, if it's you know, last week we talked about him playing or that's why I spence you kind of I thought pull the string or the trigger on the Vegas line. They knew something we didn't, And I think that it is time to let people know who's in who's out. I mean, look what happened at UNLV with the kid Matthew Sluka, who's out now and quit the team over
one hundred thousand dollars promise on an nil. Look, and Cam's making reportedly did you say seven figures?
Those are the rumors.
I mean.
The problem is, like everything else, there's no one place to actually get anything that's real.
We're all kind of guessed.
Right, well, this was the problem with UNLV. You know, the assistant coach at Lesley promised this type of one hundred thousand dollars payoff. And I think it's just getting to the point now where fans are like again, I think it's a danger time in college football. Look UNLV they decide to jump into the Pac twelve. Excuse me, they decided to stay in the Mountain West. But Utah State jumps with a few other teams.
You know, the whole.
Landscape is just rocky, unpredictable. And you know what, if you're gonna pay players, I'm I'm I'm in the physition now, and you guys know I'm old school. I didn't like the fact players being paid, but I get it. But if it's now that way semi pro football in college, then if you're getting paid, then they should know if
you can play or not. I mean, this is gambling, by the way, Spencer, you and I talked about it last week about how it slid four points in a matter of what for two hours, and so how does that play into the betting scheme of college football when you don't know who is on the field. I love it being paid. I think this is a danger time right now and UNLV's quarterback maybe the tip of the iceberg on this.
Yeah, that that story yesterday since shockwaves. I love how when paying players was illegal, Jerry Jerry Tarkanian, which is paying everybody and not even apologizing. Now it's legal, and he's like, no, we can't do it. You know, it's interesting that it actually comes from Vegas.
Let's move over since Bush suing the answer.
Yeah, yeah, and as he should.
But since Craig only has a few more minutes, let's do a little BYU.
Then we'll start something. I got a news for you guys. It's gonna get worse.
Oh sure, but let's do that next second, because let's talk a little BYU. So Craig will give you the first crack of this since you have a couple of minutes left BYU. Also a clean start. We had a rod on last week and I said, you know what gives you because they were three and oh last year. Then they get into conference and it just didn't go well. They'll spin it like, hey, we were a couple of plays away from winning three more games. Great, congratulations, print
the shirts. They have not won a road game in the Big twelve their own to five. They go to Baylor as an underdog. Give me your thoughts. Do you think the start of the season from Brigham Young is actually real?
Are they really this good?
Well?
Okay, I know people say I'm going to try to protect kse State because That's where I went. And look, it was an implosion by by Kansas State. But I will say this, what teams have to do when another team implos is when the ball lands in your hands, then you must take advantage and punish them. And that's what BYU did with Kalanie Sataki and and forcing the turnovers.
K State coughed it up. You throw the pick the young kid, Avery Johnson, sophomore, and all of a sudden they aren't mature enough to handle that type of of collapse. Is I'm going to say?
So?
You turn it up, turn it over three times and the ninety yard punt return was a beautiful thing. That's a top three play of the year at the moment in college football. It may rise as the year rolls on, but uh, the Kingston kid showed incredible talent, speed, nimble, patience, picked up the blocks and basically that was it. K State was done and I was just sitting there going, Wow, I've never seen this team or a team lately implode like they did. But by you took advantage of every opportunity,
and that's why winning football has. You have to do that to win against a ranked team, mind you, and now by You find themselves ranked twenty two in the coaches pulls. So the Baylor game may be the one the tipping point. Never easy to win on the road. Baylor has some highs and lows in their program, but they're a favorite of a field goal, or so I think, and that's usually what happens when you're at home. You
get the three point advantage unless you're really bad. So this I think this game Week five, Game five may be the one who really get to see who BYU is, unless Baylor just wants to hand it to him right, which I don't think they're gonna do.
Gordo, you sat here two months ago and you said they're better than people think. Media picked BYU thirteenth in the Big twelve poll Vegas set over under four and a half. I taded them as six. You said two months ago you thought BYU is better than people think.
So far you've been proven right.
Well, only because that's what Colonie Sataki told me to my face. We talked for almost an hour and I couldn't believe how optimistic he was because I was a skeptic and he just went on and on. I said, no, no, no, this team is better than people don't have us right. They don't have us right. And so far he's been right and everybody else was wrong. I think I've seen enough how to BYU this year to really believe that they are better. Now are they better than Kansas State?
If those two teams played on a neutral field ten times, I would say BYU might get three, maybe two. And yet that's the way it went on that particular night with that home fueled win. That was a big win for BYU. And I understand that Kansas State is good bowler. I'm not going to run the Wildcats down. I think. I think that's a good team that will bounce back.
But BYU has more than we. They're one went away from tying how many wins they had last year, and I know they fell apart last year they lost five straight down the stretch. I don't see that happening this they have. They have Houston on the schedule, that's going to be a win, right, So what happens on the other this team could go eight and four. I don't know what they'll do, and I'm not predicting it one way or another. I'm just saying that that team is better than we thought it was. And a lot of
that has to do with that defense. That that that that run we were talking about against k State Bowler, I mean, the defense scored, the special team scored, and the offense score. Boom boom boom and Oliver. That's that's the kind of thing that you look for if you're a coach hoping that a team is coming together. And that's what Kalani SAIDI said.
What happened, and Gordon, I tell you this. Also, they held Kansas State on two very impressive early drives and just field goals when you thought they were just marching down the field. Right, So there's early success. You'll hold them to three twice and then they take advantage of the turnovers. What I saw in b Yu was better speed than I expected, and the defense can can move sideline to sideline. I was impressed. But Baylor's a different
story on the road. As you guys said, and I wonder how they bounce back after Dion and the Buffalo's got a Hail Mary overtime when and let's see what happens if Baylor has a little anger on their side as well well.
Craig, I appreciate the time, man. We'll set you loose and look forward to seeing you back in studio when you can.
All right, yeah, I'll be there next week. And you know what, I got five minutes. I'm gonna listen when you guys get back. This's inn il thing. I'm sorry, it riles me up again. It's it's I don't know what direction college football is going, but it's ever changing and we're not done. But the nil, when we look back on it in twenty years is going to be the centerpiece of what if this if college football imploded, or if it actually became an NFL semi pro league, you know what I mean.
I don't know, Laura.
I'm going to tell you what's gonna happen.
We're gonna do that coming up next with our guy, Gordon Craig.
Thanks for the time.
We'll talk soon.
Bye bye.
At the Big O Tires Fall Sales event, we go big for our customers, come into any one of our fifty locally owned and operated locations in Utah and save up to one hundred and twenty dollars off four in stock tires, not just any tires, one hundred and twenty dollars off our legendary Big O brand tires, including our big Foot eight and legacy tire lines. This sale won't last, so come in now through October thirteenth to get yourself a new set of Big O brand tires. It's the
Fall sales event at Big O Tires. The team you trust maybe.
Gordon Montson Live and Studio for one more segment. Gordon, I have a concept of a plan for this segment, if you'd be so kind. Okay, So we were talking nil last segment with Craig Bowler, Jack, Gordon Montson Live
and Studio. And so when the news came down yesterday that Vegas was losing U and LB was losing their starting quarterback Matthew Sluca after a three and oh start where they had actually elevated themselves to the Vegas favorite to be the g REP in the expanded CFP over a verbal promise for one hundred k from assistant coach, it caught my antenna in a way that most of
these nil stare stories just don't now. I started the show off today just with a conversation about it's not good or bad, it's just different, and it's really up to you to decide if you can look past it to consume the sport that you love. Every sport has something that you have to look past if you want to enjoy it. The NBA has load management. I will
yell about that until Am ninety five. The NFL, there's political statements heard, people say I'm not watching football, calling Kaepernick neild right, and so it's like, all right, if that's your thing, fine. You know, the brain injuries, the CTE stuff, I think disillusion to a lot of people. But you know, NFL ratings are an all time high. People are still watching college football. So I do think
it's an issue that needs to be figured out. But I also believe that if you want to watch college football and enjoy it, it's here.
If you don't have to deal with it.
This will be disappointing the bowler because Bowler's old school. But it's going to get worse. I think it's well, it's going to get worse and it's going to get better. More and more corporate involvement is coming, and I think you'll even see teams sponsored by certain companies and certainly giving money for something in return. That's definitely on the horizon,
especially at the bigger programs around the country. We all remember during the summer we saw that thing about the Big Twelve being brought to you by All State maybe or some It's going to continue to get more and more tangled, but I think there will come a point. They will come to a point of salary caps. I think that is something that will happen. And the problem with that is, you know, the players have been being paid forever and it's gone on under the table and
people were cheating. If you have a salary cap, well that stopped people and chieving. You're still going to have payments under the table. But I think it does make sense from an institutional standpoint to limit how much dough can flow to the players. And I think that they've got to get that under control in order to make it seem at least legitimate.
Can we call it how it is and just say that this is professional sports, that's what it is, and ultimately for football only and This is where it gets complex because there are several different layers here to figure out how to preserve Olympic sports and figure out how to preserve athletic departments overall. If football simply just leaves the NCAA and in a way kind of leaves the
athletic department high and ride, the ramifications are deep. So I don't say this lightly, but it is time for football to break away from the NCUBA.
It's time to hire commissioner. I don't know who it is.
It's time for that commissioner to enact a governing body that's very similar to the NFL, and hire a deputy commissioner and build out a college football headquarter office to figure all this stuff out and operate it as if it essentially is a minor league feeder system for the NFL.
It's time to do it.
I don't love it, because I think we all love what made us all fall in love with college football, and that was it wasn't tainted by money, but it was. We just didn't see it. It wasn't tainted by money in front of our face. The problem is it was tainted by money in the back room, by a bunch of old dudes that were getting rich on the backs of employees who they didn't pay. So they were a serial anti trust violator for about one hundred years and
it's about time they're not. And so we're here now, So let's be grown ups and let's not yell about kids getting paid, and let's put some regulations in place. Because I heard from some people at the U yesterday after my show. It's pretty clear, Gordon, nobody knows what to do. Nobody knows how to traverse this space. And if you're a young athlete, go get yours. But until they allow the athletes to unionize and collectively bargain the way they do in pro football, to come up with
a contract and come up with a cap. And yes, you sign contracts, guess what happens when you sign contracts you don't transfer. It solved.
I just did it.
I just saw the transfer port right, So like at least we alleviate that. And yes, there are slots in place like there is in pro football. If you're a starting caliber quarterback, this is what you're worth. Boom boom boom. I hate to say it, it's just far past the time where college football just needs to lean into.
The pro model, and that's coming. Yeah, that's all coming already. You see programs that are hiring CEOs to run the program, and so this is just a matter of time. One thing I've learned and you've learned it too, Spence, that when it comes to college football and college sports in general, the thing is like it's like turning an aircraft carrier. I mean, it takes forever for things to be put into place to make it official. And this will take
some time too, but it's on the way. So the bad news for all you amateurism lovers out there is that that's not what it is. That's not what it was back when you love the amateurism, and it certainly won't be what it will be moving forward. It will be pro football and it will be better organized.
And honestly, I just think if you want to be an alarmist, if you want to, you know, be the mule at the end of Don Quixote sounding the message about things. You know, the bottom line is Saturday's in the fall are still going to feel like Saturdays in the fall. And as I talked about Gordon, if you want to continue to watch a sport, go to games, spend money on tickets and whatever it is.
You're gonna have to look past some things. That's just the deal.
And things change, things progress, and sometimes we don't like the way things progress because we're afraid of change. We want to stay status quo because we like the way that the thing is. There are several elements to the pro model that I actually think will improve the sport. I don't need to see fifteen FFFCS teams play each other for three weeks. I don't need to see Ohio State bludgeon some poor small programs so they can get a check to go down and support their school.
I understand the dynamic, but.
From a viewer standpoint, I think college football's main problem is week in and week out, it doesn't have enough brand games. It has four or five, and then as the season progresses sometimes you get more. But then Nick Saban week eleven, you know, schedules little sisters of the poor, they're.
Playing like a glorified.
By leaning into the pro model, every week will have probably fifteen or twenty like brand matchup games, and I think that's actually good for the sport.
Yeah, and the records that were so clean, as you mentioned, you know, if those will become a sort of a dinosaur, because if you're playing tough teams every week, then your record, a record of nine and three is going to be absolutely stellar. I'd rather have that than what you just described. Who wants to watch these games sixty two to nothing. I mean, it's a waste of time. It's not fun for anyone, even the players. They go out there and
they're playing against an inferior team. You know, it's a joke. It's a joke to them, and they can't focus the way they should. If they did focus, it would be two hundred and twenty to nothing. And so yeah, get rid of that. And I understand that the teams that need some money, and I don't know what the answer is for that, but it would be nice to have competitive games every single week.
So Week one Iowa forty, Illinois State zero, Okay k State forty one, U T. Martin six, Tennessee sixty nine, Chattanooga three, all right, Old Miss seventy six, Furman zero, Alabama sixty three, Western Kentucky zero. I could keep going. I don't need those games on my TV. And if I'm a television executive, I'm a little bit more excited if My week one game is Oregon Ohio State, right, and week in and week out, my big brands are
playing each other. It's what happens in pro football and as TV money has really taken over the thing behind the scenes, It's kind of what has to happen with college football in the area of them breaking away from the NCAA and surviving on their own. That's why it is going to be the forty or whatever biggest brands, because they know that's where the money is. I don't have to tell you about what happened with English soccer when all of the superclubs almost broke away to start
their own high level league. Like when powerful people get involved, they see where the revenue streams are, they're going to do everything they can to make it happen. In college football, what that means is big brands playing each other every week.
Well, as you know, Spence, I made a study of that. Oh yeah, no, I'm a professional soccer situation and I agree with you. I think we're of one mind on that.
Was there one club that really pulled the plug on that whole operation that you blame more than the others?
Oh?
I would say probably, man, you and you Yeah, why would you buy just a bunch of sobs?
Oh?
Just like Hubris that thing, it's just arrogance.
I don't like that.
Yeah, you know, I like scrappy Yep, that's why.
That's why I like Uh, that's why I like Liverpool.
Oh you're a Liverpool supporter. Now, this is one thing.
I've never figured out completely and I won't be pitched to it because I don't want to leave people behind it.
It makes us feel infurious.
But Liverpool and Everton, you know, how is where's the dividing line on that? I'm not I've never been able to figure that out. That's a little beyond me. But I will say that I every once in a while you'll have a big upset and that that sort of encourages these underdogs to go out there and fight the fight. But they're so rare that it's not worth putting up with all the other nonsense that happens in the meantime.
And I do look forward to teams really having to bring it every single week, and you know, then you have an upset likely so on Saturday night be why you beat in Kansas State. That was a huge upset and and yet it happened, and it was exciting, and so you can have upsets even when you have, you know, teams that are relatively similar level, and so that doesn't get eradicated from the game.
Let me ask you this, because you've been doing this a long time and you've seen a lot of things, and I'm now old enough where I've seen some things, but not as many things as you've seen. And my whole premise on this NIL stuff is and I heard media members, I read media members sounding the alarm that this was the end of college football. I heard smart people who I respect say about two two and a half years ago, Okay, now it's real transfer portal nil.
This game is screwed.
I just referenced the and IL excuse me, I just referenced the NFL stuff where a lot of people were disenfranchised with the CT and the brain injuries and the Kaepernick stuff.
Whatever that stuff is.
NBA load management, too much money, guaranteed contracts, Major League Baseball, juicee, we could keep going. Have you ever seen anything in your career that actually does end up having a super adverse effect on a sports league that people enjoy consuming NFL college for like, cause, I feel like sometimes it's just clickbait and fodder for content where it's like the
sky is falling its chicken little. I'm like, no, dude, I woke up on Saturday a couple of weeks ago just as juice to watch utahn by you play football as I did five years ago, like Saturday's in the fault. Gordon still feel like Saturdays in the fall.
And they will continue to do so. I mean, you're gonna have the reactions and that's okay, but the sky is not falling and it won't fall. And as long as people care about the teams they root for, it will be okay. It'll be different. You nailed it, Spence. People don't like change and they glom onto things that they sometimes are not what they think they are. And but it'll be okay. This stuff will evolve and it'll be it'll be fun to watch. The thing that comes
to mind when you said that it was Kurt Flood. Okay, when when free agency started coming into baseball and people thought, oh my gosh, these guys are gonna bounce all over the place and it's gonna give the players all the power and all And there were certain union leaders who did a really good job of empowering players. But I mean that might still frustrate some fans because they care about these players and then all of a sudden one day, when they're contractor is up, when they have the freedom
to do so, they're gone. And that's troubling to some people. But it wasn't the end of the sport, and it hasn't been the end of sports in general. And in some ways that fluidity has helped bring some hope to certain teams that were in a bit of a funk and they found a way to climb out of it because they could add players. This is especially true in
the NFL. You see teams. I mean, who used to talk about the NBA and it was like you could pencil in the teams that were going to be in the playoffs way in advance, and you knew who was going to be in the finals, and at least you had a good idea. In football, a lot of times you really didn't have an idea and that made it more fun. And why because there was fluidity among Yeah, it's.
Weird, Gordon, because a lot of things because your reference free agency and in my mind I'm thinking nil and in my mind, I'm thinking load management.
In my mind, I'm thinking CTE.
It all comes back down to one thing, and that is the power of the almighty dollar. It's it's follow the money, you'll always find the answers. The golden rule is the man with the gold makes the rules right.
And ultimately, when it comes to where we're at right now societally, where the middle class is really being squeezed out and most of the wealth is can you know, essentially in the pockets of the top one percent of our country in a capitalistic society, when a middle class is being squeezed out, if there's a chance to join that one percent, people are gonna do whatever they want to do, even if it's at the expense of the consumers that.
Watch their product. Nobody gives a rip.
If people are mad that a quarterback's getting money, they're gonna do whatever they can do to pad their bank account and take care of themselves. Load management is about one thing and one thing only. That's getting NBA players to their second and third max contracts. Because that's when generational wealth spills in. Agents realize that suddenly it's like, oh, we need to preserve the help.
No, you don't like.
Ultimately, there's no data that indicates load management leads to longer careers, it leads to bigger paychecks when they get to their second or their third contract. Why did the NFL cover up CTE. They didn't want lawsuits because they
want to preserve their cash as well. This all is kind of tied into the same similar dynamics, certainly societally, when the middle class is being squeezed out and the best life is over there, everybody's gonna do whatever they can do to go to that life because that's what looks fun.
That's so true. I mean, remember when two million dollars a year the salary, you go, oh my gosh, that's so much money. Yeah, well now it's like fifty million.
The money is it's so stupid now.
The one group I do feel sorry for those middle class fans who want to go to a hockey game but they can't get a good seat, and they certainly can't afford season tickets. I'm worry about those folks. And that's been a bit of a problem for a long time now, because there's always somebody out there who has the money that do it, who has the money to fill that seat, either through corporation, corporate dollars, or some
other way. And like you say, the teams don't care because they're racketing the money.
Remember Gordon.
Two years ago, Jason Kidd, after a playoff win, took the podium and said, what you guys don't understand is we're millionaires chearing for each other. And I was like, dude, I know, right, yeah, I know, Jason, but don't say that out loud.
And that's dangerous because what we love. How did we get hooked on sports to begin with?
Competition?
Competition? That is, that's what we want. And that's why certain exhibitions that you see where it's not really a competition, it's just and sort of what you talked about with these lopsideds coores, they're not competitive and so they don't intrigue, they don't hook us. Competition hooks us, and we stay
stay hooked, even if the dollars are ridiculous. But I do I do feel for that family out there, that father or that mother wants to take daughters or sons to a game and they can't afford to do it, not with a good seat right right.
Oftentimes can't afford to do it period, and then oftentimes save up for months to do it, and they show up and Luca stays in Dallas and Lebron loves Los Angeles. It's like all connected and the message continues to be we don't give a rip about you, yep. And how long does that last? I don't know. I say this all the time. I can yell about the NBA having a load management issue and they can send me their profit and lost statement and be like, where's the issue?
Man?
And I get it.
I just think it's sad that that really is where all the energy goes in our country.
It feels like it does.
At least, And then people what happens is people say, well, it's the fans' fault. Why don't they just walk away from it? Why do they pay attention to it? Yeah, Well here's why. Because your granddad or your grandmother rooted for a certain team, and they pass that intergenerationally down to their kids, and then their kids you're dead or mom pass it down to you. And you care about these things in a way that you you don't care about what Brandon milk you buy.
Sure, it means a lot to a lot of people, especially I've always said this, I probably said it with you back on our show back in the day. It feels like your college fandom is a little different than your allegiance to a pro team. More often than not, there are exceptions, but in college, it's it's where you met your wife, it's where you met your friends, it's where you grew up.
It's where your community. Probably my community.
Still exists as a result of going to you, right, And so watching Utah football hits a little bit different than watching the Jets because I didn't go to Jets University and I didn't, you know, meet my friends there, and you know, I didn't raise Oh certainly I didn't raise my son in the shadows of the stadium. I just think the college fandom hits a little bit different. But just what sucks is and I hate to sound
I don't know, man, Maybe I'm just getting older. I just feel like it sucks that the people who are in charge feast upon the love and commitment that people have for their teams with only one goal in mind,
and that's creating revenue stream. That's how it feels now. Honestly, part of me is like I wonder if the new NBA ownership thing is to be like a cool, young, hip guy with joggers and make a bunch of money and not really give a rip about whether your team wins and loses because you're part of the club.
I don't know, boy, I'll tell you it's It does make you wonder if one day fans will revolt and say, I can't keep doing this. But we I mean we talked about that. Your's ago spence and it's still moving forward. So there is this huge appetite to have a rooting interest, to have something that you care about, to have your feudal army that you can get behind that will go
to someone else's city and conquer as. Some people in Kansas City how they feel about pro football right now, they're pretty turned off.
Sure, yeah, it's just you know, when you think about it, it's like legalized hair win dealers. You know you love your team so much. We know that you're addicted to how much you love the team, and we know that you love your escape from life. So take a price that just went up twenty percent. We know that you need the jazz in downtown Salt Lake City, and there's a lot how south that looks really nice. You got an extra billion, right, you know, and we'll stay right
like that. That's just where I guess we're at. Maybe I just need to start accepting it.
Not really Well, if you talk about like rage against the machinery, you talked about college sports being professionalized while professional sports is professionalized, And what is it about.
It's about the same thing that every other business is about. It's just that this this DOPA bean that is released through through the connection to teams keeps fans coming back.
All right, Gordo, before I set you loose, If Utah and BYU played ten times neutral field tomorrow, well and fit ten games in tomorrow, but right now in the season, not how they're gonna evolve before November ninth, that those two how do you think generally speaking they'd match up?
Right now?
Utah wins eight or nine of those.
Yeah, I think I'm with you. What do you want to see from BYU at Baylor? Because I still and I've got to give Kilanie and a Rod and all those guys a lot of credit. I heard Kelly Pepinga give an interview where they were very forthcoming and honest about how fortunate they were.
Last week.
Now, A Rod called a couple of great kill shots here in the red zone, get touchdowns not field goals. They did that right, but only two forty nine of offense and Case State ran the ball well. So there are still in my mind like Utah's Utah. It is what Kyle's built this thing up. It's ticking, it's going down the track. There's still questions for me about BYU. What do you want to see from them against Baylor on Saturday.
I think that BYU defense is exactly what Kolonie Sataki told me in August that it was better than it had been a lot better. And they have these athletes that are coming up that are Jack Kelly. I mean, this kind of could be an NFL type player, and he's coming up and they're they're they're filling holes and they're doing things, they're filling roles, and so that defense is really surprisingly good. Uh, but the offense has to get better. The offense the offensive line has to create
a push. And there's been a lot of injuries in that running back room. And Moa was injured, you know, I mean he looked promising. I don't know how severe his his ankle is, but he's got a bit of a problem. So can they continue to improve the run game? And Jake Ritzlov can he continue to mature as a quarterback. That's what needs to happen. I think the defense is ahead of the offense. We'll see if the offense can catch up.
All right, coming up next, we're gonna be bringing Max Bredos. Will do you just a little soccer, a little RSL. We'll get back to some college football, Gordo, real quick, RSL. S's Austin FC coming up this weekend. Who's the most dangerous player on Austin FC?
I think, uh, Jose Perez.
Don't.
You can't do that anymore.
You can't just come up with a Jose Perez name because a lot of people play soccer.
Gordon, it's not allowed.
I know you're not on the radio as consistently as you used to be, but you can't do that anymore.
Yeah, you don't even pay that much attention to Austin because they bore me.
Oh my gosh, they have a player named Perez. Well done, Gordon, good to see what We'll see you next week, right, The Great Gordon Monson brought to you today by Clearwater Distillion, the only distillery in Utah County open on Sundays on site or in State liquor stores. The football season is kicked off and Clearwater is the official spirits provider for our VIPESPN seven hundred tailgate we have at every home game. Try to scandal us no sugar no additive is great
tasting and grown up version of cinnamon whiskey. Excellent, neat and also easy to mix. They have ultra premium spirits, try the Renee, the Josephine, the Lorenz. You can buy their spirits and State liquor stores online or take a trip to their beautiful distillery, Grab some booze, some local cigars, and immerse yourself from the clear Water distilling culture. More information to be found online at Clearwaterdistillion dot com has some good college football covering your way in the five
o'clock hour tonight, not an hour from now. The latest on the situation with you ANDLB losing their starting quarterback. We'll get you ready for BYU Baylor, will get you ready for Utah. Here sona Kyle Bonnagero from Espano stop I. But it is fall at least that's kind of the time of year. It's about eighty degrees in Sunday today. That does mean football, but it also means playoffs soccer, and it looks like RSL has a real legitimate chance
to host a home playoff match. Our next guest, one of our favorites, to talk the beautiful game, Max bred Us, on a Thursday afternoon.
Max, Happy Thursday, sir?
How are you happy? Thursday undercover? One of maybe my favorite day of the week. Not every week, but most weeks.
Thursday's an underrated day, Max.
I'm with you.
There, there's a good event.
There's good events going Sorry rrupted, but there's good events going on. If you want to go out, go out to dinner without the crowd.
Like for sure.
And also if you're young enough or excuse me, if you can remember when you were young enough to start weekends on a Thursday. That was kind of like the college thing, right, Like we can start on Thursday?
Yeah, oh yeah, drinking in yeah.
No doubt, no doubt. All right, buddy, I appreciate the time today.
And we find ourselves in an interesting spot with RSL, who elected to move on from some really good players, namely Andris Gomez is now in France. They bring in five players and so far I think it's fair to say the results have been mixed.
You know.
I asked Jason, Kurt, and Pablo all the same thing when they joined the show after the window closed, and I said, do you feel like he sacrificed short term potential to do something special for the long game?
Like was that the deal?
And they all said no, they still confident they can get something special done this year. So where are you at now with kind of this recalibrated RSL group.
Well, I think one thing that's pretty evident is you know and Gomez, and I'm still blown away the business they did with that price tag where he had to sell him And I mean he's had a rough start in Europe, he's been injured. I think he's played one game,
so he's, uh, that's neither here nor there. But you know, if he's successful, that's only going to benefit Rail Salt Lake, if in fact he gets sold here the idea, you know, sometimes you have to explain it to people about being a reliable club that develops talent, so that teams like scot Rene or n Is, you know, is world famous
for developing young players. They have a great academy, so many top top players Jeremy Doku, Eduardo kammaving Peter Check have come through there because they have a great scouting system. So they fought enough about Andres Gomanz and they've faught enough about to pay a big price tag and now Rail Salt Lake in the world football stage is going
to benefit greatly. I know people probably go, wait a minute, well, we had this great player, but now clubs know that Rail Salt Lake is legit when it comes to identifying, developing and then selling players. So this is going to be big long term. As for the short term, yes, his void is really evident, not just because they haven't been able to duplicate what he does out wide. And I talked to Pablo about this. It's affecting Chi Cho on Angle. Chi Cho Levanngo and him were great foils,
great tag team. Chicho became a better player clearly be cause Andras Gomez was stretching out the field and Chi Cho hoongle is finding space that's not there yet. So that's a big one. I mean that could be railed the chances for RSL to hit their targets. Whatever that is. Making an MLS Cup final, winning an MLS Cup Final and winning a playoff series, So there's I think in theory was what the good news is they really were active and ambitious with the players they brought in. They
could have sold the player like Atlanta. Did you know Atlanta cleared them all out. Granted Atlanta's not in a good position, but they haven't replaced those players yet. They went out, and you know, they have to hope that they get Diogo something out of Diogo. They've been lucky with Mark Chuk, who I mean, I had my first look at him, really impressed. He's no Andre's Gomed, but he couldn't contribute something on that side, and it's it's tricky.
Look if I look at the West with Andres Gomezrael felt late to me or one of the two or three best teams there without him, maybe fourth or fifth. And it's so tightly packed. You need game breakers. So hopefully Mark Chuk or more specifically Diogo or Gonsalves is the guy that can provide it. They have talent, but the problem is so do the Galaxy Rapids, LAFC, Houston and Portland Seattle.
So Max, you know, we really can and will debates, you know, whether or not the attack is where it needs to be But I'll tell you what if they don't figure out the situation, and I always has to just simply blame the keeper, just blame Gavin or blame Zach. There have been a tremendous amount of very soft goals allowed in my opinion, Max all year. It's not good enough.
So I do think they've got enough firepower. And I do want to talk about cheat you in a moment, But tell me your thoughts on where we're at with either Zach or Gavin, And is it a back line issue like you defend as a team, it's an eleven player deal.
And Pablo asked that out of his group.
So I don't want to hone I don't want to hone in and pin this on just one person or one thing. But I think in my opinion it's it's safe to say it's been too softback there for too long.
So give me your thoughts on that dynamic well, and I.
Think earlier the season, because you know Zack, it's got to be frustrating. He has a great game and then he has the one, you know, the howler, which could many times have cost ourselves. Gavin Beavers, you're a little more forgiving because he's a teenager, but he's getting an opportunity because Zach hasn't been clean. I would have made and that's a fair affessment. So Gavin's been fast tracked a bit. I like Gvin Beavers a lot, but you're gonna have to take the inexperience, the good and the
bad here with him. And if you're a team of these playoff positions, it's probably gonna bite you at some point because he's going to enter this form and very rarely you see young players, but there's not my, me and you miles all over the place that they're just are wise beyond their years. You know, I would have loved u seeing Rayl salt Lake pursue and get a top keeper. Imagine, I mean, I don't know if it was feasibly possible. Imagine they made a push for Zach
Stephan like the Rapids did. I mean that Rayal salt Lake team all of a sudden looks a lot lot better, but they feel confident with Zach. But the one thing I see more for Gavin than Zach. And they played Portland and they didn't do it, but once they did it a couple of times when you press them, the playing out of the back is not very desirable. I mean, and they don't play exclusively. They do, that's kind of part of what Pablo does, but he almost we think
it just dump it in the meantime. But you would like to see them get a top top keeper here at some point, because even with Zach, there's like mistakes from playing out of the back when teams press you in pressure, which they're going to do, even teams that generally don't press a lot, because I think they can
get an advantage out of that. And that's that's a bit of an achilles for RSL and they they've got to just hope that these guys can put together quality game after quality game, and a mistake, which we have seen a fair bitness season doesn't rise at the worst possible time, so Max.
At one point, when RSL went fifteen matches without an l if Chico had one goal, it felt like he had an off game. And he's had one goal in nine games now.
You know.
When the news came down about the suspension, I talked about it on air and disgusted with people off air about the very type of thing that, if not handled appropriately or correctly, can derail a player and a team. I've seen it countless of times in my two decades doing this. I'm not I'm not blaming it all on that. Okay,
I'm not laying it all on that. But something has changed in him where he has not been as dangerous in the attack as he was when RSL felt like they were playing as well as anyone in all of.
MLS for a while.
Give me your give me your thoughts on Chicho's incredible season suddenly going cold and do you think he can turn it around?
Yeah? I can answered. Part of that drop is on Thiss Gooma is no longer there. You need to see it. You can see it's affecting it the uh. The other part is this was a pretty traumatic stretch and he was so I mean he I don't think he was so good earlier in the season. He had a couple of hat tricks. He was just scoring, scoring, scoring, And I don't think anyone's gonna say he's gonna keep playing that way. I mean, he is second in the Golden
Boot and he's basically been gone for two months. So I mean, if he played, if he's if he was playing regularly and at the clip from earlier the season, he would have like twenty seven to twenty eight goals, which is approaching the single season record. So you know that's neither here nor there either. But you can't have the early season, Chicho, But you need to have better
than what you have right now. I get the feeling that he needs a goal to kind of take the lid off a little bit, and he has to create new partnerships. He has to play it a little differently because they don't have on this gomaz and Diego Gonzales isn't a direct replacement for Goma, So a lot of teams do it, and I'm here at LAFC and LSD suffered from this as well. I think they suffered for it this year. They suffered in twenty twenty two when
they brought in Georgia Kileeni and Gareth Bale. You're bringing players at the tail end of the season and you have to incorporate them and it's never clean. So I think that's part of what Chicho is dealing with. But this is a big distraction and he's going to have to He's gonna have to do more than anyone to overcome it because he is They expect so much of him.
And it's been weird for Rail salt Lake because you said that fifteen game Winles Street, they can I mean them getting two wins in a row is rare late summer through September, so I mean, it's just so inconsistent and it's a different team. But there's a lot of things that play. There's a lot of things that Rayl salt Lake have to take ownership off, but there's some
things that are out of their control. If you sell a player like Andreskomas and you're active in the summer market, which RSL were, you hope that it clicks into place like a jig Salt puzzle by October. But we'll see.
You know, we we're accustomed to mercurial strikers around here with Alvaro Savario and you're a moth SISI and I could keep going, and maybe that's just the deal with that position. A number nine, who you know suddenly can have a rapid change in production or change in mood.
I don't know, chi Cho Max.
I think that you do because he was in LA when you know and you're you're there, so help help me understand. Is he prone to these incredible peaks and valleys. Is that something that he's known for, because I honestly don't know. I'm asking just to ask.
No, he was prolific with LAFC. I mean, he had two seasons there and he hit the ground running and there was rarely a stretch where he didn't score. So this is a little bit. I mean, this is the first real dry spell he has had in his MLS career. I mean, his time in Mexico didn't go great, but you know, at LAFC, and he scored fourteen goals in seventeen games in the first year, which is phenomenal, and
then in twenty twenty two he had sixteen goals. He played every game and he was part of a championship season where there was a little more rotation. So he's been good. I mean, that's part of it, and that's I think part of the reason Pablo Mastronni identified him as the guy he wanted is I know he can be a consistent goal scorer at MLS. He has proven that, and he proved it last year when he arrived at the tail end, and he's proved it most of the
season here. It'd be hard to imagine he continues in this run I get the feeling that there's at least the goal, maybe not four or five in a three game stretch, but a goal or two that will help this team. He is really good, and he's good. He's really good in this league, and he's adapted many times because he dealt with those LASC teams that brought in so many different players. So he's everything is there to
suggest a spence that he is going to get. There's going to be an upward trend here again, but that's not guaranteed. But we've seen him do it in the past, and I've never seen him have a really bad spell. I get the feeling he's going to get out of it.
I know we already talked about the keeper, but I want to follow up here. Pablo hopped on the show about three weeks ago and announced that the starting keeper was now Gavin and Zach is going to be benched four games last.
Then it's playoff time. Who would you wrote with match.
To get Do you go with the young kid who everybody thinks is going to be a beast when he's fully baked, or do you go with the vet who's been there before you know? Or do you take the next four games and try to figure it out. Who do you think should be between the pipes?
When I asked Pablo that, because I said, is this being Gavin's the starter? Because he's started these last four or five games, and he was like reluctant. So I think Zach's going to get another sniff at it. I think, deep down because some of the Zach you say, hopefully he just figures it out. This is a guy, a real veteran, and he's played a ton of games in MLS all over the place that he could figure it out.
I think it's a little riskier for Gavin because you know that you're going to have to deal with some rookie or some being green mistakes. They're going they're almost guaranteed to happen. You can with Zak you can say they are they're probably going to happen, but there's a better chance they don't happen. And he has a good stretch.
So I think Zach's still very much into it. I would imagine depending on these last four games, that you know Zach is when the playoffs roll around, has a chance to be the number one guy for the duration of the postseason.
All Right, I had Gartha on the program. Garth log Away on the program after Atlanta was in town. I asked him a very direct question. I'm gonna ask you the same. Do you believe RSL has a legitimate chance to hoist MLS Cup this year for the first time since two thousand and nine?
They do have a chance. There's not a team. I mean, the Galaxy look like they're gonna finish first and you're gonna have to go beat them at their place, which are us all almost god earlier this season a long time ago, So I don't think there's a big gap from anywhere else. LAFC are struggling and certainly in league play. But if I had to pick a list, I mean, I would say Galaxy would be number one, and then I like Houston a lot. Houston looks like a team that they've
won eight away games. I put Houston too, and then I'd put LAFC RSL maybe and Vancouver right behind them. But it's it's so tight, I mean, if the Galaxy don't, if the Galaxy have any issues, it's it's wide open, and I think you would be you'd like your chances against the Galaxy better than either Columbus or Inner Miami. Those are the two best teams in the league right now,
So the West will provide some opportunity. I tend to think there will be a surprise or two, which we haven't had the last couple of years in the West. I mean Saint Louis getting knocked out, but they were. You know, it's hard to see them as a number one seed in any other year because it was it was a magical regular season. But I think RSL have a shot. They have to be they have to be stout defensively, and they need some magic from chi Cho
Luna and some of the new guys. But to say they don't have a chance, I think would be unfair. They've had a really good season. They it also comes down to the matchups. We'll see what they get, but I think they it has things have to fall in place, but it's possible.
Well, all you can ask for is a shot going to the playoffs, right Like, that's all you can ask for is a shot, especially if you're not among the league lead leaders and spend. Do you like the playoff format? Does it feel like it's too saturated, Does it feel like too many teams get in? Do you like the current MLS playoff format.
Actually the West. I mean, I always have people criticized because you know, people love to criticize MLS even though things that are happening in MLS other leagues are imitating now. And I think what they did, like with Leagues Cup, is a real avant garde move that I think other leagues will imitate as well. But it's everyone in the West right now has a five hundred record or better. An eight of the nine teams are well above five hundred.
So that's the rule of thumb, right, if you're above five hundred, you should make the playoffs, and mostly not all of them in American leagues, we should say, but it's maybe maybe you have those teams, but you find a way to protect the higher seeds a little better, like you give them a buy or a double buy, and you can have those teams. I'm fine with it.
My big issue with the playoffs we had it last year and we had it this year is you have that international window and it just really takes the wind out of the sales when you're going through and all of a sudden you have to stop before the conference semis and then onwards there is a big gap which we can't really do much about, and you don't want
to play on that weekend. That's the only issue. But then on the side I don't want I don't know if the ending the season in mid October makes sense either. You might as well go. It's just that one gap which you just learned to deal with. But I think in a perfect world, maybe six, maybe you lose two four teams from the playoffs set up, but that's not going to happen everyone the reality it might get bigger
at some point, but I'm warmed up to it. But I think maybe it would make the irregular season a little more interesting if say six teams make it, or teams that finished seventh and eighth have to win twice just to get a shot at one of them higher seat.
I like that. I like that, Max, before I said, you lose.
Since you and I last spoke, we had a really really fun, cool event here in the market. Kyle Beckerman was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame, and then we had a dinner the next night of the stadium to honor that two thousand and nine MLS Cup championship team with a bunch of the former players. I've never heard the Max bread Us Kyle Beckerman take. You know, he changed everything here instantly after the trade went down.
I mean it was instantaneous.
And I remember his first training thinking like that, dude is different than anyone we have had.
Now.
It was a very young franchise, and you know, Jason Christ himself said that if Kyle embraced Kyle want this is Kyle's own these are his own words. He always wanted to be a striker because he wanted to score goals, or like a central attacking mid, and you know, he scored a lot of goals.
He could really bomb it.
You know, we used to call him Becker Bombs around here. But Jason asked him to embrace the central holding mid role and said to me on air, if Kyle plays this position, he will play in a World Cup, which he did. So, I you know, like it's weird to say as a radio host, super proud of him or everything that he's done here since he landed way back in two thousand and seven, but he's a Hall of famer.
Now, Max, what's the Kyle Beckerman take?
It's so unexpected to see the benchmarks that he reads, and I talked to Donny and he tells me he kills me in now that he's a coach at what Utah Valley or that's amazing. I mean, what a great opportunity for those young players to get someone like that who has played, you know, more MLS games than everyone except for what Nick Romondo. I mean, we're talking about almost six hundred or we are talking about six hundred games when you include everything, and I mean he hit
his targets. You mentioned winning MLS Cup and being part of RSL when they were a bad team, to being a playoff a perennial playoff team and an MLS Cup contender. But I think with Kyle Beckerman what comes to mind? And I heard Tavano say this. He called the twenty fourteen World Cup team the best US team he has seen. And Kyle Beckerman was a part of that and part of that era. He was so underappreciated and for what he did on the national team, you know, like sixty
caps and played alongside some of our best players. Ever, never was out of place, great teammate, a guy who did the dirty work so that these others could excel on that national team. And he didn't get enough credit for that. And you know, like in twenty twenty four, where the people ridicule MLS players, they don't ridicule, but they don't they equate MLS on the national team as
a weakness. I mean, imagine Kyle Beckerman didn't get that chance, and what a great servant he is for this league for not only being as good as he was, but you know, spending his entire career here with RFL in Colorado and briefly with the Miami Fusion. Those are the kind of guys that ten twenty thirty years, when this league is growing, you point out and say, you know
that is He's the foundation. This is why we were successful because you can have players that commit themselves to the league and still achieve everything they want in a professional career. I don't know if that opportunity for Europe may I'm sure he thinks about it, but it's just perfect. You know how he was able to do that and still be a part of some great national teams. And
I thought he was a great national team player. And I mean the hair, I mean, the hair is amazing and just to see it and I've mis seen him galloping around and a durability. Just a tremendous talent and asset and wonderful guy for our league. I'm a big m a less guy. I'm glad we have Kyle Beckerman.
Max.
Thanks for the time, buddy, I appreciate it. Have a great weekendial chat soon.
You have a great Thursday spent. Yes, have a great weekend.
Yes sir, Yes, sir. Our weekend starts tonight. Max, I said it out loud. That's the deal. That's the deal, all right. Our good friend Max Bradas. He announces RSL games at time, stills other MLS matches depending on his his assignment. He works with Donny. They're the look there. I'm biased. They're the best duo on Apple TV by far. Max is on social media at max breadas Sports is where you find them