All right, what is going on drives on Tuesday afternoon? It is about eleven minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
It is cold, it is rainy.
Winter is on its way as we are preparing to turn our calendars to November. Happy Tuesday to you, as it is every single day, it's gonna have you along for the ride.
Spence check. It's behind the mic. That young man is.
Porter Larson producing the show today, and as we do every day, we're gonna do a little bit of everything. We're gonna do some Utah football, some college football, some BYU. We'll do a little NFL as the weekend in pro football came to close last night Monday Night.
Football where the Steelers were able to get it done.
Moved to six and two now and Russell Wilson is two and oho as a starter.
So we'll do a little pro football on the show today. The Utah Jazz are back in action.
Sacramento is in town to take on the Jazz and just se gut it for Taylor Hendricks. So we're gonna talk about that, talk about the injury, what it means for the Jazz, what it means for as far as his continued development. It almost felt like Will Hardy was almost in tears last night during his postgame presser. So a tough, tough piece of news for this young Jazz team. They've lost all three of the games they played so far. If you listen to our Jazz coverage, our NBA coverage,
you know that I'm fine with that. This is not a group that is built to win anything special right now. There's not a quick fix available on the market to catapult them to where we all hope that they can be at some point, and that's getting back to a legitimate contender in the Western Conference at some point. So get to some Jazz stuff, some NBA stuff on the program today as well. There are two teams here locally that appear to be on their way to hopefully something special.
BYU Football Top ten team and they're undefeated at eight to no for the second time this year. Both Utah and by You are on a buy prior to their a big time matchup coming up here in Salt Lake City on the ninth. It's fifteen, I know, eight to fifteen first kick, So we're all going to be in that staateium until about one thirty two o'clock am. So BYU playing really really well, RSL is the other team that is in a position and maybe do something fun.
I know fall is mostly football for a lot of you, but fall soccer is very dramatic, it's very entertaining, it's very engaging.
And RSL is in.
Action tonight seven o'clock Mountain time, although Apple TV has the first kick listed at six point fifty pm, So we'll get you ready for the playoffs tonight for a real Salt.
Lake and I kind of preview that game and.
Have a good time on this Tuesday good guest list on a Tuesday afternoon. Richard Smith is live in studio forty years in pro basketball, number of different areas scouting, coaching and such player development. O'bringin Smitty to give give us an idea of what's next for young Taylor Hendrix, what's next for the Utah Jazz and McMahon the return of Tim McMahon NBA Daily Says Style. Get Tim's thoughts
on all things Jazz at all Things NBA. Gonna do a little college football with Kevin Reynolds from the Salt Lake Tribune today He's gonna join us. Brian dun Seth, will Roll by as well. Now we're hoping it's Doney. Trey's our backup, so we're really hoping it's Donny. Let me repeat that Trey is our backup. So we're really hoping it's Doney, who I think is on the call tonight.
With some Apple TV stuff.
So Donnie'll get us ready for this big time playoff match tonight in the market for RSLs.
They welcome in Minnesota, So a lot to do.
Richard Smith, Tim McMahon, Kevin Reynolds, Brian dun Seth, Me Spence, check ITTs, all of you, the great listeners, and that young man Porter Larson. On a Tuesday afternoon. All right, so what did the kids say on social media? Some personal news? Yes, I know, longer cheer for any of my sports teams.
Oh you've got the same. Yeah, personal news.
The Jets have hitched their wagon to an old, weird quarterback who's not good anymore. The Yankees' bats have gone silent, the next look broken. The Cats stuff's not working so far, Calves, get them in the garden. As I've talked about all week, I've never been more wrong about anything as far as how wrong I've been about Utah football. So I'm too blessed to be stressed. I'm choosing to focus on my blessings today. I'm just not going to cheer for sports sports teams anymore.
Wow.
Yeah, it's a big step. I know that is a big step. I know, you know.
I think there's a way back for you. But a break might be a good thing. A break might be a good thing. That's what we'll call it. We'll call it a healthy breakbat.
We'll circle the wagons coming up, and then we'll see what happens after that.
But how's your Tuesday afternoon? Everything good? Tuesday's gone.
Well, it's a bit rainy out, it's a bit not doesn't feel like winter yet, but it's a getting little chilly, so you can tell the seasons are are definitely changing. Kind of a slow week locally as we we go as far as football college football goes with the two bye weeks, but so much other stuff going on, as you mentioned, NBA Jazz tipoff tip off, RSL. I was at the hockey game last night, which was a bunch of fun. Maybe hot take oh.
Right out of the gates. I hope it's Trey. I hope it's Trey. You hope it's done it.
That's a really, that's a hot and an irresponsible take from you.
All right on a Tuesday, so we'll see. Let me repeat one more time.
Brian Dunseeth is set to join us, but Tray's our backup, so let's very much hope that Tunny is available to get us ready for ourself. All right, let's get into it on a Tuesday afternoon, sobody, he's gonna be our first guest. But before we get to Richard Smith, courtesy of our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, your tailgate headquarters get everything you need to make your tailgate epic.
Standard Restaurant dot com is where you find them online and they're conveniently located at thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.
On a Tuesday, Todd 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.
The opening tip.
Of the Drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.
So for the second straight well not second straight, but for the second time this year, both Utah and BYU football are on buys. But obviously both these programs in a very different spot as we sit here on this Tuesday, heading in very different directions. So look, we'll get into it here. Klani Kalanie Satake did some media yesterday, no media for coach Wit. He does not do media when there's.
A bye week.
But I thought Kilani handled it very well, talked about how fun it is for these two programs to be reunited. Of course, there is a lot of love between these two coaching staffs because there's deep friendship that is as a result of working to get other long hours. You know, ultimately these guys and I heard OC talking about this earlier, you know, the lifestyle of a college coach, and quite frankly,
any coach on any level. I think it's probably a little bit misunderstood by some folk who think it's probably
a lot easier than it actually is. And when you go to battle with each other, and you're on recruiting trips with each other, and you spend like during the season, these guys spend way more time together than they do with their families, and the reality of college football now with transfer portal NIL, constant recruiting all year long is even the offseason is probably a bit more busier than it was once upon a time, and several dynamics have
come into play. Like I do think there was a little bit of an unnecessary sound the alarm fever pitch when Saban you know, retired and a couple of other college coaches decided to try their hand doing some other things.
Tony Bennett stepped down.
Just a couple of weeks before the college basketball season started. I don't know that we're we are going to see a mass x it is, but whenever a big time coach decides that due to the current climate of what it's like to try to build a program with a modern day and age of college football, it does make
me think about Kyle and whether or not. And Kyle has always been very front facing and direct about, you know, wanting to adapt to the new reality of college football and doing the best they can to adapt to what the transfer portal brings and what NIL means. And I think it's probably fair to say that the Utah football results ever.
Since this thing became a reality.
Have been mixed at best, right, and you know, I'm not ready to look ahead to the offseason, but ultimately I do wonder what it's going to look like if this thing continues to go south as it has over the past four games, and south in a way that has been dramatic, that has been surprising and quite frankly shocking and stunning. Four straight els hasn't happened since twenty seventeen. It's only happened four times in twenty years of coach Wit And how much of the lack of results have
to do with the program's inability to adapt. I don't know the answer to that. I'm honestly just thinking out loud because there is part of me that feels like we can still be extremely reductive and talk about the lack of health thunder Center as the main impetus for
what I perceived to be a very disappointing year. Now, as we've talked about on the show, and we'll continue to talk about a week, it's not just quarterback play, but it feels like that is the biggest deal by far, whether it's Cameron's health or for the second straight season, the program not being prepared adequately for the contingency they
had in play should Cameron go down. I think early on, after the trip to Stillwater, Okay State that win, we felt like, Okay, Isaac certainly looks better than Rice and or Nate did last year. And you know, last year, obviously it wasn't as Cam, it was Brandon Rose two got hurt. But as time has gone on and we realize Oklahoma State is a sieve. They're probably the worst team at a conference. You know, ultimately, the performance under center, no matter who it's been, has not been good enough.
I thought it was interesting to hear Scott Mitchell on the show yesterday say that he would ride with Brandon and he felt like Brandon looked better than Isaac in a small, truncated space. You know, obviously, Brandon threw the pick that gave Houston the field position that ultimately led to the game winning field goal.
And I think it's fair to say.
And you don't blame the kid because last year he was trying to throw touchdowns against Skyridge and less than a year later he's asked to figure out Big twelve defenses. Eighteen years old, enrolled in April, I have a hard time putting any of this on Isaac, I do think, so I gotta.
Be careful here.
The way I would characterize it is, I think for the most part, the kids up there playing football have been let down by the grown ups in the room. Whether it was the handling of cam situation, which once again going back and forth, whether you know it was ultimately making the right calls when it came to who was going to back him up, and then making sure
that Isaac was set up to succeed. Of course, Andy has stepped aside Mike Pajakian in and as I said last week, I just was very skeptical that Mike was going to be able to find anything in an Andy Ludwiggins tall the offense that Andy couldn't find himself. I understand the cliches of new voice, new energy, new eyes, Okay, but this isn't pro football. You can't go make a bunch of trades. If you need a left tackle, a
running back or a wide receiver. It's the same positional group, it's the same system, it's the same offensive you know modality, you know ethos and such, and what will it look like against Brigham Young? Because ultimately your season has come down to playing spoiler if you're a ute fan, and that is a bad commentary on where you're at as a program. You do not want to be the plucky little school that might upset BYU season, that might knock
off Iowa State and make sure they're not undefeated. Like that's not what you want to have left to play for. But honestly, that's kind of all it is. So the other thing that Scott was talking about yesterday, and I've heard this from more than a few different people, is ultimately, you know, as both programs, but certainly University of Utah expanding their recruiting footprint to try to grab players that aren't necessarily only in our backyard.
I mean, you can just go down the list.
We've got California, Washington, We've got Texas, a bunch of Florida, a bunch of California, Montreal, Canada, David Alford from Montreal, and I could keep going Mesa, Arizona, Atlanta, Georgia, Cohuckoo, Hawaii, Tampa, Florida.
You know, and as a result of the majority, when you look at the roster of these players being from out of state, do they really understand what Utah BYU football means if you didn't grow up with it, and honestly, if you didn't grow up here, you may not have had access to it, and you don't really understand exactly what it means to people around here.
Right.
I think by is a little different.
They have a lot more of the local flavor, but they've expanded their footprint as well. So what I would say in the off chance that college kids are listening to sports soccer radio, this game means a lot to a lot of people, and you, honestly can change the sentiment around your program with a dominant win over your rival. And as an individual, I mean, there's a reason why we remember the block field goal, Brandon's blockfield goal. You know, Brett Ratliff is still a name that we talk about
around here. Scott Mitchell who pulled off a remarkable win over Brigham Young when nobody thought they could do that. Eddie Johnson back in the day, I could keep going. If you have a big time performance against Brigham Young and football, you're remembered here in a much different way, even if you're playing for a team that let's face it, let's be honest, no matter what happens the rest.
Of the way.
Whenever we look back at Utah football twenty twenty four, we will wonder what could have been same thing with the team last year. But even if you're playing for a team that has been disappointing by any measurable metric, you go, you go, you know, blow the brakes off of Brigham Young, you go blow their doors off. It will change the way that people in this community view you moving forward and forever. That's how much this game
means to a lot of people. And I do understand that if you didn't grow up here doesn't carry the same weight. And ultimately, as I referenced earlier, if you listen to Kilonie's the takes media availability yesterday, all he talked about is how much love and admiration or respect he has for Kyle. And we know Kyle feels the same about Kilanie. And it's a rod, it's Jay Hill. I mean, there is so many cross pollination relationships between the coaching staffs, like the venom that exit first of all,
the venom that exists online. I don't give a rip about if you guys want to go argue about big brother or little brother on the Internet, go ahead and do your thing, and certainly some of the venom spills from you know, online banter to certain situations that probably aren't great.
I haven't seen a ton of that, and I've been.
To both Leavel and Rice Cycles for BYU Utah. You do see some of it, and then you do hear a lot of rumors. You know that seemed like every time BYU was here, somebody would have beer poured on them. It's like, well, okay, probably not because they don't sell beer at Rice Cycle Stadium, and if you're sneaking something in, it's not going to be beer. So I don't know what you thought it was, it probably wasn't you hear
some of those rumors. There are snapshot moments of Bronco Mennenhaal going face to face with a ute fan in suspenders, which was an odd look. The rumors about what happened to coach WIT's wife by some BYU fans.
I mean, stuff like that.
Does spill over, but ultimately there's a lot of love and respect between the coaching staffs. I don't know how much of the player you know relationships are there anymore because of both of these programs, expanding their recruiting footprint, So how many natural synergies and rivalries are there between the players can't really speak to that. Most of the bad behavior comes from people online or fans for both programs.
But there is an opportunity still for Utah football to change the sentiment around this football team, and it comes in eleven days if b WHATU comes up here.
By the way, the line has been released.
According to USA Today sportsbook, BYU is a four point five point favorite, and you can get other lines like right now looks like on fan duel, BYU's a three point five point favorite. So the line is kind of oscillating a little bit in that area. But BYU is the favorite every sports book. They're a top ten team,
they're undefeated. They come up here to Salt Lake and Utah Football sends them back down a provo with the dominant l and Brandon or Isaac have a great game of kai Bernard goes for one hundred and fifty and a couple of touchdowns. You instantly change the way you're viewed in this community. That's how much this game means. And even if you didn't grow up here, you probably should get familiar because at this point, there's not a
lot of great sentiments surrounding Utah football. But you can change that by being great for one day and that comes your way. Hopefully the opportunity does in eleven days. All right, Todody, he's gonna be live in studio. Before we catch a break, I want to tell you about my friends at Prize Picks. Prize Picks is the best
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Tim McMahon's gonna roll by today.
NBA Daily Assist style back to college football, Kevin Reynolds, Uh, Sam Bruckhouse will stop buying to do some NFL. Then we'll get you ready for a big RSL match tonight.
As the playoffs are here.
Fall soccer is here, so we're gonna bring in Brian Dunsath coming up a little bit. But my guy, Richard Smith on a Tuesday, even though it's a Tuesday, I had a lovely weekend in Park City at a wedding. It's a good time. Saw some old friends hadn't seen it quite some time. What uh, what kept you busy this weekend, Smitty see Spence.
We we had divergent weekends going on. I actually went to uh La uh to to see an old friend of ours, an old NBA colleague of ours down in La and I got to uh I got to take a moment out of the visit with him to go to Game two Saturday night, and right here live on the radio that people can't see, I'm presenting Spence with his own special World Series ball.
What oh wow, vide Are you serious?
Because because that's the kind of guy I am.
You are a good guy.
See that.
I appreciate this.
How about that? We found that? And I said, you got to be kidding me. I said, I know exactly who would appreciate something like this with an Otanian judge pictures on the ball.
I had a decent curve back in the day, back a little curve.
See that that that goes with the line Spence. You know, the older I get, the better I was.
Oh for sure. Yeah, I'm learning that now in my forties.
And I should probably watch him tape to remind me of exactly who I was.
Hey, Hey, to your left, I put a little holder there. Oh sweet, the little thing you put the you put the ball on, and uh, thank you, bow to it every time you walk by.
So here's the real question.
Twenty year anniversary of the greatest comeback in sports history that I know, Can my Yanks get a little bosox magic can try to come back to the trio.
Well, anybody who who remembers that, you know, back in four between the Red Sox and the Yankees and the A l c S. The year before, it was Aaron Boone who had the walk off home running, I know this is a family show it and and uh and that and that was off Tim Wakefield, the great Red Sox pitcher, rest in peace, and and uh. And then the next year they're playing again in the ALCS and the Red Sox were down the ninth inning, down a run, and uh, the greatest reliever in history is on the
mound for the Yankees. It's all over. This is this is a four game sweep. You gotta be kidding me. And and then Kevin Millar, who has made a living since then off his rant before the game, walking around anybody who would listen, and they got him on camera right saying saying, don't let us don't let us wind night, let us win tonight, because then we got p D tomorrow, and then we got ship in game six, and then anything can happen in game seven, so they better not
let us win tonight. And then he's the one who drew the walk in the bottom of the ninth and Dave Roberts came in and ran for him and stole second and blah blah blah. So yeah, the Yankees could do something, you know, and they're at home right just like the Red Sox were, so they have a chance to do something and you know, maybe try and claw
their way back in. But tell you what, the Dodgers seemed to be just in one of those grooves that you can get in in any kind of a playoff series in any sport, where all of a sudden you can't plan it, and you can't you can't map it out, but all of a sudden, things just start falling your way, one thing after another, and it starts snowballing, you know, to wit the Freddy Freeman, I don't know, is he gonna play? Is he not gonna play? He's got a bum ankle, I don't know. Oh, home run, home run,
home run. Like you know, that's the kind of stuff that you can't plan for and you can't make it up, and that you're just in the middle of right now for the Yankees and the Dodgers.
So it's funny because as I'm watching the playoffs, I felt like the Yankees had a far superior roster as they were making their way through, and now I feel the same way about the Dodgers juxtaposed to the Yankee lineup, Like there's no oxygen, there's no break for the Yankee pitchers because even some of their you know, the batters at the end of the lineup, one just won the MVP of the Conference champion, like when they won the Pennant.
Right, Yeah, so I thought.
The Yankees had a better starting pitching, but clearly the Dodgers top to bottom, have a much better lineup and all the momentums on their side.
I do think the Yankees have better pitching. They are lined up better too, but again, look, it's one swing in Game one right there. The Yankees are a pitch away from winning Game one, and the series will still have a different tone if Freeman doesn't connect on that and and uh and but that that's what happens in the series, right, one play, one one swing, one missed ground ball, you know, one error here? I mean, how about the two plays at the plate?
Yeah, last night, like chi Oscar, that throw was right on, but like how close with both of those?
I mean they were, it was it was an inch or two, Like you can't tell in a replay the guy was safer out. I mean, it's it's both of those and and but that's what makes baseball, uh, you know, so exciting, especially this time of year.
You know, Yeah, Otani's banged up and they like don't need them.
It's ridiculous. Yeah that's right, all right, Smitty.
Uh, fun night last night with so many things going on, So flipping back and forth between Monday Night Football World Series, Utah Hockey Club and then I get a text saying, did you see what just happened to Taylor? So I switch over in time for the replay, which I did not need to see. I don't like, like the Kevin ware Kid, the Louisville injury back in March madness.
You know what I thought of?
I thought of Joe Daisen, Joe Thaisman, Paul George, Gordon Hayward, right like, whenever these things happen, I don't enjoy watching it. So Taylor Hendrix, who, according to people that I talked to over there, worked his tail off all summer, you know, got his body in better shape. He looked bigger, he looked stronger, was off to a pretty solid start to the season, some good defensive minutes on John Morant opening night. He played Luca pretty well last night in a couple
of occasions as well. As you referenced, I don't know that Taylor is ever going to be a guy that's going to drop forty on you. I'm not sure he's ever gonna be like a twenty point a night guy. I don't think he has to because of his measurables, his ability to guard, rebound, and also finish at the rim. But what does this mean now? As far as the what's next for Taylor? As Will mentioned last night, the development obviously is on hold. It sucks, it really does.
But your thoughts on young Taylor Hendrix probably being out for the year.
Now, Yeah, it's devastating injury and the the freakish part about it spendses all these injuries that you see that happened, whether it's football, whether it's on an NBA court, someone and you know, sliding into a base in baseball and jamming their leg whatever it is. This thing happened right in plain view of everybody, with nobody around him. He was just running down the court and went to stop and his leg just completely gave out on him, just a freak accident. He'll rehab, he'll get back.
Uh.
The Jazz I think will be super ultra conservative in his rehab. It's not like they need him back for any kind of a playoff push in the spring. It's not like they're depending on him, uh to to come and save the day in terms of their season or what they their plans are currently with this, with this roster. So they're gonna let him do the rehab he needs to. They're gonna rely on the doctors who are involved. They're
gonna set the path. They're gonna set the schedule of what he has to do, surgery wise, rehab wise, getting back to the playing condition, ultimately, all that stuff. They're not gonna rush it. They want to make sure he's okay. He's only twenty years old, s Bence, so they they realize he's got his full career ahead of him. So they're gonna do everything they can to make sure that he's okay physically, that he's okay emotionally, which is a big part that a lot of people don't take into
account with these things. He's a young guy who's never been hurt before. Now he has a devastating injury early on in his professional career that in your mind you can't help but start thinking, oh, am I, Am I ever gonna be as good as I thought I could be, or as I even was at the moment that this happened. Is this gonna set me back somehow? Is this gonna be? Am I only gonna be eighty percent of what I was before this happened? Am I gonna get back to
being better two years from now? All those things play in your mind as a young man, And so that that'll be one of the things that their staff with Ron Kimmins, who's their their psychological player rep with within the group, he's gonna try and help him on the mental side to make sure that he's okay during the rehab process. And and look, Spets, just because he can't play doesn't mean he won't be working on his body.
He'll be working on his upper body. He'll be working on that kind of conditioning that'll give him time to to add a little bit more weight, to add some more strength, and to do some of those kinds of things to along with his rehab of his leg to make sure that he's he's okay whether that's twelve months from now or fifteen months from now, whatever it is, and try and get him back on the floor when it makes sense for him and when it makes sense for the organization.
And excuse me, I don't want to be over dramatic here, so I don't want to jump to any conclusions. But this is not a sprained ankle, This is not a jammed risk. This is a serious injury. Yes, and Taylor's a really, really good athlete, so he relies on his verticality and his speed side decide if he's ever going to be an elite defender. He's got to move laterally.
So look the fact that and you know, the staff down there obviously a great reputation for caring for their players, and the fact that he's twenty is a good sign for long term recovery. But this is an injury like Marquise Chris had it and that essentially kind of knocked him out of the league. Like we have seen, this injury essentially change the scope of careers for players. So give me your thoughts on Jazz fans, the hope that we do see Taylor back at peak potential at some point, Well.
He's gonna everybody's every individual is different. They all heal differently. Uh. They all approach it supposedly the same way. Some guys, you know, cheat a little bit left and right depending on what they're supposed to do along in the process. Some guys are more patient than others.
Uh.
Some guys adhere to the strict rules of what they're they're supposed to be doing along the way. A lot of it is gonna be on how he approaches it. And and again Spence, not just the physical part, but the mental part of of how he how he thinks about the process, how he goes about it, the people around him, how they're coaching him to handle it on both the physical and the and the mental side of it. And and then then you just have to wait and see how he comes out. You know, some guys get healthy.
Uh.
The doctors say you're ready to go, you're you're all mended, you're good, you're good, And the guy just has a mental block about doing something because they're afraid it's gonna happen again. And and that's that's that's a big thing, especially at the pro level. And so that's gonna be
part of it for him. Is a maturing process as he is a young man, not only dealing with the injury and the rehab part of it, but as he comes back, how can he get his frame of mind back to where it needs to be to be able to at some point compete at the highest level in this sport. That that's gonna be the thing that's gonna be for him, and and that's gonna be something that's gonna take patience.
One more thing on this then we'll move on.
You know, we were very spoiled by two of the greatest iron men in NBA history when the Jazz were at their apex with John carl And I'm wondering if you could provide some insight because I was in I intentionally went back to watch Will last night and then interviews of the players Keyontay and Walker. It sounded I couldn't see it. I was only listening. It sounded like they were crying. And if you go back and watch Will,
he was holding back emotion. So as far as the uh, you know, the the effect that it has on his teammates, as Kiante said, his brothers who he works shoulder by shoulder, and and the effect that it could have kind of on the rest of the group, what's the best way to kind of try to traverse that space.
Well, again, that that's going to be a group effort and and UH, their their mental preparation UH is going to be key, how they communicate with each other, how the staff works through that with them. It's not just Taylor, of course, you know that that's a whole separate thing that that that they'll be dealing with with him and and giving him the priority of their of their efforts
and their their knowledge. But at the same time, you've got a whole group of guys who witness step and they're now thinking in the back of their minds, oh am i the next guy, Am I gonna is something
weird gonna happen to me? And so the fragility of the group, the mindset of of how they approach their their task is UH is always interesting because you really need everybody focused together, but you need people around you, whether it's coaches, whether it's the support staff to be able to help in terms of coaching them through the mental part of being able to deal with it. Not just that Taylor's not here, He's not with us, where
we we can't count on him to help us. Now, we've got to be able to move forward with our group, but we also have to do so in a way that that where we can perform the way that we uh that we want to, and sometimes the mental part holds you back, And so that's gonna be it's gonna be interesting to see how they respond as a group. Look, when you're in the middle of the game, guys are playing,
Guys aren't thinking about that stuff. But all the stuff outside of the game, when you're on the road, you're in you're a hotel room by yourself, and you're sitting in the locker room before practice or after a game
or whatever. Those are the times when your mind can kind of wander to those things, and you have to have the people around you as a group to support you, to make sure that you're all working on the same level and all working in the same direction, to try and get everybody together on the same page.
So rotationally, what this does is really opened up about thirty minutes a night. So Taylor played twenty nine against the Grizzlies. Against the Warriors, he played twenty five, and then last night twenty one, but then he left the game. So about twenty seven to twenty eight minutes a night, probably it opens up. So if we go off of what they've been saying, it development youth, you know, we want to learn what we have with the young players. And would you look at what will has at his disposal.
He could bring in John Collins and that would be a pretty big front court with Walker, John and Lowry. He could bring in Bryce, bry Senseiba. We could see a little bit more of Cody Cody Williams, and maybe even a little bit more of Kyle Philipowski. So with about you know, twenty seven twenty eight minutes now open up.
What do you think rotationally we see.
Yeah, well you just named all the options are going to have and I think it's probably going to be a rotating door depending on the matchups from night to night. The teams are playing who the who the opponent is, you know, they could go smallish with Sensible as a three.
They could go bigger with Philipowski, you know, and move him and marking in around, depending on again, on who they're playing on any given night, like for example, tonight they're playing the Sacramento Kings, who have a set growth, a set lineup. They have of starting five who are
here early in the season. It's only been a handful of games, but they're they're guys are playing thirty four thirty six minutes a night, so they're they got a regular group that's playing and a group that's set to try and win this year, to try and get something accomplished for them. So they're a group that's that's gonna
come in, you know, with their own agenda. So every night, the Jazz are gonna be facing a different team that has a different approach based on where they're at uh in their team development situation, whether they're competing for playoffs, whether they're competing for a championship, whether they're just trying to get in the playoffs, whether a developmental team like the Jazz are, say like Portland is or something like that.
So it's gonna it's gonna be a rotating door. I think it's gonna be something where they're gonna be giving different guys different looks with different groups on floor and to see who works well with each other. I don't think it changes a lot spence in terms of the approach they're going to take as the season goes along. In terms of rotation, I think they're just going to be trying to find out who we got, who plays well with who what makes sense on any given night.
And it may be different guys. It may be sensible could play one night as a starter and play thirty two minutes because he because he gets on a little bit of a role, and then two nights later he doesn't even get in the game because the matchup isn't right and they're trying to, you know, take a look at somebody else, and so, uh, that's what you're gonna see. That That's I don't think a lot of that changes for what the Jazz Is overall approach going into this season was going to be.
So let's let's talk about some of the individual players we've seen so far and your thoughts. And I want to start with Keante, but I want to start with a question at at what point?
Because I I offer.
Time say like when it comes to summer League, don't worry about mak er miss. When it comes to rookies, not many of them are going to shoot a very high percentage. But at what point do we worry about maker miss? With Kyante?
Because here are his college stats at Baylor, he played thirty three.
Games, he shot thirty seven percent from the floor and thirty three percent from three.
Okay.
So then we move over to his rookie year with the Jazz, he shot thirty nine percent from the floor in thirty three percent from three. And now we look at what we've seen as far as this start goes, and Kyante right now is twenty seven percent from the floor, twenty three percent from three. So college rookie start to second year, the maker miss numbers, we can't ignore them. Like, at this point he has shown that he is a
lead guard that can't shoot the basketball. I mean, I don't know how else to say it, Like, at what point does that become a concern.
Well, it's a concern the whole time. I mean, but let's look at it this way. He in another another ten days or so, he turns twenty one years old, Okay. So he's a young guy. Played one year of college, played one year professional last year. Now he's starting his second year. You know, the thing with him with the Jazz, from my perspective, is that they're still trying to figure out whether he's a point guard or whether he's a scoring two guard. And I think, you know, based on
what he's done so far. For me, I think he's gonna be He's gonna be best served long term in his career being utilized as a as a Jordan Clarkson type or a Lou Williams type who's a smallish scoring guard who's a volume shooter. He's I don't know if he's ever gonna be a great shooter, but he can be. I mean, look, he he I think his shots election needs to improve, and that's not anything different than any
young guy who's trying to feel his way. I think the thing with him for me is that at the moment, he's trying to figure out how to be a point guard and he's trying to also figure out how to score at the NBA level. And one thing is hard enough to do on its own, but trying to do both those things at the same time and to be relied upon and to have the spotlight on you in that regard is puts another layer to it. So I think the Jazz at some point they have to figure
out is he going to be a point guard? Do we think he's good enough to do that? And if he is, then we need to work with him on being better with the ball and not trying to score as much, or are we just going to let him loose to do the Jordan Clarkson type thing. I think that's what's gonna happen, you know, as his as his season this year unfold.
We'll catch a quick break, one more big segment with Smitty coming up on the other side. I want to tell you about my friends at Clearwater Distilling. It's the only distillery in Utah County open on Sundays, great spirits tasting room, and the nicest crew around. They have their limited release Wednesday whiskey Batch number two right now, which is a mix of their bourbon and Rye whiskeys. Try the scandal Us the Renee or their vodka now in
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We have the triumphant return of one Tim McMahon of the program today. Dan McMahon will drop your NBA Daily Assist coming up in about we'll call that like thirty minutes from right now. Then we have Kevin Reynolds from the Trib covers by U Undefeated. Sam. I'm going to go ahead and go with Bruckhouse. I believe that's what it is. He's been on the show before, so I need to learn his name before he hops on do a little NFL. Then we're gonna bring Donnie for some soccer.
Azars welcomes in Minnesota. Have you ever been to an MLS playoff match?
Yes?
I have, aren't they And I've been to several, you know, I become a real fan the last several years. We have good friends, the Farleys, who have season tickets and they let us come with them and we, uh, I don't know about like the tonight where it's gonna be freezing out and it's gonna be a little dicey, you know. I Usually when I go there, it's ninety degrees out
in the sun and we're sweating and whatever. And that's what's funny about soccer, right it starts in the cold in March, and then in the middle of the season if the sun is out and it's hot and it's ninety five and whenever, whatever, and then at the end of the season it's back to being cold again. When you're watching, the season is way too long. It's bizarrely long. Yeah, but we'll be cheering for oursel the downy's gonna hop on. Get us ready for that mass great all right, Smitty.
So look, it's three games in, but it is sports radio. So not like I'm worried about Lowry. Nobody should be worried about Lowry had a great game.
One against Memphis, and then the last two games he's combined eight of thirty two and it's clear he's on the first page of the scouting reports.
Right.
So Golden State ran a couple of guys at him Dallas. You know, he was their main point of emphasis defensively. So what have you liked most about Lowry's start and what do you make of the past couple of games when he is going to be the number one dude the teams are watching out for. How he's kind of adapting to that role.
Yeah, and that's what he's going to get every night. So that's he's going to have to get used to that. Then, you know, the the other guys who were in the so called developmental stages and are just going to have to be able to start pulling some weight to help him, to free him up a little bit more. I mean, he's still he's still shooting. You know, it's early in the season. It's only one week spend. We spend twenty
six weeks in the NBA season. They've played one so they played the three games out of out of eighty two. But but you know, he's still shooting the ball, okay, you know from distance when he's open. You know, the early season here he's shooting forty seven from three eighty five from the line. He's I still think he's a potential one eighty guy for a season, but he's gonna have to get more help, you know. I I do
like the early season play of Colin Sexton. I think he's playing with his usual passion, his usual aggressiveness, but it looks like he's playing a little bit tighter, a little bit smarter. And and again that that that speaks to his maturity in the league now and uh and and I think they're gonna have to rely on him
as well. And then whether you're throwing the guys like Clarkson and Collins or if they're even gonna be here, you know, during the season as a season unfolds, if the Jats are gonna do something with them, which I don't know anything about that but it does seem like those guys fit in with what they're trying to get
done long term with this group. So some of those young guys are going to have to play, and they're gonna have to start pulling a little bit of weight to just take some of that burden off of marketing them.
So, and I always say this, you know, we can only go off their word. We can only go off what they're saying. And as you and I both know, there's what the front office says to the media and the public, and then there's what actually goes on. Okay, But whenever Danny and Justin speak, it's development, development, development youth. We got to see what sort of hand we've been dealt. If the developmental program is working, Walker will be a case study this year because it's his third year in
the program. Right I think it's been an a plus start for him. Right now through three games, Walker's at ten points, eleven boards, three blocks. His shooting percentages are back to where you want. He's sixty eight percent from the floor, only fifty seven percent from the line. We need Walker to shoot better from the free throw line. But that's getting nitpicky because I think he's been their best players through the first three games.
Give your thought, Yeah, well he looks a little bit better to me. You know, I like his rebounding. I like the fact that he looks like he's moving with a little more purpose when he's uh, especially on the on the offensive end. Look, you know these are early numbers. But if you if you told me now in October, Uh, he's averaging you know, in this this first handful of games, ten points, eleven rebounds, and and almost three blocks a game.
If you told me, if you said, would you take that in April and say, oh, that's what he did all year? I would say give me that because those those are those are helpful numbers for a group that's trying to get better and trying to improve. Those numbers from a center position with the way that they're constructed currently, Uh, would be very would be a contributing factor to them getting better. So if he can keep up that kind
of pace, I think that would be good. You know, I don't think he should be doing anything that's off the charts, but anything that he can do where he averages a double double and I don't know if he can do that. If that, if he can keep that up.
But anything around those numbers, he's ten to eleven. Now, if he ends up averaging eleven eleven and eight or something like that with a two blocks, a block and a half, whatever that kind of thing, that would mean to me that he's made that incremental step in his third year to being a contributor to a winning effort.
So tonight he's got Sabonis.
Right, So the Kings are in town, and you know Sacramento one and two, first three. They bring in DeMar DeRozan in the offseason. But Walker's got Sabonis, who right now is twenty three points eleven boards about just under a block. Assists because he can pass it. Like, yeah, so what is Walker up against tonight?
Yeah, he's almost.
He's gonna get worked tonight by Sbonis and then and then and and because because uh Demontes can go outside and that's the thing. He can go outside and if he gets uh Kessler in space at all, now he can go to work. He's got a great pivot move, he's got great footwork, and and he'll be able to set up. He can make elbow jumpers. He can even step back off of that. If you give him space. He can make that if you get up on him.
He's got the footwork and the ability to go one two bounces and get right to the rim on a big, big guy like Kessler. So he's gonna he's gonna have his hands full because Sibonis is a different type of big man that that doesn't really fit into the mold of what Kessler is usually used to guarding.
Since he is in town tonight, And I don't think I've ever asked you once about your experience with Trey Lyles. Yeah, he's still in the league. He's still playing significant minutes for a good team.
Yep.
And you know, I I understood why you guys liked him. I thought it was easy to see a guy with that size and still with the skill that he has put it on the floor shoot a little bit. Uh, But what was what was the experience like from your vantage point when Trey was here? And obviously when he left he had some things to say about Quinn that didn't seem to land very well.
Yeah, I don't know. He was he was always a quiet guy, had great parents who were always here, a lot that you know, involved in his career. Maybe maybe a little too much on the pro level, you know. But that's okay. You know, they they cared about him and about how he was doing. So I get that, uh and I had to deal with some of that in my role at the time, you know, with the organization. But he's a good guy. He's a quiet guy. He was always uh, you know, came to work. I always
thought that he had another gear. Uh yeah, he never really got to in any kind of consistent level, you know, but uh uh then again, you know he was he was on that Kentucky team, you know, with with Devin Booker and the Jazz. We we we took Trey Lyles and Phoenix. The next pick took Devin Booker. So you can sit there and go, you know, you guys, you know, how dumb were you guys? You know, you guys took Booker.
My whole different story, Okay, all right, yeah, so you win some and you lose some, all right, But you know, Trey Lyles has been a a serviceable journeyman player, Okay. Devin Booker has been a multi time All Star, a main guy in, an Olympic gold medalist. Okay, so he's the guy. So you know, that's one of the things
when you're scouting. That's difficult on some of these so called big blue blood programs, whether it's a Duke or a Kentucky or a Kansas where they may have multiple NBA level guys on the team and you see him play one year before they enter the NBA draft, but maybe you don't see everything that they can do or maybe their shortcomings because they have to work within a confined space because they're with all these other guys. They're not the one star on the college team. You know,
like Dalton connect last year in Tennessee. You know who's getting all the shots and getting all the attention and everything. You know, they're there with a bunch of other guys, and sometimes guys get lost in the shuffle. That happened to Wesley Matthews way back when in Marquette. You know, he was playing with two other teammates who were all three of them were NBA guys, and he didn't show as much as you know, maybe he could have. And in his collegiate career a senior year and the other
two guys got drafted and West didn't get drafted. And West comes into the Jazz Summer League and to a series of events ends up his second year signing a free agent, you know, a contract with the way the rules were at that time, making more money in his second year than Blake Griffin, who was in the same draft class, who was the number one pick. I mean, just by a set of circumstances. That's that we would
have to go into on another show. But it's really it's one of those things where you really have to scrutinize who you're looking at in college because you're never quite sure if all you're seeing is all that is there?
How much while we're in this space, and I want to acknowledge how unfair this is as far as what I'm going to bring up, because to your point, everybody has hits, everybody has misses.
So whenever anybody throws Trey Burke.
At me, I said, well, okay, Donovan late lottery, go bear late first, like in order to be fair. But how much of the misses do you still think about it? Do you still think about Kawhi? Do you still think about Devin Booker? Do you still think about uh Jokic? Be honest, I mean, and everybody missed on those dudest just be clear. But as a guy that evaluated talent. Do those misses still kind of haunt you a little bit?
Well, it just I don't know if it haunts as much as you just you're always trying to be retrospective about you know, what you were looking at. Uh And and you've got to make sure that you don't get caught into a mode of revisionist history. In other words, you have to remember that what you thought and what you had at that time in terms of information and
intelligence was what you based a decision on. And you can't change that five years later and say, oh, well, well we should have done this, So we should have done that.
You know, everybody can do that.
Yeah, of course. And that's that's the Monday morning quarterbacking and that's you know, that's that's a lot of that spens. In my opinion, from More for More. The seat I used to sit in for for a long time is you know, guys, people who never did it before, and they always have the answers. Tomorrow, I'll give you the answer tomorrow. Okay, after the game tonight, I'll tell you who the best play you know, And so you have to do you have to work with what you have
at that time. And yeah, you you know, hey, I was, I was really high. I remember at the time on Robert Swift who was coming up, who was coming out of high school and you know, out of Bakersfield and looked like a big guy who knew how to set a screen, knew how to roll, you know, had good hands. You know, it could be you know, it could be a really solid big man in the league. And I think he had the skill or ability to potentially do that.
But he had other things off the court, uh, that got in his way and derailed him from any kind of a lengthy career, you know. And uh, you know, but then there are other guys, you know, whether it's a Paul Millsap at forty six or whether it was a Mo Williams at forty six, and guys that you like and they're still there in the draft, and you go, well, well, I like this guy. I don't know why he's not gone already. He's a you know, and and so you you know, if you get a chance at him now, Carl, Yeah,
Johnny Carl. Yeah, you know, John was taking sixteen and Carl was taking thirteen. You know. But there's also all the guys that you liked that went somewhere else for whatever the circumstances were, and you were convinced, oh, Spence, check it's that guy. He you know, I really like him, and we were two spots away from getting them. And now now the other team has him, and five years from now, you know, he's a four time All Star and going, boy, those guys are really smart, you know,
and you don't. You're sitting there going, well, you know, hey, I was pretty smart too, I just didn't get him. You know, that kind of thing. So you have those kind of thoughts that you can get carried away with at times and and you know, but the when you're in the heat of it, when you're in that that space, you really have to be cognizant that you've you've checked all the boxes and that you're comfortable with whatever it is you're doing at that moment, because those are the
things that live with you. Hey, look, a lot of people liked Donovan Mitchell right, and the Jazz were just we were never going to get him at twenty four, which is where the Jazz were picking that year, and Dennis Lindsay made a great move with Tim Connolly and Denver to move up from twenty four to thirteen, which by the way, was where when we traded Trey Lyles. So Denver liked Trey Lyles coming off his rookie year. So the Jazz traded Trey Lyles and twenty four to
get up to thirteen. Denver liked the move because they thought they were getting two you know, decent players, and Trey Lyles and the kid I can't remember his name, not from Syracuse that they drafted who really didn't pan out, but they liked them at the time, and we the
Jazz were able to get Donovan Mitchell. Now Dennis doesn't make that move, or Denver doesn't want to make a move, and Dennis can't get something done with the other teams, and Mitchell goes seventeen to Portland or you know whoever it would have been, and then Donovan Mitchell never shows up in Utah and doesn't have the start of the
career that he had. And there's millions of those stories, and sometimes it's always fun to go back and see what might have happened if just one different thing had taken place, whether it's during a draft process or during a workout process. You know, Carlos Boozer came in had had a terrible workout with us, and we asked him afterwards, hey, how come you And he tells us, well, we didn't. I haven't eaten in about thirty hours. And we go, what do you mean you haven't eaten? He goes, well,
I didn't. I didn't eat yesterday morning before I got on the plane because I thought there'd be food on the plane, and then there was they didn't have it, And so then I got here and I didn't have any money. I don't have a credit card, so I didn't eat last night because at Duke they told us we couldn't order room service or anything when we're staying at the hotels. So I haven't eaten since yesterday morning. And Kevin O'Connor like blew his stad like what are
you talking about? You know you got to eat and whatever. I remember Kevin famously in that meeting saying saying, look a booze wherever you go from now on. If you're hungry and you don't not sure what to do, use my credit card and just buy some food wherever you. I don't care, I'll pay for the food. Don't don't do that. Yeah, and you know, and that's how that's how Booze was. That's the kind of guy he was.
And then and then we had him back for a second workout where just before the draft we obviously did much better, and but we didn't get a chance at him because Cleveland took him early in the second round and then we got him two years later. Blah blah blah and and all that stuff. But all of those are fun stories, backstories about things that that did happen or things that didn't happen that could have happened if
just one other thing had had gone differently. It's, uh, that's what makes this business so fascinating.
Yeah, and the margin of error so thin.
Yeah yeah, yeah, it's uh by winning is it comes and that stuff is crazy and and you know, I we always would would, uh would use the comparison to like, you know, a professional golfer and all these guys you got the top guys you always hear about now, whether it's Schoffley or Scheffler or you know, Marcau or whatever. But the guys who were like twenty five to two hundred, Yeah,
they're like basically the same guy. And one guy made a putt right and a qualifying thing and the other guy shanked one shot off the tee or something and then that was it, you know. And it's that that that line of making it not making it successful not successful is such a it's such a thin line, and there's so little margin for error.
I saw that there's a video going around of a I don't know if it was the Corn Ferry back in the day, but whatever the tour was that you had to play on to get to the PGA Tour, And there was a golfer who I think was in his mid thirties and he had a chance to grab his card. All he had to do was two putt from like four feet out, and he three putted because he just missed like a tap in and he never had a chance to qualify again.
Yeah, I mean yeah, and people never go with that.
People never never hear about those stories, right right, And they they wondered why I thought you were a good golfer. I thought I heard a lot about you. Well yeah, I was, yeah, well you know, and it's hard to explain to people, you know, how how thin that that that that that line really is?
All right, Smitty, before I say you loose, we got about thirty seconds here, so it's probably not long enough to explain the whole thing.
They're awful defensively.
They're twenty fifth in efficiency, they're twenty seventh in scoring.
Defense.
Yeah, I know it's only three games, but they were the worst defensive team in pro basketball last year. So they've improved. I get they're not last this year. They're third to last or fifth to last inefficiency. Sorry, how do we how do we see a little bit?
Well, they've got it. They've got to be better spence and and there's no that that's just work, that's just effort, that's determination and and again, through this developmental process and the stuff that the Jazz are going through now, they're going to find out who the guys are that want to play, who want to get after it. And when they identify guys that don't, after a certain amount of time, they're just going to put them on the train and
ship them out of town. They're going to go on to the next guy because they've got to get and especially defensively, is one area you can do that with effort and determination and grit, and that's what they're trying to find.
Great to see you, my friend, enjoy the game. Tonight and we'll see you soon.
Okay, Okay, Spence, and I haven't said this and maybe ever, but go Yankees, just for you, just for you.
You're rolling on that, Okay, for to God for you. I'm gonna have them clip that and I'm gonna use it as my ring tone. Let us get one game at least, all right. It's many brought to you by diamond Coat Today, diamond Coat Premium Home Siding.
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Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA Daily assists.
Van McMahon, Van McMahon batted all the land, Textus flood as tickets, Mud He's and Manvan McMahon, Van McMahon.
Oh man, it's been too long, but the triumphant return of the legend himself. Some may say the goat when it comes to covering the Utah Jazz. Van McMahon, Tim McMahon back on the Drive on a Tuesday, Tim, how you been.
Man Hodiy partner, how are you?
We're well, We're well. Thanks for the time we've missed you on the show. And of course it means basketball season is here. When you make your parents around these parts, we appreciate the time. And it is a dark and rainy day in Salt Lake, which matches the mood Tim. Because Taylor Hendrix, after spending a number of hours in the off season improving his body and was off to a pretty good start, suffers a catastrophic leg injury that
sees him lost for the year. What's your reaction and what are you hearing about how he's doing?
Yeah, and you know I was in the building last night and it was gruesome and garaging. I mean the second you saw the direction that his leg was turned, you knew like, oh no, this is a really bad thing. And you know Will already summed it up and already
said this is the bar of sports. It sucks. I mean, the kid did everything that they asked him to do and everything they hoped he would do over the summer, got significantly stronger, you know, really showed an incredible work ethic, earned the right to be in that starting lineup, was guarding the other team's death player, whether there's John Morant or Luca Chitch or you know, anybody in between on a nightly basis. You know, really major stride in his development.
And again in the bar from Will Hardy, all that has been on pause right now. His season's over. You know, typically in these cases there's going to be served or acquired that you know, the further testing the day is to determine the severity of it, you know, specifically like ligamant damage, that kind of thing. But I mean, really just poy what a gut punch? And then what a tough thing for a twenty year old kid who had a rough look year and responded the right way to now have to deal with this.
Yeah, he According to people I've talked to over there, I'm sure you hear the same, Like, in order to develop as a young player, the main thing you have to show people you can do is work. And he showed everybody this offseason that he can work. I mean,
you know the deal. Like I oftentimes joke that in pro basketball it's kind of the same thing as kind of National Signing Day in college football, where every coach says, well, we got every prospect we wanted, like, well your rank seventy second, Like he didn't get everybody, and everybody in NBA training camps talks about, oh, it's game, it's muscle gain season. This guy put on twenty pounds, this put
this guy put on ten. But Taylor walked into the building and went, oh my gosh, like he looked different and he was off to a good start to the season. And certainly, I guess before we move on a thought on you know, I'm not a doctor. I don't try to play it on the radio. You know, the Jazz certainly will not rush this, nor do they have to. Are you hearing anything about you know, is this going to be a full year situation, any knowledge in that direction.
You know, what I can say is that a typical recovery process from this sort of injury is right about that year. So you know, I don't have specifics from the Jazz quite yet on you know, IMRI results and plans for surgery, that sort of thing, but yeah, it would not be surprising, giving them the severity of this injury, if he's not ready for the startup camp or even started the regular season next year. I mean, he's really this is a tough one. It's a really, really tough one.
Yeah it is.
And you know, Jazz have a great medical staff and he's only twenty, so certainly leave a lot of space for a long term recovery that gets him back on track. But I mean it's hard to focus on anything else.
You know.
I'm not sure if you heard last night, so obviously Will Hardy spoke, but then Keyante and walker on. I didn't see video, but I listened to the audio. It sounded like they were by crying, like emotional. I mean, this is not just something that will affect Taylor. This locker room's gonna have to move on from as Kyante I said, losing their brother.
Yeah, I mean listen, Kiante. As as the stretchers coming out for Hendricks on the floor, he was covering his face of the towel and clearly you know, tearing up.
I mean, it's again, it's the emotional thing. And then I visually seeing this guy who you're in a locker room with, who you're on playing with, who you're you know, playing with on a daily basis, who you've developed this bond with, especially like Conte coming in the same rookie class and he's sitting there in shock and his his ankle is pointed outward like that is a just an extremely difficult thing to process on an emotional basis.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. All right, it feels, you know, kind of a little ubtuse or.
Whatever to talk about other dynamics. But we can't just hone in on that. So I wonder, and we just had Smittian studio and I was asking him the same question, because you know, the Keyante stuff. At at Baylor, he played in thirty three games. He shot thirty three percent from three thirty seven percent from the floor. His rookie year for the Jazz, you know, seventy five games, he shot thirty nine percent from the floor, thirty three percent
from three. And he's off to even a worse shooting start this year with splits that are under thirty for three and just barely I mean twenty seven percent from the floor, twenty three percent from three.
So ultimately, he's only twenty.
He played a year pro basketball, it's only or excuse me, a year of college basketball. It's only a second year on the pros. But he's never proven to be an efficient shot maker. At what point is that kind of an issue?
And I always say, you have to consider it a concern now. And you also have to have patience with a one and done player who is learning to play point guard at the NBA level, didn't play in high school, didn't play in college. So and you know, him playing aside from you know, aside from a few guys, playing
with a bunch of young guys. So again, you're gonna have to have some patience with him and understand it's there's gonna be a lot of bumps in the road, and you know, maybe maybe he comes to legitimate starting point guard in the league, and maybe he doesn't. There's no guarantees here.
There's not.
And you know, while Justin Zany and Danny Ainge talk a lot about development and the youth, and that's probably what we're gonna see this year. I do wonder how Will's gonna handle this, because, look, Patty Mills is thirty six. Okay, I'm not trying to make him anything that he's not at this stage in his career, but Will knows him from San Antonio, and I just wonder if Will's gonna let Keante go through a bunch of mistakes or if
he's gonna rely on the veteran. Game one against Memphis, in Patty's sixteen minutes, they were plus ten and Keyante's thirty one, they were minus eleven. Patty didn't take a shot, he didn't take a free throw, he only had one board, one assist. But he came in and the ball started popping, the ball started moving. So there is this dynamic of that's sitting behind these youngsters, and you know, I know they want development, but Will wants to win.
How do you think he traverses that space this year?
Well, I think what you don't want is bad habits to develop, and if bad habits are developing, that's gonna cost Keiante a tors minute. She's doing the right things and getting the wrong result. I think it's a complete different kind of conversation. So you know, but listen, Kiante's
development is a priority for the organization. And there's also understanding that you know, from a wins and losses and standings perspective, this is probably not going to be a phenomenal season in the history of Utah Jazz basketball.
Which, as you know, I'm totally fine with.
Like, if if this is the situation, because the the other thing is, you know, it is a protected pick.
If it's outside of the top ten, it goes to OKC.
How much of the early losing do you expect to continue? And if it does, how much of that is intentional?
Sorry, I was going through the I was trying to stink my way through security without interrupting you check question.
I'll ask you a much shorter question.
Does it feel like they're actually tanking intentionally this year?
I don't necessarily know that they're going to have to be intentional about it. I think there's I think the level of competition in the Western Conference and the quality and experience of the players on the Jazz roster. I think the results that take care of themselves. I think they will be well positioned to participate in a lottery. Debt obviously is expected to produce not just one, but potentially a handful of franchise type of talents.
Give me your best guess rotationally what it looks like with Taylor out? You think they go John Collins, I think it's Price's sense about there's about twenty eight minutes available rotationally.
How do you think we'll handles it?
Yeah, you know, Cody Williams might get some more time. My guess is probably held air on the side of going with the vet in the starting lineup to open things up. But I'll be honest with you, I really wasn't kind of poking around about that last night. There were you know, obviously better things, particularly the verity of Hendrick's injury that I was great focused on more of my reporting.
Yeah, for sure, before I say you lose, if this is about development, then a year three, Walker Kessler will give us a peak as to whether or not they're developing players through three games.
He's I think it's been an a plus start.
Ten points, eleven boards, almost three blocks, the shooting percentage is close to seventy, So really good first three games for Walker.
Do you think it's going to continue?
Listen, he had great summer, and you know, I think in hindsight playing fourteen yosa in the World Cup was a mistake for him. He needed to be you know, in a weight room. He needed to be you know what. Some of his game at gym and last he was kind of a humbling thing for him. He went an all rookie season to being you know, let's be honest.
Why would considered a disappointment as a sophomore. But again he talked about the way people respond to disappointment, and I can I can tell you when I ran into Will hard in the preseason, he said, waiting to see Walker. You know, he's he's bigger, he's stronger like, he looks good like he you know, he came in ready to compete this year. So I can tell you Will it's not a guy who closed a lot of smoke. You know.
If he if he's pumping the guy up and saying he's happy for what he's been doing, that means he's been doing the right things. And you know, I think he's talked about it. He had you know, hashtag muscle watch. But he is bigger. You know, he did add about twenty pounds, and you know, I think he's humbled and came in with me to prove that all the optimism about him during his rookie season was accurate. And you know he's ready to back that up.
All right, brother, We'll good to hear your voice, Glad to have you back. We'll set you loose and look forward to catching up soon.
Storry to rushing on this one. I got an early tip tonight, but we will. We will make up for it in the weeks to go.
All good, All good. There is Tim McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN. He is the ESPN beat reporter on the jazz beat. So we'd like to bring him in to get the latest with the Utah Jazz. Yeah, it feels a little insensitive or I don't know, futile at this point to talk about anything other than the horrible scene we all saw yesterday and just thinking to Taylor
and man, Jazz have a great medical staff. He's twenty, so I'm sure he'll get back and he'll be fine, but probably won't be for a year, which does hinder the development of what he could be.
But step one, get healthy. Hopefully he's doing all right.
We're gonna bring in Kevin Reynolds today to talk a little college football. It is a bye week for both BYU and Utah, the second time this year it's happened. Obviously a new scheduling situation with the Big twelve stuff, so we'll get you ready for that game. We're gonna have a lot of of course, rival re weeks say it slowly in the business. We're gonna have a lot of daffy ducks next week on the radio with Utah and BYU going at it. We're gonna have a ton
of coverage for you. We're gonna be out and about on a couple of remotes. And as I referenced earlier, you know, there's not certainly as much to play for for Utah's we thought there would be.
But there is still this game which is not nothing.
And even though it feels about hollow because there will not be a Big twelve championship in saw Lake this year, there will not be a CFP appearance. Despite the CFP expanding to twelve. This game means a lot to a lot of people. I'm not sure if that reverberates in
the locker room in fact, Porta. Let me kick the tires with you on this because I actually I think when we first started doing the show together, you were one of the first that I heard kind of describe it in a way that I hadn't necessarily heard as far as the Because if if you grew up around it like I did, if you went to school at
either BYU were Utah like I did. Now covering it in the media full time for eighteen years, you don't need any explanation when someone says Utah BYU football, you know you know exactly what that means people around here. But if you're nineteen and you grew up in Florida, you're like, oh, okay, the Holy War.
That sounds kind of odd.
And then there's also this generation of youth fans that I think are closer to your age that don't have the same like desire to see it play. So as we approach next week, where do you think that you players are at with his game?
Yeah, well, it's it's definitely a little bit different, right, you mentioned it there when you're recruiting base, right, your recruiting footprint isn't Ron McBride's recruiting footprint. It's not the Polynesian kids that are moving into state and your your big in state recruits. It's southern California, it's Texas, it's Florida because of the Denis ericson pipeline.
Right, it's Morgan.
Scally who is really got a foothold in Houston and the Fort Worth area. Right, There's there's a difference when you didn't grow up in the rivalry. There's a different feel to it. There's less urgency to it. I think when it comes down to the pressure on the game. Now, if you're a pro. Now, these guys are amateurs. These guys are college players, of course, but if you approach the game as a pro, you don't change the way
you play because it's a rival. You go about your business, you execute, you play the same play every play the way you would regardless of who you're playing. Right, But there is there is an edge you can get when you're playing your rival. Right, there's an intensity you can get that I think you as a football fan, as a maybe someone that played even at a high school level. You understand the edge you can get with a rivalry game, maybe just a little bit of a different focus you
can get in your locker room. And I think Kyle, regardless of who is in that locker room Spence, is still pretty good at doing that right, He's still really
good at finding that motivation. So when I tell you, these kids do view it differently, Yes, I talk to Zach Moss, a kid who grew up in Miami in the you to him has nothing to do with the University of Utah until he came here, right, But once he got here because of Isle Whittingham and Morgan Scally and Quinton Ganther, guys that he play with, he understands the assignment. He understands the rivalry and very much approaches it with a seriousness that is a little different than
most weeks. So, yes, there's a different approach to it, but I still think there is a lot of urgency in Kyle specifically makes sure that anyone in that facility on BYU week or this time around the two weeks you get to prepare for BYU, he makes sure everyone in that building understands it's a little different focus.
At the very least.
When we hosted Dan Patrick here, which was my first going around with ESPN seven hundred, which I guess would be thirteen years ago.
Now, well, I know I'm getting a old.
Frank Daulce was with us, shout out Frank Hilchin at dinner, and so Dan's asking us all these questions. He gets to Dulce's like, what's your story, and Franco's I've played quarterback at the You, and Dan said, you played quarterback at the University of Miami and Frank said, no, the You, and Dan was he'd never heard of before.
He's like, what do you mean.
There's one you, it's Miami, and Frank said, well here there's also a you. It's and So Dan had never heard the University of Utah referred to as the You. So when Dulce told him he played quarterback, he thought he, you know, played at Miami in and Frank was not necessarily that level. And he has candles. We'll catch a break, all right, coming up on the other side, we are going to bring in Kevin Reynolds from the trip. But before we catch a break, let's welcome in Jeff from Farmer and Chemist.
Jeff Happy Tuesday, sir, how are you.
Yeah, great, happy wet Tuesday.
Yeah, it is indeed, it is indeed.
So let's start with farmer and chemist, the ability that you have to help people sleep well without the need for any sort of medication that is addictive and causes long term issues.
How can you help people that need to sleep a little bit better?
It's finding the right product the right person or patient. And so what we see is combining different cannabinoids like CBN and CBD together and with or without a little THC is a really good, scientifically driven option for sleep that doesn't have the addictive potential that you see with some of the prescription medications.
All right, sorry, no, I.
Was just gonna say it, you know.
So it really is about what.
I would love, you know, to be The message is the dosing matters, the Raub administration matters, how you use it matters, the combination matters, And so we would love to have people come in and talk to us as pharmacists. We would love to have that conversation and be that resource so people feel comfortable that they're getting a good quality product.
And what's the best way for people to do that to come in to ask you questions just so they can get educated. And also, Jeff, let's hear about that special offer you have for our listeners.
Yeah.
Yeah, So we have a store in Midvelds right in the middle of the valley, just off of I fifteen. We would love to have people come in and spend some time with us. If that's not possible, Doug, my partner and I were both pharmacists. We would love to jump on a phone call and walk people through any issues they have and answer any questions. So it either often works and either way if either the other way.
If you if you purchase something either online or in the store and you mentioned ESPN seven hundred, we will take twenty percent off of any order.
Jeff, thank you sir, having an excellent week and we will chat soon.
Thanks all appreciate it.
Check them out Farmer and Chemist. It's an excellent spot, really classy joint. Go in and say hello, ask them questions. They are all pharmacists there are really nice people, so we appreciate having them as a partner. Onto ESPN seven hundred for the second time this year, which feels really weird.
Not gonna lie.
Utah and BYU Football are out a buye for the first time this year. They will play each other and so still a lot to play for. Depending on I suppose your view of this rivalry. Game BYU is a slight favorite depending on the sports book. I've seen about three point five about four point five that was according.
To USA Today.
I think Van Duel has Brigham Young as the slide favorite.
They're undefeated. Utah is very much not.
Our next guest covers BYU in college football for the Salt Lake Tribune. My guy, Kevin Reynolds, keV, Happy Tuesday.
Man, How you doing good?
How are you doing man?
Well, appreciate the time.
So as a transplant here in our market. You've lived here for a number of months now, I've been doing the job for more than just a minute. Do you feel like you have an accurate frame of reference for what BYU Utah football means around the market?
You know, I've been told a lot about it, and I've heard a lot about it over the last few years, but I've actually never seen this game in person because it's never been played since I've been here. So in a weird way, you know, I've heard so much about this game over the last few years that I feel like I have a relative understanding of what to expect.
But also I've been here two years and i haven't seen the game in person, so I'm interested in this experience it in person for the first time in two weeks.
See, I find this really interesting because let me let me follow up. Growing up, obviously you're a football fan, and obviously a college football fan. Did you have any exposure to BYU Utah football? I mean, it's a massive rivalry here. I think it's gained a lot of traction locally because both teams are now in P four conferences. But was it ever part of your college football consumption growing up?
I'll be honest, Coming as a Rutgers fan growing up and being on the East Coast, I didn't get to see a ton of BYU or Utah games, or really anything on the West Coast or in the Mountain time zone. So I really haven't watched this game, even on television live. But as you grow up and I moved to Texas and you're kind of a little bit closer, you definitely hear about it more. I'd say, honestly, the first time that really I think I heard about it was probably
twenty twenty fifteen around that time. But yeah, I growing up as a kid, No, I hadn't heard a ton about this.
See I've been talking about this on the show because Scott Mitchell hopped on yesterday. And you can pull up, well, quite frankly, keV, you can pull up both Utah and BYU's roster, and you know in a way that it just wasn't like this back in the day. I think there were Look, there's still plenty of local representation, but you know, both BYU and Utah have I would say, just from a quick glance, the majority of their players are from out of state.
Certainly on Utah side.
BYU certainly has I think a little bit more local flavor. But we've got Texas, We've got Virginia, we've got California. I could keep going Pittsburgh. Of course, a lot of Cahukuo kids Hawaii, and it doesn't seem like the players, who some of them are around your age, due respect, who didn't grow up here, it didn't seem like this game really was part of their experience in college football. And therefore I wonder how many the players actually understand how much it means to community.
I wonder where your thoughts are on that when you're not raised with it.
Yeah, No, I think that's definitely an aspect to this, especially because you know, just talking to guys in the last few weeks about this game, a lot of these guys in this game, at least from YU side, have not played in this game and really have to learn about this one. I mean, you look look at Jake Retzlaf right, he grew up in California and he's talked about it. How you know, he hasn't played in this game.
He's heard a lot about this game. But DYU came on to his radar, you know, not maybe as a five or six year old, but came on, came on to his radar a little bit later as he you know, grew up around football and then he became a college prospect and all those types of things. And I think you can go down the list. There's certainly guys on this roster. Like I don't want to say that that's the universal truths, Like, there's plenty of guys on this BYU team who understand the rivalry.
Grew up in.
Utah, you know, Kates Roberts, who've been recruited by both programs right, So I think there is a lot of that connect and certainly on the coaching staff, there's a lot of connection, you know, look at BYUS coaching staff. So I don't want to say that this is just the universal thing. I think there's a ton of connections here and a ton of people who understand what this
means from both programs side. But I do think there's definitely some prominent figures in this rivalry this year who are learning about it for the first time, especially because this hasn't completed since twenty twenty one. I mean, this is the longest breaking the rivalry since I think nineteen forty two to nineteen forty six, so I think that
plays a factor too. And even the guys who have been on BYU's team for one or two years, since they've kind of made the transition to the Big twelve, they haven't played in this game and they haven't seen this game, so I think that adds a little bit of a layer to this.
So it's interesting I viewed from this perspective. I mean, all time, Utah leads the series sixty two, thirty five and four, although BYU I think Likesho to throw out a lot of the early Utah wins because they were known as you know, bring them Young Academy. So BYU fans whenever they lose, they get a little tricky with numbers. They don't really ever lose, So that's just kind of the deal. But when I was growing up, it was lavelle and it was BYU every year, I mean like
almost every year. The Utah in ninety or in nineteen eighty eight had a stunning fifty seven to twenty eight win. The next year BYU hung seventy on them, and Utah just never really beat BYU. Ronnie Mack took over and he found some success against BYU in the early nineties, and then you know, recently it's a generation of more or less you dominance Utah fourteen and four in the last eighteen. BYU did win the last one, but prior to that, Utah beat them nine straight times, and you know,
Utah goes to the PAC twelve. BYU was kind of left out in the win. They decided to do this really awkward independent thing that was certainly met with mixed reactions.
I think it's fair to say had mixed results.
And so while Utah was kind of making their way way through P five football in the PAC twelve, BYU was trying to find footing and during that time Utah stomped them. But this year, keV Byu is going to They're gonna smell blood in the water man, like I am sure they're sick of hearing basically everything I just said, and hearing and dealing with results. It more or less have been one sided for nearly twenty years now. And with the way they're rolling and with how confident they're playing,
they're only a slight favorite. But you know they're gonna want to come up here and make a statements regardless of what Klanie says about how much he loves Kyle, right, and so with Byu at eight, No, I think there's a feeling of this way that this game might get a little loose.
Yeah, I mean, I think because growing up, I mean we talked about the start of growing up. What rivalries did I watch? And I think a lot of the times it was, you know, Penn State, Ohio State, it was Ohio State, Michigan, like, those were the big rivalries that I think were in primetime in New Jersey growing up.
One of the great parts about all those rivalries to me is that they had actual significant implications for Big Ten title games, for playoff spots kind of later down the road, right, And I think now with this game having you know, it's not just an independence versus a
pack twelve team. This is a you know, with two schools that now share a conference, a conference that has direct implications for who gets into the college football playoffs, and with BYU now eight no, and you know, I don't know if it's premature to talk about those things, but I do think, you know, that's an element to this, especially with the way the schedule shapes up for BYU with the last four games, is you know, there are playoff implications to this game, which do you think adds
to it? And it is not something that really has been had in this rivalry, to be honest before, just because of where the rivalry was placed, especially in the last ten years where you know, this rivalry has taken place in September.
And so.
And BYU is an independent, So I think that adds to it as well.
All right, let's let's talk a little b YU.
As you reference eight and No, I wonder is, well, is there one element that has stood out as the most surprising. There are several surprising elements juxtaposed to all of our expectations, hence the media poll, hence the Vegas over under. But they're complete, they're playing complimentary football, they're good in all three phases, and certainly fortune right, fortune favors the bull though they're creating their own luck, Like, I don't think they have any more questions to answer
about whether or not they're legit. But is there one or maybe one or two elements about this start that's kind of caught you off guard based on what you're expecting?
Yeah, no, I actually wrote this, I think after UCS game is I don't think there's any people out there now that are saying, oh cause I think for the first couple months of this season, it was always BYU good or is the start sustainable?
Right?
Because I definitely think there were some questions. You know, Kansas State twenty eight point run in basically six minutes, like how often are you going to get that? And Oklahoma State we obviously saw what happened there with a seventy five yard drive and the last minute of the game, you know, down to ten seconds left, and that's an iconic moment. And you definitely don't don't scoff at it.
But again it's like, I don't think the questions anymore are whether this team is good or not because of what you just said. I do think this is a very complete football team. But I do think the questions are, you know, how realistic is a postseason bid for this team now at eight MIL? And what does the last four games of the season, of the regular season look like for BYU? And in terms of surprises, one, I think Jake Retslast, I don't necessarily know this is a surprise,
but I think I remember after Wyoming. I remember after SMU, the question was can Jake Retslast kind of find this mix of being the you know, the risk taker that he is, which I think makes him a very good quarterback for BYU. Pushes the ball downfield, gives this offense something on the ground as well, which is something they did not have last year with Keeten Slovas, but also being able to, you know, also almost calibrate himself a little bit and not take so many risks with the ball.
I mean we saw at SMU there was a number of turnovers we talked about after Wyoming, there was a number of balls that maybe could have been turnovers, and there were some interceptions there. But since Big twelve plays started, I mean, he's eleven to four in touchdown interception ratio. That's not even counting the rushing kind of numbers that
these had. So I do think his ability to kind of just find the right mix, which is something that I think was a pretty big outstanding question even in late September, I think he's done a good job of that. I mean, the other part too, is how well this run game has worked, particularly the last two weeks with l J. Martin and Hinckley were a Potti back because for so long it was just Jake rets last kind of willing this offense for a run game. He was the leading rusher up until this week.
With l J.
Martin coming back for two weeks finally healthy, So the ability to kind of have that run game mix off the pass game, which is what this offense I think is meant to look like. And for the first time since really Tyler Algier, I think LJ. Martin gives BYU this really complete unning game that has transformed this offense. And in terms of J Hills team or sorry, Jay Hills side of the ball. I think this linebacker group has been really fantastic, to be honest, with Isaiah Glasker
emerging as kind of exactly what he wanted. I mean two years ago, I remember talking to linebacker's coach Justinmana about what do you kind of want to see in a linebacker? What's the mold look like? And he talked about,
you know, it's guys like Isaiah Glasger. They definitely need to put on more weight, but the length and the speed at the linebacker positions, you know, the ability to drop back and coverage but also get after the quarterback, and it translates to you know, eleven interceptions or eleven different guys giving an interception on the team. So I don't know if it's necessarily surprises, because I think we knew where the pieces of the puzzle needed to fit
for BYU if they were going to be good. But it was just a matter of will it actually come to truition And the surprise there, I guess, is that it absolutely has the first two and a half onto the year.
So look, they're number two in total offense, they're number three in total defense, and I could keep going throughout the overall metrics, rushing, passing, same thing on defense efficiency, like most of the data indicates they're really complete, Like is there an achilles heel? Because I keep hearing Kialani saying, hey, we can be better than we've been, and I'm like, dude, what does that look like? You know, like if you could actually play better? Like is there something specific that
they need to clean up? Because the metrics tell you that they are pretty solid all the way around this year.
I think they have played well all the way around this year, but I do think there are sometimes I think on defense, and Kialani Sataki has talked about this at times, particularly the last three weeks right where there are some big runs that are that are allowed. I mean you look at the Oklahoma State game, like, I know this is not what the headliner is because of the way that game ended, and the offense has been good.
The offense has been very, very efficient since the running backs came back right, but Oklahoma State did run the ball quite well on this team. I mean this was an Oklahoma State offense where Ali Gordon really hadn't gotten going all year. But he has over one hundred yards against BYU and he has three total touchdowns, including the receiving one. All right, so I think there were some concerns in that game. And also you weren't really able to get off the field on third and fourth down
on that seventeen play drive eight minute drive before. And I think those are the things that Klanie's looking at and just saying, you know, that is where BYU needs to do better. And I think BA did a better job. I think in terms of run defense against UCS, r J. Harvey was the best running back in the Big twelve going into that game. He did have a couple of big runs, but it wasn't insane. It certainly wasn't Ali Gordon devils from the week before. So I do think
they cleaned some stuff up. But I do think that's kind of what he's talking about when he says he wants some of these mistakes to be clean. But overall, I do think it's hard to it's hard to poke holes in what by he's doing right now. And I think he even said that after last week, he said, yeah, there were some mistakes, but going on the road two time zones away and beating UCS and kind of containing RJ.
Harvey to a degree, I think you talk that up as a win, but when you look at where the team can maybe improve, I think those are the things he's talking about.
So they have fourteen picks, that's best in the Big twelve. They're sixth and fumbles recovered. They're turning the other team over and pressure in the quarterback in a way that they didn't last year like at all, which caught me off guard. Because of Kilane and because of j two defensive minded coaches, they typically couldn't put together a defense that looks like the one that we see this year.
What are the biggest differences defensively with this BYU team from this year compared to last year.
I think there were a lot of questions in the beginning of the year or form of this exact reason, because they decided they're going to bring back the entire defensive line. They didn't really make any They didn't make any splashy signings in the transfer portal in terms to add to the edge rusher position or even the interior defensive line. And Kalani kind of bet and said, hey,
another year in the system. You know, with the year or two in a J Hill coaching staff, there was no changes on the defensive coaching staff at all really they own. They did bring in Gary Anderson to be a consultant, which everybody knows him quite well in this state. But I do think it was a that bet really paid off for Kilani. Where the interior defensive line, I
think Blake Manglsson has played extremely well. I thought he had his best game of the year possibly you know, you could argue SMU, but probably the best game of the year against UCS. So that certainly helps. But I think the biggest factory you look at in terms of how they gotten pressure on the quarterback, I think you've got to give a lot of credit to the linebackers.
Jack Kelly being added from Weaver State playing that linebacker position, he's been very good at pressuring the quarterback, which he did have ten sacks last year playing at Weaver State. It was just like will this translate? And I think Jay Hills had a strong track record of recruiting guys from Weaver that he coached before he got to BYU and then making an immediate impact like Eddie Hecker Mark Collins this year as well, and then Isaiah Glasker's emergence
along with Harrison Taggert. I mean, I think for a large part of this year, we thought Jack Kelly or Jacob Robinson would be the best players on defense for BYU, and I think they've been good. I don't think. I don't say this as they haven't been good, but I think Isaiah Glasker of the guys who have played two hundred snaps on this team, Isaiah Glasker is the highest graded defensive guy on Pro Football Focus, and so his
emergence has been has been really good. And you know, he can get after the passer two and I think that really helps. He also has two interceptions himself, so those those things combined, I think do help. They hill kind of get the scheme that he wanted.
I want to go back to Jake because he was picked as I believe the worst quarterback in the Big twelve by some of the media preseason prognosticators. Like you can draw a direct line. I mean, look at Sportstock Radio. We've got to fill four hours of time, so I can't just turn on a mic and be like, oh Cam's hurting, Jake's healthy, Okay, talk to tomorrow. But you can be that reductive. You really can like Jake has been healthy, He's been awesome. Cam Rising has not been healthy.
In the quarterback situation of Utah is atrocious, but by most metrics, Jake is one of, if not the best quarterback in the entire conference now oh and four a year ago just atrocious decision making, and so you understand the skepticism as far as people wondering what that was going to look like this year when you talk to him down there, like, was it a bunch of work in the offseason?
Is just a year older? Is it a better o line?
Like?
What are the dynamics that have allowed Jake Good to go from a player that was thought to be among the worst at his position in the conference too clearly one of the best.
I think there was always an internal belief in Jake, Like I really do think b YU believed in Jake Red's laf like even if they bought it, brought in you know, other quarterbacks, and there was a competition really for all of fall camp, right Like, let's not forget that, Like this went really close down to the wire in terms of making a decision to say who's going to.
Be the starter.
But with that said, I think Jake has has I think he's clearly improved decision making wise. I think he's you know, he throws the ball away when there's stuff not there, and I don't think he was doing that last year, So I think that's.
Part of it.
But the other part of it too, that I think is really significant over the last few weeks is that they are winning games where Jake Retslaft throws for two hundred and eighteen yards, throws for two hundred and thirty yards, and Jake Redslif can throw for three hundred yards. We've seen BYU win and he throws for two ninety three. BYU's asked him to throw quite a bit at SMU,
throw quick a bit at Wyoming. That's all true, but with this running game, he doesn't really need to do that as much, and he can kind of pick his spots to win and when he wants to push the ball downfield. And I think last game's kind of a great example of that. Where last year, was it really possible for BYU to win a game in the second half where Jake reds Laff only throws for twenty eight yards. No, I would say absolutely not. But this time around, when
you have LJ. Martin, when you have Hinckley Ropazzi, when you have SIONI, I moo. We've seen in spots when you have an actual rushing attack that's not just Jake Rutzlaf and you know everybody else. I think that really helps, and you don't put so much pressure on him to make plays all the time. And that's not something I think that would have been possible last year just because they couldn't run the ball. They really couldn't run the ball really at all. And help Keten slow this in
the least. And I know King Slows couldn't run either as much. He wasn't as mobile. But I do think that plays a role into this and how balance the offense is, which is what the offense. I think it's the posed to look like right where you're throwing off of the run and it's not just you're dropping back the past fifty times a game.
All right, keV before I set you loose.
There's no way of knowing this, but according to ESPN FPI BYU should be the betting favorites in every game remaining. Do you think they really do it? Do you think we see them win all twelve in the regular season?
Put me in a tough spot. You know, I think I wrote I wrote after UCS like UCS was the game that they were not favored in in the last five and they win that game. You know, it's really hard to say that. You know, you never know what's going to happen with Utah. But after that, the schedule
does set up nicely. And then the other part of it too, I think that is a factor in this is that Kansas State, Iowa State, and even Colorado like their schedule down the stretch like there will be losses and there will be separation just because those teams are playing each other, Like I don't have the schedule in front of me, but the mix and matches they're playing
each other BYU is not so. And history does show in the Big twelve title race at least that teams in the last four years, teams in the Big twelve Title game, there's been multiple two lost teams. Sorry sorry, there's been a two lost team every single year for the last four years in the Big Title race. And
who gets to Arlington. So you do have you do set yourself up nicely in the last month of this season, could give yourself a little bit of breathing room by beating UCF and going in eight and oh but no, I don't know. It's tough to predict what's going to happen, especially with this utaih game. I've never been a bystander in it. I never I've never experienced it. But it's tough to predict.
Right it?
Sure is it? Sure is? keV. I appreciate the time, man, have a good weekend. We'll chat too, Yeah, thanks man, all right.
Kevin Reynolds covers college football b YU for the Saul Lake Tribune. His Twitter is at Kevin Reynolds thirty looking for a good college football content. Really good kid came here a couple of years ago doing a really good job on the beat. So of course that game next week will be a big part of our coverage.
Excited for rival re weeks say it slowly.
It's gonna get weird with some radio hosts next week, including this one, probably a couple of times.
But it's not nothing. As we've talked about during the show.
If you're a Utah football player right now and you're kind of wondering, like, well, is there a lot left to play for? You go have a couple of magical moments in a Utah BYU game, and you're remembered for a long time, even if you're playing for a team that is in a spot that nobody thought you'd be in. So we'll cover that game quite a bit coming up next week. So you know how I've been bemoaning an outlier of a fantasy football season.
Right, it's been rough. It's been rough. Not gonna lie.
Also have Stefan Diggs on the roster, all right, So yeah, yeah, I don't know that I'm.
Make the playoffs. You might be cursed this year. I am.
I think I am, unfortunately, so I don't know that the playoffs are going to be a reality.
But let's socks and pro football.
It's good to have Sam brook House back on the show on a Tuesday. Sam, Happy Tuesday.
Are we doing doing?
Good?
Man?
You chune me up with music, the brick house music like I'm a wrestler, dude. I appreciate it.
Yeah, that's my producer. He's in his bag today.
Typically I have to scold him for his country music selections that drive me crazy, but we'll give him a little credit on this Tuesday afternoon. All right, Sam, as we talked about last time you joined I am a lifelong, suffering fan of the New York Football Jets, and the most reductive thing I can say about it is, you got in bed with an old, weird dude and you're married to a guy that's just done.
Like Aaron's got nothing left.
The numbers say that they're giving him everything he wants, and I just think they have hitched their wagon to the wrong guy. Is there any hope for my Jets to turn this thing around?
Yeah?
Look, the hope is is that you have Defonte Adams.
Now.
They have the weapons they need. The pieces just have not come together. Frankly in terms of like net points, which projects out a little better than record does at this point. They're not absolutely terrible. They're about, you know, average. They're around the teams like the Falcons and the Bengals who have varying records. But man, it looks pretty rough.
It reminds me of that Brady year And I'm a lifelong New Orleans Saints Dan the breeze here too, where if he just looks immobile, it looks like you can't throw, and then the defense is struggling on the other side, which was unexpected. Some injuries there. It's looking pretty grim. I too was big on them this year. It's kind of disappointing to see how they performed.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's frustrating. But that's just kind of the deal because I didn't buy any the hype, because when you've been sharing for this team for forty six years, you know the deal. But let me ask you this, Russell Wilson two and I was a starter, and you know it was the Giants, all right, So there's that. But Pittsburgh six and two with a really good def in a really good run game, how real do you
think this is? Should we be paying a little bit more attention to Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I mean, the defense is the absolute name of the game with the Steelers. They're one of like the four or five best defenses in the league. Cameron Hayward is having a year that returned to form year. TJ. Watt makes big plays every single game, made a big play on Monday Night Football. The recipe for the offense has kind of changed since justin fields you went out and
Russell Wilson comes in. They're really trying to plug back into that old school Seattle seahawk play action, throw it deep, and when you have George Pickens, who is probably one of the best contested catch wide receivers in the league. That's ended up being a recipe for success, and we'll see if that can continue. I generally am a little reticent of Russ's potential given what we've seen in the
past couple of years. But if they can keep making that recipe work, that's a recipe we've seen be successful, particularly in that AFC. Nor As the year goes on, it gets colder and such.
At what point I'm gonna stick kind of with this theme of is this real for a moment and at what point do we start look, everyone just might be playing for second against the Chiefs, But at what point do we look at Denver and give Bonnicks and Sean Paige a little credit for I think they've ran off five of six, Like, what are you liking about it?
And do you think it's real and sustainable?
Bonnicks has absolutely shocked me, mostly his ability to limit bad plays, which is weird. Do you think about Bonnicks, particularly as an old school SEC fan from Louisiana, Like I also played against Bonick, so we had on our scouting report. You know he's gonna run around, He's gonna kind of throw it around. He limited that at Oregon and now we're really seeing kind of the frooits of it. He can still run around him it he's a little bit. He's quite mobile, he avoids sex. He's done an okay
job of avoiding interceptions. He may not be doing the most through the air. He looked good this week. But when you have that really aggressive defense on the other side, coach boy Advance Joseph, they're doing a fantastic job of blitzing heavily, really pressing up on the wide receivers. With guys like Patser Tan and Riley Moss, that's also a recipe for success. I think their defense is probably for real.
And I'm kind of becoming a bow leaver man. I can't believe I'm saying that after all my draft research, but I kind of see the vision in what Shawn Ange trying to do.
Well.
Now I've got to follow up, where'd you play against bon Nicks and how good of a player were you back in the day.
So I played at Sulane University American Athletic Conference, currently leading the American Athletic Conference. I might add we went into Auburn, Man, it's been several years now, maybe four or five years ago now, we weren't able to come up with a win. I think it was one of Boenick's first home games actually, but it was a fun place to play, obviously in that SEC environment.
Oh yeah, that's cool.
To have that opportunity to have that experience is great. Let me ask you about another rookie quarterback. And I've got a buddy who's a big Washington Commanders fan, and finally, for the first time in a number of years, he's actually excited about his team. And you know, we're obviously in Salt Lake in the former PAC twelve foot print. Jayden Daniels is out here for a bit, and he was good when he was out here. But I don't know that anybody who saw him play. Obviously he transfers,
he wins the Heisman, it's a different thing. I'm not sure that anybody projected this. Obviously, the Hail Mary is a snapshot moment that maybe average NFL fans are finally, you know, getting with the deal. But he has been so good, and I'll just continue to ask you what do you like about it and how sustainable is it.
I think it's very sustainable. I thought he was the best, most prepared, I guess, like NFL ready quarterback going into the draft this year. I thought Caleb did have a higher ceiling because of his homes like tendency, which we kind of though at the end of that Commander's Bears game. But jd his like calling card is those perimeter deep throws and he's able to hit them over and over and over again. And I noticed his ability to do that, you know, versus Florida State his last year at LSU,
which ended up being a lost. But I was like, this just looks completely different than what we suspected. His downside was always going to be his pressure to sack ratio and taking big hits. He's been able to kind of mitigate that. Obviously, has a rib injury that occurred or a theme that it occurred on him taking a big hit, running the ball kind of erratically. I'm in for the Jay Daniels ride. I think he's an absolutely incredible player and the class of this year's draft class.
So I referenced the Chiefs and it just continues and Andy Reid played his college ball at BYU. We like to cheer for our local players here, and you know, they have been able to just remake and themselves into whatever the game in front of them needs in order to win. I mean, a guy in my fantasy football league straight up dropped Patrick Mahomes right, and so it's like he's not putting up the numbers that he used to,
but it doesn't matter. Like all they do is figure out what you're trying to do and then they're just a little bit better than you are on that day.
Do you think that this is going to, you know, be.
A situation where everybody's clearly playing for second?
Are they vulnerable anywhere?
And what do you make of just another incredible start there's seven or zero.
I think their vulnerability is if they start losing some offensive linemen. But that's really their biggest strength right now. Like they're one of the best running teams in terms of expected points added, which basically puts yards in context and keeps football analysts from you know, looking at some of the garbage time stuff that can get inflated and ironically as well, like we're looking at Patrick Mahomes right now saying, oh, he has all year. He has tons
of turnovers. But even they're also good in that statistic per drop back to pass, So like they're really optimizing for what is successful. I think you really hit the nail on the head there on the offensive side of the ball. But where they are absolutely killing teams is on the defensive side of the ball. Chris Jones is mauling offensive lines, their dvs are are just sticking to
wide receivers. It's gonna be really hard to beat them because they're probably the most well rounded team in the league right now.
So my producer is a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, And yeah, you know, not great. We have Jerry Jones threatening to fire radio hosts, we have players going at media members, we have Look, they're always good for some drama, but they're certainly not good for consistent, high quality football. Look,
they're they're in bed with DAK, aren't they. You think they try to move on from this and maybe just rebuild and go all in on being bad for a while, or are they just going to be perpetually in mediocrity, which is what they've been forever.
Yeah, I think the Cowboys, at least when it comes to DAK and CD like it's going to be very difficult to move off of them because it's going to be really hard to find someone who's better. I guess the Vikings have kind of done that this year. They moved off of Kirk Cousins. They now come in with Sam Donald. But we're even seeing Sam Donald start to
regress in the last few games. So it's just really hard to move off with quarterback who we saw last year over the course of sixteen seventeen games, he was the best guy in the league. And so when you have a team like that, you want to see where you can plug. You know, we're coming up on the
trade deadline and at Summer Sports. On the Summer Sports Show with Thomas Mentrov and Lindsay Roads, some great professionals who have been in the industry for a long long time, we were talking about some of the guys that we like for Dallas, and I'm really interested to see if they try to make a move for someone like a blutea Baker, because right now you mentioned like guys going after media members. That was just because the defense is
looking so rough. You look at some of the advanced analytics that we have at Summer Sports, they just don't have a bunch of good players right now, and so I'd really be interested if they go after a boot A Baker or one of these guys who can have an impact in the running game and the passing game and can kind of be a rental for a year to just try to get them in the playoffs at this point.
Got a lot of Niner fans around here.
To start the year, they were the second favorite to win the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, and at this moment, it looks like they're now behind the Lions, the Ravens, and the Bills, and they're just ahead of the Eagles. So look, if they can get healthy. Obviously, that's still a roster that a lot of gms would love to have their disposal. For me, it's always been a pretty thing, like I know it's reductive, but is he good enough to be the guy under center with all the riches
around him to win something special? Concerned about the Niners after four and four? They need to get healthy and they're going to be fine. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I think that's the biggest concern is the injuries. And frankly, that was the reason why I was a lot lower than consistent at the beginning of the year on the forty nine ers, because they just have so many guys who are getting up there in age and also who have injury histories. Christian McCafferty being the number one guy, he's missed the whole season at this point.
I know they say they plan that he comes to he plans to come back after the buye, but apparently he has an achilles injury that he had to go to Germany to get fixed. Like that's not doesn't seem like a recipe for success. I actually think Perty has played pretty well this season. I know he's had some off games, particularly against the Chiefs, but I've actually been quite surprised by his ability to generate offense despite the turnstyle of guys who have been coming in and out
of the lineup. I wouldn't worry too much about them. I know it's a little sticky, but their division is very up and down right now. We have teams games that they don't expect to win, expect to lose, teams winning games they don't expect to win. I think they can probably control that division throughout the rest of the season.
So Pooka Nakua played his college ball around here as well, and you know, I'm a Sean mcveig guy, and you know, obviously they've had injury issues over the past couple of years. I was pretty impressed though, because the Vikes are good, and you know, the Rams, to me, with Puoka back and we'll see what they do with Cooper Cup, to me, are a team that still could potentially make teams uncomfortable as we move forward. They still are three and four
and that's at the bottom of the NFC West. All three of the teams in front of them are only four and four, though. What's your opinion on the recent uptick that we've seen from the Los Angeles Rams.
I mean, you mentioned Puka. He's just kind of an old school wide receiver. He's really just a ballplayer. I mean you see on some big downs they'll motion him in and he'll crack, like completely annihilate a linebacker's or big dude. These great at running routes. I am worried about their injuries because we saw Matthew Stafford not be
too productive when both Cup and Pooper were out. But I think they're definitely in that class with the forty nine ers more than the Seahawks and the Cardinals in that division right now, I'm a little worried about their defense, particularly on the back end. This is another team that I think at the deadline could use some safety, some cornerback help. But I'm really excited about how the way that Jared Verse and Braden Fifth, their two early round
draft picks, both from Florida State, have played. They've really been pretty elite in some of our pass rushing and run defense metrics as they try to like put a patchwork together to replace an unreplaceable player and Aaron and Aaron Donald, they've really kind of done a good job there and it'll be interesting to see how they grow throughout the year as they get more games in the NFL.
Of the rookie quarterbacks, and I think I might know the answer to this, But if we play the tape forward ten years and we're talking about this class, who's going to be the one guy we talked about standing out among the rest and why?
Man, it is tough and you think about this. I am sticking with Jayden Daniels just because I think his ability to throw down the field that's always going to be there unless he gets like majorly injured, which is the fear with him. I think Caleb's starting to look good as well. I probably put Caleb in at number two. I'm still sticking with JJ McCarthy at three. I liked how he looked in college. He's just a winner, man. He's won all the way from Illinois High school to
IMG to Michigan. I think will probably continue that with a pretty good coaching staff with the Vikings.
Next.
Drake May is kind of the old school style stereotypical quarterback. I think he can be pretty good. I still don't believe a ton in the mix, as you know, being a long term three four contract guy with the Broncos. But I just lifted off a bunch of good quarterbacks and the last time I kind of saw that was with the Borough two of class Herbert and I think this class is more like that one, you know, than the Trevor Lawrence type classes, the Bryce Youngs which we saw last year.
Speaking of Burrow, I mean they're owing for a home, you know. So like I've always felt like he is too special for a team to kind of waste.
And look, he's still young, He's got plenty of time left.
But can Cincinnati turn this around and make it interesting and why can't they win a home game?
I think they can make it interesting. But moreover, as we go into the trade deadline, typically they're not super active. But I've been listening as long and we're talking about how the Jazz were approaching this season. Typically, you know NFL teams go all in, but they really have decisions to make on what they want to do, especially given that they did not pay t Higgins this year and it seems like he's out the door at the end
of the season. They also didn't make a decision to extend Jamar Chase, and they got to do that as long as you know, they extended Joe Burrow already, so you got to give him his number one target. You look at kind of how they perform this year. Their net points is around that kind of jet zone, that falcon zone in between, kind of like median level. They could go up, they could go down. Their offense is like good and Burrow is like a sneaky MVP candidate
if they can string together a bunch of wins. At the end of the year. They're fourth in passing this year passing EPA. Their defense is just atrocious, particularly against the run, which is a little weird because a bunch of their guys are playing good. You see Trey Indrickson, he has like seven eight sacks this year. They have a bunch of holes kind of in their defensive backfield in the run game, but I think they're going to
put it together. I'm optimistic about the Bengals. I think if they would want to make a move, they probably should, particularly to shore up that defensive run game. But I think their offense is very good and I think that's going to carry him the rest of the year.
I want to go back because you referenced JJ McCarthy, and you know, I'm not out the way you are, but I loved Sam Darnold in the pre draft process. The lesson is, if you play quarterback, do not go to the New York Jets. Just don't do it. Okay, I just do not do it. It will not work out well for you. But you know, obviously JJ is the plan for them moving forward. But what sort of questions has Sam Darnold answered? And do you think maybe he's good?
Because look, there are so many teams right now that are badly in need of a high caliber starter. So if the Vikings say, we're going with the kid. Do you think Sam's earned a deal around the league with what he's done.
I'm kind of on the downside on this event. I do not think that he is a certified starter in this league despite what he's shown this year. And here's
what I chalk it up to. You you look at some of his metrics, and obviously they're winning games, they're pretty good offensively, but you really dig deeper into his metrics, the way he's getting a lot of his value is through really deep throws down the field, which you know is a skilled but high variance through penalties and this was kind of the you know, the recipe for success back in the old days with the Baltimore Ravens and
Joe Flacco. But as time went on, they ended up wanting to replace him, and I don't even think he's as good as doing that as Flacco was back in those days. I still think they're probably going to move on and go with JJ McCarthy next year, and I'd actually suspect that there will be regression as the games move on. You know, we've seen them struggle when they are trailing, both against the Lions and against the Rams.
I think we're going to continue seeing that, particularly if on the other side of the ball they don't score up their defense. I think they may start bleeding points just due to the talent they have back there, and it'll put Sam Donald in some tough positions and we may see a regression back to that old kind of poor decision making Sam Donald, we've seen in past days.
Last thing, and I'll set you, lou Sam, how many teams today are you willing to say you think can legitimately win a Super Bowl?
Look? I love the Lions and I love the chief I think they are a class above everyone. I think the Ravens are probably right there too, And after that so it starts getting a little tricky. So right now I think three. Maybe you include the Bills in there because they have Josh Allen, but probably only three I'd be well to throw money on.
So woh wow. All right, buddy, Where can people go find your work?
You can buy me where all podcasts are Sumer daily podcasts. We're going to be doing a lot of trade deadline stuff. In fact, we did one on the Summer Sports Show podcast, another one of ours. Also check us out at Summer Sports Dot com We have a bunch of cool data going up that can help you set your fantasy lineups. Bet you know, stuff like that. So that's where you can find me and at brook out Sports on Twitter as well.
Sam, thanks for the time, man, keep up the great work. We'll get you back soon.
Okay, appreciate it. Thank y'all.
All right, Sam brook House, right, young kid man does a lot of great work up on his Twitter pagees podcast, his website, so check it out as the well per usual has been a lot of fun this year. Your Week nine, goodness, gracious man, you blinking this thing's almost done. Week nine gets rolling on Thursday with the Texans and the pathetic, horrible, embarrassing Jets at Medlife Stadium. The Jets are two point favorite. They won't win, but you can hear that game on our radio station. RSL is in
action tonight. The MLS Cup playoffs start tonight.
Want to get it. Get you guys ready for that. Now here's the deal.
I do not know how our guest is because Trey said he would get me Donny unless Donny is too busy, and in that instance, Trey booked himself as the backup, which I would very much like to avoid so porter. Who's our guest?
Yes, Oh.
Yes, bullet dodge. Come on, Donny, Donny, thank you for saving us. Happy Tuesday, buddy.
Oh what's going on?
Guys? How are you?
Perfect timing? I just got done with my meeting for Apple ahead of our broadcast tonight of Real Soakings Minnesota. So perfect timing literally wrapped up like thirty seconds ago.
Very nice.
Well, look, fall, for a lot of people is about football. Fall also means playoff soccer. I love fall soccer. I just love the drama. I love the field, So just paint a picture for us. You're out there at the Stadium's what's the buzz like?
Yeah? I mean gates are about to open here in about thirty minutes, and then you got to march the match right around six sixteen, where RSL supporters will head out from the tailgate and make their way into the stadium and listen to today's the start. Right, it's the
last days of the season. You work so hard from January to get to this stage, right, all the extra doggies, the runs, the weightlifting sessions, you know, those tough conversations about who deserves to play, who doesn't deserve to play based on performance or news signing, the amount of money spent during the summer transfer window. You know, the atmosphere and the investment into this stadium, and this is what
it's all about. Heading in the playoffs, and once you secured that top three spot in the Western Conference, you've secured home field advantage unless you hit one of these two Los Angeles teams, whether that be LAFC top of the table in the West or LA Galaxy who failed at the very last moment down in Houston and tonight against the Minnesota United team that you know Rialso Lake has had success, but most recently these last couple of
matchups they've ended in draws, including these two teams meeting a couple of weeks ago where Brian Vera ended up spitting at an opponent and getting himself a multi game ban. So statistically two teams that match up fairly even. But for real Lake probably most importantly keeping the back to back shutout, turning that into something even more and trying to get Chico Rongo that goal. It's because it's been
elusive finding the back of the net. The seventeen goals, twelve assists, his last goal on July sixth, previous to that three goals and the hat trick performance June first, So they got to get their captain back on track, confident and scoring goals.
So tell me a bit about Minnesota. Now, Ultimately, I don't want to be dispared erging, but the two games that I've watched, certainly the one here, they did park the bus in a way they kind of did not engage and look tactically, that's something that Pablo did in Seattle.
Like I understand if.
You don't think that you have the ability to kind of engage the other team, or if you just want to get a road result, that that is a way to attack the game.
That might be beneficial.
But first of all, I guess I should just ask you is that kind of the way they play?
And then if so, how does RSL handle that?
Yeah, I mean it's dependent upon, you know, the game itself. The regular season game going on the road and the point at Real Salt Lake is something to be proud of. Considering the strength of the home record schedule for RSL this season. It turned it back into the fortress that it once was back in the days of Rio Tinto. But also for Eric Ramsey and Minnesota United. This is the season of three. So I just hit my hit on Apple TV and I was trying to explain it's
a young manager, just thirty two years of age. For those that don't no, the Minnesota United manager Eric Ramsey spent time at Chelsea Football Club, He spent time at Manchester United, spent time as an assistant coach at Wales with Gareth Bale and company, and now has taken over at Minnesota United. And I think it was kind of I don't want to say he was out of nowhere, but you didn't think at that stage of his career this young man would take that job. So he had
to bet in and it was actually Cameron Knowles. Cam Knowles who played for Rial Sala as a center back back in two thousand and five. He was the head coach for the purpose couple of matches of the season, so adaption period. Team was doing well, some young players probably over punching their mark. In the middle of the summer June and July, things kind of went sideways. Three goal or three wins in just fourteen games. But in
these last ten matches, seven wins. You know, they've conceded just one goal in their last five and they've been trending upwards. Like Real Salt Lake. They've added some players guys like Bata Bongee, Robin Hood up top, Kelvin Yoboa. These players have shown they're more than capable of causing
havoc against opponents. But like you said, it's a team that's probably going to come sit in, sit back, force Reale Salt Lake or allowed Real Salt Lake to play their possession based type of attacking football soccer and see if they can hit in the transition because they are legal and counter attack opportunities. And sometimes the name of the game isn't being beautiful with the ball. Sometimes the name of the game is figuring out how to expose
your opponents. And that's what they've done well these last five matches, four wins and just to draw.
All right, So.
Excuse me on the RSL front. You reference the Vera stuff, which is just such a bad look. And I've had everybody, Pablo, Jason, Kurt, We've all talked about it. Then Big Phil Quinton goes down, and so against Vancouver, Pablo's solution was to move to Van Brown to center back, a Mecca Andelli to right back a mecca I think played sixteen games right back last year and bring in Nelson to where a mecca was. Are you anticipate or maybe you straight up no, like,
what what is that going to look like? I was gonna say you you might have the lineups, like what is it going to look like tonight with that lack of center back depth?
Yeah, without confirming anything whatsoever, because you know, I want to keep my job. I think the one thing that you can lean into is everything you just described how they ended. They kept the shut you know, they they they They've showed defensively that they can handle those type of moments, and you go back. There's been multiple times this season where Justin Glad and Brian Vera, the preferred partnership for Paulo Mastroni, has not been available where effectively
you've played two outside backs as center backs. And whether that was you know, the days of a left back and a right back playing a center back, or you're just having to mix a match, it hasn't been ideal. But at the same time, nobody's healthy. You know, nobody's one hundred percent healthy. So again, you know, the back to back shutouts for Zach McMath kind of continuing to build what it looks like in terms of defensive solidity and a shape and identity that at least of Mecha Andelly.
What I would say is, if he does again play in that right back position, yes, he's played there. When I talked to Pablo last year, he you know, he was thinking down the road of uh A Mecca being a central midfielder, which has been incredible alongside Ojeita. But now if you put him at right back, he's he's got the intelligence of playing that position, the familiarity of
playing that position. But I'd be really intrigue expense to see what type of wrinkle he adds in terms of overloading and stepping up into that midfield in possession and what that looks like, because it's gonna it's going to cause some havocs for the opponents to kind of think about where his starting position and his ending position are,
especially with Patronis down that left hand side. He loves to get forward, effectively plays a left winger, and that ultimately allows Diego Luna and Matt Crooks to be too central midfielders in attacking mode underneath Tico Orongo. All of those little movements that I'm talking about causes a lot of it causes. It causes a ton of havoc for opponents to try to figure out when this step, when to stay and you have to be very communicative in terms of dealing with what's in front of you and
what's behind you. That is a nightmare, especially in the playoffs, to deal with.
So Pablo hopped on before the Vancouver match and I asked him because the schedule's being a little funky this year, with three games in one week often and then international duty injuries, he's had to shuffle a bit. I said, okay, last regular season match before the postseason, are we going to see a first choice eleven? And he basically said yes. So, And you know, I just want you to walk me through this because it feels like Diego should be centralized.
But Matt's been really good there and so Diego was out left, Diego was out right, which is new. Diego hopped on the show last week and said, where every place I'm gonna end up centralized?
So there's that.
It feels like Mark Zuke was the guy they wanted and maybe still will be the guy they wanted. His feeling for Andres, and we have Lachlan in the mix as well. He has a lot of different offensive options and groupings. Where where do you think that group ultimately should and will kind of settle when the dost settles.
Yeah, I don't think Mark Chuk started because he was away with Poland and Germany coming off international duty. So I think mar Chuk if he had, if he had his full complement of attacking players available, Mark Chuck will be on the right, Luno be on the left, Crooks
would be underneath Chico. Now it seems surprising for a lot of people, including myself, because Diogo and the amount of money that you've spent on him, it would suggest that he would be the guy that you would absolutely play over Matt Crooks, especially because statistically Matt Crooks isn't anywhere near the respective number tens in Major League Soccer.
But what he does for the system and the past before the pass and the runs off the ball, I think have been incredibly important for the for the setup and the tactical nuance that Pablo wants from this group. So and by the way, not that he wants to, but Diogo has been really good coming off the bench and being an impact player, uh, you know, in the in the second in the second phase of play. So all of those things I think can be real and
can be true and still be frustrating. But I think Pablo has a really good identity of who his starting eleven is, even though he's got to have some tough conversations about why certain players aren't getting the certain amount of minutes that they expect at this stage of the season.
Tell me what you've seen this year from Diego, who I perceive to be the player in that group that is in the best form right now. Obviously, goals helped, and he's scoring goals. The best strike he had against Vancouver may have been the one that actually didn't go in and went off the crossbar after like four stepovers.
I mean, he's a magical talent.
Man.
How from your vantage point, Dotty, has he grown this year?
Well, I mean I did his game in January when he was called up to the full men's national team and he was Caps and down in San Antonio, And you know, the joke was he was turning from moon boy to moon man because he was no longer kind of this precocious young talent. Now he was going to be about what can you do at the highest level with the pressure on, the expectation on and a U twenty two on track that significantly gave him a pay raise little but well, I don't want to say little
by little because he's the same player. But every game he's continued to I think, showcase not only why he deserves to start, but why he should be an all star, why he should be a contender for the US men's national team underneath new head coach Mauricio Pochettino. You know, the double birds based on performance he gave the former US under twenty three coach that refused to take him
to the Olympics over in France. You know, this is a young man who has dealt with setbacks his entire life, and the strength and mental fortitude that he has is extraordinary. And I would agree with you in terms of the consistency of run a for him, there haven't been a lot of games where you've seen a dip in his performance. He's a type of player that nobody wants to play against.
He's quick, he's dynamic, he's got a low center of gravity, very very intelligent, great technically with either foot, and he's a kid that wants to be on the ball as much as possible, and you can see the frustrat when he doesn't feel like he can be a part of the solution and finds himself maybe as part of the problem. So yeah, the sky's the limit for this young man.
And twenty gold contributions on the season so far and counting heading into the playoffs, I think it's just the start of what we're going to continue to see during whatever the timeline looks like. With him wearing an arshol jersey.
Let me go back to Chico for a moment because I haven't been able to catch up with you for the past few weeks and I'm just floored.
Did he still on seventeen goals?
I mean, I'm baffled, right, So several dynamics here on dress and he obviously had a cool, good thing going.
Gomez has gone acclimates new players.
The suspension maybe a hot star that wasn't sustainable, But how would you characterize exactly why a player that was so red hot has gone so eyes cold?
Yeah, I mean it definitely coincides with the suspension for me. You know, he was supposed to he was up for the not only just starting in the All Star Game, but potentially being the captain of the All Star Game in Columbus, so you know that, and probably the frustration and or embarrassment of having to deal with the suspension in the manner in which it was verbalized or not verbalized. Losing andres hurts because I think those two just instinctually
understood one another. But I would say more importantly, you know, it's we saw. You know, we saw even the Siachinka own goal down in Houston where we thought, okay, Chio's getting got his goal again, here we go. How many posts you fit, how many world class saves goalies have had against them. But I think the one thing to recognize as well, statistically, yeah, that's what we're always going
to focus on. Goals and the fifth from Chicho because he is that good and he's the captain of Rial Saw Lake and he was about to break Calvo Saboio's single season goal staring record of seventeen goals. He's still playing well, Spence. I think that's the that's the craziest part about this. You know, statistically, he fell off a cliff, but he's still playing really well. So if I knew the solution, I would certainly verbalize that to Pablo and
his staff and to Chea Hill himself. But I think I'm as dumbfounded to the frustration that he's finding himself in as anyone else.
All Right, So what.
I have here is about forty degrees a kickoff with the chance of light rain, but maybe no rain at all. You're a guy that played all over the world in extreme conditions everywhere. What yeah, no, yeah, I know, Like, so what sort of unique challenges does a cold, rainy night bring.
Well, it's ideal in terms of you feel like you can run forever, but you have to get your body right in warm ups and make sure that you're not pulling up. By the way, I didn't know Stevie ray Vaughan was practicing the national.
Anthem behind nice.
Yeah, I think you just got to make sure physically you're prepared and you're and you're warm, because getting through the warm up is one thing. But then you go back inside of the locker room and then you're standing out there during national anthems, which it sounds like it's going to be a fifteen minute national anthem right now with Stevie ray Vaughan out here. But then you know it's about mentality, and right now it's about killer mentality.
So you know, you you wear the long sleeves, if you need to wear the gloves, whatever it is, it's going to be a cold night, and hopefully, you know, maybe they can mimic the performance they had against LAFC in the beginning of the season where the snow was falling, seemed like it was going to be a nightmare, and they absolutely smashed LAFC on the night.
All right, Dundy, last thing, then I know you got to go. So I'll just put it like this very simply. RSL gets all three gets a win tonight.
If what.
Ooh, if they set the tone, and I expect them to set the tone, but I think it's important on a night like this where you've had such a significant break since decision day that you know effectively what ten eleven days off, that you haven't lost your rhythm and if you can set the tone, that is the baseline of confidence in terms of like the first tackle, first touch,
you know, winning that first header. If you if you set that level of expectation for your teammates and you show that you're up for it, it's a lead by example, like I never needed to hear somebody tell me as a player, let's go, boys, let's go, Like I already knew we had to go. So then how do you get everyone to fall in line with your leadership. It's it's it's getting stuck in, it's setting the tone, it's it's you know, getting into those those verbal dialogues with
the opponents. These are two teams that don't like each other. That's clear and evident. And you've got to continue that through the playoffs because in a week, a couple of days time, when you're on the road in Minnesota on Saturday night, you want to make sure that you that they know psychologically, whether they want to verbalize it or not, that they're in for one hell of a painful game to deal with playing ourselves.
All right, brother, well, I appreciate the time, have a great call, and I we'll love to get you back on soon.
Okay, sounds good, my man, good talking.
Ryan Dunseeth, he'll be on the call tonight with Max Bretas as RSL welcomes in Minnesota for the first leg of a best of three first round MLS playoff format. They changed the damn thing every year. So I think that's what it is. Do not quote. Brought to you by our friends at Flanker Kitchen. Get game day ready at Flanker Kitchen and Sporting Club at the Gateway, your ultimate destination for pro and college football watch parties.
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I think so. It might be at least this postseason.
Obviously, the Yankees down big, but as you mentioned, Spence, on a close to anniversary of a pretty big comeback, maybe they can get a spark at least make things interesting.
That's what I want.
You know, I'm not gonna hold out hope that they come back from three to zero in a World Series, but force a Game six. Maybe I'd be on board for that.
Looks like John Carlos Stanton, who's been by far the best Yankee, is going to be moved down from the cleanup spot to fifth switching with Jazz Chisholm. So there's a lot of switch desperation time. But if Aaron Judge can't get a hit, this team is screwed.
So it is the.
Twenty year anniversary of the Boston Red Sox coming back from a three to zero deficit against my Yankees.
So maybe we can exercise some demons tonight.
Maybe, or maybe that's a bad omen, right, They don't have to be negative all the time.
It could be a good omen.
I'm just throwing it out there. You know that was the Red Sox that did that. You're our trival. But we'll see, we'll see. I personally hope they make it interesting, they win and extend the series. That's always my hope, that we see seven games. That's the best two words in sports. But yeah, right now, they're gonna need a more than a lineup change and more than a couple hits from from Aaron Judge. They're gonna need to four straight games of really solid play.
Andy larsh and our buddy from the trip is reporting that Cody Williams gets to start tonight in place of Taylor Hendrick. So we wondered, if it's going to be development, you might as well, because what are we going to learn that we don't know about John Collins?
Right?
Well, you asked Tim McMahon earlier on the show, like, have you seen enough to think the Jazz tank is intentional? Well, when your players are getting injured, when you're not really playing well, it doesn't have to be intentional. Jazz are zero and three and they're now at a point spence where you're having to throw in guys you were not planning to start and it's game four.
Now that sucks. If you're a.
Fan who is in the arena buying your Dippin' dots, buying your uniform, you know, all in on the team, But from a big picture perspective, when you zoom out, might be a good thing for the Utah Jazz In twenty twenty.
Four, did you say dippin' dots?
Hell?
Yeah, I did, kind of a random snack to select when's the last time you had dippin' dots?
It's more the reason I said dipp dots is because it's very much a game thing. So the last time I had dippin' dots was the last time I think I was, you know, probably at a game as a fan. Outside of last night at the hockey game, I did not have any any dippin' dots.
Unfortunately, how was your experience at you I believe that was your first Utah Hockey Club game.
Yeah, at least, you know, as a fan. I went and picked up my credential and was there earlier in the year. But you know, was able to just kind of take in the event, take in the the atmosphere, and it was fun.
It was a lot of fun.
Obviously the game was interesting for to One was the lead late into that one, and then Utah Hockey Club let San Jose, who has been really bad in fact, hadn't won a game in several weeks, and Utah let him right back in it, and then of course lost in overtime. So the result wasn't good. The team is not playing all that well at the moment, but it was fun. I do wonder, Spence, We're only on week two or so, and the now it was San Jose. They're not a great team. Wasn't all that full. It wasn't,
you know. And I know it's it's early. It's not a good team at San Jose. But I do wonder when we're talking about the environment there, you'd think that this early on, the attention to the hockey club would be still really really upfront. And I don't know that that early excitement, that early wave of people being in the building and packing that thing seems to have died off a little bit. The majority of the upper bowl was was kind of empty, which I thought was surprising.
All Right, Before we get out of here, some tough news as Money Parks is done for the year following an injury.
He's to stand against Houston.
Cameron Rising is set to have surgery this week, and it looks like Brandon Rose and Isaac Wilson are going to split the reps this week and we'll find out more as they evaluate the position. Bummer about Money Parks, man, you got it for that kid.
Yeah, obviously, Money guy who hadn't broken through as much as maybe you would have liked. That's partly because of the quarterback position. Right, Money had a lot of really good showings when Cam was healthy. You saw him break out in that game against USC And I mean, if they're going to have a strong finish to the year, you're gonna have to have performances from guys like Money Parks in that locker room, and you know guys that can help out in Isaac Wilson or a Brandon Rose
or whoever it may be that in that backfield. But yeah, that's a tough loss. Obviously, you mentioned Cam Rising going in for surgery later this week TBD on the future for Cam, we're not sure there. And then yeah, when you're having what looks like, at least as of today, Spence, maybe a quarterback battle midway through the season, and it's a battle between a freshman who's already shown not to be entirely ready and and a sophomore who from all
reports in the off season wasn't ready either. Not ideal spot to be going into a rivalry game.
If through Utah, let me ask you one more question, then we're going to get out of here, because if I answer my own question, I might say, Jalen Glover, is there anybody on this roster, in your opinion, that hasn't been getting run that Kyle could look either side of the ball, they could kind of provide whatever they need. I mean, is there anybody with the depth that we
haven't seen that? Jalen's the one if I'm answering my own question, But is there is there anybody out there that can actually provide a spark?
Yeah?
Offensively, obviously you mentioned Jalen, and that's that, it's the right answer. But it's it's so much more than that because the offense has been so pedestrian.
It's Land and King.
It's I haven't heard Munier McClain's name until very shortly in in that game against Houston. It's it's it's Micah Pittman. I mean, there are there are really no weapons that are making huge impacts on the offense right now, and that's that's part of the problem. Defensively, yes, but it's it's all availability, right, It's Conro Tool, It's it's Samody Peppa, it's Junior Tafuna when he's there, Keanotanavasa who has been in out of the lineup. Defensively, yes, they need that spark,
but it's it's gonna be just based on availability and health. Offensively, man, it's just about the quarterback getting Land and King Munier, McClain, Micah Pittman. Money parks now obviously out. But those guys are are gonna be relying on the quarterback to get them involved in and that will be the spark that Utah is hoping for.
World Series nets Yes, World Series. He's next on the.
Show, Stay tuned. World Series Action coming up. We'll see if the Yanks can actually get a game, all right, porter, What comes our way on a Wednesday show?
On a Wednesday edition of the program, the return of Tony Jones.
Oh wow, Yes, a big deal.
It's NBA season tip off is here. Obviously, Tony one of the favorites here in the market when it comes to interviews on our shows. I don't just say that. When you look at the downloads on our interviews, it's Tony Jones. He dominates. So good to have Tony back in the fold. Chris com Ronnie's going to stop by tomorrow because he's going to be out of pocket. Over
the course of the late weekdays. Amy Donaldson is also going to stop by, so we'll cover all of our bases there and then we're also going to be visited and joined by some friends from the Olympic Legacy. Foundation, So some non college football, non soccer, non NBA market stuff with the folks from the Olympic Legacy Foundation.
So pretty busy show.
But of course Amy Chris and with the return of Tony top of mind, can.
We get Tony to make some sort of Jared Butler is going to be an All Star proclamation tomorrow.
A'll text Tony and say, just just humor us, give us like something almost incendiary as far as hot takes go.
I'll give them heads up.
All right, I like it. I like it, so join it. Join us for a Wednesday show. Got a fun Tuesday night of action with Jazz Hoops World Series and RSL take it on, Minnesota. We'll say good night in a special thank you to Richard Smith, Tim McMahon, Kevin Reynolds, Sam Brookhouse and Brian Dunseth. I've missed any of that. Sound Head to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred Sports dot com.
Make sure to download our mobile app and take us on the go.
It's the ESPN seven hundred app and that's available in the App Store or the Google Play Store. Then finally, check out what we do every day for four hours on our podcast page and it's called The Drive with Spence check it's and that's available wherever you get your shows. Hit that subscribe button, give us a rating review, say nice things, give us all the stars.
It helps.
He's Porter, I'm spent, Saga and I enjoy your Tuesday evening. We'll talk to you on a Wednesday. Drive World Series Baseball Comes Aroyd coming up next right here on ESPN seven hundred