FULL TUE POD @SpenceChecketts on Utah @ OKSt, #RSL latest, CFB shifting landscape + more

All right, what's going on?

We'll do it. It is drivetime.

It's Tuesday afternoon.

We're looking at about ten minutes past the hour of two o'clock, a rainy, cold chili Utah September day outside and as it is every day, it's good to have you along for the ride. Spence check. It's behind the mike, Porter Larson, behind the glass back in Salt Lake City.

We are far away from each other.

We're up here in Ogden today at a really cool little spot. Want you guys to come up and say hello. It's Bellaston Jewelry. It's one one five five thirty sixth Street here in Ogden. So Belliston Jewelry one one five five thirty sixth Street here in Augden, family owned since nineteen seventy three. Joe and Sidney Belliston. Got to get to know them today and they've got a great deal going on right off the top.

I want to let you know.

With a twenty five hundred dollars purchase, you get a five hundred dollars gift card at Smith and Edwards so Belliston Jewelry, bunch.

Of Austin like engagement rings.

It's a jewelry shop, so you can get her a diamond and then you can go get guns and Ammo.

You want to know why, because we're in America.

Baby.

With a twenty five.

Hundred dollars purchase, you get a five hundred dollars gift card at Smith and Edwards. With a five thousand dollars purchase, you get one thousand dollars gift card at Smith and Edwards as well. It's the best of both worlds. She gets the jewelry, you get.

The guns in the Amo. That's what I'm talking about. Offer is good until October the nineteenth. Come on by.

I would love to see my Northern Utah listeners and people have a lot of family up in this direction, a lot of friends up in this direction. Here in Ogden at Fellaston Jewelry, it's one one five five thirty sixth Street. Come on by and say hello. We'd love to meet you, all right, Jampack busy show today. The week two Pro football slates finished last night with a little Monday Night football and turned into a really good game. It was kind of a back and forth lugfest for

This once upon a time was a proud rivalry. Not so much anymore.

But the Patriots and the Jets get things rolling coming up on Thursday from metlif You can hear that game here out of ESBN seven hundred. And then we'll culmin eights next week for some NFL with the Jags and the Bills and the Commanders and the Bengals.

So two Monday night games.

The Bills will be the home team at Orchard Park there and Cincinnati hosts the Commander's Bengal Zone.

Two.

Man, they got to get off the night, so for football comes to an end last night.

Now a lot of attention as.

You would expect on the upcoming slate in college football. We'll get to the latest with the Utes, We'll get to the latest with BYU Utah State as well. Talk some big twelve football get you ready for essentially, you know, we did have UCF and TCU last week, but.

Essentially the first week of conference played.

For the most part, some teams have played some conference game games. But I'm gonna learn a lot. I think we'll learn a lot about both Utah and BYU as now that the non con has come to a close, stuff's about to get real as case stay rose in a provo and Utah will head to still Water. So both Utah and kse State playing some rich excuse me, both Utah and BYU playing some really tough competition coming up, and that's what makes it fun. CBS Sports released their

So I mean we all should be on board for that.

So we've got Jason Christ, Matt Brown, Scott Mitchell, Bill Riley, Mee Spence checkets live in Ogden Belliston Jewelry is the spot one one five five thirty sixth Street.

Come on by and say hi, and then back in Salt Lake.

City is where we find the producer of this program, Porter Larson, Real quick some breaking news. The Dolphins are placing TWA Tonga by Loa on injured reserve. He's gonna ad miss at least the next four games. So that just came down porter young man. How's your Tuesday.

Tuesday's gone well, Spence obviously, always always a little different with you not in studio, so we'll see you when you get back here.

A little jealous. I quite like Otown, so we'll have to make my way up there in the near future.

Ogden's been gentrified, man, This place is popping now right, So no Salt Lake City snobbery.

Ogden's where it's at these days.

Hey, this is It's a good little spot.

It is, for sure, So come on buy and say I all right. Our first guest today Jason Christ right out of the gates. But before we get to Jay on a Tuesday afternoon, courtesy of our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, it's time now for your opening tip.

Welcome to the Drive with Spence. Check it's on Utah's number one sports talk Now into the studio of 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, one hundred Southwest Temple.

So, big weekend ahead in the landscape of local college football, and I do think we're gonna learn a lot about BYU and Utah coming up with the opponents being a little bit different. It's not just conference play. Both BYU and Utah will play two of potentially the three or four best teams in the conference. So coming up two pm on Fox on Saturday, Utah is in Stillwater where this line has been funky. Right now, Utah is a

They gashed him on the ground.

Now BYU's defense this year has been phenomenal. Their season, to me, will be predicated on how the quarterback stuff kind of plays out.

Can Jake figure it out?

Can he stop making the mistakes that we saw in four starts last year and that we've seen in the first three starts this year BYU th you know, back to back years.

Will it be different? You guys remember last year they lost their final five.

Games and did not go to a bowl game, leading a lot of people to really put a lot of pressure Dennis Dodd and other national riders on Kolani and his staff saying they're on watch this year if things don't go better.

So a massive, massive task for.

Kilane and BYU welcoming in K State to provo they get that win. They're off to four and ZHO my guests would be they beat K State at home, they're going to be ranked in the top twenty five heading

Of the conference, not with the ebbs and flows.

I mean, we'll see what Arizona State does because they're clean as of now as well. But Arizona in that game against KSE State, K State bullied them, they pushed them around. Arizona's one of those teams that a lot of people thought, you know, coming in from the Pac twelve, had a chance to win the Big twelve year one, not at all.

I mean, k State just pushed them around.

It's not that Arizona doesn't have a good skill position players, it's ultimately that they don't have the dudes in the trenches. I'm not sure if Arizona State does. I know Colorado does not. This could be a situation where Utah is the one Pac twelve team heading into Big twelve play that looks like it stacks up physically with every other team. Hey, look, we're used to Utah football and their physicality actually being

I don't have an answer there.

But CBS put out their rankings of NBA coaches today and they put Will at number seven, which I thought was really really high and you know, really complimentary ultimately of who Will Hardy is.

So we're not gonna do a lot of jazz day.

It's mostly gonna be football, but I wanted to kind of bring that on airon case you missed it. According to CBS Sports, Will Hardy the seventh ranked coach in the NBA.

It's time to hit the pitch on the drive. The RSL Insider Today and every day is brought to you by Beer Bar head Downtown for watch parties and game day shuttles to the stadium. More at beer barslc dot com.

Back to little college football coming up in just a little bit, we're gonna bring in Matt Brown from Extra Points for all the latest on well, the business side Pac twelve expansion, what it means potentially for the Big Twelve in the ACC and some interesting details about television windows and when the Big Twelve is actually being selected to play in certain windows. We only have one of the seven games I believe decided coming up on the twenty ninth. I think that's the Arizona Utah game. Is

Are you doing I'm doing great.

How are you?

Are you still the all time leading scorer of the Dallas Burne FC Dallas franchise?

I think so.

I think nobody else lasted as long as playing there as me. There was guys that scored more goals per season, but I don't think anybody else spent nine years there.

So yeah, I think it's still fine.

Longevity is important, but you can't tell me.

You don't know for sure. If somebody broke your record, you would know, Jay, right.

Yeah, I'm just trying to remember.

I know Hydys Ferrera is close.

Was close.

Maybe that was a single season. There's something there that he's getting close to breaking my record on.

So yeah, is there when RSL plays formerly the Dallas for an FC Dallas? Does that conjure up any Jason christ weird feelings one way or the other?

No, it doesn't anymore. After you've gone from that club to here, to New York, Orlando to Miami, your memory runs a little thin.

Fair enough, fair enough?

All right?

Jay?

You know, what do you say about Houston? What do you say about Saturday? It was it was bad. Pablo owned it after the game during media. I don't know, man, It feels like you and I have been chatting on a weekly basis about a team that once upon a time had a fifteen game on beaten streak and was atop of the table in MLS, and now Jay, it feels like there's a bit of a slide going on.

Are what are your thoughts.

Both on Houston over the weekend and where you guys are at from a macro level.

Yeah, not good, obviously not good.

None of us are happy I think all of us feel a bit of angst, a bit of frustration. There's a whole lot of questioning now about where the problems lie and how we can move forward. But there's one thing that's clear in my mind after spending yesterday with the coaching staff is that we're all still in this very much together, and also there's a belief that this team can get back to where it was before or

As I've said now many times.

For me, there's been some results that have gone our way or met perhaps maybe we weren't quite there, but to be fair, through this, through this run, there's also been a result or two that actually felt we deserved more. And so now it's I think it's a time just to continue to move forward. It's a time to realize that we're getting to the end of the season. It's a time for everybody to come together, really really together

So every sport matchups are real.

Oftentimes it's what leads to great results or following flat on your face if you just simply don't match up with another team very well, or the other team simply doesn't match up with you. I mean, it's just how it is. It doesn't matter what sport it is. What is it, Jay Like, I think it's one five and three over the last nine for you guys against Like, what's have you been able to identify with why this club has been so problematic for you guys?

I think you know, as we talked about last week, I think for me, first and foremost is just the differences in climates.

Last week. It was really difficult to go into the end of that week.

Thinking about, oh, we've got a cold front coming through here in Salt Lake, so our guys are now training in fifty and sixty degree weather and they go down there for a ninety degree game. So you could see from my perspective, you could see pretty clearly that there was a level of fatigue and exhaustion that just is it seems out of place, but it is what it is. And then I think there's also a little bit of the tactics of Houston.

And how good they are with the ball.

We often times are the are the dominant possession team and most of the matches that we play, and we enjoy that, and I think the guy's getting confidence from that. And then we go play against a team like Houston in Houston and now they have the ball for the majority of the time, and so I think that creates a level of disco.

In our group and creates a level.

Of lack of confidence that that ultimately hurts our team. So we've got to we've got to figure out a way to not allow that level of unconfidence discomfort come into our guys feelings and minds.

So I haven't addressed this, and we're gonna have Pablo on later in the week. I'll certainly ask him because this might be more of a question for him, and if it is, please go ahead and tell me. But you know, preseason, then the start of the season, whether I had coaches or players on a lot of the conversation was about this new system that Pablo and the new staff that he was given wanted to implement juxtaposed to what you guys tried to do over the past

I think, yeah, I mean, I think that we should always be looking for answers and we should always be willing to challenge ourselves on whatever the issue can be. But what I would say right now is that there has been a clear identification on one thing, and that's the work rate, and we can and those those numbers are right in front of your eyes. Some of the system talks, you can start to get into some of the grayness of a lot of things.

But when you have.

Players that are being tracked by satellites or wearing GPS modules on their backs, and when a work level and a running level reaches a low point or as below average, and every time you do that, you lose.

That's where you start first.

And so and like I said before, I think we need to be very simple and very clear about how we put ourselves in a position to win games, and that is to outwork our opponent. It's very very clear, Spence, It's actually shocking to go back and look at the data and align at data when it was below average and then align that with the results. It's shockingly clear. If our guys don't outwork our opponents, we lose, as simple as that.

So I've got to ask a follow up because this is the first time hearing of this, and maybe I'm the last one to know about it, but I'm interested to know what that tracking system looks like, what the ideology is behind it, and if you could shed any light and more details on how you guys are utilizing that to really identify exactly what your problems are.

Yeah.

So the players all wear GPS units on their back, some of them won't wear it just for you know, collective bargaining agreement type stuff. There's information that maybe they don't want everybody to know out there. For the players that don't their satellite tracking of their movements during every match. Oftentimes as a fan you'll see that because you'll see a player being subbed out, and it'll give you his total distance. Usually it's ten kilometers, which are usually between

So I'm very fascinated at this dynamic all of a sudden here, and I'm not going to ask you to put individual players out there, and I know you wouldn't need anyway, but as this data indicated that there are specific players that need to be spoken to in very uncertain terms and have some of the starting lineup starting eleven and substitute decisions in line with the players where the data reflects that maybe they're not working the way that they need to.

Yes, and yes, simple right, Yes, those conversations need to happen, and they will or have already happened.

And yes, some.

Decisions will be made based upon whether or not you run. And that's as simple as you can be. I think what you do is you make it very clear for the players that you know, if you're not in the lineup, it's probably because you haven't been working hard enough. If you're brought out of a game, it's probably because you haven't been running enough. And so it has to start

Have you considered putting a GPS tracking device on Trey during home games?

We have not. It probably would be a little bit more worthy or time time well spent to put a blood pressure monitor on him.

Fair enough, Hey, as a guy who wants upon a time, and I mean for me, number nine should be retired.

That's my opinion. But whatever, As a guy for a long time who wore nine.

For RSL and scored goals for RSL, are you getting what you need from Chico? And attendant to the question when the suspension came down, I talked to several people with the club and several people outside of the club that pontificated like this is the type of thing that derails the season. I'm not trying to be over dramatic or hyperbolic, but the fact of the matter is he's not playing the way he was prior to. He's not standing, you know, he's not finding the back of the net

I ever tried to.

But from a player and a leadership standpoint, are you getting what you need from.

Your number nine?

The message that goes to Chijo is the same that.

Goes to every other player in the group right now, that that exact same message that it has to start with the work It has to start with your willingness to do anything and everything possible for the team. It has to start with your commitment level. That commitment level, that work rate has not been to the same level that it was before his suspension. And again, you know what you're doing is you're being very simple and very clear to say if you give us that, the other

Interesting, well, yeah, I mean obviously you need them to find the back of the dead. I wonder if you could take us into the ongoing projects of breaking in new players. I mean, you guys had a busy transfer window. You took some very calculated risks, of course, getting rid of some players that were playing well for you for a premium and then bringing in players that you thought

But just walk us through this. Obviously, it's a process to.

Get teammates familiar with each other and acclimated to the altitude, acclimated to the community. All the things take time. I understand that where we actually with the continued to implement implementation of your five signings during the summer transfer window.

Well, I think what we've seen is we've seen good signs from all of the players individually and within the group, but not consistently yet. And so that's what I would hold on to. That's what we are holding onto that We've seen a game and and half of Diogo.

That was quite good. We've seen sixty.

Minutes from Jervane that was really good. We've seen Dominic come off the bench now at Houston and have a really positive contribution.

He looked bright.

We've seen Lachlan.

Probably arguably are only what I would say above average player at Houston was Lachlan, and so in a couple of games we've seen moments from him as well, but we haven't seen it, you know, over a stretch of a couple of games, and we haven't seen consistency, and we haven't seen the group altogether firing and all cylinders. So we've seen the snapshots, but now we need to see.

The whole movie. Do you feel like you're getting buying? Do you feel like you have trust in that locker room? I mean, you can't win trophies, You can't win much if you don't trust your teammates, if you don't trust your coaches, if you don't trust your coaching staff, and Jay you know the deal man when the results go the other way, I've got to ask you these questions. Do you feel like the group trusts each other?

Do you have the locker room.

One hundred percent? I mean I won't speak to the locker room is that's no longer my domain. My domain is the coaching staff, and my domain is what I think of the players based upon want to seeing the training sessions and the matches. And I don't see all the training sessions either. But we started the conversation with one thing that we're clear on. We are all still very much together in this. So absolutely the trust is

So when last we spoke, and I want to revisit

It's still ongoing spence, And I would say, you know, again, like I said last week, this is the time of the season that players either step forward or step back. Right, This is the time of the season. This is where big players make big players in big games. And so the answer is to be determined, and the opportunity is there for all the players to step forward and be counted.

All right, before I say you loose, tell me about Dallas. You know the record isn't great, they're outside the playoff line. But of course you know right now, it doesn't matter who you're playing. You gotta get three. You gotta get three at home. It's a big It's like a sneaky big match Jay tomorrow.

So tell me about Dallas. What do you guys.

Need to do to get all three? Take care of your home field.

This is a big game. It's not sneaky big. It's a big game. As in all of the games are going forward are big games for us because this is about making it into the playoffs and giving ourselves the best chance to win something in the playoffs, which means home field advantage. So every game is massive. Dallas is an interesting team because they had a good season last year. They came in this season and.

Really struggled to kind of find their way. They've had a lot of injuries.

With some of their most important players. From what I gather now, they've got all their best players back and are all healthy. They've been on a run of good form. So you know, it's a team that seems to be heading forward and we seem to be heading.

Sideways or backwards.

So it's time to arrest all of that. It is time too. As I said before, it's time to simplify, simplify and clarify, and it is time for players to step forward and make their mark.

All right, my guy, well be pulling for he is always. Appreciate the time today and get luck tomorrow. Okay, all right, buddy, take care Jason christ Rayel saw Lake. It's a big one tomorrow. If you guys are looking for something to do on a Wednesday evening, go to RSL dot com for single game ticket options. Excuse me, Dallas is in town and RSL badly needs a win now as a result of the recent slide. Rayel saw Lake is still in fourth. You need a top four slod to get

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Belliston Jewelry is located.

At one one five five thirty sixth Street right here in Ogden, Okay. Family owned since nineteen seventy three. So it's Belliston Jewelry. It's one one five five thirty sixth Street here in Ogden, ESPN.

Seven hundred. Van is right out front.

You can't miss us and joining me now, Joe Belliston. Joe, how are you doing, Buddy?

I'm great.

How are you, Spence, I'm good. Thanks for the time. So we had your wife Sydney on earlier. So this is a this is a labor of love. It's a family business, isn't it.

That's right.

Yeah, Mike, Dad actually started the business fifty one years ago.

That's awesome. Yeah, and now it's you and your wife running it as a team. Yeah, yep, exactly. All right, So it's blinging boom, right, I mean listeners can relate to that. So the women get the jewelry, the men get the guns and the AMMO.

So let's hear about the special.

We're doing here.

Yeah, we guys, we got you covered on this one. A lot of if you love hunting, even if you don't love hunting, you can get a handgun. I mean, if you like guns or if you just like loove camp or camping. We actually have good story from Smith and Edwards. So the way it works is, if you come into our store and spend twenty five hundred dollars, you'll get a five hundred dollars voucher to Smith and Edwards.

Under the sun.

Sure.

Yeah, it's a big store and for you big spenders out there, if you spend five thousand dollars here, you'll get a thousand dollars voucher to Smith and Edwards.

So twenty five hundred dollars purchase gets you five hundred dollars to Smith and Edwards. A five thousand dollars purchase gets you one thousand dollars to Smith.

Yep, and potentially out of the doghouse.

Too.

Good call, good call, that's right. That's right. If you are he's currently in a situation with your nick and a significant other that you need to make a purchase to make her happy and also make yourself happy, Today's the day to do that.

Yep, all right, Joe, So I asked Sitty about this.

I want you to I want to bring back this diamonds that I saw when I walked in and I looked at him like, that's got to be a sixty thousand dollars diamond, but it was about five thousand change. So you know, if you're a young man looking to potentially propose to your fiance and you want her to wear something where she's bragging around around town, that's the diamond to get, isn't it.

Yeah, I'm yeah, you're talking about a lab created diamond. Lab created diamonds have totally changed the jewelry industry, just flipped it on its head because you're able to get huge diamonds. I mean, it's it's unreal. Young kids these days are walking around with one, two, three carrot diamonds on their finger and it's commonplace.

Now.

I just want to know, we do sell your genuine mind natural mind diamond Yeah, we also sell lab created diamonds, and we sell way more lab created diamonds than natural mind diamonds, just because the value is amazing.

All right, So outside of I mean the rings everywhere, that's what you first noticed, you know, the engagement rings, the diamond rings. What are some other products that you guys sell her in the store you want our listeners to know about.

Yeah, we have our own line, our own unique line diamond or engagement rings that we sell. We call it the Belliston Love Collection. And we call it the Love Collection because when you look closely at a ring, there's always a little hole underneath each diamond. Well, our holes are heart shaped holes. I've never seen anyone else do that. I've been a jewelry designer, a CAD jewelry designer for seventeen years. That's my personal touch on it. And we have those on our Belliston Love Collection.

Love it.

I love that.

Man.

That's great. So it's Belliston Jewelry.

It's family owned. It's one one five five thirty sixth Street right here in Ogden, Blinging Boom.

Today.

With a twenty five hundred dollars purchase, you get a five hundred dollars gift card at Smith and Edwards. Five hundred dollars purchase gets you a thousand dollars gift card at Smith and Edwards. We're also giving away fan X tickets Usavers Canada hockey tickets, My Goodness, Dynamite and Rampage tickets as well. Belliston Jewelry, one one five five thirty sixth Street here in Ogden.

Joe, Thanks man, Welcome, thank you.

Coming up on the other side, we'll move over to Matt Brown from Extra Points some college football, well basically the rest of the show college football. Matt Brown, Scott Mitchell, Bill Riley, got you taking care of on a Tuesday. I we're live today Bellist Jewelry up here in Ogden. Want to see all my Northern Utah people today. It's one one five five thirty sixth streets. Just put that address in your GPS and then roll up. That's the easiest thing to do. We're north Ogden. It's one one

We've got a bunch of giveaways.

We've got some ute swag bags, some ESPN seven hundred tote bags.

All you could want.

Our next guest on a Tuesday afternoon, Matt Brown, Matt Happy Tuesday.

Do you want me to send you an ESPN seven hundred tote bag.

Well, you know, I think I'm probably good in the toepak department, but I'm I'm about to actually buy tickets to come out to your neck of the.

Woods in October.

Maybe it's going by and said you some postage.

Please do and then Roland Studio if you're available, what brings you out in our direction?

I am going to I'm going to do a story about your rivals to the South that I think is a very different kind of story than you would probably get in local media. I've got a credential or going to be getting a credential for the era people you Arizona game. But I'm going to try to be out in Utah for probably four or five days ahead of time because there's a lot of people I want to talk to.

I'm I'm gonna go.

I'm going to make that stretch. The weather's probably gonna be nicer out here if it is in Chicago, so I'll try to come by and say.

Hello, Yeah, that'd be great.

We'd love to have you in studio right downtown Salt Lake. So yeah, that'll be fun to have you out this way.

All right, A lot to do?

Where to start? Where to start. Okay, let's start here. The PAC twelve is the PAC twelve is back question mark. I mean, I don't really know what to.

Make of it.

I kind of feel bad for our friends up north as far as the Utah State aggies go. But since you and I last spoke, the PAC twelve has made some additions. So your thoughts on what has happened, Matt and what you think will happen next?

It was I don't mind admitting that this was a surprising development to me.

I had talked to a couple of people in.

Those Mountain West leagues, the Mountain West schools, you know, before the football season started, and while this scenario was certainly on the table, the expectation then was this is probably a kind of thing that happens after football or near the end of football. But because the way negotiations broke down over extending that scheduling arrangement, looks like the whole deal kind of happened in four or five days,

The last decade.

It's not like it's difficult for everybody to get those pitch decks, and when you're a league of only two people, you can move a little bit faster. I am happy that that branding in that league tradition can continue. I'm

I don't know if that's the best use for.

One hundred and fifty million dollars or whatever this ends up being. But that's why I write a newsletter and don't run a.

Conference fair enough.

So as far as the schools, there's a Memphis report, it feels like UNLV is obvious to get Vegas. Your thoughts because they have to get to eight, as you know, So who do you think they add, Matt Which schools do you think?

Dad?

Yeah? So what I had been told is that those six want to get in the central time zone at Memphis and Tulane, and they already hired consulting companies well before last week happened. My understanding is Rice has kicked the Pires on trying to be in this kind of conversation. I imagine there'll be other institutions too, but the appeal for Memphis and Tulane is more about market and more about recruiting territory than it is about academic branding or

Do you want to holler really hard for New Mexico or Utah.

State or anybody else?

I guess you can, but I don't know if if it matters that much.

So since we are, well, I'm on remote up north today, so I'm actually about twenty five thirty miles away from Logan. I'm not usually this close to Logan, but since we're in Utah, I will follow up. Even though I'm quite sure I know the answer. How many pegs have to fall before Utah State would potentially be a PAC twelve option, any thought, any chance the Aggies could get that phone call.

You know, I have not heard from any consultant or lawyer or dot edu email addressed person mentioned Utah State, and I've heard I think probably seven or eight schools mentioned at this point, So that probably has.

To give you that idea.

Is it impossible?

No, Utah State has.

Some advantages in that they've actually been competent at sports, but there's a lot of off the field turboil happening with that university athletic department right now too. Probably not the ideal timing for a less than stable realignment situation.

I would say it is difficult.

For me to imagine a world where Utah State is invited and Memphis and Tulane joined this week too. I think there had to be a lot of other people to say no before that becomes a thing.

Yeah, I'm gonna ask you an impossible question, what is the what does the future of college football look like for the Utah States of the world, And you know, the PAC twelve, the reinvented PAC twelve, I suppose is a safeish landing spot for those schools. And I'm sure a lot of the schools look at this as a step up in the right direction.

But then you know, it's a feeder system obviously with the big two is what.

It comes down to, and then the other two and you know, now we have this reinvented Mountain West Conference for schools like our friends up north, Matt, what's the future of college football look like for them?

I think the one. I don't know if there's any comfort to our brothers and sisters and logan, but I would say that, you know, you have more experience with being passed over despite what you're doing on the football field than many other institutions right as I understand it.

The other kind of elephant in the room here.

Is I don't think any of us really know what anything looks.

Like in five years.

I don't think it's a guarantee, but there's even a Big ten or an SEC football in five years. We could have a world where the college football playoffs separates or because of employment rules, or because of revenue sharing or something else, there's some sort of separation, and some

All you need to do is.

Win and keep supporting your team and showing up and you know, buying drinks at Maverick and whatever you got to do to help keep the department afloat. And then you're not in control anyway. So whatever happens in three or four years is whatever happens, which I get is not a super comforting response, but I think that's the only honest one I can get.

Oh, oh, madam Maverick joke for our friends and logans, Well, you have to know, maybe you do know this already. The reason why I'm not going to rebuke you for your Maverick. Joke is the best restaurant I've been told the best restaurant Logan, Utah is an Indian restaurant that's located inside of a Maverick.

Oh. I would absolutely never be smirch gas station cuisine. This is I mean, this is one. This is that's a staple of the of the South.

Like I I when I lived in Louisiana, I.

Could think of lots of places in Louisiana, Mississippi where I went to where the best restaurant was inside a gas station and that restaurant was good as hell. Like that's not damning with state praise or anything. I enjoy Maverick as much as the next guy. And if it's helping that company's bottom line, helps free up some extra money to go for other sponsorship deals, you know, then then then do that. Like I'm not going to sit here and pretend like like Tyson's Chicken is some kind

Been to Logan.

I don't I don't think I've been north of U more than thirty miles north of Salt Lake. But if I find myself in the neighborhood, I would be more than happy to try. It sounds great.

What I'd say is, don't put it on the bucket list. But you're run into the sweetest people.

In the world.

You know, they're they're very kind up there, so.

We're cheering for them and hopefully they can find some more stable footing. But let's move off of that, Matt. And ultimately, when we last spoke, I believe I informed you of a little chit chat I had with a former ute, a former NFL player and now a former assistant coach from Colorado, damed Trevor Riley.

And you know that interview got a lot of traction.

I'm told that he is currently with a pretty big time writer telling him the story that eventually will come out at some point. But you wrote on this for extra points. What was your take on what Trevor had to say? And kind of let's unpack the piece that you wrote.

Yeah, I had this earlier this week after our conversation. After listening to your interview, I filed some open records requests because whenever you hear somebody say I have email receipts to prove that I talked to Saudi Arabia about football fundraising. You know, my little antenna on my reporter brain perks up and go, well, I want a few those receipts. So I did, and I got a copy of the pitch deck that that Riley sent over to visit Saudi dot com and a message that was sent

Com, which is a little funny.

But I don't know if you've ever had to do ad sales to radio station. I've done this for extra points. Sometimes that's the best contact number to work with what you got, And clearly it got in some kind of conversation, I would say, based on the documents that I inspected, and based on the full text of the resignation letter, and based on some other conversations I have with people

I tried.

I tried to reach out to him.

I've I've there are other people I tried to reach out to that I didn't want to talk, which is fine, that's that's that's their business. Maybe we could talk more later.

Maybe that's uh.

Maybe it's Pete Daniel gets gets the gets the full look.

For me, it's more of just I don't.

Think this has ever happened anywhere before and uh, and certainly.

Not happened at this at this scale, and with somebody whose job title doesn't say nil, which makes it, uh, And this makes it, I think, really interesting and newsworthy.

So ultimately, let me follow up with this.

I mean, I love Trevor, but he's a lunatic and I've said that to his face and I would again, but he knows I love him. So I'm not saying this is the first of several attempts to inspire the Saudis to love college football. But I'm wondering if you think this could be something potentially that is on the horizon.

I mean, we've heard a lot of private equity.

There's a big gap between private equity and Saudi money, for sure, but Saudi's have already purchased pro golf, as I talk about often, and they have their tentacles in several different products like FS one and the Premiership and such. Could college football be high speed ahead to taking some of this dirty money to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots.

You know, it's an interesting question, and I've tried to do some actual reporting on this, and there's two things that have been pointed out to me from people that work in private equity and people that work in institutional fundraising. Is really over the last six months, it's been much harder for North American and Western European investors to get

All right, A couple of interesting pieces of news dropped in the NIL space earlier, So I was glad to see you on the rundown when my producer sent it over. So Brian Kemp, the Governor of Georgia, has signed an order that prohibits the nc double A or athletic conferences from punishing any university or college in Georgia for quote, offering compensation or compensating an intercollegiate student athlete for the

That's still in place.

What does this signal to you, Matt, this order that was signed earlier today by Brian Kemp.

I think it signals more that Brian Camp thinks it's politically expedious to wave his middle finger at the NC double A, and that somebody in Kirby Smart's office, you know, had his ear campus has been quick to charge to make sure that Georgia has everything that they need. It's part of why the guy has the nickname Governor Kirby Smart locally for this kind of thing. So I'm not surprised.

So last time you hopped on, we talked about I want to remember your phrase. I think it was down or fatigue, if I remember correctly, and some news came down actually a year or so ago. I was just pontificating on possibilities of what it would look like when these athletic departments had more cart blanche to start asking their communities for more money, or just implementing things that forces you to pay more money even if you don't want to. And Tennessee steps forward today to increase ticket

Is this the beginning of a trend?

Should college football fans and folks in college football communities who love to go to games expect their fees to be jacked up whether they like it or not, in order to start paying some of these players.

Probably in many markets.

And I do think it sucks.

And there's a calculated bet here that Tennessee is making that demand for volunteer football tickets is going to be so high, given that Tennessee is now a regular top ten caliber program compete playoff spots, that the demand won't be impacted if they jack up prices. Actually, I think I want to say they increased up by over fourteen percent, and they said that ten percent is part of this new talent fee. They're going to use the other money for something else, and they can get away with it.

All right, switching gears real quick because I wanted to, and I'm genuinely just curious. I think you're gonna be really good with this because obviously we're in the Big twelve footprint now and BYU was a year ago, but Utah has joined them.

And look, it's not the Big ten, it's not the SEC.

We know the deal.

And ESPN Fox whoever it is.

Their job is to put the best TV show on their TV station so you watch and.

They can charge for more AD spend.

I get the deal. But in two weeks, Matt, we have one kicktime for the Big twelve Arizona Utah eight point fifteen. It's a late kickout here for ESPN. None of the other Big twelve games, and.

There are six of them outside of Utah, so they're seven that day.

None of the other Big twelve teams have kicktimes, and we don't know the TV state. It's in two weeks. It's not in a month and a half, it's in two weeks. Can you walk us through why.

This is the way that it is?

As I understand it. Part of this is because because there's I want to say, there's like a literal draft between ESDN and Fox to see who gets you know what games where where they have they kind of share custody for for some of these rights, and there's there's a lot of horse trading and in a league where there is so much parody, Uh, what what?

What?

What the broadcast networks don't want to do is set a TV time six weeks in advance. Using Arizona as an example, Right, came in there as a as a preseason uh, legitimate candidate to win this conference. Uh, somebody who is expected to certainly be in the top three to play the first game against Kannadas State, they get they get whacked.

Right?

Is it possible that in three weeks Arizona is now a non entity in the Big Twelve race? And that their fans begin to check out. Yeah, that's that's that's certainly possible. Then you don't want to have made a huge commitment to putting the Wildcats in prime time, especially because maybe UCS, maybe Arizona State, who I don't know about you I thought was going to be got awful and now looks very common, or somebody else moves up.

Well played. Hey before I said you lose, I am disappointed in you.

Matt getting get in line, brother?

How did I do this time? Okay, so just last night we had to kick our friend off our techt thread who has an Android because we just we just sew over it and so we kicked him off. I've known him twenty five years. I met him in college. You are that guy on the text thread where it comes up as green and you ruined all of our days.

I didn't know this about you.

Well, I just literally switched yesterday and part of the same thing, like I'm in like a group chat with a bunch of other national college football people, and that was kind of the running joke was like I can't believe MAT's so poor that he can't have an iPhone and he has to have this weird bubble and like, I guess we all have to subscribe to extra points

That's hey, we're going to a concert tonight. He doesn't know about it, Matt, So welcome back to the real world, Buddy. Tell people where they can go find your work before I say you loose you bet.

Friends, If you enjoy stories about the office field, stuff that shapes college athletics, you can find it at Extra Points mb dot com. You can find me on Twitter, or if I'm hanging out I'm procrastinating doing real work at Matt brown EP.

All right, we're live today at Belliston Jewelry. It's one one five five thirty sixth streets right here in Ogden. Best thing to do is put that in your GPS and just follow it. Look for the ESPN seven hundred van.

It's right out front.

It's eleven fifty five thirty sixth Street, right here in Ogden. We have a bunch of giveaways giving away, free tickets to fan X, free tickets to.

US Canada hockey.

Man, those are valuable. I might take those home Dynamite and Rampage tickets as well. It's their Blingin' Boom Special. Porter. This special feels like it's right up your alley.

Okay. So if you're in the market, I'm not.

Saying you are, But if you're in the market for an engagement ring, they've got over two thousand different options.

And if you decide today's the day.

You spend twenty five hundred dollars on jewelry, you get a five hundred dollars gift card to Smith and Edwards. You you spend five thousand dollars on a jewelry purchase, you get a thousand dollars gift card for Smith and Edwards that they're Blinging Boom Special. She gets the jewelry, you get the guns in the AMMO. I mean, we might as well call this the Porter Larson Special.

Yeah, except I'm keeping the jewelry and the AMMO.

So that is that? Okay?

That's really selfish, man, that's really selfish.

I mean, it's a deal. I can take advantage of a deal, can't I.

Well, you can you can if you like?

Okay, fine, So I guess it is the Porter Larson Special because you get the jewelry and you get the AMMO and you get the guns. No judgment here, no judgment here, all right, Gonna bring in Scott Mitchell.

We also have Bill Riley joining the show.

So Scott former you quarterback on our broadcast now and obviously Ryle's the voice of the utes.

So Porter, we talked about this to start the year.

Friend of the show question mark Britain Covey, let's start there is Britain Covey still a friend of the show.

Yeah, Actually A messaged with Britt a little bit yesterday. I think he's still a friend of the show. Okay, guest of the show. I think in the somewhat near future. Yes, but maybe we're shunning him or he's shunning us at the moment.

Still a friend though, Oh he's definitely shunning us.

I mean he's been on the show multiple times. But I know he was out in Utah for his golf tournament because I helped him get a sponsor in exchange for an hour in.

Studio and he just ghosted us, as the kids would say.

But there was this cool video that surfaced of the Eagles training camp where a reporter asked Britain about playing wide receiver and he gave a Britain Covey answer, you know, as to why he uses his sizes at his advantage and how he wants the opportunities to potentially get some looks that way. And Philly last night was without look. Demante Smith is good. They're number one receiver is AJ Brown. Let's make no mistake about that.

And so as a.

Result of AJ Brown not playing last night, our guy, Britain Covey had six targets, which is as many targets and catches as he had prior to now. Twenty three yards. His longest reception was nine yards. He almost had a touchdown. But I thought that was pretty cool porter last night seeing Britain Covey actually catch some passes from Jalen Hurts.

I mean, just getting reps split out wide or at the slot is something that Britain has worked his entire life to achieve. Of course, we've seen him lead the NFL and punt returning now and be a productive and efficient playmaker at that position. But to see him catching passes from Jalen Hurts and as you mentioned, six catches on six targets and at the time, probably the biggest third down conversion of the night for the Eagles. It was awesome to see and hopefully we see only more

Vjon Robinson is awesome obviously Doak Walker Award winner at University of Texas. So Tyler Al's year after his rookie year, it looked like he might be the guy for them. Well he's backing up Vijon Robinson, but he had a couple of really strong series. Nine carries fifty three yards for Tyler, including a fifteen yard first down run that was big for them. And I was really impressed with Atlanta. I mean, you know, you could do a lot better, and you could do a lot worse than Kirk Cousins.

I think you could do better than Nick Sirianni.

But he did go to a Super Bowl and they were a Saquon Barkley drop away from.

Winning that game.

So credited Atlanta. It's not an almost league, it's a final score. You know, did you actually get out with the win league?

For sure?

In that final drive by Kirk Cousins shows you why a lot of people are very high on what Atlanta is doing, not just with Kurt but the succession plan of Penix.

Junior behind him. And it was a good win for them. Now they lost to the Steelers week one.

A lot of people believe that's because, you know, the Steelers DUOC is very familiar with Atlanta system.

I don't know.

I thought last night was a really really good football game overall. Good to see some of the local boys kind of going at it and getting some different type of reps. As Pro football comes to a close for Week two. All right, So some breaking news came down in case you missed it. The Dolphins have placed two a tongue of iloa on ir all right, So that

It's his fourth cushion in five years.

He had one in twenty nineteen Obama, and so it's another situation where we're watching him play and suddenly the hands start fancying. It looks horrible. It's my most unfavorite thing about watching football's when that happens. Skyler Thompson's gonna be the backup. He's gonna start on Seattle. But that's not necessary. I mean, I would imagine, you know, Miami's gonna look to make a trade, and maybe they trade for Bryce Young, who was just benched in Carolaina. Our

We'll see if Snoop can get a look.

I continue to be uncomfortable with the way this is covered, and maybe it's just me. I don't think it's anybody's place to tell two of that he has to stop playing football at the age of twenty six years old. Now, Rojo's point last week, which is well taken, is that Tua has already secured the bag. I mean, the money's guaranteed.

But ultimately it's just it's.

Hard to ask these guys to give this stuff up when if he was healthy, you'd have another decade doing it. But on the other side, if you already had the generational wealth, and you know look called how it is, you are doing what you do every day to try to find a way for you and your family to have a better life. You probably want to make more money. You probably want to build a business. You probably want to do something where you don't have to worry about

Of your family.

And suddenly, at the age of twenty six, you realize you have more than enough for this lifetime and the next four or five lifetimes if you invest the money correctly and if you're careful with it, would you keep doing what you were doing if it was compromising your health? I think the easy answer is absolutely not right. As I talked about last week, there is a thing with these guys.

I mean, they are different. They're pro athletes are different.

Man.

I'm sure there are several.

People, including my producer, who at one point, including me, at one point had a dream and a premonition of one day being a professional athlete when you're young, and then.

You run into these pros.

And for me, it was sixteen years old out a basketball camp when I ran into God Sham God.

At the time, you know, his situation was, he was a Providence commit.

He was a junior out of the East Coast and Sham God Wells was the name of the time. He's now God Sham God the assistant coach of the Dallas Mavericks. He was a rising junior who had committed to Providence, and I thought I was a really good player. And I realized then, like they're just built differently, they think differently,

It just does.

And when they walk away from it oftentimes, as we talked with Rojo about, it's tough, it's hard, you never get that thing again. You know, a couple of weeks ago, I think I was telling you I went in MC the dinner for the two thousand and nine RSL MLS championship team, and you have Kyle Beckerman, who was the captain US men's national team player, a bunch of other players as well, and then Jason Christ who joined the

I think it's tough.

I really do.

I would understand.

I'm not offense sit or you guys know that if you listen to the show, I think I would understand both sides of this thing. I think Mike McDaniel has guided them brilliantly through this entire situation, wanting more information about the help before you even talk about it as a player.

But Porter, before we catch your break, let me bring you on, Let me bring you in on this.

So we now have the information that he will be on the IR, meaning he misses at least four games, and that certainly isn't as important as how he is doing as a person.

But I haven't heard from you on the two of stuff this week. Let me hear your take.

Well, it's it's such a complicated in difficult topic because obviously all of us that love football and love the sport understand the set facts and the you know, the the developments that we've had in the last ten fifteen years on what the sport does to the human body, which is again not good. We can admit that we can we can now discuss it openly and we know

Probably?

But I just I just can never get myself, like you were saying, to get to the point where I tell someone or even really input my opinion on someone else's life decision. Where Spence there or maybe now there are thirty two starting quarterbacks NFL, but there are maybe twenty five starting caliber NFL quarterbacks in the NFL out of eight billion people on the planet. To get to that point takes a talent, a work, a life long

I don't know.

Those are really difficult questions you can only answer if you are that person. But I do think Spence, we we have the I guess, the knowledge, the science, and we know what his bank account looks like. That I would say, I safely would would probably walk away if that were me.

Yeah.

Man, that's a tough one.

Ultimately, it seems like such a good kid and a great husband and great dad. But you know, we'll see how it plays out, all right. Coming up during the four o'clock hour of the show, you're gonna hear from Scott Mitchell and then you're gonna hear from Bill Riley.

We got two hours down, We have two hours to go.

Reminder, tonight is the Kyle Whittingham Coaches Show, right after we say good night at six o'clock, it'll be Bill, It'll be Coach with a couple of you players looking back on the Utah State win and looking ahead to a big, big game on the road and still watered against Okay State, So stay tuned for that. If you miss Jason Christ from Matt Brown, good stuff today from both RSL is back in action coming up Tomorro against

So if you miss Jaydaday, some good, very honest stuff.

On the current situation with Rayl salt Lake, and then Matt Brown stopped by to discuss it. A couple of different things pertaining to the sport and the business side, specifically of college foot ball. Where in case you missed it, a couple of pieces of news in the NIL space broke earlier today and one of them is something to really pay attention to. Okay, I'm not saying this is going to happen, but my guess is it will happen

And this is not optional. Excuse me, this is not an option. This is mandatory.

So in addition to the ten percent increase on all ticket invoices, season tickets and single game purchases, as well as donations for that seat, Tennessee will add an average increase of four point five percent on all football tickets. So don't be surprised if this is commonplace. We talked a lot about what's being branded as donor fatigue with Matt, So some good stuff there, all. Right, before we catch a break, let's welcome in my buddy Doug from Farmer and Chemist.

Doug. Happy Tuesday man, How are we doing?

Bence?

Thanks brother, Happy Tuesday to you as well.

Appreciate your time.

So let's start with what you guys helped me out with, and that is my sleep issues. Not a great sleeper, never have been, not even as a kid. And you guys gave me some gummies, some CBD gummies that I've been taking out for a couple of weeks. And you know, I say this all the time, Doug. When you guys join us, Let's get you off the sleep manage. Let's get you off the ambient, let's get you off the benzos.

I love what you're saying.

That's exactly right.

We have created an amazing gummy that I don't like to call it magic, but it's kind of magic. It's thirty five milligrams of CBD, five milligrams of CBN, and four milligrams of THC.

And I say that too.

Does everybody know that with all of those kannabinoids in a pharmaceutical great gummy, then sleep really is improved.

We have just enough THHC.

But then the really the best part is that CBN and CBN is a cannabinoid that not everybody includes in their gummies and is really helpful with sleep as you're experiencing.

So the other thing, I've got this pesky tennis elbo because I golf way too much, and you gave me a balm of some sorts that has been super effective. Actually, keep a tube of it in my golf bag. So if I'm tiding up while I'm playing golf, I just lab it on and then rub it in and it actually really does help out. So let's talk now to people with muscle soreness or arthritis. How can you guys help them kind of alleviate some pain and maybe get them off some pain mets, get them off some opioids.

Yeah, if you think opioids or n sids like I have your pro center of OLTAAR and di clofinac, all of those have long term negative effects on our liver. And CBD alternatives, especially topical like you're carrying in your bag, are safe and tremendously effective. So what you're carrying is problem solved that has over two thousand milligrams of CBD plus CBG and even some THC in the salve. And the reason for that is CBG is an amazing natural

All right, Doug, before I set you loose, you know, I'm sure there are a lot of listeners that have heard about the benefits of CBD and are maybe confused, like, am I going to buy illegal drugs? Am I going in there and buying like a bunch of weed? Like, I'm sure we just have it's just lack of education. I didn't know about CBD before learning about it through

Yeah.

Thanks, that's a really great question. So Farmer and Chemist was developed by pharmacists. I'm a pharmacist, Jeff's a pharmacist. We have real chemists. Blake devises all of our products and creates them in a pharmaceutical grade lab here in the valley. So the best process is just to come into the store at seventy seven nineteen South Maine in historic Midvale and talk to our team there about problems that you're having and how we can help create solutions

Doug, you need to record vos for like metical dative apps. Man, you've got a very relaxing voice. I don't know if you've considered that as a side hustle, but I would consider it.

Well, we'll chat later.

You can help me out.

Thanks for the time, man, How are we going?

Okay, Hey, you have a great day.

All right?

We're live today Belliston Jewelry one one five five thirty sixth Street right here in Ogden. Best thing to do is put that address in your GPS, and there are a lot of reasons to come by eleven fifty five thirty sixth Street here in Ogden. We are giving away fan X tickets Usavers Canada tickets, Dynamite and Rampage tickets, and we have pizza.

Now.

Who doesn't love pizza? However, great deals on jewelry and guns, because that's what we do here at Belliston and Sidney. Belliston stops by once again, Sidney.

How are you. I'm good.

How are you doing?

I'm good?

So I asked Joe this, I'm gonna ask you for your your perspective. You know, I know nothing about diamonds. I know nothing about rings, and my guess is a large portion of my audience also does not know. So when you don't know about something, it's intimidating to go in and ask questions, right, yeah, because you don't want to be sold something that isn't good. Tell us about your Your reviews are amazing. You obviously do a great

So we have a really really good team of people that are trained really really well. So any questions that people have, they can feel comfortable coming in and know that whoever they talk to, we'll be able to answer their questions. We've spent a lot of time making sure that our employees are really well educated on the whole the whole process of all of that.

It's also different when you're a family owned business, right, Like, it just means a little bit more.

It's like a labor of love.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. We've also worked really really hard. My husband in particular in the custom design area. So right now we actually have five CAD designers on staff and three in store jewelers. So so whatever whatever people want, whether it's a ring or if they want a custom pendant or you know, whatever it is, my husband is actually designed like a like a gun shaft before for somebody and welded it onto their gun.

Oh wow, So wow, that's pretty impressive. Is he making you say all these nice things about him?

No, he's not.

Okay, all right, fair enough, all right.

So you tell us about this specially you guys came up with. It's the best of both worlds for any couple, for a man and for a woman's Yeah.

Absolutely.

The bling and boom event is what we're calling it. So anybody can come in and pick out twenty five hundred dollars worth of jelry and get a five hundred dollars voucher to Smith and Edwards where they can go pick out a rifle, a handgun, ammo. So they get the diamonds, she gets the diamonds, she gets the bling, and he gets the boom.

Gotta love it. And also, if you spend five thousand dollars, you get one thousand dollars to Smith and Edwards as well. Right, yep, absolutely, all right, before I set you loose, we were talking about with with Joe the Belliston Love Collection, which kind of is unique to you, well not kind of, it is unique to you guys, So tell our listeners about that sitting before I set you go.

Yeah, So that's.

Actually something Joe came up with a few years ago, and it happened to come up with a ring that he designed for me. Underneath every diamond there's a little hole where the diamond is set. And the way we design ours is that hole is instead of just being a circle, it's a heart cut out.

Cool.

So I've got I've got a ring that has quite a few diamonds in it and there's a heart under every single one. So it just makes it a little extra special that you know it's there. It's not it's not something that is obvious to everybody, but you know it's there, and it just it's a little more special.

That's awesome.

Belliston Jewelry, eleven fifty five thirty sixth Street here in Ogden. Come on by and say hi, Sidy, thank you very much. Okay, thank you all right, coming up on the other side. We'll bring in Scott Mitchell, former Utah quarterback, and to move over to Bill Riley after that Voice of the Youth. So two hours left in the show. It's more or less all college football on a Tuesday. All right, live today up here in Augden, it's Bellaston Jewelry. It's eleven fifty five thirty sixth Streets.

Come on bye.

With a twenty five hundred dollars purchase on Jewelry, you get a five hundred dollars gift card to Smith and Edwards. With a five thousand dollars purchase on jewelry, you get a one thousand dollars gift card at Smith and Edwards. Is the best of both worlds. She gets jewelry, you get guns or Ammo. Because America eleven fifty five thirty sixth Street is where you find us. We're giving away fan X tickets, US AVERSUS Canada tickets, Hockey Style Dynamite

Ever do it. You know him, you love him.

Scott Mitchell on a Tuesday afternoon. Scott, Happy Tuesday, buddy, How are we doing.

Excuse me, thanks, I'm doing wonderful spence. You know I was up in Ogden last week. I drove through there on my way to Logan.

All right, well, I wish you were back up here today, but we'll do it over the phone today, Scott, we'll do it over the phone.

I want to start with a question about two.

Before we get to the utes, which is where we'll spend most of our conversation. So news just came down, Scott. He's going to the IR so he's gonna miss four. And the conversation, of course, is should he just stop playing? Should he step away from the game as a father and as a husband who's already made generational wealth, is it something he should consider doing. I don't have the

Well, it's a history that you know, this isn't the first time, it's not even the second time, it's the third time, and you really start to have to ask yourself the question. There's a lot of history with guys who have had concussions. They start to get them and then they just they don't go away and they come back more frequently. Steve Young had the Troy Aikman Chris Miller back in my time, and so it's it's something that more than likely is never going to go away

I wonder some interesting stuff there.

And I was talking about this earlier, because ultimately, you had an experience that most of the rest of us who played sports growing up dreamed of having but weren't able to get there. You were able to get there, and you know, I talked to a lot of X pros. I work with a lot of X pros on the media side. I was on the team side for a number of years. Do you ever come close to experiencing anything, anything at all like you did when you were a player?

It always is interesting to me.

To witness former longtime successful pro athletes try to figure out what to do next, and even if they're successful in those endeavors, which plenty of them are, they never seem.

To find that thing. Man, you know what I mean. So give me your thoughts on that.

Well. The only thing that I've come close to feeling like when I played is some of the interviews I've had on your show. But they were close, they just weren't quite there.

Okay, I'm glad I can help fill the void.

Actually, one of the things that I really enjoy because you can't. There's nothing that I've not found anything that that replaces it. But I'll tell you something that was close, and it was coaching and coaching high school football even and it's one thing to go out and do it yourself, and and the enter, you know, the excitement of a game. And I don't care where you play, you know, or coach or whatever. Going out and playing in the game's fun.

Well said, all right, last pro football question, then we'll move on to some mute stuff. Britain Covey Scott last night, I got six targets, six catches, which equals the targets and catches he had had prior to last night. Now, no AJ Brown, that's Philly's wide receiver one, but that's still a crowded room. I got DeVante Smith some other

Yeah, you know, I've always loved Britain. I don't think they utilized him as effective as they could have at Utah. I mean, he's a in that slot position where you're not going up against the team's you know, shut down corner you're a little bit undersized, but amazing speed quickness. You know, he has that speed and quickness that translates to the NFL. He's a playmaker. He's a guy that can make plays and he's got a you know, he's just a tremendous human being. I mean, he's just a

All right, moving over the utes, let's uh, let's go back to last Saturday, Average Stadium, first time up in Logan in twelve years.

For the utes start out a little Harry and a lot of people were nervous.

You could definitely feel it, getting the text messages from buddies and family members like is this really going to go down?

But I is it answered some questions, Scott, I mean, I was proud of the kid.

It's weird to say, but you fans, of course, a little PTSD from a year ago, when you know Cam goes down, then Brandon goes down, and it was Bryson, then it was Nate, that it was Bryson and Nate, and it just it never looked. It never looked the way it needed to to be prepared for an emergency if you lose a couple of quarterbacks. And I think at least for one day, Isaac answered some questions about what it does look like should Cameron have to miss time?

So give me your thoughts on Isaac's performance against you here.

Well, we witnessed the Cam rising backup bull on Saturday, you know, between Bryce and Barnes and Isaac Wilson and Won the former and now the president, and you know that was that was the really big thing for me. Football. Football seasons are and games have emotional ebbs and flows and and you know, the whole the whole tide of the game kind of you know, it just it just changes all the time, and good teams, mature teams and capable teams find a way to kind of change that

So let's move over now to what Utah State was able to do and what you think it means as far as what Utah has to improve upon moving forward, because look, there were soul Faizan kid is a good back, but they're about to see Ali Gordon, who won the dok Walker a year ago nineteen carries one point fifteen.

Well, offensively, you know, it's being able to consistently go down the field and score. You're just gonna have to do that. You're gonna have to. You can't get shut down and go three and out four or five times in a game. You don't they don't have very many possessions even anymore in college football with the change of time, you can't get your defense tired. So and that's what Cam Rising is really good at is he can consistently

All right, Scott, before I set you loose, I mean, look, I hate to even say it this way, but if I told you that you had to place a sizeable bet with the Scott Mitchell quarterback NFL savings on whether or not Cameron Rising was going to play all season, my guess is you would say probably not. I don't know what the confidence level is around here that the kick can stay healthy.

I want him to, we all want him to.

So let's move over to Saturday and let's go under center with Cam, we all believe he is going to be the guy?

What do you hope to see from him?

Because the whole conversation I had it with you, I had it with other coaches, other people leading up to the season, is can you change the way that kid's mind is wired so that when he is in trouble he gets out of trouble as opposed to trying to make something happen. So from the standpoint of that, what are you hoping to see on Saturday? And then just from a big picture standpoint, what are we hoping to see from Cameron rising in still Water against Okay State.

Well, the thing I'm curious about is how much does this impact his ability to throw? I mean, he had a glove on last week. There's a lot of speculation that will wear a glove. Some quarterbacks have had a lot of success. Kurt Warner started wearing a glove all the time and really liked it. And I know, when you go from not wearing a glove to wearing a glove, there's just a time of getting comfortable and confident with that.

All right, Scott, thanks for the time. Buddy travels safe and I have a great call on Saturday.

Okay, I appreciate it.

Thanks all right, Scott Mitchell joining us.

Coming up on the other side, Bill Riley will stop by the Voice the Voice of the Utes himself, The Bill Riley Mullet Watch is on, by the way, time to catch up with a voice the Voice of the Utes, and the Bill Riley Mullet Watch continues as Utah is now three to zero. Ryle's happy Tuesday, man, How are we doing?

I'm not doing as good as you are in O town with your bling and your boom.

Look, you know me, I'm about the bling, I'm about the boom. I'm about America. I'm about football, you know.

You know me?

Bill, this is right down my alley, well it is.

And speaking of mullet Watch. It's only appropriate to bring mullet watch up as we head to Oklahoma State this weekend, where the guy that rocks the mullets from back when, back in his playing day is still rocking it today. Mike Gundhy is the head coach.

So we do need to reset Bill because you join me preseason. And I said, Bill in honor of Mike Gundhy, in honor of the Big twelve. Quite frankly, we're gonna see a lot mullets this year, Gay, more mullets than we're used to. Will you agree to grow a mullets if utahgoes twelve and oh?

And your response was.

Absolutely yes, sir, grow a mullet out. I will party, you know, business upfront, party in the back if the utes go twelve and zero on the regular season that spends check its is my pledge to you, and I will come out on a remote bling and boom or non and we will sport that mullet next fall we have to play. I'll rocket the entire off seat. Well I won't say the entire offseason. I'll rock it to a point. But you can be the judge and jury of how long I keep the mullet.

Bro you almost just buried yourself. I was not expecting you keeping the mullet all off season, but you almost put that on the table.

That's why I just let you go. I want to see if you'd actually do that.

The fact of the matter is the remote that you need to come on when you have your mullet is the blinging boom special.

It feels right.

Well, you know, we probably should move it up to Smith and Edwards. I think the mullet probably fits better at Smith and Edwards than it does at the jewelry store.

Fair enough, fair enough, moving on.

I just wanted to re establish the Bill Riley mullett watch on our little radio show.

Here all right, Bill, I thought Isaac answered a lot of questions.

Man.

I thought he met the moment. I was skeptical. It didn't look great against but Baylor. It didn't look great to st But I sounds weird to say. I was prid of the kid. Man.

I thought he answered a lot of questions on Saturday. What are your takeaways?

I thought he looked really good. It's amazing with you know, another week of practice, when you get most of the reps and you know you you get you know, you know the game plans yours. I just thought he was really good. You know, he was a little I won't say shake yet. I think he was just there were some nerves early when the ball was sailing on him, but once he got dialed in, you could really see him. And you know, there were two throws spins he made

Yeah, no, I agree with you.

So, you know, with the sensitivity of injuries, shout out coach Lud. I know they don't talk much about them. I just I need to know where we're at with Cameron on a Tuesday. All the intel I have, all the intel most people seem to have, is that he is good to go. He's planning on playing quarterback against Okay, Stayton still Water, you're the voice.

What's the update?

They do the coaches show tonight. So I'll be heading over to the facility in a little while. I'll get a better update. But I think Dorian Singer said to the media yesterday, maybe the Josh Furlong from KSL, that he was expecting Cam to play this weekend. So I'm not sure if Dorian got the memo, the Ambulandwig memo and the Kyle Whittingham memo about not talking about injuries, but I think he build Josh Furlong he's expecting Cam to play. So I'll have better feel for tonight. I

Okay, fair enough.

That's kind of how we're operating on the show as well. So recently, Bill, you became a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, so I want to ask you a question about obviously a kid, Bill's been a lifelong Chiefs man. I felt about Utah the same way I felt this weekend about watching the Chiefs.

I never thought they were going to lose. Were you ever nervous on Saturday?

Did you feel like it was getting to the point where this upset could potentially go down? Uh?

No, I didn't. I just thought Utah was better. I thought Utah State treated it like it was their super Bowl, and they played out of their minds, and Bryce and Barnes made some really nice plays, and I thought they schemed things up really well. But I never got the sense that they were going to be good enough for

Dude.

At this point, you should watch Chiefs games with no anxiety. In my opinion, they just always seem to figure it out. They'll stub their toe here there, they'll be there in February. They're probably gonna win the damn thing again. But anyway, moving on, I don't mean this disrespectfully to Rashul Faison, who is a very competent back. He goes for a buck fifteen. But Utah's about si Ali Gordon, all right.

Well, it's funny because you can't really just luging. Alan Bowman a good quarterback. Now, he's as old as Cam Rising. He's played more football than Rising. But he's good, and they've got good receivers. They're pretty balanced. But yeah, you're always gonna hear coaches. He'll probably say it on the Coaches Show tonight. Get to stop the run first and Oli Gordon ran for seventeen hundred yards and twenty one touchdowns a year ago up to a little bit slower

So just to follow up, is the anticipation that Utah goes to still Water without Karena?

I think so.

I saw him last week and he had a walking boot on, so my anticipation is, yes, that's probably the case. I don't know. Again, I haven't been over the facility yet this week, but when I saw him last week, he was in a walking boot and said it might be a little while, So we'll see what happens.

Okay, all right, So as of now, I kind of feel about the running back position as I do about the quarterback position.

It's pretty clear mackay is the guy. But the more and more I watch Mike, I think there's a lot to like.

So does it feel like it settled into Mackay and Mike and then maybe with a side I'm not going to do the mustard joke I almost did, but with a side of Dijon Stanle outside of those two, does that feel like that's where we've landed?

Yeah? I think so.

I mean McKay has established himself as running back one, and really Mike Mitchell has been good. He's just got a I think Kyle's noted it a couple of times. He's got a little bit of a nagging ankle thing that will flare up during games. But I thought he ran really well last week. I really did. I thought he ran the ball really really well. He had seventy five yards, made a tough inside running. But yeah, I think those two have established themselves as RB one and

Let me follow up about Jalen who we saw go for a bucko seven against Colorado last year. We saw him with a really good game and a tough win against UCLA a year ago. And you even go back a couple of years, you know, twenty carries seventy six years on the polue in a big win thirteen sixty to a touchdown at Colorado. We've seen Jalen Glover play the running back position at Utah very efficiently at times.

Hearing that, I don't know. I think it's a crowded room as much as anything else. I think Jalen is one of those really solid running backs, but a couple of the other guys might just have a little bit more juice. But I don't I haven't heard her known anything that would say anything otherwise. I just think right now that Mitchell is a young guy who really if he would have played last fall he kind of red shirted last fall, might have popped just a little bit.

You know, Bill, most smart people who follow sports know that basketball players just do it better.

You know.

That's not me, that's other people that follow sports. So I mean, it's just kind of a decent take here. I gotta say, man, first of all, respect to Caleb or even trying this.

You know, basketball player at Utah.

BYU and Baylor, and I can remember watching him all the way back in high school and just thinking like that kid is an absolute beast of an athlete who needs to learn how to play basketball at a high level, just with a more complete skill set as he decides to level up. If he ever wants to be a pro basketball player, he's got to just get He's never had a great feel for the game overall.

He was never a great shooter and never a great pastor.

But what he was is an insane athlete that would dunk on your head and go get fifteen boards, you know, while napping through a game. So the skill set translates. I give him a ton of credit for trying this beautiful ball from Isaac. Another red zone target for Caleb. It feels like coach Coach loved. They've got themselves a pretty special red zone weapon, doesn't it.

It does?

And he just the athleticism pops. I love the fact that they called that plate dunk. We talked to him after the game and Isaac said, they called that plate dunk, so it's throw it up to the big guy and let him go get it.

The funny thing is.

Two spence when you see him running around and you don't see it as much in the game, but you're a little bit more in the game now. But when I saw him running around to practice this fall, he just looked. I mean, he doesn't look out of place. That's the weird thing. Is he as fluid yet as Brand Keith, he will know. But Brand's, you know, an All American caliber tight end. Caleb Loner hasn't played football since seventh grade. Seventh grade was the last time he

So through three games, Bill, I always talk about this up until conference starts, and then even maybe the first couple of games of conference play, when I just say, observation out conclusion, you know, like that's why I wasn't concerned about Isaac. You know, after the SUU and then the Baylor game, I said on air it had to be better, and it did, but it was I mean, what you look for, as you know as well as anyone, is just week by week improvements.

Are you seeing through three games? Have you seen week by week improvement?

And attendant to that, what do you feel like you're confident today to say that you know about Utah through three games, and what do you feel like needs to get better?

Well, I think, well, it's just a quarterback play, meaning pick one guy. But I think we get that back to I think we get it back this week with Cam Rising. Although I will say, and back to your point we started off talking about Isaac Isaac Wilson. I think if you're a Utah fan, you're got to be thrilled with what the potential for the future is. And it's always kind of been year to year when quarterbacks left, it's like, what do we have coming with us next one?

This week, all right before I say you lose. You is now a two point favorite. That could change. That line has moved like four times, opened up slightly in the direction of the Cowboys, uh swung the way of the Utes.

It's now settled Utah minus two.

Never been to Boone Picking Stadium, never been a stillwater maybe one day if dreams come true. But what ultimately do you feel like Utah needs to do to go on the road and get what would be a massive early statement win to the rest of the Big twelve.

Well, I think they need a good start spence. They can't fall behind like they did to Utah State, because that place is going to be loud. It's a little bit, just slightly bigger than rice Ecles, but it's right in that same range. But it's loud and it's it'll be full. And those are those are the Oklahoma State fans, a great fans. So I think Utah offensively, you know, needs

All Right, Ryles, appreciate the time man, save travels and have a great call.

Okay, all right, thanks Ben Bill Riley, Voice of the Utes. Coming up, Utah is going to still Water two o'clock on Saturday.

That game is actually on Fox.

You can listen to it on our radio station as your Home of the Utes, with pregame coverage beginning at ten am.