But it's time now to bring in former Utah quarterback, former NFL quarterback. Always a pleasure to catch up with Scott Mitchell. Scott, Happy Monday, sir. How are we doing.
I'm doing wonderful. I felt like last weekend's college football was Oprah Winfrey giving the top fifteen teams losses. You get a loss, and you get a loss, and you get a loss. It was like everyone who is important, including Alabama, loss this weekend. It's crazy weekend in college football.
Yes, certainly, And it feels like Scott, let's start with this from a macro standpoint, if we can look at this as good news for Utah fans, there will be multiple teams in the CFP that have multiple losses and not just one and two, maybe even three and four with the way this stuff is going. Would you agree with that statement as of now?
Yeah, I mean it's weird because most of the conferences have, like, you know, sixteen teams, fourteen sixteen teams, and so they're not necessarily all playing each other. Maybe these teams are playing harder teams now because they know, hey, I can have a couple of losses and still make it into college playoffs. Maybe it's nil. Maybe the talent is just
spreading around the country and there's more parody. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of factors that go into this, because you don't really feel like, Okay, there's just one team. You know, maybe it's Texas, maybe it's Ohio State that are the best teams in the country. But beyond that, you know, it certainly is pretty wide open, which should give you a hope. You get in the playoffs and you go, look, we don't have to beat this team
every week, but we can beat them one week. And everyone's kind of proven that that they can at least lose at one time, and that that's that's kind of exciting. It's something that will be fun to watch it and it can be very competitive. But as far as it relates to Utah, man, you got you got to you gotta be a little bit relieved. You got to feel like, Okay, hey, we you know, we kind of screwed it up in
our game against Arizona. But look at Alabama, I look at some of these other schools, and the reality is is it's it can happen to anyone, and it really can. I mean, I've seen this at all levels and all teams, they just have at tonight when it's just not their night.
So game week for the Utes, Friday night, it's a late kick fan duel has Utah's a six point five point favorite even though they're on the road. The line opened up Utah minus five, and it's gone the way of the Utes a couple of different times. Let's start with this, though, Scott. Over the weekend, I talked to somebody up on campus and Coach Wig just alluded to
this in his media this morning. This is not set in stone, but I'm told that there is a field that if Cameron can't go on Friday and it's Isaac again, that they're getting close to just giving Isaac that job. Give me your take on that, because for me, I still believe for them to win the Big twelve, Cam has to be under center. And it's not Isaac's fall
these eighteen he's a freshman, just enrolled in school. But Friday night, you're calling the game, and if the first team Oh runs out and it's Isaac Hunters center as center and not Cam, do you feel like we're inching closer and closer to the day where Coach Wait and coach Love and those guys just need to give Isaac the job and just roll with the young kid.
Well, if that's the case, then this injury is much more significant than we think, and it hasn't appeared like it it is. Watching Cam he looked terrible warming up against Oklahoma State and looked better against Arizona. I would be really surprised if he doesn't play on Friday. He clearly from experience, from ability, you know, gives gives Utah the best chance to win, you know, if he's healthy.
But if it is Isaac, and if they do start going that direction, it's one of those you know, it's like, no matter what with a young quarterback, you're just gonna get good and bad. Like so last week against Arizona, the bad part was the team is not It's kind of like in a funk and a veteran quarterback will kind of rally the troops and Cam Rising would rally the troops, and Cam Rising would say, Okay, we've got to go win this game in the second half or
win this game. And there were plenty of opportunities in the second half for that to happen, and it just didn't. It's just it's like the young quarterback team just kind of accepted its fate and they just they just weren't able to get anything going. And that's just youth and that's inexperienced. And that game against Arizona is the perfect example of when you need a Cam Rising. So you're
going to go through more of those times. You know, if Isaac does play, hopefully you'll see that, Okay, go win a football game mindset from him moving forward when they really need it, because the quarterback is the is the biggest difference maker in college football. And that's that's what Cam Rising was. I mean, there were so many times he made incredible plays and it was just Cam Rising making plays through the years when you so I won back twelve championships, uh, and it was him going
out and winning football games. And and that's a guy who's a leader, who's confident, who is mature, who's who's ready to do that. You know, freshman right out of high school, that maturity level just isn't quite quite there. So you're if you go with Isaac, you're just going to have ups and downs and and hopefully you just see progress. And if you see a lot of progress,
and you go. That's really exciting because you get you take your lumps for a year with Isaac, but then you have three, you know, two or three years, however long he stays in school, whatever he does, then you have a lot of time with him where where you're going to have that mature quarterback. You're going to have that difference maker, and that's huge. It's huge to a team and it's hard to kind of go through those pains as a team with a young quarterback, but it can pay dividends down the road.
At what point, Scott, in your opinion, to somebody who played the position, and you know, put yourself, I suppose in the shoes of both Cam and I Isaac, at what point do you think the right time is to just give Isaac the job? Is it Friday? If Cam's not ready, do you still wait? I mean, part of me believes that whenever Cam's ready, he's got to be back on her center, even if that's not for another
three or four weeks. Then the other side of me believes that Isaac probably if he's going to be the guy needs the reps with the ones period and if it's going to be his job, then let's just move on with it. What's your opinion on that?
Oh man, it's a hard you know, there's an argument that you know, you don't lose your job because of an injury. There's some coaches. Bill Belichick just went away from Drew Bledsoel, who was a phenomenal quarterback. I mean, he was one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL when he was benched for Tom Brady, who was kind of a seventh round nobody. And for a lot of time, I think a lot of people go, Okay, well, Drew Brett so when he comes back, is going to be
the guy, and it just never happened. And I think so much of it is a coach just making a decision on who's the guy that gives us the very best chance to win. Historically, Earle Morale comes in for Bob Greasy and you know, leads the Dolphins to a perfect regular season and then gets benched in the playoffs and Greasy wins the Super Bowl for him. So you know, maybe it is a combination of both of those things.
But I'm more like you. I really think you go with the guy with the most experience to give you the best chance to win today and developing is really for teams that are not very good, right, and this Utah team, as you point out in the beginning, has a shot to go to the playoffs and it's anybody's game there. And I think that's something that really should be the ultimate goal for this Utah team is we
got to win today. We got to win now. We've got to put the best players on the field that give us a chance to do that.
Here comes the most obvious statement in the history of sports DOOC radio. If you're a quarterback, you need a healthy hand. If you're a kicker, you need a healthy foot. So there it is. But Scott is somebody played the position. Help us understand the mechanics of why it is so challenging for cameraon to get the zip back with an injury like he has to his hands and his fingers.
Yeah. See, I've kind of gone the rounds with this. And you know, some guys have shoulder injuries or other injuries and and you know, separations and they're able to play. I had I had a third degree shoulder separation on my throwing shoulder when I was playing for the Miami Dolphins. And I came back after five weeks and my arm was a rag, but I was like, I don't care.
I want to play and help our team. You know, we were one of the top teams in the NFL at the time, and and I had a chance to go be a free agent, so I was highly motivated to play. When you have those injuries, it's just it's it's kind of an individual thing. Like some guys, some guys are really good at tolerating pain, like like their pain threshold just really good. And other guys are kind of wooses, and it's just like it, and you can't pick who they are, you know, It's just it's almost
a personality thing. It's almost just how we kind of deal with with pain. I know myself, I know a lot of guys played with a lot of pain, and I'm sure that that that's happening here. I don't know that Kim probably this year, will ever get to where his hand is totally free. But to me, those two fingers, your middle finger, your your ring finger, you know, I don't know that they have You know that they're the
most important thing that you have. But when you're when you're a highly trained athlete, a football player, at least for me, the slightest variation in something could really throw things off, because you're so acutely attuned to your body and you know how it functions, and and you feel so many things, and you know, just a slight variation on your wrist when you release a pass changes its trajectory, you know, and you don't almost subconsciously do it, you know.
So there's just these really fine things that happened that that could easily be thrown off. I would imagine it would affect him, But I would also know that when you get out in a game and you get that adrenaline flowing, it just you kind of throw it all out the window and you just you deal with the pain after the game's over.
So ultimately, as you know, you can't simulate a game, right And so if if Cameron's cleared, ye are you expecting some Russ to start? Does he have enough experience under his belt that he should be good to go, or you know, after taking a few weeks, not taking a few weeks, after missing a few weeks via injury. What's a reasonable expectation for Cam should he be under center on Friday night?
Well? Cam, Cam's game has always been he's mobile, He makes a lot of plays with his legs, and that's that's the biggest thing that's you know, you just don't have you just don't have game shape. You know, there's there's a thing they just called it. He's in game shape. You may be in physical great condition, but there's a different condition to a game. And the only way you
get that is by having games. I mean, that's part of why they have the non conference games, preseason games in the NFL, so that when you hit the regular season, you've had enough game experienced tempo to where okay, I'm ready for it. And it does. It takes. It takes some time when you've been out. I mean he's been out, I don't know almost you know, a season and a half now and that and that's that's hard. I mean the experience, you know, riding a bicycle, thing that's there,
but the physical nuts is not. And and it's an adjustment. It's you can get by a lot on your savvy and your experience and your especially with what I think this team is because I think there's a lot of good players. They just haven't been totally assimilated into things. Because you have a young quarterback and you know, money parks and the tight ends and some of these other wide receivers are just not quite getting the same touches that I think they would if Cam was in there.
And you can kind of rely on those guys more than you rely on your legs and as you're kind of getting into game shape. But the leadership, the savvy, I would take that, with the rust and the and the maybe not having game condition just yet.
So Scott, it's safe to say, and the data says as much that the offense you know, with Isaac has just has it hasn't been good enough. And of course it's not all on him, and it's hard to put any of it on such a young kid who enrolled in April. But one hundred and eleventh in red zone, one hundred and thirteenth and third down conversion? Are these
problems alleviated instantly when Can comes back? And attendant to the question is in the meantime, as long as it's Isaac, what can be done to make this offense look a little bit more efficient starting Friday night?
You know one of the things, well it let's just take the red zone to start with. The reds Z is easier to score the further you're out. So maybe from like the twenty to the maybe the twelve, take your shot in the end zone because they still have to cover the field and it's easier to get those throws into the end zone. It's one way, and we used to do it all the time in the NFL, and there's certain coverages you can almost predict to be one hundred percent when teams get in the red zone.
And so if you get that coverage, you really like it and you take your shot, you know, twenty yard line, two, about the twelve, thirteen then and then like last week where they got to the nine yard line, which is a kiss of death, like first and goal from the nine, it's the longest you can go without getting a first down. Where Utah has done really well in the past, even with Cam Rising, is they've run the football and you've got all these tight ends and all these people and
it's like just this is big boy power football. This is who you are Utah. You know, make a commitment. If you're right there, just run it. Don't try to cause it's so hot, hard to throw in those tight situations, and it's it's it's amplified by ten when you're a young, inexperienced quarterback, like you just don't know and or or if you're going to throw the ball to Caleb Loaner, understand how how to utilize where his asset is and
that's throw the ball high. But it's not it's not that simple because in a game situation, you've got all the stuff coming at you and and you throw it too soon or throw it in accurately. You've got to really be a little bit patient and let him get position and then throw in the football. And that just takes time, It takes practice, it takes talking to but
whatever you do, like be committed to it. It just felt like Utah was kind of, well, we'll try this, we'll try that, we'll try we'll kind of try all these things. And and they're just a little bit better when they you know, they's like take your shots the end zone, further out, run the ball when you get close, throw the ball up the kick cause it's it's it's a real weapon that they haven't totally utilized with Caleb Loaner. And then the third down, third down, believe it or not,
spense is kind of easy. You got to win on first down, you win on first down. So whatever the defense is giving you and a lot of Utah is getting kind of this pressure look on early downs. So if you've run the ball or throw the ball, whatever you do, succeed on first down, because then you make third down short. If you ever get to third down, and then there's a lot more you can do. You can you can throw the ball, you can run the ball. You can run the ball if it's third and short,
run the ball again on fourth and short. But it just makes it a lot easier. The percentages go in your favor if you win on first down.
So, if it is Isaac on Friday, what sort of game plan are we expecting. You've talked a lot during this interview about just stick to your identity and commit one.
Way or the other.
Are we going to see Coach Love maybe continue to give Isaac more space. Do you look at what happened against Arizona and reel the playbook back to simplify to maybe just run the football more and look like a football team? Who's head coaches Kyle Whittingham. If it is Isaac on Friday, what do you think the offensive schematic attack looks like?
Scott so usually in bye weeks. You kind of look and you go, who are we what's our identity? Who what are we known for. We're tough, we're physical, We're going to run the football, and I would I would anticipate that's what Utah's You know, we've got to stop the run. Arizona State it's a very good run team. So you got to stop the run. You got to run the football, and that's that's where it's going to focus. And so everything offensively plays off of the run, and
that means play action. But if you're going to run the football, you better expect that they're going to bring pressure the run pressure. They're going to put more guys in the tackle box than you have there to block, and so you've got to have answers to that. So you do get that win on first down because teams know if we can stop Utah on first down, we pretty much are going to lock down and so that
first down becomes huge. So bringing in the extra blocker or bringing in more tight ends on early downs play action. There's a lot of throws that Utah has, especially to the tight ends in the short to intermediate area on early downs that have always been a really large component of this team, so I would expect seeing a lot of that. And the other thing I haven't seen a lot of is wide runs. You know, where's where's de
John Stanley? Or money parks on these sply sweeps and these reverses, because there's so much of the run has been straight ahead into the inside and maybe you'll see a little bit more of that as it goes forward. But everything. If I'm a betting man, which I'm not, but if I was, I'd say that's what Utah probably would do.
Tell me what you've seen from Isaac when he throws his ironts, because statistically, one hundred and thirteen FB quarterbacks have less than seven picks, and Isaac is right there when it comes to the national rankings with seven interceptions. It's never on one person or the other. Are you seeing bad decisions? Are you seeing broken routes? Are you seeing a rushed young quarterback?
What?
Scott, from your trained eye do you see when Isaac throws the picks?
So a lot of it is you predetermined in your head where you're going. You've practices play all week in practice, and you've just always thrown it to this guy, and for whatever reason, the defense, and you just don't have enough game experience to know, well, they changed the coverage on you. So you've got to see what they've changed and you've got to adjust accordingly. And so a lot of the throws, a lot of the interceptions have been kind of he's predetermined in his head where he's going
with the football before the play actually happens. And that's and all quarterbacks have done it. I'm guiltiest charged too, where you have to see the play when when it actually develops. And then the other thing is, you know, you're in high school and you can get away with certain throws and and here at this level, there's there's you just can't. And you're also in an offense. In
high school, he throw ball fifty million times. It's like if you throw an interception or two, it doesn't matter because you're going to throw a whole lot more more touchdown passes than that. And so there's there's been a little bit of a cavalier casual attitude about some of the throws, and a lot of those have been down in the red zone where you're you're just you're not seeing what's really going on, and you're you're you're you're
not making the clients row. And so it's so much about you have to see the picture as it unfolds. You can't predetermine anything in your head and then you just react off of that picture. And that that comes through practice and repetition and experience and time. But a lot of his a lot of his interceptions could be avoided and and we will in the future. If they don't,
then then he's not your guy. Because if a guy can't learn from that and grow and develop, then you can't really trust that guy to be on the field and not throw interceptions.
All right, Scott, before I say you lose, The Arizona narrative leading into the game last Saturday was they wanted to make it a get right game after getting trounced by k State. They had to buy and then they rolled into rice cycles and they had to get right game. In the Scott Mitchell opinion, a get right game for Utah on Friday night looks like what.
Well, you know, when you have a bye week. Sometimes you go, oh, we don't want to have a bye week because we're on a roll. In another case, like what happened to Utah? Now we need a bye week? So we can get back into rhythm. And I'm going to go back to what I said earlier that a get right game for Utah stopping the run and running the football and everything else. This has been a Kyle Whittingham staple. I swear he says it to himself every night before he goes the bet and when he wakes
up in the morning. We're going to stop the run and we're going to run the football. And that's who he is and that's who this team is. And you go back to those basic things about playing aggressive, keeping it simple, letting guys fly around the field and just react and just go play, come off the ball, and just just kind of knock them in the teeth. That physical play is what Kyle's been really known for, and that, to me, is what it will take for this team to kind of get back and get right.
So are we talking double digit win? Are we talking cover the spread? Are we talking get the hell out of Dodge with a win? What does it look like Friday?
Well, it's always, you know, win, But you've got to be explosive offensively in this league, in college football in general, the rules the way everything is. If you can't score thirty points in a game. I don't believe Utah's defense is is dominant enough to just hold people down and win those close ones. So you gotta score if you score thirty points, so you can still run the football and score thirty points. It's not five.
Mike drop from Scott, little dial tone action. It's all good. It's all good. We got to get a break anyway. Appreciate Scott's time. Utah football is back this week. Our pregame coverage on Friday will begin at four thirty, so it'll make our show here on the afternoon a little short. Then Porter will take care of you. Up to Up to Kick with Bill, Scott and Sly Live in Tempe, Utaie six point five point favorite. As of now, that line's moved a couple of times. Eight thirty is your
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