You know, love man, it's official. I have to grow a mustache. I have to. You had one rocking for a while. You still have it a little bit not near as front facing as it was.
And everybody who's cool.
Right now has a mustache, including the guy sitting across from me. You can see him on YouTube with sunglasses on inside, Chris Comroddie. I don't think I look good with a mustache, but I feel like I have to grow one now.
Well, this is more just a My facial hair grows so intensely, so quickly that I have to like think ahead. So I'm thinking ahead to Thanksgiving. We're going out to California to be with my family out there. Lovely, I know there's gonna be nice pictures taken. My facial hair isn't necessarily the kind that's easiest to trim, even with a beard trimmer, uh huh. So you have to do controlled burn Sometimes you have to burn it down and then predict where it will look two to three weeks out.
So this might look this way now, but give it two weeks and it'll be be part of be part of the forest once more.
The hair and the hair on the head, the hair on the face.
Yea, and mine grows fast, but I don't think it grows near the way yours does.
No. I mean, there's a reason why I don't cut my hair is because when I have short hair, I have to get a haircut every three weeks.
Otherwise it just starts to look bad.
So I save money on a leaf ton of haircuts.
And it's just it's just easier. Dude, you look good on YouTube. You look like that.
You look like the lead singer of an indie rock band.
Well, I mean, if we're gonna be talking about Colorado, I guess it makes sense that I'm wearing my sunglasses inside.
It does. We have four people watching the YouTube stream.
Now, can we get to Can we get to double digits before we get you out of here?
I say, let's try to get to six before next break.
All right, we'll try to get to six. We're on YouTube now. Check out ck looks like he came straight from Randy's records. He's rolling in with sunglasses inside. He's got a great mustache. Championship, Vinyl championship, vinyl nice pull, good pull. All right, Where to start? Where to start? Where to start? Well, we obviously have to start with what happened last Saturday night at Riceycle Stadium is We were both there as members of the media, hard working
members of the media, saw you. The press box, had a lovely conversation. Let's just start macro macro viewpoint, how'd you digest Saturday night?
From which point of view?
Just your overall takeaways? We can start, I mean, we can do the I can ask you specifics if you'd like.
I'm just start to finish.
You know, I'm not smart.
I'm not smart enough to give a huge macro view, So I'm going to start with Utah.
Okay, does that work? Utah takeaways. Let's start with Utah takeaways.
Played their best game of the year for what was it, fifty two minutes maybe a little less. They gave BYU everything they could handle. The defense looked like the type of defense that everybody believed to be the best defense in the Big twelve and one of the best in the country. But again, as we talked about last week when we were at Smiths, I felt like Utah had to turn the ball over in or like turn BYU over in order to have a chance. They lose the
turnover battle. Two oh, and they're they're they're right there at the end with a chance a weird game, as that game always is. I was impressed with the moxy of Brandon Rose. It was interesting to hear Kyle Whittingham say this week that the the pick that he threw, not the one that was the trick play pick, wasn't his fault, that it was a receiver running the wrong
route on the route tree. But now that Brandon's out, Uh, it's hard to even comprehend the bad luck that this program has at that position in the last two seasons, because like last year was frustrating for fans because the will he won't he thing with Cam But then people forget that Brandon like lacerated his kidney, and like in fall camp, then you had the you know, Nate Johnson, Bryson, Barnes, Bryson got hurt, Nate goes in the portal, you have to start the Ferrari the last game of the year
against your guy against Colorado, And I was like, there's no way they're gonna have to go through something like this again.
And here they are.
Brandon goes down in the last series of the game against BYU and yeah, I mean, I mean big takeaway is that Utah finds itself being able to throw its best punch against its rival and coming up short.
So we'll stick with the Utah side before we move over to the BYU side for a moment, because you know, I always like to get the opinion of people who have actually played the game and played the position in. Scott Mitchell after the Houston game said that he thought Brandon looked a lot better than Isaac. Now the numbers don't bear that out. He was just saying from his vantage point, just the zip on the ball and just the presence he looked confident. Yeah, President, you know, the
pocket presence and such. And you know, up until the second half was atrocious offensively, and it clearly was let's see if we can run out the clock and play field position. Five punts that had great. All they needed was a field goal. All they needed was one like lucky twenty yard chunk played and kick a field goal for them to win.
But I thought Brandon for the most part, to your.
Point, looked pretty pose poised and looked, you know, I would say, better than Isaac has looked for the majority of the season. What does that say about the decision to plug Isaac in a is the backup when it feels like maybe Brandon would have given them a better shot, Like we are revisionist historians now Monday Morning quarterback. But there were so many games where the defense kept them in it that if they had just a proficient offense, not a great one, they would have been able to
rack up a couple of wins. What does it say about the decision to put Isaac Hunter center after Cameron went down.
Well, I think Isaac against TCU, against Arizona, against Houston looked different than Isaac did against Utah State and Oklahoma State, and you can.
And Oklahoma State sucks, and I know.
But I'm just saying from a pure like confidence point of view, like that in that Houston game, he looked hurt and like he looked like a player without any confidence. So it makes sense why he looked the way he did. You're you're talking about some some politics. You're you're a guy who you recruited locally, a four star kid. I don't want to say that you're trying to keep him happy in this transfer portal era, but maybe I don't know there. I also think there is a little bit
of Utah should have recruited Zach. They didn't. Zach went to BYU, had a great career, and you know, they they wanted to make sure that they didn't miss on another Wilson. And that's not to say that Isaac isn't going to measure up to his brother. It's still very early and Zach did take his lumps early on in
his career at BYU. But I think the conversation between Isaac and Brandon is sixes to me because really, coming into the season, neither had ever taken a snap, you know, Like Isaac was younger, Brandon had more experience in the system he's in. He's you know, injured last year, but he has way more experience in the system. I don't like,
yeah to the revision as history point. I don't know if Brandon starts those games, if Utah has a different record, But to me, it's more of the fact that Utah has just been wholly unprepared from a backup quarterback position, as we've talked about for the second year.
In a row.
And to your point, it is only fair to bring up the horrific luck that they've had with injuries under center. But I do think people are probably tired of leaning only on that. It's weird man, because as we've talked about, and Coach Wit alluded to this on the Coaches Show last night, like, sorry for using it again. We can be as reductive as saying it's the quarterback thing. You really can't do that. But we have four hours of space to fill. And also it can't only be that
when you've lost five straight. So if I remove that dynamic, what are the other things that come to.
It's hard, man, It honestly is. I think if I was being super nitpicky just thinking back a couple of years ago, looking at like and we're going to stay on offense because I think the offense is been obviously the primary issue. Yeah, offensive line has been subpar for most of the year, played well against BYU, I thought, But looking back at the roster a couple of years ago, this program had at one point it had Tavian Thomas, Jaquindin, Jackson, McKay, Bernard,
Jalen Glover. Not for nothing, Charlie Vincent, like, the depth that this program had just a couple of years ago at that position was insane, and they came into this season with not a lot of depth with basically zero proven depth behind McKay, Bernard and Jalen Glover. I know people were frustrated that Jalen couldn't get off the pine
and now he's in the portal. But like, if you're going to hang your hat on being the team that wants to run and then throw, especially when you're starting quarterback is down, you have to have depth there and they just didn't have it this year. And like McKay was was a great complimentary back under guys like you know, Jack Quindin and Tavion and he's proven to be the
most important player this year. But Kyle even I mean Kyle will never come out and say things out loud, but he'll drop hints, like he said throughout the early portion of the season, like we don't want to give him McKay more than twenty five touches. We don't want him beat up, meaning like he wasn't confident in what they had going behind mackay because he knows how valuable he was and how they basically couldn't lose him.
Well, and you know you referenced Tavion and you know Zack Moss another one the like Mackay's not built like those big backs that were used to.
Not DeVante Booker, He's not Zach, He's at you. Quindon,
he's Tavion. He's run like it this year. But you need, especially that we've seen in this at the school, like you need two or three of those guys to be able to do it every single week, Like I think Zach and DeVante, like if we're going back in time, I think you're talking about two guys that are just exceptions to the rule, like guys that could just do it and run the ball thirty thirty five times a game and be okay for the most part that position.
Look at the NFL man like there're a dime a dozen. All you have to do is be a D three running back at some podunk school in Oregon. You might find Kyle Shanahan and he'll turn you into it. Also into a pro bowler. But other than that, it's just the position is so difficult to stay healthy at and when you're a program that wants to be able to
run first. I know fans were coming into the season saying, oh Andy's going to open up the playbook and Cam's gonna have all this and that it's like no, man, if you know Kyle Whittingham, he is the guy that wants to run the ball, control the clock, and play defense no matter what.
So you reference Jalen, which I find interesting because Jalen Glover had some really good games for Utah football in really big moments, you know, in the past, and I think at one point, again not for nothing, there were some people that thought he could really be the next great running back in this program. Could never get off the pie. When he did, didn't do much, and now he's gone. What do you make of just the pretty rapid fall from grace a Jalen Glover.
Yeah, I mean, I think last year he had a five hundred, five hundred and fifty ish yards of rushing offense. I don't know how much of that came in like a starting role, in a complimentary role in mop up time. I do think, like obviously he was a talented kid. He was a four star kid out of Florida that chose to come to Utah, watched Zach Moss do Ittt
as another Florida kid. I just think, Spence, we're in this era now where like it's you can't take it personally or you can't overthink it if a guy leaves, like sometimes it just doesn't work out at a school.
And regarding Jalen, I don't know. I don't know.
If Jalen is your number two running back and goes fifty to fifty reps wise with mackay, I don't think that makes Utah a better team this year.
I just don't think he does.
So last year when my guy, the Ferrari, was starting against Colorado, Jalen goes for one oh seven on seventeen carries, twenty five carries eighty six yards in that ugly fourteen seven win over UCLA. You know, some other decent like he was never sure an All American, but it certainly has experienced in the program. And yeah, three or four really big games as a starter in big spots.
Yeah, and now there are going to be, you know, more questions asked considering this is McKay's last year and there really isn't a quote unquote next guy in the pipeline. I know people are really high on Mike Mitchell, but Mike Mitchell hasn't stayed healthy all year. The Anthony Woods kid who transferred from Idaho people were stoked about, but I guess he got hurt way back in spring. It's it's an odd It goes back to what I was
saying a couple of weeks ago. I think everybody just banked on so many things going perfectly right for Utah and very key positions, and one of them, oddly enough, turned out to be the running back position because McKay's been basically everything they've needed. But still they've lucked out in that sense.
Man.
It's like like if Makai got hurt a few weeks ago, or like the second or third game of the year, Like this team is.
In, they're up. They're up Bleep Creek real fast, for sure.
All right, So game ends down on the field dodging water bottles. It wasn't just the b YU, it wasn't just the BYU cheerleading coach. I was dodging water bottles. Sean was dodging water bottles. They were coming down, they were throwing them at They were throwing them at Sean, a former Utah football player, has not been reported by the d News. Okay, but please can we get that one out there?
A man who's literally won a million dollars for hurting somebody else. Yes, these people, these youngs man, how dare they?
Yes, the youngs are out of control.
But the fact of the matter is they I don't know that anybody was aiming at anybody else. They were just coming down on the field and there was a lot of them, for sure.
Do the thing. Say what's up to my guy?
Klannie A Rod, Tom Homo, pay my respects, and then go up to the media room. And as I'm walking home at two am, two thirty, phone blows up, text DMS everything.
Did you hear what Mark Carlin just said? I said, no, I'm walking home.
Buddy sends me a link to a video on social I pull it up and I go, oh, my gosh. I thought he was going to be in so much trouble. Okay, so everybody's started by now. Quote I've been an athletic director for twelve years. By the way, is that long enough to like rag about I've been an athletic director for twelve years. This game was absolutely stolen from us. We are excited to be in the Big twelve, but tonight I'm not we won this game. Someone else stolen
from us. I'm very disappointed. I will talk to the commissioner. This is not fair to our team. I'm disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight. I thought I was going to wake up to an audio recording of Mark Carlin calling Brett Yormark asking him if he could find him two points for the game from Saturday night.
But my first react, like, Brett Yormark is a sleeping with the Fish's Northeast sports executive that I'm sure when he woke up to this he went, oh, really, okay, I think forty k and a public reprimand is about as good as Mark could have expected after attacking the conference and the integrity of the officials. Your reaction when you heard it, and where are you at with it right now?
So I was working on my story sitting in the plushy chairs away from the windows at Rice Cycles because it's a little chilli there and I wanted to stay warm and be away from all the other pecking of the keyboards. And it was piped in because they pipe in they pipe in wits presser. And as soon as he said that, like I just like I text Aaron. I text Aaron. I was like, did you get that whole thing? Like like, Luckily, Aaron's a way better journalist than me, and he recorded it as soon as Mark
stepped to the lectern. But to me, Spence, the most surprising thing was him saying that he was happy to be in the Big twelve until Saturday.
That was the That was the biggest part of the whole thing.
The quiet part out loud, correct as the kids were correct.
I if I'm putting myself in mark shoes and if he did just leave the locker room where those guys were despondent and what they needed more than anything in the world was to win that type of game against that team and to have that ending. I understand that the emotions of the moment can overtake you, but you just can't do it. It's a terrible look. I think val Hal, who used to be by us AD, spoke to somebody in the media this week, and you know, vow was saying how he was just done, like eighties.
Never do that.
But I conversely, I was listening to the Canzano Wilner pod this week and they had Rick Neuheisel on, who was really good. You guys should get Rick on because he's a very, very smart guy. John Canzano brought up a good point He's like, is there a world in which that move by Mark helps a groundswell of motivation from the fan base from like an nil perspective, from like anything, you know, and if you're taking this, if you're taking this, you know, happening from a different viewpoint. Maybe,
But my immediate takeaway was it was bad luck. The game was not stolen from them. It was an obvious call. It's a brutal call, and I think it's a call that often doesn't go called because listen, man, even the most insanely zealous football fans know that there's holding on every single play. And I know that there were Utah fans who slowed down the video and said, oh, Van Fillinger was being held in the line, and then this guy was being held on.
I get it.
But it's like, this is a subjective sport, like like officiated by human beings, you're going to have human error. I don't think the officiating crew. I don't think that the judge who threw the flag uns at my van was wrong though. I don't think that was an error.
So right, excuse me, And I just would have loved to be there when Brett Yormar woke up and looked at his phone. The statement from the Big Twelve is as follows, ah pardon me quote. Mark's comments irresponsibly challenged the professionalism of our officials and the integrity of the Big Twelve Conference. There's a right way and a wrong
way to avowaice concerns. Unfortunately, Mark chose the wrong way. Accordingly, the violation warrants a public reprimand and a financial penalty forty K. The Big Twelve Conference prioritizes professionalism, integrity, and fairness and will continue to do so. And look, Chris, it's it just feeds into this narrative and probably some of it's fair. Probably some of it's giving cowards online who utilize on the online presence to feel brave about
themselves too much credit. But there is this thing in the conference like youth fans feel like they're too good for the Big Twelve, Youth fans feel like they should be in the Big Ten. And now it's a team that's won one conference game and their ad is kind of attacking the conference like this is not going to endear Utah football. It's and I don't know how long Utah football will be in the Big twelve. I don't know, nobody.
Knows where anyone will be in right two three years, but.
What if it's five, six, seven years?
Yeah, And this is like, what's your alternative right now, there's not an invite from the Big Ten. You're gonna go back to the back twelve of the Mountain West. Like, this does not endear you to the other members and your peers around the conference, And I don't think it endears the fan base.
Well, it definitely doesn't endear the fan base or you know, the university to their peers when something like this happens.
But I will say, if the shoe was on the other foot, if Utah was undefeated and BYU was four and five and on a five game losing streak, and if Utah got that call, if a BYU defensive back holds Dorian Singer on fourth and ten and they get the call, they march down the field and kick a game winning field goal to me to remain undefeated, the exact same conversation is just is happening the other way,
I promise you know what I mean. Like that's interesting part of this rivalry, especially like I know anybody in that situation is going to cry foul. But it is what it is. And like I told Sean when I was on the OC Show earlier this week, they still had to go fifty to fifty five yards. Cam calhounon dropped in interception the very next play that would have ended
the game. Yep, I understand the frustration, but the call was the right call, and the defense still allowed that offense to go fifty to fifty five yards to get in field goal rinch for a good field goal kicker.
Yeah, don't punt it five times and when you get the ball on the forty forty five, get fifteen or twenty yards and see if Cole can get you three.
Because if you.
Just had one half decent drive in the second half, it would have been enough, based on the final score, to potentially win the thing. I mean, there are so many other things to focus on as far as the failed performance in the second half. After hanging twenty one on BYU in the second quarter alone.
I was amazed that they were able to score three touchdowns.
For sure in the stadium is like, oh look at this, we finally have an offense with the Polts and they completely completely took the foot off the guests. What do you attribute the second half offensive failures too, most.
Brandt getting hurt.
I mean, he had his most involved game I think so far this year. I think BYU figured out what Utah was trying to do. I think once Brandt went out, I think it was obvious that Utah was going to run on first and second down and then try to throw a bubble screen or do you know, look for Dorian Singer as you should. But good teams find a
way to win. It reminded me, like I hate to draw the analogies for Utah fans, but like in a weird way, it reminded me of like that eight season where you have to win ugly games if you're going to be there at the end undefeated, and BYU has so far. They won that terribly ugly game at SMU.
Earlier on this year, they won a game that they should have lost to Oklahoma State when Jake retz Laft hits Darius Lassiter for a thirty five yard touchdown with ten seconds left, and then you have the good fortune of being bailed out on a holding call on fourth and ten, backed up against your own end zone, and then you still go fifth. I mean, listen as soon as Jake hit Chase Roberts, who made an amazing catch.
I knew it was over. I knew it was over.
Yep.
And I mean they showed the slow Moe replay inside rice ecles and the fact that Chase was able to keep it was like two index fingers were able to basically keep the nose of the football off the ground by like centimeters. It was insane. But yeah, it's it's not a great lookin I think Mark's remarks were a culmination of a month plus long of frustrations boiling over.
I mean, I think it's hard not to see like this team was on a on a five four game skid, they were facing their rival, had everything to play for or you know, in position to win, and the ball didn't bounce their way. And regardless, I think this program is in a place now that it hasn't found itself in ten years. I mean, I think twenty thirteen twenty fourteen were the two years that Kyle went five and seven. Maybe it's twelve and thirteen, but like, this is a
place where Utah hasn't found itself under Kyle Winningham. He has two losing seasons in his career as head coach and he could be looking at a third and there were ten there were ten winning seasons in between.
We'll get to the BYU side of this coming up next. BYU rolls in at number six in the second iteration of the CFP.
But before we do, ck one more thing on this dynamic.
And you've kind of alluded to certain things with this, so maybe you've already given me your answer. But from the second I heard Mark's comments as I was walking home on campus with the EarPods in, just my jaw hitting the floor, like what is going on? And I still haven't landed on anything. My thought was why. My thought was what? What? What did you think that that
was going to accomplish? And whether it's college football or pro football or pro basketball or MLS or whatever it is, there's gotta be a Derek Gardunio, a Trey Fitzgerald at whatever it is, there's got to be somebody that can get in the way and in the ear of a coach or an administrator that is red hot before they cracked that microphone. And I saw it firsthand for years at MSG with Eric Gelfan. You met Eric because he
was involved with RSLF for a while. He's now the pr director of the Jets where whether it's my father or pat Riley or Jeff van Gundy or whoever it was, Eric was a master at saying, pause for a second before you go out there.
Oh tell me, Big Dave was going for the microphone sometimes.
After absolutely a couple of different times. Every time there was a Nick heat brawl. Yeah, and a bunch of Knicks would get suspended. Everybody wanted to go go for the jugular because there was. And when David Stern announced the Knick suspension, this is a history lesson. Nobody gives a rip about I mean the heat not to you know, no pun intended was sky Heyden and Gelfan was always a master at understanding reading the room about okay, who's about to say something?
They could get everybody in trouble.
And I'm not blaming anybody up there, because look, it sounds like Mark just went rogue.
He didn't have to do this.
Ads don't address the media after a game, and I've just gone over all the scenarios, so he said in a statement which was not an apology. It missed the mark. It just did just say I'm sorry. And my guess is Mark would want a Mulligan.
I don't know. I haven't talked to him.
We've reached out to try to get him on the show, but he said in his statement he went in the locker room. I don't know the dynamic of the relationship between Mark and Kyle. Is there something like he wanted to prove to his head coach that he has his back because he was also on the field at the refs when the kick return was going on. So long way of asking a simple question, why do you think.
He did it?
My uninformed opinion is, can I say twenty five percent in you know, having his coaches back, twenty five percent speaking to the fans about the frustration in a very long season, and then I'm going to go fifty percent and just pure.
In the moment.
He's the moment.
He's the moment. Yeah, Yeah, That's where I'm going.
All right.
Coming up next, we'll get to some BYU takeaways as and then we'll also get with Ck about the Colorado game because he's been down there a couple of times, uh, covering the Buffs. And that's Utah's next opponent. I want to tell you about my friends at Prize Picks. It is the best place to get real, real money sports action, so you don't have to worry about all of the phrases you hear and you're like, what are they talking about, Like what's the spread, what's the over under, what's the money line?
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One more big segment with Chris Comraddi coming up next on a Wednesday, not ESPN seven hundred, We GOTZK live in studio for one more big segment, typically a Friday staple of a staple of ours, but Leo's in daycare, so we get ck today.
How's fatherhood?
Man?
You enjoying it? Nobody warned me.
I've warned you.
Everybody warned me. I'm lying.
Yeah, it's uh, it is tiring.
I'm not going to make myself out to be the martyr. I can do it. Everybody can do it.
You can do it, for sure. I have faith in you.
Oftentimes I'll think about my mother, who have many kids, six kids, and at one point it was five kids, eleven and under.
I'm the oldest and old man's a little busy, right. That's like Lord of the Flies. Man.
Oh, it was chaos.
Yeah, it was.
It was absolute chaosts. I mean everyone's good, yeah, alive and do it well. Yeah, but I mean moving cross country five kids, eleven and under and I had one and then I said the rest is up to you all, and they handled it just fine.
Okay, so the check its flock is plentiful.
Oh I can't imagine.
Yeah, I think twenty one at this point with the only one on the way. Uh are we gonna get Are we gonna see more?
Oh?
Man, don't pull that on that dare you?
No?
It's it is.
It is funny, Like, you know, my wife is one of five girls and they're are they I'm jealous of that like giant family in that eventually the flock just takes care of itself. And I'm sure that's how it was with you, with you and your siblings as well. Maybe a little different for you since you were the oldest, you probably had more responsibility than others.
But I I, for the life of me, I just can't imagine.
I think it's because I had kids late too, like I'm thirty eight soon.
So see, it's funny.
And this is not a broad stroke statement, but it feels like a lot of people that were raised in big family chaos were jealous of the only children and the only children that weren't raised in the big family people.
They wanted more siblings.
That makes sense.
But Leo's hanging in.
He's cool, man, I mean like he's got an attitude problem.
He's two.
That happens, yeah, but he's chill.
It's funny they go.
You go through this thing where it's like they're boring because all you do is keep them alive. Yep, and there's not a whole death. Oh that's cute and he's adorable. Then they start to show some personality like, oh, this is fun. Then they hit that thing at two where you're like, what, what's your deal? Dude?
Yeah, what do you negotiating with me? You wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for me.
I can't tell you how many times I've wiped up spilled milk and soup and cheerios and strawberries, and it's like, what, man, I I've done so much to make sure you have all the nicest snacks at your disposal, and it's just never good.
It's never good enough.
Anyway, Moving on, all right, so we talked about the Utah takeaways from this. By the way, if you're just hopping in your car, Jayalen Glover has hit the transfer portal.
Randon Rose officially is out for the year.
Makai Pittman actually released a video explaining his side of things too. He's never a big part of the of the attack this year, but on BYU side of things. Before we get to where they're out in the CFP, let's talk about the takeaways from just simply another game where they answered every question that was thrown at them. And yes, there's an element of fortune to winning in sports,
but that's not new. Okay, if you want to do something special, Lady luck shines upon you no matter how good you are.
That's just the deal.
So what did you make of what you saw from BYU on Saturday night, you know, after kind of settling in a little bit, you know, and ultimately again answering the questions they needed to do in the second half to get the win.
Yeah.
Again, I'm gonna harken back to my only other experience covering an undefeated team, which was sixteen years ago. And like I talked about this with those guys when I went down to Provo a couple of weeks ago. It's like, Lady luck does have to be on your side. Like Utah fans forget, I hope they didn't forget, but like when they beat TCU in that game, they had their kicker missed twice. Like the Oregon State win, they were down eleven with like two minutes ago, they came back
and won. You needed a like six string wide receiver to block a field goal New Mexico. Like, all this stuff has to happen. So if I'm going to fast forward to Saturday, makes sense that Jake retz Law fell on like all four of his fumbles, like the in like the most odd fashion, the one in you know, deep in Utah territory.
If Utah turns the.
Ball over, you know, you take BYU out of the red zone and you have momentum. Then, like the double fumble on the bad snap deep in their own end zone, Jake manages to fall on it twice. It's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, and you have to win ugly games. That game was no doubt an ugly game. I think to me the takeaway was BYU faced its best defense that it'll face in the regular season so far, and that should only help Aaron scheme for the future.
I do think they probably should have gotten the run game involved a little bit more. Granted, Utah's defense was very good, and I don't know if LJ. Martin was going to have a great night, but as we saw in the fourth quarter, once Hinckley Rapotti got in the game, he had a tremendous effect on that offense.
Those last couple of drives so plenty.
It's it's weird to say that a nine to Z team has plenty to work on, but this team does. And I think if you're a coach, like you know, Klannie told me it's like when you're undefeated, you're either riding the wave or you're, you know, guarding for pitfalls.
You know.
He told me they're definitely doing the ladder, And especially after a game like that against Utah, I think their guard will be up going into this game against Kansas. I think it would have been a totally quote unquote trap game, and it still might be had they run all over Utah and been feeling a little high and mighty. But I think those guys have to understand that they were, in a sense lucky to get out of recycles with a win.
Well, and I wanted to ask you that because on a scale of lucky to quest for perfection, awesomeness Where are you at with who BYU is as a team overall?
Because even on Saturday Night, and there are a bunch of different ways you go with this, even on Saturday Night, the Keel and Marion kid takes it back for a touchdown, right, yeah, And early on they were not moving the football, and I'm kind of going, this could be like ten three, Utah, you know, this could be a really b why you can't move the ball?
Low scoring game?
Boom they get a kick return for a touchdown and that's just in a vacuum. Is a snapshot of who they've been all year. Whatever the night needs, they seem to be able to bring it. So on a scale of okay, this team has been incredibly lucky to holy smokes, they're very good.
Where are you at on an overall macro view?
Is it lame to say the middle? Is it okay?
No? Because I don't know where I'm at?
Yeah, I would say the middle at this point because honestly, they're an undefeated team that has blown out I think one team and it was that crazy Kansas State game where like they were out gained by two hundred yards and like lost the time of possession battle. But managed to, you know, score quickly every time they turn the ball over against k State, Like it's not a running, roughshot
type team over its opponents. So I think that is to their benefit going into the stretch run of the season because as they have been up against it so many times. But I think the last three games are a little harder than we would have anticipated a couple of weeks ago. I mean, Kansas just beat Iowa State, who turns out is not a I mean, I guess in theory is still a Big twelve contender, but not at the same level of as BYU or Colorado. Arizona
State is like the surprise. I think you can say it is the surprise of college football this year considering where they were last year and going down to Tempe is always a tough task.
Houston.
I'll just be basic and say they should win that game, but they're an undefeated team that still haven't played their
best game. And I'm going to be that cliche coach, But like, if you can get to nine and oh, if you can get to November what was it the other night, November ninth, and be nine to zero and still not play that great of a game, it means in theory, if you're if you're trending upwards, and if you believe that you can reach an apex that's still out there, speaks pretty highly of where you guys are at.
So we get the second iteration of the CFP rankings last night and Brigham Young comes in at six, which was one spot higher than I thought they would be seven.
Okay, but they come in at six.
Right now, when you look at the National Championship odds, the favorite to win the title is actually Ohio State. Then it goes Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Bama, Old Miss, Penn State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Indiana, Miami, Clemson, SMU.
Colorado BYU.
BYU is plus ten thousand right now to win the national championship. So Vegas doesn't think BYU is National Championship good.
I don't either.
Look, it's as we've always talked about big ten SEC.
It's different down there.
It just is they have the biggest brands and the best teams in college football.
I don't think that's debatable.
Now, can any team beat any other team on any given day? TCU taught us that, yes, but then they got stomped in the National Championship game. But coming in at six, Chris actually lead a little space in my mind for the Big Twelve to potentially get two in. If this happens. If BYU enters the Big Twelve Championship at twelve and oh, yeah, I got to get through undefeated. Yeah, they've got to finish the regular season. They've got to handle their business three more times. They go to Dallas
twelve and zero. We'll say Colorado handles their business. They go in as a two loss team. I think if Colorado beats Brigham Young and they obviously get the bid as the AQ you know, conference champ and BYU is a one loss team that was undefeated into the Big Twelve Championship, I now believe there's a chance they get in.
I'm not saying it's done.
I still think most of the messaging we get from college football folk is that they don't like the Big Twelve.
It's a one bid league. It's the champion, that's it.
But what do you think about that BYU stays clean, goes to Dallas, ends up twelve and one, losing to Colorado in a Big Twelve championship.
I think if you're a BYU fan you have to hope that the insane schedule of the SEC cannibalizes itself the rest of the year. As I mean, if Georgia loses another game, I don't know if they're going to get it. But conversely, if they beat Tennessee, then they're way back in the conversation, and Tennessee is still going to hover in that conversation as well. Indiana and BYU moving up higher than most is felt like kind of an over correction after last week for both, especially considering
Indiana is still undefeated in the Big Ten. I know they haven't necessarily played the type of schedule that other Big Ten teams have, but I think they play Do they play Ohio State next?
They do? They do, so we'll learn more about.
That, correct.
Yeah, I mean that that's going to be a huge kind of barometer for where we'll find the rankings for next week. I would like to think that a twelve and one BYU team with a theoretical loss to a Colorado team who, if they beat BYU, would be the number four seed. I would like to think that the playoff committee would give them a chance. But I agree
with you. I think they're the the the people the folks out there are theoretically down on the Big Twelve at the moment in terms of being more than a one bid league, But I don't know, it would feel pretty hollow, and it would kind of harken us back to those times when, like even going back to the BCS era where teams didn't have a fair shot, or even the four team playoff where even undefeated teams as recently as last year with Florida State getting left out.
So somebody is going to be pissed, somebody is going to be heartbroken. But BYU, if you're talking about BYU, they just have to handle their business over the next month and remain in the conversation because there's I mean, there's a world in which if some of these teams beat each other and other teams lose, like BYU could be as high as I don't know, could be as high as four going into, you know, the last week
of the season. And if that's the case, I think it would be too hard for the committee to drop a top four or five team completely out of the rankings if their one loss was to a Big Twelve championship team.
I agree with that.
Now, it's always the caveat of what does the committee look at, what do they value? It feels like it's fluid and it changes every week, and then it feels like they make one dude draw the short straw to go talk to the media. He has no idea what he's talking about. He says ten different things. You're like, dude, land on the target man. But the Vegas favorite to win the Big twelve Championship right now plays their football in Boulder, which is where we find Utah coming up this weekend.
You've been down there multiple times.
You've done stories on coach Prime, and you've done stories on this team, and you know it's interesting because the headline is shad Or Sanders Travis Hunter. And honestly, I don't know that I've seen a player like Travis Hunter in my life in college football. It's insane watching what he does on both sides of the ball. But Lejont Webster, Will Sheppard, Jimmy Horn Junior all have over thirty catches,
all are hovering at least over four hundred yards. Travis is about nine hundred yards over thirteen yards a catch. The Miller Kid is at twenty one point six yards per catch, and He's their fifties fifth wide receiver. They have seven wide receivers who have caught touchdowns, so they don't run the ball because they don't have to. Yep, the line opened up at ten. It's moved to eleven point five. You know, the Sharks or the wise guys like Colorado in this matchup, we've seen a lot of
money go the way to the Buffs. Eleven point five is the line for Colorado. What do you make of the matchup early kick Saturday as Utah heads the Boulder Dad.
Matchup for Utah, especially coming off the emotional toll of losing that game to BYU, it also tells me that Vegas doesn't think all that highly of Isaac Wilson starting this game.
Correct.
Not a shot at Isaac, but it's just it is what it is.
We saw the line move at you know, back and forth when it was Isaac or Kamer earlier on in the year. I think it's just a totally different matchup than BYU. That being said, if Utah's defense can show up again, I do think they can keep Utah in a game against Colorado because the offensive line, while it has been improved, can whittle under pressure and they have a bunch of new players, and their left tackle is a five star true freshman kid who has been playing phenomenal.
But I don't know if he's gone up against the likes of Van Fillinger, Connor O'Toole or Logan Fano, you know, in succession, the way that Utah can throw defensive ends at him. Offensively, I just don't know where they go. I honestly don't like. I think the offensive line will have to play its best game of the year in order to give Isaac time. I think if you're Mike Bajakian, you have to find a steady dose of Mackai Bernard and Mike Mitchell and Charlie Vinson and whomever is going
to be running back now. And to me, it's going to be about treading water because Colorado they've fallen behind him games often, like as they as they did in Texas at Texas Tech last week. But they can score so fast and they're so dynamic like it it does kind of remind me of, you know, like those old video game teams where you would just have the best quarterback and have a bunch of receivers and just let
it rip. They have I think outside of Ohio State, you can make an argument they have the best wide receiver corp in the country and all of them are transfers. That's the That is the Deon Sanders effect to a tee and give him credit, man. I mean, I know a lot of folks were up in arms for some reason about the way Dion did it. And he is a mercurial guy. I've you know, spent the better part of the last eighteen months trying to figure out who he is as a coach through various stories, and he's
a very interesting guy. He's always been the same dude, going back to his time as a you know, superstar cornerback. But they're seven and two spence and they have they control their own destiny, and part of that is a testament to how bad the Big Twelve is this year.
I mean, I think if if you're in a decent conference, I don't think Colorado is necessarily there, but you play who you got, and Colorado is playing a bunch of teams that aren't that great, and they haven't necessarily the best teams that they've played they've lost to so far. But you get hot at the right time, and that's all that matters, and the buffs are hot.
You're gonna get on blue Sky. No you're not.
No, I haven't been on social media in like ten days. It feels very nice. It's very clearing, the cleansing of the mind. It's a real thing, man. Like it just I just feel like, oh, I might as well just like work out or clean the house or just like go for a walk, shovel some snow.
Do anything other than doom scroll or just like what am I doing?
Like, like I thought about this, Like do you remember back in the day on the Internet when you would just like go to ESPN dot com to look for stories? Uh huh, just like, oh, like maybe I'll just go to this website in search of a store.
I don't need.
I don't need this like third party filter full of spam and all this other terrible stuff to get me there. It just it it. It is easier, but it's so unnecessary because we lived that life once upon a time and we were fine back then.
First honestly, I still do that.
I go to the trip yeah right, I go to Dean I read the local stuff.
Yeah. Then I go to ESPN, I go to the athletic and uh, I.
Subscriber, of course from day one, you kidding, we're big supporters of the athletics. And then it's crazy because I'll pull up Twitter and then I'll just I stick with the following column, the following algorithm.
Yeah, but as soon as I hit.
For you, it's like the seventh circle of hell.
Bum fights, porn and like political like political bs.
It's the weirdest thing and it's slow mode. Videos of Zemaia Von did.
Not hold chase so many.
In fact, I want to end on that because I wanted to ask you what you make of the off field dynamic of this thing when it's like because people ask me all the time, what's the what's the most insufferable fan base?
Utah b will and I say whoever went I'd.
Say both were.
Whoever wins that year is more insufferable than the other. But I always find it like a fascinating case study, like a society, societal case study of what we are in this market and in the state where you have BYU fans so badly want the moral high ground, so you get the send me every video you have of a ute fan swearing at you, send.
Me every video you have.
I watched a video of a young lady from down south who came up here to go to the game, and it's five minutes and essentially, I'll bottom line it, she wore BYU gear to the Utah stadium and went to a football game where some people weren't all that nice. It took her five minutes to unpack that, right, But of course it's like, so sorry you went through that.
And then on the other side, it's the ute fan wanting to call out the hypocrisy of the folks that want to be holier than that would have the moral high ground, and it ultimately becomes this big stew of like pretty poor behavior from everybody involved.
And like you, I don't live on the internet, so don't see a lot of.
It, but I see enough of it where I I That dynamic of this game always fascinates me. I guess is what I'm saying. How do you how do you kind of digest that?
Yeah? Those, I'll say both. I believe both programs hold one another in very high regard, and for obvious reasons, because the crossover, the cross pollination is so like rampant. This is a fan base rivalry. I'll just say that it is and and that's okay. It's a I don't like using the Holy War. I think it's a little huge fan it's a little much, but it's a rivalry that permeates through marriages and families and households and friendships, and it's it's awesome.
It's why we watch it. It's why I think.
I don't know what the numbers were, but I'm sure the numbers were really high from a TV rating perspective on Saturday night because the game always delivers and people, I mean fan is short for fanatics, and people are nuts and uh, you know, credit to them for loving their university or you know, whatever team they support. But let's just say, like, no matter who wins in what year, you're never going to be satisfied because that is just the nature of it.
Yep, no doubt and the other dynamic that I just it cracks me up. I think it's so funny where you get like the YOUTE fan that sees the b YU fan who had a bad experience and he's like, bro, We're not all like that, I promise you, and then you look at his Twitter feed and all it is is just like attacking other people for things.
The hypocrisy is.
Wait wait, wait, you're telling Hlarious to me.
You're telling me we live in a world where people are just awful to each other online.
A little bit. I don't know if you notice.
All right, man, great to see Okay, well chat too, Thanks man, Chris Comroddie staff Rider from the Athletic always appreciate his time.