Look at Chris com Ronnie live on site. C K. Thanks for coming down, man, How you doing, I'm doing well.
How are you?
I'm well. I'm well.
I'm well and uh, you know, obviously a fun time of year with a lot going on. What's the latest with you? I know you have some projects that are in the cooker you can't talk about, correct, But what can you talk about on the show.
I can talk about pretty much anything else.
Okay.
We can talk about, uh, Cam Rising's middle finger slash ring finger and we will. We can talk about does BYU have what it takes to win down in Waco and we will. We can talk about, uh, the late season crises that RSL finds itself in.
We'll touch on that.
And we can talk about uh listen, man, I'm not watching any good TV. So if you've got any Rex, let me know. Okay, Hacks, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, No, that's I'm talking about, Like, yeah, we're up on that. We're up on that. I'm just saying like I'm just saying, like new stuff.
But here's the problem. Yeah, that is new stuff to me.
I'm behind.
Yeah, you're the one that has to inform You're right, Okay, Okay, So let's knock those down one at a time.
So we'll start with Utah football. You know, they go to Stillwater and get a win. Nobody wins there. Mike Gundy does not lose at home. But it seems like we're kind of in the same situation of playing the guessing game with the quarterback spot. I'm going to operate off the assumption that it's EASA can tell it's not. And it feels like a lot of people around here are kind of sick of that talking point because it
was the same talking point a year ago. I don't have any other information, Chris other than Cam is hurt and when he's ready he will play right. So, but where are you at with his entire thing, because it feels very reminiscent.
Of last year. Well, I don't follow such things. Has the line moved at all? The Yeah, twenty four.
Hours has so it peaked at twelve and now it's nine.
Okay, there's your answer, I think. So I will say that if you're the Utah football staff, you feel empowered to roll with the status quo that got you a win in a place that is historically very difficut go to win. But I will always argue the flip side of it, in that you are going to be presumably rolling with a true freshman quarterback who is going to have to learn to take his licks in real time when they come. We saw Isaac struggle a little bit the first couple of weeks, not so bad the last
couple of weeks. But again, we're talking about a team that's coming in with maybe the best quarterback wide receiver due in the country. Like, if you're talking about guys who are you attached to the hip or have the telepathy together, you can make make it an argument that Fafita and McMillan have that these are two guys that decided to stay at Arizona together for a reason. They could have bolted and followed Jetfish to Washington. So you have the bye week after this game. It's a big game,
it's home coming, it's the night game. I know Utah fans love the Blackout game, they have since it started, and await or whatever ever. But I will proceed cautiously because you were talking about a true freshman quarterback who eventually will have a coming down to Earth. You just will because that's the nature of football. And I'm not saying I want it to happen for him. I'm just saying proceed cautiously.
Is it fair to say that he I mean, to your point, while he has looked better week to week, which is all you can ask for, right from a team.
Or a player, just to continue to improve.
I think it's probably fair to say they haven't won because of anything he's done individually.
So is it fair to say that even if they have.
Decided to go with and tell Cam's ride an eighteen year old who just enrolled in April, that's probably It probably means they're fine with letting him take step by step progress and playing great defense, running the football, which is kind of what Kyle wants to do.
Yeah, both things can be true. One is that Isaac, if he can put more zip on the ball, he can give you a better chance to win any college foot if you're not going to put out a quarterback who cannot throw a deep pass, hard velocity on the ball. But at the same time, if we want to be nitpicky, which I think we can, you're looking back at last week, you won a tough odd game in which Isaac turned
the ball over twice. Mike Gundy had a very odd decision to remove his very season, seventh year starting quarterback, which did not go well, and as soon as he put him back in the game, then Okay State made a run at it. So at the end of the day, they got the w, which is all that matters. But at the same time, you have to look at every game and dissect it because of what happened, and what happened is Isaac played a good game. I would say
Isaac played a decent game. You can't turn the ball over twice on the road, especially you know, Kyle does not like losing the turnover battle. I'm sure he said this week that historically you don't win when you go on the road and lose the turnover battle three to one or three to two, whatever it was. I just don't think you can afford to do that going forward with the rest of the teams in Utah plays, even against Arizona.
Yeah.
So the SEC this season has decided to adapt the pro model of reporting injuries.
And so you know, if you play.
Fantasy football, if you pay attention to football, you know, on like Thursday or Friday, pro teams submit their injury report and you find out who's in find out who's out, find out who's a game time. SEC is now doing the same, and simply Chris because of the bottom line of who your starting quarterback is is worth hundreds of millions of dollars on the betty market. At some point,
college football will lean into this entirely. Until they do, Kyle's job is not to tell us who's starting a quarterback. I know fans get frustrated, and there's some certain media members that believe they're entitled that information.
We're not. Kyle's job is to win games.
Kyle doesn't care. I hate to break in.
Kyle doesn't give a rip. And by the way, there is a legitimate debate to be made that there is a competitive advantage now that has been dispelled by others, namely Jim Harbaugh, who was always very open and honest about who's playing who's not. He's like, that's such an overrated thing to think that you have a competitive advantage because you kept an injury from the public.
But Yio thinks that's an advantage. He's going to use it.
But what do you make of this communication structure that seems to continue to frustrate.
A lot of you football fans?
Well, I guess I would look at it through like the prism of how Mike Gundhy explained it last week. I think Mike Gundy and his Monday or Tuesday press conference said they were expecting Isaac to play. He said that before anybody, even before the lines fluctuated. Football guys aren't dumb. They know that if a quarterback suffered a severe cut or whatever on his throwing hand, he's probably not going to play. Like I understand the way Kyle thinks, because I do agree, like why do it if you
don't have to? And I do know that Kyle, when push comes a shove, when he's eventually forced to, he will and he won't complain about it. But until then, you don't have to do it. And the reality is is Utah finds itself with a starting quarterback who has reached cult level status here for a myriad of reasons. But he's also a guy that gets hurt too often, and he's a guy that throws game plans into flux and it's something that you just have to roll with.
It's just the reality of the situation. And you know, I think the last person in the world I know for a fact, because he told me, the last person in the world who wants to be dealing with will you player? Will you not play? Is Cam Rising. But here we are again. Utah is just better equipped to handle that lack of Cam this year than they were last year.
Well, and you spend time with him recently or your piece for the athletics, So let's dig into that a little bit more. Because it's one thing to hear a SoundBite on a radio show or a sound or a social media post or whatever. When you sat with him and you talked about this process that he's gone through. What stood out most to you in person with Cam.
Just that, like a very jovial person who has a very sunny disposition admitted to going through some dark days of having to be the bearer of bad news to people who did not want to hear the bad news. I mean, he told me, like he stayed in for a long time. He didn't want to even go to the grocery store, goheuad and get food, said the door dash bill went up. Yeah, Like that is an anecdote in and of itself that showed that he is one
of the most recognizable people around town. And I understand, like fame isn't for everybody, and Cam said it for himself, like he's just a guy that wants to be a quarterback and the reality is, unfortunately that comes with the territory of playing the most important position in sports. But to me, it was the fact that I think unrealistic expectations were put onto his potential availability last year, which wraps into something that we talked about at nauseum last fall.
And I think you and I were of the opinion even in June and July last year that Cam was probably not going to play at all, let alone against
Florida and the opener. And it wasn't until I think October that Cam gave me permission to talk to a surgeon who then told me the full extent of what he suffered, and he said that on Bill's show as well, like Cam's knee didn't just suffer a standard ACL terry basically exploded, like everything that keeps his knee together for the basic standards of walking in everyday life, let alone being a mobile quarterback who wants to be able to get out and roll and throw and make people miss.
All that stuff went to hell, basically, So he had to figure out a way to continuously be the bearer of bad news to a population that believes in him, has seen him lead them to the promised land of two pack twelve titles two Rose Bulls, and understands that with Cam behind center, they have their best shot of doing big things.
I wonder because it was clear last year. I don't know how this all came down, but either Cameron was asked or straight encouraged to be part of the ambiguity week to week, you know, and we would hear him say things like, yeah, I'm shooting for this weekend.
We'll see though that's the plan.
And same thing from the coaching staff, same thing from everybody up there. What sort of told do you think that took on him? When you talk to him about knowing that he wasn't going to play, Because in retrospect he knew, and I had an idea that I got verified. Then your information about what really happened to me, We're like, well, of course he wasn't going to play last year, but he was either strongly a courage or asked to participate in the narrative that he might weaken and weak out.
How do you think that affect that?
Well? So the thing that's tricky about this whole thing was, you know, there were days where Cam felt like he could play. That's the problem is when you're coming back from such a severe injury and you are exceeding some benchmarks, there will be days where you feel like, oh, man, like one more good day and maybe I have a shot, And then after two good days, Cam would have a
bad day. And understanding that Cam's aspirations are, you know, part of wanting to go play professional football Utah, and Cam did not want to put him in harm's way if he wasn't feeling like he could potentially be one. But the reality is you kind of have to go with status quo and the status quote Utah right now is you don't talk about injuries, and it doesn't make
sense for your star quarterback to necessarily deviate. You know, Cam deviated a little bit on Bill's show last year, and I think that was kind of when rubber hit the road for him, and understandably so. But here we are again. I think, fortunately for everybody, especially for Cam, like the injury is not close to severe, like I honestly think that. I mean, Cam was pretty close to playing according to Kyle until he started warming up, and he just didn't have Zip on the ball right til last week.
Yeah, you know you said this earlier.
The silver lining is it appears to look better this year for you fans when Cam is not available.
So is it fair to say.
That I still think for them to win the Big Twelve and do something fun in the CFP, it's got to be Cam. But I also believe that for them to get there, they're gonna have to get more from Isaac, whether it's tomorrow or at some point throughout the week. Like, I think we need to put this narrative away that you know, they were able to doctor Frankenstein Cam's brain and now he's gonna throw it away and slid.
It's not who he is.
No, it lasted a game and a half Chris, Yeah, and even less than that because they Adam for you know, basically at the the first half. Shu You Yeah, So, like, what should the conversation sound like regarding the situation, Because while I do think they're gonna need Cam, I also believe that they're gonna need more from Isaac if they want to win the conference.
You can make an argument it's the best and worst case scenario. Playing out in real time. Worst case scenario is Cam got her early doing something that he knows that he probably shouldn't have done. Should have just went down and taken the fifteen yard sack and move on to the next play, but he didn't, and the reality is we are where we are. The best case scenario is you have a guy who you believe can be the future behind him, who is getting reps in real
time and is leading you to wins. But again, I can't emphasize this enough. A true freshman leading a top ten team into a big twelve schedule that they're playing for the first time is very, very difficult, for sure, and we have to we have to proceed with the with the understanding that this kid is a good player. He was highly sought after for a reason. But he will take his licks if he continues to play, for sure.
I mean that's the reality. You can listen to people around here who are saying, like, you know, maybe Isaac is better than Cam. No, he's not. He's not. Right now, that is not the reality anybody should be living in. Isaac is the future, but he is not the prison.
Oh well said, And you know, I think he's shown enough to again make you fans feel a little bit better because last year was Bryson, then it was Nate, and it was Bryson and Nate and it.
Just never really fully worked. All right. As you know, I.
Don't look at mentions, and I don't do my show based off of one person who sent me a tweet about one thing. And so you know you'll hear you'll hear sports talk radio. Huse go like, man, I had to take yesterday and I got killed. Then you look like two dudes tweeted at you. Okay, calm down, you didn't get killed. And I hesitate to do the same about a truncated space of people who I've spoken with
or overheard at golf courses talk about golf courses. You know what I'm talking something, Give me something, you know what I'm talking about. No, I'm warming up, hitting warm.
Up puts because you know, I get there early. I'm a worker.
Nobody talks about the breaks.
Nobody talks about my work ethic. I think it's kind of unfortunate. I think a lot of people know that you have work ethic. But anyways, okay, fair enough, And as I'm warming up, just hitting some potts, I hear four football bros mid fifties, you know, ute fans, and they're talking about how much money Cam is making to play for Utah.
And I'm sorry, but when money comes into it, it does change things. It just does. Now.
I don't think it changes where we're at, and that is he's hurt trying to get back.
But you know, you.
Overhear things like, oh, seven figures to play quarterback in college and you know you last a game and a half, and is there something nefarious going on? Because of course it's twenty twenty four and we have to have a conspiracy theory about everything.
Win Mills and such.
But in your in your opinion, how if at all, does money come into the equation now that Cam reportedly is making seven figures to play quarterback?
I mean it plays. It played a role in him wanting to come back, right as it should have. You know, I asked his parents that when I talk to for the story, it's like, if you are the guy in a market that so desperately wants to have a guy, why not go for it? And for a bunch of reasons, it made sense for Cam to come back. It did not make sense for Cam coming off a serious injury to try to go the undrafted free agent route and presumably make way less money even if he's stuck with
a team than what he could make here. But if people are upset about that, they shouldn't be upset because you're talking about people investing in people who play football. If people are frustrated about that, then I don't know
what to tell them. Then they are. I would make an argument they're a little too thick in the head, because the reality is is if you're talking about an athlete at a university who plays football and plays the style of football that Cam does, the chances are he might get hurt, same way that Mackay Bernard might get hurt, or Dorian Singer might get hurt. Anybody might get hurt. This is football, This is not golf. No offense to you and reading the breaks and the broke who are
also probably trying to read the breaks. This is what people are investing in for a bunch of reasons, because it makes sense to try to retain players. We saw the s hit the fan this week in Vegas. Man the starting quarterback of a top twenty five team, a program that has been so irrelevant for decades decided to up and leave after a three and oh start. That
doesn't happen without nil. So if you're upset about that people, if you're upset the cam got paid to come back to Utah, I suggest you find a new sport to root for or.
To watch right because and I talked about this the day after the Sluka announcement. I'm not one to say it's good or bad, but it's time to say it's different. And if you're going to it was inevitable for sure, and it should have happened a long time ago. My stance on this is very well documented. If you're gonna watch the NBA, you gotta deal with load management. If you're gonna watch the NFL, you gotta deal with CTE or Colin Kaepernick taking a knee.
Whatever you're thinking, we're just injuries.
I don't understand. The only time I get like Eastwood on the lawn Man, it's like, how can you get mad about injuries in a sport where the whole point is to try to dislodge a football going a million miles an hour right at somebody else while they're wearing pads and a giant helmet. I don't understand these people.
It's not a contact sport.
It's a violence sport, as I've always said, But if you want to consume college football, you're going to have to get used to the fact that what you were programmed to believe about amateurism is now a farce. And it always was, it always was, but it's evaporated right here to you, right and now these people who claim that. And I'm not a college football alarmist, because Saturday's in the fall still feel like Saturdays.
In the fall.
And I think even when the reality sets in where the top forty or whatever go do their own thing and everyone else is left behind, it's actually, in a way going to improve the product, because we'll see a lot of brand matchups week in and week out. But you just have to accept that now the new reality is here, and the alternative you have has always been only one thing, and that's don't go, don't go, don't watch,
and don't don't tune out. But I no part of me believes this sport is in trouble, No part of me, Chris.
It just needs people who are smart to put a set of rules in and deploy them for everybody to follow whether it's uh standardizing nil. I know. Charlie Baker had a tweet today saying, like, yeah, I saw this this week. I'm upset about it too. Here's where people need to go register no man, Like there needs to be hard and fast rules where if you break the rule like in years past, you get a severe penalty.
I mean, smu man, I mean I I did a story earlier this year with Brian Hamilton, who's a colleague of mine who's a great college football or college basketball writer. We wrote about how once upon a time, car dealerships were the bane of college athletics. People were terrified of them, and now they're playing a role in landing players because that's the way things.
Go, right and the irony is UNLV when nothing was legal, was paying for everybody right and and honestly not even apologizing for it, like like LJ. Greg Anthony. Those those guys were Stacy Augman Anderson Hunt.
Okay, right, we can keep going if you want.
You know that that team, which was one of the greatest college basketball teams I've ever seen play, those guys were driving nice cars in Vegas, and now that it's legal, they can't seem to figure it out. And I guess the lesson if you're a young person is you have to get it in writing. Verbal promises are simply your word against the other person.
Get it. Get it in writing and have representation pour over every piece of fine print and just know what you're signing up for.
Yeah, but definitely get into writing.
All right, We'll do a little b YU coming up next segment, because I know that the b YU bros want to hear from c K absolutely. But we have Colorado now at three and one and they're heading to UCF, who I think is a problem.
You know, I think I've seen enough Hurricane.
This does not This is the type of weather where if you're gonna throw the ball fifty times a game, it doesn't help you out point. And Colorado is a team that wants to let Shador Sanders turn.
It loose, and UCF wants to run over you.
So but Colorado had a couple of questions leading into the CSU game. They were able to get that done and it was a miracle against Baylor. But there were a lot of noise kind of surrounding Dion because Dion being Dion, is just going to bring attention.
No matter what, winning or losing.
What's fair to say about Colorado's three and one start, And could U SEF be that team that no one's really talked about that might derail something special Utah plays them the last game of the season.
Well, I think you can correct me. You can open up UCF's schedule and who they played so far. I think they barely squeaked by TCU. I think they had to come back and be TCU. They smoke New Hampshire, smoke New Hampshire and Sam Houston and poor Sam Houston. But they have a veteran quarterback who played at Arkansas, and they have a really good running back. And listen, this is the type of team that Colorado does not
want to face. As you mentioned, the type of team that isn't interested in letting it loose and throwing in the area of Travis Hunter. This is a team that wants to be able to run the ball thirty to forty times a game. And Gus Malzon is a great coach. He's won a national championship with Auburn. He knows what he's doing. So I think the fact that Colorado came back and won that game last week against Baylor was
great for college football, is great for them. But I do think this is a tricky matchup because anytime you come up against a team that doesn't want to get into a shootout with you, you're gonna be in trouble. And that's where the Buffaloes find themselves this weekend.
Shouldn't Travis Hunter win the Heisman Trope? Oh?
Yeah, easily? But I think, well no, Unfortunately, the voters care too much about positions and optics and stats that have historically been bloated.
In my opinion, I don't know that I've ever seen a college player like him. He's remarkable.
Well, I mean, I don't remember watching Charles Woodson or Dion.
But I don't that's a good one.
I don't think they I don't think they played. I don't think they produced to the level that Travis does on each side of the ball.
Yeah.
Yeah, That's kind of where I'm at with it, all right, Coming up next, more college football BYU. I had Aaron Rodgerck on the show a couple of weeks ago, and I said, what's different about this three and oh start opposed to what happened a year ago? So far, a Rod has proved to be a little bit prophetic there four and oh what sort of answers do we need to see at Baylor Bronch in Waco, ten Am.
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Did you request Dave?
I try, But I'm Porter's delivering.
Porter's been in his bag as it played.
What does that mean? Does that mean like, you know, so like they're reaching in and pulling out money because like they're so money, Like I give me the give me the actual metaphor?
According to my dear friend Doris Burke, Okay, when a basketball player is in his bag, he's making sweet moves. Okay, So Porter in his bag with his music selection, he's been killing it. How am I educating you on this list?
I mean we're you might be like eight years older than expert, but we are we are on standard playing field when it comes to this gen Z lingo.
I also have a twenty three year old son.
Does that help you or does it hurt you? Does he tell you?
Okay, so he informs me and then I awkwardly try to use the word he's told me in front of some of his friends, and he doesn't like it.
He says it's cringe. You know, I'm being mid or extra or whatever.
Anyway, no cap is the one that I still don't understand.
So that means no lie, no lie. Yeah, no cap is no lie.
And the reason no cap is no lie is once upon a time online, if somebody thought you were lying, they put a cap on you.
So if you'd see somebody wearing a cap emoji or they yes, and so that that was twisted by these youngs they would photoshop it was like I think.
And so now it's turning into no cap meaning no lie. You know you know what there is is, right I do not. It's charisma.
You got the risk, Okay, you got the riz you do you.
Got because I got the jersey.
You got the Vancouver Grizzly Antonio Daniels jersey that you won from me in a bet that was very impressive when we were when we were recording a podcast a few years back, when we all thought we were dying.
I asked you, I said that, you know.
You said, name name teams that Antonio Daniels played for. I think, okay, I.
Think you know it was even more impressive than I think I think.
I said something like, I'll give you one thousand dollars right now if you tell me who drafted Antonio Daniels. And without even pausing, You're like Vancouver.
I was like, oh, oh my gosh.
So you were kind enough to say, if you know, you don't have to pay me the grand, but buy me a jersey.
Which is what I did. Compliments on this jersey. I want you to know that I had, and I'm not a jersey guy, like this fits great?
It does?
It is? I think I would argue, in my opinion, one of the coolest jerseys in the history of the NBA.
And a very underrated city that really hated having pro basketball. I was only up there four or five times that I always loved it.
I had. I had to dig deep to find that Antonio Daniels.
Was an It was an eBay, you know, but but well, I'm glad I didn't have to pay you a fir and I just had to spend one hundred bucks on a jersey.
But that was the origin story. As Chris Comaradni is live on site. Just so you know.
It is Smith's Football Fridays here at Smith's on ninth and ninth. Come on by and say hi, we'd love to meet you. You can actually see Chris Comaradni in person, which is very rare. It's like seeing a wild creature out out, you know, hanging.
Out like a white tiger.
But well done. No, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't do that, not this week. I don't so cklave on side for one more big segment here. All right, we did Utah football. Last segment.
The Youth's obviously welcome in Arizona. Eight fifteen is your kick time at Rise Ecles. The ACI weather temperature is seventy two degrees and clear tomorrow.
Tomorrow night's gonna be a lot of fun. Hope to see you up there, going. Yeah, I'll be up there.
My son's in town, so we're gonna go to see a U game because I don't get to see him very much anymore because he's living back East. But you know, I felt like BYU was better than people were giving them credit for media picks them thirteenth in the preseason Vegas over Under was four and a half, but I picked him to win six games. I did not think we'd sit here talking about a four and oh BYU
team defense feels real. So before we get into the particulars, overall four and oh where yeah with YU right now?
Overall it sounds super cliche, but BYU ceiling is as far as Jake Reetzlof can take them. Kudos took Kilanne and and Jay for building a very impressive defense. Something that I think you can make an argument was the Achilles heel of the program. Ironically, I mean Kilani being a defensive guy, but the fact that b YU for so many years in a row had future pros at quarterback and always were able to recruit skill position players. The defense struggled, especially against teams that like to run
the ball this year. I mean I I think you could make the argument that BYU has one of the best linebacker course in the in the conference, and when they play you see that how good those guys can can play and how well they can impact the game. But listen for no, I really really think we we can't overreact to the Kansas State game because a night game at Lavelle Edwards Stadium is a very difficult place to play wide out, wide out, alternate cougartail, vanilla frosting
cougar tail. And I think we'll find out who this team is this week. I think, like if even if they lose a close game, like I think, I think you could make an argument that BYU can get to seven to eight wins if they get blown out. I think that I don't want to say it is going to potentially like be forecast of what could come, but listen, they're gonna they're coming off a high against a team that they destroyed but was one of the oddest statistical
games I think you can say in recent history. I think that I don't know what the time of possession breakdown was different and different, but like b YU didn't have the ball, that all that much more compared to Kansas State. Am I wrong? There?
No, You're correct.
I mean, and I do want to say I'll give the coaches a lot of credit because listening to Kolanie's pressure after.
You get through the whole, like, hey, what's your favorite ice cream? Question.
Uh, you know, listening to Jay Hill and Kelly papinga a rod like all of them, And I don't want to diminish what I think was a really cool night for that program.
I don't want to diminish a win.
It's the biggest win by you've ever had over a top fifteen team. So oh, statistically, statistically so bottom line, thirty eight nine.
I'm a results over vibes guy. You know me absolutely, thirty eight nine period, end of the story.
But as Kolani pointed out, KSE State was eight of seventeen on third down BYUS three of nine. K State hung three hundred and sixty seven yards ONYU BYU had two hundred and forty one yards of total.
Oh.
KSE State had the ball for thirty three minutes, BYU twenty six fifty seven thereabouts. KSE State had eight penalties and three turnovers. You get a couple of you know, essentially interceptions in the red zone. Credit a rod for colling the kill shot, so you get touchdowns instead of field goals. The flukiest punt return you will ever see, even though it was awesome, a scoop and score. So it was a confluence of great fortune and also skill and good coaching as well.
But what do you want to see tomorrow?
So the conversation next week might be okay, They legitimately are better than anyone thought for sure.
Somebody needs to give Parker Kingston some electrolytes before the game because our guy was spewing big time. I think he ran like one hundred and thirty yards in total.
The broadcast, which is lunacy.
I don't think I've ever seen a player like be like, please don't touch me, because like you could tell that he felt so horrible because of the amount of like exhaustion that he just exerted. They need to translate it to the road, like they've They've played okay on the road. They won a very ugly game at SMU, which a lot of people had high hopes for SMU this year, but turns out they're not that good. They're going back
to Texas an earlier game. I think I heard you say they do not have a good track record in like early day games on the road.
Their last day games versus FBS team okay, and they have not won a big twelve road game yet.
That does not bode well for them. But Baylor's not great like they they can be taking advantage of on defense. I mean they have some decent skill position players. I mean I've watched them twice with Utah and Colorado. Now
BYU can absolutely win this game. I just think, like, you have to be able to make what happened Friday night against k State replicable on the road, and maybe not thirty eight nine, but you have to be able to, like you said, dial up the kill shots, be able to force turnovers, be able to make special teams plays. Those are the types of things that are necessary to do in order to win on the road, no matter who your opponent is.
For sure.
And this is kind of the time of year where I start to move from observation to conclusion. We have to talk about what we know about teams now as opposed to what we're trying to learn now. It still is early in the season, but we've got four weeks behind us. We're a third of the way through, essentially, So let's do this exercise with both BYU and Utah. One thing Chris, I can say that I feel like I know for sure about BYU is to your point of that defense is for real.
And I was on the sidelines.
When Baylor was here to play Utah, that offense, it didn't it didn't look good. Now, every time I say, hey, the offense didn't look good here and saw, I like, well, yeah, they played against Utah's defense. So you know, Baylor almost got Colorado a week ago. How good is Colorado. I'm confident for BYU in this game because one thing I feel like I know I can say as we move from observation and conclusion is the defense is for real.
But I'm not ready to say anything about JA yet. I just am not.
I mean, over the course of the four starts last year and at times this year has looked better, but the mistakes are still there. The bath thrillers are still there, the turnovers are still there. And again he didn't have to do much against k State, but it did enough to help them get the wins.
So I'm gonna ask you, what do you know about BYU? What do you still need to learn about them?
LJ. Martin's out, I believe so that running back room is that's that's hard. That's hard, especially going on the road, because I think you're, you know, role players, as they say in any sport, played better at home for obvious reasons. I don't know who's going to be able to take the pressure off of Jake. Jake's a gambler man, He's a gun slinger. But you know, like Kenny, he's got to know when to hold him and no one to
fold over. Sure, he has an amazing arm Like he can drop down and make throws that a lot of people can't make. Like he has a tremendous amount of arm strength that a lot of people don't realize he has. But to your point, like there were some of those, some of those throws against SMU where it's like the screenplay where he throws it right to the other guy and was on ten yard line. It's like, oh no, please, no, Like those are those need to be eradicated in order
for BYU to hit their ceilings. So what do I know about BYU? Great defense deserve to be four and oh will only go as far as Jake can take them? Meeting, can he produce within a Rod's system and avoid the type of backbreaking turnovers that would tire out a defense that's very very good.
I don't want to sound redundant, so I'm not going to just do the same exercise with Utah. But here's what I will ask you, because what we know about Utah is what we know about team that's coached by coach Wit and they, in my opinion, have earned kind of a benefit of the doubt status that very few schools in the country have.
Now.
College football is weird for a number of reasons, even though we love it. But one of the things that I've always found a little bit puzzling is it does feel like you get brand benefit of the doubt at times, leading people away from actually analyzing who you are, what you brought back, what you added.
I'm thinking of USC and Notre Dame more than anything.
It feels like every year we're told that, hey, these two you know, and sometimes they're really good, sometimes they're not.
But more often than not, I don't.
Feel like they ever perform to the level of their preseason hype.
I'm not saying.
So what you're saying is a lot of people nationally are a little lazy when it comes to diving into the reality. Because your right, because I think for like I think of Stanford for a long time, it's like Jim Harbough and David Shawer there great defense, run the ball right, Utah great defense.
Right right, exactly exactly.
So it does feel like coach Wit has built this thing up to where you just give them the benefit of the doubt. So instead of me doing the exercise of here's what I know about Utah football, what I know about Utah football is what I've known about them for a long time now, and it's how Kyle wants to play. What I'll ask you is what do you still need to see? What questions do you need answered? We know the defense is awesome, we know the old
lines played well. It seems like they might have a bell cow with the way mckaye's played so far.
He's been good. But Kyle said it. Kyle said it. Anytime, I mean, people are frustrated with Kyle, Kyle will tell you what he's thinking. He said it two weeks in a row. Now. We don't want to maximize touches for makay because of his potential of getting hurt. For sure, McKay is a very good running back and for a long time we thought he was a third down scatback type person. He proved he's proven that he can be
the guy. But he's also being it's also being relayed to us by their head coach that they have to figure out a way to not have him get hit so many times and be involved in so many touches. That's just the reality. Like so many players on this team, he's an older player that has been hurt and gone through like various things. That is also the reality of college football. Now. Like we talked about this before the season even started, Utah's three one of three of its
most important players cam Brandt McKay. These are guys that have not played a lot of college football in the last two years, which is to the detriment of Utah's hopes. That's just the reality. But to your point, McKay has proven himself, but they have to figure out a way to spell him because I don't think last week at Okay State is replicable going forward. I don't. I know Mike Mitchell has been banged up, and I know they
think highly of him. He's definitely a bigger back who fits the mold of who could play off of mackay strengths. I get that, but I just don't think Makai being the Zach Moss twenty to twenty five carries every single week guy is gonna work out for Utah.
Yeah, I mean I was just I said this I think on Monday. It's not that I didn't think Makai could run between the tackles. It's just more I don't know that I've seen it the way we saw it against Oklahoma State.
So who is the guy?
Is it Mike Mitchell because he's a little bit Dejon Stanley had quite a coming out party. But as I talked about against it was a pitching catch. Yeah, there's nobody within twenty yards, and that dude's fast.
Nobody was catching Himah was seven on seven.
Yeah, I believe Cam said after the game that Dejon's the fastest player on the team. I still look at Jalen Glover and I think, like, dude, I've seen this kid have big games and big moments for big Utah wins over the past three years. I don't know why he can't get off the pine, but obviously something's there. He's fallen out of favor. So if Mackay's the guy, but to your point, you can't overuse him. Does what does it look like? What does the distribution look me?
In the Pride of East High School, Charlie Vincent sure. I mean a six year guy, a guy who was on the team when I covered the team so long ago, so like Charlie's been on the team. I covered Charlie in high school at the Tribune.
Okay, that's how.
Credit to Charlie. Charlie was a hell of a skill position player at East I remember him a Britain Covey type player. And now he's getting reps at running back for the number ten years. So credit to Charlie. He's played well this year. Clearly he is ahead of some people in that room for a reason. Andy trusts him and Kyle trusts him for sure. So what does the what does the room look like behind behind mackay? If
Mike Mitchell is healthy, it's it's gonna be him. But then after that it's it seems like it's a steady dose of Dejon Stanley or Charlie Vincent. I don't I don't pretend to know anything about what's going on with Jalen Glover that. I'll leave that up to Quinton Ganther and Andrey Ludwig. Sure, but if if Utah fans are worried about their fourth or fifth running back right now, that goes to show you how good this team is.
I'm not saying McKay has reached Cameron level importance, but if Makai goes down, that's a big blow.
I mean down the stretch.
Kai goes down and Mike Mitchell is not one hundred percent who Mike is a talented, big young back, but he's not proven. So if you're talking about those two guys being hurt and Cam not being available, yeah, that's five all on fire.
So I posed the question for sure.
So I posed the question to Scott Mitchell a couple of weeks ago when when we kind of were operating off these some that Isaac was getting the start.
Cameron safety valve is clearly Brent.
They played together forever, right, and that's going to be the comfort target he looks towards. And for Isaac Wilson, is it becoming Dorian Singer? We finally saw the Dorian game most you fans were hoping for last week. Do you think we're seeing something emerging with isa.
He's their best wide receiver since Darren Carrington. If you're talking about pure skill, if you're talking about a number one receiver at Utah, who would be a potential number one at other contending schools, which Utah has really never had. Yes, he is that guy.
Yeah, So let's move over to the defense here real quick, because one of the conversations I always have every year Utah they always just have one. Well, they have multiple guys on defense, and they plays dudes, multiple dudes.
Yea, they got they got s dudes.
You have to say they got if you want to be a true college football bro, it's they got.
Stare is nice, good memory.
But a year in and year out, go back to Weddell Clark Devin there's like one guy that seems to make all these crazy game changing plays on defense.
Is it time to say it might be Van Fillinger this year? Yeah, he's been He's been good for a lines.
Yeah, he's been good. It's been a while since UTAs had a star defensive end like that. I mean, I think Bradley and I was the last one that really comes to mind. And for a long time they had those guys. They were putting guys like that in the league. Hunter Dimmick, Nate Orchard, the Mayor Mayor, you know, Bradley, some other folks that have come through here and and
really made a big impact. But I think if I'm looking at the Utah defense, like if Lander Barton has to stay healthy because he's a future like potential day one draft or day two draft pick, notine say day one because that's first round. Now, if he stays healthy, they should be in good shape because their defensive line is good. Again. For a long time, I was of the opinion that Utah's defensive line was not as good as it usually was, and a lot of that had
to do with with health. Obviously, Van is a guy that's been dealing with injuries for a couple of seasons now, last year primarily. But if I'm looking at one guy on the defense that needs to kind of be the stereotypical game changing player, I'll be I'll be stereotypical and say it has to be their best middle linebacker.
Yeah, that's fair.
And obviously we have no word at least I don't on karn Read's availability this weekend, nor I ever heard anything about Connor O'Toole.
But coach went packed to or Echiese me Pack.
Twelve Big twelve Media days told us that he thinks the D line is his deepest spot, So we'll see what happens.
All right c K before we catch.
A break fall means football, and it also means playoff soccer.
Football.
Yes, indeed, indeed, you know little kicking. I don't know if you've seen the SNL skit Nate Bargatzi. It's a little you know, George Washington, little kicking r S And we had Doney on earlier. Let's do a little RSL for a few minutes. Far as say you lose, I don't know what they're gonna do in goal. You know, ultimately it it felt like at one point there was a little bit of momentum, like maybe before the win. Though, do we looked at a keeper? I know they love
Gavin He's eighteen, that's insane. Zach has played well in spurch for them over the past few years. But I think it's safe to say, and Donny alluded to this, there's no great answer right now on goal. I also don't want to completely pin the defensive issues only on the keeper.
It's a team thing.
Nine goals allowed in the last three games, so we'll get to the attack portion. But what do you attribute most to what I perceived to be a pretty leaky defense with four matches left.
Well, two of those are at home, and we shouldn't be giving up that many goals at home.
Set pieces costly goals too.
There is no there, I mean, Dunny's right, There is no right answer right now. Both Zach and Gavin are making game changing mistakes. Luckily for Gavin the one against Dallas, he got off the hook a little bit and when the when hazes FORER played that quick free kick, which was brilliant. I've never seen that done in a game.
If I was playing FIFA, I would have turned the exit.
I mean, I mean that's like RB like perfect placement. It hit the post and bounced in. Unfortunate for Gavin. Historically, RSL has always been the benefactor of amazing goalkeeper play. We're looking at the landscape of the history of the franchise. Scott Garlic, DJ Countess, Wow.
Kyle Rainish, you don't want to play this game with.
Me, just so, Jeff Atonella, No, I'm being honest, Like for however many I can't remember how many years Nick.
Was here, but Pat Sackett, you will not be in the chat. Say yeah, I.
Don't even know who that is.
Okay, Blitz.
People played it, hated playing RSEL because they had Nick Rimando. Sure in the regular season and in the playoffs. Yeah, and that's not even including penalties. You're kind of seeing what life is like without a Nick Rimando. And now I'm not saying that like Gavin and Zach need to be measured up to the stature and the plaudits of Nick Romondo. But fans are spoiled because of the guy that they had in the pipes. So I'm of the opinion they should have gone out and found somebody because
Zach's not it. I think you have to ride with Gavin. He's he's thought of highly in the youth national team scene, Like he's a guy that's in those circles already, so that he is a good young keeper, you have to ride with him. Like I think it makes sense, Like the mistakes he's making aren't any worse than the mistakes
that Zach's. Zach was for sure, So if you're if we're talking about hedging bets, you want to invest more time and potential learning lessons in the kid who has a higher ceiling than the than the than the veteran who's been around the league for a long time.
So let's expand the conversation to this though, because I always and I had to learn this right because early on, before I ever, because I never watched soccer. I've told you this, and so my untrained eye and now like I'm some savanna. Now you see a goal, you'd be like, oh, that that's on the keeper, that's on the keeper, or you see a goal, you're like, oh, the center back slipped or whatever.
And it was Donny who kind of reminded.
He kind of taught me, like, look center backs back for keepers, like it's such your mistakes are so so punitive because goals change games. Somebody told me that goals change games, and so I try to look at it from more of a macro stand.
Are there bad giveaways?
Is the midfield not in possession or people not tracking back? But you've been watching the sport a lot longer than I have. If we move away from keeper issues, which are real, what are the other elements that have allowed this defense to take such a nosedive?
Outside back plays but has been really, really shoddy this year, Andrew Brody has taken a dip. I think I'm of the opinion that Pablo needs to find a way to get body hidoga more minutes I think he has a higher ceiling at any number of positions. Frude height zone Oka.
But to your point, like I will say that there there are times this year where we're seeing mistakes made by goalkeepers that make me gas and that doesn't happen often correct by both of these guys, I'm with you, which is the problem, Like you're there are time spence where we're talking about like not Sports Center, not top ten plays type type mistakes, yes, which can't have a league soccer stuck correct, which which can't have happened for a number of reasons on a professional level, let alone
for a team that's vying for a top four playoff spot out West. I think we were lazy in trying to understand We were lazy in trying. Yeah, we were lazy in trying to understand the balance of this team earlier on in the season, because they were so amazing offensively.
For sure.
I mean they were winning games five to three, four to two. So like the fact that their offensive display was so tantalizing, I mean, you're always going to fall in love with the shiny object, And for a long time, RSL's shiny object was Chicho Rongo Andrascomas and Diego Luna just basically blitzing people and playing amazing soccer and scoring amazing goals. But things have changed. Obviously, the front office made a big decision, which I still think is the
right decision. But you're seeing a team that basically is trying to figure itself out again on the fly, in real time, in what is the hardest part of the MLS calender, the dog days of summer in MLS.
All right, before I say you lose, just to follow up four matches left, I asked Garth, and maybe Garth would just give me a lip service because Atlanta was in town. We are g Garth on RSL smoked Atlanta pretty good. I said, do you think they can win it?
And he said I do before Andres was sold.
Correct.
And so now we move into this new reality. And I know you're a big fan of talking sports, you know five questions.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a huge fan. And Dave your guy, Dave Fox, my guy, all of our guys.
He asked me, are you emmys.
Indeed two pelotons as well?
Are you more confident in RSL making a deep run today than you were a couple of months ago? And it said, no, I'm not so do you think they can win it? That that's before.
They can They can't win it? Okay, No, the LA teams are too good, teams that are always tough to play in the postseason like Seattle and Colorado are right and they're nipping on their heels. So many things have to go right for him the last month of season. They have to figure out a way to get Chicho Roango out of his head and playing at the MVP level that he was. They have to figure out a way for a Diogo Gonsalves to be the guy that they spent four million dollars on or three million dollars on,
whatever it was. And they have to figure out a way to stop being a sieve on the back line because they are tremendously bad right now on the back line.
If they have a home playoff game, what do we have to do to get a convoy to head out, Like, let's get a group like eight to ten of us.
I'll go on tracks with you guys, will you absolutely?
Hey, Buddy, good to see the great Chris Comroddi from the Athletic.
He is on Twitter, but he never tweets. He does tweet out his work because he's a great writer. At Chris Comroddi is where you find him.