M Ramy. Let me check it out to you.
Zach Barber is gonna roll by the NBA daily assist style. Good NBA games yesterday, a couple of NFL games that were just blowouts. The week of pro football wraps up tonight. We have the Thursday night game. It's the Bears in the Seahawks. You'll hear that right after we say it out at six o'clock. But let's do some more college football. One of our favorites, the legend himself, Eric Weddle, on a Thursday, he went, happy post Christmas, buddy, how are we doing.
I'm doing fantastic. Merry Christmas to you in the in the SAM. I hope everyone had a great one. Good to be on.
Appreciate your time as always. And you know, we find ourselves in such an interesting landscape Eric, as you know, and I've been talking about it all show with college football guests, excited to get your take on it. We have free agency while the season is still going on, you know, like coaches are trying to coach, Like Klone's getting ready for a good game Allible Bowl against Colorado. He's got like ten kids that are in the portal
that aren't going to play in the game. And then there are teams that are trying to win a national championship and coaches are trying to prepare for the biggest games of the season, and their players are into the transfer port, like help me fix the sport that you and I both love.
God, I mean, that's gone a whole hour about this, the way the state of college football is and how it's affecting the high school kids the most. I mean, of all the kids that are getting the shafts and all, this is the high school kids. And now it's this JC rule going through. If it's stands with any coach recruit high school kids when you can recruit JC kids that have two years that won't count against their eligibility for the four year schools. So there's a lot of craziness,
a lot of things that I don't agree with. And it's pay to play. It's not name, image and likeness. Where can I go to make the most money, And it's not culture building. It's not what university could help me become a great man. It's none of that. And it's hard to watch. Can fault the kids. The system is what it is. How I fix it, I'd get rid of the portal. I would put some regulations on what you can earn or your name, image and likenes. It's not hey, give you a million dollars here to
come play for me. That's not what it was designed for. So so many issues with it. It's just hard to be involved with.
Tell me from your end because you reference talent's affecting a high school kid and that's your space. Now you're doing some coaching, I would be genuinely curious, is somebody like you who knows how to lead? You did it as a player both in college and the pros. What do you say to your kids as they're getting ready to enter this space where they're going to hear from colleges and potentially agents, Like how does a high school coach handle the modern landscape of college football?
Right now?
Eric, you got to have a good head on your shoulders, and you got to what's most important to you? Is is it to make a quick buck or is it to make relationships that I last a lifetime? Is it somewhere where you can build the right attributes to be a great man someday and to learn how to handle adversity, learn how to be a good teammate, learn how to lead.
Those things happen to being part of a program, not jumping program to program every six months, trying to learn new system, try to learn your teammates, try to learn the head coach like that stuff doesn't it least is success in my opinion. So reality is is this is what it is. I would hope for programs to start emphasizing development and building from the youth with high school kids and pouring into the younger guys that cherish and value the culture and value the program and value the team.
We not meet type attitude. That's what I would focus in instead of trying to get the quick fix of a portal kid to just build some holes on your roster.
It's difficult because you also have a situation here in Saul Lake Eric as we move over to the University of Utah. I mean, coach with referenced the number of forty players that they want to bring in and that's both with high school recruits and coming to campus and then the transfer portal as well. And that essentially means that Utah football will be entirely rebuilt in one year. And in pro football or pro basketball or pro sports, you run into rebuilds every I don't know, six seven,
eight years. It depends on how smart your front office is. It depends on how good your ownership is. But right now, a lot of programs, namely the University of Utah, are going to be marching out a team next year that's totally rebuilt. Like what's what's what's reasonable to expect from Utah football when they're really going to have a brand new coaching staff in a lot of ways and a brand new roster.
Sure, yeah, I mean I don't I don't have the answers to that. I just know turning over your roster isn't in my opinion, Kay, I'm not in it, So take my take my opinion with a grand assault, right. But I think that if you build, you know, maybe the numbers fifty to fifty high school support of kids, maybe it's seventy, you pick holes that you need an
immediate starter right now, but you develop from within. You You almost like in the NFL, you reward a guy that you drafted with a new contract because he earned it and he's a great ambassador of your organization for the city. Like it's no different now it's a college landscape. So why do you want someone else that's leaving the
program for whatever reason as a stop gap. Well, if you pour into the young guys in your programs, they're going to be loyal to you, Hugh Hope at the end of the day, I just don't understand for the life of me, how even gets to a point where you're entering the portal as a returning starter. Like they need to crack down on the guardrails of who's communicating with these kids. Who's the ones that are inside these universities knowing what they can offer these kids if they
hit the portal, Like that needs to be real. That should be nonny. This like these kids are returning starters going to the portal for not how do they even know that they're going to get that? Like that's it's just slimy and wrong on so many ways and everyone's doing it. But how is that not how is that not Winstone that if you communicate with a kid then that should be illegal and should the school should get reprimanded for it, Like it's it's just it's just, oh, this is hard.
It's hard, and it's unfortunate, you know, it's it really is too bad.
But I will say, what does it say to you.
About the product of college football and the sport of college football that even with the chaos off the field field, the ratings keep rising and people still watch. I mean it has to speak to the power of what this sport is that regardless of how bad the business is run, consumers still consume it.
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it's a great product. The product is less than a year in a year out with the rule changes, with the amount of turnover on your roster every year. That limits what you can do off of defensive questions. Okay, so that means you're limiting what you can do, limiting what you can put out there on the field. You can't stress them enough. If they were in the system for one year, two year, three years, well they know it. That means you could
expand it. That means you could push them harder. It's you dummy it down so these guys can learn it in a quick time. It means everyone's running the same crap. The team spread them out, you got RPOs, you got inside zone, a little sprint out action and they all line up on the side. They don't huddle out of the huddle. I mean they don't break the huddle and they look at the silent for the route. Take what
are we really teaching and developing these kids? Right? They don't know formations, they don't know motions, they don't know shifts, they don't know check with me. They don't know audible. It's type and you get into that and that's why you see some struggle and some has a has an easy transition. But you know, that's what the NFL is becoming a lot of basic generic offenses out there that are easy to translate. So I don't I don't know the landscape. It is what it is like. Basketball is
horrendous to watch. Nobody watches that. Baseball is born to watch unless you're in person. Hockey the same thing. So I think society is the only thing really exciting to watch is the NFL and college football. So it doesn't surprise me that the ratings are so high. It does know if people people play the game. No, the product is not a very good product that we're watching.
See that's really interesting.
So let me follow up because I've not heard very many people offer the opinion that the product is suffering on the college football landscape.
And you kind of outlined reasons as to why. So I guess what I'll ask.
You is, do you it is there like this permeating fear that, in your opinion, and the product will continue to suffer unless we get things figured out where there's a little more continuity. And are you concerned about the future of the sport?
Well, I think I think a lot of it. I'm speaking more of the NFL compared to the cause. A lot of how the NFL is run is you're limited on added practices. You're limited on how much tackling you're doing. Most cases, second of the year, you're not even in pads at that moment. So it trickles down to college, like how much are you really practicing blocking and tackling? That is football? Okay? The great teams that win block
the best and tackle the best. Okay, it's not seven on seven, it's not Hey, we throw the ball fifty sixty times a game, and what you're seeing is less time dedicated to that and more time to making it simplified so the guys can transition from a new school on the field and do what they do best. So I don't know, in my mind, I'm never gonna sacrifice team and scheme because that gives us an advantage every time we cross the field, right, that is our advantage.
We're not just gonna sacrifice that so other guys can just quickly if they can't adjust, it shouldn't be a part of our program and maybe you should developed within Like that's my opinion on that.
No, it's some really interesting stuff.
Like I said, I feel like the narrative is a lot of folks continue to watch and really love college football despite the kid.
Watch the ones that played. Know the type of football that we're watching is not high level football. You could ask any old player that's played NFL or college, and when you watch it, it's not sophisticated. It's not high level x'es and o's. You're not seeing in timing, you're not seeing you know, multiple things off defense Schematically, it's very vanilla, basic line up and play.
Are there exceptions to that? Are there? Coaching staff they like, who do you like to watch?
Uh? Shoot, you're talking collegiate.
Or NFL either way, either level.
Well, the top organizations in the league have a standard and the and they do what they do, you know, offensively, I think Detroit Ben Johnson, I mean he's on he's on another level, uh, gemmatically and how he draws up plays and gives his team advantage. I think Sean LeVay
obviously have a close relationship with him. And you know, when you're talking collegiate, uh, you know, you could say the history and and what how they developed their skill guys and quarterbacks for the last three years of Ohio State. But man, have they winner the last time? That bes one in a big game? You know, so it goes zactly bet who they're supposed to be. They get in the big game, We'll see how they do against Oregon. But you know, it's you only can do with with
what you have. I'm not naive. You know, you have players you're coaching. You don't win, you're probably gonna get fired. But I get that, and you got to adapt. I'm not saying don't adapt, but I'm saying, structurally, as a program, what are we laying our hat on. Are we laying our hat on you know, bill turn out forty to fifty guys a year, or are we hanging our hat
on development? Culture, program building? And for me as a lum, that's what I wish or hope that we continue to do or try to do instead of just trying to find the next plug and play player.
So tell me what the confidence level is eric with you and you know your friends that played up at the University of Utah, Because what you just described, in my opinion, describes a Kyle Whittingham program player development always has been and it's a new different era in college football. Do you feel like Utah and the coaching staff have adjusted and will they still be able to use the old approach that works so well in the new day and age of college football.
I think it can work, but again, I'm not in there. I don't know what's going on. How those conversations happened for a guy like Kyle hun Did they have a meeting with them? Did they talk about what he's getting paid? Does it need to be up for a high level starter in the Big twelve? Like? I don't know those questions, right, And I don't know what he got at Alabama. My point is why is he even in the portal? Right? Like? How does that even happen where they think I can
get more? I'm not happy here? Like what is it? When is enough enough? Right? And so I don't know. I think they're going too much portal kids and enough younger guys and keeping them. But I don't know the situation. Are they being told to leave right like? Do they not want to be there because they're back? I don't know those questions. So it's hard for me to say what I wish we would do because I'm not intimate in those conversations in the roster buildings and what they
have compared to what they need. So I just would say what I would do, and I would try to do it like sixty forty seventy thirty of high school development and then those two to four players you need to plug and play because you have a hole. You go find those guys and get them.
When we last had you on and Eric weddles with us to the former Youth Legend Super Bowl champ When we last had you on, Eric, we weren't sure if coach wit was coming back and there was not an offensive coordinator. Well in the time that's past, Kyle Whitted Haam is elected to come back for year twenty one and Jason Beck is the new OC. Just wanted to get your reaction when you heard those two pieces of news.
Yeah, I mean I expected coach with to come back. I mean if I doesn't want to go out like that, uh, you know, with a situation with Morgan hanging in the balance, and was it this year? Is it next year? Like I think that needs to be communicated with everyone, right, Like we're not hanging at the end to see for the recruits for the program, but I'm guys coming back. He's a legend. Uh you know, I wouldn't be here today without coach with so I think it's better that
he's around and moving forward. Uh, you know, with the offensive coordinator, I don't know, you know, like I hope, I hope they hired a great guy and he's innovative and he pushes a limit and he makes our offense better than one's been because we've struggled at times and we've been really good at times. And then I think a lot of times it comes back to players, and you only do so much as a coach, right, Players win games. Coaches most times find ways to lose it.
Interesting perspective, all right, Before I say you loose, I just want to get I know you're in a lump, and I know you love the staff, and I know you love the team, and I know you're always going to look at it through a ute positive lens, but there is a there's a feel around here. There's a nervous feel from the fan base that after a rough, rough year and you know, a new coaching staff and talented players leaving either via graduation or transfer portal, that
this next season might feel like the last. I'm gonna ask you, Eric, before I say you loose, what gives you the most confidence that year two in the Big twelve will look better than your one did?
Well? I mean, we have a standard, and the standard is that we're a top knots program on and off the field. Okay, that didn't happen last year for a number of reasons. Reality is we didn't get it done.
So changes were made. You got to hope and believe that the higher ing on the offensive side and the system that he's going to bring in place is going to be a good one that to maximize our potential offensively defense, we're always going to have a top knots defense, So if we could couple our offensive production, then we'll be one of the best things of the Big twelve in the country. And that's been the case for the
last fifteen years. So that doesn't change. I will always have confidence that we play our style of football offense. Even such things. We could be anybody on the field. Now we couple it with great people counts that football players play together. Players one, you got a special team. If you can't have that dynamic with the team and how close they are, playing together and playing complimentary football, then you're gonna struggle. That's whether you have new coaches or not.
Well, all right, Eric, I appreciate the time, man. I always appreciate the truth telling. So I'll wish you a happy new year. Thank you for your time. I'll love to have you back on soon.
Okay, you got it, but anytime