I were live today as advance window products, come on buy and say hi at thirty fifty two South four sixty west here in Salt Lake. Nate Orchards still the mayor of Sac Lake City, which his spot, of course Jake Weber as well. Special deal where you save three thousand dollars on a purchase of ten windows or more in a free upgrade to high performance windows if you call before six o'clock tonight. So good of Nate to stop by to talk about kind of an uncomfortable topic.
He played for.
Coach Wit and of course that's big news is Kyle Whittingham will be back on the sideline. The number, by the way for advanced window products is eighth one to eight five zero ninety one hundred. That's eighth one to eight five zero ninety one hundred. We'll start off the four o'clock hour with a little more college football. Our next guest played college football, coach college football, and for now he's in the media, but that usually means he
just is going to get back into coaching. My players would welcome in Mike Samford Junior on a Tuesday afternoon.
Mike, how are you, sir?
I'm doing great it's great to be on your program, your very in these parts. I listened to the entirety of the Trevor Riley interview and it was like one of my favorite listens of all time. It was fantastic.
Well, that's kind of you to say, that's called just let Trevor do the Trevor thing. I take no credit there. I just welcomed him in and then let him run. And that was quite a day. But Mike, let's get to know you a little bit. Let's talk about your background. You were a player, you were a coach, and then I want to learn a little bit more about what you're doing these days.
Yeah. So I played at Boise State, son of a coach. My dad was the offensive coordinator at the University of Utah. So we've cross paths a few times with the Great State of Utah. My dad there three and o four ted, you know, he was obviously Kyle Whittingham was the decordinator, my dad was the offensive coordinator, and then Herban Meyer head coach, Dan Mullen the quarterback coach. So a lot
of really really cool times. I was finishing up at that time at Boise State in two thousand and four, and the wild thing is that we were both undefeated regular season and we were competing for the non BCS school getting a bull invite in the PCs, and it went to my dad's team. So my teammates were pissed
at me at Boise State. But yeah, so I got it, you know, went into coaching eighteen years of it, you know, kind of traverse the country, went to Stanford, I was at U and LB my dad was a coach there, and then you know, I was at Boise State. Is the offensive coordinated last Pista Bowl at Boise State played in ten years ago, and Notre Dame for a couple of years and now I'm in Denver. My last coaching job was CU before coach Prime got here. I was
the interim head coach and offensive coordinator before that. And I decided to get into the to the talking head space and I actually am having a lot of fun.
Well, I'm glad you're having a lot of fun, you know.
I've I've definitely worked with a lot of former coaches and former players and some don't love the media space.
Some take to it as well. And obviously we're very familiar with your father and I was a student at the University of Utah in the late nineties, and you know we're their broadcast partner now, so I do want to take some space with a bright guy like you the knows college football to talk about Kyle Whittingham returning now for his twenty first season, and Mike, he may have heard there were a lot of speculation about what
he was going to do. He does have a couple of years left on his contract, and when we didn't hear an announcement right after the end of the season, I just surmised that.
He would be back, and he is back.
So, as somebody that knows the coaching game and knows Utah football, what's your reaction to coach Wick coming back for year twenty one.
Well, I'll tell you this. I was at to see you Utah game, and you know I first thought that this was an outlier year for Kyle Whittingham in Utah. Clearly there were a lot of things going on Cam Rising, just the ongoing saga of his health and that dude is a great player. By the way, my last game coaching college football was twenty twenty two, in the final game of the season against Cam Rising. A healthy Cam Rising in Utah. And I'll say this, like I coached
against Kyle Whittingham. I'll shoot, I was the head coach on the opposite sideline just two years ago. He's one of the greatest to ever do it, not just in you know, Utah history, but Franklin College football history. And so yeah, I didn't think there was any chance that Kyle Whittingham wouldn't be back in twenty twenty five. I didn't even kind of like any any rumors that were
going around. I just laughed at him to be candid, because this was an outlier year and Utah has always cornered to the market on unbelievable defensive play, great special teams play, and then really good offensive line physicality on the offensive side of the ball. So I just see that this program is going to be back on track next year. And let's call it spade a spade. The Big Twelve Conference is a conference that if you quit yourself well, you can go from the bottom to the
top in about two point five seconds. And that's what I think Utah will do next year.
So you reference Cameron Rising, and by all reports, he will not be back. It would have been his eighth year and at one point that seemed preposterous, and now that's probably going to be a little bit of a common theme with the ability to stick around and make money in a way that players couldn't back when you were playing college football. Isaac Wilson hits the transfer portal, Sam Hewart hits the transfer portal, as does Brandon Rose. So there are no quarterbacks on the roster to speak of.
How in your experience, how realistic is it for a program like Utah to be able to go to the transfer portal? And you know, there's conversation about Devin dan Pierre because he played quarterback in New Mexico under Jason Beck, who is now the offensive coordinator. But there are a
lot of schools that are interested in Devin. So for people around here who are hoping what you just said is true, and that is this year was a moment in time and not the new normal, how realistic is it for Utah to go hit that transfer portal and find somebody under center that can kind of settle the ship.
It's very realistic. And one thing I'll tell you is Kyle Whittingham hit an absolute home run in his hire at offensive coordinator Jason Beck's a guy that I'm a former offenseve coordinator. I've called plays and I've had some really good years, like a Fiesta Bowl win at Boise State and you know, Fiesta Bowl appearance in twenty fifteen with Notre Dame. And I've had some tough years, but I know good coaches schematically when I see him. And this year I was on the broadcast here at CSU
in Colorado. I was on the TV broadcast of Colorado State versus New Mexico. So I did a bunch of research, watched a lot of film ahead of that matchup, and there's I don't think there's anybody in college football at the offense coordinator position that's doing a better job of of like simple us difficult them, which means it's it's ingestable in this modern era of you know, the roster turnover and having to have have concepts and schemes that are not they don't take two three years to be
able to play in them. But yet there's enough I would call it window dressing and French pastry on top of shifts and motions and trick plays and you know, very unique running schemes that Jason Beck brings to the table that I think they that he is the right guy, and I saw I'm just gonna be candidate. I saw some of the early candidates that we're going to be considered for offensive coordinator. They come from an air rate background that would not have been a great fit to
the identity of Utah's football programs. Utah is a physical team that wants to run the football, has really crafty quarterback play. And I'm gonna tell you the best candidate out there is Devin Dampier and I have no connection to him. Devin Dampier. I've been standing up for this guy on social media. I watched this guy play about seven games this year and he is the next camp Ward. But I think he's more more coachable, more malleable in
terms of making great decisions with the football. So if you're a Utah you know Donor, I would pony up with this player and be very excited about getting him because I think he's one of the most exciting returning players in college football for the twenty five season.
Wow, that is lofty praise and from somebody like you, that means a lot. So let me follow up there, because what I'm reading is there are SEC programs interested in Devon. There are big ten programs interested in Devon. So you know, obviously your your words about Jason. You know, I'm sure music to a lot of people's ears around here.
Do you think Utah could potentially have the inside track because they have his former offensive coordinator or like everything else in life, Mike, is this coming down to dollars and cents?
Yeah, I think it's gonna be the reality of it. But also I think Devin dan Pier is gonna be a player that wants to not only maximize the dollar figure, but also maximize the performance. And when you've played in a system and you have that familiarity within the system, that means a lot. I mean, look at cam Ward and how he got to Washington State. That was his his connection to that to the program at Incarnate Word. That's how he ended up there as a coach that
went to Washington State and brought his quarterback. So this is this is very common now in college football. It's almost like coordinators sometimes are hired just I'm not gonna say solely for the purpose of but largely for the purpose of bringing a quarterback. And Western Kentucky started that after I was let go there. I was the head coach there in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, ninth. Yeah, those
two years. And right after that it was the Bailey Zappi and and the offensive coordinator Zach Kittley came over from Houston Baptist and they won ten games that year. It's they're only a really good year. So everybody's everybody's coaching and making decisions. And I hate to say it, and it's a different er. It's a lot different than my dad coached in. But you're coaching for that next year. That's it, and then you got to do it again in the following year, and you got to do it
again the next year. That's just the reality of college football. But the higher in and of itself, I think makes a lot of sense. Devin Dampier is a fantastic player,
and he should he should test the market. But I think that having an opportunity to be highly successful in a in a story program like Utah that has, you know, some some geographical geographical connections to his background of being an Arizona kid and then playing his first several years at New Mexico, I mean that stuff does matter, would.
Be remissed, Mike if I didn't simply just ask your opinion on where we're at with the landscape of college football, sport that we all love and a sport that somebody like you has made a living in, and your family certainly probably owes a lot to the game, and you
have given a lot back as well. But it's a different day and age with the things that we all talk about, we all know about, and I am of the opinion that we are high speed ahead to another massive landscape shift, and hopefully this time it's just the final one and we land in whatever the new normal of college football is. But transfer portal, nil players going, players coming, money is changing hands. Are you a fan of where we're at with this game? Are you concerned about the future.
We'd love to hear your thoughts.
I think the first year that I had out of college football, which was following the twenty two seasons, so last season twenty twenty three, you know, I mean, I was watching what was happening with the team that I just coached in Boulder, and you know, I think seventy some odd players on that roster not invited back to the team, and I I would say I was bitter, you know, I was bitter about the state of college football.
But I'll say this is as much as I don't love every aspect of the current landscape, you know, and some of it is is that players are human capital. That's a reality like that you can get rid of them just as fasts. You'll pay them and vice versa. I think that you can't fight city Hall because the product is still really good. I mean, we all can complain about it, and it can be you know, the old man yelling at the clouds if we want to, But the reality is we all tune in and watch
every single one of those college football playoff games. It's coming up. I promise you that it's a great product. It's never going to be a bad product. And so you know, in the event that like I ever got back into it, I mean, you just have to embrace the new normal, find your niche, find your space, and just excel in it and stay in your lane. And you know, the programs to me that are winning, they
have a quarterback. They go out and they get the right quarterback, and then they build their offensive line and defensive lines organically through high school recruitment and more long term solutions within the portal, because I don't believe he can build the the O lines and the D lines immediately within just one year.
You might be the best person for me, you know, for me to ask the following question, Mike, because you have coaching ties to both Colorado and Boise State.
Yes, yes, I do. Who wins the Heisman and why.
Travis Hunter's gonna win the Heisman? He's gonna win the Heisman, and I think it's because he is a very transcendent player by virtue of what he's done. And anybody who points to Champ Bailey and say those guys were spot players on offense, this dude's like running fifty eight routes a game and doing it on the defensive side of the ball. He's phenomenal. I've watched him in person now four times and I'm amazed every time I see it. And it's the ball skills for me, on both sides
of the ball. I think he has justin Jefferson level of ball skills. Obviously a short area, you know, changing direction. Everything is elite, and I'm voting for Ashton Gent there's a bias there. I'm at Boise State alum. I coached at Boise State. I love the player. I think he is so important to that team. But I think it's just an unfortunate year that you're ahead with one of the most unique players in the history of the game.
Man. He has been so fun to watch. I'll tell you what.
And you know, Boise finds themselves with a buy in the first round as the three seed. Well, they're going to take on the winner of Penn State. Smu what and again, you're an alum. We understand your ties to the institution. And of course, a potential second round matchup with Penn State, according to early books, would be a heavy you know, spread in the favor of the Nitny Lions. But yeah, is Boise good enough to make this interesting?
In your opinion? Can they advance maybe a round or two and maybe even beyond.
You know, a lot of people have pointy two Boise State in the last five six weeks have not looked like they're not passing the eye test of a team that could compete with us a Penn State. I would actually, yeah, I followed Boise State closely. I do a bunch of media work with Bronco Nation News out of Boise I have a weekly show on Wednesday nights on social media and all the things. And I've watched this team really endure about eight weeks, nine weeks of having offensive linemen
and I'm talking three starters out. The last game against UNLB was the first time they've had all five starters that are really really good starters playing together since week two of the season. And so I think that Boise State is actually playing their best football in the very last week of the season. And I know that this is a team that is senior and junior a lot of experience, and I believe that Boise State can do
what it's always done. And all you got look to is the last time Boys to State was really healthy, they took the number one team in the country, Oregon, to the very brink of that game, and really should have won that game. I think that was a missed opportunity for Boys to State. And Oregon looks to be the best team by far right now, the cleanest team in college football. So I would give them a chance.
Certainly gets Penn State, and I shoot, I think I think they'd be I think they beat SMU, I think they're a better football team.
So out of the big twelve, we find ourselves of Arizona State, which nobody saw coming. They were picked to finish close to last, and some outlets picked them to finish last. I wonder your impressions of what Kenny Dillingham did this year with a massive turnaround really quickly, and your thoughts on what they could do in this bracket as they find themselves with the first round by and a four seed to face the winner of Clemson in Texas.
Well. Kenny Dillingham comes from, you know, really the Dan Lanning, Mario crystobaal which really is ultimately saving, and Kirby smart Tree and these of the guys that I think really have the upper hand in college football right now in terms of roster, build the nil, the portal, how you do it, not just the money, but how you do it getting the right guys. And Kenny Dillingham has really really hit on a lot of players, and it started
with Sam Levitt. His quarterback is playing great ball. He's fun to watch, he's an athlete, he can extend plays. I think that he's playing as good as football towards the tail end of the season as any quarterback in the league. You know, and then Camp Scataboo's obviously, he's a one man wrecking crew, a lot of fun to watch. I just know this firsthand from Arizona State, my director
of football operations at Colorado, Ryan McGinnis. He got hired by coach Dillingham, and he also took one of my best players after we you know, I got fired, But it was Jordan Tyson, the wide receiver who unfortunately will be missing the remainder of this season, but I think he's gonna be a top three receiver in college football.
I can speak to it that the Kenny Dillingham has selected the right guys based off those two guys, because those dudes were two of my absolute favorites when I was at to you, I.
Haven't asked you about the season BYU had, and you know, ultimately it's funny, Mike, in a way. Both Utah and BUYU are two local schools blew it. Utah was the favorite of the start, could not get it done. Utah BYU installed themselves, is the favorite after nine games and stumbled, losing two of three. Their reward is a fun bowl game. It's the Alamo Bowl against your former school of Colorado.
But what do you make of what Kilani and company were able to do this season year two in the Big Twelve.
Well, in full candor spence, I got my brother in law, so my wife's younger brother is working on that football staff there. So I've been watching the Cubes very closely. Nice blood is thicker than water, so I've been I've been rooting for the Coubes all year, certainly because of the time my brother in law, Matt Mitchell, works with the quarterbacks. He's kind of Aaron Rodericks, a Rod's right hand man, and he does an awesome job. He was my right hand man when I was the offensive coordinator
at Notre Dame and then also Western Kentucky. Who is my quarterback coach. I love, uh, I love what what this team did. And let's just call a spade a spade before the year, this is a year where you're coaching for your job, you know, I mean it felt like that to me. And you start the season the way you did. Obviously the end of it was extremely disappointing, but frankly, you faced a couple of teams that were scorching hot at the end of the year between Kansas,
who I believe really should have been in the conference championship. Uh, if they just found their way earlier in the year they were a good football team. And then Arizona State and and you you had a chance to win both those games. Some fluky plays certainly happened against Kansas with the with the muffed uh you know, quarterback squid punt. Yeah, there was. There was a lot of unique, unique dynamics this year, and b what you won a lot of
games in very dramatic fashion. You can certainly talk about the Utah game, you know, a lot of different opinions on that, on that pass interference or holding call. But I'm just really proud of the work that the Kilani has done. I thought he made a great hire in his offensive line coach TJ. Woods, and that run game has got better. Jake Retstloff, I believe is gonna be one of the better quarterbacks entering the twenty twenty five season.
And so I'm excited about that Bowl game. I think there's probably, if I'm gonna be honest, I'm on the airwaves here in Denver, there's a lot more excitement from the BYU side for that bowl game than there probably are from the media types and the fan types here in Colorado. I know coach Prime is doing an unbelievable job of making sure his stars playing that game, but it feels a little bit like nothing to win and everything to lose type of a game for CU.
All right, this is the most random. Wasn't planning on doing this, but I think, what is your sister's name, Lindsey.
I think I met her at she was having dinner in Park City, like a few weeks back, and I was there at a wedding and she was having dinner with an old friend of mine. Nobody cares about this, but like, this is how my mind works.
As you reference that.
I went over and said hello, and she introduced me to her husband coaching at BYU, and she said, my dad is Mike Sanford. I'm like, oh, okay, of course I know who your father is, so nobody gives a rip.
Anecdotally, I think I met your sister just a few weeks ago.
So that was actually my sister in law okay, married to and if he was there, that was her husband is Matt, that's my wife's brother. I think it was like either it was a bye week for the dudes, and I think my brother in law and I've been in coaching a long time and I've tried to teach him. Well, he's, you know, kind of a younger brother to me in a sense. You got to take care of the wives during bye week, and so he took her up to Park City and I think they had a nice night
on the town. I actually remember them being out there.
Okay, all right, small world, man, Hey, real quick for segul louse?
Who wins the thing?
Who do you think the best team in the country isn't most set up to win the title?
Well, you know, I gotta go with the homersm I'm going with my boys. He skate Broncos.
There you go the world.
You know, I do think that they have a chance to make some noise in the tournament. And that's not just lip service, but if I were to just put a betting favorite on it, in terms of what I've watched, I think there's a lot of flat football teams this year, more so than any other year. The least flat football team right now is, without question, Oregon.
To me, good stuff, Well, Mike, I appreciate your time. Man. Glad you're on this side of the business. It means we're just going to.
Bother you so you can come on the show a lot. I hope you understand that. Okay, Yeah, be careful.
I say yes to everything. That's one thing that my wife tells me all the time. You got to say no to somebody. I'm like, no. I love being on It's a lot of fun, well.
Good stuff, buddy. I appreciate it. Enjoy the enjoy the games.
Okay, yeah, I appreciate this.
Nice all right.
Mike Sanford junior, longtime college football head coach, played a little college football himself. Himself, I should say at Boise State on Twitter at coach Samford.
Two youth fans will remember his pop, Mike Sandford, who.
Was the offensive coordinator during the Urban Meyer years where Utah football obviously had a very very exciting stint couple of years here. Took dead coaching job at UNLV, ended up at Utah State for a minute, and yeah, I appreciate Mike's time.