MON POD @SpenceChecketts on Utah @ UCLA, Fall Camp, Big 12, RSL Latest + more

All right, let's get a drive time Monday afternoon style. We're looking at about it eight minutes past the hour of two o'clock, hot day, August Day. It's about eighty eight degrees claire and sunny here in downtown.

Salt Lake City, Utah.

And as it is every single day, it's going to have you along for the ride.

Spence Check.

It's back behind the mic after a little bit of time off. Last time we spoke with you live was Wednesday of last week.

Had a fun Thursday.

I'm seeing the golf tournament for our friends at Murdoch Chevrolet, the Murdoc Auto Group, Murdock Hundai, Murdoch Genesis of Lyndon, my guy Blake Murdoch, Ben, the brothers. It was good time up there at Balley View and all the people that showed up.

Appreciate you guys.

And then spent the weekend in Middle America, in Indianapolis, in Indiana and Carmel, Indiana, hanging out with my brother and his wife and their six children. For any of you that have that many children, God bless you.

You are doing the Lord's work.

I'll tell you what a lot of fun to be back there though, celebrated my son's birthday. Shout out to Connor turned twenty four over the weekend. That's right, I have a twenty four year old son. My son is twenty four and he's such a good kid. Could not be proud of him. But good weekend, Great to be back. Hopefully you guys had a great weekend. Happy Monday to you. Hopefully you're off to a great start to that work week. And it is almost time. It is almost time for

Yeah, that's my bad. I forget.

Yeah, you got to earn your number. Are they doing the what did he have the BYU players wear on the back of the It was like spirit, tradition and honor or something.

Hey, spirit tradition and honor.

Don't don't spit it down.

Those are our three staples I think of this program, this program.

This the Afternoon Drive. You're on ESPN seven hundred. We are known for spirit, tradition and honor. You know what, that's actually not bad And.

I couldn't say that without like, here's the deal.

Before the end of the show, I'm going to decide whether or not you've earned that roan.

Shirt you're wearing. Oh no, you might have to take it off.

I don't know if they're a sponsor anymore, so.

Not technically, but you and I wear it every day, so kind of they are.

That's they provide free clothing. That's port reproduced of the show. My name is Spence Checkets.

I host the show.

It's good to have you guys with us on this Monday, and we are jam packed.

We have Week.

Three of the NFL preseason in the rearview mirror. Some of our local players solidify and roster spots. A lot of utes on the Broncos roster saw some action of the weekend. Caleb Lander had to catch Karene Reid had a couple of tackles. Jona Ellis cosm chaos in the backfield, Jackson Dark continues to impress for the New York Giants.

He's not going to get that starting job.

And a lot of NFL players, a lot of local NFL players trying to make their in roads. Look like Zach Wilson is going to lock in that QB two spot in Miami. Feels like BYU as a starting quarterback, they're kind of playing in a little KOI A Rod and Klaude and having announced and officially that bear Bachmeyers are starting quarterback in Provo, but it feels like that's

And yes, that's what they're doing.

And by the way, there's nothing wrong with it.

It's the weirdest thing.

I think it's a microcosm of several weird elements down there. But whatever, Kevin did a good job today with that, so we'll get into it. So college football on the program today will get you ready for game day, which is under two weeks away now. Ohio State has a starting quarterback as well a couple of positional battles with the University of Utah scrimmage up on the Hill over the weekend that we'll get into as well. Get you guys ready for game day for the Utes. RSL another

But that looked like a handball.

Well because the excuse me, the defender raised his arm and touched the ball with his hand.

Again, not an expert over.

Here me neither looked apparently like what happened to me.

But you know, yep, yep.

So RSL had a potential penalty kick taken away from them. There was a very violent tackle at least in the world of soccer at midfield where a Charlotte player probably should have been set off. Nonetheless, RSL two straight ls now, and they're below the playoff line with only eight matches to play. The good news is five of those matches are at home, starting on Saturday, and your boy will be there. I'm heading to the game Saturday night. Have not been to an RSL match since early in the season.

So a lot of football on the show today.

While we were gone of the Utah Jazz received their schedule.

Do you give a rip?

They have one national televised game and it'll probably be flexed out in January home opener October the twenty second against the Clips.

New broadcast partners with.

The NBA means a bevy of new scheduling all call it complications. I'm not sure we're going to see the inside guys until Christmas, which sucks in a lot of ways.

But we'll go over some stuff with the Jazz.

Lowry Markinen is absolutely crushing it at EuroBasket, just like he did a few years ago. And if you remember, that was the summer prior to Lowry's first season here where he had grown ups playing on the roster with him and he played well.

He made an All Star team, so.

A little NBA but mostly football on the show today, Good guest List. Our first guest will be the former athletic director at the University of Utah, good friend of the program, doctor Chris Hill, live in studio for an entire hour. Excited to have doctor hillan today. We'll talk about kind of what's going on behind the scenes this time of year and get his take on the future of Utah football.

I want to talk a little college basketball.

Last live show we did was last Wednesday up at the Red Zone store on campus, and let me mention, I cannot but it does not look like the store on campus when I was in school there in the nineties. We called it the bookstore because that's what it was. Brand new facility, new layout, great gear. They're gonna have drops every single week prior to Utah football home games. Tead you guys excited and geared up, ready to go for Utah football.

Head up to the campus store check it out.

But randon Alex Jensen and chatted with Alex for a minute, and he was with Wes Wilcox, who's the general manager of the Utah men's basketball program. So I want to talk to Doctor Hill about what we should expect from Alex year one as the head coach of the Utah men's basketball team. The voice himself, Bill Riley joins us on a Monday afternoon. It talks to you camp, some

Elliott, really, I think.

Deserves a lot of credit for the team he built up that this current iteration decided to break down for whatever reason. So we'll get with Elliott today, been wanting to have him on the show for a while, and then we'll go from there. So Doctor Chris Hill, Bill Riley, Elliott Fall, Me Spence check at all of you the great listeners, Hello, how are you? Thanks for making us a part of your Monday and him that guy Porter Larson, who produces the show.

How was your weekend? Pal?

It was good?

It was good.

How was your weekend?

Well, you can't just say it's good. Give me one highlight from your weekend. What did did you do that was fun? Give me one thing and it was well? I drove a bunch. Unfortunately, that's not that. That's not a highlight. I kind of got my ass kicked by a large hoofed animal. That's somewhat of a highlight. But I did uh, I did get outside.

I I did a little Central Utah exploring Severe Canyon area, Big Rock, Candy Mountain area. You're familiar. That's probably one of the highlights. Do we hanging out on the river?

Do we swear on the show?

Now?

Is that something we do? Forgot about our well? I was gone?

Is it forgot about our tenants?

Okay, I'm just saying, I mean spirit tradition on her that's the that's what we do.

And then you roll in.

You just start dropping dropping asses like there's nothing wrong with it.

I apologize for this. Be better or else you're not gonna earn your own shirt.

Okay, I was talking about a mule.

Okay, that's fair, I kind of you know, as my grandma used to say, it's also in the Bible. My grandma rest in Peace, had it like I used to love it. She would swear up and down. But if it's in the Bible, the Bible swears, there you go. Not the bad swears.

Or if you're in the state of Utah one I hear very commonly. And my friends that sometimes listened to the show. And you know, I played sports with me back in the day. If you're between the lines, right, if you're in the between the lines of the court or the field, doesn't count.

Doesn't count.

Okay, brother, one of your ex teammates has been texting me quite a bit, dming me on social media. Oh really, it seems like a nice guy just listens to the show as he knew you when you were a kid. Okay, that's the end of the story. Some of them are very very nice guys. Okay, what about the others.

Most of them the folk up in Camus, they are my people.

S all to the earth people up in Camas. All right, A lot to do. Our first guest today live in the studio will be doctor Chris Hill. But before we get to doctor Hill, courtesy of our friends at Prize Fix.

It is Todd Now for your opening tip. Welcome to the Drive with Spence.

Check its on Utah's number one Sports Talk Now into the studios of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. Opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run your game with Prize Picks.

Preseason. NFL football is here.

College football is also here week zero this week, so don't miss out on any of the action this season on Prize Picks.

Here's what you do.

You download the Prize Picks app today, use that promo code ESPN seven hundred to get fifty dollars in lineups after you play your first five dollars lineup. Promo code ESPN seven hundred get fifty dollars in lineups after you play your first five dollar lineup Prize Picks. Run your game all season long. All right, it is here. It's here, I mean college football is here. It is the Monday of Week zero, which will be highlighted by Iowa State

That's a nine o'clock kicktime on Fox.

By the way, I want to mention that the debut of the Devin Dan Pier, a weekly interview on The Sean O'Connell Show, will come your way on Thursday. So a lot of you wanting to get to know Devin a little bit better. We are your home with the Utes, and so we will make sure that you guys are able to kind of get a little bit of insight on what makes them tick. Good kid, really nice kid, had a chance to kick the tires with them down Big twelve Media Day. Of course, a lot of to

So that will be your opener for the Utes.

And you can hear the game on our radio station with Bill and Scott and Slide in the gang a ton of pregame coverage.

Porter's gonna take care of you there.

And then don't forget during home games this year, starting on September the sixth against cal Poly and continuing all season long, come chill out with us at our tailgate. We're right on Guardsman's right on the corner. It's like the Primus location. It's right outside of the big Smith's setup. I guess I should check if Smith's is back with the Utes this year, but that big setup on the corner. Have a lot of fun there. Out Load Distillery is gonna be serving some spirits. We all always have great

But when your main.

Topics are like who's going to be the second cornerback for a defense that you never worry about, or who's going to be the other defensive end outside of Logan Fano, when those are the conversations, as opposed to is the quarterback healthy? Who's your starting quarterback? What does that look like? You got to feel really good as a fan. So I don't fully know what to expect this year when it comes to the landscape with the Big twelve conference

And so college football is here.

Man, it's right around the corner, and I feel like no matter who you listen to most ever, but he is on the same page as far as not knowing what to expect. This is a sport, in my opinion twenty years at this now, I think it's harder to predict and analyze than any other sport on any other level. And I think it's even more so now as a result of roster changeover. I mean, at the very least

Right around the corner. Had a chance to catch up.

With Alex Jensen last week up at the Red Zone store on campus. If you're an old Ute like me, we used to call it the bookstore. It is definitely not just the bookstore anymore. It is a very nice facility. It looks a lot different than it did once upon a time when I was causing chaos on campus. I want to tell you about my friends at IFA country stores, like any good coach at the top, and update the

How are you, sir? I'm doing well.

There's probably two generations that were there, but I'm doing well.

Can't complain. Great to see, a great time of year.

So as we approach football and basketball, what are some of the boxes that you wanted checked before the football was kicked off?

Well, I think that you know, I'm by no means close to it. You know, I live near a collocation or whatever, but s I kind of like some things I hear, you know. I mean, I'm probably going to try to go to practice in a week or two from now just to say hello.

But I don't do that often, maybe once a year. But I kind of like what I hear.

You know, it does take a genius to say the quarterback's got to do well and that get hurt.

I mean, everybody knows that.

One of the things I really like hearing it's about this offensive line. Yeah, and you know, to me, a good quarterback can become very good with the good line, for sure. I mean, it can't change the quarterback's ability, but you've got a little bit more time to throw.

Yeah, all five starters return, and you know, one of the players we don't even hear about much is Michael Mokafici who has thirty three starts. No, everybody talks about Spencer Fano and cayleb Blomo, the two tackles, but michaelast thirty three starts, Jaron is a captain, and the Tongia kid is returning as well.

I mean, all five of those starters return. I wonder if you.

Ever had experience when it comes to like last year was a disappointment. It was a disappointment for all of us that expected something different.

It was certainly disappointment for Kyle himself.

Yeah, and he spoke about that during Big twelve media day. It feels like you taught football is so in trench now that you don't need to quote win anybody back. Yeah, but what do you look for after a season like last year that just didn't go the way any of us were expecting.

Well, I just hope they start off well in b UCLA, the first one because then the next two. I can say this now is an ad I don't have to act like they're easy games. But we did schedule some of those for that reason. But I like what I hear, the thing that you don't worry about it, but just think now, our expectations are good, and that's really good. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, Like we don't go in with our tail between our legs and we don't say, oh, last year, that's where it's going to be.

I don't think anybody feels that way. You know.

I don't know how people's expectations are, but you know, I think they're in line to have a very good year again, and the fans I think are still interested in coming, and so I'm optimistic about just the whole place they have in the pecking order of the Big Twelve.

You know, it was interesting to hear Kyle a Big Twelve media day, and he said this on Sean Show last offseason, but he was more adamant about the fact that his decision to come back was colored in the context of how rough last year was, And I honestly

But knowing him the way you do is the competitor.

What are your thoughts on what that must have been like for him and him really admitting front facing, like, yeah, it wasn't good enough, And that's one of the reasons I decided to come back.

Kyle's really tough on himself, and he's tough on everybody, you know, So I would imagine it was grinding pretty hard at him, you know, and especially because he got halfway through season and kind of going, oh, you know, I don't know how we're gonna get where I think we can get. So it made for and I'm just guessing, but it would make for a long season for me if I kind of knew that I had nobody to

That, what are the characteristics that make I mean, your hiring record, and I'm not buttering you up, sure, but your hiring record was very good, both on the football and basketball side and other sports as well, you know, the Red Rocks obviously. So when it comes to the process of looking for the right person to lead a program of football, basketball, gymnastics, whatever it is, what are those traits?

Well, for me, you know, it's most of the really good coaches we had very smart, you know, and you know people might think you just roll the ball out and play and that's not the case. How to build a team, how to get kids to play together, you know, that's important. And for me personally, it was where somebody had the chance to put the pederalal metal. That was a mark in their career. They knew if they did well at Utah they'd either could run it out or

That it wasn't your make or break for you right now.

I mean, if Kyle didn't do well, I mean, you know, and there's no slowing down for a guy like that. You know, he's just after this is his deal and he made it happen.

Yeah, yeah, what did you Let's go back for a little bit.

What did you see in urban.

Well, I knew a lot of knew some things about him, and also there's there's other people you talk to, and and you know, it's interesting thing when a staff gets fired or moves on and they keep a guy that says something. And at Colorado State they kept him. Ye, well, because he was the best recruiter. He was this, he was that, you know when I met him, he was so enthusiastic, was organized as all hell, was a disciplinarian, and he had the guts of a burglar.

You know.

So, uh, I think he could do and we needed juice. We needed juice, and he was not afraid of doing that. And he wasn't afraid of anything, you know. And you know, he was fortunate enough to get Kylon. But when I looked at him, and I'm not a genius, it's always a crapshoot. I tell people, you know, you hire ten people, if you're right seven times, that's a hell of a job. Of course, go to recruiting the same thing. Got an eighteen year old guy, you're right seven out of ten,

Was it like?

And I have a little bit of experience that with this through the prism of my father's career. The best example was learning pat Riley away from NBC to coach the Knicks, and there were a lot of questions about whether or not pat had the juice left that he had in La, And it became really apparent very quickly that he did. And it's funny as you're describing your Urban Meyer, pat Riley is coming in my mind. Sure organized guts of a burglar, which is a great line.

With his players.

What was it like to watch your decision to hire Urban? Because I say this all the time, Coach Mac deserves credit for laying the foundation. Urban built the mansion, and then Kyle expanded it right. So, sitting back and watching that two year peer in Utah football, that doctor Hall changed the landscape of everything around here? What was it like to sit back and watch your decision manifest itself the way it did?

Oh? It was you know, it was great. I mean I got off the hook a lot quicker, you know. I mean, when you let somebody go and you hire somebody, they're two different decisions, but they're inextricably linked.

You know.

So if the new guy comes in and wins right away, all of a sudden, you're a smart guy. Yeah, if it takes two or three years, you're getting beat up for.

Two or three years.

So he got me off the hook pretty quick, and you enjoyed our our favorite game, which we thought was a turning point. We both agreed upon this independently. Was his first year, and when they played cow third game of the year, packed house, We go down the field perfectly, Alex scores and a place goes crazy, and Urban's out in the crowd after that, and the town and you know, whipping people up, and we win the league and then it's like Nirvana.

How much off field credit deserving get for the creation of Because the musk wasn't a thing when I was in school. The student section was barely a thing when I was in school, And so every time I'm up there for a home game, I take none of it for granted. I turn around to look at the musk, like this is wild to me. Still, Yeah, I haven't been in school, you know, twenty for twenty five, twenty six years now.

It's just everything is different.

And it felt like there was the on field tangible stuff that we all saw the winning Alex the number one pick in the NFL draft. We all could see that but as far as the endeavors off the field to create the culture that still permeates today.

How much credit deserving.

Get for that? Well, he gets a lot. He tireless, you know, tireless. And you know, we all know this. You know, we won, and we won in a big way. We were exciting. But he was fired up all the time. You know, I knew that I'd win a discussion with him. I I just was fired up about whatever he was doing. Chris, we got to do it. Yeah, yeah, and we may not have done it, but still, you know, so I think he deserves a lot of credit. A lot of people,

And Frank Layden, who passed recently at the age of ninety three, had this great saying.

He said, winning cures a myriad of sense. Yes it does.

Frank always used to say that, So winning is the secrets I speaking of which, while we're in this space, I would imagine you had several interactions with Frank over the years.

Oh yeah, I'm glad. You know.

We were on our trip and Frank and I two wise guy East Coast guys, gostlers, you know, and he and I would get together early on about once a month at the one of the coffee shops right near to the university and just solve all the world's problems. He would kind of do that with me and whatever. And as time went on, it was kind of fun for me to have him. After as he retired and getting older, we'd still do the same thing. And you know,

Yeah?

Yeah, no, it's uh. He was almost like a second father. So I did an entire show dedicated to him. We had Coach Mac hop on.

Yeah.

Coach Mack was actually in Hawaii, uh, doing a football camp, and Richard Smith had texted him saying, Spence is doing a show about Frank today, and Max said, when can I hop on?

And when Max says can I hop on? You say yes?

Obviously, So he hopped on and Obviously, Frank's spirit will continue to permeate throughout the the marketplace. And it is interesting to consider both of you growing up back east in the Tri State area and landing here and making it home.

Yeah, I mean it was Frank's home, and you know, he had chances of going the same with me, and people would say, well, you're so loyal. Well, it's a nice place to be. I got good people, I can win. I mean, yeah, I guess I'm loyal, but not really. It was a good job. I got paid, right, that was it, you know, And I just happened to like living here. Was like Frank was kind of was so interesting that way for me because I thought he validated here's a guy from the you know, New York and

Sure.

It's just like I was going to write a letter to the editor that I said finally we have some nonpartisan things in the states. Yeah, you know, we got one guy that you know whatever. So anyway, thank you for sure.

Yeah, the East Coast came out on him when he was fired up. You know, if there's something that got under his skin, then he went full like Brooklyn. You know, I wish I was enjoyed speaking of letter to the editor The Tribune today with an interesting piece about the nil and economic endeavors of Brigham Young. Keep up with the sure other football programs, basketball programs across the landscape

Oh no, no, no, have I talked to you since I played golf with Tomhomo?

You have not? Oh?

Okay, So I texted them after because a lot of people don't know we used to sit together at meetings and we had so much more in common in people. Sure, you know, I had my rough spots, but so I said, I'm gonna take you out to golf when you want to.

Yeah, yeah, And you know, it does feel like there's a messaging issue when it comes to the following, which is we all understand that the church is not writing these checks. These are alumni, right, these are boosters. But even with that caveat, even with that disclaimer, there appears to be a big portion of the culture and the fan base that's really uncomfortable. And maybe it's just steeped in the fact that we're all used to this being amateur right in college athletics, and this is new for

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not saying they didn't treat them well. He's not gonna have a great time and have friends. Kevin's a good coach. Yeah, yeah, so they'll be fine. But you know, you wonder where a little bit is you know, if we're if we don't spend quite much money as the other school, we're a little more pure, or we're you know, I don't know, I'm guessing, but you know, people want to be the they don't want to be Texas and Alabama, but they want to be Texas in Alabama, right, So it's kind of like you

Do you think this new era of college athletics would have been something that would have juiced you up if you were in that seat, or something that would have brought tremendous challengers or maybe a bit.

Of both, a bit of both.

I mean, you know, when you're in the chair, you do whatever you have to do legally to win. I mean, you know, but some of it I got in a while ago, a long time ago, and you know, you got to feel a little bit more like you were

For four years?

Falling in love with him and you're buy season tickets and he's here and he's that. Now I'm not I understand intellectually why it's all happened, But if you ask me, I said that that wouldn't have been much fun, you know, because you really can't get attached to people. I got to know, you know, Alex's mom and dad got to know them. I mean, he passed, but we knew them,

Well, and you know, I hate to beat this over the head. I'm looking something up real quick. I just because to your point about familiarity with players, it's one of the things that has always been in Now in the pros, it's kind of the same deal where these days there's more player movement in the NBA that there used to be. And certainly we got spoiled with John

But do you think at least a little bit. And I'm sure my listeners are so sick of this.

I said this years ago, like, Okay, if this is

Right, there's a name there, a lawyer, and I wish I could bring back his name, but he's been making money for fifteen to twenty years.

Sure on this whole deal. Sure.

Whenever I hear people say, well, they wouldn't be able to figure it out, I say, yeah, they would. These lawyers would step up to the plate and line up for this opportunity because if you can collectively bargain and come up with sipulations and guidelines.

Players signed contracts and.

You say, okay, you're here for two to three years, right, Sure that and that at least eliminates the whole nefarious I'm not playing or I don't like my coach, so I'm and you can you know, if you're an NFL guy and you get a feedback in the off season from the pros that you're a first round scout, Okay, exercise your third year option, go to the league, but as long as you're in college, you're here.

Well yeah, and for me, one of the things are frustrating both about you know, universities moving very slow, you know, and and athletics is an emergency business. You know, your quarterback has a need problem. I'm sorry, you're going to get the MRI this afternoon, and Joey juke Bops is not going to be able to get in right away, right, And so it's an emergency business. It's something that happens fast. But I get tired of, like we all know where

They need to be students.

And because I've seen too many and I know everybody in the radio now is rolling their eyes, but I've seen too many students that and players that were great players, even those who went to the NBA, I mean NFL. They didn't have the money when they left, or they it's gone. Everybody thinks a million dollars is like the end of your world and you can live till seventy five with that. No no, no, no no. As soon

We all know that.

And they need contracts that they have contracts, then they have security too. You know, if you get a contract, you come in and you know you're really not what the coach expected. They've got to pay your tradere Yeah, you know. And so I think there's benefits all the way around. And you know, I don't know enough about the NFL money with the players, but I'm sure they do a lot of They do do a lot of commercials. I see them, but they seem legit. I don't know.

In a bank and try to get there. Yeah.

Not, you know, I was gonna say no, not mess around and do it, you know, just get it done. But university has moved very slowly, and you know, university presidence. I want to pick on them, but you know you got to you know, chemistry professor, you know, being a president has you know, billions of budget and they don't have experience in athletics.

Which is just athletics is a weird part of the university.

Do you feel like and we'll catch a break because I do want to talk a little basketball coming up. On the other side, I've always sensed and you obviously have first had experience.

I don't know if jealousy is the right term. They're just friction.

I'll use the term friction in between academia and athletics states institutions.

Yeah, there's that. Yeah, there's three types.

There's the ones that really really like you and sometimes that's not healthy in a way. Then there's the ones in between that accept it, understand it and don't whine about it. And then there's a group that just can't stand you.

Yeah.

I always told everybody, well, CAYL. Berkeley's is seventy five percent can't stand you. But we had a kind of that's how it is. And you know there are people that just don't like it, and you know they talk about the academic stuff and all this, and I said, well, wait a minute, don't don't call the office and say this player cheated, just flunk them like anybody else.

Oh, I don't know if I can do that, you know.

And so it gets kind of to the point where you understand where one group is, you're not going to change it, and you just have to kind of gut it up and get through that.

The ones in the middle are the ones that can hold you accountable. Yep, you know.

They're the ones that are care enough to hold you accountable. Understand when we got into pect well what it meant to their pool of applicants they could have for Professor Ja and all that. And the ones on the other then were the ones just scare me a little bit too, because I'm thinking, oh, they're going to give these players favors and I'm not going to do that. Yeah, oh my god. So you know so that that's my experience. Yeah, yeah, it's real. And to your point, there are several layers.

Certainly with the public you know, public institution like the University of Utah b YU operates a little bit differently because they're privately owned. I just think the issues that everybody brings up. I think it's a smoke screen and a distraction from where we need land to make sure that these sports continue to be the types of products that we want.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think we just got to accept where it's going, you know, and get there.

Yeah. I mean that's all you can do now, I'm with you.

Yeah, And you know, and we do have to take a look at how we're spending our money and all that stuff, and we could be smarter.

Sure, I mean I don't want to. You know, Greg Mars and I used to talk about it.

Now, you can have twenty people on gymnastics team, why you're going to have you know, eight spoiled kids are going to be mom and dad are going to be let the coach like Crease.

Yeah, you know. So there in football, did they really need one hundred and five people? Yeah? When fifty three play a game, that's the efforts. Yeah, that's fair point. All right.

We're gonna be joined by Bill Riley today to voice of the util stop by Elliott Fall later on. But we got one more segment with doctor Hill. One of my favorite guests live in studio, that is doctor Chris Hill. It is a mediocre. Pleasure to have Bill Riley on the show. Coming up at three point thirty today, Kitty Ryles, we love you, Bud Elliott Fall rolls by later on

Alex Jensen's first year.

As head coach of the Utah men's basketball program.

I'm a big al guy. Oh yeah, you know, have been for years.

Got to know him really well when he was with the Jazz when I and I was over there, he was Quinn's lead assistant.

I always thought he would be an NBA head coach.

I don't know how much of his decision to take the Utah job was colored in the calculation he did and maybe came to the conclusion like, if I was going to be an NBA coach, I would have had an offer by now. First time around, when Larry was fired, Larry Skoviak, who was always good to me and I really liked as well, I thought they'd land on him, and they landed on Craig, who's a really nice guy and a really good coach. Hopefully he lands on his

I expect that he'll have some good players because he was very strategic about how he was recruiting guys. And when I was in the I told you Ara, when I had lunch with him, when he just I was on my bike and he said, let's go eat, and some of the guys were coming in, and I liked him looking at him, and I really appreciate him keeping the dogs kid. I thought he was the player, you know. So you know, I don't know what kind of players have.

So you know.

But he just laughed and I said, no, but he's a long story short. I just can't really see straight because I like him so much and I think he's got all the qualities. And we called him Saint Alex.

Yeah.

Yeah, And that's the thing because the coaching pedigree is there. He was a g lead coach of the Year. I watched him. I'm telling you, and Dennis Lindsay, the Utah Jazz general manager, the piece together the team that Alex and Quinn coached. When Rudy Gobert was at the NBA Draft combine, Dennis on my show said he was treated like a circus clown. No one knew what to do with him, and Rudy's rookie year it looked awful. I mean, I didn't think he had a chance spend a lot

He So you know.

Kevin Young down a BYU was a coach with the Sons, and so his whole thing is like I coached Devin Booker and Chris Paul and Kevin Durant. Alex has that same pedigree. But to your point, most of the successful coaches, at least I know of, have a little bit of, for lack of a better term, jerk in them, you know what I mean, They.

Just can't do I don't know.

I don't know if I would describe Kyle as a jerk, but he has bites, he has.

I said, they got an edge, you know.

And yes, what our mentor said that every coach breaks your heart sometimes I understand that, but you know, and.

You had the ultimate jerk and Rick, who we all love.

But at the same time, some complications seemed to rise from time to time.

Yeah, it was, but it was when I add it all up for sure. Yeah, you add it all up and you get someplace. But uh yeah, you know, you know more about his teaching with the pros and you were there, you watch. I don't profess to do that. I talked to have talked to some friends of people

But you think you have to ask? Alex said, well, it's It's really interesting.

The Rick thing has always fascinated me because for about six years I did Jazz per Off and Post Game with Brittain Britten Johnson. Oh yes, And whether you talk to britt or any of the players that were on those teams with Rick, they all had the same thing. With Alex, which was he was the only one that Rick seemed to like genuinely, like you know, like he was we were all he and Andre Andre and ye were like the two guys there were two of Rick's favorites.

I mean he went on coach with them at Saint Louis.

Yeah, yeah, I you know, it's I think BRIT's right.

You know what a good guy he is.

By the way, and his brother Jeff and his parents, I know his dad was ill, but they I really liked them a lot. They were they were fabulous and so whatever he sailed to him when you see.

But yeah, Rick was rugged. He was.

He was an equal opportunity rugged guy except for those two, you know, so it was what he was. But you know, he he he had him define at what their job was and sometimes people didn't like it. You know, Alex could do the rebound, could shoot, could do that, you know. I remember I watched Rick practice one time, and I won't remember that guy's name, but he was one of our scorers early on in the game, early on when I was there and I sat a practice, Uh, and

That was his answer. That's when he's ever given. Yeah.

Plus it was shorts. I didn't worry about him going on and on and saying something would rive to be crazy anyway, That's that's what we got there.

Yeah, yeah, do you I can't believe I'm gonna ask you this question because I'm quite sure the answer is emphatically know, do you see any of Rick and ol like the way they approach the game, the way they look at the game? Obviously personalities, they could not be different, more different, they cannot be more polar opposites. Is there anything about Rick that reminds you of Out or or anything about Out that they'll remind you of Rick?

Is what I should say? Well, it'd be hard.

I think the approach to the game in terms of a different, different personality, but you know they have the same values in putting a team together. I mean, you know, I mean the guys that went to pro said the best coach say that was Ricked. I mean, even though they had some scars on them. But you know, I can't imagine now. No, they're not like at all. No, I'm trying to answer a question, try to put something together about similarity.

But you know, the way they'll teach the game will be similar.

So I'm pulling up the Big Twelve here, and last year the SEC was the best basketball conference. They you know, all we have here is prognostications, and this year it will either be the SEC or.

The Big twelve.

So I reference the article that the Trip did on BYU earlier. The average Big twelve roster is projected to have cost about twelve to thirteen million dollars this year. BYU's projection is over fifteen. That puts them on par with Kansas when it comes to the Big twelve landscape. So until Alex gets that kind of financial commitment, I think it's going to be tough to expect right out of the gates. What does in your opinion year, what does success look like for al you're one of the Big twelve.

I think finishing in the top half of the league be really nice, really nice. I mean, I you know, what we think of is that, yeah, there's going to be some schools that are ten twelve million dollars, but that's not the whole league. Yeah, and you can be fourth or fifth in that league and be seated very high in the nca tournament. That's a grand slang. Yeah, So maybe in a couple of years from now that

Yeah, a top five finished year one for ABS. Oh, that'd be ridiculous. That'd be crazy.

And it's hard for me to analyze because I you know, I'm out there are several people that do my job that will pull up the Utah Rosterbick. Yeah, I watched this guy at Southern. No, you didn't stop lying. I don't know enough about these plays. You're right about Kian, especially after Craig was let go the final like ten games of the season when coach Eilert started Keanu. I think he had eight double doubles the final twelve games.

I mean easy, not easy, but not just ten and ten right right?

Yeah, an athletic, you know, because this is a different conference, Like you need athletes. Kansas has is Darren Peterson kid that might be the number one pick in the draft next year.

If it's not AJ, I tell you what it just made me. I'm sorry I interrupted you. I was just thinking something that when Al talked about he wanted to model some of his program against Houston and that Houston is long and defensive, and that reminds me.

And nasty and they have to be that way. Yeah.

So anyway, back to your question about by you, I think so, you.

Know, you know b yu as Aj, and then Kansas has Darren Peterson, and then there's the Boozer kid who's going to be a duke. Those are the three players, and everybody's talking about the number one overall pick. But do you think Al's getting the support that he needs in order to build the roster to to stay competitive.

You know, he's not getting a sup support you mean financially. There's billionaires at BYU. Yeah, and so I think people are digging as hard as they can, you know, and I think they're going to be in pretty good shape. But you know, I'm not close of it, and I don't mean to defer anybody else. But for me, I don't know what their budget is. I don't know how much money they have, and that would be totally arrogant for me to make something up and act like I do.

Yeah, No, I understand.

It just leads to a larger question that we continue to debate on the show because the information I've received is that BYU has at least and this is about a year old.

This information is a little bit dated.

But last year I was told BYU has nine seven figure donors and Utah is too. Yeah, yeah, so your connections in the community, does it feel like there's so The way I've phrased it, doctor is last year BYU football, excuse me, Utah football had the pressure of being the team that everybody thought was going to.

Win the conference.

I feel like the pressure this year is steeped in a community that is wondering whether or not Utah athletics has evolved and can keep up with the new reality of the sport, and a lot of that is deep pockets. Does it feel like in our community up here in Salt Lake people have confidence that there's enough money flowing through the university athletic department, like there is about forty miles down south.

Well, I'll tell you what.

One of the challenges I always tell nobody really followed it much is that, first of all, we have a medical center, So you can have one hundred million dollars to cancer research or a one.

Hundred million dollars to basketball, fair enough.

So we have that we Also, there are three schools in the state that are the top divisions in the West. I don't know who else has that but California. And there's Colorado, Colorio State, Arizona, Arizona State. Here we got three.

Yeah.

Sure, so the money gets thin. And not to make light, a lot of people give a percentage of their money away.

Yep.

And uh, and we used to tease that when we played our schedule, we got we got our fans given both to air Force into b y U and those. So part of it is I think there's uh, some challenges inherent in Utah with uh where do you put your money?

You know? And and I don't I don't see us US.

I mean the Union. I'm done us anymore. But there's just a lot of money from what I understanding, Silicon slopes and when you add up when you divide, I was a Afican. When you divide the billion if if every mile were every inch or a mile, if you're a millionaire, you can go to sand you can go to holiday. If you're a billionaire, you can go to Seattle. Okay,

Yeah, yeah, now you're right.

Yeah, you you were the steward over a program, You resided over a pro that for a number of different years had elite football and elite basketball. And you know, there's this conversation that's taking place because I cannot believe, and truly this is steeped in my own experience, and we're all, you know, we're all in our own echo chamber.

As a basketball program. That blows my mind.

And so the conversation has kind of been like, well, you know, what's it like to strike that balance to make sure your football program and your basketball program are receiving the support they need in order to both be elite, because schools across the country do it. I think BYU's on the precipice, Bama is there. I mean, Bama's basketball program is very good, and I could keep going Florida won a national championship. They're a top fifteen football team

Yeah, I don't think they're impossible by any means. I mean, we were fortunate enough to have that experience on several occasions, you know. And you know, with with football, it's it's, well, both sports are really money, money money. But you know, if you in basketball that head coach coaches a lot and doesn't have as many people around. And in football, once you establish it, it feels like it's harder to fall apart. Where basketball it's it's difficult to build that

Yeah?

You know, And you look at the number one draft choices and you can go through them when you get a chance, you'll say, huh, oh they lost in sixteen. Oh, the guy at LSU didn't make the NCA tournament, So that may be naivel When you only have them for five or six months, you've got to hope they're what you thought they were. And the guys around them got to do that, and they're gonna be players, not like this aj because I understand he's really a solid guy.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not so sure to play for the Jazz. Yeah, I'm not so sure.

You know, I want to set the screen for this other guy, but you know I'm gonna I can take it one on one. So you know, you're going to have so many these promise Land guys that don't bring him there.

It might not be mutually exclusive, but did the evolution of the football program, you know, coach mac Urban obviously Kyle, with the.

Way the football program kind of shot to the moon?

Is there anything there as far as the basketball program going the other way?

Are they related at all?

That?

It was funny though, And I'm glad Rick Rick couldn't you know, I'm not glad he's gone, But you know, when we were hot in the in the in football, in basketball, the years we siphoned the money off the football. You know, you look at what we didn't have a lot of facilities in basketball that were different and everything. But that was my deep dark secret with him. But

For sure. I mean I sound like champion. Maybe not.

I don't want to seem like I'm in love with Alex, but I just really got optimistic that maybe he can build a little bit and get there, you know. But again, everybody thinks he's going to stay forever. Well, he's late forties, right, you know that, And you know, I mean, they better take care of him, does well, and I better start supporting him. And I think there are people that are I've talked to some people that say, hey, we got

I agree with you, And what's not to like about al Al's It's like we were talking about Franklyton earlier.

If you don't like Alex Jensen, it's a you problem. Yeah.

If you walk around the state and walk around for days and days and days, if you find somebody that doesn't like Frank or Alex, let me know. Yeah, I'll call you in a month and you let me know. How's the golf game I've earned my handicaps?

Not good? All right? I went a lot in my handicap.

No, no, no, no, it's I've got the shortest backswing in America.

That's good. Though I don't practice. That's not good. Doctor.

I don't want to take a lesson. I'm sick of being coached and all that. So I just go out and play so short backswing and one day it's the drive works, and the next day you'd stub it.

Yeah, we know. I practice a lot. I like lessons, and that's the same with me.

See when you practice, I read something the other day, you don't do it right, you get on it.

What do you do?

You get there and hit your wedge twenty in a row. Well on a golf course. How many times you do that?

That's fair?

So the person said, put you driver there, put your wedge, put your eight iron and your sandwich. Hit a drive, then hit your eight iron, then hit you with the way. I'm firing myself. See if you got four in a row. I like it on different clubs. Are you interested in giving me lessons? You want to coach me at all? I don't want to be a rental lesson. I don't want to coach. I just want to play and hang out.

Well, look, it's always great to say thank you, Frevan, thanks so much for the time.

Okay, we'll get doing it soon. Yeah, we got it, buddy.

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You're talk showing some pressure. Now they back away from now.

They bring a safety of four man runs, risk looking surveying, throwing down the field and.

It's intercepted at the forty, at the fifty, at the forty, at the thirty, a convoy to the end.

Zone and a touchdown. It's a Via Vaughn with a pick six and his final game as a ute.

Zamayah Vaughan was on the field for the Vikings this weekend, trying to make the roster as an undrafted free agent. The man behind that magical call joins us now. The voice himself a talent I discovered long ago and have mentors to this stage in his career.

Bill Riley, Hello, Ryles, how are you?

It's the greatest MC in ESPN seven hundred VIP lunch and history. How are you?

Spatt Thank you, sir, because that I think includes two people, and that would be me and you.

Is that right?

Well, it was great to see you last week. Thanks for stopping by. It's always fun to catch up with you. And it was great to see Coach mac. Hall of Famer coach Mack. Yeah, well deserved excited to watch that this year.

That'll be fun to see him and Roy Jefferson, a couple of Utah legends go up on the Ring of Honor with Alex Smith in that game against cal Pauli on the sixth?

Was I considered for the Ring of Honor this year? Did my name come up?

I think that you were in the running for the Sigma Kai Ring of Honor, but you were not accepted this year. I think next year's your final year on the ballot, so you better hope that the Veterans Committee likes you.

Sadly, I don't think I'll ever be named a significant SIG despite my great success and leadership in that House.

But I'll move on from that bill.

Here's my first question, most intriguing positional battle less than two weeks away from.

Kick most intriguing positional battle, I will say the corner spot opposite that of Scooby Davis. I know that Kyle Whittingham said that Blake Cotton had had a good camp and had kind of maybe taken a little bit of the lead. But I'm gonna I'm gonna see if that holds up over the next twelve days before the UCLA game, because I think Cotton, Saunders, and Caldwell of all had really good fall camp. So I would say that's one battle. I think the receivers they kind of know who their

Any any thoughts on who the number one wide receiver is or maybe one or two. I know you said we've got a win and see how it plays out, but if do you have a best guess as far as what that looks like right now?

When I asked Kyle Whittingham about guys. On Saturday at FanFest, the first two receivers he mentioned were Tobias Meryweather and Larry Simmons. So I don't know if that in his mind means those are one and two, But I can tell you those guys that both had very good fall camps, especially considering you know, they weren't really part of everything in the spring since they were late rivals. So I think Zipper, who's been here, has had had some moments.

I'm kind of conflicted because I do think a bell cow running back indicate you really love the guy that you have, But it does also behoove any program to have more than one back that you trust, and you need death at every position.

How's that running back room shaping out? As of now?

I think they've got a good one in two. Then they've got a couple of youngsters behind those guys. After that. I think the way Sean Parker and the Kirie Rodgers are probably your one and two running backs. Wayshawn had great production a year ago at Washington State, and he didn't have an offensive line anywhere near what he's got this year. And Rodgers obviously was a guy who was in the offense with Beck and Dan Pierre last year as the number two running back last year, so I

Feels like it's been a very low drama fall camp. Would you cooborate that and what does that say to you about just kind of the mentality state of the team leading into the season.

I think that's a good thing because I've always said if you're breaking a lot of news in fall camp, one it means you've probably got a quarterback battle which you thought does not or two you've had a lot of injuries, which to this point at least you thought does not either. So I think that's good. Yeah, they've had some position battles to the corner spot, you know, the wide receivers, but again they've they've known who their group is. It's just kind of settling the hierarchy there.

A lot of reports with the scrimmages, and you know, we kind of heard this a little bit last year as well, and I completely understand the approach as a result of the PTSD that everybody has because of the myriad of injuries that this program.

Has suffered over the past couple of years.

But the reports are maybe not as physical, maybe not as live wanting to keep the ones on ice. Have you kind of sensed that as well and seen it.

Yeah. The thing that kind of how Whitningham's talked about this fall is taking a little bit more of an NFL model to his training camp, and the NFL is nearly as physical as it once was. I would say that Kyle Whittingham still probably runs one of the more physical college football camps, but I think they've even dialed it back a little bit from where they were, and some of the NCAA rules kind of force you to do that. Deucepench you're not allowed to have as many

And yeah, you know, ultimately that brings up an interest interesting question about balancing the dynamic of wanting to make sure your players are healthy what should be priority number one, but also being ready for live football bill in less than two weeks. How do you think they're doing with that type of the dichotomy and balance.

I think because college doesn't have preseason games like the NFL does, I think the way that Kyle Whittingham runs it with a still a physical camp is probably the best way to do it. Until we get to that day where you can scrimmage a Utah State or a Weber State or even a junior college that's in your state. The best way to do it is to have your

In years past, and certainly in years past, we were able to, you know, witness practice in a way that we don't now. But you would hear a lot of reports and This isn't a surprise. This is a program that is built on the DNA and the blueprint of being defense first, and the numbers bear that out over the years.

Certainly it was very easy to see a year ago, but in.

Practice it felt like oftentimes it was the defense dominating the offense. Has it been a little bit more balanced with a new group of offensive personnel and a new offensive coordinator throughout the course to spring and fall, I think it's fair.

To say both have had their moments. I've been to some practices where the offense looked really, really sharp, and you and I both know Morgan scally. He doesn't like his defense to lose on a regular basis. So I've been to some practices where they've turned up the they've turned up the intensity and had their way as well. But the one thing I will say is the new offense that Jason Beck has brought in has done a good job at times of keeping the defense a little

All right, So in years past, both coach Witt and Colonie have been very clandestaied about injuries, and it leads to another debate when it comes to which college coach you listen to about whether or not it actually gives you a competitive advantage. Lane Kiffin in the past has kind of mocked the idea, so.

Is Lincoln Riley.

That you know, keeping the injuries secret gives you an advantage that you know, there's some people that scoff at the notion. And look, as Kyle has always said, like I don't have to do this, and until I do, I'm just not going to because why tip your hand?

And you understand that logic as well. Well.

The Big twelve Riles has now joined the ACC the Big ten and in addition to the SEC, so all P four conferences are required to give injury reports three days prior to the game and then ninety minutes prior to kick our buddy Chris Comroddie equipped that he's excited to have Coach Wit list every player is either probable or questionable. And you know they ultimately mandate this in the pros and that doesn't stop the pros from kind of finding a way to circumvent the process either.

But what's the bill Riley take on?

Now every conference in every member institution being mandated to report injuries, I, you.

Know, to be To back up on what you said about Kyle, he's always been in favor of injury reports if it was uniform, because he's always had kind of a pro mentality about things. But he said, if everybody's not going to be required to do it, I'm not going to do it either. Well, now that everybody's required to do it, Kyle's probably going to do it just

I think the other dynamic here, and I want to be clear, I'm not, you know, throwing anybody under the bus. The widespread acceptance slash promotion of gambling has put these young men in a very precarious spot. The Athletic did a really interesting deep dive on all the direct messages that football players get from degenerate gamblers that just sacrifice their mortgage on a game line. Then the player sits and it's their fault that they're getting divorced now, and

Don't read or don't listen.

Now, I mean NBA coaches have stories of going into halftime to address their team.

These are adults.

These are pros that have their heads down checking their direct messages, checking their social media at halftime of.

A pro game.

I think what this does bill in addition to transparency from programs, it probably takes some of the pressure off these kids and maybe these morons that like to attack them all the time.

We'll kind of take it easy.

I hope so, because you and I both know it's the dark side of our of sports fandom is where these kids and you know, they're kids to a point, but they are still in a lot of ways younger and experiencing these things for the first time. Having to deal with these people that are just out of their minds, and then you throw the gambling component in there, it's tough.

What does success against UCLA look like to you? Game one, flying home from the Rose Bowl, players, coach is feeling good, What does that look like?

I think a number one is a win, whatever that might happen to be, because you know, road wins in college football against power programs are not easy to do. So it's coming out of there with a w. I think it's coming out of there with the offense looking pretty close to what you wanted to look like with Devin dan Pierre, you know, not turning the football over in Utah, being able to kind of win at the

What are you hearing about, you know, road fan attendance this year, if anything at all, I mean Ucla.

The Rose Bowl is the Rose Bowl. The venue is the venue.

I do feel like with UCLA football maybe not being what it once was. Oftentimes I'll fire up my TV and wonder where everybody is. But atmosphere on the road game? One, are we expecting a large youth fan contingent.

I know a lot of fans that are going down one because it's Labor Day weekend. Two, it's easy to get to in LA You've got the beach and Newport and stuff, and you know, Three, there's a lot of good memories down there, So I you know, I think there's gonna be I think there's gonna be a fair contingent of Utah fan to go to this first game. I've talked to a lot of my friends that they're going to go down for the weekend, especially because it's Labor Day weekend. So yeah, I think there'll be a

And then you know Wyoming.

I know it's Laramie, but you got to take advantage of the proximity because I mean, obviously they're at BYU two. That's another road game that's close by. But you know, you're at West Virginia, you're at Baylor. And then the final game, of course, is you're all my mater at Kansas. I would imagine the ability to go on the road with games that are close. You got three of them this year, which is a benefit because you're not going to see that most most years.

You know, no, You're absolutely right, And you know Wyoming is you know, you can hop in. You can leave in the morning and be there kickoffs at like six I think so, I mean they're seven, so you could be there. You could leave at noon and be to the game and then drive back home after the game, kind of relive those old Whack and Mountain West Conference days.

Well, and the road trip to Laramie.

You can enjoy a nice hard boiled egg at a flying Jay on your way, so it's a win win.

Or maybe get a you know what are they now? They used to be ten tent cones at Little America. Maybe they're thirty five cent or fifty cent cones now on the west.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I mean, if you're worried about your budget, that's the trip you should take.

All right, let's move over here.

Oh I actually real quick, I wanted to ask you a QB two seems like that's and I love that we're not talking QB one. It's such a great sign. But QB two, riles, how's that battle shaping up?

It's you know, it's been up and down Bird Fickland will have a good day of practice and Isaac will have a struggling practice. Then they'll turn right back around and Isaac will look great and he's made I'll tell you what. Isaac Wilson has made some great brows in fall camp. And then Fickland, because he's a freshman, will have some days. I think that's probably the one that's going to go down to the very end. May not

S Bence, what are you willing to say about the first six games of the season prior to the road trip down to Provo? So at UCLA, home cow Poly at Laramie, home Texas Tech, on the road Morgantown, then home Arizona State. Like the nice thing about this schedule, even though it's ranked as the top three, you know, one of the top three hardest schedules in the Big twelve is the top twenty five teams in your conference are all in Salt Lake City. But what are you

I think if Devin dan Pier is what we think he is and he can stay healthy, I can foresee Utah going to Provo undefeated. I really can if Devn or the offense, maybe the and I don't even think it's Devon. I think it would be more maybe the surrounding cast playmakers aren't maybe of all to the point where they need to be. I think that they might have a loss in their back pocket. But I think

I want to sneak in a basketball quote real quick Solid Tribune today with a good piece on the spend that BYU has made on both football and basketball. Their reports are the average Big twelve basketball roster this year costs about twelve million bucks. BYU's is about fifteen million dollars. I don't know what Alex has. It is disposal ran into him last week at the Red Zone Store. Definitely check out the Red Zone Store prior to football season.

I think it's a buy into Alex's philosophy, style and culture, because you've got to set that in place if anything's going to happen. Saw I'm Saturday night at Vanfest. He's really happy with where things are, and then you know from there. I think this team's going to be competitive. I think the athleticism is going to be really really good. Do they have enough shooting? We'll see that once they kind of get on the floor just a little bit.

All right, Ryles, before I said you loose, tell us about what we have going on with our good friends over at Handy and Handy.

Well, they're they're kind of of Spence. They're great partners at ESPN seven under the sponsor this segment with you, and they want to do with Sean every week. You know, they say it big, big firm, experience, small firm. Uh, you know, attention. They're they're just great, President Garrett Handy,

Thank you, my friend, be good, appreciate the time with chat soon.

Thanks bets fucking soon.

All right. Shout out to our good friends at beer bar. Go to beer BARSLC dot com. I'm remote there all the time.

My guy Nick Romondo, Ty Burrell, close personal friend, no big deal, everyone's favorite TV dad. You're home for all RSL watch parties and quite frankly, any watch party. If you want to go, check out a jazz game or Utah football game or whatever. Beer Bar right downtown Salt Lake City. The construction over there is actually settling a bit, so you can find place at a park. Beer Bar SLC dot com is where you go, all right. Special thank you to doctor Chris Hill live in studio for

Our next guest. We've been working on this for a little while.

Former RSL general manager and good friend Elliott Falls live in studio.

Elliot, good to see you, man, How are you great? I'm great, great to see you.

I know you're great now because we had a little Ed Sheeran bumping us in so that that's used juff.

Yeah, oh that was I mean, and it was it was perfect. That's a good one. It's a that's a banger.

So for our.

Listeners that have no clue. Elliot and I play golf together from time to time. He is a very good player. I've learned a lot just watching him play. And we both have our like speakers going to the same time, so it's like rival music and we have pretty similar tastes in music. But occasionally I'll notice, like a shaggy song or something.

I don't think you've ever heard a shaggy song. But that was when Trey's phone started ringing.

It happened. Oh that would be so sick if that was his rent town.

But one day I'm getting ready to tee off and I'm like, is that edg Shearon in the background?

Cast on hill?

And let me be clear, that's a banger. It's a good song. I just didn't know you were an D shirt.

Nah.

You know, you find us, you find some space, and honestly, when you're when you're out on the golf course for a while, you gotta you gotta change it up.

You can't just have the same, same old, same old. Oh this is true.

And you can't give Trey the the control. You can never give Tray the control. Let's be clear about that. How good do you think you are golf? Not very good right now? I haven't been playing well lately, that's not true. Like do you think if you allocated time and energy to just you get a great coach.

You're playing every day, which you kind of do anyway, you're hitting balls all the time.

Some people think so you're but but you genuinely try to be as good as you possibly can. Sure, how good do you think you could be? Because you're close to a scratch? I know you say you're not, but you are.

Uh yeah, I don't know. I think I could get to a plus handicap, but I don't, you know, certainly nowhere near you know the the great players you see, you know in some places I've played, I've played around. I mean, it's always humbling when you play with really good golfers and I played around.

You know this.

A few of us like to play the Nibley Men's League, indeed, and Nibley's a fun place and you know, shout out to Andrew Meacham and he the pro there. He does an unbelievable job. It's a lot of fun, cool men's league. Fridays, we go out in the club Championship. None of my friends played with me, so I had to play. I got paired up by myself for a couple of us have jobs.

Elliott. It was a Saturday and Sunday.

Your job does but to qualify for that after play on Fridays, and I did the best I could.

I'm not even talking about you.

You're okay, Well I think friends, I hurt my feelings, but you retired early and we'll get there.

But anyway, as you were a club.

Championship anyway, you know, I got paired with a couple of guys and you know they they clean the clean my clock and there in the club Championship, I mean, you know, and I've actually played with with him a couple of times since. And you know, the one guy went out and shot five under this week at Nibbley.

Who are these people? They're just good golfers, like college guys. College.

No, they're they're about my age. Yeah.

See, it always depresses me every time I feel like I'm improving a little bit to hear that there are so many people that are so much better at this time.

Yeah, there's there's there's a lot of good golfers out there. There's a lot of good golfers in the state of Utah, there is. I'm better now than I was when we first started playing together. At least give me that, certainly. Okay, you're not a bad golfer. I don't think I'm a bad golfer. You're a good golf Sorry, I should I should be I should be more clear you were a good golfer.

Well, that's kind of you to say. But you know, just when you think you're good, you play with somebody like our guys steal the Walt my guy.

Sure. Yeah. And did you play against him when you were a.

Judge Yeah, no, I think no, I think he was the same. I mean, I think I think we over I mean, I only played two years at Judge, but I'm pretty sure because he went to Park City. I'm ninety nine per sure. I think we overlapped at least one year, if not, if not both years.

It was wild watching him play and watching and watching you like watching golfers like him like problem solve. It's yeah, they think of things that you would even would not even consider.

Yeah, there's so many aspects of the game that are to challenge you, right and like that. If you're not if you're not proficient at you're you're gonna fall apart. Like you if you sure you can have a great swing, If you can't chip a ball, you're done. If you can't make a five footer, you're done. You you undo all the good work you do get in there. It's a tough game, man. It humbles you, it really does. And you know, at least for me, and I think

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's quite a challenge.

Uh.

This weekend, I was back in Indianapolis with my brother and we played this great track. Four of the holes are actually in the Indy five hundred racetrack.

I've heard of that.

It's really cool Front nine and I'm not sure i've ever done this before.

A birdie two of the first five holes.

All right, then we're on a par three, We're about one seventy eight out. I wrote my seven iron. I'm like, that is all over it hit it within three feet. I'm like, okay, this could be your third BIRDI in the first six holes. I don't know I've ever shouldn't have thought that correct because what I did was I pulled a two and a half foot or for birdie,

It's yeah, it's I mean, the best thing it needs impossible to do, but certainly all the time. But the best thing you can do for your score is to

On the weekend some of them do the same thing.

And like we talk about how going out, you know, you end up playing with a with a great player. Don't you think all the PGA Tour guys who end up getting paired with with Scotty Scheffler these days feel the same way.

Yeah.

It's like, oh, I'm feeling good about myself. I just won a tournament. Oh, now I gotta play Scotty Schefler.

Yeah.

And now it's funny you reference Scotty because I just pulled this up because you know I didn't used to.

Well, I never played golf growing up.

I got into it over the past few years and playing with people like you and getting better equipment and taking lessons has helped. But I never really covered it either. But it's it's such a behemoth. Now if you're in this space, you better become familiar a little bit at least with what's going on in the world of golf. And so I covered it in a way that I

So I was going to say something like you're going with heading tours, go ahead, well, and.

I actually honestly want your thoughts.

So Scotty just became the first golfer since Tiger to have two straight seasons of five wins or more on tour. Sure, and it's only Scotty and Tiger over the past forty years. So Scotty has done it once, yeah, twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. So I heard, like, oh, first since Tiger. Okay, well, then he's having this Tiger like run.

If you want to, if you wanna, if you're feeling good about yourself on the golf course, go read some Tiger stats and you will really humble yourself.

Yeah, but I.

Mean they're just the most unbelievable, the one about you know, Scotty's been number one in the world for what three straight years that nobody's even coming close to him, right, He'd have to be number one in the world till like twenty thirty six to match Tiger's streak.

That's just wild. It's I mean, Tiger.

You know, you see the shot Scotty hit yesterday to win the tournament, yep effectively on seventeen. You sit there and you're like, that's one of the greatest shots you've ever seen, and then you think about the natural like comparison is Tiger's shot on sixteen in the Master in like yeah, yeah, and and like that shot makes makes Scotty's shot look like a three foot pott.

Yeah. And it's just the things Tiger was able to do.

And what what's crazy about Tiger is he's probably the best iron player of all time. Like he so he come, he comes into golf, right, and he hits it a mile, and he's overpowering courses and like everybody's heard it. You know, oh you got a Tiger proof golf courses. That's why they started lengthening them. All this stuff. It's not even close to what the best part of his game was.

It's just unfathomable. Now you give me eighteen hundred putts inside four inches. I think I'd missed two of them.

It's I mean, it blows the mind in a different way when you actually try to be good at it, when you try to play the game, and then you realize like how hard it is to be good and consistent, and how wild it is that he did what he did.

Now, he's not gonna get Jack's record.

Injuries and then proclivity for Perkins waitresses and such kind of threw him off the rails.

But do you think he's the greatest that's ever done it. I think he's the greatest that's ever done it. But I also think, you know, some day, I mean, he he may never have this conversation, who knows, but like he probably has to reckon a little bit with the fact that it was him. It like the injuries were even him in a lot of ways because it's the swing change. Yeah, okay, the swing stuff is wild to me.

There's this.

There's this pursuit of perfection at least at the very top ends of sports, where you're never satisfied. You never think you're good enough, you never And of course the irony is like you also go out and you believe you're the best every day you're out there. So it's this weird, you know, dichotomy in your head. But he thought there was something to fix and so he went out and completely read it his golf swing, and you know,

Just go do it again, just keep keep at it.

Yeah, it's interesting you bring it out because I listened to an interview or you know what this is actually during one of the golf channels, Like, hey, this is when Tiger was Tiger broadcast and they interviewed Wyndham Clark. I'm trying to think when Wyndham said his swing was at when Tiger's swing was at his best. Is there an era where you felt like his swing was in the best place and he never should have touched it?

I think it's hard to argue against that.

Like, you know, early twenty ninety eight to two thousand and three, kind of like winn he won the Masters, the first Masters, that that Pebble Beach US Open, when he had the Tiger Slam where he held all the majors at the same time, you know, I mean, and but by the way, we haven't talked about his amateur career. You know that you know that he won three consecutive US Junior Amateurs and then won three consecutive US Amateurs.

Like that's mind blowing in and of itself. It's mind blowing, mind blowing. Yeah, that he did that.

And also and again, yes, his career was derailed as a result of some poor personal decisions and the health as you referenced with his swing change. But the other thing that's interesting about this sport to me is how many great young golfers get derailed by fatigue, sure or

It's one of the most remarkable stories in the history of sport, It really is.

And then and then, by the way, the twenty nineteen Masters, like are you kidding? The comeback? And I watched that live. It was abelievable. Yeah, it was unbelievable. By the way. You know, you know our friend Matt who plays golf with us, he was there.

Oh, he was at that.

He left on he left on Sunday morning, so he wasn't there for the final round, but he was there. Do you remember It's actually funny. Do you remember the shot where Tiger hit a ball out of the trees and had had to curl it around and together and he had the gallery around him, and and that I believe it was a It was one of the security guards comes running by and slips on the wet grass and almost takes Tiger's leg out. In the TV shot you can see Matt. Oh really yeah.

And that was Father's Day too, by the way, right, I believe no Father's Day is us open?

Oh, yes, he's right.

It might have been something about no because his father anyway, Yeah, but there was something something about it.

It was an unbeliev I mean, just an unbelievable tournament. Well, and then the relationship with his dad is so fascinating to me.

It's yeah, you know, because the fact of the matter is he's not Tiger without Earl. But there was still, you know, a lot of things about that relationship.

It's not hard to make an argument it was an unhealthy relationship.

And you just wonder how much of Tiger's ultimate downfall was learned behavior, right, like all of the things we learned about his dad later on in the womanizing And anyway, all right, before we catch a break, I wanted to have you in studio for a while now, and coming up next, I want to talk about, uh, you know, where you feel the club is at now, what it was like to build what I perceived to be for about eighteen to twenty matches last year. Is the best

Like, oh, I was listening to you with doctor Chris Hill today and you were talking about hiring Urban and the Muss. I was in the MUSS. I was in the MUSS for both undefeated seasons. Unreal, like literally brought chills to my down my spine.

So tell us about your path, like and then we'll get to the rself stuff on the other.

Yeah, so you know, like you said, local local guy, grew up you know, right within walking distance of Rice Ecles, going to games as a kid, huge jazz fan as a kid. I mean, you know, the Stockton to Malone pick role in the in the you know, the ninety six ninety seven finals runs are seared in my brain. I mean that's like, that's that's sports fandom to me. Like that is and then and then the utes going to the to the final four, and then the championship match and or championship game.

There's this there's the soccer.

Guy, you know, and you know, falling short against Kentime. I mean I literally like I remember where I was getting ready to like watch those games like.

That was you know, that was my fandom.

But yeah, I grew up, grew up playing soccer, played golf in high school too. You know, I would say it wasn't great at either one of them. I've I've gotten better at golf since then because I worked. I worked up at Mountain Dell for seven years and it was, you know, I tell people the best job I ever had. Uh it's tough when the best job.

You ever have is the first job you ever have.

But but yeah, so, you know, grew up in the area, went to went to the U again, you know, was was a student for both undefeated seasons, so that was that was a special time. Got my degree in economics, and was looking for an internship the summer before my senior year and and got connected, you know with with RSL. It was intern for Trey, which is just a lot of coffee rooms. I mean, yeah, he still owes me money for I'm sure twenty to thirty of them, but you know, it is what it is.

But no.

Got in at such a fun time at RSL. So I started in April of two thousand and seven. I mean, you know that time really well, and it was It's wild to see what the club and what the sport and the landscape is now compared to back then.

It's just that you can't even compare it.

I mean it was you know, we were in our offices at Trolley Corners and there had been groundbreaking of the stadium, but it was still you know, and you were right in the heart of it, you know, your dad getting you know, just get making things happen, and and the number of times that that was on the verge of falling apart. And obviously MLS was a totally different landscape then. So just got to be a part

And and where was your first full time Was it team admin? No? It was PR?

So I so I came on the PR team full time January two thousand and eight, and uh did that for two years.

So I was.

I was on the PR team through the through the title run.

Uh.

In fact, I don't even know where I this is. This is a bummer to say I don't know where it is. I'd have to go, I'd really have to dig and try to find it. But I was in the locker room with a video cameraund my shoulder when David Beckham came in after after the final to congratulate, to congratulate the guys. Yea, And I mean I had it on video as far away as you wo. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't the I don't know where I ended.

Up, but I feel like I've seen that footage.

It's I think it's somewhere like I don't think it's gone, but I would not be that easy to find, but.

Someday I probably should because it was. It was a cool moment.

But yeah, so was on the PR team and then and then Garth brought me on as the team admin the next year and then worked as a team admin for several years and worked my way up from there. When Garth left, Wibel took over.

Wible brought me.

In his assistant GM and did that while Weibbs was there and you know, started the Monarchs and it was the first GM of the Monarchs and and got to got to you know, dip my toe in those waters there. And then when when Wibbs left, because guy the gym, you're the.

Guy and that and built a really good club and we'll appreciate it. We'll leave it there for now and we'll do more on this coming up on the other side. Elliott is live in studio. Elliott fall Is live in studio. Former RSL General manager. Alrighty, So we talked about kind of your path before the break that led you to becoming the GM, and for the kids out there, it is quite a story. In turn two thousand and seven general manager climbed his way up the up the ranks.

What were what were those emotions?

I don't I don't know if I've ever said this publicly, I might have told you I said, I don't want it.

Initially you pushed back a little bit.

Yeah, interesting, I said, you know, look, I appreciate it the Loy, but you know, I I would love to have a conversation about expanding my role, you know, but you know, i'd i'd like to look at what it's like in a slightly different capacity or something like that. And he said, no, that's not that's not what we're talking about. And I said, you know, and look, I obviously I had been the GM of the Monarchs. I was the assistant GM of RSL. So it's not like

Yep, and you.

You you don't necessarily know when that clock ends, but it's gonna end.

And I don't know.

That's not what I was, you know, I didn't necessarily want that. I wanted you know, I wanted to be at the club long term. So uh, all that said, I mean I said I don't want it. Was there ever any part of me that wasn't gonna take it? No, of course, like I was, I was going to take the job. I was excited about that. I mean, I loved the job. It was fun, it was I think it's a dream job. It's it's you know, millions of people.

Want that job.

No, you started as a coffee runner in two thousand and seven, you worked your way up to GM and the team.

It's a wild I was tearing down downsizing banners, rice ecles, You know, yeah, I know anywhere, but like, you know, for free, that's what I was doing. And then it, yeah, it turned into what it turned into, and it was it was unbelievable. It was an incredible ride. Like I wouldn't trade a single bit of it for anything. But yeah, so that was kind of my initial reaction. That's you know.

I was also really excited, and.

It was it was fun to get to to lead the soccer side of the organization, and and uh, you know, it was it was a good time.

Yeah.

You can be a mediocre senior VP of comms, temperamental, emotional angry and stay with the club for twenty years.

But if you're the GM or the coach, you are hired to be fired. You just are.

That's pro sports, Yeah, exactly, And and and look I knew that like it it it's it is what it is. So it's also and and this may I certainly hope that this doesn't come off as I don't know exactly what you'd say it comes off as, but in me complaining or anything like that, but it's a it's a really exhausting job. And uh I I gained a real perspective and and a real understanding of why, you know, people who are in those jobs don't stay in those

What was what was the first major decision personnel wise you made? You remember the first big decision you have to you had to make personnel wise? You remember what that was?

Selling Savorno?

I think, I mean we so I took over, it was like August or September or whatever it was of twenty nineteen.

Obviously there wasn't much to do at that point.

I mean, you know, we were a good team, made the playoffs, made a little bit of a run in the one a game in the playoffs.

You know, I think we lost to.

Seattle that year on the road, So so I guess so then yeah, so then fast forward to the next offseason, which of course turned into the COVID season, which was its own wild, you know situation. But we had we did sell Sava before COVID hit, So I guess, I guess I would say selling Sava as was my first

I think it was selling Sava, So you were. I'm trying to do the time I do.

I don't remember what had for breakfast this morning, but I'm trying to do the timeline here I do.

It was an uncrustable because they're so good, they're amazing.

You were named the GM prior to the COVID the law drum. Okay, okay, okay, because I was wondering if any of your reservation was steeped in the information that the league was about to run the team and what that was like. But you were the GM prior to that. Okay, okay, So let's move over to that timeline now, Okay, Yeah, So we.

Might need our own we might need several shows set aside for this, for sure, And.

You're welcome back anytime, as you know. But it's wild because I can remember. So this show just turned six last week. We've been doing this six years. Now, which both feels like yesterday and forever. It's hard for me to quantify. But when I first, you know, was back on air, a lot of people ask like, do you think Elliot's up to the task, and I said, well, only results will tell the story, because that's the way this thing goes. I mean, it is more than almost

That was a hot time in our country.

It was a passionate, heavy time where everybody was on edge for a myriad of different reasons, whether it was the person you didn't want in the White House being there, a pandemic potentially killing people, or you know George Floyd situation where everybody was really everything was heightened.

Okay, so you.

Want to throw you want to throw the earthquake in there too, because it happened right around then, two earthquakes.

Yeah, I'm living downtown, man, I thought we were all dying. So delay goes on X ninety six. You know I should rewind. RSL game is canceled, Okay. Players decide to protest, right.

Yeah, to be clear, every game of the league.

Yes, RSL, along with every other team in the league, decides to stand in solidarity with the message, and we're not playing. Deloyde takes that as an affront, which, by the way, I understood at the time.

I get it.

You know, all the work they put in to make this event happen. Bringing employees back the we furloughed goes on X ninety six. This expresses his disappointment. My phone blows up in a way that it very rarely blows up. And then an hour later it's decided he's coming on this show to apologize, and I'm like, all right, I mean, he owns the station, he owns the team. If this is the deal, this is deal. Unfortunately damage was done

He was not forced to sell the soccer team.

He decided he did not want to have the headache anymore and also was in an equity position to make some money. Okay, so he made a calculated decision to say what you want about Deloy's not dumb. Okay, sure as far as his business actionment goes.

By the way, this is not to take us on attengent, but this is this is something like the scenario you just laid out is actually not really indifferent from nearly every team in every professional sport that where the owner has been seemingly pushed out of the league. Like people people perceive the owner to have been forced out. They almost always make that decision on their own. It's so so so difficult to force somebody out in these situations, right, It just it almost never happened.

Don't even know if it ever has happened.

Yeah, but I think that was the narrative, like, oh, no, it is That's what I'm saying. Yeah, Yeah, he said some things that hurt some people's feelings and MLS said, okay, you have to sell the team.

That's not how it went down.

And I sat with him before he decided to do it because we were talking about some other things.

He walked me through the process. Totally understood.

You know, was again in a position to make some money and he has gone on to do some other things with his life as opposed to dealing with, you know, owning a soccer team, which comes with its own headaches, ye, which I am uniquely familiar with.

Sure, But how was.

That situation digested by the front office of the club when all that went down, and when you realized that there was going to be an ownership transition and for a moment in time you were going to report to the league because they were going to operate the team while Deloy found a buyer.

What was that like for you because gave shot.

Yeah, certainly, and and look to take a step back on the on the Deloye side of this. I mean, I am not like, I'm not defending the things that you know that Deloy said.

I'm not.

I they weren't they weren't things that that can be said. But I also kind of, like you alluded to, you understood where he.

Was coming from.

It's it's I I'm not saying I understood where he was coming from. But I think Deloy. I think Deloy was a very complex Uh He's a very complex person. And I think, you know, he said things that I have no I've never spoken to him about it. I don't know if he would, you know, I don't know what he would say about what he said at this point. But again, things that that, yeah, you can't say and

A lot of the time.

I mean, he he he did a lot of hard work for a lot of people, and so it's it is a complex situation. So I I that was a wild That mean, that dynamic in and of itself was was kind of wild. And and to your point, having been given a chance by Deloy and all of those things, and you know, so obviously I had I had a relationship with Deloy. The that said, I mean, it was the wildest time I can remember in my life. I mean, it was that that forty eight hours or whatever it was.

Yeah, to get that information, Yeah, he yeah, he did. You know.

There was also and and I don't remember kind of sequentially how things happened, but there in addition to you know, I had I've probably like I probably had one conversation with Deloye after the you know, that day. But it was a conversation where he you know, kind of walked me through what was happening. And then there was also the league was stepping in, so the league was also kind of giving us information and that's when John Kimball

Yeah, and Deloitte compartmentalized in a very interesting way.

I mean when he was done, he was done.

You know, he's at my time and now it's time for somebody else and I'm going to go on and do some other things of my life, which he's done. So then you're reporting to the league prior to the official transition, what was who were you talking to and when you went to make a decision?

How did that mechanism work? We weren't really talking to anybody. You were just doing your thing.

Well, I mean the edict was this, eventually, here's you know, here's your budget. Your budget is it was basically, here, your budget is what it was. We're not changing things. Yeah, yeah, it was yeah, if there's a major decision that needs to be made, like we want to be clued in.

And that was.

More or less directly like with the Commissioner's office. It wasn't with you know, down himself, but with his office, and you know he works very closely so for me, like on the player side, you know.

The.

Todd Durban who runs the player side of of MLS. I had a few conversations with Todd here and there, but again it wasn't they were they were great, and they they let us do our thing.

They did, let.

Us just execute and in in some ways it was the most rewarding time I had there because and this isn't I really I don't really mean this as a shot at any any of the ownership situations that we had, but it was the one where we it was okay, go ahead, do your thing. Like you guys have a plan, you have a process, go ahead, execute the plan in the process, and you know, we'll let you know if anything's going to change.

And that's what we did.

And if you remember, you know, we made a run to the conference finals so you know, and there were ups and downs. I don't I'm not pretending that it was, you know, the easiest thing ever, but it was. It was rewarding then to have those successes and that was a lot of fun.

Had to be a little bit liberating, not to be micromanaged too. But right, maybe like you have a little freedom.

Yeah, I mean, no question about it. I think I think I learned a lot from that time. I'm you know, about what it takes to successfully lead as well. And to your point, it is in a lot of cases to step away and to say I hired you. I hired you to do this job. Go do the job and let me know if you need anything. I don't need you to tell me every step of the way. Obviously as things go, I want to just know what's happening.

I learned a lot, all right. I thought we might get long winded, so we got a couple of minutes here. So it's a couple of different things. It goes fast when you're talking about interesting things. So let's move over to the space of the club that you built, and it's interesting.

Soccer fans are just miserable people. They just are.

And you know, I think you took a lot of flak from people that wondered if you were just a lackey.

I wondered if you were up to the task.

And I know you're not like actively on social media, but in acdotally you and I went to watch an RSL game a couple of years back after after you were let go, and we went into beer bar and they started booing, and I wondered if they were booing you when we walked in. It turns out they were booing the game. But I'm like, wait, did they say yeah? I honestly thought they were booing you. But you took a lot of flat during the course of the roster construct.

In retrospect, it kind of did, right.

And obviously that's nothing that you could control or new ownership. Dave Blitzer, Scott Chrace, Ryan Smith, nobody was able to control the mitigating circumstances. But what was it like to build that team that last year for a moment in time, certainly the most entertaining soccer we've seen here and had a chance to be really really special if things just would have kind of stayed clean.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's a really kind of complex set of emotions because on the one hand, it's rewarding to look at it and say, yeah, like, look at

So yeah, it was.

It was complex, but it was I I'm proud of what we did while I was there, and and I don't have too many regrets. I don't have, you know, I'm not. I'm not bitter about it. I had I had great experiences. I had a lot of good times. And you know that chapter is basically over.

Do you have any regrets about the Chia show stuff, because the interesting part of it is there there was some baggage there, right, I mean, in fairness, there was some baggage there. But when he was dialed in, when he was when he was fit, when he was committed, when he was doing cheat show things, you can the talent is so obvious. So two part questions, do you have any regrets about the chea show thing? And where

Do I have any regrets? Well, I'll answer the other question first, because that's a little more start forward.

I don't. Actually I don't remember where I was.

You know, it's you know how sports are, like it's all fickle and and you never know what can kind of derail things.

So to be.

Completely honest, I wasn't paying close enough attention or dialed in enough too, you know, and I didn't. I still don't really know what happened, Like I don't, I don't know.

I don't know.

I just know kind of what has has come out publicly, and so I you know, I would be lying if I told you I knew why. I had a really great feeling about what was going to happen. Either way, as for regrets, like no, I don't have regrets. I mean, look, you say there was baggage. I don't even kind of don't even know what baggage you're referring to. Like when we did background checks, when like he was fine, like you talked to he talk to LAFC guys.

Like they adored him.

There were locker room issues, there weren't behavioral issues like that wasn't that wasn't something that that wasn't something that came up really at all. You had conversations with him, he was engaged. Yeah, he's a personality, sure, and a lot of guys are and you know, respectfully, like that's where that the league is headed. Like as you get better,

So yeah, no, I don't have regrets. I mean I don't.

You're never gonna get everything right and like, but I look back on it, and I think we we checked as many boxes as we could all.

Right before I said you loose went on this and there's a lot of meat on this bone we haven't even touched for sure. They elected to kind of break it down brick by brick, and I'm sure they have their reasons. I think andres was proof of concept. So you go get your check. I get it. But you know, chi Cho Matt Crooks and oh like, the majority of the best attacking players were let go and the majority

So it's not necessarily Yeah, I don't think that has anything to do with it. But they did.

But they elected to break it down and get rid of most of the attacking players and in my estimation, did not do a good enough job at least to this point at bringing in reinforcements.

We'll see what these new two players are able to bring.

But there are two points below the line with eight matches to play, and it's gonna be tough for them even to make the playoffs. So last thing, what do you make of where the club finds itself now?

I you know, yeah, it's I mean, you never it'd be hard to say, Oh, you got to feel awesome when you're below the line. I'm late in the season. I mean, that's always a hard place that we've been there. I like, I know how that feels, and you don't feel good about it. Kind of to your bigger question, Yeah, I think and again, I'm not there.

I don't know.

I don't know all the reasons for the decisions that were made. I don't you know, I can speculate just like anybody else can. But if I've learned one thing when you're like when you work in a front office is like from the outside, you have ten percent of the information if you're lucky.

Yeah, So like I don't.

I don't want to pretend to have information and be able to say definitively, oh, this was the wrong thing to do, or this was the right thing to do.

You know.

Yeah, the Andres one like that makes a lot of sense, and it is proof of concept. And if you can, you know, four x your investment in eighteen months, it is proof of concept and it allows you to go back and say, see, this is how we can you know,

Yep, there's no doubt. Look, there's a lot more we could do, and we'll do it soon. So thanks for the time, man, be good with chat. Thank you, Elliott Fall, former RSL general manager. We'll bringing Ryan from the Dish pros give them a call it eight oh one four two four Dish save a bunch of money and make the switch today.

What's going on?

Ryan, This is the best opportunity you've ever seen to switch a Dish right now and the offer that we have listening. You get everything you want to watch college, you want to watch pro, you want to have the DBR, that automatic that records everything, you want to pay less. Well, guys, this is what Dish has right now. You get this. They've got the two year promotion still, which is fantastic because you get credits for two years. The price is

Show wrapping it up for a Monday edition. Going to be back on air after a little time off. Great time of year, a little bit of everything going on of course, high speed out of college football. Monday Night Football tonight is the Bengals and the Commanders, and then week zero will start on Saturday with the big game over in Dublin between Iowa State and k State. So a lot of football on the show college football as we move most of our coverage over to that space in the coming weeks and months.

Poor to have a confession to make. Are you ready for it?

I am open to confessions.

So I will disappoint some of my friends in the market. I will disappoint some of my golf fan friends. Over the weekend in Indianapolis, I had the opportunity to attend a live golf event and you broke a club there too, I did not break a club. I still okay, this is actually good news. We are in essentially late August and I've not broken a.

Golf club this year.

That's pretty good clubs.

The over one hundred, I did not say.

I have not thrown, and certainly over the weekend there may have been a couple of chucks because I thought I was going low and I very much did not. But no breaks over under was set at one point five. I'm gonna give myself one club break this year, but I've not broken a club. But I'm a PGA tour guy. But the CEO of Live Golf is a guy named Scott O'Neil. Scott is a member of the LDS Church.

Jordan is one that puts off a little bit of an aura, right. I was around him enough that it kind of faded off because he was kind of mean to people. It's around, but not really outside of that, especially not athletes. But when it comes to like maybe a musician, right, Like I had the chance to say one sentence to Willie Nelson and that was one of

So we were sitting in they called the whole fifty four to ten. It's the final hole of the tournament, and you're there in the tent and it's a bunch of like VIPs and we're sitting there watching the golf and I turn around and I look over my shoulder, and I turned to my son, I say, I think that's Lauren Hill. Okay, who's one of my favorite hip hop artists of all time. The Miseducation mis Education of Lauren Hill. She was with the Fujis, and I didn't

Our girl had to spend a lot of time in the pen. Life goes on.

But I'd say to Connor, I'm like, you've got to go around the other side and look behind me to make sure that's her, And if it is, you got to take a picture. Because she was literally standing three feet over my left shoulder. So Connor walks down and sees that it's her.

It is.

Lauryn Hill takes a picture, and the picture I have honestly looks like we took it together. But I did not have it inside of me to ask her to take a picture or say hello. It was maybe the first time in a long time that I was legitimately starstruck that Lauren Hill had a golf tournament of all people Lauren Hill is standing there and I didn't know what to do.

I stopped in my tracks.

That actually is a good one, and it's funny I mentioned Michael because there's something about like nineties culture where there's a little mystique there. It's not the access you get. Like for me, it wouldn't starstruck me to see Lebron because I number one, we've seen him in person and a bunch covering the jazz, but also because we know him, we see everything he does, We see every Instagram thing,

I think.

So I'm actually with you on that one. That one would give me a little starstruck.

Two.

Yeah, such a talent and at a golf tournament of all things. And the wildest part is she was close enough that I could hear what she was saying. I don't know if she plays, but she like knows golf.

Oh interesting, she was talking about like she's at that event, she probably plays a little or.

I assume they like Peter or something.

But she was like, okay, John rom he's like one hundred and seventy five yards out. This must be like a pitching wedge fan.

I'm like, wait, Lauren Hill is like breaking down the game of golf. It was. It was pretty wild.

So I did commit a cardinal sin for my friends that loved the PGA Tour. I actually went to a live golf event over the weekend. It's quite the atmosphere, a lot of loud music, a lot of people having a good time. They have a party hole as they call it. So yeah, I had that opportunity over the weekend. All right, let's get out of here for a Monday afternoon fun show today. Good to be back on air. Thank you guys for making us a part of your day.

On a Tuesday edition of the show, we'll check in with our guy Dave Fox, as we do each and every week on the program, Scott Mitchell. On the program tomorrow, we'll talk a little NFL with Sean Sayet of Sumer Sports, a little RSL action on the show tomorrow, and we'll hear from coach Witt after practice today, so we'll we'll have some sound to play.

There you go, Week three of Camp Kyle rolls on. Only one more week after this and then it's time for college football Utah by U and Utstate special. Thank you today, Doctor Chris Hill, Bill Riley and Elie Fall for the sound you missed from the show today. Go to the website which is ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile app and take us on the go. That ESPN seven hundred app is available in the App Store the Google play Store for free.