But let's talk more college football.
Consistent guest on the show, former ute, former NFL player, You know him, you love him. Robert Johnson on a Friday, Roger Happy Friday, Man, how are we doing? Hey?
It was so, I'm doing good.
How y'all doing doing well? Doing well? I appreciate the time.
So let's, uh, let's kind of look back before we look forward.
Uh So, Utah State.
Last week, Utah rolls up to Logan for the first time in twelve years. They get it done. Tell me, Rojo, what you saw from Isaac Wilson QB two. What sort of questions did he answer for you?
Well, I mean, the biggest question I feel like he answered was that he's a he's a baller, he a gamer, he is a gamer. And then it took. It's in a couple of series before we started getting into the start, getting into the tool of things. But I'm really happy of our future or will we stand with everything? I'm very very happy and proud of him and proud of the coaches at least opening up stuff, which was great.
Were you concerned at all after that slow start?
You know a lot of yout fans fourteen to three looking around you know, no Cam Rising, no Karrede Reid. I think there was some certainly some nerves firing up around here in the community where you concerned all after that slow start from the utes last week.
Heck yeah, I was like, I say, if you got if you gotta post. If you've got a utah, you post or your heartbeat utah. Yout definitely was nervous about it, or more like just concerned about like last game, how it went. Whereas he like popped into the game and then where he started, it was like, oh, here we go. But he got better. And I always talk about that during the summertime of like like when it comes to summer ball, it's like I want to see what the
light bullets look like. I want to see what going against an opponent that don't wear the same colors you and when he's coming to attack you, how do you react. So it was really really cool to kind of sit back and watch him and I'm just happy and product in the way that he did it, which gave us all hope of like we got a good future. We got it's it's a good plan behind this. You know.
A lot of the attention, of course, is on the health of the quarterback because it's just so important, as you know.
But Rojoe, you're a defensive guy.
What does this defense miss when Karine Reid isn't out there.
I feel like they missed a lot. But then I was looking on Twitter and popped up on something I said that we was trying some new things on defense at the beginning of the half. He was trying to stuff We want to see what we could do, and I think we was already kind of planning to get ready for Oklahoma State this week. So our defensive plan wasn't really bad at the beginning, but it was more of trying things, if that is true, and you see we locked it down towards the second half.
Yeah, I was.
Actually gonna ask you about that because the conversation was Bryson Barnes, Utah States quarterback, of course, was down here for a number of years, and they were a little bit concerned that Bryson knows the personnel and knows the scheme.
So it was interesting to here coach With and Coach Galli talked about how at the start of the game they were trying to change it up to keep Bryce and Barnes off their heels, but when they in Kyle's when they went back to doing what they always do, they settled in and were dominant.
You played in the system.
What does it mean when Coach witch as we settled back into doing what we always did on defense?
Is a big sign that growth, That's what I would say, because at the end of the day, our scheme is the NFL scheme, and when it comes to opponents that you play against, you're going to see it like it's the same looks no matter what, Like you can get that cover one, cover two, cover three, cover four, you know, like those are just common looks. But it's one of those we gonna line up against you and we're gonna
try to figure out can you stop? Can you stop what we're doing, or even if we show what we're doing, can you at least get around it. So I was really happy that we went back to our bread and butter and show how strong we are with our defense.
So of course this and it's still early, still early in the season, you know, and I tell college football fans this all the time. I Mean, everybody just misses college football so much and then it comes back and we blink and it's over. But it is still early, but I wanted to get for you, row Joe, because you hear college coaches talk all the time like the only thing we can do is win the day. The only thing we can improve between this week. It's all we can do is to improve between this week and
the next week through three weeks. From your vantage point, is Utah improving the way they need to week by week to compete in this conference? Heck yeah, we are.
I mean to go to go at the beginning of the season where everybody was really saying we're going to win the Big Twelve and then now seeing how we how we're going to me that's one of the biggest things of like showing that the team is loaded, the team is ready to perform when it comes to big games. So this week is a big game. It's a huge game.
So I feel like in my heart that this is this is one of those games where we're going to know exactly where we stand at of like if the team is strong enough or is the team we need to just need to get a little bit better and send us off the season very very strong in the Big Twelve.
So Rojo, the fact of the matter is Rashul Faizan goes for a buck fifteen and as the team, Utah State hangs three eighty five on on the Utah defense. So they were able to gain yardage. A lot of it were you know, chunk plays here or there, but they were able to gain a lot of yards on the ground with Rashul Feizon Oli.
Gordon won the dok Walker a year ago.
Alan Bowman, just like Cam Rising, is a seventh year college quarterback. What does Utah's defense need to improve upon this week when they're going to be on the road against a better team than Utah State to make sure that, you know, Oklahoma State doesn't get off the way that Utah State was able to at times last week.
For me, I feel like the ball control is one of the biggest things were going into a hostile environment because I've heard about still still Water a lot. So like they have their fans, they have a big call in. But on top of a big call in the way that outfield is that if we control the ball, we can control whether we going to get down to that last position or a bigger position. No. So so it's one of those things. Sorry, my son, i I'm in a supermarket right now. See that's how there you go.
I'm a supermarket trying to shop with my sons and they going crazy. But but yeah, like exactly what I was just mentioning is that if we can go down there and control that ball and do what we need to do, as in not having those turnovers early and being able to get first down, first down, first downs, it could be a really good setup of like a last possession and type of setup. And I feel like we can win last possessions because Coach, we'd always make
sure that we're ready for those those grinder games. I'll say, all.
Right, since you're with your boys grocery shop, and I'll set you loose, but I'll ask you one more question here, because again, Oli Gordon is a very capable back in Oklahoma State. So far, his face defenses that stacked the box and that's why he's not off to a great start.
They do have a capable balanced quarterback. But walk us through Rojo before I say you lose schematically, how you stop a team that has the rushing attack like Oklahoma State is capable of having, even though they haven't showed it so far this year entirely.
Turns into that quarterback that quarterback has been there so long. I'll put the balls over into his hand where it's like make them throw. And to me, our secondary is great. We have weapons on secondary wise as well as linebackers wise. We have weapons. Now we can force them to throw the ball. It could be it could be a win on our end for what I feel, because their running back is so good. You're right, their running back is very, very very good, so he could bust loose every time
you get the ball. But the goal is to stack the box and let's see what that quarterback can do. We're trying to read read a secondary or read a defense where the nobody knows who's coming. Don't nobody know who's running cover three, we're running pressed. What I seen
those run last week against Utah State. I got a feeling that we're going to test out some different looks and try to make him hold the ball a little longer so than our d line can get there and get the sacks that we need because to getting a negative play it wins games from what I feel.
All right, Rod, Joe, go chase your boys man enjoy the game tomorrow with chat soon.
All right, Hey, thank you so much.
Go you all right.
Robert Johnson, former Utah defensive back, played a number of years in the NFL. Always pre appreciate Rojo's time. Of course, really interesting dynamics of play coming up tomorrow, It's a two pm kick on Fox.
Remember you can watch it on Fox.
Of course, you can listen to the game on our radio station beginning at ten o'clock AM with pregame covers with Porter Larson and Jordan Winn live at Bout Time Pub at Jordan Commons. You've got two twenty year coaches and coach Witting Mike Gundy, two seventh year quarterbacks and camera Rising and Alan Bowman. So far, OSU hasn't got much out of Oli Gordon the second last year. He's averaging three point five yards of Kerry only point nine before contact.
He's getting hit hard.
OSU ranks one hundred and fifteenth in rushing success rate so far. But ultimately the quarterback Bowman has been able to play pretty well and they've they've been able to stay clean. They survived against Arkansas. They should have lost that game. Okay State has won seventh straight home games versus AP ranked opponents.
So it's a tough one for Utah tomorrow,