All right, let's get it. Drivetime Wednesday afternoon, about ten minutes past the hour, two o'clock. Little chilly, little coal, little cloudy, little rainy, preparing for some snow coming up throughout the rest of the week and over the course of Friday and Saturday. It's gonna get jam packed up in the mountain area, which is always good. But it's gonna rain coming up in just an hour or so. Then some rain coming up tomorrow, some snow coming up
on Friday weekend, looks all right. Then in the next week it feels like March. Is that That's what it comes down to. It feels like early March. But as it is every single day, it's good to have you along for the ride. Spence check, it's behind the mic. That's Porter Larsen behind the glass. Today jam Pack Show to get you halfway through your work week and one day closer to the weekend. Senior Night last night at the Huntsman Center for the Utah men's basketball team, West
Virginia was able to get a win. It was a very competitive basketball game. West Virginia now back in the field of sixty four. According to Joe Lonardi, they're an at lar potential team out of the Big twelve Utah sixteen and fourteen. And they've got one more regular season conference game prior of the Big Twelve tournament that's coming up March the eighth on Saturday against Brigham Young down in Provo. It's an eight o'clock tip. The game is on ESPNU, and of course you can hear it on
this radio station. Speaking excuse me, speaking to the BYU Cougar's. You're boys dealing with some stuff with a voice. We're gonna get through four hours today and we'll see, let's see, we'll see how we do today. We got a little throat situation, we got a little chest situation, got a little cough situation. So if my voice starts cracking, I have gone through puberty. I'm a man in my mid forties. I'm good to go that way. But we're dealing with some stuff today, So bear with me. BYU with an
absolute statement. Win last night, there's no other way around it. Iowa State through everything at them a for Roch's comeback. Incredible comeback quite frankly by Iowa State, because that game was done BYU was twenty one points, but they end up making enough plays down the stretch to hold off I with State eighty eight, eighty five and double overtime. Who does Dallen Hall think he is jumping off two feet grabbing alley oops? Goodness gracious, what a game for
Dallen Off the bench. Richie Saunders is playing his way in a conversation for the Big Twelve Player of the Year, let alone All Big Twelve First Team, and BYU has now won seven straight games. They're among, if not the hottest teams in all of college basketball. They've got the inside track to the four seed, with an outside shot it getting the three seed, although I doubt it, but a four seed for BYU gives them a double buy
into the Big Twelve quarterfinals coming up next week. Utah Jazz are back in action tonight Jazz Basketball taking on the Washington Wizards. The Jazz are fifteen and forty six. The Wizards are eleven and forty nine NBA Basketball. It's fantastic. Of course, this is Tankathon watch. These two teams are trying to stay near the bottom of the standings in order to get that fourteen percent chance to draft Cooper Flag. It's going to be a five o'clock mountain time tips
an early tip Jazz at Whiz. The Jazz are on a five game roadie after having nine games here in saut Lake City. Utah Hockey Club will be back in action tomorrow, taking on Detroit and down the stretch. Become hockey club right in the mix as it pertains to that wildcard spot in the NHL. Speaking of the NHL and the NHL trade deadline is forty eight hours away, and we've already seen a bevy of movement. Quite frankly,
more trades than you typically see. You don't see a ton of mid season trades in pro hockey, but there have already been a lot of trades that have been made. Will the Utah Hockey Club get involved? Bill Armstrong joined our program? Let's see, is that Monday or was it last week? I don't know, man, it was last week? Yeah, I swear that was Monday. I think it was Monday
last week, Monday of last week. Goodness gracious. Anyway, it was a fun conversation with the general manager of the Utah Hockey Club, and so we'll fill you in with the latest in the NHL. WHOA telling you, man? Your boys dealing with something today?
You gotta frog in your throat.
It's a throat slash, chest slash. Not sick, not sore, throat, not fever, but coughing up things that you don't want to see right, flatter and such. How are you porter, I'm doing well, I'm doing Will Spencer say something entertainable? I clear my throat?
Well, I'll turn your mic off and let you do that as well, I will say.
I will say.
I think it's very interesting the kind of dichotomy we've had, the dynamic we've had over the last twenty four hours with the hoop side for Utah, not only is Josh Eilert dealing with the last couple of games of the season, he's dealing with one of them being against a team he spent seventeen years at while rumor swirl of the new head coach potentially accepting the job within the coming days.
Oh and now that you deal with all that, you just have a regular season finale against one of the hottest teams in the country, your rival BYU on the road. That's that's some fun stuff that we can get into in addition to a lot of RSL, maybe some offseason football and more.
Get used to hearing more from that young man over the next couple of days because I'm gonna take some time off. We're gonna let the voice heel. We'll get to more of that coming up in a bit, but our first guest will be Chris Comrodnie live in studio. Ck. We'll stop by, we'll do some college football. We have the head ball coach of both our football team and our football team. See what I did there. First, Bablo Masnoetti's gonna stop by, the head coach of RSL, the
manager of RSL, and then Kyle Whittingham. Look at that on this little radio show. Springball for the Utes about two weeks away or so, and we'll get with coach winning. I want to ask Kyle about the current status not of the spring game this year, the forever twenty two game this year. I think it's April nineteenth. I think that's the date, and that is on the calendar, and you should go. I'll be there and it's an exciting fun day because it means we can talk little football.
But after Oklahoma became I think the fourteenth FCS team to cancel their spring game, we have I think fourteen teams now in major college football. They have decided to either cancel springball altogether or just kind of adjust the way they approach it. I think Oklahoma's going to do more of like a pro day, some drills, they're just not going to scrimmage. But Nebraska, USC and some others, Florida State, some big time programs are just tapped out
of spring the spring game altogether. So let's see what Kyle has to say about that. Learn a little bit more about the new roster, and I will ask Kyle if Devin dan Pierre is going to be the starting quarterback for Utah football. I'm not afraid of it. I'm going to do that today on the program. So Chris Camaraddie, Pablo Mast you winning him and we'll go from there. On a jam Pack Wednesday show, Happy Wednesday. You're halfway through that work week and you're one day closer to
the weekend. All right, before we get with c K live in studio courtesy of our good friends at Prize Picks on a Wednesday afternoon, it's time 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. The 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.
So fun night. In local college basketball, last night, at Senior Night at the Huntsman Center, Coach Eilert elected to start five seniors as you would expect, Caleb Lohner, Lawson Lovery and Hunter Ericson and the Matsen brothers Mason Matts and Gabe Matts and Gabe Mattson will leave the University of Utah's the all time leading three point shots made in history. He went five to fourteen from last night last night seven of sixteen from the Laurie had twenty
three points, five boards. Jake Wallen had twenty minutes. Like I said, I was kind of interested to see what coach Eyler would do. There was a little bit different than what Craig decided to do to do, if anything at all. The one thing he's done is he's played COUNTA does a lot of minutes. But Kianna didn't do much last night. He had twenty one minutes, Ezra twenty nine minutes. Couldn't get going nine to eleven from the
free throw line. He did have eleven points and some nice minutes from shrov jams twenty eight minutes for Mike, he had twelve points. He had six boards and three assists, but Utah not able to get it done. West Virginia a really good team. West Virginia is a real weird team to kind of try to figure out because they
have some of the best wins in conference. After beating the Utes here in Salt Lake City last night, West Virginia, according to Joe Lenardi, is now back in the field as an at large and right now they're nine to ten in conference play. They're eighteen and twelve overall. They're going to finish things up with a game against UCF a home. But they have some of the best wins in all the Big Twelve. They beat Gonzaga early on, they beat Arizona early on, They beat Kansas. I know
everybody's beating Kansas, but they beat Iowa State. Then they have some just really bizarre losses. Quite frankly, so I wasn't too surprised to see West Virginia get that win. It was a very competitive game that that went right down to the stretch. The uts miss some timely free throws has kind of been the deal lost in two of seven. Poor kid. I always feel bad for him when he's on the line. But Senior night, so it was a good crowd to say goodbye to these young men.
I'll say the same thing about Gabe Madsen that I said about Brandon Carlson after BC was leaving last year. Gabe deserves to be remembered really as the legend a guy that could have left on a number of different occasions decided to stick around. And I'm honestly, I know this sounds weird, but in this day and age of college basketball, I'm impressed that these kids just hung around
period after their head coach was fired. I do not know how many players on this roster that the incoming coach will try to recruit to try to get back. We've kind of done this exercise before, and this is gonna be predicated on the new coaching staff and what they've value. And oftentimes I kind of you know when you hear like, hey, they've got eight returning players, Well, if none of them are good, it's not a good thing that they're back. I would imagine they'd like to
have Ezra back, who's a junior. Look like coach Eiler thought more of Kiana Dolles than Craig did. And Keanu is a sophomore. Maybe you look to get him back, and then I think you'd like to have Jake Walleen back, maybe Shrob Jamps who's a junior. The Mats and Brothers are both seniors. Lost in a senior, Caleb a senior as well. My were little never really cracked the rotation consistently, although he had flashes. So we'll see one more game
for the Utes. They're going to take on BYU and Provo coming up on Saturday, and again that is an eight o'clock tip time. It'll be on ESPNU and you can hear the game on this little radio station. Speaking of BYU, it's time to admit it, man, this is a really, really good basketball team that is playing the right way the right time of year. And I know that's a cliche, but it is absolutely apropos when it
comes to college hoops. If we turn our calendar to March and you are reaching that peak, you know, we always ask the question, how good is your good? How good is your ceiling? How good are you when you're maximizing who you can be, and BYU is maximizing who they can be. Right now, they've won seven straight games. I don't know what seed line they're going to be on there. They are going to earn that double by next week in the Big twelve Tournament into the quarterfinals.
Now.
I kind of felt this way about the BYU team a year ago. They were a little bit more dependent on only the three point shot. Last year, this team feels a little bit more nuanced, a little bit more complete. If they're not knocking it down from the outside, they can go to the Trairi kid down low. Tufus didn't play much last night because it was an up and down game and BYU was getting out in transition. They
didn't shoot it all that well. They were eleven of thirty two from three, which is fine, it's not great, but they were twenty five of thirty one from the free throw line. Richie Saunders in forty seven minutes knocked down all thirteen of his free throws twenty three point six boards, two assists. Make no mistake, he is their go to guy down the stretch. When by you needed a bucket. Kevin called downhill plays for Richie every single time.
And that was a signature performance from Dollen Hall, who was an unbelievable high school player around here. You know, Mark Pope wanted Dollan to follow him to Kentucky, and Dallen entered the transfer portal initially after Mark left for UK and then decided to come back after sitting down with Kevin Young. But you can see why Mark wanted Dallan to follow him to Kentucky. He is a gritty,
tough kid who's really improved his outside shot. He can knock down the three off the bounce and obviously off the catch, and he's got that nice little crossover double crossover, inside out move seven to thirteen from Lafloya had twenty two points, five boards, three assists, did have six turnovers, as did Diego. Devin Yegor had a tough time against the pressure, so much so that Kevin actually gave the
ball to Doallen a little bit more than Yego. Demon Yego did have six boards and twelve points, but he also had six turnovers. Iowa State made a ferocious comeback and they started utilizing looked like a diamond and water a two two to one full court press with mostly man principles and they were blitzing every pick and they caused a lot of chaos and BYU was up twenty one. It was a weird game because at the start, BYU
did not look ready. They were playing soft, they were getting pushed off their spots, they were turning the ball over and they couldn't make a shot, and Iowa State jumped on them, and it looked like that that environment might be a little bit too much for Brigham Young. But they flipped the script and it was kind of coinciding with the minutes that Dallen got. Once Dallen came into the game, he kind of set the tone and
Iowa State through the kitchen sink at them. Iowa State's a good team, man, that was the top ten team and BYU goes to Ames and they get that win. I mean, it's pretty wild what BYU has done as of late. I referenced all the great wins West Virginia has. BYU has a case right now that they have some of the best wins in conference Kansas, Arizona MC, and now Iowa State in Ames and they'll close out against Utah coming up in Provo. I do not know what the line for that game will be. My guess is
it's going to be like you know, double digits. It is a rivalry matchup, so you never know what's gonna happen. Of course, Utah beat BYU here in saw Lake not that long ago. But BYU is a buzzsaar right now. And Seth Davis, who I like a lot, tweeted out he thinks they're a final four team. I'm not going to go that far because ultimately, try to predict the NCAA tournament is an exercising futility if you've ever tried to do it. That's why you can enter million dollar
bracket challenges. If you get a perfect bracket, you get a million bucks because nobody ever does it. But the seed for BYU, according to Lenardi right now, is an eight seed, and he has them playing New Mexico in the first round in Lexington, and BYU would advance to play the winner of Tennessee Norfolk State. Tennessee is awesome, but BYU has to be considered a threat not just to win the Big twelve, but at least make a little bit of a run and in the NCAA tournament
and give Kevin Young and his staff a lot of credit. Man, They're fun to watch, They're very complete, they can beat you in a bunch of different ways, and they have one of the best players in the Big twelve and Richie Saunders. They've got a couple of pros. Cannon catchings didn't even play last night. They didn't even need them.
So impressive win for Brigham Young in Ames against Iowa State and a rough way for the Utah men's hoops team to go out in front of the fans on Senior and i We'll see if they can salvage something coming up against BUYU all right. Prize Picks is the best place to get action on sports and more than thirty states, including California, Texas, and Georgia. Of course Utah as well. App is really easy to use to create a lineup. All you have to do is pick more or less on a few player stats to win up
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way to watch games. I've been using Prize Pitch for a few years now, So download that Prize picks app today. Use the promo code ESPN seven hundred to check out. You get fifty dollars when you just play five dollars. So download the Prize Pick app today. Use the promo code ESPN seven hundred to check out. You get fifty bucks instantly when you used to play five dollars. Well, normally I say no hits tracks deep tracks only. We
follow the law of Andy Bernard. On the program today, Chris Camaraddie Live in studio, did you request the biggest of hits from the greatest jam band of all time?
No?
Porter asked what I was in the mood for today, and I said I wasn't in the mood for anything, so he reverted to the mean. And the mean is is Dave. And sometimes there are hits. Sometimes you just have to go with it.
Wait a second, you Porter for the hit. You produce this show every day. You're familiar with the by laws of the drive.
I know deep tracks.
It was very last second, as I was situating cameras and such, I came in here and we had one commercial but playing, so.
I just had to act quick.
Now it's all good man, it's Dave Matthews. I will I will admit to you know, back in the day you caught the Office live. It wasn't you know, something that you could watch on every every Thursday. And the Andy Bernard Uh, he was skating right, he was at like a classic skating gate. Yeah, he was on roller skates when he dropped the whole d MB no hits, Oh I I l o l c K I l o LD because it was perfect. Because you have to understand, I grew up with a lot of kids just like
Andy Bernard. He is a perfect character for a lot of the.
Kids Ivy League, like.
Sailor, not a lot of self awareness, not near as smart as he thinks he is, brags about the school he went to even though he was a legacy, you know, the whole Cornell bit. But when he dropped the whole like Dave Matthews band, No hits deep tracks, because that's what most day fans would say, like, oh, you don't know you don't really know Dave. Oh what do you think is the best song best Dave of album? Have I asked you this before? Oh?
Yeah, under the Table and Jam.
See it's before these crowded streets.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
That's what day fans would tell you. Okay, Well, because Under the Table is too mainstream?
Is it?
It's BTCS, that's what we get. It's after he sold out, it is it is, God bless him. Going going back to our theme of last Week of nineties music, selling out is no longer a thing. Back in the nineties, you were like the Nirvana's Pearl Jams. Like, I don't know Pearl Jam all that well, but I feel like they were kind of the poster child of what selling
out was like. Wasn't didn't what's his face? Eddie Vedergan like mad because like some people thought one of his albums were too was to mainstream, so he got poudy about it. We just don't do that anymore.
Yeah.
I think ultimately selling out just means you're making money for your music. Now, I'll tell you what though, I do feel like so Porter is a country music fan, Yeah, and he refuses to listen to any country music artist who actually sells records. So I do think there's the sellout style on the countries, like Zach Bryan's sellout right.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we talked about this. My wife loves Zach Bryan, And anytime I send Porter like a John Prime song, He's like, Okay, now, this is this is what I'm talking about.
Right, Like there's sellout in country music these days.
Right, there's definitely like a fine line between radio country versus. What I would say is, yeah, it's it's like independent labels and that that's I mean, that is a genre that is kind of done it. But if you're trying to make pop music or trying to make hip hop music, I don't really think you have that option as much.
Yeah. Porter constantly says I listened to non radio country, right, so there's that, you know, the hipster country people now starting to manifest themselves this country how to sell out. That's okay, because I came in one day, I'm like, dude, guess what I'm listening to? Some country man.
I listened to Zach Bryan, and Porter's like sha and zaid like not it. Do you ever listen to Zach Bryan. Yeah, so I kind of reached my apex on Zach Bryan at the moment, but she is still riding that wave. So I just kind of have to tune out and do the listening to seagulls in my head and just tune it out.
There you go, Chris Comerannie Live in studio, c K Happy ONNESA. Man, how you doing?
I'm doing well? How are you?
I'm good. I got a little voice thing, yeah, but we're working through it. And take a little time off so I know you can. That's why you're here. In fact, you want to just carry the hours. You want to interview you.
I saw what the rundown is. It's me your guy, Bob's good vibes and coach way and coach way. Wow.
So we got a heavy hitter line of Chris Comeranni, Pablo Maschiooni, Kylewit.
I've always been kind of a leadoff hitter, you know, like a squib down the third baseline, beat it out and just do make havoc on the basis.
Can you lay down a bunch?
I can?
Okay, that's all that matters. So c K badding lead off do you think? And I'm gonna ask Kyle this. Oklahoma became I think the fourteenth major college football program to announce that they're not doing away with their spring game. They're just gonna do something different. I think it's gonna look a lot like a pro day. They're gonna do some drills or whatever. But sc Nebraska, a lot of Florida State, a lot of big time college football programs
have simply canceled their spring games. Roster. The roster number has been reduced to one oh five. When you play your first game, you can only have one hundred and five players on your roster. And I know that sounds like a lot, but that's down about twenty three to twenty four players. And if you make the playoffs, if you win your conference and you make the playoffs, that's seventeen or eighteen football games and you cannot add players during the season. Maybe at some point they'll find a
mechanism for that. So I get it. If you're canceling your spring game as a result of the powers that be telling you you have to cut your roster. Do you think this is something that's going to be commonplace in college football?
I mean, I think it could be, but I think at a place like Utah, you won't see it happen because of the Ty Jordan Aaron Low effects. I mean, I think the proceeds from that game go directly into the scholarship fund or something along those lines, if my mind serves me correct. So I think Utah is a special circumstance. I think Kyle is a old school throwback kind of guy and wants to be able to see
these guys play each other live. And I understand that even in recent years you've held out the ones for the most part, and that makes sense. But I think the fact that they made their spring game something that means more than just a typical spring game. I think Utah will probably write it out until their head coach decides they don't want to do it anymore. I don't see that happening under Kyle. But I mean I don't think like a pseudo pro day like flag football, kind
of like a Pro Bowl style of an event. Isn't that bad of an idea because you simultaneously will be in theory entertaining your fans with a product that's supposed to be fun and engaging, and for head coaches who are all very paranoid, You wouldn't even necessarily need to tip your hand either, who's on what side of the ball you could have you know, your your center as the quarterback out there having fun. I'm just saying that, like I think eventually you could see the trend go in that direction.
You know, it's actually to kind of stay in the space now that I'm thinking about it and what you just said as far as how you could cater it to just being more of a celebration of your program. Have the quarterbacks all compete against each other for throwing the ball through the tire or the target or whatever. Do kind of like a Pro Bowl type skill event challenge, because ultimately, as a head coach, you do not want to lose any of your players. And as a fan, you're not learning anything anyway.
It's just an excuse let some fans think they are even when they're not breaking news.
You're not, okay, It's it's just an excuse to call family on three and say, let's head up to rise cycles in all of our uteness. Yep, right, let's let's throw up the you okay, let's do the thing. But the game itself for me hasn't been interesting in I don't know a decade or more right as far as like, are we learning something about the schematics or the personnel?
Oh?
Correct? I think I can't remember what the setup was like in twenty seventeen eighteen when it was like Tyler Huntley versus Troy Williams, good pull out. I mean I was on the beat back then, so like maybe that was one time where maybe it was worth it. But I agree. I just think like eventually you can see this whole thing be done away for a multitude of reasons, but I do think there is a way to if you want to simultaneously engage your fan base and make money off that, there is a way to do it.
So we had a Rick Neuheisel on the show about a month ago, and I was with Rick up at this event that I am seed and I didn't know this. Rick was a walk on. He walked on at UCLA, eventually became their starting quarterback and was very good. Played some minor league football, never played in the NFL. And and when we were talking about the new roster limits, because essentially, Ck, this is eliminating walk ons, like there
will be no more walk ons. And the good news is there will be enough scholarships to carry through one oh five, Like you will have a scholarship if you want a college football team. Now, does eliminating the walk ons do anything to you? Does that say anything to you? Because new Heisl's the whole thing was like I was a walk on and I earned the starting job within two years. And we've seen a lot of walk ons earn jobs and you know, eventually earned scholarships. Doing a
way with walk ons in college football? Does that do anything? Uh?
I mean in this market, you could make an argument of it because you've seen so many guys be successful both at you know, BYU and Utah. But in order to keep up with the Joneses, I think eventually you're just gonna have to maximize your resources in NIL and just focus on that. And I know that's a total bummer, and I know it's a defeatist attitude, but if you are left in the dust, I don't see you crawling your way out of the dust. And the idea of
walk ons, the you know, the Rudy story. You know, it's what everybody fell in love with when it came to like the undersized underdog and football making a name for himself. But unfortunately, I think we're in an era of sports where it's like if you have if you can't help the team immediately, you kind of are forgotten.
I wonder so the ACC Florida Stanton Clemson, they ended the litigation on Tuesday and they've agreed to a settlement. The change of the league's revenue distribution model significantly reduces exit penalties, which ultimately is where this is going for members wanting to leave the conference before twenty thirty six. But Florida Staton Clemson are now going to be receiving a much larger piece of the pie. You think the
Big twelve looks at this at all? And if they do look at it, who are the schools that actually will receive a bigger chunk?
I mean, I think it's personally it makes sense. I don't know how fair it is, But if you are the Big twelve, it might make sense to deploy something like this. But you can deploy it with a out line saying that like it could be from a year to year basis, like a what have you done for me lately? You can measure the success of you know, the money generating sports, you know, football and basketball, teams,
and then you could even go down the line. I mean, there's that cup or something that Stanford or Cal always win from having the most success varsity sports success, you could you could employ that kind of model to say, like who's been the most successful And obviously you're gonna lean it and teer it with the money making sports at the top. But the Big Twelve is so wonky. So it's like who stands out right now? I mean,
I don't think there's anybody. I mean, PYU would probably be one of the stands out of standouts if you talk about like who's currently the most successful program.
Yeah, it does feel like everybody is just maximizing their own brand right in their own kind of piece of real estate. And if you look at essentially what the numbers say concerning the Big Twelve, it's Colorado who just say, look, we're tripling you every week three times the amount of eyes are on us than it is on you. And that's everybody, right, That includes Utah, that includes BYU, that
includes Kansas State or Oklahoma State. It probably if there's anybody that has an ace in their hand, it's probably Dion, right, just because of the eyes.
For sure, and I wonder if I think people will still watch Colorado this year, but I wonder if there's going to be a drop off without Travis Hunter, without Shad or Sanders, especially Travis. I think people were tuning in to see what this kid could do, and who knows, Maybe Colorado's going to be better all around football team this year, but there is a world in which Colorado could be better on the field and maybe get less eyeballs because they don't have as much top tier star talent.
We did the exercise as far as the schools that probably have a little bit of leverage, and I did say at the time, I still think Utah is in that category. It just comes on the heels of a bad season. And we are in a growing media market. We've jomped in the Nielsen ratings, you know, over the past three or four years into the top twenty seven to twenty eight, I think, and with hockey here and as the you know, the market kind of continues to grow if we can get if the Millers pull off baseball.
I've seen some people pontificating on the possibility of us being like a top fifteen or sixteen market. Only time will tell, but is Utah a school like they don't have the eyes Colorado has. Colorado doesn't have the recent run of success with Pack twelve championships and Rose Bowls. And yes, I'm asking you off the heels of a season where it didn't look great, But does Utah have a case to be made if the Big twelve moves
into this model? Could Utah be one of the top shelf teams to ask for a bigger piece?
They have to have a tremendous amount of success at the money making sports, which they have right Women's basketball is you know, impressive? I mean gymnastics is ski teamki I mean the Red Rocks make a lot, a lot of money at this school compared to some of the other schools in the country and in the conference. But you you just don't think you're ever going to be able to compete with Dion As long as he's in the conference. I just think he is the great equalizer.
And no matter who's on that team, I think you will get eyeballs, You will get people wanting to be to pay attention to what's going on there. So I do think if Utah wants to be one of those teams, they need to get back to where they were at the tail end of their PAC twelve era.
The BYU topic here is always fascinating because obviously Provo is not a media market that moves the needle at all, but BYU is a brand where everywhere they go they attract home fans basketball and football. In ames, Iowa last night, Kevin Young opened up BYU shoot around prior to the game to any BYU fan that wanted to come meet with the players, And from what I saw on television, it looked like there were hundreds of people there to
meet BYU players. So not just football basketball. BYU I think was fourth in the Big twelve in ees per game. But the BYU brand is worldwide and it is undeniable. Right. It's not Notre Dame, even though you know some people want to compare the two, But is BYU just as a brand enough of a negotiating card for whoever's there ad to come to the table in this hypothetical to say we deserve to be among the top shelf teams as well?
Well, yeah, because if you look at what happened even after they went independent, ESPN was like, we're going to partner with these guys by this vote, man, because we know that people are going to watch these games even if they're at eight forty five pm local on a Saturday night. BYU is one of the most unique fan bases in schools in the country for that reason. And if BYU's good and if they can sustain this, I think they're absolutely in the mix.
Let me ask you this. If you're Bret your Mark and you're looking at the schools, the schools come you and say, we want the ACC model. We want our bigger brands to get a bigger piece of the pie, because that's the way capitalism works. Shout out Elon. I'm going out of town today, Man, I feel like misbehaving. Arizona or Arizona State. Who do you think is right? Like, that's kind of an odd one. Arizona State just won the conference. Arizona basketball is a massive rant.
Football will always be kame.
So you think Arizona State right now? Yeah?
Okay, yeah, I don't. I mean, is Arizona the best team in the Big twelve right now?
Houston? So yeah?
I mean, like, I think Arizona would have to be like a Duke or North Carolina level program, again, especially in this conference, in order for them to be able to swing their weight.
Houston's kind of an interesting one only because of the market size. Dallas is like the number six market. I don't know where Houston is.
Football is a non starter there. I mean maybe Willie Fritz turns it around.
But like so yes football as of now. But if, if, if coach Fritz can get them into the top five or six their basketball team. I know you don't watch a ton of college basketball.
They good.
Oh it's like unfair. When Utah went and played them earlier this year, they the youths couldn't even get a shot off. At one point, I think Uti had three made field goals and eight turnovers box and one triangle and two that four passes. Gene Hackman, rest in peace. Have you ever seen Hoosiers?
You don't like it?
Oh?
Wait, wait at wait wait wait wait wait. I remember I was at dinner with you and John Paul and you both said Hoosiers and Field of Dreams overrated, and you broke my heart.
Best best basketball movie ever? I know you're ready?
What fast break?
Blue Chips?
Blue Chips is an excellent movie. It is I will allow that.
I rewatched it recently, and it is insane the amount of prescienceness or whatever, how prescient that movie was considering where we are now off the charts.
Trey would be proud of you from using prescience because I am convinced that Trey has a word of the day pop up on some app and then he just tries to use it in converse. He loved Pressian is one of Trey's favorite favorite words. So yes, rest in peace. Gene Hackman, Hoosiers is a good movie.
Dude, It's fine, It's fine. It it plays to a very specific audience of people. Let's just say that whites. I didn't say it.
Well, you know, hey, it's been it's been a pretty good year for the whites.
About on the sports side of the shooters. That's who it plays to. Mainly whites. Shooters shoot shooters who don't really donk or do much. Four passes before you shoot? Uh?
Anyway, Best Reporter, Best basketball movie of all time? What do you Got? I can tell you what it's not. It's not Coach Carter?
What's the ray Allen one?
Oh? He Got Game is very good?
Is very good.
I don't know that it's the best, but it's my favorite. He Got Game is probably one b for me. But rewatching Blue Chips Nick Nolty, the kids don't know man. Once upon a time Nick would bring the heat, and he did in that movie. His Bob Knight impersonation is amazing.
And side note, I recently came across a clip of Bobby Hurley on one of those barstool bro talk shows and he was talking about he was in Blue Chips because it was it was a Colbert Cheney Indiana team with Bobby, and he talked about how he talked about how Bobby Knight refused to fall any sort of script. He coached those scenes just like how he would in real life, and it was amazing.
That's awesome. I'll have to go back and rewatch that air Bud not bad. Finding Forrester was horrible. Sean Connery is the coach.
Some people will say white men can't jump.
I love the white man, but I actually enjoyed Finding Forrester until the end when Sean Connery dramatically turns around to the young man he's coaching and he goes, you all the men now, dog, Like that sucks.
I was like, I was.
You all the men, no dog? It just it irritated me anyway, best basketball movie of all time.
I still think it's Hoosier's Powerpool Wednesday.
Uh what did it used to be?
Uh?
It was powerpol Tuesday. Wednesdays on the Bill and spent Show were a very special day.
I don't know, Oh, okay or not? The answer is Blue.
Chips, Blue Chips hot, Yeah, Hoosiers not.
I mean it's not not hot. I mean rewatched Royal ten and bombs again recently in the wake of Gene Hackman's passing. Not a sports movie, but one of the best performances in a movie ever. Just holds up so amazingly. And I'll give you one. Gene Hackman as the football coach in The Replacements, absolutely very underrated Blue.
Chips forty percent Rotten Tomatoes, serapol.
Dude, are you kidding me? Nobody talks about the fact that they got Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway to act in that movie, and like that is right as they're starting to peak in Orlando too.
That's true. Here's a hot take semi pro Will Ferrell's most underrated role, most underrated movie.
I've never seen it.
You've got to watch semi pro. Okay, Whatody Harrelson's great in it. I have a list in front of me the top fifty eight basketball movies of all time. And they don't think Hilia Blue Chips. They don't think highly a semi Pro. I'm surprised you haven't seen Semi Pro. I think you'd like that movie.
Yeah, I don't. It slipped through the cracks.
The hell were we talking about?
You have to see that movie.
Of course c K derailed us. How do we get here?
You were talking about something?
Yeah, do you remember where were we for producer of this radio? Get us back on track.
I think Chris brought up the weave something. Oh, you brought up Hoosiers And then I said, you were talking about how good Houston basket. There it is, guy O Buye. Parenthood might have fried my brain, but not that bad.
This is called a man stone his thirties that has good habits. He's able to go He's able to go back and grab the piece of the conversation. No, the only reason I brought up Houston is that is a rather large market and their basketball program is awesome. But as we said, football is everything right now. So just the exercise of if the ACC has created a model
to hang on to their top teams. Will the Big twelve do the same, because everybody wants to be in the Big ten SEC party, everybody wants to sit at that lunch table because they're clearly again New Orleans two weeks ago. They don't even apologize for it, like, hey, we're having meetings, but it's just us. Sorry, wait, I thought it was P four.
Cool.
You guys hang out, the SEC and the Big ten are gonna meet, and then we're gonna tell you how things are gonna go. ACC's responses, we have to hang on at Clemson, Florida State.
What do we do?
Okay, Now we have a new model to make sure that if they leave, it's not as punitive, because at one point they were going to be paying like seven hundred million dollars to leave the conference. Yeah, now that's down to like one thirty and then it goes down incrementally up until twenty thirty two. So I just wonder if the Big twelve is looking at this model, if they're saying, wait, we need to hang on to the Colorado's, the Utah's, the Byus.
I honestly don't know. I don't think historically historically with Florida State, and I guess recently too despite last year's debacle of a season, and Clemson, Like, these are two programs that carry way tern money for you. I don't think there are any programs in the Big twelve right now that are on the same level. The number one movie on this list, You're still on it. No, No, I do two things at once. I don't disagree with you.
I'm just wondering if your Brett, your Mark, are you worried about losing the top you know, your big, big time programs. The number one list movie on this list is something called the First Slam Dunk? Have you ever heard of this?
I'm not.
Number two is Hoop Dreams, which is.
A documentary though okay, that's fine, but which I agree is Hoop Dreams was the first documentary that I ever remember watching, and I watched it in school and I was like, this is pretty heavy. It was watching school.
I thought it was awesome. Interviewed Arthur ag a couple of years ago. Randomly you followed me on Twitter. I'm like, dude, will you come on my radio? Because I've watched that probably two hundred times. I thought it was so cool. Yeah, they have Adam Sandler's hustle at for this list sucks. Hoo's your your guy jazz legend shout out Hoosiers is at six?
Where's Blue Chips?
I told you it's all the way. It's like at thirty. They don't like it. It's next to Semi pros.
That is despicable man.
You know the man now dog that put me in the worst I was watching the movie kind of liking it. I'll get back to Sean Connery. By the way, Who's Who's James Bond? In your mind?
I mean, just because of the era that I grew up in, It's Pierce Brosny. But my dad is a big James Bond guy and loves Sean Connery.
Connery's Bond to me? Who's Batman?
Oh?
Michael Keaton forever? I've gotten into an argument with that correct answer. I've gotten into an argument with my friends about this ad nauseum. They are all about bail and I'm just like, no, dude, Yeah, bail is okay, Bail best Bruce Wayne, Michael Keaton best Batman?
Okay, I can ride with that. But as long as Keaton's Batman, We're on the same for sure. All right, weird start. I'm leaving town, so I'm misbehaving. We're going to catch a quick break, but we got one more long segments. He K's carrying me through because I've got a voice issue. We've got a powerhouse list of guests. Chris Cameronnie, Pablo Mascaronnie, Kyle Whittingham, Coach Wood joins us in about one hour from now. If you're rolling your eyes,
that were ranking basketball movies. You can set your alarm for one hour from now. If you want to listen to Wit one hour down. We've got three hours to go. I want to tell you about my friends at Ougden Clinic Hadley Dermatology. Here's the deal. If you're like me, if you're like Chris, when the weather is warm, you are outside all the time. Okay, Now, the problem is you are at risk for some skin issues if you
are exposed to the sun consistently. I did not know this, but we lead the country in skin cancer diagnosis per capita. So if you have not been checked, my friends at Augden Clinic Hadley Dermatology, they're actually doing the community a big favor, a big service, because they're offering you a free consultation. So that right there saves you a ton of money and you just go up and get checked and then you can walk out with peace of mind. Or if you got a little issue, they'll help to
take care of it. We're talking discounts on boatox, We're talking discounts on laser treatments. Help with your teenage acne issues, hair loss, dry skin as well. Number one though, if you have not been checked, and if you're out in the sun a lot, if you're a golfer, if you're a hiker, take advantage of this deal right now, give them a call at eight oh one, six y five six four. All right, we can uh, this is acceptable, right,
This is not one of their big time hits. Where you're going mister Deed's I believe he was on the Mister Deeds soundtrack. Betty Betty sneaky underrated. Adam Sandler, Oh, very underrated.
I mean in the Sandler lexicon. It's probably four or five. But that's still that's still good enough for me on a good day. Are you pulling him up?
No, I'm just looking because because I wanted, because it's Steve Buscemi was in that movie. But anything John's like he kills it and everything. Yeah, Rounders?
You watching Severs?
Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, I'm two behind. Okay, I'm about to catch up on the flight.
Okay, okay.
Oh I like the look you just gave me. Yeah, I'm in for a yep. But Ttuo was in Rounders with Matt Damon and Ed Norton as like the pro gambler. Anything to Turto's in is he he is.
One of the coaches and he got game. That's recruiting is.
The uh he Got Game? Movie is not for children, so a Spike Lee joint. There's a lot of things I saw that I probably was seeing for the first time as a teenager. I want to watch that movie.
So earl the Pearl Monroe highlights good good pull.
So make sure the kids are in bed if you're gonna watch You Got Game. Peter Gallagher was in that movie.
Oh yeah, goodness.
Johnny Mack Yeah, Al Sharpen best, Adam Sandler movie, go.
Oh best or most quotable either, probably happy Gilmore. It's Gilmore and Madison one A one B for me.
It will always be those two. Yeah, you're thinking too hard. I would probably go Gilmore one.
I think I think I would too.
See these lists suck Rotten Tomatoes. Best Sandler movie they say it's hustle. It's very not Did you like Uncut Gems?
I loved it, but it stressed me out. I'll never watch it again.
On Struggle, Oh, wedding singer also underrated?
Okay, wedding singers in the mix. My my most underrated Sandler movies. Anger Management.
Anger Management is excellent. Fifty first dates not great. Great song though at the end. Yeah, you sung with Drew barrymore Man. You're singing it smart. I was trying to fall back in love with her. I'm leaving town.
So what are we talking about?
All right? Chris com Ronnie live in studio. We did a lot of college college football last segment. Let's jump over now to little college hoops where Jeff Goodman, John Rothstein, Sean O'Connell, our very own Sean O'Connell.
You want you want to throw Chris com Ronnie in the mix. Chris com Ronnie, are you reporting too? It's not done yet.
I've been told wait, you haven't inside information. All right? All right, well then let's get serious here. Let's do some serious sports occurator on a Wednesday. Some journalism, so we have Rostein and Goodman are two of the main college basketball newsbreakers, and Sean has his sources as well. Alex Jensen is thought to be high speed ahead to Land and become the next head coach. Tell us what you know.
Yeah, it sounds like the deal should be imminent in the next twenty four to forty eight hours, but it is not done yet, so these things take time. Obviously, Alex is active coaching the Dallas Mavericks. I think they're in Milwaukee tonight if I'm not mistaken. So yeah, everything is trending in that direction, as national and some other local reporters have already reported.
Let's see, the Mavericks are in Milwaukee tonight. Alex is on that staff. Tim McMahon our guy Tony Jones on the show. They both have said they know that Alex is in the last year of his deal. I guess the MAVs decided to extend Jason Kidd but did not extend his assistance for whatever reason. So let's kind of
stay in the space. So Chris Comrodnie, who has the sources, is reporting on The Drive Monday through Friday two to six, live everyday no exceptions, Alex Jensen is on the way to potentially be the next head coach for the Utah men's basketball team. Yes, these things are complex, Yes they
take time. You hear a lot of people say that five years ago when Mark did it again, five years ago when Mark decided to move on from coach Kriskoviak, there were conversations with Alex, but they didn't go very well. Do you have any insight there.
I it's not that they didn't go very well. I think Alex at the time, as you've alluded to and a lot of other people have alluded to, Alex was the first assistant on one of the best teams in the NBA, was credited with, you know, transforming one of the most awkward prospects in recent history into a now four time Defensive Player of the Year and future Hall of Famer. And in twenty nineteen he interviewed for the
Cavs job. So, like I think at the time, there were a lot of people that thought Alex was going to get a shot. And who knows, maybe if COVID doesn't happen, maybe if all of the things, if all of the if the yarn doesn't disassemble, the if things don't fray, if the Jazz stay good, if Donovan and Rudy stay here, there's a chance Alex isn't is a head coach in the NBA.
Yeah.
I think his exit was just a byproduct of that era ending much sooner than a lot of people expected. But now he's coaching on a team that you can argue has had the most snake bitten regular season in the history of the NBA. Maybe, I don't know, there's everyone's a victim to recency bias, but they are probably not going to make the postseason now, I would I would guess if Anthony Davis will probably not play the rest of the year. I think they're like in the
tenth spot. And I know the Phoenix Suns are their own disaster, but I would imagine the Sons will eventually catch them because I don't think a team of Spencer Dinwiddie and let's see, I can get somebody else on that team. Don't tell me, is Dwight Powell on that team? Okay, Stanford grad Dwight Powell. So yeah, I just think we're in a different era now. A head coaching job in the Big twelve will pay you more than an assistant coaching job in the NBA, and I would imagine that
that is part of this as well. You know, Alex is a Utah kid through and through. I know he didn't go to the I know he went to Bountiful's rival.
He's lucky he went to Humont prior to nineteen ninety seven. Okay, okay, let's be very clear about that.
But yeah, his family loves it here, you know, they it I think the stars are aligning, and I think this is just speculation on my part. I think there's a reason, now if you can get this across the line. Why you know Mark Carlin and Utah decided to dismiss Craig Craig Smith when they did.
Yeah, no, the timing makes a lot more sense when you learn that potentially they had their target mind all along. I wonder do you think, or maybe you know this, do you think Mark has kind of changed the way he's gone about this process because there are a lot of people and I don't I don't know this to be true, but a lot of people on the show and off the show have said, last time they're over to Mark about you got to hire a Utah guy
or just met with deaf ears. Now, I don't know that I have a problem with that, because you and I have discussed this quite Yeah, you and I have just discussed this quite a bit. Like all due respect to Josh Grant, who was one of the best to ever do it at Utah, Josh Grant was a dude, because you know, that's how I like to put it when it comes to good players.
Hall of Fame interview on the Drive too. Oh yeah, bring him back more often.
No, no, he Josh Grant could come. We can chop that up anytime. But Josh Grant back in the day was a problem. Like if he was born ten years later, he probably would have been a ten or twelve year NBA guy. So I respect Josh. He was a great player, and I do appreciate the candor and honesty that he
brought to the show last week. But like I can remember a lot of friends of mine that played basketball at Utah, A lot of alums would talk about how they kept trying to call Larry Koskoviak and trying to offer help, and I either couldn't get a call back or he wouldn't answer the phone. And I would even say to them.
Like dude, Larry or Craig.
Larry, Okay, I'm going to land on the plane. So even back when Larry was around, I heard from a lot of like ute alums that they tried to get a hold of Larry and his staff to help and they didn't really get a lot of invites or whatever. That's not Larry's job. And so when Josh kind of dropped the same thing, like a lot of alums tried to call Craig and say, can we help and he said no, I've got this, Like I don't have an issue with that. Like Craig's job is not to cater
to alums. It was to coach his team. But it was kind of the same feel about last time around when they were making this higher. According to a lot of people, they tried to reach out to Mark to say we need a Utah guy, and Mark wasn't necessarily open to that. Avenue. Do you think something's changed or do you really feel like he thinks Alex is the right candidate?
Now, I mean just my opinion, I think Alex is the right candidate because he is a guy who has ties to the university that can stimulate a donor base that badly needs stimulating. And he's a guy who's proven he coach. And we talked about this on the show a couple of weeks ago. It's like it is not rocket science these days. Find a guy who can coach, and find a guy who can get money from donors, and then that that coach who can coach will use that money to go out and hopefully recruit good players.
That's it. Yeah, it's E equals MC squared whatever A plus BQ will see like it is that and that's it, period, end of story.
Yeah, and watching what the Kevin Young hire has done for BYU basketball in less than a year, I think it's a model that you got to look at because the sport's changed, and you know the ability that Kevin has and Alex has too to go sit in a living room with parents and most of these parents believe their kids are going to be pros, and the kids
think they're pros at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. I always tell this anecdote because I can remember John Calipari was interviewed prior to one of you know a UK game a couple of years ago, and the broadcaster asked cal how many pro do you have on your roster? And he said, I have twelve. Go ask them, Just go into the locker room and go ask them, I have twelve. They well, I mean they may have had.
Four or five.
Right, So all these kids think they're going to go pro. And so for Kevin Young to be able to go into aj Debounce's living room with his father and say, I heard your favorite player of all time is Kevin Durant. There's his cell phone. Do you want to FaceTime him right now? Oh? I heard your favorite player is Kevin Booker.
We're buddies. I'll text him, and you want an autograph, Chris Paul whatever, Alex can go sit in a living room and say, Luka, Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert, Dodovan, Mitchell, Gordon Hayward, Klay Thompson. Oh you like those players?
G times on the list, it was an all star once a.
I'm with you.
Look Gordon Hayward. Prior to the leg injury, Gordon's last full year here, he was awesome. He was really good. That's why it sucked that he left after he got hurt. He never was able to recapture his form. He had a couple of decent years in Charlotte. Yeah, yeah, too, Big Yo is on the list.
No, I agree with you wholeheartedly, and that is part of it as well. I've told you this for years. Man like Utah just hasn't had an enticing roster of players or an enticing style of play to pay for or to tune and watch periods consistently. Period. End of story. And I know Craig's hiring came out a flashpoint in college athletics. You know, he was hired I think in end of March twenty twenty one, and that is right when NIL started to take off. You're coming out of
the real peak part of COVID fog. Craig didn't do a good enough job recruiting good enough players, period. End of story. Now, there's an argument to be made that he didn't have NIL resources at his disposal to do that, but at the end of the day, it's a resultspace business. And you know, I think you know that, I think
most people know that. So now Utah, if they can get this over the line, they're relying on a piece of you know, the glory days, the heyday to come back and restore something that really hasn't been seen on a consistent level in.
It years since Rick.
Yeah, twenty five years. Yeah, I mean just had the Larry blip in like fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, decent years, you know, six sweet sixteen, run good, good, good run. But just looking at like ninety to like two thousand and four, they were in it almost every I mean, it was a surprise if Utah.
Wasn't exactly exactly no, well said, and a surprise that they didn't at least win a couple of games. Yep. And I continue to say this, and you might have some memories. Even though I'm older than you are, I'm telling you, man, if you're a ute student listening to the show, first of all, wow, because you have so much that.
You can do that you're streaming for the internship ESPN seven hundred docars.
We had Jalen Johnson as an interne's in the NFL. But do you want to be an NFL player? You should be an intern here.
Uh.
But if you're a student listening to this, I'm blown away. Thank you. You just don't know what it's like to be on campus in March when your team is really good. It's really fun.
It is.
It's it's a really fun time. I can remember during those days, we would plan our days around like where are we getting together to watch these games? The Utes playing the tournament today or it's the Sweet sixteen? Are we getting together? Like in the student body has an experienced in a long long time. You know what it's like when the football team is good and the muss is crazy impressive. But I just I would love that for this community because it was so fun when I
was a student there in the late nineties. Is one of my favorite things.
And you guess the best player on the running Utes roster when I was there, I guess, yeah, my junior year, oh seven oh seven, Luca Derta. He wasn't the best player or one of the best others grateful with a nevill Johnny Bryant.
Johnny Bryant was good player. Yeah he was a good league guard. Yeah, jack O Ledi had a good team bog But Boga was a Majeris recruit, right, because I think they went to the Sweet sixteen. But no, it has been since Rick. The consistency has not been there since Majeri's left. There's just no doubt about it. And I don't think this community has been invigorated or inspired by the program since then either leave, you know, save a few exceptions that you and I've already talked about.
And Jack had one, Boylan had one, Larry had a couple. Craig really didn't, you know, they never went to the tournament. He had some decent wins Oregon, Arizona, whatever. But if we're honest, the consistent consistency as far as winning, entertaining style of play, and engagement from the community, it hasn't been there since Rick.
Well and at the risk of sounding to Kurt like nobody really gives a rip about big wins in the regular season, exactly, what are your big wins? Come conference tournament time and getting into the dance.
Well, and getting into the dance is the number one thing. You leave a lot of money on the table. That's the reason why college basketball is still a revenue generator is because of the tournament period. End of story.
Yeah, I mean still to this day. It is an equalizer in the sense that people who do not watch college basketball will tune in for the first and second round Exactly. People who do not watch college basketball will say, help me fill out my bracket. I have money on the line at my work pool. Like that is still going on. You don't really get that in any other sport. So I think that kind of transcends the cultural part of sports in America.
All Right, before we take a break a couple of minutes here with Ck, because we want to make sure that Trey isn't just tortured by his own thoughts. Let's go, let's do him a favor and talk to RSL because he's such a tortured person that if he hears his talking soccer it might distract him from his own mental illness and be happy for a moment. It was a young boy.
Well I'm ready, but this was a prescient moment because you knew, Trey knew that we were going to talk about the lads.
There's a compendium of things to talk about, shout out Gerald about RSL. First of all, let's just talk about a positive result home opener MLS Seattle I can't win here, which is pretty wild because very odd Like on paper, these two teams right now, Seattle should beat him every single time, agreed, But they roll in here and like they always do, they couldn't get anything started and RSL gets an own goal in the first half. Our guy Forrester right his second goal.
Maybe you have your foster kit yet. Maybe they don't need a nine. Hey, I don't. And if you're listening, Tray, I'm still waiting. Maybe they don't need a nine. My guy, you're riding the good good vibess wave to nil. Yeah, give me your thoughts. A very odd own goal. I knew who looked knew who who is Sam Stayscal's favorite MLS player of all time because he's so entertaining to watch and goofy as you could tell on that own goal. Yeah, gives him a gift. I'm sure that definitely settled the nerves.
I mean eight minutes in, Like you could imagine what American first field would have looked like if it was like the sixtieth minute and it's nil nil, it's the Riot. Sorry at the Riot. I was gonna say aff but I mean it's a different looking team when Oheita and Ellie are in the middle of the park together. Honestly, like, for sure, I think they're just better. I thought Quintin
and Glad had a really good looking connected partnership. There wasn't a lot of disconnectivity there, like a lot of strikers in previous games had maybe a little too much room. There wasn't a lot. And I know Seattle doesn't necessarily play with the true number nine anyways, as you know, I mean Jordan Morris is really a true winger since they moved on from raul Ry Diaz. But they have a ton of good players to throw out at opposing teams, and they have so many diverse pieces now since adding
your guy. Heyes, Susperrera, Yeah, I mean kind of false nine as you like to call Paul Ariola. Anyways, great result, but you got to make the move soon, man, You got to make the move soon, because these things take so much longer than people think. Like Oursel would conceivably have a guy that they might have offered already, but before you can get documents signed, before you start the visa process. Like Donny said it on your show earlier
this week. Now, it's probably gonna be harder than ever to get an impact player in at an optimal time because of the function of the government right now. So like you, basically you can't go into May with your guy Forrester and rifpol as your two number nine. You just can't. Is there a striker in Greenland that we can look at or you know, based off the current line, I'm just saying, I like, where your head's at.
Well, the window closes late April, yeah, right, so we've got about six weeks.
Right, But if you, if you, let's say you get a move done mid April, how long before they get their visa? And then the acclamation process of training with people like you can't just come over here and be like, hey, I'm waiting for my visa, like takes a long time.
It is pretty wild. I don't think I ever really understood the process until Garth kind of outlet. He just outlined everything to me.
He's like, this is.
Exactly he dumbs it down for us. Dum dumb he does, he does, and you know, and.
Then you hear the horror stories of how many players that they actually thought they had and it fell through and it wasn't because the player didn't want to come or they didn't want the player. There was some sort of piece of paperwork that didn't get done in time. And then the window closes in You're screwed. It's a nine, right, Like it's got to be a nine.
It's got to be a nine. It maybe needs to be another like ten or winger, because I know, I don't know who. I don't know if Diogo has a guy in our friend group. I don't know if like Diogo is a JP guy, a FULK guy.
I think everybody's still waiting, right, Okay.
My point is is that like he gives big time, not even Robin vibes, like I don't even know what this Robin's sidekick is, but like he is not playing like the type of player that they're paying him to be or paid for him. So if it's doable, I think RSL probably needs to make two big moves. I think they need to bring bring in another winger or central attacking player because you're gonna play a bunch of games.
And while the fans love Diego Luna, if Diego Luna isn't here long term, who is going to be that that lynchpin in the attacking midfield dominic Mark Zuke, you know, talented player has looked really good, but like he's I can't even think how many goals are assists he has since coming over to the club. Not many. I mean, Lachlan Brook seems just like a squad rotational player. If you're going to compete in the Western Conference, you need to have some dudes.
You need to have dudes who love ball. That's the way I put it. Uh, Diego did have the assist on my guy for it, and it was great.
It was a great ball. Yeah, But I'm just saying, like killer mentality, instilling fear in the opponent. Not it, definitely not it, And maybe it's there deep down. And Donny had a good point, Like I watched him play on those Copenhagen teams that were in Champions League and he was a great player, but he was a role player on those teams, Like he wasn't a guy who was like, Hey, we're going to bring in this dude to dictate the pace of a game for ninety minutes.
Fair enough before I set you loose. What do you know about San Diego, Not the city, but the team RSL is playing that.
They've looked really, really good in the first two weeks. They do not look like an expansion franchise. They beat La Galaxy on their home turf and the opener. I think they were held to a draw last week in their home opener, but they have Chuq Chuqui Lozano who is a Mexican national team star, and.
They will be no rollover for sure. San Diego has an MLS team. Why don't you throw your resume over there? What am I going to do there, dude, San Diego? Right, I have the time I land in San Diego. I say, why don't I live here?
Correct? But I'm going to counter this with this. Every one of my friends who've ever worked for a club say it is very rewarding, but it is the most taxing, tiresome job in exist. If you work for the Jazz, you have to go to forty one home games, or maybe eighty two. If you work for oursel, you have to go to thirty four games, maybe thirty eight.
I'm not doing that, man, dude, I'm you know, we can do an entire week of radio shows.
I'm telling why.
It is a complete farce that they have sold you you want to work in sports so badly. They're going to pay a thirty five K for ninety hours of work. Why do you think I do this every day? Why do you think I do what I do too? Che Good to see you, buddy, Thanks Chris Comrodnie brought to you today by Burt Brothers with over thirty years of
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three decades. Burt Brothers doing it better since day one. Burt Brothers dot Com We Got Coach went on the program coming up in about twenty five minutes from right now, So stay tuned all your Utah football fans for the head coach of the youths, Kyle Whittingham on the program today. We have made a little bit of an adjustment we have. I am the manager. I'm on the sidelines, and I'm waving Pablo off the pitch, and standing next to me wearing number nine, of course, is Jason Christ and I've
decided to sob Jason in take Pablo off. Jason Christ on a Wednesday afternoon, Jay, how you doing, buddy.
I'm doing great. It took me a minute to catch what you were laying down there.
Well, it usually does. I mean, that's part of our relationship for the better part of twenty years. I'm just kind of one.
Step ahead, right, Yeah, you definitely are. Your humor and your wit is definitely one step ahead of where I'm at.
You know what, Thank you very much for that compliment. That's never happened before.
Porter.
Will you clip that sound and send it to my email please, I'd appreciate it. All right, Jay, let's start with the good home open our MLS style. Seattle rolls into town and you guys send them away with a two zero, win, the good, the bad? Would you like? What didn't you like?
Please? Obviously please with the result. I think sometimes in this game you kind of would just take whatever result you can get. I felt it's strangely so, I felt that the group was under a bit of pressure, even though it's only our fourth game of this season and our second MLS game. I think we've set a different level of expectation amongst ourselves and amongst our fans that we don't you know that we don't have three poor results in a row, and that's what we essentially had.
With the draw at Costa Rica perhaps being a semi positive one, but then losing against Santos away and then losing the game and not advancing in concacaff I think made us all a bit uneasy. So to get that result against Seattle was very, very important. I don't I wouldn't qualify the performance as one of our best, but I do think it was a very positive step for the team and a positive reaction to come back off those off those disappointments and get a much needed three points.
If we were at a RSL season ticket holder dinner, and I was an RSL season ticket holder, and you were speaking and they open it up for questions, I might say something like, how can you tell me that you're taking CONCACAF seriously when you have two nines with very little professional experience and unfortunately unable to advance well.
I would say that there's a lot more that goes into that than just the outside view that we don't have an experience nine. The fact of the matters, we thought we were going to have an experience nine. That's why we made the trade with the Red Bulls in the off season. In all of our free conversations with that player led us to believe that he was super
excited to come. So to find out later that he wasn't going to come and didn't show up here for a preseason puts us in a completely different different point of view. So what we had expected to be sort of backup role players, young players coming off the bench for us, now are players that we have to rely on. And then put on top of that that one of them gets injured the day before the first Readiano game, and now you've got one striker in your entire roster.
So it was not an ideal situation. But that doesn't mean that we didn't put our best foot forward and try to win those games, which I believe we did.
So that leads to the next question. As a guy who made a living and scoring a lot of goals and looking forresters, had some bright moments. But your reference and I do want to talk to talk to you about the I think it's Ilias man well instead of Elias. I want to talk to you about that in just a moment. But where we at with the progress? Kurt joined the program last week and said things are in the works, and obviously fans wondering if the number nine is on the way, are we getting close?
I don't know that I could qualify it as close, but I would qualify and say that from what I see, Curtis is working extremely hard and our scouting department is working extremely hard to get something over the line there. But you know, I don't have a day by day check in on that situation. I just know that it's a very obvious and apparent focus for our entire club
to get somebody in the door. I think that both the two players that the both the two strikers that we have in our roster have now played for us, which is great because we wanted to see Arif play. I know I would like to see him play a bit more before before kind of making any final judgments there.
And I think both players are useful. I don't know that I would see, you know, either player at this very moment being somebody that we should rely on to be our weekend and week out starter and somebody that we is going to be a focal point for our attack, and somebody that we're going to rely on to score those goals. So the work is being done, and I believe that we will make a signing. It's just a question of when that signing will happen.
Is it fair to say the expectation is prior to the window that closes April thirtieth, you will have a nine on the roster.
Again, I think that that's that's where we are headed, and that's our objective. I don't think there's any reason to shy away from that. I just I just couldn't promise without, you know, without any uncertainty that we won't be successful, because you know, I've seen that happen many time before, where you you try to make things happen
and it just doesn't. And I think the Ultimately, one of the mistakes that I've seen a lot of clubs make is to put themselves in a situation where they absolutely feel like they have to Because Garth was the one that used to say it, probably more than me, but you never want to do any harm. We don't want to sign a player that we don't really believe in and then having stuck on our roster for the next several years.
Any any thoughts on other acquisitions. We're hearing potentially a winger on the way as well. Everybody's focused on the nine as a result of the moves you made, and as you reference the player who elected not to report, or but any other spots on the roster you guys are looking at too.
I think we're really focused on that one spence. I don't think we're looking a whole lot in other areas. The good news is that you know whether or not we make this signing, and hopefully we will. We still have on top of that signing, we will have flexibility to improve this roster if we feel it's needed come the summer window.
So you reference the situation, I thought it was Elias, but when Kurt joined the show, he said it's Ilias so Ilias, Manuel, Manuel. You know, the news comes down that you guys have made the deal, the release goes out, everything looks official. What happened, Jay, from your vantage point, how did this thing break down?
Well, first, I'll say that I think you and I can call him Elias because we're not real happy with him. Whatever we want fair enough. It's a really strange one. I've never actually been a part of a club or a team where this situation, this kind of situation has happened. Because we did our due diligence. We talked to lots of people that have played with him, lots of people
that have coached him before. We spoke to the player in depth about whether he was open to this move, and so all of our diligence was done, and we thought we had traded for a player that was happy to come here. What was left at the table was he had made the assumption that there would be a brand new, shiny contract for him, and we were We were not in that position. We were in a position that you're an MLS player, and this is how trades happen. You know, you come here and do well, then of
course you know we will compensate you accordingly. But he's on a contract for several more years. So it was just a complete shock to us that that would happen. And then it comes to a point where you know, you're just kind of you're saying to the player, you know you should want to come here. We don't. We don't feel like we have to talk you into it or convince you that that this is your very next
step should be. So ultimately, it all, it all broke down, and I think we came to a really good next option, which was to sell him to a different club.
So help me understand, Jay, you know, as your reference, you have transferred him to a Brazilian club. You transferred him to a club in Brazil. Does this essentially mean that you guys came out more or less even on the transaction. I mean, was everything kind of restored to where you wanted it to be.
Yeah? Absolutely, At the end of it, we sell it very much that it was a zero sum thing for us. We did en up against college picks out of the situation that, you know, I think we'd say I feel very good about two to three of those picks that we made in a college draft this year, as far as becoming RSL first team number at some point and contributors. So we had a very good draft and some of that was because of that trade in fairness.
You know, Forrester sc scored a couple of goals. Now, I think in the return match when Radiano was here, even though he got a goal, there were four or five opportunities where he just felt like he's got to put that away. But because he is playing, and because he has scored some goals, I mean, even though he went to Duke, which you know doesn't take a big IQ to get into Duke, we should give him a little bit of love. So what do you like about this young striker?
Well, what I like is that he went to Duke. Okay, all right, now, I mean listen, he's he's got tools. He's got tools, he's got size, he's got speed, he's got strength, he's got he does have a very good knock around the goal. When you watch him in training sessions, he scores on a regular basis, whether that's small side games, medium sized games, eleven v eleven in training he's a regular scorer. So he's he's got that instinct, I believe.
Now I think he lacks a little bit of some of the stuff that just comes with playing high level games, a high number of high level games, and he will only gain that through experience of playing regularly and playing at at a high level. So but yeah, I mean he's a he's an exciting player. I think we I saw the other night when he came off the bench against Seattle. I mean that was a great scenario for him,
really really good scenario. When the game's a little bit more open and the opponent's a little bit fatigued, he can come in to make the difference and put the game away.
So we had a Mecca on the show on Monday, And every time I leave an interview with him, I walk away just more and more impressed. I mean, he has a maturity about him for a young man that is very impressive. And obviously he's got all kinds of game. You once upon a time or the Captain's armband for RSL. That spot was filled admirably by the legend Kyle Beckerman, And there have been some different options Demir and such.
What about a Mecca screams leadership to you, And why do you think he's the right guy to wear that armband? Right now.
Well, I think, first and foremost, it just comes through a Mecca's hunger to be a high level soccer player and to be the absolute best professional soccer player that he can be. He's he trains extremely hard. He you know, he comes in, he's the first one in the build bilding, he's the last one to leave because he takes this whole thing seriously. And then because of that, he leads
by example. We are definitely working with him to become a bit more of a vocal leader, a bit a bit of a leader that can have more influence on more players around him, that can understand and learn how to direct the other players around him. You know, I look at him and think about I think about a Kyle Beckerman, and I think about when Kyle Beckerman when he first joined our club was a different Kyle Beckerman
than he was when he retired. And a lot of that leadership capability and a lot of that strength, and a lot of that ability to influence others and communicate well with others and dictate where others needed to go came through experience. And so I think that a Mecca has a lot of same qualities. And you know, I don't think there's any reason why he shouldn't be a guy that could be here for the next ten years.
You guys decided to make a moving goal, and I've not been able to talk to you since then. Ratha Cabral in Gad was sold. And then for some reason Zach decided to wait until like two weeks before the season for surgery. But that you can let me complain about that. But early returns Ratha Cabral and goal.
What do you say, Jay, I've been very, very impressed with him, very impressed. I think he's been I think he's been good, arguably in all the games. Unfortunate that you know he's he's obviously conceded. We've we've conceded four goals against San Jose, we conceded a couple of goal against Arediano. But you know, in my opinion that if it had been a lesser goalkeeper between the pipes and those games, that San Jose game could have been six. So I think he made some fantastic saves. He's a
terroristic character. He speaks English perfectly. He's a leader in the locker room. He's an unbelievable, unbelievably good professional and a good family man. So I think that was a great signing for us, and the early returns have been good.
Before we get a thought on San Diego, who you've got coming up, you know, if we remove the dynamic that you have right now at striker, if we just kind of put that aside, and we all understand that best laid plans aside, reinforcements are needed and potentially on the way, there's a lot of depth everywhere else. Jay, And you know, as a result of losing in Conky CAF,
you're not going to deal with the midweek stuff. But how would you or at least for a while before the Nation's whatever they're calling that Nation's Cup or whatever. A lot of cups in this sport, But how would you characterize the depth that you have on your roster other than the striker position right now? A lot of cups from too many cups, Jay, too many cups, too many cups.
Yeah, it's called League's Cup. I would say I would agree with you. I mean the depths on this team and the number of players that I think the coaches, I always think about it this way, like how many players can the first team? Coaches really rely on how many do they feel like gat I don't have any hesitation of starting that guy next week, and that number is extremely high, and there's no doubt about it. I
think this team has been built really, really well. From my perspective, this is the type of team that if you added to one to two real difference makers, I think we're talking we're talking upper upper echelon.
Of the league.
That's how deep and strong I think the competitive nature within this group is. That's how many high quality players we have, and in a lot of positions. So I think we're poised to make a few moves and become really really elite, really really quickly. The best way for me to describe really the roster would be this. You know, I don't think last year the coaching staff had to make one difficult decision about who made the twenty man roster for a game, and this week they've already had
to make one. In our last game, they had to leave out a player that started two of the first three games for US this season. So they will have to make difficult decisions every week, and that's a good thing, all right, Jay.
Before I say you lose, I have not been grinding on San Diego FC tape. So I will not pretend that I know a thing about them, but they did beat the Galaxy in their inaugural match, and they had a draw with a pretty stout Saint Louis side. That's the next opponent. What do you know about them?
You know? The nice thing about that early afternoon game last week was that I got to go home and actually watch San Diego play at the night their first player home opener. Was very impressed, very very impressed. As the team that likes to keep the ball, they build out of the back all the time. I think they have a very similar style and game model to us, and that they want to be the dominant possession team and they want to create attacking goals coin chances from
their own possession. So I'm looking forward to what I think should be a high quality game on Saturday, and I'm also looking forward to another positive three points for RSL Jason Chrice.
You're just one of my favorite people friends. I just appreciate the time. I think so highly of you, your intelligence, your charisma, everything, So thanks for the time, man.
Be good.
That's in.
I wish my wife was this nice than me. That's all I have to say.
About that bes to Kim and the kids, see you buddy, all right, Jason Christ so ourself back and actually at San Diego, all right, show rolling along. It is not football season, but it's never a bad time to talk football, because spring football for the utes. Right around the corner. The headball coach himself, Kyle Whittingham on a Wednesday afternoon, Coach wit, how.
Are you, sir doing well? Smithcer? How are you doing?
I'm doing really well. I always appreciate your time. So just kind of take us behind the scenes a little bit. What's this time of year? Like, what are the boxes you're trying to check? Prior to the beginning to spring ball here in.
Just a couple of weeks, well, last couple of months, we've been in what we call winter player development. It's primarily in the weight room, you know, getting bigger, faster and stronger, and then on the field doing agility work and that type of thing and mixed in with some football walkthroughs at the NCO allows you to do. So that's been since they got back in early January for school up until next week. Will we go into spring break,
that'll put an end to that. Then when we get back from spring break, we have a couple days of review and then we start spring ball on Thursday, the twentieth of March.
You know, it's no secret, coach that you guys have a lot of roster change over, and even when you have good years, now you're gonna have a lot of roster changeover because of the nature of the sport. How's the process been to get the new coaches up to speed with what you want them to do and get the new players to understand as you always say, mentally they need to understand what you're asking them to do, and physically they need to be capable of doing those things.
What's the process like integrating the new pieces.
I think, relatively speaking to where we are in relative to the time of year, I think we're right on track. We've got the offense essentially put in and now it's just reviewing it and making sure we, you know, get his mental opportunity to expose him to it as possible. It's been a very good transition with the new coaches. We have three new coaches on the offensive side, and of course with coach Beck and his new scheme that he's brought in, the players have really embraced that defensively.
Pretty much business as usual, you know, no change over there. The scheme has remained the same for years and years, and it's you know, as far as the basics, we tweak a little bit here and there, but I think based on you know, where we are early March as a team right now, we're in good shape.
So we had Jason Beck on the show. It was funny get to know him not too long ago, and I asked him the question, Kyle point blank, is Devin Dampierre your starting quarterback? And he said he is. So I will take the opportunity to ask you. For a fan base that's always wondering who's going to be starting to understand the plan moving forward? Is Devin right, Devin Dampier under center?
Well, if we played today, he would be the guy. So he's obviously got a great grasp of the offense having been in it in years past, and so it's nothing new to him. He's like having another coach on the field right now. He's just you know, completely versed in what we're doing and so you know, he's doing a great job. Isaac Wilson is really entrenched right now. Is number two now that's not to say that can't
change because everything's a competition. But Isaac has done a nice job assimilating the new offense as well.
You know, it's interesting, Kyle, I'm sure you know this. More than a dozen teams have straight up canceled their spring game. The latest to do it, Oklahoma is changing their just kind of there the way they go about it, but USC, Alabama, Ohio, State, Texas, Nebraska as well, they've just punted on spring games. Is that anything you guys have discussed up there as far as what to do with the spring game.
Absolutely, and that's still a discussion. And right now as we speak, a spring game in its format that our fans and players are used to through the years is still in place that could be subject to change based on it how things go through spring, you know, if we get thin at certain positions or you know, there's things that can change that. And so at the moment, spring game is is a go. But I'm not going to rule it out just you know, circumstantially down the road depending on what happens.
Well, And look, I wouldn't blame I don't want to see it go away because ultimately all of us just enjoy the spring celebration of your program and covering the game and just kind of being together and talking football is the fun thing we get to do as far as my little spot in this ecosystem. But I completely understand Kyle, because the roster limit changes things, right, I mean, one oh five on game day and at last count you had one oh nine that might be uped as
of now. So is the new roster limit something that you have to keep in mind? I mean you always have to keep player safety in mind. In the past couple of years, you guys have just been riddled with bad luck and bad injuries. How does the new roster limit change? It feels like walk on to oh on a way, Right, You're going to get scholarships for all your players, But how does the new roster limit change the way you have to approach your job.
Well, it's a big impact and the roster limit as of now, nothing is set completely in stone, but it's looking like the roster limit will need to be adhered to by your first contest, which would be August thirtieth for US, the UCLA game, and so we would be able to train more than the one oh five during summer summer conditioning and then during fall camp, but then
you have to be at one oh five. So essentially you're going to have to make some cuts after fall camp to get to that one oh five number, because I don't know anyone that's going to go into fall camp with one oh five because if you get guys injured and you don't have guys in the bullpen, so to speak, you're not going to be able to be
at one oh five healthy bodies. And so most teams I believe, will go into fall camp with one hundred and twenty hundred and twenty five guys, and then when you get to that first game, there'll be you know, a certain amount that of weed it themselves out due to season ending injuries, and hopefully not not many, but it's it's it's you know, bound to happen to some teams, and then you just choose your best one oh five at that point, and unfortunately, there's gonna be some guys
that worked hard through camp that just aren't going to have that opportunity. And that's how you have to do it, because, like I said, if you start at one oh five, you know, just through attrition, you're gonna you're gonna fall below that, and you know that's already a razor thin number to be able to operate. So so to me, that's how most teams are gonna go about it well.
And you know, Kyle, if you're able to win the conference and make make it to the postseason and be a playoff team, you could play seventeen or eighteen games, and without the ability to add two during the season, that feels like a small group. I know listeners are probably think one hundred and five, that's plenty of players.
But this is not a contact sport, coach, as you know, this is a violent sport, and every week you're gonna lose guys, and so without the ability to add two during the season, does one o five feel a little bit low to you?
Very much so? And it was, you know, our understanding initially was that you had the one oh five, you know, in the first game, and then if you had season ending injuries, you could replace those guys. Now they're saying, no, that's not going to be the case. And so that one oh five can get you know, into the high to mid nineties real quick. And you know, college football we have you know, pretty much everybody operates with the
scout teams that you know give the look. You know, your scout defense gives the offensive look, and vice versa. And so as you start to creep those numbers down, you're gonna have to think about more of an NFL model where it's self serve, where the offense services of the defense and vice versa, rather than having the full on scout teams.
How has the new model changed your job day to day? Because I was thinking about this. You know, you obviously have Robert Blacken as your general manager. Is there a portion of this coach that has taken a little bit off your plate because you have to have other people, you know, more of a pro model with some of the guys that are in charge of the find answers, guys that are in charge of recruiting. You've always had
recruiting coordinators. But does hiring a guy like Robert as your GM and the infrastructure you have in place, does it actually allow you to maybe focus more on coaching than you know, having to be in charge of literally every piece of information and every piece of logistics when it comes to Utah.
Football, Well, it's helped the assistant coaches stay out of it. They've been able to stay out at the business end, and they just focus on making each guy in their room better and in coaching them up and getting them ready for the season. I still have my hand in everything, and that's not going to change. I mean, I don't know any head coach in the country that's at least right now going to completely turn over personnel to this. Again,
at the collegiate level. Pro level is a whole different deal, and you have those full blown personnel departments. We're still building that. You know, we don't have a you know, quite demand power yet that we would need to be able to do that. But as the head coach in college, you're going to find most of us, most of the head coaches completely involved in personnel decisions and making sure they're monitoring what's going on on that side of the ball as well as the pure football end of it.
But again for assistant coaches, we try to keep them completely out of the business end and just in the football end.
I see, how are you, as a delegator coach getting better?
You know, it's been a process, yeah, and twenty one years into it now, I guess I've learned a few things in that regard and I'm more, you know, just letting a few things go, not letting them go, but turning them over to other people and just being able to trust them and make sure, you know, I feel
good about that it's going to get done. And that's that's been something that you know, I have gotten better and I still could probably do a better job of it, but you know, just I am who I am, but I'd say I've made improvement in that area.
Catching up a coach with headball coach U Taugh football a couple weeks away from Utah springball, you reference UCLA opening game. Haven't been able to kick the ties with you on the schedule since I came out. But my main question is October eighteenth, Saturday at BUYU. I just I don't know. For me, coach, I feel like that should be during rivalry week. I like it either beginning or the end, and it's smack dab in the middle
of October. What were your thoughts when you saw the release and the game against Brigham Young was October eighteenth.
Well, it wasn't the first thing I looked at. I can tell you that it's obviously we take them in order as they as they unfold. And we've got a big one at UCLA on the thirtieth against a really good Big Ten opponent. I mean, they struggled last year, but there's no shortest of personnel down there, I can promise you that. And so they'll be athletic, they'll be fast, they'll be well coached, and so it'd be the second
year in their coach Foster. And you know, we got to be turning all our attention, all our you know, all our focus on that obviously. But you're right, you know, we do have a rivalry game, and it would seem to make sense that would be put at the end of the season. But so far the Big twelve has not got to that point yet. I don't I haven't had discussion with him and say, you know why, But right now, that's something that they have not implemented.
I wonder if this moves the needle for you at all, because obviously the leaders of the SEC and the Big Ten continue to meet without everybody else in college football, to dictate what the future of college football is going to look like, and there it seems like they're kind of calling the shots. They want to expand the CFP with more aqs for their conferences. And obviously, and you've been front facing and honest about this. If you are not part of that lunch table, you and you're in
a safe landing spot at and P four conference. But is there any concern as a member of the Big twelve what the Big ten and the SEC seem to continue to try to do with this power play?
Well, I don't know if concerns the right word, but I think that we don't have much say. I mean, they're they're they're the power brokers and and that's just how it is, and and they're going to, you know, be the ones that call most the shots. I don't I don't see any other way around that. I would like it to get to sixteen teams as full Bowl playoff. And I've been saying that they will get there eventually for a lot of years, and people say, oh, it's
not going to be you know, for several years. But here here we're looking at going from twelve to sixteen, you know, very soon. And so we'll see what happens. But answer your question, I mean, they're the guys that have the most clout, have the most say, and that's just you know, at least at the present and during the present time in this president setup, that is not going to change in the foreseeable future.
All right, coach, before I say you loose, I aw was appreciate your time. You know, I didn't cover the story of whether or not you would come back very much because in my mind, Mike, he's a coach that's under contract. He simply could just continue to coach. It's his job. But there was a release that was made
indicating that you were coming back. So I just for our listeners, I think they would be very curious to know what you juggled after the season, what you kind of processed, what you went through before landing on Yes, I want to keep doing that.
Yes, well, you juggle everything, and you and your process everything, and so it's it's not any one thing. I can tell you. One of the overriding factors, and one of the more factors that was way more heavily was you know, the disappointing season that we had and the way that things unfolded and and get into our fifth QB and all that stuff. I me, it was just very frustrating. But but again, nobody feels sorry for us. I'm not trying to to uh you know, create create sympathy or
anything like that. It was just as frustrating as things were. It you know, would have left a bad taste in my mouth to have that be the you know, the final goal around and so that that was a big factor. But again everything was involved my energy levels. Uh, you know, what's best for the program and that that ultimately is the most important thing, is what's best for the program going forward. And uh that's uh, you know, that was a big part of the decision.
Swinging a golf club at all. Say that again, you swinging a golf club at all yet you're just waiting for the weather.
Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, not yet. That'll that'll come after spring ball. But you know through through the end of spring ball. It's all football, all.
Right, my friend, Well, thank you so much for the time. As always, it's always a pleasure. Best of luck and hopefully we can do it again soon.
Okay, Spencer, appreciate it.
There is coach wait, head coach of the Utah football program. We are just a couple of weeks away from spring ball. Interesting stuff there, as Kyle, you know, he he indicated that the conversations going on around Utah, right now do include potentially shifting away from the what Utah calls a twenty two forever game the spring game. I've always enjoyed the spring game. I've always enjoyed spring football. I mean
from a content creation standpoint. When you're covering the team as a sports socc radio host, you always just want things to talk about. But Oklahoma became the latest team to adjust their spring football kind of ethos. They're gonna have a spring football event, but it's not going to be a game. As of now, USC Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska have either canceled or shifted their spring game paradigm. And I get it, man, one oh five roster limit.
You know, that's down from about one twenty eight. Every player will be able to receive a scholarship. It does eliminate walk ons, which is thirty percent of college football. There'll be about two thousand kids that don't get to play college football this fall because of the new roster limit. So some challenges for coach Wit and that's staff up there, but I always appreciate his time. So we roll on coming up on the other side on a Wednesday drive
right here on ESPN seven hundred. All right, that'll do it.
Final segment of the program today, and Porter, I hate to tell you this, man, but uh, I'm out.
I've had it. Can't take it anymore, dude, four hours of this every day for basically twenty years. No, I'm I got to figure out something else do with my time. So so I'll listen to all the listeners. Thanks so much for all you've done and your support, but I'm gone. Man, that's enough.
Are you gonna start like a wellness retreat or something I should?
I should become a corcial media wellness influencer. Males that make over one hundred and fifty k a year, Okay, do it. You see our guy John Matson, he's doing well for himself now. He's a fitness coach and if you make one hundred and fifty grand a year, he'll teach you that exercise. Yeah, elite clientele only, indeed, indeed, indeed. So that's it. I've had it. You can take this job and shove it. Just kidding. I'll be back Monday, but I am out tomorrow. I am out on Friday.
I love this job, I love our listeners, I love doing this every day, but I am going down to a very cool thing. I have never been to a PGA Tour event before, and I'll be at bay Hill for Arnie's tournament, and you gotta check that with my brother, so pretty excited. So I will be out tomorrow and Friday. Scott Mitchell and Porter Larson will have you covered, So enjoy it. Make sure to give them your ears and
your attention. So Porter, the table is yours. What comes our way on a Thursday edition of this radio show.
Yeah, obviously, as you mentioned, Scott will be fill in for you. He'll be at Overtime Cards and Collectibles live out out there in Sandy, So if you want to be, if you want to meet the lefty Scott Mitchell, he will be live from Overtime Cards and Collectible Sam Bruckhouse talking some NFL draft, Tony Jones, talking some basketball. Will of course get the latest on the run youthes, maybe some spring football with Scott and then maybe maybe force him to talk a little hockey too with our friend
Neil Smith, and we'll go from there. Also on remote on a Friday. We'll let you guys know about that as it goes.
All right there you go, so enjoy Scott and Porter Thursday and Friday, and I'll be back Monday. Love you I was teasing, Love the job, love the listeners, and we'll do.
It for us.
Special thank you to Chris com Ronnie, Jason Christ and Coach Witt. If you miss any of the sound website, podcast page app all the things. He's Porter. I'm Spence. Enjoy your Wednesday night. Talk to you on Monday, Porter and Scott tomorrow on Friday. Right here on ESPN seven hundred