Hour 1: Another QB Battle for BYU, but Kalani Sitake has been here before | Top 3 Stories: Devon …
And now it’s 10:00 a.m. Let’s just get down to it and it’s time for your sports picks. Strap yourselves in, folks. From two guys who have covered the teams you’re passionate about for years, we are professionals. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jacob Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jake Scott Ben Anderson, thanks for making us a part of your day. Thanks for watching on YouTube or kslports.com or podcasting. Hello to you in the future. I don’t know. What do you imagine our weekend podcaster is doing? Mowing yard work. That’s kind of the first thing that comes to mind. Yeah. Or some sort of just like I got to put headphones in. You know what? And uh I was talking to to Lloyd a little bit about this before the show started. I bet you there’s a lot of of Jake and Ben podcast listeners that, you know, just got done listening to the Saturday show and then pop on Jake and Ben cuz they’re big Christian fans uh when they’re uh they’re rolling the minivan of baseball or whatever, you know, or soccer. Like my my uh daughter’s already started practice. There’s like tournaments and stuff. It’s it’s like non-stop. Yeah. So, shout out to that listener. I’m imagining just one person doing that. I was going to say I think our listeners are all pretty high class people, so they’re probably like out on a boat or a yacht or something. Oh, you’re a show on a boat. Oh, if you’re rocking the Jake and Ben show in the the middle of like Deer Creek Reservoir or whatever. Like, shout out to you. You’re by yourself. I don’t know why nobody else Well, I know why nobody else is on your boat, but I don’t know why you’re listening to Everybody else is cranking hauling oats or something and somebody’s somebody’s cranking up the Jake and Ben show talking about bozos and whatnot. That’s that’s hilarious. I hope somebody’s doing that. Uh how’s it going over there, Ben? Doing well. How are you? I don’t know. I’m I’m in a better mood. Uh once I found out that Christian Cox is going to be on the show at the top of the 11 o’clock hour. I always like talking to Christian and uh camp is open. He’s uh experienced many camps. He’s uh the perfect person to talk to on a Friday. But uh we’re going out of town one last kind of trip before school starts. And I don’t know what it is about me. I’m just I I have anxiety about vacations for some reason. You’re going to San Diego, which is an easy one. Very easy. Short trip, short plane flight, fun stuff for the kids. Yeah. Yeah. Easy to get around the town. all all things that should make it a pretty stress-free affair. But for some reason, I don’t know, it just it it’s just a thing about me. And it’s not even it’s not even since I had uh a family. I’ve always kind of been this way, which I don’t I don’t know. I don’t get it. But you know what? I’m I’m a pretty demented person. Yeah. Which is which is fine. Yeah. You’ll be fine. You’ll have fun. Yeah. I don’t like fun. I don’t like happiness. I did I tell you the story about how okay when my wife and I first started uh dating and a couple years into the relationship she personally signed me up for pre-check. Yes. And did all the things for me. And I was like, “Oh, this this seems really nice.” And she’s like, “You’re horrible.” She’s like, “You’re just terrible. You’re you’re terrible in line. You do nothing but complain.” So, she made it easy for you. That’s true love. You should have proposed to her right then and there. I did this for you. I Yeah, true love. Sure. Absolutely. It’s it’s why uh we’re a good uh yin and yang. But let’s not pretend that there wasn’t a selfish motivation in all. Sometimes not not everything is done with, you know, heart eyes. Sometimes you do things to reduce the other person being a pain. You recognize where they’re a pain and they don’t want to be a pain. No one wants to deal with you in a line if you’re a bad traveler. So, she recognizes A, I’m not enjoying this. B, you’re clearly not enjoying this. So, she fixed it for you. And yes, it fixed her problem as well. But that’s Yeah, that’s the yin and the yang you’re talking about. I Right. Right. Which is the proper way to look at it. But I also can’t help but like it’s it’s a little bit of Marge getting Homer the bowling or Homer getting Marge the bowling ball that says Homer on it a little like the gift that’s actually for him. Him. Yeah. Christian, what’s your wife bad at? Nothing. Well, that was a cowardly answer. Uh, let me think. I don’t mean bad at. That’s a joke. That was a trap. What’s her flaw? What’s What’s your wise? If I could change one thing, she’s not super social. She likes to stay in a lot. Okay. When we have like, you know, a free Friday or free Saturday, I’m like, “Oh, let’s go do something.” And she’s like, “Ah, let’s stay home.” Homebody. All right. I am immediately more endeared to her after hearing that fact because she also doesn’t like fun. And correct. That’s that’s what we do. We know each other. We can appreciate each other. I like your wife more today than I did yesterday. Me too. Do you have check by the way? Another cowardly response. Oh, she she bumped that to the next level years later and we’re now clear people even though I get on a plane like twice a year. Right. Okay. Well, I heard that you don’t have to take your shoes off anymore. Oh, I haven’t taken my shoes off for a while now. Yeah, you know what? Our airport does it well, though. I have not had that many issues with our airport. The the clear is is pretty nice. I don’t know if I could go back, honestly. Okay. I mean, I probably could go back to just basic pre-check maybe, but have you ever tried to go through security like O’Hare? There are bad ones. Yeah, certainly there are bad ones. Uh the the new the airport rena and the security over there now seems seems pretty tight to me like really quick. I’m a fan, but a lot of agents I look at that winding line though and I think I couldn’t do that. I’d be complaining the whole time. I’m just not a good waiter. Okay. And that’s all that’s like all traveling is is waiting. You get to the airport to wait. You get on the plane to wait. It is. Traveling is horrendous. It is the worst. But you get to the rental car line, it’s like, “Hey, let’s wait some more.” It is a miracle to be able to travel, but I’m with you. It’s not fun to do. Well, lots of things are a miracle, Ben. I can complain about. You can. I sure do. I sure can. But no, I’m fine. I I’m I’m doing okay. I If we brought up some stuff that I could be grumpy about, I’d be grateful. I I’m I’m happy that today’s uh when we crown bozo of the week and I think it’s real neck and neck at this point. Yeah. We’ll see if any uh shows up late and and I’ve really put in a lot of thought of to who I’m voting for. Okay. Is that how we’re doing it? Are we voting? I think we can try and make arguments and come to a consensus. I guess if we have to throw it to Christian to to settle disputes, I’ I’d be fine with that. Okay. I’d be fine with that framework. Then Christian turns out to be the bad guy. Although he’ll always side with you, so you probably Why would that be the case? Why would he always side with me? He always sides with you constantly. Even when you’re gone, he’s just taking shots at me left and right. What was What was the one you blindsided me with when Hance was on? You guys were playing all this sound about like your favorite mess ups on air. Oh, yeah. And you told you told me to play another one and I ambushed you with your uh Woody Page one. With my own Yeah. Oh, the Woody Page one was good. I think about that one every once in a while. Wonderful. But point being, yeah, he feels the need to like fill that void when when you’re gone. Somebody’s got to do it. It’s It’s fantastic. So maybe I don’t like this cuz you’re going to uh come out like that. Well, what do you want? What do you want to do, Ben? Uh I asked if we could play a cut from BYU. So you’re done and ready to move on, obviously. As is everyone listening. All right, go ahead. We’re watching. Uh it’s just another quarterback battle again for BYU. And we’ve talked a lot about the quarterback battle itself, but just the fact that there is another quarterback battle and Kehlani Satakei touched on it being what, the third straight year that that this is the case. Never mind, we don’t have it ready. Um, that is the issue for BYU. It’ll be a third straight year, well, a fourth straight year with a new quarterback. And it is hard to build continuity that way. Now, I think that is going to be in some ways the norm for more and more schools with the transfer portal, especially if your last quarterback wasn’t good. And like we talked about yesterday, if your quarterback is good, they become a threat to transfer. Now, here’s Khani Sitakei on another quarterback battle at BYU. I mean, there’s competition all the time. Obviously, we uh we had a quarterback competition last last year. So, we’re we’ve been luckily this staff’s been through quarterback competitions uh many times before and so uh the goal is to try to get these guys in situations we can play football and see how they can function and I thought I thought they did a great job today. I mean, we watched the film and um look at everything. I mean, obviously that’s going to get the eyeballs on on the quarterback position first, but I thought overall his team competed really well today. I’m not a coach obviously, but I I can’t imagine necessarily that having been in a quarterback battle before or having seen them necessarily makes it easier than next year. Other than you may feel comfortable being more patient because you can you’ve done it. You said, “Well, maybe we didn’t name somebody until the last week or two weeks before and as long as we were in by then, we were okay.” But I would imagine all these are different because every quarterback’s different. That’s why quarterback quarterbacking is so difficult. Um, yeah, evaluating talent is a is a you know what do they say like AI the more it knows the better it can be. I mean that’s evaluating talent, right? So I I guess by sheer logic you could say making having to make multiple critical decisions on quarterbacks gives you more experience to make the next one. I I I would buy into that I’d suppose. But the problem is in my opinion that the queue has been interrupted. And maybe the queue was less uh full than was thought if this makes any sense. Like why was BYU so good from the late7s to the mid 90s? Because the next guy was always lined up. The next guy was there. The queue was full. Now now the sport has changed which makes this a little bit more difficult. But if even if you look at Kehlani’s uh earlier career and A-Rod at BYU as well, there was that cue. I mean, Zach Wilson was the dude. They were excited to land him. They were excited to play him. They were excited to give him experience. People forget he beat USC in that first year he started. Uh but then where where’ the queue go from there, Ben? Jiren Hall. Yeah. Ready to go. Plucked him right off the baseball team. Yeah. There was no controversy with Jiren. You knew he was going to be the next starter. He was the next starter. And when he played, he was uh he was really good. Then the Q has been not I mean non-existent. And then you land Rhettzloff and all of a sudden you go, “Okay, the Q’s back. You know, we’ve got we’ve got a guy. It’s a little bit of a desert, but we found a dude.” And uh he played really well. And then you figure, okay, I’ve got the queue set up because I’ve got Hillstead. I’ve got Bachmire. They’re both coming in. They’re both going to be able to We’re going to do some evaluating while Rhettzoff plays all this year and then hopefully we have a a grasp on who’s next, who’s Jiren Hall, right? I mean, that’s the idea. And then the queue gets interrupted again because Rhettzoff is gone and now you’re forced to make a decision. The problem is what if they don’t have a guy or certainly a guy who’s not a guy right now? That’s that’s the scary part. So, the fact that they’ve made the decision again before, yeah, I would buy into that, but I’m not sure the it’s that’s not the issue. That’s my point. That that that is not the issue. Just having to make a decision doesn’t mean you have the right decision to be made. Yes, you have to pick. That doesn’t mean you have a good option necessarily. And you’re right with Retszoff, they certainly had lined up themselves, they lined themselves up to at least give one more year to develop to some of these players that are already on the uh on the team and maybe that’s you know Bach Meyer, maybe it’s Hilstead, whoever it is, maybe it’s Boray or they could have recognized, as you mentioned with AI, you get another year to recognize those guys, see how they play behind Rzoff, and if you don’t have them in the queue, as you like to say, you go and get somebody different. But yes, you disrupted that and you’ve robbed your ability to make that decision in a timely matter or better timing. Yeah. Now you have to make it rushed and it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have the guy. I don’t know why it reminds me of this, but did have you ever gone to the store when you’re going looking for avocados? Okay. And there’s just a big stack of beautiful avocados. And you could spend 10 minutes there just squeeze them, feeling their firmness. Every single one. Like I’m going for color. Yeah. I’m going for whatever you’re you’re you know, if I’m going right home to get to make guacamole, well, I I need a little bit squishier. any have you ever now picture in your mind grocery store there’s two there’s three there and you need two and it’s like okay which one of these hasn’t been run over by a truck right they’re all flawed they’re all flawed significantly now do you believe that your decision when you were flushed with avocados has made you more capable of making a decision between the crappy avocados I think this is an excellent This is an excellent metaphor. Actually, I don’t think it does. When you have a thousand great avocados, maybe it gets you a little bit better of recognizing what the last good one felt like when you picked it up, right? What it looked like, there’s value there, but that doesn’t mean that that’s sitting there. That one of the three avocados doesn’t have to be the good one. But if if from previous experience, if I feel one and that thing is a boulder and the other is borderline spoiling, well, I can make an educated decision on what my circumstance is to that I need that avocado for. And that’s not to say that maybe one of these isn’t a good avocado at BYU, but just because you’ve bought a good avocado before doesn’t mean with limited selection you’re guaranteed to get one, right? Yeah. It’s all based on I mean, it’s all based on recruiting. It’s all It’s all based on did you were you able to land a person who can get the job done? But the the problem is is that time now complicates things because none of these guys has had time to really experience what it takes to be successful, which you know is is valuable, too, right? They’re young players. John Beck wasn’t that good as a freshman. And that’s the thing to continue our avocado parallel. If you were buying one for tonight because you’re making guacamole and one that you wanted to have ready on Monday night, you can get one that’s not quite ripe that by Monday is going to look really good and you’ll be ready to throw it on a burger or however you want to eat your avocado. But if you upset the queue and you can’t have a good one tonight, you’re using the one that won’t be ready until Monday on Friday and you’re not going to have very good guacamole. No, you’re gonna have bunk guacamole. Nobody likes it. It doesn’t taste like anything. It’s hard to peel. You get chunks in there. It’s not it. So that that just might be where BYU is a little bit with their quarterbacks. And that doesn’t mean that one of these guys won’t be good, but as you mentioned, when you upset the timeline for when these guys needed to be good, you put yourself in a tough situation. Which is why and and I’m thinking about our our promo running uh on the station right now, but it which is why I think they’ll make the safe decision and go with Hillstead because it’s the safe one. It’s the easiest to justify and the easiest to back off of. That’s true. So, you know, when you’re making a decision where you don’t have a whole lot of input, you know, you’re going to take the one you have more information on. I I I would guess. Or that’s just easier because it’s more of an upper classman. It’s another year of experience. But, but again, all these guys are so so young, you have no idea. You know, getting back to our leadership conversation, I was a huge bozo at 18 and 19. Yeah. I wasn’t leading anyone. I was the worst inter murals chair in my fraternity’s history. I don’t think I signed us up for anything. Yeah. Giant bozo material. But I knew guys that were uh like uh I had buddies that were natural leaders and ended up leaders on campus and all this sort of thing. And it’s like, okay, well, I didn’t have that then. And I still don’t have that. So maybe this is a really bad comparison. Forget everything I just said. Christian, can we can we cut that and start again? No. I think it’s a good point, though. Like some people just aren’t natural leaders. Uh-uh. So where does that factor into the whole, you know, conversation? Again, I think that’s a little overrated. It doesn’t have to be. And having somebody who people believe in is important, but I if I believe in you, you have to also be able to do it on the field. Yeah, I got you. But the team believed in Riley Nelson. The team was better with Riley Nelson. They did. You’re right. Jay Keeps was a better credit. Riley could actually get it done at times. He won a lot of games. It was kind of hard to watch at times, but they they they won a lot of games. Was right. He deserves his due. he’s there in the BYU record books and but in large part, no offense to him again, is that his team his team rallied around him. His team played better when he was quarterback. The offensive line played better when he was quarterback, but and with all due respect if he’s listening and I apologize, Luke Petari might be the greatest leader in the world. when he took the field at Utah, the Ferrari, he was not good enough to win them the game they needed to win. I’m not I’m not here for Ferrari slander. He’s still up at Utah, right? I think he’s an assistant now. Is he really? Yeah, I think he works there. Well, there you go. So, just to throw somebody out there, you got to have the Ferrari around. Yeah. Make that happen. But yeah, you can be a leader and not be good enough to make it happen. So, so that and and just so the reason I bring this up is just because Colani’s quote because you have gone through a quarterback battle before. I don’t necessarily means well they figured it out last year that means they’ll figure it out this year. I think that can be dangerous if that’s what the logic fans are using. And I would bet if you press Colani on it, he’s not actually using that logic. Uh, I’ll here I’ll translate what Colon said for you because he’s he’s getting it. The everybody’s getting the vapors over the BYU quarterback position because that probably will be the sink or swim element of the season. He knows that the the you know, everybody knows that, right? So, all he’s trying to do is deflect from that. Deflect might be a a strong word, but all he’s trying to do is say, “Okay, let’s not think about that great question mark. Let’s think about how experienced I’ve been and how I have been good at my job in the past. And so, let’s not talk about the elephant in the room, which I can’t talk about anyway. Let’s talk about Yeah, we’ve made this decision before. Good times. We’re good at it. It’s this probably kind of where I’d deflect, too. But it doesn’t answer the question. It doesn’t relieve the vapors, whatever that is. It doesn’t unclutch the pearls. Yeah. And you know what, Colon is right though that he is good at his job and he’s done it well. Yeah. And they’ve made the decision before. Sure. But that’s I I I don’t think that’s answering the question. Yeah. All right. Top three stories of the day. KSLports.com. Coming up next, it’s the Jake and Ben Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. It’s time to break down the biggest stories of the day. This is the top three stories of the day on kslsports.com. 975 the KSL sport. Jacob man 975 the KSL Sports Zone. You can win big every Wednesday on the KSL Sport Zone with Win Ticket Wednesday. Uh next Wednesday you can win tickets to go see Cindy Looper August 14th the Utah First Federal uh Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater. Don’t miss Cindy Looper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Farewell Tour. Uh, get tickets now, lienation.com or listen all day on Wednesday for your chance to win. Time for the top three stories of the day. kslports.com. It’s brought to you by Jbrooks Jewelers. Cherish your love. Jbrooks Jewelers. Explore their expertly crafted engagement rings made from the finest materials. Jbrooks Jewelers. All right, Christian. Where do you want to start today? Number one, Utah has a new offensive coordinator in Jason Beck, but it’s not new to Devin Dampier, who played in the system last year at New Mexico. Coach Beck is a coach that, you know, he looks for the best out of his players and, you know, he finds a way to get them in their best situations. So, you know, different guys can do different things and we explore those talents. I I am curious about that. Will the continuity year after year be a big plus for Deon Dampier? You would imagine it certainly would. The hard part is it’s basically brand new for everybody else around him. That was kind of a non-answer. No, I don’t know what I learned from that clip. Play that again. Just small tweaks. Coach Beck is a coach that, you know, he looks for the best out of his players and, you know, he finds a way to get them in their best situation. So, you know, different guys can do different things and we explore those talents. Okay. So, I I He said small tweaks. Okay, that’s answering the question. Small tweaks. It’s not really thoroughly answering the question, I suppose, but that would lead me small tweaks that would lead me to believe that if you want to see what Utah’s offense is going to look at look like truly, go back and watch New Mexico last year. The difficult thing with that is if you watch New Mexico last year, a lot of their production, and I didn’t watch 12 New Mexico games last year, but when I did watch them, I think they played a week zero game against Arizona. Am I right about that? Cuz I remember going back and watching that game. T McMillan had I think 300 yards, but Deon Dampier was just running all over them. And look, that that’s applicable because at least Arizona is a Big 12 school and he was able to flash his brilliance against them. But I do worry sometimes about superior athletes and Devin Dampier is a superior athlete being able to run all over inferior teams and then you get to the Big 12 and you can no longer just outathlete everybody else. That’s an interesting question. What is the gap between the Mountain West and the Big 12? That’s what we’re trying to learn. I mean, that’s obviously subjective. I ask Kyle Whittingham. It’s enormous. From the Pack 12, from the Mountain West Conference to the Pack 12, it was enormous. Yeah, that was convenient to sell at the time. it was um I I’m not I’m not discarding that by any means, but yeah, I’m I’m sure that was an adjustment, but you know, we talked about uh Utah State basketball the other day. They have had very little problem adjusting to the Mountain West Conference. So, I that’s a really interesting question. Athletically speaking, I Christian Cox is going to join us in the 11 o’clock hour. be interested to get his opinion uh on that cuz he actually played for Utah during that period. Uh so I’d be curious to get his thoughts. He’d probably tell you it was a pretty big step I’m guessing. Um but that’s that’s interesting. Like he ran for,200 yards last year. If New Mexico were in the Big 12, would that have been 800, 600? I’m also curious what happened. Now, look, maybe it’s because three of these games were non-conference games, though. Montana State and they lost to Montana State. So, that that’s not a good it’s not a good outing. They lost to Arizona. They lost to Auburn, which is a good non-conference schedule at Arizona at Auburn is really tough for New Mexico. They went 0 and3. And Deon Dampier was good. I mentioned he was great against Arizona. He had 130 yards on the ground. He had 260 yards through the air. He had three touchdowns through the air. Do you have any rushing touchdowns? I don’t know. Uh, yes, he had two rushing touchdowns. We counted for five touchdowns in that game. That’s the one where he had like the fake pitch, right? That got everybody excited about him and probably why he jumped onto radars immediately for next year’s transfer portal and now ended up at Utah. Over his last six games, Devin Dampier went crazy running the ball. He went over a 100 yards all but one game that was at Colorado State in a in a game where they couldn’t move the ball hardly at all or at least they couldn’t score. They lose 17 to six, but he did put up big yards, 320 yards to the air, 51 yards on the ground though. Clearly, they felt like they could attack him, attacked them through the air. But over his final six games, he averaged 130 yards on the ground. That’s huge. That’s a huge outing. Yeah. And 784 yards uh total. So, I’m I’m curious where the change was in that approach. He also had 11 touchdowns on the ground and only five touchdowns to the air uh against six interceptions. So, there was a shift mid-season for him to run more. And I wonder what that shift was. Oh, who was talking about this the other day? Maybe it was Bronco himself um was saying that New Mexico they thought they were going to throw the ball a lot last year because they had these stud receivers who did not turn out to be studs. It was Bronco talking with uh Scotty the other day. Yeah. He was saying they started out the season at New Mexico last year thinking like, oh, they’ve got some guys on the outside who didn’t turn out to be guys and then they leaned really into the the uh the run game in the zone read. So, it’ll be interesting to see, I guess, where they start at Utah as opposed to where they finish, which is true about any team, but maybe uh Dampier can throw it a little bit more than he got credit for last year because they leaned so far into the the run. Maybe. Or maybe Bronco was a good coach and recognized what he couldn’t do and stopped asking him to do it. Maybe. And maybe it was the receivers. I don’t know. Maybe. Yeah. I don’t know the bozo factor on the receivers. That’s the thing. I’m just telling you what Broncos said. Yeah. I’m sure the father of said receiver would tell a different story. Yeah. But nonetheless, they were better going with more of the running approach, whoever’s issue that was. Uh worth noting. Well, and look, uh correlation isn’t causation or vice versa. Dampers five best passing games when he threw for more than 250 yards last year, they were one and four. Yeah. See, there you go. when their one win was against Utah State 50 to 45. So, yeah, it was a scorcher. But his best passing games, at least as far as raw yardage, they were not good. I would also say, and look, this is where I believe in the correlation. Every time he threw for more than 250 yards, he also had two interceptions. Meaning, when you let him throw the ball, he throws the ball away. He gives it away. Mhm. That’s not all of that reassuring that it’s going to be a wideopen throw the ball over the field offense. And to that point, you’re probably better off holding on to the ball and making a play with your legs than turning it over or just handing it off to your running back. Uh, by the way, in games when he had fewer than 250 yards passing, he had one total interception. Yeah. Right. Over seven games. That’s that’s a big deal. That’s a big big difference. over 250 yards. He had five games and he had 11 interception. I I think you’re overselling that, Ben, because Whit’s fine with turnovers. Loves that. He’s been fine with those over the years. Quarterbacks. I don’t know how relevant that is. Throwing the ball all over the field. What’s next? Number two, former Jazzman Johnny Juing signs with the uh Minnesota Timber Jazz. Uh according to Sham Shirania this morning, it’s a one-year deal. I’ll be curious if it’s a non-g guaranteed one-year deal, fully guaranteed one-year deal. You may not know about that. Um, but good for Johnny. I don’t believe you. Why do you not believe that you said good for Johnny? I like Johnny. You guys notoriously don’t like each other. Do I not like Johnny? Well, you called him fat. I never called Johnny fat to his face and he didn’t like I called George Nyang fat. Oh, yeah. It wasn’t Johnny. No, I’m mixing up George. I don’t know why I pictured George Nyang in my mind. Oh, good. I don’t care. I don’t care where George Yang I don’t care where fat George goes. Oh, no. He’s Where’s George? He’s in Boston. for Chris and they hate him. Oh no, Johnny Juang. No, I’m stoked for him. Johnny Johnny has other Kyle, I don’t know why I read that as I’m reading it right now. Johnny Juing. I was thinking George Nang. No, you do not have a beef with Johnny. No, I like Johnny. I take that back. We actually talked to Johnny last year at at uh camp. At camp. Johnny’s a funny guy. No, he’s a great story, too. Yeah. No, I’m cheering for for Johnny Dang. He is the most Southern California bro. He is pure LA. He’s he’s that guy. But he can he can really shoot the ball. And I actually think there’s some potential. He’s got great size. He’s 6’7. He’s 215. He’s a high 30 shooter. And you know what? Good for Johnny. He has really evolved his game. Coming out of UCLA, he started Kentucky. He was a huge recruit. Coming out of UCLA, he was like, I’m going to get to the mid-range and shoot over you. Kind of Cody Williamsesque. Uhhuh. and he’s realized like, well, my ticket is to just make threes, which is a little bit the boring part of the NBA right now. But he recognized it. He did not fight it. He embraced it. He did two probably really, really unexciting years in the G-League playing for the Stars. Got a much bigger chance with the Jazz last year on his uh his four-year deal that he signed. Only the first year was guaranteed. And then has uh turned it into a you know, another season at least in the NBA. And look, I think the Timberwolves need him. I think they need a a shooter like that coming off the bench. So, that will be beneficial. He will look good there. Shoot like that. Play hard and be pleasant to have around. Don’t be a headache. Absolutely. And you know what? A guy like Johnny Juane could certainly make it. I was when the Jazz acquired Jeff Green, it was really funny to look into his history because he’s he’s got size, skill, and you look that he never stayed with the same team two years in a row. Yeah, I think it’s happened since, but at that point in his career, he had never stayed somewhere really two years in a row. I was like, “God, I wonder why that is.” And then a couple months later, it’s like you hear rumors like, “Oh, Jeff Green, that’s this isn’t working.” Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what did he last three months with the Jazz? Was it even that long? They just waved him. I think they waved No, we were doing the show together. They waved him right before the Jordan Clarkson trade was December 23rd, 2019. You and I were doing pre half and post. That’s right. And they signed Ray John Tucker that same night and they just like they got rid of everybody. They were just like, “Yeah, Jeff’s gone. Ed Davis never going to play anymore.” Oh, man. That didn’t work. And who was the guard they signed? Oh, the dude who uh Oh, I forgetting his name. The guy who uh his his story is amazing. He like escaped from Africa. Who was that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um Oh, high draft pick. Yeah. By the Nuggets. Anyway, sorry, Ben. No, you’re fine. I uh I know exactly who you were talking about. He was supermanuel Moody. Yeah, Moody. He was super interesting, too. He was more enjoyable than I expected him to be. More than Jeff, I thought regardless. Oh, Moody. Way a different planet than Jeff. Uh, good for Johnny Juine. Yeah, we’ll see if it works out for him. And uh what type of money? Really happy Jared Butler got a camp invite with the Phoenix Suns. Oh, your favorite player meets your least favorite team. That’s going to be an interesting interesting conflict for you. Yeah. Who do I root for? I don’t know. All right. What’s next? Number three. Did you guys catch that uh Hall of Fame game last night? I watched every second. Really? No. Uh they fumbled the opening kickoff. Went to a review immediately and I immediately got the mid-season NFL woes of just like, “Oh my gosh, there’s so many reviews. It’s just it’s so I love football and sometimes it is so chunky and so clunky and look every sport is but when I don’t have a rooting interest which of course I didn’t have a rooting interest a I don’t have one in the NFL period but b a rooting interest in the Hall of Fame game which I don’t even like the I don’t like the field they play on. I don’t it doesn’t have the atmosphere that a traditional NFL game does obviously it’s a very small field that they play behind the actual Hall of Fame, right? So it already feels a little flimsy and they immediately go into a quality of player is not there, hence fumbling the opening kickoff and then b the review which is these refs are trying to prove that they belong to. So it’s like watching a summer league game and I and my interest level dropped though. Trey Lance played awesome. He looked really good. Surprised we didn’t see Sion Vaky for the Lions. That was a bit of a shocker. But can I ask this qu? Uh I I didn’t watch it. I couldn’t generate the the interest. Uh even though, you know, with my fantasy football draft coming up, I probably should dial in. But nevertheless, uh Ben, let me ask you, how did they fumble the opening kick? Was it the returner who just muffed it or what? What happened? He So, they put a defensive player. They explained it because I’d be lying if I could tell you who the, you know, 80th guy was on the the preseason roster for the Detroit Lions. I think they said they put a defensive guy back there for a chance to return kicks. and he did catch it, but he got hit and ran right into the back of somebody and fumbled the ball. Let me let me ask you this because this is totally I mean re I’m not talking about review. That’s an absolute disaster. Get review out of sports. But imagine, Ben, that you are trying to make an NFL team. The NFL team asks you to go do something completely unnatural. Now add into the fact that it’s the first NFL game of the season. It’s the Hall of Fame game. Yep. You’re just trying to make the team and they say go return kicks. Can you imagine how one nervous you would be and two how much more nervous you would be once you realize that there are 11 people running as hard as they can to take your head off. Fumbling in that situation. You may say like, “Oh, the quality of play wasn’t there. I see your point.” completely forgivable in my opinion. Even I can’t even imagine. They’re like, “Hey, Anderson, go return kicks.” Wait, what? I have never done Get out there. This is the way you make the team. I’d be in I’d be so nervous I wouldn’t even be able to catch it. Are you kidding? Is that a It’s probably smarter to just fair catch. We’ll start the drive. But you’re trying to earn a job. I’ve got to make a play. I’ve got to show that I can make a play here. So, I not only do I have to bring this ball into play, I have to do something with it, which means I can’t just angle for the sideline. I can’t just trot and they’re never trotting into 15 yards. You’re certainly not getting that. But, yeah, you’re not playing it safe. So, yeah, you’re out there trying to do something and then because you’re playing with 10 other bozos on the field, you might not be the one who makes the mistake. There might have been a design for how to return that ball and someone doesn’t block the right person and now all of a sudden you’re having to rearrange what your plan was. So, no, I don’t envy them. I’d be so nervous. Be like, “My dream is literally on the line right now.” The NFL did last night implement the Hawkeye technology, which will measure first downs instead of bringing the chains out. And it looks exactly like tennis majors where the camera zooms in over the top of the ball and it shows you whether it was over the line or not. The Hawkeye technology will now tell you whether it has made the chain or not. Wow. I’m trying to decide if this is going to be a cat in the wall or actually a good idea. If it speeds up the game, like the fat guy running out there with the chains does seem a tad time wasty and oldfashioned and made up, right? I get the idea. walk one of the uh yardage lines, grab the chain link there, and as long as you put it there, it’ll translate from wherever you were on the sideline out to where you’re measuring the ball. The ball’s made up where they’re putting the ball down. So, this should speed up what is an otherwise purely flawed falsehood that this was ever accurate. So, I don’t care if it’s accurate, but it should speed up the process. Christian Cox joins us at the top of the 11:00 hour. We’ll have more coming up next. Jake and Ben, 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Who’s got it better than us? Your home for the best sports coverage in Utah. You’re listening to Jake Scott and Ben Anderson on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Jake and Ben 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Nominate the youth sports volunteer you know for the Hercules hero of the week. Submit your nomination at kslports.com/contests and listen every Thursday afternoon to JJ and Alex for the winner. Help us celebrate the efforts of those volunteers making an impact with the Hercules Hero of the Week sponsored by Hercules First Federal Credit Union and Beehive Meals. Hey Ben, things have been uh pretty rosy with the commies uh since they got new ownership there in Washington. Yeah. And uh last week uh wasn’t it uh President Trump who was telling him to change the name back? he was and holding their new uh stadium hostage. Uh well, bad news today, Ben. Uh wide receiver Terry McLaren uh has requested a trade according to Adam Shfter. And well, probably rightfully so, right? He is not uh he’s not being paid like a top 20 wide receiver, maybe top 15 wide receiver, but he is certainly uh a player of that quality. You know, I think uh we’ve talked some labor stuff recently and and how the leagues are different and and how uh the unions are different. I think most people when they see players holding out think negatively of the player and I think that’s true in some sports more than others. Agreed. In football, I get why it all seems out of touch. In football, the players get steamrololled so badly, it’s tough for me to hold it against players for holding out and demanding new contracts because what happens if Terry has just an average year? And I’m I I’m sure he doesn’t think that, but what happens when that happens? He gets replaced and then he’s out. It’s not like he gets made whole. In the NBA, if you have an average year, you’re still going to get that contract. So, if an NBA player is holding out and demanding, and it’s interesting, we don’t see holdouts in the NBA basically at all anymore since they created the rookie scale because it always used to be the rookies holding out if uh if you remember. But in football, listen, Terry’s hot right now. Speaking of my illustrious fan fantasy football team, I had him last year. I followed him closely and he was awesome. Yeah, he’s good. I mean, we can give uh Daniels a lot of credit and he was terrific as a as a rookie, but McLaren was awesome. He had a great year. Go get it. You got to and do it now because the the commies have got to place pay somebody because they’re not paying Daniels. So, they don’t really have that big- time excuse, you know? Like the Chiefs could part ways with Tyreek Hill in part because they’re like, “Look at what we’re paying Mahomes, dude. We got to we got to figure out, you know, how we’re going to invest our our salary cap or whatever. McLaren needs to go go for it. Now, I don’t blame him at all. By the way, the commies have said they’re not going to trade him and uh he’s been put on the physically unable to perform list. So, it means he’s not getting fined because he did report to camp, but he’s like not participating. He’s like signing autographs and stuff. So, the commies are saying they’ll shove him. McLaren is now saying he requests a trade. No way he leaves Washington. But I I’ll be surprised to see I’ll be surprised if the commies don’t cave in some way, shape, or form. They will come to an agreement. I agree with you. I’d be surprised if they move him. Uh he’s making a little less than $20 million a year, which yes, in practical numbers, everyone’s like, “Yeah, just take your money and shut up and and play football and get it.” But compared to his peers, he’s considerably underpaid. That’s 18th in the league. Okay. So, and he he wants to be around 30 million, which would put him around eighth. And Jamar Chase is making 40, right? Jamar Chase is the highest. So, he wants to be compensated for being a top 10 receiver, which he probably is, and he’s not getting paid that way right now. And like to your point, if you get hurt, you never get that money back again. So, he’s trying to get another contract with some guaranteed money on it to be in good shape. And he’s playing the only leverage he has. Now, who was the receiver for the the Steel? Oh, it was Antonio Brown, right? who didn’t know was the running back. It was uh Le’Veon Bell who sad chose to just sit it out and it ruined his career. Yep. Yeah. He never he never got back what he had. So there is a delicate dance here which is why I think they’ll figure out something. It It’s why I do love the franchise tag. If you’re looking at it from a not a fairness perspective, but from a health of the sport perspective, the franchise tag is really great because you can just cut through all of this stuff, pay them top dollar, and kick the can down the road until you can figure out something uh permanent. And it absolutely benefits the player, maybe the team a little bit more, but look at how much money Kirk Cousins has made. In large part, that’s because the commies kept franchising him over and over again. He kept being eligible for more and more and more and all of a sudden he’s getting these just monster contracts from the Vikings. Way more. He was eligible for way more than anyway. So, it does work out for the player, but I love the franchise tag. Usually, it’s great. Usually, it cuts right through this stuff. And the player probably is a little bent about it. The team’s a little bent about it, but team wants long or the player wants long-term money, but the team doesn’t want to pay as much that year. But the brilliance of the rule is he has to be paid what the average of the top three players at his position. Is it that top three? Is that who it is? It’s Is that right, Christian? It’s either three or five. It might be five. You’re right. But you average that all out and that’s what the player gets. Like that is big dough. It is. Yeah. I mean, in this situation, we’re talking about uh $40 million for the highest paid receiver right now in the NFL. So, you’re be talking about 36 a year. You know, he’s only making 20 now. You’re right. That’s tough to swallow for him because he didn’t get extended money. But he said, “Yeah, but I doubled my salary for one season.” For one year. Yeah. So, but they can’t I guess this is an extension that he wants. So, you can’t really franchise them. It’s average of the top five or 120% of their previous year’s salary. Whichever is higher. Whichever is higher. So, in this case, it would be the average of the top five. Cuz that makes sense. Cuz then you would just go out there and if you wanted to, let’s say you did have uh Jamar Chase, you would just franchise tag him over and over and you would get a discount because he’s set to make 40. If you were going to say less or if you were do the average and obviously everyone makes less than him, you would save cash that way and that’s not really fair either. So yeah, but the brilliance of it is if you’re Jamar Chase, the team is just signing you. And also, and this is why some people don’t like unions, this is how unions are supposed to work, right? McLaren is looking out for everyone else as well. While it seems selfish that he’s looking out for himself, by not making less money and by upping his money, the next guy has to make x amount of dollars as well. I see your point, but this is actually the union not working. This should not be necessary. This whole exercise, if the union was good and doing its job, this would not be necessary in the slightest. Guaranteed contracts would be guaranteed. The system would be different. Well, that’s never happening. That’s a different animal together. The the union is terrible. Maybe this is somewhat altruistic for McLaren because he’s trying to help the union, but this is not the union helping him. Well, the union being in this situation in general is an area where the union has failed. Yes, but that’s a totally different conversation about guaranteed contracts in the NFL, which we know are never coming. It shouldn’t be necessary for one guy to walk off the job just to get I mean, just to be able to get paid his worth, considering that it’s not guaranteed. If things are guaranteed, it’s a different it’s a different topic alto together. But this should not be necessary. If the union was doing its job, this would have been fixed systemically. Yeah, that that would have had to start day one. Uh, all right. We’ve got Christian Cox coming up next. Excited to talk to the former youth. It’s the Jake and Ben show.
Hour 1 of Jake & Ben on August 1, 2025
• It’s another Quarterback Battle for BYU this year, but that’s nothing new for Kalani Sitake and this staff.
• Top 3 Stories of the Day: Devon Dampier is already familiar with Jason Beck’s offense, Johnny Juzang signs with the Minnesota Timberwolves, NFL Hall of Fame Game was Can’t Miss TV.
• Washington Commanders Star Receiver Terry McLaurin has requested a trade.
