FULL SHOW | Utah Continues Fall Camp, Is Dampier Going to Run Often? | Utah Jazz 25-26 Season Sch…
Welcome into the Saturday show 975 the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza, Alex Napoulos with me here. Happy Saturday, everybody. Hope you have wonderful, wonderful plans for this wonderful, wonderful day. I hope people are able to get out. Time’s running out, man. Everybody’s going back to school and so I feel like it’s a a great weekend for everybody to get out and and you know, hit up those barbecues and hit up the river rafting and do what you got to do because football’s here, Christian, and summer’s almost over. Man, it’s funny. So, obviously BYU and Utah don’t play in week zero, so they’re still two weeks out, but next week, man, it’s here. It’s here. And so it’s it’s not like our summer is necessarily ending, but it’s almost the same feeling for me where it’s like, “Yeah, I got to go back to school now.” To me, it’s kind of that feeling. Um, right. It’s once football season starts, we’ve turned that corner, right? Summer’s over. Give me the fall weather, man. Give me the Give me the pumpkin spice lattes. And are you a pumpkin spice guy? Heck yeah, man. That’s funny. I love all things fall. I love all things Halloween. Give it give it to me, y’all. Man, this is this is the sign that we’re we’re approaching that time of the year, man. The the the color change and and the orange and red leaves. It’s It’s almost there, man. I get it. We’re getting there. And it is funny being our age because we don’t have kids. Um Yeah. But a lot of the people here at the station do. So, this was like back to school week and I’m sure a lot of our listeners obviously have kids that went back to school this week. So, that was kind of fun getting the vibe around everybody getting back into, you know, school mode. I will say that’s one of the things I’m glad I’m not I don’t have to worry about. I don’t have to worry about going back to school. I don’t have to worry about, you know, classes or anything. I can just focus on football. I can focus on sports. Yeah. It’s good times. Yeah. And like I went and got a haircut and the barber was like, “Oh yeah, we’re crazy busy. Everybody at the shop is working seven days a week this week because of back to school cuts.” Yeah, man. It is. It is that time of the year. So, if your kids are in school, it’s a good time. Hope they had a first couple couple days of the year. Even though the first couple days are always a disclosure day, whatever. But anyways, no, it’s good to be back. It’s good to uh enjoy the last little bit of summer, although it’s still going to be hot for quite a while. Probably for another month. Yeah. Yeah. Uh let’s see. Let’s Let’s just jump right in. Man, it’s it is football season. It is almost here. it will be here. Uh, and we’re ready and we’re ready to just get going because we’ve had camp. We’ve had the conversations and we’re just so close. We’re so close. But there’s something that I want to bring up and I want to start the show off with this today because it’s been something that has been debated. I’ve heard throughout I think all of the shows here on the station have talked about it at one point or another and it’s become a little controversial looking at Utah and their offense. Okay, Devin Dampier is the new quarterback. Of course, he comes from New Mexico. He played with Jason Beck who was the offensive coordinator at New Mexico. Really electric player. Mountain West Conference player of the year. Yeah. Uh over,200 rushing yards last year. Insane, man. And now he comes to the Big 12. He comes to Utah. They potentially could be contenders for the Big 12 title. And there have been a lot of people wondering whether or not Devin Dampier should still run as much as he did at New Mexico. You know, we’re talking over a thousand yards rushing. And I guess I’ll let you start off first with your thoughts and then we’ll see what you have to say. I think it’s I I think, you know, no matter what happens, uh I think Utah’s running game is going to be very good this season. Uh they have the O line to go with it, they have uh two running backs that I think can potentially be really really good in the in the back field. I’m talking about Wayan Parker and uh and Rogers. when you have two running backs like that, I feel like the running load should end up falling on the running on the running backs, right? I don’t think and and not to say, you know, I’m not saying at all that Devin Dampier shouldn’t run the ball because I think that’s a big part of his game and I think that’s something he’s very good at. If you have that opportunity, right, if you have a chance to make a play with your legs, absolutely take it a thousand%. But I feel like a lot of the reason why Devin Dampier had those rushing stats and had 1,66 yards on the ground last season plus 19 touchdowns was because for the most part on that New Mexico defense, Dampier kind of had to do it all. Yeah, he was Superman, right? He was their Superman. And I think now with Utah, you don’t have to be that Superman. You don’t have to put the entire offense on your back and carry them the way that you did in New Mexico last season, right? You have a supporting cast. you have a better cast around you. Uh, no disrespect to New Mexico or anything, but you have a better cast around you and it it’s going to allow Devin Dampier to rely on a guy like Wayan Parker to be, you know, to be your bellcow, to be the the guy that has a thousand yards. I would still like to see Devin Dampier, you know, make plays with his legs. I think that’s something you don’t you’re not going to want to take out of his game because he was very successful at doing so. 19 touchdowns, I mean, speaks for itself. But you don’t have to be the Superman with Utah. Going through his game bygame rushing numbers, it is a little interesting because he starts off the season uh three carries for 34 yards against Montana State. Week two last year against Arizona, 15 carries for 130 yards. That was a shootout. Crazy highscoring game, right? Then it drops back down to five carries, nine carries, eight carries. Then at about mid-season, Alex, it jumps up when they start conference play really. Uh 11 carries versus Air Force for 50 yards, 15 carries for 105 yards, 15 carries the next week, 12 carries for 207 after that, 17 carries for 127, 28 carries against Washington State, and then final game of the year, 17 carries for 101 yards. It seemed like when New Mexico again, when they picked up the conference play, when they really were like, “Okay, these games matter. We’ve got to try and win.” They leaned on Devin Dampier. And I like the the angle that you took at like the reason that he ran so much, especially looking at the trend of more towards the later of the season. It’s because he had to. It’s not because that’s all he could do, right? So, I think that is obviously really important to keep in mind. Um, that yeah, the supporting cast at Utah is going to be a lot better. The offensive line is a lot better. The running back room as a whole is supposed to be a lot better. Rogers was at New Mexico with Dampier, but you also add Wayan Parker. So, that’s two really good running backs that should theoretically carry a majority of the rushing load. I want to point out though that you know the reason that he was able to win Mountain West Conference player of the year, the reason he was able to move up to the Big 12 Conference from the Mountain West, the reason he’s here at Utah isn’t because he’s Joe Burrow, right? Like it’s that’s a huge part of his game is running the ball. So I I I got to be careful how I word this, you know? I I’ve just heard a lot of controversial opinions back and forth about thinking that he needs to tone down the running because that would affect his passing numbers and I I don’t think that correlates really. I have a hard time seeing the difference. You know, I look at Lamar Jackson in the NFL like obviously the best of the best when it comes to dual threat quarterbacks and credit to Lamar, he really has become a better passer uh in his professional career. but he is still a threat to do damage on the ground every single week and that doesn’t take away from his passing game. And of course the Ravens speaking to them, they went and got Derrick Henry to be their main focal point on the ground. So Lamar Jackson doesn’t have to do everything. But you don’t take that away. You don’t take away the rushing element. He still needs that to be effective. Because honestly, if Devin Damp here is not a threat on the ground, you know, if you take that aspect of his game completely away, I don’t think he’s a good enough passer to just win as a passer. I think he needs that ground game to be successful. And I’m not saying that in a bad way. I’m just saying that’s what makes him a special player, right? And I’m then that’s kind of where that’s kind of where I stand with it, too, is I don’t I don’t want him to completely take it out of his game, right? because like I said, that’s what made him successful. That’s what made him good. And I’m sure Utah fans are going to want to see him run and create those plays with his legs. But at the same time, again, you don’t have to, right? If you don’t have to go for what was it, 28 carries against Washington State, right? You don’t have to you don’t have to do that. Um I, you know, designed quarterback runs, I’m sure, will still be a part of this Utah offense and and what they want to do under Jason Beck and what they want to accomplish. I’m sure Dan Pier will still get his opportunities right, but you don’t have to go 28 carries in a game for this team for this guy to be successful or for him to be successful. I think you can tone it down a little bit with how much he runs and and find some success in a in a Parker in a in a Rogers, but you don’t want to take it out of his game completely because I feel like that’s part of what makes him so successful. I do, you know, and I I feel like if you’re a Utah fan, too, you’re looking at his passing numbers and you would like to see that improve this season. Um, and if you know I I I feel like that’s a great question, right? Would do you sacrifice a little bit of his rushing production in order to help his passing production? Yeah. Were passing stats bad because he was running too much or were his passing stats bad because he didn’t have a great supporting cast of wide receivers or were the stats bad because he’s not a great passer and I think that’s what we’re going to learn across the course of this season. And obviously you trust Dampier. to trust Jason Beck of course to figure things out on offense. So I I do think those stats will look a lot better than they did um at New Mexico because as you brought up earlier, I mean the the supporting cast just wasn’t there and I do think that was a huge part of it. Um the the offense at Utah that we’re going to see this year is a lot less one-dimensional. there’s a lot more dimensions to it, right, than than uh New Mexico had last year. So, well, and like we talked about last week, you need to have that balance and you need to find that balance, right? Because while Mai Bernard had a great season, you know, a lot of people would sack the box and a lot of people would shut down the run because they didn’t respect Utah’s pass game. And so, you have to continue to find that balance to make sure that Devin Dampier can be effective not only in the run game, but also in the pass game as well and make other teams start respecting the pass game. um which I feel like a lot of this season last year Utah didn’t Utah’s pass game wasn’t respected again. Yeah, it’s not about asking Dampier to be Tom Brady or Pton Manning, you know, a drop back passer like you’re saying. They just need you need the defense needs to respect that passing game just enough to where they can’t send eight or nine guys in the box and and really make it hard. So, I’m excited for this Utah offense, man. I think that it’s going to be even just I know that Tyler Huntley was here not that long ago and I know Bryson Barnes could run a little bit, right? And even Wilson was pretty mobile, but it’s like this is a special level of athlete, right? When you look at Bryson, when you look at Isaac Wilson, I don’t necessarily think dual threat, right? No, it’s not their I mean, they they could do it. They did do it, but it wasn’t I wouldn’t necessarily say it was their forte. It wasn’t where we saw them at their best. Whereas Devin Demp here, you look at him and he is your prototypical dual threat quarterback. Again, that’s why he’s here. Exactly. That’s what makes him special versus, you know, whoever else was in the transfer portal, right? And I think Utah bringing in bringing in both Jason Beck and Deon Dempir, it’s a huge win. It’s huge additions and it’s a big reason as to why Utah is starting to gain a little bit more hype in the preseason. It’s a it’s why people are expecting Kyle Whittingham and his side to turn around from what was a five- seven season last season and come back and have a big bounceback year. And it starts with the offense. It starts with Devin Dampir. It starts with Jason Beck. And it starts with what they’re able to do and what they’re able to accomplish with this offense. I think it’s I I’ve been laughing because I’ve been saying this for a couple weeks. I almost guarantee the first play of the season is going to be like a QB draw or something just to be like, I can see it here. I can see it. Here’s a little something. Yeah. You know, um and I I think that’s funny. And I made this example a couple weeks ago like I remember when Utah opened the season at home against Florida and Bryson Barnes was starting that game. First play of the game, first play of the season. It’s a playaction play, but it’s like a 75 yard touchdown. Yep. And how awesome was that? And I know that the season didn’t end up going the way Utah wanted, but for Bryson Barnes that year, that changed. You’re coming in Yeah. You’re coming in basically off the street, right? And that one play to be the first play of the year that just gets you confidence as a player. Exactly. And that changed the narrative around Bryson Barnes. Right. Right. So I think as far as the confidence thing, yeah, dialing up a run play for Deon Dampier, the first play of the season, you know, it’s not going to be a handoff to Wayan Parker. It’s not going to be a RPO pass or a play action pass or, you know, a drop back pass. I do think that it’s going to be some sort of quarterback draw, quarterback power. Uh we’ll see. Just to show everybody like, hey, this is what we have. That’s what they want you to think. That’s what they want you to think. Jason Beck’s got you right where he wants it. Where he wants you, man. Because they’re going to throw a 70 yard bomb in first play. Watch. It’s I’m I’m going I’m going bomb. They’re going to air it out first play. That would be hilarious. That’s what’s going to happen. And you It was interesting, man. We were talking to uh we were talking to a National College Football writer on JJ Alex earlier in the week, and he brought up a really good point. Utah’s first game of the season is at the Rose Bowl at UCLA and they also have their quarterback, right? And I think heading into that game, a lot of the Nikico Yamamaava, I think a lot of the spotlight and like he me he mentioned that a lot of the spotlight in that game is going to be on Nikicoyama, but he says that Deon Dampier has a really huge chance to steal the show because it’s also his debut with Utah. It’s also our first look at Devon Dampier, right? In red. Well, I guess in in in Utah red, Utah. Utah red. And so, uh, he says that uh, he’s looking at Deon Dampier to steal the show against against UCLA because there is going to be a lot of eyes on that game because of Nico. People want to see what this transfer from Tennessee is going to bring to UCLA, especially, right? UCLA isn’t projected to have that great of a season. They’re one of the they’re they were projected one of the bottom teams in the Big 10. So, a lot of eyes will be on this game for Nico, but Devin Dampier can has that opportunity to step up and like it like steal the show. For those out of the loop or that may have forgotten, uh, Nico Yama Lea Yamava, I can’t remember how to say it. Sorry. I think it’s Yamamaava. Uh, he could be wrong. He led Tennessee to the playoffs last year to the college football playoff as a Was he a true freshman? I think he was. Oh, I Or maybe a red shirt. Either way, it was his first year. Okay. uh spring ball comes around and he holds out of spring ball because he wanted more NIL money. Yes. And we hear about hold outs all the time in the NFL. It’s really relevant right now because of training camps and stuff. We have yet we had yet to see a college football player, a college athlete hold out for NIL money and Nico was the first player to do that. Uh Tennessee refuses to meet his demands. So he enters the string the spring transfer portal and now plays for UCLA instead of Tennessee. So yeah, that is that is a big story line. That was one of the bigger storylines this off season in college football. And because of that aspect alone, I do agree with you. Uh there are going to be a lot more eyeballs on that UCLA team this season. Even though they’re not expected to be good, people want to tune in and see what that looks like because they they recognize the name. They heard the name. They heard the controversy. So, yeah, and the drama that that went along with it. So, Utah drawing that opponent week one. Um, that is good. You want eyeballs. You want everybody to tune in and and check out your game and then those people watching are going to be like, “Oh, this this Utah team, that quarterback’s pretty electric. That’s fun. They got some juice, man.” Yeah, they got some juice. And that’s that’s kind of I think why UCLA is a perfect opponent to start the season. You know, we I’m I’m sure we’ll talk about it too the week of, but two weeks, two weeks, man. Um that I feel like that’s why they’re the perfect opponent, right? Is because you will have eyes on this game. maybe, you know, a couple months ago, right, as we were heading into the spring into spring training and into uh spring camp, maybe it wasn’t necessarily what you were expecting heading into into this game. But because of that transfer from from Yama, now there will be eyes on this game and now there will it’s a great opportunity for Utah to test themselves, right? We’re I feel like we will learn a lot about what Utah is this season and who Utah is going to be this season um just by that one game. Yeah, it’s it’s a big test there. Like I said, they’re not projected to be anything great in the Big 10 this season, but they’re still a good team. It’s not a pay game, right? And it’s still it’s it’s not going to be your SEU, right? Where you’re you have six touchdowns in the first half or whatever it was for for rising last season. Like, this is a test. It’s a massive test and it’s on the road. Um it it’ll be a fun one for Utah. Yeah, no offense to my friends down south, but this is not going to be a 48 to zero win where the quarterback rising was, I think, 10 of 15 with five touchdowns. It It was something like that, man. Yeah, you’re not going to see that against UCLA. So, it is it’s a good tuneup game. It’s not a pay game, but it’s not a super tough opponent, right? It’s it’s a it’s a really good tuneup game um to really get the youths dialed in and get them ready for this season. Uh where everybody is kind of expecting to see a bounceback. And I think we’ll know pretty quickly whether or not that will be the case. I mean, if they do come in and struggle against this UCLA team that we’re kind of talking down right now, like, yeah, that’s a big Utah red flag. You know, it is and it is and it isn’t. Well, it it wouldn’t sink the season, but I think it would be worrying. It would be worrying, but it’s not by any means uh it by any means it wouldn’t be, you know, alarm bells wouldn’t be sounding off. It’s it’s not the end of the world if they do go into the Rose Bowl and they lose that first game. It’s more it would be it would be more so if they go into the Rose Bowl, they lose and they don’t look better on offense than they did last season, right? Yeah. If there’s nothing there, but you know, if it’s a close game, it’s going to be apparent either way, right? it it you’ll you’ll f you we’ll find out really quickly what we’re going to expect from Utah this season I feel like against this UCL Bruin side I don’t think we’re going to have questions coming out yes I think is a good way to put it I think we will know what to expect from the offense we won’t know saying oh man it was kind of hard to tell if that’s going to be able to hold up I think uh I think we will know so uh big game two weeks huge game man huge game man we’re all we’re all looking forward to it. Uh already looking at early odds. Utah 6 and a2 six and a half point degenerate. Not not that I’m condoning betting or anything. I don’t bet. Uh real quick while we’re here, any thoughts on Utah and BYU missing out on the uh the top 25? No, not really. Um I think that’s fine. Utah and Utah being right just on the outside. I think it’s I think it’s fine you BYU falling out that one I’m it’s a little bit more of a head scratcher but but then at the same time because of what we know from these teams quarterbacks right Utah in theory has a quarterback BYU is still trying to figure out who that quarterback is going to be. So, I think for me the thing that stood out the most was the fact that BYU was still on top of Utah in the ranking or in the AP poll, but just just a smidge, just barely. Literally 12 votes. Yeah. Uh I think looking at the poll right now, especially Boise State, I mean, I know who’s their quarterback. Uh Madson, right? Mattis Maxon. Look, I know that having a guy is important, but you can’t tell me that Boyise State’s going to be anywhere near as good as they were last year without Ashton Genty. They’ll probably still be one of the best group of five teams. They will, but that doesn’t mean that they should be in the top 25, right? I I definitely right now, and maybe it’s just Homerism being in the market here. I would definitely pick BYU, Utah. I’d probably pick Baylor, too. Uh I could go down this list. I’d say all three of those teams are better than Boyise State right now. I even Baylor and Louisville who were the next couple out. USC we’ll we’ll we’ll draw the line there. Okay, we’ll draw the line there because USC is way too far high up. Two lane is the next highest uh G5 G6 team, right? And I T Lane only got 23 votes for the AP poll. Meanwhile, Boyise State is in I would say it’s a tossup between Boise State and two lane. I think I mean just from what I know it’s not, you know, I don’t follow Tlane or Boise State religiously, but from what I you know, on paper it looks like Two Lane right now has a little bit more than than the than the Boise State uh Broncos. Yeah, I I think uh I don’t know. We’ll see. I bet this in this AP poll is going to look silly here pretty soon. But uh anyway, let’s take a break. Coming up next, Alex, let’s talk about the uh the Utah Jazz schedule that came out yesterday. We’ll get into that. Stay with us. It’s the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza. Alex Napol with me here. Uh last segment we were talking about Utah football and Devin Dampier and how much he should be running. So in case you missed that, we will have that podcasted shortly wherever you can get your podcasts. Uh but Alex, we had some big news Thursday afternoon. The Utah Jazz schedule, the full schedule has been released and I want to jump into that. Let’s do it. Okay, starting off, did you think the Jazz were going to have over or under? Two and a half nationally televised games. No, I think I think I would have taken the under. Really? Okay. I I think I would have. So, they have two, right? And I think maybe you can get away with three or four, but I think two is probably about right. Okay. So, the thing is that obviously with Ace Bailey being the fifth overall pick, that is going to draw eyes. But then on the other hand, why did the Jazz have the fifth overall pick? Well, they were the worst team in the NBA last year. So, yeah, that’s that’s how they It’s kind of like a line you got to walk, right? How many national games do we really give this bad team? Um, I honestly would have thought it would have been more. two seems pretty low, but again, that’s the bet you make. Uh, so those nationally televised games are the 20 the January 27th against the LA Clippers. That will be on NBC and Peacock. Then, uh, February 23rd at the Houston Rockets, that game is on Peacock. So, those are the two national games for the Jazz. Anything else stick out to you? The Jazz, by the way, open the regular season October 22nd at home against the Clippers. I I think what sticks out to me the most is there’s there’s a pretty nice stretch of games there to start the season against teams that, you know, I that I think would be good tests for the Jazz to figure out, you know, who what what kind of Jazz team who what Jazz team are we getting this season, right? You look at the schedule. Well, the Clippers is a tough one to begin with, but then you go to Sacramento and and I have questions about Sacramento. I think there’s a lot of questions about Phoenix and where they’re going to be this season. Uh Portland as well. Then you have to go back to Phoenix, then Charlotte, and then and then you get a good team against Boston. And so there’s there’s a nice stretch there at the beginning where you’re playing teams that I think are near or close to your level, right? When you look at this Jazz roster, when you think of where this team’s going to be this season, where they’re focusing again on a youth movement, on a youth development, there’s there’s winnable games in that stretch. Yeah. And I’ll be curious to see what what their record is coming out of that stretch and how many of those teams uh they either are able to beat and and I feel like we’ll learn a lot about who this Jazz side is just from that early stretch. We’ll see. Uh, they should definitely lose the Clippers. I guess Sacramento could be a tossup, but still Sacramento has so many more vets than the Jazz do. Phoenix, I mean, Devin Booker is a better singular player than probably anybody on the Jazz right now. I mean, maybe Lowry, but Devin Booker is still really good. Uh, and they had a pretty good off season even though they traded away Kevin Durant. Um, I don’t know. Portland should be trouble. I think they are on the up and up again with Phoenix. Charlotte’s bad, but they’ve got a lot of lottery talent, so theoretically they could the uh flip the switch like at any given point. Yeah, they they brought in a lot of new players. So, there’s a real chance the Jazz only have like one win through that stretch. Um Boston again, Tatum’s out for the year. You lose Porzingis. Uh, you lose Drew Holiday, but you’ve still got Derrick White and Jaylen Brown. They’re going to be a good team. And then you go Detroit, Minnesota. So, really, I mean, I don’t I saw a lot of people freaking out saying, “Oh my gosh, the Jazz could have five wins within the first month.” And it’s like, that’s you’re you’re overrating the Jazz right now. The Jazz are not a good basketball team. You’re pushing it. Yeah. Um, and but I mean the reality is there is a best case scenario, right, where you you you leave that Boston game and you’re three and you’re three and four on the season through seven games, right? And that’s probably best case scenario. Best case for the tank or best case best case for the I mean best case for not for the opposite of the tank, right? For just just the results on the season. Most you have three wins probably. I would probably say you got three wins in there. Okay. See, for me, best case is you lose all of them. You lose every single and seven right off the bat. Ah, I kid I just but uh it is an interesting I mean it’s hard with an 82 game season and so many players don’t play the whole thing and it it it is hard to try and guess where you’re going to get wins and losses from. But all in all, I think that the bottom line is we have basketball news, right? And the schedule is out, which means we know when they’re going to be suiting up. Um we know some key dates, right? They’re not gonna be playing on Christmas. Uh they are gonna play they’re going to be playing on Halloween. That could be a fun game against Oklahoma City. Uh that game is part of the NBA Cup. Wrapping up the season. I mean looking at their final stretch of games. They’ll be at home. Uh this is their schedule in the month of April. They’re at home uh against Denver. Then they go at Houston, at OKC, at New Orleans, at home versus Memphis, and then at Lakers. So that’s a good opportunity there. you know, if the Jazz are tied with another team for the worst record in the league and the Jazz need to lose out to secure the the high draft odds again or whatever. Uh, which I don’t know how much that they’re going to be doing, but again, I don’t think that their goal is to necessarily be the worst team in the NBA this year because well, you see how that turned out last year, right? And you know what? I actually want to go back to that because last year when we heard it was the youth movement and all that. I got to give props to us because we came on air saying that’s not going to benefit these young guys at all. What good does it do to give a 13-year-old the keys to a car and not teach him how to drive, right? Say, “Go figure it out.” And then they come home and they’re like, “Dad, I crashed the car three times and now it doesn’t work anymore.” Who does that benefit? And and to to a point, yes, because I I feel like there is some noticeable development in some players, but there are some other players that I feel were stagnant and you didn’t really see playing that much for Cody Williams was a borderline detriment to his career. I I really hope that that did not set him back. Yeah. Um because what we saw with him playing as many minutes as he did when he was just simply not ready, I don’t like that. Yeah. The good news is I don’t think we’re going to see that this year. I think that they realize that that’s probably not a good move. I think that they realized it’s also a tough line to walk, right? Because you don’t you don’t want to lose your draft pick. That is very valuable this year, but you don’t want to be awful. Um, you need to figure out, you gotta let Will Hardy coach these guys up and just find natural development. And that’s the hard part. You can’t force anything. You can’t force anything. And, you know, in the case of Cody Williams, it bodess well. I don’t know how much we’re going to take it out of of you know the summer league performance, but I did like the improvement that I saw from him. But last season, last season it looked there was moments where quite frankly he he looked like he wasn’t up to speed in the at the NBA level. No, there were people talking about, you know, statistically and by several metrics like one of the worst rookie seasons ever. And obviously it’s going to look inflated because of how much he did play, right? Um, so that’s tough and I don’t I wouldn’t want to put that burden on any 18 or 19 year old. Um, and simply again, he was just not ready for the NBA level. And now after having a year under his belt, you’re right, his summer league was encouraging. So, um, but it’s not just about Cody. It’s about everybody. It’s about Kee, it’s about Bryce, Sensibah, about Taylor Hendris. Um, you know, all of these guys, Flip, Collier, uh, and then even Ace. like yes, it’s about developing these these young players the right way because the truth of the matter is that first group of three becomes extension eligible next summer and I don’t think that they would extend any of them unless they have like crazy all-star seasons which isn’t going to happen but uh those are decisions decisions that are going to have to be made in the near future. you’ve got to know what you have in these guys and I don’t think they really figured that out with anybody last year even though they said that was the goal and it’s hard to do that um in a player in their first or second year right which would have been you know keant’s second year versus flipping Collier’s first year. You’re not going to know that right away but uh you have to know soon and I think we’ve talked about it at Nauseium that the second we didn’t really learn much about the second year guys last season. No, they it seemed pretty stagnant for the most part. I feel like the one we probably would have seen uh some some type of positive development was from Taylor Hendricks and unfortunately that got cut short. Yeah. Very short very quickly. Um but you look at a guy like Keonte George, you look at a guy like Bryce Sensiba and I mean we learned a couple things about George. We learned we learned a couple things about Sensab, but the reality is I still don’t think you know 100% sure what their ceiling is and what you have in a Keonte George and a Bryce Sensiba. Yeah, fortunately I think they have like I don’t want to say a good roster, but I’m saying that the roster is more constructed as an actual team this year instead of just a collection of draft picks. I think you’ve got good depth at the point guard spot. You’ve got good depth at the shooting guard, at the small forward, the power forward, the center. I think you have good depth across the board and so where where you’re not really just doing things artificially. So, I’m excited. I can’t wait uh to see Jazz basketball on TV. Part of that is Ace Bailey. I want to talk about him. Just turned 19 earlier this week. So, shout out to him. Happy birthday to one of the newest Jazz men. And that really just blows my mind. Like I brought this up when he was drafted. He’s going to still be in his prime when he’s a 10-year vet in the NBA. He’s a young man, man. 10 years down the road. And you could say this for Cody Williams, too, because he he was the same age when he was drafted. Um that’s it’s just crazy to think about 18, 19 year olds getting drafted. Hopefully Ace is here for a long time. Uh because if he is, that means he’s good. That means he pans out. And I think that’s going to be huge for the the city of Salt Lake. I think that there are a lot of expectations on Ace Baileyy’s shoulders. I think he has what it takes to meet those expectations. Uh they might need to be tampered because he might not meet expectations right away. It’s hard for a rookie to do that, especially for a really bad team. But man, am I excited. I hope what we see from Ace Bailey, and I think a lot of Jazz fans can probably resonate with this, is I just hope we see flashes that from Ace Bailey this season that shows and that proves that this guy has the potential to be that all-star that they’re looking for. I think that’s the biggest thing I’m looking for out of Ace Bailey this season. And I I’m not expecting him to come in and immediately be the hero. I’m not expecting him to come in and immediately change the franchise and, you know, and change the fortunes of the Utah Jazz. But I do I do hope that we get to see some type of flash of, oh, this kid’s got a high, this kid’s got that potential, this kid has that look, this kid has that athleticism, etc., right? He showing the flashes of this guy can be the all-star that you’ve been looking for. Ace Bailey is not taking the Jazz to the playoffs in his rookie season. Um, but the Jazz didn’t draft Ace Bailey because of what they want him to do as a rookie, right? They drafted Ace Bailey because of what he has the potential to become and that truly is an all-star level player. And uh you know, if that works out, man, that’s that’s something the Jazz haven’t drafted in a bit. I mean, I know like Donovan Mitchell doesn’t seem like it he was that long ago, but after going through the Jazz seasons that we’ve had over the past three years, it it kind of is feeling like a long time. Feels like an eternity ago, man. And I know that Lowry made an all-star game obviously, but they didn’t draft him. Yeah. So, Well, and then that was 2017. That was It’s not that long, but it feels Yeah. Yeah. You’re talking when they drafted Donovan Mitchell. Yeah. 2017. And it doesn’t it’s not it’s really not that long ago, but it feels like forever. It kind of is. I mean, that that is eight years. Yeah. Not good math. Um anyway, I and then that’s all like that’s just what’s on the Jazz right now. Even just Ace Bailey is enough to get you very excited. But then again, you talk about they’re still next year’s pick and the thought is that they are going to be bad enough to be picking hopefully in the top three. Uh maybe they fall out of that again because if you’re getting player development, which you want, maybe you’re too good to be drafting that high. So that’s hard. But there is the potential to add another bonafide franchise player in next year’s draft. So that is the needle that the Utah Jazz are going to have to thread as far as do you want player development? Do you still want to have a good draft pick next year or do you just want to kind of roll with the flow? You see how things go? Yeah, it’s way too early to be throwing this out there hypothetically. But but you’re going to throw it out anyway. But I’m going to throw it out anyway cuz why not? you know, if you know, you end up you end up at the end of the season and you fall out of the top three, you know, again, you have a similar situation where you end up in uh in a spot where you lose you you lose out on the lottery and you fall. Yeah. How long how long can you keep this going? You know, when does it end? Yeah. Well, fortunately, um, after next year’s draft, after the 2026 draft, the Jazz don’t have to worry about that stupid pick conveying to Oklahoma City, right? So, I mean, depending on where that pick falls, I doubt the Jazz are going to be good enough for it to convey. Yeah. But the good news is the next year, so now we’re talking 2027, they don’t have to worry. They can actually make offseason moves to become a better team. Um, so you’re saying there’s a chance? Well, I’m saying that obviously long term you would rather have the top three pick next year, right? But you would see some some gratification in the short term. Um, that’s why I mean it’s flexibility, right? And that’s what they’ve kind of preached. That’s a word that’s come up the last few offseasons, right? Is flexibility and you’ve got a lot of options that are open and you’re not pigeonholed into banking on one thing happening, right? The Jazz were like, “Oh, it would be really cool if we walked away with Cooper flag this year. That’s why we are going to finish with the worst record in the NBA.” But at the same time, the Jazz realized that it’s a lottery. You can’t bank on that happening. What happens? They fall to five. They still walk away with the Bailey. Um, so I think you know the Ang and uh Justin Xanic are they’re smart enough to to know when to be flexible. Yeah. And they have plenty of options and not to mention all the assets that they’ve accumulated. So I really do trust them moving forward. I think for me in analyzing all this and looking at all this, I feel like I I would feel better about the Jazz’s future if it was in their hands. And what I mean by that is not relying not having to rely on a lottery, not having to rely on random numbers and random ping pong balls that that fly out of a machine and and you know give give you the draft order, right? It it’s a little bit better when when you have that ability to have your future in your control and hopefully like you mentioned after the the picks that convey are are no longer a worry and a thing a thing of things past then maybe hopefully that there’s a little bit more um more more of a will to to bring in guys that can actually change the roster and change your fortune and and have a little bit more control in your future. And I think that’s the that’s the part where I think Jazz fans are are desperate to get to. Yeah, but but there is there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Desperate is a very good word. Yeah, very good word in that scenario. Yes, you never want to be desperate, but I think that’s the point that we’ve reached in Salt Lake City. All right, we got to take a break. Uh coming up next, we’re going to do technical fouls. We got some good ones this week. Uh make sure your Venmo set on private. That’s my tease. There you go. All right, we’ll hit that next. Stay tuned. It’s the Saturday show 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975 the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza. Alex Napoulos here with me on a beautiful Saturday morning. Still pretty hot out, but uh we’re nice and chilly in here in the studio. It’s It’s always cold, man. It’s always cold. It’s a nice uh nice little getaway. Yeah. Well, we’ll turn the heater on during the break. How about that? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it’s time for technical fouls. One of our favorite segments every week. You already know what it is. We uh just talk about some of the funnier things that happen in the world of sports. I think we’ve got a runaway favorite this week, Alex. Um, Oklahoma State quarterback John Matir. Funny enough, his name was tied to Utah. It was before they went and got Devin Dampier and Jason Beck, right? when uh I think they were one of the early names to pop up for Utah. Him and his offensive coordinator Arbuckle. Yeah, Ben Arbuckle. Uh they were they were one of the early candidates to um to be that Utah was looking into ends up not being Matier. Obviously, Matier ends up going to Oklahoma with Ben Arbuckle and then Jason Beck and uh Devon Damp here end up at Utah. So, somebody went and found some Venmo transactions from uh Oklahoma quarterback John Matir. This is what’s funny about Venmo. It’s basically your bank statements, but they’re they’re public. Like, you can go in and see what people are Venmoing other people for. And you know how it is. Like, I’ve I’ve done it. You’ve done it. You know, you Venmo somebody. Oh, yeah. And as a joke, you put something stupid. Yep. Like, my uncle has a funny joke. He’ll Venmo me for something or he’ll Venmo my brother and he says the description will say breast implants like he does that frequently. Yeah. So if you look through my Venmo page, no I have not received breast implants. Thanks for clarifying. But if you strictly look at my Venmo page, you would think so. Uh anyways, John Matier’s Venmo history. There is a one payment that says sports gambling and then another payment right after that says sports gambling UCLA versus USC and that was November 20th, 2022. UCLA did play USC November 19th. Yes, 2022. That’s what makes this one a little fishy. So, the big question here, like, is this guy joking around or is this guy really stupid? A couple things here for me. First of all, who has the time to go back on a opposing team’s quarterback on their Venmo, scroll all the way back to 22 to find 2022 to find this to make it go viral. You got too much time on your hands, whoever did this. Get a life. Go touch some grass. Or maybe it’s something they were holding on to. I I don’t know. I don’t know. But whoever did this uh whoever went back and whoever went back and found this, you got too much time. Secondly, for me, I don’t I don’t see it as anything malicious. I see it as So, you think he was joking? I think it was I think it was a joke because we do it all the time. He did release a statement. I’m not going to read the whole thing, but he essentially says it was an inside joke between he and his friends, right? Which, okay, I get it. Like you said, you know, everybody does a funny description for Venmo, whatever. You got to be smart enough to know because at this, even though this was 2022, he was still he was at Washington State at the time. He was still a college athlete. You’ve got to know that that’s not okay to even joke about. Yeah. And I get that this is maybe before some of the more recent gambling scandals that we’ve seen talking about like Jonte Porter um and some other NBA players and even some NFL players since then have been suspended for gambling. So maybe this was before it was as serious as it is right now. But like dude, you’ve got to know that you can’t joke about that. They do not take that lightly. No, they don’t. And I think we’re kind of seeing the fallout now uh with it. Obviously, the NCAA is looking into it to make sure that there’s no wrongdoing on John Matir’s on John Matier’s end on John Matier’s side. Uh you know, he released a statement said it was all jokes. There’s it’s all inside jokes is what he called them. But you’re right. Even though we all do it, it’s we all do it as jokes, you do have to have some sense of awareness and some sense of, hey, I probably shouldn’t do this. I am a college athlete. I am in the I’m in a I’m a public facing figure, right? Especially for I’m the, you know, I’m the starting quarterback at Washington State at the time. Yeah. I probably shouldn’t do this. Yeah. So, you’re either stupid because you’re dumb enough to actually tell the whole world you’re gambling, right? Or you’re stupid in the sense that you should know that that’s not something to joke about in your position. Either way, he’s kind of dumb. And even then, if you’re going to do it, you go uh private on Venmo. Yeah, I would bet his Venmo is private now. I Yes, I think it’s private and it’s been scrubbed. He probably deleted it. He’s probably I’m switching to Cash App. It’s been scrubbed from what I saw on on the Did you look it up? On the social medias. No, I didn’t look it up, but I I saw a follow-up tweet about it and it looks like it’s been scrubbed at this point. That’s funny. Which is probably for the better. Um, but if you’re going to do it, be private where only your friends can see it. Or plot twist, maybe he was already private and his friends decided to some someone of his old friends decided to That’s what I’m saying. Maybe it was a screenshot that, you know, somebody had and for some reason they were like, “Hey, John, pay for my lunch.” And he’s like, “No, I’m biging you.” And he’s like, “Okay, you don’t want to do that to me.” Which uh if that if that were the case, those are bad friends. Can’t have those. Or maybe maybe John’s a bad friend. or maybe who knows, man. Who knows? This could probably this could go deeper. Who knows? What I’m thinking is that they probably were out to dinner or hanging out watching that game, UCLA versus USC. Cuz you also got to remember this was back in the Pack 12 when Washington State was in this conference, right? So maybe I I don’t recognize the name of who he was Venmoing, but maybe he was out watching the game or whatever and they joked about betting and so yeah, maybe he was paying for something else after and then Yeah. included the quote unquote inside joke of gambling on the game, but he was out of B-Dubz. Yeah, watching the game. We’ve all been there. Yeah, I’ve done that. So I I I think you know that happened pretty early this week, but I saw that and immediately technical foul. No, 100%. And I felt bad for the kid too when it when it was first happening because like I said, if it if it really is nothing malicious behind it, if there’s really no wrongdoing, uh I do feel bad for the for John Mat because like I said, we all do it. We’ve all gone on Venmo and we’ve gone we’ve put in dumb descriptions to one of the payments for our friends. Like it’s not, you know, it’s not anything new. Yeah. Sometimes the show just writes itself. Alex, those are the days we love. That’s what’s nice about the technical foul segment is we don’t have to do any actual planning. We can kind of just we let other people do the planning for us by doing dumb things in sports. Yep. All right. Uh stay with us. Coming up next, we’re going to talk BYU, of course. Uh we’ve got some updates from the quarterback battle. learned a little bit of information this week. A three-man race is now down to two. We also got some comments from Jay Hill uh talking about the pass rush during their scrimmage. Jay Hill, big fan of BYU’s pass rush. So, we’ll talk about the Cougs next. Stay with us. It’s the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza. Alex Napoulos with me by my side as always. Fun show today so far. So far so good, man. But we are not done. We’re not done. It’s time to talk about what’s going down in Provo. BYU football. Alex, the big question. Starting quarterback, who’s it going to be? Uh we had some development this week, which surprisingly came I I didn’t think we were going to have development. I thought, you know, we would kind of have radio silence and then boom, we’d know the starter. Yeah. Yeah, because if you look back, if you remember to last year’s quarterback battle between Jake Rzoff and Gary Bohannan, there were reports coming out, but nobody ever said, “Oh, so and so’s leading the pack. Oh, so and so looks like a they have a leg up.” There were weeks where it was like, “Okay, Jake Rhett looks like he’s playing better.” And then I remember week two it was like, “Oh, Gary Bohannan actually looks like he’s probably going to be the starter.” And then by week three it was like, “No, it’s Rhett Slaf again.” Yeah. Um but that’s not how it is this year. We actually got an update from BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Rodri. Um, let’s just say a threeman race is now a twoman race. This is what A-Rod had to say. Uh, Bear took the majority today and McKay got some as well. Um, as I mentioned Saturday, we can’t keep going equal reps with three guys anymore. So, uh, you know, each day you’re going to see right now McKay and Bear getting the majority of the reps with the ones and the twos. And, uh, that’s that’s where we’re at right now. So, there you go. Uh, can’t keep splitting reps three ways. You just can’t. Which I agree. I totally agree. I 100% agree. Yeah. So, uh, the two guys still in the race are Bear Bachmeire and McKay Hilstead, by the way. And that clip was from, I want to say, Wednesday. And then there were reports that came out Thursday saying that Bear Bachmire took a majority of those first team reps. Right. So, not only is it down to a twoman race, but now you have a twoman race that’s being funneled into a one-man race. And it is unfortunate that the media doesn’t have access to every practice. Okay. But that was the practice that media had access to. We don’t know what was going on in the other practices. We don’t know who took more reps on other days or if they were split evenly. But for whatever reason during that practice that day, Bear Bachmeire got a majority of the first team reps. Do you think that’s something to look into? Absolutely. Um because it’s not the first and only time that this has kind of happened, right? It seems like a lot of the times during these media observation periods during BYU’s fall camp and and and the processes that they’ve been going through this fall camp, they’ve put an emphasis on on showing the media bare. It seems like everybody and every time that we’ve we’ve talked to somebody who’s gone down to to fall camp and has been a part of that media observation, has been watching, you know, what’s been going on, they put an emphasis on on showing bare snaps and bare plays. It’s a great point. And you know why why would you tout a true freshman that much to the media and to the observation, right? Yeah. And I that’s that’s what stood out to me since day one is the fact that they’ve been putting an emphasis on this is Bear Bachmeire. I’m so glad you bring that up actually now that you mention it and I think about it looking back at the first practice of fall camp. They split reps evenly throughout the practice. But again, the media session that was able to be viewed, it was Bear Bachmeire. Now, they did say, again, I want to emphasize that was the first practice. Reps were split three ways throughout the day. Yes. But during the time that the media was there, it was bare. Now, you’re getting reports that again, it’s bare. I do think it’s worth noting uh Pete Nikos from Onree Sports, right? He reported that things are trending towards Bear. Uh Will Snowden, he didn’t report anything, but he was on with hands yesterday. He said he thinks it’s going to be Bear. So, we have all signs pointing towards BYU starting a true freshman in Bear Bachmeire. Thoughts? I think on I I view it in two schools uh schools of thought, right? I think of it this this in two ways. You look at it on one hand in a positive hand and I think it’s a testament to to bear to come in right a even after having to miss spring practice as a true freshman right out of high school. And this kid has come in and impressed the coaching staff, impressed his teammates, has learned the playbook, has adapted to the BYU culture. I think that’s amazing. Plus, I think when you look at Bear compared to a Borgay to a Hilstead, I I I’ve loved what I’ve seen from McKay Hilstead, but I think that from what I’ve been gathering and from what I’ve been hearing from from the media observations is that this kid Bear Bachm’s ceiling is pretty high and he has a high ceiling. I like that. I like I said, I think it’s a big testament to Bear Bachm. But then you look at it on the other hand, it’s a true freshman heading into Big 12 play. Yeah. And like we’ve mentioned before, Christian, we’ve heard this record be spun before. So, I’m a little bit I’m a little bit cautious and I and I understand, you know, BYU’s fans’s feelings too about being cautious about this move. You know, I think a lot of people from what I’ve seen online, what I’ve been what I’ve from been a able to gather online is I think there’s a lot of optimism too about Bear similarly similarly to the way that I’m feeling. But there also is caution of hey, this is a true freshman heading into now Big 12 play. It’s so funny how similar it is to Utah last year. Yeah. Um because again Utah was supposed to come in and run the Big 12 last year and um obviously Cam Rising was the starter, but the news came out that Isaac Wilson won the backup job in camp. And we came on air and we were like, why would you have a true freshman be your backup when you had a guy like Brandon Rose who had been there? And this is a very similar situation. And maybe it’s a little different if Bear Bachmire is head and shoulders better than Boray and Hillstead. And maybe that’s what we have going on because it sounds like he basically ran away with it. If we’re going to assume that all this reporting is true and we’re going to assume that Bear Bogmire is going to be a starter, it sounds like it wasn’t really close. Mhm. So those are assumptions that I’m making and I will willingly admit that those are just assumptions. We don’t know, but it sounds like Bear Bachmeer is that much better. Um, so that alleviates a little bit of the worry, but you’re right, Alex, at the end of the day, it is a true freshman, and that matters whether you want to admit it or not. Um, and I’m now I’m saying you, you know, as a theoretical BYU fan listening, it matters. It does. And not only does it matter because they haven’t played a snap of live college football play ever in their life, much less against the Big 12, it matters for other reasons, optics reasons, like what happens if you are one and two throughout those first three games? Um, what if you say you beat Portland State, lose to Stanford, and lose to Ace Carolina, and you’re going into Big 12 play, and you’re like, “Guys, we we cannot stand to lose any of these, you know, upcoming games. Then you’ve got to bench the true freshman and go to the guy that lost the starting job to the true freshman, whose confidence is destroyed because he lost the starting job to the true freshman. And then you’ve got a mess on your hands.” And I think if you know, hypothetically, if we get to that point, if we get to that point, hypothetically, you’re in the same boat Utah was last season. Exactly. Because that, you know, in hindsight, now looking back at it, it turned out, it turned into a mess. And you know, you had Brandon Rose’s confidence was shot. Uh Isaac Wilson’s confidence was shot, and then it just turns into a mess of who’s going to who’s starting this week. And we’ll never know what I mean, I don’t want to treat Isaac Wilson like his career is over. I do think the best thing for him this year was to take a red shirt year and just take a step back for a little bit and um mentally rehab, I guess you could call it, from the beating that he had to take last year. That is so tough. Yeah. And I I truly hope that he can still salvage uh the potential that he has because he could be a really good player. That’s why Utah brought him in. And that’s the hard part about giving a true freshman significant playing time, especially at the quarterback position. Um, if it goes wrong, it goes really, really, really wrong. We saw it. And it hurt Utah last year who was competing who was supposed to compete for the Big 12 title. Yeah. It’s going to hurt BYU this year if that happens. If they are supposed to compete for the Big 12 title with this roster that they have, with all the greatness that they brought back and they didn’t lose any assistant coaches, all of that weight is resting on the shoulders of a true freshman. And if it goes wrong, like, oh man, I can’t imagine the disaster. I mean, we saw how disaster it was for for Utah. I can’t imagine the disaster it’d be for BYU. Um, but again, that’s all hypothetical. That’s all what if. There is still a chance again if he if Bear Bogmire is head and shoulders better than any other quarterback on that roster. If he came in and outright won the starting job because of how well he played in camp, then maybe there’s not as much to worry about. Maybe this kid is a baller. Maybe he’s going to come in and feed Chase Roberts and Roberts is going to have,00 yards and LJ Martin is going to have a very productive year and BYU’s offense is better than average in the Big 12. I mean, that there’s a chance of that happening, too. And I think that’s one of the positives that BYU fans can kind of hold their hat on a little bit with with, you know, potentially starting uh this true freshman in Bear Bachmire is the fact that you have a very very good supporting cast. Yeah. And if you can get even similarly to any type of production uh that Jake Rzoff had last season, then you’ll be in a good spot from from Bear Bachmire. Yeah. And you know, I I I remember there was conversations that we had where especially early in the season where we were talking about good Jake and bad Jake and there was there was moments where Jake Rhettz left came in did some good things but there was SMU game. Yeah. There was also games like that SMU game where he didn’t look up to par and he didn’t look up to up up up to the job and there was questions about Wrestloff early in the season. If if Bear Bachmire can come in and and have any type of um any type of that similar production, you have the supporting cast to continue to be good this season. Yeah. And I think a lot of it’s going to fall on the shoulders of LJ Martin. If LJ Martin can come in and be a thousand yard rusher, you’ll be you’ll be in a good spot. Yeah. Uh you got a good running back in Martin again, Chase Roberts. Uh Carson Ryan apparently has been playing really well. So maybe the tight end position is utilized more for BYU this year than we’ve seen in recent years. But uh no, you’re right. The supporting cast is there. And I think that’s something that BYU I mean again with the Utah comparison, that’s something BYU has better than Utah did last year. Uh Utah’s supporting cast was not great last year. The receiver room wasn’t as good as they thought it was going to be. uh Mai Bernard was the only thing that worked on that offense and even with a great offensive line, nobody else could really run the ball. Uh and nobody else could do anything in the passing game. So I I think the reality was that last season Utah ended up being a fractured team. Yeah. Right. We learned we learned quickly that the running back room probably wasn’t as great as we thought it was going to be for whatever reason. the like you mentioned the wide receiver room didn’t turn out to be as great as we thought it was going to be for whatever reason but I don’t see that necessarily happening with BYU I feel like with you know we saw these guys last year come together as a brotherhood and and do what nobody expected them to do we we thought they were going to be barely bowl eligible but they proved everybody wrong and ended up winning 11 games and you I I just don’t see that happening with BYU you’ve got the whole aspect too of Cam rising and how much that hurt the team. And you’re talking about fracturing the locker room and how hard mentally that was on everybody because he was out the entire year the year before and then he was supposed to be back and then he’s out again and just how how much that hurt. That’s not something BYU is dealing with. They don’t have the metaphorical cameraing in the locker room. Also, you’ve got more stability at the coordinator position, right? Um, I mean, well, going into last year, people thought Andy Ledwig was a good coordinator, but, uh, I don’t know, Rodrik, I think even before last year, people would say that Rodri was the better coordinator. Um, but I I think that all in all, the supporting cast for Bear Bachmeire or whoever is going to be starting at BYU is good. Yes. Or great. Yes. And I and like I said, I think that’s something that BYU fans can hang their hat on and and and continue to see this team in a positive light and continue to kind of hold that BYU in a positive light because I still think that that supporting cast can be extremely good for for you. Um and and and you’ll you’ll be able to have a good season if if that supporting cast supporting cast continues to be as great as we saw them be last season. Yeah. Uh so I’m excited. I guess we’ll see how how the kid slings it against Portland State. If he is named the outright starter next week, um do you think that we’re going to see two quarterbacks against Portland State? Do you think there’s any chance that uh that Hillstead gets in or I mean if you’re up to score maybe, right? If we’re talking about a 490 halftime score line, then sure, why not? Um, but I think it also would be beneficial to keep him in for the entire game to just you got to get reps. Get those reps. Exactly. Get those reps. Get those nerves out. Um, and and set yourself up to be to be in a in a good position going into Stanford. Right. the way we’ve talked about it before, the way the schedule has worked out for BYU has worked out really, really well considering the now the quarterback situation that they’re in because you give yourself time and you give yourself a couple of weeks to really figure out what and who that quarterback is going to be. If you know, I think Bear Bachmar can come in and and get a get some good wins under his belt um and potentially lead you to some good wins at the start of the season, but if it doesn’t work out that way, you have that chance and you have that by week, week three, to figure things out. Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting storyline because no matter when the quarterback is named, that does not put this storyline to bed. There’s always going to be the other guy looking over the shoulder. We’re going to be watching the BYU quarterback position all season long. As soon as Bear Bachmire struggles or as soon as McKay Hilstead struggles, the question’s going to come up. Mhm. When’s the other guy going to see the field? And I feel like for us watching it all unfold, we’re going to be comparing it a lot to the sim the situation we saw last season. Yeah. Right. And the second things, you know, tend to tend to steer in that direction. We’re going to have those questions. And interestingly enough, Gary Bohannan barely saw the field last year. Yeah. Um he I don’t remember who he got in against, but he did not play that much. I do remember though there were times where BYU fans were calling for Bohannan, but uh BYU stuck it out. They kept Jake Ratzoff in and ultimately they ended up with 11 wins. So it worked out. Um, but yeah, it’s uh it’s a it’s going to be a very interesting comparison between the two seasons and uh it’s just it’s a wild time to to it’s a wild time for BYU. Wild time, but a fun time. I’m excited to see what the what again if Mayor Blackmire is named the starting quarterback. I’m excited to see what he’s able to bring to the table. I’m excited to see, you know, what he can do with his team and the supporting cast and and how far he can get this BYU team, man. Yeah, it’s fun. Now hopefully they don’t crash and burn. Hopefully it stays fun. Yeah, Utah was not fun last year. By the end of the year, we were pleading for the season to I think the I think even the coaching staff and the players were about ready to Yeah. just wrap the season up. So, uh I guess BYU has one more media availability uh next week and it’s Monday. And so I guess we’ll see if there’s a starting quarterback announcement. I would assume because this is like their last week of quote unquote camp and then the next week you turn to game prep for Portland State. So I would assume that we are going to get an official announcement sometime next week. I don’t know when, but uh stay tuned. It’ll be here. Can’t wait, man. Can’t wait. Season or the football season’s here. We’re excited, man. Oh, man. All right. Uh we got to take a break. Coming up next, we will hit 5 minutes of Stick with us. It’s the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back to the Saturday Show 975, the KSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Sparza. Alex Napoulos with me. Fun show today. We talked Utah. Uh we talked the Jazz schedule. We talked BYU. Now it’s time for five minutes of um this time of the year. I like to go a little NFL because preseason is, you know, undergoing. Um, there are a lot of storylines to keep up with and this I feel like is a great spot in the show to talk about the NFL. So, I want to hit it especially because I missed last week. Um, thank you by the way for covering for me. Yeah, no problem. Really appreciate that. Um, I was sad that I didn’t get to talk about Shador Sanders last week. So, I want to do that today. Let’s do it. All right. Uh, the Browns last week played their first preseason game. They played the Panthers, Alex. Cleveland won 30-10. The big whoop here is that of course Shador Sanders gets the start. He plays a majority of the first half. I can’t remember if he played into the second half at all. I think he might have. I think he played a little bit. But the thing is is he looked pretty good. Yeah. And I know that the Carolina Panthers are not world beaters. I know that they’re one of the worst teams in the NFL, but Shador Sanders definitely did not look like a fifth round quarterback. I will say that. Well, it didn’t get off to the best of starts. No, he started bad. Yes, that that is important to point out. It didn’t get off to the best of starts. Uh struggled in that first quarter, but then really turned it around and it didn’t look half bad, man. Didn’t look half bad. And I think uh there was there I I will say there was a lot of overreaction right from from national guys from you know from from people talking about this a lot of overreaction about Shadore about Shadore and his play. Um it’s one game into the preseason like you said the Carolina Panthers aren’t world beaters. It’s you know it’s the preeason. Let’s pump the brakes a bit. I’m not ready to crown Shadore as a starting quarterback yet. No, but I could see the potential. I actually sure maybe there were some things that would worry me from a starting quarterback. He still did the thing where he likes to run around a lot. And the thing that stood out to me when he did that is he is slow. Yes, he is. He was already like average speed in college. He does not have NFL speed. So, he cannot run around in the pocket. He even took some bad sacks. Um, so that was important. But as far, there were some throws, man, where, you know, and it’s not like Patrick Mahomes rook a year where he had the biggest arm we’ve ever seen and he was just doing absurd things. It’s not like that. But it’s like, you know, intermediate level passes, layering the ball, putting it where it needs to be on the spot, uh, letting your receivers get yards after the catch because of where you place it. Little things like that I really liked. He had a a tight throw into a window for a touchdown that I really liked. He stepped up into the pocket and put a little juice behind it and he doesn’t have a strong arm, but he put enough to get it into a tight spot. I I liked that. Okay. Um but the saga continues because he’s out tonight. They play the Eagles. What is happening at the in the Browns quarterback room? So yeah, they already were down Dylan Gabriel. Yep. And uh can he pick it? little hands pick it and Joe Flacco’s 45,000 years old so they don’t want to play him in the preseason so they want they went and signed Tyler Huntley right um Shador Sanders hurt his shoulder a couple weeks ago before he played this game came back on track played apparently this week he hurt his oblique he has a minor oblique strain so he’s going to miss tonight’s game against against the Eagles uh so I don’t know I saw a lot of people complaining complaining about that and I just think it’s funny, you know, they’re they’re basically knocking Shador for being hurt and it’s like you’re going to you’re going to knock Shador for being hurt but you’re not going to knock Dylan Gabriel or Kenny Picket, right? So, I think that’s a little funny. And that’s not even the conversation we should be having, right? It’s the conversation. Injuries happen. Yeah. Right. But the fact that Picket, Gabriel, and Shador are all injured, are all hurt. Yeah. and you had to go and sign Huntley and have technically six quarterbacks in that room. That is a bigger issue. Yeah, like you said, what is going on? What is happening, man? That that is that should be the conversation. It shouldn’t be any knock on Shador. It shouldn’t be any knock on, you know, the the quarterbacks. It should be what are the Browns doing to their quarterbacks, man. So, I would imagine obviously that’s good for Tyler Huntley uh continuing to showcase himself and this what he did last year. He was actually with the Browns last training camp, played during the preseason uh when Tua went down in Miami. He got an opportunity there. So, at this point in Tyler Huntley’s career, that’s what he needs to do. Um I’m not sure if we’re going to see Dylan Gabriel tonight. I’m not sure if we’re going to see I mean, can he pick it? I don’t know. I doubt Tyler Huntley’s gonna be the only quarterback that suits up. I don’t I don’t know what they’re gonna do. They’re gonna They It’s again, it’s interesting. Um because if you know, Huntley goes down and you have to turn to Flaco who’s, you know, projected to be your starting quarterback in the in the regular season. That’s a big concern. I am clicking around. It sounds like Dylan Gabriel might be back. That’s not too bad then. I would like to see a Gabriel uh debut. Well, yeah. I mean, we’ve got to see what he looks like after Shador last week. I mean, Shador definitely showed that he could push for the starting job. I’m not saying that he is the starter hands down, but he showed that he has potential, right? And if Dylan Gabriel comes out and flops, like, yeah, that’s not good. But that’s why you draft two guys in the middle of the draft. You make them fight for the spot. So my guess is at the end of the day they let go of pick it. I think he’s the odd man now. I would I think they would be smart to keep Flaco and then the two rookies experience. Well, Flaco is out well out of the three. Yeah. But when it comes to Kenny Picket experience, what does that matter? I guess. I mean, he started for the Steelers for a little bit and then was the backup at the Eagles. Like, that doesn’t really scream anything to me. Uh, no. And it and you know, with when it comes to Pickicket, it was concerning that Tanner McKe came in and played a thousand times better than Picket when Herz went out and when Herz went down last season, you know, and so Tanner McKe had a huge weekend last week as well. He absolutely did. And so, yeah, Pickicket’s not good. I think I think I’m right there with you. pick it. Seems like the odd man out. Uh, and you know, it seems like it would be a very Brown thing to have two rookie quarterbacks backing up Flaco. Yeah, I mean, at this point, I think they put themselves in a bad spot regardless by getting Picket. Yeah, they put themselves in a worse spot by taking two of the more controversial rookies in this draft. So, yeah, it’s it’s just bad decisions stacking on top of each other. Uh, let’s also talk Jordan Love. Yes, because this worries me a little bit. Jordan Love tore a ligament in his left thumb, so his non-throwing hand. Uh, he had surgery on it early in the week. He is expected to be back by week one. And I say that, you know, cool if he is back by week one, but you’re missing all of camp essentially or threequarters of camp, right? Uh that’s not good. It’s not good, but I think it is a posit it is a positive sign that it’s your non-throwing hand. I mean, it’s not worst case scenario. It’s far from worst case scenario, but it is concerning it due to the fact that this is a big year for Jordan Love. This is a huge year. I think Jordan Love, as good as he is, has a lot of questions to answer this season for the Packers and for himself. Yeah. And for for quite frankly us. I think that he’s done a lot of great with with Green Bay. And I think that he’s done, you know, last season being in a very competitive NFC uh North where, you know, you have two teams who win 14 games or whatever, however many it was from the Vikings and the the Lions. Can he take that next step? Can the Packers take that next step and be the team and and be one of the better teams in the you know even better than that in the NFC North right obviously the Lions is going to be a massive test but we talked about it a couple weeks ago Christian I think that there’s a spot open where Minnesota is going to drop and potentially can can the potentially and and the can the Packers move up into that spot and then when it comes to crunch time when it comes to playoff time can they finally get over that hump and answer the bell during the playoffs. I know that they were, you know, moments away from beating the the 49ers and making a Super Bowl. Yeah. But, you know, that was that we’re what, two years removed from that now. And so, it’s time for Jordan Love to take that next step and see if he can he can lead this team to to a Super Bowl. Well, and the thing is, too, like his first year as the starting quarterback started off bad. Yeah. But then around mid-season, he really turned it on and like you mentioned, they they make a pretty good playoff run and they were like a play away from uh beating the 49ers who went on to go to the Super Bowl and represent the NFC, right? So, a missed field goal away, man. Yeah, it was a missed field goal and then a bad interception when, you know, Jordan Love was trying to force things, right? Uh anyways, so you have a half season of of really good play from Jordan Love. He comes back and last year game one against the Eagles in Brazil hurts his knee and is out a couple of weeks and then when he comes back of course that is something that he’s dealing with all year. So you’re still yet to see and by the way his his numbers and his performance reflected that they dropped off significantly from when he was at his peak his first year as a starter. So, you’re really talking about a player in Jordan Love where we are still yet to see a full 17g game season of his peak level of play. And he he’s in his prime as an athlete as far as talking about his age. He’s only what is he 26, I think. So, he should be entering, you know, that prime of when he’s playing his best football. Uh, but we haven’t been able to see it due to, I mean, yeah, his first year as a starter. he’s getting comfortable and and all that. And then an injury that bugs him all last year and now he he has this injury in his th uh left thumb that uh again, thank goodness it’s not his throwing hand, but like I don’t know. Hopefully he can still perform. Uh I would hate to to go through another year of I wish or like hypothetical with Jordan Love. I just want him to go out and do it. Just for reference, uh that first year he was a starter, 4,59 yards, 32 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. You compare that to last season where he goes 3,389 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. So almost 1,000 yards less. Almost 1,000 yards less. Almost eight touchdowns less. Yeah. Almost 10 touchdowns less. And then you have uh same amount of interceptions. And that’s in less games played, too, because he only played 15 uh last missed two games. You only missed two games. Wow. Only played 15 last season. Well, we’ll see what what Jay Love and the Packers look like. Uh I I of course I love for our local players to go out and represent. So I truly am rooting for Jordan Love. I know they drafted Golden in the first round. I’ve seen a lot of good things coming out from camp about him. So hopefully he can do good. I think if anybody can come back and turn around, Jordan Love has the tools and the skill set to do it. But a lot of question marks around Jordan Love this season. Yeah. All right. Uh, let’s take a break. Coming up next, we will wrap this baby up. It is the Saturday show. Stay with us. 975 DKSL Sports Zone. Welcome into the Saturday Show. 975 DKSL Sports Zone. I’m Christian Esparza. Alex Napoulos with me. Alex, we said it earlier during the show. Today feels like basically like our last day of summer. It really does, man. It really does. It’s that it’s that it’s that time of the year where you get the NFL back. You get college football back, you get, you know, you got kids going back to school. It’s a whole mix of a bunch of things that just kind of feels like the summer is over and you’re turning the the leaf to to a new season. You’re turn literally turning the leaf to to fall. Next Saturday will be week zero of college football. And I have I literally have the same feeling in my gut of when I used to wake up like on the first day of school or like going to bed I guess on like the last day of summer. It’s like oh man that was such a fun summer. Now it’s about to get crazy. But I’m positive about it is the thing. Like I’m so excited for both BYU and Utah. And then of course you got to throw Utah State in as well because all three of them have had such big storylines this year. So, it’s going to be a great season and I can’t wait to kick things here, kick things off here in two weeks. Um, of course, next week, week zero, we’re going to be dialed in. So, absolutely looking forward to it, man. And then week zero, you know, none of the local teams play, but you still have a farmageddon in Ireland that I’m super pumped about. That’ll be fun to check out. It’s going to be a big game, man. It’s it’s uh if you’re you know, you got nothing going on next week, and I’m sure we’ll talk about it next week, too. But there is Farmagennon happening. It’s a big Big 12 game uh to start off the season and so a I think a lot of eyes nationally will be on that game and I think if you’re you know a follower of the Big 12, if you’re a follower of Utah BYU, you might want to tune in and and pay attention because it it’s a big one early for the Big 12. Not to get uh too far ahead of things because we do have a lot of fun left on the station here today. Coming up later, uh 4:30 you’re going to have the RSL pre-match show before uh they kick off at Charlotte at 5:30. That’s on 975. Then on 1280, you’re going to have the Bees at Sugarland at 6. Uh love the Space Cowboys as a mascot. I think that is so absurd. Such a crazy name. But uh let’s talk RSL, Alex, because in that loss versus uh New York the other day, pretty controversial in the 2-1 loss. I I saw on my Twitter even like national MLS people, not not uh Raal Salt Lake fans, national MLS reporters and fans tweeting about how bad the officiating was uh against the New York Red Bulls. It was it was tough to watch. Um it was I feel like even you know just watching the game it was a very how do I word this? It was a poor officiated game. Um so was it just like refs missing calls or refs giving tickytack fouls? Refs giving tickytap fouls that led to frustrations. Frustrations boiled over into what the league calls violent conduct. That led to a red card for the New York Red Bulls. But in that same play, Diego Luna got uh sent off too because he got shown a second yellow where But it was interesting. Two yellows equals a red. Two yellows equals a red. Yes. But it was interesting because the assistant official, the one that’s standing on the sideline with this flag, he initially pointed the fowl in favor of Ray Salt Lake. As in Luna got taken down. Uhhuh. But the Ra Lake would get a free kick, whatever, right? But the center official came over and didn’t even confer with his assistant. didn’t like have any conversations. He made the decision to show Luna a second yellow. He overruled it without consulting, without talking about it. And so that’s I think that’s why it was so controversial. And I think that’s why it it it had a lot of people up in arms because I don’t I don’t think that, you know, I don’t think that it was the right call. I think, you know, going back and looking at the play again, you got the violent conduct on Kyle Duncan. So the the foul is obviously committed on Luna. Mhm. But because of the way the rules are set up, you can’t overturn a second yellow. So by then the damage is done and Luna has to, you know, leave the field. It’s tough. Uh officiating is always a tough thing to talk about. It’s always a tough line to draw. I officiated while I was in college. Obviously, it’s not the same level. Okay. I was doing four-year-old flag football. Uh, and like you learn middle school basketball, but it’s it’s tough because you’ve got to make the call and stick to your guns while you know, no matter what call you make, half of the crowd or the stadium or whatever is going to be upset with you. Yeah. No matter what you do. And if you swallow your whistle, people are going to be upset. So like it’s a very tough job. Thick skin, man. There’s also a reason that I was doing it for Cedar City Recreation on Saturday mornings and not at the MLS level. Like these guys are getting paid uh to be some of the best officials in the world. The NBA refs get paid to be the best basketball officials in the world. Same thing with the NFL. And it seems like officiating has become more of a controversial subject in the past couple of seasons. Yeah. Um, nobody’s happy with it. Well, and and I think this season it’s been the the conversations around officiating has been worse than it has been in past seasons. Uh, it’s definitely taken up a a different step because it feels like week in and week out there’s always something happening with an official. Yeah. It’s always there’s always a call. There’s always there’s always something. And I think MLS now is at a point where the there’s enough popularity on the league where there’s enough international eyes watching the league where you have to sort out the officiating because if you’re, you know, if you’re someone from Spain, someone from Portugal tuning in to watch a game, right? If you’re tuning in for Messi or whatever and the officiating is that poor, you’re it’s going to turn you away. And I think MLS needs to step in and figure out what they’re going to do with the officiating before um before they lose those those views. Yeah. Yeah. It’s especially if you’re like trying to get into the sport and you see that the the refs are bad. Like yeah, you need to have a good product and the last thing you want is to have a professional match or a game or whatever dictated by the refs, not by the team. That’s always the worst, right? That is always the worst. that nothing, no matter what sport I’m watching, no matter what game I’m watching, no matter no matter what it is, when when an official makes a a blatant bla bad call that changes the outcome of the game, it’s it it it irks me, man. That’s gets my blood gets my blood boiling. You are not alone. You’re preaching the choir there. Uh speaking of RSL, again, you can watch them tonight at Charlotte. First kick is at 5:30. You can hear the pre-match show here on the zone, the KSL Sports Zone. That is at 4:30. Yep. Stay with us. We’ll catch you next week. gets the Saturday show 975 the KSL Sports Zone.
Full episode of the Saturday Show with Christian Esparza and Alex Napoles on August 16, 2025
• What should we expect from Devon Dampier and the new Utah offense?
• Utah Jazz season schedule release, how many games will they win?
• Technical Fouls
• BYU trims down their QB race to 2; Who will start game 1?
• 5 Minutes Of – NFL Preseason headlines
• What’s on deck: Salt Lake Bees and Real Salt Lake
