Discussing Arizona Football’s Decision To Limit Fan Engagement Ahead Of The 2024 Season

Intro [Music] welcome to the phnx Wildcat show coming to you live from Studio K presented by Circle K head Danny Circle K Arizona location where you can get any size Polar Pop or froster for just 79 cents now through September 3D I think Saul Bookman will be taking that up hello s Bookman how are you doing today that was a very odd intro Mike yes it is I thought because that is not your voice at all well you know what I want to do I want to throw things off here little girl how about that yes I'm also not used to the studio K intro so so we so we had no music either it was very oddd this was this whole setup was just I mean Kevin come on man yeah get it together hey look that's on me that's on me coach sorry Kev Kevin's a massive hit already on Cheers board but Kevin that will be an L for you today but anyways we've got a lot to get to today we're going to talk about fan engagement we are going to talk about the Arizona depth chart maybe some sillies that were put out by the coaching staff we're also going to preview New Mexico there's a lot of different things that uh we're going to be talking about but first Saul uh Michael Le from the Arizona Daily Star put out an article uh talking about the fan engagement and about how there's basically been none for Arizona um this game has snuck up on a lot of people there's not really any events going on uh what is your take on fan engagement and the role of a school at like the Fan engagement. Has Arizona done enough? University of Arizona um that it's such a complicated question because are are we talking about where are we going with this program and and the school and what's the Identity or are we trying to compare it to other Big 12 schools and where we're headed right like and when it comes to Fan engagement I I I'll be the first to say I don't think it's really been relevant at all like I mean can you remember anything that was like like for the fans this offseason it's been pretty quiet literally nothing and listen I think part of it is also just trying to get your feet wet and trying to get accustomed um to what's going on in a day-to-day basis if you're Brett Brennan and trying to get reili ref familiarize yourself with the environment again and I get that but listen they did some stuff fan engagement wise when they went on the road and did these like Road shows okay but in Tucson they could have done a better job of really building hype there's also no like I I guess from what I was told I think you told me that there was no like First Fridays this year until we get to like October um and so where where is where is the enthusiasm for this season because it does very it very much feels like a lot of people are wanting to be very excited about this and there's been no email t burns put that out there's been no email about how this is a white out game or just you know anything like that I mean people don't even really know kind of what's going on and to me listen if you're Alabama or you're Georgia or it's a place that sells itself I get it you don't want to engage the fans I get it I mean they're going to show up regardless and at the end of the day if Arizona football wins games none of this really does matter but at the end of the day you Arizona football is an entity that is ranked you have a lot of really good football players and it just seems to me it just seems to me kind of like a missed opportunity because you're coming in here and it's not like you don't know that you got a lot of marketable players on this team I mean you've got players that have a great story to tell and just the fact that there's it's basically been so Hush Hush when you've got a preseason a team that you know is going to be in contention for the Big 12 I don't know like I said I I like Lev's article I thought it was a pretty good I thought it was I thought it was pretty well put out so biltin 71 says are they trying to Crunch the numbers to make up the hope that they're in uh in a whole and I'm like in my opinion listen you know I think we would all tell you business 101 tells you like you have to Market in order to ACR more dollars right and the fact that they didn't really Market I don't feel like they've marketed very well at all for this football season and building enough hype to get people to buy season tickets I think basically we're living off of what happened at the end of last season and The feel-good Vibes that we had by Noah and and and Company staying put after that died off it kind of just died off and it was like business as usual outside of the fact that they didn't really promote a lot of things and I don't understand that at all and the thing about it too that let's just say you don't want this to happen obviously but let's say Arizona goes 0 and two and fans stop showing up well the people that are going to be saying hey we need the fans here are also the people that weren't engaging at all so I I just don't get it it always seems to me like something at the U OFA and listen I know some of Jed fish's stuff was kind of corny I get all of that but at the same time he made fans he made fans feel like they were invested in what they wanted to do um listen at the end of the day if Arizona wins this won't really be an issue but if you don't win and you're also saying hey we need you out at the games well you had all offseason to try to you know Market this and you didn't yeah I'm going to go back to this like there's a certain amount of um Pride that is involved with selling yourself and with it with the nil era um I I don't know listen it's hard to speak to like the details and how in depth this is all going to go um somebody said is this you know is this on Brennan or is this more on you know desire Reed Francois right and um I would argue that's a little bit of both um and to be honest I'd probably Veer more towards Desiree than I would anything else because again part of getting out of the red is to promote and push and push and acrew more more dollars to help you get out of that hole and I just don't feel like I just don't feel like they've really tackled that much I will give that to jetfish jetfish was very much on brand with being on social media which is part of the marketing play right he got fans excited you know the whole you know gift the transfer gift you know I mean like so so he built up a little bit of hype in that regard um Brett Brennan's quieter he's got a different approach and I get that but you have to have somebody right on staff or in your social media realm that is pushing these narratives of we're one of the best teams in the country we're going to compete for a cfp we're going to be in a new conf the new conference should have sold itself that that was a layup you know like throw a hypee video of going to Manhattan Kansas and and Central Florida and all these other cool places you get to go to this season and and make sure that hey we got to build up our own home field advantage and they didn't do any of that so it's a little it's a little weird yeah so we will we'll see again like I said you know if Arizona wins it uh but if it doesn't win then it becomes a little more problematic we will leave it at that but so I I don't know if we can leave it at that Mike because they got to do better I agree with you man I will say this like I said this last week Arizona has Arizona has to do better to be better across the board and I don't really care who's who whose feathers I ruffled with this like it's it's a million per in their control to make sure that they're doing everything to maximize their budget as best as possible and they didn't do that this year now maybe there was some constraints that we didn't know about maybe there's a handoff situation from school president to school president that we don't know about maybe they put a freeze on everything I don't know what it is and maybe someday we'll we'll find out but basically you have got to be better better about promoting your own brand than what they have done uh in the last 6 months and it also feels like too like everything's just kind of happening at the you know at the last minute you know you get uh and again I know she took over I get all that but between you know some of the you know the comment commentating that's deals that were going on behind the scenes and whatnot this all seems like it's been kind of thrown together I get that it's a new ad I get all of that but at the same time you're also walking into a really good situation here let's not let's be honest you're not walking into a situation where you have a three- win football team or you have a basketball team that is in the is in the dumps you know that you're walking in here and you've got a pretty good situation Market it and that's listen guys it's fine if Brendan doesn't want to do any of that stuff but he needs to appoint somebody too right right that's just you don't get off the hook in today's day and age with the athletes that they have they have athletes in their own building that do a better job of PR promoting themselves and the brand than they do that's not good that's not good for business like you just you have to have people like you think Alabama as as glorious as Alabama has been in the last 20 years under Nick Sabin you think Nick sabin's out there tweeting no he's not but he does have people that are out there constantly grinding to to pump the the you know the Roll Tide brand and you got to do that if you're Arizona now Andy Bryan says good point Brennan is like Tom me he hated doing the media but at the same time that also was a different era where the media was more open I mean people like Anthony jimino could go and interview players they could get you know exposes they could get scoops on players that you know made the people in the community feel like they were in invested you don't really get that anymore you get kind of the uh you get the pan to press conferences and then that's essentially it so you know like I said I think you got to do a much better job of pushing a product that you have a good product again if you don't have a good product I kind of kid it you have a good product here let's make this happen Greeno Billy said he's already said that he'll leave it to the people who do that job yeah million per so they got to do it though all right now speaking of which the Arizona football depth chart was released Depth chart drama yesterday and there are some funny things on here that we are going to talk about some very cool some a little bit funny because they are not accurate but I also love too the gamesmanship that comes into depth charts too with coaches they know exactly who's going to start but you know with politics like with the running back situation shakori crossy Meritt is starting you've got four or ores there at the running back spot so that always that always cracks me up now let's look at the offense here you got obviously you got T-Mac you got Jeremiah patters and you got Montana lonus Craig obviously no real surprises there Deon hayatt has been a real he has really made some moves during this offseason um but the one thing that I want to talk about is col tannan bomb he is a player and this is the ultimate uh Brent Brennan's talked about this and you know coaches behind the scenes have talked about it listen Braden Dorman was a four-star kid uh most people thought he was going to get that col tanon bomb came in and absolutely earned that spot and Brent Brenan has talked about how comfortable he feels with uh cold Tannon bomb I'm excited to see cold Tannon bomb man seriously I love stories like that yeah that's a phenomenal story again I I don't really I don't really buy much into the depth charts like who's the front line cool and then after that point like yeah I don't really care about the ore to me the ore is just is just trying to right it'ss it's trying to provide an illusion um so I I I listen I this both sides of the ball I feel like unfolded exactly how we thought they would right yeah so again if you could pull that back up there Kev that would be very appreciated all right now one thing we're going to talk about this a little bit later on in the show though is that there's definitely some more depth on this team than I think some people I think a lot of people think that it's basically a uh it's a paper tiger where it's h very strong at the front and then there's no meat in the middle I think they are wrong about this and look at some of this now on the interior offensive line I am more than okay with the the depth and the backup I think Ryan Stewart's going to be good for Arizona this year um and if Leif Magnuson might have some good news on Leif coming back we will see don't know for sure but we might have some good new but between Josh baker Grayson Stovall and Alexander deuce the deuce boost I am more than okay on the interior with the depth the outside depth worries me a little bit obviously I'm not a Hu I'm not a massive believer right now in Michael Wooten or Matthew leato that will uh so again Rhino and Jonah saan have to stay healthy but I do think that they got some pretty good depth on the interior and I think the coaches have made that pretty clear at this point yeah I'm not too concerned about the depth I think they're going to be just fine uh the depth that I'm really more focused on is going to be on the other side of the ball um but I think offensively they're going to be just fine I think they have enough explosive players at the skill positions to even if they have a position of weakness on that in that front five uh they'll be able to navigate around it effectively and not have to really worry so much about that yeah so and then if uh now if we go to the defensive side here's where it gets here's where it gets interesting here and there's all right so I can tell you a couple things here Isaiah Johnson and chuba mui chuba I will chuba and Isaiah are going to be the ones that are getting the overwhelming majority of those snaps again it's going to be in and out but Stanley is barely played at time bear Anderson has well they tweeted out a picture of him injured so I don't think that I'm really breaking any news there I'm not going to get in trouble for that uh Kavon Darton somebody that gives you a little bit of depth but and then you've got obviously you've got Tai Tai and then you've got Trey Smith um you know on the interior line I more than okay with this as well Saul I like uh like what they put out no I I do and when you look at it as a as a whole it makes you feel a little bit better about where they're at for sure they they have a little bit of depth um not a ton and so you know if injuries start to happen then that's when you start to get a little concerned but I think that they're going to hold up just fine and and you know what I I will buy into a little bit of what Brett Brennan said last yesterday about about the depth um and how he feels about the defensive line that they will surprise yeah I think the defensive line is going to surprise but we won't find that out until week three oh for sure because listen what they got coming their way this week I'm yeah yeah it's bad we'll get to that don't worry these some of these previews too and we're not going to blow smoke we're not going to pretend that this is something that like Lou Holtz would always do where he would pretend that every team he was playing was a great team no we're not going to do that on this show but with the uh with the defensive line though like I said I want to be able to see them just be able to kind of rotate bodies in and out one thing that I was a little surprised and I think people there we'll find Lance Kenny is going to be probably your backup defensive end I think they're giving a shout out to Sterling Lane because X4 star kid played very well in Camp but overall I'm more than okay with the D line now let's get to linebackers Jacob monu is starting there is a surprise yeah I know Tay Brown though Tay Brown kid out of Phoenix kid out of Chandler he was another one Lamont messaged me when he committed here and he said yeah he said I really like this kid he's turned out to be a pretty good player uh Jared small a transfer from tane via LSU via about basically six other places this is in his seventh year of college seriously but 60 tackles last year he's actually done a very nice job in practice as well interested to see what the linebackers have and uh we'll we'll find out sooner than later I'm excited man I'm really excited that to me if if Jacob Manu can can repeat what he did last year I mean that's the that's the Seeker sauce right there if he can if he can compete at that high level um and you you have some question marks all across this defense that we're going to have to find out about Trey Smith is one of them you know we we have high expectations for him but you know he's got to prove it on the field and he's got to perform at a high level um and so the linebackers and then obviously you kind of see where it starts to kind of morph a little bit with Trad and stooks uh coming down from that safety position as well and that star position uh that star's kind of that hybrid uh linebacker safety position uh which I think is going to be beneficial for trading cuz he can definitely ball out at that level so I'm excited to see what these guys are going to be able to do um and reposition themselves in a variety of different ways to attack uh what's going to be some intriguing offenses in the Big 12 all right now let's get to the deepest part of the entire football team and I love what it actually if you could go back to the defense real quick there I I do apologize Kevin Thomas okay all right the defensive backs this is easily the uh this is the deepest uh uh unit in on the team and it's not even close now there's a lot different things that do you want to look in obviously you've got try and stooks at the star you got tario Davis you got Maris Groves killer brew as well Maris Groves KBW at um has really been kind of a revelation in Camp I think that people are hoping that he can be a little bit of that Ephesians price Haw and that you're a bigger Corner that is able to uh you know uh mitigate some of those bigger wide receivers but then you get to the safeties and it's just it's remarkable Dalton Johnson then youve got Owen Goss then you've got Gunner Maldonado you got jesis Smith you got Jack lro well you have got a lot of different players and at that star position Genesis Smith backing up trading stooks I think you're going to also see Genesis Smith a lot in that dollar package as well where you get him closer to the line when people talk about Arizona's defensive backs I believe this is about one of the best defensive back fields that I've seen at the U in a long time oh it's it's the best defensive back field uh in school Is this the best DB core in Arizona history? history Point Blank I think and it's nationally recognized as such by several different outlets in terms of their rankings um I remember if you remember I I think it was uh um Pro Football Focus had rank them as a top 10 uh total secondary unit uh in the country so I think this is going to be a fantastic opportunity for uh this unit to really Flex its muscle early on I think they're going to listen I have high hopes for this team and I'm not going to say anything out of pocket but I think in game three you're going to really see what we're talking about I think that's that's Arizona's been kind of left off a lot of projections for the cfp or conference title opportunities in favor of mostly Utah Utah has been the the favorite across the board I I feel like you're you're GNA see that that tide shift in our Direction after that third game yeah I think you're going to see that as well now let's get to the special team special teams fascinating for me as well um all right now Tyler Loop Tyler Loop is one of the best kickers that we've seen here in quite a while I love Tyler Loop I'm very Special teams confident in Tyler Loop and uh we got to talk about Michael Salgado Medina freshman listen when alacan Bruce came here from Oregon a lot of people thought he was going to walk in and get that spot he did not I love stories like this Kyle Ostendorf was obviously a staple of the team for the last what uh you know three four years it's going to be interesting to see what kind what kind of punching you get but so far so good Salgado Medina has definitely gotten High Praise from the coaching staff yeah no I I I everything here shakes out except uh can you put that back up please uh so punt returner that's a little no no no Jack Latrell I will I will believe that one when I see it I do not see that one as it's Gotta Be fam yeah it's got to be fam for sure it's gonna be fam or it's gonna be Jeremiah Patterson's gonna be the one that's gonna be the one but the one that's going to be the one but fam is going to be in there as well I would be stunned if Jack Latrell is actually returning punts that one did uh I think a lot of people were noticed that and they did kind of uh kind of cracked up a little bit at that but this kind of goes into another point that I wanted to make here and we're going to talk about that on the other side but first something else that I noticed on the way over the heiler river Resorts and casinos the wave the wave every time I see the heiler river Resorts and casinos I get very excited and the reason you we should is because it's a fun immersive experience like I can see our good pal Shane deach having a very good time there Shane is a man of the people I can see him having a good time there you do you at hila River Resorts and casinos visit play ail.com for more details more importantly this week Thursday you all need to come out to our fantastic once uh our first ever uh Fantasy Football Draft live uh listen the amount of work that we have put into this to make it the most ridiculous show you have ever seen for both just live streaming or in person cannot be undersold I think you absolutely are going to want to come out listen we want people to come out and boo we want people to Heckle we want people to call out people for having a bad pick it's going to be fun it's supposed to be interactive uh we have we have commentary we have our 12 drafty it's GNA be fantastic it's gonna be a great time and listen if you come out I promise you I will buy you a beer wow all right check it out heel River Resorts and casinos now while you're at it you say might say to yourself how could I get up there Sanderson Ford is here to help you as well all kinds of good stuff at Sanderson Ford and maybe the best thing about it is you look at these cars you look at these trucks you look at these robust vehicles and you're thinking man those things must cost an arm and a leg there's no way I can afford it wrong wrong wrong check it out get zero a OAC for 36 months OAC from Ford Credit see dealer Ford details and while you're looking at it maybe get some grub at the Starliner Diner s Bookman yeah 0% financing right there for 36 months is fantastic absolutely I mean you can't beat that I drove the F-150 XLT uh last weekend it was amazing listen I I think Ford has continuously uh really enhanced their vehicles over the years they used to be behind uh in the in the market in terms of technology and now they're well ahead in in a lot of respects it's just it was such an easy drive it was intuitive uh it was smooth and the people at Sanderson Ford I cannot tell you this enough they are just some of the coolest you know down toe people that you could ever meet their customer services off the charts and that's what they're really well known for so if you don't want to get that crappy dealer experience just drive on up here go to Sanderson Ford hook yourself up the little the reputation speaks for itself check it out Sanderson Ford also now something that I don't understand that a lot of people are saying when I look at this team and it is uh it is annoying me a lot of people are saying oh well you know Arizona you don't have a ton of depth across the board I think you got pretty good depth now there are some questions have been some certain areas now listen we're Where is Arizona the deepest? going to start with the quarterback listen if Noah faf goes down obviously your uh your goals are recalibrated but that goes for anybody outside of like four schools so miss me with all of that you got four running backs that I feel all very comfortable with you get the wide receivers as well the skill guy the tight ends are loaded Saul I feel incredibly great about incredibly great I feel incredibly good about the depth at those skill position spots yeah no I I have zero I have zero uh interest in in thinking that this team is not deep in those positions I think we were going to be completely fine in that regard for sure yes exactly and then on the offensive line we talked about it um I'm a little worried about some of the the backups at the tackles but I think you got eight nine guys that you feel good about and that is something that if you look at some of the uh the haters on Twitter they make it out like you got three offensive linemen no no no no no no no I feel good about the offensive line as well okay with that yeah I I again I I I want I do want to go back bcat in the chat says how does the Arizona depth chart compare to KSU in Utah uh that's a teaser uh because on Thursday we will talk about that very topic right there all right there we go all right now let's talk a little bit then about the defensive side of the the defensive side of the football again you asked the question at the oppressor and Saul I loved that question it was a great question about the defensive line in the depth and you could say Brent Brennan said I think we're going to surprise some people he wasn't saying that he meant it I think he's gonna surprise some people we're gonna see Will Arizona prove people wrong? we're gonna see I I think the time of just talking even though that's our job is just kind of gone now like I just I want to get to the game so bad I I think these guys are going to be able to really prove a lot of people wrong this season on the defensive line at least I hope so because if they do Mike we're not talking about a team that you hope wins nine games we're talking about a team that could legitimately win 10 or 11 that's the difference you got to have tremendous line play right that's that's the ultimate separator between the georgas and the bamas to like the West Virginia and the arizonas if you will like you have to have tremendous line play because that can keep you in a lot of ball games we saw it firsthand on Saturday when uh Florida State and Georgia Tech played each other Georgia Tech manhandled Florida State up front they wasn't even close and the fact that that you saw that level of dominance from that that line and that really dictated the game I mean look at that last drive to win the game for Georgia Tech they just beat the crap out of Florida State they even had a third and 17 or third and 15 got that and just kept the ball moving and they waited until the 12-sec mark got out of their huddle got to the line snapped it with 3 seconds and just continued to just bludgeon Florida State if you can do that and impose your will it makes it so much easier for everybody else and I know that's what this this coaching staff has been focused on is really really imposing your will that's why you've seen a lot of two tight and sets in Camp because I think that's what they're trying to impress upon everybody is like listen we're going to go three and four wide from time to time we're going to do the the gimmicky stuff from time to time but at the end of the day you got to beat the hell out of your opponent up front and I think that's what's going to be the target goal for this team yep and then you look like we talked about the linebacker it's unproven but we're going to find out about that like that was my Ron wolfley moment I was you just got to beat them in the head that was that was that was very good and then with the the defensive back or excuse me with the defensive backs all kinds of really good stuff uh obviously a loaded defensive back field okay now let's talk a let a little bit about New Mexico because here's what we are we are beacons of Truth in an uncertain World well let's talk about new Mexico get to know the Lobos right here alltime record of 499 641 and 31 which is like a 490 Get to know New Mexico win percentage is not very good uh they've won four Conference titles they've been into 12 bll appearances uh they have it listed as Arizona as a rival which I mean geographically okay we'll give you that one uh and New Mexico State their head coach is Bronco menal formerly a BYU and in 2024 so far this season uh they are 0 and one with their loss blowing a 17-point fourth quarter League to Montana State yes now if you watch that game I can tell you New Mexico does not impress me very much they gave up over 370 yards rushing against Montana State well that's where we're going to get to in a second exactly I need Arizona and in these games like uh when coaches are like well you know wins a wins a win no no no no no I need to beat the snot out of New Mexico period Point Blank That's what I need I need to be able to beat the snot out of New Mexico it should be on paper an inferior team but we have three things that you're going to want to look out uh you have that graphic too yes we got uh so this is what you need to know first uh New Mexico's going to have a really tough time stopping the Run um as Mike said Montana State went for 362 yards rushing uh if you get him in third down guess what probably going to get out of that and U get your offense back on the field because they were one for eight on third Downs last week uh and unfortunately for them uh three key drops in the fourth quarter on third down uh that could have cemented the game for them and the wide receivers just fell apart when they could least uh you know afford it and then Devon dampier's arm um I wasn't impressed with Devon dampier's arm I thought it was uh listen if those receivers come down with some of those catches he has one more touchdown pass and um he also can be somewhat effective in the air but I just don't feel like they played a tremendous secondary at all and I think we should we should handle business you you want to know something fun about Devon dampier guess where he's from here Tucson Arizona oh yeah born in Tucson Arizona actually obviously played up here at Chandler but uh yeah cool stuff how about that yeah and yeah here's where I'm at with damp Pier he doesn't make a lot of mistakes but at the same time he's not going to do much for you quarterbacks like that you know what it's like it's kind of like a poor man's NFL version of Alex Smith not going to really get you into any trouble but you know what if you get down seven4 points probably not going to be leading you back though either and that's we expect we expect New Mexico to get down in this game and when New Mexico gets down in this game then he's got to start winging the ball a little bit and then all of a sudden not so good Saul Bookman yeah listen I I don't know how Devon dampierre is going to a fair uh with you know the The Versatile looks that Arizona's going to provide I think what's going to happen is in that first quarter is probably as usual will be New Mexico's best opportunity to score because um I think Arizona's probably going to come out in a more vanilla type of look um to see how they can control the game um and then from there they'll they'll twist some things and and you know throw some things in there but they're not going to give too much away because listen in theory Arizona should dominate this game they should dominate uh the na game and get prepared for Kansas state which will be the first time where you will see a variety of different wrinkles um that maybe uh teams haven't seen before so I'm excited for this game mostly because I want to see how dominant we can be without being gimmicky you know what sometimes too the grasses and greener on the other side look at Bronco mendenhal for example go from BYU Virginia to you know decent mid-level jobs now you're in New Mexico that's uh you know that's a that's a tough place to that's a tough place to win that's a very very tough place to win also a homecoming for Jak Cori crosy Meritt I think that merrit's a mention on this show as well is it a homecoming yeah it is it is is it a homecoming yeah he was in New Mexico last year yeah but he didn't he's not going to New Mexico though well yeah but it's a homecoming still coming back home though he's coming back home he's coming back we will take him either way we very very excited about this I think he's going to do well yes I think he's do well as well I think you're also going to see a running back that I think you're also going to see a running back room that um is just going to kind of try to bludge in teams this year now a lot of ASU folks been telling me they have a bit of room they're wrong Arizona Cory crosy Merritt quy connley these two guys combined for over 20 almost 2400 yards last year I see a lot of those two men uh I listen I don't asu's got a really really good running back but in terms of depth I mean we'll we'll we'll just wait to see cuz honestly like what are we talking about here and then ra on Speedy What is homecoming? Luke I want to see fam I want to get I don't care how it happens I need fam to get the ball eight to 10 times per game don't care if it's off returns receptions rushing the ball get the ball in his hands uh this is a good game to start to see it get started there all yeah absolutely Eric duthy in the chat said I've been doing my best to create hype around Arizona football with my hype videos on Twitter I refused to call it that and my YouTube channel uh yes Eric duthy appreciate all the work that you've been doing you have been putting out a [ __ ] ton of videos uh props to you my guy I don't know how you have the time to do that man Eric you were the man we very much appreciate you you do things that I have no clue how to do so very much typically a homecoming is when you go revisit where you came from not that's what he's doing that's like that's like saying um I'm gonna go it's a homecoming if I go see my ex-girlfriend or my ex-girlfriend's in the city that I live in that's not the right or maybe be a homecoming if you're going back to Kansas state if I yeah that is a homecoming yeah that would be a homecoming but like Kansas State coming here is not a homecoming well right but you well that's fair all right if how about this it's a homecoming of his uh yeah that's that's actually a good Revenge game question renge game Revenge game that's the prodigious the prodigious Kevin Thomas coming in with the uh oh it's it is Dan Beer's homecoming there you go get well I'm glad that we' have been able to flush this one out because I think there was a lot of questions about damp there's been a lot of lies and allow ske of information of late that I just got to make sure we correct people the misinformation around here has been absolutely astounding I mean have you seen the political ads about you know D montia like I mean just a slander do you remember was it last year that the guys thought that he was really the mayor on like Apple TV yeah yeah oh come on come on we need to do better but you know one thing that doesn't need to do better rugged Road my friend rugged road now now now when I think of Shane debach I think of somebody that likes to hang out in the probably hang out in the river hang out in the ocean at times yes exactly and he's probably not going to want one of those like crummy styrofoam coolers I think we can agree with that no Shane is Shane is an elite man Shane is an elite man and again nobody can just take over for the great Jacob Franklin without being Elite and so rugged road is saying Shane de Bach this is for you get ready for your summer adventures with rugged Road coolers head to rugged Road outdoors.com and use code phnx for 10% off your order lightweight durable and always floating upright perfect on land or in water so Le that old heavy cooler at home or the Styrofoam cooler no good and go get a better cooler for yourself rugged Road your ultimate outdoor companion I almost said Saul defin boach Saul Bookman this is true this is true this is very true rugged Road very very good high quality cooler you can't go wrong get 10% off use code plus doesn't that just sound strong too it sounds like something you would have in the back of your Sanderson Ford truck I mean true I mean you're not wrong on that check it out rugged Road Kobe says mike forier of phnx uh okay and then also that he will be going to the game this week how many of you are going to the game uh we will be doing two two home meetups this year for sure one will be for the Colorado game and then the other will be for um the territorial cup we know that for sure this is true according to to us um and more details will come but it'll be listen we're going to be cooking out we're going to have a good little tailgate so if you don't have a to go to for those games come holler at us also we will be doing watch parties we're we will be doing some away game watch parties um so you can stay tuned for that as well but we will not be doing an a away game watch party for Kansas State because we're gonna be up in Kansas me and homie will be in Manhattan getting jacked up looking for some of that great Manhattan Seafood the little apple is about to get busted it's go we're going to find it okay now with uh when it comes to uh when it comes to these first Expectations for first 4 games games of the Season I'm going to keep coming back to this I need to be three and one don't care again I would prefer it to be Utah but again that to me is the key of the season if you're three in one I've got a margin for Eric because let's be honest here we have high expectations around here we have college football playoffs is what we want at the end of the day that's what I want and if you're 0 and two off those two Road games I think it's a very daunting climb a million percent I listen I the college football playoff you're right that that is what everybody wants that's what I want that's what you want and and really you can't go wrong you just got to get in yeah okay so whether you're an at large or if you do have that first round buy even though it sacrifices a home game you that means you won the Big 12 Championship which is fantastic too so either way you're going to be happy I I I think they have a tremendous opportunity they just they got to get it done and listen we've we've seen this movie before we've seen it about four or five times in the last 30 40 years where they have a lot of preseason hype they come in as [ __ ] a couple times before they came in as the preseason number one and everything fell apart we've got to win one of those two Big Time games in weeks three and five and if they can get that done man listen if they be K State in Manhattan Kansas I don't give a [ __ ] what anybody says they are the favorites to win the Big 12 at that point yeah I agree with you I totally agree with you and then you go into Utah keep in mind here too everybody's picking Utah to win the Big 12 I listen I'm gonna keep going back to this cam ryzen hasn't played in two years so again I will uh I like h woodingham a great deal but I will still believe it when I see it just got to be able to see it first I think people again I think people are sleeping on Arizona and I felt this for the last two years and again when people when the line was two and a half and then Arizona got five last year was five then they got 10 this year I think it's kind of the same thing seven and a half is a steel steel get in there right now heck even if they were to go 0 and2 I think they'd still go over the seven and a half can you find five losses on the schedule no you can't you can't exactly and let's be honest here if you if you're looking at if this team is seven and five then we probably have some bigger concerns at that point this is not a seven and five team Rick baren gets it or I have an idea we go two and0 in that stret if you go two and0 in that stretch Arizona's in the top 10 and and was also great about it too is because this is college football at the end of the day um you have a margin for error built in that you don't necessarily have at that point if you go if you get those two Road WIS again you don't want to drop the UCF game but at the same time a game like that you at least got a little bit more margin for error whereas you got to basically run the table you go 0 and two yeah yeah a million per I mean so that's you know that's kind of where I look at and that's where I think to myself that this is a this is a squad that is in uh this squad that is in very very good shape now I think it's going to be interesting to watch too and I'm was talking with somebody the other day was telling me this is keep keep in mind too all of these Texas games I think that you're going to see a lot of uh you're going to see a lot of high-profile recruits at some of these games Sal Bookman uh a lot of people are asking about you know Brent Brennan's recruiting how's it going to be I think that I think you're going to see some high-profile names coming up here I'm just wink wink nod nod uh little push of the cap I don't know what that means but um yeah either way I think it's going to be fascinating but again three in one it's all I need all that's all we all that's all we've ever wanted yes that's all we evered that's all we ever wanted now um the uh now looking forward though a little bit looking forward though what is your main concern we talked about this a little bit earlier your main concern with this entire team okay What is the biggest concern? because again we're very bullish on this team what is your main concern though I have two one defensive line and I will pound that until I see it for myself this week and and realize that maybe it's not a worry uh and two again there there is something to be said about you know just adapting to a new coach a new system a kind of an overhaul uh in inside that building like there there's going to be some type of you know learning curve then the good thing is you you have two opponents right off the bat that you should be able to flush out some of those those you know kind of weak points and get ready to go uh for week three so I think that's that's the biggest thing is this you know the fear of the unknown for us right now Steve Hernandez says defense is my uh uh a line is my concern with babers play calling I was at least I was a little bit concerned initially about babers play calling but the one thing that I do say and I can't put anything out there is how creative they were being in Camp I was concerned that this was going to be something I don't want to see Woody Hayes I don't want to see any of that stuff where it's three yards in a cloud of dust and we're preserving the right to punt I don't want to hear any of that stuff you're in the year 2024 and you got a high powered attack he's said many many times he knows what he has with Noah faid and I like hearing that at least now again you got to see it on the football field but I like hearing that he knows what he has with Noah faf we give him props for understanding this yeah absolutely and if you look at baber's first couple Seasons at ser Syracuse versus the last couple Seasons you'll see a distinct difference and I I'm hoping for obviously the the former because he he was he was dynamic in his What to expect from Dino Babers play calling and if you look if i i people go back and look at like Syracuse first second season under babers especially at Clemson okay Clemson obviously BigTime program uh you they've won national championships and all that good stuff and then you look at like Brett Brennan's offense from last year go to the USC game okay those are two games I'm giving you right now first year Clemson fir uh last year for Brennan against USC and look at the style and the movement and the motion and the trickeration if that's even a word um that both of they uh both of them had the only thing about babers offense that I did not like back in those days was they relied a little bit on the quarterback run a little bit too frequently right and I didn't like that but their quarterback was absolute trash so it is what it is I don't think they're going to have that problem obviously with no FF so I'm ready to go I uh fun fact about me I went to school Outro with Dino baber's daughter soing Tom Elementary my friend in the east side of Tucson just so yeah just you know I'm sure you were concerned about that you guys still homies yeah no no I was significantly older than them my sister was in the same class as them though so I basically wanted to make this about myself you have a sister what's that you have a sister yeah I do have a sister she's much cooler than me too what's her what's her name Sarah Sarah Luke Sarah Michelle Luke named after Michael Luke but on that note then probably not but on that note though there's also no better time to become a phnx die hard we have the great Eric Ruby no we don't we're not doing that anymore I like that that's over all right fine all right well no better time to become a phnx Die Hard you can get Die Hard membership free t-shirt of your choice from the locker access to all of our premium written content entrance to the Discord lounge and discounts on all events events you will thank me later I'll make a better person if you do this uh do you have a daughter no that's a long-standing joke on Twitter but I do not have a daughter all right that I know of but oh Jesus no I don't have a daughter definitely no daughter uh so become a DI hard uh listen being a Die Hard is is second to none man honestly like it's gonna be awesome uh we do have some some news that'll be coming out shortly uh to make it easier for you to become a DI hard so hopefully we can get that out here in the next uh couple weeks uh we've been working on a lot of things behind the scenes so become a die hard because it's the greatest thing ever all right now again check it out again we will be back with you tomorrow but again for the prodigious Kevin Thomas behind the scene Shane de box sitting in here as well for the boss Saul Bookman everybody out there you're the best you're the ones that make the show we rely on you we will be back with you tomorrow you have been listening to the A Wildcats [Music] podcast yall sitting like the mayor