HOUR 3: Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong previews 2025-26 NHL season | Keanu Tanuvasa needs to have…
Let’s go. Let’s go. Complete game coverage of the Cougars is right here on the KSL Sports Zone. The Cougars head to Tucson for a battle against the Arizona Wildcats, your home for the best coverage of Cougar football is right here on 975. The KSL Sports Zone. This is Hance Olsson and Scotty G presented by Mountainland Supply on 975 the KSL Sports. It is Christmas Day in the NHL. It is opening day and I could not be more fired up hands. Year two of the NHL in Salt Lake City and I have missed our guy. I know I’ve missed our conversations. I’ve missed picking up on the game, some of the finer details, and excited to have him back on the show. He is the general manager of the Utah Mammoth, Bill Armstrong. Bill, how are you? Well, I’m great. Now, I’m talking to you guys. You guys just said it absolutely perfect. I have missed you guys all summer. All summer I haven’t been able to talk about hockey, you know, and I’ve just been waiting for this moment, and now it’s here. So, it’s here. It’s It’s our Christmas Day cuz NHL is kicking off. It’s your Christmas day because you get to be on with Hans and Scotty. What a what a fun Christmas. It is Christmas Day. I’ve never felt better. You know, there the one thing I’ve always loved about our conversations, you’re brutally honest about where your team’s at. And last year when we asked, “What are your expectations?” You’re like, “Hey, look, we’re taking that next step. We feel like we’re on the cusp.” And this year you’ve flat out said like, “Hey, we’re we should be a playoff team this year.” Do you still feel confident in that? I do. I I do. I think, you know, it’s uh for our group, you know, it’s we’ve put it out there. You know, we’ve talked about it. We we’ve we’ve asked our everybody in our organization for a higher level of commitment. You know, we got to push to get in um from the players, the trainers, the coaches to myself, like whatever it takes to get it done. So, um we like that pressure, too. I think there’s a goodness of that. uh expecting to be good, expecting to make the playoffs and and setting that standard when you’re coming to the rink that you know we expect you to be at your best to get us in. So, um it’s it’s a good vibe around here. It’s not going to be easy. I’m telling you, it is not going to be easy. We’re in the toughest division in hockey every night. It’s going to be a punch in the face comp competition. Um it’s going to be a battle. But I I also think I I I love our group and I think, you know, for us it’s going to be a great challenge. you know, we got some young young players that can that can really flat out play. And uh with the schedule being condensed because of the Olympics, it’s like every other night we’re going. So, it’s on. It’s on. And I’m excited. And I want all the Mammoth fans out there to know that it’ll look largely the same, but it’s going to look drastically different at times, too. And I want to try to grasp the magnitude of bringing in a guy like JJ Purka coming into his fifth coming into his fifth year. Um coming from Buffalo, uh he’s he’s he’s a player out of Munich, Germany. This is a he is a a winger and he’s supposed to be fantastic. So help me understand, Bill, how much different does the Mammoth look with JJ Purka? Well, he’s a scoring threat. you know, he’s a 68-point guy that last year. He’s a young kid in the National Hockey League. He gives us a ton of speed and he’s a threat to score off the rush. So, for us, you know, to be able to get him, he kind of completes our top two lines. You know, I always felt like we were one or two guys short to really to be able to kind of create that top two line offense. And and now we’ve kind of completed that. You know, he’s a special player. He’s a young player and he’s pushing, you know, he’s going to push this group to get better. Um, and then you know we’ve got him on a line with Logan Culie and Dylan Gunther and might be the fastest, most exciting line in the National Hockey League. How difficult is it from your perspective? And I imagine it’s difficult every year, but you you know your core group of guys, but finishing out that opening day roster, how difficult is that? And how agonizing is that when you know these guys are all putting in incredible amounts of work? You know, it is agonizing to think about it, but once you come to grips on it in your mind and you’re like, “Okay, this is what we’re doing and this is why.” Um, you know, you you you feel good in the sense that sometimes you you you you have to make a decision for a young player to go to play in the minors, but you know that’s the right decision for him. It’s a tough decision, but I always feel like if you’re really a player and we put you down there, you always come back like, you know, it’s almost like you were shot out of a cannon or out of a slingshot back into the NHL because you’re you realize, you know, the the American League is a tough place to play and you also realize that the NHL is where you want to be and it’s always a great great teaching tool. Um, and I always feel like we’ve done that with, you know, from JJ uh Moser we had a long time ago. We had Dylan Gunther and Josh Doan. They’ve all done it, you know, and it really completes the player. I think it makes the player a little bit more consistent. So, sometimes you got to make tough decisions on your roster and uh and send guys down, but I also feel like there’s some good um that’ll help the player uh long term. I got to imagine. Is that do you feel like that’s more your the way you lean is let him cook a little bit longer in the AHL before you bring him up? You’d rather go too long on that end than throw them to the Wolves too soon. Yeah, the NHL is the toughest, you know, it’s the toughest thing that they’ll ever do in their life is play consistent at that level. So, if we can let them bake a little bit, um, two things happen. They’re a better player when they hit the NHL and we’re a better team because they’re at their peak. And when you get to this point and you’re trying to push for a playoff spot, the NHL is not a development league. It’s a league where you have to be good enough to produce. So, I do feel like overbaking them, it does help. It does help the organization. It helps them as a player. I love the way you put that, Bill. And it’s kind of crazy to think that you have six first round draft picks in the system right now. and I go through them with Lamro and you’ve got Igginla and Denoy, your most recent, but you’ve got all of this great talent that’s in the system, but I like your take right there where it’s like this is not a developmental system that we’ve got systems for that. Uh you guys have a different focus, but all this young talent has to be extremely exciting for you as a general manager. It is. I mean, we’ve got some great kids. I mean, they came to play, you know, training camp and they’re tough cuts, but when you when you send them back to their junior teams or down in the American League, you know, you realize like, okay, you know, surely they’re going to be pushing for an NHL job and they can help us win if we time it right and and and help out their developing and bring them in the right time. They’re not just coming in to play, they’re coming in to help us win. And there’s a big difference in that. And uh I think as an organization, it’s a great thing, too, because we have high standards. um before you know if you were ready to play we put you in and and and we’re not at that right now. We’re we’re we’re we’re trying to take that next step and we need players to come in and be able to contribute uh be able to have impact and and really push the franchise, you know, uh across the across the goal line here and get us in the playoffs. There were a lot of games that got away from you in late game situations in overtime as well. Do you feel like another year of experience added with a little bit of you added a little bit of experience to this roster? Do you think that helps in those close game late game situations? I do. I mean, we’ve added Brandon Tanner in there and he’s he’s a driven human being and the Nate Schmidt and the Vanicheks and you know, in total we have uh nine Stanley Cups in in our dress room and that’s that’s an important factor. Um, you know, and I think we, you know, everybody, there’s painful lessons sometimes for the the the Gunthers of the world and the coolies, you know, that you have to go through um and go back home for the summer and think about it and get better and be like, “Okay, I’ve got more determination when I’m in that spot again. I’m not going to let that happen.” And that’s that’s a maturing factor that has to happen uh for our club. And and I feel in a lot of ways the guys went home got bigger, stronger, and faster, and they’re a little wiser. So, they’re going to help push. Um, uh, the schedule this year is is absolutely it’s it’s unrelenting. And, you know, for us, we we play a lot of the games on the road to start out. And, you know, we got to make it to Christmas and be in the race. If we can get to Christmas and be in that race. Um, you know, we got a good chance down the stretch to push and and uh and get in. I’m so excited for you, Bill, and I’m I’m so excited for this season, just to get this second season really going and and understand and experience what it’s going to be about. So, as a from a general manager’s standpoint, what’s been more difficult, moving a team from Arizona to Utah or having a build and a rebuild on practice facilities and your playing venue? Because I got to imagine that’s been difficult and a bit distracting for you. Yeah. Well, you know, listen, I think that the the hardest thing for us, you know, was to be honest, the hardest thing we’ve done is, and it sounds weird when I say this to you, but we our players were so touched when we moved here to Utah. Um, you know, we started playing in the Delta Center and our fan base, it felt like they were there for 30 years and they’re going crazy. our players had a hard time playing there. It’s almost as a team we overtried. We got over frustrated. We were over emotional. It’s because our our players cared so much and wanted to entertain. They wanted to win in front of our fan base. And you know, for the first part last year, we struggled with that. But it was because we were we were over trying at times. That that was probably the hardest thing that we did is is getting used to playing in there with our fan base. And it’s such a great thing. Like we played our two exhibition games there now. It’s just rock. And the new seating is incredible. And our whole facility is is built in Sandy. It’s just I lived the dream every day I walk in and I mean I get to work for Ryan and Ashley Smith and they’ve done a great job where they’ve created this organization where there is zero excuses. Yeah. Yeah. They take they take them all away. Yeah. There’s no excuses left. Yeah. All right. So, this is uh we always ask you one dumb question. Um well, actually, we ask you a lot, but we ask you a lot of dumb questions, but but but one that we’ll recognize as dumb. Um there’s always I’ve heard different arenas across uh the NHL and you know, players or coaches say, “Oh, that’s good ice or that, you know, sometimes that that’s bad ice in there.” what what what is good ice and how important was that in the rebuild of this arena to ensure that you have indeed good ice in uh in the Delta Center? Yeah. Well, I’m going to answer this in a way like I don’t believe in excuses, you know. So, when you know our practice ice last year, you know, we had a lot of snow. we, you know, it’s just you need pretty much two rings to practice uh in the NHL cuz because of the the size of the player and how many people you have on the ice and if you can’t clean it, then your your pace of practice slows down and the puck hops and then we’d go to the Delta and it just wasn’t made. The Delta Center wasn’t made at the at that time uh to produce great ice. There was no dehumidifiers in there and the the the ice generation plant was old. Now we’re we’re out in Sandy with brand new facility and the ice is unbelievable. And now we’re, you know, and now we go play at the game in in the Delta Center and the ice is unbelievable. So good ice benefits our team. And what it is is it allows us to play fast. The puck moves on the ice which allows us to play it. We’re a fast team. So when we don’t have good ice, that means it’s slushy. That means the puck is jumping. And when the puck jumps on you, you have to slow down to catch it. When the puck is not jumping and it’s not bouncing on the ice and it’s moving across it, you can play fast. And the faster we can play, the more chance we have to win. So, u I believe the ice in Sandy at a practice facility and at the Delta Center. It’s the best ice in the NHL and it’s going to help us. So, Bill, I might should probably ask Coach Bear this question, but I’ll just throw it at you because it’d be interested to get your perspective on this. Um, veggie back ready, looking good, but can you give us some ideas or at least a picture of what our net depth looks like? Yeah, I mean, in this schedule that we play in, it’s crazy. You know, it’s like we gota, you know, I said we got to make it through to Christmas is the big thing. We a lot of backto back games and on the road which they’re hard to win and with our goalending the way it’s set up, Veggie’s pretty durable. Um he was great for us. Played 24 of 25 games coming down the stretch and crushed it. You know, he’s just he can play almost every night. So that’s a that’s a huge uh bonus for us. But Mr. Vanichek coming out of um New Jersey a couple years ago, he crushed it. He he he had an unbelievable team in front of him and he just blew it out of the water and he took it to another level and he’s you know he the couple years after that he he had some struggles um played pretty well for Florida to win uh you know the Stanley Cup and now we brought him in here. So he’s a and he’s been lights out good for us all through training camp and in the exhibition season. So we have a lot of faith in him. I think with our two goalenders running, they’re going to give us good goalending every single night. You know, with the schedule, we’re going to need to to have some success. So, the Olympic year plus the fact that you share an arena with an NBA team, that that just creates a scheduling nightmare for you. Correct. It does, but I think with the new the new power plant, the ice power plant and our the ice crew that does an amazing job at the Delta Center with the changeovers, they’re going to crush it. I mean, SCG does a great job and hires the best people. So, I believe like our ice is going to be, you know, one of the top ice sheets in the NHL just because of how hard the Delta Center and its employees work at at keeping it as good as they do. All right, last thing for me, Bill. outside of JJ Purka. Um I, you know, I fell in love with some of these guys on the ice and and had a good idea of of what they’re going to bring to the ice. But outside of JJ Purka, give me the next name or another name that’s going to be new on the ice that I didn’t see last year that I need to pay attention to coming into this season. Great question. That’s Dimmitri Simichev, 65, 225 pound Dman out of Russia. Um he’s the best skating big Dman I’ve I’ve been a part of drafting. Um he’s earned a spot. He’s come into camp and he’s earned the right to start for our team as a rookie as a 20-year-old Dman. Uh he’s had a great training camp and he is some somebody that we knew was good. Uh we we weren’t quite sure if he’d come in and make the team, but he has. Um he can fly, absolute fly and uh um he’s going to be a great asset for us uh to play some good defense uh down the stretch, but he’s uh he’s done a nice job coming in here and earning a spot on the team. Dimmitri Simichev, Costroma, Russia. Wow. 652 652. What? Oh, he’s 225. I love it. Excited to watch him. Hey, big boy. We always appreciate it. Good luck and look forward to catching up again next week. But uh let’s go, man. We we can’t wait to talk about playoff hockey come April. Let’s go, Mammoth. I can’t wait. I can’t wait. We’re so excited. Thanks, guys. Happy for you, Bill. Thank you. He’s the best. Bill Armstrong, general manager, Utah Mammoth. New practice facilities, um new Delta Center ice, basically a new arena that’s couple years in the making. Um well it’s first year in the making of of a couple where they’ll build the upper bowl what next year? Yes. So after this lower bowl should be good. Um it’s going to be the upper bowl upper bowl over the next two years. Over the next two years. So, there’s still a lot to go, but as he mentioned, the SCG or Smith Entertainment Group or Ryan Smith, Ryan and Ashley, like they they remove all excuses, which just adds a lot of pressure. Yeah. Yeah. Because when you have and you know, essentially an owner saying, “What do you need? Uh, we need this.” Okay, here’s the check. Like essentially the Jazz and the Mammoth have blank checks and whatever they need, whatever they think they need, each player needs their own cook. Okay, fine. Give it to them. You know, whatever these guys need, uh, has been provided for them. So, there’s no like, well, you know, this ice isn’t good. Well, no, we actually we got you brand new ice out there in Sandy and two rings. Uh, okay. Well, you know, there’s no excuses. You’re right. There’s nothing to complain about. So, I know that you talk to a lot of the same people I talked to and and we talked to varying people. People that are associated with the Mammoth, people that aren’t associated with the Mammoth, NHL fans that are crazy NHL fans that are that have watched it from the outside in. And in all honesty, there are people that are very critical of Coach Tierney. There are people that don’t know if Coach Bear is the right coach. Obviously, Ryan Smith believes it. Bill Armstrong believes it. And now, you know, you throw in the pieces that they’ve thrown in and you’ve stacked on the expectations you’ve stacked on. Now, we got to see it. It’s It’s time for Coach Bear to take that next step. Now, we’ve seen the point improvements. We’ve seen the steps that have been taken and now it’s time for the Mammoth to shed it all and get themselves to a postseason and start to rebuild their name and brand. And a lot of that’s going to be on coach. He’s got to take them to the next step. And I’ve got to imagine that I’m not the only one thinking it. Yeah. Right. Uh no, everybody’s sitting around like we we’ve given you the pieces. And you know, Coach Tyranny could say, “Wait a second. What are you What are you talking about? I’m I’m I’ve got six firstrounders that are in my program. I’m dealing with a front that’s got that’s got four guys that are 23 and under. Like this this is an old league and I’m dealing with young guys. We’re still rebuilding through the draft. He could have excuses galore, but we just we just mentioned it. Ryan Smith removes excuses. Yeah. Okay. So, you need a you need a winger. You need a right winger that can score. Uh let me introduce you to JJ. What what’s it going to take to to get JJ Bill? Get him on the phone. Get representation. What would that trade that move look like? It’s going to be X amount. This is what it’s going to mean for our team. Do it. Let’s go. Now what what what’s your other what what else? And I know he’s young. He’s 23. Yeah. He’s he’s coming into his fifth season in NHL, which is just being a baby in the NHL. That’s what’s crazy about the NHL. They play as many games as the NBA plays. They play as physical a style as you’ll find in the NFL. And you’re not hitting your stride until you’re like seven, eight seasons into the NHL. That’s when you start to hit your stride. It’s It’s weird. It It’s something that that has been one of the biggest things to really wrap our brain around learning this game. Yeah. It does not make sense. These guys play on back-to-back nights, but they play as physical as the NFL. Yeah. So, the one thing I’ve tried to kind of grasp to help myself understand it because it does not make sense when the NFL plays a 17 game season and you get seven days of rest in between each game. Okay. Well, we’re going to take that physicality and we’re going to do we’re going to run an NBA schedule. The one thing that’s helped me is the lineups. Yeah. And Jay Stevens and Bill Armstrong and and anybody that I’ve talked to about it and then going and watching it, watching the lineups, getting them on the ice for 30, 40 seconds, getting them off the ice for 30 40 seconds, getting them getting them the break that they need and then also understanding what my lineups are and when I can put them on the ice and for how long. That’s why when Veggie went, how many games was it? 24 out of the last 25 and it was like 24 games was like the the NHL record and standard and I remember thinking, wait a second. So that’s that’s a big deal. Yeah, that’s a big deal. Now that helps you understand what they try to do to rest and manage these guys. But then you you go to any Mammoth game, there’s Keller. Oh yeah. Working his butt off. I’m excited to watch Simv though. Yeah, I am too. And you could tell Bill’s excited about it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he answered that really quickly. Um, the other issue, and we didn’t have a chance to talk to Bill about it today, and Bill honestly isn’t going to give you many details about it because, uh, I think it’s going to be a policy of the mammoth, as it should be, to not negotiate through the public. Uh, but Logan Culie’s got that contract extension coming up and that’s going to be a big question because according to uh Frank Saraveali who joined us back in the day a lot, Logan Culie turned down a contract extension that would have paid him uh essentially $77 million over eight years. And according to Sarah, he’s entering NHL money is good money. Is entering the blank check territory. Yeah. meaning this guy is such a superstar. Uh he’s going to command a heavy heavy salary. And that’s what’s going to be interesting about where the mammoth are right now. And talking about no excuses when this comes down and frankly I believe it will comes down a monumental massive contract extension for Logan Culie. Um then definitely there’s no more excuses because uh Kulie is about to get paid and deservedly so. He is and deservedly so. And you know, you think about your captains and you think about the most impactful guys. Well, Clayton Keller is your most impactful as far as points are concerned. He had 90 points last year. And then really, you start looking down the line and you’ve got Logan right there, number two. Yeah. With 65 points. He’s very important to what they’re trying to do. So, I hope that they can take care of him. I hope that he sticks around. And here’s the deal. These guys are in a perfect position here in Utah. You can own the state. Oh yeah. Especially with the Jazz being down. You can own the state. Yep. And it’s like, and it’s not just the Jazz. It just feels like the NBA and it’s and it’s leadership. Like LeBron James is now worried about whatever liquor commercials or something like the decision part two or whatever it was for LeBron James. Steph Curry is aging out. It’s like who’s who are my superstars? Well, my superstars are a couple of out oftowners. You know, you’re you’re looking at the Joker and you’re you’re looking at some weird movement and the Lakers getting a hold of the number two guy and you’re just like, what is going on in this league? Dallas ends up winning the number one and now Cooper flags out there. And by the way, I guess his debut was something special. Yeah. You know, the Jazz miss out on him with the worst record. I I kind of look at the NBA like, “Okay, get get yourself organized and I’ll be back in the next five years.” In the meantime, let’s go, Mammoth. Let’s do it. Let’s get some NHL action going here in the state. Hans and Scotty, right here on 975, the EKSL Sports Zone. [Music] And it’s time to talk some sports. This is Sports Roulette with Hansen Scotty on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Hans and Scotty 975, the KSL Sports Zone. It is sports roulette. We take some of the big story lines, put it on a roulette wheel, spin it. Wherever that little ball lands, what we end up talking about. Bill Armstrong, by the way, fantastic conversation. Yeah, it was it was so good. And I think he wants to be sarcastic and pretend like he’s begrudgingly doing this. I think he actually likes our chats. I don’t know. Never mind. He um but he is kind enough to do it. You know what it made me realize when we had Bill on? How strictly we’ve been talking about college football because it felt weird. It did. Yeah. It was like, are we doing what we’re supposed to be doing? But I’m not going to feel bad for having an NHL conversation with the general manager of the NHL team here on opening day, too. On opening stinking day. Now, uh, the Mammoth dropped the puck on Thursday, isn’t it? Against the Avalanche. Thursday. Yeah. Yeah. But the league opens up today. Yeah. The league opens up today. Mammoth open up on Thursday against the Avalanche. You know what? I hate the Avalanche. I really do. Like it’s I you were kind of looking for teams to hate. Yeah, I really hate the Avalanche. And I know we got our guy Eric listening out there. Love you. Love you guy. But I hate your Avalanche. I do. Well, you know, there was a time when I was called the Jolly Lancer. Yeah, you were the Lancher, but now those days are behind you. You don’t like McKennon, huh? No. No love for Nathan McKinnon? Nope. All of you get lost. Hate all the teams from Denver. Really? Oh, you should. Stop it. As you should in this market. Don’t ruin our show, eh? Get lost. I don’t know. I’m I’m still looking for that team to really wrap my brain around and be like, I hate those guys. I hate them. You know who you can’t hate? Florida. I know. You can’t hate the Panthers. And I’m having a hard time hating the Lightning. I’m having a hard time. I want I need to purge the Florida teams. Well, embrace the Utah team. Thing is, you’re almost you’re like, you know how people are born in different countries and they have dual citizenships? Yeah. You almost have dual statesmanship. Very, very close. Yeah. Very, very close. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, here in uh a couple of months then I probably should have done. You’re not going to go there until next year. Yeah. At least next year. It’s going to be that long. By the way, we got some uh some feedback on the uh our songs. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned this. Yes. We got a an open mic uh from a a loyal listener who absolutely loves the show and I feel like we need to think we need to play it like he he fan of the songs. So, when when we open the show, uh we were playing some you know, we have three songs that we rotate to open the show. Uh each one of us have chosen a song and it gets put on a rotator. Uh Lloyd gets his played twice to ours once. I’m I’m joking. Uh but uh we asked, should we freshen it up a little bit? Should we get some new songs in there in the rotation? And uh this listener had some opinions. The opening songs are perfect. K, Lloyd, exclamation point. You guys don’t need to change them yet. Let them go for a while. Exclamation point. Love the feedback. Text to speech or speech to text. I am going to leave them. We appreciate it. Period. Thanks for the call. I felt like my I feel like you were leaving a message. You’re the best. Is that Weber Eats? Is that No, that was not. Play it though. It sounds like him. Hello, Wildat. Is this Weber Cooks? The opening songs are perfect. comma Lloyd exclamation point. You guys don’t need to change them yet. Let them go for a while. Exclamation point. I am going to leave them cuz I agree. They are perfect. Open the nacho sauce. Don’t Lloyd. Nope. Not. Hey, to the listener out there, I know that you thought you were sending a text, a voice to text. I don’t care what you’re doing. Thank you for listening. Yes. That’s all we care about. We love and adore you and we will not change the music cuz you’re right. It makes it sound like we’re making fun of you. No, cuz we would do the exact same thing. 100%. And I have done this. I was say Hans has done it. Oh, dude. I sent I accidentally sent a a pretty horrible text because our boss’s name was Jim Olsen. And this is Oh, this is one of the greatest stories. And my wife’s name is Amanda Olsen. Yeah. So, they’re right next to each other in the old phone. So, I pulled I just put together a text and I fired it off to an Olsson. Olson At least I wasn’t Fawn Olsson. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, I’d much ra Yes. I’d rather be to Yeah. my boss than my mom for sure. Jeez. What? Well, I don’t know. What do you mean you don’t know? Oh, that was the worst. So, our guy was feeling a little uh amorous. Sent off a nice little Oh my god. Nice little text to our boss and it happened to be our boss, Jim Olsson. Did he ever share that text with you? No, you did. Oh man, that was rough. Love you, Jim. Yeah, thanks for being understanding more than you know, Jim. Not that much, Jim. But do love and appreciate you. All right, let’s get to it. Lloyd, spin that wheel. Who needs to step up for BYU this weekend? Keano Tanavasa. Oh, I like it. It’s done. Got to do it. He’s got to be the man. I have zero insight with this. But I don’t expect Jack Kelly to play. How can you? Yeah. After what we saw, what that looked like, uh, if you get him back for the Utah game, I think that’s a huge accomplishment. I think that’s a massive accomplishment. And that should be your goal. That would hopefully be your goal. And knowing Jack, he’d probably put every needle he could find in his shoulder to play in that game. Yeah. One of the few people that truly understands the the concept of the rivalry game. Been around the state for quite a while with Weieber and and such, so he knows. But when you think about who needs to step up in the place of your sack leader, Jack Kelly is your sack leader, it’s Keo Tanovasa. Now, John Tomppo, who you heard some sound from there, the BYU update, and we we know Glaser, I’m expecting Glasker to play. Again, no insight, just kind of the expectation. I would go to Kona Tonavas and say it is your time. Okay, so why do I not center out or or point out defensive ends? There just hasn’t been production. Logan Latoule is second or third or fourth in tackles. Great. Um, Vil Puha probably third, fourth or fifth in tackles. Great. We’re talking about quarterback pressures on Noah Fafida. Okay. So, Scotty, I can’t push the importance enough. You have to tackle, hit, sack, and pressure Noah Fafita. Now, he’s going to get out of some and he’s gonna be a magician with some, but you have to be able to pressure him. And I I’m begging both Ko Tanavasa and Johno to have the game of their life against Arizona. You’re going to need it. So, this You don’t think this is like a set the pocket kind of thing and and keep him in the pocket? No. You want to turn him loose and let him get after him? I think Okay. Now, you’re asking how I would do it. Yes. Yes. Yeah. How I would do it? Yeah, I would I would pin all of my defensive lineman’s ears back. I would just say, “Hey, yeah, you’ve got some gap structure.” Some, but I would go to every one of them. Hunter Kle, Vil Poha, Logan Latoule, u Moroni. I would go to every one of my DNS and I would go to my DTackles and say, “Hey, we we’re gonna hit gaps and we are going to get in the back field like crazy.” And then I just establish, which this sucks missing Jack Kelly. I would establish my spy. I would have a scrape and I would just have him watch any movement that Noah makes. All I’m gonna do, I’m not even gonna get up field. I’m just going to make the lateral movements so that if he does start to press up field, at least I can grab a shoelace of his and hold things up for Satwala or for Tanner Wall or for Salia if he’s scraping. And by the way, you know, if if I have to assign a guy, I would be as crazy as saying, “All right, I don’t want to take Glasker and Saleaser out of their responsibilities. and and I’ve got to be careful with my safety play, but I’m going to use volatile Satala as much as I can to contain, hit, and harass Noah Fafita because missing losing Jack Kelly, I I lost the backbone of my defense. Yes. Yep. He is the backbone. He is the sackmaster. He is the pressurizer. He is the the container. He is the spy. He would mirror. He would ghost spy. He would do it all for you. And now I’m like, geez. All right, Satwala, you’re next in line. Glasker, we’ve got responsibilities for Glasker. He’s got all kinds of things he’s got to take care of and he can contain one side. That’s why I go to Tonavasa in particular and just say it’s got to be the game of your life. This is your game. Go do it. But because this is the way I this is the way I see it with Noah Fafida I I don’t I I’ve got contained responsibility. I’m going to do that with my spy. I want to get guys in his face as fast and as many and as crazy as I can. So I’m going to rush them. I’m going to take the training wheels off of my DNS. I’m going to take him off. Just say this is your time to shine. Harass him. If you have to hit an inside gap, understand you’re risking a lot. If you do hit the inside spin, we have to have you pressure him and we have to have you push him deep. You can’t hit the inside spin and let him on a on a straight downhill. You you you picture what I’m saying, Scotty? Yep. So, if I’m coming up field and I’ve got my tackle near quarterback depth and I go to spin inside and I’ve got contained responsibility, you better spin and get back up field to at the very least push him back or bow him back before he hits an edge because that’s where you get killed. Yeah. But I’m giving my guys a two-way go and we’re working pass rushing off the defensive edge still five games in. Not a single sack from a defensive end. Yeah, that doesn’t sit right now. We’ve we’ve had Jay on and Jay said, “Hey, look, it’s kind of the design of our defense.” All right. And he said, “I could call a game better to set them up.” All right. I think this is the game. Yeah. You got to have a great game from your DNS with no Jack Kelly playing this quarterback. If you come out of there with zero sacks, I don’t know if BYU wins this game. Yeah. You’d you’d be in a lot of trouble where Oklahoma State had six last week. Yeah. And pushing him and he still beat Oklahoma State, but they did harass him. Y wrap this thing up next. Hans and Scotty 975 the EKSL Sports Zone.
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