Welcome Back Michael Matsumoto

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hey guys, John MacMarcos, John and Vegas. We're talking love for sports business real safe. You got it like this. Woo! We got it. Mr. Michael Matsumoto from the Scarlet Standard in the House. Thank you for having me. Thanks for coming back.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Didn't want to scare you off the first time. But you had a very one of the most popular shows, Michael. Oh my. It blew up for running Vegas. So appreciate you and Scarlet Standard collaborating with us. You bring a lot of great information. So I'm glad to have you back. A month later, after that month Memphis game, uh Unal V football. Two and two. What's your what's your thoughts? A lot has changed since we let since we last talked.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah,

UNLV At 2-2 After Memphis

SPEAKER_00 1:05

so two and two. Uh if if I gotta be honest, that's where I thought we would start. I thought we'd be competitive in all four games. That was not the case in North Texas. Uh no excuse there. It's hard getting blown out, especially of people blaming the heat. We live in Las Vegas. They practice outside. They're in the 115. I get it, humidity's new for them. Wasn't our best showing ever, but we still got a lot to look forward to for the rest of the season. And hopefully, coming into Cal, we'll be able to uh right the ship and make this a benchmark game.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah. So two and two. Yeah, the North Texas, it just is what it is. You know, I thought that'd be a more competitive game, but obviously it didn't work out. I was kind of the Memphis though was disappointing. I felt like they had that game and they kind of let it slip through their hands, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Memphis was disappointing, but you know, you lose your starting center that late into the fourth quarter in a freak accident. Um, good news there is hopefully we'll have him back by the next bye week. At least that's what Coach Mullen said in the last presser. So that's something to look forward to. But um I do think missing Boyd put us into a situation where we had to lean on some guys that weren't quite ready to go, and that ultimately changed the outcome of the game. It's not taking anything away from Memphis. They came in big, they came in strong, they came in angry, and they played hard. Yeah, I wish that we walked away with the win there.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah. It seemed like they wanted it more, and that's kind of the maybe the frustration from the fans. I mean the coaching staff is like, does Unileat football have that edge to them? Um, we saw a little of that second half of Akron coming together, so hopefully we're gonna see more of that going into we got Cal at home. 12-30 game at Allegiance Stadium. Make sure you guys get your tickets. Big game. Cal, I mean, they're they're two and two as well, but they were kind of some folks were calling them a top 25 team at the beginning of the season. Obviously, it hasn't worked out that way. Um, they had a big win at Q's, um, you know, lost to a UCLA top 25 UCLA team, yeah, lost to a good Clemson program. So, what are your thoughts? This is a big game, big non-con. Last, I believe, last conference game of the year, non-con conference game of the year. So, what's your thoughts going in into Cal this week, Ed?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Uh, Cal's a little bit of a black box to me because when you take a look at them across the board, they are definitely underperforming in several different categories offensively. They should not be playing as bad as they are. And Clemson isn't a particularly great team. They gave up 200 yards on the ground versus UNC, and then they got absolutely smashed in the next FBS game that they played. Cal has only really looked good. Well, that takeaway went from Syracuse, and then they played an FBS or a FCS team that they they completely smashed. But they had a bunch of upgrades from the portal. They should be a lot of wide receivers that their quarterback should be able to target, but they just haven't been able to make the game plan work. And I know with Cal, their new situation there, brand new head coach, or first-time head coach, first-time

What Cal Really Brings

SPEAKER_00 4:10

offensive coordinator, first-time defensive coordinator, but there's plenty of experience on that roster, on the coaching staff, in order to make a good team. They should be better. So, depending on which version of Cal we see, we have a team that figures it out. If that's the case, then it might not end too well for us. However, if they've been playing like they have the last two FPS games, we got we got a really good shot. So, offensively, they've underperformed. Defensively, however, Cal has been a pretty strong team. They've got the number one uh defensive back in the country leading in interceptions. He's got two more than anybody else. That's a freak of a player. I'm gonna butcher his name, please forgive me. Is Kingston Lopa? He's a player that Coach Mullen called out specifically in his presser. And when you take a look at him, it makes sense. Six foot five. They say he's 210 pounds. I don't know if I believe that. I think they're underreporting his weight, but he's a guy that could play several different positions. He could be a defensive end, he could be a linebacker. They have him playing safety.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

And right now, he's leading the country in interceptions. They have him mostly sitting back in a robber position, using his height to his advantage. You're 5'10 receiver, you're a five foot eight receiver in the slot. Challenge me. I'm going to take the ball away from you. I'm going to read the route well, and then I'm going to take the ball away and run for it. He's had one pick six of those five interceptions. It should have been two. He got knocked out of bounds at the two-yard line. But if we're talking about Cal defense in their two FBS performances, uh going into their first loss versus UCLA into the fourth quarter, that was a tied game. And they ended up getting blown up by 21 points in the fourth quarter. They could not finish. But going into that fourth quarter, it was a very competitive game. Same thing with Clemson. They're only down by seven. So that both of those games could have swung in either direction if they had a turnover to go their way. So, yeah, like I said, there's a lot to a lot of question marks with this Cal team. Kind of sounds like UNV football.

unknown 6:15

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

A lot of question marks. We'll see which teams show up this Saturday at uh 12:30. All right, yeah, and um, yeah, Cal defense is interesting. They give up a lot on the run. Um, but other strike I would say is their quarterback. Um how do you pronounce it? Saigal Lopotelli. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

So that was another another big quarterback coming out of Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, what are your thoughts on him? Because uh he was highly touted. Um, yeah, give give us your uh analysis on the quarterback.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Highly touted. Uh if you take a look at how they perform this year between him and Jackson Arnold in the air, it's fairly similar. He's got a little bit more passing yards than Jackson Arnold. He has a little bit higher completion rate. Um big difference when you take a look at the run, he's negative 17 for rushing yards. It doesn't run. Doesn't run. Where is Jackson Arnold second on the team for rushing? The other big difference, if we're comparing both of these quarterbacks, and um, by this point on Saturday, Cal would have faced every single five-star quarterback out of Jackson Arnold's class, with the exception of Arch Manning. So they've played a lot of really good teams.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

But that's a fun stat.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

I mean, Malachi Nelson was one of those five-star quarterbacks, but I'll count him because he was on the sideline at USC. Yeah. But um it's it counts. It counts. It counts, but with Jackson Arnold, the really big difference between both of them. Jackson Arnold's been very good at protecting the ball. He's thrown zero picks, whereas Sagalo Patelli has thrown four.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

So you can't turn over the ball like that and expect to win the game.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah. Yeah, and Jackson Arnold will get more into Jackson Arnold too. Um, I think it's interesting. Yeah, he does run. I just I'm wondering if we should be running with Jackson Arnold all the time. We've got some really good running backs, but how is UNLV gonna take it? Like, if we're going in this game, what is an advantage for UNLV to hopefully take advantage of?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Well, with the way that the Cal plays defense, they they play uh they they like to play a lot of nickel. So because you've got to sell, you've got to sell one part of the field in order to generate pressure, right? And if you're trying, if your cow's defense, you want to make Jackson Arnold uncomfortable because if he's sitting in the pocket and he's got all day to throw, he's going to complete those throws. There's a reason why he was a five-star quarterback coming out of high school. So you generate pressure, which means that you're giving up something. Does that mean that you're giving up somebody that's standing in the mesh that we can uh hit that mesh route with the slot receiver and then hopefully create a little bit of field of favorable field conditions? Or are you giving up somebody that's a little bit deeper? You playing cover one, are you playing cover zero? And if you have a single high safety, we have enough tools in the wide receiver room that we can challenge him. Even though you've got that really tall safety that likes to play a little bit closer up, challenge their free safety, challenge one of their corners, create some mishmats, overload one side. If we can flood the routes on one level, somebody's gonna be open because somebody's missing in order to generate the pressure.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah. Yeah, good takes. Uh my thoughts are: I mean, the weakness of this defense uh for Cal is against the run. And one thing I would love, I I know the stats are that we are running. I would like to see them run more, and not only with Jet, but with Glover. I think we got two really good running backs. My concern is Jackson Arnold is not an elite athlete, and we run a lot of these plays. I would run a ton, create play action. He seems like it takes a little while to process plays when they have gone to play action. The Hawaii game is a perfect example of how they were tough, they ran the ball, they schemed the defense. They weren't like in this base defense, like the Memphis game for the entire game. You know, like you said, create pressure since you don't have a super mobile quarterback you're going against. Um, what does Unal V have to work on as a team?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Well, one of the things that Coach Mullen said coming out of the North Texas game was that he was struggling to figure out the identity of this team. And it's identity identity offensively, identity defensively. And I asked him that question during the presser whether or not he had a good takeaway coming out of Akron, and he said that we're still figuring things out. I think that's 100% true. It's we're still pretty early in the season. I think that

How UNLV Can Stress Cal

SPEAKER_00 10:45

it's maybe a little bit scary that ahead of or outside of camp that you don't quite know the identity of your team. Don't think that's a knock quite on Coach Mullen. It's more of the environment that we have in this day of college football. You can't really build continuity. You've got so many players that are traveling in and out of the portal, switching teams every other year. Hopefully, that bill that's going through the Senate stabilizes things a little bit and creates incentives for players to select schools, not based on where they get paid the most money, but where they'll develop to the highest degree. But that's that's not a today thing. As far as what the team can do well, we are still missing Austin Boys. Obviously, missing your starting center is never a good thing, especially the guy that took the majority of the snaps during both of your camps in the spring and the fall. There's a guy with a lot of leadership. The team captain for a reason, and his presence is missed. Now, uh, Scrogs has done a pretty good job at center, and they've got some pretty good rotation between the guards and between the tackle. Uh Ifoa has been a person that stepped in as to give uh Will Thomas some breaks at left tackle, so you're not playing every single down. You have Joe Metzger rotating between both the guards, which I think that's good. You have you've got a whole bunch of guys on your offensive line that can play, might as well utilize them. I think at this point of the season they're still looking for a little bit of synergy. You saw it come together a little bit during the Akron game. I don't know how much you can credit that on UNLV versus Akron, wasn't a particularly good team, but to the point of their Jackson Arnold got touched, uh he got sacked zero times versus Akron. So big guys are doing big guy things, and hopefully we'll be able to contain that Cal front.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah, the second half of the Akron game was kind of what I've been hoping for the entire season. You and I talked on the first show. I mean, they have these giant offensive linemen, and you think there'd be more of a like a power run situation where we just bully the other team, no, no matter if it's Akron or Memphis, whoever it is. Um so to see it actually come into play and work against Akron, and again, that's Akron. You just don't, it's not Cal. Um, it's gonna be super interesting if they continue with that game plan. And the first half of the game, I mean, it looked a little shaky for the Akron game. Didn't look great. Also, it was a nine o'clock game for UNLV, right? So they may have still been waking up, but it it turned on. So I'm hoping to see the second half. And I would say the strength of this team of what I'm seeing, it's kind of we had Tyler Bishoff last week and he asked me, he's like, what are what are the strengths of this team? I was like, oh, like right now, you know. Uh I will say the safeties have definitely shown out. Uh Taz Redick has flashed. Uh Cam Sante had a great game last week. So we'll see if this continues. But I will say when they do run, it looks good. Um there's still there needs to be a lot of improvement. They have to figure the offensive line out. Um, but yeah, those safeties have been balling out. So, what's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Well, as far as uh getting the run game going, unfortunately, we are gonna be missing Jalen Glover this week. Uh during the presser, coach mentioned that he was injured and don't know the timeline there. We are missing D'Angelo Irving, who's starting at least our slot receiver. Um, he's gonna be out for a couple of weeks. Does look like we will be getting a couple of people back, however, Caden McGee should be back for this game. We should be seeing Poe Percell, hopefully, back that gives us a little bit more depth on the defensive line. And uh we saw what Carner could do during Akron. He had a couple of really big catches. That's a name that I hope continues to develop. And although Glover's out, to your point, Jett has been incredibly productive. In fact, if you take a look at Cal's running back, Mohammed has got 336 carries for the year. Jet is at 337. However, Jett has done that on 17 less carries. So you want to you need that type of production. You need to get Jet going. And uh the offensive line needs to create those openings for him to utilize.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Yeah, and I understand. I mean, Mullins always been a guy that doesn't run down the running backs, which I can completely appreciate. And it's I did not know about Glover, so that's a great take for the for the pot here. Uh, but at the end of the day, Jet is the best player on the offense, and the fact it needs to go through him. They did it versus Zacharin, and he saw the difference in it because he can take it for the big one anytime. I mean, even if the line is stuck right there, we've seen so many times where he breaks tackles and he's just gone. So it'll be interesting. What's your what is your prediction for the Cal game? Going

Identity Problems And Line Play

SPEAKER_01 15:30

with all these questions. Uh put you on the spot. It wasn't one of the questions.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I had um I had Memphis being a one touchdown game, and it was unfortunately not in the direction we wanted to go.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I I think that this is going to be a similar contest, where it's gonna be one touchdown. Um we've got a bunch of question marks that we still need to answer, both good and bad. And Cal is in the exact same position. A blotta Cal fans are looking at this game as the measuring stick to see how the rest of their season is going to go. That's true for us too. Because if we come away here with a win, suddenly next week's game versus North Dakota State looks more doable. If we come out there with we well, if we get smashed, suddenly the North Dakota State does not look winnable. And I do believe in a home field advantage. And if we come out if we get blown out, we won't have the home field advantage come North Dakota State. And that's important. North Dakota State as a engineering school has a really big alumni base, at least in Arizona. Excuse me, alumni base in Arizona as well as uh California. Expecting to see a really big crowd there during the media days. I was talking to a beat reporter from North Dakota, and he said that they are expecting 10 to 15,000 to travel. People are excited for Legion Stadium. There's a NFL Stadium working wonders, but much preferred if it was a rebel stadium and not a bison stadium.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah. I keep saying this. North Dakota State gives me boisey vibes. Yes. People kind of laugh at me a little bit, but it's like traveling. It's it's it's very similar storyline. So yeah, I do did you decide like who do you go? Cal or Unilv? On the spot. You don't need points, but who'd you pick? Uh got a favorite of the home team. I love it. I pick Cal. Um I hope I'm wrong. Uh, but they seem like a better team. They played better teams. We'll see. I think Unilv has a chance. Beginning of the year, I I thought this was gonna be actually a tougher game for us. Um so let's see. What's I it's I think it's gonna come down to the game plan, and I just haven't been the second half, the Hawaii game, the second half of the hacker game, I really love the game plan. I hope they go back to that. Um, if we see that, I I feel like it could be a really good game. If they're doing that other stuff they've been doing in the other games, uh I have I have a lot of concerns. So this to me though is not a must-win. It's the North Dakota State game. Yes. And we want to, we hopefully, and I think you put a uh I like the way you put it. The Cal is more of um, it's probably more of a must-win for Cal than us. Yes. Um, but if we play them well, and I get it, like wins and losses, you want it. But if you play them well and you don't lose, you know, if it's a tight game, you know, there's kind of a win in that, so to speak. You win the battle, not the war, right? Right. But that North Dakota skate game is to me by far the most because the really reality of them going to the college playoffs now is very slim. Yeah. Because right now, being in the Mountain West, unfortunately, there's gonna be another 10-2 team in the American or the PAC, and those teams will just automatically be ranked above. Unfortunately, strength of schedule for Yoney because of the Mountain West, it's just it's almost incredibly unlikely, even if they win out the rest of the year. But I think right now the most important thing is winning a Mountain West championship. And that North Dakota State game that we got coming up is so pivotal because if you do not win that, and they are 4-0 right now, if you do not win that game, then you're at New Mexico and you have to win that game. Yes. And you don't want to be in the first year. Like this whole thing of not going to the pack was to win Mountain West championships. And our best chance right now is football. It's not basketball unless AJ Storr gets eligible. We'll see on that one. It has to be football. So this is that to me, that's the biggest game. What are your thoughts? North Dakota State and at New Mexico, who do you got? It's it's early, but um, what are your thoughts if you've been looking at North Dakota State and uh and New Mexico?

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Honestly, North Dakota State's been looking pretty scary. Uh that is a well-coached team.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

They might not have world-beating talent, but that is a disciplined team that knows how to play together. And a lot of times that continuity that is

Cal Prediction And What It Means

SPEAKER_00 19:55

that is missing from a lot of FBS programs is really what's holding them together. That is a well-disciplined team. They run hard, they play hard. And Boise is the best comparison, if I gotta be honest, with North Dakota State. As I've said before, North Dakota State, if you're talking about accolades, there are few programs in the country that have the number of accolades that they had at the FCS level. If you're talking about national championships continuously being one of the best teams in the nation at their level, that's North Dakota State, and it looks like they're doing it all over again at the FBS. It's kind of like when JMU moved up, people weren't giving them much credit. They got there their first season and they won. Yeah. Played really well. And I think that I don't know if we have enough to overcome that.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Hot take, okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Now, if you're looking, it's kind of the opposite of UNLV and Cal. If you're taking a look on paper, you're talking if you're taking a look at the value of the roster, there's no comparison. UNLV spends much more on NIL. Cal spends more than we do. There's a lot more talent on UNLV, uh, UNLV's team than North Dakota State. However, if it's down to coaching, game planning, execution, North Dakota State's pretty hard to beat.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, you could you can tell it's a culture thing, right? Because I've watched a couple North Dakota State games and they they ball out. I mean, they're playing really good football. They expect to win. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

That's the expectation there. And that coaching staff does a lot to make that happen. They play really smart football. At the FCF level, it's not necessarily the talent you have on your roster. Therefore, your game plan has to be better. And there's a reason why those guys have been doing it for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah. Okay, well, my pick is gonna be Unal B, because I don't want to solve that game. Sounds like you have North Dakota say, How about at New Mexico? At New Mexico's defense defense has looked incredible this year. Offense, meh, not that great. What do you think? Can we pull that one out at uh Albuquerque?

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Uh Historically being at Albuquerque's favoriteist. I don't know why, but I believe we're ahead on that series in New Mexico. Now, them missing their starting quarterback, if they if they had him, the game might go the other way. But um biggest thing we've got to contend for that New Mexico defense looked really good. They held Oklahoma, they kept that a seven-point game, even though they lost it. They've they look like a really solid team. And if we're talking about the guy at Cal that's leading the country in interception, well, there's a guy at New Mexico that's tied for second for interceptions. So that's somebody they'll look to. And uh I could see us going into New Mexico with always a hostile environment, football or basketball. Hopefully we pull that one out. I think that we can. We're a little bit more familiar with New Mexico style of play than we are North Dakota states. And I think that this roster has it in them to win at New Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah, I think so too. And also uh UNLV lost uh to New Mexico at Allegiant last year. So they're not gonna be going into this game. This is uh a revenge game, so to speak, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

So yeah, nobody's looking at this game as a as a gimme.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Right, yeah, it could come down to this game will come down to who gets into the Mountain West championship game, most likely. Is there any dark team are dark horse teams we should be watching out? Because it usually happens about once a year, right? There's some team, it was New Mexico last year until everybody figured out they were actually good. But is there any dark horse teams in the Mountain West that UNLV should not be overlooking?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Uh the one that comes to mind is Air Force and yeah, they won in overtime versus I think that was Reno last

North Dakota State New Mexico Air Force

SPEAKER_00 23:40

week, and Reno doesn't look like a particularly good squad. They're improved over last year, but what's that height? I don't know. They lost to Montana State. But Air Force is always a tricky one, at least for me, because triple option is not something that you see every day. Uh coach there has been there for a very long time and he's always found a way to give us fits. I don't know what it is about that culture. Those cadets play really, really hard. And if I'm looking at a dark horse, I think it'd be Air Force.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Okay. Yeah, that was my Dark Horse team too. And it's at Air Force pretty before they uh pretty sure they have elevation there as well. Well, I think it's in the middle of October, so it's not necessarily like November weather. Uh, but you never know. That could that could be definitely tough. At San Jose State, it's kind of interesting too, but I think Air Force, right now, Air Force is ranked top three in defense and offense, uh uh with yardage. So it's an interesting game. I think we're a better team, but I definitely think it's a game we can't overlook for sure. Okay, uh, well, that's UNLV football. We're gonna get a little Raiders. Three and oh star. What's going on, Michael?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Man, uh so

Raiders Start 3-0 Behind Cousins

SPEAKER_00 24:55

in terms of preseason games, the only one I went to was Arizona, and we did not look like a good team. Yeah, I was concerned for the season after seeing that performance, but you know, 3-0 Kirk Cousin is playing some of the best football of his life at 38 years old. Go him, Max Crosby, and the defense that created those turnovers. We saw that versus uh St. Louis. I think going in with Kansas, that's a tough game. That should be the game of the week. It should be on primetime TV, but they don't do the flex yet.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

It's too early.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah, they don't do it yet, but they're both 3-0. It's going to look like a pretty good contest. I that's one where we got to count on the black hole in order to carry the game.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and Kansas City has really come back this year. They've looked good. They reloaded on defense, and the defense looked pretty good. So, yeah, Raiders defense flying around, have created a lot of turnovers. It's been fun to watch. Yeah. Um, Kirk Cousins, like you said, balling out at his. So, I mean, are we still run? Are we gonna continue rolling with Kirk Cousins or are we we're gonna see the future? Are we gonna see Mendoza sometime this year? That's what the people want.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Look, I think you gotta play with the hot hand. If if you're 3-0 because of Kirk Cousins, even if you end up losing the next game, you should still stick with Kirk Cousins, give Mendoza a little bit more time to get used to the speed of the game at the NFL, give him a chance to develop. He's going to be the future there. But if Kirk Cousins is good right now, play Kirk Cousins.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

I agree. Right, that I mean, 3-0, great start. Kubia's offense. Kubiak's offense has looked great, a lot of movement. It's been fun to watch. He kind of reminds me of like Alex Smith and the Mahomes situation where Mahomes was the hot rookie with the with the big arm. And Al Smith just kept winning, you know, and never gave, you know, and he kept the job for the year. So I don't think it's a bad thing. I think Mendoza, he he needs to still process. I think it's great that they're winning. It's kind of crazy to think the Raiders straight out what a great start because it's been so bad for so long. Um, so it's been fun to watch.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, and I hope that they continue to improve. I know that there's a little bit of questions around the offensive line, but that's where I think Kirk Cousins has a little bit of advantage. He's been hit before, and he knows that he doesn't want to get hit. So he'll he's got that fifth sense of like, okay, I think my left tackle's giving up on me, or he's giving up that defender. I should probably roll right.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Yeah, that's a great take. Yeah, the offensive line's a little iffy. Um, and Kirk Cousins' process as well. He gets the ball out quick, or like you says, feels the pressure where Mendoza is probably gonna take some time. That just that's just raps. It takes a lot of time to get there. So it's probably a good thing that Kirk Cousins has start the season. And uh kudos to the Raiders. Uh, because not everybody does that when they took the first pick, they put that quarterback in there as soon as possible. And fortunately, sometimes it can mess quarterbacks up because then you you start seeing ghosts out there. So I think it's great that they he has so many mentors. They're doing it the right way. It might not be like the sexiest way to win with Kirk Cousins. Wins are wins. Who's care? Let's see if we can get in the playoffs, maybe get a wild card here, and who knows? I think they got a chance against the Chiefs. I still bet the Chiefs, but it's it's not a gaming game anymore, guys. So that's gonna be fun to watch. All right, UNLV basketball. We

Running Rebels Fitness Injuries AJ Storr

SPEAKER_01 28:20

have the first week of practice. What are your thoughts, Michael?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

So listening to Pasner, he said that this was well, he said it since he got to UNLV. He wants to bring back the running levels rebels. So he spent this entire offseason doing just that conditioning. He's focused on conditioning, he's kind of taken a step back from contact in order to let the guys just stay healthy. Uh, the couple of times they did practice with contact contact, there were a couple of injuries that came out of it. However, Tyron Jones looks like he'll be coming back, I think, tomorrow or October 2nd. Yeah. So that's good to be that's good. There are a couple of people who got banged up during those couple of sessions. So hopefully they'll be back ahead of the season. Big question, AJ AJ Stor. I really hope we get him back. Um that's uh arguably going to be the best player on this team if he's allowed to play. I think that um I think we need him in order to make a deep run. I think we need the experience and leadership that he brings. However, it's gonna be up to the courts. And I agree with Passenger when he said at this point, you can't have some people you say no to, some people you say yes to. You might as well say yes to all of them and figure it out for next season.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

You would think, and hopefully, and hopefully the gamble pays off because I agree. And yeah, Tyler Harris was one of the other people that got injured. I think he toured his MCL, but he's supposed to be back the end of October. Either way, you know, as long as we have him, it's he sees one that him and Jones are the big players coming off of injuries, though. And I'm sure Passner, you're like, oh my gosh, are we doing this again after last year? So Stores, Store's a big one for me. It's and I like uh Sebastian Mack as well. I like um uh MJ Thomas and Ford as role players. I think if we those were say our five stars tomorrow, there's some good backup players, so we don't have enough time to go into it today. Um that's a solid team, but and if AJ Storr is on this team this year, he's potentially Mountain West player of the year, or he's top three player easily. Um, so I think that's gonna be huge if we're in a mountain competing for a MLS championship or just you know, one of the you know three to four teams because Numeto and GCU just seem like on another level right now. And um, I think Stork gets them into that top three, you know, to compete. Yes, definitely. Cool. All right, Michael, thanks for being on, brother. The Scarlet Standard, check them out. You think you have great contact? You see this guy stand by in

Closing Thoughts And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01 30:55

the beer. All right, guys, Bruno Vegas to get himself today.