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Speaker 3: We got a great show for we Wednesday, January seventh
edition of Cougar Sports here on your Utah ESPN Radio Network.
Want to get into all the knicks and granties, all
the news and notes, all the minutia coming out of Brigham.
How about the quarter back room receiving an addition? We
gotta commitment. We're gonna break down, is there any additional attrition.
We're gonna talk about the additions and the subtractions. As
we get into the chaotic college football transfer portal season.
There's always something to break down, always something to discuss,
always something to debate here on your Cougar Sports show.
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Speaker 1: We're gonna delve into.
Speaker 3: Hoops talk, football talk, recruiting talk, so keep us locked in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep it loaded full of information. Let's fire
it up. The ESBN the Fans starting lineup, and I
can introduce you to.
Speaker 3: My star studied Caz joining us on this beautiful Wednesday
hump Day edition of Cougar Sports. First and foremost behind
the glass up in Salt Lake City is welcome in,
Ronald the three Man.
Speaker 1: What's up, Ronnie?
Speaker 4: What's up? How we doing guys? Happy Wednesday to you.
Hump Day edition. I'll be a hump Day edition of
the Cougar Basketball pregame show after the show. But we
got five hours of content you can't get anywhere else,
only here been on you Utah ESPN Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so keep it locked in.
Speaker 3: We're gonna delve into every element of Cougar Nation Cougar
Sports today. Let's also welcome into the show, Brett always
bringing the.
Speaker 1: Hammer Hammertime show. What's up, Bro? I'm concerned.
Speaker 5: I don't like to start off just right off the
bat talking ball, but I'm concerned because I am checking
this two four seven boyu Cougar's college transfer port latest activity,
like I checked my phone when I after I had
a date back in the day when I was in college.
Like I am refreshing this page as much as I
possibly can, and it is really concerning to me. So
I'm hoping that you know something that I don't, that
maybe you know that two four seven system is broken
and that's why the messages aren't getting out to these
recruits to commit to BYU. But BYU is the only
team listed with zero incoming transfers of anyone in the
Big twelve. And maybe incoming transfers aren't that big of
a deal. That's why Boa is not that concerned about it.
Maybe people forgot that Bouh's a school. Maybe the text
messages aren't going through because there's no service in Utah.
I don't know what the irrational explanation is, but I
keep checking everybody else in the Big twelve, and everybody
else has trees or has presence under the tree except
for BYU, And I don't really know how to rationalize this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what did we acquire last year? You know
what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like, you acquired some guys, But did you acquire them
in January? Did you acquire them in February March? You
look at the timeline too, like it's not you know, Look,
there's some priority guys. They had smith Snowden on campus yesterday.
He's gonna be taking visits to a number of places,
including Michigan, probably.
Speaker 1: Oregon, and and a few others.
Speaker 3: He's already taken his towels out to coach Prime in Colorado.
Remember his dad is from Colorado. Will Snowden be why
you recruited him back in the nineties to come to Provo.
So like you are targeting individuals, right, but you you're right,
you do get concerned when everybody else is having fun
and they all are opening up presents on their Christmas
tree and you're like, wait, where's my presence?
Speaker 1: What's going on? I feel like the best signees are
the retention signings. Yesterday you got true.
Speaker 3: You've got to celebrate Isaiah Glasger staying home, staying humble,
stay in hungry. That was a huzzah for Brigham. This
is type of day, you know what I mean? Oh yeah,
So I feel like the biggest gets have been the
retention announcements. So you can get hyped, you can get
elevated on that, you can get high on life, high
on Brigham that way, that's a present, it's a gift.
Speaker 1: We gotta have gratitude here.
Speaker 3: You have lost some players, but you haven't lost players
where you're.
Speaker 1: Like, no, please, no.
Speaker 3: The biggest Like I asked Cougar Nation, I said, hey,
which one of these guys hurts you the most that
you've lost Tavian Beasley Shangano, Sony Tuala, Tucker kellerher Iconacio Tupo,
let Meson Waller the third, McKay Hillstead, Marcus McKenzie, Don McKenzie,
j Griffin.
Speaker 1: And le Mason Wallder third.
Speaker 3: Most people said Lemson Walder third because they're like, hey,
he was a four star kid. We thought he could
be a great player for BYU, just that we needed
to develop him. In fact, we saw a lot of
highlights from him in fall camp. Yes, where he bawled out,
he played well. Uh, but for whatever reason, you know,
he's taking his talents elsewhere. We wish him luck to
six foot one, one hundred and ninety pound, he'll probably
be a red shirt freshman wherever he goes.
Speaker 1: But do you agree or disagree with me?
Speaker 3: Like, like we we have to have some like excitement
for the retention. It isn't BYU a developmental program. Isn't
BYU a retention program. The one year, okay, that we
really went aggressive in the portal, Like we picked up
a ton of players via the portal. Like I want
to say, like it just didn't work out as well.
It seems like there was a like an like there
was a lack of continuity. There was a lack of culture,
a lack of winning, and that's when you went five
and seven. Like the twenty twenty two transfer portal, class
was was pretty robust, pretty aggressive. I remember you got
gave Judy Lally, remember I think, actually that's when you
picked up Enich Nawahine.
Speaker 1: We got Victor Evoka.
Speaker 3: You know, there was a number of Chris Brooks, Houston Hamouli.
Speaker 1: I want to say there was.
Speaker 3: Kingsley Sulamatiya, like I remember adding a ton of players
via the portal and the following year and it was
your YR one Big twelve. So you have to have
a little caveat in little last. Hey you're one big
twelve making the transition. But we just weren't that good
eight and five prior to that. Right in twenty twenty
two in the portal, the transfer portal, anyway, I said, I.
Speaker 1: Don't want to, you know, go too higher, too low.
Speaker 3: We picked up Bear Bachmeier right for the season, a
four star quarterback, and all was well. So I don't
want to have a knee jerk reaction, but I understand the
anxiety that some Cougar fans are feeling. They have what
I would deem is a little bit of.
Speaker 1: I don't know, uh, what's the term, you know, A
little bit envy transfer portal envy.
Speaker 5: It's not so much that I'm sitting here saying, what
is this coaching staff doing? We're missing this piece, that
piece and the other piece that that's not my concern.
It's more of just, hey, we're in a P four
league now, shouldn't everyone want to come and jump ship
to come here, even if they're not necessarily we've gone
twelve and two and eleven and two concerns. That's really
my only like, hey, everybody else is getting sign these
how come we're not getting signees?
Speaker 1: But I am.
Speaker 5: Grateful that you bring this up, like accepting gratitude in
the fact that, like, who did you really lose outside
of guys who graduated or didn't have eligibility with it,
and it is really really important. We cannot celebrate enough.
How crazy it is, frankly that Isaiah Glasker is coming back,
because I think we all assumed, like end of the season,
he's going to the league, and I think he could have.
I think there's an energy in the building with this
BYU football team of guys saying you guys realize we've
been snubbed from the playoffs twice.
Speaker 1: Now we can run it back. We're good enough.
Speaker 5: We all got a little get back in our systems
right now. I think that's like because I think LJ
could go to the league and play great. I think
Glasger could go to the league and play great.
Speaker 1: I don't know that.
Speaker 5: It's they had bad seasons and so they're like, oh,
I gotta get a number of another one under the belt,
even though another one would certainly help. I think they're
coming back because I think there is a collective energy
in that building of these guys saying we've been snubbed.
We're not getting snubbed a third year in a row,
and we are going to show everyone who we are.
So I do think it's really important that we do
remember that. And again, he's not missing. They don't have
a massive hole on this team. It's just I guess
a little strange to me that everybody else has incoming
transfers and BYU doesn't.
Speaker 1: So what makes you more concern?
Speaker 3: My Poll of the day Number one that there's no
announcement signings commitments from the transfer portal. Number two, no
official announcement on new coaching staff members, Like which one
gets you a more anxiety field?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Like do we have our coaching staff in place? Did
we retain our coaching staff? Are they still being courted?
There's not many coaching staff vacancies still out there, by
the way, so I think you're pretty you pretty much
know that you're retaining guys, but you're also going out
and you got to acquire a safety's coach, a qrnerbacks coach,
a quarterbacks coach, right, Like, that's that Those are the
job openings, the key job openings for BYU football right now.
Speaker 5: I think you probably have to answer the coaching vacancies
or the just.
Speaker 1: A head coach, Like there's some things there too, because.
Speaker 5: To me, the reason that you may not have the
transfers is because you don't have the position coaches, and
so you have guys who say, I want to come here.
I like BYU, but I also want to know that
this guy who's recruiting hear the coach who's coming in
is officially.
Speaker 1: There before I officially sign.
Speaker 5: And I think that's really valid, Like you can kind
of separate the whole defensive side of the ball with
that and say, well, nobody is going to commit to
BYU defensively until they know officially who it is that
their coordinator is going to be. And then you add
on top of that that there's a couple position coaches
still flying around out there. But I just think it
reaffirms that the college football landscape is constantly changing, and
the way and the speed at which you could do
business in years past doesn't work anymore because coaches leave
right before the portal opens, and in order to get
guys in the you have to have those coaches locked down.
So it makes the calendar really interesting. But you just
like it's one of those things that you just have
to get done. There's not really anywhere around it, so
I think you always gotta lock those coaches down before
they can then lock the players down.
Speaker 1: First things first, right, Uh so, uh, we're gonna delve
into this, guys.
Speaker 3: Check out the rest of our ESPN the fans starting lineup.
Appreciate you guys tuning in, chiming in wherever you're tuning
in and chiming in from.
Speaker 1: We're gonna welcome in to the show.
Speaker 3: Brandon Day, CEO of odeon Menswaere Cougar Sports Inside, talking.
Speaker 1: Some college football at three oh five. You don't want
to miss that.
Speaker 3: We're gonna welcome in Tim Heey, voice of the Airs
on a Sun Devils at four oh five, Drake Tole
four thirty Big twelve College Football Insider, and then Matt
Brown uh at at five oh five representing extra points
so should be a star start of cash.
Speaker 1: We may want to you know, who we need to
reach out to about this whole LJ.
Speaker 3: Martin situation because we haven't heard in an official statement.
I think we're all like leaning positively, we're all leaning pragmatically,
we're all leading even hopefully that that LJ is coming back.
Speaker 1: He's not leaving. But I thought.
Speaker 3: Jerem actually made a really good pitch on social about
why LJ should take his talents, bring his talents back
to UH to provo. So we'll maybe reach out to him,
to him we have a surprise guest with him, or
maybe we'll wait till tomorrow or the next day to
get Jeremon to discuss that. But all that and more
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Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about Dante Bell. Who is
Dante Bell? And what does it matter?
Speaker 3: As the we discussed yesterday, key position groups of interest
via the portal. One of those key position I think
interest groups is the quarterback room.
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 3: Well, what do you have currently in that BYU football
quarterback room? You lost McKay Hillstead, that one hurt shot
through the heart. As g Man likes to say, Uh,
McKay Hillstead taking his talents to the portal. We'll see
where he ends up. We wish him well. Once a Cougar,
always a kooper. G Man sings it out just like
that too. He's a huge fan of John bon Jovi. So,
like that one hurt, Trayson Borgae is still on the
roster behind board behind Bear Bachmeyer. Okay, so you're happy
about that, But then again, like Bear has not made
his I'm not leaving posts.
Speaker 1: Are you at all concerned about that? That the side like?
Or is he still negotiating his contract at b YU.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you this, The same day A Rod releases
I'mrunning It Back will be the same day that Bear
releases that.
Speaker 1: I'm Running Back.
Speaker 5: And funny enough, coincidentally, that'll be the same day that
Hell for a Use is over and pigs fly. We're
never gonna see that because guess what if you said, hey,
I'm sure the graphics team at Bulie is like, hey, Bear,
do you want us to make a running it back graphic?
He's like, what are you talking about? They're like, you
know the players posting this on social media. People are
posting on social media that they're coming back. I thought
I was just coming back to play football. I didn't
realize I had to tell everyone that I wasn't going
to the portal. That's when you'll see Bear Bachwire announced
that he's coming back.
Speaker 1: He's here to stay, folks. He's here, guys. He ain't
going anywhere.
Speaker 3: He doesn't need to post anything on social media nowhere.
Does he need the BYU social media specialist to post
it for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The last time he did post on May third, twenty
twenty five, that he was committed to BYU.
Speaker 1: That was his last post. That's auce was his last.
Now on Instagram.
Speaker 3: Now, these kiddos are not twitters really, they're not exers.
They're more in the Instagram game, the instaf fam game.
Speaker 1: Right, So the last.
Speaker 3: Time Bear Bachmeyer posted on Instagram was when I feel like.
Speaker 1: It's pulling it up right now. Well, it may have
been a shared one.
Speaker 3: It was BYU Football oh yeah, that doesn't none of this,
none of this count None of this is originally from
Bear because because Bear just is being tagged in all.
Speaker 5: These Yeah, BYU is doing the work here, it's just
not this does not count as Bear posting on social media.
Speaker 1: So when was the last time that Bear is that
Murdoch Ford tagged Bear? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I don't see any original content from Bear. Ah, No,
there is one. I found it. I think I found it.
I think it was when he committed to the Tree Stanford.
That was June twenty third, two thousand, two twenty four.
Speaker 1: Oh no, he has.
Speaker 5: He did post May third, twenty twenty five when he
committed to BYU.
Speaker 1: He did also post that on Instagram. He did.
Speaker 5: And then yeah he's here, and like I don't know
if he's doing like a Van's commercial or why he's
all decked out in the all denum.
Speaker 3: But yeah, oh that was okay, okay, anyways, playing guitar
on stage he does, so he's not on social media
is what we're getting at. And like, when you really
break that down for what it's worth, you bring up
a fantastic point.
Speaker 1: I have never seen.
Speaker 3: Two personalities that mesh as well as a rod and
Bear Bachmeier right, like they just fit. They the puzzle
pieces fit together perfectly. They are like minded, like just
just connected souls, football souls. They are very akin to
each other in how they operate. They're not social media guys.
They ain't about the pop circumstance and the social media game. Nah,
we just we just we're just football junkies. You know,
we play Settlers of Catan, you.
Speaker 1: Know what I mean. The bespectacled booth strategist. You know,
he ain't. He ain't necessarily doing anything other than just
putting in work. Baby.
Speaker 5: The ironic part is like it's almost the complete opposite
of how right a Lines is on social media. Like
he's very into social media, Like he's very Yeah, he
builds the brand.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you saw today there's a video
going around from his sister of him doing a TikTok
dance in his home MTC missionary get up. So yeah,
it's it's interesting, like the dichotomy between Bear social media
presence and Riders social media presence very different. Yeah, Like
I'll be honest, like I have appreciate the game, Yeah,
I appreciate it. It takes a special human to like
do TikTok dances, like just you know what I mean,
couldn't be me.
Speaker 1: You could do it.
Speaker 3: Ronnie could probably do it. Ronnie, you could do TikTok dance.
Have you done any choreograph TikTok dances yet?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 4: If I had to answer that question, and I'm just kidding,
I'm chucking out, I'm just no, I'm not pleading the fifth.
Speaker 1: I will do them.
Speaker 4: If my sister, who is a performing arts major, graduated
from you know, one of the top dance schools in California,
and am uh she asked me, Ben, I would do that,
But I don't do the Mariah Hudgens women basketball Arimca
Williams ag debonsa on the TikTok. I don't do any
of those those things. I'm like Richie man, it's all business.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't buy too much into that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, which is why I like, bear get off TikTok.
Speaker 1: You know I haven't been Yeah, he's not tiktoking. He's
not instant, he's not he's not twittering.
Speaker 4: He's all business. I mean his answer has been in
like five seconds been like he doesn't like, look this,
I don't want people to think that it's bad. But
like if they said, if they said, okay, who's the
person who you would ask to interview the most on
the team that would give you an insightful answer, I
would say Tanner Wall. I would say Darien Alexander, those
guys that feel like are going to go in depth.
If they asked me, who are two guys not to interview?
And I love both these brothers, but I would not
interview Jack Kelly, and I would not interview Bear Bommeyer
like the like they just are all about business, which
is good. You need guys that just want to play
ball and not focus on the outside noise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just want to play ball.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, real quick, you know, we're discussing a number
of things here. Right we're looking at the portal. We're
looking at the things that you know, maybe bringing you anxiety.
I still turn to, you know, the things that we
should be grateful for. I believe, and I heard about
We had LJ. Martin on our show before the Bowl game,
great interview and he was a little bit coy, but
he said, I'm going to evaluate essentially my NFL prospects.
Where will LJ go in this next year's NFL draft.
He ended up getting surgery before the bowl game. So
you can interpret that one of two ways. You can say, well,
he's getting surgery now so that he can be prep
be ready, get ready for the Pro day or the combine.
The combine's right around the corner, right, So like to
get shoulder surgery, you know, you don't have a whole
lot of time to be ready to bench press.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna do any bench press.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can probably do your running drills over that
you don't necessarily it's not ideal.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this much.
Speaker 3: To me as I'm evaluating this, it is not ever
ideal going into your pro day or combine to get
surgery in December. Yeah, it's just not when that happened,
I said, hm, I feel like he's coming back, Like
I feel like he's coming back because it it like
it sets you up as a at a competitive disadvantage.
I remember Taysum had a remarkable Pro Day. He was
coming off a season ending injury. Though versus Utah State,
he had to go and compete, but his his like
left arm was emaciated. Like I said, he tore it
up but imagine if he would have been one healthy.
I know it's upper extremity, but all of that matters
every we we're talking tens of a second, we're talking
half inch inch addition in his vertical you know, much
more efficient in your movements when you when you're at
one hundred percent in all extremities and he's still tore
it up.
Speaker 1: That was an ideal.
Speaker 3: I remember Braden Kyle, you know, he wasn't able to
be invited to the combine. He had an okay, you know,
pro day, but it was just more position like he
had to have surgery at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: You do not even a labram a minor shoulder surgery
like that.
Speaker 3: It's not ideal before you go to a combine. I
think he's coming back. If he comes back, which I
think he would will like that. That's probably outside of
Bear I mean the Bear LJ Centaur combo, right, these
two humans that are built like centaur.
Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting how they're built exactly the same.
Speaker 3: Like that's one of the best retention stories of the
college football season, considering you just went twelve and two
and your only losses were to a top five team
in Texas Tech.
Speaker 5: If you had told me preseason LG Martin and Isaiah
Glasgar are both coming back, I would have said, you're crazy.
I don't want to ever talk to you again, because
nothing I can say, nothing you can say, would make
me feel like anything you say is true.
Speaker 1: Yep, so, and I'm with you.
Speaker 5: I think the fact, in addition to everything that we've
already heard about LJ, I think he's coming back, but
the fact that.
Speaker 1: He got surgery.
Speaker 5: The only reason that that makes sense to me is
if you are a guaranteed top twenty pick and there's nothing.
Speaker 1: You can do to move up or down.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but when you.
Speaker 5: Get surgery like that, you basically can't improve your draft
stock at all. You have to take the best of
whatever it is today.
Speaker 1: So I'm with you.
Speaker 5: The fact that he got that surgery makes me feel
like he's running it back. In addition to the fact
that I said, off the top, I think these guys
feel like they have something left in the tank, something
left to prove, And I think honestly, going to that
Pop Tarts Bowl and beating Georgia Tech, I think that
was their stage to say, Hey, they don't know, but
they're about to find out we're gonna win this game,
and we're gonna be back in the playoffs next year
to be winning some games as well. I think this
team feels like they have something to prove and that
they can prove it, and so I think that's why
a lot of these guys are coming back, and that's
what makes me think LJ is coming back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, LJ can't wait to have your your social media posts.
Speaker 1: LJ will post right, He's got a post, he gotta got.
Bear's gonna post too.
Speaker 5: I think freshman year LJ wouldn't have like when we
first met LJ, because I think what Bear is now
is what LJ was when he was young, where he
just like he didn't really talk too much. I think
Bear will elongate as he goes along, and I think
he'll be more like LJ is now than what.
Speaker 1: He is right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, be of good cheer, Be of good cheer, Cougar Nation.
Don't let anxiety, you know, creep in. And I know
you've been hurt. I know you've been hurt in the
past many times. But we're in a new dawn, a
new day, a new era in which the Kialani culture
is gonna win out more often than not. I know
you got hurt by Jay, you know what I mean.
I know it hurt you. But remember Jay Hill is
a mercenary. He's a mercenary. He was never a BYU guy.
You know he's a mercenary. He's gonna tease Canna take
the highest bidder more often than not.
Speaker 1: And Gennaro, I know, he's.
Speaker 3: A BYU cougar and you thought, maybe possible, hopefully you'll
be able to retain him, but the likelihood is this,
Gennaro didn't receive the full fledged defensive coordinating duties and
he felt like his quickest path to becoming a DC
was not staying at BYU but going with j Hill,
which is a professional decision that he had to make.
That was difficult, very difficult considering those things. But your
individual progress, as you guys all know that are listening
right now.
Speaker 1: You may be in corporate America, you may be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3: You want also, everyone wants a little bit of individual
progress while being a part of a team. Right would say,
that's an aggurate We want to feel like we're growing,
we're building something, We're building and creating core competencies.
Speaker 1: And that's his end goal is to be a DC.
Once a cougar, always a cougar.
Speaker 3: Maybe one maybe down the road he'll come back in
some way, shape or form down the road.
Speaker 1: You never know.
Speaker 3: You want to keep those doors open in great relationships.
But what I'm saying is be of good cheer. I
don't think you should be anxiety filled about anything right now. If, if,
if anything, you may you may swing on a few
of these guys, and Miss you may swing like you
may swing big on Smith Snode. I think we're in
a really really good spot with Miss Smith Snowden.
Speaker 1: I really do.
Speaker 3: Am I one hundred percent convinced that he's coming to buy,
you know, but I feel like we.
Speaker 1: Got a pretty goshtay good shot. We're fighting against Oregon,
that's gonna be a tough one. We're gonna be fighting
against Michigan. It's gonna be a tough one.
Speaker 3: Like there's some good teams that are going after him,
with good relationships with the Snowden family. But I mean,
if it was up to if it was up to
Smith's mom, he'd probably.
Speaker 1: Be at v YU. So you better go hard at mom.
Speaker 3: By the way, Miss Snowed and Miss Snowed and she
is fantastic at putting together like Christmas decor. I gotta
send you this like I like my wife does a
great job. Shout out to the Snowden family.
Speaker 1: I did not know. I was not familiar with your game.
I was not and I was talking to Will and
I had.
Speaker 3: A friend growing up. Let me just tell you a
quick story and then we're gonna go to break. I
had a friend growing a Justin Garrison. He was one
of our our guards on our basketball team. State champions
by the way, eighth grades so state champions, baby forever.
Shout out to Justin Garrison. I went up to his
house one time and it was the first time that
I had ever seen This is during the Christmas holiday season.
I had ever seen a picture of black Jesus and
black Santa.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I was it was a new
world for my black Jesus and black Santa. I was like,
this is awesome, you know what? And quite honestly, you know,
you realize as you grow up, like, you know, Jesus man,
he had all of skin tone. You don't look like
the scout Scandinavian, you know, and who knows, I know,
you know, Papa Noel. You know I'm the clause uh
you know old Saint Nick. You know, I know it's
a Scandinavian feel to him. But I'm like, you know what. Respect. Anyway,
I was talking to Will, I'm like, Will, I know you.
Speaker 3: Like because we were talking about Christmas stuff and I
was I was taking down my Christmas stuff at the time.
Speaker 1: He said, what are you doing? I'm taking down his
Chrismas And he's like, He's like.
Speaker 3: I was like, do you guys do Christmas like you
guys go all out with Like of course, You's like,
do we go out? I'm sending you a video right now.
And he said to me. I was blown away.
Speaker 1: It was great, And I was like, you know what,
Before that though, I said, Will, I think I know you.
You got you got Black Jesus and you got Black
Santa somewhere in the house. He's like, oh, I got
multiple That's.
Speaker 4: What I'm talking about.
Speaker 6: Will.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Hey, Ben, Ben, you should have come downstairs then, Ben.
I got, I got black Jesus, I got I got
black Jesus, I got black I got what is it,
black wise men, you name it?
Speaker 1: I got everything. Hey man. They came from the East.
They could have been coming from Egypt, you know what
I mean? The wise Man. One unanimously thinks that the
wise Men were probably black. Yeah, like I think most Yeah,
most people.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I will say, like, definitively, I think it
could go either way. Look, I am not I am
not against I think Santa could be black. I definitely
think Jesus could be black.
Speaker 1: See, Brett, here's the thing. You're good has a problem
for me? Is I mean you and I?
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, were you there? Because I wasn't there. So
Jesus or Santa, I haven't seen either one of them.
Speaker 1: They could be black.
Speaker 4: Look, we're sticking with the normal Santa becaus been. I
told you this, and you laughed when I said that
Brett might get a kick out of this. I'm like wondering,
I gotta be careful with the black Santa, because you know,
I don't want the little one to be confused, you know,
with me and then someone else. So we we we're
careful with it. So we just keep Santa Santa and
let her decide. So I always got to be careful
about that.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, Oh man. Anyway, I don't know why I
shared that story, but I feel pretty good. Like I
know this note famly Will hops on the show a
lot like and I've never felt like he hasn't been honest, true, chasing,
benevolent with me. Like I think we got a good chance.
We got a good chance. We're we're in the fight, man,
and we're we're going into the deeper rounds. I can
tell you that much. So be of good cheer, cougarnation.
We may get Smith, hopefully maybe at the moment.
Speaker 3: Well, the great thing is is like Smith can play
any any corner position. You can playing field, you can
play boundary, you can play nickel. That's the great thing about.
We need them, We really need them. We want to
feature them, and we have our system in place. It's
hard because Gennaro's the godfather, man, I mean, Jennard didn't
get them the first go around. Okay, and Smith never
re entered the portal, even though there was you know,
possible flirtations at the time. But you know, Jenna's got
got a lot going on at Michigan now, And but
does does does do you guys really want to go
out to Michigan? You want to go out through those games?
Will's fine with it.
Speaker 5: Does Mom want to go out to Michigan and Arborn.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: The big House is fun, but travels, I don't care
what always says man, Like those that have been on
the grind you guys, Vick's over here like shaking his head.
Is like those that had to travel a lot early
on in their career. Like you get to an age
like you hit like you hit a certain age where
like I never want to travel again unless it's for
a vacation. I'm going to like I'm going to Mexico,
I'm going to Hawaii, I'm going to Florida. Because you're
just like you do not want to be on planes anymore.
You don't want to be on planes. Your back hurts,
you know what I mean. You get you get off
the plane and like your your ankles are swollen.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. You're looking down at these
angles like am I do I have the gout? Why
do I have lippedema in my ankles? You know what
I mean.
Speaker 3: It's it's not what you want to do. You don't
want to go on those long trips. Man, I'm telling you, bro,
I'm telling you. Anyway, we gotta close. Mom shout out
to to missus Snowden. She's she's the one. You gotta
go close anyway. We're gonna go to break. Guys, let's
talk about the new quarterback commit What do you say?
Let's get into the depth a chart at quarterback for
the coops. How you feeling about a kugarnation. That was
a great segment. Give ourselves a pat on the back.
I apologize if I offended anybody with any of my comments,
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Sports on one of three nine, ninety eight point three
Ees Merds Fly.
Speaker 2: When Ben Crittle isn't breaking down coopy some amounts of
film on his beloved Cougar football team, he's talking Cougar
Sports and he's doing it right here. On one three
nine at ninety eight three, eSPI A.
Speaker 7: Band grease drifting on by.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel it's a new don it's a
new day. It's a new light for me, and I'm
feeling good, feeling it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, buddy, I do do new day, baby feeling Little
Michael Bublet bringing his back from the bake and I
love the horns, man, I love I love big band sounds.
Speaker 1: Man. I am a big band guy. I can jam
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with big.
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This is Cougar Sports on one three nine, ninety eight
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All right, so some breaking news happened yesterday. A quarterback
has committed to the BYU Cougars, Donte Bell. He's a
junior college quarterback transfer who joins BA from Mount San
Antonio College Mount Sack, and he's gonna be adding some
debt to the Cougars quarterback room. He began his college
career at East Los Angeles College before playing the twenty
twenty four season at Mount Sack Math sec. Bell appeared
in nine games, I believe, completing ninety eight one, one
hundred and seventy two passes for one thousand, four to
thirty seven yards, thirteen touchdowns and four interceptions. He also
added three rushing touchdowns, showing some athleticism while primarily operating
as a pocket oriented passer. Bell, who's listed at six
five to ten.
Speaker 1: It's a large body.
Speaker 3: It's a large human giving him some a big frame
that he continues to grow into his.
Speaker 1: Game built around that arm strength.
Speaker 3: Right, he can definitely push the ball down fields, got
some vertical passing ability, but I wouldn't call I wouldn't
consider him necessarily a dual threat guy just yet. Maybe
they can, Maybe Skyler Man and Colby Klausen and Ryan
Phillis can maximize the analytic potential that big body of
his and get it twitchier, get it faster, get that
neural muscular system in a prime and peak performance type
of platform.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it.
Speaker 3: He joins the quarterback room comprised of Bear Blackmeier, Tration Borgae,
and Enick Watson. How are we feeling number one about
Dante Bell and how are we feeling about the quarterback
depth chart?
Speaker 1: Brett always bringing the hammer? How do you feel right now?
Speaker 5: If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure Aaron Roderick has
had success with a juco quarterback from Southern.
Speaker 1: Cali, California.
Speaker 5: But true, I'm pretty sure won by the name of
Jake Retzov, who was just good enough to go to
a collegeotball playoff game, which tells.
Speaker 1: Me a number of things.
Speaker 5: I think the biggest takeaway that we should get from
Dante Bell coming to BYU is remember what Aaron Roderick has.
Speaker 1: Done with quarterbacks.
Speaker 5: You can argue whatever you want, so you're blue in
the face if you don't think he's a good play caller.
I won't agree with you. Feel free to scream into
a tunnel as much as you'd like. But what you
cannot dispute with me right now is the fact that
a Rod got Jarenhall drafted, Zach Wilson drafted, Keaton Slovas drafted,
and then talent scouted a guy from Juco from southern
California and Jake Reetzloff who went on to win how
many games.
Speaker 1: In the Big twelve last year? Oh yeah? Who did
What's Colorado in the Big twelve last year? Oh yeah?
And then went to the Cultural playoffs the year after that.
Speaker 5: Now, I don't know that Dante Betle is as good
as Jake Reetzloff, and he's certainly not going to be
the starter likely. However, I sit here at a point
now where I say, if Aaron Roderick thinks he's a
good quarterback. Who am I to argue with Aaron Roderick,
because what he's done in this short time with these
quarterback prospects has been nothing short of excellent.
Speaker 1: I think it does a number of things.
Speaker 5: First of all, like you continue to fill up the
competition level I think in that quarterback room, because you
were just sitting with just Trason and Enick Watson, which
I just if I'm be frank, if I may be
so frank, I don't think it's safe to assume that
Bear can just run as heavy as you want to
run him and play fourteen games every year. I hope
that's the case. I wish no injury on Bear. I
love Bear. I don't want anything bad to happen to him.
I don't want him get a paper cut or anything. However,
the man takes a lot of hits. So my assumption
is there may be a game or two in the
next couple of years where someone has to play backup
quarterback and be a starter for a game or so.
I don't know if it's gonna be Dante Bell, but
I do think if Aaron Rodders says he's good enough
to bring him from Juco to BYU, I will trust
in the eyes of Aaron Roderick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Bear Blockmer, Trayson Boorgay, Enick Watson. You got Bear
Bochmer coming off an All Americans true freshman season. He'll
be a sophomore leading in the way. Trayson Boorgay was competitive. Obviously,
he was listed as a QB two alongside McKay.
Speaker 1: He'll stead more even.
Speaker 3: Three though he was the QB three for BYU this
last year. I had a Tucson Arizona win Western Michigan.
For a couple of years, trensuer to BYU and he's
been a backup. But he loves BYU. He loves the atmosphere,
he loves the culture, and like, if you wanted to
go play ball, you could have gone somewhere else, but
he likes everything else that's associated with it and that matters.
And he's been in the system for a while, a
serviceable backup. The wild card for me this next year
is actually Enick Watson. I love me, Enick Watson. I
love me some Enick Watson. I'm at Arizona boy. He's
an Arizona boy. He originally was in the Coconita County
in Flagstaff, Arizona. He was running an offense throughout his
high school career that was not suited for him. He
ends up at American Leadership Academy getting coached up by
Max Hall his senior year, and he balls out just
I mean, some ridiculous places. You can google him, you
can watch him on social media. He's a phenomenal athlete,
dual threat with a live arm, great stature, and I
like his I like his lineage. Okay, I like his lineage.
His uncle's played at at BYU. I played with his
uncles at BYU. Great athleticism, good football minds, and I
would love to see Enick really step into that backup
role this next season because he is talented. By the way,
it stinks that Emerson Goleman's going on a mission. I
love if I I love Emerson Goleman more than I
like than I love Enick Watson. Just so everybody knows,
huge fan of Emerson Goleman. He's going on a mission,
He's been called to serve, and UH want to give
a big cougar roar to Emerson Gomon.
Speaker 1: He's perfect in every way.
Speaker 3: Like he really is. Like who like whatever? Like you
met out there? If you have a daughter as soon
as Emerson Goleman gets back from a mission. You don't
even want to be too overt, but you want to
get your daughter in front of Emerson Goleman any way,
possibly like because those like she's gonna be happy for eternity,
because that that young man who.
Speaker 1: Is like, he's literally perfect.
Speaker 3: He's he's Mary Poppins in in quarterback form and in
in off the field form.
Speaker 1: He's he's, he's he's that, he's perfect.
Speaker 3: Anyway, that hurts, but we wish Emerson well, but he's
gonna be good for the KuPS. I'm excited about Emerson.
Don't don't sleep on Emerson Golement anyway. I love Edick Watson,
I'd be I'll be intrigued to see if he ends
up being QB two this next season.
Speaker 1: Dante Bell is gonna.
Speaker 3: Step in and obvious, like I'm wondering what it is
that a Rod season Dante right, because he's a pretty
good evaluator of quarterback talent. Now has he hit on
every quarterback that he's recruited to b YU, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1: No, not necessarily.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit off from me because I don't
think he's a true dual threat.
Speaker 1: Kid, he's he can. He's like, to me, is.
Speaker 3: If I'm looking at a a quarterback right now in
the NFL, it kind of feels like Danny Jones to me,
Like the height, the weight, You're gonna use him in
red zone running not necessarily from the twenty to twenty
similar like what did we We used Bear a lot
in the run game, like we did, but I would
say we utilized him more so in what.
Speaker 1: The red zone? Does that make sense?
Speaker 5: So what if instead of those short yard QB sneaks
where you want to run Bear, you just give him
a break. You bring out that good old Gary Bohannon
package from.
Speaker 1: The Colorado We would have used Gary this way too,
you know me too. Maybe maybe that's what their thought
process here is.
Speaker 5: They're like, look, we don't want to have a tight
end or a wide receiver come in here, have to
take snaps, but we'll take a guy who we know
has a massive six six, two hundred ten pound frame,
who can take a snap and who cannot be moved backwards.
And maybe you just swap out Bear for Dante in
those situations.
Speaker 3: Well, like I said, I mean, look, this year, Bear
Bachmeier broke a record for rushing touchdowns from a quarterback
at BYU, how.
Speaker 1: Many end up having twelve?
Speaker 3: Trying to remember exactly what the number was off the
top of my head, because I remember Taysum had ten.
Did he tie or did he surpass it? Anyway, I'll
take a look at this year in a second. But
really impressive work obviously collect Yeah, eleven.
Speaker 1: Eleven rushing touchdowns. Taysum had ten.
Speaker 3: Bro I remember how awesome it was to watch our
red zone efficiency that season when Taysum was bawling out
in twenty thirteen. Ten rushing touchdowns. It just changes your
red zone. When we didn't look at the Georgia Tech game,
we had two different scenarios in which we just weren't
able to We didn't.
Speaker 1: Have Lja either. That hurt.
Speaker 3: But when you have el Ja and Bear in the
red zone, and I'm talking about Dante Bell here.
Speaker 1: Like that's where you could utilize them.
Speaker 3: And I think through like five games this year, by
the way I did the you know with the comp
that I gave Danny Jones, he had like the most
rushing touchdowns from a quarterback through like five six games.
Now he eventually got injured, right, So there's always and
and Bear had a highinnkeel sprain right, he was able
to avoid some of the nicks things bruises that you get,
the wear and tear win a three hundred and thirty
pound defensive tackle from Texas SEC rolls up on you
in sprange or ankle.
Speaker 1: That happens.
Speaker 3: So it would be nice to be able to have
a package.
Speaker 1: I believe in red zone packages. I really do.
Speaker 3: Now Bear can be that guy too. It's not like
you're gonna just but it's nice to have something. You
saw it with McKay Hillstad he was he was brought
in for a little red zone package in the bowl game.
Now he got off, tackled, couldn't get a field, couldn't
bring the tackle.
Speaker 1: It is what it is. But those are some of
my thoughts I had.
Speaker 3: About Dante Bell, big arm with an ability to be
a short yardage run quarterback.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought.
Speaker 3: And and quite honestly, do you need your quarterback to
be able to take off for.
Speaker 1: A ninety yard touchdown?
Speaker 3: It's nice, but very rarely do you have like they're
gonna get injured, that type of running back or that
type of quarterback like the Lamar Jackson, like this's like the.
Speaker 1: Avery Johnson from Kansas State. Like they're great, like I
would love I would love to have a guy like that,
but they do tend to get injured. Bear was a
bit of an anomaly in the sense that he didn't
get injured. Tation got injured a lot, a lot. You
want big boned, big ligaments, robust, robust musculature with your quarterbacks, yep,
and some good intermediate passing hopefully. Now the different stream
Dante is that I think he's got a bigger arm
than Bear. Enix got a pretty big arm. Enix got
a pretty bad We call him Goldi because he's the
Golden child by the way he's like he's he's he's
a really good kid, good football player.
Speaker 3: So anyway, that's your quarterback room right now. What grade
would you give it? What do you like about it?
What do you dislike about it? I'm giving it. I
really want to say B plus.
Speaker 5: But that's like, that's factoring in my wishful thinking of
just in the recency bias of how good Jake Retzlof
was and what a Rod has been able to do
with his top quarterback. However, I don't know that I
thought McKay Hillstead was.
Speaker 1: Exceptional, And I don't know that I.
Speaker 5: Like I like Trayson, but I don't know I Bear
won the job because he was the best. So I
don't know that's an indictment on mchay hill said or
Tracy Board. Right now that I think about it, I'm
gonna ge it be plus okay, because I think it
has potential. I think if they decide to use it
in what we've talked about as a red zone package,
I think that could be fun and effective. Honestly, one
of the needs that I see for this BYU football
team is what are more ways that we can keep
Bear healthy? And I had and the number one I
thought about this was getting another running back. I hadn't
necessarily considered getting a red zone, red zone rushing threat quarterback,
But if that is part of the mindset here, then
that definitely makes me want to bump the great up.
Speaker 1: So I'll give that one a B plus. And I'm
not saying like that he's just being brought in to
be a red zone.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying is like I think if you look
at it from like, if you want there's different types
of dual threat quarterbacks, and you don't need them to
necessarily be like super fashion, super dynamic and four four,
four five, even four six guys.
Speaker 1: They can be a four to seven guy.
Speaker 3: They have to be somewhat quick, and they have to
be able to come downhill and break a tackle and
not get injured. It's like some of your inside zone stuff,
like how many times did Bear you know, fake a
jet faking outside zone and then just.
Speaker 1: Go straight up field? Yep, you know it was beautifully done.
And once he started getting downfield, he's kind of tough
to tackle. Guys are bouncing off him, like like Bo
Jackson and tech Mobile. He's moving like five miles an
hour two Like, it's not like he's just blowing past
like that Utah touchdown run. He's got to be moving
at like five miles an hour and he's just rolling
and rumbling along. You guys just can't bring him down.
Speaker 5: So he doesn't even need four five speed because what
he's got right now you still can't touch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, indeed, well uh give us your grade, like
I would say, you know, to me, this is probably
a B.
Speaker 1: B plus is kind of like where I'm at. Because
of Bear.
Speaker 3: You have Trayson, who has some experience in the college
football world. He's got a decent RM. He's a he's
a decent decision maker. He's your QB three this last year.
And I don't know, I mean, I probably more be
And it's mostly because of Bear, I'll be honest. Like
the depth, Yeah, it's B for Bear. It's you know,
it's B minus kind of thing, like you just don't
have a whole lot there on the back end. But
like I said, I love Enich, like I think he's
really I got high potential. It's just he doesn't have
any experience. Now he is getting up to date on
the on the play call. She and you know, the
the the entire playbook, and I can't wait to see
what he and it can do when give him the opportunity.
Dante Belle nice pickup, uh and tracing, you know, a
serviceable backup. We'll go to break. Let's get into it.
Let's talk about stat segment. That segment was brought to
you by Royal Army dot Com B a swag created
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Why the Right Way. Purchase your Bway license apparel at
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better than everybody.
Speaker 1: Royal Army dot com.
Speaker 3: Stay loyal to the Royal and head on over to
Royal Army brand dot com. Let's go to break. Let's
talk stats on the flip. This is Cougar Sports Oneto
three nine nine eight point three eight.
Speaker 1: Stats.
Speaker 6: Let's talk about stats.
Speaker 2: Ben Creval and his team of former players and eight
signers give you the latest stats, data and analytics that
are trending in the world of Cougar Sports stats.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: One of three nine ninety eight point three es Ben
the Phantom, then Truital broadcasting from our Vanderwelth Studios, Vanderwealth
dot com. Get on the free Q and a no
obligation to invest na with our tax more wealth advisors
certify financial planners.
Speaker 1: Nobody does it better than Vanderwealth. Let's band together build
our wealth.
Speaker 3: They've been aiding and supporting the student athletes for the
last five years. Now he now Blaine Anderson, NFLPA certified
Financial planner, wants to aid and support Kugarnation. Give them
an opportunity to earn your business. Maybe you obtain a
few gems in the process. Let's talk about stats. Let's
get into some numbers here on your Utah ESPN Radio network.
Couple things here. Number one, let's talk about TV ratings.
ESPN's twenty twenty five twenty six Bowl games slate scored
largest audience in ten years. Anyone that tells you that
that the current landscape is ruining college football from an
entertainment standpoint, from a viewership standpoint, they're wrong. We're all watching,
we're all reading, we're all engaging at a higher level,
more so than than any other time in.
Speaker 1: College football history.
Speaker 3: Okay, three point one million average viewers across thirty three games,
up thirteen percent year over year. ABC six point two
million delivered largest non CFP Bowl audience in twelve years.
Eleven games reached at least a five year high, with eight.
Speaker 1: Scoring eight ten year high.
Speaker 3: So the Cheese It Bowl Michigan versus Texas, even with
opt outs, right, even with like issues with coaches and
all this stuff, nine point one million viewers on average
peak was fifteen million viewers, by the way, best Citrus
Bowl since two thousand, nineteen twenty twenty. Okay, pop tards ball,
we talked about this, eight point seven million viewers. Georgia
Tech versus BYU peak was ten million viewers. That's the
best since nineteen ninety one. The Bad Boy Mower's pinstripe coal.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 3: Penn State versus Clemson seven point six million viewers. Two
teams that have great legacy, great branding, but an average
win loss record attracted seven.
Speaker 1: Point six million viewers.
Speaker 3: What this shows us, ladies and gentlemen, poison girls, people
of the jury, that we love football no matter who's playing,
how they're playing. Look, I remember Kilonie talking about how
he'd just like pull off to the side of the road.
Speaker 1: There was like a Pop Warner practice. He just watch
it watching Pop Warner practice. Oh yeah, Like oh that fullback,
Oh man, he really runs hard. You know. Oh that's
a great trap.
Speaker 3: That's a great block thereat really nice down block there,
fantastic leverage on that one, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean you're just thinking about all these things, right.
Speaker 3: We us love ball, We love ball, We love football.
Baby Virginia versus Miszoo six million viewers. Tennessee versus The
Fighting a Lion I five point four million viewers. So
the eyeballs are there. Where there's ball, there's eyeballs. What
does it say about the viewership on Notre Dame's Bowl game.
Speaker 5: Oh, that's right, they didn't play in one BOMM. Yeah,
that is a bummer. What's funny is like that Penn
State Clemson game was horrible, Like that was one of
the worst football games I have watched in a long
time because watch it it was so cold, because it
was in New York and Clemson and Penn State. I mean,
it was just a dropfest to see who could drop
more passes.
Speaker 1: It was so bad to watch. However, people still watched it.
Speaker 5: And the point that you bring up about, like the
fact that we'll just watch ball at any time, like
when both first when both season first started, I can't
remember what I was watching.
Speaker 1: I think it was like.
Speaker 5: Tennessee State, I don't know, it was HBCUs and I
was like, dude, I will watch anything as long as
there is collegiate football attached. My favorite thing ever that
college football has done was during COVID when they moved
the FCS playoffs to the spring. I don't know if
you remember this, yeah, but they they moved their season
to the spring and there was nothing else on it,
and I was like, oh, dude, they got a full
tournament for FCS playoffs. Let's go, and I was just
riding those Delaware Hens all the way to the championship.
Speaker 1: I truly wish.
Speaker 5: I know they couldn't because of the way it works out,
but I man, I wish we could have FC yes
football in the spring.
Speaker 1: I think if they didn't, I think people would watch it.
Speaker 3: Bro It's the best idea that has been brought forth,
I think in the college football landscape, because it becomes
a minor league for the major league. Yes, and it's
it's it's more impactful because you can pick up guys
after the spring after like, so let's say they start
the season in uh, like, their fall camp is January. Okay, Okay,
you start playing football in February, February right after the
Super Bowl ends April, and then you get done essentially
in May with the FCS playoffs, and then they can
transition into their next school.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was gonna be My next question is, like,
would it give them enough time to where they could
hit the portals in the calendar and then transfer to
Let's say you have somebody wrote say he wants to
transfer to, then.
Speaker 1: You can what happens is ESPN, Fox.
Speaker 3: Everyone can monetize FCS football and probably all bought into that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're all like FCS football. Yeah, yeah, Like, I'll
take it. It could be some cold weather football games
around the country, but once you get into you know, May,
or obviously April and May late March, maybe it's a
you know, it's starting to warm up a bit. Yeah,
that would be incredible. Man. They need to bring back
FCS spring football. FCS spring football great. I make it
great again, because that was the best thing.
Speaker 3: During covid, ESPN college football writer Billy Tucker ranked the
twenty five best freshman from the college football season. They
ranked Bear Bachmer number six overall, not seven. Number six
Bear Bochmer. This is what he had to say about him.
While BYU came agon agonizingly close to the college football Playoff,
it has a clear foundation to make another run. In
twenty twenty six, b Whyle, you fended off Penn State
to keep Kalan satake and won twelve games the first
time since two thousand and one Stak. He also found
his quarterback, Bachmeyer, who never relinquished the starting role after
he was thrust into the job following Jake Redslof's late
summer transfer. To Tulane, Bachmeyer threw for three thousand and
thirty three yards and ran for an additional four five
to twenty seven, combining for twenty six total touchdowns. His
ability to create with his legs helped him grade as
arguably the most effective freshman duel threat in the country.
Speaker 1: He ended the season on a high.
Speaker 3: Note, throwing for three hundred and twenty five yards and
completing seventy one point one percent of his passes in
arousing twenty five to twenty one win over the Georgia
Tech football team in that pop Tarts ball the Bachmeyer
that Bachmeyer Bear should be one of the most dynamic
quarterbacks in the Big twelve next season, with an impressive
skill set but equally striking leadership qualities to build around
him in provo.
Speaker 1: So Bear Bachmer number six are.
Speaker 5: The This list is a sham. You know who else
is on this list better than him? Do you have
the list?
Speaker 1: Pull up? I have it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, this list is a sham. Bear Blackmeyer should
have been no lower than three, and the guys the
two guys ahead of him are are legitimate ahead of him.
So Number four was Caleb Hawkins, running back from North
Texas who like had a good season, Yes, but I
think mess to Maker was a massive part of that season,
so he definitely should have been above that. Number five
was a dB from LSU who frankly LSU sucked this
year and it's not as important as playing the quarterback position.
Then this is what lets me know the list is
a sham because es Billy Tucker is drinking the same
kool aid as everybody else who thinks that Jaron kiahwe
Saga who like, shout out to me for getting that
off in one take, He's not better than Bear Bachmeyer.
Speaker 1: He's did Did he go to the a SEC Championship?
Pretty sure he didn't know?
Speaker 5: Okay, he didn't only play on this team having won
one months to get ready for the season.
Speaker 1: He should not be at number three.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: The two guys ahead of him, Brandon Finney Junior, you'll
remember because he's the man who terrorized Baron Morton in
that playoff game that I'm cool with. Maybe there's recency
bias because he played really well in that game, but
he did earn it. And then at the number one spot,
I think we all agree the best freshman in the
country was Malachi Tony for the Miami Hurricanes, given all
the other talent they had on that team for him
to be that good, they're balling out in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But the fact that bear Bachmeier is.
Speaker 5: Anything lower than three on this list just tells me
this list is a sham.
Speaker 1: Well, you gotta realize.
Speaker 3: Okay, so you hear me say this often is I
ID eight. I theorize on the state of the human condition. Okay,
not to get too ethereal here, but I will say,
we're only as good as our collective personal experiences and
anecdotes that we've aggregated over this over this earthly life,
this temporal state in which we live in, right Like,
we're just a conglomerate of all those things, and those.
Speaker 1: Are our truths. Who is Billy Tucker? I say the name,
You're like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: You only know Billy Tucker if you're in the recruiting game.
Speaker 1: He is the recruiting coordinator for ESPN Recruiting Nation. He
is the director of the under Armor All America Game,
has been evaluating prospects at ESPN since two thousand and six,
So he is immersed in recruiting.
Speaker 3: Therefore, therefore, okay, anyone that is a higher rated recruit
coming out of high school with upside and potential and
all those things, they're gonna probably be rated a little
bit higher than Beart.
Speaker 1: Now, Bear was a good recruit.
Speaker 3: Bear has been viewed more so, I think sometimes as
a kind of a unique prospect though in the recruiting game.
He had great offers. But everyone there was a lot
of people when he was coming out of high school there,
I don't know if he's a quarterback.
Speaker 1: They think he's a football player. There's a difference.
Speaker 3: Okay, It's like Taysom Hill wasn't necessarily a quarterback. He
was a football player, best football player on the field
many times.
Speaker 1: There is a difference.
Speaker 3: And and so that's kind of how I feel about this. Obviously,
you have Malachai Tony and Oregon's Brandon Finty Junior.
Speaker 1: I mean, Finny Junior is awesome.
Speaker 3: The Jared Kahwei, you know, I understand statistically, I mean
he led all true freshman in the throw game three
four and fifty four yards. He threw for eighteen touchdowns
to nine interceptions and included three hundred and thirty yards
and four scores to beat number twenty one SMU and
the Golden Beers regular season finale. He also had an
overtime win versus number fifteen Louisville dramatic nail biders. You know, like,
I get it, I understand a little bit of it,
but I think collective statistics and record, like obviously Bear
should be ahead of him. The one that I have
actually more of a The two that I have probably
issue with is Caleb Hawkins and DJ Picktt. But TJ
picks A five are Caleb Hawkins is the unique one,
right like, but he had a very robust statistical output
versus his strength of schedule six two two hundred pounds
had almost fifteen hundred yards in Russian.
Speaker 1: Which is that's that's pretty that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3: If anything, I would say Caleb and DJ Pickett is
where I'm at. I understand you can make an argument
for Jaron, but he probably should. Bear should be number three.
Speaker 1: You're spot on, You're spot on, but check the source
and why there's some bias there. It's a valid argument.
Check the source.
Speaker 3: It's just like Joel Klatt going on record yesterday and saying,
you know, it shouldn't that the that ESPN is should
there shouldn't be a sole provider of broadcast broadcasting platforms
for the Coas Football playoffs.
Speaker 5: Just say you want to call the game, Joel, just
tell us. We know that's what it is, and we
all respect you for saying that with them.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's never some reason like like when Brady
comes on and says, hey, like, look, i'm his brother,
Kelly Pepina is my brother, Like I'm gonna I'm gonna like,
I'm gonna give him a big Cougar row, Like, yeah,
you're always gonna take it with a grave salt because
there's that personal relationship not it. But you can't throw
out everything. It's like, there's truth in what joe'clat's saying. Yes,
and I understand what Billy Tucker's saying too with some
of these things.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fine. You just have to read between the lines.
That's why we read between the lines here on Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: We're gonna give you all of it, gonna give you
we gotta thin slice that bad boy Malcolm Gladwell style.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: All Right, guys, that's our segment brought to you by
that's our stat segment brought to you by our good
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Speaker 1: Let's go to break.
Speaker 3: Coming up next my guy Brandon Day, Cougar Sports Insider
CEO of Odeon. Men's Worth that up next. This is
Cougar Sports one of three nine ninety a point three