Speaker 1: And then I would have to say, this is the
first time all year where our quarterback depth became a problem,
you know, because we really didn't have an option at
least versus Texas Tech that was superior to Bear being
fifty sixty percent healthy. You know, I think that's really
what ultimately led to our demids because I'll say you this,
I mean, at the game, Texas Tech had no answers
for our first few drives. Roderick has a perfect game call.
We had them on their heels. They did not know
how to handle, which a lot of good defenses don't
a quarterback that can run with all the different actions
and motions, and you know, the players should pass with
LG running down Hell really well, it would have been
a very very interesting outcome if Bear doesn't get hurt,
but we'll never know. But at the same time, you
have to give Texas Tech all the credit because they're
the ones that did I mean, they were hitting hard,
they were executing with excellent precision on the defense side
of the ball, and they're the ones that knocked Bear out,
you know, like the pain on him enough. It's where
very very negatively affected to throw the ball because people
don't realize those ankle rolls are the most excruciatingly painful
injuries ever. They make you want to throw up. I've
had a cl reconstructions, I've had a seat joint separations, thumbs,
blown out, concussions, neck fingers. The most debilitating and one
that it makes me think. I remember when I heard
it against carn of State my software year. I basically
rolled my ankle very similar to Bear. I thought I
had snapped my leg in half. That's like the degree
of which you're expecting the injury that look like based
off of the pain you're feeling. And then the worst
part is that you don't have any bounce, you don't
have any wiggle, any twitch and that and that it's
almost like a dead leg until that tendon really heals
up and gets back to its normal. It's normal attention.
So you have to get text and tech credit. And
then they were hitting hard and they made by Bear
pay pay play on uh beare hey on that one
play before the touchdown where he got on that inline
option where he just got he got hit hard and
and the big dtackle there for Texas Tech got him
got him low as he was getting hit high, and
it just knocked him out and that was the difference
in the game right there. Otherwise we controlled the game.
And that's why I'm not I have no shame in
this game. The second thing is is I was on
the sideline and I knew something was seriously wrong with
there I did. I was curious to see how everybody
else would operate, you know, if there's concern if guys flinched.
Nobody flinched. Bro I was like, dude, these guys are
so focused and locked in. I just I just love him, man,
and the way they compete, the way Clowne's got him
competing was exactly the right way. We just played a
phenomenal team that required us to be healthy across the board.
We ended up not being Bear was a little off.
We didn't have much you know, we don't have much depth.
That was again nobody's fault of this team that at
the quarterback position. What happened with the red slaugh and everything,
and we got caught, you know, and end up you know,
having a rough you know, basically what halfway through the
third quarter to the end of the game was just
a disaster. But still the guys played hard. I mean,
like I said, I was very, very proud of them
after the game, and there's no shame in that loss
whatsoever versus the previous one, the first encounter they had, Yeah,
there was some shame there. You know, you're doing dumb
things that you generally don't do, and this one it
wasn't the case. That was Texas Tech bringing it to
us and we just didn't have the depth to handle
it at the quarterback position.
Speaker 2: So how far away are we from? I think Bioways
a great team. How far away is b away from
being an elite team in college football? Because I feel
like the top five teams in college football are elite.
How far away are we?
Speaker 1: I love that question because I believe based off of
what I was witnessing in person when I was watching
Texas Tech's elite defense, which by the way, that's that's
one of the best defenses I've ever seen in college
football ever. I put it up there with any Alabama
defenses I've seen, any of these Georgia defenses with the
Jalen Carter that now is played for the E I
put them up there because they have all the physical
raw talent you could ask for right on all levels.
But these guys are disciplined man like Roderick pressed every
single one of their buttons with scheme and motion and
all those kinds of things, and they, I mean, even
when they were out of position, they still were able
to mitigate some of those players, like some of the
reverse passes by sweeps, those the auction the auction actions
and those kinds of things. But having said all of that,
when I was watching, when we were driving methodically fourteen
plays ninety yards in this defense and nobody's ever done,
I thought we are going to win by three touchdowns.
That's what I thought. Because they don't know what that's like.
They looked at each other like, dude, what is happening
to us? This never happens to us. So we were
one ankle roll away from taking that game and showing
the whole world what was up. But again, that's the
name of the game of football. You know, it's a violent,
physical game and you want to inflict pain on your opponent.
And just everybody knows if we'd done the same things
as their quarterback, you know what, they already had a
game like that against Arizona State where the star wasn't playing.
Maybe something similar happens to them. You know. So that's
that's just kind of how it goes. You know, So
we're there. I don't I don't look at this like,
oh man, wait, there's a huge gap. I never once
felt that. I felt that we just didn't have the
quarterback death because McKay, bless his heart. Man, I'm looking
at that freaking you know, Texas Tech defense, and I'm
looking at at mckenn. I'm like, I can't. I would
not feel comfortable sending McKay out there. He doesn't have
enough reps. That dude is not ready to handle the
kind of pressure and the kind of checks and all
the things that it's going to take to be functional,
just functional. And that's and I think I think, you know,
obviously the coaching staff probably felt the same way. That's
why you know, fifty percent bear is you know, our
answer in that particular situation. But I don't have any
issues be where we're at. I don't have any issues
of how we stood up stacked up against you know,
Texas Tech, who is arguably I mean, if if they
don't win the national championship, I'll be surprised, quite frankly.
So I'm fine. I thought that was, like I said,
there's no shame in that loss. That's the heck of
the team, war heck of the team and ended up
having our quarterback go down and they caused that, and
then ultimately we just couldn't find any depth or any
way to manage that to where we could be functional
as an offense. You know, then we'll turn the ball
over on our side of the field and then all
of a sudden it just get you know, gets out
of control fast, which, like I said, that could go
either way with if you're playing against really good teams.
Speaker 2: In your opinion, Brady, why is it? What's your theory
on why BYU was never considered seriously for the college
football playoff? There was never I mean even Colonie said
post game, He's like, at least put our graphic up
next to Alabama, Notre Dame, Miami, Oklahoma, everybody else that's
a two loss team. At least put our graphic if
we were on eleven one team. The ESPN completely skirted from,
you know, from the fact the resume of BYU football
throughout this entire process when they deservingly needed to at
least be in the conversation.
Speaker 1: There's so many ways that can go here, Ben, I mean,
this is this is a great question, and because it's
so fascinating and I wanted to kind of stand the surface,
but I'm not going to. Now we are gonna go
a little deep and what so, I don't know. Have
you ever watched there's a documentary done by ESPN thirty
for thirty about the evolution and the eventual takeover of
the passing attack in all of footballs. Have you seen that, Ben?
Speaker 2: I don't know if I've seen that. I would like
to watch it, though you may.
Speaker 1: Not want to. And here's why they only mentioned BYU
in passing. It's absolutely insulting. It is not accurately. It
is not historically accurate. They mentioned these podunk schools acting
as though and I free. I was so upset because
I was like, this is not history. If you go
when you look at all, like even today, Shanahan, the
dude with the La Rams, I can't believe he's blanket.
You look at all these coaches you know are up
with Green Bay. I'm talking the best offensive coaches. Guess
where they all come from? The West Coast offense genealogy.
Andy Reid's a great example. He comes from the same
one they all come from that. And guess who was
a huge influence in that. You got Mike Holmgrin, Oh,
you go all the way back to Lavelle Edwards and yeah,
we won a national championship in nineteen eighty four because
of it. And you're not gonna mention that in your
documentary of the provlif relation of the pass. Who are
you people? So I think there is some religious problems
with us. I believe there's political problems with the church
in some of our political stands. I think this is
deeper than football. And then on top of it, what
compounds it is I do believe that a lot of
the same people that are on this committee are the
ones that in ninety six we sued them because we
were basically invited to go to the Fiesta Bowl and
then all of a sudden they got involved in this
Oh no, we're not saying BYU. And then we went
to the Cotton Bowl and then we sued them, and
then you know, you go back to ninety today flock
I had mentioned, and we win a national championship under
their rules, and ironically they were so arrogant, these big
blue blood teams, which by the way, they're all going
nuts right now because they're not blue bloods anymore. But anyway,
that's another topic. But anyway, all these blue bloods are like, dude,
how is it that you get this? You know, we're
going to determine national championship on whoever has the best record.
They never ever thought that a team like BYU with
inferior talent physically would ever be able to beat teams
like the Michigans and all these blue bloods. And we
did with the passing attack because we were a little
bit more intelligent than they were, that's the bottom line,
and that pissed them off. And so right now, this
is just this is retaliation against the history of BA football.
I say, there's religious animosity towards us, political and like
I said, it's this isn't the first time they've tried
to kind of pretend we're not there as a BYU cougrination.
I'm telling you, it's a really funky thing because we
have a pretty dang good relationship with them, at least
to my knowledge, on some fronts. With we helped ESPN
emerge as this powerhouse in the sports broadcasting world with
their first college football game being broadcast at BYAU versus
pit huge between quotation, upset and all of a sudden
you see this, you know, passing offense it was, and
so it's there's a lot of that going on, man,
and I just it's hard to see, but we can't.
I don't feel like we're a victim. I felt like
we had every opportunity to win our games and get
in and we did it. We had we had all
right there, and we just didn't do it. And you
know what, that's okay. I think it's great. We're gonna
go to the bowl game. We're gonna get extra time
to develop another real time opportunity for these young guys
to go get some reps. If these older guys want
to improve their draft stock, they have that opportunity. It
never hurts to continue to play by the way. It
never does. I don't know what Notre Dame's doing. I
don't know what Kansas State's doing. I don't know what
Iowa State's doing. I don't get it. I don't even
know what that means. If oh, it's we're actually doing
something better by not playing in practicing, I don't even
that does not align with my my principles and my philosophy. Whatsoever.
There's reps, there's practice, there's activation that has to take place,
there's experience that has to be gained, and you don't
do that by not doing something that you're trying to
get experienced in. So here's my rant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's crazy, right, like Notre Dame pulling this,
taking their ball and going home. Why do you think
they did that? Beverquah the ad said, we just didn't.
We didn't like the process. We were led to believe
that we were going to be a part of the
college Football Playoff and then poor Marcus Freeman had to
tell these players, hey, we're not going to play in
a bowl game because the colleg Football Playoff Committee screwed us.
That's what he essentially said. Making the rounds earlier today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, again, it's so revert back to my comment where
these blue bloods are freaking out. Notre Dame is having
a moment of vulnerability and iMore of mortality in the
sense of they're not a powerhouse anymore. Really, the only
powerhouses that exist are those that are affiliated with ESPN,
which would be the SEC, now the ACC ironically, and
the Big Ten isn't. But the Big Ten has enough
of the viewership to where that has some sway with
ESPN because they want to get their investment back, and
ESPN is invested to US seven and a half million
dollars in the college Football Playoff. They want their investment
back and Notre Dame is an NBC kind of thing.
But at the same time, what we're looking at here
is we're looking at Notre Dame. I believe shocked because
they're assuming they're entitled to some kind of cachet based
off of their history, based off of their how many
I got twelve you know, recognized national champions championships of
all different polls and stuff. You know, it's one of
the between quotation's top football programs in the country. And
they were just you know, basically excluded out of something
that they thought they would always be automatically as long
as they were good a part of which that didn't happen.
So there's a moment of more time for them where
they're looking like, you know what, this is scary. Maybe
we don't have the power, Maybe we do have to
become part of the conference now, Maybe we do have
to conform instead of being able to dictate our terms.
And this is a test to that, and I think
this is what they're trying to do. They're trying to
understand their leverage points. And we'll see. We'll see if
it SWAZIESTPN or any of the powers that be to
because next year's schedule, I don't know if you've looke
to Notre Dame schedule, it's horrendous. It's not one that
if they weren't undefeated. I don't even know if they
would get into the playoffs, you know, even if you
took the same kind of teams this year, because they don't.
Unless USC is really good and that Miami's really good,
that's the only chance they have. USC and Miami have
to be like top ten teams and they have to
beat them. That's really the only chance they have for
that schedule to really help them get into any kind
of playoff contention next year. But yeah, but I believe
it's a sense of mortality that they kind of realize
that they don't have the leverage anymore in college football
than they used to.
Speaker 2: Do you think we should get rid of conference championship games?
Speaker 1: I don't. I think what we should do is, again,
I'm not one to get rid of games, even in
the NFL go to streaking eighteen regular season games, We're fine.
I prefer that I think most wear and tear on
these players happens in practice because coaches don't know how
to manage practice correctly. I believe most where in tear
happens in the training room because most trainers not training room,
but you know, the weight room, and those training they
don't know how to properly load their athletes and follow
that load. Well. Luckily we got an unbelievable team that does.
And that's where most of the injuries start to percolate.
And that's where all the accumulation effects take place, is
in training and then also in your practicing. It's not
in the games. We need more games. And the reason
why you need more games is because that's how this
needs to be determined. This doesn't get determined, and we're learning.
That's why it's frustrating right now for everybody. It should
not be determined by a committee. This shouldn't this is
this is stupid. It should be determined like hey, and
so I've heard some really good suggestions that I think
would work, which is this, you have your conference championship weekend,
and then you have your bubble teams and basically whoever
whoever's not in a conference championship, you're gonna line them
up like like this last year, our excuse this last week,
you'd have had Vanderbilt playing, you'd had Texas playing, and
they would have been playing old Miss Texas A and
M these schools that weren't in the championship game, and
we're gonna get it really good. And Notre Dame would
have been involved in that, Miami would have been involved
in that, and you're gonna get a really good idea
off of those those matchups of who's who's who and
then and it's gonna weed a bunch of teams out
because they're gonna lose. And it's just, you know, it's
kind of like what what or how I should say
the committee treated by you and both by Alabama, not Alabama,
but b YU against Texas Tech, where you know, we
lost by three touchdowns and they thought, Okay, well that's
our indicator that they're not you know, but that's I
think more games the better and that and it be
playing out on the field. This shouldn't be decided with committees.
Speaker 2: Grady for being on the LII Cougar Sports one of
three nine ninety eight point three es Ben the Fan
by the Way two is the season to be giving guys.
ESPN the Fan of the Rocky Mountain Chevy Dealers invite
you to help those at the road home this holiday
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espndefan dot com for the dealer location, spread the warmth,
and help others find their way home. A couple last
things here before we let you go beat Pop. Any
concerns about bear Bachmeyer's ankle. Do you think he should
be ready to be ready to go for the Pop Tarts.
Speaker 1: Bowl You're always concerned with I'm assuming I'm just using
my own analysis that was probably a high ankle spring.
There are procedures that can be done that accelerates that
recovery pretty quickly. And I've had him before, and you know,
if you get a good three weeks rest and really
strengthen it up, it'll actually be functional and he'll be fine.
So I don't think there's any longer turn problems with it.
It's just you know, how it's gonna come down to
you know, really that ligament tightening back up. You know,
some guys it takes a little longer than others, but
a few we're three weeks away here, so uh, and
he's probably gonna have to get in the boot and
kind of just let everything came down. But we'll see
how it goes. But yeah, I mean he's a young kid,
he's a tough kid. He works really hard. I don't
see why he could have have his body ready to
go by that time.
Speaker 2: And then finally, you know this, uh, this BYU football
team with a top twenty one recruiting class.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: We talked about it making like making that jump from
great to elite? Are we a year away? Do you
think you were? You're two seasons away from maybe uh
entering into that elite status.
Speaker 1: We're there. We just need to get we needed. We
got to get a quarterback depth right. And look, it's
nobody's fault. We had a surprise situation happened. We handled
it as literally. I mean, come on, I was I
think you could pull up some of my interviews with you.
I didn't think we win more in eight games, you know,
especially the true freshman quarter back was brought Our excuse me,
Bear was historic. Imagine having a whole off season now
where Roderick can Bear can get together along with the
coaching staff and they just build an offense customed to
him and it's like his it's like a part of
his hand, it's like a glove. It just it just
is who he is. And then he probably have a
very good idea what that's gonna be, but they can
detail it out more. I mean, Bear is a phenomenal thrower.
I think we've seen that with his accuracy and as
long as his ankles is right. And so I look,
this team is there. We just got to reload. I mean,
that's the thing is we gotta we gotta stay with
getting going into the portal and developing good front guys,
you know, because we're probably gonna lose some of them
into the NFL, which is fine. We're gonna have to
develop and maybe go into the portal, get some linebackers.
We just got to get competition, you know, let these
guys figure it out. We got talent. We got talent,
that's the one thing. We got more enough talent. We
just gotta let these guys go to Pete builds great
schemes around them. Which our coaches can do keep guys healthy.
And the biggest thing next year is the quarterback depth
is going to be a lot better, which if we
had in the same situation arise like happened in the
Texas Tech game, you'll see that will be very very
I say, a lot more equipped to handle that instead
of kind of just man, we got to go with
a guy that's fifty percent right now, you know, And
again that's nobody's fault. It's just you know, Jake getting
kicked out basically because of the auto code issue. So
so yeah, I mean we're there. I just think we,
like I said, we got to reload and use this
time with the bowl game, We've got to use it.
You know, this has to be a time for me personally,
This was like the best time for me to gain
so much in terms of understanding the game and he
kind of evolving into being a college football players with
this bowl game in my freshman year. So I think
for a lot of young guys, this is going to
be huge in their development and that's what we need.
We need to devote guys. We can't just go buy
a roster, you know. I think a lot of people
think that I think a lot of people assume all
the Texas Tech just bought their roster. Well they did,
but at the same time they coached them up very well.
These guys have been developing and they molded very well together.
It's a very hard thing to do what they've done.
So what you have to do is you have to
develop and full practice playing and balls that helps your
team develop. Is good in anything.
Speaker 2: Great breakdown, Brady, we gotta let you go. We gotta
go to break. But I invite everyone to check out
the XPT dot com. If you're building out a gym,
if you're looking for gym equipment, if you're you're in
the market for any sort of humor performance elements in
your life, then hit up Brady Pepinka give them a
call today the XPT dot com. Brady, thanks so much
for joining us.
Speaker 1: Hey, always a pleasure man. We'll be in touch, all right.
Speaker 2: There you have it, Brady Papanka, We'll go to break,
don't go wander or more to get you. John Beck
on the flip side, this is Cougar Sports on one
of three nine ninetywo point three ESPN.
Speaker 1: The Fan