Speaker 1: Aston from expansion talks in the hot Stove to opening
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Speaker 1: Seven to ten on one oh three nine at ninety
eight three ESPN.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel and it's
time for a cruiting the Cougars and inside look at
the latest news on the recruiting trails surrounding Cougar Athletics.
Welcome back Cougar Sports one O three nine, ninety eight
point three ESPN.
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appointment today. It is time for Littlecruit and the Cougars
going to get into the recruiting class at BYU for
the twenty twenty six last I want to break it
down in three phases. Right, you got your your your
your freshman class, right. Some of those guys are gonna
go on mission. Some of them will play immediately. You
also have the transferportal class, which has been very strategic.
I will break that down. And then you have like
your return missionaries coming back. There's always a trifecta. Actually,
I guess you can. You can do it into two
forces there because we have essentially four different things that
you're you're conversing about. But we'll delve into that with
a college football recruiting expert and get his grade on
this class. It's gonna be brought to you by rubys
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Speaker 2: Let's get out to the hot line.
Speaker 1: Welcome in the one the only Greg Biggins of on
three and Rivals?
Speaker 2: Greg, how you living?
Speaker 3: Living pretty good? How are you guys doing good?
Speaker 1: Doing pully doing awesome? Man, No no room for improvement.
We feel too blessed to be street.
Speaker 3: Okay, I wish I was living that kind of life,
but good for you.
Speaker 2: Hey, what's it like right now for you? Right?
Speaker 1: Has the dust settled a little bit with all the
craziness of the recruiting twenty four to seven three sixty
five world that you typically live in.
Speaker 3: Not even a little bit, So you know, it's kind
of funny. I haven't done your show in a while,
but to hear you introduce me as on three Rivals,
I'm still getting used to that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, how long how long were you two seven
and when did you make the movie?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I want to say like seven years or
something like that. And you know, before that it was
it was Scout dot Com. We kind of merged with
two four seven, but I want to say it was
like seven years. I think the easiest way to remember
is it was the year of Trevor Lawrence justin field.
That was That was their graduating class. That's kind of
how we remember dats you know, who was the quarterbacks
that were in that class. So, yeah, made the move
a little bit before December. It's going, it's going well,
but yeah, it's super busy. So doing have a little
bit more on my on my plate right now in
terms of, you know, covering recruiting. Before I was you know,
kind of doing more just on the evaul side. Now
it's covering recruiting and it's also still doing the grading
and so with with Rivals. Have a big twenty twenty
seven update coming up in a few weeks, I think
at the end of the month. So right now just
kind of grinding on that. And so you know, it's
event season. There's always something going on every weekend, whether
it be A seven on, whether it be a five
on five lineman competition, whether it be a you know,
an under armoured camp, whatever, there's there's always and so yeah,
even though signing day has kind of coming gone, I
would say event season slash. You know, scouting season is
year round, So still kind of trying to keep my
head above water right now.
Speaker 1: Hey, well, we appreciate you spending some time with us
to kind of evaluate where BYU stands and they're recruiting.
How would you evaluate how would you grade out the
twenty twenty six class for BYU football this year?
Speaker 3: I thought it was awesome. You know, I wish I
had time I was going to try to actually go
back and I know it was a you know, I
want to say it was a top twenty five class
right right around twenty to twenty five. I was kind
of kind of go back over the last ten to
fifteen to twenty years. I think it's our highest rated
class in like a long time, right, Like, I don't
think we've had a top twenty to twenty five class
and at least a decade, And you can kind of
keep going back and back, so you know, I love
what they did. It was a great year for talent
in Utah, I think one of the better years for
talent in the state, and they were able to get
you know a Bywater, you know, a broad Cars, a Bond,
a Lopetty Moala, the Puolo Toy. I mean, they really
did a great job just in state. And then obviously
you know kind of just what I like to do
for me. Great in a recruiting class. You know, if
you have a big need at you know, at say
off at the line and you signed you know, twelve receivers,
you know, even if those receivers are all really good,
did you really see you know, fill a bunch of
your needs. So for me, it's it's need balance and
then you also want to have that star power. So
in terms of the balance and fill the needs, I
mean they got the quarterback, they got the running back
to tight end the skill players. It just filled gaps
everywhere all over the board. So I really liked the
class a lot. Like I said, man to be labeled
the point, but probably the best class that I've seen
BYU have in a long, long long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's probably their best class ever. Quite honestly,
I know the twenty ten class with like Jake Heaves
and Rossoppo and zach Stout and there was a there
was a pretty good crew. But I think that in
the modern era, I think this one may take the cake.
And it kind of makes the question, Okay, since twenty twenty,
b yu's gone eleven and one, ten and three, then
they had a little bit of a drop eight and five,
five and seven, and then they've had an eleven and
two and then twelve and two seasons. You know, you
look at the wins versus their recruiting rankings.
Speaker 2: BA has to be it has to have some of
the best ROI.
Speaker 1: You know in college football for the I guess the
recruit that they get.
Speaker 2: What does that speak to? Do you think?
Speaker 3: I think it speaks to a lot of things. You know,
obviously we'll say forever. This is not an exact science,
but I think there's something to be said about development.
B YU is very you know, a very unique school
and how they recruit, and obviously you know the wins
versus the recruiting class in imperfect world, right, you want,
if you have like a top five recruiting class, then
it's if works out the way you're predicting it to
within two to three years, that top five class should translate,
and you've got to put together multiple top five classes
for this to actually workout, right, can't just be a
flash in the pan. But the way it's supposed to
work is you put together a couple of top five,
top teen classes and within a couple of years you
should be a top five the top ten team. That's
how it's cupposed to work. Obviously, there's always going to
be an outlier. Indiana probably is the biggest outlier. And
a lot of you know, a lot of people came
in and I'll promise all tie this together. I'm not
going too far off, too far off on a tangent,
but you know a lot of people kind of came
out with the whole stars don't matter. Indiana shows it,
and you're kind of saying, you know, back up a
little bit. There's this thing called an outlier.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: This is the first time, and you know in the
BCS history that a team has one national championship that
had under fifty percent of the roster made up of
three stars. Usually every other national title in the BCS
era had over fifty percent of the roster made up
of four five star guys. While Indiana was unique was
because they had about twenty three players that were fifth
and six year seniors. That doesn't happen very often. I
think with BYU the correlation is oftentimes they have a
little bit of an older roster as well, because they have,
you know, a lot of their returned missionaries come. These
are you know, these are grown men who can just
go out and bully. And for years watching b YU,
they're they're men up front, right, they bully guys, They're tough,
they're physical. And Indiana, I mean you watch them. They
were so tough, physical, upfront in that box many they
were devastating. And I think they also had a generational
coach in Kurt Sinnetti. So I think Indiana a little
bit of an outlier. But the way it's supposed to
work is the class, you know, should reflect wins, and
I think b YU, you know, had a great class.
It's kind of a chicken on the eggs that people
will say, well, would the class become better the more
times you win? Will that get recruits and or you
are you saying you need to get the recruits first
and then you win the game. I think it kind
of has you know, a little bit of an overlap
for both. But you know, I think the way By
used to play on the field, I think it should
become a norm for them, honestly to have top twenty
five recruiting classes. They have a great staff in place,
and I think it's another I think the talent and
you overall the last three or four years continues to
come up again. Watching this twenty seven class I'm doing
right now, another pretty good year for talent in twenty seven.
So I think there's no reason why By you shouldn't
be a perennial top twenty to twenty five team from
a recruiting class down point, and then you should compete
to see those nine, ten, even eleven win type seasons
from the coops.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, there's a theory that is
pervasive amongst cougarnation the fans, right, and this is a
little bit of a maybe a persecution complex. Maybe it's
because BYU athletics wandered the desert of the Whack, the
Mountain West and then independence for so long, and we're
stiff on by the power brokers of college athletics. They
didn't invite them to the pit, you know, power for them, right.
Speaker 3: I know where you're going I know already, so like.
Speaker 1: Because of it, I know, No, I'm prefacing all this
because like, yeah, look I cover you know, I'm a
former BOU athlete, right, I cover.
Speaker 2: BYU as as a media member and things like that.
Speaker 1: So I get feel I mean, I have to field
all this stuff, and I'm like, okay, Like I'm gonna
ask the experts.
Speaker 2: They believe that as soon as a BYU.
Speaker 1: Recruit commits to their school, right, they could have been
committed to any other school and then they decommit from
that school and then they go to BYU and they
signed with BOU, that their recruiting ranking drops.
Speaker 2: Have you heard this theory?
Speaker 3: You know, I've heard that theory by not just BYU,
but about one hundred and fifty other schools. There is
literally not a school alive that doesn't have that same
exact complex of all of our guys. You know, it's funny.
There's this thing called the Bama bump. Right, It's it's
a pretty well known name for years and years. Right,
you've probably heard that term, right, And every year it's always, oh,
as soon as a guy gets offered by Bama or
if he commits to Bama, and I promise you. This
past year, I even heard people from Bama. I you know,
because that's my job. I searched the message boards, you know,
when i'm dropping intel and i'm I'll take a minute,
I'll kind of scan the message boards. I promise you.
Bama fans were even saying, dude, our guys are getting screwed.
So and so just got dropped only because he committed
to us, not thinking to myself, wow, a Bama fan
is now actually complaining about a reverse Spama bomp. Now
it's the Obama drop right, And it was because, oh,
because we don't have save it anymore, and now all
of a sudden, our players aren't respected as much. Literally,
I promise you, there has never been a time and
in my twenty four come at twenty four seven to
my time with rivals, when we're sitting there, we're spending
hours trying to you know, try to grade these kids
and get it right. And we're taking like people would
be shocked how much we take one player to evaluate
one player. And it's a process. And again I've said
it to you before, it's not just about how good
you are in high school. It's an NFL draft projection.
So we're big on measurables, not at an expense of tape.
Tape matters one thousand percent. We watch so much tape
it's insane. But we're also looking at things that the
NFL draft values, and that could be things like armspan,
could be things like wingspan, could be things like, you know,
multi sport background. You're looking for a full athletic profile.
And there were plenty of guys who committed to BYU
that actually moved up after the fact, and I you know,
Adam Bywater, Junior Maala, there's a number of them who
actually moved up and because the senior tape was not
just good, but then you kind of evaluate the player.
For example, a junior Mahala. Right, here's a guy with
near an eighty inch wingspan, who's a higher athletic kid
with a big frame, who's obviously the game tape put
up huge numbers. I honestly don't know who was in
the State Flayer of the Year probably should have been him,
put up incredible numbers and his ranking was bumped up
after the fact. So and there's guys like that in
every single school. So it's again kind of a long
winded way of saying in all of our meetings, there's
never been a time where we said, you know what,
he's gonna go to b YU. You know what, let's
let's drop his ranking just because we want to that guy.
Just that doesn't we're trying to get this right. Ideally,
we're trying to get every kid right and are trying
to project to the draft. Hey, this guy's the first rounder,
that he should be a five star. If he's going
to be, you know, drafted between rounds two through four,
he should be rated in this spot. And that's kind
of how we do it. And so what school you choose,
I promise you it really doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: I love the commentary.
Speaker 1: I think it needs to be addressed with so many
conspiracy theories out there, and you know, quite honestly, some
of these conspiracy theories sometimes they come true. So I
appreciate you delving into that, mister Greg Biggins. Now let's
talk a little bit about the class you have, the
transfer portal class, right, b YU was a little bit
more strategic than other schools.
Speaker 2: I don't know what you know.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many schools were like at that
ten or under mark with acquisitions via the portal. I
imagine that that was not common, only acquiring ten guys
via the portal.
Speaker 3: You know what I think is that what it was?
Always signed ten portal guy. I think, yeah, they got
we're dude like Walker Lions and Packie. Now I'm a
big fan of Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But you know, honestly, I think if you're signing again,
DYU is unique, right, you would know better than I would.
I know, their high school classic extremely well. Nine guys.
Speaker 1: Nine guys Roger Saliapaga from Oregon, Javin Williams from Mississippi State,
Zach Yamauchi offensive lineman from Stanford, Kato Luave from cal
Jake Clifton from Kansas State, Kyler Casper from Oregon, Junior
Sea from Utah State, Pockey fenw from Washington, and then
Walker Lions from USC.
Speaker 2: That's what they That's what they got.
Speaker 3: I like most of those guys. Now, what I was
gonna say was, I think you would know more than
I would the return who's coming back? Right?
Speaker 2: So you know you retained.
Speaker 1: They retained a lot of their their players outgoing transfers.
Speaker 2: You have Shaye Bryant Strawther.
Speaker 1: He's injured though, Pokahunga is leaving, Max Alfred's leaving, Tavon
Beasley's leaving, and uh, you know a lot of young
pups Sonny Tuala, Sionihananoe, Tucker Keller, Ikeanascio Tupo. Some people
would view that one as it lost. He was a
high level three star. Jake Griffin ended up at U
of a Dom McKinzie. So there were some losses. Le
Mason Waller the third left to Suu. There were some
losses there, but no like major key contributors that weren't
coming off injury.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm more curious. So how many returned missionary you are
coming back though?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So return missionaries? Uh, kind of interesting here. I think
there were about six or seven that they are inviting back.
So owen Borg owen Borg Canyon. He was from Corner Canyon,
I believe. I'm trying to think if there was like
any like high level guys though that were were like.
Speaker 2: Big time recruits.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm trying to think I should have a
list of these guys I'm pouring up right, Like.
Speaker 3: Like Reiner Swansa, he's not coming back yet, right, He's
got to know is not.
Speaker 2: Coming back, but he's going to be a baller like
he's definitely, no.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying he'll be. He'll be an impact
guy for sure. I was just thinking about him and
their day.
Speaker 2: Don't know why.
Speaker 3: I think it was because I was I was at
the beach and I know he was a big surfer
and whatever. That's kind of weird how how his name
pumped into my head. But no, so I think when
you add the return missionaries to the portal class, that's
probably a solemn group. And then again, if you're not
losing anything, I think in a perfect world, I think,
tell me old school, and I get this as kind
of I'm an outlier, but I still think you want
to build that. You know, build with high school classes.
I think if you have a if you trust your
ability to develop, you know, if you can have a
guy who's you signed a twenty five member freshman class
and you're able to develop those guys for three years
and by the time those guys are junior and seniors
and they know your system and they know your strength habits,
they know you're nutrition, they know how your coach like,
that's such an advantage. And then getting a guy who's
coming in, who's been somewhere else for three years? And yeah,
I get the instant gratification. And I'm not saying you
shouldn't pick your spots. You absolutely should the portal, you know,
I mean that was Dabo Sweeney's probably biggest air was
he was kind of hard headed say you know what,
I'm not going to use the portal because that's almost
admitting defeat. You know, It's almost I could saying, hey,
I didn't recruit well out of high school. I want
to trust my guys. I think you still want to
pick your spot. I think between five to ten is perfect. Now,
if there was like a dude, right, a quarterback, an
elite first round, second round receiver, he wants to come,
you take that guy one hundred percent. But I still say,
build from high school. And I think that's what by
you did this year, and I'm for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: As far as the return missionaries go, there was no
key headliners Owen Borg, Matthew, Frederick Tighten and East Blake
low linebacker, Jet Nelson wide receiver two week Putu Tao.
Speaker 2: I can't remember what his recruiting raak was.
Speaker 1: Adney read to me, is a really nice prospect but
under recruited. D N David Tungu i Lanu defensive tackle
in an enok Wat at American Leadership Academy. At quarterback,
I actually Loki really like Enick Watson. But those are
those were the turn missionaries that were part of class.
I don't think it necessarily bumps your recruiting ranking. A
lot of these guys for the three star guys, but
I think it overall it's a really good class, best
class in BAU football history. From a freshman class, A
lot of those guys will go on mission, some of
them will play, and then a really nice trean. What
grade would you give the transfer portal class real quick?
Those nine guys, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, yeah, I think they're all. I think they're all
really good players. I know probably at least five or
six of them really well invers of gaming them a grade,
if we're just like an individual player grade, I would
give it a solid, you know B. Plus. I can't
really say, you know, what is it compared to other schools,
because again some schools probably in like fifteen to twenty.
But from an individual standpoint, I see at least four
or five guys right there that I think could the
impact players run away and at least three or four
that I should be drafted. So I give it high
marks for sure.
Speaker 2: Love it, Greg.
Speaker 1: Best way to support you what you do, how you
do it for all of our listeners that are in
and in today.
Speaker 3: Brother, Yeah, I mean I don't need. I mean just
you know, come on, no you need.
Speaker 2: What's your what's your Twitter? What's your Twitter? At Greg Biggins?
Make sure you subscribe to Rivals and on.
Speaker 3: Three right, all that good stuff. Yeah, Rivals on three
at Greg Biggins. I lost my Twitter. I got it back,
Thank God for that. So yeah, but yeah, there you go.
Those are those day avenues.
Speaker 1: Hey, appreciate you, Greg, always a pleasure, always blessing. Thank
you talking ball with you. Thanks for talking some recruiting
today on our show.
Speaker 3: Hey, you make it fun for me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Talk too much, Love Greg Biggins. That was a great
segment brought to you by Ruby's In, rubies in dot
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you're staying at Ruby's in We'll take a time out.
Speaker 2: We'll welcome into the show.
Speaker 1: Zach Ericsson, former bou wide receiver, defensive back and now
the head coach of Snow College Football, will get his
thoughts on the changes of college football, how it's impacted
the junior college ranks, and also feature some of the