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you ages support you in that quest for financial stability
and sustainability times Saxson College Football. In this segment, one
of the key questions of the day, I think for
BYU fans has been who's gonna be the new defensive coordinator,
who's gonna be a new quarterbacks coach, who's gonna be
the new safety's coach there at Brigham Young University. We'll
maybe get into some of that here Momentarily. I won't
give you my thoughts my commentary to it, but I
also want to discuss a couple of things that college
football insiders have been putting out and those that are
representing the athletic I believe Bruce Feldman put out an
article and it rings true for everyone that has discussed
just how the SEC the Mighty have fallen from grace.
Bruce Feldman tweets this and I quote this is a
I think this is a Big ten coach, anonymous big
ten coach. Hard to ignore the fact that when everybody
got to pay players, it leveled the playing field immediately.
Speaker 3: They can deny all they want, but that's a fact.
Speaker 2: Bruce Feldman says, I'm looking forward to joining Paul Feinbaum
at four pm Easter Time on the SEC networks to
discuss the story on the SEC. The SEC's abysmal ball record.
That's right, the dismal ball record this season points to
the fundamental truth. Money matters ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
and that's what I'm getting at here.
Speaker 3: The SEC build its brand off of bag men.
Speaker 2: When you build a brand off of cheating, lying, stealing,
filthy luke or cash and you're not allowing anybody else
to cheat, or you just cheat better than everybody else,
that's a problem. So that's why the SEC is realing.
That's why Nick Saban retired. That's why this travesty of
the College Football Playoff in twenty twenty five of including
five SEC teams, is just ridiculous. The SEC's disimal bull
record this season points to that fundamental truth. Yes, money matters,
but cheating occurred for too long in the SEC. It
just means more there. What does that mean? It means
they're willing to send money and cheat while others are
trying to their best to abide by the rules. Okay,
several coaches the Athletics spoke to this weekend weren't shocked
that Indiana handled Alabama. After all, the Hoosiers were almost
a double digit favor it was how the game unfolded.
They mauled the tie thirty eight to three, out rushing
them two hundred and fifteen yards to twenty three. That
ain't in Alabama defense, said a powerful offensive coordinator who
used one of the most damning words a coach can
evoke about another football team.
Speaker 3: Soft.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, the coach continued, and this is y'all's job, not
my job, But there needs to be an evaluation of
this narrative of the SEC is these big and bad
mother lovers right because they're getting their butts whipped in
these games?
Speaker 3: Is that true?
Speaker 2: The playoffs finals January eighth, the ninth featured two Big
Ten teams Indiana and Oregon, one ACC team Miami, and
one SEC team all missed. More broadly across bowl games,
it just means more slogan in their conference is at
the bottom of the Power four league records right now,
trailing the Big Ten who's nine and four, ACC eight
and four in the Big Twelve four and four.
Speaker 3: In bowl games.
Speaker 2: Through the weekend, the SEC was two and seven against
teams from other conferences. The SEC team was favored in
seven of those nine games.
Speaker 3: The SEC is four and nine over all this ball season.
Speaker 2: Five years ago, when Alabama blew out Ohios Date fifty
two to twenty four in the national title game, the
SEC went seven to two, while the Big Ten went
three and two. The ACC was owed six, the Big
Twelve was five and oh The year before, when LSU
beat Clemson to win the title, the SEC was eight
and two, the Big Ten was four and five, the
Big Twelve was one and five, and the ACC was
four and seven. The data is in our arguable the
SEC has fallen from grace. They have fallen because they
don't have the filthy lucer anymore. They don't have the
filthy lucre advantage anymore. It wasn't surprising to see the
SEC consistently winning when it faced teams from other leagues,
when it had a run of winning thirteen of seventeen
national titles from two thousand and six to twenty twenty two.
But the seismic shift had begun to take place in
the sport right twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two,
the transfer portal nil. As everyone started to figure it out,
as donors came around to boowye up these individual programs,
the likes of SMU BYU Boise State, Texas Tech.
Speaker 3: All these teams look at Indiana, look at Indiana.
Speaker 2: As a prime example of what and we'll miss prime
examples of what can happen when the other teams get
to play.
Speaker 3: By the same rules.
Speaker 2: College football capitalism, the free market of college football, is
actually improving the overall product of the little guy, the
ones that didn't have a chance to win and cheat
like the big boys. The crazy thing, and I keep
on saying it the brand equity over the last twenty
years of the SEC has been built through Bagman, not
due to meritocracy, not due to fairness, not due to
anything other than cheating. The world that has been created
through Nil Revshaer and the portal that we operate in
now has erased the limitations to a certain level. That's
what coach Bilma told the Athletic on Saturday, a few
days after his ALIGNI defeated Tennessee and the Music City
ball I know this before, I know this before I
came here. We'd never beaten an SEC team in our history,
and now we've beaten two back to back in bowl games.
That's the fighting a line of it. That's your squad.
Ronald three man Weaver is my squad.
Speaker 3: SEC teams. Now. Isn't it nice to see an even
playing field.
Speaker 4: It is very nice to finally see even playing field.
I'm happy about it been a lot of people might
say nothing, but this is the question that's being discussed
that we're having discussions about. It's no longer the SEC been.
It's no longer that that has to go away, and
look they're starting to deplete themselves.
Speaker 3: It used to be pure.
Speaker 4: And other dominance, but that's no longer it it's the
Big ten right now because they won the last couple
of national championships, and even then the SEC the other
teams in those conferences, like the Vanderbilts are making pushes,
starting to win now and recruiting. The Tennessee's a little bit.
There are other programs, the BYUS, the Big Twelves, Texas Tech.
It's going away and I love that. It's an even
playing field. And that's the problem of why coaches like
Saban retired, Belichick probably gonna head back to the NFL.
I think, in my opinion, is because they can't, you
know more like the Sabans coach oh might come back,
but they don't want to. They don't want to fight anymore.
You don't want to fight. You don't want to see that.
Look Climbate retire.
Speaker 3: That was crazy to Chris Secris climbing.
Speaker 4: He's like, I don't got it anymore. It's just it's
all a it's tough for coaches now to compete with
the NIL and with that, if you're not young, if
you're not live, if you don't have a good culture,
if you're older and you just want it to be
the old fashioned way. It doesn't go that way.
Speaker 3: It doesn't.
Speaker 4: We're gonna switch things up to Ben just to give
you a program that we're gonna call Brady and then
Aaron Tours in the next segment. But before I do,
I need to hit this button. You're gonna be happy
about this. I'm gonna have some breaking news to announce.
Speaker 3: What do you got for me breaking?
Speaker 4: I do have breaking news. Isaiah Jodavin has officially declared
for I think the NFL Draft. You put this out
about seven minutes ago. First, I thank God the guy.
It's protection blessing that made this journey possible. Through every challenge, transition,
moment of growth. His presence carried me and kept me
loved that He's thinking God. Starting at San Diego State
took my eye, took my path, took me places I
never imagined. From Snow College to University of Colorado and
especially Brigham Young University, each stops shaped me in ways
that is beyond football. I'm deeply grateful for every coaching
staff member who believed in me and supported me through
my college career. To my family, thank you for always
loving me and standing through every step through this process.
I'm forever grateful for the sacrifices you've made and to
you poured into me to submort my dreams. To Kugarnation,
thank you for welcoming me with open arms and showing
me incredible family culture. To the energy, passion, support or
felt every step of the way. To my brothers. I'm
blessed by the bond we built and the standard we've maintained.
The hard work, the commitment, the laughs, and the moments
that brought us together meant everything. The memories will last forever.
With that being said, I will be declaring for the
twenty twenty six NFL draft Isaiah.
Speaker 2: Jada Well, and some people are like, well, yeah, I say,
Jod is a senior, why would he be able to
come back. Remember, if you want to hire a lawyer,
employ a law firm, legal representation. Because you are a
junior college former player, you can try to get a
year or two back. John Towmipeyu went to Twitter and said, look,
hey guys, I need some help. I need some resources. Skugarnation,
if there's anybody that can.
Speaker 3: Help me, I want.
Speaker 2: I want to get my junior college year back. John
tell we pay you played at Snow College as did Isaiah.
Speaker 3: He played two seasons.
Speaker 2: Isaiah did at junior college Snow College twenty twenty one
in twenty twenty two under coach and former BYU wide
receiver defensive back Zach Erickson.
Speaker 3: He then ended up transferring.
Speaker 2: To Colorado, played in eleven games, appeared in eleven games
at Colorado on twenty twenty three, and then essentially red
shirt into twenty twenty four at BYU, playing in the
last few games, but ended up getting a red shirt
season and then came back for twenty twenty five. So
technical his Uh, his eligibility is exhausted. He's a red
shirt senior, but not so fast. He played two seasons
at Snow Junior College. Should be able to get a
year back. That's why he's making the announcement. Uh, let's
discuss this a little bit further with a former b
YU great and a Super Bowl champion. We got Brady
Papinga on the line. Be Pop, How you living?
Speaker 1: Hey?
Speaker 5: Guys? How you doing? Always fund to jump on.
Speaker 3: Hey, it's a pleasure man.
Speaker 2: What do you make of h of Junior Cup former
junior college players like Diego Pod the hiring law firms
to receive an additional year or two of eligibility. Is
that fair because these were not n C Double A players,
they're NJC Double A players.
Speaker 3: What do you make of this?
Speaker 5: I love it. Anything you can do to play, as
long as you can do it, I don't have any
problem with I think that's great. I think I think
there's a there's a very very strong argument to be
made there because it's basically like two different divisions. It's
like those kids, a lot of those these coast kids,
for example, they'll go to a prep school and then
they'll go to a like a college university, right, and
they don't count that prep school as any kind of
eligibility occupier. They don't, you know, the clock doesn't start
to take. So I don't see any problem with it
at all. I think it's a great idea. And if
you have the funds and the resources necessary to go
after the kind of language, I mean, that's what the
InCD of leg did for some of the years by
trying to pigeonhole us as student athletes to not pay us.
So let's just keep it going. So I have no problem. Man,
if you could play for ten years in college football,
I think you do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but do you think there should be a cap
on college football eligibility in any way, shape or form,
and what is that ideal number.
Speaker 5: I don't have any problem with it at all. I mean,
I think if it's like this, if you're studying to
be a doctor and you're a student, and I don't
know why, you just couldn't, you know, play for ten
to fifteen, don't. I don't think there should be a
cap as long as you're studying and contributing to the
universe and participate in the university in that sense of
like higher education and everything. I don't see the problem
with that. I don't know. I mean, I know why
they were always you know, the eligibility rules and all
those kinds of things. I get it. I mean that's
tied to school because they want to again to make
sure everybody knew we were student athletes. But now that's
not the case. We're professionals for their professionals. Yeah, and
we were professionals too. We just get get compensated. So
so I don't know why they're be any limits. I mean,
just let these guys do whatever they got to do.
But I don't think things are going to change that radically.
But I have no problem with guys trying to play
as long as they can and call it the pros.
Whatever they got to do, it's fine.
Speaker 2: Well, it looks like John taym mupay who's trying to
get his year back Isaiah John has declared for the
NFL Draft.
Speaker 3: How pivotal would it be?
Speaker 2: How impactful would it be to get JT back in
the BYU Cougar football fall next season?
Speaker 5: Oh, it'd be huge, because that's that's the key of
what we do, you know, and what we've always done
as a defense is you got to go inside out
starts those two big guys occupying blocks, push in the pocket,
wreaking habit have it. You know, we had a good
success of those two last year. I thought they were
really really good. And uh, man, if they could keep
building off of that and just take another step forward
this next year and you add some more guys to
that fold, I mean, that just creates so many opportunities
for your edge guys, for off the ball guys, or
coverage on the back end, safety's and corners. It makes
the whole ship go and makes the whole machine turn. Man,
get those big guys going, and so anything we can
do to get guys like JT, keep guys like JT,
and keep developing them. Yes, we want that, That's what
we're all about.
Speaker 3: Would love He kind of reminds me of Travis twey Loma.
Speaker 2: I think I've talked to you about that before, But
I mean, he's he'd be a massive get.
Speaker 3: He's a little silver back guerrilla.
Speaker 2: And I could make an argument that JT was the
most disruptive defensive lineman this season.
Speaker 5: In Teier Wise, Yeah, he was one of our top guys,
and I was. I would say there was a few
games there. I forget the exact games where he was
like the defensive MVP in terms of wreaking Havoc, making plays,
ripping off blocks. And by the way, I'm not trying
to throw him under the bus. Our whole defense really
came out flat against Georgia Tech. But when he started
to rip off blocks recavoc blowback, that's when our defense
started really causing Jeuri de Tech problems. And that was
a theme throughout every every game every team we played.
Was he was the spear, you know, the tip of
the spear, him and him and a ton of of
and so, like I said, get more of those gas.
We need more of those guys, and I know Klanne
and the Cruise on the recruiting transfer portal trail trying
to get those guys and the scheme that the that
they run is perfect for these guys. These guys can
hit gaps slant. They're not just sitting there two gap
in the whole time, which means you're right in front
of the offensive lineman. You kind of absorbed by the
way when you're two gap and because you're responsible for
both sides of the offensive lineman for versus where you're
line up in a gap and you're just owning that gap,
that's a that's a good deal to be in. And
then you're there's a lot of different configuration. So there's
not a time really where an offensive lineman can just
kind of get into a rhythm of where you're gonna be,
what you're gonna do, And that's avantageous for a defense.
So I would, like I said, if I'm a defensive lineman, man,
I would love to play in this scheme to where
you're gonna be moving, shooting gaps, playing with your head on,
hair on fire, blowing things up, freaking havoc. That's what
you want. You're not gonna be sitting back to gapins
for nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the transfer portal season is underway and nine players
from B while you're in the portal, I don't know
if you kept practice, but Scioni Hngano offensive tackles, Sonny
Tuala defensive line, Tucker Keller Heer tight end, Ikinasio Tupo
offensive tackle, Lemson Waller the third wide receiver, McKay Hillstead quarterback,
Marcus McKenzie cornerback, Jake Griffin offensive tackle, and then Dominique
McKenzie wide receiver.
Speaker 3: Who's the biggest loss and why? Out of this group?
Speaker 5: Will those guys? You know, there's I think those guys
are more your potential guys, you know, your your They're
kind of a work in progress, and so it's it's
hard to tell because they all have potential. They showed potential,
and it's just a matter of, you know, where they're
at versus the market. Basically, you know, who can you
get that basically can replace those guys And they're kind
of already ready, you know, can step right in and
play where these whereas they're more developmental, you know, And
I think that's really what it came down to with
those guys, I don't know, I don't have inside information.
I'm not sure if they were told to transfer, which
that's the case a lot of these situations. You know,
we're like, hey, we're going to we're gonna bring in
some transfers at your position just to let you know.
You can answer, you can stay and compete, you know,
whatever the conversation is. And so again, I think that
group there is more than the developmental group versus hey,
where they're ready, which doesn't mean that they're not good
football players, which just means that there's a perception right
now bye that they got some guys that can plug
and play immediately and get the media production out of them.
And that's the business. I think people need to realize that.
You know, it's the transfer portal and all that is.
It's a lot like the NFL. You have to be
able to show that you're ready to contribute immediately. You
just can't because in the NFL, the old statement was
there's not a redser gear and everybody say that your
contributor or you get cut and be on the practice
squad and you're developmental, you know, And that's kind of
how these guys are they're kind of like practice squad
fringe players. Still a ton of potential. Still I could
see album going to other places being really good, but
again the perception is there's others that are more advanced,
ready to play.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always intriguing the some of the what's the
position of concern in the portal?
Speaker 3: Do you think for BYU is quarterback?
Speaker 2: For instance, if they concerned you could lose, you lose McKay,
you still have Tracon doesn't look like he's going to transfer.
Enick Watson, I like Goldie as they call him, behind
Bear Bachmeyer. What do you make of the quarterback position
and maybe some positions of need in the in the
portal this offseason.
Speaker 5: Well, we got Roderick, you know, and that to me
is the comforting bean key that we all should be,
you know, using to help us kind of sue through
any any cornerback uncertainty, because he handled probably the biggest
disruption of the quarterback room a coach could ever handle
and the best way it could possibly be handled last
year with Bear and Jake. So I have like, I
don't even that's not even a concern. I don't even
like I just know we rather if you're up there
and if somebody had to step in and play for Bear,
we roddick will get them ready, you know. So I'm
not really concerned about that. My biggest concern would be
rebuilding our offensive lineman and defensive linemen. A concern would
be we got to get some mike off the ball
backers that are how can I put it, either guys
that we already have or guys that can come in
and be tough assignment sound can line everybody up a
lot like you saw in Texas Tech. I don't know
if you paid close attention to their guys. The guys
aren't as talented as the most but what they do
is they know their scheme inside and out and they
get everybody on the same page coverage front. So we
got to get our guys elevated there, add somebody to
the fault, maybe compete there corner. We can add nichols,
you know, we did some nickels, like a third corner
or a fourth corner. As many as we can get,
you know, so, I'd say, and then playmakers on the
edges and on offense that are going to be nightmares
for defense of trying to run Mando man against this.
Whether that's a tight end that's a matchup nightmare, could
be a running back is a dual threat, could pound
the ball, but then also is a receiving threat out
of the backfield. It could be you know, big, fast,
wide receivers. I know number one. I think he's number
one with tcues available. Again, I'm not sure what his
price tag is versus what our budget is, but man,
he'd be a nice addition stuff. You know, guys like
that who are good within Manda Man situation, because that's
what that was our weakness last year is when we
had Texas Tech and the League defense manning us up,
we really struggle to get open. So we need guys
that can make them pay and make them rethink, hey
we we really want Manda Man because that means this
guy is a problem for us. And what happens it
is a chain reaction because all you've got to have
is one guy that can beat man to man and
then you have to kind of rotate your defense to
him and that opens everybody else up. So that's what
I would say our biggest need is is we got
offensively find that guy who could just say, hey, we
can't cover this guy man man. So let's you know,
as a defense, make sure we're careful if we're going
man and man, this guy's account for it. We need
a guy that can can dictate that, and it could
be already somebody on the roster. I think Jojo is
a very good candidate for that. He's got big, physical,
high pointing fifty fifty ball wide receiver. His background was
in basketball. Gennaro found him playing basketball, by the way,
he wasn't even in football. And he's got a lot
of tread and potential. So, I mean, there's guys on
a roster that could develop that Tea. You can't just
think that you're going to go out and you know,
buy your team. That's not realistic, which really what staying
power is. You got to be able to get guys
in there obviously, and then you got to develop them,
coach them up, teach him and see guys grow and
bostom and so it'd be interesting to see how that
pans out.
Speaker 2: Brady Pepinga here on ESPN the Fan talking some college football.
So b Yu football here on your Utah ESPN Radio.
Speaker 5: I can't I got it. I mean, I can't believe
you haven't mentioned anything about buy us defensive coordinating situation.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, that's what I was. I was about to transition.
Remember when you came into the combo, we were talking
transferport all the things.
Speaker 3: So i'm, I'm, I'm it's a soft it's a soft segue.
I didn't want to go right to the heart.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, like I you know, when I
took my wife out on a date, I didn't automatically
try to make out where herre just to get to
the crux. But you know what I mean, I had
to I had to give her some dinner first.
Speaker 3: And you know, yeah, this is foreplay. Man's four pay
foreplay for the listeners. Come on now.
Speaker 5: By the way, congratulations, I know you got a little
little girl on the way. That's exciting news man.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm trying to catch up to I'm trying
to catch up to all of you guys. Man, trying
to multiply with planets to the Earth Man, just trying
to do just.
Speaker 3: Trying to obey the first command.
Speaker 2: But that God gave Adam and Eve, you know, the
multiplier with planet man. I love it absolutely, So we'll
see how it how it plays on how many of
my how many of my wife will let me have
We'll see.
Speaker 3: But yeah, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: Jay Hill takes the job, takes takes his talent to
Michigan along with Kyle Whittingham. The domino effect is crazy
to own more gets fired right, Kyle Whittingham is forced
out of the University of Utah by Mark Harlan. It
seemed the coaching wedding. Morgan Scully gets the head coaching
job behind him. He's in the portal, right, and Michigan
comes knocking. Well after that, Kyle Whittingham takes Jason beck in,
Jay Hill, and now Jano or Guildford is in Michigan.
Give me your thoughts, your commentary about the domino effect
that we've experienced over the last few weeks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, it's surprising because the guy at Kyle Whittingham,
you think would always be at Utah and that they
would always want him there. So he wasn't good anymore,
you know what I mean. This last year he had
an exceptional year, and so that was kind of a surprise.
But you know, they know more about their own situation
than anybody, and then you know, it seemed natural that
Jay would want to go there. Because you know, I
know Jay, he's he's he's a very competitive person and
and I like, man, I tell you guys on the Raid,
I just I did not want to hype him up
so much because I knew he's a great coach. Obviously,
Kyle Whittingham knows how great of a coach he is
and and that and that sets him up too for
because one thing we all have to what I personally
have to realize is you know, these coaches, they only
have so many opportunities windows in their careers to be coordinators,
to be head coaches and those kinds of things, and
then it kind of passes you up. And Jay is
one of those guys. I think that he'd like to
be a head coach now I doig you Obviously that
would maybe not hit his window unless he had to
leave somewhere. And so I thought it was interesting because
it's like, if he goes to Utah with Kyle, Kyle
was not going to coach as long as as Kilaney
will as the head coach, and so that creates an
opportunity and natural window for him that he could eventually
take over for Kyle winning hands. That makes sense, you know.
And then Gennaro going there too. Maybe you know there's
something with Gennaro and his aspirations to be the defensive
coordinator or what have you. I'm not I'm not sure.
But but also that's that's a great thing to have
on your resume. So I'm happy for these guys that
they're getting opportunities of girls and they're having opportunities to
expand themselves as coaches. And it's bittersweet though, because it's like, man,
I'd love to keep all those guys forever at Buy.
They work so well together. I just don't think people realize.
I had the pleasure been at't see them in action
in meetings, in game planning, in games, and it was
just like they work so well suristically. It was a
beautiful thing because I mean, I look, guys, I have
some coaches yell at each other, all each other names
on the sidelines. It's like all this bickering going on,
you know, and it's and it's like really stressful, and
Tansey're like, dude, everybody's freaking let's go out plays the ball.
These guys it wasn't like that at all. It was
a beautiful thing. So hopefully they can recapture that with
their the new direction the by he is now going
to go. And like I said, Jay and General are
going to be greatly missed, no.
Speaker 2: Doubt about it. Let me ask you this real quick.
So you lose Jay, you lose Gennaro, big losses. I
don't know if there's going to be more attrition on
the coaching staff. Obviously Gavin Fowler's taking the DC role
at Weaver State. We don't know if he's coming back.
You got a d C role to Phil. You have
cornerbacks and safeties coaching coaches, position coach to Phil. Gary
Anderson has been retained as a senior analyst. I think
that was big news. Yeah, you know what impact does
that have on this defensive coaching staff and and what
they're going to hire as the DC and these cornerbacks
coach and safeties coach.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and shoots, you know, because Gary's a guy that
easier experienced, your experienced kind of stabilizer who has seen
it all as a head coach of defensive coordinator. He's
a big innovator behind the defense the BIU currently runs.
So he has a lot of the nuances and those
games and understanding of how to call the game. Too.
I think it's huge. People don't realize that calling a
game is a lot more than just you know, matten.
I mean, it's setting things up. It's making offenses and
offensive coordinators thinking quarterbacks too, thinking you're going to do
one thing and then you do something else and not
showing your hand. And you got to be able to
do that with eleven guys. Now that's not an easy
thing to do. And so there's an art to calling
game that that Gary knows. There's also this what I
love about Gary. He's very nice, right, very nice, but
I think he's got some old crustiness to them that
I love because he just if he doesn't like something,
he's not going to sit there and pretend that he
likes it, you know what I'm saying, Like he is
just over there, and so he's gonna tell you how
it is. He's gonna shoot you straight. And so I
think he's going to be an excellent kind of check
and balances as he was previous with Jay and the staff,
to kind of keep everybody just locked in and let
everybody know like, hey, this is the deal. And Boone
just dropped the hammer of truth.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I think that's very important for any organization to have
something like that because there is a group thing tendency
that people don't realize that everybody starts to kind of
think the saying because they're always around each other. But
he's a guy that he really knows how to see
it as it is and call it as it is.
So he's going to be huge. And then his energy,
his competitiveness, and again his experience is phenomenal, you know.
And I mean you saw what he did as soon
as he came and you know, started working with the
defensive front, you know, all the positions hedge you guys,
the de tackles, we improved dramatically. That was not all
of a sudden, just some you know, crazy thing to happen.
That was because of his presence and his expertise. So
he's going to be going to be big time. And
I was excited as ever to hear that he's going
to be coming back because I know how big of
an impact he's been on the program. And obviously he's
good with Klonnie. They had a great relationship, great history
together and I'm sure he's how Klawanne also as a
head coach. So there's just a lot that he does
that has been invaluable. And it's like I said, I know,
he's like he's like going to raise the Utah Utah
youth guy. But I'm happy that we've been able to
adopt in that here at BYU. For him to be
able to share his abilities and gifts and talents with
us has been awesome. Man. It's like, it's really nice.
It's really nice to have that kind of person.
Speaker 3: There no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: The next DC, the next cornerbacks coach, the next safety coach.
Speaker 3: We discussed it last week.
Speaker 2: You kind of felt like there'd be an internal higher made.
What do you make of it right now? Do you
think it's still internal or do you think they look externally?
Speaker 5: I mean, anything can happen. But I mean, look, I
know what I'm about to say. I want everybody to
know this that it's my brother I'm going to talk about.
But don't think for one second that I'm not going
to talk honestly. Okay, but here's the reality. And I
don't think people know this about Kelly. Maybe they forget
about it, but Kelly was a Code of It's coordinator
for Virginia for six seasons. He helped game plan and
also prepare in call games against quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson
against the for Bisky the quarterback at Pint that won
the first round. UH Lawrence, the guy out of UH
who's with Jackson Jaguars, Trevor Lawrence. You can just keep
it on that list. I mean, Kelly has as much
experience as you could expect out of any coordinator, and
he's done it against the best offenses and the best
players in the country during his time in the ACC,
which is at that time P five. Now you know
obviously P four. So it would be very hard I
think for Kline to find somebody of his qualification, quite frankly,
and then on top of it, he has the inside
information of the defense. There's that the kind of the
internal carryover, which I think is huge. Now not to
say you couldn't bring in somebody from the outside, but
they would even because, for example, if you brought somebody
in from the outside, there still is this idea that, hey,
what they've been doing is successful. I'm not going to
disrupt him, and that's fair. You know a lot of
coaches I've seen it, you know O c DC's that
do that where they come in where coach wasn't fired,
but he went on because of you know, different or
i'd say higher opportunities, or because of his goals. And
so they had been successful and say, hey, we're just
going to run your same stuff. But even so they
still will have a little bit of their own signature
on what you do and that and I think but
with the advantage of Kelly is is there's just this
continuity where it just continues to progress and you just
continue to stack and stack from mass years this next year.
And that also has helped because of Gary being there.
And so I just look at it like there's really
not a better option than going with Kelly. And so
that's you know, how I look at it. I don't
know how it's going to shake out. Obviously there's been
nothing ultimately that's been announced, but you know that's my
that's my assessment on it. And again I'm not trying
to pump up my brother. If if it wasn't him,
you know, and and he wasn't qualified, wouldn't even be
talking about it quite Frank guys who I'm always shooting straight.
So but yeah, he's he's the guy, in my opinion,
if you're going to go internal he's ready. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of people said, okay, hey, we're
a P four team now and we have P four resources.
Speaker 3: Like these are the conversation I've been having.
Speaker 2: Why not go out and get Justin Wilcox or a
Quatowski from UH from Texas or you know you gotta
go to why not go get Danny Gonzalez? Why not
bring in bronco Mannen Hall?
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, yeah, we have a robust resources.
Speaker 2: Why not go out and get approven DC maybe former
head coach in order to build up your defense. The
problem with that, right, would the repercussion be they're gonna
change the scheme and you could have roster attrition.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't think they would change the scheme because
Colonie oversees the scheme, you know, and then having Garry there,
I think keeps the scheme integrity and you do you
wouldn't want to do that anyways. Like I said, if
one of those guys came in, they'd run the same scheme.
But what you do have is you still have somebody
that hasn't been there, So there's not there's just not
going to be the same communication, not the same key words.
There's there still is going to be a little difference
that people have to adapt to. Maybe there's a style that,
like you said, the players really aren't like responding to.
You know, that's huge. You know, you got to have
coaches that players want to play hard for, especially today.
But he could transfer. And I can tell you from
having seen Kelly, I mean and talking to Kelly's former
players for the last a decade or so, I mean,
every single one of his players will come up to me,
whether it's something that they find out I'm his brother,
or they just you know, through our own conversation, they'd
be like, man, I enjoyed playing for your brother. And
then I can also see it how he operates. You know,
he's a guy that's he's capable of calling people out
and being just absolutely brutally honest, but he doesn't obliterate them.
You know, he actually does it in an inspiring way.
There's some coaches that are just so so demeaning and
so demoralizing that they there's rip kids and it's really
hard to bounce back. It takes an immense amount of
mental toughness and other guy's not really fun to play
for it quite frankly, they make it hard you know,
and that's not Kelly, and I think that's not how
Klanie operates either, So I think there's some synergy there.
So to me, it's just like even from Klannie standpoint,
he wants specific things done offensively, defensively, special teams wise.
If you bring in another guy like that, there's a
risk that, yeah, that you may get pushed back and
all of a sudden there's some conflict that you have
to worry about that wouldn't have been there before. If
you have somebody already in the program, it's mental energy wasted.
You're not able to have that same flow and that
same kind of synergy that I talked about earlier. That that,
to me is what's the most important that they recapture,
is that synergy staff wise. And so it just to
me makes so much more sense. You just keep it
a turnal. Plus, Kelly's, like I said, he's as qualified
as you can get outside as being an actual play
call because that's the only thing you didn't do with
Virginia is actually call the plays. But I don't know
if people realize this. Most of the time, the staff
is who comes up with a call sheet that has
every single situation detailed whether it's first and ten plus,
fifty second and sixth plus on the negative forty five,
and then you have your rolodex of plays that you called.
The only thing that defensive corner really does is he
has to take the final fall or benefit of what
they call because he's the decordinator. He's gonna give it up.
You know, he's gonna he's gonna say what he feels.
But one of the co coordinating situation, that's it done
more collaboratively. So anyway, he's he's qualified man, as I said,
And I think the what he's done with special teams
translates the defense because you watch how hard the guys
played on special teams and how you know, execute how
well they executed his plan. I thought that was a
respect to him and then trusting in him, and that
carries over in all aspects. So I think I just
I don't see it making a lot of sense going
going elsewhere other than Kelly.
Speaker 2: Year over year since twenty twenty three, let me ask
you this, which group do you think offense, defense or
special teams has been the most effective, most efficient offense
even since twenty twenty three?
Speaker 5: Would you say, well, I think they've all been really good,
and they've had their moments, you know, and I thought
they've also had tremendous growth, which is a lot more
of a function I think of player development and talent
increasing than it is, you know, anything else. But but yeah,
I mean, it's it's for surely been in terms of
you go back beyond twenty twenty three and you compare
it to other teams. It's hard to find teams to
play as consistently together in all three phases as we
have over the last two years, which you could, you know,
basically say, is the reason why we've been as winning.
I was winning of a program as there is in
the country in the P four level. So that is
something that is absolutely clear and has been demonstrated now
for the second year in a row.
Speaker 2: So I pulled the numbers since twenty twenty three. Sp
plus was is an efficiency metric that ESPN uses created
by Bill Conley. So sp plus offensive average rank, well,
let's just say they're ranking twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four,
twenty twenty five, this is the offense great improvement seventy fifth,
thirty six, and then twenty fourth average ranking forty fifth
defensive average ranking, they were ninety fourth, twenty first, and
twenty third. Right, so forty six special teams was ranked eleventh,
fourth and forty seventh. That's an average ranking of twentieth
in the country special teams unit.
Speaker 5: Wow, Yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: So all right to me, if they go with Kelly,
that to me kind of speaks to okay, you go internal.
Obviously he's been a co DC and he had the
best unit in three year for three years comparative to
the other units that were being coordinated.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, I mean, I think you hit on
a very important point, which shows that he is a
very proficient coordinator. And I hope everyone understands. It's a
lot more complex coordinating special teams than offensive defense too,
because offense you just dealing with the offense, defense just
dealing with the defense. Special teams you're dealing with the
whole team. So it can be an absolute like a
like a fire drill. Every time you're trying to get
you know your specially your your kickoff team, the kickoff
return team and you know pun return and still going
fill the block all organized, and you got guys getting
injured and the other guys stepping up. It could be
an absolute you know mass, you know, and he was
extremely organized, and like I said, I thought the thing
that to me was most impressive. And it's just because
I know Kelly from you know, from when he was born.
Basically it's just here I have my little brother, and
I was like, these kids really really play hard for
him a and then they they really respect him, you know.
And I think those are the two things that really
show a true, true success and influence of a coordinator
or even a coach is how do your players respond,
you know, and how does their production, how does their
production go?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: And another thing that the people that realize is how
many NFL guys Kelly has had an influence on. I mean,
he he's the guy who recruited Fred Warner. You know,
he's recruit and developed you know, Calvinoy Ziggy. Kelly was
the one who helped to put his paths in his
pants when he was trying to figure out what he's
going on with his Pats. Bronson Cafusi is another guy.
I mean, you could just keep going down the list
of of NFL guys that he had and his ability
to develop them, and you know, Baddie's another guy. You
know now now with the Vikings on talk talky, you know,
you just keep going down the list. This guy's really
been phenomenal and it's and it's not my accent, you know,
And I just and Kelly's not the guy to do it.
He's not the guy who's gonna go and blow his
old horn. You know. I'm here to do that for him.
And I'm like again, I'm just telling you the facts.
I'm not trying to trying to sell him at anybody.
I'm just letting you know this is the reality behind him.
And and like I said, I think he's the guy.
And uh and if they if they go that direction,
they're going to be very happy.
Speaker 2: A couple of last things before I let you go,
beat Pop, appreciate you joining us for a little college
football conversation. Cornerbacks coach and safeties coach. Uh what what
what directions think they go there? Do you think they
go internal and and maybe higher from within or do
you think they go external?
Speaker 5: Well, a guy, the guy that would have been the
easy transition would have been Gavin. So I wonder how
hard of a cell's job they can make the gather
to come back. I'm not sure how that is going
to work out if he's going to be the DC.
And plus, you know, when we like the beginning of
the conversation, we talked about these coaches, the windows and
being able to have an opportunity, you know, for him
to go to Weaver State, be a coordinator, be effective
as a coordinator, will help him in terms of becoming
a coordinator at other places and eventually, you know, the
P four level and maybe even head coach if that's
his aspiration. So I think that's going to be a
hard sell, but it would be interesting to tick those tires. Hey,
you want to come back? Didn't We didn't realize this
is all gonna happen so quickly, but maybe he did.
I don't know the inside information, you know, all the
conversations they've had since Jay knew he was going to leave,
or even when he knew he was going to leave,
as a matter of fact, and then the Corners coach.
You know, I just trying to think who was really
on staff that assisted Gennaro. I mean, there are some
guys you know that assisted him into the.
Speaker 2: Nice Johnson, Wesley Johnson was there, Rob Daniel has been there,
Eddie Hecker, who's been there.
Speaker 5: That's right, those guys are and they all did a
really good job, you know. And but again they're all
the kind of new But who knows, you know. I mean,
those those could be those guys could be really good
options or at least set up to become like the
next guy if there's change again, which there will be.
I mean, that's the only thing inevitable and all this
stuff that there's always going to be changed. So that's
those are interesting ones, man, Like you know, ideally, you
want to get guys that can teach like I got.
Gennard did a very nice job of teaching not only
man press coverage technique, but also how to play off
the ball, because sometimes those aren't compatible. I don't know
if people know that I played as one of the
best quarterbacks pressman quarterbacks in the history of the NFL.
By the name of Al Harris. He's a cornerbacks coach
for the Struggle Bears. The dude struggled in jone. I'm
telling you right now, he had a tough time reading
route progressions because he just wanted to go jam dudes
and run them, you know, run them off the sideline.
Speaker 3: All day.
Speaker 5: So to be able to teach a corner and how
to jam up a receiver play man to man and
then also be able to read route progressions is an art.
So that's I think a huge trait that you're gonna
want in your coach and his ability to be able
to do both. And like I said, in general, who
was really good at that? So I think that's something
you got to You got to kind of feel for
these guys and sit them down, interview them, talk scheme
with them, talk how they're going to develop guys and
see if in fact, like a big part of what
they do is developing both manda man technique skills and
then also off the off the ball kind of you know,
giving a receiver cushion and zone skills and reading route progressions.
You know, because we get a lot of bunches in
our on our scheme, a lot of people anticipate us
running man the mats. We get bunches and stacks, and
a lot of times that's very hard for defensive backs
if you're not able to read the route progression, you know,
because you've got to kind of take them as they disperse,
and you got to know how you fit with even
a Mike linebacker in a lot of those cases, because
the Mike linebacker is going to be playing off the
number three guy and there's three guys you're worried about
and you've got the number one guys. You better be
able to understand that. Just lock your guy in your
own guy, you know, because there's times where you have
to work with others, So that that's a that would
be an interesting thing to kind of draw from these
perspective guys that are buying to take that spot, to
see if they're capable and their communication and ability to
coach it, you know, because even if you're a good player,
sometimes it's not easy to communicate that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: It's you can't just tell a guy do that, you know,
you actually got to break it down in a very
detailed way that's understandable and applicable to help them understand
the rules and hopefully help them understand the reason behind
what they're doing. That's hard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna throw my hat into the ring,
but I enjoy having work life balance too much.
Speaker 5: I was asking the church the other day, They're like, hey, Brady,
what he's in man? You need to become the DC.
I'd say, Hey. The only stipulation would be I to
have to be a remote defensive courtet. I couldn't leave
Los Angeles and I'd have to call the game from
my couch.
Speaker 2: So if we could do that, yeah, I'm good man,
I'm good, Hey Brady. For those that are tuning in
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Speaker 1: Not a problem.
Speaker 2: Love it you pop. Always a pleasure man. Love talking
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Speaker 5: Always a pleasure man.
Speaker 3: Go kub they go.
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