Speaker 1: Thank miss Smartwell you listening to Cougar Sports on Kovo
program or Ku d d H D two one O
three nine nine ninety eight three, ESPN The Fan.
Speaker 2: Every wonder what coaches are really saying during their press conferences. Well,
Benkrittle is here to break it all down. In a
reading between the line segment, Ben breaks down the latest
sound from BYU coaches and players right now on Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: Welcome back Cougar Sports one of three, nine ninety eight
point three, ESPN The Fan. I'm Ben Crital broadcasting from
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Check it out at Vanderwelthbetterwell dot Com got a great
segment for you. Kaladisha Taki Edge RUSS Media on Friday
and went into all manner of springball topics as we
get a new look on this the twenty twenty six
BYU football team Camp Killannie's starting up. We're gonna delve
into all the nooks and crannies here and read between
the lines. Gonna be brought to you by our good
friends at rubys In rubies In dot com. I love
rubys In. I think you will as well stay at
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Bryce Candon. You can even snowshoot. There may be some
snow still down there at Bryce Canyon. The snowcap hoodoos
are a beauty. They are a wonder uh to to
watch and look at.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Let's explore the wonder of the West. Most of the
people that that visit Bryce Candon are not from the
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sure you're staying at Ruby's In. They got and all
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friends and family members at rubys and and Bryce Kannon
National Park. All right, let's get into the sound Kalani Satake.
This was his opening statement, first day of springball.
Speaker 4: We're getting a spring ball and so it was a
nice day. I'm glad we were outside and I'm excited
about the team. Thought we had a really good practice.
I think it's a really good start to twenty twenty six.
And so I think I thought we had a great
off season with the two months of prep.
Speaker 5: For now. They're not in game shape yet, but we
don't have to be.
Speaker 4: In hell, we'll have to be game shape by the
time we get to Falk Camp, by the time we
get to game one.
Speaker 5: So but they're definitely stronger and a.
Speaker 4: Lot of guys are bigger, and so we're gonna keep
working on that and trying to progress as a team
during spring doing these fifteen practices.
Speaker 5: So what question does you guys have for me?
Speaker 3: How would we grade out the off season for BYU
football thus far? Ronnie, I mean, I give it a
solid P plus, maybe a minus because you went out
and you didn't lose much in the portal. You look
at Shay Bryan Stwath or Pokaihauna, that one hurt, right
with Poko's having some issues maybe uh, Max Alfred, Tavian Beasley,
Siona Hangano, Sani Tauala, that one actually kind of hurt,
but he's at Idaho or Idaho State. I believe Tucker
kelleher Ikeinashio Tupo Le Maason Walder, Thord, McKay Hill's dead.
Marcus McKenzie, Jake Griffin, Dominique Mackenzie hate to see legacy
players move on. They both ended up. I believe, I
think uh, I think Marcus is at Utah State, Dominique
at San Jose State. So there's definitely some losses year,
but he's got some great acquisitions. And Roger Sally Parker
the second Javin Williams cornerback for Missisippi State, Zakiyamauchi kou Luwave,
aj Clifton Kyler, Casper Junior, ce Paki Fienaw Walker, Lions,
Uh eleven guy, nine guys and and and with scholarships.
Set Uh Seth Schigg cornerback also was acquired as well
as uh Uh Tom Wipeu from Eastern Washington, the older
brother of of New cy a linebacker. So those were
the the the key acquisitions and the key laws, and
but you retained pretty much all of your roster, your
key players, your key two deep, which is crazy. What
grade would you get Bway football in the off season
because Klaidie said, hey, we had a great off season.
Speaker 6: I give it a minus for sure, I'm gonna upgrade
and go be plus from the B plus to a minus.
You got the number one linebacker out of transroportal. Like
I keep saying, that doesn't happen normally in BA football
because of the culture, because of the winning, the chemistry,
everything they built, it does now that is on the
table and been the mint guys you mentioned, all of
them left because of what pt playing time. Their rotational
two deep guys and maybe three D guys that weren't
getting time. So it wasn't because they're bad football players,
but they weren't gonna play. Who did they pick up
in the transfer portal? It was guys of need, Guys
that are gonna come in ben and be impact players.
This is not guys that are coming in as high
school players that were just out of the portal. These
are guys that they needed to play, that are gonna
come and make an impacts. The three offensive lineman, all
three of them, col Verwell start beIN. We don't know,
but you're gonna be. Those guys are all gonna be
playing at some point this season or in make Travis squat.
The other guys had to go, so we totally understand that,
and we all understand why they left, no doubt about
it at all. So I'm giving it an a minus. I
think it's a great job. And you didn't have a
Kielan Marion, you didn't have a Harrison Taggart leave this late.
And the guys that did end up leaving again they
were either hurt or recovering, and they weren't gonna either
play right away or not play this season, so no surprise.
I still don't know if Jay Bryan Strada has committed somewhere.
I still know he's in the portal. Would like to
get him back. If that were the case, I'll need
to update Ben. But other than that, I give it
a minus. It's a pretty solid job from Killanie and
the staff.
Speaker 3: I agree, it's you know, to me, you can say
you can pick as a B plush, but I think
it's a solid A minus Killani. Let's move on to
number two, which guys won't be participating in spring ball
this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the guys that are hurt, I mean, that's that's
usually what it comes down to. That's but we'll be fine,
and they'll be some levels of spring balls gonna be
different than normal.
Speaker 5: So yeah, so I.
Speaker 3: Was kind of reviewing. It was trying to get eyes
on guys that were participating in spring ball, who were
out there in their helmets and you look, we're not
supposed to report on like injuries or anything like that,
but you're trying to evaluate, Okay, who could be out
one of the guys? Uh he posted on social media
because we can talk about nuc Tumboype will not be
participating in springball. So that's one key player that was
a rotational starter last year, a true freshman phenom, great
edge rusher. He's not gonna be a participant. He's rolling
around on a scoot scoot. So you didn't you didn't
see him out there? Uh? He already posted on social media,
So I'm not breaking any violations. Hopefully the SID doesn't
get mad at me for that, but like he already
posted it, so not participating in springball and uh, but
he wouldn't go into details right about those.
Speaker 6: And I tried to ask him because because of the
rules been I wanted him specifically to say because once
he says it, we can talk about it.
Speaker 7: But he didn't give it to me, and I tried
to ask.
Speaker 3: It though, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, look, I was
just kind of taken look and to see who would
be participating who couldn't be. You may see, like anyone
who had off season surgery not going to be participating
most likely. Okay, that's a baseline. So anyone that's posted
on social media that you follow with amongst the team members,
if they had surgery in January, they ain't playing in springball. Period.
Every once a while you see like an e scope
or something like that, little the bridement, little cleanup, and
those guys can sometimes make it back to springball. But
other than that, you know, just kind of take a
gander at the social media and you'll see who's available,
who's not available, etcetera. Another guy, look out for Sonny Macussini.
He could make his way back. I don't know, but
he may be out as well. Anybody else you want
to comment on Ronnie as a pertains to availability during springball.
That could be impactful, right, you know, in that rotational
two deep type of player.
Speaker 6: And I don't think anybody rotation on the too deep
that we know of. We talked about it, you know
in the second hour of the show LJ Martin, you know,
but that was again that was yeah, LJ. That was
said during the off season or at the end of
see the Pop Tarts Bowl, that LJ Martin got it.
So we're not reporting on anything, you know, we play
LJ sound said that, you know, you know, Klannie will
say where Lj's at. LJ already said that, Yeah, he's
pretty close to being back. So again, not revealing anything there,
but not really. I think everybody else they have it.
The two deepest healthy and again Ben, that's just a
credit to the strength and conditioning a staff to keep
these guys healthy. Evan Johnson per Kelly Papenka said, Bigger, faster, stronger.
You gotta like that, Ben. You know, health is your
best ability is availability. We've been talking about it with
d n P and AJ. If you're available, good things
happen if you're not available, you know, your spot and
scholarship could you know, unfortunately be up for grabs.
Speaker 3: Let's get into number three. How has the team been?
How have they reacted since the departure of Parker Kingston?
Speaker 4: The team's fine, guys are great. I mean this is
a we have a strong culture on the team.
Speaker 3: So yeah, fine, fine, dandy, good, great, grand wonderful. Not
gonna get too far into it. This team. Look and
you see the cohesion. You see the chemistry this team
and their offseason lists, their offseason competitions. They did this
uh uh kind of this Olympic games where they all
dress up as individual teams. They have team captains and
they're doing these these odd games. I don't know if
you saw that, Ronnie. Uh yeah, pretty funny, pretty fun
some of some of the games they were playing. Some
of the competition. We used to have, uh super games.
So when I played in the off season, you would
have a team captain, there'd be a draft, and then
we would do like we do kickball, we do handball,
we'd do flag football, we would do ping pong. We
would have a lifting event, so like a bunch of
different lifts, not only like in one rep stuff, but
like to failure type of lifts like we you had
like I think the skill guys had to put on
one eighty five and you had to like box squad
is many times as you could before failure. So like
that was kind of an interesting lift of the bigger guys,
the combos and the offensive defensive lining had to do
two twenty five anyway, and then at the end, whoever
won the competition and their points system, Right, you got
a big prize, you got like a swag bag, you
got like gear and shoes, and it was a big deal. Right,
It's about going out and compete. We did I think
water polo anyway. It's all about competition and and finding
ways to compete. So this team coming together, melding and
mession together despite the adversity they faced in the office,
and every season it seems like there's a little bit
of adversity, right every season, whether it's James Retzlaw or
Parker Kingston, I go back every single offseason. There are
issues right with with transfer portal, there's issues with autocode violations,
academic attorition, all that stuff. All right, let's get into it.
What are are the goals for springball this year compared
to others.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the goal is to make sure
we're a better team by the time we finished the
fifteen practices. The difference is that we have probably you know,
a good group of returned missionaries, and I think most
of our high school signees are here enrolled early and
on campus except for probably one. I think we're adding
in June, and then the rest of them are on
are on their missions, are heading on their mission soon.
And so I think we have a between the signing
class and those are going on missions and those that
are rolling enrolling early, and then the transfer portal. I
think we've got a good, good field of things right
now and got some great momento. So I think the
key is to get everybody, those especially the new ones,
in a position where they can understand our scheme and
and then, you know, but in a position to compete.
I mean, right now, we're just trying to make sure
that they're aligning correctly and that they know their assignment,
and then they're executing with the right technique, and then
we'll compete a lot more when we get to fallcan.
Speaker 3: Competition, baby, That's what it's all about. The goals for springball.
You want to develop depth and see who separates themselves
separating Uh the uh, the the you know, just kind
of seeing that cream rise to the top. That's what
you want to see. Killone. Let's get into number five.
What are your thoughts on the wide receiver room as
a whole and what did they look like day one?
Speaker 5: Yeah? They look good.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've got a bunch of talent. He retained
some talent. So I think we're gonna be really good
in that position at receiver and be good at tight end.
I like the backs O line looks.
Speaker 5: Good too, and and quarterbacks look really good too.
Speaker 4: So I feel really good about overall with the team.
Speaker 3: I think many of us feel that the wide receiver
room is the topic djour and springball. Who replaces Parker Kingston?
Who's wide receiver?
Speaker 4: One?
Speaker 3: Uh? And uh you know what is this? Uh? You
know what does the chemistry look like between Bear Bachmeier
and guys like Kyler Kasper, Reggie Frishcanet and uh Ta Nakua. Uh.
You know that the rising stars in the wide receiver
room Cody Hagen, et cetera. Uh and uh, We're going
to keep a close and competitive eye on that wide
receiver room. So we'll continue to ask about it, We'll
probably remember we'll get more details from the position coaches
and the coordinators. More often than not, Kalani is always
going to keep it general unless he really feels the
necessity go out his way, out of his way to
highlight individual players. Would you agree with that assessment, Ronnie?
Like he is not prone to going off on like tangents.
Speaker 7: Nope.
Speaker 3: Regarding like individual players, he does not want to.
Speaker 7: He does not want to talk about.
Speaker 3: The individual He wants to talk about the collective.
Speaker 6: You want to talk about the collective, I remember asked him.
Remember Kuwikly had that game sealing pig against Baylor. I
asked it, and look, you shouldn't do this, But I
had asked Chad GBT at the time, been directly of
how to not get out of it. I said it
to him and he and he said, they said, well, crew,
and then he got mad that I asked that direct
and then he had no choice but to answer it.
But he's still tried to make it about the team.
Kilanie does not want to be that direct. He wants
to talk about the collective as a whole, like you
mentioned that's who he is in his day one, so
he ain't gonna give you nothing like. That's why I asked,
all right, let's I wanted to gauge Ben, so I
asked the question about injuries to see if he would
tell us who and for the fact that he didn't,
I said, Yep, it's gonna be that type of interview
where day one and Kilanie he's not bubbly yet.
Speaker 7: He won't give you nothing just yet.
Speaker 3: Not yet, Ladies and gentlemen, what did Walker, Lions and
Rogers say Apoga the second show on day one spring ball?
Because you know everyone's focused on the wide receivers, but
maybe the tight ends or the high target players in
spring ball and into fall camp.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's we knew them before they even they
feel they even came here. We knew them in high
school and so yeah, exactly what we thought. They're athletic.
They're big, they're strong, and then they can run ralphs
so they can catch and they can block. So right
now we're not in pads yet, but I I'm pretty
sure they're agleticism. The town they're going to be fine.
Speaker 3: So how involved will Roger Saliopaga and Walker Lions be
and how involved are they going to be in the
passion game? You know what I mean? Like are they
going to be prime targets for bear Bachmeyer this year?
Will this be the first year in which you have
in a long time you have a Danish Pitta Andrew
George type of statistical distribution, a Johnny Harlen Dan Coates.
Those were both NFL tight ends. If you look at
the stats Dan Coates and and Johnny Harlen in two thousand,
I want to say two thousand and six, they had
their fair share of receptions and yards. Like two thousand
and six, Johnny Harlean was like essentially a wide receiver one.
He was heavily targeted. He was a Mackie Award finalist,
semi finalist, fifty eight receptions, nine hundred and thirty five yards,
sixteen point one yards per reception, twelve touchdowns. Dan Coach
was seen as the inline tight end. Okay, he had
twenty two receptions, two hundred and thirty nine yards, ten
point nine yards per reception, and two touchdowns. Not too
bad all things considered for being a in line tight end.
So you look at between the two of them, that's
almost that's like almost eighty receptions, Okay, eighty receptions and
over one thousand yards receiving. Is that what we're gonna
see in twenty twenty six from these two tight ends? Ronnie,
how you feeling about it?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think there's a good chance. You definitely could
see that.
Speaker 6: Robbie the only person that been participated in the college
football playoffs and scored that is on a roster as
Robert Saliapaka the second so I'm excited to see that.
They definitely could I think what you're gonna see is
a combination of the year with Isaac Rex and then
Jake's what is it first and Jake's second year with
all of those tight ends where they had heavy personnel
been twelve, thirteen, fourteen depending on what it was, and
Jake was storing a different bunch of different tight ends
in the red zone. I think he's gonna have options.
I don't know if if he will connect, but you
definitely could see that. With with how these guys can
catch the ball, I think Walker Lyons is more of
your guy that's probably gonna be flexed out catching your
red zone threat. Robert will be there as well, but
might be more blocking, But they definitely have a chance.
Speaker 7: The last time you had, uh, you.
Speaker 6: Know, two tight ends that had this ability where the
you know guys that you just mentioned. So if if
there's a year to do it, Ben, it's this year.
But I'm excited to see what both of these guys do.
But I definitely think Walker is gonna be your one
A guy catching is gonna be your you know, Matt
Bushman obviously is gonna be your Isaac Rex. That's gonna
be the guy that's gonna be your red zone threat.
Like I'm serious when I say this. I love all
the wide receivers in the room, Ben. I think they
have great skill sets, they can provide great depth for
this roster. They can do a lot of things. But
the kid that is catching passes already from Bear is
going to be the safety blanket. You saw what Carson
Ryan was for bart Backmeyer. You're gonna see that more
often this season. And a guy that's more dynamic, who's
a better pass catcher than Carson Ryan.
Speaker 7: I'm serious.
Speaker 6: I think Walker could be could be a tremendous impact
as not Hyperberly. I think he could be a top
three receiver in yards because Carson was for this team.
Speaker 7: I think that's possible.
Speaker 3: So the last time you really had a dynamic due
I mentioned Johnny and Dan it was two thousand and nine.
Dennis Pitta had sixty two receptions, eight hundred and twenty
nine yards and eight touchdowns. Andrew George complimented that thirty receptions,
four hundred and eight yards in five touchdowns, So that's
over twelve hundred yards receiving twelve touchdowns between the two
of them. Both could be in line and flexed tight
ends and that's what you produced and you won. You
got double digit wins there, good season eleven and two
in two thousand and nine with a top twenty five
ranking and a win over a ranked opponent in your
bowl game. So look, health is wealth. Availability is your
best ability. If they're available, you could see a Walker
Lions Roger Sally of PAGA duo that is akin to
maybe the Johnny Harlean, the Johnny Harlen and Dan Coates era,
the Dennis Pitt of Andrew George era. It would be tremendous.
I don't know if we've had that, quite honestly, you
almost had that with Dallan Holker and Isaac Rex almost
you could have it just didn't never come to fruition unfortunately,
just never came to fruition. And it's total let's get
back to the sound. Uh, Kalan, you added three offensive
lineman via the transfer portal. Why was that?
Speaker 4: Yep, get better depth and competition. I mean, we're gonna
play the best five alignment. But if you look at
last year, we had a good rotation in there too,
and we feel like there's a I mean, I trust
coach Woods and a Rod and getting the old line ready,
and so I feel like they they knew that these
are guys that we knew from before too, and so
they're a great fit for our program and for our
culture and for the university.
Speaker 5: So I think it's a good fit.
Speaker 4: And and uh, like I said, I you know, there's
a bunch of guys that can compete. We're just trying
to kind of get everybody in position so we can
get our started, getting our too deep and getting our
travel squad ready. But we don't have to do that
till now we do that fall camp.
Speaker 3: Dygo. That's uh the reasons why he added a couple
of offensive linemen. I thought all three of them were
great acquisitions. I'm most intrigued by pot fenw really like him.
I think he could be tremendous. Junior C also a
great acquistions Zach Yamauchi is also a nice acquisition via
the portal from Stanford. All three with great experience, which
starts under the belt two at P. Four institutions a
couple last things before we wrap up this reading between
the line segment with Koalani Satake brought to you by
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How is the team handling expectations for the first time,
like big expectations because you've gone double digit You've got
double digit wins year over year, two years in a row.
Now they're they're they're favored in many of the games
leading up to the twenty twenty six season. How how
are they handling expectations?
Speaker 6: Are he juggling expectations this first time since you guys
joined the Big twelve where there's gonna be lofty outside expectations.
Speaker 5: How do you think this team's going to handle.
Speaker 3: That this season.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've been saying humbled and hungry from the beginning,
so I think it's gonna take an incredible amount of humility.
Speaker 5: We're not doing things the same that.
Speaker 4: We've done in the past, and so every year we
changed a few things to get our team ready. And
but the thing that's consistent is we have some great
leadership on the team. Gonna lean heavily on on on
our leaders and heavily on the staff getting them ready.
And I feel really confident about what we can do.
But again, it's just it's all not real yet, you
know what I mean. So with today I was I
was really encouraged what I saw, and I think Lovell
said it best. So we have a pretty good chance.
We'll see what happens, you know. But for practice one,
really happy with it and happy with the talent, the speed,
the athleticism. I feel really good about where we're headed.
We've got to make sure that we keep improving. We
can't take any steps back.
Speaker 3: No steps back. The expectations are higher than that, and
you want to just continue to meet the standard, meet
the bar. That's how we see it. A couple last
things from Kilane. You guys aren't in pageant, but when
you transit, when do you transition? How much live work
tackling work will you? Guys?
Speaker 4: Do we want to do some live work, But it
just depends on who we're doing live work with. There's
a lot of guys that probably don't need it and
have done enough. There's some guys that just got inform
missions that probably want to do more, but we got to,
you know, reel them back a little bit. And so
I think, but I think everybody has a chance to
do some live work, and especially those that haven't been
here and are new. We've we've got to be able
to see them when whenever things get really live and
I don't know any other way to simulate it than
actually do it. So but then those guys that are
proven and we still need them to get better and
a lot of different things. But I don't know if
if getting tackled or tackling for them is going to
be the key.
Speaker 3: You do need a nice balance between non can contact
work and contact work. I don't know if this will
ever be an NFL model in college because remember the
reason why I say that is because the NFL is
literally the one percent of you know, the two percent
that come out of high school with scholarship offers. So,
like you look at the amount of scholarships available at
like the P four G six level, and you're looking
I think roughly around like two percent of the total
high school football population, maybe a little bit less than that.
Sometimes you can you can make an argument for like
one percent of one percent, and then from there it's
the one percent of that of college football players that
are getting into the NFL and staying in the NFL
on average two and a half years. That's it. So
like these guys are the best of the best of
the best athletically and from a productivity standpoint, that's that's
why they don't have to go contact and because you know,
the value of health is even it's it's just incrementalized,
it's just significantly higher. So, uh, you're still trying to
find out who the dogs are in college football. You're
trying to figure out who the who, who the the
krem de la creme is, and so you've got to
get some contact working to see who the big boys are. Uh,
it separates the boys from the men. Boys to men ABC,
PbD you know the East Coast family anyway. That's our
reading between the lines with Kalai Shatake and it was
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help you if you stop for a little cougar byde
gonna discuss Kolani Sataki's comments regarding l J. Martin. Is
he going to be returning to practice? What? What are
some of the reasons some players are currently aren't currently
on the rosses a few guys that are no longer
part of the roster. We'll see how that what Kalani
answers in that regard, as well as what stood out
to him about to Mario Warny and Lewis Walker, why
did they promote Wes Johnson as well in that defensive secondary.
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Kilini Shataki, what's the timeline of return for l J
Martin getting back to practice?
Speaker 4: He looks awesome, He's he's right on target for it.
I mean, you can see him when they come walking off.
They're gonna look great. So I like the way Ljay's leading.
I mean, he's so impressed with his leadership skills. That's
just how he's been getting better every every year. And
I'm glad he came back because I think he's gonna do.
I think the team really needs him, and I think
it's an opportunity for him to become an even stronger
leader than he was before. And I think he's answered
every yet challenge we've given them as a leader.
Speaker 3: So is he gonna play? Is he not gonna play?
How you feel? And Springball is gonna to shit this
one out. Remember he was one of those guys that
we discussed had surgery in January, and uh, well, I
guess he had surgery prior to the bowl game. So
he had surgery prior to the bowl game, didn't play
the bowl game. He's still recuperating, still recovering. I guess
it's been over two months now, though he probably could
go out and play. But do you really need LJ.
Martin to play spring ball? Ronald three man over.
Speaker 6: No, I was gonna say it doesn't doesn't matter. We
heard from him earlier, you know in the second hour
that he's close to that and you know almost there.
Speaker 7: But he doesn't need to Ben.
Speaker 6: He's one of those things like last year, remember Isaiah
Glaser got surgery on his hand, didn't need to play
like he's we know what he's capable of. You want
to find RB two, RB three or multiple RB two.
So I don't want to see LJ. Martin spring ball
this year. I'll se him in valcamp though.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's all you need him, Matt, That's all
that's all you need is LJ In in fall, keep
him healthy, keep him happy, and keep him mentoring, Right,
that's what you need right now, mentorship in that RB
two room. What's the reason What are some of the
reasons why some players are aren't currently on the roster.
Will they be coming back during the fall, keeping it
in general, keeping it broad.
Speaker 5: There, Tyler Pain's on a mission.
Speaker 4: I guess it's all depending on There's some guys that
have gone, that have gone and left and left the program.
Majority of the guys that we have are here. You know,
we're always looking to add a few here and there.
But for the most part, I think we got I mean,
give or take a few people.
Speaker 3: I mean, who is he referring to, right, there's a
There was one in particular articular, I believe Naki Tuakoy.
Remember he came into the BYU twenty twenty four class,
I believe, and was on the roster finally in twenty
twenty five, but we really didn't hear much about him
throughout twenty twenty five, and he's currently not on the roster.
To be determined, what's going on. Look, there's always roster attrition,
no doubt about it. Remember after last spring ball, Danny
sai Lee entered the portal and went out to I
want to say he ended up at Arkansas. So Naki
was a part of that twenty twenty four class finally
got onto the roster twenty twenty five and now he's
no longer on the roster. I don't know if he's
going to be serving a mission as well. I haven't
checked his social media, but Tyler Payne serving a mission
for the Church Jesus Christ Lattery Saints. His brother Logan,
who is a return missionar, going to be competing for
that RB two spot. But Tyler Payne was kind of
buried in a very talented linebacker room. So it's probably
better that he takes his talents to the mission field.
It'd be tough, not that he couldn't, it'd be tough
to break into that too deep in that linebacker room.
So go serve the Lord with all your heart, in
my mind and strength, and see what happens when you
come back. Now, has the new coaching staff changed the
dynamic of springball practice, Killane.
Speaker 5: That hasn't changed.
Speaker 4: We got a system that we're in us that we
will operate by, and the coaches come in they fit
by what we ask them to do. And uh, demon
and Lewis has done a great job. I like the
way that they demand from their their players. And uh,
today was a really good day for for those guys,
you know. So I think Uh, Demon and Lewis know
what they have and in the group, and they know
how to get them just they know how to get
them going. I mean that's we've still got to be competitive.
There's a lot of corners that need to prove themselves
and a lot of safeties that need to compete. So
I think it's it's a great system for them to
come into. They just bought into what we asked, what
me and Kate Pop have asked them to do, and
you know.
Speaker 5: That It's it's like it'd be different.
Speaker 4: I didn't know them. I know those guys in a
personal level, so I know they're going to be just fine,
just like they are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so new new new faces, right, new talents, new
tenured play coaches, et cetera. The biggest issue right now,
the biggest fear that I think Cougar Nation has, and
we we address this too last week. Our biggest concern is, Okay,
you replace your cornerbacks coach, your safeties coaches, and your
d C so J Hill, Gennaro Guildford, Gavin Fowler. Gavin
Fowler was that assistant analyst that was running the safety's room.
Gavin's currently at Weber Coaching up the defense. Jay's at
at Michigan, as is Gennaro. So you bring in Okay,
Damario Warren, safety'ess coaching, passing end corner, Lewis Walker cornerbacks coach,
and then you promote Wes Johnson, the big bro of
our guy schmev Evan Johnson. That's what it looks like
in that secondary room. Now there could be others as well.
There was I asked Colonia follow up here, so stay
tuned because you know, he goes into maybe a former
Cougar that could be coaching in that secondary as a
safeties coach. So you may have four guys you have
like you have the Lewis and West coaching up the corners,
Damario and somebody else coaching up the safeties. So I've
followed up as a killinie. What stood out to you
about Tomorio, Warren, Luth Walker and why did you promote
Wes Johnson.
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: These are these are guys that I know, and you
know Wes, he's been here working for us over the
past few years, and uh, I think it's time to
elevate him. And and you know, I think you see
the progress that Evans made our schmeav as we know
him and that that has a lot to do with
his brother and the mentor the he's given him.
Speaker 5: H Lewis I've known for forever. I've known him as
as a player.
Speaker 4: Knew him in high school and then he played for
me when I was at the U, So uh, I
know him from a personal level, and I've been proud
of what he's been able to do as a coach
at so many different places and been a coordinator before,
you know, and he's coached at North Dakota State Powerhouse
at SCS level, and so I'm really proud of him.
And then opportunity to have him here on a staff.
I mean, he knows our terminology and our lingo and
he knows what I expect. And then Tomoro, I've known
him for you know, from I think when he started
his career, So the fact that he was able and
when we high General Demorio was actually one of the
guys that I leaned on heavily that said he was
ready to do it and he was a great mentor
to General. So have them here, and then you know,
with with Danny Sorenson and those guys, I mean, we're
in a really good spot and I feel like those
guys know what they're doing, they're they're experts, and and
uh and uh. I'm really excited for what our players
get to have with them. And when all comes down to,
we just need to keep giving the players all the
resources and all the mentoring they needed to succeed. And
I feel really good about the coaching that's there to
support staff and all the resources that we've been given.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's a pretty good staff there in the
secondary room. If you add Danny Sorenstt as a technique coach, typically,
what you want in any position room, in my opinion,
you need the architect, the schemer, the the individual that's
setting out the infrastructure and the culture right of that
particular position group. And then you want the technician day
in and day out operationally breaking down technique within the scheme.
You have that in Lewis Walker and Wes Johnson. Okay,
all the extra work, all the field work that they're
gonna be doing, You're gonna see a lot of that
with Wes Johnson and Lewis will be involved. To remember,
our biggest fear with losing Gennaro was recruiting, right, and
then technique and development. Would you agree with that assessment,
Ronald the three man weaver, someone that can really recruit
to BYU, retain at BYU, kind of mentor at BYU,
and then develop at BYU.
Speaker 7: You have to have all.
Speaker 6: Ben, you know, it's the food plate right of the
pie chart. You need your greens, you need your grains, needs,
your protein needs, your carbs, you need all of it.
Speaker 7: And they have all of that.
Speaker 6: You want your development guy that can develop the talent
while he's there. You want the guy that can keep
it there. That's it critical in the day of nil.
You want the relationship guy. You want the guy that
can go out there and get the talent. They have
all of it. Well, sounds like they're gonna get all
of it and you would love to have that. Look anytime, Ben,
you can bring in a guy that has next level
of experience and I'm gonna go away this guy.
Speaker 7: He doesn't get talked.
Speaker 6: I think we need to put a request in and
it's time, especially when Walker Lyons does well. Kevin Gilbride
might not be talked about enough on this staff. The
experience of the NFL and what Carson Ryan did in
the run game and the blocking and along with that,
with t J. Woods that sometimes doesn't always get noticed.
Speaker 3: Ben.
Speaker 7: And if you're able to bring in you know, you
know Swarrensen.
Speaker 6: If you're able to bring in a guy from the
NFL to help, that is a lot you can give.
It's like Rob Daniel, you see the cornerbacks develop and
get Give you a guy that's played at the highest
level training guys given that is going to be able
to help them improve and develop. Look at Jake Robertson,
you see Evan Johnson. I expect a big jump from
Trey Alexander all of that because of time and effort
in development with the guy at the next level. So
it's critical, Ben, you have to have it. So I
just wanted to highlight Kevin Gilbride because I believe what
Carson Ryan did is one of the reasons why they're
able to get Robertsili Apokola second and Walker Lions and
have all of these other tight ends. We have Blake
Bryce on the show. Remember he's on a mission, Ben,
he's been here out He says, well, NFL tight end,
NFL coach that's already been there, can help me get
to the next level.
Speaker 7: Those were his words, not mine.
Speaker 6: So that has to account for something, Ben, because look
at the basketball team, A coach's coach there, and now
you want to come that's the reason.
Speaker 7: So just wanted to give a tip of the cap
to that.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, look, I love the fact that they're bringing
back also Danny Sorenson. I had heard rumblings that they
were bringing back a former BYU great in the safetrum
that had played in the NFL. That's all I was told,
and so I whittled it down. I said, Okay, who
could it be? Could it be Kinda Kua, Could it
be Aaron Francisco, Could it be Andrew Rich Danny Sorenson.
Apparently it's Danny Now nothing official yet. What role will
he have within the defense? Whatever it is, it's gonna
be impactful if you give. If you had given me
access to a corner safety's coach that had been in
the league for as long as Danny's been in the league,
a guy that's tried and true, loyal, strong and true
right as it, I mean, holy cow, man, I would
have I would have eaten that up. I would have
been working with him any waking moment. He's been in
the league since two thousand and fourteen. That is a
long career in the National Football League. That stands for
not for long, like I said, the average. And he
was an undrafted free agent, not a draft pick, not
a mid round, not a first round, second, not even
a late round. He was an undrafted free agent. Played
in one hundred and twenty eight games in the National
Football League, started forty one combined four hundred and thirty
two tackles, four and a half sacks, thirty six PBUs,
fourteen iron t's okay, four touchdowns for force fumbles, four
fumble recoveries. You give me access to that as a player, man,
I'm gonna absorb as much as I can from that.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: And look, you lean into your your coaches as well.
You know, like I said, the architecture, the culture. You
buy into that. But your position coach can't always spend
the amount of time that you want him to because
he's out recruiting, and he's out and he's in the
position meetings. He's kind of architecting. He's setting the pace,
he's setting the culture. You need these skill developers to
really maximize it. This is a very strategic and aggressive
move to make sure that there is no drop off
in the secondary in twenty twenty six. If you're Kalani, right,
the last thing you want to hear about is how much.
And I'm sure he's very happy for his guys, jay
And and gav and Gennaro, very happy for them. But
the last thing you want to hear from the media
is what, man, we really missed those guys. We missed
those guys. There's a drop off, yep. So you are
acquiring talent and allocating resources to assure that this crew
not only at worst this status quo, right, at best,
it's better than it was even a season ago. That's
what it sounds like to me. That's what it looks
like to me. Ronald the three man Weaver.
Speaker 6: I agree with you know, you don't want ben whenever
a coach leaves or when you bring a coach in, right,
that's what you want, Like you know, I always, like
I always say, I always make it about basketball. Right
when they decide, as we talked about this in the
first hour, that they're gonna make personnel changes to the
roster and maybe a staff change. The guy that you
bring in, you want it to be better, right, because like, oh, well,
we missed this guy all but same thing when the
coach leaves up, there's a drop off.
Speaker 7: You have to solidify that. And how do you do that?
Speaker 5: Then?
Speaker 6: The only way I know how is once you rebuild
your staff is to go get a guy that's played
at the next level it is.
Speaker 7: You have to do that.
Speaker 6: And they've done that, you know, right, even when Steve
Clark was no longer to tie to this coast, they
got a guy from the NFL. Now they're bringing in
you know, supposed to Danny, a dirty Dan that's gonna help. Like,
you can't have a drop off, not with a guy
who has NFL aspirations and volatile saw to all who's
the next level player? You have to keep that secondary
the right way, Evan Johnson. Next level player, Trey has
the potential. Liking what I've seen Ben and Klanie, look,
you have to architect behind it, leading, leading, the captain, leadingship,
driving it the captain.
Speaker 7: Morna.
Speaker 6: Maybe that's not the right person to compare it to,
but Klanie's been leading these guys in the battle and
you have to love every move that he's made. And
what I really loved and't give enough love to A
shout out to Wes Johnson on the promotion.
Speaker 7: That's great.
Speaker 6: A guy really did is grided his teeth well and
U can't wait to see what they do. But I'm
excited for this.
Speaker 3: That's our segment brought to you by Dental Pros of Utah.
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a little college basketball Cougar sports. So let's get into
a couple of soundbites here from uh mister Patino. That's right,
he's he's talking the post game. Like Saint John'son has
has been a good squad this year. They've had their
ups and downs, no doubt about it. I felt like
this particular SoundBite I retweeted. I shared it because it's, uh,
it's always best as a head coach to recruit coachable athletes.
And in the new era, the nil trans reportal mercenario,
I would say era in which we're in, sometimes you
don't always get coachable players, but it still resides on
the shoulders of those head coaches and there, I would say,
their gms, their assistant coaches. So this segment's gonna be
brought to you by We're gonna read between the lines
a little bit and in a college basketball SoundBite, get
a read between the lines. It's going to be brought
to you by Orthropros of Utah Orthropros of Utah dot com.
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All right, let's see what Rick Patino had to say
in his post game over the weekend.
Speaker 8: A perfect player for coach with your sort of intensity
deep search, share with us a little bit about the
relationship to you and you have both a coaching player
and maybe a person.
Speaker 9: You know Roger. I get along great with every player
that works hard. I don't get along with players that
don't work hard. I feel when you put that Saint
John's uniform on it, you put that Louisville uniform on
Kentucky in providence of you coming to get better, you're
coming to bring it every single day because the coaching
says it's going to bring it every single day.
Speaker 5: And that's Zubie.
Speaker 9: So it's a great match because he brings it every
single day. That's what the great ones do. And in
the pros when I was coaching the Knicks Jackson and
Ewing and Oakley and Johnny Newman and Joe Wilkins, and
they brought it every single day and that's why we
won fifty two games. So I get along great with
the guys when you bring it. And Zubi's right. I
get on Zubi just as much as I do Tamba,
and they see that. You know, I give him a
lot of love because he knows I love him. I
said this all. It's a senior night for me with
Zoobie is. I'm going to miss the hell out of
him because I know I can count on him every
single day giving it in every player development. Look how
much he's improved his three point shooting, his foul shooting,
his passing. He was an awful passer when he first
came here. Now he's a great passer. So he's improved
immensely because of working hard with player development. And I'm
real proud of him.
Speaker 3: So I love this. If you work hard, if you
show up, you compete, you're a coachable player. I love you.
I get along with you really well. If you don't,
I don't get along with you. That's why I get
along with this particular player I wonder if what BYU
is experiencing. Okay, I'm I'm always you know, trying to
take a SoundBite and apply to BYU athletics Ky when
he goes in front of the pulpit after this West
Virginia game, We're gonna get to that. We gotten to
that soundbites as well. He goes, he goes off on
a number of things he's had. He's got AJ and
Rob next to him, which I think is a good
thing because he's gonna hold them accountable. He's been calling
them out throughout the back end of this this regular season,
saying they got to elevate their leadership, they have to
bring intensity. Uh, you know, he he's pretty open about that.
I just don't know if AJ and Rob really care,
because I mean, you see it at times more so
like Rob. I think AJ does more so Rob. Like
I don't know how much Rob really cares. And I
lean into this new age mercenary effect. We were talking offline,
Ronald the three Man Weaver and I we were just
discussing is Rob right at BYU Cougar after this year
or is he is he going elsewhere? And my response
was I think Rob and I I don't want to
be disrespectful here, but what it seems like the body language,
the interactions between him and the media. I think he's
the highest bidder guy. He's from Delaware, goes to way Go,
goes to BYU. I think he's the highest bidder guy.
I think whoever gives him the most value is where
he goes. If that's at BYU, great, If that's at
the in the NBA, great. I just don't know if
he's an NBA ballplayer because he doesn't play defense. I
just don't see it. It's a it's this phenomenon that
I think it's I think it's called the hedonic adaptation
in behavioral economics psychology. What it means is when people
get a big reward, money, contract, fame, there's an emotional
boost that fades quickly away. New level of success becomes
the kind of that new normal because you have like
this this uh the money now, and you may have
gotten into the game, or you got to the point
in the game in this basketball game that you've kind
of reached this peak of success or like I don't
really need much more than this. I don't need championships,
I don't need an NCAA tournament run. I like the money.
I mean I'm getting I'm getting a fair wage, a
more than fair wage. Motivation is tied to the reward, right,
and you already got the reward. So what are you
working for? What is it? What's that competitive fire? Do
you like winning or do you just or do you
hate losing? I think most of these guys just kind
of like winning and they like getting paid. So there's
not this sense of urgency of like a contract here,
because there's gonna be someone there willing to probably pay
him just as much or more. If Rob Wright does
not step up and start playing at a high rate,
I wonder if he's a Bayu Cougar next year. If
he if he if he doesn't start playing defense, I
wonder if he's a Bayu Cougar next year, do they
just let him walk? Many people have been discussing how
beneficial would be to have Dallen Hall on this team,
and I think there's there's a good point to be
made about it, because if Rob Right had someone competing
for minutes on the bench right now, I think he
probably would have been benched at times and someone would
have been inserted in his stead. Because he doesn't play defense.
He doesn't play good defense, he doesn't play defense at all. Sometimes, anyway,
if you're coachable, typically head coaches like you. If you
put in the work, you compete, they like it. If
you don't, I'm wondering if there's any friction there. I
just wonder with Ky and Rob Wright. That segment was
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