Speaker 1: Is Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel at its time for
the Cougar Beat getting the dish from the local reporters
that cover Cougar athletics. Welcome back to your sporting one
though three nine ninety one for ESPN the manage then
videsban web dot com. Please get on a free Q
and A no obligation to invest in Q and A
with our tax mot Wealth Advisors, Certified financial planners. Nobody
that's it better than Banterer Wealth and Ease Tom for
a little Cougar Beat, going to get into the mind
and hear from the voices that cover the team on
the Daily Talks and BAU Football in this segment, what
does by you need to do? What needs to happen
in order for Bwilly to clinch a Big twelve championship
game and birth this weekend. We're gonna break it down
here on your Utah ESPN radio number. Can it be
brought to you by Bresa Cleaning Services. I said it
many times on the show. The quickest way to a
woman's heart, the wonderful better half in your life is
to get the house clean. That's the quickest way to
get the better half happy. And stress fee. So the
best thing you can do for your wife right now,
who's offload the day to day household chores free up
per time for you and your family. There's only so
much time in the day, and your wife wants to
spend that time with you.
Speaker 2: With the kiddhs.
Speaker 1: Recent cleaning services makes it a breeze to keep your
house clean and they offer recring cleaning services to keep
your house in order. You gotta set your house in
order right, you know what they say, Happy wife, happy life.
Presa is reliable, honest and affordable, favorite things of all
BYU fans. Give them a call, centum a text. You
can get seventy dollars off your first cleaning. That's right,
seventy dollars off your first cleaning eight oh one three
eight zero eight zero eight seven. That's eight o one
three eight zero eight zero eight seven eight oh one
three eight zero eight zero eight seven. Bresa makes it
a clean, makes it a breeze to keep your house clean.
Call them today, shoot them a text, let them know
I Sancha. Let's get out to the hotline talk some
Cougar football with Sean WALKERKSL dot com, Cougar Sports Inside
what's up, Sean, Ben.
Speaker 2: It's always a pleasure to join you guys on this show.
And uh, I got I gotta start with one question
for you. Have you booked your plane ticket for Arlington, Texas?
That uh that first weekend in.
Speaker 1: December, I booked Ronald the Three Man Weavers flight out
to the DFW. But uh, you know, I ask my wife,
I'm like, hey, can I go? And She's like, now,
you got to stay home with with me and the kiddos.
So I'm not gonna be heading out there. It's unfortunate. Uh.
I do have another full time job, and so I'm
away from home a lot with the radio and obviously
with Ortho pros et cetera. So sometimes I gotta take
a take a I got a sacrifice. I got a
sacrifice to keep my my lovely wife happy and the
kiddo's happy.
Speaker 2: So I have not Okay, hold on, hold on, I'm
just I'm gonna make a note. I'm taking a note
real quick. Right after I hang up here, call Brook Crittle,
have a chat and discussion.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, yeah, I don't know. You gotta be a
really really really good sayd.
Speaker 2: Ll Sean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. If it'll work, Sean, I'll be honest,
but BYU very well is the I mean, look, they're
the master of their destiny, obviously, but what could happen
this weekend? Obviously Bili's got to get a win. But
tell us a little bit more. You wrote about it
at KSHL dot com. What needs to happen in order
for BYU to clinch a Big twelve Championship game?
Speaker 2: Birth. Yeah, and this came straight out of the Big Twelve,
so you know it's legit right they put it out
of the release. There are exactly two teams this weekend
and the penultimate week of the regular season they can
clinch a berth in the Big twelve Championship game at
AT and T Stadium in Arlington. They're Texas Tech and
BYU Texas Tech Pass. Both of their scenarios involved YU
losing at Cincinnati, So then we're not going to talk
about that one very much. But since this was the
station that covers with Kobes, they both start, you touch
on a bit. They both start with beating Cincinnati, So
you gotta go, you gotta take care of business in
the Queens City. Beat Cincinnati, hand them the thirst rade
loss that is number one. And then there are two ways,
and I will caution probably not very likely ways, but
still two ways that YU can clinch the spot in
the Big Cook Championship Game. The first one is Arizona
State and Houston both have to lose. ASU has Colorado,
Houston has TCU. I would put the odds at the
former as unlikely, and I would put the odds at
the latter as possible. I think it's certainly possible that
DZ you can can come back and beat Houston, although
I don't know if i'd handicap them as the favor
by any means. Houston's having a really good year, so
you need a little bit help for those of the
sun Devils and the Cougar's there or the other way
also involved in Arizona State laws, that's the ASU losing
to Colorado and then Utah beating Kansas State. Again, I
probably had to camp that first one not incredibly likely,
but I think they are going to be a lot
of BYU fans that in addition to cheering for BYU
to win this week, and they'll be cheering for coach
Prime Deon Sanders and the Bush and then maybe even
you get a couple that are cheering for former b
YU All Black linebacker Kyle Whittingham and the youth to
go rough up and be it up on Cape State
this weekend up on the hill at right cycles as well.
Speaker 1: Would love to see it got to get there. Do
you think this is year by you get up and
makes it to the college football playoff? Sean, how are
you feeling about this Cougar football team?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, well, I think and we can touch on
maybe kind of this broader point a little bit, because
Golan and Doggie actually brought it up yesterday, and I
know you guys have been talking about it on the
show a little bit. But I think the first goal
is you've got to get to that Big Twelve championship game.
And by is not even in that Big Twelve title game.
I don't think there's any chance that they can get
into the College Football Playoffs playing simple. I think they
need to at the very least be in that game.
Based on the result of that first of that meeting
with Texas Tech in Lubbock. And I'm not just talking
about the loss, but the manner in which they lost,
there's a chance that they have to go and they
have to win that Big Club Title game. Obviously we
know if they go in Big celt Championship, I guess
it's not technically one hundred percent but ninety eight point
seven chance that they will be one of these five
highest ranked conference champions and therefore game one of those
five automatic bids for CFP inclusion. But I think even
if by you just get back to that conference championship game,
if they put in a let's say they're playing Texas Tech,
the would be out on favorite to be in that game,
out on favorite to win the Big Club Championship. I
think if they put a better just kind of leave
this selection committee with a better case in their mouth,
more competitive game, not a twenty nine to seven type
boss whether they're not really in it they don't score
until the fourth quarter. I think if they put a
better just a better data point in that championship game,
then I think b YU has as good as an
argument for an at large bid as anybody in the country,
and yes, I mean literally anybody in the country, because
right now they're behind three two lost teams, two from
the SEC, and then noted game, the SEC has been
winning a lot of argument based off of strength of schedule.
By you've got to figure out a way to kind
of boost that up and pump that up. Their strength
of record numbers are very good. Here's another secret one,
and I'll tell you this, I actually haven't read about
this shit or tweeted about it or anything. So we'll
call this a little Cooter Sports exclusive for you guys.
The UYU fan should be rooting for ECU. East Carolina
right now is one of those kind of not so
talked about teams that's still in the discussion to make
the American Championship Game. I almost call an American Athletic
Conference not anymore, just the American Conference. So ECU is
I think they're like kind of four fourth or fifth
in the pegging order right now, but still a he's
a chance to get into the American Championship Game. If
East Carolina makes that game, and especially they go on
and they win an American an American title, then they
win over an American Conference champion like BYU now has
from the beginning of the season when they went to
Greenville and kind of sloshed over the Pirates a little bit.
I think that would give them a data point to
potentially put them in as an at large selection to
the conference title game. So first and first you got
to get there. You gotta get into that championship game.
There are a lot of other teams that you can
root for, Yes, that includes the use guys, but I
don't count out that ECU data point as well. And
I think the Pirates could really do something to kind
of help BYU, sort of give them the juice by
the for the selection committee.
Speaker 1: Sean WALKERKSL dot com here on ESPN the Fan discussing
how by you can get into Big twelve and get
into a Big twelve championship game and also find its
way into the college football playoffs. Cincinnati is a two
and a half point or a two two and a
half point dog. They are playing against the bau Cougars
on the at their home stadium, Knippert Stadium. Esp and
Analytics is favoring by You don't want to say, it
was like sixty seven percent chance of victory for the Kugs.
How do you see this BA Cincinnati game playing out
in the great state of Ohio.
Speaker 2: Great question. I mean, I'll have a little bit more
on this later in the week, because I'm struggling right
now to figure this game out then I'm not gonna lie.
I'm struggling a little bit to figure this game out
because this was a Cincinnati team that had everything, and
I mean literally everything going for it. They were ranked
by the CFP and the AP just three weeks ago.
They were they were one of those teams that was
maybe a little bit of a dark horse contender, but
certainly contender to win the Big hell Big Club Conference.
They're still not eliminated from Big Coal Championship game consideration
now that they're gonna name we talked about yun now.
To get there, Cincinnati will need a ton of help
to get there, but they're still not eliminated from it.
I think they've got a lot to play for right now.
And this is also Cincinnati team that I think is
going to be incredibly motivated in hosting the Kubs for
the first time since twenty sixteen. I mean, this is
it's going to be senior night in at Kniffert Stadium.
It's going to be a night game, which they don't
get very often. That is an eight pm Eastern time takeoff,
not a be a mountain guys, eight pm Eastern time.
So if you're going to that game, bundle up. It's
going to be dark it. You know, maybe vampire cups
come out on the road. We'll see in there. And
then it's also and then they're going to be honoring
twenty two seniors including I think it was six or
seven that have been with the Bearcats for all four
seasons as well. So I think there's a lot of
motivation in the Cincinnati team to come in and try
to make right for what's happened the last two weeks
back to back losses. Obviously, they got solved a couple
of weeks ago by Utah, and so I could see
I could see sort of one of two scenarios where
BYU goes in and kind of does the same thing
that the Utes did up on the hill in Salt
Lake City the Cincinnati mar I can see the Cincinnati
team coming in with a little bit pride, pulling themselves
up by the big bootstraps, realizing that this is their season.
This is a must win game for them in every way,
and I think they're going to come out really really hard.
If BYU doesn't jump out early, this could be an
absolutely dog place.
Speaker 1: Sean, what have you been most impressed by with this
BYU football team? This season. What stands out to you
and their progress in what they've been able to accomplish
back to back seasons that are trending to become double
digit win seasons.
Speaker 2: The easy answer, Bear Bagbeyer, Right, So we're We're not
We're not going to go there because I think we've
talked about Barenough right right. I mean we need we
need to mention Bear Blackmeyer coming in as a true
freshman in in a very tenuous spot with some of
the offseason changes Jake Redloff transferring to to Tuwaine and
all that stuff. What Bear's been able to do I
think should put him in the conversation forward best freshman
of the year nationally in college football. I don't know
if he's the number one freshman there a couple of others, Uh,
they're probably gonna have as good of an argument at him,
but I think he needs to be on the shortlist.
He needs to be sort of in that breath for
best freshman this year. Beyond that, like, I think we
expected this by defense to be really good, although you
can make an argument that they got even better from
last year, which talked to any fan and b YU
last year and they would have probably laughed at back
because that defense was really, really good. But the linebacker
corps has been as advertised, Jack Kelly and o Save
Lasker are going to find themselves playing on Sundays. I
think there are a couple of defensive linemens that are
gonna end up playing on Sundays with this group as well.
You know that that was one of those questions. Mark,
remember if you're in a backtic training camp that we
just didn't really know about. But I've been really impressed
by the defensive line. The thing that has impressed me
maybe the most is this BYU run game. And I'm
not just talking about l J. Martin's been really good,
which he has been. We sort of knew that he
had the potential to be really good. But he goes
over one hundred yards in the first three games of
the season back to back against Arizona and Util. You've
got seven of those on his career. He's just shy
of a thousand yards rushing for the first time in
his career. But he's been durable, incredibly durable, like he
hasn't been. Let's let's get it out of the open.
It's very clear that l J. Martin hasn't been one
hundred percent healthy every game this season, and yet he's
played in ten games. He had that career high one
sixty two at Arizona's averaging ninety one point two yards
per game and big twelve play. Like everything we thought
about LJ I think has come true and then some
because you realize of the heavy load that he's had
to bear. You know, he's the starting running back and
a lot of times he's the number two running back
in this BHYU run game at certain points and he
just keep going, he keeps escape moving, He's finding then zone,
he's finding some holes behind an enormous offensive line. I mean,
they're the guys that never get enough credit, right Andrew
Gentry and Isaiah Jada and Bluece Mitchell and the like.
But this b why you run game I think has
been again. I had high expectations for what they could
be coming end of the season, and I think they've
even superseded that.
Speaker 1: Sean Walkerksale dot com here on esp the Fan, I
want to change gears here. Whenever you have double digit
win seasons, you're impressive. You're having a quarterback play like
like by you is a defense playing like the art
collectively running bags and wide receivers. Like, there's a lot
of stars on this team that are showcasing their abilities
at a high level. You're gonna see an uptick in recruiting, right,
You're going to see an uptick in interest from local
talent and even regional talent specifically. What have you been
seeing here locally as it pertains to be what you
football recruitment? I know you've been covering the prep world.
We're gonna have the state championship games coming up here
this week. What are you hearing? What are you seeing?
Do you project any flips from commitments to b YU
or from other schools to b YU.
Speaker 2: Well, are you talking about the twenty twenty sixth class,
then are you talking about the twenty twenty seventh classes? Both?
Speaker 1: Man, I mean twenty twenty six ntil twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2: You never know what can happen, That's true. I feel
like the twenty twenty six classes it's been relatively set
in stone for a little while, you know, I mean,
colleges like to get kind of ahead of it, and
I think YU is cleaning up pretty well when it
comes to some of those in state commitments. There are
a lot of sort of the top towns in the
state that haven't gone by used way that I would
be surprised, quite frankly if they slipped. I'm talking about
like the number one overall recruit in Felici Moa who
out of Fremont, who is very much committed to Tennessee
from talking to his family and his coaches and of
those teammates and everything. But what YU has done really
well in this recruiting class is they have built sort
of a fence around the state of Utah. They've got
two in the top three players in the state right
now in Brock Harris and Bottlitalo. I don't expect any
changes out of those guys. The number eight overall player,
defensive lineman Lopetti Molas with every bit to six four
and two hundred and sixty some odd pounds that he's
lifted out of Orem High School. I've asked him a
couple of times in the last few weeks how committed
he is the BYU. He just kind of laughs at me.
He says, yeah, you never really know what today's day
and age, right, like you're committed that you're not, And
then you laugh again, and he says, but I'm definitely
going to be a Coup, excited to be a Coup.
I think he's very, very firm. Same with the teammate,
Calia kanat at at Orham High School. I think Adam
Bywaters is as close as they could come there as well.
A lot of the other commitments in the state. BYU
is only sort of ben kind of fifty fifty. Since
they commit a little bit, there's not a ton of
movement from this BYU recruiting staff after kids commit. Kolonia
doesn't really like to get into too many recruiting battles
post commitment unless unless the player or maybe their parents
or somebody around them who actually think reaches out to BYU.
Then there are certainly some circumstances and some capabilities there. So,
but as like as as Dan, even if BYU only
and I'm using air quotes right now, I know in
an audio medium, if they only come away with two
of the top three recruits in the state of Utah
or five of the top ten, which they currently have
seven of the top eighteen, I'm trying to count and
do my map off the top of my head. I
think it's been a pretty good recruiting hall for this
BYU Cycle. That's currently one of the best recruiting classes
in the Big Club.
Speaker 1: All right, Sean, we got to say farewell. We're up
against it, but always appreciate our time together. We invite
everyone to follow you on x as well as read
all your content at KHL dot com. Much love to
you man, We'll chat with you again soon.
Speaker 2: Crazys you guys, thanks as always.
Speaker 1: All right, there you go. That's Sean Walker and a
Cougar Beat and it was brought to you by Bresa
Cleaning Services. If you are looking to maybe do something
nice for your wife, especially around the holiday season, now's
the time, Now's the place. Bresa Cleaning Services is reliable,
honest and affordable. They come with a five man team
starting five if you will, and they'll clean up your
house within the hour. It's awesome, very detail oriented and
very economical as well. Get seventy dollars off your first
cleaning when you mentioned myself, Ben Crittle or ESPN the fan.
Bresa makes it a breeze to keep your house clean.
Contact Gabby and her crew today eight oh one three
eight zero, eight zero eight seven. It's eight oh one
three eight zero eight zero eight seven. They've been cleaning
the Criddle household for over two years now.
Speaker 2: You got to
Speaker 1: If you asked me a year ago