Speaker 1: Big twelve Football.
Speaker 2: Mischief.
Speaker 1: Got some new sheriffs in down, but they better be careful.
Some been around here for a while and they might
learn a thing or two.
Speaker 2: You see that there's a storm fro.
Speaker 1: You're not scared, are you? You're always ready, ready to
go Big twelve football. They don't get better than this.
Speaker 3: Well the Banka you sports one of three nine out
of your point three esp in the bank, it's some
Big twelve football talking new segment. Don't miss it with
the College Football the inside of Big twelve Insider Here
in your Utah ESPN Radio Network winners, the Big twelve
stead After all these bowl games played, how do they
compare to the other power conferences? And much more? Here
in your Utah us being ready to never get to
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the long run. Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome
into college football inside a big twelve inchsider. Schehan Ja Rajah,
National college football writer for CBS Sports. Schehan, how are you.
Speaker 4: I'm doing great? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Hey, I appreciate you joining me. What's been keeping you
busy over the last week or so? What have you
been cooking up over at CBS Sports?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean a lot. You know, obviously there's been
a lot of the transfer portal movement, so I wrote
on Oklahoma State yesterday. I've got stories coming on Indiana
as well, and old Myth and then of course the
college football playoffs. You know, we're We're only a few
days away from the national semifinals and in a couple
of weeks I'll be going out to the national title
game as well, out in Miami. So it's a busy
finish to the season, but it's a good one.
Speaker 3: How do you feel about the final four in the
college football playoff? Did you see it coming? Shahan?
Speaker 4: Well, if you look at my bracket, I picked one
of the four correctly. That was the number one seed
Indiana and the other three to be frank not only
did I not see coming, I wouldn't have thought that
any of them had a chance. Oregon probably and I
probably could have seen that coming. But the other two
Miami and Ole Miss being in the national semi finals
over by the way, Ohio State in Georgia, That's not
something that I saw coming. You know, this has been
such a fascinating year. You know, obviously people are going
to talk about like the efficacy of the first round
by I mean, obviously this was just a situation where
those four teams or those three teams that beat the
first round by teams just went out and beat them
like we're just the better teams on that day. I
got to see that. With Miami playing against Ohio State
at AT and T Stadium, we got to see that.
Of course, with Trinidad Schamblis leading Ole Miss against Georgia,
Like it is just an unbelievable effort so far, and
really I think what everybody hope hoped from the college
football playoffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is there an issue with the buys? Do you
take issue with the buye? Do you take issue with
maybe the neutral site for those games? What do you,
what do you make of the lopsided record for those
teams that are having to take those buys or I mean,
initially you're excited about it, right, you get a buye,
you know, you survive in advance, but you're playing on
a neutral site.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think that ultimately, like I think
that's a lot of the impact on National Playoff itself
is probably a little overstated. I don't necessarily know that
they would have changed the results of these games, but
I mean, here's the reality too, is that there's not
really many places in sports where you take twenty five
days off between games like that is a very long time,
even for a scene that is really good and really focused.
The other thing too, honestly, one of the bigger things
is that I think that like I think, if you're
one of those first round by teams, you're kind of
kicking yourself that you don't get a home playoff game.
Like Georgia has, of course won the SEC each of
the past two years, and so they've never hosted a
home playoff game, and they've lost their first round game
as well. I think that that's something that's going to
be not super palatable for them long term because they
want that opportunity to host a big game at Sanford Stadium. So,
you know, from a competitive perspective, I don't know how
much it necessarily mattered. But at the same time, I
think that when you combine the competitive issues that have
happened with of course the lack of a home game,
I would not be surprised at all to see us
move to a sixteen team playoff so that the first
group of teams gets a chance to get into rhythm
as well the.
Speaker 3: Final four teams. Right, Indiana, Oregon, olemess Miami has the
new college fotball landscape allowed the likes of Indiana a
bottom dweller, the likes of Ole Mesh a middling SEC program,
and even like Oregon Miami to get into the final four.
I don't know how many prognosticators experts out there in
the college football world early on in the season, mid season,
or even getting into their bracketology, predicted these four getting in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I believe that. I believe that somebody put out
a suite that and they just tacked the ESPN that
you know, this isn't the shot of Esknos doing great job.
But like their writers, I think didn't get a single
one of the four final teams in their preseason twelve
Like none of them did. Like, that's how crazy a
year it's been, right, Like I mean, I know for me,
like I had LSU before the season as my national champion.
They end up firing their coach. Penn State was number
two in the country coming into the year they fire
their coach. I think that the big thing is obviously Indiana.
You know, they have like such a specific way that
they built with you know, half a roster coming over
from James Madison and being ready made and having some
good ideas and also I think having a roster left
behind by Tom Allen that was maybe a little better
than people realize. But you know, I think that when
you look at the others, Like the biggest thing that
it creates is that I don't necessarily know that it
just changes who the top teams are, but it changes
the level of instability. I guess you could call it, right,
the level of uncertainty in some of these games. There
was a time when the best team in college football
was like ten points better than the fifth team in
college football. Well now they're like five points better. Maybe
you know, maybe even less than that. In some cases,
that's the biggest thing that's changed, right, because I mean,
like George is still won the SEC Ohio State, still
played for a big ten championship, but the difference is
Miami as a ten seed was able to jump up
and punch them, and that's different than it's been in
previous years. So I think that when you look at
the level of coach and player movements, I think that
you're starting to see that the sport is just more
uncertain than it's been in previous years. There isn't really
an Alabama that can stand up and be head and
shoulders of everybody else. We kind of thought maybe George
would be that team. They're not, right like they've They've
been beat these past couple of years. So I think
that that's the biggest thing that's changed. And then I
think the other thing too, when you look at all
four of these teams, like these are teams that you know,
to a large extent, built keep hearts of themselves through
the transfer portal, and so I think that we are
in a you know, again, Alabama set the standard of
you recruit players and maybe you add one or two
guys to fill in a gap, but like you really
build your roster from the ground up. I think that
the days of that being the primary and maybe the
only thing that you do, I think even for the
Texases and Georgias and Ohio States, that's becoming harder to
pull off than ever before.
Speaker 3: Want to get your thoughts on the Bruce Feldman article.
I don't know if you've chimed in on this publicly,
but Bruce Feldman received anonymous quotes from Power Conference coaches
and one of the quotes is this hard to ignore
the fact that when everyone got to pay players, it
leveled the playing field immediately. They can deny all they want,
but that's a fact. And he's alluding to the SEC
paying players. You heard the Ed Ordron commentary about donors
going through the back door. Now they're going through the
front door. If he gets back into coaching again, it's
kind of like this. I mean, it's a reality, right,
Like we know people have been cheating for a long time,
building up their brands, building up the equity of those
brands producing NFL talent over the last thirty years due
to cheating and bagmen, and that's what the brand was
built on. Now it's all coming to light that. Look,
everyone can do it now, and look what's happened in
to the SEC What do you make of it? How
do you evaluate it, how do you process it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there are two pieces to this. I
think one is yes, from the pure player acquisition perspective,
I think that that's very legitimate, right. I mean you
see Michigan swoop in at the last minute and take
the number one recruit in the country Bryce Underwood from LSU,
because it's no longer blase to do it, Like you
just have the right to go out there and maximize
your money. And you know, one thing that I don't
think people take seriously enough is that there is a
lot more money in the urban centers in the Midwest
than there is in the rural South. Like there is
one total billionaire in the state of Alabama and he's
an Auburn fan, right, Like, it's it's just that, Like,
those are dynamics that are going to be hard to
parse for some of these programs. Also, by the way,
when you talk about other programs, that's also why the
schools in Texas are absolutely thriving right now because they
have so much access to capital available to them now.
Here's the other thing though, too that I feel like
has been a little less, you know, kind of discovered,
is yes, you know, the paying player's piece is a
huge part of the equation. I actually think though, that
the Big Tens, I guess you could call it coach
and roster culture is different than the secs. And what
I mean by that, you know, I remember talking to
a coach once before and he said he had coached
in the Big Ten, he had coached in the SEC,
had coached in the Big Twelve, he had coached in
the West Coast, all this sort of stuff. And one
thing that he said was that he didn't really enjoy
coaching in the SEC because the SEC is a player
acquisition league. The Big Ten is a developmental league. Now,
of course, the Big Ten is more player acquisitions driven
than it has been in the past. But I think
that what really has come through is that, like, if
you are a five star recruit and you go to
the Big Ten, you don't expect to be a starter
in week one. I think in the SEC you do.
And if you're not happy with your place, you know,
two thirds of the way through your freshman year, you're leaving.
And I think that that starts to really add up.
Where again, like obviously the SC then holds on to
the best of their guys, but the second tier of
guys are just shifting every single year. Well in the
Big Ten, like, yes, there are examples of that, but
like guys are staying at Ohio States, guys are staying
at Penn State, guys are staying at Michigan obviously, you
know Indiana. Of course, I think that the patience that
you have in the Big Ten versus the SEC is
actually a competitive advantage right now. And the other thing
that I'll say is that, yes, we can talk about
in the context of players, look at the level of
coaches that came into the Big Ten this year versus
the level that came into the SEC. The SEC, there
are some good coaches, like I really like some row Let's,
you know, but like as a whole to me, Ryan
Silverfields at Arkansas not a very inspired higher. Alex Golesh
at Auburn not a super inspired higher to me. In
the Big Ten, I think where again, where you have
patients but you still have money. Matt Campbell, I think
an incredible higher. Obviously, Kyle Whitningham going to Michigan really
really good higher even if you want to talk of
some of the ones in the past couple of years.
Matt Rule at Nebraska I think was a really good
higher like they have. I think that their patients in
both roster and coaching is paying off, and I think
that that's why you're starting to see some of these
programs really elevate above their sec counterparts.
Speaker 3: Crazy times, no doubt in the college football world. Shehanja
Raja here on your Utah ESPN Radio network talking some
college football, Big twelve football, and right now I feel
like the Big twelve is on chalid footing. I think
they've performed well in their bowl games. What Texas Tech
kind of flopped? Does the Texas Tech loss undermine all
of the good that maybe some of these other Big
twelve teams have been able to accomplish in the ball season.
Speaker 4: The short answer is yes. I mean it is definitely
a damper. I think that it reinforces to a lot
of people the idea that you know, when Big twelve
teams get to the playoff, they get sixty five to
seven like TCU did. Now, I think that again, like
the game, obviously because of how good their defense was,
was frankly very close until the fourth quarter. I don't
think that by any means is you know, the level
of disaster of some of the ones that we've seen before,
even if you want to talk about, you know, in
the old Big twelve with Oklahoma against Joe Burrow getting
destroyed the way that they did. But I mean, I
do think that it is real. I think that there
is a perception that Big twelve teams cannot compete at
a championship level that they you know, again, we talked
about the idea of the gap between the number one
and number five team being smaller than ever before. I
think that people been in the case of a Tech
Tech this year, also in the case of the b YU,
also in the case of the Utah, also in the
case of you know, I mean Arizona State kind of
got closer last year. But like I think that people
view these as being a tier below even the Miamis
and you know, sort of the second tier Big tenant
a city teams. And now again I think that that
Tech was very unfortunate to get the matchup that they did.
I think that Oregon is just a team that's able
to really attack you in certain ways and kind of
maximize their their differential against you, I guess you could say,
but like the reality is like that doesn't matter, Like
it doesn't matter if goes on wins the national Championship,
you still lost that game that way. So I think that, yes,
it absolutely does hurt. I think that it's will hang
over this bullseason more than like you said, some of
the goods that happened with TC beating USC, with YU
beating Georgia Tech. But I do also think that, you know,
we also, especially in the big don't need to necessarily
make every single Bull season a referendum on the conference.
And I think that long term it's going to be Okay,
well what are we building towards, right, it's for BYU again,
like after the investment, you expect to step up with Tech.
I mean, they have another incredible portal class coming in
right now. They should continue to be at the highest level.
You know, people are really excited about the TC quarterbacks
coming in Jade and Craig. Arizona State's still in good shape.
Arizona's still in good shape. So like that's ultimately the
biggest thing at the end of the day is I
think keeping an eye on the trends. And even though
I think that Tech Tech really hurt themselves with the
way things finished, I do still think that the Big twelve,
like you said, is in very good shape.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this. It's something I've been debating
with friends, some contemporaries, some colleagues of mine. We always
talk about in college basketball, get old stale, that's maybe
being undermine now with the college college you to transfer
portal and now you can bring in like G League players,
two way players, your league players. I mean, it's getting
pretty insane, the good old, the get old, stay old mantra.
I don't know if it's going to be as impactful
as it has been in the NCAA basketball round. I
wonder if it's transitioning over to college football. Though you
mentioned developmental, you mentioned Big ten is still a developmental
league or developmental conference. I think you said. I wonder
if you know, you look at Indiana, like their roster
ranking was like seventy second, and I know they went
out and got some strategic additions, But did they just
get old staled and retain somewhat somewhat of their roster?
They build it off culture and development BYU's football team
retains a lot of their football players. You're in and
year out. They'll lose some, but not nearly as many
as others. They had the seventieth best roster ranking, but
they developed these guys through a system and had continuity
in structure and not a whole lot of coaching staff attrition.
Is that the way of the future for college football
and not necessarily building via the transfer portal robustly? You know,
you're talking thirty thirty five plus acquisitions. It's more about
retention and development this day and age than than in
other eras.
Speaker 4: Maybe, Yeah, so I think again, you know, it is
a huge I think inefficiency in college football right now
to have a roster for multiple years. And you know,
I would say last year winning eleven games, that was
also a version of it, right, I think the balance
that you need to sort of have there, right because look,
let's also be clear, like let's look at these four
teams that are that are in the college football Playoff
semi finals, Like they all have huge acquisitions through the
transfer portal this year. Yes, but I think that also
players who are able to stay for two or three years.
That's also a huge part of it. You know, to
go back to the college basketball comparison. I think about
a program like Yukon, you know, Huon obviously consecutive national championships,
and it wasn't that they portaled a team, It's that
they portaled a team, kept a lot of those guys,
and then the second year a lot of those guys
came together. I think that, like in college basketball, there's
sort of like a lot of conversation right now that
like the second year transfers are really the ones that
hit it big because like then they know the system,
then you know that you're building around them, et cetera,
et cetera. I think that's going to be the case
in college football as well, where you know, yes, there's
value to recruiting an eighteen year old and keeping them
to win their twenty three. I think there's always going
to be advantage to that. But I think that even
if you recruit a guy who's twenty and keep them
until he's twenty two, I think that there's advantage to
that as well. And so you know, because again like Indiana,
you know, again they've portled a lot of guys, a
lot of those guys that were part of that twenty
twenty four portal class, and they've been on campus for
two years and played two full seasons of football, So
I think it's going to be a balance. I don't
think certainly that it's going away. The biggest key, though,
especially and I'll say for Big twelve teams, is once
you develop those players, you have to find ways to
retain them, and I think the Big twelve did a
really good job of that last year. I think that
this year, for reasons that I think are more program
driven than necessarily situation driven, it's been less the case.
So I think that that's going to be long term
sort of. The big question is when you are able
to get these players, when you are able to develop
these players, when you have these players playing at a
high level, can you maximize by keeping them on campus
as well?
Speaker 3: Shehan? Best way to support you what you do, how
you do it for all of our listeners tuning it
in today?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you can.
Speaker 4: Follow me on all social media at Shahanji Raja. You
can find all my work over at cbsports dot com,
and you can check out our podcast as well. The
college football Insiders.
Speaker 3: Love what you do. Always great commentary, always great content. Shan,
We should loute you man, Thanks so much, Enjoy the
rest of your evening and we'll chat with you again soon.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: There you go. That is shay On Jay Rajah. Great content,
great commentary, and the segment was brought to you by
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Jared bled So, former BILIA Wide receiver in the house.
What's up, Jared?
Speaker 2: What's that? Ben?
Speaker 3: Rely good man? I'm doing good. New Year's Christmas was
good for you.
Speaker 2: It was really fun.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we had a good time, just a bunch of
boys being crazy and try to open and get rid
of and you know, go through the whole Christmas on holiday.
Speaker 2: I'm glad the trees down.
Speaker 3: Uh so you put it away, thank god?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, seventy dollars bins from home deepot that have wheels
on it, and the tree still had to go partially
in there and partially in.
Speaker 2: The box still. So yeah it did work.
Speaker 5: But yeah, no, yeah, we've kind of cleaned up and
and uh.
Speaker 3: Getting ready for the week, man, getting ready for the week,
getting ready to roll.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: Uh, you're heading down to the Miami game.
Speaker 5: I heard, I am yeah you q boys, Yeah, Kilan,
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: And uh, we love Keeling by the way. I love
and hate him like I love him.
Speaker 5: I love him, and he's is such a good, good
individual as a person and and is really out just
trying to make his mark and do the best he can.
And you know, I feel for all the forty five
hundred other people in the portal right now thinking that
they're going to have a Keeling the year, you know it,
because very few of them will have that opportunity. But
but congratulations to killing was able to do that, you know,
Jake was able to do it.
Speaker 2: Uh, seeing was able to do it as well. Yeah,
Josh had a great year.
Speaker 3: Harrison did okay, He did okay at col but he's
back in the portal by the way.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't surprise me, you know.
Speaker 5: I mean that once you jump, the second jump is
easier at third jumps even even easier in the fourth one.
Speaker 2: You're diving at first, you know.
Speaker 3: So it's got to be saying for that once you
go portaling.
Speaker 5: Well, I did hear you know, I would love to
see some kind of a contractual agreement comes soon in
the nit cuble a which would somewhat limits some of whatever.
Speaker 2: Body's just able to do.
Speaker 5: It's crazy, Yeah, it's I mean just every year renegotiating everywhere.
There's no commitment, you know. And and uh, I'll tell
you what next year. I hope I don't have to see.
After much reflection, I'm coming back, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: That being said, well, have fun down in Arizona.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I mean, I you know, and for me it works
out great. There's a new wave down in in Mesa.
Uh and so I'm gonna go hit the wave pull
real quick and get over to the game.
Speaker 2: So it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: And I'm excited to just kind of feel that atmosphere
a little bit.
Speaker 2: I've never been to a game that.
Speaker 5: Big and and uh, yeah, it's gonna be.
Speaker 2: A lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Do you think Keelan is like what if I would
have been at b y U? Or do you think
he's like no, not now? How much money do you
think it would have taken take to excuse me to
uh to retain Keelan? Because I think I think he
was approximately I think this is me approximately right, not confirmed.
I thought he was probably like too fitty. I think
if we would have got the five hundo we could
have retained him.
Speaker 5: I think, I think probably because that would have put
him in the same category at that point as LJ
and and some of the others at that So I
think at that time he probably would have knowing going
into the season, you know.
Speaker 2: But the portal, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: It giveth and it taketh away ahead none of the wait,
so go ahead?
Speaker 2: Did you?
Speaker 3: I was gonna say none of the coach? How many
coaches have portaled? J Hill portaled and then general portaled
offensively though it seems like we no news is good news, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, we haven't heard anything. I mean that Rod,
I'm coming back.
Speaker 3: I want a Leonardo DiCaprio, A Rod videos what I wanted,
like grenation.
Speaker 2: After much.
Speaker 5: Much prayer and thought on us and meeting with some
guys that have bigger calculators, I'm coming back.
Speaker 2: That would be uh, that would be all.
Speaker 5: But my assumption is, yeah, I find myself like I
talked to the air text back and forth with Aaron
a little bit, and and when he responds right away,
I know things are just being figured out. When he
doesn't respond, I feel like they're heavy in some negotiation.
I drove by Saturday and there were a couple of
range rovers parked out in front of that football of
the time.
Speaker 2: Who's negotiating what right now? You know?
Speaker 5: So I think that because we haven't heard anything, I
think that's a positive.
Speaker 2: I would assume.
Speaker 5: Now I am an just to see what we are
or we aren't doing in the portal. You know, you
see so much going on in the news, and you
see you know, Klonie is always that guy that it
kind of tries to keep it tight lit.
Speaker 2: But you know, I want to know what's going on
in the portal.
Speaker 5: You know, I would like to see where we're going.
We need to get a d C in there so that.
Speaker 2: If we can enter. I mean, what we just heard
glasger Glaser's coming back.
Speaker 3: He just great news. That's igh coming back, baby.
Speaker 5: So I'm excited about that. And I think, you know what,
I highly doubt that Bear feels like he has to
go online and announce he's coming back. I don't think
that that's going to become.
Speaker 3: He hasn't made the announcement yet, but.
Speaker 2: I don't think he needs to. I think he's.
Speaker 3: Doesn't need to. I mean everybody else the assumption is
gentry did it. I mean everyone's doing it right, It's
all bred at some point Kilani did it? I'm coming back, baby?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I'm coming back.
Speaker 3: I ain't going to Penn State.
Speaker 2: I leave it.
Speaker 3: He had a press conference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 5: I hope that it goes away that we have to
sit and listen to everybody say that coming back every year.
But for right now, the way that the NCAA draws
it up, that's where we're at, you know. And but yeah,
it My assumption is no announcement is a positive for
most of these guys, you know, other than LJ hasn't
announced yet, and his is because of the the NFL,
you know. But I don't foresee us losing anybody else.
Speaker 2: You know, in that bad aspect.
Speaker 5: So it should be a lot of fun to see
what the next couple of months old. But you know,
what are you thinking on the on the defensive coordinator?
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3: I think this is this is an intriguing situation, right,
Like I lean towards Kelly Papinga right now, just because
he's been a coordinator at a P four institution. Yeah,
at Virginia and that was multiple years now. Was he
the primary brake caller? No, but he was the coordinator,
So you're I can game planning, implementation, install. But he's
been on he's been on the field too, uh at
b YU so as he's the special teams coordinator and
and therefore we're you brought a really good point off there.
It's like, well we got justin Eno there too, who's
been a d c.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: He's had DC coordinating, uh you know these coordinating jobs
at Utah State. I think he also was the coordinator
at Utah Tech. So he's been a coordinator.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, and and and the thought I had initially, my
thought was give it to Gennaro, let's bring it. You know,
I don't know the internet. I texted with him a
minute about just congratulating him essentially.
Speaker 2: Uh. And I'm a general Gennaro Guildford guy.
Speaker 5: I will follow him wherever he goes and and will
love to watch Michigan football because of Gennaro and and
because of j so.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: But but at any rate, I I I don't know
blest for train out there.
Speaker 3: No, but we're talking about the d C.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who's just so Yeah.
Speaker 3: My thought on Justine it feels like it's going to
be an internal hire.
Speaker 2: It should be.
Speaker 5: I think I think that we have enough guys there
that could do that. My thought on Justin was that
he's been in the booth with Jay. Ever since Jay's
been in the booth.
Speaker 3: And Gary has been up there, he's retained. He's a
senior analyst.
Speaker 5: As long as Coloni has been planning for Jay to leave,
which I assume he has almost since day one, because
that's kind of the the way it's worked out.
Speaker 2: And so why not have Justin if that.
Speaker 5: Was your potential go to be their hands on, sitting
next to him, listening to every play call and be
a part of that.
Speaker 2: So and then maybe the court.
Speaker 3: Where you have a guy, so you could see a
co DC situation occur where Kelly.
Speaker 5: Is on the field justin in the booth something like that.
I mean, there has to be something really cohesive about that.
Those two people, whoever they are, I don't know who
Jay would just talking to on the field per se.
But anyways, it's interesting to get everything out there. But
I think player wise, and if we are going after
certain guys in the portal, we kind of need to
get that thing settled pretty quickly because you.
Speaker 2: Know, I don't know, maybe we're not after the top
five percent.
Speaker 5: I don't know, but you know, those that were after
I feel like they probably have a strangle hold on
it's probably not the right word, but they probably have
good contact with and and and they probably all know
who the DC is before we will.
Speaker 3: You know, so you mentioned it should be an internal hire.
I've gone back and forth with this with BYU fans.
Many BYU fans say this, and what's your retort, what's
your uh, your your commentary to this? They're like, we're
in the we're P four institution worth year three and
going into year four. Why don't we go out and
get Justin Wilcox head Coaching Experience DC. He has been
at all these high level P four institutions. Why not
Justin Wilcox? Why not the former Texas DC. Why don't
we go pick off you have as d We can
pay more than them. We were paying Jay more than
these other dcs. Let's go get a top twenty five
DC to combine forces with our top twenty five OC.
What's your response? Why internal rather than external?
Speaker 5: Well, I think if you're you're keeping almost the same
team together that you had the same almost the same
defense coming back, you know, and so you've already got
the system in place, why change the entire system?
Speaker 2: You bring in a new DC.
Speaker 5: He's bringing in everything that he does, which is one
hundred percent is.
Speaker 2: Not the same thing that Jay Hill does.
Speaker 5: Luckily, if they retain everybody other than Jay and Gennaro,
you have a whole bunch of staff that has now
worked under that system and can easily transfer that system
and continue to coach, maybe with some twists and some
other things that.
Speaker 2: They want to add to that.
Speaker 5: But there's not a lot of change, you know, with
what happened the first year as good as j Hill
is his first year at BYU, we went five to seven, right,
and so it does take time to implement and get
everybody bought in to that throught. So we want to
go in and win big this year with the guys
we have right now. I think you don't change the system.
The system's working. The system's working. That's where retention comes in, right.
Speaker 2: And it's the players, you know, And that's I believe.
Speaker 5: The coaching has a lot to do with scheme and
getting things together, but in the end, the players have
to play, you know, And I know that it is
about the players, and these guys need to come ready
to play, no matter who's coaching them.
Speaker 2: And but we'll get we'll get good coaches in there.
Speaker 3: Jared led show part of Utah Protective Films Owner Operator.
What deals do you have for our listeners? Why should
they choose Utah Protective Films for their paint protection film,
their tinting and chrome deleting.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so the easiest thing for us is that we
we are an all in house guys. So everybody that
you talk to at the shop, whether it be myself,
Jacob Jaden, any of us will be there working on
your car when you come in. So we we have
the same staff all the time. We'd love to take
care of you.
Speaker 2: Come in. We're still doing our no tax nine January.
Speaker 5: You know, may continue that for a little bit because
I think it's beneficial for everybody.
Speaker 2: So mention ESP and the fans. We can give you
a fifteen percent off and.
Speaker 5: Then the no tax on top of it, it's another
seven and.
Speaker 2: Three quarters, so twenty two and three quarters percent off.
Speaker 5: You want to talk, any of our services would love
to have you come in and and yeah eight.
Speaker 3: Oh one eight hundred nine seven six seven eight one
eight hundred ninety seven sixty seven. Couple last things here.
Jared LEDs a former bou wide receiver. Chase Roberts, Okay,
do you think he's an NFL wide receiver? Do you
think he's a draft pick? Or and if he is
a draft pick, round would he go? How will he
tested out in a combine situation? Do you think give
me a few like his resume. I'll give it to you. Yeah,
I'll give you his resume six to four two ten,
one hundred and seventy receptions, two thousand five out or
eighty six yards fifteen point two yards per catch, eighteen touchdowns,
and you have proved every single year, right year, every year.
Saw that projected forty time per NFL draft scout is
a four to five to four, five to five. His
high school vertical was actually thirty six inches. That was
at the Spark Combine, and he ran a four point
zero seven pro agility laser. That's tremendously quick for a
big bodied wide receiver. So we know his route running
and his Spark score was one of the top wide
receivers in his class. That's his collective explosivity speed. He
ran like a four to seven to three laser in
high school, which is fast, right, It's not blazing, but
you know, his hand time probably would have been in
that four to six range, and so we imagine he's
got faster. That's that's where we stand. What do you
make of it?
Speaker 5: Well, he's definitely got the size to compete, and uh,
you know, it'll be interesting to see what kind of
you know, he had hit such a different role this
year than he had even with Retslov because Retzoft would
throw that deep ball a lot more and I think
he was that was kind of his go to a
lot of times, was that deep ball. And you know,
it's see how see how he works out with the
speed of the defenses and and I think he is
an incredible player as a better even better person. But yeah,
it I think the scheme is gonna be big for him.
He has to fit a scheme where he is. I
think he's a he's not your every down across the
middle guy, you know, but he's big, he's tall, he's
athletic on the outside, you know, and and you know,
with some of these guys that might be able to
throw a seventy yard bomb, it could change something for
him because he didn't get that this year.
Speaker 2: You know, he got a little bit of that with Jake.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I know he's he I could also see
him going and not getting drafted and having some free
agent opportunities. You know, it could go either way depending
on on what a team's needs are. But they're getting
a great, hard worker and somebody that I think deserves
an opportunity for sure.
Speaker 3: No doubt about it. Anything else that you're concerned about,
as far as let me give it, I'm gonna I'm
gonna tell you what I'm concerned about. I think our
offense was limited because we didn't have a wide receiver
that was consistently capable of winning one on ones all
the time. Parker, I think was the closest thing that
we had to chase is a possession receiver. In my opinion,
you can line up ab outside inside, but he's more
of a possession guy. He's quick, not necessarily blazing fast.
Cody Kagan has the ability to be that guy. I
believe that wholeheartedly. When Cody, I just think he's a
bit discriminated against because he's not as good at stock blocking.
If you can't block in this offense, you maybe don't
see the field, you don't get as many targets. I
also think bears arm strength as far as his vertical
stuff is maybe a little bit limited, and that limits
Cody Hagen's ability. But do you have to go out
and get a couple of wide receivers in the portal?
Do you have to go find a keeling.
Speaker 2: I say yes, I think that we need Yeah.
Speaker 5: So so my thoughts are if you if you look
back between the last two seasons, the we have great
receivers on both ears, but the athletic ability of the
receivers with with Retsof was higher, you know, and and
with with Darius and with Kewan. So yeah, it would
be be great to have another one or two to
come in and compete at that position because we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna need it.
Speaker 5: We need we need an active second running back that
is dynamic as well, that can catch the ball out
of the backfield and maybe more of a side to
side not a bruiser because we got that with l J.
Speaker 2: Hill bruise and he'll go.
Speaker 5: Side to side, but but a real kind of side
to side runner, real quick, uh you know, that can
catch those quick balls and get up field and give
l J.
Speaker 2: Rest.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think there's definitely stuff we need to
fill in the portal.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would agree with you. I think that
getting a couple of receivers would be huge for you.
Speaker 3: You do you have Reggie Frishnet as well. Yeah, the
transfer from Weaver. Can he become a guy? Can he
become a dude?
Speaker 2: I think he's he.
Speaker 5: I've watched him practice a lot, and I think he's
really good. He's got great hands, he's got good size
as well. But it's the thing, you know, I thought
Cody Hagen was gonna have a breakout year, and in
my opinion, he left something to desire for me. As
I look back on the year, I just feel like,
I don't know if it's getting used to the speed
of the defenses, if the physicality of some of this
is more than I don't.
Speaker 2: Know, you know.
Speaker 5: But in the end, I thought he would have a
bigger year than he had, and I expect him to
have a bigger impact this next year. So whatever those
hurdles are he needs to go through and jump. Hopefully
he figures those out here in the spring and it
becomes a bigger impact player. But we need dynamic guys
that can make a double move and be how did
that guy get so wide open?
Speaker 2: You know type stuff. We didn't have that this year,
you know.
Speaker 5: And although we have great possession receivers, we need.
Speaker 2: That one guy. You know, I would take two.
Speaker 3: But there's a player in the portal from Oregon, six
foot six, two hundred and twelve pound junior out of Gilbert,
Arizona who's got some connectivity to the program. Tracy Borge
played with this young man in high school, Kyler Casper,
number three. Now, his stats over his career maybe not
extremely impressive, right, he's only got six receptions seventy seven
yards twelve point eight yards per reception, But coming out
of high school was a four star wide receiver with
offers galore Tennessee, Arizona or is on a state cal
You know, is that what you're looking for? High upside?
With two years of eligibility, maybe you can get more reps.
But he wasn't able to really break the rotation at all,
break into the rotation at Oregon.
Speaker 2: Well, he's not going to break the bank, you know. Yeah,
you know, coming in, but he's looking at for PT right, he's.
Speaker 3: Looking for power, for mid level power for to high
level power forward but with an opportunity.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he's not a guy that you would
expect to come in and have that time given to him. Yeah,
you know, he'd have to come in and beat people
out in order to play. Yeah, but I think you
need a little bit more proven track record guy to
come in that that has played.
Speaker 3: Would you rather take a four star limited productivity at
the P four level with high upside or take a
Darius Lasterer type that was at like Eastern Michigan but
had like forty to fifty catches for seven hundred yards
eight touchdown.
Speaker 5: I'd rather take a Juco guy that had seventy five
catches really because that guy is coming off games playing, playing,
not just and and then being the best, you know,
at his spot. And so I buy into playing time
and and it kind of goes with with the whole
playoffs series that we just have.
Speaker 2: We can't except for.
Speaker 5: Indiana, which a pretty incredible team, But you watch these
teams come in, they've been sitting for almost a month
and they come into play football. So imagine, you know,
you're kind of the practice guy and you're you're not
getting that game experience, that game time. These guys that
are playing and they have that kind of receptions and
they're in a good league, Uh, they're worth looking at it.
I think that they come in and compete just as hard,
if not harder, than some of the guys that are
transferring around like that.
Speaker 2: So I'm big on Juco guys.
Speaker 5: If you can find good Juco guys that that are
have proven track record and good like our Southern California
junior college leagues are just phenomenal, you know, and there
are a lot of really good start came out of there.
Speaker 3: You know, just what about a bounce back. Duco Sioni
le Lao, who was at Orgon as well LDS four
star defensive back that struggled to break the rotation, was
a JUCO player College of San Matteo. He had offers
from pretty much everywhere. His first offer out of Juco
was actually b Yu. But he saw the glitz and
glamour of Phil Knight and the swoosh, and he said,
I want it, I want it all and uh and
now he's he's back in the portal. Should be an
opportunity for b Yu to, Hey, we because we could
lose some guys. Yeah, we could lose Evan. Do you
think what's the price possible?
Speaker 2: You know, I thought about I know you're a.
Speaker 3: Big fan of Gennaro and j those guys. They could
be knocking on Evan's door.
Speaker 2: If I'm everyone's talking to Evan. I mean, Evan and
his brother are both I really really like this. These guys.
Speaker 5: They come from a great family, great parents. I've spoken
to parents a number of times. They're just good people
and I would I would hate to lose them. On
the other hand, you know, it's hard, you know, if
you look at if he's if he's stepping in to
a potential starting role. And let's just say they offer
his brother a real job and he's no longer a GA.
You know, b YU hasn't offered him at least up
until I know, and so that could be a great question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Western, great dude. I hope we offer him, you know,
or I hope he gets offered positions something in the Defense.
I think.
Speaker 5: I mean, he's been, he's been the he's one of
the signal guys for the Defense now, and he's a
he's a great guy.
Speaker 2: Good guy to have around.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I could wouldn't shock me if him and
Evan I took the opportunity and went to Michigan.
Speaker 2: I just don't know Michigan's depth. I don't know what
they need, you know. Sure tough to say.
Speaker 3: Jared Blodsoe, Ladies and gentlemen, that was your inside of
a report brought to you by Utah Protective Films Utapprotective
Films dot Com. Let's uh, let's upgrade your vehicle a
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Speaker 2: Jared love it.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you man. Thanks, Thanks for hopping them on and
talking some ball with me today.
Speaker 2: Sounds good.
Speaker 3: All right, there you go that' Jared Buzzell save travels
down in az Yes, all right, appreciate Jared Bledsoe joining
us for that segment. It's been a fantastic show and
we're gonna close it out, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
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