Speaker 1: You been called to listen to the missionary moment here
on Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel, Crittle's catching up with
all the Cougar athletes that are serving the Lord with
all their heart, might, mind, and strength here on your
Cougar Sports Insider Radio Network.
Speaker 2: Literally my favorite segment of the show, Welcome Back Cougar.
Speaker 3: Sports one to three, nine ninety point three Esbon the Fan.
Speaker 2: I'm in Crital broadcasting from our Vanderwilth Studios Vanderwelt dot Com.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get into a missionary moment.
Speaker 2: Here're gonna welcome in former BYU great four time Super
Bowl Jampie, the greatest athletic director in BYU athletics history,
Tom Homo here momentarily.
Speaker 3: And this segment's going to.
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where Odeon Menswear dot com today. All right, let's get
into our missionary moment. Let's welcome into the show. Four
time Super Bowl champion, former b YU great and uh
the greatest athletic director in BYU history. We got Tom
Homo on the line. Thh, how the heck are you?
Speaker 3: Brother?
Speaker 4: How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Band?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good, man, Well, I'm doing awesome. I'm glad
you're doing well. Called to serve? But brother, how does
it feel man? To get that mission call?
Speaker 4: It feels great. Llourie and I are super excited, but
we realize it's like kind of starting the season. You're
super excited, but you know there's a lot of work
ahead and they'll be challenges and trials. And great moments,
but we're looking forward to it in a big way.
Speaker 2: You went through obviously as the AD and many of
your administrative and professional roles the Refining Fire as a
coach right being in the limelight, dealing with all manner relationships,
managing relationships, whether it's players, parents, donors. There's a lot
of stress over that awesome career that you had professionally.
Now you're jumping into a very unique role as a
mission president. But I feel like all of this Refining
Fire you're built for this. Now it's gonna be a
cake walk for you.
Speaker 4: Brother, No, please, no, I mean I think that there
has been many opportunities for me and my wife through
our experience in athletics, to meet a lot of people,
to visit a lot of places, to have ups and
downs and wins and losses, and experience so many different emotions.
And I'm sure and we're sure that that will follow
that as we do this work in the mission field,
that will go at it and attack it in a
similar way. But it's quite different. But I'm very excited
to be able to work with great people of that
Bay Area. I love the diversity there, I love the
people there in the seventeen years I was there, I
got to meet a ton of different people from different
areas of that bay But it's work, and I'm super
excited to work with the missionaries that are coming to
San Francisco and Oakland from all over the world to
be part of the Gospel message, bringing the Gospel message
to the Bay area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how special is it to go back to the
Bay Area and serve the people of that geography and
serve with those missionaries as well well?
Speaker 4: If I just it's overwhelming to think about it right now,
because it's such a wonderful place and a place where
I tell people it's the Homo family roots. That's where
our children were born, and that's where our children were raised,
and that's where we saw them grow in the Gospel,
and that's where we saw so many people just experiencing
life to the fullest. And we have a chance to
go back there now and certainly in a way different capacity.
But if this is the location that the Lord wants
us to go, that's where we're going.
Speaker 3: Let's go love that.
Speaker 2: When do you guys enter the MPC and start your
training if you will.
Speaker 4: That begins towards the end of June and there's a
few days of pretty quick training. I think it's like
four days, but very very special training, and then we're
off to the.
Speaker 2: Do you know how many missionaries you're going to be
administering to, managing and ultimately serving in that geography with.
Speaker 4: There's right now currently in the Oaklan, San Francisco Mission
one hundred and seventy seven. But there's a great influx
of missionaries coming into the field nowadays, and they expect more,
especially with new change in missionary age for young women sisters.
So with that being eighteen, they look back to when
they change the age for young men and there was
the influx that was rather strong at that time, and
anticipate the same with young women.
Speaker 2: How many different languages will you also be overseeing there
in that geography?
Speaker 4: Now this doesn't mean that Loren and now will be
speaking these languages, but there are eleven different languages in
that mission.
Speaker 3: We expect you to be fluent at all eleven once
you get back your teaching.
Speaker 4: I have hard enough time with English.
Speaker 3: That's crazy, man.
Speaker 2: No, it's a very diverse, as you know, diverse population
and uh, and I can't wait to see how you
manage it. All like, who have you been leaning on
as mentors in this process? I don't know all the
process that goes into this, and and uh, you know,
you know obviously you were waiting for that that mission
call you were called to serve, But who have you
been leaning on for mentorship in this process?
Speaker 4: The spirit? And I laugh at that, but that is
so true, Chrid, I'm telling you there. You know, I've
I've have a lot of friends that have served as
mission leaders. And you know, I think everyone that's grown
up in the church. I didn't grow up in the church,
but I'm an older guy, so I've been around it
since I was twenty eight, you know how it is.
But the formally, formally the church has mentors that help
the incoming mission leaders to begin that process and transition
from whatever career you've been into the mission field. And
then I think informally, I have a lot of super
close friends of mine who have been in the field.
And you know, some of the council I've received, at
least so far as you know, this is something that
you have to do with your heart, with constant player
every day. It's not something that I'm going to run
the San Francisco or the Oakland San Francisco mission. Like
I ran in the athletic department. It's two different things.
Maybe there's some skills and attributes that I've picked up
along the way that might help. But on a daily basis,
I think it's important to follow a spare.
Speaker 2: Tom Holmo, former b YU great football players, four time
Super Bowl champion and the greatest athletics from BYU Athletics history.
Here on your UTAI ESPN Radio network. Tom, on our show,
we discuss, you know, the ambassadorial tool that is athletics,
the missionary tool that is athletics. I think you've been
impacted personally. I know your conversion to the church and
to Christ maybe came later on after your BYU career,
But what role did that maybe locker room and all
the touch points at BOU play in your conversion? And
how would you say BYU Athletics plays a role in
that ambassadorial mission that the church has.
Speaker 4: Well. I was baptized been when I was twenty eight,
and I was in the off season right before my
last year playing with the forty nine ers, But the
influence came along before that. I actually had some really
really good friends in high school that were like maybe
seven to ten members of the church that this is
in southern California, Los Angeles area that were great examples
to me in high school. And I start to feel
their example back then. And then when you come to
BYU as a student athlete, if your eyes and heart
are open to it, you're going to feel a lot
of things. And those things are the spirit and the
sweet service that is around everywhere. And so I think
that it's pretty much. I think it's a lot similar
now to when it was a lot of great member
missionaries that are trying to express their love and their
feelings about the Savior. But one of the things today
now is with technology and the ability to communicate so
much more efficiently and effectively, the message gets out a
little more. And I think that in the world of athletics,
you see that when you see someone like this year
football Bear Bachmeyer, who's not a member of the church
but handles himself so well. He's such a great young man,
and the way he communicates with his teammate, it's the
way he serves in the community, the way he expresses
just his love for people. He's not even a member
of our faith, but he is a great, great individual
that represents BYU and in so doing, it's a light
that shined on bringing me on and the church. And
so I think that that was around a long time ago.
You might not have seen it because it really didn't
get out beyond the watch front too much. But now
if you can have teams that people want to see
and they feel something when they watch those teams and
they listen to their players, that's a beautiful thing that
you can have an athletic program and teams that play
and compete and do a great job on the court,
on the field, in the pool, on the track, and
also represent just living a good life. So people will
see them and respect them and they kind of want to
follow them. And for that it opens up a lot
of doors. It opens up a lot of conversations around
the world.
Speaker 2: Well, you bring up some awesome points in these anecdotes
I've done. I've delved into, you know, these former players
that have come to b YU and been impacted by
the church and by all of the teammates and things
that nature guys like ty deppm Er, you know former
b YU Great Heisman Trophy when it ended up converting
to the faith, teammates of mine, setteel Lay and Curtis
Brown and many others.
Speaker 3: You can go down the list.
Speaker 2: I think Robbie, if I'm not saying it wasn't Robbie
Bosco came to be YU, not as a member.
Speaker 3: You have this list of individuals that came.
Speaker 2: To b YU for football, and it was more than
just football that that impacted them. They were obviously very
successful in the football field, but they ended up you know,
convert into the faith and maybe even changing their life
lives in many ways. So when you evaluate that dynamic
and maybe the role that the locker rooms play, like,
what do you ponder, like, what do you think about
when when you hear of these these stories of I
think Fosterri just got baptized, uh in the church that
you discrastulated. There's there's all these stories and I'm like, man, like,
what is it a person that's individual that's experienced it himself.
And I know it was when you were twenty eight,
but you you had these these core experiences at BYU.
What do you think about when you hear about all
these stories?
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's two things. One is when our
coaches and our teams, our players recruit young men and
young women. Cod when they recruit these people that have
to fit, then you got a chance for anything great
to happen, you know. And usually there's been times when
coaches have how did an opportunity to get maybe someone
that's a higher, better player, but they know right from
the recruitment that's not a good fit. And I think
By has done a very good job through the years
of recruiting to fit. And I think that's a big
part of it is you have, you know, a critical mass.
With football, there's one hundred twenty five the world, one
hundreds about now, one hundred and one hundred season, one
hundred and five players on the team. And when you
get one hundred and five people that are you know,
similar not they're not always similar in every respect. They
have a lot of diverse ideas and stuff. But when
you come in a locker room and you and you
bring it all together for one unifying force, and that's
to be successful together, you can share a lot of
ideas and a lot of love, and you can serve
each other in great ways, and that's that's pretty special.
But I think that the thing that is the most
important is that I've always said that when you recruit,
there's three people, three kind of players you have to get.
One is that you have to get the core members
of the church. Those are like the blue bloods, the
legacy people that their parents and grandparents and aunts and
uncles and their brothers and sisters. They know what BYU is,
they know what the church is. They have a strong
testimony of the Gospel, and they come to BYU and
they're going to lay it all on the line. That's
one you have to have. That is your core, is
that those legacy kids. The second is you have to
have you have to get the greatest LEDs players. And
if you see our national championship teams and the teams
that go really far, they get the best players in
the country that are members of the church in every sport.
And the third is then you go outside and you
find people that are not members of our faith that's fit.
And you just nailed off about five or six plus
the great ones that and I could do that in
every sport. And when you put those three together and
you have that balance, I think great things are going
to happen. And if you look at the teams right now,
the coaches and the administration, Brian Santiago and his people
and all the head coaches and assistant coaches and the
team members. That's what they got right now.
Speaker 2: Tom I wrote an article at casel dot com a
couple of years ago, and I asked the question, is
BYU athletics a missionary tool?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 2: I have debates with people within the faith and outside
of the faith about this, those that are BYU fans
and not BYU fans. And I always look at it
from the perspective of Okay, well, if BYU Athletics is
aligned with the mission of the school and then the
and then the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ
and latterday Saints, I think it is an ambassadory, a
tool for good and a missionary tool for good to
promulgate and share the positive fruits of the faith and
and to a certain extent human eyes and maybe normalize
Latter day saintdom in the modern era. But there are
those that don't feel that way. They don't like maybe
the form and fashion that maybe Athletics operates. Uh, they'll
kind of poke holes at the you know when whenever
b why you fall short of their own standard?
Speaker 3: See I told you so. We'll get the the see
I told you so type of deal.
Speaker 2: And so it is a it is an interesting dynamic,
you know, trying to wend.
Speaker 3: Your way through.
Speaker 2: You know, the the the mission of of of the
church and mission of the of the school and and
what the mission of athletics is supposed to be. But
I just want to get your perspective on that alignment
and how b y U Athletics is is going forth
with that. And I know you you had your vision
and what you executed, and I know you know Brian's
executing his vision. But from your perspective, how does it
all align together?
Speaker 4: It aligns up perfectly. I mean that we make no mistake.
We don't hide from the fact that we need to
be aligned with the church athletically. First of all, when
I was first hired at BYU as the athlete director
of President Cecil Sanmuelson sat me down in his office
and said, look, if you are not aligned and don't
align the athletic department with what's going on from Salt
Lake City, the church leadership and that comes through all
the presidents and the administration of BYU. If you don't
align yourself of that, you're on your own Tom, You're
gonna have a hard time, but if you do, then
good things will happen. You'll follow those blessings. But we
don't try to hide that fact. I think that we,
like I said, we recruit to that fit. We try
to get the strongest and the greatest and the best
Latter Day Saint student athletes that we can find. When
you have those young men and young women going out
on missions and coming back, you get this injection of
the spirit which is so strong, and that helps the
locker room that you talk about, Grid and it really
renews that locker room on a regular basis, and you
have young kids coming in and then as you can
see this football team this year, there's quite a few
members are players on the team that are not members
of our faith. But they came here knowing what the
rules were and they were going to live up to
a certain standard and they love that. And if you
go in that locker room, you know that the brotherhood
on that team, there was no guarantee or no didn't
make them have to be joined the church or had
come to Seminarrea or anything like that. The thing was
come and give us with the best you God, Bay
of the rules and sitting with the team and will
all help make each other better. And I'm going to
tell you that a lot of those players on the
team that are not members of faith have added to,
not taken away distracted, They've added to a shiny example
of that by athletics is right now.
Speaker 3: Love that perspective.
Speaker 2: Couple last questions before we let you go, Tom Holmo
here on ESP and the fan. I converse with those
of the faith as I mentioned, and those that have
attended in our alums of b YU and one of
I call them the kingdom builders, and I'll preface I'll
kind of preface these like the kingdom builders don't believe
athletics builds up the kingdom. They only believe science, academia, music,
moral spirituality, those ethical theological tenets or what build up
the kingdom? Proselyining athletics, Why do even spend money on athletics?
Speaker 3: It doesn't build up the kingdom? Do you ever have
the did you.
Speaker 2: Ever have those conversations with those individuals that just didn't
believe that we should invest at all in student athletes
or athletics and that it should just go away, like
maybe b YU Hawaii or b y u Idah.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I don't really agree with what you
call the builders. I don't believe that. I don't really
have a lot of people over my years that would
come to me and have that discussion. I believe that
all people are children of God, have our having Father.
And if you have that light in you and you
want to make the world a better place, and you
want to show love and build your neighbor and build
strong families, then people are going to look at that
and go, yeah, I like that, that's what this is. Well, yeah,
you can do that at by football. You can do
it at UCLA music if you want. You know, people,
it's all about people and the spirit that they have
in them and the willingness they are to share that love.
So if it's just so happens that it's an athletic
program or an athletic team at BYU that is helping
people maybe open up their heart a little bit and
their mind to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so be it.
But you know, we don't necessarily expect that every time
we score a touchdown someone's going to get baptized. It's
just that you got these guys want to play ball, man,
you know that. But they are fiercely competitive on the field,
and then when they step off the field, there's a
certain spirit about them that is doing everything they can
to help and assist other people and build their own
lives and look for a better life for themselves, for
their family and the people around them.
Speaker 2: How do you think your experiences in athletics will will
help you in this next niver as a mission president, Tom, You.
Speaker 4: Know, I'm not really sure. I just look at every
experience that I've had in every phase of my life
where there's just challenges. We all know that we're going
to have them. We're all going to have trials, but
we all have faith that if we stay on the
path and we live our life according to the principles
and the doctrine the love that we believe in from Christ,
that things are going to turn out okay. And so
I'm not going to go into this with a predetermined
idea of how it's going to go. I'm just going
to go into it with the principles of the Gospel
that I've learned and a faith in Jesus Christ, who
we will preach, and then just love those Missonaris to
do the very best that we can do together.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited for you, Tom. Congratulations to you and
your wonderful wife, your family as you thrust in your
sickle with your MC they're in the Bay Area, It's
going to be awesome to watch from a far last
thing for you. I love the Kilani culture and I
view the Klonia culture as an extension of your culture
that you instituted as a leader, as well as the
Lavelle culture. Right that and in Kilani has his own
spin on it, right his love and learning and humble
and hungry, etc. And I think that culture is winning out.
Culture is everything. As you know, as you've led and
you've been led. How cool is it to see, for instance,
this offseason, in the in most recent offseasons, Klanni retain
pretty much his entire roster, you know. I mean there's
guys that leave, but a lot of guys that are
in the two D they just love playing for BYU
and they love playing for Kolonie.
Speaker 3: How special is that to watch?
Speaker 4: It is super sweet. I know Kilani as a friend,
I know him as a competitor, I know him as
a leader, I know him as a saint. And by
the way, Colonia Sintaki served in the California Oaklands, a
Francisco mission, so we've already had a little discussion about that.
But he is an extraordinary leader because he's humble and
because he is assertive and he has he's goal oriented,
and he has a great amount of love to give.
And I think that when I see young players or
people coming in for the first time to meet him
or to be part of the team, whether it's a
recruiting trip or they've committed to the team and they're starting,
I think a lot of people say, I like what
he's teaching. I want to be like that. I want
to do what he says we should do to be successful.
And that's leadership, that's mentorship, but it's also love and
he teaches that all the time. Now you've seen the
pictures from the sideline. We call own his love fire. Well,
I think that fire. People like that, and it's just
part of his personality that he is going to dream
and he's going to set goals to achieve them in
life on the field, and his spiritual desires to do
all he can for his family. Clown, You've got a
lovely family, and I can assure you that's the most
important thing in his life.
Speaker 2: Tom Home, Old Ladies and Gentlemen, I always appreciate our time.
Speaker 3: Tom.
Speaker 2: Congratulations once again, inspired by your words today and then
excited to watch you get out into the mission field.
Speaker 3: Brother.
Speaker 4: Thank you Glen. It's great to be a part of
the band of brothers that was coined by coach Bendon Hall.
But that goes backwards and forwards and as one football
lump to another, Goku's.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you, Tom Home, Old ladies and Gentlemen, former b
YU great, four times Super Bowl champion and also the
greatest athletic director in BYU athletics history. I've said this
many times, and obviously we're celebrating his mission call.
Speaker 3: But as the greatest.
Speaker 2: Athletic director in BYU history, you know you're only You're
only as good as the HighRes that you make. If
anyone's been in a sort of executive administrative role where
you're having to hire people or delegate to people to
make key decisions and govern certain silos of a business
or of an entity, man Tom was inspired to hire
Dave Rose, the greatest basketball coach all time in BYU
basketball history. Bronco men In Hall was hired right, ushered in.
I believe the second best aaron BYU athletics history up
to this point. He hired Kilani Sataki. He was a visionary.
In hiring Kilani, he took BYU into independence. That was
a visionary move that helped BYU finally earn through objective
data points.
Speaker 3: Okay, a viewership as.
Speaker 2: An independent B way's like one of two or maybe
three teams that could truly be successful as independent. He
had that vision and had that faith that it would
work out. I thought that was Some people say it's
a gamble. I'd say it was a vision that he had.
He was able to persevere too. Through COVID. If you
guys don't remember, everyone was canceling, Everyone was fearful, everyone
was fear mongering. Tom entered into that space and said,
we're gonna go forth with faith, We're going to execute
safety protocols.
Speaker 3: And we're gonna play football.
Speaker 2: And they did and they had tremendous success in twenty
twenty because of that. In my opinion and obviously his
career as a player, he's he's the best eighty and
BYU athletics history appreciate him. We gotta get him an
odeon suit Ronald the three man Weaver. We got to
get him a stretchy suit for his mission there in
the Bay area, something lightweight. Yes, he valuable and provides
great range of motion for him. All right, let's go
to break. Please, don't go anywhere more to get to
on a beautiful Monday, January twelfth edition of Cougar Sports.
That segment was brought to you by Odeon Men'swhere Odeon
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Speaker 3: Today, the SEC getting attacked.
Speaker 2: From all angles right now is the SEC got flopped
into many of their bowl games right and once again,
for the third consecutive year, the SEC does not have
a representative in the college football championship game. Well, Joe
Clatt also piling on, also piling on this narrative, I
wanted to get into this SoundBite and react to it,
and then on the back end of this, I want
to give you some more Cougar sports knowledge as it
relates to some BYU football nuggets here.
Speaker 3: But let's get into it.
Speaker 2: Joe Klatt says, the SEC so called Gauntlet narrative needs
to die.
Speaker 6: Of the SEC, it's the best in the world.
Speaker 3: Look at what we do, Look at what.
Speaker 6: We even though they're the conference that still just plays
eight conference games, even though they're the conference that has
not even participated in a national championship game now for
three straight years. And when you look at the metrics,
the draft is changing, in particular in the first round.
Look at the last few years. It is not as
drastic as it used to be. And in fact, that's
equating out. I mean, there was a strong push from
some in our sport and some networks with deep relationships
with the SEC about well, maybe there should be seven
SEC teams in the college football playoff. Well that's a problem.
That's a problem because it is clearly not the case
that the strength resides in that conference. It's just not
that data bears that out. I'm not even arguing for
another conference right now. I'm just arguing against this narrative
that the SEC is a gauntlet, that it has to
be rewarded, and that it has to be given the
benefit of the doubt. That narrative needs to die. It
needs to die a quick death now because it hurts
the sport. We barely got Miami into this playoff. I
mean barely got Miami into this playoff why because of narrative,
Because that conference had to have at least minimum five
because it's the gamblet. Well, listen, no, it's not. I'm sorry,
it's not. The play on the field has been very
clearly shifting for a long time. The Big ten is
better at the top than the SEC. And that's not
just me saying that. That's what the data tells us.
What's clear is that the Big Ten has dominated when
it's mattered. They're four and on in the playoff of
the last three seasons. They are a game away from
their third straight national championship. And maybe, just maybe, what
would be better for the sport is if we started
to step outside of our silos and stop arguing about
who's the best silo, because when we do that, all
we do is point fingers, and nobody looks.
Speaker 3: At fixing the entirety of the sport.
Speaker 6: So as we argue for our silo to be so good,
I want to this conference, that conference, Well, guess what
happens in the meantime. No one's looking out for the
overarching product. And we see that with a broken structure.
We see that with a broken calendar. We see that
because we can't get a CBA done, we can't get
Congress to give us anti trust exemptions, we can't do
a lot of things. We're playing semi final games on
a Thursday and Friday night. Why because the structure of
our sport is broken. We can probably start to fix
these things if we stop yelling about who's the best.
The Gauntlet talk needs to go away.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 6: SEC coaches who text me about the Gauntlet, stop it.
Iowa just dropped a thirty burger on your darling. Vanderbilt,
get out of my face.
Speaker 2: Losing its stranglehold, losing its foothold, losing its brand equity.
Speaker 3: Why because everyone can compete now at the.
Speaker 2: Same level with pay for play models, and that's why
they're really that's why they want to continue to say Gauntlet, Gauntlet,
GAUNTLT and only play each other. What we need is
just more P four versus P four data points, and
they don't. We don't want them to come at the
end of the year. What we want is for me,
I want FCS games buy games to move to a
spring ball schedule.
Speaker 3: We've talked about that.
Speaker 2: If you want an FCS by game or by buy game,
I mean, you know, bu y viviam, welcome them in
for a spring scrimmage and pay them to be there
for a springball scrimmage versus your second, third, fourth stringers.
Speaker 3: Your JV squad.
Speaker 2: Right at these P four institutions that could should be
your buy game. You get one G six opportunity maybe
to start off this season. You can be strategic about
that and then you should have you know, depending on
what we want to go with as far as our
internal scheduling, I would like eight. I would like personally
eight conference games, not nine. But if you go nine,
then you have to fill that in with some P
four objective data points, interconference, interconference type of games. Okay,
I need to see Big ten versus SEC in the
preseason pre conference. I need to see Big twelve versus ACC.
I need to see Big twelve versus Big Ten in SEC.
We need as many of those data points as possible
so we can come to conclusion at the end of
the year of who should be in the college football Playoff. Now,
we all want to see that college football Playoff expanded
into sixteen teams, But Tony Pettiti and Greg Sink have
to come to some sort of a conclusion on this, Okay,
some sort of an agreement on this to expand it.
The two power brokers of college football main college football
power brokers, and I don't know if they're going to
come to that consensus.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they want that. I don't know
if they want expansion.
Speaker 2: Quite honestly, you know it needs to be sixteen, but
it may turn into four. We may see a twenty
fourteen playoff in the next few years if we can
come to an accord. But I am excited that Joe Klatt,
even though I know's he very well could be a
mouthpiece for the Big Ten as a Fox affiliate of
that particular conference.
Speaker 3: There needs to be a balancing of the force.
Speaker 2: There's got to be checks and balances, if you will,
in college football, and I love hearing it. It's truth
that's being spread and promulgated to the college football world.
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Want to get into a little cougar in sad Report
coming up next talk some Cougars in the pros and
what they've done as all pro football players, and also
want to get into the newest commits via the transfer
portal to BYU from Stanford, from usc and other places
like Oregan some big time programs, big time players coming
to Provo we'll discuss next.
Speaker 3: This is Cougar Sports on one O three nine ninety
eight point three ESPN.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Cougar Sports with Ben Krittle and
it's time for a Cougar insider report. Now, let's get
that proprietary inside scoop on Cougar Sports from Crittle.
Speaker 3: Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three ESPN the Fan.
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Get on a free Q and A no obligation to
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on that free Q and A today and find out
the best way to invest with ban your wealth. It
is time for a little inside of report and break
down the three incoming transfers and who else could be
on the docket for the BYU Cougar football team. BYU
has eleven players that are transferring out of Provo and
BYU and they've added three to the roster. We're gonna
break that down. Is going to be brought to you
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American Fork today and mentioned we sent you for the
VIP products, VFP service, VMP discounts. All right, So who
are the three new players coming to BYU via the portal?
Speaker 3: Number one?
Speaker 2: Zach Yamauchi in tier offensive lineman from Stanford, Kyler Casper
wide receiver from Oregon, Walker Lions tight end from USC
We've talked a little bit about Kyler and Walker.
Speaker 3: We haven't talked about Zach.
Speaker 2: Zach is officially committed to the BYU Cougar football team.
Let's get to know him a little bit better. Coming
out of high school, played at Bishop Gorman High level
three star recruit, he was eighty six overall. Now as
a transfer, he's a borderline four star recruit. Check that out.
Per Blair Angulo, the Mountain Region recruiting analyst projected him
as a power for starter at the next level. He's
described as a well proportioned athlete could frame with growth potential, strong,
sturdy offensive alignment with positional versatility. Could fill any of
the interior line rolls. Effective in the run game given
his toughness and mobility. Thrives in poll situations where you
can venture a field open sols with a forceful initial punch.
An assertive get off, balanced blocker who shows technique, savvy flashes,
good feet in hand usage in pass protection could continue
to provide his base foundation and reaction to counter moves.
At times loses pad leverage. These are the negatives and
allows defender to slip through underneath. Potential multi year starter
at of power for institution level. Later in Collegeguerard with
some NFL draft upside. Now, what did he do at
Stanford where he committed six foot four, three hundred and
twenty five pounds okay as a freshman in twenty twenty five. Reminder,
he came out I believe in the two thousand and
twenty three class.
Speaker 3: Okay, so technically I think he would be.
Speaker 2: Would he be a red shirt freshman that he's transferred in,
Maybe a red shirt freshman. So this is what he
did In twenty twenty five, appeared in eight games for
the Cardinal, making three starts at guard. He made his
collegiate debut in Stanford season open at Hawaii, started at
left guard against Virginia on September twentieth, and then shifted
over to right guard and started in Stanford's win in
the one hundred and twenty eighth Big Game on November
twenty second. Played at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas,
Nevada for head coach Brett Brown. Or you have to
wonder he probably played alongside BYU signee Alai Kalaniavallu. Remember
Alai committed to Oregon, committed to BYU, then Oregon, and
then came back to BYU. But so's he's familiar with
a lie I imagine having played at the same high school.
Zach was a unanimous top ten recruiting Nevada, ranked fifth
by twenty four to seven Sports and Rivals. Played obviously
offensive guard and was a two time first team All
Conference player, two time first team All State player, Polynesian
Bowl All Star, was a part of the National Honor Society.
Obviously going to to Stanford like to get all the
Stanford guys, give them give like all the high level
Stanford guys that are seeing time you want him at BYU,
they can make it at BYU as well. Has two brothers,
Noah Eli Uh and enjoy spending time with family, playing
video games, working out plays the piano. Two served a
two year mission before attending Stamford. There You Go, so
served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter day Saints. So yeah, Zach Yamauchi gonna be Byu
Cougar A nice pickup for BYU.
Speaker 3: Very excited about this.
Speaker 2: Anyone coming out of the greats, the great the beast
that is Bishop Gorman, it bodes well for bo, especially
if he's got three starts under his belt. He had
offers by the way out of high school from Boston College, Arizona,
cal Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska for Resno State, Washington State, Nevada,
San Diego State, ODLV, Utah State, and Dartmouth. B YU
didn't offer him at a high school but wants him. Now,
this could be a growing trend where you're you're you're
a high level football player, you go to a respective
institution and lo and behold, you get some starting PT,
you prove yourself on film, and then take your talents
to BYU. I wouldn't mind that that path going forward.
We're in a new era. We're in a new age.
You can't take everyone and have them as a developmental project.
Sometimes they got to go develop elsewhere, and it's really
nice when they develop at a P four institution and
get good film. Okay, And obviously I don't know if
he saw PT. I don't know if if Zach saw
PT in that BYU game, but I imagine he did.
And then by you got eyes on him. At any rate?
Who else his BYU added to the fold? Who else
should we get to know? Kyler Casper six foot six,
two hundred and twelve pounder out of the University of Oregon.
Really good player. His father played in the NFL. Comes
from good stock, good lineage. As a prospect, I believe
coming out of high school he was a four star.
Now coming out of the Portal he's a three star.
He's only a crew to what six or seven receptions?
Not much statistically outside of maybe special teams, but a
really good football player in high school.
Speaker 3: Obviously traycon Borgay knows him well.
Speaker 2: Arius Lasser knows him, but we gotta I know, we're
working on getting Darius on the show to discuss who
Kyler is. But Kyler Casper, big bodied receiver, looks similar
to maybe like a Mitch Matthews type. Okay, if you're
gonna compare them to anybody on film on height, weight,
uh and and maybe even speed, then you would look
towards Mitch Matthews as maybe a player comp there. Kyler,
coming out of high school, had offered from Oregon, Tennessee, Arizona,
arisona State Cow, Colorado, Duke, Georgia, Iowa. I mean, he
could have gone anywhere, LSU, Miami, Michigan State hasn't seen
a whole lot of PT though at the University of Oregon.
And finally, last but non least, h b Yu is
uh looking to bring in Walker Lions who we've we've
we've broken down out of the three that you have
in front of you, Ronald, the three man Weaver, which
one are you most amp for Which one are you
most excited for.
Speaker 3: Is it the big former four star wider receiver.
Speaker 2: Is it the tried and true USC transferred Walker Lions
that is essentially committing with his brother Ryder Or is
it the offensive line? It's all one up front right
and Zach Yamauchi can be a guy to help replace
any the attrition that's on our roster.
Speaker 7: It's not the offensive line. And the reason Ben is
I trust t J, Willis Kalani and a Rod. They
always make sure that they have a good offensive line.
I mean, look at how many guys are playing in
the league right now on active NFL rosters that go
so I know that they always recruit well at the positions.
Not every day that you get four star tight ends.
You got Carson Ryan out of the portal and now
you got Walker Lions, Ben, so it's Walker. Look the
days of the tight end. You can say that the
production on the field struggled it. Did you know before
Carson showed up in whether that was due to injuries
and things that happen other things. Maybe that was certain
quarterbacks that play, you know, like to throw the different targets.
All of that matter. But this year we saw I'd
be back. We saw Carson ran in the blocking game
on tape. We saw him dominate, you know, in the
run game as well. We saw him catch the ball.
I mean the Pop Tarts Bowl had his career day.
So for me, it's Walker and what he can do,
because he can do all of the things that Isaac
Rex and Carson can do if he puts his mind
to it. I believe if he really puts his hand
in the dirt and learns how to block and be
in his physical he can be one of the best
tight ends in BYU history. And that says a lot.
I know you might not have the time, but he
can make that up. And I think this is the
next level player. So to me, it's Walker. You don't know,
maybe he has the chance to play with Ryder, we
don't know, but I love to see Bear throw to
Walker next year. And look, anytime you have a tight
end ben that can lineup in the slot. The last
tight end that I saw line up in the slot
the run routes was Isaac Rex, and you know that
was post injury, and we saw what he was before.
I truly believe Walker can be that red zone threat
that by you need so you need a guy like that.
You need a big body, possession receiver that got that
in Kyla Casper. You have Reggie Frishneck as well. But
now Ben, they have multiple threats down in that red zone.
It becomes a problem, and I think you'll see Walker
get into the end zone a lot. So for me,
it's the four star tight end from USC that buoes
up that offense.
Speaker 2: Give me all the offensive lineman, Baby, I love the hosses.
Speaker 3: I like the hosses up front. Baby.
Speaker 2: The better that offensive line is, the better the quarterback play,
the better the wide receivers. I always said a great
elite offensive line play can make an above average or
average running back look great at above average, the average
quarterback look great, above average to average wide receivers look
great at all moves better, looks better, is much more
efficient with offense line. Give me all the talent on
the offense line, and that leads me to my final
Okay potential edition here. He's not official yet, but Washington
offensive line with Pockey Fenale is closing in on a
transfer decision and BYU is trending in the right direction.
Few entered the transfer portal last Thursday. He quickly narrowed
his focus to just three programs, Arizona State, BYU, and UCLA.
Of that trio, BYU has emerged as the early leader,
securing the first and potentially his only, official visit. Female
is scheduled to visit BYU. He was scheduled this last Friday,
so he took a visit and has indicated the trip
could determine his decision. He told Greg Biggins, I believe
I want to take this visit and see how I
like it before scheduling anyone else.
Speaker 3: If the trip goes well, this could be it.
Speaker 2: A key factor in BYU's momentum right now is offensive
line coach TJ. Woods, who recruited female out of high
school while at UNLV and stayed in contact during a
previous portal window. Says, Pockey female coach Woods recruit me
out of high school and again when I was at
the portal last year.
Speaker 3: I'm already comfortable with him. So who's Pockey?
Speaker 2: Fenale six foot five, three hundred ten three hundre and
fifteen pound offensive lineman from Hesperia, California, a wretched freshman
at the University of Washington. Now he's in the portal obviously,
a highly regarded interier offensive line prospect out of Oak
Hills High School. Fenwe enrolled early at UDUB in January
of twenty twenty four and quickly earned a meaningful Big
ten reps During the twenty twenty five season, for Now
appeared in twelve of Washington's thirteen games and made four
starts at left guard against Rutgers, Michigan, Purdue, and UCLA,
showing early trust from the coaching staff. Gaining early trust,
and he's got some positional versatility as well in that
interior line. Remember in twenty twenty four as its refreshment
saw action in the season's first three games and the
Sun Bowl before red shirting, thought that was injury's rotational
guy to start and then played in the Sun Ball.
That goes to show that they really like Baki final.
At Oak Hills High School, Fenale was a two time
All League lineman and a first team All CIF Southern
selection a Southern Section selection. As a senior, play the
Bulldogs to attendant two record in a conference championship here
at all CIF honors in back to back seasons and
was rated one of the top in tier offensive lineman
prospects nationally ranked number fourteen among in Tier alignment by
two four seven and and many others in Top twenty
California Prospect by ESPN.
Speaker 3: And he had it definitely. He had a nice national profile.
Speaker 2: He had Oregon, Penn State, and Auburn, Florida State, Miami,
Nebraska BYU, Utah, Ucla, Arizona.
Speaker 3: State, and many others knocking on his door.
Speaker 2: He's got three seasons of eligibility remaining, and he's definitely
viewed as a plug and play player. He can play
in Tier, but they could move him out to tackle.
He's got that ability, but most likely in tier offensive lineman.
We'll see how it plays out if BYU gets Pockey
fenw Man, that's a nice initial haul for TJ Woods.
You said it, Ronald in TJ Woods, we trust. I
don't know any concerns about the offensive line as long
as TJ Woods is at the helm of the tip
of the spear. So we'll see how it plays out.
But pak trending towards BYU in his recruitment. Let's go
to break, don't go anywhere. A cougar beat coming up next,
Sean WALKERKSL dot com will be joining us. We'll ask
him the question, why is it that BYU fell two
spots in the eight people?
Speaker 3: Is Ky ticked off about it?
Speaker 2: What did Ky say to the media just about thirty
minutes ago. We'll delve into it in more here on
your Utah ESPN Radio Network one oh three nine ninety
eight point three ESPN