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Keeping up with the Cougar is going to welcome to
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Welcome in former BYU Quarterback. We got Steve Clements on
the line. Steve, how you living, brother, Oh great man?
Speaker 4: How are you ben doing?
Speaker 3: Awesome man? Springball? You know, this is a great time
of the year for me. I like looking at the future.
I like looking at development. I want to see who
put in the work in the off season and the
way from January through through February and getting into March.
I got March mad news year. That's around the corner.
So all is well, Camp Killiney twenty twenty six, about
to kick off. What do you remember about springball? What
do you recall about what the the the the storylines
were when you were in springball.
Speaker 4: Well, for me, my first year, you know, I had
to sit out a here and so fall I couldn't participate.
So my first spring was you know, six six or
seven months after I had transferred to the y and
so I mean it was a below the belt check time,
we'll call it for me. So I had to impress
and try it, not just to make the team. But
I came in Walsh was a freshman. I came in
as my first year after my red shirt year and
at UT having me sit out in that year, so
essentially sitting out two years. This was my first opportunity
to play basically in between the lines since I had
started high school a couple of years before that, so
it had been a while since, you know, I got
to throw against real competition. Even though the spring practice
like it was, it was, it was check time for me.
So my first year obviously was quite nervous and then
after that, Wallston established himself as a starter. So spring
was just fine tuning things obviously for the coaching staff.
And where you're going with this is there to answer
some questions. And we got some questions to answer on
both sides of all and not just the starters, but
your depth chart. You get that handled, you get that
squared away. But then on the defensive side, k Pop
and his first experience in the defense, coordinated defense. Now,
I don't think there's gonna be a problem because he's
got Colonnie and coach Anderson to lean on. But that's
what spring is. I mean, there's two seasons and sports.
For me, it's spring football and fall football. And this
is the first season, uh where we get a look
at filling in the gaps, securing the holes that we
might have transfers. How are they going to come in?
You know, as a kid from Oregon, you get to
pan it out with injuries and you know, he looks
the part well, he is he to part, you know,
and those type of kids that you have the questions
with the freshman and coming in getting to know the
system and how quick are they going to be able
to uh, you know, get the system and feel comfortable
playing in a system for the first time since high
school is completely different. College is a different animal. So
I'm excited.
Speaker 3: It is a great time to be to Cougar b
YU coming off at twelve eleven and two and then
a twelve and two season, a lot of positive momentum
heading into spring. One of the things I asked k
Pop in my interview with him recently, I'm like, hey,
how do you how do you keep this team humble?
We have seen in the past when b YU has
two consecutive great seasons, Uh that they there's a little
bit of a drop off, right they there's a little
bit of a pride cycle. How can you you stay
the course, stay humble, stay hungry. What are your thoughts
on that? How do you keep a team focused on
the task at hand and working daily to be great
rather than relying on the pass to determine their their
their their mindset.
Speaker 4: Well, I think you always, I think is the coaching staff.
You got to rely on your your older players, your
more experienced players to you know, get that across to
your team. So Clanne is going to rely on your
Bruce Mitchell's and your Isaiah Laskers and even Bear even
though he's now just only a sophomore.
Speaker 1: You're l J.
Speaker 4: Martin's, you know, Evan Johnson's, those guys that have been
in the system and have gone through, yeah, two successful seasons,
but they understand there's you know, we got to replace
a Tanner Wall, We've got to replace a p K
and Roberts. So I think there's enough gaps and holds
the field to keep the guys really focused on. Okay,
the past of the past, it's what have you done
for me lately. We've got some questions we need to
answer in the spring and a little bit of fall
camp to get to where we want to be the
last two years. So with that being said, you know
it's going to be based on the leadership, and I
think we're fine in that category. I don't have any
issues with us thinking we're content or we're just like
last year or the year before. Now. The trains just
to continue to roll, so instead of I think we've
gotten to a point and b AU Football where enough
of the rebuilding. We just reload now. And because the
expectations last two years will continue to be the same expectations,
and good on us so and good on Klawonne for
being I mean, he's got the third most wins, dude
since twenty twenty in college football. Yep, and so like that.
That's that's that's a lot. It's a lot of pressure.
But so what like good, bring the pressure on. That's
that's what we're going to be used to now.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 4: I feel good about this year and continuing to feel
good about BYU football as a whole. Bull short term
and long term.
Speaker 3: Let's start quarterback two battle here for a moment. That's
one of the intriguing storylines I'm gonna be taking a long,
hard look at throughout spring. We know Bear Bachmeier is
he's the better throwing freaking Tim Tebow. That's what you
told us once upon a time, and it has come
to fruish my friend. So hey, we could have a
little bit of a Heisman Trophy candidacy if all things
go well this year, right if we don't, if we
want to really get Utah fans angry at us, we'll
talk about that and get some quotes from you. But
who's your favorite to win it right now? QB two
Trayson Borge or Goldie Enick Watson out of American Leadership academy.
Speaker 4: Only because I haven't seen Enick play or practice, and
I've seen Trason. Not only have I seen Trason, but
or as an affectionate call Bobby Bouche, I've seen him,
and he's been in the system. He knows the system,
he knows the offense. He's gonna be a senior. I
know he has the back of the locker room. So
just by default, I would say Trac right now today, yep,
But again that spring things happen, right the depth chart
is being tried to be formed, maybe there's a splash,
maybe Enoch comes out and just like starts killing it right,
and so yeah, he's gonna be in the mix. But
we yes, obviously we have QB one, but QB two
is a very famous on a famous name on campus.
When you have somebody like Bear, everybody goes, okay, what
if dot dot dot and right now today, just based
on experience and knowing the system and knowing the program
and having the locker room behind him, I'd have to
go with Trason.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, you know, I think Enix got plenty
of talent, plenty of dual threat capability as well. He
did get home from the mission I want to say
back in October, so he's uh, you know, he may
be more competitive than I think some are believing, but
Trason definitely has the tenure, uh, and definitely the experience.
RB two. Who's your favorite to be? RB two? Shioni,
Mala Joe Vesa de MOONI Is it Devon Eka or
Logan Pain or Preston Rex? Who you gotten? Why?
Speaker 4: I think? I think right now today it's probably sionis
number two, but right on his heels is Eka as Devon. Uh,
he's a true freshman, but he's the early enroll lye.
I know he's been on campus. I know he's bulked
up to about almost two hundred pounds now. When he
got to school he was at one point eighty two.
And I know there's been discussions about how to get
him inserted, not just in the lineup, but getting in touches.
So he's already making an impact in the weight room
before springball even starts today with the coaching staff. And
you know, I have it'smate knowledge about him because I
coached him the last couple of years at LEI. And
not only he's a great kid, but he's he's gonna
be the RB room is set like we're good, Like
we're more than good with LJA, which you're top returning
running back in the entire nation, not just in the
Big twelve Conference. But I'd throw his name in the
hat Heisen Trophy candidate, And yeah, eventually number forty seven
is gonna come up to really.
Speaker 3: So you know, look, what type of hyper are we
going to be given Bear Blachmeyer heading into twenty twenty six?
What expectations should we have for Bear in twenty twenty six?
Speaker 4: Well, I think he's gonna throw for another one thousand
yards more than he did last year, which he's up
and around four thousand, meaning this year he rushed for
what five hundred or so? I think he rushed for
about seven hundred and what I mean, his QBR rating
is the same as ars Mannings, his passer rating is
the same as ars Mannings. Well, he's the odds on
favorite right now, and yes, Manning and he's got the hype,
and yes, he's a very good player. But I mean,
if you take, if you're stat guy, you look at
those stats and you're like, hmm, there's not much difference
between the odds on favorite and our guy in provo
So why the heck not? Why just because it's b yu,
I mean that would be are Yeah, of course I'm
a homeom, Yes i am. But I've also seen and
know that position also as well. And uh yeah, heck yeah,
why why not?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: The hype is real from Steve Clebs regunning up there
Bachmeier and uh, look to me, I think the biggest
storyline though in fault camp, excuse me, in spring ball
is taking a long hard look at this defense. You
seem pretty confident that k Pok can step in field
the shoes of Jay Hill is a is a play caller,
and uh, what do you but what do you make
about the secondary? You know, Gennaro's gone. Jay Hill was
coaching the safety safeties to Mario Warren coaching up the
safeties and then Lewis Clark coaching up the corners. Do
you think there's any drop off there? You're optimistic about
the secondary as well.
Speaker 4: No, there's not gonna be a drop off when you
when your head coaches was considered one of the best,
if not the best, defensive coordinators in the nation when
he was calling it at at the U and then
Oregon State, Like, I don't understand why they would be
a drop off because if that's your foundation, if coach
Kline Sataki is your foundation, and then you have a
guy with coach Anderson with the experience that he had,
and those two dudes with Kate Bob Young enthusiastic learning
under Jay the last couple of years. I'm not worried
about that, and so they The thing about it is
because they have so much experience, it's now to the
point to where whatever you have in the pantry is
they can form a defense around what's the talent that
you have. And I think we're going to be actually
you for talented, maybe even a little bit more so
this year than last year with the returners that we
have coming back. Yeah, we've got a couple holes a field,
but schematics will allow us even if we have a
weakness to cover up that weakness defensively. It's hard to
cover up a weakness offensively. But again, that's what you
have spring football for too. In Paul Camp to see
place here versus this defense and this coverage. Can we
go more man? Do we have to go more zone?
I'm not worried about whether it's coaching or schematics or
the talent level that we'll have on Devens side.
Speaker 3: Of the level, Steve, there's going to be a number
of newcomers on the roster, transfer portal players, true freshmen
coming in return missionaries. Is there a newcomer that you're
most intrigued by that you're excited to get eyes on,
size up and see how they move on the football
field for spring ball?
Speaker 4: Well, I think the kid from Oregon. Yeah, yeah, yes,
thank you, because of the it's not a dire need,
but kind of his receiver. I mean, if I say, well,
Bear's gonna throw for four thousand yards, well freaking he
better be throwing it to some some cats out there
right that can do it. And so there's that, at
least on the offensive side of the ball. I think
Kyler has a lot of frusture, poor kid coming in
from Oregon and and that kind of being having some
injuries in the last couple of years and so but
in that spot, dude, like we need some dudes. But
outside of him, Legend Glaster I think has the potential
there I go off again, and to be a top receiver,
a top five receiver in BYU history. I really do.
I love that he's going to be one to where
I'm gonna be watching quite close is how he transitions
from high school to the college ranks. In that position,
I think he makes an impact early on kickoff return
in special teams, and once he gets the knowledge of
the offense and the playbook down, he finds himself rotating
in at receiver and I think by the end of
the year, you know, allowing if he's healthy, he's going
to be in the starting rotation and you'll see a
lot of Legend for the next three or four years.
Speaker 3: Legend Glasgow. He did test out, I've been told in
the offseason on the offense side of the ball. You know,
it's one of the fastest guys on the football field,
which I thought that was pretty crazy, coming as a
true freshman being one of the fastest guys on the team.
Speaker 4: Well, but pound for pound he might be the strongest
on the team too. Was seventy but he is. He
is stronger than you think. And he tested out almost
I can't remember what he squatted, but it was it's like,
wait a minute, you're doing almost three times your body
weight and squads like it's insane. Because you look at him,
You're like, oh, that dude's not great. Oh no, no, no,
he's uh well, we call it country strong. There's another
word in front of the strong that we use that
I can't stay on the air, but we'll say he's
a country strong dude.
Speaker 3: I love it. Man Steve Klevit's former v ER quarterback
talking some camp Koalani twenty twenty six. Spring ball kicks
off today, ladies and gener we're gonna be down there
covering it, getting eyes on this team, interviewing players and coaches.
Steve Klements discussing what he's excited to see, who he's
watching for. And you know there's other wide receivers, a
lot of these guys. I was talking with Hammer time yesterday.
We were talking with Ronnie and they're all looking at
the wide receiver room. You mentioned Kyler Casper, you mentioned
legend Glasger, and there's Cody Hagen and obviously Jojo Phillips
is a guy that could be a wide receiver one type,
Reggie Friscannect. There's some big bodies on this roster and
it kind of reminds me of the era of like
Cody Hoffman, Rossoppo, Mitch Matthews, Tarren Howk. There was a
lot of big, strong, not necessarily the fastest wide receivers,
but could always body up wide receivers and linebackers. Excuse me,
they can always body up cornerback safeties and linebackers with
that great catching radius. I wonder if we're gonna see
a bit of that, especially with how well Bear Bachmeier
throws the intermediate pass game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're gonna We're gonna have to. That's I mean,
that's what we have. I think, you know, because Higgins
can run, obviously, Lesing can run. Jaron Pool is another
one that's a big body kid. I'm not sure if
his speed. Because you're gonna have to be able to
stretch down the field. Now do you have to be
four four four or five to do that? No, but
you have to have a threat in which to do
that to have a successful passing game, where I think
in Texas Tech we did not do. We threw the
ball over twenty five yards. I believe one time got
a p I against Chase. So no, you don't have
to be super speedy to stretch vertically the defense and
allow those you know, dbs to at least force to
backpedal a little bit quicker than they want. To but
you've got to have a dude down there to stretch
the field, and that opens up the intermediate in the
short game and getting into lj out of the backfield,
and you know the Lions kid or Sally Apoga I
think that I pronounce his name, Yeah, yeah, Sali Page.
You know, they're in the middle, and so I think
eventually we're gonna have plenty of weapons. Spring allows Jojo
and Cody Hagen to master and really refine their crafts,
and then you know the cast for kid and get
the timing down with forty seven. But yeah, you're gonna
see that same type of body type and big body
or they can go up against the safeties and maybe
the outside backers and do some damage. Where Parker really
kills this is you know, that short slot quick Wes
Welker type kid that I'm not sure. I don't know
if Haigen's that way or not. I don't know if
we have somebody like that on the riser. Maybe that's Tiger,
that could be Tiger. You really need somebody like that
as a change up to if you're gonna have these
big body receivers on the outside and a tight end
as well, you got to have some dude that can
create some separation, whether it's horizontally and or vertically, and
so that'll be a big question mark certainly.
Speaker 3: Do you think Bear's gonna show an increase in arm
strength and velocity of the football this season? Do you
think he? You know, how much progress can you make
in arm strength? You know these are grown men now,
I mean he's a young quarterback, but like, how much
increase in velocity and arm can a quarterback game in
an off season?
Speaker 4: In your opinion, I think you can make some. I
think you can make strides to you know, putting a
couple of yards on your arm strength or having it
come out with a little bit more velocity and a
little bit more pop. But for him, I think the
most important thing is going to be just pinpoint accuracy.
Instead of you know, aiming medium and missing medium, it's
aiming small and missing small. And so I think I
think his accuracy becomes way more important in year two
and and you're timing with new guys. I mean, he
didn't get much timing with Hagen, probably more so with
Jojo than the others because he played a little bit
more than Cody did. But he has hardly any established
timing with these other guys. I mean we were so
good back in the day. I mean we had guys
Eric Dredge. They couldn't run out of their own shadow,
but they knew how to run routes, and they were
precision routes and there were attention to detail because we were
coached that and all our routes with their are running
back or excuse me, our receivers, the quarterbacks was all timing.
So ty Damer had he didn't have very good armstring,
but he understood defenses, he understood his own personnel and
the timing. Yeah, he might have to let go of
the ball a little bit earlier than somebody like John
Walsh or you know those guys that could just you know,
Aaron Rodgers or somebody like that. They can just throw
it through a brick wall with no problem. Understanding that
your own talent and then your timing with your receivers.
Speaker 1: That's where you.
Speaker 4: Get the most out of spring football with these guys.
So there's a lot of work to be done, but
it's gonna be more I think on the accuracy side
and the timing side with these young dudes or inexperience
having bear not thrown to these guys. That's gonna be
the biggest thing, and it's not gonna be so much
the two hours in spring football. It's the two hours
before and the two hours after and the work on
the weekends that's gonna get them to another level.
Speaker 3: My guys. Steve Klemitz, Ladies and gentlemen previewing the Camp
Kilani twenty twenty six, Spring Ball. Steve, always a pleasure,
always a blessing talking ball with you. Thanks for hopping
off for another keeping up with the Cougar segment. Let
us know if you need anything from us, brother, we'll
see down in provo here shortly.
Speaker 4: You bet forty seven for heisman, Let's.
Speaker 3: Go the fair Bachmeyer for a Heisman. Let's go all right.
That's our segment brought to you by Odem Menswear. Odemmenswear
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to be impressed with their product and their service and
obviously their discount Skyler Halford former BYU Bucket get her
coming up next to diagnose and treat. By the way,
he's a he is a practitioner, he is a physical therapist.
He's going to diagnose and treat this BYU men's basketball team.
What's going on? Why is the BYU struggling to maintain
consistent rather than you always working for your money? At
vanderwelt dot.
Speaker 2: Com, Spring the best college baseball program in Utah is
coming to the fan to miss Utah Valley Baseball on
the ESPN the van app Welcome backnes of marches right
around the corner, and the Cougars are in the middle
of it. It's time to talk some college basketball on
Cougar Sports with Ben Cripple.
Speaker 3: Plugga Backguner Sports one of three nine ninety eight point
three s Ben the Fan. I'm mentrinal broadcasting from our
Vanderwilt Studios Vanderwel dot com. Get on a pre q
and a no obligation to invest QNA with our tax
small wealth advisors. Today it is time for a little
college basketball segment. We're gonna welcome to a former BA
rates pontificate and diagnose and treat the ailements of this
BA men's basketball team, the ups and downs, the undulations
of this game to jackal and hide, Uh, why it's
happening and what will this team be down the stretch
of the regular season, the end of the regular season
into the Big Twell Tournament. This segment's gonna be brought
to you by Central Garage Utah. Central Garage Utah dot com.
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All right, let's get out to the hotline. Welcome and
former bucket getter and now doctor uh If of physical therapy.
We got doctor Skyler Halford on the line. What's up, Doc?
Speaker 1: What's up? Ben?
Speaker 3: How are you? I'm doing fantastic, man, appreciate you talking
some ball with us today. What's uh? What's the latest
in the Halford household? How's work gone? Give us all
the updates?
Speaker 1: Oh? Everything's great. Man. You know, we got four kids
running around, trying to keep them under control and uh,
you know, trying to help as many athletes and motivated
adults as we can stay you know, healthy and develop
that skill in basketball area. We love that and always
have and always will. But it's been good.
Speaker 4: It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Love it man, Glad you're doing well. Uh. This BU
basketball team, it's hard to diagnose, it's hard to treat.
What would the doctors say about this basketball team? What
ails it? Uh?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 3: What is it good at? What do we need to remedy?
What's going on? Where are the muscle you know, imbalances
and insufficiencies?
Speaker 1: What do we gotta address here from a basketball perspective? Okay, Yeah,
So it's it's interesting you say that because I get
it's really it's kind of hard to read sometimes right,
because of you get a game like Iowa State where
they play, you know, arguably their best game of the year,
and then we you know, drop a goose egg against
UCS and I get it like they're you know, they've
gone through their ups and downs this year with their
fair share of injuries and two key key guys, and
you know that that does make its challenging, you know,
to adapt to let alone, they have so few guys
that came from last year, so the continuity, right, I mean,
it's just a new group overall being together and then
having to lose some key guys. It's just tough to
figure out. Now some of the things that I think
these guys do the best. I mean, they're they're athletically gifted.
I honestly think that they're athletically gifted. You look at
guys like Rob Wright, AJ you look at I mean
Richie until obviously he went down, great athlete in himself.
You've got just athletes all around the floor that are long,
I mean Boskovich, You've got You've got Boop, I mean,
guys are long. Keta's as athletic as they come. So
that athleticism is is there, you know, And the hard
part is I feel like at times, I don't want
to say that there's not a lot there's a lack
of effort, but I feel like with that kind of athleticism,
there should be a lot more that we can get
done on the defensive end, which unfortunately I haven't seen yet.
But the good news is that I think we're capable
of it. So, you know, fine tuning that I think
would be interesting, uh and could take us to that
next level. So you know, I'm not going to tell
somebody that it's a lack of effort. I just think
maybe there's some urgency that needs to be there, and
we've talked about it. You know, I think all your
long at Cougar fans that first half, you know, that
that sense of urgency coming out and you know, hitting
somebody in the mouth, letting them know you're there. I
don't know, those are the things that come to my
mind when I think about this team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, it is hard to diagnose, it is
hard to treat. Uh, it's uh. It's the jeckal and
hide the peak, the Valley. The peak is Iowa State.
The next game, it was the Valley versus U Seef
man the worst performance.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: So how do you how does this team find its identity? Look,
Aj staid in the post game, He's like, look, we're
going to be fineing Mark, are you buying or selling
They're going to be fine in March.
Speaker 4: I'm buying it.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, if you've got guys as good and
as talented as Aj and robright, r uh, you can.
I mean, it's a one, one game at a time tournament, right,
It's a it's not a best of three, best of five,
best of seven. You just got to win one and
then survive in advance, and that's all that's all you need.
And when you've got guards that are capable of playing
to the level that Rob and Aj are capable of,
I'm buying, I think, and you know hearing. You know,
Aj is a confident player and I love that about him.
And so when the when the lights shine the brightest,
I feel like he's gonna be able to perform really well,
and that leadership from him hopefully spills through the rest
of the team as well, so they can kind of
rise to the occasion when those brightest lights are shining
on him.
Speaker 3: So I'm buying so ceiling and floor for this team.
Do you think what is it?
Speaker 1: I mean ceiling is I mean, is a national championship
on it?
Speaker 3: Still?
Speaker 1: Still absolutely absolutely, I mean as as hard as it
may be to believe and feel with Richie gone, and
obviously we've been dealing without Dawson for for you know,
throughout the season. When you've got a guy like AJ,
who's gonna be he's the next generation talent, that is hard.
I mean, guys like don't remember in the past to
have as much as AJ has personally, I believe. And
then you've got a point guard like Rob who who
has the ability to be a top, if not the
best point guard in America. When you have guys like
that and you enter a tournament like March Madness, I mean,
we've seen crazier things happen. I don't think it's it's
by any you know, there's there's no reason why these
guys couldn't go that far. And again I see them
going into the tournament depending on how they do in
the Big twelve tournament, you know, anywhere from a seven six, uh,
and if they make a run win the Big twelve tournament,
who knows. I mean a four potentially maybe even even
a little better. So with that being said, I do
think that the ceiling is the national championship. Still, We've
got a lot of things to figure out over the
next three regular season games and into the Big twelve tournament,
that's for sure. And if we can do that defensively
and figure out out I don't see why that can't
be the case, and then you know we're gonna get
into the tournament. The floor, anyone's floor going into this
tournament is to lose in the first round. You know,
Purdue against the sixteen seed. It's it's just the most
beautiful tournament in America because anything can happen, no.
Speaker 3: Doubt about it. Do sometimes do you envision yourself what
you would be doing on this team, Like how you'd
be like weaving, you know, into the corner, you know,
like what role you could play on this team? We
could use the Skylar Alford right now. All I'm saying
to a CD and three point shots.
Speaker 1: I mean, we do need some three point shooting. I
will say that, and I would just I mean, I'm hopeful.
I've been hopeful from the beginning. With Alexei Kostitch, He's
a guy that I've just been hoping can fill that
role somehow. I mean, he was four for nine from
three at the last game I've watched, where previously he
had six threes.
Speaker 2: In a game or five.
Speaker 1: I might be mistaken there, but like he has the
ability to be that guy that can raw more attention
to him.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a little undersized, so is Tyler Mruss. Right,
those are the two guys that have to be able
to fill that role that I think are most capable
of it. I think Boskovic at times can show it,
but just with like the shooting mechanics that I've watched
from those players, I think the most capable ones to
be consistent are you know, from Russ and Kostitch. And
we're gonna need those type of role players, you know,
in the Big Twelve the rest of the season, in
the Big Twelve tournament into March to be able to
help us win some crucial games. So I really hope
that they can fulfill that role. I noticed they go to,
you know that zone, which is what they used to
do when I played, because I was undersized and wasn't
able to pick up you know, players defensively one on one,
so sometimes you got to go to that zone to
you know, help manipulate that a little bit. And I
don't know if we've played a lot of zone this
year because Costitch and Russ haven't played as much. So
maybe getting a little bit better at that zone, finding
ways to get those guys integrated could help help us.
So hopefully they can fulfill that role that I think
we do need.
Speaker 3: All Right, I got a tough question for you. I'll
be honest, I've never seen this many injuries on a
basketball team, Skyler. I've never seen this many injuries. This
is like, like I begin to wonder, Okay, when there's
this many injuries, like, hey, are these freak accidents or
is there something with sn C, nutrition, rest, biomechanics, what
we're doing as far as potentiation prior to tip off?
Like what are you seeing? Man? There's been some like
kind of sort of contact, but it's really more non
contact like jump stop jumps plant. You know, we got
a vougus, you know, stress on on Richie. That's a
movement he's done thousands, hundreds of thousands of times, you know,
probably in his young adulthood. You know, Dawson's was kind
of unique he kind of got a little bit of
a body and then tweaked, what are you seeing, man,
Brody Koslowski's out, Xavian Staaten's out. I know you don't
have all the details on the injuries, but what's what's
a rye here? What have you seen so far that
you're like, is there an issue? Is there not an issue?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's it's reasonable to I mean,
people are gonna naturally raise concerns, but honestly, I mean
I was just recently looking over actually a bunch of
ACL studies, systematic reviews and things on just ACL risk factors,
and to be honest, Ben, it's really you know, research
suggests that like it's not caused by one major flaw.
I mean, it's usually stacking small risk factors, like there's
a flight a symmetry here, there's some extra fatigue, workload,
movement mechanics can be off. And I mean a team
like BYU, at the highest level that they are, I've
been inside the facilities. I've seen what they've got. They've
got high level you know, upper I mean NBA level class,
you know, professionals in there helping with these types of things.
And I don't doubt that they're doing a fantastic job.
I mean, in one of the studies I was looking at,
in particular, the very first line of the study says
that its as basketball players are a high risk group
for antier cruciate ligament injuries. And that's just the nature
of it. No matter what you do, I mean, you
can I do believe that they're The more we do,
the more we preemptively, like are trying to identify risk factors,
treat risk factors, You're gonna have a better chance of
not having injury. You know, people talk about injury prevention
that that is just not even I don't even know
why we even say that. I mean, I get it,
but like there's no such thing as injury prevention in
high risk sports like basketball. There's just no such thing.
And it's injury reduction. We're just trying to reduce the
chances of having an injury. And by yes, working on
a symmetry's monitoring workload. I mean I remember going to
a pre practice, you know, as an alumni, watching these guys,
and they handed out that these sheets that had like
how much workload each individual player had, like by to
the decimal point, and like I mean there's tracking all
these things. It's a high level institution. They do an
amazing job. It's just, yeah, we have gotten bit by
that bug this year, and I can't say what it's
exactly attributed to. I mean, I would love to get
in there and and like just do my own research
and stuff, just because I love this stuff, and I
love BYU's program because yeah, it's it's very interesting. But again,
like I said, it's not one major flaw. It's not
one major thing. And yeah, most most of these acls anyways,
I mean I was looking at articles of NBA players
like they did studies over you know, beyond a decade
of time, where they're looking at video analysis and and
most of them are these non contact injuries or where
they're getting bumped in the air and they land on
a single leg and then you know they get that
force that's just too much for the need to handle.
And there's just so many contributing factors. You can't just
point to one thing, so I might not address it
the way you wanted to answer that question to be answered.
But that's just kind of like what I'm seeing. I
would love to go. I mean, there's you know, quad
hamstring ratio. There's seeing biomechanically how these players move with
video analysis, and I'm sure there's some really cool stuff
and technology that BYU has that I would be loved,
I would love to even just learn about and learn from.
But I'm sure they have those things and they're addressing them.
It's just it's super unfortunate in sports that sometimes those
things just happen. If I were to say one other
thing about that, Ben, I think what we don't maybe
talk about, or actually has been talked about to an extent,
is how much basketball is being played, how much basketball
games are being played, tournaments are being played while these
kids are growing up, you know, like the mileage and
how much mileage they're putting on their bodies, to the
point where when they get to college, when they get
to pros, we're seeing definitely an increase in these injuries
from before. And you know, there is a question of
like how much sports should these youth be playing, how
many games should they be playing, versus like how much
more do they need to be focusing on their bodies
at a younger age to help prevent some of these
you know, workload spikes and issues. But that's another question.
I don't have the answer for it, but it is
something that I think has been brought up in the
past about youth sports in general that I think continually
we all as healthcare professionals want to try and identify
ways to help so that we don't have these kids
getting to these moments in high school, college, and professional
sports where their careers ultimately can come to an end
because of some serious injuries that maybe could have been
avoided had they learned how to take care of their
bodies earlier on. So anyways, I'm passionate about this stuff, Ben,
don't keep me going. I'll be on here. Your show
will go overtime.
Speaker 3: No, Well, now I have to follow up because I
had this this same conversation. Look, I got young kids,
so I'm pretty far away from specialization. I'm pretty far
away from kind of having to address some of these things.
And I'm sure it'll be even more. I mean, who knows,
maybe you know, I don't know how crazy it's going
to get in the next decade or so. But you
bring up some really valid points here. Specialization. We're seeing overtraining, right,
I see it all the time in my industry. The
the the the amount of games, the amount of practices,
and a highly affluent, highly competitive environment that we're living
in here in the United States and in particular here
in the state of Utah. Kids are specializing way earlier
and they're they're they're playing in all manner of tournaments,
whether it's baseball, basketball, I mean football now is having
a lot of offseason stuff with with seven on seven
and then you have strengthen and in conditioning. That's that's
also a big part of of the youth movement. You're
seeing that. I mean, you do specialize basketball training. You're
seeing kids come in, they want to get better, their
parents want them to get better. You're sitting there like, well,
we got to loan manage a little bit here. You
got some teller ten to tennis. You're going through a
ghost bird. I know, you got a little o good sloughters,
you know. Anyway, like you know, a lot of money
is being allocated to it too, so there's like there's
there's an economy behind it. And anyway, give me a
little bit more here about what you're seeing and what
you recommend to your youth as they're coming in to
be balanced multi sport athletes too. Like that's what I did.
I did everything, so I didn't get as much loading.
Like football and basketball are different, baseball was different, track
and field was different.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I'm all for multi sport athletes and youth athletes.
I mean, I don't think it's it's a horrible thing
to do. I mean, for me, I started, you know,
quote unquote specializing in basketball in ninth grade. When I
made my varsity high school basketball team at ninth grade,
I was like, all right, this is what I'm doing
moving forward, this is what I'm gonna specialize in quote
unquote right like and I but I think all the
other sports and things that kids can play are going
to teach them so many great movement qualities because these
kids need to learn just how to move like and
these various sports can teach them that. And then also
on top of that, it's like, yes, you know, I'm
biased as a skills trainer, I think that skill development
is extremely important our games. Important absolutely is being able
to understand your body right and when it's telling you
that maybe you're doing a little bit too much, versus
pushing through and thinking, oh crap, I'm gonna you know,
I'm gonna get kicked off. This club team that's gonna
get me to you know, college or the NBA like
and having a strength and conditioning program. I mean, there's
research that suggests that kids need to get started with
strength training so much earlier than a lot of people
really understand and believe. And that's to really fortify and
help protect these kids as they're moving forward. And my
the word I would use for this is balance and moderation.
Those are the two words that I would use. And
you've got it because I see a lot of kids.
So I see a lot of kids who will come
to skills training with me and they'll do they'll play
on a club team, and that's great, but they have
no thing on board for some sort of exercise program,
strength program, conditioning program as well. And I find that
that lack of that strength and that lack of just
just building out their body from a performance standpoint can
be extremely hurtful for these kids in the future because
it puts them at a higher risk of these injuries.
I want these kids to play sports. I know all
the wonderful things that sports can teach kids, not just
for sport but for life that are extremely beneficial for life.
But you know, it's and and bad things happen. Don't
get me wrong. People are gonna get injured. It's gonna happen.
But I just think there needs to be more education
to all the use of America. I mean, and obviously
it's very like you said, competitive here in Utah of
having that balance, having a skills trainer, having a team
that you play on that doesn't necessarily play literally every
single weekend four or five games a weekend in and right,
and a strength coach or or a performance coach of
some sort that can help you on a weekly basis
to develop your body, right Like, and I get it,
it's it's an economy there. There's there's costs to these things.
So I'm I guess I'm speaking from just like a
perfect scenario, if you know, costs and things were out
the window. And I don't know what the answer is
to that, but those are the things that kids need
in the competitive environments that we live in to give
them the best chance of being safe and healthy. I
guess moving forward and into their you know, potential and
future careers.
Speaker 3: Love your perspective, doctor Skyler Halford. For anyone that wants
some basketball training or they need some physical therapy. Hit up,
doctor Skyler Halford. Thanks for breaking down some of the
best boy basketball elements today, sky and we'll catch up
again soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, brother, absolutely, thank you, Ben. Have a
great day, all.
Speaker 3: Right, YouTube man Skyler Halford. Ladies and gentlemen, that was
a little college basketball segment here on Cougar Sports. Brought
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Steve Clements, former BAU quarterback. Shout out to Chase Roberts
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then got into some springball conversations. Downloaded all