Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate the grettest team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all the glory on
the grid. I let's talk some college football a lot
Cougar Sports with Ben Credit.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Cougar Sports one O three nine nine eight
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to save money on your taxes. At the end of
the year, it is time for little college football getting
in all the Nickson Granny's all the news and notes
coming out of the college football world. Also discussing the
Holy War. Just how good? Where does this rivalry game
rank out amongst the best rivalry games in college football?
I love the fact that Big Newton kickoff is coming
to Provo so that they get to know this rivalry
game a little bit better and uh, I think it'll
be an educational experience for the nation as they get
to know this game.
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Contact Jared bled so today, former BAU wide receiver at
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sixty seven. Let's discuss it. Let's discuss some of these
topics with Jared Bledsoe right now on the line.
Speaker 1: Jared, how thatck are you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Always a pleasure man. Former BAU wide receiver. What do
you remember about the rivalry game? What made it so special?
Growing up and then playing in this game?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it goes way back for me.
Speaker 4: I have memories of the BYU Utah rival recent time.
Speaker 3: I was a kid, I.
Speaker 4: In fact, nineteen eighty five, it was a year, it
was a snowy day. We got a call from a
neighbor of ours that had I think they had eight tickets.
So I called all my little sixth grade buddies and
had our parents drop us off at the stadium.
Speaker 3: We ended up sneaking down.
Speaker 4: We were on the front row as la Haye Louly
ran a they was like a sixty yard touchdown and
we ended up all on the camera standing up in
the in the crowd.
Speaker 3: So great memory as a kid. I mean, I think
every time I.
Speaker 4: Played a game it was BYU versus Utah and everything.
And so fast forward from there to be at BYU
in ninety eight. And you know that Lavelle Edwards at
that time was a roll around of the golf cart coach.
You know, he had his coordinators that did everything for him,
and so he'd make his appearances in practice and roll around.
Will come to the game of the Utah game that week.
He had us all huddle up around and we had
a big red tackling Demi And this is a year
before he retired. He threw that thing on the ground
and started kicking it to get us all hyped up.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 4: It was probably one of the greatest things I ever
seen Coach Edwards do. And and then that year we
went on on to we played it at in Salt
Lake City at Rice Cycles and we ended up. Let's see,
they had the best kicker in the nation, one of
the top kickers in the nation, and we brought him
down to the very end of the game where he
had a chance for I think it was like a
thirty eight yard field goal, just at gimme field goal,
and he hit the goalpost and.
Speaker 3: Everyone stormed around the field.
Speaker 4: And then as much as you know Derek, Derek Stevens
in our middle linebacker, his dad was in the in
the stands on the front row and a Utah fan
was getting in a fight with him, and Derek jumped
into the stands to join the fight as Derek's dad
laid out the the Utah fan and gave up bloody nose.
And yes, great memories. It's such a great rivalry. And
I feel like I'm really excited that we're going to
have the big the group out there on the Saturday morning, UH,
to really really highlight what this rivalry is.
Speaker 1: Great stories.
Speaker 2: I mean, look everybody, I think has a story or
two about this rivalry game as a fan, as a
as a media member, as a football player, and so
because of all those anecdotes, because of all those unique experiences,
you know, we love this rivalry game. And what's crazy
is how competitive it's been over the years, right, It
really has been extremely competitive.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit lopsided in the modern era.
Speaker 2: I think Kyle Winningham's twelve and two all time against
the Cougar Sins taking over in two thousand and five,
but he's on a two game losing streak right now.
Speaker 1: It's on a two game yeah, right now.
Speaker 5: You know, last year, as we start to renew the
rivalry and you get a lot of guys like I
had Qwan come come over to the shop last year,
and I just started feeding these guys what this rivalry
really is, to try to get them to understand how
big it is.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what. You know, if you talked
to Qan today about it, you.
Speaker 4: Know that that one of the biggest rivalry games ever
played in you know. And and that's the same with
Trey Alexander and and I mean these guys just dancing
around the inZone last year after the game, and but
really felt the energy of the rivalry and it's going
to be super excited.
Speaker 3: It's great to have two ranked teams.
Speaker 4: I wanted us to be undefeated and I wanted Utah
to be undefeated to make it even a bigger game.
Speaker 3: But I'm excited for the game.
Speaker 4: I think that we we got to minimize some of
the mistakes that we made against Arizona. We got to
really lock things down a little bit. And I think
we'll have some of our some of our go to
guys back with Jack Kelly and and uh, you know,
I haven't heard on Raider Demuney.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping Raiders raiders back.
Speaker 4: When he took that hard hit to the ribs, you
know that that looked painful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I gotta correct myself. I was doing my
Mathew Gricley. Kyle Whittingham's eleven and five all time against
the bau Cougars since two thousand and five as the
head coach.
Speaker 3: But do you think he came back to I.
Speaker 2: Do I think his legacy? My theory is this, My
thesis is this. I guess I should pose the question first,
is Kyle Whittingham's legacy as the greatest coach in Utah
football history, based more so off of his dominance versus
BYU okay or his double digit win seasons and shared
conference championships in the Pac twelve and really never truly
getting over the hump into that elite status, right, like
you know which one is it? More so based off
of and I tend to lean more towards the rivalry
game than what he's done outside of the rivalry game.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts, I think.
Speaker 4: It depends on who you ask, right and uh and
and after Saturday, I.
Speaker 3: Think some people's opinions might change. You know.
Speaker 4: I think Utah fans going into this game, it's a
it's a huge one for his legacy, you know, whether
or not it ends up being that, you know, I
don't necessarily think so. I think he has been a
great coach. He's been great for the state of Utah.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: He he's a players coach, just like Colonia is. And
and I know that that his players love to play
for him. He's done a lot for the university. And
you know, let's be real, he's a he's a BYU alumni.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, the greatness comes from the fount of
of b Yu right.
Speaker 1: The Provo. It does the Provo pipeline.
Speaker 2: If you will look at all the coaches in the
NFL in college foot ball, you know they came out
of BYU.
Speaker 1: It was a good one.
Speaker 2: There's a great pipeline coming out of Provo right now, there.
Speaker 3: Is how do well? And for me, you know, I
look at this game.
Speaker 4: You know I never wanted Utah to win it, and
then all of a sudden, my teammates were coaching at Utah.
You know, I had I had Klate and a Rod
and then Jay Hill from Rix was coaching there. So
everything kind of changed at one point where it's like,
you know, I wanted Utah to win their games, except
I want them to always to lose to Beway.
Speaker 3: You every year.
Speaker 2: Totally get it. So how do you see this game
playing out? You know, they're from an objective metrics standpoint,
what they've been able to produce on the football field
thus far.
Speaker 1: They mirror each other to a degree. I mean they
really do.
Speaker 2: Sure they mirror each other, and they're more alike than
they are dissimilar. And they Utah is a slight favorite
heading into Lavelle Edwards Stadium, So I like that.
Speaker 1: What do you what do you make of his Well,
I mean I liked.
Speaker 4: That that that that we're the underdog at home with
a with a better ranking and a better record, because
that's going to drive some fuel into the players and
the coaches, uh.
Speaker 3: You know there.
Speaker 4: I feel like I watched you know, a number of
plays of the Utah name this past week against Arizona State,
and you know, I felt like they were they were
kind of one dimensional, you know, and in their attack.
Now now they didn't have to do much more because
they were pretty much rolling over Arizona State.
Speaker 3: But they are real similar, real similar. And that we've
got quarterbacks that can run the ball.
Speaker 4: We've got two offensive lines that are amazing, you know,
super strong, able to move the pile. That and I
think that in the end, the team that wins this game,
it's going to be down to that that the offensive
and defensive lines and who is able to control that
line and and that's really going to determine it. I
do think special team is going to play a big
role this week. These rivalry games bring out, in my opinion,
these the special teams extraordinaries. You know, with Keeland last
year on the kick return man, Parker's just just feels
like he's just close to breaking the punt.
Speaker 3: You know, so, I think the Special Team is gonna
play a big role this week.
Speaker 4: But man, I'm just excited this is that that week.
It's probably the only week that I post on my
Instagram stories every day about the rivalry.
Speaker 3: You know, just just a little bit.
Speaker 4: Started out with Max Hall of course, one of his
with his favorite interviews of all time. And you know,
so it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna
be interesting to kind of see who gets out and
who gets in front. These games are are momentum based games.
You know, we get whoever has that momentum is at
the end of the game that last five six minutes
of the game.
Speaker 3: The momentum is is typically who wins that game. So
it's it's going to be interesting to see who can
hold old more momentum throughout the entire game than the
other team. And I feel like that'll be the winner.
Speaker 2: Jared Bledshell Utah Protective Films Utapprotective Films dot com. What
offers do you have for our listeners for all of
our individuals listening in today, they're at Utah Protective Films.
Speaker 4: Well, if you mentioned Ben Krittle and ESPN the fan.
We'll give you fifteen percent off any of our services,
and you know, for a full vehicle, color change, pay protection,
film wrap, that savings can be pretty pretty good. We've had,
in fact, a customer that it was over at almost
a twelve hundred dollars savings with that discount.
Speaker 3: So we're happy to give it.
Speaker 4: We'd love to hear that you guys are listening to
Ben and supporting Ben and and yeah, we wonder you
think we can to support Ben and BYU football and yeah,
let's go go.
Speaker 1: Koog's love it man.
Speaker 2: Well, we appreciate you always joining us. A couple lest
things before we let you go. What was your reaction
when you saw James Franklin being fired from Penn State after,
you know, being a top ten coach in college football
over the last decade. I mean, like he was in
the colleg football Playoff in the semi finals last year
and all of a sudden, he's five hundred through what
six games or so, and the donor base, the fan base,
the athletic department is kicking him to the curb and
paying him almost fifty million while doing it. They they
are hoping that somehow, who's the who's the most beautiful
woman right now in.
Speaker 1: The in the world is it?
Speaker 2: They're they're dumping their wife of ten years, twelve years,
hoping that somehow, some way, what like Sidney Sweeney's gonna
answer their call, answer their text, answer their DMA.
Speaker 1: Jalos still up there, but you know, jos Man, Hey, hey,
Jalo's getting old.
Speaker 2: He's just an like they are hoping like, Hey, I
hope they answered. I hope Sidney Swinny answers might call,
you know, hopefully fingers crossed.
Speaker 1: Sorry, we got a lot to offer here at Penn State.
We have a lot to offer.
Speaker 4: So my feeling initially when I heard it, I was
kind of embarrassed for the program all together, for the
athletic department. I felt like, I'm not a Penn State fan,
but I felt let down that they could let basically
the expectations are excellent or you're out.
Speaker 3: That's it. That's it.
Speaker 4: You can't have a bad season, according to the Penn
State administration. And yeah, that's kind of the real feeling
that I had. I was just embarrassed by how they
handled that. You you you're not going to have an
exceptional season every single year.
Speaker 3: There's so many factors that play into that. So and
and in the end, let's say they go.
Speaker 4: And get the higher that they want, right or they
get the the dream candidate that they they always thought
they wanted and the guy comes in and and and
half the half the players transfer out right and he
starts over and has a bad season next year? Are
you going to fire him now? Or are you going
to give him a chance to have a bad season?
You know, so they've set a precedence that is it's
it's gonna be hard to hold every single guy to
that same standard, or you're going to be driving through
coaches year after year and uh it, and and the
grass isn't always greener. I think that he absolutely should
have given him through the end of this year to
see if he could turn that thing around. And let's
look at some of the teams they play, like U C.
L A Is coming coming out to be a pretty
darn good team now, right.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I I don't think that it was
the right move.
Speaker 4: I think that that the administration is allowing the donors
to do and have too much of a say in
the program itself. And uh to say that I I
hope it backfire as I don't because I don't hope
that for the players, But sometimes I hope it for
the administration because I don't think that they're looking at
it with the in the right perspective.
Speaker 2: What it shows me it's kind of the disconnect. Even
like if I take a study, an individual study the
PAC twelve for instance, and what led the PAC twelve
to die a slow and painful death.
Speaker 1: The administrators, the.
Speaker 2: Decision makers were so disconnected from the reality of the
college football situation, the game of the game, right, They
had no idea what was changing, They had no idea
what was going on. And do that humorous their pompous nature,
their entitlement, they fell prey to the pride cycle, right
and overvaluating themselves, overvalued themselves, etcetera. Like what's been happening
over the last five years with the transfer portal and
with the free market, capitalistic college football landscape that we're
living in now, is that you're becoming more like an
NFL league, which means the Kansas City Chiefs can beat
a team that I mean, what have they got to
five hundred now? Kansas City is right now at five hundred. Yeah, right,
Like you could be a five hundred team and still
make it into the playoffs because you're the best team
at the end of the year, but you're a three four,
five loss team, but you're the best team in the playoffs, right,
Because it's about trending in.
Speaker 1: The right doors. At the end of the year, you're
gonna see more parody.
Speaker 2: You're gonna see two and three loss teams eventually getting
into the college football playoff. That's what you're gonna see.
And there's way more parody. There's a reason why Nick
Saban's out of the business now. He saw the riding
on the wall. He knew he could not happen a
monopoly anymore. He knew it well.
Speaker 4: And the amount of money that's coming in from outside
sources that might not have been a fill with athletics
prior to nil and prior to these opportunities to make
money within the NCAA football industry.
Speaker 3: There's now there's so many more hands involved in each team.
Speaker 4: There's so much more money, millions and millions of dollars
that's coming in with expectations placed on that like these
guys aren't putting that money in without expectations, and so
I think there's just too much going on around some
of these teams where there's too many, too many hands donating,
too many hands that are saying, my money's here, and
I expect this out of my money. And if I'm
not getting this return or I'm not getting X, Y
and Z, then something has to change. And then the
pressure that they put on the administration's got to be
a mess.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the incompetence is seeing new levels in my opinion,
in this modern era from a leadership standpoint, you're seeing
it everywhere. Jared, we got to run, but it's always
a great segment move. I'd everyone head on over to
Utah Protective Films Utah Protective Films Dot com mention myself
for fifteen percent off any of their products or services.
Speaker 1: Jared, thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Thanks man, appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: All right, great stuff.
Speaker 2: That segment was brought to you by also the UTAIH
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