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nine ninety eight three, ESPN The Fan Stats f G.
Let's talk about stats. Ben Kretal and his team of
former players and insiders give you the latest stats, data
and analytics that are trending in the world of Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: Stats.
Speaker 4: Welcome back Cougar Sports one of three, nine ninety eight
point three, ESPN The Fan. I've been Truittal broadcasting from
our Vanderwell Studios Vanderwelth dot com. Get on a free
Q and A no obligation to invest Q and A
with our tax Maret Wealth Advisors, certified financial planners. They're
going to age in supporting your quest for financial stability
and sustaining ability. We're going to talk about stats here
with my good friend former teammate team captain Cameron Jensen
to general talking to some Cougar football want to talk
to some newcomers. How many newcomers do as be will
you have on the roster and who are we most
intrigued by? Where there are our eyes being casted right
now as we evaluate spring football camp.
Speaker 1: Kalani two thy twenty six.
Speaker 4: This segment's gonna be brought to you by Orthropos of
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Speaker 1: Into the season.
Speaker 4: Now, there's a number of newcomers that I am very
much intrigued by to watch. Obviously, have your transfers, your
main transfers, there's about there's nine main guys from the portal.
Two additional that were like pwos Obviously the Kdo lave right,
Jake Clifton linebackers, those were big gets for BYU. You
look at also the tight ends Walker Lions and Rogers,
Sally O Paga. Very much intrigued by those two guys.
Javin Williams defensive back from Mississippi State. You have three
offensive linemen, Zach Yamauchi, you have Junior Sea from Utah State,
so Zach was from Stanford, Junior Sea from Utah State,
and then Packe Finale from Washington and then Kyler Casper
wide receiver, a nice get in the portal. But you
also have guys that are true freshmen that are very
much intriguing, that can make an impact. And we've heard,
you know, a number of reports coming out that legend
Glasger looks really good. Guys like Devon Ekka could be,
could be you know, set up to compete at an
RB spot of prominence. We have other players too that
I think, you know, could get in the mix. I
like Braxton Lindsey coming off the edge. He's a big
time recruit. Really like him a lot. The Pula twins
Jaron and Kennan Pula stand out to me. Terrence Sarrion also,
his look good in drills, so really like Terren Serion
as well. Very fleet a foot, very quick, very shifty,
looks like he's got a simpler skill set to maybe
that of in a build similar to that of Parker Kingston.
Speaker 1: But Cameron'm gonna ask you.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know this team pretty well, You've you covered,
You're always watching, Hey, who's getting recruited, who are the
the newcomers, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Who are you most intrigued by? And why?
Speaker 3: Well, Ben, He's still some of my thunder there.
Speaker 1: But I'm there's a lot of guys.
Speaker 5: Guys, But Devonik is what I want to start with.
When we look at the running back position, we learned
last year and we knew it that LJ can't carry
the load himself.
Speaker 3: We need two three guys.
Speaker 5: And I look at this freshman coming in, I hear
great things, looks good and is closing that gap. We
need some good two and threes. So when you look
at MOA and having a good freshman come in, I
like that. And I've really heard great things about Legend Glasker,
a cousin of Isaiah Glasker, tremendous speed ability, and you
just hear great things coming out of camp so far.
So obviously we look at that receiver position, losing our
main starters last year, and we have a lot of
shoes to fill there and I like what I see
from him. And then the tight end position, when you
look at the two Lions and Soliaponga. I look back
at our year there with Johnny Harlen and Daniel Coates,
having two solid wide receivers, and I like Carson Ryan
in the bowl game.
Speaker 3: I thought we used him.
Speaker 5: I wish we would have used him a little bit
more last year, but obviously that bowl game the strategy
was to really utilize him. So I like these two
tight ends coming in so I hear great things from them,
and having two good quality tight ends really does a
lot of things for you offensively.
Speaker 4: How difficult is it for a true freshman running back
or wide receiver to get into the rotation and be
a contributor in your opinion at BYU.
Speaker 5: Well, I think nowadays kids are so man they're so
well prepared. It's not as difficult to individual coaching all
that stuff. Yeah, like specializing all year round now focusing
in it seems like on one sport, which I'm not
a fan of, but I think you can and especially
when you have an LJ.
Speaker 3: Martin, you're not that guy.
Speaker 5: You have somebody that you can lean on that you
can go in the off season with learning from. To
have that mentor in there really speeds up that process.
And so when you look at a guy like him
and Moa and others fighting for that position. But I like,
as that freshman, he's coming in and you gotta have confidence.
You got to have you look at what Bar did.
That's so unique. The poise, the confidence. If you have that,
you can compete as a freshman. That's usually a thing.
There's abilities there, but it's that confidence. That jump from
high school college is bigger, it seems like for some
players than others. But if you can handle it mentally,
deal with all that stuff, look through the fog of war,
I think you can do it.
Speaker 4: So we give you some stats on these on these
newcomers that you mentioned. Legend Glasgar six to two one
seventy five at of Lehigh High School, three star recruit
per two four seven was recruited by Kansas State, Utah
kal Calorado State and Utah State. Three time All Region,
two time All State MVP on four and fifty seven
total receiving yards as a senior March six, six hundred
and seventy six yards on thirty seven receptions with nine touchdowns,
and added an additional two hundred and six rushing yards
on eleven carries with two touchdowns, and then in twenty
twenty four junior season, Tali's seven or eighty one yards
on thirty seven catches and eleven touchdowns. He is the
cousin of BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasger.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we need that, Ben, I think we need We're
gonna have a strong running game with LJ. We need
to have people that can extend the field downfield. And
you look at I just hear great things about legend
his ability to do that stretch field with speed and
to make the play on the one and one balls
when you're man on down. And if we have players
like that, that really opens up what Bear can do
in our running game. So I look at I just
I hope he keeps developing. Yeah, because man, we lost
a lot of guys last year and really only Jojo
comes back with twenty five catches leading that group.
Speaker 3: Positions wide open.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is wide open. Give me your thoughts real
quick on Bear Bachmeier. The one weakness that I would
say he has is just he doesn't have an elite
arm strength. He's got good, you know, good arm strength.
I think good enough arm strength. Do you think with
an off season under his belt, have you seen in
your you know history as a football analyst as a
football player, coaching football guys that can like increase their
arm strength from season to season.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah. I thought John did that as his
career progress. He always had great arm strength, but I
saw him making throws junior and senior year and I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1: He's he increased his velocity.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he could make different throws than he could
But yeah, I mean, obviously we expect a lot from
Bear what he was able to do. He didn't even
go to spring ball, just shows up in fall hand
the offseason. I mean, that's unbelievable. And then to be
the starting quarterback and then win twelve games. Yeah, And
so obviously I have a lot of expectations on his
growth going in from freshman to software. Everyone has that
cliche statement, if the most growth, you know, developed time
year one to year two. So I hope to see that.
But where I want to see it beIN is that
arm strength and our ability to throw the ball downfield.
I thought when we went up against Texas Tech, that
was one thing that was missing. We couldn't stretch the field.
They obviously had a talented defense, so they could stop
the run enough to put us in those situations, and
we just didn't have an answer for it. For Bear
throwing the ball and then receivers winning the one on one.
We had Jojo drop a ball, we had Chase Roberts
on phade route not winning those one on one. So
that's the one thing I want to see, especially with Bear,
that development him putting the position to stretch the field
and having other players make plays. But that's where I
think we all want to see. What's when he comes
out fall camp those first couple of games. What's that
ball going to look by?
Speaker 3: How are we going to stretch the field downfield? And
what's that what does that look like?
Speaker 4: One more newcomer, the true freshman, Davon Aka. I thought
it was interesting. Five to eleven, one to ninety five.
They're both on le Hig High School. I know, pretty crazy, yeah,
and really good football player. Obviously he's trained up by
Luke Kahn, former Rix College football player.
Speaker 1: By the way, Lucan.
Speaker 4: Luke formerly Nuclear we can't talk about I know, I know,
we can't talk about. You and Jason kick it on
here and you guy, you guys get really angry about it.
But he also Jamal Williams has been mentoring Devon Eka
this offseason. He's a three star recruit twenty four seven
with a composite score of eighty five uhs AA All
Region Team three thou two hundred and seventy six total
rushing yards over his high school career, including one thousand
and thirty eighty senior year in one thousand and thirty six
is sophomore year. Eight hundred and sixty one total receiving
yards in his high school career, including three hundred and
twenty two his senior and three hundred and ten his
junior year. So helped the Lehigh win a state title
and you know in his time there, and also helped
Lehigh win a baseball state titles.
Speaker 1: So you talk about the multi.
Speaker 4: Sport athlete like he still played baseball in high school.
Was also recruited by Montana State, Weaver State, Sanego State,
San Jose State, Sacramento State, Idaho State, Utah State, Northern
Arizona UNLV. I think this was a good get for
by What do you think Devon can do this year?
What role can he play in that running back room?
Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be significant.
Speaker 5: I almost don't want to talk too much about him because,
like Roderick said, you know there's.
Speaker 3: People listening to transferred portal. He goes.
Speaker 5: He doesn't want to mention anything. So if there was
one name, I mean, like I said, Legend, Glasker and
von Ka. I think he's gonna have significant playing time.
I think he's a great combination with LJ. I think
he's gonna play a lot of football this year, and
I'm glad that we're seeing that development in the RB two.
Speaker 3: And then throw Mowen on these other guys in there.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be really competitive, so they'll push each other,
and then you have that LJ who can mentor. I mean,
Lj's rated the number one running back coming back this
year in old college football. What is the last time
be will you had that? I don't know if that's
ever been the case. So it's great to have that
to have him, and he can really help develop these guys.
But I think Devanni's gonna play significant role. I think he,
in my opinion, will be running back to I love
that though.
Speaker 4: That saw Your stats of the day brought to you
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Speaker 2: For the college football teams you care about wins, losses,
and everything in between.
Speaker 1: We talk it through on.
Speaker 2: One oh three nine and ninety eight three ESPN. The
band The Madness 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's Awards with Ben Grimmin.
Speaker 4: Who welcome back Cougar Sports one of three nine ninety
eight point three GS me and the fan. I've been
prito broadcasting from our Vanderwild Studios vanderwil dot com. Get
on that free Q and A no obligation to invest
Q and A with our tax more Wealth Advisors NFLPA
Certified Financial Planners Blaine Anderson and a screw one Agent
Sports in that quest for financial stability and sustainability. I
got Cameron Jensen by my side. We're gonna talk a
little college basketball here in this segment. A couple of things.
What does it mean Belly's, you know, was having a
great season, maybe an elite season, and now they've trended
towards having a good, too solid season with so many
losses down the stretch. Yet they were able to sign
Bruce Brance the thirty a five star recruit. I want
to discuss that. Also, I want to kind of grate
out these newcomers. There's a Travis Brandham of two four
to seven Sports is ranked out the new combers are
the Big twelve top transfers, and we all know Rob
right the third is going to be in the mix there.
He's been really good offensively, maybe we need him to
be a little bit better defensively.
Speaker 1: We'll break that down.
Speaker 4: Also want to discuss the BYU Texas Tech matchup and
get into a few other nuggets as it pertains to
BYU basketball.
Speaker 1: So stay tuned.
Speaker 4: It's going to be brought to you by our good
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Speaker 1: First thing I want to break down is this BYU basketball.
Speaker 4: Cameron has unfortunately over the last month disappointed Cougar Nation.
BYU fans feel like the ROI is not there, the
expectation has not been met. Now there's grace, you know,
they have like five season aning injuries and all those things,
but even then they feel a little bit disillusioned with
this team.
Speaker 3: Not so fast.
Speaker 4: They just signed a five star recruit and Bruce Branch
the third one of the best prospects.
Speaker 1: In the nation.
Speaker 4: He's gonna be a onehy done. In fact, he was
supposed to be a part of the twenty twenty seven class.
He he reclassified and now he's gonna play for the
Cougs this next season.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 4: Like, you give me your analysis like, by yeah, solid season,
they could be I think latest Monardi projection seven seed.
That's great, that's solid, but not where they had initially
started out and still putting out some positive propaganda out
there despite going through some vicissitudes and some adversity.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, obviously the season hasn't gone to the way we thought.
But yeah, it says a lot. I think we're all
worried with brands hearing that he was leaning towards BYU,
but then this season hasn't gone anywhere near what we wanted.
But the fact he still commits I think it says
a lot about KY. I mean, he's done this three
years in a row. The commitment level and his ability
to prepare players for the NFL, and I think culture wise,
obviously Branches talked to AJ, he's talked to other players
on the team, and they're not saying, hey, I don't know.
This hasn't been what I thought. It's been what it had.
I mean obviously production on the court, but again been
there have been those injuries. So I think it says
a lot with k K why he's been able to
do and what players are still saying about the program,
their minds are still appy YU. Yes, it hasn't gone
the way that sometimes happens, but it says a lot.
And I mean, have three years in a row, a
five star recruit. I love what he's building. But yeah,
I think it says a lot that he still committed
and stayed the course.
Speaker 4: You're gonna need great players to hopefully beat Texas Tech
in the future and coming up BYU prepping for that,
and I think it's a good sign.
Speaker 1: It's a good sign. It's a great sign.
Speaker 5: That a bad sign if he didn't commit, Yeah, if
he did come to all reports said he was leaning
towards it, and then if the product, but yeah, he
did stay.
Speaker 4: USC was the other team that they were they were
battling against. He's a product out Arizona.
Speaker 1: They got him. They got Bruce Branch the third.
Speaker 4: So let's let's sequence this over to tomorrow night's matchup
b YU twenty and ten on the season eight to
nine in Big twelve twenty, we got to get to
five hundred. We've got to have a five hundred seas
yet be below five hundred and Big twelve play that
would be that would be that would be hurtful that
it's not devastating, but it's hurtful. Texas Tech is twenty
two and eight on the Season twelve and five and
Big twelve play. They're number ten in the Nations and
eight thirty PM kick tip off. B YU was a
slight favorite per ESPN Analytics fifty nine point three percent
chance of victory.
Speaker 1: But I imagine Vegas is not favoring by y'all.
Speaker 4: Try to find that number that line here momentarily, but
it's it's gonna be a tough one, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: Even though JT.
Speaker 4: Toppin is not playing for Tech, they still have a
tremendous amount of talent. You're at the Marriott Center and
you hope, somehow, some way BYU who has lost four
out of their last five.
Speaker 1: Games, and many more than that.
Speaker 4: You go back to like third the last thirteen games,
they have struggled to find a way to win, even
when they do win by the skin of their teeth.
Seems like that Baylor game was too close for comfort.
Colorado game was too close for comfort. The Ioways stay
game was a nice victory. The Utah game at home
was nice. That was a ninety one seventy eight victory.
But they've definitely struggled. One of the things that Ky
stated here in the post game, He's like, look, I
just I got to get this team believing in themselves
once again. Give me the balance here between accountability approach
and the confidence approach that coaches take depending on the time,
the season, it's a balance.
Speaker 1: It's nuanced. Give me your thoughts on this.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I have a set answer for that. Man.
Speaker 5: It depends on so many factors where the teams out,
If their confidence is low, are they not preparing? It
really goes and how are they preparing for these games?
What's their practices like? And only Khy knows that. And
sometimes it is you got to get back hey, and
discipline sometimes they need that. Sometimes it's confidence. You focus
on the good things rather than pointing out, hey, here's
what we did do well. Let's build around this.
Speaker 1: What's highlight the entire highlights.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think when when when the coach comes out,
he knows, he sees, he feels the pulse on the team,
he sees we need confidence and that's what he's folking
focusing on. It says yeah, and so you can't. It
is a fine line. You don't focus on the negative.
You focus on what is positive, not neglect those things,
improve them. But say here's what we do. Let's build
upon it, no.
Speaker 1: Doubt about it.
Speaker 4: So he's trying to instill confidence back in this squad,
and you gotta get guys like aj to remain confident.
Rob Right, the thirds will remain confident. They've been scores
all season long. But guys like Alexi Coastick, you know,
Cannard Davis Junior, who need him to step up. Kevin
Kata need him to step up a high low bucket witch.
He's not been a bucket viitch. He's been a Boskovic.
We need him to be the bucket bitch. So we
got to find ways to Yeah, yeah, I think the
better Terminali's Brickovich. Yeah yeah, he's the opposite of that.
But real quick, I will say that Rob Right the third,
although has struggled defensively, he's been tremendous offensively and it's
one of the reasons why Travis Branham but two four
seven Sports has labeled him as one of the top
ten transfers in college basketball. Remember, he was the number
one point guard in the transfer portal of this last offseason, Vay,
you got their guy. Even though he has some deficiencies
in some areas, he is average eighteen point four points
per game, three point four rebounds, three point five rebounds,
four point seven sister per game, and one point three
steals per game. Statistic Travis Brandham says Rob Wright should
have been number one on this list after his high
profile transfer from Baylor last spring.
Speaker 1: He was number four in his list. Right.
Speaker 4: While Wright has had some great moments as a score, playmaker,
and even defender, he has been in a funk.
Speaker 1: As of late.
Speaker 4: Right, Richie Saunders and Aj Debonsa made for a potent
trio as there is in college basketball, but Wright has
been regressing along with BYU as an entire unit. Wright's
competitiveness has been spotty at best. He points this out.
I think this is interesting. He's saying he's not competitive
and that's body language, right. People that watch the game
highlighted by some selfish moments that have the Cougars reeling
heading into the Big Twelve tournament. If Kevin Young wants
to make another deep run, Right will have to respond
and be a key driver alongside Devonsa to make any noise.
So I think it's interesting that Travis points out, you know,
last year, right, he was the number one point guard
and he was, according to many like one of the
number like the number one transfer in in the transfer portal.
Speaker 1: He was up there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I saw the game against Baylor that he played.
He seemed like a different player that game against him.
Obviously transferred from there, there's always a little more motivation.
But I noticed what he said about the body language.
He played that game like man, he wanted to win
that game. He played with intent.
Speaker 4: And granted, this is like the Big twelve transfers alone.
Big twelve has, undoubtedly he stayed had been the most
competitively you know of college basketball this season, with five
teams ranked inside the top fifteen in the latest AP poll.
And so he's breaking it down, and that's what I mean.
I should have clarified, you know, Rob Wright should have
been he was the you know, one of the best
transfers in college basketball, and you thought he was going
to be the best transfer in the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: He's only listed as number four.
Speaker 4: And some of that has to do with that regression,
lack of maybe effort, lack of execution. He's he's regressed
along with this team. And part of it has to
do with I just don't think he's a He's a
born leader. And when you're not a born leader, or
if you haven't developed into a leader, he's east trying
to develop into a leader. Kay, why's actually called.
Speaker 5: That outch that Ritchie losing Richie? That was the one
thing where AJ had a stand play that role. And
same with Right and he said to there it's harder
for them and there is leadership with different approaches, but
when you lose a guy like Richie, you need that
from those other players.
Speaker 1: No doubt about it.
Speaker 4: A couple last things before we go to break and
this BYU basketball segment brought to you. Buy our good
friends at Ruby's Indrubies in dot Com, Hike, Miike, Razor,
and Horseback right through them hoodos of Bryce Canyon. You
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Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 4: This BAU basketball team has to figure out who they are,
what they're gonna do defensively. I chatted with Chris Collins,
with former b YU big man and the head coach
for the Provo Bulldogs stay Champ being Bulldogs, And I
asked him, like, Hey, which route do you go? Do
you do you do you just you know, go to
like a two three zone, one three run kind of
switch it up a little bit, or do you continue
to try to find ways to to communicate better and
get back to your fundamentals and just trying to play
your man to man defense that has struggled significantly all
season long.
Speaker 1: And I thought he had some intriguing things to say.
Speaker 4: He said, like, my natural tendency is to focus on
the fundamentals and keep playing you know what you've been playing,
and hopefully you can communicate better. But he understands there
there there may be an opportunity to to maybe switch
up your defenses a little bit, show them different looks.
Speaker 1: Uh, there's a zone.
Speaker 4: Without JT Topping on the court. Is that better than
playing man?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
Speaker 4: We'll see how Tim Fanning approaches this. Right now, you're
getting to the point though in the season where BYU
fans are becoming impatient and they're beginning to blame coaches
and scheme right uh, and and they're looking at who
the defensive coordinator is so you're beginning to see some
of that. Those those murmurings, the the the the they're
they're getting a little impatient with the scheme right now.
Uh and and the effort uh and and those I
mean when is that a player issue? Is that a
coaching issue? A combination of both? Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think it's a combination of both. Obviously it comes
to effort defense. Everybody knows that when you play defense,
it's an effort thing.
Speaker 3: And you wonder that.
Speaker 5: To me, it starts with the players that and but
I look at it. I think with this team it's
its mixture of both. I can't put it on players
or coaches. I think it's the whole team, coaching staff
and players. The defense has been that bad, you need
to look at everything.
Speaker 4: One last recruiting note for BA Bastball after de committing
from Oregon State, juco Ford Kahoo Tretcher has heard from
the following schools. He's a Eastern Arizona guille Monster. Shoutout
to them monsters. Oh yes, mascot by dude, such a
freaking awesome mascot. I mean, who who would want to
mess with a HeLa monster. They have locking jaws, they
can be fast when they need to be. You know,
they're kind of like the the reptilian honey badgers what
they are. They're like a reptilian honeybet. That's a good
company there, Oh yeah, great company, no doubt. But BYU, Nebraska,
Penn State, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, San Francisco, TCU,
you know, and many more have reached out to him.
Speaker 1: He's over.
Speaker 4: He's averaging thirteen point six points per game, six point
one rebounds, forty nine point eight percent from the field,
and forty one point two percent from the three point line.
Son I saw prospect that BYU has reached out to
Eastern Nerves on a junior college prospect CAHU run not.
Speaker 6: All three point nine and ninety eight point three the fan,
catch Bryce and Bianucci in the morning, seven to ten,
me on the herd ten to one, and finally it's
Cougar Sports from two to six on one oh three
point nine and ninety eight point three the fan, you.
Speaker 2: Were listening to Cougar Sports with Ben Grittle and it's
I'm for a Cougar insider report. Now let's get that
for a prietary inside scoop on Cougar Sports from Critle.
Speaker 4: Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine nine eight
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a former b y U great by my side to
give us a little detail on kelipaping as a player
and a coach. The second is going to be brought
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O' Tires and American Fork. All right, let's welcome in
the number fifteen all time tackler and BYU football history
just to scoach under three hundred tackles as a BYU player,
my team captain. We got the general brand or we
got the general Cameron Jensen here two years been.
Speaker 3: Let's say that was only three years of play. Let's remember, yeah,
only guy, all these.
Speaker 1: Other guys, all these other guys rob four years.
Speaker 5: Probably a couple of red shirt years where they played
a couple of games. Come on, give you credit three.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think Max Tooley may have had
a he had five years because he had like a
he had a COVID.
Speaker 3: There throw COVID years in there. You know, I keep
dropping down on the list.
Speaker 1: Though, Yeah, like Shane Mirror brick Shan he had four,
four years, et cetera.
Speaker 4: So yeah, because remember you had to go to ju
Co route because Levell wanted. You know, we had had
a prototype linebacker apparently, and remember.
Speaker 3: The story I didn't. I didn't didn't fit.
Speaker 1: The mold at the time.
Speaker 4: You fit the mold after you had two hundred tackles
at Rick's College before your mission, and when everybody else
started knock on it, all of a sudden, you fit
the mold real good.
Speaker 5: Oh, I still wish Rix was around. That was such
a great opportunity for me and a lot of players
that maybe don't get to BYU. And we talked about
what a great pipeline it was, and look at me,
what it did for me is great. So it's sad
to hear those days, the old Ricks days, but man,
it was great for me.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: Kelly was also Kelly Pepingka was a transfer. He was
at Utah State, right, So he came down from Utah
State after a season and after I believe his mission
and became a scout teamer and I think five I
was on the scout team with him and then became
a rotational and then a starter and a team captain.
Speaker 1: Who's Kelly papinga to you? Cameron. You've been around him
for a long time.
Speaker 4: You played with him you were in the same room
with him, you were coached next to him, How would
you describe K pop?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: K pop?
Speaker 5: Man, I can't speak highly enough of him. And then
his brother two is as I started it. I started
with Brady, that's his roommate, yea. So it's fun to
see the differences there. But they have that pupinga gene
in him, which is so unique. But man, I remember Kelly,
obviously red shirt of a year and then two thousand
and six, played outside, and then when he was transitioning
in two thousand and seven, he'd ask me a lot
and I remember coming to me and saying, hey, I
want to be the best of this position, because they
then moved him from outside to play the buck positions,
which was field side inside at the time. And I
remember saying, man, I've watched every game you played in
this past year, like three or four times, just just
the x's and o's, the love of the game that
he had and the determination to do all he could
to prepare. He's an x's and O guy and and
not every player is like that.
Speaker 1: And you know that film he was a film guy,
and you know how that goes watching.
Speaker 5: And he is and That's what I want to say
about him. He is that way, and I know these
things are going to translate into being successful. And one
of the things, I mean, he's already had one one
of the biggest battles been we had Jay Hill, phenomenal
defense coordinator, head coach before leave to Michigan, and the
way he was to keep this team together not many
players transferred. Has got this coaching staffer like just his
ability to retain. And he did that because people believe
in him. People believe that he's the future, that they
wanted to play for him, and for him to do
that is remarkable. His ability to retain and capture the
hearts and minds of the player. He's already had one
of the biggest wins because scheme. I know he'll do well.
He's been doing this for seventeen years. It's crazy to
think it's been seventeen years. I'm like, Brady Pingas Kelly's
defensive coordinator. I'm like, it's been seventeen years. But I
know he'll do well. He learned under Bronco. He's got
Kelane there, he learned under Jay Hill. He's got Gary
Anderson with him, He's got Justin enna there, he's been
in the war room with these schemes, so I was
always he'll do well with that. He's had great experience,
they hired within. He knows this defense. He's got the
players around her to be successful. Is that where he
has the hearts and minds of this team, like, no,
I'm not leaving in this day and era, retaining is
absolutely important and he was able to do that.
Speaker 3: And so I see that.
Speaker 5: And then also he's a guy that will play to win,
not to lose. Like he saw who does special teams.
That's how he's gonna play defenses. He's gonna be aggressive.
If he sees it opening, he was gonna say we're
gonna do it.
Speaker 1: There's so many fake faith like field goals, fake punts.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 5: I like it, And that fits Kane's style. He's gonna
he's gonna play to win and not to lose. Yeah,
And he's gonna put it all out there. And he's
a guy that I always say he can see through
the fog of war when all chaos is going around,
he'll see through it and stick to the numbers, stick
to his game plan and say, no, we're gonna do this.
I believe in it, and it's and he's not gonna
be fearful. And I love that as a defensive coordinator
holds his composure well. He has the hearts and mind
of the players, and I just love what he did
with special teams and seeing that translate to defense. With
all the tutelage and all the great players around him
and the coaching staff, I just think it's gonna be
bound for success.
Speaker 3: And I just love who he is as a player.
Speaker 1: It's in true.
Speaker 4: You bring it out one of the the you know,
it's nice to have. Like you know, we have these anecdotes.
We see it, right, he's aggressive. We know that there's
been success on special teams through the kicking game, kick cover,
punt return game, all those things, touchdowns, turnovers. I've never
seen so many turnovers created through punt cover. Yeah, it's insane,
Like since he arrived, like we have, it's really insane.
Speaker 1: How I've never seen that in my life.
Speaker 4: And look, yeah, the punt punt return is hard as
a returner and the muff punts. But like just there's
there's been a lot of crazy things that have happened,
and I think much of it stems from like kind
of the the tension and pressure that the punt cover
team puts on the return team, and I.
Speaker 1: Think you gotta give credit to k Pop there.
Speaker 4: The other thing is it's nice to have an objective
analytic to coincide with your anecdote, your kind of subjective
eye test and ESPN SP plus metric.
Speaker 1: Over the last three years on average is that.
Speaker 4: They are top twenty five special teams in the country
and at times they've been elite, like number four, number
six in the nation. They had to drop this last year,
and it started with Tech the first Texas Tech Game,
which I know, yeah, I know KPO's pretty pissed off
about how how it trended later on.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't a bad year. They were still like
in the fifties or something like that.
Speaker 5: But what you saw with special teams and what I've
seen from Kelly's his ability to motivate and inspire special teams.
There was an excitement about it, and that's kind of
hard sometimes in the program where he had starters playing,
and so his ability to do that and I know
it'll translate well into the defense. He just has that
ability to motivate, inspire and he gives a lot of
empowerment to the team. Those guys believe in him. They
see it, and it showed with all of them staying
and wanting to be part of that future with him.
So you saw it on special teams and I'm excited
to see that translate to a whole defense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's awesome. And look, you mentioned the personnel that
they retained. I mean, you watch this team, You've been
watching it for the last you know, you know forever,
you watch every single year, very much invested. Uh, how
how talent written are we? What's our depth?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: What do you like about our defense right now? From
a talent standpoint?
Speaker 5: Well, I love our returners on all three levels, which
is really important to have that leadership. Obviously you have
Glasger Sarah Ulave, who is a transfer cal which I
hear great things, a ton of vassa, the fact he
stayed to have him anchoring that defensive line, and then Sawtuala,
I mean you just see glimpses of him last year,
the playmaking ability and the athlete he is all around safety.
I'm really excited to have him back. And then the
great cornerbacks and just this defense is balanced on all
three levels. I think we're starting to get more depth
with it that we can do retain that throughout the
throughout the year. So I just think on all three
levels having key pieces coming back, Yeah, we want we
lost Jack Kelly, but we've got some guys coming back
some depth, and I think overall we have that and
so that the depth is in developing that. But all
three levels having key starters come back Ben is huge
in the same scheme. They're not switching scheme. This is
gonna be the same Brea or Kelly's gonna put some
nuances to it, but you have it. They're they're familiar
with the defense, they can start doing more things and
all three levels you have key piece and you could
extend that to the offense as well, but defensively, just
having those leaderships in all three is important.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's your Cougar inside report broad to you buy
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