Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate the greggest team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all about glory on
the grid.
Speaker 2: I let's talk some college football on Cougar Sports with
Ben Crew. Welcome back in your sports one of three
nine ninet eight point three ESBA the Fan, I've met
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Here on your Utah ESPN Radio Net. We're gonna welcome
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to the hotline. Welcome in Big twelve insider representing the
Locked On network. Locked On Big twelve hosts. We got
Drake C. Toll on the line. Drake, how you living?
Speaker 1: Ben? It's fun. I'm sitting right here Sundays Resort, right
outside of Provo, Utah, getting ready for Arizona BYU tonight
in the Marriott Center. Could not be more excited to
be back out west and on the air with you.
Speaker 2: How lovely you, Sundt. That's where we got married, me
and my wonderful wife, my better half. That's one of
my favorite places on earth, the Foundry. Love that place.
They don't pay for me to say these things. By
the way, love it all. The Cowboy Bar there, the
the Owl Bar, if you will, that place is great
as well.
Speaker 1: Love it. The whole experience has been awesome. You know,
it's interesting to hear a lot of YU fans like, oh, Sunday,
that is right there, isn't it? Like, yeah, it's just
right there. You can go. You know, they allow that
you can do it. So I'm taking full advantage this week.
It's been a great place to stay and look, I
could not be more comfortable, rested, and ready to go
for tonight. It's a huge night in Oops. I don't
we'll talk a lot about.
Speaker 2: Boom shocka Locke. I know the dust is settled on
the college football season. How would you evaluate how would
you grate out the Big Twelve college football season?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think the Big Twelve was far better in
twenty twenty five compared to twenty twenty four, just because
we had actually teams in the conversation, teams competing at
the top of college football, Texas Tech being one of them.
You know, the way America viewed the ACC this year
with Duke and oh no Virginia and wow, Miami sneaks
in despite not winning the conference, That's kind of how
the Big Twelve was viewed in twenty twenty four. Arizona
State end, we were the league that got a team
in due to the loophole in the rules, and this
year it wasn't like that we didn't have to get
a lifeline given by some rule that a conference chimpion
needs to be in the in the top four or
the top two wealth this year Texas Tech certainly earned it.
Now at the same time, you feel completely scorned if
you're a BYU fan and scorned if you're Bret, you're
should feel scorned. His purpose has not sounded that way.
But a Big twelve fan Big Twelve, you know, fans
and those who root for the conference, how how did
you leave BYU out and just sit on your love
and say that's okay? I think you look at the
scope of this season side of the Texas Tech got
it to due. But you wonder how Utah and BYU
Houston Arizona did not get must respect and you worry
about your standing for college football to come based on
how you were treated in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Did you do you feel like, who's your favorite right
now to win the Big Twelve? I know we're doing
all these way too early or rankings and ratings. Who's
your way too early? What's your way too the rankings?
Maybe one through five of the Big Twelve? I didn't
prep you for this, but you know, give me some
of your favorites here to win the conference twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: If you could. I think BYU, Texas Tech, and Shuston
A will have to squarely be in that conversation. Think
about this, then, is a really strong status one of
who's gonna be good again? Texas Tech returns six thousand,
seven ninety nine snaps on the offensive line BYU returns
six thousand, three hundred and seventy. Both of those are
top fifteen in the country. That shows me they will
both have staying power in the conference because they're o
lines that were both quite solid will earn next season.
I think that Shuston, who has six thousand, five hundred
and twenty two slightly about BYU, will also be in
that mix and in that conversation. Arizona is still a
team to watch, so I think given their schedule, they
will take a slight dip this year, but I I'm
leaning on Texas Tech, BYU s Houston. The other two
teams that would throw in that five would still be
Utah's because I think the Uths will start five to
oho six and five and one this season and have
a really nice path to early success that will propel
them into a comfortable spot in the late season. But
watch out for Oklahoma State. They said, Hey, whatever Kurt
Signetti do can do, we can do as well. They
returned then the fifth most snaps on their offensive line
in the country. Now, their offensive line was terrible, But
here's what that means. It means they can be picky,
they can be choosy, they can bring competition in and
still have guys who have played Oklahoma State with through
Messamaker at quarterback, Eric Morris's head coach, he said, what
Indiana did with James Madison Kurt Signetti, that whole rebuild,
we want to do the same thing. Will it work
day one?
Speaker 2: Ah?
Speaker 1: Yes, it will work. Will when you a national championship? No,
but it will help you compete in the Big twelve.
I think Oklahoma State ends up winning eight or nine
games this year in a complete turnaround. But you best
know that Texas Tech and BYU Houston they will be
the top three in the Big twelve. Again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oklahoma State has gone very aggressive in the portal too.
People don't realize that they're one of the better They
have one of the better portal hauls. I would say
they picked up some some pretty nice prospects from a
multitude of power five, power power four institutions.
Speaker 1: They did, and it's it's People are like, oh, it's
just North Texas, North, this is North Texas light kind
of yeah, a little bit, Actually, yeah it is. It's
a large portion of their transfers do come from North Texas.
But they also got most Phill up to third from Missouri,
Dominic Macon from Washington, Ei White from Penn State, through
Albery from Vanderbilt. The list goes on of players that
they went and grabbed from other power for schools like
SMU and Louisville and even Texas Tech. They are building
right now, not just from North Texas. They're going and
grabbing legitimate guys out of the transfer portal. But yeah,
there are three stars that ban. If we've learned anything
it's that the portal star system is broken. They're giving
stars to anybody and taking stars away from anybody. Oklahoma
State is grabbing guys who are great out of high school,
grabbing guys who were solid into powerful ranks, and they're
flipping them on their roster this year. I have a
lot of confidence what they're going to do. And then
if I look at YU and Texas Tech, they handled
the transfer portal similarly this year, which is a weird
thing to say because BYU is seventh in the Big
twelve Conference in Transfer portal rankings this year and Texas
Tech is second. They have twenty one commits versus Ye's nine.
But to the Cougars, most of the good guys are
coming back. Like the players are returning, you don't have
to replace that much. You're just kind of positive attrition
to get rid of the guys who weren't really contributors
to the guys who entered the portal, by and large,
weren't massive cruxes for BYU to win in twenty twenty five.
For Texas Tech, it's kind of the same thing. They
got twenty one guys, but a good portion of what
they're bringing in are players that are going to compete,
not start. They will compete for starting jobs and possibly start,
but not be instantly out yet that you know we're
gonna play you. And an exception to that rule be
Brendan Soars beat their quarterback, and an exception for BYU
would be their linebacking corpse. They brought guys in not
just to compete, but to start d one at the
linebacker position understanding what they're losing. And I like the
way that be to attacked the linebacker position of the
transfer portal. They did not say, Hey, let's just go
get a hodgepotch of everybody. They said, let's go get
what we need and from there allow the guys on
our current roster to compete.
Speaker 2: Do you believe that Brendan Soursby is an upgrade to
Baron Morton.
Speaker 1: Upgrade? Yes, savior of the program. No, can he win
a game of the college football playoffs? I do believe that,
But we got to keep in mind. And I watched
Swordsy this year. He didn't have a wealth of riches necessarily,
but the cover wasn't beyar. It's a decent Cincinnati roster
he was working with, and he was a fifty good quarterback.
I won't take that away from him. But was he
a five star in the portal? Was he an elite
portal pickup? Was he better than Josh Hooper? A better
pickup than Josh Hooper, ah better pick up than Sam
levitt Ay? But no, I don't remember Brendan Sorsby for
the first seven games of the season. I remember him
for the last five games of the year.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I mean, I look, I'm a what have you done
to me lately? Kind of guy. People are forgetting the
drop off, the fall off a Cincinnati had this year,
Brendan Soarsy had this year. So I think the Texas
Tech is better with Sworsby versus Baron Morton. Yes, better
is the right word. Okay, signing a National championship caliber quarterback,
I cannot say yes at this time.
Speaker 2: We got Drake Tole here on ESPN. The fan Locked on,
locked on Big twelve is what he represents, amongst other things.
He's a very busy man. Give us a briefuffday really quick.
Because you have your own radio show now as well
as being a part of the Locked On Big twelve network.
You do a lot of things. You're moving to groove
and are you still part of the Savannah Banana's crew.
What's going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So play by play with the Savannah Bananas organization.
I'll be calling a game Friday part of our spring training.
We're getting ready. Jackie Bradley Junr got a hit in
this first ab with the organization in spring training. This
which is really cool to see and so yeah, still
calling games for those guys. That season kicked up here
in a few weeks. Then Westwood won the Drake Tole
Show every morning six am to nine am Eastern Time,
so four to seventy. Yeah. I was up very early
today to do the show from here just outside of Provo.
And then Amazon Fire TV's College Football Kickoff with formerly
with coach Gary Patterson. I'm not sure if he'll be
able to come back with us next fall. He's kind
of tied of a usc alongside the Dallas Cowboy Jesse Hotley.
That's of course locked on Big twelve. So the better
question is, Ben, what am I not doing? And when
am I sleeping?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't know what you are. I'm a
busy man. I'm an entrepreneur myself running a couple of
businesses and then doing this radio gig is for fun.
You're very, very busy, a busy bee if you will.
And you were busy on Saturday night as well. You
covered I think the byu Utah Holy War on the
hardwood and then went over to Chubby's, one of our
favorite places to eat, give us a breakdown of the game,
and then in the and the post game experience as well.
Speaker 1: That's so cool, Ben. That atmosphere is fantastic, and I
don't think I saw the Marriott Center at That's the
best part is Yeah, it's a rivalry, but it reminded
me a lot of when Baylor would play PCU and
basketball Baylor was always so much better that. Yeah, it
was a rivalry and everybody showed up and you're like, Okay,
we're gonna beat the doors off these guys. And boy
did BYU ever in the second half especially, that's where
this team is best. And gosh when it did come
alive when AJ dropped his fortieth point, that it was
a mad out. That place was as rockets and as
loud as you will find in arena in the Big
Twelve Conference. It was as electric environment as you will
find in college basketball today. Given the implications for BYU,
given the fact to our top fifteen team, how did
they set up? I'm gonna throw up, Ben, I'm gonna
throw up. How is the seventeen and two team five
and one and Big Twelve play thirteenth in America? The
disrespecting football is carried over to basketball. They have one
of the best home atmospheres you could ever contract, and
they still don't get any respect. I was blown away
on Saturday by BYU. Blown away by ag Debontsa. He
is the most twenty five year old teenager that I've
ever been around. Like he carries himself. He looks like
he's in his mid twenties. He's ready for the NBA,
but he's still in college basketball playing for BYU. Loved
everything about the Myria Etcent, everything that I saw, But
I know tonight will be amplified times five, times ten
because Number one Arizona is coming to down tickets at
their cheapest are two hundred dollars, and BYU have still,
I guess for the other talking heads a lot to
prove their game tonight. But Ben loved Saturday, loved Chubbies
afterward and getting to meet hundreds of people who showed
up for a post game show and a meet and greet.
And he has just the heart of BYU and just
a lot of good people with good hearts, good attentions
that loved their school. And it's really neat to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Byus. We had a deep discussion right when all
these new schools came into the Big twelve and you've
added a few other schools, right, and as you evaluate
the new acquisitions, the acquisitions from the old PAC twelve
may at rest in peace the Conference of Champions. And
you look at the the ucfs and they obviously byus
and these G sixers that came to the to the
to the fold of the Big twelve. You know, how
would you grate out those acquisitions top the bottom? What's
been the best acquisition for the Big twelve? Would you say?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's still it's BYU at one and Deon Sanders
at one b right, Like it's it's hard to say
even Colorado, but Deon Sanders, the edition of his presence
in the conference has been huge. The reason it's BYU
at one is in large part because of this beautiful
merger between elite level athletics, commitment to football, basketball, the
revenue sports, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
day Saint. You're grabbing one of the most passionate groups
of people in the world, in the world, one of
the fastest growing faiths in the world, and you take
their flags of university and you slap a big twelve
patch on their shoulder, and you grab one of the
best rivalries, one of the most underrated rivalries in all
of college football, all of college sports. With the Holy
War BYU in Utah. You added to this conference and
it's brought a whole different level of care. And you know,
even something with Texas and Oklahoma, everybody hated Texas and
know you, they hated the rivalry. You didn't pick sides.
You wanted both teams to lose because they were so
pompous with BYU and Utah. I think some Youthes fans
of how vocal they've been about how they want to
go to the Big Ten and maybe they feel maybe
they're validated and feeling expited by that they have garnered
their their reputation of being kind of the heel of
the Big Twelve, and a lot of fan bases love BYU.
They come to their stadiums, they bring the ice cream,
they bring the cougar tails, and they have started to
find a soft spot for this school who is underrated, underrepresented,
under underappreciated in the Big twelve, and that is BYU.
I think they've been a great acquisition because of their
ability to win and their ability to merge with the conference,
embraced the conference so much. Maybe That's what I'm looking
for here, Ben BYU has embraced the conference more than
anybody else out of these new eighths.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd agree with you there. It seems like I mean, look,
they were on the outside looking. They were wandering the
wilderness for a long time during independence Mound West and
the Whack and kind of always felt stiff armed. But
now they're They're a part of the power structure. Even
though the Big Twelve has been viewed by some as
the redheaded stepped out of the power conferences. Do you
think that they're in a position to be ranked at
number three in front of the accio or has did
the the Miami team kind of set the Big twelve
behind and like the lack of productivity and the lack
of maybe a good showing from Texas Act. Did that
hurt us in that question to be the power three?
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I think the problem is this is me
being a little down, but it's honesty. The problem is
there is such a large gap right now from a
revenue standpoint between two and three. It's kind of an
afterthought that fight for third versus fourth, fourth versus third
is one that I think the rest of the country
isn't quite paying attention to because they're so dialed into
the SEC in the Big Ten, and even more honestly,
the number one spot in the country belongs to the
Big Ten and there's a pretty sizable gap between them
and the SEC now before starting to see the class
of college football rise out of the Big Ten. For
the Big Twelve Conference losing out on a college Football
playoff victory again this year, I don't think it was
harred by what Miami did, and the reason is the
winner of the ACC was in Miami. It was due
eight and five. Embarrassing and complete embarrassment from the ACC
that their league champion was eight and five Dukes who
lost to Yukon. That gave the Big Twelve still a
lot that you saved face by having to keep my
Texas Tech go downinton conference play and be respected amongst
its peers in the country. That puts the Big Twelve
in a great spot even though they did not win.
Texas second is still a name. You're hearing the top five,
top seven, top eight going in the next season. That's
important to the Big Twelve Conference. I think the ACC is,
especially given the Miami and Cuns in Florida state probably
won't out. They're not in a great spot.
Speaker 2: Drag. I got an interesting question for you that I
think your insight and your opinion on would be insightful.
So last week we had it as our question. Today,
the NCAA approved the logos of these corporate sponsors. Right,
you can throw a patch on your on your on
your jersey, and then I think you can also wrap
a corporate sponsor on your equipment. Right, you're you're abreast
of that, I imagine, correct, Yeah, no doubt. Okay, all right,
so you're a breast of this. So we had the
conversation around, okay, well what what what b YU friendly
brand would be best for BYU athletics, And some people
jokingly said, hey, why not the logo that the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints use it. It's
the Christus, right and throw it on there. It's like, okay,
like that could be viewed as controversial putting Christ Christ's
logo on an athletic uniform. But the sponsoring institution is
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints for
Brigham Young University. So look, we were kind of discussing
it a little bit earlier today it's like, okay, well,
what are you trying to accomplish by playing sport? And
you know, if it truly is your mission to bring
people to Christ and introduce people to maybe the positive
fruits of maybe the church, would that be improper? Would
that be uncouth? Or would it be would it be
kosher to do such? Do you think in your opinion?
Speaker 1: A great question? And I'll answer this to somebody who's
not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter day Saintans. You give the outside perspective of somebody
who covers the entire Big Twelve. When I went to
high school and blowing the Yarkansas Little Rock Christian Academy
down the road, they wore l RCA across their their
further jersey right or it would say Christian on their uniforms.
And if they cross behind that, their logo Ben was
across Central Arkansas Christian. Their logo was across like that.
That was the forefront of what they did as a school,
as a private school if they wanted to further this mission,
and as a private Christian you know, high school, they
were creating you and the women for Christ. So if
your BYU, and your goal is that the flagship university
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day says,
the flagship university of a faith needs to be not
just the front porch of a university institution, to be
the front porch for that faith. I don't think that
goes to I mean, like again, we're talking about little
Rock Christian with the best intention having the cross in
the middle of their jersey as their logo. I think
if BYU does that, this is what BYU stands for,
is what BYU stands on. Ben, here's an example. Can
I give you an example? Can I do it? Can
I preaks for a second? Please?
Speaker 2: I want you to get up on your pulpit please.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna start slapping the table here. We're about
to go TU. All right. I got a lot of
buddies who visit TCU, and they would they look, this
is not against them now, A slight on them, is
what they said. When you walk on their campus, they
tell you we are TCU. They are no longer Texas
Christian University. They're played by play guys for ESPN, for Fox.
When they're given their game books, their game that they're
told hey, please only reference us at TCU, and the
first thing you hear on campus is you can get
to see as big or as little as you'd like
when you walk on campus. At Baylor University. My first case,
it's the reason I went there. They say to the students,
they say, hey, first thing before we say hello, you
know your name and we tell you our name. We
are unapologetically Christian. Now university. Where's the proverbial cross on
the front of their jersey?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: They want you to know day one? Think one bullet
point one they are a university of faith. I think
BYU doing that is not something that steps too far.
I think the use of that logo is less of
a sponsorship necessarily. I wouldn't view it as that as
much as I would. Hey, this is just like a
high school for their mission, showcasing who they are as
loudly as they can. I personally have no issue with it.
As an outsider.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, I don't think it's gonna happen. It's
probably gonna be Coca Cola, or it's gonna be you
know something else, right, maybe trump ble qual Tricks, whatever
it may be. Mountain America Credit Union, so it'll be
most likely because I think the athletic department gets to
eat what it kills. And I'm sure the corporate sponsors
want additional revenue coming in for for advertiser tell booie
up there, athletic department. But I do think it would
be on brand. I think it'd actually be I actually
think it would be the right thing to do. Remember
what happened with Tim Tebow. You may have been too young.
How old are you when the Tim Tebow era was
going one? Okay? I mean how many people went to
the interwebs and started googling scripture And I'm trying to
understand scripture and we're being exposed to the Bible and
in Christ's teachings.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, well, and too you have NFL players that
they put John three sixteen on their EyeBlack. They get fined. Yeah.
There a guy whose mom died of David D'Angelo Williams,
whose mom that I hope I can play it correct,
whose mom passed away a breast cancer. He wore, you know,
screw cancer or end cancer, you know, cure cancer on
his EyeBlack, and they find him for it. In a
world where that's going on, I think institutions like Baylor
and by you should hold hands and be as vocal
as vocal as possible.
Speaker 2: Love that breakdown. Let's preview the BYU U of a
matchup tonight a big hitting' it's cougar on baby bobcats.
That's what they are. Wildcats are little baby bobcats and tucks,
and that's what they are. They're not true wild Cougars.
This is going to be a dominant performance, I believe
by ag debotsa coming off of forty three of forty
Burger versus the Utes. What do you see? What do
you think will happen tonight at the Merritt Center.
Speaker 1: Then it's not the Bonster, It's not right. It's not
Saunders Cada tonight, it's kada Ah. This game goes as
he goes. I think, because here's the thing. Then, everybody's
level of college basketball. This is a Final four caliber matchup.
It's in the lead eight caliber matchup. When you get there,
everybody has a big three. Everybody's got three. We go
three deep. We can do that. Hoot your fourth guy
and it might not be Kata's the fourth best guy
on the BYU basketball team. But I think with his
physical presence down low. And and by the way, he's
not gonna bully some seven foot two kid islamatav Movkrevov
from Perduce. He's not a bully that guy, right like Kate.
That's not Kata's game. But for the games, he's consistent
when he is on, when he is pulling rebounds, when
he goes eight points twelve boards. You might read that
in the status shoot and think, oh cool, eight points
out of ninety one. Great, but no. Then his ability
to scream, his ability to pick and roll, his ability
demands the middle of the defense when they got the zone,
that is different. That is the differ, and that will
be the difference with a by you win over co
Opete at Arizona over tobyowaka Arizona the very deadly group
of the Wildcats. And by the way, this is an
Arizona team where only one of their starters had to
play more than thirty minutes in their last game against
West Virginia on Saturday, and they don't have to travel
that far to go play BYU in this matchup. It
is fresh on fresh, and that the Coopers needed some
rest and got it in the middle of the week
last week, But this is these are two teams. You
saw it second half, especially clicking right now. If by
you wouldn't this game. It sent a message to the
rest of college basketball. And somehow, some way it starts with.
Speaker 2: Kata, Drake told ladies and gentlemen, Drake, best way to
support you what you do, how you do it on
all your platforms.
Speaker 1: I should say, man, it starts with Cata, but it
ends with A J. Devonds, So come on, who can.
Speaker 2: I was gonna let you ride with Kaba Like I
love Keba. I just wish he could do more than
dunk and rebound. But he's getting there, he's developing.
Speaker 1: Get there. We'll see. I think he'll be. He could
be a strong catalyst. Tom bars At Drake's Sea Toll
on Twitter if you like bad tweets wherever you find
your podcast must on Big tub as well as YouTube
and the Drake Tolshaw the west Wood one Sports app
every day six as I am Eastern. Been always a.
Speaker 2: Pleasure, always a pleasure, always a blessing talking ball with
Drake Toll. That segment was brought to you by Dental
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pros of Utah dentiprosofvieuta dot com. Let's go to break,
Let's get to know the foat. Let's talk some BYU
basketball with the Brazilian bomber Jonathan Tabinari breaking it all down.
That's right. Gonna be prepping you for that by U
U of a matchup that coming up next. This is
Cougar Sports one O three nine ninety eight point three