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out to the hot live Welcome in college football inside
or Big twelve inside or representing locked on Big Twelve.
We got the one the only Drake Toll on Live Drake,
How you Live It?
Speaker 4: Then on the very same day that John curses on
your show, I mean talk about dog this. Look, this
is a loaded lineup for you on ESPN nine to
sixty today and I'm honored to.
Speaker 5: Be a part of it.
Speaker 3: You know it.
Speaker 2: Living the dream here now, Like all seems well in
Cougar Country, Kilani has been extended, the staff got some
pay raises, the players got some nil BYU's going to
the Big twelve championship game.
Speaker 3: But there's some qualms as well.
Speaker 2: There's disrespect in college football as it pertains to BYU
bear Bachmeier's not a listed as a Freshman of the
Year nationally.
Speaker 3: He got the Big Twelve honor. Big Twelve give him
some love there.
Speaker 2: Kilane Yes gets the Big Twelve Coach of the Year,
but no one's recognizing him nationally, and BYU as a
team is sitting outside looking into the college football playoff
at number eleven.
Speaker 3: What do you make of it all, Drake?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is the best of times, it is the
worst of times. It's never enough, as they say, y
to be a Big twelve fan. If you think about
then where BYU comes from in terms of two years ago.
That was a team that in football was was not
competitive enough to make a bowl game in that Oklahoma
State game at the end of the year, was you know,
just that the icing on the cake. If we all
most did it against a good team, do you see
the flashes and then it's gone. And last year I
think the media fixed BYU to finish on the back
half of the Big twelve, middle of the pack maybe,
And what happened was kind of the Cincinnati syndrome. What
the Bearcats going through this year of BYU last season
got to win at the highest level, be a top
ten team and the bottom falls out on you. You lose
two games late to the most crucial two games, you
can't go to the college Football playoffs and you end
up going to the Alio Bowl. And that win was fun,
but it wasn't a playoff victory. It's it's this air
of we're elite, we can do it, We've proven ourselves,
but we.
Speaker 5: Just came up short.
Speaker 4: The most dagger to the heart thing you can imagine
in sports would be for BYU to do it again
this year, but really have its destiny pulled away from
the university and away from the football team. Because at
eleven to one, any power for a team has proven
to the committee they are good enough to be in
the college football playoffs. And so you could say, hey,
if EYU just win the games, or they win the
Big twelve championship, or they you know, beat Texas Tech.
Speaker 5: In the regular season, they would be in.
Speaker 4: But to me, it.
Speaker 5: Doesn't work that way.
Speaker 4: You've already proven you deserve to be a college football
playoff team. Rules me, in other schools and other universities
like at Notre Dame, who you point their resume and say,
look how good their losses are? I mean as great
as everything feels at BYU. There's still this air of
what could be and why aren't the Cougars getting the
respect they deserve from Bear Bockmeyer, as you mentioned, not
being a for Freshman of the Year nationally, klaasatake not
I'm not hearing any murmurs of him being a Coach
of the Year nationally. For the football team being held
out of the playoffs because of a brand bias, and
even this week in the conversations of hey, how supported
does Kilane feel by the administration by you got this
close to losing its head football coach three days ago.
This is one of the strangest times. I think you
could be a fan of any power for school and
it's happening to BYU.
Speaker 2: Nation crazy times, no doubt about it, Drake Toll Lockdown
Big twelve here on ESPN The Fan, Drake, how where
do you think a fair ranking would be for BYU
with their resume?
Speaker 3: Where do you think they should be?
Speaker 4: I think YU being at at nine is not It
shouldn't be a foreign thoughts to anybody. I think BYU
being one of the not the highest ranked one loss team,
but in the mix of hey, this is a BYU
team that we need to show the ultimate respect to
because of who they have beaten, the wins, they have
their shrink the schedule this year, I think it's clear
they should be above Notre Dame. It's very clear to
me they should still be above Alabama BAMA loss to
hapless Florida state teams. You know, Notre Dame has a
couple of quality losses, but they don't have the same
quality wins that BYU does right now on the resume,
and then I know Oklahoma went on the road and
got to win at Alabama, but again we're talking about
wins and losses. What have you done for me?
Speaker 5: How many games have you won?
Speaker 4: I think YU should squarely be at nine. I'm surprised
that they're not, And honestly, you could make.
Speaker 5: A case for them at eight. And if you want
to go.
Speaker 4: Even further, their strength of schedule is better than Texas
A and M. They've played better opponents. A and M
brilliantly played. They only beat the back half of the
SEC schedule. If not for their Notre Dame win, I'm
a bit more confused about what A and M looks like,
and so I would lobby for BYU to be squarely
in the top ten in that eight to nine range,
and it is we're talking then, And I know I'm
getting ahead of myself a bit, but this is some
Sherman Antitrust Act stuff. I mean, you leave BYU out
at eleven and one, and there should be and I
hope there will be a lawsuit against this committee because
there's plenty to prove that by every metric they are
better than Notre Dame and better than Alabama from a
resume standpoint. Just do not understand how BYU is getting
so much disrespect as a power for team at eleven
and one.
Speaker 2: Yell's wonder if if BYU was an independent and had
that same record, had the same strength of record, had
the same strength of schedule, would they be ranked higher
as like an independent than they would?
Speaker 3: I mean, like, does it matter?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I don't think so, so, Ben, Here's what's so interesting
about this before and this is this is damning for
myself and I'm gonna feel back Curtin and Debt. Seven
years ago, the average college football fan, only myself included,
would have seen Navy and BYU as pretty similar football programs.
And you say, well, that's terrible, what a bad take.
B YU is so much better historically than Navy. Of
course they are, but the reason being the years of
independence war on BYU's brand and and how the country
viewed BYU because it was that was that fun game
that somebody got to throw into the schedule, That was
that fun game against Boise State, that was a fun
game against Notre Dame. And wow, BYU upsets Texas, But
you don't get respect for it because somewhere down the
line BYU loses a game or two, they're independent.
Speaker 5: And people just forget about the Cougars.
Speaker 4: They didn't have near enough dominance in the BCS erap
and when they were independent, people just forgot even after
big wins.
Speaker 5: The BYU existed.
Speaker 4: Now in the Big twelve, the conference right your mark,
they realized national championship program with players at the top
of college football the course the last five decades, Lavelle Edwards,
what Klaga Satake has built in nine years of BYU,
it is a parent.
Speaker 5: It is obvious.
Speaker 4: It is huge what BYU brings to the Big Twelve conference.
But the average college football fan, for some reason, their
brand bias against BYU. Their brand, but and Ben to
some extent, which I think is is a byproduct of
why we keep hearing these.
Speaker 5: Anti religious chants at these universities.
Speaker 4: They just think, oh, that's that crazy religious school. We
can walk all over them. We don't have the factor
them and we don't have to care about them because
we think they're different. It is a travesy what's happening
to BYU. It is brand biased at its core, and
I think that's what it's chalked up to years of
independence that if this was Kansas State, they're in. If
this is Iowa State, they're in. For some reason, BYU
and year three being in a power conference being extremely
good scares college football. They don't understand it. They don't
know what to do with it, and it is so
it is so infuriating to see the way that BYU
is being treated.
Speaker 2: Drake, what's your prognostication for this BYU Texas Tech matchup.
Let me give you a little bit of a preface here.
My guy Greg Rebel, a man of metrics, the voice
of the Cougar, said this. Yeah, this is what he said. Okay,
he said, colleg Football Player Committee is using the nature
of the BYUS. BoA's lost twenty nine to seven in
Love it right as a reason to keep them out
and exclude them, even though this is the number four
team in the country. They are first in rushing defense,
third in and scoring defense, six in total defense. A
closer looking side than numbers from November eight shows many
interesting things. So BYU had negative yards on two of
twelve drives. Texas Tech had negative yardage on four of
thirteen drives. By You scored one touchdown on twelve possessions.
Tech scored two touchdowns on thirteen possessions. BYU punted six times,
Tech punted five times. BYUS average yards per play three
point nine versus techs four point nine. By You had
more sacks four to one, had more time of possession
thirty thirty five to twenty nine twenty five.
Speaker 3: Boa had fourteen first downs.
Speaker 2: Tech had seventeen first down text points, first downs, and
yardage totals against BYU were the lowest in any of
their eleven wins, and it was the lowest scoring point
win total in their margin of victory. So, all that
being said, what's gonna change in Arlington?
Speaker 4: Do you think that all sounds like Gregory bells a
voice the Kugers, That's what that's sounds like, I mean, yeah, look,
you you convinced yourself, and I'm gonna shoot you straight. Ben,
I think if you're Brett or Mark, you convinced yourself,
the BYU is going to win. If if you're the
BYU fan base, you hope for that. And the reason
the conference does too is because they want to get
multiple teams into the college football playoffs. The metric that
I've looked at a lot is Texas Tech just not
being to their EPI love EPA, and I only recently
learned a few weeks ago that the BYU alumni created
this EPA metrics with efficiency and Texas Tech number fifty
three throwing the football, number one hundred and seven running
the football.
Speaker 5: And now, Ben, you would say, how.
Speaker 4: Could Texas Tech with Cameron Dickie Jacoby Williams be one
hundredth at running the football efficiency wise? Here's why you're
ready for This's my favorite number.
Speaker 5: To give for this game.
Speaker 4: I give it seventeen times when I show this week.
Texas Tech ran the ball forty three times one hundred
and forty nine yards. Cameron Dickey's longest carry was thirty
three yards. D Kobe Williams's longest carry was forty three
yards half of Texas text rushing yard, which came on
two plays. The other half came on forty one plays.
That shows me that Texas tech, aside from the chunk play,
was fallible offensively against BYU and the Cougars. The lights
were just too bright going into Lubvick. It was just
too much for Bear Blackmeyering Company to handle, even though
Bear was only sacked once and Baron Morton was sacked
four times. If you limit the chunk play, you limit
the big play.
Speaker 5: It was like those tech scoring drives.
Speaker 4: It's had one play of twenty six yards somewhere in there,
and that was the backbreaker for BYU. Every other play
was four or five yards. That's where I think BYU
can win this game. Is not everybody saying, oh, well,
if you turn them over and the ball bounce is
the right way and the ball bounce is.
Speaker 5: The wrong way.
Speaker 4: Now, I think you limit the tech chunk plays and
BYU was within a score or two.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, BYU a twelve and a half point dog
at worst. You know, for BYU fans at least, do
you think they cover. Do you think BYU covers in
this game?
Speaker 3: In our.
Speaker 4: Ben. I think YU wins Wow Wow.
Speaker 5: I think YU wins the football game and.
Speaker 4: The biggest so also wild stab. Yu had more title
possession against Texas Tech the first time around. The reason
I have decided it took me a long time to
get to this because that originally was like Texas Tech
buy three, Texas Tech by six, maybe like ten if
things go odd. There is a respect, the reverence and
understanding on the Tech side. For Joey maguire, he has
set it this week that BYU deserves to be a
college football playoff team. And Jacob Rodriguez, the guys are gamers,
David Bailey.
Speaker 5: They don't care.
Speaker 4: They want a Big twelve championship. They're not going to
lose out of pity. But on one side of the
football field this Saturday, it is do or die. It
is a playoff game. BYU must win. This is their
first playoff game to get into the bracket. For Texas Tech,
the worst that happens.
Speaker 5: If they lose is they get to host a home.
Speaker 4: Game in a college football playoff. As much as BYU
has to play for Texas Tech does not necessarily. Now again,
these are gamers. I'm not saying Texas Tech is going
to play a bad football game on purpose or give
a charity to BYU. I think they're gonna fight as
hard as they fought all year. They want their first
Big twelve championship game win ever, they certainly do. But
for BYU, this is to keep the season alive, to
keep a shot at the national championship alive. When that
when that is, there's no more. Hey, Aaron Rodrick, let's
run as many draw plays as possible. Let's let's go, Hey, what.
Speaker 5: About speed option?
Speaker 4: But no, this is the kitchen sink is out there,
and it either leads to the BYU turning them all
over five times and losing by forty five, or the
Cougar's pulling off a win. I said them on show
this week. This is not Boise State beating Oklahoma. It's
not that aggressive of a format for UYU to win
this game. But at some level, BYU have to treat.
Speaker 5: It like that.
Speaker 4: You have to treat it as we're gonna run the
hooking ladders. We're going to run the plays they haven't
seen before. It all boils down to this, Aaron Rodrick,
to get a little fancier than usual because it didn't work,
just trying to run the ball at the middle in
game one. And for j Hill, you punished Texas Tech,
especially in the red zone. Ben, don't break force them
into five field goals. And look, Ben, I think if
Texas Tech takes five field goals in this game, BYU
is the winner, and Tech had five field goals in
that first game. It's the red zone defensive Yu. It
was so good. I still have confidence in them. J
Hill is he was perfect last time against the Red Raiders.
Here's where Aaron Roderick has to step up to laanstake,
staying the pomp, the circumstance, the storylines.
Speaker 5: BYU wins this game.
Speaker 3: Drake Toll here on ESPN.
Speaker 2: BYU's healthier than they've ever been, it seems this season,
at least to start this season, they're going back to
maybe where they were at the start of the season.
How healthy is Texas Tech right now leading up to
the Big twelve Championship game? Is there any competitive advantages there?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I really have no worries about the depth chart either
or these teams and their health status. You know, obviously
Texas Tech lost when it's best lineman in the middle
of the campaign and never really skipped the beat, and
so I have no qualms with how these two teams
will line up based on the depth charts that they
reported to the Big Twelve this week.
Speaker 5: You know, if Baron Morton.
Speaker 4: Goes down, obviously it's much different. But for the sake
of the Big Twelve conference and also just being a good,
normal human being, I hope to goodness that Baron Morton
says healthy this entire game and gives the Big Twelve
chance to win a national championship come playoff time. That
that's really the only concerned injury wise, is just knowing
Baron Morton probably still isn't at one hundred percent, but
if he goes he's given a and in the stats
aren't necessarily comparable, and this is really just more of
a toughest category. Max Duggan, when he willed TCU that
college football playoff just beaten up the entire year. That's
what Baron Morton's done because he understands that a championship
at the highest level is on the line, a national championships.
I think Baron Morton's health is something to monitor. Outside
of that Texas Tech, I don't foresee a major gap
due to injury. Where BYU can overtake Texas Tech?
Speaker 2: If BYU wins, where's their ranking? What's the fallout from this?
Does Texas Tech get bounced out of the top ten?
Speaker 3: Give me your prognostications.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think if BYU wins. Here's what we learned.
Speaker 4: About the College Football Playoff Committee this year and the
way that this election committee has worked. They like to
build in these safeguards. They like to build them like, oh, well,
you know Utah lost to BYUS, They're always going to
be a spot or two behind them. What's going to
happen is BYU is going to jump Texas Tech. This
is the same way we saw last season, a school
like Clemson, who had a much better resume and record
jump SMU after they beat them the ACC championship. He said, wow,
why would they have to drop that far? Well, it's
because the committee loves the head to head when they
happen late.
Speaker 5: In the season.
Speaker 4: You're seeing that with Oklahoma and Alabama right now as well,
even though Oklahoma's not playing great football. Watched a lot
of the LSU game. So what I think is going
to happen is the Committee is going to drop Texas Tech.
To eight. They'll move them from four to eight, propelling
BYU from eleven to seven. I think that's I do
not foresee BYU climbs to nine and Texas Tech drops
all the way to TEY can't drop. You cannot be
penalized six spots, six spots for losing a game we
didn't ask you to play. We can't move you behind
Oregon who did not play.
Speaker 5: By six spots.
Speaker 4: So that's where I foresee the big twelve looking at
the end of this, and that's the dream scenario BYU
and Tech both getting home games. But I foresee it
being Texas Tech at that seven spot BYU and the
eight hole flip that flip that BYU seven Texas Tech eight.
Speaker 3: Interesting, I like to take. I like where you're heading
with this.
Speaker 2: As far as the teams, that is Notre Dame the
biggest qualm here. We've seen Brett Yormark, we've seen Joey McGuire,
we've seen others attack openly and blatantly. The Notre Dame
fighting Irish right now, is that the team they have
to sue that's currently.
Speaker 3: In the top ten.
Speaker 4: I think so, and then it should be you're asking
wholeheartedly what have you done for me lately to Notre
Dame and what they have done for you lately is
certainly win but against again, so that it is it's
a problem with how the whole thing is set up
that and again you're right, Joey McGuire's alluded to this
that Notre Dame can sit where they sit right now
and and just walk their way into the playoffs, like
they've played the bottom teams from the Power for and
they've played some really struggling, middling, you know, American Conference teams.
I just don't see how how the committee look ben
if they played if they played Texas A and M
in Miami the last two games of this season, and
they lost both of those they were tending to they'd
be out of the playoffs. And you say, of course
they'd be out of the playoff. Okay, Well then why
them losing the first two games at A and M
in Miami. Why why did they get into the playoff
when they lost the first They still lost those two games.
It shouldn't matter when the games are played, and unless
there's a massive injury, unless there's something that occurs, you say, okay,
Notre Dame got so and so back, and they're way healthy,
they're way better. They're not They're the same team they
were where they lost to A and M. The same
team they were they lost in Miami. Miami is behind them.
I think DYU should squarely be above Notre Dame.
Speaker 5: I get it, I get it.
Speaker 4: The gold helmet means a lot more for the pockets.
Speaker 5: But it's not right.
Speaker 4: It's not right. What's happening in college football?
Speaker 2: Drake Tall, best way to support you? What you do,
how you do it for all of our listeners tuning
in today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at Lockdown Big called at Lo Big twelve where
you find your podcast and on YouTube at DRAKEC. Toll
on Twitter and then December twenty ninth. Luckily it doesn't
interfere with your show. Ben six am nine am Eastern
on Westwood one and the Westwood one Sports app will
bring you a ton of BYU covered every morning wherever
you get your sports.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: So give me a breakdown of the new show, the
new foray into Westwood one affiliation.
Speaker 3: What do we got there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Westwood one is moving to twenty four to seven
radio and they've established a network.
Speaker 5: The first host that.
Speaker 4: They've named the Westwood One time aside is yours truly.
Speaker 5: So we're moving forward.
Speaker 4: With Westwood One, which is in my mind. You know this,
this Oxford University of Sports just it's the super Bowl,
It's the Final Four. So I have the opportunity now
to go six am to nine am Eastern. As I
said on the Westwood one app, I'm serious on a
ton of a station's FMAM across the country that we're
going to unveil and release here.
Speaker 5: Soon, and then I'll get you to work. Jim Rome
will get you home.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be It's gonna be a blast, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic, great news. Congratulations, well deserved everys. The first
time I met you, the first time I interacted with you,
I said, this man has talent.
Speaker 3: This man has popped, this man has circumstances.
Speaker 2: This man has pizazz, vigor and vim and a wordsmith
unlike any other. You were going places. I sensed it,
I knew it. Congratulations.
Speaker 3: This is only the beginning, my friend, right Ben, and
I couldn't have done it without you.
Speaker 4: These reps are invaluable, and I've got to make so
many connections because of you, because of your show. Because
of BYU fans and and I love talking Big twelve football.
I can assure you for the first time in a
little bit, there's going to be a national show that
is that is handled through a lens of fairness, that
appreciates the likes of Big the Big twelve and BYU
love it.
Speaker 3: My guy, Drake Tall, congratulations, will catch up again. Are
you getting away? Are you heading out uh to Arlington
or no?
Speaker 4: You know, Ben, people keep telling me I'm a saint.
Speaker 5: He told me, he man, I've got a good dude,
he's a good person.
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, you know, don't give me too many flowers.
But maybe they're right. I'm going to a wedding this weekend, Ben,
a wedding.
Speaker 3: What do you will? Yes? Now, Drake, come on now.
Speaker 4: Yeah they're both twenty Yeah they are BYU students.
Speaker 5: No, it's joke, my guy.
Speaker 3: Well, hey, enjoy the wedding.
Speaker 2: Uh be merry and celebrate the the wedding, Sarah, celebrate
the marriage. It's what brings you together, brings us together today.
As they say in Princess Bride, Thanks so much, love
and appreciate you man, Thanks for hopping on, no.
Speaker 5: Doubt Vancouverer tales on me next.
Speaker 2: Time see you, Let's go Drake toll locked on Big twelve.
That segment shout out to all of our sponsors, was
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Speaker 3: Let's go to Break, Don't go anywhere more, to get.
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This is Cougar Sports, one of three nine ninety eight
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