Speaker 1: Get a player profile. Segments here on one oh three
nine at ninety eight three ESPN, the Van.
Speaker 2: Manwes dot Com in on A three n A no
OBVII include best Una with does sax Mall Wealth, the
five who should have buy Financial Planners Nobody does it
better than Banterwealth. Bantterwealth dot Com got a great segment
for you, uh Little Bruce Mitchell action. Bruce Mitchell has
been graded out as a top five center per PFF
on the West Coast, doing really good work here in
UH in this season. And look, we've been hyping up
Bruce he for a while now and he's still just
uh getting into sorry's fifth nationally and number one on
the West Coast. By the way, seventy nine point three
u PFF grade through now this season pretty impressive to
say the least is this is only his second season
playing the center position.
Speaker 3: Love Bruce E.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get to know him a little bit better
in this segment and how impactful he has been at
the tip of the spear for this Cougar. Cougar football team.
This segment, though, is it's gonna be a fantastic one.
It's gonna be tremendous. It's gonna be brought to you
by our good friends at Dental Pros of Utah and
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Speaker 3: In American Fork.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to some sound bites from Bruce
Mitchell order this week. Bruce, how did how comfortable did
you feel in the win on Saturday?
Speaker 4: No, it was awesome thinking about it, It's been a
while since we've kind of had a comfortable win like that,
just talking to coach right there, But no, it was
awesome to kind of give the punt team a little
break on Saturday, don't have to call on them too
much and put up a lot of points on the
offensive side of the ball. I think we executed it
well and really happy with how it went overall on Saturday,
and hopefully we can do the same this upcoming week.
Speaker 2: Balling out for Brigham. The buzz right now around Provo
He's style points. Are you worried at all that BOE
doesn't have enough style points in order to get into
maybe the colleg football playoff?
Speaker 4: They here and now that that's the culture Kalani set.
Nobody's too worried about style points. We just want to
go win games, play BYU football along the way, and
that's what we're going to continue to do.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it. Look, Kladie's going to lead the way.
Kalatie's going to do some fantastic culture work. In my opinion,
he's been building that up for the last ten years.
So you know, it's focus on the task at hand,
focused on the things that you can control. Now, Bruce,
you saw or we saw the Kyato Kyato Tadavasa driving
the TCU center right back into the quarterbacks lap. What
have you seen from the defensive line as they've evolved
over the entire season.
Speaker 4: It's been awesome. I knew it was no secret since
this spring going against them, I knew they were going
to be a dominant front that could keep inside runs
limited but also get out after the passer a little bit.
Sometimes that's hard to do as a defensive tackle to
be able to stop the run as well as you know,
get sacks and stuff. So it was fun to be
able to watch Keanu Jt some of those other guys
just just play good ball and continue to play and
hopefully they can do the same for us going throughout
the rest of the season.
Speaker 2: Boom Shaka Laca, could you share Bear Bachmeyer's story from
us from the huddle?
Speaker 3: What's uh? What's he been like through ten games?
Speaker 1: Games?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 4: I love Bear in the huddle. It's it's always surprising
that he's, you know, usually the youngest guy in the
huddle because sometimes he's the calmest guy in the huddle.
He's always just laser focused on winning. You know, going
against Arizona getting down, we needed a couple of big
drives to be able to put ourselves in an overtime situation,
and you know, I was trying to light in the mood,
but Bear was he was all laser focused on winning.
And yeah, I mean there's some funny stories because he
is still a kid at the end of the day.
But now I love Bear, love having him in the huddle.
He's developing into such a good leader for this offense
as well, and you can see he's more comfortable in
the system. Yeah, and man, I'm really happy with how
he's played. I'm proud of him. He's really stepped up
to the moment and hopefully he continues to get better
as well as the rest of us.
Speaker 2: Look, everyone's improving right now, and I do think that
Texas Tech game there was improvement defense, and I think
the offensive special teams are gonna move forward due to
maybe some of their their failures. And you're gonna see
a better, revamped, remodeled BYU complimentary football team playing their
best ball down the stretch.
Speaker 3: That bodes well for Brigham.
Speaker 2: Now, Bruce, is there a name for that play design
we saw at the.
Speaker 3: Beginning of the third quarter or the early fourth quarter where.
Speaker 2: There were like seven offensive line but Trevin Osler was
there is a in line tight end. How much did
you enjoy playing that type of football?
Speaker 4: We just called it beef. We called beef and let's
put seven offensive linemen in there. I wish we could
have been able to score on it. That would have
been you know, we had some cool celebrations for it
with all the offensive lineman in there. Too bad we
didn't get to use them. No, it was fun to
see Trevin getting in there as well. You know, he's
a he's a really good, developing young player who's getting
an opportunity to go in at tight end and be
able to move some people, help out the tackles on
some double teams. But yeah, that play calls beef and
I wish we would have scored on it. Hopefully we'll
get another something going into this week and we will
score on it.
Speaker 3: Hopefully.
Speaker 2: There's plenty of beef up there on the offensive line
with Trevin Osler being in there.
Speaker 3: I loved what I saw from that group.
Speaker 2: Now, Klane has been big on the physicality of this team.
How would you describe the physicality week after week?
Speaker 3: I asked. I asked this.
Speaker 2: Because it seems like the Big Twelve paces a perspective
issue between the conferences. How would you describe the trenches
going against these teams week after week?
Speaker 4: Oh, no, it's a physical matchup obviously. I don't pay
too much attention to what people are saying about the
Big twelve or whatnot. But now you can turn on
the tape and see that DCU was a physical front.
They've been a physical front all season. And you know
most of the teams that win these games are the
more physical team on the offensive defensive line being able
to control the line of scrimmage. So yeah, I mean
you can turn on the tape. Anybody can turn on
the tape. The Big twelves are physical group and every week,
even this week going into Cincinnati, you know they got
big athletic in Tier Lineman. So we're gonna have our
hands full with the physicality, but hopefully we can use
that to our advantage.
Speaker 2: Great breakdown for Bruce Ye look once again reiterating not
focusing on the outside, focusing on what's inside of the program.
There's just a lot a lot of noise out there
you want to deflect it. Final couple questions here for
Bruce would it be with it being so close to
the end of the season, do you feel like you're
finally the offensive line group that you'd hope to be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm with I just try to get better every week.
We'll see when I'm done getting better. Hopefully that never happens, so,
but no, I'm happy with the development I've had. It's
been fun to be able to look back on film
and see how I've gotten better with whether it's calling
the IDs, getting everybody on the right spots, or you know,
just my technique and being able to move people. It's
been a really fun year of improving and hopefully we
can do the same going forward. But I'm happy with her.
I'm I'm happy where the offensive line's at. The team's
right where we want to be, and hopefully as a team,
as an offense is an offensive line, we can just
continue to get better.
Speaker 2: Final thing for Bruce, how helpful has it been to
have mentors like Connor pay who played recently helping you
out along the offensive line?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 4: You know, they get it and they're a big help
to coach Woods as well as Coach Woods to us.
But it's nice having them around where it's kind of
more of a friend of friends situation versus like a
coach player situation. Sometimes you can hear them better than
the coach, so I really enjoy having them around. They're
always here to work out. Spend a lot of time
with them in the in the offseason trying to get better.
So no, it's nice having them around. They're really big
help to this offensive line. We've got a couple gre
helping out and then obviously coach Woods he's he's the
biggest help to me at least of being able to
get everybody better.
Speaker 3: They go, that's Bruce Mitchell, ladies. And look, I'll say
this much.
Speaker 2: There's been a nice line of offensive linemen at that
center spot that have mentioned each other. James MP mentored
Connor pay Connor pays mentored Bruce Mitchell. You got to
keep that pipeline alive and well for the next group.
It's all about that next group that's developing in order
to create stable and h just continuity and building a
championship roster, which I think Kilate is a championship culture.
Speaker 3: No doubt. Guys.
Speaker 2: Great segment and big Cougar war to everyone that's tuning
in today. That segment was brought to you by Dental
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on a Tuesday, November eighteenth edition of Cougar Sports. Here
on one O three nine ninety eight point three.
Speaker 6: It's time to celebrate the freeest team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all the glory on
the grid. I let's talk some college football on Cougar
Sports with Ben.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get into a couple of news and notes here,
but the latest news in the BYU World BYU Basketball World,
Canard Davis Junior has been cited for duy marijuana possession.
Was cited for marijuana position, driving under the influence following
a car crash and stubs arrest in Provo, Utah, according
to a redacted police report obtained by ESPN on Tuesday
through that record's request. The school nor b yu BA
coaches have necessarily went on record about it, but KY
after the Yukon loss did state that Davis was suspended
indefinitely and that the that they're looking into the situation
as it's still under investigation. So that's the latest on
Canard Davis Junior. How long will he be out? Will
he be suspended through non conference play? Will he return
for conference play? What are the legal ramifications for such
an act as it pertains to b YU athletes.
Speaker 3: We don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's a modern day president for
this and how they're going to engage with it.
Speaker 3: But we'll see how it plays out. Some interesting news though, look.
Speaker 2: Like the haters will always say hey, whenever there's something
bad from a public relations standpoint, they'll say, hey, look,
not a missionary tool, not an ambassadorial tool, not doing
anything good in the community.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Recently, Brian Santiago was went out, went to the pulpit
at a Cougar Club meeting. I've been told and stated
that FUSTREII apparently has been meeting with the missionaries in
France and we'll be getting baptized. So look, there are
so many I have a book here actually written by
Tallo Steves, former operator of Total Blue Sports, all the
football players that have come through BYU that ended up
getting baptized.
Speaker 3: Think of these guys for a moment.
Speaker 2: Okay, Mark Wilson, Okay, Ty Deptmer, all right, Kaylin Hall,
Jamal Willis, Like, that's just a few guys off the
top of my head.
Speaker 3: Curtis Brown who I played with.
Speaker 2: These are marquee record setting all time BYU greats, a
Heisman Trophy winner. So even if like the outward communal
impact was minimal, right, taking away all of the service
projects that the alumni base does fundraising for those in need,
BYUTV doing these deeper than sports stories on about opposing
teams and players and their history. Even if you take
away all that and you just focus on what type
of impact when you invite someone into your BYU football
basketball locker room family and they end up coming to
a conversion. What does the old scripture say about bringing
one soul unto Christ. Right, what does the scripture say
about that?
Speaker 3: Right? How great will be your rejoicing?
Speaker 2: So I'm saying is it is very much an ambassadorial
and missionary tool.
Speaker 3: Look at this particular example with Foos.
Speaker 2: I think BYU fans love Foos, embraced him.
Speaker 3: He was an active Muslim.
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting that he's converting to the Church
of Jutis Christ and Letter Saints. Remember, he attended his
preparatory academy here in the state of Utah. Wassatch Academy
is where he bawled out. So he's been surrounded by
the culture of the faith for a long time in
his young adult years. Now he's been meeting with the
missionaries in France and is looking to possibly be baptized.
Try to get ultimate confirmation on this and see how
it plays out, obviously, but you know, you just want
to plant seats and make a positive impact. Recently, Elder
Oaks and Elder Holland sat together and discussed BYU Brigham
Young University honoring one hundred and fifty years of the institution,
and some of the quotes coming out from this podcast.
Speaker 3: These over twenty minutes long.
Speaker 2: We'll maybe play for play you is some of these
sound bites later on the week, but they were appointment pointed,
they were powerful. Okay, this is one of the quotes
you only spiritual obligation and educational mission. President Halland emphasized
the spiritual obligation of byure, describing it as a university
founded on the belief that students are children of God.
Speaker 3: That identity. It is a university.
Speaker 2: We come here to study and to take degrees, and
it's everything from art to zoology. But running through it
is a foundation and a theme that these are children
of God. President Holland said, we're here to teach them
for eternity. Education for eternity is a phrase that we use.
President Oakes reflected on the challenge he had during his
tenure from nineteen seventy one to nineteen eighty of balancing
the spiritual and academic responsibilities. Coming as I did from
a professor of law at a great university, I had
no experience in balancing the spiritual. President Oaks, who taught
for ten years at the University of Chicago Law School.
The rest of the university and administration was maybe familiar
I was familiar with, with, but it was a struggle
for me all the time I served at VAU to
watch the thermometer registering spiritual temperature. I think the university today
does a much better job than I did in my
struggle when I was doing it. The two leaders said
that two of the ba's significant spiritual influences are the
student congregations and the presence of return missionaries, including those
who served another language or student studying to be missionaries.
That is a powerful advantage that our church educational system
institution have in the quality of education they can offer,
set President Oaks. There are definitely demographic changes within BYU
right now. President Holland, who led BA from nineteen eighty
to eighty nine, noted that more than half of BA
students today are female. President Oaks said the same is
true of bwayu's law school demographics. When I enrolled in
school in law school at the University of Chicago in
nineteen fifty four, there were only two or three out
of about one hundred and the student body who were women.
Now it would be a majority of those enrolled, President
Oak said. The senior church leader also noted the number
of living alumni, which has grown from one hundred and
twenty five thousand to four hundred and sixty six thousand
over the past fifty years is tremendous and now listen
to this athletic programs and humanitarian efforts. President Holland spoke
of the strong alumni support for athletic programs, which has
been recognized by commentators from major broadcast services.
Speaker 3: This is what he said.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a school in America that has
built that has built in alumni support, in visible athletic
support that BYU has wherever it goes in numbers and
in quality. He also praised the skill and devotion of
coaches and staff are just increasing in every way, but
particularly increasing in loyalty to the standards and the skill
with which they take a higher and higher stand and
position in the national assessment of such things, said President Holland.
President Oaks noted the important humanitarian work taking place when
BYU football travels for games. They turn competition into collaboration
to help those in need. They become co workers in
humanitarian projects and other things that the local school wants
to promote, said President Oaks, and that very active BYU
alumni and cooperation of the teams gets behind the local school.
Speaker 3: Halland also also added this has.
Speaker 2: Bridged or that has bridged some potential problems that didn't
turn out to be problems because the presidents could talk
to each other.
Speaker 3: It's a fantastic podcast. I'd say, go to.
Speaker 2: YouTube, listened to it, President Holland President Oaks. Discussing BYU,
President Oaks also said, Hey, this is the Lord's University,
essentially testified of it, testified of it, and by you
transformed these these apostles, these prophet seers and revelators. My
life was changed like a tsunamis at President Holland, it
was a major, major reset in my life with eternal consequence.
For his part, President Oaks said it was at BYU
that he learned how to read, how to write, how
to judge, how to use his time in the learning process,
received an advanced understanding of the Gospel and various religion
classes he took. Byused the Lord's University because it was
established by a prophet. He said, it has been carried
on with prophetic leadership to this day and it places
the highest priority for its students and its faculty, and
its administration and its position in the community to furthering
the ideals the teachings and values of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Through all this process, you go through all
these quotes and notes and you can listen to it.
I think it's important to realize that BYU is still
very much imperfect, just like the Church of Jesus Christ,
the Letter Saints. But it's run by imperfect men, perfect women.
It's going to be imperfect, and there's gonna be ways
in which they need to improve every single day, every
single week, every single month, every single year. But no
one can deny the positive impact that BYU has had academically, spiritually, morally,
and athletically in the world in my opinion. And these
are testimonies from Elder Oaks and Elder Holland. Great segment,
We're gonna go to break guys. Coming back, We'll have
a Cougar Beat with Sean Walker.
Speaker 3: Uh check it out.
Speaker 2: He's gonna break down the latest on Canard Davis Junior,
BYU football and more, getting into the mind the voice
of those that cover the team on the daily. Don't
go anywhere. Sean Walker coming up next. This is Cougar
Sports on one O three nine ninety eight point three
is he is.
Speaker 1: Cougar Sports with Ben Gretel at its time for the
Cougar Beat getting the dish from the local report order
is that cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 3: We bankers, you're smart fl though Breen nine nine even
wants for ESPN the manage videos banda web dot com.
Speaker 2: Please get on a free Q and A no obligation
to invest Q and A with our tax smart wealth advisors,
certified financial planners. Nobody that's it better than banter wealth
and each Tom for a little Cougar Beat going to
get into the mind and hear from the voices that
cover the team on the Daily Talks and BAU Football
In this segment, what does by you need to do?
What needs to happen in order for Bwally to clinch
a Big twelve championship game and birth this weekend. We're
gonna break it down here on your Utah ESPN Radio.
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I Sancha. Let's get out to the hotline talk some
Cougar football with Sean WALKERKSL dot Com, Cougar Sports Inside.
Speaker 3: What's up, Sean.
Speaker 5: Ben, It's always a pleasure to join you guys on
this show. And I got I gotta start with one
question for you. Have you both your plane ticket for Arlington, Texas?
That uh, that first weekend in December.
Speaker 2: I've booked Ronald the Three Man Weavers, uh flight out
to the DFW. But uh, you ask my wife. I'm like, hey,
can I go? And She's like, now, you got to
stay home with with me and the kiddos. So I'm
not gonna be heading out there. It's unfortunate. Uh.
Speaker 3: I do have another full time job, and so I'm away.
Speaker 2: From home a lot with the radio and obviously with
Ortho pros et cetera. So sometimes I gotta take a
take a I got a sacrifice. I got a sacrifice
to keep my my lovely wife happy and the kiddo's happy.
Speaker 5: So I have not hold on. I'm just I'm gonna
make a note. I'm taking a note real quick. Right
after I hang up here, call Brook Crittle, have a
shat and discussion.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: You gotta be a really really really good salesman, Sean. Yeah,
I don't know if it'll work, Sean. I'll be honest,
but be very well, is the I mean, look, they're
the master of their destiny, obviously, but what could happen
this weekend? Obviously, Bili's got to get a win. But
tell us a little bit more. You wrote about it
at KSHL dot com. What needs to happen in order
for BYU to clinch a Big twelve Championship game?
Speaker 5: Birth Yeah, and this came straight out of the Big Twelve,
so you know it's legit right they put it out
of the release. There are exactly two teams this weekend
and the penultimate week of the regular season they can
clinch a berth in the Big twelve Championship game at
AT and T Stadium in Arlington. They're Texas Tech and
BYU Texas Tech Pass. Both of their scenarios involved YU
losing at Cincinnati, So then we're not going to talk
about that one very much. But since this is the
station that covers with Kobes, they both start, you touched
on a bit. They both start with beating Cincinnati, so
you gotta go, you gotta take care of business in
the Queen City. Beat Cincinnati, hand them the third right
loss that is number one, And then there are two ways,
and I will caution. Probably not very likely ways, but
still two ways that BYU can couch the spot in
the Big Coat Championship Game. The first one is Arizona
State and Houston both have to lose. ASU has Colorado,
Houston has TCU. I would put the odds at the
former as unlikely, and I would put the odds at
the latter as possible. I think it's certainly possible that
the can can come back and beat Houston, although I
don't know if i'd handicap them as the favor by
any means. Houston's having a really good year, so you
need a little bit help from those of the sun
Devils and the Cougar's there or the other way also
involved in Arizona State laws. That's the ASU losing to
Colorado and then Utah beating Kansas State. Again. I probably
had to cap that first one. Not incredibly likely, but
I think there are going to be a lot of
BYU fans that, in addition to cheering for BYU to
win this week, and they'll be cheering for coach Prome,
Dean Sanders and the Bush and then maybe even you
get a couple that are cheering for former b YU
All Black linebacker Kyle Whittingham and the youth to go
rough up and be it up on Cape State this
weekend up on the hill at right cycles as well.
Speaker 2: Would love to see it got to get there. Do
you think this is year B why you get up
and makes it to the college football playoff? Sean, how
are you feeling about this Cougar football team?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think and we can touch on maybe
kind of this broader point a little bit, because Golan
and Doggie actually brought it up yesterday, and I know
you guys have been talking about it on the show
a little bit. But I think the first goal is
you've got to get to that big club championship game.
And by is not even in that Big twelve title game.
I don't think there's any chance that they can get
into the College football Playoffs playing simple, I think they
need to at the very least be in that game.
And based on the result of that version of that
meeting with Texas Tech in Lubbock, and I'm not just
talking about the loss, but the manner in which they lost,
there's a chance that they have to go and they
they have to win that Big tal title game. Obviously,
we know if they go in Big Colt Championship, I
guess it's not technically one hundred percent, but ninety eight
point seven chance that they will be one of these
five highest ranked conference champions and therefore game one of
those five automatic bids for CFP inclusion. But I think
even if by you just get back to that conference
championship game, if they put in a let's say they're
playing Texas Tech, the would be out on favorite to
be in that game, out on favorite to win the
Big Club Championship. I think if they put a better
to just kind of leave the selection committee with a
better case in their mouth, more competitive game, not a
twenty nine to seven type boss whether they're not really
in it they don't score until the fourth quarter. I
think if they put a better just a better data
point in that championship game, then I think BYU has
as good as an argument for an out large bid
as anybody in the country, and yes, I mean literally
anybody in the country, because right now they're behind three
two lost teams, two from the SEC, and then not
the game. The SEC has been winning a lot of
arguments based off of strength of schedule. By You've got
to figure out a way to kind of boost that
up and pump that up. Their strength of record numbers
are very good. Here's another secret one, and I'll tell
you this, I actually haven't read about this shit or
tweeted about it or anything. So we'll call this a
little cool sports exclusive exclusive for you guys. The UYU
fan should be rooting for ECU. East Carolina right now
is one of those kind of not so talked about
teams that's still in the discussion to make the American
Championship Game. I almost fell the American Athletic Conference, not anymore,
just the American Conference. So ECU is I think they
are like kind of fourth or fifth of the pegging
order right now, but still a decent chance to get
into the American Championship Game. If East Carolina makes that game,
and especially if they go on and they win an
American an American title, then they win over an American
conference champion like BYU now has from the beginning of
the season when they went to Greenville and kind of
sloshed over the Pirates a little bit. I think that
would give them a data point to potentially put them
in as an at large selection to the conference title game.
So first and first, you got to get there. You
gotta get to that championship game. There are a lot
of other teams that you can root for. Yes, that
includes the Utes guys, but I don't count out that
ECU data point as well. And I think the Pirates
could really do something to kind of help BYU, sort
of give them the juice by the for the Selection Committee.
Speaker 2: Sean WALKERKSL dot com here on ESPN the Fan discussing
how by you can get into the Big Twelve and
get into a Big Twelve championship game and also find
its way into the college football playoffs.
Speaker 3: Cincinnati is a two and a half points or that
point dog.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: They are playing against the BYU Cougars on the at
their home stadium, Knipport Stadium.
Speaker 3: Esp and Analytics is.
Speaker 2: Favoring by You don't want to say, it was like
sixty seven percent chance of victory for the Kougs. How
do you see this BA Cincinnati game playing out in uh,
the great state of Ohio?
Speaker 5: Uh, great question. I mean, I'll have a little bit
more on this later in the week because I'm struggling
right now to figure this game out. Then I'm not
gonna lie. I'm struggling a little bit to figure this
game out, because this was a Cincinnati team that had everything,
and I mean literally everything going for it. They were
ranked by the CFP and the AP just three weeks ago.
They were they were one of those teams that was
maybe a little bit of a dark horse contender, but
certainly contender to win the Big Hill Big Club Conference.
They're still not eliminated from Big Clod Championship game consideration
now that they're gonna name we talked about YUNI now
to get there, cinc An added need a ton of
help to get there, but they're still not eliminated from it.
I think they've got a lot to play for right now.
And this is also Cincinnati team that I think is
going to be incredibly motivated in hosting the Koubes for
the first time since twenty sixteen. I mean, this is
it's going to be senior night in at Kniffert Stadium.
It's going to be a night game, which they don't
get very often. That is an eight pm Eastern time kakeout,
not like be a Mountain guys eight pm Eastern time.
So if you're going to that game, bundle up. It's
going to be dark it. You know, maybe vampire cups
come out on the road. We'll see in there. And
then it's also and then they're going to be honoring
twenty two seniors including I think it was six or
seven that have been with the Bearcats for all four
seasons as well. So I think there's a lot of
motivation in the Cincinnati team to come in and try
to make right for what's happened the last two weeks
back to back losses. Obviously they got solved couple weeks
ago by Utah, and so I could see I could
see sort of one of two scenarios where BYU goes
in it kind of does the same thing that the
Utes did up on the hill in Salt Lake City.
The Cincinnati market see the Cincinnati team coming in with
a little bit pride, pulling themselves up by the big bootstraps,
realizing that this is their season. This is a must
win game for them in every way, and I think
they're going to come out really really hard. If BYU
doesn't jump out early, this could be an absolutely dog place.
Speaker 2: Sean, what have you been most impressed by with this
BYU football team this season? What stands out to you
and their progress in what they've been able to accomplish
back to back seasons that are trending to become double
digit win seasons.
Speaker 5: The easy answer is bear back buyer, right, So we're
not We're not going to go there because I think
we talked about Barenos, right, I mean we need we
need to mention therek Blackmeyer coming in as a true
freshman in in a very tenuous spot with some of
the offseason changes, Jake Redsloff transferring to to Tulaine and
all that stuff. What Bear's been able to do I
think should put him in the conversation forward best freshmen
of the year nationally in college football. I don't know
if he's the number one freshman. There are a couple
of others. They're probably gonna have as good of an
argument at him, but I think he needs to be
on the shortlist. He needs to be sort of in
that breath for best freshman this year. Beyond that, like,
I think we expected this BYU defense to be really good.
I really you can make an argument that they got
even better from last year, which talked to any fan
and b YU last year and they would have probably
laughed at that because that defense was really, really good.
But the linebacker corps has been as advertised, Jack Kelly
and oadaive Glaska are going to find Themselo playing on Sundays.
I think there are a couple of defensive linements that
are going to end up playing on Sundays with the
group as well. You know that that was one of
those questions. Mark, Remember if you're in a bactic training
camp that we just didn't really know about. But I've
been really impressed by the defensive line. The thing that
has impressed me maybe the most is this BYU run game.
And I'm not just talking about l J. Martin's been
really good, which he has been. We sort of knew
that he had the potential to be really good. But
he goes over one hundred yards in the first three
games of the season back to back against Arizona and Util.
You've got seven of those on his career. He's just
shy of one thousand yards rushing for the first time
in his career. But he's been durable, incredibly durable, like
he hasn't been. Let's let's get it out of the open.
It's very clear that l J. Martin hasn't been one
hundred percent healthy every game this season, and yet he's
played in ten games. He had that career high one
sixty two at Arizona. He's averaging ninety one point two
yards per game and big twelve play Like everything we
thought about LJ I think has come true and then
some because you realize of the heavy load that he's
had to bear. You know, he's the starting running back
and a lot of times he's the number two running
back in this BYU run game at certain points and
he just keep going, he keeps estep moving, He's finding
the end zone. He's finding some holes behind an enormous
offensive line. I mean, they're the guys that never get
enough credit, right Andrew Gentry and Isaiah Jada and Bluce
Mitchell and the like. But this by You run game,
I think has been again. I had high expectations for
what they could be coming end of the season, and
I think they've even superseded that.
Speaker 2: Sean Walkerksale dot com here on esp the Fan, I
want to change gears here. Whenever you have double digit
win seasons, you're impressive. You're having a quarterback play like
like BYU is a defense playing like the art collectively
running bags and wide receivers, Like, there's a lot of
stars on this team that are showcasing their abilities at
a high level. You're gonna see an uptick in recruiting, right,
You're going to see an uptick in interest from local
talent and even regional talent specifically. What have you been
seeing here locally as it pertains to be what you
football recruitment? I know you've been covering the prep world.
We're gonna have the state championship games coming up here
this week.
Speaker 3: What are you hearing? What are you seeing?
Speaker 2: Do you project any flips from commitments to BYU or
from other schools to BYU?
Speaker 5: Well, are you talking about the twenty twenty sixth class,
then are you talking about the twenty twenty seventh classes?
Shaping up both?
Speaker 3: Man, I mean twenty twenty six and tool twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 5: You never know what can happen, That's true. I feel
like the twenty twenty six classes it's been relatively set
in stone for a little while, you know, I mean,
colleges like to get kind of ahead of it, and
I think BYUS cleaning up up pretty well. When it
comes to some of those in state commitments, there are
a lot of sort of the top towns in the
state that haven't gone by used way that I would
be surprised, quite frankly if they slipped. I'm talking about
like the number one overall recruit in Felici moa who
out of Fremont, who is very much committed to Tennessee
from talking to his family and his coaches and of
those teammates and everything. But what BYU has done really
well in this recruiting class is they have built sort
of a fence around the state of Utah. They've got
two in the top three players in the state right
now in brock Harrison about Moitalo, I don't expect any
changes out of those guys. The number eight overall player,
defensive lineman Lopetti molash with every bit to sixty four
and two hundred and sixty some odd pounds that he's
lifted out of Oream High School. I've asked him a
couple of times in the last few weeks how committed
he is to BYU. He just kind of laughs at me.
He says, yeah, you never really know what today's day
and age, right, Like, you're committed till you're not. Yeah,
and then you laugh again, and he says, but I'm
definitely going to be a Coup excited to be a COUP.
I think she's very, very firm h stay with the
team a calia kana at at at Ornham High School.
I think Adam Bywaters is as close as they could
come there as well. A lot of the other commitments
in the state BYU is only sort of been kind
of fifty fifty. Since they commit a little bit, there's
not a ton of movement from this BYU recruiting staff
after kids commit. Klonia doesn't really like to get into
too many recruiting battles post commitment unless unless the player
or maybe their parents or somebody around them where that
kind of thing reaches out to BYU, then there are
certainly some circumstances and some capabilities there. So uh but
as like as it stands, even if BYU only and
I mean I'm using air quotes right now, I know
an audio medium, if they only come away with two
of the top three recruits in the state of Utah
or five of the top ten, which they currently have
seven of the top eighteen, I'm trying to count and
do my map off the top of my head. I
think it's been a pretty good recruiting hall for this
BYU cycle. That's currently one of the best recruiting classes
in the big clubs.
Speaker 2: All right, Sean, we got to say farewell. We're up
against it, but always appreciate our time together. We invite
everyone to follow you on x as well as read
all your content at KSL dot com. Much love to
you man, We'll chat with you again soon.
Speaker 5: Prazys you guys, thanks as always.
Speaker 3: All right, there you go.
Speaker 2: That's Sean Walker and a Cougar Beat and it was
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