Speaker 1: This is Cougar Sports with Ben Grittle on ESP and
it's time for Keeping Up with the Cougars, brought to
you by Dental prosum Utah dot com.
Speaker 2: I don't like you, in fact, I hate I hate
everything about I hate the program, I hate their fans,
I hate everything. So it felt really good to send
those guys home. They didn't deserve it. It was our
time and it was our time to win.
Speaker 3: We deserved it.
Speaker 2: We played as hard as we could tonight, and it
felt really good again to send them.
Speaker 3: Home, to get them out of here. So you know,
game always remember.
Speaker 2: I mean I think I think their whole I think
the whole university and their fans, and then the organization
is classless.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: You know, they throw they threw beer on my family
and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of
nasty things, and I don't respect them, and you know
they deserve it.
Speaker 3: They deserve it.
Speaker 4: There you go, let's get into it.
Speaker 5: A little Keeping up at the Cougar seven brought to
you by Dental pros of Utah Dentelprosoutah dot com. If
you've been told you need a filling a crown a
root can out all I'm asking you to do is
get a second opinion at Dental Pros of Utah in
American Fork. All right, let's welcome in the winningest quarterback
and b WHATU football history and arguably the most competitive
my teammate. We got Max Hall on the line right now, Maximus,
how the heck are you, buddy?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great. Good to be on guys.
Speaker 6: I always tell people this is my most famous week
of the year right here.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants to talk to me. I love that.
Speaker 4: Hey, I'd like to talk to you throughout the year.
Speaker 5: That's uh, you know, but I do know that I
do enjoy talking ball with my brother, you know, on
rivalry week. So Max, always a pleasure, always a blessing
getting you on our airwaves.
Speaker 4: It's a special week, man.
Speaker 5: What makes this rivalry so special versus maybe some of
the other rivalry games, Because look.
Speaker 4: You grew up in Arizona. I group in Arizona, we saw.
Speaker 5: The U of AASHU rivalry, right, and that was a
that was a great rivalry obviously, but the BAU Utah
one just is built a little bit different.
Speaker 6: It is, and I think the obvious things are you know,
there's no professional.
Speaker 3: Team in Utah.
Speaker 6: You know, Uh, there's obviously the religious factor to it,
and so many families are split families in the state.
It's just it's become just part of the culture I
think of the state of Utah and and really outside
of it too, But in the state is I think where.
Speaker 3: The rivalry really gets as heated as it does.
Speaker 6: And so I grew up in the Asuu of a
rivalry which is a heated rivalry.
Speaker 3: But I don't know, Man, the.
Speaker 6: BYU Utah thing just it gets it gets taken to
the next level.
Speaker 3: And obviously I've been a part of that. I've been
a cause of that.
Speaker 6: But I think right now, going into this year, what's
so special about it is how well both teams are doing.
They're playing at a high level. Both teams have great quarterbacks,
great quarterback play. That's what you want to see. I
think it's going to be an exciting, electric, big time
football game. I think the atmosphere is going to be great,
and so I just think it's a It's a good
time for to be a cougar and of you to
be honest with you, and so I think hopefully going
into this week, we can talk trash, we can get
into it, but at the end of the day realize
it's the football game, and and there's things in life
that are bigger, but but this game is at the
top of the list as far as he gets as
college football rivalry.
Speaker 4: It's so special, man, It's a great game.
Speaker 5: I didn't realize the the seriousness of it until I
arrived and played in it myself.
Speaker 4: I don't know if that was a good thing or
a bad thing.
Speaker 5: I wasn't necessarily emotionally attached to this particular game until
I played in it, and then it became even more
valuable for me. And so I'm looking at like Bear,
for instance, who hasn't played in this game and didn't
grow up a BYU fan and wasn't familiar with the
BYU Utah game. And I'm like, is that a good
thing or a bad thing for a quarterback to head
into this game with no real knowledge of the volatility,
the the the components, the the history all of it,
uh the emotion that is involved in this game.
Speaker 3: I think he could be beneficial to where he doesn't.
He doesn't build the game to what too up and
put too much pressure on himself, you.
Speaker 6: Know what I'm saying and that you say you want
to treat it like any other game, prepare like any
other game, But that's not the case.
Speaker 3: It's different.
Speaker 6: You got to prepare for the noise, You got to
prepare for the animosity. You got to prepare for the
for the change of possessions, the sudden changes, the turnovers,
the things. How are you going to handle your emotions?
Like everything is just raised a little bit in these games,
and you and the team that usually can manage that
the best is the.
Speaker 3: Team that wins.
Speaker 6: And I always say, obviously the team that can make
plays in French time to win. But I just think
you can't treat it like that. And this game is special.
But I think Bear's going to be fine. Okay, I
haven't played in the game yet, but hey, we're playing
really good football right now.
Speaker 3: I got a good defense behind you, I got a
really good running back. Things are good.
Speaker 6: I just need to stay consistent, play my game, and
I think BYU is the better team and will win.
Speaker 4: How important is it?
Speaker 5: The twelve is the twelfth man in this game, it's
at home versus your rival. The twelfth man, the roar
of the Cougars, the Royal Army how important is for
the fans to be involved the entirety of the game.
Speaker 6: I think it's huge, and it's just like seeing how
much different it is even than you know when I
when we played back in the day. I just think
with the student section and everything, the production that BYU
puts on for these games is just phenomenal.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: It's so much fun to be at. And as a player,
I think you feed off that energy. You feed off
the crowd for good or bad, and so.
Speaker 3: I think they're gonna need that.
Speaker 6: I think they're gonna need the crowd to stay in it,
be loud on defense because in a game like that,
they can.
Speaker 3: Affect the other team.
Speaker 6: And I think we're gonna, you know, any chance that
we can have them do that would be great.
Speaker 3: So it's going to be a great atmosphere.
Speaker 5: Man, Max all here on ESPN the Fan, Your your
favorite rivalry moment and.
Speaker 6: Why, Well, I don't think that's a That's an easy
one for me. I think I think obviously the moment
is the is the overtime win. You know, my senior
year and uh you know we my sophomore year throwing
that fourth and eighteen pass and then going down and
scoring was phenomenal too.
Speaker 3: But it's just funny.
Speaker 6: I've been on both ends of the rivalry because Mice
junior year going up to Utah, I had all those
turnovers and we lost and that was embarrassing.
Speaker 3: And I had to live with that for a year.
Speaker 6: And that's why there was so much emotion built up
for me going into that game my senior year because
of all the trash talking and everything I had to
hear from the year before with how bad I played
with the turnovers and so winning that game just it
was just you worked so hard, you want it so much,
and for it to happen was just like, man, the
feeling is unbelievable, and I think all those emotions just
pore out of you at that point.
Speaker 3: So it was.
Speaker 6: It was a pretty special moment. I mean, you think
of when you're growing up as a kid, do you
think of you know, when you're in the backyard you're
making up plays, you think of, Hey, you're in overtime,
you got to throw this pass to win the game
for a touchdown. And it happens and Ben, that was
my last play well Edward Stadium right there, That's how
we went out.
Speaker 3: So it's a special moment.
Speaker 4: Dude, dude, just so immortalized.
Speaker 5: Man so fantastic, and you know it took a while
to like after all the momentum, all the all that
that win and the movement of Utah going to the
Pac twelve. It also flip man BYU was the big
dog right for so long and then Utah dominated from
twenty ten to two thousand and twenty one, nine straight wins.
The you know, Jaron Hall and that BA Cougar football
team at home was able to finally break it. And
now Pop, he's on a two game winning streak. How
do you think they get to three games? These two
teams match up very similarly. They look similar statistically, their
rankings are similar across offensive and defensive stats. What's gonna
be the difference at home for the Cougars on Saturday?
Speaker 3: Honestly, it's gonna be Bet.
Speaker 6: It's gonna be Bear if he can stay consistent and
he can keep doing playing the.
Speaker 3: Way he's playing.
Speaker 6: I think A Rodd's doing a phenomenal job with play
calling and putting him in good situations to make plays
and letting him use his athleticism when he needs to,
and not putting too much on him. You know, let's
use the guys around him as much as we can.
And then obviously it's going to be consistency giving the
ball to the running back and consistency in the running game.
But if Bear can show his maturity that he showed
this first half of the season, and he can keep
the game slow, he can see it and he can
execute it and try not to do too much to
where he's turning the ball over or putting his team
in bad situations.
Speaker 3: I truly believe.
Speaker 6: I think across the board by use a better team
and they should get to win. On top of that,
we're man the atmosphere. I just think everything's in favor
of the Kogs.
Speaker 5: It's it's a great day for Cougar football right by
using the big twelve year three their top twenty five
back to back seasons in which they've a six and zero.
This has never been done before, even in your era,
my era, the era of the seventies and eighties. And
so what is the trajectory of this Cougar football program
right now under Kolane with the resources both internally and
then externally with nil what's the potential here that we're
talking about with BYU football in the years to come.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's no limit on it. You know.
Speaker 6: It's kind of funny. I was sitting here with my
son this morning. I was getting ready to take him.
He had waits this morning, and we were we were
watching ESPN and they were talking about the college football
bracket and they were putting all their teams up on there,
and I'm sitting there and I'm like, BYU wasn't up there.
Speaker 3: And I'm sitting in myself, and I really believe. I'm like,
by should be up there. And I think that is
the next step for BYU.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think we win If we can win
a conference championship, number one, and then there's no reason
why BYU shouldn't be considered one of the top teams
in the country every single year. With the program they have,
the coaching staff, we have the momentum that the program
has right now, continue to have great recruiting.
Speaker 3: I just think that there's potential for us to.
Speaker 6: Be, you know, one of those top top twelve teams
every single year.
Speaker 5: When you look at is what has made Utah great
And you have to give a lot of credit to
Kyle Whittingham. The culture that he's created. He's a former
BYU Cougar himself. He's created a culture, a team that
produces a high level defense, special teams and if physical
physical offenses that are pretty balanced, but more maybe run heavy.
Speaker 4: When you look at what Kyle's.
Speaker 5: Built and what he's been able to accomplish up there,
like what stands out to you since he took over
the head coaching job in two thousand and five.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I think you know, obviously with my with
my comments and my moment with Utah and directed towards them,
you know, it's people never really asked me my feelings
on it. But there's one thing I do have, and
that is a ton of respect for Kyle winning him.
The guy is a phenomenal football coach. I mean, there's
a reason why he's been there that long and had
the success that he's had at Utah. He knows how
to build a culture, he knows how to build a program,
He's got good coaches in there, He's brought in great players,
and to consistently.
Speaker 3: Do it year in and year out. That is hard
to do at any level. That is hard to do.
Speaker 6: And so I think the guy is gonna I mean,
obviously he's gonna go down as one of the greatest
Polish football coaches in history.
Speaker 3: And I just think it's amazing what he's accomplished.
Speaker 6: There at his career, and so got a ton of
respect for Kyle and what he's done. And I know
he's getting older and I don't know how much longer
he's planning on being there, But you know, when his
days are done at Utah, when he decides to step down,
he's going to deserve a lot of recognition for his
accompliment accomplishments.
Speaker 5: If he doesn't get a win at VELL, do you
think he retires after this year? Do you think he
comes back?
Speaker 4: Give it one.
Speaker 5: He can't go out with a three game losing streak.
He's got to go out with a win versus b Yu.
Speaker 6: I mean that everybody's different in that aspect. Man, I mean,
you should call him, You should call him to ask
him that question.
Speaker 3: Because I can't. I can't answer that question for him.
Speaker 6: But does does does a win for him make it
easier to step away? I think so absolutely? Does a
loss kind of put it in the back of your
head that you know, I can't go out like that
sort of a thing, then maybe, But he may say, look,
the body of work that I put in over years,
you know, whether we lost to b YU or not
my last year, I don't think matters when you look
at the body of work. So that's a good question
for him to answer, though, So let me know what
he says.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I will in the in the post game, we'll
be sure to ask him that. Uh, wherever the cookie crumbles, right,
whichever the ball, whichever direction ball bounces in this game,
what has stood out to you about this b what
you football team this year that makes you a believer
of what they're building under Kalanie, Like, when you're watching
these games, obviously you're gonna have eyes on quarterback play
in the offense, et cetera.
Speaker 4: But let's talk collectively. What do you see? What do
you like?
Speaker 6: I just I like the attitude of the team. I
like the I like the vibe, I like the energy.
Speaker 3: I like the I think the attitude is the best
way to put it.
Speaker 6: You watch them just how they play, how they correspond
with each other. You watch the coaches on the sideline
and how they coach the kids, how they respond to
the coaches.
Speaker 3: You can just tell that there's an excitement around BYU football.
Speaker 6: That there's an energy, a super positive environment that Kilani
has created that makes kids want to work their tails
off and and be the best that they can as
players and do it for the team. But it's also
a very team centered, unselfish environment, and I think he's
brought in the right players and the right staff that
buy into that. And when you have buy into something
like that, you can create something special.
Speaker 3: You've got to have the right guy leading it.
Speaker 6: You got to have the right guy setting the standard
and following it. And Colin Sataki again has done a
great job of that. And you can see the potential
and the progression of this program. And so, like we
said before, it's an exciting time to be a Krugar.
I think that we only go up from here as
we continue to get better players in and more experience
in this conference. And so, like I said, I think
the staff, everything, it's just there's a vibe.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: Sometimes it's hard to explain it, but there's definitely a
vibe and an energy that's very positive around the program
right now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's been some players over the last decade during
the independence there's a few years off, right some players
didn't get to play this game and experience this game
on both sides of the ball. I find that that's
kind of a disservice to the student athlete.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: We talk about all the things that make college football great, yeah,
high school football football in general grade, it's the rivalry games.
Speaker 4: That's what makes the best games.
Speaker 5: I mean, when you think about your favorite moments as
a college football player, I mean, the rivalry game has
to be at the top. I mean, are there any
other games experiences that rival a rivalry game?
Speaker 6: The only one would be a championship game, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: A championship conference game or obviously a playoff game.
Speaker 6: But other than that, when you have a rivalry like
the BYU Utah rivalry, it's big no matter what, because
every year that game means something. No matter what the
records are, no matter how each team is doing, whatever
data set for the BYU Utah game, it's a big
game and people care about that game no matter what.
Speaker 3: So that's what's so special about it is there will
never be a dull vibe around that game.
Speaker 6: There will always be excitement, there will be competitiveness, there
will be trash talking. It's just the whole thing is fantastic,
and I just think it's special and these players should
feel lucky that they get to be a part of
this tradition and part of this game.
Speaker 3: So hopefully they just.
Speaker 6: Go out this weekend and and and feed off that
energy and and give it everything they got and execute
come on with a win.
Speaker 5: Max hal here on ESP and the Fan a little
keeping up with the Cougars brought to you by Dental
Pros of Utah in American Fork. Max, give us an
update on work and family, personal life.
Speaker 4: Give us an update.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, And I know the Halls are doing great.
Speaker 3: You know, my my.
Speaker 6: My son's a freshman and killing it on the freshman
team as a quarterback down here. And my daughter is
a big time pickleball player. We get till we're in
the pickleball scene with her. Kensey still running her Pilate
studios and so things are doing really good.
Speaker 3: I have my time with.
Speaker 6: Ala has come to an end, so I'm no longer
coaching there and right now I'm on the look. So
I've I've already talked to a few different places and
have a few teams set up, but I have a
few more coming up.
Speaker 3: That I think are going to be hopefully some good
opportunities for me. But but I'm open.
Speaker 6: So if you know of anybody looking for a coach,
you know, let me know.
Speaker 3: But I'm interested in talking to anybody right now.
Speaker 4: Well, hey, I put out of some feelers.
Speaker 5: I'm like, bro, how would you like Max All as
a coach or even an analyst? These days, the analysts
aren't making they're making some good money too, and you
can coach, right, You can now get hands on. Before
analysts were just kind of like in the booth advising
and game prep and somefing like that, and but now
they can, they can coach.
Speaker 4: What about coming back to the alma mater and helping out?
Speaker 3: I would I would love that. If it be what
he wants me to come back and help, I absolutely
would jump on that.
Speaker 6: You know, I actually finished my degree here in December,
which will allow me to go coach in college. I
just I never I never knew if I was gonna
make that jump or not. But if I have an
opportunity to do it, I would love to come back
to be you in some capacity, whether it's an analysis
or whatever. But if they want me, you know, I
shouldn't sit down and talking to them right now, so
we'll see what happens.
Speaker 5: So you did, do you have a like an idealistic situation.
You mentioned you're getting your degree, which will open up
opportunities to coach at the collegiate level.
Speaker 4: Without that, was.
Speaker 5: It a little bit difficult to get into the college
coaching world and was that a barrier of entry.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And to be honest with you, I wasn't really
sure if I wanted to.
Speaker 3: I wasn't. I wasn't sure.
Speaker 6: You know, I had young kids growing up, and I
wanted to spend time with them and coach them and
and be a dad to them.
Speaker 3: But as my kids get older and they're.
Speaker 6: In high school and and getting ready to graduate, you
know that that that idea changes. And I always thought
that one day I would probably try to go back
to college. And I think maybe this is God telling me, Hey,
it's that time. It's that time to do it. So
everything's kind of lining up for it happen. Now.
Speaker 3: I just have to, you know, see if.
Speaker 6: There's somebody out there that wants my help and would.
Speaker 3: Like me to come in and be part of the program.
Speaker 5: Love that, Yeah, is like high school football is is
special though, right, I mean you've experienced now for a years,
like you you get it's less. I mean, there's definitely
a professional aspect now in the modern era, and there's
a highly competitive aspect as well, but it's still kind
of that baseline foundational mentorship, coaching, faith, family football. They're
a little bit more malleable. The clay's more valuable. Even
the parents still listen, even when you know they may
not want to listen to coaching from the coach anyway.
Like there's there's still some altruism there. It would that
be difficult to leave.
Speaker 6: Well, absolutely, you know, I've been at that school for
eleven years and and help build that thing from a
from a little two AH charter school up to U
you know, a six A powerhouse and we've been in
the open the last few years and things have just
been rolling. And so that's hard to step away from
high school football.
Speaker 3: You know, we all say it's the purest form of
the game.
Speaker 6: It's where you're playing for your brothers, you're playing for
your town, you're playing for your community, and the communities.
Speaker 3: Involved and the parents are involved.
Speaker 6: It's just a different vibe than moving on to college,
where now it's just more business like now, especially with
all the NIL and transfer portal stuff, it's just more
of a business like the NFL.
Speaker 3: In high school, you still.
Speaker 6: Get that brotherhood and that love and that community and
let's go out and play and fight for each other.
So that's what I'll I'll miss the most about it,
But also just being around those kids. Man, you get
your around these sixteen seventeen year old kids. I'm fourteen, fifteen,
sixty seventeen, and they're going through life. Man, They're going
through things. They're going through hardships that sometimes only a
coach can be there for. And so having the opportunity
to mentor kids and be there for them and help
them through not just football but just life.
Speaker 3: Having them coming to my office all the time and
hang around and just.
Speaker 6: Helping them whether they end up going and serving missions
for the church or going to college or getting jobs.
Speaker 3: That's what you miss about it the most, is the
relationships and all that. So that'll be hard.
Speaker 6: But I also know that my mind and my football
ability as a coach alongs in college. I think the
high school game is great, but I think I have
the mind to be in college and to help compete
at that level.
Speaker 3: And I know I can, so I'm also very anxious
to test.
Speaker 6: That and to see how well I can do at
the next level if I have that opportunity.
Speaker 5: Max Hall, ladies and gentlemen winning as quarterback and BYU
football history.
Speaker 4: Are you going to be attending the Holy World this weekend?
By chance? You're going to be in town.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: We've leave tomorrow morning, flying out there tomorrow, be hanging
around a little bit on Friday, you know, go say
hi to the players and coaches and stuff, and then
definitely we'll.
Speaker 3: Be there on Saturday.
Speaker 6: I think Dave's having me do something on the show,
on the pregame shows, so I might do a little
bit something there and can't wait.
Speaker 3: Man, it's gonna be so much fun.
Speaker 4: Love it.
Speaker 5: Man, We'll see you down there in provo. Give me
a scorporation. How do you think this game plays out
under the lights of level? How do you think Dau competes?
Speaker 3: Ooh, I think we can pee.
Speaker 6: I think Bau wins by I think we win by
ten or fourteen points. I have you know, and I
say those scores is probably high twenties, low thirty somewhere
in there. But I think we pull it off by
ten to fourteen points tonight.
Speaker 5: I love it. Man, would love to see that. Ronnie,
what do you got?
Speaker 7: I just want Max to know that we want to
know already on getting people hired by bou. It might
take some time to the Lord's timing. But Travis Hansen,
we punke, we prognosticated. You know, he said, hey, look,
it needs to happen. So I think Max will eventually
be by. As they say, bring him home, Bring him home, Max.
Speaker 3: Bring him home. I appreciate that.
Speaker 4: Let's go, buddy, Max. Appreciate you. I much love to
you and your family.
Speaker 3: Thanks, guys, appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 4: All right, buddy, there you go. That's Max Hall, Ladies
and gentlemen.
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