Speaker 1: Is Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel, and it's time for
the Cougar Beat getting the dish from the local reporters
that cover Cougar athletics. Welcome back Cougar Sports one of
three nine ninety eight point three ESPN the fan I've
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Speaker 2: Welcome in.
Speaker 1: Kevin Reynolds of the Salt Lake Tribune. Kevin, how the
heck are you?
Speaker 2: Man? Thanks for joining us?
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: How are you doing? Fantastic man?
Speaker 1: Hopefully you had a wonderful weekend and got a little
R and R N. I know it's probably busy for
you putting out pumping out content. It's twenty four seven,
three sixty five. For all the rioters out there is
sports never sleeps. What have you produced for us at
the Solid Tribune recently?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: Yeah? BYUI is just I think we've been writing a
lot about the transfer portal cycle and what it kind
of means and what it signals. The BYU retained pretty
much everybody that was significant to this team from twenty
twenty five and then goes and ads, you know, arguably
the best linebacker in the transfer portal cycle. What that
means and what that says for Kilani's staff and the
resources that they have, but also on this chase that
the Yu's on to close the gap with Texas Tech,
who also made you know, a lot of strides in
the transfer portal, and then obviously uh looking at at
the hoops and seeing what a kind of a a
week means when you b Texas Tech or sorry TCU
at home and then lose to Texas Tech. So it's
kind of the big the big things for working on.
Speaker 1: How How crazy is it, uh that that b yu's
retained pretty much all of their key contributors now, Shape,
Brian Strather, Max Alford both are were key contributors to
b YU, but they also are both coming off of
ACL reconstructions like knee injuries or surgery. They're both in
the portal. They're uh, they they may both end up
at Michigan. I don't know if Shape Riot Strauther has
committed yet, but we do know that Max Alfred is
heading to Michigan. Tadan Beasley I think ended up at
us F and others have ended up at like Utah State,
et cetera. Special Teams contributors, Marcus McKenzie, uh, et cetera.
But what does it say about this Cougar football team,
Cougar football program, that they haven't really lost anybody of import.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it makes me think of the story back
from twenty to twenty two. That summer, the summer before
BYU went to the Big twelve Kilani and the staff
had Jackson Bowers, Walker Lions, Hunter Clegg and a couple
of other four star guys on campus for pretty much
their their marquee recruiting weekend of that cycle. And back then,
I mean when they got two guys to sign who
were four star guys out of that weekend and not
Walker Lions who ends up at USC, not Hunter Clegg,
who at the time committed to Utah, it was a
cause for celebration. I thought this for the staff of
saying like, oh, you know, the fact that you can
get two out of four, two out of five guys
who come in a weekend who are really high profile
recruits shows that how much it's grown. And fast forward
to basically this last transfer portal cycle and you're seeing
now all of those guys, Walker Lions comes on, Hunter
Clegg obviously slips from BYU and instead of going to
Michigan are flipped to BYU and instead of going to
Michigan and following j Hill, he returns to BYU. And
so now you're looking at a what kind of used
to be a dream scenario for BYU in terms of
recruiting and times when I think BYU didn't think four
or five stars for four four star guys would come
on in one cycle. Now you're seeing the accumulation of
that guy staying, guys signing, guys coming from other schools
to come to BYU, and obviously most importantly in this class.
You know, you're seeing Bear Bachmeers and L. J. Martin's
the reigning Big twelve offensive player of the Year, come
back to BYU. And I think it's for two reasons. One,
there's a track record. Now Kilani doesn't have to really
sell people on a vision. You kind of just have
to look at the president. Say BYUS twenty three and four.
Over the last two years, they went to a Big
twelve title game, They've beaten Utah three times in a row.
You know, the idea that you're selling somebody on the
future isn't necessarily the case anymore. I think to some
degree it is always in recruiting, but you at least
have something on paper and some success to show in
the Power four and what you're chasing in the College
of All playoffs. And then the other part, which I
think is pretty evident, is is resources. I mean, you
see teams in the Big twelve all the time, whether
it be Cincinnati losing their quarterback to Texas Tech, whether
it be anybody in the Big twelve. You know, looking
at an SEC or Big Ten team, a lot of
those teams are pillaged for talent every single year. And
by U's been in that case, in that kind of
in that boat a little bit before. In past years.
You look at Keila Marrion going to Miami and playing
for national title, like they definitely lost the key playmakers.
But this time, you know, they had the money, they
had the resources, and they had the track record to
retain everybody. And I think that's a show of how
much this program has grown. I still think they need
to make strides in a one big league like the
Big twelve. You know, you've got to beat Texas Tech.
But this is a completely different conversation than we're having
in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, and honestly even
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the in a unique and singular direction is
b YU football and BAU basketball. What do you chalk
it up to? You know, what are the pie chart
of credibility?
Speaker 2: What is it about?
Speaker 1: And I think they're doing it in different ways b
YU basketball and b YU football.
Speaker 2: To degree, they're doing it in different ways.
Speaker 1: Obviously, b why you didn't BOU football didn't go out
and get Kellen Kellen Moore or you know, to to
to to lead their their football team, right, that would
be maybe the equivalent on the football side of things.
Speaker 2: But what do you what do you make of it?
Speaker 1: Like when you kind of sit on your perch and
see what BOE football, BOE basketball is doing right now. Uh,
it's a kind of a golden era of BYU athletics,
it seems.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it's just a completely different world than
what we saw, and I think it's different for both teams.
I think with basketball, I think you definitely can look
at the amount of resources they put in and also
Kevin Young and getting NBA experience. I mean, I don't
care how many resources you had. I don't think if
Kevin Young doesn't exist or the NBA connections don't exist,
I don't think you see aj Debonza or Rob Wright
come to b YU. It's because I think that's a
unique kind of pitch that b YU basketball has on
top of the incredible amount of resources. But for Kawani staff,
I think it's a little bit of a different approach
because I think and I think, if football has to
be I don't think you I don't think there is
a quick fix of there is you know, obviously at
the quarterback position. If you went and got a Brandon
Sourcee or whoever the equivalent is, you know that text
of text going after maybe you can make that argument
that it's the equivalent of an Aj de Bonza, you know,
at the quarterback spot. But by and large, I mean football,
you just need so many guys to be good. But
I think retention is much more important in in football
than it is in basketball. Reloading is really really difficult
in football. When in basketball, I think you know, if
you if you can land three or four guys, two
or three guys sometimes depending on how much you know,
different they make. I think you can you can be
an empty tournament team. But in football that's the case.
And also we're seeing death become a huge factor in football,
Like when you're looking at the Texas Tech games. I mean,
look at the depth. The difference in depth I think
is a big deal. And do you have starter caliber
players coming in when guys are injured? Like do you
have an answer when l J. Martin is hurt? And
this year the answer was no. I don't think they
have an answer, and I think we're still going to see,
Like what BYU's answer is to alleviate some of the
pressure on LJA Martin. But I think you know, with basketball,
I think it's going after the highest end of players
and it's because of Kevin Young. But I think with football,
a huge part of it is retaining guys and developing guys,
and you only have the development of luxury. I think
in this kind of world that NIL is in is
if you have the resources to retain guys, otherwise they
will leave. And for now be why you have that
answer this cycle.
Speaker 1: Kevin Reynolds here on ESPN the fan representing the Soally
Tribune talking to BYU Athletics in a Cougar beat.
Speaker 2: Brought to you by orthropros of Utah orthropro of.
Speaker 1: Utah dot Com. College Football Championship game is tonight, Indiana
versus Miami. Both of these teams, you could say, hey,
they relied on the transfer portal, they relied on going
out and acquiring talent via the portal, but Miami was
at the top of the bidders, buyers and money allocators
via the portal.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is a bit of culture versus.
Speaker 1: Cash in the free market that they're living in. Not
to say that Indiana didn't go out and buy some players.
I think they they did. They went out and acquired
some good football players via the portal, but Miami definitely
was at the top of the food gat How do
you see this game kind of culture versus cash?
Speaker 2: Do you think that's an accurate depiction? Do you think
it's something else?
Speaker 3: Well, I think Indiana probably. I mean, I don't know
Indiana well enough, but reading everything that's been written about Indiana,
including from you know, guys like Chris Kim Ronnie at
the Athletic, you know, it just felt like to me,
at least, it was it was targeted guys in the
transfer portal where maybe they're not at the top end
of you know, they're not number one on the transfer
portal list. It's not going to be all you know,
Carson Becks or whoever. It is the biggest name in
the portal, but it's guys that they had experience with that.
James Madison had a lot of production at the Group
of five level or the SCS level, and I think
that's the way to and I think that's the way
to go. I think for a long time, the conventional
wisdom in college football was like, if you don't have
the four and five stars, you're never going to make it,
make it to the national championship. You're not gonna be
able to compete with the Ohio States and the you know,
Miami's of the world. I guess in some ways, but
you know, I think production matters, and I think we're
seeing that. I think we've seen that to a certain
degree at BYU too. It's like in football at least
is production does matter at the lower levels and you
can get really good, productive players. I think hell and Marion.
I know he's on Miami now, but I think he's
an example of that. He didn't come from the biggest school,
I mean, Yukon, but he was productive at Yukon and
he comes to BYU and he was extremely productive here,
and he goes to Miami and he's been he's been
pretty good there, at least in this playoff run and
the last few games, So you know, I think that's
my takeaway is I don't know how much of it
is culture. I don't know how much of it I
don't I don't know if Indiana you can just say, oh,
they didn't have any resources. I think they did, but
I think using the resource as well, and maybe not
having the biggest war chest, but at the same time,
going after guys that you that you are very certain
what they can do and how they fit into in
a particular system, which it seems like Indiana is very
good at.
Speaker 1: Indiana's a unique team. Who do you think Winsor's game?
I know Indiana's a favorite. I think last time we
checked through was about eight and a half. I don't
know if the spreads changed at all. But do you
think that Indiana comes away victorious versus Miami the Hurricanes tonight?
Speaker 3: I do? I mean, I think Indiana's destroy every single
team that they've gone up against. I thought Oregon was
going to be much harder of a challenge beating a
team twice particular team as good as Oregon. You know,
how many How many times do you see that not
only do they win, you know, they the game is
over by halftime or maybe even the first quarter. So
I think Indiana comes out with this. And I have
to say, like just from a football, you know, college
football perspective and watching college football, even if I don't
know the ins and outs of Indiana's program, to me,
it looks like it's one of the most well coached teams.
I think we've we've seen it a long time. You know,
they just don't make mistakes, and I think Miami makes
a lot of them. And so we'll see, we'll see tonight.
But I just don't think Miami can get away with
some of the mistakes they've made and have been making.
I mean, look at the beginning, even I know it's
a long time ago, but look at the mistakes that
cost them the SMU game, in the Louisville game. And
we've seen what Indiana does when teams make even just
with little the slightest errors, and those become you know,
twenty point leads very clickly for Indiana.
Speaker 1: We're seeing some of the preseason way too early, preseason
polls drop on three just put out theirs. They put
Bleay at number thirteen heading into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Do you think that's too high, too low, or just
about right?
Speaker 3: You know, I think that's about right. Like I don't
think I put them in the top twelve yet, you know,
I don't think they're a lock playoff team, just because
also I don't know how many teams the Big twelve
gets in, and I don't think BYU is at least
on PAP for the Big the best team in the
Big twelve right now, I'd still say that's probably Texas Tech,
particularly with how well they've done in the transfer portal
this cycle and adding to what they already had. So
and they're going to upgrade the quarterback position, which was
arguably probably their weakest link this year I thought was
the quarterback spot, and definitely kind of exposed that I
thought in the playoffs too, so soortly we'll be an
upgrade there and so because of that, I think thirteen
is about right, just kind of on the outside looking in.
And the question I have is there's a bunch of retention.
I don't think you're going to have too many questions
out l J. Martin or you know, a lot of
the other questions that we had last year at the
quarterback spot. There Bachmeyer kungback. But what does this defense
look like under Kelly Papanga versus J Hill? Is it similar?
Does Kelly Popinga get you know, as much pressure on
the quarterback as J Hill got this last year finally
kind of breaking through the stacks? What does that look like?
Because I thought Jay Hill, I thought he did a
lot of things well. I thought he was a very
good play caller. And I'll I'll be interested to see
what Kelly pa does this year.
Speaker 1: Kevin Reynolds Sally Tribune here on your Utah ESPN Radio
network for a Cougar Beat, brought to you by Orthroproso
Utah arthroposovuta dot com. If you look at the acquisitions
that BWAU football has picked up via the portal, there's
only nine of them.
Speaker 2: They're like one of.
Speaker 1: Like five teams with less than ten. And many of
these teams are, you know, high level programs, Georgia, I
think US Seas in that mix, Notre Dame. Very few
teams have I have stayed under that ten ten player
roster for the transfer portal. Two of them, though, are
tight ends. We've seen three offensive lineman. You've seen one
or two strategic linebacker additions. When you look at the
nine players that b YU has acquired via the portal,
what stands out to you with their strategy.
Speaker 3: I think it's what you said. I mean, this was
a clearly the top priority. Coming off of the eleven
win year or twelve years or twelve a year and
winning twenty three games in the last two years, the
top priority was definitely a retention and keeping the guys
who won all those games in the building and obviously
keeping Bear Bachmeyer in the building to grow and develop into.
You know, we'll see what he can become. But you know,
the thing that stands out to me though, is Walker
Lion because I think you needed to find a replacement
for Carson Ryan and Carson Ryan I don't think. I
don't know if he was the best player on Blay's offense.
I think that was probably LJ and then probably Bear.
But at the same time, I don't know who's more
important than Carson Ryan because we've seen this offense when
they have a pass catching tight end and what that
kind of does, and how much Bear seems to really
rely on Carson Ryan. I think He's probably made the
argument that Carson Ryan was bear Bachmeyer's favorite target this
year and when things got tough, he went to him.
And in years past, pretty much since I've been here,
the first three years BYU, since Isaac RETX, have they
really had this reliable tight end pass catching option and
this safety valve. I don't think they had that for
Jake rest Left. I don't think they had that all
the time for Keyton Slowvis or the end of Jaron
Hall after Isaac Gretch got hurt. I mean, look at
twenty twenty three or twenty twenty four where they're putting,
you know, moving Keanu Hill to tight end and kind
of trying to mix a match, and they really just
didn't have a pass catching option. So I think Walker
lines having him kind of in theory Sun kind of
seamlessly as a as a pass catching guy who can
take that take on that role, I think does a
lot to open up the offense. And then the other
part I still think, well, we don't necessarily have an
answer on but I do think you're probably going to
need a wide receiver to emerge who's a deep threat
or at least a playmaker. I think they really missed
that this year with that Phila Marian and Darius Laser.
You know, Chase Roberts kind of played that role a
little bit. Parker Kingston's good, but he's not. That's not
necessarily his strengthness or at least what Darius and Kwan did.
So I'm interested to see, you know, who that person emerges,
because I thought that was the thing missing in this
offense a little bit. And we'll see.
Speaker 1: With all of the dominoes that have fallen here in
the state of Utah, Sing Kyle Uh kind of ushered out,
and you know in in the head coach and wedding,
Morgan Scalley taken over, Jay Hill and and general to
be Yu. That's part of the domino effect. You know
who's who's been more impacted by these these changes? Would
you say Utah or BYU?
Speaker 3: Thus far, I think it's Utah. I definitely think it's U. Tih.
I mean, they lose essentially their entire offensive staff and
they have to bring in a new offensive coordinator and
hire a new defensive coordinator because Scaley gets elevated, and
you know, I think, don't get me wrong, I think
j Hill leaving BYU is a huge question mark and
something that definitely needs to be answered because he just
did so much. I mean, obviously the associate head coach,
but he was a very good recruiter. He was instrumental
in a lot of the recruiting momentum. I thought of
getting guys like you know, stars in this defense, Solidus
Otsula and other players to flip from Utah to BYU,
and I think that was very important before they were
winning games, before they were truly winning in the Big twelve,
to turn the tide in recruiting, or at least have
BYU punching in the same weight classes U, which they
they weren't for so long in that decade of independence.
I think Jay and the whole staff, but definitely Jay
deserves a lot of credit, and the way those guys
talk about it definitely deserves credit. So I'm not trying
to downplay j Hill leaving. I think it's a big, big,
big deal. But at the same time, when you look
at the totality of it, I think you have to
say Utah was was the more effected team. And not
only that, Utah lost players, not just coaches, They lost
players to Michigan Smithsoden, jj B Tannon. You can go
down the list of guys who were either key playmakers
or you know, guys who had a lot of potential
are John to La. You can kind of go through
the list and b why you really didn't other than
Max Alford. So right now, I'd say Utah is the
more effective group.
Speaker 1: What let me ask you this. We were debating this
on Friday. We were discussing Mark Harlan, some of his actions,
some of the h less popular actions, maybe that he's
he's engaged in. For Utah fans, you know, how are
they feeling about Mark Harlan as their ad You're seeing
kind of the repercussions.
Speaker 2: Are they bought in? Are they sold on Mark Harland?
Do you think?
Speaker 1: I know you're not covering them on the daily on
the bead, et cetera, But you know you're hearing things,
You're seeing things. Are they bought into the head coach
in waiting? Are they bought into, you know, Mark Harland
being their fearless leader for the years to come.
Speaker 3: You know, I can't speak for Utah fans. I don't
know exactly what the feeling is, but just my overall
take on the whole situation, I'd say, is that Morgan
Scalley I think is a very very smart coach. I
think he's been proven to be a very good defensive coordinator,
but he has not been a head coach yet, so
there is already that question mark. And then the other
part is how often do coach in waiting really work?
And I'm not saying Morgan Scalley won't be a good coach.
I think he probably will be a good coach. But
at the same time, like the situation he is walking
into is a lot harder because of kind of the
structure around it, and now Kyle's gone and he's taking
coordinators is a much more difficult situation than what was
supposed to be the case for Morgan Scalley. Like, I
don't think he thought whenever he took over that he
was going to have to overhaul an offense and make sure,
you know, Kevin mcgiven is operating the same as Jason Deck.
And I don't think he anticipated losing as many, you know,
key contributors as he did to Michigan, And I think
part of it was because part of the reason why
it happened, there's a I don't think anyone could have
foreseen what has happened to Michigan and that the job
would be open and that Kyle would get the job.
He wasn't the first choice, he wasn't the second choice.
You know, probably wasn't even the third choice for this job.
So a lot had to happen. I don't know if
anybody could have foreseen that, but it is a very
difficult situation that I think you put a coach in
waiting into. I think it just makes it difficult, and
it did get weird, and I think we were talking
to some of you tough fans last week at the
bau Utah game for this, and I think there are
definitely mixed feelings, and you can talk about how the
way those have come across, like should you be attacking
Kyle Whittingham's family. No, obviously not. But at the same time,
I do think there's mixed feelings on the direction of
the program right now, and I do think there needs
to be at least some calming stability, and maybe that
is Morgan, But it is a very difficult job, a
way more difficult situation than anybody could have anticipated a
first time head coach walking into.
Speaker 1: You don't have to apply on this if you don't
want to. But what's Mark Carlin's lowest moment is it
to give me a break tweet and subsequent role in
his event the eventual disintegration of the PAC twelve. How
about these they stole it from us going to the
press conference post game, but.
Speaker 2: The whole war.
Speaker 1: You can combine walking on to the field and getting
penalized in that moment, purportedly pushing out Kyle Whittingham for
the head coach in waiting or number five calling out
former Sinnes and commits on Twitter. Uh, you know, in
a in a in a in a bit of a
stupor that didn't really make any sense on Twitter before
deleting it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know, I have an opinion on that,
but it it Uh.
Speaker 1: If you erase tweets though, like you know, you know
where what is it there? There probably had to be
some criticism from the admin saying, hey, you should probably
remove that, or maybe his agent did.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I was very, very surprised by
that tweet. I'll say I was equally surprised about the
press conference after the buy Utah game, But yeah, I was.
I guess I'll just go with I was I've never
seen an ad do that. I've never seen that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, are we are we getting desensitized to
some of the actions of Mark Harlin because we've never
seen him before. We are because or because from now
we're starting to see these never seen before, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2: Are we desensitized to it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I really don't know, but it has been
since I've been here. It's been quite a few moments
where I was like, Wow, did not see that coming,
Kevin Renolds.
Speaker 1: Best way to support you what you do, how you
do it, and anything you want to tease us with
what content you're going to be putting out there at
the at the trib.
Speaker 3: Uh. Yeah, I mean we've got some more bye stuff
coming up for sure, But yeah, that's way the support is.
Go to sl trip dot com and we have a
bunch of stories on all the stuff we're talking about
by U And obviously there's been a good number of
reporting from a lot of people at our newspaper from
on Kyle Whittingham, Morgan Scully and what comes next for
that program too.
Speaker 1: So Kevin Reynolds, Ladies, jem I always love talk in
ball with you. I love talking the news and nodes.
Thanks for hopping off for a cougar be keV.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks man, there go Kevin Reynolds. Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: That segment was brought to you by Orthorpros of Utah
in American Fork. What do we do at Orthropros. We
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Injury prevention, post operative, post injury recovery.
Speaker 2: Hit us up, call us.
Speaker 1: We can build out your insurance, or you can utilize
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through and eight that's eight O one four hundred fly
through and eight Orthropros of Utah Orthorposifutah dot com. Let's
take a brief time out. Let's talk cruting the Cougar's
coming up next. Brandon Hoffman, national recruiting editor for two
for seven Sports, will join us to break down bau's
recruiting efforts in the twenty twenty six class as well
as the twenty twenty six Transfer Portal Class. That and
more here on your Utah ESPN Radio Network, one of
the three nine ninety eight point three