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Speaker 2: Welcome back Cougar Sports.
Speaker 3: One of three nine ninety eight point three s Ben
the fan. I've been for the broadcasting from our Vanderwelth Studios.
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former BYU great quarterback that played in the National Football
League leading your team to Glorian victory back in two
thousand and one with the greatest teams in BWA football history.
Former BYU Cougar quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator as well
and now entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: He'll join us here momentarily.
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Speaker 2: You can throw.
Speaker 3: You can throw a sixty seventy yard hell Mary in
that thing with no range of motion in ambition, in fact,
it may give you a little bit of pop on
that football.
Speaker 2: In fact, we may test it out with our next guest.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get him into a sports performance suit and
see how well he throws the ball.
Speaker 2: In it. Let's welcome and former BYU. Great. We got
branded Doman on the line. Doman. How that are you?
Speaker 4: The Dominator's gold on guys, how are you?
Speaker 2: They're doing fantastic. You need a new suit, be.
Speaker 4: I always couldn't use a new suit.
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connected with Breton Day, CEO of Odeon Men's Wear, our
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Speaker 2: What do you say? I love it?
Speaker 4: I love it? Thank you?
Speaker 2: Get you hooked up with that number one.
Speaker 3: Hey, give us a brief update house, family, house work,
give us some updates on your on your life.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just seems like life kids busier day by day.
My kids are getting older, and I turned fifty this year.
I can't believe that I'm not old. It's driving me crazy.
But life is good. Business is good, and we're just
moving forward.
Speaker 3: Still young, in spry, uh and still still you can
still sling it, man.
Speaker 2: We saw it at the Alumni game. Just still slinging it, man.
Speaker 3: So still in great shape even in your supposed old age.
Speaker 4: Oh man, I don't I don't feel it. I appreciate
you saying that, but I don't feel like I can
still actually throw us fired off anymore.
Speaker 2: It you can't, man, you can't.
Speaker 3: You're part of the what I would deem as the
resurgence of the quarterback factory. Right, we was talking about
the quarterback Factory QBU.
Speaker 2: In the seventies and eighties and nineties.
Speaker 3: There was a ton of great quarterbacks and even into
the you know, the the late nineties, right, good quarterbacks.
A lot of NFL talent since two thousand. Okay, you've
been in you played in the league. You had John Beck,
Max Hall, Taysom Hill, Zach Wilson, Jaren Hall, Keaton Slovas,
and you may have another one in Bear Blackmer.
Speaker 2: I think that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3: You look at the NFL talent still coming through Brigham
in the last twenty five years, at the quarterback in
the quarterback room, I think it's an impressive number to
see how many guys have not only drafted or undrafted
free agents that actually end up playing some ball in
the NFL and being on rosters.
Speaker 4: Your thoughts, oh, man, it really is. I think if
Klawney and Aaron the most by far, in my opinion,
the best thing they've done with this program has been
to keep the coverads full of quarterbacks. This Bear Bachmeyer
get during the off season was obviously a critical, critical
get for the team, and had they not done that,
you know, the season could have been completely different. And
I've always said that as goes in the quarterbacks, so
goes the team. And there's so many reasons why I
say that, not just the way the guy plays on
the field and the way that he contributes his as
a leader, but it also has a significant impact on
the team throughout the entire twelve months of preparation going
in and man, they've done a great job with that.
And there should be there should be three or four
constantly in the cupboards and more and more coming. They
should be always, you know, offer these scholarships and getting
commitments and making sure that they've got, you know, a
full cupboard of quarterbacks in the weight and in the program.
Speaker 3: You were a part of the trajectory, the productivity, the
recruitment of I want to say, three of these guys,
John Beck, Max Hall, Taysom Hill.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about these three NFL quarterbacks.
Speaker 3: And what you saw on them when you were maybe
recruiting them, developing them, coaching them at BUYU.
Speaker 4: Well, Joan Beck has one of the most extraordinary throwing
arms ever. I mean, I think anybody that evaluated him
going into the NFL, anybody that knew him at BYU,
would say the same thing. He had such a powerfully
quick release and explosive ball that came out of his hand,
and it's really really one of the main reasons he
got drafted as high as he did because evaluating quarterbacks
throughout his class coming out, no one could throw a
better ball than he could throw. And what was fun
for me was to watch him not only be a
guy that had a strong arm and could really laser
football round, but also develop into a guy with absolute
competitive greatness, a guy that could behind in football games,
that could pick football games and win. And I don't
know all the res why he wasn't able to be
successful in the NFL, but I know that d YU.
It was really fun to see him transit from losing
records into you know, winning records at BYU and then
ultimately win a championship and win a big game at
University of Utah. So that's been fun to Max. Match
got to come in to b YU when we were winning,
and he got to experience John Beck's senior year. He
saw how we did things. He got to see a
winning culture and a winning environment. But he was so
unusual he was ineligible his freshman year at b YU.
The guy packed up his car, packed up his bags,
drove down to Las Vegas where we were, you know,
at our bowl game, and came out there and practice
on his own, basically behind the team at the practice.
Speaker 5: And it was you remember that guy, a guy that
was so anxious to play, a guy that had such
unique competitive grit, couldn't throw it like like John could
throw it, but had plenty of arm, but just had
had some unusual intangibles that when he got to the
Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent.
Speaker 4: You know, because he was only six y' one and
you know, two hundred pounds and and you know, just
didn't have the tangible aspects of what most of those
guys need. Is why he didn't get drafted. It didn't
take very long before they couldn't help themselves but to
put him on the on the field eventually, because he
had that presence, demanding, demanding from the players, demanding from
the coaches, and just he wanted to put the guy
on the grass. It was so fun to coach him,
and I think he's a guy that could have played
longer had he not got injured and got into some
of the issues that he dealt with in his life
that he's you know, been fun to see him overcome
and and fight and battle is it.
Speaker 5: I think he's just.
Speaker 2: A gritty warrior.
Speaker 4: And then Taysom Hill, I don't know the BYU will
see an athlete quite like him ever at the quarterback positioning,
and he's he just not not human. I mean I
watched that guy in loafers, petty loafers and jeans standing
underneath the basket, is going into his senior year of
high school and the football coach tossed him a basketball
and he didn't even take a step. He just grabbed
the basketball and jumped straight up in the air and
two hand dunk it in the in the high school gym.
And I thought, you know, at that point, I don't
think we had done a very good job recruiting when
I was thinking we blew this a what a miss
by us, And they're enough to commit him with Stamford
to Jim Harbaugh, and he would have never come to BYU.
Had Jim Harbaugh not gone to the forty niners and
left Stanford, it was really the only reason he came.
Unfortunately he did, and BYU, you know, we were there
prepared to give him an opportunity to come to BYU.
And just an exceptional athlete but also an unusual human being.
I mean, that guy is He's just an uncommon person.
And that's why the Saints have hung on to him
as long as they have because he's just so awesome
to have in the locker room. His work ethic, his
leadership is just his persona has been so valuable to
the Saints. And he was that way at BYU.
Speaker 5: So you're talking.
Speaker 4: About three really really different quarterbacks, different athletes, but guys
that in their own way were able to be you know,
produce victories for BYU. They're so fun for fans, I think,
to see different styles of play and different people do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all three super unique quarterbacks and winning in different
ways and finding their role in the NFL as well.
So you know, you look at that that grouping, right,
and you're a part of that group as well as
a great quarterback in that era from like two thousand,
you know, and I know Tisum ended up in I
think his final season with twenty and sixteen, but four
quarterbacks over that period of time pretty good. That's a
quarterback factory going to the NFL. You know, it takes,
it's the one percent. It's hard to get there and
it's hard to stick there. Then you have you know,
from you know two thousand and twenty there was a
little bit of a drop right, and then you have
twenty twenty to present day and you've had Zach Wilson,
Jaron Hall, Keaton Slovis. It feels like the quarterback factory
is reinvigorated now.
Speaker 2: And and what would you attribute that to specifically?
Speaker 4: I would attribute it to Kolane. He understands it. He
knows it, He's lived in it. He was raised as
a player and as a coach in the quarterback factory.
He knows the culture. I watch him manage the quarterback
and I'm manage the culture of the team to enable
the quarterback to be successful. And I think it takes
a unique head coach and a unique culture to create
that for your quarterback, and BYU is under the leadership
of a head football coach that knows how to develop
the culture for quarterbacks to succeed and it's really fun
to see that. And the one thing that's been unique
about BYU over the last five six years, and I
think it's also attributed to these quarterbacks success. And I
can say it for myself personally, I would also say
it for Max and John. I didn't really get the
coach the very much. But the run game has been
established and has.
Speaker 2: Been really good.
Speaker 4: And when the run game is solid, and you've got
a running back and we've had some running back Luke
Staley with me and we had Rbi Long. I'm sorry
Barby Una, and you look at what they've had over
the last few years. You're talking about NFL studs and
Jamal Williams, so on and so forth. That has had
as much of an impact on the success of these
quarterbacks than anything. And then I would add one other
component on that. You know, BYU needs to continue to
mate for and I think they've had some mishaps here
a little bit over the last a little while and they're
getting in and they've it looks like they're you know,
they've been resolving it and Carsion Ryan really helped this year.
They have got to do a better job at making
sure they have a covered of tight ends that are
pass catching, route running bulldogs. Right, and if they can
establish tight end factory, quarterback factory, and a run game
the way they've been able to last a little while,
they're going to be able to they're gonna be able
to play in this league and be successful. And the
b a U in their very best years when the
quarterbacks were great and the team the combination of quarterback
being great and the team being great, you had those
three components. You had had great tight ends, great running
backs and a quarterback that can facilitate the ball round
and in the times when it hasn't been as good
as because those other components weren't.
Speaker 3: There, Yeah, the tight end room, right, it's important to
bring in great clay and develop that clay and utilize
that clay. There has been for some you know the
perception of like this this undulation.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 3: In the era that you coached at BYU, you know,
I mean, man, we had a slew of guys Johnny
hart leand and Coats obviously, then Dennis Pitta Andrew George.
Speaker 2: Those were high times.
Speaker 3: The crew that you played with, it always seemed like
the elite BYU football teams had twelve personnel employed this last.
Speaker 2: Year and even the year prior.
Speaker 3: You know, there was some twelve personnel, but it seemed
like there was maybe like one tight end that was
really good, maybe a fullback there's more as a blocking guy,
and then then receiving type. You know, you look at
Carson Ryan, he had a pretty stand up year. He
was one of the He was the highest graded tight
end per Pro Football Focus forty five reception, six hundred
and twenty yards and three touchdowns. B YU went out
and got Walker Lions Ryder Lions older brother from USC
and then Roger sali Apago, the second and Oorum product
that was at Oregon the last couple of years. Is
the ideal this day and age to have like an
eleven personnel base formation or is it still twelve personnel?
You know, tapping into the BYU ways of old.
Speaker 4: BYU is a run first offense and so being able
to have a twelve personnel with tight ends that can flex.
And we know this is BYU fans because we've had
to defend University of Utah over the last handful of years.
They have done a phenomenal job of having two tight
ends in the program that can really really go, and
they adopted that style. They're not dummies up there, and
they did a great job. And I think BYU is
working their tails off to regroup in that area. And
I'm not saying that they haven't had some good players,
they haven't been full. And when a tight end is great,
he can attach himself to the line of scrimmage in
a three point stance, he can stand up and be
a single receiver, ball catcher, route runner, and then he
can get into a flex position and still being a
twelve personnel but in a route running stand up position.
And that's hard for the defense because defenses are often
based on personnel grouping and the defensive coordinator doesn't have
to come in to try and determine what's gonna happen.
So he's looking at personnel grouping and they're looking at
statistics and then they're making making a call. And if
twelve personnel can line up in multiple varieties of formations
and be route running, you know, really really tough route runners,
now you're now you're really hard to defend. And b
YU couldn't do that last year. They could not do that,
and that was hard. And if they got a couple
of guys that can can can get into attached and
flex situations and run routes, they're gonna be They're gonna
be even that much better on offense this year.
Speaker 2: I would love to see it.
Speaker 3: Some nice acquisitions in the portal this ostas, but they've
been strategic right, not a whole lot of attrition and
not a ton of acquisition. I think they're in the
low teens in both you know, ten third between ten
and thirteen acquisition about ten and thirteen.
Speaker 2: You know attritions.
Speaker 3: What does that say about the direction that this Bway
football program is going right?
Speaker 4: It means the players love the university, they love the
head coach, they love the culture of the team. But
it also means that they're being able to there. There's
an nil support there and they're able to pay them
because many of these guys wouldn't stay. It's just the
nature of the beast. And as much as they love
the culture and they love the team and they love
the head coach, they got an opportunity to get paid.
And many of these guys would have left had they
not been able to receive at least the market value
for who they are in NIL. So you add all
that together and BYUS established an environment where they're not
losing players. And this offseason was throughly, truly, I think,
a solid look into what's really going on there, and
I think it bodes well for BYU in the future
to see that even though we lost a coordinator and
you know, winning him going to the Michigan by you
held strong and didn't get dismantled. And I think there's
a lot of people that were worried about that, and like,
for example, to see our defensive guys hang in there
and some awesome players hang in there when a coach
that they love left, It just really bodes well for
the future of this program. It makes you feel makes
you feel good as a fan that these guys would
stick around.
Speaker 2: Well that breakdown.
Speaker 3: Brandon Doman former BYU great Always love talking ball with you.
Speaker 2: I want to invite everyone.
Speaker 3: To check out the products that you do distribute all
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Elite Products operating divisions, Way Safe, the Dominator, which I
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Speaker 4: It has been so fun to be a part of
this with my brother Bryce and the people that work
with us and partners that we do business with. And
you know, you stay at it long enough and hopefully
develop products and services that that you know people need
and want, and then you develop those kinds of relationships.
Been really fun. But I appreciate you saying that, Ben,
We we hopefully are just getting started and continue to develop.
You know, you don't be a support to the community
as we continue to grow. But it's been really fun.
Speaker 3: Hey, you're doing great work, man. I always appreciate our
time together. Thanks for hopping on to talk some Cougar
football with me today, brother, and then I'm gonna loop
you in with with Brighton Day to get you a
new sports performance suit.
Speaker 2: All right, loop me in.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it, Ben.
Speaker 3: Hey much love to you. Appreciate you Brandon Doman. Ladies
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Let's take a brief time out. We'll be back though
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Sports content on the flip side. This is Cougar Sports
on one O three nine ninety eight point three ES is.
Speaker 1: Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel, and it's time for the
Cougar Beat. Getting the dish from the local reporters that
cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 3: Rocking out here on a beautiful Wednesday edition of Cougar Sports.
I've been Crittal broadcasting from our beddor Rold Studios, vand
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Speaker 2: A little Cougar beat.
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business today at Dental Pros of Utah. Let's get out
to the hotline. Welcome in Double D The Daily Heraldian
Darnell Dixon.
Speaker 2: What's up, Double D.
Speaker 1: Boy?
Speaker 6: I see you had Kilani and Kyle collsw on before me,
so I'm honored actually be on the station after those guys.
Speaker 3: Hey, look, we love having Double D's voice to be
on the show and promulgated throughout all of kugarnation like
there's you're right up there with Kilani quotes and Kyle
Collsworth quote quotes.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. But that's
nice of you to say that.
Speaker 3: Hey, you know, you know when I when I like fiery,
you know, opinionated Darnell, because that's what really gets the
coaches down at BYU fired up. Remember Mike Littlewood getting
after you on Twitter when you have made some strong
opinions on on the on the on the Twitter platform.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, oh yeah. And we see him all the time.
He's officiating a college basketball quite a bit, and I
see him on there quite all the time.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, Double D.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you poke the bear and let's see if he
can give us a hot quote today, controversial quote today.
Speaker 2: It is shining day, Double D.
Speaker 3: You've evaluated, you've weighed, Have you found the prospects lacking,
wanting or do you feel like this was a pretty
good haul for the Cougar football team.
Speaker 6: No, it's an excellent hall. And you know, they keep
increasing the number of staff and coaches, so they're going
to have plenty of support these new guys coming into
the program, and there is a lot of talent's obviously
a highly rated class. It's spread out, it's not quite
as special it used to be, where we just had
the one day in February or one day in December
or whatever. We only have two days and BYU is
a program that retained a lot of its talent from
last year, so not a lot of new stuff coming
out this year. They did list some of the guys
returning from missions with mid year enrollies. A lot of
athletes now are taking advantage of graduating from high school
early so they can join the program in January and
get into offseason workouts and springball. So those things, you know,
lead you to the look at this group and say
they've filled some nice gap that they had, and they
brought back a lot of players that they think they
can help them. And when you do that, you believe
in your ability as a coaching staff to evaluate talent
and to develop talent. And if they continue to do that,
we'll see them putting on similar seasons as we've seen
the last two where they've put themselves in a position
to be in the college football playoffs.
Speaker 2: The talent is impressive.
Speaker 3: I believe there was some return missionaries as well that
came back from their respective missions. Are you most excited
about the transfers, Are you most excited about the true
freshmen that aren't going on missions, or are you more
excited about the return missionaries?
Speaker 6: Well, some of the true freshmen I've actually seen play.
You know, spend a lot of time watching Devonica and
legend Glasgar at Lehigh. Those are two very talented offensive players.
I think are going to have a great career at
BYU and could have the opportunity to make an impact
early on. But it is really intriguing to look at
players from other schools who have decided to utilize them
transfer portal and come to b YU. You see what
their production was like, Like catu Ulave that a linebacker
was an All Conference at Cal and at BYU, and
the offensive lineman they brought in to bolster that attack,
and the prospects of keeping Kyle Casper healthy so he
can live up to his potential. So those kinds of
things intrigued me quite a bit. And then the other
thing that intrigues me is, you know, who is going
to step up from being third fourth string to being
a contributor on defense or even a starter for the Cougars.
So there's lots of that that gets developed over the
course of the next several months, including springball, and then
we get to fall camp and see them for real.
So that that's that's and what we're seeing now with
college basketball or college football rather is in the off season.
It's not really an off season. There's all all the
transfer portal news and and the free kind of free
agency attack as it were listening to an interview today
with former BA HE coach Bronco Mendenhall about why he
continues to coach when others are getting out of coaching
because they just don't like this particular grind the way
it's become, and he said his opportunity to help develop
and have relationships with the young men in his program
helped them to get better as not just football players,
but as human beings and to set their life in
motion for things they want to do. That keeps him
coming back. But he definitely understands when there are coaches
that decide, this isn't what I signed up for, and
I don't really like this whole landscape of college football anymore.
So it does obviously peak the interest of fans that
it's college sports is more popular, especially football and men's basketball,
than it's ever been, and so people are interested to
see what comes of all these off seas and moves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a few missionaries I want to talk about here.
He's added eight players from previously signed classes returning home
from missions. Media Enrollees owen Borg linebacker, Matthew Frederick tight end,
Blake Lowe linebacker, Jet Nelson wide receiver. Two we Pututau
offensive line, Adney Reed defensive end, David Tungi Lanu defensive
tackle in and Enick Watson quarterback. Out of those editions,
who stands out to you?
Speaker 6: One name that stands out to me is Jet Nelson.
He's a wide receiver out of American forks lot because
I saw him play in high school and a very
good you know, he has has the size and the
ability to be successful at this next level, and America
works put out some good wide receivers. Adney Reid is
really interesting because of his situation where he was in.
It wasn't he only played like one or two years
in Utah. And I believe his parent, his dad was
a mission president, was up the story with him and
and and he ended up over in Samoa.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Michigi yeah yeah.
Speaker 6: So that's an interesting thing. He's a great athlete, but
I just haven't seen a lot of him playing football.
Owen Borg is a is a Corner Canyon kid who
put up pretty good numbers in high school. Uh and
then Enick Watson who played down at American Leadership Academy
in Arizona, if I'm correct, and and so there's there's
a few of those guys that I'm familiar with, and
their journey is always interesting because if they do get
and they signed mid year, there's a specific program available
to them to get them back into shape. And you
don't expect guys like that to contribute in their first year,
but it's possible. But they they grind, you know, they
put put it in the work and then give themselves
an opportunity down the road to play.
Speaker 3: Darnell Dixon Double D the Daily Heraldon Daily Heraldi talked
to some Cougar football, some Cougar football recruiting here on
your Utah ESPN radio network. As far as the uh
the transfer portal, uh I guess acquisitions. Which of these
players do you feel is going to be most impactful
in twenty twenty six and why.
Speaker 6: I would look at Walker Lyons the tight end from
USC because BYU does have a need there with Ryan
graduating and probably getting a chance at the NFL. Carson Ryan,
who was rated as one of the top tight ends
in the country, I mean the top for into Pro
Football Focus as I was reading today, And so also
Roger Saliapogo. I've seen him play. He was an ORMI
kid went to Oregon, so I got some playmakers. And
I think even b Way's coaches Aaron Rodgers day was
talking about how the tight end position it had some
issues in the past several years, but they really like
what happened was last year with Carson Ryan, so they
want to keep that going and make the tight end
a really big weapon in the offense. And those are
two guys that I think that can make an impact
there because they are big and strong and playing and
you want to.
Speaker 2: Have that.
Speaker 3: Walker Lions tight end? Is it back at Brigham Darnol?
I know you've been a vocal criticizer of the lack
of tight end utilization. Are you Are you a believer
now that a rod has got the tight end owed
with Carson Ryan by the highest rated PFF tight ending
college football and over six hundred yards of receiving, three
touchdowns and forty five receptions.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think they've they've made some good strides there.
You know, some of it depends sometimes on who your
quarterback feels comfortable with. Some it depends on what you're
running games like. I think they had a good mixture
last year, having a great running game that utilized the
tight end and then made him a very effective receiver.
I think that the way they used Carson Ryan was
terrific and he made some big plays for them, and
also that puts him in a great position coming up
with his professional opportunities. So I think the combination of
all of that kind of led them to maybe rediscover
that tight end spot. And I think we'll continue to
see that activity from that spot as we get into
the season with Walker Lyons and Rogers Talapaga and then
the guys coming back. I think Noah Moyaki has some
good ability over there. Kean Reid has been a real
big blocker for them. He might get a little bit
of action. So yeah, they've they've done some good things
there and put themselves in a position to make that
spot really effective against their opponents.
Speaker 3: Your reaction, Now we have it. We've got a roster, right.
It seems like the rosters settled. There may be an
addition or subtraction along the way, but it's probably it's
probably is what it is. B WA also solidified their
coaching staff. You got Lewis Clark as your qrnerbacks coach
to Mario Warren safety's coach, passing game coordinator. On the
defense side, kell the thing inside linebackers, you have Sody
Puet defensive line Chad k caahahah as the outside edge
and outside linebackers coach. Justin Enna moves over to special
teams coordinator full time, not taking a position. Uh and uh.
And then you have the offense side of the ball.
That's pretty much retained uh in its entirety. But they
did acquire Tyler Hughes, a individual as a as an
assistant quarterbacks coach, an individual that's coached at Alabama in
the NFL with the new Patriots. He's been at Ohio
State with her and Meyer. Pretty robust resume. He was
a head coach at Snow College for for a time
and an offense coordinator for a time at Snow College.
Speaker 2: She comes from the state of Utah. How would you
evaluate the how would.
Speaker 3: You grade out the the coaching staff right now? With
everything that's occurred, you lost Jay Hill and Gennaro, but
you gained some some suitable replacements.
Speaker 6: It looks like, Yeah, I'm going to be interested and
really paying close attention to how Kellivipinger runs this defense
if it's if it's any different than Jay Hill, you
know what his personality quirts that things that he likes
to do. Another couple of things that occurred to me though,
while going through all this, going back to two thousand
during the pandemic, I was trying to look for some
topics to kind of write about during that time, and
I saw, I believe it was Nebraska. It was letting
go of a lot of their not a lot, but
some of their employees in the athletic department. And so
I started looking at how many employees do schools have?
And at that point, if I recalled I don't know
if I called my numbers correctly, but it seems like
BYU was around maybe two hundred or so, and other
schools like Alabama Nebraska were three even four hundred employees
in their athletic department and that was two thousand. So
fast forward six years. By using the Big twelve, they're
starting to increase the number of staff and coaches, especially
in the football program. And I think one thing that's
you and I Ben, I've talked about this a lot.
How BYU is very serious about stewardship of making sure
they're doing that the right way and not getting over
their skis, so to speak, Like a lot of schools
are what do we see today Florida States almost five
hundred million dollars in debt in their athletic department. B
WHYU is not doing that. They're taking their time, They're
making sure they can afford whatever changes they're making. It's
in the budget projecting what they need. And so that's
a couple of things that occur to me, is that
BYU is increasing the number of staff. And it used
to being you go, well, we got the head coach,
the coordinators, so the position coaches, a couple of gas
and the wait, guys, that's kind of what it was
for a long time. And now you've got performance coaches,
and you've got nutritionists, and you've got more analysis that
are going on, more analysts that are stepping up and
doing things. So BYU is approaching and I've asked BYU
to give me the numbers. We'll see if they help out.
But trying to figure out how much by has grown
in that area, especially in football, and so because they've
done it the right way and they're still operating their
athletic department to make money and and they're not like
these other programs who spend it and then look at
the bottom line later and goop, looks like we spent
too much. That's not BYU. And I think they've done
a great job of incorporating these new positions and the
chief of staff and and the performance coaches and the
mental strength situations there. So that's what occurs to me.
They look at that, you know, it's well, we'll find
out if these are good coaches. They're going to have
a lot of responsibility to step in and do things
the way that Kelly wants on defense because there's so
many changes on that side of the ball, and we'll
see what effect that has on the team. But like
I said, the main thing that occurs to me is
that BYU's doing this the right way and building their
football program. This has been a huge part of it
in the staff and the coaches.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great points here with with Darnelle Dicks in the
daily hirality and talkings some BYU football recruiting as well
as coaching on the grid. Ard, Let's take a little
let's pivot BYU basketball. What are you optimistic about? What
are you concerned about regarding this bou basketball team.
Speaker 6: I'm optimistic because I believe that Kevin Young is a
really good basketball coach, and I think it's taking some
time for him to get the feel of this particular
team as opposed to what he had last year. I
still feel like there's some maybe some changes that he's
going to make, maybe not in the starting lineup, but
in the approach for things. I know they spent a
lot of time in the summer working on defense, specifically
three point defense, and whatever they're doing isn't working particularly
well in the Big Twelve. They're fifteenth right now out
of sixteen teams and opponent's field goal percentage from three,
and they're eleventh in defense in the Big twelfth play
at eighty one points a game. So I think according
to what we when we're spoke speaking to Kevin earlier
this week that he wanted to simplify things a little bit.
He said he watched every defensive possession that Byu has
had in the Big twelve this season, and he knows
what needs to be fixed, what needs to be changed,
And I think the key area was he wanted to
simplify things a little bit defensively, and he feels like,
you know, he doesn't want to hear people talk about
how great there on the second half, because he wants
them to be good in the first half. And so
what he's looking at is a better defensive effort early
might put them in a position where they have a
better first half and we're consistent.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 6: They've had starts to good first halfs and part of
the first halfs have been good. They just haven't been
able to sustain it, and they put themselves in a
hole against some of these better teams. So the optimism,
as I said, is Kevin Young's a good coach. I
think we'll get this figured out. And the things maybe
you know, I'm not so optimistic about is the continued
struggles of anybody other than the Big three. And you know,
Kavakata has had his struggles as well. Some of it's
been I think injuries, I think it slowed him down
just a little bit. But but Cannard Davis has been
a huge disappointment in my mind. Inconsistency as that that starter,
the fifth guy, and then they've not had really anybody
come off the bench consistently either. They've had a few
things here and there where players stepped up and shot
well or done some good things, but not consistently. And
I think until they get that squared away, they're going
to continue to kind of go up and down and
struggle against elite teams in this league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the first half woes.
Speaker 3: Kay, why said I'm gonna throw up the next time
someone mentions that were like the best second half team
at college basketball. We suck in the first half or
whatever he said. But can you diagnose and treat why
they they are? They're they're They're not horrible in the
first half. There's not good in the first half.
Speaker 6: Well, like I said, it's been a consistency issue. If
you look at that error, go in the game and
Arizona is the number one team in the country and
they're really good. I mean, I don't think there's any question.
Maybe you could say you come to the number one
team in the country because u Coon has been destroying fools,
but Arizona's really good. And for thirteen minutes of that
first half, the YU was right with them. They were
nine lead changes and six ties in that first thirteen minutes.
They're playing right with them. And then the last seven
minutes they kind of unraveled and Arizona took off and
got the lead and then not put them, you know,
behind the eight ball on the second half when they
made some strides to get back in it. So it's
just a matter, I think, if consistent, and part of
that consistency is not being able to get the lift
off the bench that they need. They got to arrest
the Big three occasionally, they got to arrest Cada occasionally,
and guys have to come in and not necessarily scored
a lot of points but not hurt the team. And
you know, it's different for starters than it is for
guys coming off the bench. You're expected to come in
and maintain the level that the starters have established. But
if things go badly and you can't make shots and
you're getting beat on defense and turning turnovers, then that's
what happened. Then they got to get the starters back
in and they're not as fresh at the end of
the game and the rotations change. So that's what I
look at with this team in this first half is
as Kevin Young was saying, play better defense, be more consistent,
so that you go into halftime. If you're within a
few points, that's cool. You're leading by a few points,
that's cool. That way, you don't feel so much the
pressure for someone. And you know, when you think about
how Byu has come back in the second half, it's
been one of the big three just kind of going
off like Richie did in the second half last week
and how Aj went off in the second half against
Yukon when they fell behind big They need the team
to pull them out of that, not just one guy,
and that'll increase and help I think their consistency in
doing that more often.
Speaker 3: Great breakdown from double D, The Daily HERALDY and Darnell
Dixon Double D. Best way to support you? What you do,
How you do it? Actually, I got one more question
for you as well, Hope.
Speaker 2: Question by dad. What's the best way to support you?
What you do, how you do it? Brother?
Speaker 6: Uh Well, Harold extra dot com. You can follow me
on AX if you like Darnell Wrights and and just
just enjoy this time of year. I was just typing
in by U baseball and softball schedules the other day
and to our budget and realizing, man, it's going to
get super busy once we get to We've got state
tournaments coming out for high school basketball and wrestling and
all those sports, and it's it's a busy time of year.
And just enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Love it.
Speaker 3: Kyle Colls were taught on and he said, I think
there's going to be a surprise step up that hasn't
got a lot of minutes lately coming in. I'll let
you guys figure out who I'm talking about, but someone
who's barely played this year is going to step up
coming down the stretch.
Speaker 2: Who do you think it is? And why? Is it?
Speaker 3: A Lexakostic, Tyler Morass, Dominique Diamante, or Jared McGregor.
Speaker 2: Those are my top four picks.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, Tyler was in the rotation to start
the season, but he's falling out. I would think it
might be Dominique just because he's willing to spend a
lot of itergy playing defense and not worry about his
offensive production. And if they need a lift on that perimeter,
or he's big enough we can guard forward even I
think that he's a guy that maybe could step up
and do some of that and bring them some good
energy kind of like Hadem Boop does coming off the bench.
Just the guy that's going to get after it on
the boards and get after it defensively and if any
offense comes his way. And by the way, he hit
his first three pointer of the year in that game
last week, so maybe Boop. But he's been getting some
plain time, so I would say Diamandi, I think we
might see a little more of him if Kyle is
being predictive.
Speaker 3: The Prognosticators of Prognosticators, the college football college basketball seer
of Sears, Darnell Dixon gives you the prediction there you go.
Appreciate you, Darnell, great stuff as always.
Speaker 6: All right, Ben, thanks every week.
Speaker 2: I like that. We should do it. Darnell Dixon gives
you the prediction segment every week. I like it.
Speaker 3: That's our segment. We're sticking to it. Download that interview
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