Speaker 1: Big twelve football.
Speaker 2: Mischief.
Speaker 1: Got some new sheriffs in down, but they better be careful.
So I'm been around here for a while and they
might learn a thing or two. You see that there's
a storm. Broad You're not scared, are you? You're always ready,
ready to go big twelve football. They don't get better
than this.
Speaker 2: Wether Banker before. He's one of three nine not even
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Speaker 2: Gonna get into it.
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Speaker 2: Let's stock some Big.
Speaker 3: Twelve football with Big twelve Insider also hosts of his
own show, The Drake Toll Show on Westwood One.
Speaker 2: We got Drake Toll on the line, Drake, how the
heck are you?
Speaker 4: Man? I did what Edny twenty four year old does
when they're going through an early crisis. And I got
second dog today. So monumental day to be on your show.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Well is it now? I?
Speaker 3: In my single life, okay, I dated a lot of
different types of ladies, okay. And one of them was
very much an animal lover and not just animal and
like she she loved stray animals. She wanted to go
buy pound animals, she wanted to like like pure bred animals.
Speaker 2: No, no, I didn't want anything to do with it.
Speaker 3: But like all of the animals on the earth, she
wanted to bring into the home.
Speaker 2: Is that you you know?
Speaker 4: Indeed, I didn't think it was going to be me
but here I sit with two dogs at my feet.
One of them is a wonderful, beautiful, paid for Australian
Poodle and he is the single strangest dog you could
ever draw up. And the other is a rescue we
rescue today, Miss Sunday, and she's a Shepherd mixed, which
I don't really know what that means. She has no
shots and pleas So yes, Ben, I am giving the
rescue stray thing in my house. And when I'm picking
sleep out of my scalp in two days, I will
regret all of this decision making.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: You've got a big heart and a big mind full
of Big twelve content. Right now, we're getting into the
college football transfer portal chaos and the Big twelve, especially
Texas Tech. They're making freaking moves right like immediately they
go out and get their quarterback that they want they've
had their eye on for a while, and they're picking
up wide receivers. It seems like Texas Tech knows exactly
what they want. They fell short. They they made it
all look bad. For the love of all that Pete,
we had all this equity built up. Texas Tech is
supposed to be something great and they fell flat on
their face because you know, they just didn't have a quarterback.
Give me your eval of what happened, why it happened,
and what Texas Tech is doing now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Texas Tech is gonna go full Pelton metal. And
the biggest piece of why they're they're having such early
success is the money. Sure, that's one thing, but the
other they have an entire department with their football program
set up for recruiting and the transfer portal. They've got
coaches whose full time job is to work the portal,
work recruiting, and do it even in season or in
December where these kids are entering the transfer portal. That
is such a big key to what Texas Tech has
seen success through the idea that we're not just a
bunch of football coaches. We're also salespeople, recruiters. We have
to sell the idea of winning at Texas Tech to
these student athletes who coming out of the transfer portal.
And so they've attacked us for a long time and
one could argue tampering, Oh you're tampering. Than tampering, your tampering.
We're all tampering. It's kind of part of the of
the system now. Because it's such a broken system without
any guardrails. What Texas Tech is doing is not illegal.
They're doing what everybody in the SEC has done forever,
and everybody the SEC is especially doing now in the
transfer portal era. Texas Tech has big money. They're going
after the big names, the big recruits that land of
Brendan Soaresby at their quarterback, a five star, And the
question becomes, can the I who was seven and five
at Cincinnati this past season walking to a Texas Tech
system and be better than Baron Morton. It needs to
be significantly better than Baron Morton, as you saw the
Red Raiders score zero points hit their college football playoff
game against Oregon. But I've also heard from a lot
of cover from coaches men that have told me, like
Big twelve coaches that have said, I just I feel
like Brendan Sowarsby isn't a five million dollars quarterback, And
I'm not sure if they didn't just get another ver
Baron Morton. There is a lot of there's a tumultuous
air around the pickup of Brendon Sworsby an intra conference
addition for Texas Tech, We'll see if the pays off
at that price tag pays off for Cody Campbell and
Joy McGuire.
Speaker 3: We know Texas Tech is at the top of the
food chain in the Big Twelve. Who are you like
your number two, number three, number four teams right now?
Heading into next season. We know that there's gonna be
plenty of movement in the portal. There's gonna be some
retention efforts made by all these Big Twelve teams. But
who are like your early favorites outside of Texas Tech
to once again compete for a Big Twelve title?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Ben, as long as bear Bachmeyer doesn't break the
honor coach, Let's be very clear. As long as bear
Backmeyer keeps it between the navigational booies, I think with
the Isaiah Glaster news and him coming back to BYU,
the Cougars are station at number two behind Texas tecond
the Big Twelve Conference, as they should be. Utah would
have been free. You could have argued for two with
Devin dan Pierre and obviously he is still expected as
of right now to come back. The hope is that
he will come back. I think they're down a few
notches with Kyle Woodingham the way that situation unfolded, insult
LA and everything I've heard, it's not a great time.
I mean, Utah is going to put its head down
and try to operate without half its coaching staffrom last year,
and it's head man, the Hall of Fame head coach
Kyle Whittingham. It'll be different, though, I mean, there are
still big question marks of what they're going to do
in twenty twenty six and how that how that program
looks without whitting him at the helm for the first
time in a couple of decades. It's Texas Tech one,
it's by U two, and that third spot is pretty open.
But right now, oddly enough, I'm leaning in on what Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: State is doing.
Speaker 4: They took what Kurt Signetti did from James Madison to
Indiana and they're replicating that. But with North Texas they
bring it Aaron Eric Morris, and Eric Morris hit the
ground running recruiting his own guys. It guts, I mean,
it absolutely guts that program in Denton, but it builds
in Stillwater and they've got a top three transfer portal
class right now because of what they've built off the
backbone of North Texas. So I liked I liked what
Oklahoma State is doing in the offseason. They'll have a
quick turnaround there if things continue in the training in
this direction in Arizona State to be doing keeping him
in town, reinvesting in the football. West Virginia year number two.
I'm really excited for you number two of Rich Rodriguez.
There's a Willie Fritz Houston. We forget that team. We're
looking at a ten wins Houston team. I see three
or four Big twelve squad that are all competing for
that spot right behind Texas second e UYU.
Speaker 2: Is there a most underrated Big twelve team right now?
Speaker 4: In your mind, still has to be Houston, Really still
has to be Houston. And nationally the most underrated Big
twelve team is BYU when you consider that they were
left out of the college football playoff. And I've said
it a million times in my show, that eleven and
one team in the Power four being held out. When
we have these these arbitrary subjective metrics were putting teams
in will we will look back in five years and say, oh,
that was a precedent. We did not want to set
the president an eleven and one Power four team can
be held out of the College Football Playoff without any
account accountability to the committee. That is bad. That is
the definition of overlooked, disrespected, absolutely spit on by the
college football world and was subject to that. So no
doubt they are the most underrated nationally when you look
at the committee that did not put them in despite
them being one of the most disturbing twelve teams in
the country. And then past that, it's Houston and Willie Fritz.
They were dominant defensively for a large portion of twenty
twenty five. This pass ball was a really good fall
and then they competed against LSU in their bowl game
to cap BAF the season, winning a game against an
SEC team that pay alout a fourteen point cushion two
in the beginning of that contest. Houston was incredibly oppressive
this year. As long as Willie Fritz has still got
it going on, as long as he is still the
head coach for the Cougars, they've got a shot to
win any and all game that they are in love
what he's building ten this season. But you wouldn't know
what if he turned your TV on, because no one's
talking about the ten and three. Who's Houston Couger's.
Speaker 3: Give me your theories as to why Bay was left
out the last two years of the College Football Playoff?
Did you just chalk it up simplistically to Big twelve bias?
They you know, and they just you know, they're not
as big of a brand. What are you talking up to?
Speaker 4: This is a question that I genuinely goes deeper than that.
I think we have to go back to Lavelle Edwards
in the mid eighties.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 4: Okay, let's go back in pinpoint when BYU was at
its best in college football and the national championship year
was certainly it, but the rhetoric nationally after that was
never again BYU. How do we keep BYU from being
a part of this again? We cannot be giving national
championships to BYU because they are perceive the little man.
They are this perceived underdog that we don't want to
consider a stalwart or powerhouse in our sport. And then
after that there is a history of the next couple
of decades of leaving BYU out that there's the Bowl Commission,
The Bowl Alliance is created because of the EU getting
left out of a New Year's Day Bowl, And then
there's the BCS, which is in essence almost created because
of BYU trying to and it's the second of the BCS. Okay, well,
we finally figured it out. We can put the most
deserving teams in the ballgames that deserve to go to
and pretty immediately BYU deserves to be a Sugar Bowl team,
a Rose Bowl team in one of these major bowls.
They get left out again if the goalposts continue to
move specifically for one school, and it is BYU, and
those goal posts are being away from the university, away
from football program, away from opportunities. So I can be
the crazy person. I can be the guy in the
tinfoil hat who's going back in the mid eighties and
saying there's an underlying reason why BYU has been left
out the last few years, have been disrespected the last
two years, but it's no coincidence when you look at
the way that college football has historically created this program.
It is not an accident. It is purposeful, and it
is the reason that BYU is once again left out
for whether it's religion discrimination, whether it's it's discrimination against
the brand itself, whether it's that that feeling that you
got when Leavell Edwards won the national championship, and the
big wigs, the big dogs, the Michigan's of the world, thought, Nope,
that should have been us. That's not a word we
can give to the little guy BYU. Whether it's any
of those things, I'm not sure if you can pinpoint
a single one, but you have to understand this is
more than just twenty twenty five. This goes back decades
of BYU being disrespected. It is a trend. It is
a very very bad trend in college football.
Speaker 3: Drake Toll Lockdown Big twelve also a host the host
of his west Wood one show, Drake Toll Show here
on esp and the fans talking some Big twelve football,
you know, every single year. I mean, we're we're in
twenty twenty six, we're gonna have another shakeup of the
of the college football world. Probably in twenty twenty nine,
twenty thirty. We're gonna see maybe an expansiontal playoff. Over
the next year or two, we'll see.
Speaker 2: How that worked itself.
Speaker 3: Out here in Utah, there's always talk about the team,
the next team that's gonna get called up to the
big leagues, the.
Speaker 2: Big ten and the SEC.
Speaker 3: Now, I personally think that the SEC has been built
their brand, their equity over the last thirty years has
been built off of bag men and cheating. And now
we're seeing kind of the realization of a free market
college football capitalistic economy even in the playing field, now
that we can all compete at the same level and
not have college football cartels and cabals limiting the access, etc.
But give me your thought on the next maybe domino
to fall. Give me your thoughts on maybe the next
team to get called up to the big leagues.
Speaker 2: If we do have somewhat of a power.
Speaker 3: To conglomerate that does come about. I don't think it will,
but it could give me a few of your thoughts
on some of those topics here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do think Ben that as we moved thirty
hit the nail on the head of the timeline. Here
we'll start talking about what Clemson and Florida State do.
We're as a country, as college football fans, starting to
forget that those two schools sued the ACC and half
of that conference that we're going to leave if something
does not change in the wake of that. That's when
Cal and Stanford SMU came in and they went to
seventeen teams. Some people are going to point to Notre
Dame as the north star of where we're going, where
this is headed, and what conference they join. I don't
see it that way. I personally believe once those two
schools leave the ACC, what it's now opened the door
for them. And this is the same thing I've heard
from multiple people. Now, is Brett Yormark to look at
the ACC as so inferior. He can pick apart the
pieces he wants and build up the Big Twelve in
essence creating a power three with the SEC and the
Big Ten. That is the goal. Brett sees it coming.
He is a businessman. He knows when the ACC loses
its power and they're still power Well, they were bad
at football this year in Florida State and for them,
yet they're still power brokers. They have the brands, they
have the money. When you have the money, you control everything.
When they exit the Big twelve, that's an opportunity to poach. Now,
there will be Big twelve schools three years, so we're
getting close to this three years from now that say
we want an opportunity somewhere else, and those schools will
be Texas Tech. They will be Utah, they will be BYU,
They'll be the universities that invest the most. But the
problem is is we don't have a brand like Florida
State that can lose for ten straight years and still
be again a power broker in college football. What you
will have to do out of this league is win consistently.
If you're Utah and you want to go to the
Big Ten, if you're BYU and you want to go
to the Big Ten, if you're Texas Tech and you
want to go to the SEC or the Big Ten,
you have to continue to win Big Twelve championships, play
in the Big Twelve title game, go to the College
Football Playoff, and win games. Otherwise, the Big Ten doesn't
want to take a spout of the Big Twelve that's
never been to the Dance, that's never won a Game
of the Dance and can't compete for a national chamampionship.
That's not their goal. It's not what they did in
adding the team they added in the pack. Well, they
want to add big money and big money that had
competed in the last decade or had massive brands. The
Big Twelve, where it doesn't have brands, where it lacks brands,
makes up for in playing the game and the way
that we used to love college football. The Big Twelve
is great at that, but it doesn't always sell the
tablet fell. People want stories from the big schools, and
if the Big twelve is going to build those, we
need consistent winning elite teams at the top. BYU, Texas
Tech and now, even after one year of rebuilding its
brand in football, Utah come to mind, those three schools
will be the next dominoes to go if somebody from
the Big talb gets the call up to the Big
two conferences.
Speaker 3: Drake tall, ladies and gentlemen, I do think the Big
twelve future is bright.
Speaker 2: I wish the Big twelve maybe.
Speaker 3: Bull record was a little bit better, but I think
they've showcased decently well. Unfortunately, Texas Tech kind of fell
flat on their face. Hopefully they bounce back, and I
think they will. I think they'll be ready to go
uh this uh this next season, and we'll probably be
the bell of the ball in the Big twelve going
forward with all that filthy lucre cash that they have
backing of that that oil money, that oil money, that
crude baby.
Speaker 2: Uh, I know you're a Texas guy. You know about
that Texas.
Speaker 4: Anyone on the Walsas Mountains.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, they have, they have. Uh we have silicon slopes.
We got that going for us. We have the tech
world bid us. But Black black Gold is a little.
Speaker 2: Bit more filthy, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Drake pol Ladies and gentlemen appreciate him joining us. Great
stuff as always. Make sure you download his podcast subscribe
to it every single day Big twelve Locked on Big
twelve Insider. That segment was brought to you by rubies In,
rubies in dot Com. Head on over to rubies in
dot com Forge last nine sixty and get twenty percent
off your stay at Bryce, Canada National Park.
Speaker 2: No wonder of the where you can ike, bike.
Speaker 3: Race, or horseback ride through the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon.
These hooteros are beautiful, tons of adventure, tons of experiences,
make memories with friends and family members.
Speaker 2: Viking you in the mouth. All right, leave out more
named Ronald.
Speaker 5: All right, it's the moment we all have been waiting for.
Speaker 2: Ben.
Speaker 5: This is Perpexample DYU is working to finalize the deal
to promote Kelly fopinga to defensive coordinator and play call.
He's been promoted with special teams coordinator.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 5: We've been waiting for it, Ben h for a long time. Okay,
here's a finish off. Was clicking on the ESPN app
but I apologize. He's been promoted from special teams coordinator
slash defensive ends coach. He's coached two stints at BYU
twenty nine to fifteen and twenty twenty two through president.
He takes over for Jill who left to become the
defensive coordinator at Michigan, but Pinka spent twenty sixteen at
twenty one at Virginia. He's a BYU graduate and former
stall linebacker.
Speaker 2: There it is been.
Speaker 5: We've been waiting, and it has been announced.
Speaker 2: There we go. Love this higher well deserved. I'll keep
on saying, there's uh.
Speaker 3: Special teams has been the best unit over the last
three years. Year every year, better than the offense, better
than the defense. He's been the special teams coordinator. He's
a former BYU great He's recruited, recruited, coached, and developed
arguably the best defensive players in BYU football history.
Speaker 2: Kyle Vanoy and Fred Warner. Who's better?
Speaker 3: Jason Buck is up there too, right, But in the
modern era, the best defensive player, the best defensive players
in BYU football history. Okay, we're recruited, signed, developed.
Speaker 2: Co by Kelly Papinga.
Speaker 3: That alone is enough for me to say, Look, this
guy deserves an opportunity. He's been a co DC at
Virginia PU four institution, He's recruited around the country, phenomenal recruiter,
phenomenal developer, puts in the work, and he's loyal, strong
and true, loves BYU, loves Provo.
Speaker 2: And I mean I was his teammate for three years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's gonna be some bias, but every day, Bro,
we competed on the scout team. Every day we were
getting in fights with the offense. Every day we bawled out.
In two thousand and six, he should have been a starter.
Speaker 2: He's a rotational guy. Should have been a start.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get into it, but he should
have been a guy that was starting next to me
in my opinion, Okay, every single play. And the following
year he did move up and was the starter at
mike linebacker, replacing Cameron Jensen and a team captain, led
with integrity, led with by example, and balled out for
Brigham playing in the NFL. He's got the NFL pedigree
as well, comes from a fantastic football family. You hear
Brady papingall on the show every single week. I love
this higher. I think it's the right higher. This guy
has grit, tenacity, energy, he's young, he's full of vigor
and vim and he's gonna be great guys. And this also, okay,
this allows for the continuity in chemistry and culture of
the defense that has been built over the last few years.
Speaker 2: You like the scheme.
Speaker 3: This is a brainchild of a conglomertive coaches.
Speaker 2: This is not just This is not just. This is
not a J. Hill defense. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: This is not the Kyle Whenyham defense. This is not
just the Koilani Satake defense. This is an aggregate conglomerate
of j Kelly, Kilanie, Kyle, Gary Anderson, Gennaro, justin Enna.
Everybody's contributing this last year seventy thirty Okay, you saw
thirty fronts.
Speaker 2: Versus forty fronts. If it was a true just J.
Hill defense, right, he probably would have been a forty
front the.
Speaker 3: Entire game, the entire time. Four two five Nickel, go
back and check tape.
Speaker 2: That's not what I saw. That's not what we saw.
Speaker 3: We saw thirty front, we saw stand up outside linebacker.
We saw Jack Kelly on the edge.
Speaker 2: Two point. We saw a new sea. The news has
got the juice. Two point.
Speaker 3: We saw a plethora of different player personnel, uh implementations.
You saw a decent amount of nickel, Yes, right, but
not not.
Speaker 2: Just the the the.
Speaker 3: The Coylewititdingham lineage four two five. Sorry, that's not it,
not it. K Pop congratulations. K pop has got the opportunity.
Can't wait to see what he does with it. Here
in twenty twenty six and beyond, we'll go to break,
don't go anywhere. Still plenty to get to on a Wednesday,
January seventh edition of Cougar Sports. Here on your Uti,
ESBN ready on Network one O three nine ninety eight
point three