Speaker 1: Brought to you by Odeon Men's Wear, proudly outfitting young professionals,
young adults, boys and missionaries across the globe with quality
suits and apparel. Find a location near you or Odeonmenswear
dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three e SPN the fan. I'm beenfruital broadcasting from
our Batterwell Studios Batterwell dot com. Get on a free
Q and A no obligation to invest Q and A
with our tax more Wealth Advisors Today. Nobody does it
better than Blaine Anderson and his crew. This segment Little
Keeping Up with the Couer is going to welcome to
a former BA. You're great to talk to some BYU
Football with Us. It's going to be brought to you
by Odeon Men'swear Odeon menswear dot com. If you're looking
to elevate your suit game with an at leisure suit
a sports performance suit that looks like your traditional suits
but feels like you're wearing that at leisure sports performance
type of material, then Odeon has the Elevatesuit for you.
Get fifteen percent off when you mentioned myself, you can
utilize the cridal fifteen coupon code online as well odeonmenswear
dot com, or head into any one of their stores
and let us know that you heard us on the
radio to get the best men's wear, churchwar and business attire.
Here along the wahsatch front, let's get out to the
hot line. Welcome and forward BYU Quarterback. He represents BYU TV.
He also represents one of the biggest, strongest, most powerful
med device companies in the world, Striker Orthopedics.
Speaker 3: Let's welcome in Blame Valor to the show. What's up Blade?
Speaker 4: Hey Ben, how's your day going?
Speaker 5: Bro?
Speaker 2: It's good man. All is well in Cougar Country for me. Look,
I take losses in stride. Everyone always asked me, Hey,
are you do you get bent out of shape? Are
you emotionally attached to the loss of Like? No, man,
I've experienced many losses on and off the football field
in my life. I'm like, Hey, this is a part
of the process. Now it's time to get better focused
on the task at hand. How did you experience it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm kind of the same way.
Speaker 5: I like, I keep my expectations pretty level throughout the year,
even when they got such a good start. When I
looked at what we all have, all the gauntlet of
games that were coming up here and middle of October
to the end of November, all along, I said to myself, listen,
the toughest part of the schedule is the two road
games back to back, even though this split up by
a bye on the road at Iowa State on the
road at Texas Tech.
Speaker 4: If they can split those two games.
Speaker 5: Then I am gonna feel really good about where they're at.
And then I think they have a chance to compete
for their conference championship if they can.
Speaker 4: Just split those two games.
Speaker 5: Now, going into those games, I thought that Iowa State
might be the tougher of the two because it was
on the road without a bye week before. I thought
that Texas Tech having to play at Kansas State the
week before and BA having a buye might give them
a leg up in preparation, and that may be the
one that they would.
Speaker 4: Win, would be Texas Tech.
Speaker 5: But as the seasons kind of progressed out, it became
really apparent that Texas Tech.
Speaker 4: Is a much better football team than Iowa State. Really
talented great.
Speaker 5: In all three phases, and so my expectations have been
that they was up those two for weeks and weeks
and weeks. So when they when they went and got
the Iowa State game, I felt like a Texas Tech
they were playing with house money. As we say, There's
some things that I felt that they could do to
play better, be more competitive than that game.
Speaker 4: But I'm fine.
Speaker 5: I'm I think they're exactly what I'd hoped they would
be at this point going into these last three games,
right on schedule.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, it's a great place to be.
Speaker 2: You got three games remaining, You're hovering at at you know,
top twelve in the country, with a great opportunity with
TCU at home. You got two home games, right, and
then you'd say the Cincinnati's gonna be a tough one
on the road, no doubt, and then you welcome UCF
back home. How you feel in confidence wise that b
you can win out and why, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Really I feel really good about it.
Speaker 5: I this this first one's always tough to kind of
push behind you the disappointment of the way they played
down in Texas Tech. But I think there were some
things on film that were encouraging to these guys. I
had a chance watch the film Sunday night, both on
the offense on defensive side. The games that make me
feel bad or maybe even a little hopeless is when
I watch a game on film and I go, man,
they just went the crap beat out of them. Let's
think about Iowa State a couple of years ago, where
you watch the film.
Speaker 4: And you go, man, guys just got knocked off the ball.
They just got beat up. This is like, how do
you fix that? Right? And in this game, defense played
extremely well.
Speaker 5: There were a couple of big plays that I think
that they normally make, that they could have made, couple
of picks that were there for the having.
Speaker 4: The offense did not get pushed.
Speaker 5: Around by Texas Text Front seven that had a lot
of small assignment errors that cost them dancing big plays
on the offensive side they could have made. And then
the special teams were inexplicably poor, and that's such an aberration.
I can't imagine they're gonna do that two games in
a row. And those were unforced errors on special team
side of things. So when I look at that game,
I come away and go, bau physically matches up just
with Texas Tech. They're really really good, but so is BYU,
And that gives me hope coming to this TCU game.
The players can go watch that and say, guys, we
just have to do what we're supposed to do. We
maybe play a little more simple this week against TCU,
and we have the talent to just go out and
beat these guys if we take care of the football,
if we force turnovers and do what we doing all
season long. I like that it's a home game. I
like that it's on the road for TCU. I liked
it it's at night. I like that TCU just lost
a heartbreaker. They needed to win that game last week
in Iowa State to stay in contention for all of
their things, and with that loss on the last last
drive turnover, everything they wanted to do other than go
to a bowl game is out the door for them.
So mentality, guys, coming into this one, I feel like
the way has gotten advantage and if they can go
and be impressive and recover and then I've looked at
Cincinnati long and heard Cincinnati is. I love their quarterback,
I love their physicality, but defensively they have not been
as good as I thought they were until I really.
Speaker 4: Started in delving into the last couple of weeks. Eighty
fifth in the country.
Speaker 5: In rush defense, they're twelfth in the in the conference,
and total defense they're seventh.
Speaker 4: Been scoring.
Speaker 5: Like I think b YU, I like teams that are
are good offensively because I trust that this defense can
stop teams no matter how good they are offensively for matchup.
For VYU, it's better if their defense is not quite
as stout as Texas Tech in terms of matchups.
Speaker 4: So I like the matchups moving forward.
Speaker 5: I like the mentality and the motion that b Yu
will be able to play with this weekend with everything
still on the table, and so I for those reasons,
I feel like they and they're relatively healthy, so to speak,
so I feel like they have a chance to go
on a run here. It all starts on Saturday night,
and with a great performance there, then I really like
their chances at Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: You broached it a little bit. Lessons learned from that
Texas Tech game. You mentioned physicality. Hey, we we matched
up pretty well in the trenches. You know the things
that you think when when you when you compare yourself
to the best, It can be sobering. It can also
be enlightening. What are some of the lessons learned that
you think happened internally for this team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, one of the things that if Texas Tech does
extremely well, you hear this phrase, man, that team is
just really well coached. That's a great compliment in football
because what it means is you go and watch the
film and when you watch the film of this team,
they don't do things to hurt themselves and their very
very assignments sound on both sides of the ball. So
Texas Tech, when you watch their run defense, they.
Speaker 4: Don't get out of their their gaps.
Speaker 5: Guys don't go try to make plays that aren't their
plays to make.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, they're they're very.
Speaker 5: Very talented on defense, but you want a lot, they're
not more talented the b YU is on defense, they're not.
And in that game, like if you look defensively, you
can go and you can go, oh wait a minute,
the one big road. You know, you had two guys
that were in the same gap, a guy that was
supposed to have the edge and another linebacker that instead
of scraping to his gap.
Speaker 4: And ran by it.
Speaker 5: When good backs are going to hit that scene and
they hit the scene and get a big play. They
had a couple of plays where they had the right
call on and they.
Speaker 4: Had an opportunity to make plays.
Speaker 5: Talk about the long pass play where Evan Johnson was
in perfect position and instead of high pointing the ball just.
Speaker 4: Kind of range too.
Speaker 5: Like Eva's a great player that learns he won't make
that mistake.
Speaker 4: Ever, ever again.
Speaker 5: So I think you learn from Texas Tech that the
reason they're good is not just because they're talented. The
reason there's good is because on both sides of the ball,
they execute exactly what they're supposed to and they don't
make mistakes that cause them problems.
Speaker 4: And if you go back and look at Y's offense,
it wasn't.
Speaker 5: Because oh, such and such got beat up in that game,
or we just didn't do this.
Speaker 4: It was a lot of plays, especially in.
Speaker 5: That first half, where one guy didn't do his assignment
and then a free player comes through and alters the play,
or two guys are confused and are hesitant so they
get beat It's those kinds of things are actually encouraging
because you can fix those. But to beat great teams,
the standard has to be we don't have breakdowns, We
execute every play. We don't especially on we don't try
to make a play that's not ours to make. We
do what we're supposed to do and trust the guys
beside us, and for BYU, most of this season they've
done that, and there's been a couple of games we've
got slow starts and the coaches have said, listen, guys,
we're not making any adjustments even though we're behind. You
just have to do your asignment and quit trying to
make plays that are outside of your assignment and things
will be fine.
Speaker 4: And then we've come back and won those games.
Speaker 5: So there was a big lesson in that for this
whole game against Texas Tech that I think can be
applied against TCU. Do what you're supposed to do and
trust that the guy next to you is gonna do
what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 4: And BYU had.
Speaker 5: Plenty of talent to go around and matches up with
everybody they played these last three games and can win
those three games if they'll just do that simple thing.
Speaker 2: Bear wasn't as effective running the ball versus Texas Tech.
Speaker 3: LJ still looks to be.
Speaker 2: Maybe a little bit happened to you only got ten tots,
you got a few receptions as well.
Speaker 3: Jojo dropped the ball.
Speaker 2: It seems like there was a couple of things missing
there offensively that need to be addressed heading into TCU week.
Speaker 5: It all starts up front with Yu in the run game.
It's like, yeah, Lj's been the beneficiary of having some
phenomenal teams, and Ba's team has been able to knock
people off the ball really well all season long. And
Texas Tech was a great team and they were knocking
some people off the ball. But to me, there's multiple
examples in that game of where they didn't function as
a unit the way they should, so they didn't create
the seams that they have been and LJ he looked
a little tender. Lj's injuries, it's not there's nothing wrong
with his legs, right, So there's he just got to
be confident that he can go and run. It's a
shoulder injury, right, And so is.
Speaker 3: It more interesting humoral do you think, or a little
bit of both.
Speaker 4: So I think it's well, I should get into too
much of it. I think it's something on his scapula
and I think he's fine.
Speaker 5: So but anyhow, it's when you come back from an injury,
where you get hurt in a game, there's a mental
part of that recovery, like you know, man, it's like
you're physically sounding ready to go, and then the mental
part is I got to be confident and just go right. Well,
it doesn't help when you're coming back from an injury
and you're playing with a little nick and then you're
not seeing the same kind of seams and holes that
you've been seeing, right, so that that compounds it, right,
But I think he's a week healthier, a week more
removed from that, so I think he'll be full go.
Speaker 4: And I think you see v Yu get back to
knocking people off the ball. You know. The way they
have this t SEE team is really an interesting one.
Speaker 5: And I don't know, maybe then you you've seen this
before or but it's odd to me that they're as
good as they are at throwing the football offensively and
as poor as they are defending the pass defensively. Typically
teams that throw it all over the place they see
so much of it in practice that they're pretty good
in pass defense, and teams that run the ball really well,
you know, defend the run and vice versa. And this
is like such an odd thing. This team rushing offense
is one hundred and seventh in the country in rush offense,
turn and twenty two yards a get TCU, but they're
thirty fifth in the country and rush defense, so they're
really good on defense at what they're not good at
on offense. And then conversely, they're number eight in.
Speaker 4: The country throwing the ball. These guys throw it all
over the place.
Speaker 5: I mean, in a loss last week, they throw it
for over three hundred yards against Iowa State, and Hoover's
got a great army, is a really solid quarterback. They
average three hundred three yards again throwing, but their past
defense is one hundred and first in the country. That's
an odd kind of a thing to Usually teams that
are good at one thing on the offensive side, they're
usually pretty solid that on defensively.
Speaker 4: So so this week I think b YU.
Speaker 5: Can get after this tc team in the crick pass game.
I think there are there are yards to be picked
up against TCU throwing the football, and so I think
maybe you come into this with a plan where it's
not so much we're gonna crack down these guys throws.
Speaker 4: We're gonna stablish their runs like.
Speaker 5: We're gonna throw the football and make these guys run
all over the place, and then we're gonna come back
and we're gonna hit We set up the run with
the pass and come back and then hit them with
run plays that counter off of what we've been doing
throwing the ball, and that might be a good tack
against this team just because of the way they're built defensively.
Speaker 2: Blaine Fowler here on ESPN, the Fan Cougar Sports Inside
or representing byu TV wise guys, and of course Striker
with the Pedix. He's always delving into things across multiple specialties,
if you will, Blaine. If BA wins out, they get
to Arlington again, uh, and they lose to Texas Tech,
do you think that they get into the College Football Playoff?
Speaker 5: A lot depends on how they would lose to Texas
Tech and what happens just in front of them. Now
we know there's a lot of matchups in front of
them that are coming up, so there should be a
little there should be enough carnage that if they went
out and they go into that game eleven and one
and Texas Tech is also with that record, Texas Tech
should probably be at worst fifth at that point. B
Why you could find themselves. I would say no worse
than ten, maybe nine at that point. Now, if you go,
if you play the number five team in the country
on the neutral field and you lose and it comes
down to the last drive of the game, and you
lose by three or seven, and you're really really competitive,
I don't see how you drop, you know, more than
a spot or two. So let's say they're eight going
into that, which they actually could be. Based on that,
there's a there's a very good shot they could still
be in that. If you go and you get blown now,
then I think people are going to say, well, even
though they have this great record Texas Tech, there's a
big drop off between Texas Tech and everybody else in
that league, and maybe they only deserve one bit. So
I do think it depends a little bit on what
happens in front of them, but a lot on how
they would perform in a loss in that game.
Speaker 2: To me, the eye test, the subjective eye test, you know,
with objectivity to you know, the competitive nature of scoring margins,
et cetera. Statistical efficiency, it seems like the analytics don't
necessarily always love BYU. Maybe that's because it's weighted in
one direction or the other. But the analytics really love
Utah right now, and that's why they've maybe been propelled
into that conversation hovering on the outside at the top twelve,
What do you make of it?
Speaker 5: Well, the problem for Utah is their ceiling is behind BYU.
And if you're, if you're intellectually honest, like it, does
it really matter that?
Speaker 4: Now? Some of their metrics look great because they're really
good on offense.
Speaker 5: They're very explosive on offense to run the ball extremely well.
They play a lot of teams that don't defend the
run very well. And so it's funny if you're a
big time passing team. I've never understood this. If you're
a great passing team and you jump on a team,
then you kind of go it's like almost rubbing it in.
You kind of go away from the passing game. You
start running it more and you kind of take the
air out of it, and you kind of go to
your win.
Speaker 4: If what you do is run the football.
Speaker 5: And quarterback run game and all that, and you're out
on top of a team, will you just keep doing
what you're doing.
Speaker 4: And nobody calls it running up the score? Right? Just
keep doing what you do best.
Speaker 5: And Utah's run away from a bunch of teams. So
they're you know, if you look at scoring margin and
all that kind of stuff, and they're offensive metrics, they're
far ahead of YU. But Utah's not is like they've
had some defenses in recent years where I've just been, oh,
my goodness, that defense isn't slights out defensive, but teams
have been able to run the football in Utah a
little bit this year, which is you never feel like
you can run on Utah.
Speaker 4: So so from.
Speaker 5: The metrics, I think what people look at is they're
just killing people. So some of that is style points.
But but the reason I say b YU is the
ceiling for them is because you can't have the same
record as b YU and a worse record than Texas
Tech and have lost to both of those teams head
to head and be ranked ahead of either of them.
Speaker 4: If b yu's only losses are.
Speaker 5: To Texas Tech, Like, how can you put Utah ahead
of either of those teams when they lost head to
head with both of those teams. That wouldn't make any
sense to me. And it wasn't like they lost to
b YU at the beginning of the year. They lost
to them four weeks ago and Texas Tech beat them
up on their at their place with their backup quarterback.
B YU lost to them by less on the road
with their starting quarterback. So like, if you really start
to think about it would be very difficult to put
Utah ahead of BYU. So so for Utah that's a
that's a tough till to swallow. But if you put
them in front, I don't know how you would justify that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you there.
Speaker 2: I think where it could get a little mucky if
if BYU does let's say they lose to TSU, but
they beat sin C and they and they beat UCF. Know,
how does the committee view that to two lost teams. Yes,
you have to head to head, but analytics and margin
of victory and other things you may like maybe are
in in Utah's favor. I'm intrigued to see how much
human element, how much objective algorithm, uh, you know, analytics
they're going to utilize to determine what they like in
the college football playoff.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: See, now having in that scenario, then that that changes
it then of course, yeah, if BYU loses one of
these three, that changes the dynamic. But but if b
YU loses another game and the only game they loses
Texas Tech, and the only game they've lost is twice
to the team that Utah lost to, and they beat Utah.
That's where Utah, that's where by.
Speaker 4: Us the ceiling for them.
Speaker 5: Just how as they can go Now if Utah, if
by goes out and and let's say they win the
next two and then they inexplicably lose to Central Florida, Yeah,
that they have to go win the Big twelve championship
game to get in. And and if they if they
don't win that game, then Utah absolutely moves in front
of them, you know. And so yeah, my scenario is
if BAU wins out and loses to Texas Tech, Utah
can't pass them.
Speaker 4: It's that it would appear.
Speaker 5: Like, no matter what people say about I test and
all this stuff, there's only head to head to compare
at that point, right, So, but a loss to BYU
to any of these teams changes that that.
Speaker 4: Talk track and and certainly Utah would have a way
to work their way in there.
Speaker 2: How'd you evaluate the health of BYU heading into this
TCU game?
Speaker 3: Do you like where we're at?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll tell you where I really feel good about
where the defense is I'm from a health perspective because
Jack back and Isaiah looked much more like himself. Jackob
great frankly last week, and they didn't sustain any additional
issues or or nick you know, I guess reinjure anything.
Speaker 4: And so that backer group is.
Speaker 5: Is ready to roll at full speed, and it is
especially important against a team like TCU that's gonna spread
you out and throw the ball fifty times to have
the speed to not only get in coverage, but to
come off the edge and chase Josh Horuber down. And
secondary's is as healthy as they as they've been in
a lot like honestly, defenses as healthy as.
Speaker 4: Its been since before the Utah game. So that's a
good thing.
Speaker 5: And then offensively, yeah, I think LJ obviously he's not
one hundred percent because of his shoulder, but I feel
like going this week he should be as healthy as
he's been, you know, healthier than he was last week.
I wish we were getting Sioni Moa back, but that's
that's probably still a couple of weeks away.
Speaker 4: And now where you get to this point with Sioni and.
Speaker 5: Nobody's talking about this by just looking at him like Okay,
he only played in three games, Like, play him in
one game before the season's over if he's healthy enough.
Right now it doesn't seem but it seems like he's
just finally turning the corner. But play him in a game,
whether that's the Central Florida game with the Cincinnati game,
if he's healthy enough, and then none of the posts
and stuff counts, so he redshirts and comes back next
year with this same year of eligibility back.
Speaker 4: That would be huge. And I think you could use
him down.
Speaker 5: The stretch in especially if you get a in a
if you get to that big twelve championship game and
you make a new COROAG football PLAYFF or a bowl.
Be really really nice to have SIONI because in my
mind LJ is phenomenal, Buton's right there.
Speaker 4: And he's a little different style.
Speaker 5: Like I don't know that I want anybody on this
football team, including Bear, to run the football on third
and one more than moo. Yeah, and uh, he's just
a physical presidence at running back that can catch the
ball on the backeld, that brings the dynamic to that backfield.
So he's the only one that's like I keep waiting
each week to see how far he's come. But I
think he's getting close, so but he won't be back,
so now it's LJA.
Speaker 4: You got to keep him healthy. I think there's some
ways you can.
Speaker 5: Utilize Preston Rex in this game to catch the ball
on the backfield, get it isolated on linebackers, and he's
coming along. But the on line is healthy, bears healthy.
The receiving corps, with exception Cody Hagen, looks like they're
relatively healthy, and so they're very good shape for this
late in the season. They're actually in remarkable shape healthwise.
Speaker 3: I'd agree with that.
Speaker 2: Shout out to coach Phillis coolbe Clawsan Skyler, Maine, that
entire staff. Bret Morten said, they do fantastic work keeping
these guys healthy and strong. So Blaine always appreciate our
time together. B YU a slight favorite going up against DCU.
I think they come out victorious. They're on their home field.
It's great that they have two home games to kind
of finish off the year and then and they do
have a very tough one on the Rovers Cincinnati, but
Cincinnati has shown some weakness.
Speaker 3: We'll see how it plays out. We always appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: The best way to support support you what you do,
how you do it, Blaine.
Speaker 4: Uh, just tune into all the stuff we're doing. Like wise,
guys on Monday nights.
Speaker 5: The live stream from six to eight or you get
it wherever you get your podcasts starting Tuesday morning every week.
We're having a ton of fun with that. And then
and then just watch us on all the BYU stuff.
We'll be doing game day Saturday night a two hours
before kick. But if you're at the stadium, we'd love
you to come over and be part of the studio,
you know, part of the audience there with that great
group from the rock out in Cougar Canyon and two
hours before the game. So yeah, just keep supporting us
and that stuff. That's all I ask.
Speaker 3: Love it, Blaine. We salute you man, Thanks so much
for joining us today.
Speaker 4: Thanks Ben, talk to you soon. Brother.
Speaker 3: There you go. That is Blaine Fowler. Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: That segment brought to you by Utah Protective Films, Utaprotective
Films dot Com former BAYU Wide Receiver Jared Bledshow is
the best at carps, window tens and Chrome Deleites. You
get fifteen percent off when you mentioned myself for ESPN
the fan when you call them, get a quote today.
If you want to get a little facelift on your vehicle,
get a little paint protection film around the vehicle. Eight
oh one eight hundred nine seven sixty seven. That's eight
oh one, eight hundred nine seven sixty seven. Utah Protective Films,
Utapprotective Films dot com.
Speaker 3: Let them know I sent you all right, great show,
great segment.
Speaker 2: Make sure you download the podcast iten Spreaker, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify,
give us a rating, give us a review. Please support
all of our sponsors. Guys, we cannot do our show
without our sponsors. You listen to us for free, but
you got to listen to our ads. But we're always
trying to create additional value for you and your family members. Okay,
so always getting VIP products, VP service, VP discounts, whether
it's Orthopros, Royal Army, Brian Dental Pros, Odon Men's Wear,
Big O'tires in American fok Band or Wealth Complete Circuit Electric,
Brisa Cleaning Services, the XPT Train three DQB, Utah Protective Films,
Primo Golf, Handy and Handy Advanced Window Products, Game Day,
Men's Health, UTAI Advocates, RGS six series, BMW, Pleasant Grove,
and of course Myers Meets and Fine Foods. Guys, that's
our show. We're sticking to it and we appreciate you.
We'll be back tomorrow again. Your prep getting you ready
for this by U TCU matchup here on your UTI
ESPN Radio Network one O three nine ninety eight point
three