Speaker 1: This is Cougar Sports on Kovo probo k u d
d HD two one oh three nine ninety eight three
ESPN No Fan. This 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.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Cougar Sports one o three nine ninety eight
point three SPN the Fan. I've been critinal broadcasting from
our Vanderwelth Studios Vanderwilth dot com. Get on a free
Q and A no obligation to invest Q and A
with our tax more wealth advisors before you file taxes.
You may want to contact vander Wealth right now. If
you become a part of the Vanderwealth family. They're including
tax preparation and filing is a part of their servers
handled by.
Speaker 3: Their in house CPA team.
Speaker 2: It's a great way to experience true tax mortwealth management.
Visit Vanderwealth Vanterwealth dot com. Today it is time for
Little Cougar be going to Welcome to Cougar Sports insider
in Delvin Daldenicks and granted is all the news a
otes of the day from his vandage points gonna be
rotch you by Dental prosof Utah Dental prosofutah dot com.
Speaker 3: If you've been told you need a.
Speaker 2: Filling, a crown, a root canal, all I'm asking you
to do is to get a second opinion. You've been
there before, you get a filling done, you still have
too sensitivity. It feels like, man, well, I thought I
was trying to get rid of that too sensitivity. Well,
they probably use traditional techniques. They didn't use boba meta techniques.
They may come back and say, well, your tooth is correct,
you need a crown, you need a root canal.
Speaker 3: Eventually, don't go there. Save your teeth, save your money
in the long run.
Speaker 2: Visit dental pros of Utah in American fork the best
bomba medicare mentally invasive care and it'll save your teeth
and your money in the long run.
Speaker 3: Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome at double D
the Deadly.
Speaker 2: HERALEDI in Sound the Bugle, Ladies and gentlemen. We got
Darnell Dixon on the line Double D.
Speaker 4: Hey you living well right now, living like it's nineteen
eighty five. We have an outage in the internet in
our area. So it's very quiet and in Dixon household
right now with no good to the outside world. So
I don't know what's going on. Did you Todd join
the Big cann or something while I was out for
the last hour.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I will say this much.
Speaker 2: There is some drama brewing in Cougar Country, or rather
in Hollywood. We I just came across this, uh, and
I think we got it confirmed.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: Pooka Akua is uh not in the not in the
good line light right now. He is uh.
Speaker 2: He has checked himself into rehab after the alleged drunken
New Year's Eve bite attack report. So it looks like
he's in rehab.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: The RAMS Receivers attorney Levi mccatherine confirmed with The California
Post on Wednesday that his client has been at a
luxury treatment center in Malibu. While mccatherine said the move
was not a direct response to the lawsuit Nikua's bite accuser,
Madison A. Tiabi, filed against him last month, the lawyer
did say the combination of stories uh running right now
on him are certainly a contributing factor. He was there
a substantial period of time before any of these allegations
are broke with Madison, mccatherine said, and he's scheduled to
be there for a while longer. Mcatherine added that Nicoua's
goal with the stage to improve his overall behavior in
every aspect of his life that he can h and
he said he's really proud of him for doing it
and doing it this off season. So, you know, Puoka,
you probably covered him in high school. He's a great
He was a great kid, you know, I mean, obviously
a fun loving kid. He's he's super like just he's
a vibe man. Everyone loves being around Pooka. Everybody loves Pooka.
Anyone that's ever been around Pooka has really nothing ever
negative to say about Pooka.
Speaker 3: Nikua.
Speaker 2: It sounds like he's got into the limelight. He's in LA,
he's making money. He surrounded himself with the wrong mentors.
He doesn't have a father figure. His father, Lionel passed
away years ago at a very young age, and he's
maybe relying on the on poor mentorship and he's gotten
maybe a little repression, right. He maybe didn't do very
many bad things growing up and he's just in a
bad situation.
Speaker 3: Your thoughts, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4: Too bad pooka. Uh is a kind of kid that
lights up the room when he comes in. He is
kind of the life of the room when he is there.
And it's kind of in terms of professionally, it's kind
of poor timing because he is up for signing a
pretty large contract. In fact, what I was reading was
perhaps the largest wide receiver contract in the league. But
certainly that's a secondary concern right now. Is we just
hope he gets his life right, gets himself feeling good,
and gets the help that he that he needs.
Speaker 2: Yep, Yes, indeed, we pray that he gets it rights
and Uh makes the changes that he needs to. But yeah,
some bad news to start us off, but.
Speaker 3: Some good news.
Speaker 2: Boa women's basketball is in the wbiit What do you
say about that? Darnw I know you keep tabs on
this Lady Koog's team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: Earlier in the season, and I've told Brandon Gurney this
several times, they were kind of a tough watch. I mean,
they were kind of struggling to hold onto the ball
and some value possessions. Lee Kamard wanted to play up tempo,
and early in the season, I didn't feel like they
really had the skill level to do that, and they
were constantly turning the ball over twenty plus times a game,
and that's difficult to win. They managed to do it,
and then they got into Big twelve and had some issues.
But I feel like they've kind of righted the ship
a little bit, and certainly they've played well. They won
nine of their last ten games heading into this championship
game today of the wbit against Columbia. By the way,
who's athletics director is Peter Pilling who was once at
BYU And yeah, so so maybe there's a little bit
of a story in that. But I think Lee Camartin's
coaching staff done a great job with this team in
kind of getting things moving, and he showed a lot
of patience with this group because you know, during that
that tough part of the season when they were turning
the ball over a lot. I don't know if I
as a coach, I would have said, yeah, we're sticking
with this high tempo game because they were turning it
over so much. And they've managed to figure some things out,
so they're in a it's a good place for them
to be in the postseason, winning some games and their
young team and so they're going to maybe hope, hopefully
get some momentum heading into next season. But I think,
like again, Lee Martin and his coaching staff deserves some
accolades for sticking with this team and getting them to
this point.
Speaker 2: Let me ask it is maybe a controversial question here.
Lee's doing great things rookie season as head coach, sir
past seeing Jeff Judkins for the most wins in a
in a uh in that rookie season.
Speaker 3: How did League get passed up on the first go round?
Speaker 2: Was it just due to his inexperience as a head
coach or you know, how how did he get passed up?
Why did he get the job the first go round
a few years ago?
Speaker 4: That's a pretty good question. I think that perhaps there
was some not concern, but just the fact that he
only been a women's coach for a few years. He'd
been in the men's program before, and there is you know,
when you when you talk about hiring for women's basketball,
I think most ads look for a woman to be
the head coach. You know, it's good for them to
have role models, those those athletes that are playing and
and the connection and the being able to understand what's
going on. Sometimes they feel like maybe a woman coach
would handle that better. There were some intriguing things about
the previous coach, Amber Whiting when it came to her
connection to the AAU circuit. They took a chance, you know,
on her because she didn't have any college coaching experience,
and I personally would have liked to see her get
one more year to kind of get things going, because
it was tough to jump right in there after that
first year and then go right into Big twelve because
it's a pretty tough league. So maybe that was it.
But I do know that Lee Kamard has a great
ability to have rapport with the athletes. And I probably
told this story before, but when he was a men's assistant,
I traveled to Los Angeles for a game b what
you played against USC. It was just a one off,
one of those you know, preseason games, and they normally
didn't travel, you know, just on a regular airline, but
because that had been paid for by the group that
ran this tournament, they were coming home in the same
flight I was coming home on. So we're all sitting
in there waiting for the flight to get boarded. But
I noticed that a lot of players, like almost all
of them, at one point or another wandered over to
Lee Kamard and had a conversation with him, and I
was impressed with his ability to have that rapport and
the fact that the players really wanted to talk to him,
get his feelings on stuff, get his opinion, and confide
in him. So I thought that he would make a
good head coach at some point. And right now he's
doing a great job with the women's program.
Speaker 3: Doing fantastic. Hopefully they get the dub.
Speaker 2: Hopefully they get the victory there in Wichita, Kansas. It
looks like they're not favored per ESPN analytics. But if
I know Lee, he's going to get that dog. He's
going to bring out that dog in his squad and
they're going to come out with a victory.
Speaker 3: Dardell, what have you been working out over there at
the Daily Hero?
Speaker 2: What have you been writing about? Where have you been
casting your gays within Cougar Sports?
Speaker 4: Well, we just finished running our all valley teams or
we pick you know for the high school sports with basketball,
and we have Brian Priest, the wrestling Guru of Utah.
It helps it with with wrestling and It's always fun
to connect with, you know, the coaches and players. I'm
also working on a story right now on and this
this concerns kind of BYU ties at least. So Psy
Chrisman is a six foot five pound slugger baseball player,
and he played at Maple Mountain for the last couple
of years and set the state record and home runs
last season. And as I was preparing for this this
season this spring season for high school sports, I noticed
that he wasn't on the Maple Mountain roster. So I
started looking around some research and apparently he has decided
to play at IMG Academy in Florida to kind of
step up this game and have some opportunities to play
against some good pitching and increase his ability, uh to
you know, go on on the next level. So I
spoke to his dad, Jed Christman, who was a former
pro bo baseball player, and Jake's brother who played at BYU.
And so I'm working on that story now, trying to
get a touch with say and find out what it's
like to go from playing high school baseball in Utah
and heading out to Florida to play high level IMG
Academy And as I said, try to help his chances
of maybe playing at the next level.
Speaker 2: Darnell Dixon the Daily Herali and talking to Cougar Sports
here on your Utah ESPN Radio network.
Speaker 3: There was some recruiting news that dropped.
Speaker 2: I know you covered the prep sports realm pretty tightly,
pretty closely. Titan de Young at a mountain Ridge linebacker
tight end. We got the interview yesterday. Really impressive young man.
What do you know about this kid? And he's the
first commit of the twenty twenty seven class. He's already
recruiting the rest of the twenty twenty seven class. He
mentioned he's recruiting Body Sparrow, the four star out of Davis.
He's recruiting I believe the kid out of Salem, Peyton
Higginson is well. Try to get him sound sealed, delivered,
committed to the Koogs. What do you know about Titan
and these guys that he's trying to recruit now to b.
Speaker 4: YU becoming more and more in the last couple of years,
familiar with the teams in Region two, which mountain Ridge
is in there because west Lake who used to be
in the region with American Fork and Skyridge and those
teams has moved into that region and there are some
really good football being played. And you know, as we
look at how BYU handled its recruiting and that transfer
portal era, you still got to hit your local recruits
really well. You got to recruit Utah and get the
best players out of them. Titan seems to be one
of those guys who's going to be an athlete. You
can play in a lot of different positions once you
figure out where you want him to go. So he's
a good pickup for the local recruiting efforts and you
have to continue to mind those and you've got competition
there because Utah wants them and we were state in
Utah State and all these schools have things to offer.
So BYU have to pick their guys wisely, and they
have a process by which they, you know, see a
lot of these kids in camps during the summer, and
then they have the opportunity to go see them play
on Friday nights because that's part of the process. So
he seems like a pretty good pickup. And as you mentioned,
because he's starting to recruit some of these other kids
that are local, there's always a good pipeline there.
Speaker 2: As well, love it double d darn Al Dixon talking
to some Cougar football and recruiting here on your Utah
USPN radio network. I do like those two guys that
he's recruited right now, Body Sparrow and Peyton Higginson both
both really good skill guys with like four star type offers,
and they're getting recruited by just about everybody in the country.
Their hometown kids though, right you hope that you can
retain them here in the state of Utahn BYU now
is the premier school for college football play, and so
if anybody's going to get them, it's to be b YU, Right.
Speaker 4: Well, you have to balance it with with your recruiting
of the transfer portal and retaining the talent that you have,
you know from from your previous teams. And there there's
another guy that I like locally that is getting a
lot of talk right now, and I'm not sure where
his highs is college will take him, but Malik Ico
wide receiver out of West Lake, had a fantastic year
last year for the Thunder and he hasn't played a
ton of football, but he ended up with like twelve
or thirteen hundred yards receiving and eighteen touchdowns and then
he just recently led Westlake to the State six A
basketball championship. And so he's a really terrific guy, leads
very smooth, and so he's another local kid that BYU is.
I'm sure they've got their eye on and seeing where
he heads in. But yeah, BYU has to be the
place that and you want, you know, like I said,
there's competition, but you want to be the place where
those kids look to want to go. And those kids
are important to your program because you expect to be
able to retain those guys a little bit easier because
they're closer to home and because they've grown up knowing
the program in a lot of cases, so you hope
that that's the place where they're looking to go.
Speaker 2: And look, look a little competitive enmity here between the
brethren up on the hill is in talking to Titan
to Young, I mean he grew up a Utah fan group,
a Utah fan. I was like, wait to say, okay,
It was like, who were your top three? He's like
Michigan BYU and who else did he mention? He mentioned
somebody else. It wasn't even Utah. Utah wasn't even a
top three, top four, top five. It didn't even seem
like I was like, wait a second, how does that happen?
He's like, well, like a lot of uncertainty there. We
don't know what the future is. Kilanie's stability resigning this contract,
he's gonna be for another ten years. It's just you
know that the trajectory is it. You know when you
hear that you're taking kids that are grew up Utah
fans and you're getting them to commit to b YU.
What does that say about the rivalry where we're at
right now with the winning streak that B Way Football has.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we've talked about this a lot before, but
we know that Utah had a distinct advantage when they
joined the Pac twelve and BYU and an independent and
in recruiting and the amount of resources they could use.
And things have turned around in that area, and b
why you joined the Big twelve. And then now with
you know, Nil and b YU having very deep pockets
with their donors, they've been able to surpass what Utah
has in that area. So so I think that and
you know, kids are smart. They they it's not like
the old days where they grew up and you know
were the BYU uniform necessarily, you know, to go watch games,
and you know they're they're exposed to all kinds of
great programs through the Internet, through television Saturday is watching
ESPN Game Day and all those things, so they know
what's going on, but they also know where their best
opportunities lie. And right now it would appear that at
least you know in a lot of ways that the
local kids are saying, by use a place that has
everything that I want. Plus it's local, it's nearby, and
the family can watch me. I appreciate the way that
they set up their program. I'm comfortable among those people.
There are those situations that arise in and by using
a good place right now, with that, we all know
that that's not going to always be the case. There's
going to be downtimes and up times, but certainly I
think now you look at it, and by using a
really good place to recruit those local.
Speaker 2: Kids, DA using a great spot moving forward and recruiting
at a high level, a lot of positive momentum in
Cooker Country, no doubt about it. Double d Darnell Dixon
The Daily Herali and best way to support you what
you do how you do it? Appreciate you, but not
for a little cougar beat. Uh here on our Utah
Utah ESPN Radio network.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Herald Extra dot com is where you'll find my
work and you can follow me at Darnell Wrights on
X And I hope that that you have a very
great April Fool's Day, Ben, and don't get fool too often.
Speaker 3: Yeah, did anyone get you today? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Did the Bonsa, did the agent Debonsa BA Sports Nation
News get you?
Speaker 3: We're like, wait a second, where's it? I got to
search for this well.
Speaker 4: I planned to really go old school and often if
you remember a movie from Disney many years back called
World's Greatest Athlete. Yeah, you remember that there was a
there was an athlete named Nanu from like Zombia that
that the school recruited. And I was going to make
up this whole story about this guy that Dyu was
recruiting is six five and two sixty and runs a
four two forty barefoot, you know, and that kind of thing.
But I didn't think I be able to convince you.
Speaker 3: So no, I mean I probably I would.
Speaker 2: I would have you know, I would have taken a
hook line hook line and sinker Man, I totally would have. Now,
I didn't believe the agent of the bonson news, but
I think the more you know, the more plausible news
would have been a big time football recruit like a
ziggyansa type that's coming to provo right to be the
next Ziggianza.
Speaker 4: So that's where I was at. But I don't know
if I could have fooled you been You're pretty you're
pretty smart.
Speaker 2: It depends on the day, Darnell, depends on how much
CTE is presenting itself.
Speaker 3: In your brains.
Speaker 4: Would agree with that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: Definitely definitely, no doubt, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Hey man, love and appreciate you double d thanks for
hopping on all right, have a great day they go.
That segment was brought to you by Dental pros of
Utah dentalprosof Utah dot com. If you've been told you
need a filling a crown a root canal, choose Dental
pros of Utah in American fork.
Speaker 3: Dental pros of Utah is the best at what they do.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, your your smile will get the attention
at deserves. Poblemtics is what it's all about. It's about
preserving nature's design in your smile. Check out the Google
Google reviews. Won't be disappointed, Doctor Schofield, Doctor why Doctor Curtle.
They're gonna take care of you, know if answer much
about it. VIP products, VIP service, VIP discounts. Let them
take care of you today. They're at Dental Pros of
Utah in American four eight o one seven five six
zero three six zero. Check your bracket out guys at
espndefan dot com, ESPN The Fan Million Dollar Bracket Challenges
brought to you by Intermountain Bobcat, Utah RV Super Show
and of course Game Day Mense Hell time.
Speaker 1: For Keeping Up with the Cougars brought to you by
Odion Men'swear, 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 in for Sports one O three nine ninety
eight point three ESPN The Fan. I'm been critinal broadcasting
from our Panwell Studios. Banderwill dot Comedy's Top four A
Keeping Up with the Cougar segment going to Welcome to
a former by you great running back, wide receiver and
just great all round guy. It's gonna be brought to
you by Odeon Men's Wear, Odion menswear dot com. Look
your best, fore your best. Get out there and get
out there and do your best. If you've been called
to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ
of Laturday Sayings Say, you can get a free gift
with your missionary call at Odeon Men'swarodeon Menswear dot Com.
You can also utilize the Crital fifteen coupon code Crital
fifteen Crital fifteen Crital fifteen to get fifteen percent off your.
Speaker 3: Order online or in store.
Speaker 2: They got elevate suits, they got great dress shirts. They
have all of the gear that you need, all of
the peril, all of the attire you need.
Speaker 3: For your mission field.
Speaker 2: Thrust in your sickle with your mind, and you have
some blessings while looking good as you lay u up
and store many of those on the mission field. Let's
get out to the hotline and welcome in Former Bo.
You're great live from the mouse He's at Disneyland. Ladies
and gentlemen, Let's welcome in Reno mahe to the show Reno,
how's the mouse Street again?
Speaker 5: Actually, it's been awesome. The mouth is a today. It
was a good day. Right when we walked in, she
got a picture with Mickey and Minnie right off the back,
so that was that was a big wind.
Speaker 3: That is a big wind to get the pictures out
of the way.
Speaker 2: Now are you the type family that like brings in
food with you and like drinks with you? Well, I
guess you could just fill up your water bottles right
there at the at Disney. But like do you bring
in the food or do you buy the food there?
Speaker 5: There's only one food I get here, or I guess too,
I do the pretzels, the garlic pretzels and the uros.
So that's all the two things I miss when I
leave here.
Speaker 2: Wait, wait, how many pretzels and churros do you eat
in a day at Disney? Like a typical typical day
at Disney? How many truros and how many pretzes are
you eating.
Speaker 5: Each day? I'm probably two of the pretzel, the garlic
cheese pretzels, and then about four churros throughout the days.
So sometimes a double fifting two turos, and it's just
it's all bad. But it's the reason why I'm about
three hundred pounds right now and looking forward to being
all time center at the Alumni game on Friday.
Speaker 2: So, hey man, I'm excited to see in your I think,
are you team Royal or team Navy this year? Because
I feel like you've swapped teams a lot.
Speaker 5: I'm with Bobko, I'm with Bosco this year.
Speaker 3: Okay, team Bosco this year? Okay? Well, yeah, be all
time center.
Speaker 2: You still got to go run a route, right, You
got to run that corner pylon route, you know, just
for good old time sake.
Speaker 5: Bro run, man, there's no running in this body.
Speaker 3: Hey man.
Speaker 2: Though, like the Alumni day, right, the Alumni game and
all of this, I mean, you're alumnus. You come in,
you like, the fans love it, right, You've got some
great feedback from the fans from as a former player.
You know, how enjoyable has it been for you to
kind of get out there, interact with the fans, come
back to the school that you love.
Speaker 5: You know, it's just the energy of the fans bringing
to the stadium. It's getting back in Lovelle Edwards Stadium.
It's being with the former guys like it really. I mean,
the fans just kind of gives you that taste that
you have decades ago when you used to play in
front of all of them. It's it's really special for
the players. That part.
Speaker 3: I really enjoy.
Speaker 5: Also to have my kids come and just get to
feel a little bit of what we got to feel
when we played. And so it's it really is a
special time for the family, and we're all is grateful
for Klannie and bringing us back and even Jack the
Mooney all the work he does to make us former
players feel special and and they you know, it's a
whole day event, so it's it's a fun deal for
us former players.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've had discussions with UH with a lot of different
players about the things that he does a great job
right about taking care of the former players. But you know,
there's been times in the past where it seems like
there was maybe a little bit of a gap the
outreach Varsity Club, you know, just benefits and and things
of that nature for like the former b y U
football players. And I think Bronson Kafusi is actually putting
together an alumni group now.
Speaker 3: Has he reached out to you all about that?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, Brownson is he's been a catalyst with that, done
such a good job of keeping keeping all of us informed.
And yeah, they really do do a great job to
keep all the former former players just feeling the love
and so you know, Klanni just does such a great
job with that.
Speaker 2: No, and Klanie's really embodied that. I think that that's
what really changed when Kalani came to to the Helm
as the head coach and I was chatting with some
of those there's always a chatting with a few former players.
There's always a tough transition from being a football player
to getting into real life and real jobs and real
work and all that stuff and making that transition. I
know you went to the NFL, but eventually you had
to go into like the the the corporate space, entrepreneurial space.
You've done a lot of things after your NFL career.
What what can be done to help ease and maybe
make that aansition a little bit smoother for the former Cougars.
Speaker 3: That you know have to make.
Speaker 2: You know, our identity sometimes are intertwined with made a
football player. Now we got to go find that new identity,
you know.
Speaker 5: I think I think it's it's on both sides. I
think it's one of those things that it needs to
be not only just you know, the school doing their part,
which with Kilane Jack, the Mooney guys like Bronson, they're
doing such a good job from BYU side, but also
for former players to always try to find ways to,
you know, for whatever reason, just just to be able
to come through and put yourself out there to support
the program wherever.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: It's like that's saying list where you stand. And I
think if there's anything a former player to do is
just continue to promote BYU football. One of my favorite
things to do is wear my BYU gear here at
Disneyland and count how many BYU and people are out here.
And it's always fun when you hear people say go
Kobs when you walk by them, and so that it's
just little things like that, you know what I mean.
Like it goes a long ways in supporting the program,
supporting what we do. And I don't know, I think
there's a lot of different ways to but it's got
to be both sides. You know, school does their thing
and former players just finding ways to get involved. And
there is there's plenty of ways to get involved, and
I bet you Kalani is the most accessible head d
one college football coach there is.
Speaker 3: I agree to with that, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Reno mahe former b YU great talking some ball, talking
alumni game here on your Utah ESPN Radio network. Kilanie
just signed a ten year extension. Right He's going to
be the He's gonna be truly the Polynesian level. He
promised us that back in twenty sixties, said I just
want to be the Polynesian level. Edwards, do you think
he coaches as long as Leavell did at BYU. He's in,
you know, he's got he's got a decade. He's extended
to another decade. How many years do you think Kloaney
can last? I mean the Polynesian level, he's got to
get up to what twenty eight years.
Speaker 5: I think he could totally do it. I think he's
willing to totally do it. And you know, recently he's
been an example to lose some weight to me, and
you know he can stay healthy. He will. I think
he will be able to. But it's just he he
he's doing it for the right reason. And that's the
best part about k is that he just embodies everything
that lovel stood for.
Speaker 3: They have no doubt about it. I excited for that.
With that, with the future.
Speaker 2: Being so like stable, right, and and we talked about.
Speaker 3: The glory days.
Speaker 2: Right, you were part of the an awesome you know,
I would say an awesome time in BA football history.
Two thousand and one was one of the best seasons
in BWA football history.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: He had the eighties and nineties though those were great.
My era was solid six to nine. We won a
lot of football games. Now we're into the twenty twenty
Kilani era and we've won a lot of double digit
We've had a lot of double digit win seasons, et cetera.
When you compare this era, the twenty twenty season to
present day, and you compared to the other successful eras, like,
how does it stack up?
Speaker 3: Do you think.
Speaker 5: It's again, I think it's right up there with the
best of them. And I think some of the biggest
tell sign was that transition when coach Wick Winson Michigan
and how many players stayed they ended up jumping ship,
and the fact that all these players that everyone assumed
would jump ship they all ran it back and then
and then to pick up some of the big pieces
we picked up in the portal. I think that's that's
the tell side of where a program is by the
caliber players you're keeping in your program and the caliber
players you're going out and get. And so I'm super
excited for what Clane's doing.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: The nil transfer portal era, I think is also aiden
supported by U. Right, once upon a time it was improper,
it was illegal to to to pay players and and
I think I think b YU fans and Latter Day
Saints they've always had resources, but they are also law
abiding people. They are letter of the law. They read
their White hand Book on their missions. They got to
abide and so the NCAA rules did not allow them
to do it, while other like SEC Big tenscles they
may have been cheating and circumpending the rules.
Speaker 3: Now we got an equal playing field.
Speaker 2: Does that make BYU, you know and Killanne operating under
those rules? Does that make BYU a premier top twenty five,
top ten type of college football program?
Speaker 3: With all things being considered.
Speaker 5: Without a doubt, The nice thing is you can always
measure that, right. I mean, they have those recruiting places
where you rank after the recruiting season, so's you can
totally measure it now. I think there's something fishy going
on in that world. Whenever a kid is deciding between
BYU and you know, some of these other schools, then
they they end up deciding on b YU, and then
they're somehow their their stars and rankings changed. I'd definitely
like to see what what's up with all of that.
Speaker 3: But out yeah, that I.
Speaker 5: Think by U is doing an amazing job. Coach Anderson,
the recruiting department with Vince Seyua and those guys, they're
just you know, they're they're killing it. And you continue
to get in those great players. Man. You you're like
when he coached, it's easy to be a coach when
you've got these stund players, right right.
Speaker 2: I mean goodness, Hey, Rena, I'm gonna bring up a
conversation that we had probably a decade ago. We were
at Thanksgiving Point golf course. We were talking about recruiting. We
were talking about like investing in like all these trainers, right,
you know, specializing. You see a lot of you saw
a lot of dads. You've seen a lot of dads
parents over the years invest a ton of money in
their kids so they can get a scholarship. At that time,
it like we were kind of discussing, like is it
worth the bang for your buck? Is the bang worth
your buck?
Speaker 3: Right? And like at the time, we were kind of.
Speaker 2: Conversing and concluded like a lot of these guys aren't
getting scholarships.
Speaker 3: They're gonna end up wasting money.
Speaker 2: And even then when you get the scholarship, how much
money are you actually getting back for that scholarship And
it could be a waste of funds now in the
NIL era, I mean the money that's being dolled out.
I mean you invest, if you invest one hundred thousand
dollars into the development of your kid and he becomes
a quarterback, he gets that money back year one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, with right, do you remember that combo? Do you
remember that combo we had?
Speaker 5: Yes? Absolutely, now, yes, you're right.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 5: The issue is it's almost like a law now where
it is so much harder to be one of those
NIL kids versus a kid that would have typically got
a walk on or you know, a preferred or even
a fifty three man scholarship because of the portal.
Speaker 6: You're not just dealing with Utah kids and getting a
D one scholarship and then getting an NIL deal. You're
dealing with sec kids that are jumping in the portal
with big big ten kids, big twelve, like you're dealing
with the whole country and that portal versus Before.
Speaker 5: You know, you take the top thirty forty kids in
Utah that are going to go play D one somewhere.
That ain't the case no more So. It's a tough
it's a tough challenge. Yeah, there's money there, but there's
also a lot more kids and all across the country
that's gone after those pots.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed they are. It makes it, It does make
it a whole lot more competitive. I hope the JUCO
ranks end up expanding, Like I really think there's a
model for the JUCO to really see an emergence of
prosperity because you get like you're schooling paid for, or
you get like some subsidy. Right, you played juco ball
for a year. I played Juco ball for a couple
of years, and I think that that's a really good
option because those those those those jucos that could become
really good football.
Speaker 5: Again, absolutely, it's not even just I mean, I don't
know if this still holds up. You can tell me
if it does or not, but it doesn't count anymore.
Speaker 2: Well to be determined on whether it will or not.
I think that's like by state. But you're right, like
it could very well be because it's not NC double
A sanction. It's NJC double A. Right, This is not
NC double A, it's it's JUCO.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So I mean if you can go play the
some of those semi pro leagues and still come play
college sports, I mean, who knows what you can still
play and continue to come play.
Speaker 2: You can play seven years, bro, you're making a that's
a profession.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: That's a You get your schooling a little bit paid for,
You get your associates, transfer up to NCAA, and you
get five for five is what they're working on. Now,
you get your red shirt, you get and you get
four more years. That's you can make a lot of
money in five years playing college football.
Speaker 3: That's professional.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you might as well.
Speaker 2: Would you have stayed another year at BYU if you
if you're getting paid what some of these guys are
like punt return wide receiver that you know that you were.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're pulling in at least a mill. You're
pulling in at least a mill if you come back.
Speaker 5: All day long. You're coming back like someone like me
that didn't get drafted. I'm yelling and absolutely enjoying that nil.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it. Well, Reno can't wait to watch
it at the alumni game. Enjoy the rest of the mouse.
Be safe and uh. Always appreciate our conversations. Always learned something.
You always provide some great perspective. Man, Thanks so much.
All right, there you go. That's Reno mahey, and that
segment was brought to you by Odeon Men'swarodeon menswear dot com.
Speaker 3: Look your best, for your best, get out there and
do your best.
Speaker 2: If you've been called to serve a mission, you get
a free gift with your missionary call.
Speaker 3: Hit us up at Odeon Men's Wear. Let them know
I sense you.
Speaker 2: VPY products, Vppy Service, VPY discounts they get you.
Speaker 3: It'll get you.
Speaker 2: Fifteen percent off your suits, your your shirts, your ties,
your slacks, your shoes, whatever it is that you need
in order to and the.
Speaker 1: Fan Million Dollars Bracket Challenge brought to you by inter
Mountain Podcast, Game D, Men's Health and the Utah RB
Super Show on one, O three, nine and ninety eight
three ESPN the Fan, Stats Fan, let's talk about stats.
Ben Critical and his team of former players and insiders
give you the latest stats, data and analytics that are
trending in the world of Cougar Sports. Stats Welcome back
Cougar Sports.
Speaker 2: One of three nine ninety eight point three ESPN The Fan.
I'm been crital broadcasting from our Banterwelth Studios.
Speaker 3: Bandwealth dot Com.
Speaker 2: Get on a free Q and A no obligation to
invest Q and A with our tax more wealth advisors
certify financial planners.
Speaker 3: Nobody does it better than band or Wealth. It is
time to talk about stats.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about the McDonald's All American Bruce
Brandon third, who committed to BYU and is one of
the six h McDonald's All Americans to come through Brigham
Young University. We talked about some of those mc donald's
All Americans yesterday. In the day before well, Bruce played
in the McDonald's All American Game. Played twenty minutes, look good,
seven points, four rebounds, two blocks, one assistant, A partridge
in a pair of tree. The number six prospect in
the class of twenty twenty six six foot seven hundred
and ninety five pounds, small Ford can play some point
guard for you. He's originally from Gilbert, Arizona. Shout out
to Gilbert and the Valley of the Sun. But he
did play at prolific Prep in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Speaker 3: Ronald, you were able to catch the game.
Speaker 2: Probably should have had a few more assists if guys
could hit shots. But looked really good and it's twenty
minutes to play. How'd you evaluate Bruce Branch the third.
Speaker 7: Yeah, give him a solid B for the performance. I
think what he had. Obviously can't control the guys in
Shotsmith if they do. He's got seven points, four boards,
and four assists. Of that points, who is six from
the field? I know he's over four from the three.
He averages about five attenths per game. He can shoot
it between thirty five and thirty eight percent from three.
So look, when you're playing the best athleteses day in
and downy, you all know what each other does, and
it's an all star game that kind of happens. But
now I give I give Bruce a solid BB plus forty.
You saw what she needed to see. He's obviously elite
at getting to the basket. They compared him aj De
Bonds had been of his ability inside the paint, but
obviously said that Aj it is a different level. They
were just comparing of how they both can get to
the basket. Obviously it's gonna be the number one pick.
Bruce will not be the number one pick. But there's
no shot on Bruce. And then his talk about his mom.
You know, I think Bruce is going to be dial
just like Aj. His mom called him a nerd. He
wants to study civil engineering Ben Engineering at BYU, and
then he plays chess.
Speaker 3: So there you go.
Speaker 7: So Bruce Branch the third in his off time, that's
where he's at.
Speaker 3: Love it, Love it. Also, let's talk about stats.
Speaker 2: The the BA women's basketball team is going to be
playing in the wb I T Championship Game.
Speaker 3: It starts at five o'clock.
Speaker 2: ESPN two is where it's being broadcast, and we got
our starting five, Benali, Cannon, Gibb, Barbara Taylor and Rocal
getting the start for the Lady Koogs of b HYU.
We wish them well as they take on Colombia and
Peter Pilling Uh. Yes, indeed, the former BA you administrator
now the a d at Columbia's.
Speaker 3: Ship time baby Uh let's go get that chip. Baby?
Is it chip or ship? Which one is it? You
know what I mean? It goes back and forth. Does
anybody really know? Is it chip? Get that chip? Or
is it get that ship? Huh?
Speaker 7: I've heard both. That's why I know.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying. I heard both, Like which one
do you lean?
Speaker 7: We we onto the ship? Maybe let's get it like
you know, I guess.
Speaker 3: That's kind of a get onto the chip or the ship.
Speaker 7: But it's all as you know, we're gonna take the
chip home. I think it's the chip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna put it to a pole.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put it to a pole. That's how we
figured these things out to find truth.
Speaker 7: I think what do people say is we're on to
the ship, but we won the chip. I think that's
how they say it. At least that's how I.
Speaker 3: Said chip time or and we won the chip.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's how I said. I said, Hey, we on
to the ship, Mama going to the ship.
Speaker 3: Hey, we bringing a chip home? Baby?
Speaker 7: So I really yeah that Chicago, Yeah both, that's because
I got.
Speaker 3: To the ship, yep, going We're gonna win the chip?
Speaker 7: Because I really confusing, it is really confusing, but I'm
gonna really confused individual. That's okay.
Speaker 3: So no, no, I'm not saying you're confusing.
Speaker 2: I mean, if that is correct and that is the
proper terminology, I.
Speaker 7: Don't think it is. I think that's just what I
would say, because my philosophy is, Okay, I'm going to
the ship to win the chip on the ball. This
that sounds like a gambling reference. Really bad now today
comes out of my mouth. But no, that's I've heard both.
But that's kind of what I said. You know, I
mixed in between because there was no right or wrong way.
Speaker 4: To see it.
Speaker 7: I think that's okay. Fifty to fifty, I think I
think what the pole will.
Speaker 3: Be, Go get the chip, you're heading to the ship.
Speaker 2: I hate it all right, guys, Uh, let's get some
other breaking news. Just about twenty six minutes ago, little
breaking news brought to you buy our good friends at
orthrop Pros of Utah.
Speaker 3: Orthropos of Utah.
Speaker 2: What do we do with overthropros of Utoil We distribute
orthopedic and sports medicine, will lives. I want to keep
you doing the things that you love. So if you
got like some platter fascionis.
Speaker 3: Hit us up. You got a little pteleophemeral syndrome. Hit
us up.
Speaker 2: You got some shoulder pain, Hit us up, you got
some elbow pain, knee pain.
Speaker 3: Hit us up.
Speaker 2: We can help you, we can support you. We can
build out your insurance. You can utilize an HSA FSA card.
College today set up an apployment eight to one four
hundred five through an eight. That's eight one four hundred
five through an eight. Orthroprosiutah dot com. There were some rumors, right,
and look, you know who fed those rumors. The man
that said he's coming back for another year. There was
rumors that Kansas's head coach Bill Self would not return
for next season. He had to do a little internal
reflection in introspection, and you know he's been there for
a long time, right, he'd been there for a minute.
Kansas's head coach, Bill Self will return next season, Peron Acos,
Pete Nakos, and Brett mc murphy.
Speaker 3: So, look, you can make an argument.
Speaker 2: That Kansas has not met maybe the Kansas stands or
standard over the over the last couple of years, right,
they've invested a lot in their nil They've invested a
lot in the in their personnel, but they haven't been
able to get over the hump, haven't been able to
get go deep in the NCAA tournament. And look, it's
a competitive market place. An il transfer portal ain't no joke.
So he's coming back giving it another shot and then
maybe then.
Speaker 3: Retires from who what do you make of it? Ronald
the three man Weaver?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think this is uh, this is interesting, right.
I think Bill's self is closer to his way out
the door. He's got one foot out the door than not.
I know, he's kill got some left in the tank,
but I think it's coming to an end, you know.
And it's crazy because you think of Bill, you think
of Rick Patino, John color Park. I just don't see
the fire ben that you know, you see with those
other coaches, and they're all older than you know, Bill,
are in the same category, and I think that I
don't know, I'm gonna say over under for Bill self
three and a half years. I think, you know, that's
a good one to take and we'll see what happens.
But Bill Seff I think is on the downside. But
he's had a phenomenal career as a head coach.
Speaker 2: He's been there since two thousand and three, two thousand
and four, Bill self. Look, he hasn't had a season
where he's dipped under twenty wins. Okay, his worst season,
you could make an argument would be the twenty one
and nine season in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. It
was an NCAA tournament second round. He did have a
one and done last year. Okay, one and done. They
were out twenty one and thirteen that season and they
you know, you can make an argument for that one
as well. The COVID year it was ousted. It was canceled, right,
but that could have been a really good year for them.
They're twenty eight and three that year, so they kind
of got robbed. He got robbed in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty.
It's unfortunate, unfortunate, just like Bay you did. Let's go
to break. That's a little college basketball, little insider, little
let's talk about stats. Segment brought to you by Orthopox
of Utah, Orthoposivutah dot Com, Blara and Gulo Crewton. The
Cougar's coming up next college football recruiting end was for
two four seven sports. We'll get his thoughts on the
twenty twenty seven commitment of Titan D