Speaker 1: Is Cougar Sports with Ben Gretel at It's time for
the Cougar be getting the dish from the local reporters
that cover Cougar athletics. Welcome back to Cougar Sports here
on one of three nine to ninety eighty three ESPN,
The Fan Arounic, the three man weaver here.
Speaker 2: Vote it down for Benkretit Whit takes a little bit
of time off to focus on that business. That business is.
Speaker 1: What this segment is going to be sponsored by. It's
gonna be authorprosoutah dot com. Guys at uthropros, we provide
an array of orthopedic and sports medicine devices that can
help adien support you to help you get back to
the activities you enjoy. Lib pain free today at Orthorprosofutah
dot com. Give us a call to schedule that appointment
for the holiday season. It's eight zero one, four hundred
five through and eight. That's eight zero one, four hundred
five through and eight. Or visit us to schedule today
at Authorprosofutah dot com. Let's not hesitate, Let's get right
out to the esp and the fan the hotline and
welcome in one of my colleagues that I work with.
He is fantastic, does great work and I need to
get his thoughts, especially on this LJ. Martin not participating
in the Pop Tards Bowl matter.
Speaker 2: Is this a big dealer? Not a big deal?
Speaker 1: Let's welcome in Jay Drew of the Desert News. Jay,
thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my pleasure. Happy Holidays to everybody out there.
Speaker 1: Happy Holidays to you as well, I guess pre Christmas
Eve of the Eve anyway, Jay Klaudia announced it said
that LJ. Martin, the status of him had surgery on
his shoulder, will not play. He had to make a
decision between that small window and he still has a
decision to make if he comes back or if he
goes to the NFL Draft. But is this a big
deal for BYU already limited in the run game the
entire season now without the big twelve offensive player of
the year.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's huge. It's maybe the one player that b
YU can't play without, aside from probably fair Bachmeyer. But yeah,
it's huge news. Also, they just came out with the
depth chart I'm sure you mentioned, and Moa is also noted.
Speaker 2: Yes, uh so.
Speaker 3: He's probably It sounds like he's out, So uh they
go back to Enich Nawaheeny and Jovessa de Mooney and
Preston Rex's probably the three guys. But this is huge.
Anytime you lose the offensive player of the year in
your conference, it's you just don't replace a talent like LJ. Martin.
And not only is he a great running back, he's
great out of the backfield catching passes. He's a good
pass blocker as far as pass pro walking, picking up blitzes.
Just a great player. And uh, it's uh, it's gonna
be tough for BYU. It's tough sledding to go without
your your top running back. So you know, I don't
know how to sugar quote this at all for BYU fans.
It's just it's a it's a tough blow. It's really
tough blow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have it.
Speaker 1: We didn't sugarcoat it in in our second segment in
the last hour.
Speaker 2: I didn't sugarcoat in our question of the day. You
just you can't.
Speaker 1: I know somebody had pinged me and said, but Ron
the Iowa State game, It's like, yeah, but LJ started
in that game, and I think it's different when you
have to make a one time adjustment JA on the fly,
you can scrap a game plan, but when you've been
when you build your entire offense per Aaron roder By
the way, this is not us speaking around LJ. Martin,
and you've had three weeks to know if he's not
going to play. Maybe the game plan they have something
in there, but three weeks without your the main guy
that starts everything for you. And then Bear And you
asked us, right, Bart, maybe don't want to be declarative
of how healthy he was to give anything away to
the opposition, but you have to be concerned of what's
his health because he's dynamic in the run game too.
If no LG and then if Bear can't run, that
limits the entire movement of BYU's offense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure does. And you know everybody's been calling for
BYU to open it up and and they're probably going
to have to win this game and utilize Parker Kingston,
Chase Roberts, Tiger Backmeyer, Cody Hagen, you go down the list, Carson, Ryan,
the tight End. All those guys are going to have
to come up big in this game for BYU to
to pull it out. Georgia Tech doesn't have the greatest
defense they've got to It's okay, it's good. It's I mean,
they held Georgia to to sixteen points, so that's that
start good. But you yeah, yeah, anything can happen in
those and teams get conservative and all that. But but no, BYU,
definitely this looks like the time to open it up
and let bear if he's healthy, and I'm assuming he'll
be able to play. I don't know about what about
his mobility, but open it up, throw it downfield. They've
shown the capability of doing that. And you go back
to games like West Virginia, Iowa State, other games where
they were able to open it up. TCU is another one.
So that's probably what BYU's offense is going to have
to do. I think Aaron Roderick is an excellent offensive coordinator.
He's had a few weeks probably now to know that
that he wouldn't have LJ and I expect him to
have a really good game plan and give BYU's best
chance of winning as possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you go.
Speaker 1: Back to that Iowa State game, you go to the
TCU game West Virginia, they can a rock can scheme
it up and let it rip, and you mentioned you
got Chase, You got Parker. Parker close to one hundred
one thousand yard season. He could actually honestly achieve that
here and do that. That'd be the first wide receiver
to do that, I think, correct me if I'm rol
Jas since Austin colleague. So that could be a phenomenal achievement,
which we all thought it would be Chase Roberts.
Speaker 2: We thought Parker would have a good year.
Speaker 1: When Keilyn Marrion went into the portable, he never thought
that it would it would be you know, Parker. We
never thought Chase would get hurt in the UC the
game before the UCF game. But all of it here
we are into fruition. But is there anybody else that
you would like to see step up? You know, this
is what Bowl games affords for the guys that haven't
had a moment to showcase themselves BYU Potentially J next
season could lose three of their top pass catchers. They're
gonna lose Chase out of eligibility, gonna lose Carson out
of eligibility, could also lose LJ. Depends what he decides
to do. And he left with Parker. You'd bring in
Jaron Poula bringing Terrence Sirion. Those are freshman though they
might have to go work the portal. Who on the
roster right now in the receiver room would you like
to see maybe make some plays going into next season?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say the number one candidate's got to
be Jojo Phillips. He's kind of just had a really
rough year. Of course, he was injured and missed the
big chunk of the year. He came back. He's had
a few costly drops he had, he has had a
few good catches. I mean, everyone's always talking about how
the sky's the limit for this guy, and you know,
converted basketball player and really athletic and fast, and you know,
now it's the time to shine. And I think this
is a huge game for Jojo Phillips, to be quite
honest with you. And I don't know what his plans are.
I've heard rumblings that, you know, he might be one
of the canonate to go into the portal or not.
But even if he is and he wants to put
some film out, he's really has to have a great
game to kind of to boost his value. And if
not at BYU, then wherever he ends up, So he
would be the guy that I would kind of point to,
is he's got the skills, he's got the talent. I
think he's the guy that could really help him if
if he gets it together and has a game that
a lot of people say he's capable of having.
Speaker 2: I hate to be the DeBie downer and go back
to this moment.
Speaker 1: You just go back to the loss of keel and Marion,
and you know what that could have added of this team.
You look at now Miami advancing in the playoffs, b
why you're not getting in could be why you have
been in that ten stop taking on A and M
Could they have won that game in advance?
Speaker 2: All the Shuda could have would is right, Jay?
Speaker 1: But looking back now, how would you evaluate And I
know that they got the Pop Tarts Bowl, but it's
the Pop Tarts Bowl game, It's not the season. How
would you evaluate that loss? Because I feel like it's
still a successful season. But I feel like in the
most critical moments, that is to beat teams like Texas
Tech to get to the college football playoffs, that's where
players like Keithan Marion I felt I could have made
a difference.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, you need to have a guy that
can stand up to Texas Tech speed in the in
the secondary and on the linebacker cor well really even
the front seven. All the front seven are guys that
are faster than you know, their size would indicate that
they should be. So I mean, b why you just
did not have a counter for that, And a guy
like Keilan Marion would have been great get to the
edge on that Jet sweep. We didn't see a lot
of the Jets sweep as the season went on. Parker
ran it a few times, but a guy like Keilan
Marion was really good at that play. So yeah, I
mean he's been missed. I'm thinking, if you know by
you really didn't miss Harrison Taggert, another guy that went
into the portal as much. They were already really deep
at linebacker, but I think they missed Keelan Marion and
you know, and then there were a few injury is
I think along the way that kind of hurt him.
One was Max Alford going down he was really starting
to contribute, and then linebacker position, uh and him going
down with her, and then uh, it'll be interesting to see,
you know, which other defensive guys, if any opt out.
I mean as you probably know, Ronnie, there's rumors out
there about some other guys that or might last minute
decide not to play that, Yeah, to to Bowl Senior
Bowls and that sort of thing. So yeah, it's it's
gonna be really interesting to see what happens on the
field on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be definitely interesting to see that. Jay
got to ask you about your plans. When do you
plan on leaving? When do you plan on arriving in Orlando?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna leave Christmas Day or in the afternoon.
I think I get into Orlando quite late Thursday night,
and then hopefully catch the press conferences with the coaches
on Friday morning at the media hote hell there in Orlando,
and then obviously hit the game on Saturday and write
a couple of stories off of that and just watch.
This has been a pretty special group of Cooters, a
special season they put together, and you know, here's hoping
that they equit themselves well in this last game together.
Speaker 2: Give me the stat again, I care.
Speaker 1: I think it's been what be twenty years since the
last time they would have accomplished twelve wins in the season,
if I'm right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, two thousand and one. Gary Croton was the coach.
I think it was the second year, maybe it was
his first. I can't remember when Lavelle retired. But yeah,
they won twelve games. I think they got beat in
the bowl game if I remember right, and I think
they lost their last season game at Hawaii, but so
kind of a tough ending for that group. But that yeah,
that was the last time a BYU team has won
twelve games in the season.
Speaker 2: It would be spectacular.
Speaker 1: Look, double digit win seasons in football hard to come by,
yet alone getting twelve wins really to complain about. So
I guess I'll ask you this not to necessarily defend
a rod, but give your pitch of a rod.
Speaker 2: Look this the team has gone what plus whether.
Speaker 1: Twenty four I think now maybe twenty three, still at
the twenty two range, and five in the last season,
two of those losses coming this year to a top
four team in Texas Tech. There's a lot of criticism
that you know, a Rod, this, a Rod that, oh,
this particular play call. But I mean to have a
too freshman to throw over twenty seven hundred yards fourteen
touchdowns in the air and can get another eleven on
the ground and break the record. Jay, there's not really
a lot to complain about it. I feel like, and
maybe that's because we're in the media and we understand it.
But from a reactionary fan, it doesn't seem like people
are grateful for a guy that has this team eleven
and two and they got to the Big Talk title
game this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're right, that's the sense I get. I
think the majority of BAYU fans understand and appreciate what
a Rod's done. I think there's a small, all maybe
vocal minority that have kind of expressed some displeasure. I
think everybody needs to step back and look where this
program was last July. Basically a three way competition for quarterback,
and with one of them was a freshman and basically
he had the guts, he had the courage to basically
say we're going to start this kid because he's the
best quarterback on the team, true freshmen. And the kid
didn't even go through spring ball. He got Aaron and
Matt Mitchell and others got him up to speed and
all that they by you did, I mean they're playing
in the Power for Conference. People, they're playing one of
the best defenses in the country twice and you're you know,
with a freshman quarterback. I banged up running back LJ.
You know clearly wasn't one hundred percent wait in the season,
So to do what they did is pretty phenomenal if
you ask me. And A Rod was up for the
broils of War. Is one of the top assistant coaches
in the country for a good reason, and so I'm
a big A Rod fan. I think he's great. I've
been covering BYA football for almost twenty seasons, and I
think he's the best coordinator they've had. And they've had
some good ones. They've had Robert and I and they
had Brandon Doman had it going for a couple of
years and others and I and Jeff Grimes is good,
don't forget about him. But I think A Rod's is
the best coordinator they've had, probably since Norm Chow. So,
you know, props to A Rod in my book, I
take from.
Speaker 2: Jay Drew love the declarat the statement.
Speaker 1: That's something that we've debated and pontificated on this show
a lot. And I've had people, you know, be mean
to me and rip and say you're wrong, Ron, and
it's just like I like that. You said this is
norm Chad. I mean, look at the quarterback development, Look
at the guys that have gotten to the league under
are I for crying out how you had a quarterback
come in from Juco do what he did and you
know what, probably a season in four games and then
goes to two LANEA leads that seem to call football playoffs.
I mean, for crying out loud. And Matt Mitchell is
now at Colorado State and is the quarterbacks coach and
past game coordinators. So this is all coming under a rod.
So I agree with you. I think he's the best
coordinator at by You's had has been phenomenal.
Speaker 2: I look at the facts.
Speaker 1: I go facts over emotions, So thank you for being
declared of about that. Let's transition Jay to a little
bit of basketball. I know you're doing mainly on football,
but you still keep ties in the thirty point triple
double first ever in BYU program history thirty three, ten
and ten. The last guy to get that close was
Ganny and she at twenty seven, ten and thirteen. Just
your thoughts on aj debonce accomplishing that. I mean, we
all probably thought that he could do it, but we
saw it truly yesterday night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we did. And he didn't have to go
hunting for it. I'm not saying that like Kyle Collinsworth
and some of the others that did had to hunt
forward either at Kyden natural. And you know, obviously we're
looking at a generational talent or more. We're we're probably,
when all of a said and done, the best single
season uh performance in BYU basketball history. I know, you know,
he's a one and done guy. Uh So others will
have you know, Jimmer and Danny Ainge and Crestomaerchukositch and
others will have bigger stats because they were here for
a while. But if you just look at one single season,
aj is on track to be to put in the
greatest single season for BYU basketball player ever. Uh you know,
knock on wood, he's on that track.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: It's just you know, you can think of all the
superlatives and they're probably not enough. And uh, I you know,
I think the word good is advertised is often overused,
or that phrases off overused. But really he's been better
than advertised. He's been and that was some pretty lofty
expectations that we're really unfair to the kid, but he's
even surpassed those. So it's been it's I hope everybody
he just takes a step back and just enjoys it
and just and just said, this is probably a once
in a lifetime thing for a lot of BYU basketball fans,
and so hopefully everybody enjoys it and sulks it all
in and uh and just realizes just really how fortunate
YU was to get this kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to get this kid is phenomenal. I mean, look,
it sounds like even you know, a better person.
Speaker 2: Jay.
Speaker 1: I don't know what deal he had, but to get
everybody a pair of shoes on the staff, the managers,
you got Greg Rebella a pair. I took a picture
of that last night. I mean, he was He just
doesn't deliver on the court, deliver off the court. I wish,
you know, you could take off the media cap for
a little bit and been a manager in that room
for a little bit.
Speaker 2: Those are some nice shoes. I don't know if you
saw that.
Speaker 3: I know you're a shoe guy, Ronnie.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I'm a shoe guy.
Speaker 1: One of my friends is one of the managers, and
I was telling him, hey, congrats it and he told
me is like, I know you, I know you feel
the subte It was like I do, I like basketball
shoes lie to you. Nonetheless, I just think that's great, right.
And you've seen CJ. Stroud do this when he was
quarterback at Ohios that you see these big time athletes
give back to that teammates. So I just I look
in a world where a kid has every right to
be entitled, where maybe they're paying and I've added this
conversation Jah, I've taken this a step further where they're
maybe help paying the bills at home, the income has
relied on them. They have every right, I feel like
sometimes to act entitled because of you know, circumstance, maybe age,
and AJ has not been liked. I think the biggest
moments that I've noticed is when he's playing the game
and Kevin Young wants to tell him something or someone else.
He listens, he's locked in, he says it, then he
goes and does it. He doesn't argue, he doesn't bad
and I think that it speaks proudly to what's going
on in the new era because there are people that
can get their market rate Jay, that can perform at
the high level that are high level athletes that can
play at BYU. I know that's still a concern with
those maybe of the older generation that don't think that
kids getting paid and how much you're getting paid in
that that's all they care about. But I'm looking at
the number one in the twenty twenty five class, who
I think is the number one picking the twenty twenty
six NBA class, And I don't get a sniff of
that at all. And we've been around aj enough, you
and me. I don't feel like he's speaking that at all.
Speaker 3: Oh No, he's genuine. It's genuine, and I think we've
noticed that he's an authentically a good guy. You know,
credit to his parents raised him really well. With all
the opportunity for entitlement or everything, he remains really well
grounded from everything I've seen, And yeah, kudos kudos to
him and for taking care of his teammates. You know,
when all said and done, that's who you're gonna remember
is the guys that you played with. I mean, you
can ask Ben, and I know you played college sports too, Ronnie.
That's who you remember is the guys that you went
to battle with, the guys in gals and if it's
a winnen's sport obviously, but those are the people that
are going to be there your whole lives and you're
going to remember. So if you're a j why not
take care of the best you can and leave everybody
feeling really good about you and about themselves.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And he's done that, So Sard shout out to Chelsea
and Ace de Bonds and making sure they keep it down.
Speaker 2: It's always about the home and where you come from.
The parents. Shout out to them, Jay, We'll get you
out of here.
Speaker 1: And a couple of last things concerns going in the
conference play. They added a Doulah Ahmed to the roster.
Hopefully he'll back up kPa Cata. I know he was sick,
Caba coming off of illness, So maybe not their best performances,
small portion size, maybe don't judge them off of that.
Off of that, but going in the conference play they
take on Kansas State in ten days from now, a
big time off but start the road on the road
in Manhattan. Your concerns though, going in the conference play
with this BAU basketball team that needs to shaping.
Speaker 3: Up, Yeah, I think I have two to kind of
standout one is the slow starts. They played January third
at Kansas State, who's pretty better, probably better than people
think it, and they get off to a slow start
in Manhattan, the rackas crowd. They could be in trouble.
So they gotta get They got to figure out this
and get off the better starts. To the defense, the
perimeter defense, Eastern Washington scored eighty points on them. If
they give up eighty points in most Big twelve games,
they're going to lose. And so and that's you know,
Eastern Washington was what I know, they probably better in
their record, but two and ten coming into the game,
So I think that's a concern. I know obviously Kevin
addressed it a little bit last night, and I know
he's working on some things and rotating some players, and
obviously they're down to two key backups with Dawson Baker
and and I don't know what was his name, Nate Pickens,
and so you know that that could be a concern.
But those are the two things. They just got to
figure out how to start quicker, and they got to
figure out a little perimeter defense. They got to just
play a little bit better defense. And I think they'll
be okay.
Speaker 1: Definitely will be Uh, definitely will be okay. Jay, don't
want to keep you for too long. I do need
to ask you this. Don't know how much downtime you'll
have because I know they want us to try some
pop tarts at the the Camping Ground stadium, and I
know they're gonna cook us a meal from what I've seen.
Are you gonna try to golf in Orlando? That's the
hard hitting question that I got to ask j. Drew
loves golf.
Speaker 2: I know he does.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try to get out. Don't have anything solidified. Yeah,
I'm not sure if I'm gonna take my clubs. It's
a long way to pack some clubs for you know,
one round of golf rough country. But yeah, I'm trying
to get something worked out where I can hit the
links either before or after the Bowl game.
Speaker 1: Definitely, you might need to hit up Moose Bingham, who
lives in Tampa. Now, him and I were discussing trying
to make that happen. Maybe we might have to add you.
If I solidify that and go golf, I'm down to
definitely hit the courses in Florida. I've never done that.
Before and it's beautiful down there in or Lando for sure.
Speaker 2: Jay.
Speaker 1: What's the best way we can support you here at
ESPN the fan and our listeners.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just go to desert at dot com, backslash,
backslash BYU Sports usually to see my work and that
with some of my colleagues Jackson, Paane, Dick Harmon, Dave McCann.
And then if you want to follow me in Twitter,
it's at Drew J on Twitter and I'll have a
lot of updates coming once i hit Orlando in a
couple of days, and that's where you can find me.
Speaker 1: Find him at those places, guys, Jay mayor Christmas to
you first of all, hopefully I can see you before
the new year starts, and if not, Happy New Year
to you and the rest of the Drew family as well.
Speaker 3: Same to you and all your listeners, and I appreciate
your support of course.
Speaker 1: K We'll let you go. Jay's Jdrew. Guys of the
Desert News, We'll let him go. Let Jay get out
of here. He'll be taking off and arrive in Orlando
on Thursday. You can follow all of his work at
Desert News Slash, Desertnews dot com, backslash slash Sports. You
can also follow him on Twitter at Drew Dre. I
appreciate Jay joining us and the biggest thing and then
you've been social media. Gotta pull that quote a rod
the BESTO Seasons, Norm Chow.
Speaker 2: He thinks that.
Speaker 1: He's declared of about that. Uh love that, love that
from Jay. We'll go to bray guys, don't go anywhere.
Don't go anywhere again. Don't make me Judo chop Ya.
I don't want Judo chop Ya. Just two minutes, just
two minutes and thirty seven seconds. Take a quick bathroom break,
grab grab a little snack from the fridge. It's not
that long. Come back. If you're in the car, you
just you know, don't go anywhere. Don't touch the FM
dow only a little bit here on the one O, three,
nine and ninety eight three part of your Utah ESPN
Radio network station.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in a moment right here.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, let's get into some postgame sound from
Kevin Young, maybe some Richie Saunders and Rob Right as
well Bred Hammer. I'll welcome him back in on the flip.
You're listening to Cougar Sports part of your Utah ESPN
Radio Network on one O three nine in ninety eight,
three ESPN, the Three