Speaker 1: Get to know the Cougar's opponents and rivals Right now,
I need to know the faux segment Todd Cougar Sports
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Did he stop Ford? Little know the faux segment? Get
your prep, gett you're ready for that BYU Texas Tech
matchup Top ten two teams in the top ten at
the College Football Playoff Poll as well as the AP Poll,
the polls in college football and game day.
Speaker 2: Is good to be there. This is a monumental game.
This could be a little preview of the Big twelve
Championship game as well.
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got you covered. Eight o one three eight zero eight
zero eight seven. All right, let's get out to the
hotline and welcome in a Texas tech beat rider, a
Red Raider in Saturday. Nathan Geese, who's on the line
representing love about Line, love of Avalanche Journal ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: What's up, Nathan?
Speaker 3: Not too much. How's it going on your end?
Speaker 2: It's going beautifully.
Speaker 1: It's going remarkably well today on a Thursday in Utah County,
in Salt Lake County.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a great day. Man. I'm excited for
this game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot around this game, for sure. I
think part of me is kind of just ready to
get to the football aspect of it all, but we
got a lot of time, a lot of things going
on in between there even just Saturday morning itself. So
should it should be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, would have been the storylines coming out of Lubbock. Obviously,
Texas Tech is favored in this game by you're running
higher than them slightly eight to zero, the Red Raiders
eight and one.
Speaker 2: It's a game day kickoff right.
Speaker 1: On ABC ten AM, and Texas Tech is favored not
only in Vegas but also in ESPN analytics, giving Tech
I believe a sixty point nine percent advantage. I'm sure
it's going to be a sold out crowd. It looks
like it's going to be sunny and beautiful, sixty six
degrees at Jones at and T Stadium.
Speaker 2: Would have been the storylines coming out of Lobbck.
Speaker 3: Honestly, there's not a lot of football oriented storylines coming
out of this right now. A lot of the focus
has just been on game day's arrivals. Fans started camping
out Saturday night or excuse me, Sunday night, ready to
get their spots on line where they've been. The students
are lined up, welcome and the football team going to
and from practice. Players have been handing out donuts and
pizza out there, So I think the actual football aspect
of it has been kind of watered down a little bit.
I think it'll amp up more as we get into
closer to game time, but right now, it's just kind
of everything surrounding the game. Like you mentioned, two top
ten teams and both Poles, and the College Football Playoff,
And I think the big talking point now is what
does this look like for the Big twelve Conference Because
the way this kind of sets up is usually the
Big twelve teams if they get a team in and
that fourteen playoffs aspect, Now we go to the twelve
team the Big Swell's got a pretty good chance to
get two teams in there, especially with these two teams
in particular as opposed to the ACC which has taken
a step back. So this isn't just a big game
for Texas Tech and Bye. This is a big game
for the conference to kind of put itself in position
to be that number three conference at least this year,
if not going forward.
Speaker 2: Tech and BYU.
Speaker 1: Some would say were the most aggressive in NIL. I
would say the Red Raiders in the portal and be
a nil were probably the most aggressive BYU had a
solid portal class. There's been a lot of hype around
the basketball program, getting a lot of nil BAU football
not as much. Are these two teams going to become
the brand ambassadors for the Big Twelve going forward? What
Oklahoma and Texas were for decades? Are these the two
teams that will be carrying that bastard, that flag, that
banner for the Big Twelve in the foreseeable future.
Speaker 3: From the financial aspect, in the back end that these
programs and these plastala departments have, I think there's a
very good chance of that, and I think that's what
the conference needs. And that's kind of been a talking
point since Texas and l You both left, was who
fills that void? Who steps into that Who can be
our most reliable, our most consistent programs there? And a
lot there was some talk about possibly TCU. They're in
the forward area. They got some wealthy backers too, but
they haven't turned that into any saying they're good. They've
been a good team this year. They're kind of flying
under the radar. Two and then Arizona State comes out
of nowhere last year what the conference really needs is
whether it's Texas Tech and BYU, whether it's two other teams,
to be a consistent threat and a presence and always
in that mix, whether that's top twenty five, top fifteen
kind of thing. Financially speaking, I do think the way
this is going to kind of work now with revenue
sharing in the NIL, how that has to shift with
like this portal class Tech brought in, You're not going
to see that anymore because they're not going to allow
that those kind of payments to go to players unless
there's like fair market value and whatever the heck that
whatever that means. In this NIL go era, you're not
gonna see this anymore. You're gonna see something downscale to it,
where you can still pull off good recruiting classes through
the portal through high school, get shoot your shot and
get higher star guys, but you're not going to get
this kind of collective talent there. So it depends on
how everybody handles things moving forward.
Speaker 1: Talking from Texas Tech Football with Texas Tech Insider here
on your Utah ESPN Radio Network. Nathan Geese of the
Lembic Avalanche Journal, Get your prep getting you're ready for
this Meal your Texas Tech next up? From a health standpoint,
how healthy is Texas Tech? We saw the injury port
last night. How'd you grate it? How would you evaluate it?
The overall health of Tech, They're.
Speaker 3: About as healthy as they've been all year. The one
big injury that they have had this year go back
to the preseason. They lost running back Quinton Joyner for
the season before they could even get anywhere. But they
were going to go with a three running back committee.
They just shipped it into two guys and I think
that probably works better for him. With Cam Dickey and
Jacoby Williams. They've both been very effective in their roles.
But the main one is defensive tackle Skyle gill Howard.
He got banged up in the Kansas game. He had
surgery on his ankle and he's been out for the
last three games. This will be his fourth straight in
a row that he's missed. But they're hoping to get
him back for the postseason, and the thing is he don't.
He was really good.
Speaker 2: Is a really.
Speaker 3: Important presence like bocally and maturity wise, but production wise.
AJ Holmes was backing them up. He was a starter
at Houston. He was an All Conference player at Houston
last year. He stepped in and they hadn't missed a beat.
It's just kind of that that they were talking about
before the season, really shining through their health wives. Beyond that,
you're always worried about Baron Morton. He's gotten hurt in
pretty much every game in some aspect or another. But
he looked really good after chaking out some cob webs
against Kansas State last week. So what you really need
to do now is make sure he's healthy come out
of every game, especially since you don't have backup quarterback
Will Hand in there anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, you know, injury bugs.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, Texas deck is going on what six
straight weeks without a buy?
Speaker 2: Is that? Is that all? It all impactful?
Speaker 3: I think it is because of where their open dates
came this year. It was right after the first conference
game against Utah and then they their last one is
right before the season finale, So it's weird timing of
how their tenants Bay style. So you're going through this
big stretch of playing games, don't have that break, and
they keep getting amped up in pressure and intensity and
importance every week. So I think they're very much looking
forward to getting to that open date. But it's that
also at a weird time where like say, if they
don't make the Baseball championship game, it's kind of weird
because then you're off a week, you go play West Virginia,
then you just got to wait for wherever you go
in postseason wise. But if they do make the Baseball
championship game, they're going to see that as beneficial to
have that open date pretty close to that conference title game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an intriguing time in the Big Twelve, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 2: And this is the most intriguing game. Obviously.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of hype surrounding the Texas Tech Utah
game with everything that occurred in preparation for it. Texas
Tech has shown very well on the biggest stages thus far.
They did lose to ASU on the road, and I
have to wonder what happened, How did it happen?
Speaker 2: How did they lose to the so on the road
at that well.
Speaker 3: One of the things one of the kind of narratives
around Texas Tech this year, at least from the national perspective,
is that because they're watching Tech more this year, they're
notice they noticed something where Baron Morton got hurt in
the season over, so he was dinged up already. Will
Hammond came in, played pretty well, and then in the
Utah game he went out with the concussion and Will
Hammon came in and he led them to widen that
gap and come away with the win. And that led
a lot of people to say, well, maybe this Will
Hammon guy should be be the starter, because you know
he the offense. The offense does have another gear with
him because of his legs. That's something they don't want
Baron dat to do because he has been so injury
prone and he's just not the most mobile guy. But
what they were kind of lacking is there's a reason
why they brought Baron back in the first place. If
they thought Will was better, they would have said Baron,
and we love you, but we're going to go on
with this other guy. They did this exact same thing
with Tyler Shuck the year before. They are and not
afraid to make that decision. But they brought Morton back
for a reason, and the reason is he has all
of this experience, he knows what he's doing, he's got
the body type for it to handle big time throws
and can handle the nix and things that he gets
throughout the year. And then will Ham is now out
for the year, suffered a torn acl against Oklahoma State.
So now it's Morton's show. That was unquestioned anyway, but
now that's not even a conversation point. But Morton has
gotten hurt throughout the year, and if he gets hurt again,
your backup is now Mitch griffis wake Forest transfer who
wasn't even playing football last year. The conversation becomes very
different if Morton has to leave or he can't come
back for anything. So a lot of this now, a
lot of it ran on Morton's shoulders being with. Now
there's even more there.
Speaker 2: Talking some Texas Tech football.
Speaker 1: And look, the line is impressively in Texas Tech's favor
ten and a half. I think it's at right now.
Do you think that's Is that fair? Is that a fair?
Speaker 2: Look?
Speaker 1: And I know Vegas is in the betting game, right,
They're not in the score prediction game necessarily, but they
do set over unders, they do set lines. Is that
a fair evaluation do you think heading into this game?
Speaker 3: I think it's fair in the aspect that I mean,
just look at the scores Texas Tech has had in
its game. The only one that wasn't a blowout was
the four point loss at Arizona State, which kind of
goes back to the quarterback conversation. Morton didn't play in
that game. Will Hammond was not good in that game
until late and they had a chance to still win that.
So I think if you look at it with Texas
Tech with Morton is a very different team than Texas
Tech with Will Hammond, and in the game that he's played,
at least a lot of they've blown everybody out, whereas
BYU they've had a lot of close calls, they've had
a lot of instances where they've gotten down, had to
kind of climb out of holes early, especially in big
twelve plays. So I think it's fair. I think it
is a big spread. For sure. I'm out a gambler,
so I wouldn't take that dait regardless either way. But
I just based on what we've seen from the teams, Yeah,
I think the product on the field Saturday is going
to look probably much closer. The score could be maybe
maybe that ten to fourteen point win, but I think
it might be closer than what the score actually winds.
Speaker 1: Up being what are the fans feeling, What are the
donors feeling right now? What's the vibe around even the
locker room or even the coaching staff. Is there a
kind of a shuttle confidence? They feel like, Hey, this
is our game to win. Were favored, we're the top dog,
We're better than this team.
Speaker 2: What's been the rhetoric like.
Speaker 3: They're not taking that this week? They're honestly not. They
haven't taken it all years. Jolie McGuire said, from the beginning, Hey,
we know talent why we should be able to outperform
everybody on our schedule, and to this point they mostly have.
But they also know if they don't put in that
work that they get to ego inflated and listening to
people and let it Like, if they let all this
get to their head, they could get run out of
the building. I don't think talent wise, they will, just
because I think even if they don't play well, they
can still stay in the game till the end. But
they know that there are much bigger things that stay
here than just a game. That means the first conference
title game, appearance, first time in the college football playoff,
and there's a lot of investment into making that work.
And one of the things McGuire keeps touting is the
reason why it's worked because we have so many old
guys that I've never done this before. They know what
they have to do because they want to do it too.
They want to do it just as bad as all
the ad and the coaches and the players that came back.
They want to do it too.
Speaker 1: Is uh, what has Joey said his coaching staff said
about this BAYU Cougar football team from the pulpit this
week and their scattered reports to the media.
Speaker 3: They're really impressed with their Bockmeier. Obviously, he's the guy
that you're kind of watching here. I know L. J.
Mortin is supposed to play. How effective is he going
to be? That's kind of a question that everybody's going
to kind of be watching for there. And a lot
of it's just going to come down to the run game.
How can how can BYU manage in the run game,
which nobody does against this team. If they can find
success in that area, then that changes the equation defensively
and offensively. A lot of it is these scores become
a little bit more lopsided as the game goes because
the defense can kind of just wear down the opposition.
And happened last week and it's Kansas State. That was
a pretty close game until about midway through the fourth
quarter where they just kind of open it up on
them wind up at the twenty three point win. A
lot of it's gonna come down to the run game.
BYU has to make tech respect the run game to
open up the pass game a little bit. The defense
has been susceptible to gain be in the pass game
here or there, especially in the middle of the field.
As good as Jacob Rodriguez and Ben Roberts are at
the inside backer positions, they're not great in covering the pass.
So if b why you can exploit that, that can
open things up. They've gotten to be in on that
a couple of times. Most recently that I can think
of is Kansas and Arizona stake out a little bit
of that too, just kind of using some motions to
get guys into more of a middle of the field
to get away from that pass rush.
Speaker 2: I like that scattered report. It's a great breakdown.
Speaker 1: Going back to the injury report, do you feel like
there's any weaknesses personnel wise on this Texas Tech Red
Raiders stamp, Aaron Roderick said, there's no weaknesses. There's absolutely
no weaknesses in the personnel anywhere on the defensive side
of the ball.
Speaker 2: Do you see any.
Speaker 3: Weaknesses personnel wise, No, not really. Every would every position
I would say is great at least at least it
b mis Maybe not the strongest group out there, but
they're pretty solid. The one thing I would say is
kind of going back to the passing game. Teams haven't
been able to get into the passing game because of
that pass rush, and that's where the layer of the
defense becomes so strong. That's how guys like Jacob Brodrigez
can have these amazing seasons that probably aren't being talked
about enough because you got David Bailey or metalw Height
on the edges. In the middle, you got Lee Hunter
and aj Holmes clogging that up. If they get to
the outside and away from it. The secondary is quick
and long and to keep up with receivers, and that's
where the middle backers can kind of beast and pick
up at the running that the quarterback's gonna run at.
The receivers, they're gonna kind of come underneath.
Speaker 1: There's not.
Speaker 3: I would say the one position group that hasn't been
the best offensive line, but they've also had games where
they've looked amazing too. It's just been kind of inconsistent there.
They're dealing with a couple of injuries. They look pretty
healthy at least based off the injury report from from Wednesday.
I think offensive line is maybe the iffy part. But again,
they can go. They can be an air received regardless
of the game, depending on what happens.
Speaker 1: Getting to know the Foe Here on your Utah ESPN
Radio Network, brought to you by Bresa Cleaning Services, we
have Nathan Geese on the line from the Lubbig Avalanche
Journal talking Texas Tech Red Raider football game days out there.
I'm trying to think historically, when was the last time
game day was out in Love It.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and eight for that Texas game. Wow, it's
been a while that happen out here.
Speaker 2: I think that's the same.
Speaker 1: I want to say the last time game day was
in Provo was in maybe two thousand and eight, two thousand,
I think it was. It was two thousand and eight
or two thousand and nine. So there's a there's a
rising of the tides here. These two teams haven't really
been featured on Game Day, you know until like what
I mean, almost twenty years ago. The last time around.
It's pretty pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: I would say, Yeah, it's back to back weeks.
Speaker 3: They're going to Big twelve destinations. I mean that says
something right there is that they have to kind of
look at it, and I think a lot of that
is kind of coming down to the flattening of the
talent and the team success is being much more spread out,
and how where you can't just keep going back to
Georgia and Alabama every week because hey, sometimes there's a
top ten game and loveock Texas out of nowhere. You
got to look a little bit deeper to find these
big games.
Speaker 1: Love it Nathan, best way to support you what you do,
how you do it over there at the Lobbig Avalanche Journal.
Speaker 3: Uh just see my work at lobigonline dot com. I'd
say follow me on Twitter, but I just got suspended
for something, so I'm not really sure if I have
access to that anymore.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, love it online dot com. Check out a colleague,
Don Williams. He's like the head honcho of a lot
of the football stuff. He's the encyclopedia if you really
want the historical perspective and everything that's kind of going
on here. He's the guy to talk to you for that.
Speaker 1: Love it man, Well, Nathan, appreciate you hopping on. Thanks
for letting us get to know the Phoe through your
eyes your voice. Looking forward to seeing you guys out
there and love it.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: All right, thanks for having me there you go.
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Speaker 2: Let's take a brief time out. We'll be back.
Speaker 1: You're listening to a Thursday edition, November six edition of
Cougar Sports.
Speaker 2: Here on one of three nine ninety eight point three