Speaker 1: Time to celebrate the previous team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all the glory on
the grid. I let's talk some college football on Cougar
Sports with Benkred.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three eight SPN the Fan.
Speaker 3: I'm bet certal broadcasting from our Bandwill Studios, Batterwealth dot Com.
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Speaker 3: Appreciate Blaine Anderson and his crew there at batter Wealth.
I want to get into a college football segment. We
just got off the line with Devon Ek. Fantastic acquisition
for the Cougars in the twenty twenty six class.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, very much underrated.
Speaker 3: He had over three thousand yards as a running back
in high school for Lehigh High School, won a ton.
Speaker 2: Of football games, knows how to put in the work.
Comes from a.
Speaker 3: Great family, and he surrounded himself with some great mentors
as well. And I have one of those mentors and
coaches on the line right now. This segment's gonna be
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about it, Ronnie? Do we have them on line right now?
Speaker 2: We still work on it.
Speaker 3: Okay, We're gonna still work on it here, but we're
gonna try to get Luke Han on the line here.
Luke is a former Rix College football player and coach,
by the way, and he is the personal trainer and
strength and conditioning coach and mentor for Jamal Williams. If
you remember, Jamal had a couple of breakout seasons at BYU.
Jamal Williams arguably the best running back to come through
Brigham Young University. It's a conversation everybody has. Is it
Luke Staley? Is it Harvey Unga, is it Jamal Willis?
Is it Tyler Algier?
Speaker 2: Is it l J. Martin?
Speaker 3: Now right, Who's the best in Cougar football history at
that running back position? A lot of people love Jamal.
A lot of people love Jamal and they lean into that.
Remember Jamal in his first two seasons, you know, he
broke out. He had seven hundred and seventy five yards
as a true freshman, just awesome work for seven yards
per carry, twelve touchdowns. In twenty thirteen he had one
two hundred and thirty three yards five point seven yards
per carry, seven touchdowns. He's also good at the backfield
with eighteen receptions under twenty five yards In twenty fourteen,
started off hot man one hundred and nine carries, five
hundred and eighteen yards through six games, four point eight
yards per carry, four touchdowns, but then he had a
season ending injury. He ended up sitting out the two
thousand and fifteen season and found a mentor, a coach,
a friend of family member, and completely transformed his body.
Came back in twenty sixteen and had his best season
yet one thousand three or seventy five yards five point
nine yards per carrying twenty sixteen, twelve touchdowns, and also
had an additional seven receptions eighty yards, and just was
amazing that twenty sixteen season. And we got that mentor,
that coach, that friend, that family member on the lie.
Speaker 2: We got lu Con on the dial. Luke, how you living?
Speaker 4: I'm living great man. How are you guys doing.
Speaker 3: Doing fantastic man. Appreciate you joining us to talk ball
to college ball, NFL and more and recruiting as well.
Let's talk a little bit about that transition and transformation
of Jamal than what went into that, you know, when
you when you got Jamal, he was a little bit
dinged up.
Speaker 2: He probably wasn't at one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, yeah, yeah, got him the artisan got him,
molded it into a monster. Look it was good clay,
let's not let's not get a twisted great clay, but
you molded him into a monster.
Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about that process.
Speaker 4: Well, when I got him, he was more about was
he was more like torn down, you know, and the ankle,
the knee, you know, everything just torn up, torn down.
So you're you're dealing with an athlete that mentally, the
capacity of his mental is, you know, really low. So
getting him to try to convince him to be good,
it's not just great, but just to be good, took
a lot of time because I mean, he couldn't even
talk naturally backwards up five steps on a hill without
being inspreciating pain. And then I said, if you can't
even do this, there's no possible way you can play
with the knee brace on, because the knee bras isn't
going to protect you for so long. And I said,
what I'm going to have to have you do is
going a red shirt, sit out, stay up here and
train and then we'll get to knee and everything else
around it stronger than it's ever been. And so a
lot went into it, a lot of running and the
off season, a lot of hell work, a lot of
static movements, dieting, meal plan, so a lot went into him.
Gave to have a six percent body fat his senior
year for the combine and being as successful as he's
been in the eight years because nothing has changed. We
just continue doing the same thing every year, and the
off season doesn't change. Sometimes a day he may come
back to start working out in the off season, they change,
but majority of the thing nothing has changed. Even right
now while he's insurgency, we're treating everything as as he's
season pull season right now and getting ready to be
sending from his team to transition into just to recovery
phase and then they're starting to work back out day again.
So we pretty much kept everything the same and it's
worked effectively and efficiently, and there's no need for him
to change anything. What he's been doing has been successful.
Speaker 3: He's he's been freaking amazing over the years. I think
as an NFL running back now I want to say
he's eclipsed over four thousand yards rushing, over a thousand
yards receiving. Now he's had one thousand. I want to
say he has had like oney sixty nine rushing attempts
and just thirty two touchdowns. I mean, just a crazy, awesome,
amazing NFL career. And it's fun to watch Jamal give
us a brief update right now on all. Obviously, he's
looking to still get into the NFL. He's still a
young running back. He's tenured, but he's in good shape.
What are the opportunities out there as a veteran running
back do you think towards.
Speaker 2: The end of the year.
Speaker 4: I think the opportunity for him towards the end of
the year is really great because you're gonna have a
team that's gonna need that veteran running back heading into
the playoffs making us for the Super Bowl run. And
you're gonna need that locker room guy that can come
in as a veteran as well. I think you check
off those two boxes for him, a veteran guy, experience,
and then the third thing is you know that experience
that he has, you know, being able to transition the
game to another level at the most at the most
strategic and complicated level, that you're able to have a
veteran guy in that locker room that can help these
young guys and show them the ropes, not just tell them,
but show them and help guide them. I think he
did a great job at that. When he was in
Detroit with DeAndre Swift, he mentored DeAndre, and DeAndre has
had a very very high feeling to the rest of
his career because I think DeAndre was on their way
on his way out and Jamal. When Jamal came in
in Detroit, it helped DeAndre Swift and then DeAndre platform
Treate the Bear's another contract as well. So I think
it's very I think it's I think it's very very
important that for us to understand that these athletes when
when they when they tell us something and they know
their body. I was selling they know their body better
than us, So you have to respect when they say
something is off slightly and they just want to rest.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited to see what happens.
Speaker 3: And he looks like he's in fantastic shape right now,
and hopefully he gets that opportunity. You continue to coach
up and mentor the future running backs of the NFL
and of football. Recently, you've taken Devon Ekka under your wing,
the running back out of Lehigh High School, five foot eleven,
one hundred and ninety pounder, and uh, he had a
great high school career. How long have you been training
with Devon? And uh, when did that relationship start?
Speaker 4: We've had we've been devond off by the year Ed
Larson when he was the head coach at Lehigh. Ed
Larson had played I'm sorry, Ed Larson a coach with
my dad, Ron Hahn at rich Quest some time up
in Mexburg, Idaho, and at one time Ed Larson coach.
Larson had the number one offense in the country, even
not scoring Nebraska at one time. And Ed was telling
me about Devon last year and he said, Hey, you know,
there's two of these kids I want to try to
get to you in Arizona. One was a DV who's
at chah State now, and then there's Devon. He said,
but if you can get him to focus and lock in,
he'll be he'll be a good one. I said, okay,
So we got with him last year. He came down
in Phoenix, worked out with Jamal and so him and
Jamal have been together for quite a while now. They've
worked out so just seeing what he does in his
as he carried the ball, as he runs the ball,
Jamal and I were often reminded that he reminds us
of one of our guys that we used that was
with us with us and was Ronald Jones, and his
nickname was ro Jo. Now, Ronald Jones had broken a
lot of USC records, from Marcus Allen to to Reggie
why I'm sorry, Reggie, Reggie Bush to Marcus Allen to OJ.
So he had broken a lot of these records. So
he was tagged as the Texas Tesla coming out of
his draft and he couldn't get running in twenty eighteen.
So then his agent in Busanzk we had gotten on
the phone call and then I ended up mentoring Ronald
Jones well in twenty nineteen. He goes for seven hundred
and twenty five yards and he's the biggest at any
weight he's ever been. He came into the league and
played unless he had too to eight. He got them
up to two hundred and twenty pounds. He ran the
fastest forty that he'd ever ran at the biggest way
he'd ever been, and then he ran for seven hundred
and twenty five yards that year. That year he taught
about three hundred and twenty five yards of receiving yards,
which he was supposed to be a bad receiver. And
then the second year, in the offseason we got up
to two hundred and thirty pounds, he ran a four
four five and four four six forty electric and then
went on that year and of course they won the
Super Bowl, and he had nine hundred and seventy five
yards from scrimmage rushing yards, and then he became I
think one of six NFL players in history to have
a ninety nine yard run from scrimmage against the Carolina Panthers.
So this is who Devon reminds Jamal and I is
another Ronald Jones. Now, for anyone that's wondering about can
he take a hit, Davon is very strong. He's one
of those kids that have that man's strength when he
needs it. So him in between the tackles, I don't
see that being an issue at all. And plus he's
learning how to make guys mess before the guy's actually messed.
So he's seeing the game his level right now. From
the time we've been together, has he He has grasped
and grabbed at the opportunity, at every opportunity to be great.
He's always constantly texting, Hey, we're don't work out. What's
the workout today?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: So he's he's one of those guys. And he reminds
me a lot of Jamal as far as his or
his detail oriented ways, as far as how he goes
about the game and how he sets up plays. And
he may go to a bag drill and he's visualizing
and I remember that. I remember I was taught one
time when he was doing the bag drill and I said,
what did you do this move here for? He said, well,
I'm visualizing that this guy had to sail down and
I had to. Those little things are huge because for him,
he just turned eighteen years old, you know, for him
to have these things and then and again, it's a
lot of it is coming from him being around Jamal
every day in workouts, seeing what Jamal does and then
doing it. And I can always tell him you can
see what he does, you can do a lot of
what he does, but then add added to how it
fits into your game. So to watch Devon Ecua in workouts.
It's great, But I'm gonna enjoy watching him in pads
because he's gonna be He's gonna be a real deal.
Speaker 3: He's he's a nice pride. I like the the player cops,
the body type. He's fast, He's got good top end speed.
How is he built? You know, he's five to eleven
one ninety. Uh what was jam I wonder how heavy
was Jamal coming.
Speaker 2: Out of high school? He was a young buck, right,
he was like seventeen with ride.
Speaker 4: Six.
Speaker 2: So how do you put on so much weight?
Speaker 3: I think Jamal came into a senior season at like
two twenty just transformed. Like obviously it has to be
done sequentially. It can't just be put on all in
one one off season, But like, how quickly can a
guy get up to you know, like that two oh five,
two ten, two fifteen weight if you're five 't eleven?
Speaker 4: See him with with DeVaughn what we're going to try
to do and the word we've been using with him
and you know, for me, I called him For me,
I call him kidfresh. I call him kid fresh each
I see him, Hey, kids fresh, because he's he's always
you know, he's got that fresh cool walk. You know,
he just he comes up to you and he just fresh.
He just missed the kid fresh. So when I see
him coming, it's you know, looking at him.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: The word that we use to him is just to
take his time and just to have fun and enjoy
it because it's going to come and go really quickly.
Enjoy your first Enjoy your freshman year. That's going to
come and go really quickly, So enjoy it. So but
while you're enjoying it, do things that's fun, you know,
because Jamal is encourasing him. You know, you don't want to.
You know, you get to school. You know, people don't
know who you are. It's your first year, and you
know you don't want to change up who you are.
You want to be the same person. You don't want
to be the guy that all of a sudden gets
a scooter because you know you have status. Don't worry
about the status. Just worry about coming in here. Do
what you have to do because when you leave here
for good, it's a business and they don't care about you.
So he's getting that raw, unfiltered version from Jamal what
the next level is, and he's also getting the raw,
unfiltered version of just being a humble young man. I mean,
here we are we you know, Jamal had his is
foundation and Devon calls me up and he's like, hey, coach,
can we is Jamal's thing just for him or can
I come? I said, you want to count. He's like, yeah,
he said, he supports me, so I want to support him.
So we went down to Salt Lake and you know,
Jamal had his foundation thing, and here's Devon sending out,
you know, passing out presence to the kids as well.
So he's getting into the community and Jamal's helping him
with that. He's getting into the community at an early
age and he's building he's understanding about building that brand.
So he's building that his brand earlier, earlier than most
kids would be building their brand as freshman's going into
college and him being local, it's great because he's right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, so if there's people listening right now that
have running backs and they want to get trained up,
there's not a whole lot of running back trainers here
in the state of ut I know you're based out
of Arizona, but you have also a connection here in
the state of Utah where you're training guys in the
in the off season, maybe even during the season. But
do you offer any of those services to others in
the locale consistently for those running back prospects that are
looking to take their abilities to the next level.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And and what we what I'm doing is, you
know a lot of the kids that are you know,
everybody wants to play certain positions. So now everybody will
play those certain positions. You know. It's like I tell people,
there's a difference when you're being identified, and there's a
difference when you're being recruited. And I ask these guys
that I'll say, Okay, the recruitment part is when you
go to college, when you go to high school, you
ask them can you do certain things? Can you do
certain things? And can they will they do certain things
for you? They is a mutual agreement that's being recruited.
When you looking to play in the NFL, they will
use a void it's called identify. So when you're being identified,
you're being identified as NFL potential NFL player. What I
do is I look at certain guys that I feel
will have that potential to play on the collegiate level
and on a professional level, and then to me, I
look at it as is it worth the risk to
spend time and get this person to do them up
and spend four years with them through college and not
accept any money from them. So so often nowadays you
have so many guys, people being you know, parents and stuff,
being charged a lot of money for results that aren't
even going to happen. So for us, for me, it's
different because I'm saying, hey, I'm not going to charge
you any money if your kid has the potential to
play Division one football and to the NFL. So what's
going to happen is I'm not going to charge you anything,
but your kid has to have that potential. I've got
to be able to identify that he can play at
that level. And if I identify that, then we'll go
into an agreement. You still won't pay anything to your college,
collegiate career, or your when you're in high school, but
we're going to work it out to where in the
next five years because we're going to be together that
long and longer. If it happens to where you do
get in contract, now we'll work out percentages because now
you'll have money to pay. So it's one of those
things where we try to I try to bring it.
I try to I try to be positive and understand
with parents and people and athletes to know that this
is you know, one percent of the people play this game.
And I'm not here to bust anyone's the bubble, and
I'm definitely not here to take anyone's money. But if
you're paying money to a bunch of people that are
promising you the world and the moon, and you know
at the end of the day you can't go anywhere
and play anywhere else, well it's all it's all a gamble.
But for me, my gamble is different because I'm gambling
on you when you're not really gambling on yourself. And
I'm telling you that I know that you can play
potentially at the next level, and I'm going to show you,
and I'm going to even take my time and spend
my time with you and get you there. So that's
kind of how I kind of identify certain guys as
playing at the next level, whether they're running backs, wide receivers,
defensive backs, or what have.
Speaker 3: You love that feedback and break down and you know
you're always giving back, always trying your best to mentor
this the youth and UH the young adults that come
into your your your mentorship and coaching group. We got
uh lu Khan former Rix College football player, RIX College coach.
Also uh a mentor, UH coach, uh a strength and conditioning.
Speaker 2: I think I don't know how to describe you.
Speaker 3: I have all these like terms that like that that
encompassed you as like a coach, a mentor for for
Jamal and others. Uh, you do a fantastic job, father figure,
right to to anybody that comes into your your fold.
Lukan here on your Utah ESPN Radio Network. A couple
last things before he let you go. Luke devon Eka,
what is b why you getting in this young man
on and off the football field? Do you think he
can make an impact his true freshman year?
Speaker 4: I would be shocked if he doesn't make an impact
his freshman year. I'll be absolutely shock. Even Jamal said it.
You know, Jamal has even told him if you don't,
if you if you don't make an impact of freshman,
if I'm all here still, I'm beating you up. So
so yeah so. But by he's getting an electric player.
I mean, this kid is going to be so electric.
He reminds me, so much of Ronald Jones, and Ronald
was very exciting and electrifying in college at USC and
anyone that doesn't know who Ronald Jones is, go look
at go look up Ronald Jones on YouTube, and then
you will see. I mean, they walk identical. They walk
him in Devon, Ronald and Davon walk identical with the
outside snoop foot, you know, and they run kind of similar.
I mean, it's just it's gonna be fun watching him.
I'm excited to watch him because he's learning a lot
of things right now and he wants to put them
all together. And he reminds me of you know, mister
Mayagi and Danielson, you know, and he's so he's so like,
I won't to do this. I said, okay, but don't
do that yet, because you don't understand what that's for.
He said, But but I do notice for I said, no,
you don't. Your mind is trying to get your body
to understand and be on the same page to work
as one. Your body is so far ahead of if
your mind right now, your mind is trying to catch up.
So let's just go slow. And that was the biggest
thing was he picked these things up so quickly, and
then he would he would forget that. You know, there's
three phases to our workouts. There's phase one where we're
teaching our minds to teach the body what it is
we want to do. Then there's phase two where we
start incorporating a little bit quickness. Then phase three we
go fast. So he's having to go through these three
phases and you know, he gets it and he's wanting
to get out there and after it right away. But
then he has to pull himself back because he's so
excited and he's I'm learning something new and I've never
learned this before, and this is cool as a running
back and all these things that he's seeing now. So
he is one dynamic player that will leave you in
the seat gasping. I'm saying, like, how did he come
out of that? And how did he get that way?
But he's going to be fun to watch. I'm excited.
Speaker 2: Love it, Luke. We appreciate you, Love you always good
connecting with you.
Speaker 3: We invite everybody to uh uh you know, best way
to I guess contact you.
Speaker 2: What's the best way of doing it?
Speaker 4: Content? Yeah, the best baking contact me is if they
can get in touch with you and then you just
send them to me, sending my number. What's happening?
Speaker 2: Awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, if you guys need any running back, help, some mentorship, help,
hit me up at Cridel Benjamin and I'll send you
over the number to Luke Looke.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you, man, thanks for hopping on again. We'll
catch up again soon.
Speaker 4: Thanks man, Love you guys. Man go coops.
Speaker 3: Let's go Lukan Ladies and gentlemen. That's our segment, and
that's our show.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 3: We're gonna hand the mic over to Bryce Larson and
the crew over at Utah Valley University.
Speaker 2: The Wolverines on the hardwood.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned as the Utah Valley University men's basketball team
balls out tonight on your Utah ESPN Radio Network. Shout
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give us a rating, give us a review.
Speaker 2: We appreciate it when you do.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Ronald the three Man Weaver, obviously Brent
always bringing the hammer, all the guests that joined us
today we got into Zach Wilson commentary Walker Lyons commentary,
Tyler Morass, Devon Ekka Lukan.
Speaker 2: It was a fantastic show. We appreciate all.
Speaker 3: You Cougar fans and Cougar Country tune it in today.
From all of us here at ESPN the Fan, we
wish you a very good night, have a safe night.
You've you men's basketball coming up next. You are on
your Utah ESPN Radio Network. One of three nine ninety
eight point three