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on your taxes. At the end of the year, it
is time for little keeping Up with Cougar's going to
welcome to a form of BYU great ad quarterback scientists
to break down what happened on the bye week Will
BYU be healthy and strong?
Speaker 4: Will they be prepped?
Speaker 2: Will they be ready for a roadmatchup versus Texas Tech.
Things are getting real and they're getting real fast here
as we get into championship type of weekends. It could
be BYU Texas Tech. It could be BYU Utah in
a rivalry holy war in Arlington. Anything can happen at
the end of the year of the big two of
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one of their locations, and you can utilize the Crudal
fifteen coupon code online as well. Let's get out to
the hotline. Welcome in former bou Great the Quarterback Scientists.
We got John Beck on the line. John, how the
heck are you doing?
Speaker 3: Good man? It's definitely feels like that's that championship time
of the year, doesn't it.
Speaker 4: Dude?
Speaker 2: I get psyched about it, especially now that we're in
a conference right like you know, we were a part
of it, Mountain West Conference. It was awesome to be
able to seal the championship, the regular season championship, you know,
versus in two thousand and six versus New Mexico was awesome.
But it's even at a greater scale now, right, college
football has has changed significantly, and BYU with it. Now
that Bilway's a part of the Big Boys club, it
just means more and there's more eyeballs on BYU.
Speaker 4: The branding, the imaging.
Speaker 2: The equity that has been built from like nineteen seventy
two to present day. Now it's finally really paying off
for BYU.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is an amazing time to be a student
athlete at YU, to be a fan for BUYU. The
Big Twelve Conference is an amazing conference, and November football
is so exciting, especially when you're sitting there at no
You're exactly right about being in a conference. It's fun
to be paying attention to what's going on in other
conference games. It's fun to know where you are in
the standings and to be an undefeated team sitting at
the top of the Big Twelve with a a huge
game this weekend. As a competitor, as an athlete and
as a fan of Billia football, it's just all great
fields right now and November football, Like like we were saying,
it's just such an amazing time of the year for
all levels. You go to the high school level, it
equals playoffs, go to the college level. It's that buying
for those top spots, you know, the chance to play
in the conference championship, And it's just such a great
time right now to be a BIU fan. And I
think that they've done such a great job of setting
themselves up for what can really be maybe one of
the best Novembers that the program has had in a long, long,
long time.
Speaker 4: One of the.
Speaker 2: Difficult schedules that they're having to face two in this
guntlet They started off with U of A on the road,
Utah home. They beat Iowas State on the road. Now
they get Texas Tech on the road. A Rod stated
that this was the most difficult stretch of games in
BYU football history, and by has been up to the task,
having won three straight, one in overtime. One that was
you know, pretty close versus Utah twenty four to twenty one,
and then another one on the road versus Iowa State
being down.
Speaker 4: You no, not too.
Speaker 2: Big in the first app but it seemed like it
was very big in the first half. Now they got
Texas Tech, TCU, Cincinnati, and UCF. How do you navigate
this back end of the schedule in order to kind
of just stay right, stay on task, you know, get healthy,
be strong. Obviously, the the the bye week came at
a very fratuitous time. How does BYU navigate this?
Speaker 4: Do you think?
Speaker 3: Well? I think the best way is to focus one
day at a time, to not even look at the
game that's ahead of you. I always try to tell guys,
you know, when I'm especially speaking with quarterbacks going into
big games. Let the game be Saturday. You focus on Monday,
you focus on Tuesday, you focus on Wednesday. All of
those things lead up to the game. What can be
something that pulls you away from it is when you
start feeling all of the pressures, the worries or whatever
you need to think about because of the Saturday game,
the impact. You know, it's like an Olympian going to
the Olympics. You don't want to think about the week
of the Olympic, the what ifs. What if it plays
out this way? What if my training and all of
this this happens, or what if it doesn't play out
in the first you know, like let's say it's an
event where you have like a preliminary and then a finals.
What if my preliminary heat or match doesn't go this way,
and then what you don't want to think about the
what ifs. What you do is you put the work
in each day of the week and then you just
let it happen. It's the same with conference play. It
would be so easy right now. And I think this
is what fans enjoy. This is why we have talk shows,
is because you can talk about all the different scenarios. Okay,
you know, look what happened when we beat Utah, And
look what happened now that Utah went and beat Cincinnati
and people thought that Cincinnati might be vying for a
conference you know, title game, and now because they lost,
and then after beat Iowa State, Iowa State loses again.
There's all these things that can really distract you from
what is the most important thing. And the most important
thing on a Monday is preparation Monday and Monday's football practice.
That's all that matters. Then you have to go each
day of the week just like that. I think it's
a competitive advantage to the team that has the most
players and coaches that have that ability to do that
they can keep the main thing, the main thing and
just focus on that. And for a BYU team that yes,
quite honestly, the road ahead of them, like they have
a big one this weekend, and if they can get
through that, I think that all of those games that
are after this they're going to be favored in. And
so it would be very easy to say, oh my gosh,
if we can get through Texas Tech, it is a
road to the conference championship game. And the key is
to not even worry about that, to let the fans
think about those things, let them get excited. But as
a player, you walk in Monday morning and all you
care about is Monday b.
Speaker 4: YU versus Texas Tech this week.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling that BA you should be healthier than they
have been over the last three weeks.
Speaker 4: I think LJ will be ready to go.
Speaker 2: I think I think that our linebackers should be healthy
year than they have been. But Texas Tech is no joke.
They've lost one game, it was on the road to ASU,
and other than that they've had dominating victories. Like I
don't know, I'm looking at the closest scores. That may
have been the Utah game. That was the closest game
that they've had. Outside of that one loss, everybody else
they've beaten by like twenty one plus points every single game.
Speaker 4: What do we know about Texas Tech.
Speaker 3: I mean, I remember watching the ASU Texas Tech game
being somebody I like yourself from the state of Arizona,
great state of Arizona. You know, I grew up watching
Arizona State football. I still follow ASU football and knowing
what was being talked about about this Texas Tech team,
the amount of money that they put into the program,
the players that they brought in, the fact that they
were they're going to be on BYU schedule. I paid
attention to that game, and Texas Tech came out to
jump and went ahead on Arizona, and then Arizona State
put together this big comeback at the end, and you
know what does some of it have to do. It's
a home game and away game for Texas Tech. A
little bit that was still early in the season. I
think it's going to be interesting to see what it
does when now Texas Tech and both of these teams
are on this gigantic stage. I know by Youth played
a big new kickoff game before, but you know, hey,
this is college game Day, this is on the road,
this is I'm trying to think the last time game
day went to Texas Tech. It's got to be almost
probably way back in the Mahomes era, my guess, in
some of those games. I mean, it might have even
been the game when the Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes
went off for like twelve hundred yards of offense, somewhere
around that era. But you know, it's going to be
interesting to see how it shakes down now when both
of these teams. It feels like there's so much on
the line. I think for a player like Bear, who
is still green in terms of college football, He's only
played eight college football games. Sometimes he's walking out on
the field and he may just feel like, you know what,
I'm just going to do what I've always done. I'm
just going to go out there and be one of eleven.
I'm going to play the best I can. And you know,
I think Bear does a great job because it's all
new to him of just you know what, what can
I do. I've got nothing to worry about. I'm just
going to go out there play what I can play.
I'm still very new to college football. I think that
could be an advantage in a situation like this. But
it's you know, definitely an exciting game I mean, I
wish I could get to the stadium in that environment.
I think it's going to be amazing for the BIU
fans that travel there to be a part of that.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it, John, we've seen progress from Bear,
it seems week over week. This last game on the road,
he threw for a lot of yards and was very accurate,
was very good. What have you seen specifically in his
progress that makes you optimistic that he can head out
on the road after a bye week and be just
as good or even better than what he's showcased thus far.
Speaker 3: Well, I think bye weeks always help you become just
a little healthier. I think those guys, as you know,
this time of year, you're playing with something, whether it's
this you know, slight ankle injury, a little shoulder ding.
Your ribs are a little bit beat up. You've been
dealing with bruising in an area that you can't get
to go away because you keep getting hit on it.
All players this time of year, when they get a
bye week, it's not ability to just be a little
more fresh, to let the body heal. And I know,
look with how much Bears ran the football, I guarantee
his body's been beat up a little bit, you know,
without divulging too much information, he's just like everybody else where,
he's having to play through some things, and so I
think it's going to be really good for him to
get healthy. I think Bear has done such a good
job in decision making, and we've talked about it multiple
times on the show of just how good he's done
at it's going to sound silly, but taking good sacks
and taking off and running with the football when nothing's there,
and not trying to do too much, especially laid in games. Right.
There's been a few games where Byu has had to
play from behind him the fourth quarter, and it's very
easy as a young quarterback to take some of the
chances that you would have taken in high school football
and to try that in college football and have it
end up not working out. I see that constantly. Bear's
just done such a good job again of recognizing is
it worth the risk, or can I do something else?
Or can I, you know, just eat the ball here
and live to play the next play. And I think
that in a game like this this weekend, those attributes
of Bear, the ability to step on a field and
remain calm, the ability to be in a shootout in
a college game, and to what I think is Bear
is just used to this. He's just used to being
in shootouts because that was literally his high school scenario
ninety percent of the time, and he's doing it on
a big stage. I think all of those will benefit
him this Saturday.
Speaker 2: What's crazy is you've talked about this from the inception
of the Bear Bachmeyer era. You said, Bear Bachmeyer throughout
his entire high school career just found a way to
win lat In games through you through but also most
definitely with his running ability. And we continue to see that,
like he hasn't really changed much. Like the Bear Bachmeyer
brand is what it is, It's who he is, and
I'm surprised it's translating to the collegiate level.
Speaker 4: It doesn't always do that, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean here's what I would say. This is
one of the really cool things about how good this
BYU football team is and also what this BYU team
was before Bear got here. This was again, without divulging
too much information, this is what was part of the
conversations leading up to Bear looking at BYU was just
look at how BYU has utilized abilities in the Jaron Halls,
the j k ret Slash, the Zach Wilson's and how
Bear's game. That's what his game has been in high
school football. I mean, you can go to the kids
highlight tape, or you can look at the stats and
late in games, go look and see how his legs
contributed to either keeping his team in the game or
helping his team win the game. And then so to
go and place him in a scheme where Aaron utilizes
that ability with his quarterbacks. I mean, go look at
some of Jake Retslav's games in his start and how
his legs helped the team or how the designed You know,
you have these quick outlet passes or screen passes and
if they're not there, you take off, and they built
in QB draw. The line is blocking QB draw, but
there's quick throws on the edges, and based off of
the shell and numbers, you either throw the quick pass
or you take off on the draw. That has fit
so well in what Bear is doing because it's what
Bear has always done, and so I think like you
could not have asked for a better scheme fit with
also experienced players around him, Like this is not an
offense that's only been here doing this for a year
or two. What can be tricky is when a new
offensive coordinator is trying to instill his offense in players
that were recruits or that were built by the old system,
the system that has been at UIU for a long time.
The players understand it well, you know, it's just the
timing that's probably the best word, the timing of what
Bear brings. Because of his experience and what this offense
has been building, it came together in the right timing
so well.
Speaker 2: John Beck here on esp and the Fan. This segment
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Speaker 4: John.
Speaker 2: The supporting cast has also buoyed up Bear.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin got a little deemed up last this last game
versus Iowa State.
Speaker 4: LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin exits the game in the first quarter, Yet a
Rod and Bear and the supporting cast that remained found
a way to put up offensively. You know, thirty four points, right,
You had the defensive score that maybe changed the tides,
but this offense was actually very productive, very efficient. What
does that say about a Rod and his play calling,
ability to have a running back who has essentially been
the bell cow back and the core of what this
offense does from an identity standpoint, him ultimately finding a
way to win without him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it's trust. I feel like this was a
game where they were able to say, Okay, we just
lost LJ. We're still going to be able to utilize Bear.
We're going to put Preston back there, a little bit
different style of back, but time to do the trust
thing where we're gonna go out there. We're going to
win this game playing the style of football where we're
going to throw it for you know, three hundred plus yards.
We're going to do the things that we have in
our offense that we haven't had to lean on all
of the time. But we're going to lean on him
right now. And I trust that, and and you know what,
and it showed and I know that, like, well, you know, here,
here's what's going to happen. There's also going to be
in the conversation what these teams, like the Iowa States,
you know, I know that for some oh well, Iowa
State went out and lost the next game, maybe they're
not quite the team everybody thought they would at the
end of the day. Playing on the road at Iowa
State has been a tough place for a lot of teams,
and BYU was down early and they had to find
a way to come back and win. You can't take
that away from a team just because of the outcome
of a game the following week. What they did in
that moment of time, how they had to kind of
place more on bear shoulders, how a lot of the
guys stepped up and really made a lot of plays
in the past game. That's still what BYU is capable
of doing against any opponent, and it's probably going to
have to show up this Saturday. You know, Texas Tech
really is a very strong defensive team. They went out
and brought guys in, spent a lot of money, and
they really bolstered their defense. It's going to be a
challenge for BYU, but it's going to be great because
these are the types of games that you find out.
Are we the type of team that can go out
there and win the Big twelve, go into a collegiate
playoff game and win that game. Those type of games
take everything. So if I'm a part of this team,
if I'm on that staff, I'm saying the opportunity that
we had to go out and play a game that
second half without LJ and make the plays that we did,
that shows us what we are capable of in those
games where we're gonna need all of the weapons that
we have. Right. I mean, Ben, you remember that conversation
we had back in the Bronco era, right when he
had big team meeting about are you using all of
your weapons? Right? When I look at teams, that has
always stuck with me. You want to go win big games,
you want to go beat really good teams, you have
to be using all of your weapons. And so to me,
that Iowa State game was a game that BYU got
to sharpen some of its other weapons.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that that perspective. John. A couple last
things before we let you go. LJ.
Speaker 2: Martin's injury to me, now, I'm a physician, but I
work with a lot of physicians, and I stayed at
a holiday in last night. It looked like an ac
joint injury, and they pulled them right, so it could
have been something worse. But he wasn't like holding his
shoulder in a way that tells me that it was
like dislocated or whatever. You I know, you've been in
the exercise physiology world. You've taken all of your your
your classes and have your certifications, et cetera. As a
as a biomechanical coach, but also a person that's familiar
with the human anatomy.
Speaker 4: AC joint separations.
Speaker 2: To me, grade two, grade three, you have a little
bit of pain there, but you can play through those, right,
those aren't all that serious if it is an AC
joint separation.
Speaker 3: I would say players that are non throwers, you can
play through AC separations. The impact. You know, they'll shoot
you up to try to numb it as best they
can depending on the grade. Some trainers like to use
also a tape job to kind of help alleviate that
distance where that that ligament is is spraying or torn.
You know a lot of the times you can see
that clasical kind of like sitting up for a thrower.
This is where it gets. It's interesting. I played through
an AC separation my sophomore year and had to get
shot up for a handful of games. There's different levels.
Some guys they can have very mild AC separations, and
they don't have the same overhead pain. They fill it
a little bit, but some of them have more of
a pain kind of at extension and as if you
were to raise your arm in front of your body
and then start to cross to your opposite side, you
can get a little pinching pain there. Those type of
guys can still go out and throw the football at
practice and all they feel is like a little mild
that bothers a little bit. Other guys when they separate
their shoulder Grade two maybe even some like grade ones,
that can be really painful. You can't even get your
shirt on. You're in a lot of pain just trying
to put your arm in a position to get your
shirt on. And so to go out at practice as
a thrower, it is super painful. And so, but the
team doesn't want to shoot you up for practice. They
don't want to shoot you up for a game. So
your practice reps really get hindered because if your inability
to throw the ball like you normally do. And so
you know the whole AC separation. I've been around a
lot of receivers, a lot of linemen, a lot of
running backs. Man, they just shoot it up played through it,
they're the same person. Well, practice quarterbacks, that's where you
see some of the biggest thing, Like if they're unable
to go out and practice the same way, that has
a great effect on the whole team because of what
practice looks like. And then they go out in games
and I remember the first time I got shot up,
I was like, what in the world. I feel like
I have noodle arm and I'm trying to like be
accurate in a pregame warm up and the coach is like, hey,
how you feeling well? I have the ability to move
my arm now, but man, it's just tough. I'm not
really accurate. And so that's the kind of the balance
between throwers and non throwers of AC's. Everybody is capable
of playing through an AC because you're gonna get it
shot up, but there is an impact whether you're a
thrower or non thrower throughout the week of.
Speaker 2: Practice BYU's offense is going to have to continue to
put up points. Texas Tech knows knows how to score
points offensively sixty seven, sixty two, forty five, thirty four,
thirty five, forty two. Their lowest was twenty two on
the road versus ASU and that loss, but it was
only a four point game. They beat Oklahoma State forty
two to zero, and then they just beat Kansas State
forty three to twenty. Can this BYU offense keep pace
with this Texas Tech Red Raiders offense?
Speaker 4: Is the question?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm really excited to see what our defense does.
I know that that was kind of an offensive question
about the offense, what they're capable of doing. You know,
I think so much of it is going to be
what our defense is going to do to that offense.
You know, this is an interesting case because Texas Tech
started the season with one quarterback, going back to that
ASU game. I actually think that when they kind of
came out the gates rolling a little bit, I wonder
if they were believing a little bit of maybe their
own press of like, man, we are a really good team.
Look we're just steamrolling right now. In the beginning of
the game, Arizona State team that won the Big Twelve
last year, and then the tides turned. But then they
lose their quarterback. The backup steps in plays and now
he's injured. They go back to their quarterback, and if
my memory is right, I didn't get to see the
entire Kansas State game. I got to catch parts of
it here there between my kids' games, But I don't
think it was a smooth road the entire time. There
was a time in the game where it was very
tight versus Kansas State, and Texas Tech was having a
little bit of a tough time offensively to be consistent,
and then because of some turnovers, Like I'm pretty sure
there was a couple turnovers in that game that really
turned things in Kansas State then kind of fell apart
a little bit and Texas Tech ran away with it.
But I'm really curious what is our BIU defense going
to look like against a team and now a quarterback
that is in his second start coming back from the injury.
Time off for quarterbacks sometimes can be good and sometimes
can be really difficult when you get thrust back into it.
So I think so much of this how I'm going
to answer the question offensively, I think so much much
of what our offense is going to look like will
be dictated by what our defense is doing and how
they're handling the Texas Tech offense. Because there may be
some schematic things where you can say our ability to
potentially run the football well with LJ and Bear and
the other running backs. If we can run the ball well,
that keeps their offense off of the field, and there
could be a time of possession game going on if
BYU's defense is doing a really, really good job. And
so to me, like as a play caller, so much
of how you call a game is dependent on the
other phases as well. Special teams to me, special teams.
Speaker 2: All right, sounds like we may have lost John, But
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I think the last thing that he was saying is
intriguing to me, though he's more intrigued by what the
defense can do to steymy that prolific Texas Tech red
Raider offense. And I was looking at sp plus rankings
and efficiency metrics here. They were published yesterday Texas Tech
offense ranks ninth in the country, their defense is eighth,
and their special teams is eightieth. Interesting, you heard John
say special teams.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: BYU's offense is twenty fifth in the nation, sixteenth on defense,
and then number six on special teams. What has BYU
done so effectively this season? Complementary football, finding a way
to win games in a I would say a traditional
football since then, even an untraditional football, since complimentary football
has always been a part of the game. We tend
to focus so much on offense, sometimes defense, but never
the special teams unit. BYU's special teams unit has been
a leade under Kelly Papinga. Also, Jay Hill was an
elite special teams coach once upon a time before becoming
a head coach at Weaver State, so he oversees some
of that special teams as well.
Speaker 4: That could be the differentiator.
Speaker 2: That's the same thing or the same reasons why by
you found a way to win versus Utah a few
weeks ago. It was through special teams and I'd say,
just complimentary football. Guys, great segment. We're gonna take a
brief time out. We'll be back though after a word
from our sponsors, guys don't go anywhere. Still plenty to
get to on a Monday edition of Cougar Sports. Here
on one of three to nine ninety eight point three
ESPN The Fan