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you ready for this BYU Texas Tech matchup with a
Texas Native former BYU Cougar Quarterback Pontificating on all of
the the uh, the good, the bad, the beautiful, and
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All right, let's welcome in the six for two two
hundred pound quarterback out of Huntsville, Texas. We got Steve
Klements on the line. Steve, how the heck are you buddy.
Speaker 4: Outstanding? How are you buddy.
Speaker 3: Doing awesome, doing fantastic? When you were growing up, what
was the rhetoric surrounding Texas Tech? What do you remember
about Texas Tech when you were growing up? Uh?
Speaker 5: Well, in Texas similar to here, there were two teams.
Speaker 4: It was Texas and Texas A and M.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there are other colleges TCU, s m U, Texas
Tech Old Southwest Conference. But you're either a Texas Van
or Texas A and M fan, either a BUYU fan
or Utah fan.
Speaker 1: So it was a much stock around Texas Tech. So
you see.
Speaker 4: School there or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you see what's happening with the Red
Raiders right now. And I think it's a surprise to
a lot of people that they are one of the
best teams in college football and they've invested at such
a high level within that college football landscape.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think they're they're more of a surprise
because typically you know, coach Maguire, who I believe about
ten or twelve years ago, came up here and when
he was a coach at Cedar Hill High School there
in Dallas area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and.
Speaker 4: Like they were world beaters, man, Like they were legit.
Every year they're playing for state championship.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you typically a high school head football coach
doesn't have the success that he's had at Texas Tech
making that jump, and so I think that adds to
the surprising nature of this team generally speaking, just because
of his lack of experience in the college game. He
goes right from high school granted, one of the better
high school programs in the whole state of Texas, which is,
as we know, is the predominant religion down in that state.
But yeah, it's it's very surprising because it's Texas Tech.
Texas Tech is known has been really known for Yeah,
there's number fifteen for the Kansas City Chiefs. Helps Texas
Tech have a name. But you know, before that they
were they'd win more than they lost, you know, Mike
Leach with their offense, their air raid offense started to
put them on the map a little bit more. But
as far as the consistency, they haven't been really consistent,
you know, where they've been a top ten, top fifteen
ranked team consistently year after year after year. Now that's changing.
I think coach MacGuire, it's a testament to him and
to have sustainability with obviously the things that he's putting together,
you know.
Speaker 4: Oddly enough.
Speaker 5: Or interestingly enough, he started his career at North Crowley
High School in the Fort Worth area as a defensive
line coach and then you look at their defensive line
and what are they ranked, and I think it's number
one rush defense in the nation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and everybody talks about their defensive line.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean that's how he started, that's the position
he started coaching in his career.
Speaker 4: That spanns you know, decades and decades.
Speaker 5: Uh so probably not a surprise that that's one of
the strong suits.
Speaker 4: But Texas Tech has always been known for their offense,
never for their defense.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's just you knew you were going to get
into a track meet with those dudes, and uh now
they they've kind of flipped the script little. There's still
a high fired offense, they're averaging over thirty points a game,
but uh, it's their defense that people are going, Wait
where did this come from?
Speaker 4: They've always been known, you know, Patrick Mahomes, their.
Speaker 5: Raid offense, offense offense, and all of a sudden, they're
stopping people on defense.
Speaker 4: And so but I'm excited, man, I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3: Well, what's crazy, He's like very few, as you mentioned,
very few coaches at the high school ranks get an
opportunity to go to the college ranks. And even when
they do get to the college ranks. It's not like
they're they become head coaches at the FBS level, at
the G sixth level or at the P four level.
He got in with with I think coach Rule there
at Baylor as a tight ends coach after being at
Cedar Hill High School from what ninety seven to twenty
and sixteen, right like that's when I mean that was
the heyday where he was just balling out, winning state
championship after state championship. So coach Rule brought him on
and he was with Baylor through twenty and twenty one,
even with the transition to the Dave Randa staff, and
then finally got his opportunity to be the head coach
of Texas Tech, which is pretty insane. You need a
collective group of high school football head coaches to come
together and influence an athletic director to hire a former,
I think a former high school coach that made his
way through the you know, the assistant coaching world.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of advocates.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of advocacy there in the state
of Texas or Joy McGuire to be the guy, and
there's a huge, huge community that wants him to succeed,
not only at Texas Tech, but I think in the
entire state of Texas.
Speaker 4: Well, one hundred.
Speaker 5: Because of it's such a big deal down in Texas
high school football.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about in football in general.
Speaker 1: And you coached high school football in Texas for how long.
Speaker 5: I was down there between seven and twenty thirteen, so
what six?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Enough years you grew up there, wouldn't you say.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of high school football coaches, ig level
high high school fotball coaches that kind of feel that
they could coach at the collegiate level if given the chance.
Speaker 4: Yes, and they could.
Speaker 5: And but just like anybody else, especially coach maguire. Even
though so he goes from high school head coach to
an assistant college but only for five or five years,
and he becomes a head football coach at a major
Division one program. That doesn't happened. But boy, they kind
of run those programs almost small colleges anyway. I mean,
the stadiums, in the locker rooms and the weight rooms
are bigger than a lot of small Division I college
football programs and athletic departments.
Speaker 4: It's it's kind of insane.
Speaker 5: Now, the property taxes are through the roof there's no
state income tax, so they're allowed to put a lot
of money into the schools and the stadiums and the
weight rooms and the everything that involved around athletics down
there in the high schools. And so yeah, there's a foundation.
There's quite a bit of a foundation for a head
football coach.
Speaker 4: The resources that if he makes.
Speaker 5: The jump, it's not quite the gap that you would
see maybe from other states that don't have those same
type of resources. And so but he's done it very
successfully and really relatively quickly based on history of that
happening before him. Uh, and that's just a testament to
him and how he runs his runs a ship and
and it's it's impressive. And you know, you always if
you're from from Texas, you always gonna root for Texas
teams until they run up against your Alma manor Sure,
but yeah, I've always wanted Texas Tech and TCU and
s m U and Texas Not so much Texas A
and M because that's that's a different story. But everybody
else you want to see do well, you know, so
uh but uh, yeah, it's good stuff.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: Steve Klemens here on ESPN The Fan talking to BYU
Texas Tech.
Speaker 1: How do you see this game playing out?
Speaker 3: What stands out to you in your scatling report on
the Red Raiders. What will ultimately differentiate uh b YU
in this game in order to come out as winners.
Speaker 5: Well, I think the first thing, it's gonna be the
first quarter and a half. What that looks like at
the end of the first quarter, there's by you get
off to.
Speaker 4: Really their traditional slow start. Obviously they I think again
it's Iowa State again. The hangover I think.
Speaker 5: Bled into the first half of Iowa State, and we
struggled both offensively and defensively a little bit and then
took coach yard at halftime and right of the ship
and Texas Tech does most of their damage in the
first quarter. Now, we've given up a lot defensively. Now
it's not a whole heck of a lot, but where
we're we've been most vulnerable defensively has been the first quarter.
Speaker 4: In the scoring allowed in the first quarter.
Speaker 5: So I think that I believe we're thirty five and oh,
if we score first, I think something like that. So
if we score first, we've got a really good shot.
And I think if we just at least keep it
close and be able to manage the game plan. I
think it's going to be a lower scoring game. I
think it's going to be just like similar to Utah
Where's that, you know, in the twenties, and it's going
to go back and forth. But I don't know if
anybody can then score in the forties because both defenses
are so dang good. So but I think the first
quarter coming out and not necessarily a quick start, but
a little bit quicker than normal.
Speaker 4: I think with a week off, you may see something.
Speaker 5: I think a Rod does really good on the triggeration plays.
Oh yeah, having an extra week, so you may see
that early in the game.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: That's just a guess of mine, but I will say this,
And we talked last week about the importance of the
Iowa State game to me, I think being one of
the biggest bigger wins that we've had this season, if
not the biggest win because of beating the arrival, not
putting all our eggs in the basket, and going over
to Iowa State and laying an egg no pun intended,
like we did last year after we beat or Utah
and then we lost the next two games, and so
I think that was a maturity thing, and a maturity
win by not just the players, but the staff too.
I think this team is different because of that, and
so it's going to be interesting. And I feel so
much better going into this game knowing that Iowa State
has already happened and you're playing in a ruckets crowd
and college game day and all the hooplaw. But on
Wednesday's practice, I think in the past, if I've gone
to a Wednesday practice, it'd be it'd be a lot
looser than it was.
Speaker 4: Man, I'm telling you. They were locked in. They were focused.
Speaker 5: They knew what the stakes were on this coming Saturday tomorrow,
and they practiced like it. They weren't just going through
the motions.
Speaker 4: There was a purpose to.
Speaker 5: Every rep, to every throw, to every tackle, to every.
Speaker 4: Station and drill.
Speaker 5: And I think that's that I've seen a difference there
Whereas in the past a little bit more of loosey goosey,
a little bit more I don't want to say undisciplined.
There was just more of a locked a locked in
focus mentality. This is not just for Big twelve, but
this is national implications this game on Saturday. Now, granted
they still think they can get in the playoffs, if
they split, if they go three and one and even
lose one here in the next four games, I don't
know if two losses gets his end.
Speaker 4: But I don't know how stranger things have happened.
Speaker 5: Uh, but I do think that this is a different
team because they're they're they're their makeup psychologically to me
is the big difference maker between years of.
Speaker 4: Past and this, uh is Kalani's tenth year. I'd be all, you.
Speaker 3: Pretty crazy to see what Kilane is accomplishing in year ten,
building a championship program something that, uh, you'll be we
guysn't really haven't been able to able to get over
the hump, right, Like even in the ninety six, uh
ninety six season, two thousand and one, season six O
seven nine twenty twenty yard Shore versus Coast Carolina twenty
twenty one lost a couple of heartbreakers, right you know
your era, I don't know, like you know when you
ponder on your ear, like just couldn't get over the
hump in order to get into those New Year's Bowl
New Year's Bowl games and you know, sit at the
top with the food chain and be elite once again.
We've always been great since nineteen seventy two, and we
were elite maybe in nineteen eighty four, eighty five and
those early eighties, but it's time now. It feels like
the glory days may be back. Do you think YU
can get over the hump this year? Do they have
the horses, do they have the coaches, do they have
the culture?
Speaker 5: I think they checked, yes, I think they check all
three boxers with the talent level and not just the
talent level, but the maturity of the talent level a
little bit older.
Speaker 4: A lot of guys are back from last year.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 5: We haven't talked about the freshman little phenom in the
backfield wearing number forty seven.
Speaker 4: We will, and that's probably probably.
Speaker 5: An anomaly, but I think everything was set up and
in place for him there to be successful, because you're
coming in with an outstanding defensive coordinator who's now had
the range for three years and now he's implemented all.
Speaker 4: Of the things that he likes.
Speaker 5: He's put a stamp on that side of the ball,
meaning Jay Hill. And when you have I'm telling you
as a signal caller to have a defense like we
have right now, Boy, it just alleviates a lot of
pressure that you might otherwise feel if Indeed, back in
the day in the nineties, Chow would come up every
Monday and get up in front of the room and go, hey,
we've got to score forty seven points this year or
this week, because you know the guys in the next
room are going to give up forty five.
Speaker 4: And he would just call it lucky.
Speaker 5: See that we struggle defensively back in the in the
early nineties, and he would say he would give us
a number every Monday. Okay, we got to score forty two.
We got to score fifty two because their offense is
really good and we have we struggle stopping people.
Speaker 4: So on the floor.
Speaker 5: So that puts a lot of pressure on the offense
and especially the quarterback because you know you almost have
to score every possession.
Speaker 4: Bear doesn't have to do that.
Speaker 5: And with a defense like that, and then the cultures,
it's just the foundation of everything and the culture. To me,
I saw it firsthand on Wednesday, based on the Wednesday practice,
which is the lighter practice. But it's it's not a
light practice. It's not a light in any form or fashion.
It was business. They knew what they were what Saturday
meant and everything was with purpose and attention in the
detail from the drills to seven on seven that to
every thing that they did, there was a purpose and
that comes from Kilani and that comes from a staff
that is now finding itself and has been here now.
Speaker 4: For a little bit together.
Speaker 5: I think what made us so good BYU, but we
never got over the hump was the sustainability of all
the coaches. I mean, coaches were here twenty twenty five,
thirty years and that obviously proved dividends being consistent like that,
and so I really do think the talent, the culture
stands to get us over the hump this year. And
it's sustainable.
Speaker 3: Ye Tooble, just like a onele this is not just
one year.
Speaker 4: No, no, it's not.
Speaker 5: And we're lucky and we're gonna be lucky because I
think some of the Iowa states of the world of
people like that, they're gonna have that one year every
five or six yep. And we've had that really to
a point the years that you just mentioned. But I
really do think everything's coming together to have this be
sustainable starting you know, really the last couple of years,
but especially the last two years, and to be that
have that now as the expectation, which puts a lot
more pressure on Claude.
Speaker 4: But what's as fine. I think he'll take that.
Speaker 5: He'll take that pressure versus just trying to get to
a freaking bowl game every year.
Speaker 3: Well, quota so that you know over the last sixty
years is eight wins. That's would be what you average is.
So that's quota in any given year. It's not bowl game,
it's it's it's eight wins. So I'm wondering if that
quota will continue into the P four era, where you know,
now year three and you went five and seven, then
eleven and two, and now you're on a trajectory to
possibly surpass eleven wins depending on what happens here on
the back end of the schedule. But I mean last year,
a known you lost a few games on the back end.
We'll see what happens. But one of the reasons why
most PLI fans are very optimistic is because the true
freshman Bear Bachmeyer, the god damn centaur, you know, the
the air bear, the what is the bear forty seven?
The days of forty seven? Because he's leading by U
two glory in victory right now. His stoicism, his running ability,
his throwing ability.
Speaker 1: He does it all.
Speaker 3: And you called him the right handed, better throwing tim
Tebow and everyone just was there was weeping, wailing, gnashing
of teeth, all manner of criticism heaped on you. Yeah,
but you've been validated at SAMs. You've been maybe even
vindicated here. What do you like about Bear right now
and how he's playing?
Speaker 5: I think the older I get, the more I tend
to focus on neck up rather than neck down and
fundamentals and athleticism and talent, because he has all that,
but it's his ability to whether he makes a bad
player a good play. He's always thinking about the next
play and being present and so getting back to a
calmness about him because he never he can't really tell
a lot of times if he indeed threw a touchdown
pass or left over a guy or threw a pick
or from the ball, because he's so even keeled, And
that's a lot of times.
Speaker 4: Talent will separate all the time.
Speaker 5: But then it's the ability to overcome or handle adversity,
and how do you do that? How do you react
to things that don't go your way or things you
want to go your way?
Speaker 4: How do you react to that?
Speaker 5: But at the same time, we always forget how about
those times that.
Speaker 4: We're on a high.
Speaker 5: How how quickly can we get back to normalcy or
even kill about our mentality and our psychology? Because so what, Okay,
you threw a touchdown pass. Now what you still you
still got to finish the game, right. You can't get
all up jacked up and go yeah, I'm I'm the dude,
I'm the man and forget oh yeah, we've still got
three quarters left to play. So it's it's his ability
to get back to evenness, as I.
Speaker 4: Would call it.
Speaker 5: And and he just performed that a high level in
all facets.
Speaker 4: You see, maybe you just got a three on your
passing game after and again I think.
Speaker 5: That was the biggest win of the year, going to
Iowa State after beating Utah and having the game that
he did through the air. So now Texas, tex Yeah,
the dude can throw now too well crap, okay, crap,
because we had something for him if he was just
gonna run. But now Bear in the big Blue House
can throw the ball, so we we gotta, we gotta
And then what's your name? JoJo's coming back? Yeah, So Yeah,
they're gonna have and then you know, Parker is just
every every week is getting better and better.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, they've.
Speaker 5: Got some weapons outside of number four and number forty
seven on the ground, and of course the unsign heroes
are always going to be the officers lineman.
Speaker 4: That's the backbone of the team is I would always.
Speaker 3: Sayest this week at the high level, they're gonna be
test will big time.
Speaker 1: This is their biggest testing season.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 5: Man, it's gonna be a knocked down drag out and
we're ready for it. I'm telling you. Wednesday, I saw
some things that I was really fired up about, and
that was the professionalism and the going on a business trip.
Speaker 4: As they say, that's that's what they're doing.
Speaker 5: It's it's not. They're not going on a site season.
You're not going sight seeing in Lubbock, Texas. Sorry, ain't nothing.
Speaker 1: There, ain't nothing. What about Huntsville? Is there anything in Huntsville?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean at least we got to state prison. Everybody.
Speaker 3: Okay, this's gracious oh man. Steve Clement's ladies and gentlemen,
former b y U quarterback talking ball with us today.
A great segment. Man, appreciate you hopping on? You heading out?
Are you staying?
Speaker 1: Are you staying here in Utah?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: I like to be able to see my bathroom and
my fridge at the same time, so I'm will stay.
Speaker 1: Here, all right. I love it man.
Speaker 3: Well, always a pleasure talking ball with you. Give me
a score prediction. How does this game play out?
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go twenty three to twenty one.
Speaker 3: Cougs, Let's go close one, a gritty one out in Lubbock.
You be what you gets the dub per Steve Clement Clements,
Thanks so much. Steve always appreciate her time together in
our weekly segments keeping up with the Cougars.
Speaker 4: See dude, all right, there you go.
Speaker 3: That's Steve Clemens, ladies and gentlemen, And that segment was
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Speaker 1: Today, we'll go to break.
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