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Elevate suit today. Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome
bite former b YU great quarterback. We got Steve Clements
on the Live.
Speaker 3: Steve. How you living, Buddy?
Speaker 4: I'm good, Ben. How are you my friend?
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm doing fantastic living the dream man number one?
Speaker 3: How's the fam? How's work? How's life?
Speaker 4: Oh, life of glorious? FAM's great? Getting ready for Christmas?
All the things that go around, all the madness and
the method to the madness and everything above, all of
the above. That's good, man, really good, Love it man.
Speaker 3: Blessings on blessings.
Speaker 2: How would you describe this BYU Cougar football season? Right
eleven and two, you're only two losses or to the
number team in the country.
Speaker 3: That number four team could be the national champion.
Speaker 2: At the end of the year, You're going to the
Orlando pop tarch Bawl and taking on a top twenty
five opponent.
Speaker 3: In Georgia Tech. How would you describe this season.
Speaker 4: I believe I predicted. I believe it was nine and four.
So for me individually, it was a success, and I
think generally speaking, in my opinion, it's a success. I
think what is happening in the last three years is
there's now a pattern of consistency, and now with that
comes expectations, and you're always going to have unrealistic expectations
from the fan base, whatever school you're cheering for, whatever
NFL team, sports team, or whatever. There's always going to
be that sect of fans that are very unrealistic in
the expectations. And that's fine, that's great. That's what makes
sports great too, because a fan is a is short
for fanatic, right, that's kind of That's a great thing
about sports and following a team and getting behind someone
and supporting them almost till death to his part. It's
in some facets of that. I don't go to that extreme,
but for me it was a success for many of
the things you just outlined. Our two losses are from
a lot of fun to say, could be a national
champion twenty twenty six. When it's all said and done,
they have a extraordinary defense. They're all building a program
of consistency. Jack was not even when the Leech was
there and Mahomes and you know, they started to be
on the radar, but still they were, you know, their
best string of victories or when loss records were probably
nine and three and eight and four, and they were
never in the national picture ever, at least in football.
And so there's a lot of up and comers and
I think byu is now is returning to that pattern
of consistency over the last couple of years. And sure
expectations are going to be a little bit harder, but
our expectations aren't going to be any higher than the
head coach himself or a Rod or Jay Hill themselves,
or the players themselves. So I mean that's it's not
gonna be anything foreign to those guys because they're they're
not competing against teams a lot of times, they're competing
against themselves and how can they can better themselves? Kilania,
how can he better himself as a head football coach
and a leader of b YU football And so we
always have I mean, if you're you're done it the
right way, these these realistic expectations that are also measurable.
So in sport you measure success or failure really by
wins and losses, and sometimes that's very unfair in sports.
That's why we keep score. There's a winner and there's
a loser. I wants you're a play soccer, then there
could be a tie. But I digress. And so for me,
long answer, short answer, yes, absolutely success.
Speaker 2: So an overachieving success. It sounds like from your your
your evaluation, right, an overachieving success. Going eleven and two,
you predicted nine and four correct, Okay, even though it
was the better throwing right handed tim Tebo that was
leading BYU to glorin victory, you said nine and.
Speaker 4: Four, right, that's right, that's right. You know what you
know and you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: So for those b YU fans that are a little
troubled by the offense still, they feel like, hey, we're
missing something offensively. A ROD is missing something offensive. This
is what I'm getting back, right. They're very happy about
the defense, very happy about special teams overall the last
couple of years.
Speaker 3: They feel like there's.
Speaker 2: A little bit of a void, little bit of much
needed improvement somewhere, and they want an analyst to come
in and support a ROD what's your reaction to that?
When you hear those commentaries, those evaluation from fans, I mean,
I mean, I'm getting hit up about it, right, They're like, hey,
why not get an analyus like Gary Anderson that on
the office side of the ball.
Speaker 3: That's what they're saying.
Speaker 4: Your reaction, right, boy, offense is very very difficult to call,
to manage, to coordinate.
Speaker 2: And everybody knows you were how long did you coach?
How long did you play college ball?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And then how how many years did you coach and
coordinate on the offense side of the ball, And for like,
you know, give me a lit little bit of the
resume so that we know what we're talking about here
when we're where we're talking ball here and coordinating on
the offense side of the ball.
Speaker 4: Well, I always played. I played on the offense side
of the ball, playing quarterback my entire life.
Speaker 2: All American, coming out of high school in Texas, Okay,
all American, went to UT right and then transferred to BYU.
Speaker 4: Correct. There's two plays in high school when I was
a sophomore and which I got in on defense. We're
beating the team fifty six to nothing. One of our
safeties goes down and right next I'm standing right next
to the defensive Cordyor I got my helmet off, like
I'm done for the game this second half and we're
whooping these dudes and he's looking around he needs a
sub right now, Clement's go in. Well, I'm a sophomore, okay.
And Dad was never he was my coach, and he
would never allow me to play defense ever, because if
he loses me, you don't just lose you know, a
really good quarterback, you lose a second position on defense too, Right,
So I couldn't hold, I couldn't punt, I could do
anything but throw the freaking pigskin because people are going
to take cheap shots, and so I did that. I
had the same philosophy or my quarterbacks when I coached
in high school. So I coached in high school. After that,
I'm still coaching. So it's been thirty years, and outside
of the last couple of years on the fifth grade
B team team, I've coached offense. I was a defensive
coordinator for this fifth grade team last year. But yeah,
the majority ninety five percent of my coaching career was
on the offensive side, and so I get it, like
I understand it.
Speaker 2: Okay, So when you hear that, that's the feedback that
I'm getting right now, your reaction to it, and you
were saying how difficult it is.
Speaker 4: So I will say I was at the game in
Cowboys Stadium, and I was frustrated. I yelled for the
first time. I haven't. I don't typically yell in person
at a game because until well, you really think they
can hear you. It's like yelling, you know, through the TV.
But some way, somewhere in your brain you're like, yeah,
they're gonna they're gonna hear this one. They might not
hear everybody else, but watch they're gonna hear this, and
they're gonna change and they're gonna do what I want
them to do. I was frustrated we were not throwing
the ball down the field vertically. In the West Coast offense,
we learned to stretch. We're not just stretching horizontally. You
stretch vertically too. Even if a receiver is at thirty
yards down the field and you throw it at fifty,
the dB has to least at some point go I
may need to take it a half a step back
because there is a threat. There is a potential for
us to go down the field and having an explosive
play over the top of me. And I was very
frustrated that we didn't push the ball vertically down on
the field, except really for the one time we had
to pass interference call and got us fifteen yards but
against the Chase Roberts, I believe. But other than that,
it was we were going east and west with our
throw game, you know, and and that was, yeah, I was.
I was frustrated with it. And and I probably I
think what a wader was probably trying to do or
trying to wear out the defensive line and and run
them east and west back and forth. That's that's a
conjecture on my part because again it's really really hard.
But at the same time, yeah, I was highly frustrated.
I think we should have thrown the ball generally more
throughout the year, as Bear progressed in the throw game
than we did. He is extremely accurate and way more
accurate than I probably gave him credit for. But only
seeing him, you know, just before the season in practice, like, yeah,
he can throw it too. You hear about the running
and you see the legs and the backside and you're like, Okay,
he's gonna be a dude. But yeah, there's he's gonna
be a better throwing Tim Peele. He's way better throwing
than Tim Deepot. But I thought coming into the season,
yeah he's a little bit better. No no, no, no, no,
he's way better. And I think it at some point,
hopefully this next year or maybe even this or bowl game,
we just cut him loose and give him fifty six
attempts and go, okay, let's go, let's get ready for
next year. We're gonna we're gonna throw the crap out
of the ball. It's a bowl game, last game of
the year. Let's let's take the training wheels off and
let's go.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So that being said, it sounds like you're open to
a senior analyst coming into uh maybe aid and support
a rod.
Speaker 3: How difficult is that though?
Speaker 2: To have someone in here, you gotta trust them at
senior analysts that you really trust, that you have great
rapport with, right like that that's not you know, confrontational,
and that he's uh.
Speaker 3: On the team. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: They're an analyst, right, who's the who's the perfect Who's
the perfect analyst? The senior analyst to be right there
next to a rod in the booth helping him call plays, telling.
Speaker 3: Them, Hey, let's push the ball downfield.
Speaker 2: I think we can get We have a few wide
shoes that can win on the outside.
Speaker 3: Let's go.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'll do it. I mean, why not, let's go.
I don't know, that's a good question. I I haven't
thought about that until you just said it. As far
as bringing an analysis analyst in on that side of
the ball, yeah, I know, coach and on the defensive
side of the ball, Wow, I don't know. I really
think about someone with that type of experience, that, like
you said, has those qualities. It's it's not one that's gonna.
Speaker 3: Go because the reason why I say here is.
Speaker 4: A buck for his job.
Speaker 2: Anderson analyst that's in his he's in the twilight of
his career. He's been a head coach, he's been a DC,
he's like a part time senior analyst, and he's got
great rapport with Jay Hill, right, Like, there's really good
balance in all that.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, we've seen Sark be an offensive analyst at
Alabama when he was kind of coming off of you know,
it felt like Nick Saban was the guy to bring
in like head coaches that had fallen from Grace that
had coordinating ability, and then he'd pay him a nice
salary to be around one of the best programs, if
not the best program at the time. So like, you
could do something like that, Uh, there's no doubt about it.
Or you can bring in someone like Gary. I don't
know what the answer is, but I'm just id eighty here.
This is uh, this is radio right. Let me let
me take a step back here. Who's the greatest offensive
coordinator in b YU football history Steve And how many
fans wanted him fired? What percentage of fans wanted him
fired even when he was at his peace?
Speaker 4: That's that, Yeah, well that's norm.
Speaker 3: Show about half of them want him fired.
Speaker 4: Well, I was one of them, and I played for
him because and and and but I will I will
always say this, even though there was something said and
represented that didn't necessarily come true when I was there playing,
I have never ever denied the fact that I think
he was the greatest offensive line in football in that
era because his ability to really adjust on the fly,
not just have a great game plan, but adjust on
the fly. And he didn't coach the quarterbacks. He didn't
coach the receivers. He didn't coach alignment. He coached every
single position, down to how to break on a curl
route or I mean, he was so smart at every
position and knew exactly what everybody needed to do and
how to get there in the technique that was required
to get there. Man, when you have one of your
philosophies is well, I think the biggest one, the one
that stands out the most is I want somebody to
who makes plays. I don't care what they look like.
I don't care how tall, short, fast, slow, whatever. Can
you make plays? Period? Now you would take specifically to
the receivers. He would say the I'm gonna get this right.
Dredge is gonna kill me if I don't get this right.
The difficult catches a routine. The impossible catches just take
a little bit more time. So there was really no
room for error with his philosophy, especially with receivers. I mean,
he was a mini perfectionist, and he was really really
good at what he did. A master I think.
Speaker 3: Of it.
Speaker 4: Even though we had our differences as far as playing
time and whatever else, I'm not denying the fact that
the man was a freaking genius. And a lot of
what Leech learned was from obviously BYU and Norm was
there so and learned from those guys as well. I
don't know what he's doing, but I know he's been
retired for quite some time.
Speaker 3: He's seventy nineties was eighty enormous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, and I think he got more into the
you know, when he went pro there the latter part
of his career, he was already gearing his offense towards
that more of a run dominating offense that he had
kind of moved away from. You know, the fifty two
to fifty two tig in San Diego State, the Aztecs
back in the day in the early nineties and those
type of games that we had there in the early
nineties when I was playing there. But yeah, I don't
have to think about a name as far as that's concerned.
Now you look at Stark, he's in I don't think
he's the one that's ever gonna give that up. Like
if they were bringing analysis in there, what he did
early at UT, he brought an analyst in, but it
was Gary Patterson had TCU. Well, he's a defensive guy
as an offensive coach that was more for the defensive side,
and so I don't know if he'd even you know,
want analyst around. I mean, if if it was somebody
like Kiffin or somebody, but that's not happening anytime soon.
So I don't know. That's a that's actually that's a
really good question on who. I don't think about that.
Speaker 2: Hey man, Well, hey, search pondered pranoid and prep prep
you for it, but it just had a little ideation
session with you here on your Utai ESPN radio. Never
Steve Plymott's former b League quarterback, here on your on
your Cougar Sports show.
Speaker 3: Last thing before you.
Speaker 2: Let you go, Steve, if b YU wins, okay, Like,
does your satisfaction and how you view this season is
some of it determined by how b what you finishes
this season at the bowl game. You got to get
a win for this to be like one of the
best seasons in BWA football history.
Speaker 4: No, uh huh, I don't. I really don't. I think
I think we got shrew not being in the playoffs
right now, and so once that happened, it was and
I still think again that's tongue in cheek. I'm I
still think we had a successful season overall. I think
we had a successful season even before we played the
championship game, regardless of the outcome, but especially now, both
games are just a man, those are those are tough
because after a season like this and it's it's really good,
and then it's like you kind of fall off the
cliff and psychologically and mentally and we're almost there and
then we have to rely on a group of you
know people to decide whether we're in this college football
playoffs or not. And and really not based on resume
per se, because I mean, we had one of the
better resumes in those you know, ladder six teams that
made it. Maybe not the first six or seven there
it is, but you know the latter part of seven,
eight through twelve.
Speaker 3: But we got.
Speaker 4: Punished for playing in a championship game. Alabama did not,
and then our record spoke for itself, and yeah, we
just we got the raw end of the deal. But
I at least in my mind, I think I thought
it was already a success before that. So nothing's going
to change my mind anything that happens from here on out.
Speaker 2: So let's go Steve Clemens, Ladies and gentlemen. Steve always
appreciate our time together. Thanks for hopping on. We'll catch
up you again soon. Thanks for another keeping up with
the Cougar segment.
Speaker 4: Hi brother, take care man.
Speaker 3: There you go. That's Steve Clements.
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