Speaker 1: What's going on in the world of Cougar athletics Here
from players, coaches and experts on all the latest happenings
with the Coopers.
Speaker 2: From the Back to the Sports one and three nine
nine eight point three ESPN The Van I've been Bridle
broadcasting from Crumble the Crumble location in Pleasant Grove, Crumble,
Timpanoga's two zero eight five West four fifty South two
zero eight five west four to fifty South and Pleasant Grove.
It's the special edition of the Rivalry Show. We got
former and current BYU players showing up. Body scooned over Noaho, Jacki,
Connor Pay, Jamal Williams. We have current and future Utah
football player showing up Nate Richie, Kennan Pula, Jaron Pula
and more. Where red or blue to support your team
and enter for a chance to win free cookies for
a year. Okay, so stop on by, say he low
and get yourself some delicious cookies here at Humble in
Pleasant Grove. We're gonna get into a little world of
BYU sports here with a former ricks college baller shot Collar.
He ended up becoming a personal trainer, a human performance guru.
Once upon a time, Jamal Williams had to redshirt.
Speaker 3: He had been injured.
Speaker 2: Okay, he exited BYU UH and and it was a
it was a rough time for him. He found a mentor,
he found a coach in Luke Khan that helped him
through the process, refined him, transformed him. Jamal Williams ended
up training with Luke Khan down in Arizona for an
entire offseason and he became a monster in two thousand
and sixteen. And that's what we got to enjoy is
BYU fans. In my opinion, yes, because of Jamal, his genetics,
his work, ethic, who he was. But you need mentors
in our in your life in order to maximize your
talents and abilities, and Luke Hahn was that mentor, that coach.
Let's welcome Luke in to this segment. Luke, how the
heck are you, budd appreciate you being here.
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Ben, thanks for having me great.
Speaker 3: Seeing you again, Hey, a blessing of pleasure.
Speaker 2: I know we like to text and call and chat,
but it's great to see you in person. I apologize
because I'm I'm suffering through this cold that's been going around,
so I'm popping.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know my my cough drops and drinking as much water.
But man, appreciate you being here to support locals, to support.
Speaker 3: These uh these uh former Cougars, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And uh, it's just a blessing to have you, Luke
this play.
Speaker 3: Your football team has been fun to watch, hasn't it.
Speaker 1: It's been great, man, It's amazing. Every week it's something different.
There's never there's never a boring time watching them. It's
always excitement. It always keeps you on your seat.
Speaker 4: Whether they're on offense or were they on defense or
special teams.
Speaker 1: It's always something that they're pulling out of the out
of their hat, A rabbit half something.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: From you know, you know these coaches, you know some
of the players as well. From your perspective, like, what
stands out to you about the Kilani Shaitaki era. Obviously,
Jamal came in right at the beginning of the Kilani
era twenty sixteen, and he took the world by storm
in twenty sixteen, one of the best running backs in
college football.
Speaker 3: But what stands out to you about the Kilani era?
Speaker 1: I think just experiencing being up at BYU and working
out with Jamal up there, I think Kilani gives you
that vibe of it's all one hundred percent of family,
doesn't matter how long you've been removed, and you're always welcome,
and that you don't find a most institutions, if at
all any So for me, it's just wonderful knowing that
you know, we can go up there and the door
is always open. Whatever you need, just go ahead and
ask for it or get it or whatever.
Speaker 4: We can help you however we need to.
Speaker 1: So I think I see a lot of that understanding
where these players they cling to that, and they a
lot of these players, some of these players they want that.
They want that love away from home. And if you're
coming you know, say from Chicago or from you know,
Arkansas or somewhere, and you leave your home, you have
that family right here in Probo and it's not just there.
It's like Crumble, you know, you have these different outreaches
people that want to help you feel more comfortable and
feel at home. So I think it's really great. And
then you can't beat the mountains, man, there's no one's
up the mountains right now.
Speaker 4: You can't beat that.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, man, it's a it's a beautiful place. No
doubt about it. But it takes that extension of family, right.
You need coaches, Everyone needs coaches, everyone needs mentors. You
became a coach, you became a mentor, you were a
football player. You knew the impact that mentorship and coaching
had in your individual life. Your personal journey is uh
is unique, right, and and so you've given back because
of the impact that coach Han specifically provided to you
when you were at Ris, when you were born, when
you got recruited, you know, from your home state to
go out to.
Speaker 3: Idaho and Ris Junior College.
Speaker 2: Expand on that a little bit how important family and
coaching and mentorship was to you, and how you've tried
to give back in that regard.
Speaker 1: For me, it was very moving, and you gotta, I
gotta apologize because it's a little bit, you know, clutching
in my throat. My dad at the time was my
college football coach at Rich College, and you know, I
was a kid that came from a very very abusive
background and no one cared and.
Speaker 4: No one loved me.
Speaker 1: And to have that person be my role model for
so long from nineteen eighty six and then finally adopting
me as his son and you know, it meant the
world to me because I've been through so many things
in my life that I had to go on by myself.
Where most kids they come from family backgrounds and they
have their dynamics that mom, the dad, or an uncle
or auntie or grandma or somebody that loves him and
takes care of them, where from me, I didn't have
any of that. So I have to learn all these
lessons on my own, and then to have him be
in my life and to take the step to want
to adopt me, and to have a mother that loves me,
that wants me that you know, just wants to hear
my laugh and he wants to see me smile. To
come to an environment like Rick's College because my dad
at the time when he was the head coach at RIX,
a lot of the kids would feed him too byu
you know, like the Jay Hills, like the Aaron Rodericks,
like the Justin Anderson's, they all fed from They all
came from Ricks College. So to know the personal relationship
that I've had with these guys and that my dad
hasn't impacted me to have with these young men, to
move forward and to continue to mentor and to keep
that legacy name and just continue to do the things
that I know he would have done, and for him
to pass it on to me, for me to be
able to do those things for those young men.
Speaker 4: It's a great reward, it's a great blessing. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why did you step into that role? How did
you step into that role with Jamal?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: How did you get connected to Jamal Williams through his
journey from Byu to the state of Arizona.
Speaker 1: I had a bishop, my bishop at the time in Scottsdale,
in the Mountain View ward in Scottsdale, and he had
reached out to me and he had told me said,
you know, there's a young man that we have gotten
a call from from the church as you from the school,
and I feel that you would be best for him.
Speaker 4: Would you be able to would you be would you
would you take that challenge?
Speaker 1: And I said, well, sure, who is it? So told
me the name and I said, okay, sure. At that time,
he had, you know, going through the injury with the
acl mcl pcl ankle all that stuff. So at that point,
who wants to be around that person that that person
thinks would want to be around them.
Speaker 4: The will no one he normally wants to be.
Speaker 1: Around you because you can't if you can't give them anything,
because who you were before is what they saw. Now
they're seeing you at a different level, and that's where
that loyalty comes in. So my thing was I didn't
look at any of that stuff. I just looked at
the individual and said, you know, sure, let's go ahead
and let's.
Speaker 4: Let's let's get this thing a a twirl.
Speaker 1: And the time how we spent together, we gained so much,
so much knowledge about one another, so much love and
so much care, and that relationship blossomed into what it
is now is you know, as a parent and a child.
And it's amazing because it shows you how the Savior
works in your life. The things that you never thought
you would do are the things that he most likely
blesses you to accomplish, not just to do, but to accomplish,
and then to see as journeying that he's on right now,
you know, in the NFL, you know, And to have
a relationship where I don't want anything from you, I
don't need anything from you, You don't need anything from me,
You don't want anything from me, But together. We help
each other and we accomplished things together. Not a lot
of people may not understand that relationship. And again, my
dad would always say, when you're chosen in life, it's
a bigger difference than when you accepted. The Savior chooses
us parents choose to have a child. And so for me,
I feel like I've been chosen and he's been chosen,
that we've been chosen together to be together through this process.
And it's a process, but at the end of the day,
that's what the Savior has said for us.
Speaker 3: The transformative powers of.
Speaker 2: Discipleship and mentorship, you know are you know they're cross generational, right,
and and you learn through that process. You've learned through
that processing it from your father, coach On who passed
away recently.
Speaker 3: May he rest in peace. He lived a legendary life.
Speaker 2: We shall lebrate that obviously, and the impact that he
had on many of those players that you mentioned and
went to by U or ended up at at Utah
or ended up at any variety of schools and be
pretty seeing high level talent.
Speaker 3: But high high, high quality people. And that's what it's
it's truly about.
Speaker 2: We got lu Khan here on ESPN the fan, coach
mentor developer of people, but specifically you know Jamal Williams,
which Jamal holds a special place in BYU fans are
right same with Mama Williams, right like, probably two of
the most h I would say favorite people amongst Cougar
fans in the modern era because of the unique personalities
that they have, uh, the genuine nature that they have
and and the former fashion which they interacted and embraced
the BYU community. I mean, you've seen that, You've experienced that.
What makes the Williams family so unique.
Speaker 4: And so special?
Speaker 1: I think the I think what makes makes it unique
and special is the fact that you touched on they're
just very, very fun to be a very energetic and
you can't say a lot about that kind of stuff.
That's just something that some people are born with and
you can't just practice those things.
Speaker 4: It's just it's just who you are.
Speaker 1: So I think for those type of personalities in an
environment like this, it's welcoming. It's really more of an
adopting because you're adopting that personality and then you all
of a sudden you see jam All throw the ball
out in the field. You know, you see them out
there dancing. It becomes contagious. You want to start doing it.
I want to come to Byu and I want to
throw the ball out like he does. I want to
come to b Yu and I want to be able
to dance like he. Matter of fact, I don't have
to come here to dance. I can dance in my state.
I can dance in my seat. So I think it's
very I think it's one of those things where it's
very encouraging, it's very embracing.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he became a legendary player because of
the way he played, There's no doubt, because of the productivity.
Arguably the best running back together to ever come through
Byu and the records that he said, but he imprinted
in every Bayu fans art a certain love, a certain
intrinsic connectivity between them and Jamal, even though Jamal maybe
did never like really interact with them in an interpersonal way,
but somehow he connected with them and that was very transcendent.
You've seen the the impact that he's made in many communities,
not just the Bau community, as he's gone to all
of these different NFL organizations explain that component too, Like
the impact that Jamal's made at every organization that he's
he's ended up at.
Speaker 4: I think with the organizations that he's ended up Green Bay.
Speaker 1: Starting there, Mike McCarthy was the head coach and Mike
McCarthy drafted him. He was very His impact was felt there.
He got inducted into the Bookie Hall of Fame there.
He had a great career there. He went on to Detroit.
Dan Cavil and him were you know, pretty much hand
in him and with what they were doing building that product,
building that program to what it is now, and for
him to be a part of that was very significant.
Going to New Orleans and then you know, he enjoyed
his time there. Unfortunately, he had hamsterring that he had
been dealing with since he was in college, and the
hamstring finally showed himself through his first year in New
Orleans and then he never really could get back on
track there. Going into the communities now where he's in Mapleton,
I use there. He does so much for that community
out there. You know, he'll sign stuff for people. People
will come up to him and I don't want to
bother you, and he said, well, you're not bothering me.
Speaker 4: I live here part of the community. So he's very
he's very open in that way.
Speaker 1: People will walk by and they all say, hey, I
see your cats in the window, you know, because he
has cats, and I see your cat's in the window.
Speaker 4: And he's like, well, thank you.
Speaker 1: Anytime you want to come and look at my cats
or mess what play with him, you come on by.
So he's very welcoming, very open, And for me seeing
that transition take place, it's wonderful because again as a parent,
you look at that kind of stuff and you say, wow,
I remember when you were this way, and now I
see you this way, and I see the trajectory continuously
moving forward and moving up in your benefit. So it's
amazing to see the young man he is at thirty
years old now than the young man that he was
at nineteen years old eighteen years old. It's amazing to
see those transitions. It's amazing to see him go to
Scottsdale and interact with people, goes to the skating rink
and talks to people, and goes to the neighborhoods and
pulls people's trash cans in after the trash truck goes by,
and it's just those things that you don't see on
the football field that he does behind the scenes. You
know that people don't understand. And you know he's in
great shape, that's the thing. And he works out. He
works out every day.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm hoping it didn't call's coming maybe hopefully.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of movements
going around right now, a lot of NFL, a lot
of the guys obviously getting hurt.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: For him, it's the thing where you know, he is
in the best shape he's ever been in his entire career,
which is scary.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And there's no hamshring issues anymore.
Speaker 1: You know, everything his mind, mental, he is one thousand
percent different three sixty in his mental, preparational, his physical,
his spiritual. I mean, I'll be honest, Jamal, and I
went and got a blessing from his bishop and well,
not hiss. He's not a member of the church in
the in the bishop that the church that I go to,
that tan the ward in the forty first ward.
Speaker 4: He got a blessing last Thursday.
Speaker 1: Love that, you know, and that's amazing to see him
making those transitions, those steps to try to get closer
to the Savior and to understand that. You know, the
Savior went through things too, and God allowed him to
do those things. But the Savior all also went back
to the Father, and that's where he's at right now
looking at you know, I'm going through certain things. Jamal
went into the NFL red carpet, and that's what him
and I was talking about.
Speaker 4: I said, you went into the NFL red carpet.
Speaker 1: You didn't get free agent contract, red carpet drafted the guy. Sure,
now you're getting ready to understand how the guys that
didn't get your treatment, how they are now, how that
part of the business is. So now you'll have both
sides of the globe to understand.
Speaker 4: You're going in as a red carpet.
Speaker 1: Now you're going in as a free agent, and now
you've got to play for another couple more years. And
then you walk away from it and say, you know what, Hey,
I've had both ends. I've been on both spectrums, So
I know how if I'm working, if he's broke up
with a young man, Hey, I know how it feels
to be drafted. Hey, I know how it feels to
be a free agent. Now he brings so much more
to the table. So I'm very very thankful. I'm very
excited for him for his next step moving forward and
playing ball again.
Speaker 3: You need that spectrum.
Speaker 2: It gives you a whole lot more gratitude, a whole
lot more perspective, and you can mentor it a higher level. Indeed,
the bitter and the sweet, right, yes, the good the
bad you know it's not bad though, well well experience, Yeah,
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Uh And and look like
you know, when I say the good and bad, it's
like it's just the spectrum of like what's that old
adage of the old saying where it's like, you know,
like the Brent off, like, yeah, that could be good
or bad, you know what I mean, Like it all depends.
And then you know, somehow like there's a there's these
these these sequential actions that end up turning out to
actually be good on the back end. It's just perspective,
It just experience, and there's wisdom in.
Speaker 4: All of it, exactly.
Speaker 3: So lukhn ladies and gentlemen, love and appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for being here, Thanks for supporting locally, Thanks for
being a part of the community, Thanks for uh lifting
where you stand. Thanks for mentoring a young Jamal Williams
needed that and look at look at what you guys
have accomplished together from that time that you guys came together.
Speaker 3: It's it's truly to.
Speaker 2: Me one of the best stories of BYU football over
the last thirty years. Right that that you know his
his struggles, his adversity, and how mentorship and and support
aided him to elevate him to an even greater height,
right to reach new peaks. And so love you, appreciate you,
thanks for being here here at Crumble. We got you
some cookies, right, you got that.
Speaker 3: Hey, we got to say one thing, Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: I just want to say I love my wife, I
love my daughter and mom.
Speaker 4: I'll see you in a couple hours.
Speaker 3: Let's go mom. Shout out to mom as well. We'll
go to break.
Speaker 2: Don't go, I stop by here at Crumble. We'll welcome
in Jamal Williams on the flip side. Get updates from
him as well. Here on your utah. ESBN ready to
network one O three nine ninety eight point three