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Speaker 2: Listening to Cougar Sports. Ben Krittle will be back in
ninety seconds on one three nine at ninety eight three
ESPN The Fan. What's going on in the world of
Cougar Athletics here from players, coaches and experts on all
the latest happenings with the Cougars.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Cougar Sports one of three nine, ninety eight
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Speaker 3: But he used to have a little world of BUE sports.
Speaker 1: Going to welcome to a former BA wide receiver talks
some ball today here the world of Boa sports. We'll
get into basketball, We'll get into some football again and
maybe some Olympic sports, some recruiting as well. Maybe discuss
how guys are playing nine years in college football, now
in five medical red shirts, and maybe there's a BAU
football player out there that that will come back to
Provo and ball out for Brigham this year. This second
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eight hundred ninety seven six seven. That's eight one, eight
hundred nine seven six seven. Let's welcome in, the owner
operator said institution. We got Jared Blesso, former Boa Wide receiver,
talks on ball with us today. Jared, how there are you, buddy?
Speaker 4: What's up? Ben? Doing great?
Speaker 3: Living the dream man. Let's start off with this.
Speaker 1: You know from an eligibility standpoint, there's a USC linebacker
that just got his ninth year of eligibility back, sell
them on to leave. Oh no, he's at MONTANAA. So yeah,
he's a former USC linebacker now at montege.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: He's got like five medical red shirt.
Speaker 1: You wonder, it's like, Okay, if this guy is getting eligibility,
there's got to be a former b YU Cougar that
has some eligibility remain that could come back to pro
vot if they need him.
Speaker 5: There should be yeah, and there may be. You well,
we'll have to see what happens. But yeah, it's it's crazy.
It's crazy to think that you you you got that
that that much time in college football. But yeah, and
and and yet they denied Hinkley rebody, you know, so
the stupid it just makes you wonder, you know, maybe
he knows somebody that that Hinckley didn't know, you know,
up in the in the offices of the n cul
A and and whoever's making those decisions. But yeah, it's
crazy to think that you're you've been with in college
football for the Trevor Lawrence graduated and went into the
Graduate High school and was in the class that he
was in going into college.
Speaker 4: I did that take you back?
Speaker 3: Not only that. What's crazy is of course impact.
Speaker 1: Uh right, it was, it was, It was it Cursion Beach.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 1: You know, you have these situations where it's like they're
they're student athletes, but they're not even.
Speaker 5: Going to school, right right right they're So it makes
me wonder what are the requirements now, because you know,
I was deemed ineligible at one point going at at
Saddleback Junior College because I was missing three credit hours.
Three credit hours I was missing and I already had
my my my associate's degree, everything done, and they deemed
me ineligible based off off three credit hours. So it
makes you wonder what those stipulations are. Like, you're if
you don't have to go to class, you don't have to,
but you don't you have to. Don't you have to
enroll in a certain you'd be a full time student
order to play football in college?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well, I thought because Carson Beck went to Georgia, completed
his undergraduate degree like two years ago, goes to Miami.
Speaker 3: Uh, he has not gone to class in two years.
Speaker 1: He said that in his press conference leak up to
the National Championship Game, I don't know if you saw those. Yeah,
he says, I haven't even gone to class in the
last two years he enrolled. I have no idea. I
have no idea, but he you know, that's what he's saying.
Speaker 4: You know. So it's like the wild Wild West.
Speaker 5: You do what you want, and as long as everybody
is okay with it and nobody's turning in for something,
you're I guess you can.
Speaker 1: Do like underwater basket weaving. You can just be enrolled,
but you're not going to class because they're all electives.
Speaker 5: And it doesn't matter if you fail it, right, as
long as you're enrolled and you paid your tuition.
Speaker 4: We had to have a certain GPA, didn't we.
Speaker 3: You haven't otherwise, Yeah, the educating and administrative when it
meant something, there was a graduation rate.
Speaker 1: Uh, there was definitely some certain standards, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So we gotta have some standards here, right.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I wish we could have
taken advantage of you get your JUCO eligibility back, I
get my JUA. I was telling you know you guys offline.
I'm like, wait a second, I could have played in
eight and O nine. I could have been the winningest
defensive back in BUA football history. And the NC way
they stole it from me, right, they stole it from me.
I was proud of being a part of the n
C Double A whatever. Not today I am not?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well today I am.
Speaker 5: I would have loved to have those years back because
my meeting with coach Chow would have been a whole
different meeting. When he when he realized only had two
to play two, I was I was not on his
top list. If you had three to play two, if
you could read shirt this year, you'd be in a
good spot.
Speaker 4: But apparently it didn't work out. My favorite on that one.
Speaker 1: But spring balls around the corner though storylines seending get
into spring ball. Would you say, what are you looking at?
What are you evaluating? What are you intrigued by?
Speaker 5: So I was able to meet Kyler Casper. Oh yeah, yeah,
he got his car in and we tinted his truck.
You got a new truck, and so I asked him,
you know, he's coming from one of the best programs
in college football, coming through Oregon and and uh I.
Speaker 4: Had asked him, what's the difference like when you you
got here?
Speaker 5: By you the amount of guys that have stayed and
didn't transfrise.
Speaker 4: What is that like? He said?
Speaker 5: You know, the crazy part is we were in the
playoffs and we had twenty guys in the portal already.
Speaker 4: You know, he said, So you come here.
Speaker 5: And you've got all these guys that could have left,
or could have done something else, could have gone to
the NFL, or or even transferred out for more money maybe,
and they all want to stay. He said, he feels
it from the get go. He felt the difference, and
he said, it's something special with the team.
Speaker 4: I tell you what, this guy, though.
Speaker 5: He's a big body, I think he is an aggressive
I talked to him a little bit about his style
of play and having some more aggressive wide receivers out
there that are just physical, and I think he's going
to bring that. So it was fun to talk with him.
And I will say though he did show up and
his keychain was from.
Speaker 4: Oregon, I had a real problem with it.
Speaker 5: So I made some phone calls and some text messages
out to the equipment manager. I said, we need to
replace this. Even that lawn attacks and I said, look
a Rod got one too.
Speaker 4: This is our guy.
Speaker 5: He needs a new key chain. Somebody needs to step
out and get him a new key.
Speaker 1: Chase the love of all that Holly, and get this
freaking orgon yellow organ.
Speaker 4: Some choice words when I held it up to Yeah,
what is.
Speaker 3: What the h is this? Get this out of here?
It is.
Speaker 1: Hopefully he's repented, he's he's uh, he's switched it out
because he's like.
Speaker 4: A real solid dude.
Speaker 5: I'm excited to see what his Corett lineage.
Speaker 1: His dad was a fantastic football player in the National
Football League, played with the Broncos Ed McCaffery there. There
was a day at a kind of a really good
crew there in Denver. A good football player comes from
good stock, so that's gonna be There's a reason why
he was a four star out of high school, and
you wonder it's like, hey, if you would depress him, like, hey,
why why weren't you able to maybe get into the rotation?
What limited you?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 3: Why didn't they give you an opportunity?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's good questions. Yeah, maybe I should ask it.
Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, come on, that would have been the right question. Way,
why why why didn't you get any pt?
Speaker 3: No he did.
Speaker 1: He played special teams and he got separate receptions but like, obviously,
I'm sure Fesie you want to DEFESTI know about him
in high school and you know he had so many offers,
just couldn't get him. Look, I love his bounce back.
Pooka was a bounce back essentially. He was at Washington,
came into b y U. H Samson was at Utah,
came into b YU. We want Pooka floated into that suv.
You want to make sure Pooka someone's gonna reach out
to Pooka, Like, hey man, you want to be in
the limelight, but not this type of limelight, you know, Yeah, yeah, anyway,
but at any rate, we want these guys and hopefully
we can highlight them and hopefully they ball out. Yeah,
the wide receiver when we're still trying to figure out
he's his PK the wide receiver one very well could be.
Speaker 3: But who's who's going to be the top three? Who's
going to be the top four? Right now?
Speaker 1: Mike Guy Zach Erickson, who we chatted with early in
the show. He says, Reggie's going to be in the
top three.
Speaker 5: Reggie Fish Connect, Reggie the Baller. Yeah, I love Zach.
That's a good deal. I ended up wakesurfing with that dude.
Speaker 3: Hears back, and oh yeah, Zach, we love that. Yeah
he's my teammate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, great, great guy, runs a great program. Yes, right,
I mean amazing. But yeah, I think Reggie's gonna do
well too. And Reggie's got size, you know, and once
they started getting him in the game, you know, I
think he's going to do well.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It's it's gonna be fun to just see these guys
now where it's a little more open. Chase is gone there,
there's some more competitive juice going in to see who's
really going to take those spots, and it is kind
of open the two, three and four.
Speaker 4: It's like who who who is gonna be there?
Speaker 5: There's probably six guys that have an opportunity to get
that rotation, so let's see who can do it.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm interested to see.
Speaker 5: Also, as a Rod was talking a little bit about
the running back kid out of Lee High.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's been impressing in the off season.
Speaker 5: Right And and usually we've we've known and as I've
known a Rod for as long as they have.
Speaker 4: He he's not quick to put names out there.
Speaker 6: No, he's not not quick to get very hesitant yeah,
and so he did it with Bear last year, right,
And I mean from almost from the get go, this
guy's you know, the intelligent and and and he backed
it hundred percent.
Speaker 4: Bear backed it up as well.
Speaker 5: So if he's already talking like that, this this could
be you know, a one two three punch with SIONI
and and LJU and it could be a lot of
fun to watch.
Speaker 1: So I'll give you some insight in from the off
season training. This may intrigue you. Everyone wants to know
who's the fast who are the fastest guys.
Speaker 3: On the team? Right, sure, everyone wants to know, Hey,
who's the fastest guys?
Speaker 1: So I got I got your top ten here at
least their top end speed. I won't tell you what
the the mphs are, but like this is the this
is the fastest guy. Who do you think the fastest
guy in the team is? Who do you think the
fastest guy in the team is?
Speaker 5: It would either be Parker or or well, I don't
know who is at top speed.
Speaker 1: Top top top end speed. Who's got the fast this
top end speed? Cody, Cody's up there. Cody's up He's fast,
but he's also remember he got a little remember Cody
got a little bit deemed up, which.
Speaker 4: Is a different than a forty, right, because.
Speaker 1: You're yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is like, this is
like top end speed.
Speaker 3: The fastest, right fast.
Speaker 4: Got the longest stride, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And uh, and so this is the entire team.
Speaker 1: This is the entire team, all right, got So, fastest
guy on the team is Evan Johnson. Okay, Evan, Yeah,
second fastest. I mean, look, and this is you know,
like I said, fastest is like is it in the
twenties and the forties? This is like top end speed.
Kevin Doe, the project out of the East East uh
East High School. Will played basketball and was a converted
football player. He's been a defensive back. Yeah and uh
and he's seen playing time as a special player.
Speaker 4: He didn't play in high school. Is that the story?
Speaker 3: He didn't really play. I think he played one year
of high school football.
Speaker 1: This was a This was a guy that FESSI I
think evaluated and brought him in and then I think
Jay Hill signed off on it. And obviously he's been
a defensive back and he's played a little bit.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Number three, my guy Joe Douglas. Now not many people
know about Joe Tillis standby Park area, right, So he
was running he played high school football. But whose tight
ends d end right really linear kid ends up coming
off of his mission and he's he's running sprints and
maybe going to potentially do the Cathloic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a model there.
Speaker 4: Like he's like, keep your shirt on a round out
the ladies.
Speaker 1: The ladies love this guy. I tell Job I stay
away from the ladies for now, Like, let's make sure
you get into the rotation, get into specialty. Anyway, So
Joe third fastest, but he you know, he's playing playing safety,
made the team. He was he was at Utah State
last year running track, tried out, made it as a
walk on, and he's been playing free safe. You know,
still has a ways to go, but he's he's super
fast and explosively probably pound for pound. Also the strongest guy.
He's like, he's like Max Tuley, you know maxx is similar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like Max.
Speaker 1: They did move Max to free safety for a spring
ball because they're like, maybe we could use this speed.
I don't know if you remember the u USF game
at USF where Max Tuley was like tracking down from
the opposite side of the field anyway. He's kind of
like Max Parker Kingston number four, Jordan Chris cornerback number five,
Tommy Prass's number six, Crew Clark Shotton, Crew Clark, the
Idaho transfer at number seven, Canada Brees eight, Logan Payne nine,
Raider de Moony ten, Kyler Casper eleven, will Zundell twelve,
and then Trey Alexander thirteen. Joe Vessa's right there, Jared
esplind wide receivers. There follow Telsa to Wilid top fifteen.
Speaker 4: So those are you.
Speaker 1: That's like your top fifteen top end speed guy. Sure,
I thought that was interesting. Anything stand out to you?
I think surprised you.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it surprised me. I think I
think top end speed is one thing. It's not a
football metric really, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Like it there's there's so many guys that are you know,
one of those guys that maybe I clocked a four,
five nine one, so I could say I was a
four or five guy. But but in reality, you know,
it was all about getting in the space where you
need to be and it's not about full speed all
the time, you know.
Speaker 4: And and so I think that.
Speaker 5: It's it's great to have some just some lightning speed guys,
but really for me and football, it's the first three steps, right,
So I tell everybody, there's one dude I played football
with that had that zero to one hundred and three steps.
It was almost two steps, Ronnie Jenkins's there was nobody.
I mean that guy saw a hole, would cut in
two steps. Yeah, he's full speed and at one point
he was clocked at one A four to one six
U at b YU. I mean, just just insane. Great dude,
Love Ronnie, but yeah, fastest guy I ever played with.
Speaker 3: Then the next tier of guys that could get you excited.
Speaker 1: Trey Roberts wide receiver obviously, Chase Roberts, brother Fuller shirts punter,
Holy cow, Kato Lawave's right there.
Speaker 3: LG.
Speaker 1: Morten's right there, Charles Miska running backs there, and then
Walker Lions and Roger Saliapaga.
Speaker 4: His shirts to the back.
Speaker 3: Yeah he's the back of Butcher, the one that.
Speaker 4: Dropped the ball.
Speaker 3: Why why come on?
Speaker 4: Heye bring that up?
Speaker 3: Had he had one?
Speaker 4: The best thing about that? I don't know if I
told you.
Speaker 1: By the way, Jared Bledsoe, former punter at Ricks yeah,
so he do it all wide receiver and punter.
Speaker 5: So after that that game, we took our players to
the to the practice one day and as soon as
we walked in the field, guess who I saw in
the jugs machine.
Speaker 4: Punter was taking jugs balls just like. I don't think
it was that.
Speaker 3: He dropped it.
Speaker 1: He like just he he well, he dropped it in
front of himself, but he didn't swing his leg.
Speaker 5: It was it wasn't It didn't look like he fielded it.
It was where that ball was about to be kicked.
It went out of his hands before he was kind
of just it was. It was really odd.
Speaker 4: But he's fast, so yeah, he's fast.
Speaker 3: It sounds like, hey, I'm down with just let's go
hey Justin Ena, let's dial it in. Uh, let's let's
go Justin. I mean K Pop has done a really
good job with some of his face.
Speaker 1: I know there was a controversial one this last year
versus Tech though, and like we're like we can't even
move the damn ball anymore.
Speaker 5: And you relying on your Australian punch to throw it.
Come on, you know, there's yeah, not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Not not very good interest in the short side of
the field anyway, they were trying to get something. Yeah, yeah,
you know, Bob, I was hoping they pull out the
old uh you know, the Tyler Baddie Tyler baddy Uh
you know delay release, you know, with the personal protector.
Just run them right up the middle. See if you
can get somebody wide open up the middle. Anyway, But
you know, spring balls around the corner. Very excited about it,
and I can't wait to see what cam Klani looks
like in twenty and sight is one of the things
that was interesting. Brady Papinga brought this up, so Brady
said that he's intrigued to see how they operate. Spring
Ball will be a traditional competitive environment or will be
like an OTA NFL type of thing, where like there's
not much competition because you don't want to lose guys.
There's not much competition because you don't want to necessarily
get guys injured. It becomes a traditional OTA you know
very much thud, very much speed work, very much like
technique work. And then you get into fall camp because
they had a they had some attrition last spring along
their defensive line because they went after it a little bit.
They were it was kind of like a refining fire. Uh,
and some guys left after spring ball anyway.
Speaker 4: But I think they have to be competitive unless it's
a group.
Speaker 5: If you know all your starters already, you know who's
already going to be going, then I see the point
in doing that.
Speaker 4: And maybe some groups do that more than others.
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying that that's what they're gonna do.
Is is he he brought it up. I was like, Oh,
that's intriguing.
Speaker 1: Is he going to be more of an NFL style
or will it be a traditional college competitive style?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think it needs to be competitive for a lot
of the position groups in order to really show who's
gonna stand out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, all.
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