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October 28, 2025 • 23 mins
Ben Criddle talks BYU sports every weekday from 2 to 6 pm.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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It is tough for a little insider. We're going to
get into the mind of a former BAYU wide receiver
and discuss the win over Iowa State, how the offense

(00:49):
and a Rod did some magical things, Give them a
little bit of credit, give them their flowers, especially a Rod,
and discuss what a bye week will have that bodes
well for by you getting healthy, getting strong, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
We need it all right now.

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Films Utaprotective Films dot Com, customer center company that prioritizes transparency,
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Speaker 1 (01:23):
Give them a call.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Set up appointment today eight O one, eight hundred ninety
seven sixty seven. It's eight to one, eight hundred nine
seven sixty seven Utah Protective Films dot Com. Let's welcome in,
the owner operator said institution. We got former BYU wide
receiver Jared Bledshoe.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
In the house was up, Jared, what's up? Man?

Speaker 3 (01:40):
First and foremost house. Westlake's third grade team doing right now.
I heard we may have a ship, we may have
a chip that is pending.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
We absolutely do. We had a great game this past week.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
We played Mountain Viewing and they came out on top
forty two to twenty, so.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
We dominated performance. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
We've got a championship game this Saturday at two pm.
It's west Lake versus sky Ridge two undefeated teams about
to go at it, and we're excited so much fun
coaching these little guys and seeing them develop and grow,
and and we've got some superstars on this team that
are going to be some D one players cranking in

(02:22):
some nil one of these days.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Let's go get that nil. Boys, love bet.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Let's transition over to a win on the road versus
Ioway stayed in front of sixty two thousand fans, have
sold out crowd. I think this was actually the first
true roadtest. Some people say Colorado. Colorado was not nearly
as rockous, nearly as wild, nearly as loud.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
It just wasn't. You of A had a storm delay.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
You of A has I A would say a transient
fan base.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
It's just not.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
They're a basketball town. That's how it always has been
in Tucson. I have two brothers that attended U of A.
I'm from Arizona. They just don't got it. It's not
a true road environment. And there were other extenuating circumstances
with the rain delay.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Et cetera. So this was truly the first road game.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
And the great thing about this schedule, it's been this
incremental difficulty. It's been a certain level of incremental difficulty.
You play your best team I think you played is
actually Utahan. You got them at home in front of
your sold out crowd, but you didn't get them until
you know, the middle of the season, which was great.
You had a two freshman quarterback. It's setting up nicely

(03:37):
right now. And obviously b YU get some bye weekend.
Then they go on the road to Texas Tech. You're
you're on the road versus a very good Texas Tech team,
maybe the best team in the Big twelve. They have
one loss to a issue on the road, and they
had a bit of a pride cycle situation. But going
back to the Iowa State game, great lessons learned. What

(03:58):
were your takeaways from this game? What stood out to
you the most prominent things that you learned about this.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
BA football team.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, so the first half was was a challenge, right
we were we had our.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Backs against the wall.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
J Hill had a lot to absorb in that first
half and a lot to take into halftime with his
coaches and make some determinations on how they were going
to stop Iowa State.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Losing l J. Martin early in the game was a
big deal for BYU.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
And I'll tell you what Aaron Roderick as an offensive coordinator,
what he's able to do is he's able to take
the personnel that he has on the field and game
plan directly around them.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Who would have thought LJ would be out right? Who
would have thought that we would not rush? But what
was our total for rushing?

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, we we ran the ball not good right, right? No,
Comparatively we got to one hundred and three yards. By
the way, Bear was your leading rusher though, at forty
nine yards at twelve carries.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Press and Rex had six carries for seventeen yards. LJ.
Martin was five for fifteen.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Even when LJ was in, It's not like he was
he was killing the dominant, No, he wasn't dominating. Two
carries for Porker Kingston for twelve Enich Nowaheny had three
for ten.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
So going in, I'm sure the game plan was built
around running the ball of the play action day LJ
making you know, and LJ would have found it was
the beginning of the game. I think we were still
kind of feeling out what we needed to do, and
I think LJ probably would have still rushed for eighty
to one hundred yards had he been healthy the whole game.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
What Aaron Roddick was able to do.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Now, as we were talking earlier, you can have the
best game plan and send the best play in and
if the players don't perform, it doesn't matter. But he
has taken and put Bear in positions that he's confident
that Bear can can it can actually you know, complete
the pass, you know, and given him opportunities to make plays.

(06:00):
And Parker Kingston another great game, what a great what
a play? I mean that that end zone catch. And
by the way, when you watch that play and you
listen to it, the sound of the b y U
fans almost had a sense of home game when he scored.
When he took that ball at the high point into
that end zone, the sound was like, where are we?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
It sounds like we got rockies. It was kay, got
a little rockish too.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
He may have uttered a certain particular word that got
me a little lamped, got me a little hype.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Good good, and we need it, we need it. And
that's my fetching ball, he said, He said, fetch. Of
course he did, of course he did, b YU come on,
man's right.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
But you know, it was fun to watch, it was
It was great to see our our kicking game perform
well and and I feel like the confidence is back there.
One thing, just going back to Aaron Roders, So I
enjoyed texting Aaron after the games and and just kind
of throwing my two cents in and congratulating him on
the game. And one of the things that in these

(07:02):
close games where you're you're second guessing are we where
are we at? What are we gonna do? Are we
gonna make this? Are we gonna turn this thing around?
He always texts me, never a doubt, And I get that,
and I go, man, I don't. It just impresses me
that his confidence and his demeanor in these games is

(07:23):
what we are here to win, and we are going
to win, and there's not a doubt in his mind
that he's going to do it. And and it's very impressive.
I think he's one of the top coordinators, UH with
with taking personnel and and making them really really turning
them into to who they can become, and making sure
that that we have the right guys in the right.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Place called in order to be have the opportunity to
be successful.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
I've said there's two things about an A Rod coach
offense I'll add a third here. If you stay within
the architecture that that a ROD employees typically, you're gonna
be effective. You're gonna be efficient. If you go off
script a little bit too much, then then you're gonna
you're gonna be a rye. So you gotta be coachable

(08:10):
under a ROD system, and you got to comply a
little bit. And there are times where you can get
outside yourself. But more often than I think you saw
a little bit that like versus lower tier competition with
Zach Wilson, like he would he would do some things
that were not within the scheme, but he had elit
arm talent s and it was against lower level competition.

(08:30):
He could like he could throw a whole shot in
versus cover two to the pylon and it's good.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
It's like okay, like that's a good throw. But like
like versus.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Better competition is not gonna have anyway. He also needs
a good run game coordinator to an accent his in
my opinion, his great passing starts to remember his his
his foundation is wide receiver, okay, and then he transit
that into quarterbacks coach. That is his chef's kiss to

(09:05):
our play calling. But he needs someone to be able
to balance him out a little bit in the run game,
coordinating with technique, and he had that with Grimy to
a degree. But remember he wasn't initially the primary play card.
He was the pass game coordinator, and then he became
the primary play caller in two thousand and nineteen, and

(09:26):
then you brought in Funk, and that was more of
an issue of budget, and so it was not beneficial.
He could either go with a really young kid with
no experience in game planning, but could maybe recruit well enough,
and Technique well you know, I mean dependent, right, And
so it had been a really young offensive line coaching

(09:48):
room and then he went with the old guy. He
may have missed there. But I also think that Tom
and Brian deserve a little bit of blame because they
you said, a budget limit, you know, let's say it
was one hundred and fifty to two hundred K, you're
not going to get a very good offensive line coach.
And I enjoyed Funk. I thought he brought some good things.

(10:10):
But he's a better analyst than he is sure offensive
line coach anyway, So I know that. And then if
you add a run game element to the quarterback, it's
game over because a Rod knows how to utilize He
is at his best when those three components are are

(10:31):
are ultimately a part of his.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
At what I think helped change Kevin gilbrid That helped
there was a dynamic. Now having played with both those
guys and knowing the background and the relationship that those
two had in college together, I knew as soon as
Kevin got here that it was going to open up
another dimension of a Rod because they were best friends

(10:58):
for that year that Kevin was here. Kevin followed. They
were just like Kevin, huge respect.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
There's a ton of respect there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
And and then you with with Kevin and Aaron together
the mutual respect for each other, but then the willingness
to listen.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
And I think that that is big for them. And
I was.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Thinking about, you know, Norm Chow when we were coached
by Norm Chow. You know what Norm Chow was good
at was he could build an offense around the talent
and on his roster. If you had a Ronnie Jenkins,
he knew how to build around Ronnie. If you had
the quarterback, he could build around the quarterback. You know,
he had these slower white receivers but we could run

(11:46):
great routes and get open and timing was on point.
So he built an offense around that, and I think
what has the same characteristics of that, But I think
he brings a better mindset to the game as to
schematics making making when when when Aaron gets in a
role calling, you almost can feel it and see it

(12:08):
even as a fan of watching from the TV or
like play after play after both, like that set up,
that set up the next play, and it's really exciting
to see us he gets four or five six plays
into the drive, it's almost like there's no stopping him
at that point, you know. And when you have a
Bear Bachmeyer, he doesn't turn the ball over.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's it's just an incredible combination of player and coach
and it's super excited.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
To see where it goes from here. Still, well, did
you hear you?

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Did you hear the response from Bear after the Utah game?
In the post game, I asked him Hate, could you
elaborate on your your relationship with Aaron Roderick? And I
think that was his longest answer he's ever given in
a in like in a question Q and a format
like he he he actually rolled on, and he typically

(12:55):
doesn't do that. He typically pretty quick, us very quick,
and he went on for a while. That may have
been like a forty five second answer for me. In fact,
it was one of the longer ones. And so like,
there's a tremendous he came to by you, guys. So
even if you're like, even if you're saying like I'm
not sold on a Rod, and I'm gonna give a
bunch of credit to bear Bachmeer, bear Bachmeyers the best.

(13:19):
Bear Bachmeyer's leading this offense. Bear Bachmeyer makes this offense
go screw the architecture, screw the culture, screw everything else,
screw the blocking. Bear Bachmeier just makes it happen. I'm like, Okay,
that's fine. If you want to be the hater, if
you want to be the undermine, you want to be
the substitute, you want to be that negative Nancy. And
I call you Nancy for a reason because you're a

(13:40):
female canine.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
That's what I'm calling you.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
And so you're a little female canine yapping at my heels, right,
And so.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
A Rod's the one that got him here.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, A Rod's the one that was recruiting him since
eighth grade and Bear unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Wanted to go to Stanford. Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
He's a smart kid from from a very good home
that would s taught discipline, military styles. His Thai mother
was also whipping him with a wooden spoon, and that
his brother was there. All those things right, like he
said it, I didn't anyway, so like, but A Rod's
the one that got him here once he entered the portal.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
A rod.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
So give a little bit more absolutely, you know, I
get a little bit more credible.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
I wish that the standard fan understood what it takes
to get a caliper of a player like a Bear
Bachmer here on campus or a Rider Lions. You know
that what it takes to get these guys to actually
come and play at BYU with offers all over the sec.
It is tremendous in and of itself. Just just there's

(14:50):
so many years that go into that. He said he's
been recruited with the eighth grade.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Well, yeah, Bear came out to be a football camp
and since that day, like he was all over Bear,
Like it was very early that he wanted Bear and
he offered him and loved him. But like I said,
his brother was at Stanford and Hank. Hank had a
pretty good connection with b Yu, you know, having played

(15:15):
by you understood. But then three d QB he ended
up prepping for the NFL Draft with three DQB getting
to know John Beck, and so there was some connective tissue.
And then Bear trained with three DQB as well in
high school.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Right well, and then you know, once these players sign,
it's still a relationship must have still been going on
even after that. Or a Rod built such a solid
relationship with him that as soon as he opened that
transfer window, was like, that was that's who we wanted
to talk to, you know, and or.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Or or Aaron called him and he was willing to
take the call, you know.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
And then to your point, he got on campus, him
and Tiger got on campus, and then it was a
sealed deal.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
But you gotta get him on campus, you know, as
well as they're hanging out with Adam Sandler. I don't know,
I mean, come on, who doesn't want to hang out
with Adam Sandler? You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
I don't know if Yeah was decent one of the better,
I guess sequels. Most of the sequels are money raps.
At least there was a lot of cameos in some
reflect at.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Least if you understood happy Gilmore and you knew the
first one.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, it was entertaining enough, no doubt about it. Any
other takeaways from this b y U I was stay game.
But I do think the a rod epiphany for many
of the female canines that have been yapping. I think
they they're at least bought in now and they understand, Hey,
I need to have a little bit more respect for
the bespectacled strategist.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
That's a film junkie.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
He's an intro extro meaning he's an introvert by nature,
and until he really likes you and trusts you, then
you'll see the extroverted nature of him.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
But he you give him the choice.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
He's an introvert that just likes to go home and
spend time with the family and watch film.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
That's what he does. That's how he is. See. You know.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
On another take I had was with the other coordinator
in Jay Hill. You know that that first half we
got out played, we got out beat and you know,
and and Jay probably got out coached you for that
first half. But it was just you know, I thought
the second quarter j would come in and have some
of the changes made, and.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
It took it took a half, you know to really
get everything down then.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
But man, once the changes were implemented, that that we're
going to make a difference. It was almost night and
day between the first and second half. Super fun to
watch now, I you know, going into this bye week,
I think everyone says that everything couldn't be a better
time for a buye. Well ye, injury wise, everything about

(17:57):
this bye week is great. It's a great time in
the schedule to have it, you know, with Texas Tech
next week and you know.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
We will be there as we are making the trip.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
And uh yeah, it'd be a lot of fun making
it's just stop in Wacos, surf the way pool. Yeah,
got the gotta hit all the little spots. We're gonna
get some good barbecue, spend a night in sweet Water.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
I've never even been there, but uh, anyway, do you.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Have to give a game ball to somebody then a coordinator?
Do you give it to a rod Do you give
it to j Hill for his second half efforts, or
do you give it to k Pop for coaching up
his special teams unit to finish plays and push guys
into punt if it was creating turtlevers on special teams
is an insane It's crazy that he saw that in

(18:44):
the film enough to where he was, guys, we might
be able to do this and then did it.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
So as a it was a game ball for a play,
get it for the play for the game. It's Aaron,
you know, it's when you lose your best running back
and really you're only running back that we've that's true,
you know, tried and tested, and then you're able to
still create as much offense as they did and turn

(19:16):
a passing I mean, is the best passing game that
we have seen this year. And watching Bear roll and
get you know, stepping into the pocket and moving around
his pocket presence and then as he rolled out and
just throwing balls perfectly.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, I mean, I was super impressed by it.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Keeping it within the twenty to thirty yard right, not
going too deep, but keeping it it's almost like not
almost like Ayrod knows what he has and knows where
he's confident and knows where he will get most of
his completions, and that's within in my opinion, the fifteen
to twenty five yards is where Bear is on point
really with his passing and he could be rolling and

(19:59):
throwing anyways. Exciting game and we're moving forward doing better
than most people expect.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
And I can't can't complain. You're really not going to
see like.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Significant vertical passing game from Bar until probably next season
in my opinion, when he can really start to maximize
his lower half and generate more rotational torque off his
lower half. And I know people, the individuals that you
know want to fight against me on this.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
It is what it is like you you don't.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Know ball and my guys, like he's just he's he's
an above average deep ball thrower.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Like you don't have to be.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
You don't have to the best deep ball thrower to
be at bro an amazing quarterback.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
No, you don't like quite honestly, Like he's his short
to intermediate passing.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Is like like pristine Bro. It is pristine Bro.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Even as layered throws like that throw to Parker Kingston
in the back of the end zone right before the
back line.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Guys, that is a touch.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Throw, layered throw over a a a second that has
their heels at the goal line and they elevate and
jump it kind of floats. Look at the ball. The
nose is kind of up. And if you understand aerodynamics,
and look, I'm not an engineer. I'm not an aerodynamics
you know, physicists or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
I stayed at a holiday in last night.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
When that the nose is kind of floating up, it
kind of floats a.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Little bit, you know what I'm talking about. It doesn't
turn over, and it doesn't turn over.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
It kind of just continues to float and it stays
level a little bit, and it stays up away from
the hands, right, And so you don't always want the
nose flatlining. That's like a line drive, right. He doesn't
throw line drive throws. You'll see it kind of float.
And that's a more catchable ball for a white. It's
a more catchable ball from a defensive back.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Trust me. I know.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Well it's even in the ball through to Chase at
the Utah in the ear hole touchdown.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
That was a line drive. Was beautiful fit. It was
so not.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
There's so many of those coming. I think we're going
to see so much more of that moving forward. And
just excited for the team, Excited for the players, the
coaching staff, and I'm excited for the fans, and I
hope the fans continue to show out.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
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Speaker 1 (22:43):
Love it, appreciate you, Jared. We always love talking ball
with you.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
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Speaker 1 (23:14):
So take a brief time out.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
We'll be back though, Please don't go anywhere more to
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