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August 11, 2025 • 13 mins
Ben Criddle talks BYU sports every weekday from 2 to 6 pm.

Today's Co-Hosts: Ben Criddle (@criddlebenjamin)

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Cougar Sports with Ben Krittle and
it's time for a Cougar Insider report.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Now, let's get that for.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
A prietary inside scoop on Cougar Sports from Crittle. Yeah, buddy,
Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three e SPN the fan. I've been critical broadcasting
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(01:12):
How the heck are you great? Good to be back.
It's a blessing to have you back in studio here
at the Vanderwill Studios.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Much appreciated.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Give me a hot take about bya football Now, you
know these young men better than anybody. You've been mentoring
and supporting them in all manners, in all fashions, in
all ways. But what are you most hyped about this
season twenty twenty five?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Regarding this Boa football team, I would say our linebacker room.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Okay, Jack Kelly and Glasger specifically, why Jack Kelly looks
like a defensive end but moves like the same Jack
Kelly linebacker that we know. I don't know how much
weight he put on this offseason, but he looks great.
What's our what's like the over under threshold of sacks?
That we're expecting from Sack Kelly this year. I think

(02:00):
he told us what.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
He said up. Ten and a half is what he wants.
Ten and a half is what he does.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
He wants ten and a half. So we'll put it
at ten and a half. That you're going over or under.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Ten and a half. Bro over or under.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
The goggles want to say over, but that's a lot.
I think I'm gonna give it to him. It's his
last year. He's healthy, like I said, he's put on at
least ten maybe fifteen pounds. He's one of the strongest
guys on the team, and he's the linebacker. He is
so strong and he moves like a linebacker, but he
looks like a defensive end in some of these defenses

(02:35):
that we'll play against.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'll put honestly, I'm taking the over. Take the over.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
So obviously we knew Jack was going to be great
this season. He was great last year. They tried. They
tried to put him in more pass rushing situations last year.
Couldn't do it as maybe as well as they wanted to,
So he wasn't able to tallly as many sacks as
he probably wanted to. You wonder if That's one of

(03:02):
the reasons why he came back to elevate his draft stock.
He could have been a late round maybe possibly a
mid rounder, but more than likely a late rounder. So
he's got to elevate his draft stock. The only you
can do that is through what getting after quarterbacks. Make
him some hay and drop in some quarterbacks in the backfield.

(03:23):
So that's what I'm getting at here. So where do
you think they're going to utilize Jack Kelly this year?

Speaker 2 (03:28):
In order to third down?

Speaker 3 (03:29):
We're gonna give him the backfield and third down on
the outside.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
He's going to be the featured pass rusher between Harry.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
I mean you look at last year. I think they
had more sacks than both of our starting devens. Events fine,
and I think they'll continue to do that with Jay's
you know, set up and getting him in the right
situations on third downs and even not on third downs,
He's going to do surprise splitz packages against other teams,
you know. And so I think those two linebackers and
we'll see what see all. I say it does as well, right,

(03:59):
But I think I was saying earlier, I think those
two Jack Keilly and Glasger for sure, are the best
linebacker corp in the MiG twelve and could be in
the top five cores in the country one of the years.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
All said and done.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Pretty pretty impressive group, Shaalia Sera. Even guys behind them,
Mikah Kafusi, Aceh Kafusie, Shape, Bryant Strawther, you go down
that list, they're deep at linebacker, very deep.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
So an athletic like Glasger and Jack Killy, Especially Glasger.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
We all know this.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
He is a specimen, right. Jack Killy maybe be huge,
but Glasker is just so athletic and could.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Do so many things. And he's so long. We saw
in the color.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Out of game. We did should have had three picks
in the color out of game.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah, he's so long, he's so quick. So I just
another year. In Jay's defense of dialing it down, I
think it's going to be huge for him.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
I want to turn I want to turn back to something.
Remember when Justin and I said he was the best.
He potentially has to be the best athlete the ever coached.
That might be true by the end of the season
if it works out that way, and he took a
lot of heat from Utah. I remember because I did
the interview right posted on x Ben and that got
a lot of heat and it was a hot take.
But if he goes off this season, that might come

(05:18):
to fruition, honestly, and I think Justina knew what he
was talking about.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Another linebacker that Jay Hill mentioned that we're all still
getting to know is Utah State transfer Max Alford, who
apparently balled out over the last few days of fall camp.
Camp killani when Jay Hill calls you out and says, hey,
Max Alford looking good. And I heard some rumblings on
Friday from sources stating that Max is going to seept

(05:48):
this year. And that's that's impressive. That's insane. Considering how
deep this linebacking room is now, it begs the question
we are as to Cougar. As Cougar faithful, we are
infatuated with forty fronts right now. We like four down linemen,

(06:09):
three linebackers. But I would say that your skill sets,
your most talented individuals are in the linebacking room and
you must showcase the linebackers to your Cougar inside report here.
So you gotta have four dudes out there that have
the capabilities of being first level defenders and second level
defenders that can pass rush, but it can also run

(06:30):
sideline to sideline, and you have that.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Across like probably eight guys.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
You're probably eight guys that can probably do that pretty well,
some better than others, but they can all do it,
and that is an impressive group.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Jade dropped a little nugget and a postgame interview on
Saturday after the scrimmage talking about the safety room, similar
thing Ben saying that we've got so many safeties that
we may have to or may have may have some
packages where we have more than two safeties on the field,
we bring one of those safeties maybe as a nickel
or as And maybe the same thing happens with some

(07:06):
of our backers where we have some big boys in
that defensive tackle Tanawasa and Justin there's some big dogs,
so you may say maybe sometimes you'll see just three
defensive line you bring in four linebackers as well to.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Get them on the field. So there was a gem
that was dropped.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Jay stated that there is packages and opportunities for three
safeties to be on the field at the same time.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Who are those three safeties? Do you think.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
There's five guys that Hener. There's five guys that he likes,
he says, and then two knocking on the door. We'll
see if you know he's sorry about Jared Kalama and
Matthias Leech as the as the six and seven guys
knocking on the door. But the five guys are Tanner
Wall Okay, Tommy Prashus Raider to Mooney, followed Southawalla and
Tallon Alfree. All five of those guys have proven that

(07:58):
they can ball out, they can play, and Jake trust them.
But I'm intrigued to see, like how they utilize three safeties.
That would mean one of them is going to be
a nickel Tommy, and it's probably Tommy Prass's. He's the best,
i think, my opinion, best cover safety. Which is interesting

(08:20):
because then you're looking at the nickel depth and you're like, Okay,
well who's who's the nickel right, because like you can
make an argument that Isaiah Glasker you put him on
the strong side, white side of the field, is like
a nickel linebacker safety and you're like, I mean, come on,

(08:40):
I mean, like you can make an argument that he's
pretty nice too, especially if it's zone.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
But he could probably run with we saw the puppet
turn on Kansas State.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
He can run with any tight end and Isaiah Glas
can run with any tight end in the country. Now
slot receivers, that's a different. You go ten, you go
ten personnel, and you may want to put Tommy out
there and make sure you're matching personnel to personnel. So
Jonathan Cabeya has looked good. Jay Hill gave him some love.

(09:11):
He's been a little deemed up though. You have Cannon
Devrees and then you have Tavian Beasley and maybe you
could rotate Peyton von Steinski also at Nickel. So those
are your three Nichols. The question is is Tommy a
better cover one on one player than Cannon, Tavian and Peyton.

(09:36):
That's the question, And the only people that know are
on the team unless the coaches tell us. But I
would I would put money on it that that Tommy's
better than those three guys right now. Yes, Yeah, I
would put money on it that he's better. He's a
better cover one on one guy. Now, Canon is going

(09:57):
to be good. Don't get it.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Tavian.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I don't know much about Tavy and other than you
know that he was at Colorado. I think Jackson stayed
with Dion liked him and then he was recently. But
so talent is good. Peyton is young, Cannon is young.
So is Tommy though, but he's worked with Rob Daniel

(10:20):
a ton this offseason. There's like a group of five
or six guys that worked like a tremendous amount of
hours with Rob Daniel and I think it paid off.
Peyton did too, which helps so intriguing. Three safeties on
the field in certain occasions packages.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Interesting. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Good sign or a bad sign? I mean it would
have to say a good thing.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
I mean if your defensive coordinator's raving about that these
guys are too talented and he's forcing your hand to
put them on the field, I mean you're talking about
the best eleven guys, right, so we've talked. I mean
this goes back to what three years ago when Michael
Harp and Malik Moore before like, hey, they gotta be
on the field. It don't matter like they're the best players, right,
even if guys are maybe not at a position but

(11:13):
a learning and cross training.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
I think it's a good thing.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Ben and I'm gonna take a shot here and I'll
take it on the chin, and y'all don't know where
I'm going, maybe you will. It's not like it's Utah
where you're atting, you know, a linebacker and a corner
back to the wide receiver insid endroom.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's not like you're flipping those positions.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
You're just taking your best players who are already in
that room and adding a package.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
I think it's great because, I mean last year in
the bowl game, we see the famous clip where Trador
is watching the film.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
I don't know where they're coming.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
From, and they Jade drawing up a scheme where you
have another safety. The quarterback is not gonna know what
what coverage it is. He's gonna be who haven't seen this?
And another thing that oppits coordinator has to prep for
when they play against us.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, it's not my favorite move, like to have to
move time me to nickel selfishly, you know. Like, but
I told him, I'm like, look like your skills set.
I told him a year ago. I was like, as
you develop your footwork a little bit more because of
your body type. He's got long torso, shorter legs. He's

(12:16):
fantastic in multidirectional drills.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
For his size, his weight.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Eventually you're going to get You're gonna be one of
the better, if not the best cover safeties, which could
allow you to move in to the box at Nickel
and it could happen this year, So something to keep
an eye. Any other insider reports you'd like to give us?
And then also, why should people come over and see
you there a Big O Tires.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
At American Fork, Ryan Eldridge, You.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Gotta get your cars ready back to school season, right.
We got the boys in Paul Camp getting everything dialed
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Speaker 2 (12:59):
Come and see, yes, love it?

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Any other thoughts about this BA Cougar football team, Ryan,
I think we're.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
All just ready to watch some football. To be honest, already,
I'm pumped. I like it. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
That's your inside of a report brought to you by
Big Otires in American Fork. Looking for an honest, hard working,
cost transparent mechanic who's also a Big BYU fan. Let
Ryan Eldridge earn your business today. That's Big O' tires
in American Fork. We'll take a brief time out. We'll
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(13:37):
change the channel. Listen to all of our interviews, all
of our commercials.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
This is Cougar Sports one three nine ninet eighty point
three
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