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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
With Ben krettle At It's time for the Cougar Beat.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Getting the dish from the local reporters that cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three has been the fan. I've been crital broadcasting
from our Vanderwilth Studios. Banderwealth dot com. Get on a
free Q and a no obligation to do as Q
and A with our tax more wealth advisors certify financial planners.
Nobody does it better than Banterwealth Bantererwealth dot com. Uh,
it is time for a little Cougar beat. I got
Bret Hammer, Ronald the free Man. We were Adrian Andrew Peterson.
He's our Adrian Peterson. I like to call him. I
(00:27):
call him ap So. He's our He's our Adrian Peterson.
He's dynamic with the mic in his hands. The things
start with a p Adrian Peterson ap poll. Been a
great show. It gets even better with our next guest
and a Cougar beat. Brought to you by Orthropros of
Utah orthropos of u dot com. What do we do
at Oorthropros of Utah. We distribute orthopedic and sports medicine devices.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
These orthopedic and sports medicine devices agent supports you in
protecting your body biomechanical supports.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
They help you from after injury, after uh, after surgery.
Uh we uh we brace up prophylactically, all of the
high schools and colleges here in the along the wahsat's front.
Brace up those those incles, those risks, those elbows. If
you're an offensive or defensive lineman, your best ability is
your availability be healthy and trough throughout the long and
orders high school fotball season. You win more games that way,
(01:16):
you win championships that way. Hit us up today at
Orthropros of Utah in American FOURK eight O one, four
hundred five, three and eight. That's eight O one, four
hundred five through and eight Orthropros of Utah Orthroprosoutah dot com.
All right, let's welcome in one of our favorite guests.
We got Double D the Daily Heraldean on the line,
Dollar New Dixon. What's up, Double D.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I just want to congratulate everyone from making it through
the summer in the offseason without college football. We've made it.
It's going to start tomorrow night and for BYU on Saturday. Uh,
none of us went crazy or committed to felonies that
we well that maybe we know level was hit. So
it's it was a crazy, weird offseason. But we've made
(01:57):
it through and now we're ready for college football. We're
ready for all the talk to go away and actual
performance on the field matters, and we'll see that soon.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Love that we survived, We survived. We're here college football kickoff.
We had Week zero, which was tremendous. It was glorious,
It was marvelousy and the pig skin being thrown around.
There's some sloppy football as well. Do you always expect
a little bit of slip slap, slappy joe football week one?
(02:28):
Week zero?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
For sure? And as we look at Saturday's game by
U in Portland State, and one of the things I'm
going to be looking for is how efficient can Bay's
offense be, how error freaking to be? And we know
that their first scrimmage there were a lot of procedural
type penalties and things that they needed to take care of,
so you know, you also want to see explosiveness. You
(02:52):
want to see the ability to strike hard and strike
fast and put the defense on their heels. But yeah,
that first game there's always going to be and especially
in BYU situation now where it appears the Portland State
isn't very good and so BYU will be playing third
and four stream guys. Probably by a third quarter that'll
get sloppy and that that could prove not to be
(03:15):
quite as entertaining as we hope. But it's valuable to
the team to get those guys some reps and kind
of see where they are.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So, Darnell, as the Cougar football season kicks off, what
are the storylines? Would you say? What are the main
storylines that you're most intrigued by as we kick off
this season with the bau Cougars.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, so, today Brandon Gerdy and I are doing what
we call a one on one where we ask BYU
questions and answer them each get a chance to answer them.
And I told him that are one on one today
is a non Bear Bachmeyer version of that one on
one because man, have we written a lot about him
and talked a lot about him. So certainly the quarterbacks
(04:00):
situation and the fact boy you're starting a true freshman
in game one for the first time ever is a
huge storyline. I think that as we progressed through the
fall camp, there weren't a ton of surprises. I mean,
I think there's a few guys maybe that show up
as as you know on the depth chart, or maybe
a little lower than we thought. But it's pretty much
(04:21):
the team we expected. Now we just need to see
if they perform as we think they can expect. And
I noticed somebody is saying something about that all knowing
grin that Jay Hill gets when he knows something we don't.
He likes his defense, and if that is the case,
then I think BAU is in for a pretty fun
season with the dominating defense that can play that complimentary
(04:42):
football that by you coaches like to talk.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
About the weaknesses of this team, the strengths of this team,
project them for me, what do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, that's a little tough, excuse me. And we may
not know some of those until a little bit later
as b YU gets into Big twelve play because we
just don't know. I mean, obviously, Portland State didn't look
very good and their opener got be forty two to
nothing at home. Stanford didn't look very overpowering. We haven't
seen East Carolina yet, excuse me, East Carolina yet, But
(05:17):
I would say if you're looking at weaknesses, it's hard.
You might say there's areas of question. I wouldn't even
call them weaknesses yet because they may end up being strengths.
We don't know, because there's some untested talent on the
defensive line. There's some untested talent really and the secondary,
especially in the corners. These guys that'd be taking a
(05:38):
lot of reps this year that didn't take a lot
of reps for offensively, I think you think there's playmakers,
and so bear Bachmeyer his main goal is to get
the ball to the playmakers. And the thing that we've
heard from the coaches, especially from Aaron Roderick, is that
bear Bachmeyer has been thrown a lot of completions in practice.
(05:58):
And that's good because be what you does have some
guys who can make plays at the receiver and tight
end and running back. And if those are the guys
carrying the ball and towing the ball I had any success,
then that offense will be really good. So strength and weaknesses,
I think once we hit mid season we'll know that
a little better. But right now they're just areas where
(06:19):
we're just not as sure about as others.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Darnld Dixon, The Daily Heraldi and here on ESPN the
Fan Here in a Cougar Beat brought to you by
Orthropos of Utah Orthroposoutah dot Com. One of the conversations
we've been having today, Darnell, I want you to chime
in on this. A standout MVPs right from Fault Camp.
(06:43):
LJ Martin and Chase Roberts were highlighted by Aaron Roderick,
offensive coordinator. I feel like Cougarnation is expecting some sort
of a thousand yard rushing effort from LJ and like
a thousand yard receiving season from Chase Roberts. I don't know.
I think the last time this happened was in COVID
(07:04):
with Tyler Auzier and Dax Milne. But before that it
may have been two thousand and eight with Austin Colley
and Harvey Unga. This is not an easy thing to do,
and boa fans may be expecting it. Can they reach
that quote?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I do think well, first of all, when you talk
about Austin Colley and Harvey Young, you're talking about all
timers at BYU. You're not talking about somebody who just
had one decent season. You're talking about two of the
very best at their position that ever played in a
BYU uniform. And then you have to kind of examine
the way that the game's being played right now. For
(07:40):
for instance, for Elsie Martin to get a thousand yards,
he'd have to have seventeen eighteen carries a game, probably
in that range. He's only been averaging about thirteen a game,
so he needs to get more work. And obviously his
health has been an issue over the course of his career.
When they want to keep him healthy, most teams will employ,
(08:00):
you know, five or six different receivers. If you have
an alpha, great, But in the last let's say three,
four or five years b why you really hasn't had
that alpha that gets all of the reps, that gets
all the targets. They'd like to spread the ball around
and they like to keep the defense guessing about where
the ball's going and who's going to be getting it.
(08:21):
You know, when you have the kind of strength that
some of these Power Conference teams have, sometimes you can
just say, hey, our running backs a our best player,
We're giving it to him thirty times a game. See
if you can stop him. That's really not been by
used philosophy under Aaron Rodrick. He likes to get the
ball out to different people and keep the defense kind
of bon its heels a little bit, and so getting
(08:41):
that thousand yards for a receiver or a running back
has been a little bit more difficult. I think there's
been talents in the program, guys that were talented enough
to do that, they just didn't get as many reps
as they needed or targets as they needed to get there.
So it'll be interesting to see how they spread that
around this year with Chase being really the most experienced
(09:03):
receiver and lj being the most experienced running back. Maybe
a little bit of depth issues at running back right now.
We'll see how that plays out. But they have to
get the opportunities the touches, and the other part of
that is on some occasions is that Colini Satakie is
not a guy who run up to score, so he
pulls his starters pretty early compared to some other coaches,
(09:25):
and those guys might have gotten three, four, five, six
more targets.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Who knows, Darnell. I know it's weeks away, but Josh
Pate delved into a bit of a conspiracy theory that
there are rivalry games that certain administrators, rivalry game names
that certain administrators across college football want to get rid of,
(09:50):
and the Holy War is one of those. There's a
civil War Oregon, Oregon State. I think they're trying to
move away from anyways, the Holy War. You know, I
know internally, b what I th thing likes it, And
I don't even know if Utah likes it. Probably they
don't like it either. If we were ever forced to
do away with the Holy War. You know, Monica, the name,
the slogan of this iconic game, one of the greatest,
(10:14):
got to be top ten rivalry games in college football.
In my opinion, maybe I'm a little bit blue goggled
in that regard. What would we name it? What are
we gonna? What are we? How are we going to
rename this thing? Darnell, You've been around the block. You're
a copywriter for a living. You're a creative, you're a wordsmith,
you're a pontificator of palabras, you are everything, you know everything.
(10:37):
What name should we replace it with? I got a
few on the list. Church versus State, Saints versus Sinners,
the in State rivalry game, family feud. I don't know,
Desert duel, all of them suck? Anyone ring true to
you though? I mean maybe the Saints versus Sinators, just
because I like calling all my youth friend sinners. They're
fallen following in their prodigal sons. They're they're they're they're
(10:59):
the Caine of our locale. You know, they've fallen away.
But what are we going with here? Though? Come on,
there's gonna be a lot of mt.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Remember, yeah, you remember Catholics versus convicts and Notre Dame
versus Miami. For me, yeah, for me, something like this
has to happen organically, not necessarily. I mean, we found out,
we found out that the Desert a first duel. Everyone
put their thumbs down on that and said, no, we
don't want to call it that. And as members of
the media, we tend to chafe against being told this
(11:31):
is what it's called. We say, hey, we'll call it
what we want. You don't tell us what it's called.
And I got I grew a little tired of the
Holy War thing. I haven't included it really in any
of my previews for a few years, just because I
kind of got like, I said, a little tired of it.
If something happens organically, and I like saints versus singers,
I think that's funny. Certainly Utah fans wouldn't probably like that,
(11:54):
or maybe some of them would.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I say probably would. They kind of embrace that there
are a bunch of antis, right, that's what they say.
We're fruit, right, that's the whole idea. You're either right,
you know, if you're not a b YU fan, you know,
and you're a Utah fan, you're lds. You know, maybe
you're a you're a fence sit or a little bit
one foot in, one foot out, if you know what
I mean. Let's talk about some of the the the
uh the you know, the generalizations that we put out
(12:17):
there as fans, as media members.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, and you know, both sides make themselves pretty open
to being made fun of, and and it's it's okay
for I don't mind a little humor in it, a
little poking. I have that in my own family where
I have members of of my my wife's family who
are big Utah fans and our family. You know, I
have watched b Yu fans in my family and they
they poke fun at each other and tease each other
(12:42):
and talk about the game, and that's all in good fun. Again, though,
I want it to happen organically where people kind of go, yeah,
that's what we're calling it now, instead of you know,
us being told this is what it's going to be
called from now on. It's like the schools that say,
don't refer to us as Central Florida. You have to
refer to us is UCF. Why what possible reason could
(13:04):
there be other than market maybe, you know, so I
want to call That makes me want to call them
Central Florida and everything that I write about him, But
you know, I usually comply with that request.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I have to. You're a kind hearted soul. You know.
You can be a little bit groff, a little rough
around the edge of sometimes, but deep down Darnell's is softy.
He's a soft heart and kind and meek and gentle,
and the meek shall and heir at the earth. And
that's what will happen with Darnell, There's no doubt about it.
The worst thing is Darnell's ever done by the way
guys is in track and field. His senior year, he
(13:37):
didn't like his teammate and he knocked over the high
jump bar prior to him jumping, or while he was
jumping and his teammate landed on the bar hurt his back.
Worst thing Darnell's ever done in his life.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You and bellack that story so much. Ben, It's true.
It's not true.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
No, No, it is true. That's the worst thing you've
ever done. I asked you on air, like what's the
worst thing. You're like, well, one time I did this.
I was like, I feel really bad about it. I'm like,
oh my gosh, I'm going to hell. I'm going straight
to the to the outer darkness. I'm going outer darkness. Hey,
check this out. If from Asiata, a guy that was
a four star coming into BYU. Whenever we talk four stars, right,
(14:17):
we expect impact, immediate impact. Last year he played and
he made some impact, but he's a little bit undersized.
They finally moved him to the second level and they
moved him behind Isaiah Glasker. Kelly Papinga went onto the
coordinator's corner recently and says I from Osada was the
most productive player through all of fall camp. That's crazy.
(14:41):
He's backing up Isaiah Glasker, a future NFL draft pick.
Maybe like a second round linebacker, third round linebacker. That's
how how tremendous Isaiah Glasser can be if he's healthy, Like,
how are you gonna how is he gonna see the field.
He's the most productive player in fall camp. How can
you insert him a little bit more when he's backing
up Isaiah Glasker.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah. And Ephraim is one of those guys, you know,
b where he recruits a lot of players in the
six three to six, five, two, ten to two twenty
sort of range, and then they can get him in
camp and they think, Okay, now he's a tight end,
Now he's a defensive end. Now he's a linebacker. We're
gonna put him in the cafeteria and turn him into
an offensive lineman. I mean, there's a lot of things
that you can do with guys that have decent size
(15:22):
and great athleticism. And I think initially maybe Byu was
a little bit kind of experimenting is he going to
fill out become a defensive end? Do we want to
turn him into a linebacker? Where do we you know,
do we want him to drop a little bit of
wait and play him at safety? I mean, Ephroms is
a tremendous athlete, and so I think that they've got
a good spot for him. And the thing we know
(15:45):
about Jay Hillen's defense is they're going to rotate through
twenty twenty three to twenty four guys. They just do that.
And so I think that that ephirm will get specific
looks on the on the field, specific reps to give
Isaica last a little bit of a rest. You know.
I think that you look at what seventy eighty seventy
(16:05):
to eighty plays that the defense has to face in
a game, depending on the game maybe less. I think
that most coaches now know that they're guys at the
speed of the game and the tax that it has
on their body. They want to be able to give
them a little bit of a break. So I think
Ephan's going to learn a lot at that position and
he'll get some chance to be a star in the field.
(16:26):
They'll find some situations where he can excel, maybe on
some long yarded situations or a third down, you know,
sett him loose on that quarterback and that kind of thing.
But it's great for a young player, and we don't
necessarily see this all the time. Young players they want
to play and if they don't play enough, they transfer
well from state and he's going to get a chance
to showcase a little bit this year. But if he's
(16:48):
patient and Isaiah goes to the NFL, then from gets
a couple of years to start and goes to the
NFL hmself. So I like the story, and I think
that there's a few guys on this defense that fit
that mold that I've been in the program and are
getting a chance to play more than if they have
the patients that they should have as a college athlete,
They're gonna shine.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
My guy, Darnelle Dixon and a little Cougar Beat brought
to you by orthropros of Utah Orthroprosovutah dot com. If
you are an offensive or defensive line of breaks up
those knees, those ankles, those risks, those elbows by mechanical
brace and will keep you on the field of play,
keep you winning football games and winning championships. Darnell, any
other works you're going to be publishing here in the
(17:29):
weeks or in the days leading up to kickoff, you
can share with us.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Well. I am writing a BYU women's volleyball season preview.
They'd start their season on Friday, and it was interesting.
I'll give you a tease just just because I know
how much you love volleyball. Ben Heather Ownstead told me
that she doesn't get her lineup exactly right at the
year at all. She said, the only time that's ever
happened was in twenty fourteen when her brother Sean was
(17:58):
the head coach and she was an assistant and that
team went to the national championship match. It's difficult to
know exactly what you got until you start playing. And
I think they're pretty talented. They've been picked to win
the conference, ranked in the top twenty, and so it's
going to be fun year to watch volleyball here at BYU,
and so that we're working on that. Also got a
(18:20):
couple more stories from Chris Burgess. I ran one a
little earlier this week about what he observed during the
summer workouts. Spent a lot of time on defense. If
you take a look at the last three games, b
why you played. They got to the sweet sixty, but
they gave up like fifty three pointers. So you know
they have some defensive work to do if they want
(18:40):
to advance beyond what they did last year. And they
put in a lot of good work. It was fun
to see some former Cougars they're playing. Brandon Davies was there,
Zach Sellias was there. I know Charles Buo mixes it
in there once in a while with them. So some
good things happening with the men's basketball team as well,
that they're going to get started here you're in a
(19:01):
few weeks and was expected of that group as well.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Donald Dixon, make sure you're following him on ex Darnelle
Wright and reading all of his content at the Daily
Held The Daily Heraldi and ladies and gentlemen, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
W all Right follows every great day.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Will chat with you in soon as we get ready
for the Cougar kickoff event. I know it's not the
Cougar kickoff event that was a few weeks ago, but
it's a Cougar football kickoff versus the Portland State Vikings
this weekend. That was a great segment though, brought to
you by orthroprosi utah arthroprosivieuta dot com. Brace up those
news guys. You got offensive defensive liignments within the walls
(19:37):
of your home. Make sure you're healthy and strong throughout
the long and Arjous High School football season, your best abilities,
your availability. Why not be healthy and strong throughout the
long and Argeou High School football season? Head on over
to Orthropos of Utah American Fork eight to one, four
hundred five three win eight. That's eight a one four
hundred five through and eight orthroprosiview dot com. Let's take
a brief time out. We'll be back though. This is
(19:57):
Cougar Sports one of three nine ninety eight point three
eat
With Ben krettle At It's time for the Cougar Beat.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Getting the dish from the local reporters that cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three has been the fan. I've been crital broadcasting
from our Vanderwilth Studios. Banderwealth dot com. Get on a
free Q and a no obligation to do as Q
and A with our tax more wealth advisors certify financial planners.
Nobody does it better than Banterwealth Bantererwealth dot com. Uh,
it is time for a little Cougar beat. I got
Bret Hammer, Ronald the free Man. We were Adrian Andrew Peterson.
He's our Adrian Peterson. I like to call him. I
(00:27):
call him ap So. He's our He's our Adrian Peterson.
He's dynamic with the mic in his hands. The things
start with a p Adrian Peterson ap poll. Been a
great show. It gets even better with our next guest
and a Cougar beat. Brought to you by Orthropros of
Utah orthropos of u dot com. What do we do
at Oorthropros of Utah. We distribute orthopedic and sports medicine devices.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
These orthopedic and sports medicine devices agent supports you in
protecting your body biomechanical supports.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
They help you from after injury, after uh, after surgery.
Uh we uh we brace up prophylactically, all of the
high schools and colleges here in the along the wahsat's front.
Brace up those those incles, those risks, those elbows. If
you're an offensive or defensive lineman, your best ability is
your availability be healthy and trough throughout the long and
orders high school fotball season. You win more games that way,
(01:16):
you win championships that way. Hit us up today at
Orthropros of Utah in American FOURK eight O one, four
hundred five, three and eight. That's eight O one, four
hundred five through and eight Orthropros of Utah Orthroprosoutah dot com.
All right, let's welcome in one of our favorite guests.
We got Double D the Daily Heraldean on the line,
Dollar New Dixon. What's up, Double D.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I just want to congratulate everyone from making it through
the summer in the offseason without college football. We've made it.
It's going to start tomorrow night and for BYU on Saturday. Uh,
none of us went crazy or committed to felonies that
we well that maybe we know level was hit. So
it's it was a crazy, weird offseason. But we've made
(01:57):
it through and now we're ready for college football. We're
ready for all the talk to go away and actual
performance on the field matters, and we'll see that soon.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Love that we survived, We survived. We're here college football kickoff.
We had Week zero, which was tremendous. It was glorious,
It was marvelousy and the pig skin being thrown around.
There's some sloppy football as well. Do you always expect
a little bit of slip slap, slappy joe football week one?
(02:28):
Week zero?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
For sure? And as we look at Saturday's game by
U in Portland State, and one of the things I'm
going to be looking for is how efficient can Bay's
offense be, how error freaking to be? And we know
that their first scrimmage there were a lot of procedural
type penalties and things that they needed to take care of,
so you know, you also want to see explosiveness. You
(02:52):
want to see the ability to strike hard and strike
fast and put the defense on their heels. But yeah,
that first game there's always going to be and especially
in BYU situation now where it appears the Portland State
isn't very good and so BYU will be playing third
and four stream guys. Probably by a third quarter that'll
get sloppy and that that could prove not to be
(03:15):
quite as entertaining as we hope. But it's valuable to
the team to get those guys some reps and kind
of see where they are.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So, Darnell, as the Cougar football season kicks off, what
are the storylines? Would you say? What are the main
storylines that you're most intrigued by as we kick off
this season with the bau Cougars.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, so, today Brandon Gerdy and I are doing what
we call a one on one where we ask BYU
questions and answer them each get a chance to answer them.
And I told him that are one on one today
is a non Bear Bachmeyer version of that one on
one because man, have we written a lot about him
and talked a lot about him. So certainly the quarterbacks
(04:00):
situation and the fact boy you're starting a true freshman
in game one for the first time ever is a
huge storyline. I think that as we progressed through the
fall camp, there weren't a ton of surprises. I mean,
I think there's a few guys maybe that show up
as as you know on the depth chart, or maybe
a little lower than we thought. But it's pretty much
(04:21):
the team we expected. Now we just need to see
if they perform as we think they can expect. And
I noticed somebody is saying something about that all knowing
grin that Jay Hill gets when he knows something we don't.
He likes his defense, and if that is the case,
then I think BAU is in for a pretty fun
season with the dominating defense that can play that complimentary
(04:42):
football that by you coaches like to talk.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
About the weaknesses of this team, the strengths of this team,
project them for me, what do you make of it?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, that's a little tough, excuse me. And we may
not know some of those until a little bit later
as b YU gets into Big twelve play because we
just don't know. I mean, obviously, Portland State didn't look
very good and their opener got be forty two to
nothing at home. Stanford didn't look very overpowering. We haven't
seen East Carolina yet, excuse me, East Carolina yet, But
(05:17):
I would say if you're looking at weaknesses, it's hard.
You might say there's areas of question. I wouldn't even
call them weaknesses yet because they may end up being strengths.
We don't know, because there's some untested talent on the
defensive line. There's some untested talent really and the secondary,
especially in the corners. These guys that'd be taking a
(05:38):
lot of reps this year that didn't take a lot
of reps for offensively, I think you think there's playmakers,
and so bear Bachmeyer his main goal is to get
the ball to the playmakers. And the thing that we've
heard from the coaches, especially from Aaron Roderick, is that
bear Bachmeyer has been thrown a lot of completions in practice.
(05:58):
And that's good because be what you does have some
guys who can make plays at the receiver and tight
end and running back. And if those are the guys
carrying the ball and towing the ball I had any success,
then that offense will be really good. So strength and weaknesses,
I think once we hit mid season we'll know that
a little better. But right now they're just areas where
(06:19):
we're just not as sure about as others.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Darnld Dixon, The Daily Heraldi and here on ESPN the
Fan Here in a Cougar Beat brought to you by
Orthropos of Utah Orthroposoutah dot Com. One of the conversations
we've been having today, Darnell, I want you to chime
in on this. A standout MVPs right from Fault Camp.
(06:43):
LJ Martin and Chase Roberts were highlighted by Aaron Roderick,
offensive coordinator. I feel like Cougarnation is expecting some sort
of a thousand yard rushing effort from LJ and like
a thousand yard receiving season from Chase Roberts. I don't know.
I think the last time this happened was in COVID
(07:04):
with Tyler Auzier and Dax Milne. But before that it
may have been two thousand and eight with Austin Colley
and Harvey Unga. This is not an easy thing to do,
and boa fans may be expecting it. Can they reach
that quote?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I do think well, first of all, when you talk
about Austin Colley and Harvey Young, you're talking about all
timers at BYU. You're not talking about somebody who just
had one decent season. You're talking about two of the
very best at their position that ever played in a
BYU uniform. And then you have to kind of examine
the way that the game's being played right now. For
(07:40):
for instance, for Elsie Martin to get a thousand yards,
he'd have to have seventeen eighteen carries a game, probably
in that range. He's only been averaging about thirteen a game,
so he needs to get more work. And obviously his
health has been an issue over the course of his career.
When they want to keep him healthy, most teams will employ,
(08:00):
you know, five or six different receivers. If you have
an alpha, great, But in the last let's say three,
four or five years b why you really hasn't had
that alpha that gets all of the reps, that gets
all the targets. They'd like to spread the ball around
and they like to keep the defense guessing about where
the ball's going and who's going to be getting it.
(08:21):
You know, when you have the kind of strength that
some of these Power Conference teams have, sometimes you can
just say, hey, our running backs a our best player,
We're giving it to him thirty times a game. See
if you can stop him. That's really not been by
used philosophy under Aaron Rodrick. He likes to get the
ball out to different people and keep the defense kind
of bon its heels a little bit, and so getting
(08:41):
that thousand yards for a receiver or a running back
has been a little bit more difficult. I think there's
been talents in the program, guys that were talented enough
to do that, they just didn't get as many reps
as they needed or targets as they needed to get there.
So it'll be interesting to see how they spread that
around this year with Chase being really the most experienced
(09:03):
receiver and lj being the most experienced running back. Maybe
a little bit of depth issues at running back right now.
We'll see how that plays out. But they have to
get the opportunities the touches, and the other part of
that is on some occasions is that Colini Satakie is
not a guy who run up to score, so he
pulls his starters pretty early compared to some other coaches,
(09:25):
and those guys might have gotten three, four, five, six
more targets.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Who knows, Darnell. I know it's weeks away, but Josh
Pate delved into a bit of a conspiracy theory that
there are rivalry games that certain administrators, rivalry game names
that certain administrators across college football want to get rid of,
(09:50):
and the Holy War is one of those. There's a
civil War Oregon, Oregon State. I think they're trying to
move away from anyways, the Holy War. You know, I
know internally, b what I th thing likes it, And
I don't even know if Utah likes it. Probably they
don't like it either. If we were ever forced to
do away with the Holy War. You know, Monica, the name,
the slogan of this iconic game, one of the greatest,
(10:14):
got to be top ten rivalry games in college football.
In my opinion, maybe I'm a little bit blue goggled
in that regard. What would we name it? What are
we gonna? What are we? How are we going to
rename this thing? Darnell, You've been around the block. You're
a copywriter for a living. You're a creative, you're a wordsmith,
you're a pontificator of palabras, you are everything, you know everything.
(10:37):
What name should we replace it with? I got a
few on the list. Church versus State, Saints versus Sinners,
the in State rivalry game, family feud. I don't know,
Desert duel, all of them suck? Anyone ring true to
you though? I mean maybe the Saints versus Sinators, just
because I like calling all my youth friend sinners. They're
fallen following in their prodigal sons. They're they're they're they're
(10:59):
the Caine of our locale. You know, they've fallen away.
But what are we going with here? Though? Come on,
there's gonna be a lot of mt.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Remember, yeah, you remember Catholics versus convicts and Notre Dame
versus Miami. For me, yeah, for me, something like this
has to happen organically, not necessarily. I mean, we found out,
we found out that the Desert a first duel. Everyone
put their thumbs down on that and said, no, we
don't want to call it that. And as members of
the media, we tend to chafe against being told this
(11:31):
is what it's called. We say, hey, we'll call it
what we want. You don't tell us what it's called.
And I got I grew a little tired of the
Holy War thing. I haven't included it really in any
of my previews for a few years, just because I
kind of got like, I said, a little tired of it.
If something happens organically, and I like saints versus singers,
I think that's funny. Certainly Utah fans wouldn't probably like that,
(11:54):
or maybe some of them would.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I say probably would. They kind of embrace that there
are a bunch of antis, right, that's what they say.
We're fruit, right, that's the whole idea. You're either right,
you know, if you're not a b YU fan, you know,
and you're a Utah fan, you're lds. You know, maybe
you're a you're a fence sit or a little bit
one foot in, one foot out, if you know what
I mean. Let's talk about some of the the the
uh the you know, the generalizations that we put out
(12:17):
there as fans, as media members.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, and you know, both sides make themselves pretty open
to being made fun of, and and it's it's okay
for I don't mind a little humor in it, a
little poking. I have that in my own family where
I have members of of my my wife's family who
are big Utah fans and our family. You know, I
have watched b Yu fans in my family and they
they poke fun at each other and tease each other
(12:42):
and talk about the game, and that's all in good fun. Again, though,
I want it to happen organically where people kind of go, yeah,
that's what we're calling it now, instead of you know,
us being told this is what it's going to be
called from now on. It's like the schools that say,
don't refer to us as Central Florida. You have to
refer to us is UCF. Why what possible reason could
(13:04):
there be other than market maybe, you know, so I
want to call That makes me want to call them
Central Florida and everything that I write about him, But
you know, I usually comply with that request.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I have to. You're a kind hearted soul. You know.
You can be a little bit groff, a little rough
around the edge of sometimes, but deep down Darnell's is softy.
He's a soft heart and kind and meek and gentle,
and the meek shall and heir at the earth. And
that's what will happen with Darnell, There's no doubt about it.
The worst thing is Darnell's ever done by the way
guys is in track and field. His senior year, he
(13:37):
didn't like his teammate and he knocked over the high
jump bar prior to him jumping, or while he was
jumping and his teammate landed on the bar hurt his back.
Worst thing Darnell's ever done in his life.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You and bellack that story so much. Ben, It's true.
It's not true.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
No, No, it is true. That's the worst thing you've
ever done. I asked you on air, like what's the
worst thing. You're like, well, one time I did this.
I was like, I feel really bad about it. I'm like,
oh my gosh, I'm going to hell. I'm going straight
to the to the outer darkness. I'm going outer darkness. Hey,
check this out. If from Asiata, a guy that was
a four star coming into BYU. Whenever we talk four stars, right,
(14:17):
we expect impact, immediate impact. Last year he played and
he made some impact, but he's a little bit undersized.
They finally moved him to the second level and they
moved him behind Isaiah Glasker. Kelly Papinga went onto the
coordinator's corner recently and says I from Osada was the
most productive player through all of fall camp. That's crazy.
(14:41):
He's backing up Isaiah Glasker, a future NFL draft pick.
Maybe like a second round linebacker, third round linebacker. That's
how how tremendous Isaiah Glasser can be if he's healthy, Like,
how are you gonna how is he gonna see the field.
He's the most productive player in fall camp. How can
you insert him a little bit more when he's backing
up Isaiah Glasker.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah. And Ephraim is one of those guys, you know,
b where he recruits a lot of players in the
six three to six, five, two, ten to two twenty
sort of range, and then they can get him in
camp and they think, Okay, now he's a tight end,
Now he's a defensive end. Now he's a linebacker. We're
gonna put him in the cafeteria and turn him into
an offensive lineman. I mean, there's a lot of things
that you can do with guys that have decent size
(15:22):
and great athleticism. And I think initially maybe Byu was
a little bit kind of experimenting is he going to
fill out become a defensive end? Do we want to
turn him into a linebacker? Where do we you know,
do we want him to drop a little bit of
wait and play him at safety? I mean, Ephroms is
a tremendous athlete, and so I think that they've got
a good spot for him. And the thing we know
(15:45):
about Jay Hillen's defense is they're going to rotate through
twenty twenty three to twenty four guys. They just do that.
And so I think that that ephirm will get specific
looks on the on the field, specific reps to give
Isaica last a little bit of a rest. You know.
I think that you look at what seventy eighty seventy
(16:05):
to eighty plays that the defense has to face in
a game, depending on the game maybe less. I think
that most coaches now know that they're guys at the
speed of the game and the tax that it has
on their body. They want to be able to give
them a little bit of a break. So I think
Ephan's going to learn a lot at that position and
he'll get some chance to be a star in the field.
(16:26):
They'll find some situations where he can excel, maybe on
some long yarded situations or a third down, you know,
sett him loose on that quarterback and that kind of thing.
But it's great for a young player, and we don't
necessarily see this all the time. Young players they want
to play and if they don't play enough, they transfer
well from state and he's going to get a chance
to showcase a little bit this year. But if he's
(16:48):
patient and Isaiah goes to the NFL, then from gets
a couple of years to start and goes to the
NFL hmself. So I like the story, and I think
that there's a few guys on this defense that fit
that mold that I've been in the program and are
getting a chance to play more than if they have
the patients that they should have as a college athlete,
They're gonna shine.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
My guy, Darnelle Dixon and a little Cougar Beat brought
to you by orthropros of Utah Orthroprosovutah dot com. If
you are an offensive or defensive line of breaks up
those knees, those ankles, those risks, those elbows by mechanical
brace and will keep you on the field of play,
keep you winning football games and winning championships. Darnell, any
other works you're going to be publishing here in the
(17:29):
weeks or in the days leading up to kickoff, you
can share with us.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Well. I am writing a BYU women's volleyball season preview.
They'd start their season on Friday, and it was interesting.
I'll give you a tease just just because I know
how much you love volleyball. Ben Heather Ownstead told me
that she doesn't get her lineup exactly right at the
year at all. She said, the only time that's ever
happened was in twenty fourteen when her brother Sean was
(17:58):
the head coach and she was an assistant and that
team went to the national championship match. It's difficult to
know exactly what you got until you start playing. And
I think they're pretty talented. They've been picked to win
the conference, ranked in the top twenty, and so it's
going to be fun year to watch volleyball here at BYU,
and so that we're working on that. Also got a
(18:20):
couple more stories from Chris Burgess. I ran one a
little earlier this week about what he observed during the
summer workouts. Spent a lot of time on defense. If
you take a look at the last three games, b
why you played. They got to the sweet sixty, but
they gave up like fifty three pointers. So you know
they have some defensive work to do if they want
(18:40):
to advance beyond what they did last year. And they
put in a lot of good work. It was fun
to see some former Cougars they're playing. Brandon Davies was there,
Zach Sellias was there. I know Charles Buo mixes it
in there once in a while with them. So some
good things happening with the men's basketball team as well,
that they're going to get started here you're in a
(19:01):
few weeks and was expected of that group as well.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Donald Dixon, make sure you're following him on ex Darnelle
Wright and reading all of his content at the Daily
Held The Daily Heraldi and ladies and gentlemen, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
W all Right follows every great day.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Will chat with you in soon as we get ready
for the Cougar kickoff event. I know it's not the
Cougar kickoff event that was a few weeks ago, but
it's a Cougar football kickoff versus the Portland State Vikings
this weekend. That was a great segment though, brought to
you by orthroprosi utah arthroprosivieuta dot com. Brace up those
news guys. You got offensive defensive liignments within the walls
(19:37):
of your home. Make sure you're healthy and strong throughout
the long and Arjous High School football season, your best abilities,
your availability. Why not be healthy and strong throughout the
long and Argeou High School football season? Head on over
to Orthropos of Utah American Fork eight to one, four
hundred five three win eight. That's eight a one four
hundred five through and eight orthroprosiview dot com. Let's take
a brief time out. We'll be back though. This is
(19:57):
Cougar Sports one of three nine ninety eight point three
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