Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's with Ben Krettle at its time for the Cougar Beat.
Getting the dish from the local reporters that cover Cougar athletics.
Welcome back Cougar Sports. One of three nine ninety eight
point three, ESPN the Fan. I've been crital broadcasting from
our Vanderwild studios. Bantererwell dot com got a star studded
cast in studio. Shout out to Sean Walkercasel dot Com,
(00:20):
Brett Hammer, Ronald than three Man Weaver, Jeff Fuller, Shout
out to Vic Graham and Zach Robinson as well doing
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All right, let's get into a cougar beet with action
Jackson Payn of the desertt News. Jackson, how are you man?
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's good to be here. Man doing well.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
How are you guys doing awesome?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Man?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Thanks for joining us. A couple of things I want
to delve into to start it off. My guy, Jeff Fuller,
the man of metrics, love when he delves into the data.
He posted this earlier today. Twenty four to seven has
their roster rankings. These are the five least talented P
four rosters per two four seven. It's BYU at seventy
(01:42):
I was stated seventy one, Indiana at seventy two, Cincinnati
a seventy three and seventy four. Wake Forest, You know
what does this mean to you? Right as you're covering BYU,
you've seen what they're doing. Over the last four five
years or so, they've had three couple of digit win seasons.
Yet they're roster typically ranks from a talent standpoint per
(02:05):
two four seven and two four seven is a credible institution, right,
They're pretty good at what they do. It's all they do.
They've been doing it over twenty years. This is their specialty.
What does it? What story does this tell you about
by you or even I always state Indiana Cincinnati Wake Force.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, I mean recruiting is such a cosmic gumbo, right,
Like you never know what you're really gonna get. A
lot of these classes that BIU brings in some of
the higher rated players might not amount to much, but
a walk on becomes a Tyler Algier type story, right.
And so I feel like I've said it before on
this program. I've said it before many times. It's kind
of like that scene from Miracle where Herb Brook says,
(02:43):
we don't want the best players, we want the right ones.
And b YU has a very specific fit that they
look for in players, and sometimes that doesn't align with
traditional recruiting stars or prestige. And it's worked out pretty well.
I mean, there's a talented coaching staff, Jay Hill and
Gernardo Guildford, Aaron Roderick Harvey Unga. I mean there's there's
a lot of really solid coaches on this by staff
that develop players well and find diamonds and the rough.
(03:05):
You know, they find these walk ons, they find these
FCS Weaver state type transfers, they develop players well. I
just I don't. I mean, recruiting is important in college football,
but let's not act like it's the end all be all.
Player development is so key and so I just think
it goes. It's just a testament to Colonie Sataki's operation
and being able to get the most out of his
guys that develop guys and find, like I said, the
(03:26):
right guys for the perfect thing, and you know, for
the culture that BYU has, which is unique, and it's
not just you can't just plug in the best players.
You want guys who can fit exactly what you're trying
to do, and they've done a really good job at that.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I'm gonna include Jeff in this conversation too, Jeff Fowller,
who put out the tweet and has been aggregating a
lot of this data. What are your three factors here?
That you contribute these these stats to these objective data
points too.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, And Jackson hit on the first two
of those. I think the first one is, you know,
how well do you develop the players that you have?
You know, first off getting the right ones, but you know, coaching,
are you developing the players and making the most out
of them that they can be? And maybe you know,
the seasoning of the mission time might be helpful for
some of those guys, whether it's maturity or body development
(04:11):
for some of the linemen, the non skill players might
be might have a little benefit where the skill players
may have a little setback by being away from the game.
And then number two is you know, are they how
well are they sort of finding these diamonds in the rough?
Are they able to evaluate some talent that maybe is
off the radar, you know, being in a relatively smaller
(04:32):
market like here in Utah and other places like you know,
Iowa State and and other places. Are you finding you know,
these Idaho farm boys, are you finding these you know
Iowa farm boys that are that are just not on
the radar? And I think that leads into the number
number three one is these recruiting side algorithms. You know,
(04:53):
they they do have great evaluators, they have people who
are full time that they're professional institutions, and there's no
questioning that you have to have elite talent to rise
to the highest levels of the sport. The blue chip ratio,
other things. If you want to win a national championship.
You know, it's it's been shown for close to twenty
years now. I think that you have to have the
(05:14):
majority of your roster needs to be above you know,
four or five stars, and you know, will someone eventually
break that ceiling. Maybe, But when these players get these
offers from some of the top blue blood programs, these
algorithms go crazy and their ratings get boosted. They used
to call it the Bama bump, where you got that
Alabama offer where you may have been rated an eighty US.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, and there's something to that. You know, these programs
don't want to they don't they're not going to offer
someone that's horrible. So you know, they have good evaluators,
but at a certain point it becomes a self fulfilling
prophecy as well that hey, we offer a guy and
maybe he was a ninety one, but now that we
offered him he's a ninety ninety five and he's a
(06:00):
five star instead of a four star. And so you
get that bump by getting the offers from some of
the elite programs. And and also as I've gone through
and looked at all this recruiting information and where teams
that these big markets, so Los Angeles, the Texas markets,
and especially Florida, there is some insane like great inflation
(06:21):
going on at high school recruiting. And uh, I've got
some of that listed in some of these reports that
we've put up over the last few weeks. But uh,
that's that feeds part of this. There is something too.
You might take some of the Florida schools or Texas
schools or California schools total talent rankings with a little
bit of a grain of salt, because a lot of
(06:42):
these players are coming through these recruiting mills, these seven
on seven you know, circuits and camps, and they you know,
they they get they get a benefit from going to
that and being having all these eyes on them, getting
all these offers. They're their recruiting rankings do jump up.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, you look at the you know, for instance, the
Stanford game Action Jackson Pain of the Desert ret News.
You look at their recruiting ranks over the last five years,
and I mean they have a probably a I don't know,
a median average recruiting ranking around forty. Stanford is much better,
almost twice as good then BYU from a personal acquisition standpoint.
(07:16):
Yet they are a heavy dog in this game. What
do you make of it, Jackson? What do you see
in this game? Give me a little prognostication and comments
on this.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, I mean Stanford might be better at getting recruits,
but by he's better at winning games. That's just kind
of the story of the story of the programs right there.
But I think Stanford's definitely got something to prove. I'd assume,
like you know, they got an interim coach. They lost
in dramatic fashion at Hawaii, which is never something to
hang your hat on. I think that it's a chip
(07:50):
on their shoulder type team. They're trying to just figure out.
Guys are playing for the future, playing for the portal,
playing for you know, what they're gonna do after this year,
and so there's a hungry group. Can't underestimate this team.
But at the same time, there's just not a ton
of great talent, Like BYU is the far superior team.
You know, if you were to look at kind of stakes,
it feels like this is kind of from Stanford's perspective.
(08:12):
This is like BYU going into Wisconsin in twenty eighteen,
and you know, Wisconsin played a poor game. BYU did
everything game plan wise to perfection. You know, they ran
the ball well, they played solid defense. That's kind of
a key to Stanford. I feel like, is you got
to make Bear Bachmeyer's life really difficult, blitz him, pressure
him everything you can do, and then try to control
(08:33):
the clock. But I just I don't know. Just BYU
is just it's a more well coached team, It's a
more talented team. It's really hard to play in provo
at late at night. I just I just don't see
any world where Stanford wins this game. You know, covering
is a whole other things because the spread is so big.
But still, like even then, I feel like BYU wins
by at least three touchdowns like that. It's just it's
really hard for me to see a scenario where that
(08:54):
doesn't happen. So long as you know, Bear isn't getting
sacked every other play, right.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So you're prognosticating, you're predicting BAYU covers the spread. I
think last time I checked it was at twenty and
a half. Yeah, you're sitting at twenty and a half.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not a gambling man, but I
think that's a decent bet. Ba's defense is really good
and Stanford doesn't have a great offense. Like Stanford's defense
is okay, like they're gonna make things interesting for Bear,
but at the same time, like Bear was a four
star recruit for a reason, and BYU's offensive playmakers that
the LJ. Martins, the Chase Roberts is, I mean, they're
that's a solid crop they got there. And so I'm
I just feel like the matchup just favors BYU two
(09:32):
too heavily.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, and what you said earlier about, you know, by
US the more talented team. You know, you look at
those twenty for seven rankings and has been alluded to,
you know, Stanford's closer to a forty fifth total talent
ranking and BYU seventieth. But I mean, anyone who puts
eyes on those teams and watches them over the last
couple of years, BYU clearly looks like the more talented team,
(09:56):
even though that that sort of runs in the face
of the recruiting rankings. So again, kudos to the staff,
the development, strength and conditioning, the players themselves who are
bought in. You know, it's great to see what's been
happening there and it'll be interesting to see, you know,
who rises did the occasion this Saturday as far as
beating expectations, because that's what it's all about. You know,
(10:17):
you can you beat the expectations? Can you you know,
impress the voters and the metrics and the computers and everything.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So what does a win over Stanford at home for
BYU mean to this program? Do you think? What does
it mean in the grand scheme of things in collegeotable
outside of just getting another victory, another notch at b
why you spelled in twenty twenty five? What do you
make of it?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I mean, it's it's a power four team, but Stanford
maybe the worst power four team in the country, and
Stanford the brand has kind of lost as luster, And
I mean it's just it's a powerful win on paper
that looks good I think more than anything, like just
until you you're certain that Bear is the guy if
he can do it against Portland State, can you still
do it against Stanford? And then after that, can you
(11:02):
do it against East Carolina? Like East Carolina probably beat Stanford,
you would think, so his competition is gonna get tougher
and tougher each week. It's a favorable situation being at home,
being late night, playing against the bad team. I just
I think, just I don't know, I don't think. To me,
maybe Stanford just having been a recruiting rival of BYU
for so long, the whole Pac twelve, the former Pac
(11:24):
twelve thing, and just wanting to make a statement in
that regard Shore that probably means something. But at the
same time, it's not like this is the Andrew Luck,
Andrew Luck the player I should say, the Andrew Luck
Christian McCaffrey Stanford team. I just I mean, it's just
this is a bad team that that's coming to Provo,
and by you should be able to pounce. And so
I think just winning handily is the statement that, yeah,
BYU's as good as we think they are. This is
(11:46):
the Portland State thing. Wasn't just a bad FBS team.
This is you can do this against the FBS team.
You can you do this against the power team let
alone a bet, like you know, albeit a bad one.
But I think BYU just needs to do what they're
supposed to and that means something and in this match,
no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Jackson Payne Deseratnews Desratnews dot com. Jackson, last question for you.
It's a it's a philosophical one. But you've been a
part of rivalry rivalry twitter. Uh now and again I
know how you like to dabble in a little bit
of it. Yay or nay? Would you say on this?
Do you sustain or do you not sustain? My guy,
Dave Christensen BYU fan, he's over at a ward Co says,
(12:25):
I'm establishing a new rule that you can't tweet about
UTAH or b YU football unless you have your name
and photo in your profile. Goes into affect two pm
Eastern time today. Do you sustain or not? Do you
like this or hate it?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I think it's smart, you know, I mean, you got
to give you Accountability is an important thing in Enlightened.
So if you're gonna be dishing it out, be willing
to put a face behind it, be willing to stay
by your takes. You know, don't don't don't what's out
Like obviously, my as I've tried to grow more and
more professional over the years, I've tried to stay away
from starting fires and jumping in on the pot. But
(13:00):
at the same time, I see the things on the
on my timeline. I see U taught fans of CBAU fans,
I see Utah State fans. It's it's I mean, it
can get brutal out there. And so yeah, it's let's
not get the wires crossed right, like, let's let's stand
by your takes. Let's let's own up to what you do.
Let's be accountable. And I mean, if you're not willing
(13:20):
to show who you are when you say something, is
it worth saying at all?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So I just I think it's a smart rule.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Dave.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Dave's got something going on.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Love it, Jackson. Best way to support to you what
you do, how you do it before you let you go.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, read the Desert News. We're free, we're online, we're
in we're in print, follow me at Jackson five, paint
on Twitter or x whatever you call it. And yeah,
I mean I'm putting out stuff there all the time.
So check it out.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Love it man. Thanks so much Jackson, appreciate you joining
us for a cougar beat.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
All right, so you guys, thank you diego.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
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the cougar segment under our belt. One of the last
players of a of an Era by Gone Okay, Brandon Heeney,
former BAU defensive back, will join us next to discuss
what those battles of Brigham versus Stanford, what they were
like in three and o four, will get caught up
with him, his family, what he's doing these days, and
also talks on BYU and Stanford football. Coming up next,
(14:53):
This is Cougar Sports on one oh three nine ninety
eight point three ESP