Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Red and Blue: Jarom Jordan on BYU's win over Notre Dame, No. 2 in the country, McAfee embracing BYU culture + more

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Red and Blue: Jarom Jordan on BYU's win over Notre Dame, No. 2 in the country, McAfee embracing BYU culture + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:03
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1:12
Speaker 2: Jerem Jordan is kind enough to join us today from
1:15
Speaker 2: Big 12 Basketball Media Days. He's doing double duty, talking football,
1:20
Speaker 2: and getting ready for a college basketball season right around
1:23
Speaker 2: the corner. Jerem Jordan, welcome back. How are you?
1:27
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm doing great. Yeah, boots on the ground, literally
1:30
Speaker 1: on the court. Get me a ball at Big 12
1:32
Speaker 1: Basketball Media Days. It's awesome, man. And you know, it's funny.
1:36
Speaker 1: We didn't know whether this was going to be a
1:38
Speaker 1: welcome distraction post-Notre Dame or just straight up distraction. It
1:42
Speaker 1: is a distraction because all people want to talk about
1:44
Speaker 1: is BYU beating Notre Dame in football here at Basketball
1:47
Speaker 1: Media Days, man. Anyone wearing blue is a pretty popular
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Speaker 1: person here.
1:50
Speaker 2: Well, look, we talked about what it would mean if
1:54
Speaker 2: BYU was able to pull off this win and it
1:57
Speaker 2: wasn't upset according to Vegas. And of course they did
2:00
Speaker 2: now that it actually happened. Does what you expected it
2:05
Speaker 2: would mean and what has actually, you know, the feeling
2:08
Speaker 2: around it, do those two things match up?
2:12
Speaker 1: They do not. It's actually bigger than I thought. It's
2:14
Speaker 1: better than I thought. You know, obviously certain people are
2:18
Speaker 1: focusing on number two team in the country. And there's
2:26
Speaker 1: conversation about BYU deserving to be number one at this point.
2:29
Speaker 1: And a lot of that has to do with the
2:31
Speaker 1: respect for Notre Dame, obviously the program, who they are
2:33
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, who they are this year.
2:36
Speaker 1: It was just awesome to see that BYU was as
2:38
Speaker 1: physical and as fast and as good as Notre Dame.
2:42
Speaker 1: And so it's, it's gnarly to think about, but that
2:44
Speaker 1: was the best win in the Kalani Saki era. You
2:51
Speaker 1: given the college football playoffs and the rankings and kind
2:54
Speaker 1: of what you've always gone through the last two years
2:55
Speaker 1: of kind of not getting over the hump with some
2:57
Speaker 1: of those games, it's awesome. And yet it's through six games.
3:02
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of ball to be played.
3:04
Speaker 1: You've got to avoid the letdown emotionally, like a bunch
3:07
Speaker 1: of teams had last week. And, but Hey, enjoy the journey.
3:11
Speaker 1: And so far so great.
3:13
Speaker 2: Well, I was going to wait to bring it up,
3:15
Speaker 2: but you just said, Hey, there's a lot of people
3:17
Speaker 2: focusing on some elements of the end of the game.
3:20
Speaker 2: And look, I made it very clear on the show yesterday.
3:23
Speaker 2: The only correct way to feel about it, whether you
3:26
Speaker 2: think it should have been a PI or there should
3:28
Speaker 2: have been another play. Cause there's a second left. Like
3:30
Speaker 2: the big 12 referees said there should be the outcome
3:34
Speaker 2: does not change. It's not going to change. You can
3:36
Speaker 2: scream at the clouds all you want. BYU won this
3:40
Speaker 2: football game and that's how it's going to be. from
3:43
Speaker 2: now until we AI kills us all. Like this one
3:47
Speaker 2: goes down in the record books for a, as a
3:51
Speaker 2: BYU win. If you're a BYU football fan, that's all
3:55
Speaker 2: you have to think about. That's all you have to like,
3:57
Speaker 2: you go to the office and there's somebody who wants
3:59
Speaker 2: to tell you, you didn't get the win. You did
4:01
Speaker 2: get the win, but there was also like a statement
4:04
Speaker 2: from the big 12. Hey, there should have been another play.
4:07
Speaker 2: There's an entire contingent of Notre Dame fans and a
4:09
Speaker 2: lot of Utah fans that suddenly became Notre Dame fans
4:12
Speaker 2: that are like, you didn't really win that game. There's,
4:14
Speaker 2: you know, there's still something up in the air here.
4:17
Speaker 2: How should be why you collectively be handling that?
4:22
Speaker 1: I think they've handled it. Well, in class Taki did
4:24
Speaker 1: a good job yesterday of saying what was pretty obvious
4:26
Speaker 1: for me, which is that he rolled out that plate
4:29
Speaker 1: took four seconds or more. And like, come on, they
4:31
Speaker 1: didn't start the clock on time. And obviously it ends
4:35
Speaker 1: with one second. So it's like, listen, was it DPI?
4:38
Speaker 1: Was there a second left? Was it that, that, that
4:41
Speaker 1: in the end? Yeah. All of this is besides the point.
4:48
Speaker 1: I know it's Tuesday, the weekend after in two or
4:51
Speaker 1: three days, this will not be a conversation that Ted and,
4:54
Speaker 1: and if, if national voters didn't feel like BYU actually
4:59
Speaker 1: deserved to win the game, they would not have ranked
5:01
Speaker 1: them as high as they did. I think that was, oh,
5:04
Speaker 1: they respected the wind and they respect Notre Dame. They
5:06
Speaker 1: only dropped two spots. And so I think it's all good.
5:11
Speaker 1: In the end, BYU wins the game. It's a little
5:13
Speaker 1: different from Michigan because Michigan had to make one more play.
5:16
Speaker 1: We don't know that Notre Dame would have scored on
5:17
Speaker 1: that play if they got a DPI and if there
5:19
Speaker 1: was a second left or whatever. Anyway, BYU is number two.
5:22
Speaker 1: That's all in though. They're six and oh, they beat
5:24
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. Like it's awesome. We'll take it. And now
5:27
Speaker 1: you got to avoid what has happened to several number
5:30
Speaker 1: ones this year, Texas, Georgia, and others have avoid that
5:33
Speaker 1: emotional letdown game is one of the top teams in
5:35
Speaker 1: the country. You're getting everyone's best shot. UCF never played
5:38
Speaker 1: a team, you know, number two in the country at home.
5:41
Speaker 1: And so two times on the whole thing, BYU is on,
5:44
Speaker 1: on They're on high alert. Like Kalani stock has addressed
5:48
Speaker 1: his team this week and said, we haven't done anything
5:49
Speaker 1: like that was an awesome win, but we got to
5:52
Speaker 1: stop reading the headlines. Let's let's buy into what they've
5:55
Speaker 1: been doing successfully every week, which is being mature team
5:57
Speaker 1: that handles their business week to week.
6:00
Speaker 2: If we go, since you're at basketball media days, if
6:02
Speaker 2: we go back to football media days and we take
6:06
Speaker 2: a poll and say, all right, is BYU going to
6:09
Speaker 2: beat Notre Dame? I think half the people in the
6:11
Speaker 2: building would have said, yeah, BYU can beat Notre Dame.
6:14
Speaker 2: And then if I said, can BYU beat Notre Dame
6:16
Speaker 2: without offensive player of the year, LJ Martin available? Everybody
6:22
Speaker 2: says absolutely not. And, and yet they did. I mean, that,
6:27
Speaker 2: that is an element to this game that really fascinates
6:31
Speaker 2: me because you're not supposed to be able to do
6:34
Speaker 2: it without, he might be your overall best player. He's
6:37
Speaker 2: certainly top three of your overall best players. And it
6:40
Speaker 2: wasn't even really part of the conversation because of how
6:43
Speaker 2: the rest of the team played, how great the defense was,
6:45
Speaker 2: et cetera. But it feels, it's not like he's out
6:48
Speaker 2: for the season. He's going to be back at some point.
6:51
Speaker 2: So BYU beat Notre Dame without being full strength. That's crazy.
6:58
Speaker 1: It is crazy. I mean, like after the game, people
7:01
Speaker 1: were not saying, well, yeah, without LJ, even better. Like
7:05
Speaker 1: it was almost forgotten, which is crazy. BYU outrushed Notre
7:08
Speaker 1: Dame in that game. They were as physical or more physical,
7:12
Speaker 1: as fast or faster. It's incredible what BYU has become
7:16
Speaker 1: in terms of talent and skill and execution and what
7:20
Speaker 1: they do together. I think going into the game 24,
7:23
Speaker 1: seven sports put out an article that said Notre Dame had,
7:25
Speaker 1: I can't remember if it was 58 or 68, four
7:27
Speaker 1: and five-star players. We all has 12. It's like what
7:30
Speaker 1: BYU is doing with that talent, you know, and obviously
7:33
Speaker 1: everyone always wants more NIL like where BYU is right
7:36
Speaker 1: now is incredible. They're building on what they've done the
7:38
Speaker 1: last few years. They've taken incremental steps to right now
7:43
Speaker 1: they're in competition for national championship. Like it was in
7:47
Speaker 1: a great spot. And they're only going to add to
7:49
Speaker 1: that with LJ Martin later, perhaps Andrew Gentry later as well.
7:54
Speaker 1: They're trying to get Sione Moa back. Isaiah Glasker coming back,
7:57
Speaker 1: by the way, I know that he was cleared and
7:59
Speaker 1: he was going to play. I did not have him
8:01
Speaker 1: playing and playing as well as he did. I think
8:06
Speaker 1: pro football network had him as the highest graded linebacker
8:08
Speaker 1: last week. He had circled that game. He had talked
8:10
Speaker 1: to me. He was kind of fired up that they
8:12
Speaker 1: had opted out of the pop-tarts bowl and he played
8:14
Speaker 1: like it. And so, yeah, no LJ Martin, no problem.
8:17
Speaker 1: Bear Bachmeier has his plan at a Heisman trophy contending
8:21
Speaker 1: level right now, number six and odds. I mean, it's
8:24
Speaker 1: all clicking, but got to keep it going.
8:27
Speaker 2: So people get mad at me when I say this,
8:29
Speaker 2: that I hinted at it being a possibility in the
8:33
Speaker 2: off season that this game where bear Bachmeier accounted for
8:36
Speaker 2: four touchdowns in every possible way you can on offense. This,
8:41
Speaker 2: this puts him, I don't think he's going to win
8:43
Speaker 2: the Heisman trophy, right? But it puts, if he continues
8:47
Speaker 2: to play this way, he's in New York because now
8:50
Speaker 2: you're the quarterback. on a top two team in the
8:54
Speaker 2: country and a team that is, I mean, and we'll
8:57
Speaker 2: talk about this here in a second is probably college
8:59
Speaker 2: football playoff bound, barring wheels completely falling off. I think
9:04
Speaker 2: that this performance against Notre Dame is, And continuity from
9:08
Speaker 2: here on out puts him at least in that conversation
9:11
Speaker 2: in a very serious way. I'm not talking about Vegas.
9:13
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the voters. I'm talking about the pundits
9:16
Speaker 2: in college football paying attention to a quarterback who wears
9:19
Speaker 2: number 47. And it's not always pretty, but it just
9:22
Speaker 2: makes the plays necessary when his team needs it.
9:26
Speaker 1: He's a better passing Tebow. I mean, Urban Meyer said
9:29
Speaker 1: the other day, like he's his favorite player to watch
9:31
Speaker 1: in college football right now. Obviously he loves the Tebow
9:34
Speaker 1: comp of his Florida connection, but yeah, I'm with you.
9:37
Speaker 1: And to get a vote, I think people misunderstand Heisman voting.
9:40
Speaker 1: They don't vote for the top 10. They vote for
9:42
Speaker 1: the top three. And then they go, these guys got
9:45
Speaker 1: the most votes and there's a flurry of people sometimes
9:49
Speaker 1: like Zach Willis. Wilson was, you know, a top 10
9:51
Speaker 1: guy in 2020, but it's, it's you're exactly right. Like he's,
9:55
Speaker 1: is he going to win it? I mean, if BYU
9:57
Speaker 1: goes undefeated and they're number one at the end of
9:59
Speaker 1: the year, like he's got a chance, you know, after the,
10:03
Speaker 1: the listen, if he's, if he's a top five Heisman guy,
10:10
Speaker 1: that would be incredible. I mean, top 10 is incredible.
10:13
Speaker 1: Just what he's doing to make plays is awesome. And frankly,
10:16
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, a lot of people had kind of
10:19
Speaker 1: questioned him and, and they didn't understand BYU just does
10:22
Speaker 1: what it needs to do to win each game. Sometimes
10:24
Speaker 1: that requires a bear to do X. Sometimes it's Y.
10:27
Speaker 1: First couple of weeks, they didn't need him to do
10:30
Speaker 1: a bunch. He's sitting out second half because they're beating
10:32
Speaker 1: Utah Tech and CSU. TCU has a very good defense,
10:35
Speaker 1: as we've seen, and the ball is wet, blah, blah, blah.
10:38
Speaker 1: You know, sub 130 total yards, whatever, BYU won the game.
10:41
Speaker 1: They don't really care. But then the last two weeks,
10:43
Speaker 1: what has it required? No LJ Martin. Therefore, Bear has
10:46
Speaker 1: to race his game from A to A +, right?
10:49
Speaker 1: And maybe higher. So he goes 300-100, third BYU quarterback. week,
10:54
Speaker 1: as you mentioned the past, the rush and the reception
10:57
Speaker 1: against the top five team, those TVs, no one's done
11:00
Speaker 1: that in the last 30 years in FBS quarterback. That's crazy.
11:02
Speaker 1: So it keeps checking these massive boxes. And as he
11:05
Speaker 1: said in his comments after the game, there was a
11:07
Speaker 1: lot of kind of pent up emotion. And he said, Hey,
11:10
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to lose to those guys. And he
11:12
Speaker 1: took it out on Notre Dame to the benefit of.
11:14
Speaker 2: BYU, which by the way, I think makes him even
11:17
Speaker 2: more of a candidate because it's a storyline and college
11:20
Speaker 2: football loves that little bit of a soap opera. on
11:23
Speaker 2: top of the, the on-field accomplishments. After he said that
11:28
Speaker 2: Notre Dame disrespected the Bachmeier family, everyone decided to become
11:33
Speaker 2: an internet sleuth and go digging as to what he meant.
11:35
Speaker 2: And they kind of decided everyone decided that it was
11:38
Speaker 2: because they used him as leverage to get another quarterback
11:42
Speaker 2: to commit. And then that commit ended up going to
11:45
Speaker 2: Auburn anyway. So it was kind of a wasted effort
11:47
Speaker 2: for Notre Dame. And, and then that was the thing
11:49
Speaker 2: that he was salty about. Is that accurate to your knowledge?
11:54
Speaker 2: Is that the reason that he holds a grudge against
11:56
Speaker 2: Notre Dame?
11:57
Speaker 1: Yes. All the reporting and conversations I've had are, yeah, that's,
12:01
Speaker 1: that's accurate. And it was funny last week, Stanford, Steve,
12:05
Speaker 1: you know, I was talking to the media on Friday
12:06
Speaker 1: before game day and he goes, Hey, I got, I
12:08
Speaker 1: got some beef with BYU. They took Taysom Hill and
12:10
Speaker 1: now bear Bachmeier. And I would add, Hey, LJ Martin
12:14
Speaker 1: was a commit to Stanford too. So it was Newsy
12:15
Speaker 1: town white pale. I mean, there have been several LJ
12:19
Speaker 1: Martin was actually going to Stanford and 22 BYU on
12:23
Speaker 1: the Cardinal. The next day, David Shaw says, Hey, I'm done.
12:27
Speaker 1: LJD commits comes to BYU. The rest is history. I mean,
12:30
Speaker 1: Stanford is the gift that keeps on giving to BYU
12:33
Speaker 1: right now with football. And, and Hey, we really appreciate it.
12:36
Speaker 1: Cause that battery of Bachmeier and Martin's pretty, pretty stinking good. Nice.
12:42
Speaker 2: Jerem Jordan is our guest here talking BYU Cougars red
12:45
Speaker 2: and blue. We do it once a week here on
12:46
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell show brought to you by Murdoch Ford,
12:49
Speaker 2: Santa Quinn. Uh, you already alluded to this several times.
12:52
Speaker 2: Now you got to go on the road. You got
12:54
Speaker 2: to put the Notre Dame win out of your mind.
12:57
Speaker 2: You got to go execute against a UCF team that
13:00
Speaker 2: you absolutely should beat. You got an Arizona state team
13:03
Speaker 2: the following week, a Halloween game against them. You absolutely
13:06
Speaker 2: should win that one. I think handily, you've got the
13:09
Speaker 2: rivalry game looming. Uh, Utah is a top 10 team
13:12
Speaker 2: for now. We'll see what happens with them. And they've
13:14
Speaker 2: got Houston this week, but, uh, This doesn't seem to
13:18
Speaker 2: me to be a BYU team where Kalani Satake, even
13:21
Speaker 2: though he is doing it, really has to remind these
13:24
Speaker 2: guys like, hey, you haven't accomplished enough yet. Hey, you
13:27
Speaker 2: haven't really done anything yet. But how do they avoid
13:29
Speaker 2: the pitfalls of a potential letdown win after beating Notre
13:33
Speaker 2: Dame on the road in Florida?
13:36
Speaker 1: Speaker 3 0 Yeah.
13:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
13:37
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think they are mature enough
13:39
Speaker 1: to overcome this, but not everyone is the same level
13:43
Speaker 1: of maturity. So I think it's important to make sure
13:45
Speaker 1: with the whole team, you kind of dig into them
13:47
Speaker 1: a little bit every now and then you need like
13:49
Speaker 1: the most powerful emotion to me is love. a little
13:53
Speaker 1: bit of fear, love and fear needs to be put
13:55
Speaker 1: into every one of these guys to make sure they're ready.
13:57
Speaker 1: Don't turn it over a bunch, obviously, you know, giving
14:00
Speaker 1: Notre Dame some special teams gaps with the muffs punt
14:04
Speaker 1: and the fake punt, like the BYU defense made up
14:07
Speaker 1: for that and only allowed six. And obviously they got
14:09
Speaker 1: two stops inside the five that ended each half. That
14:12
Speaker 1: was big too. So the BYU defense can really prevent
14:16
Speaker 1: anything like this, where, you know, BYU offense doesn't have
14:19
Speaker 1: to score a ton, a ton. And they jumped out
14:21
Speaker 1: quickly last week. If you give a team some hope
14:24
Speaker 1: and they're in the game in the second half and
14:26
Speaker 1: you turn the ball over, that's where it can get weird.
14:28
Speaker 1: But you know, I anticipate BYU winning handily, but I'm,
14:32
Speaker 1: I'm just way aware. I'm just BYU is awesome. Don't
14:35
Speaker 1: get me wrong, but they're not so good. They can
14:36
Speaker 1: just show up and win, right? You look around and
14:38
Speaker 1: you go, wait, is BYU better than into emotionally and mature, Texas, Georgia,
14:44
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. The other number one,
14:46
Speaker 1: it's like you college football. There's a lot of talent,
14:49
Speaker 1: a lot of places, Orlando's talent, rich, like BYU has
14:52
Speaker 1: gotta be aware. BYU struggled historically in Florida, although recently
14:58
Speaker 1: they've been way better. They're not playing like, you know,
15:02
Speaker 1: top 20 teams anymore every time they go to Florida
15:04
Speaker 1: for a bowl game. But yeah, UCF, it's a big game.
15:08
Speaker 1: It's the next one. And when you're number two, you're
15:10
Speaker 1: getting everybody's best shot because it could be a save
15:12
Speaker 1: your season kind of game for every opponent. All right.
15:15
Speaker 2: We did some Utah superlatives because the Utes are also
15:18
Speaker 2: halfway through their season. So who is BYU's current defensive
15:22
Speaker 2: player of the year?
15:25
Speaker 1: I would say Kate Uluwabe. He's been an instant impact guy.
15:28
Speaker 1: He's in the backfield harassing CJ car, never got home
15:31
Speaker 1: for a sack, but he flushed him out a couple
15:33
Speaker 1: of times. And that was BYU. His hope was kind
15:35
Speaker 1: of get him off platform just to touch. He's been
15:38
Speaker 1: a great leader. He's putting up the numbers. He he's
15:43
Speaker 1: a typical BYU guy. Like BYU has not thought like, hey,
15:46
Speaker 1: we really miss Jack Kelly, although we love Jack, like
15:48
Speaker 1: because Cade has been there. And so, yeah, same thing
15:51
Speaker 1: like Legend Glasker and Kyler Casper with Chase Roberts and
15:55
Speaker 1: Parker Kingston. You miss those guys, but you go, man,
15:58
Speaker 1: the production's still there. So I would say Cade Uluwabe.
16:01
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, he also qualifies for this other one, the
16:04
Speaker 2: newcomer of the year. Is he that, or is that.
16:09
Speaker 1: Probably, but I'll, I'll add someone else. I'll say Pocky
16:11
Speaker 1: Fino that BYU offense is rocking and rolling and you
16:15
Speaker 1: don't notice the O line. Like you could say Bruce
16:17
Speaker 1: Mitchell at center, but Pocky Fino came from Washington where
16:20
Speaker 1: he played mostly guard. He's been locking down left tackle,
16:24
Speaker 1: which we know is one of the most important positions
16:26
Speaker 1: in football, especially on offense. So He's, he's one of
16:29
Speaker 1: the best legend. Glasgow's been dynamic. You know, I've, I've
16:33
Speaker 1: loved that. Like there's been a lot of dudes that
16:35
Speaker 1: have Walker lions, obviously with the game winning catch, there's
16:38
Speaker 1: been a lot of dudes that have come in and
16:40
Speaker 1: BYU was very pinpoint with their transfers. It wasn't just
16:42
Speaker 1: a big group. It was like, this guy's going to
16:44
Speaker 1: fit into this spot. Precisely. You already did a great
16:46
Speaker 1: job in recruiting in the portal.
16:49
Speaker 2: Kalani is out because he's, you know, he's going to
16:52
Speaker 2: be the coach of the year candidate if BYU continues
16:55
Speaker 2: this success, but of his assistants, who is the coach
16:58
Speaker 2: of the year so far for BYU?
17:02
Speaker 1: I mean, you could argue Aaron Roderick was in his bag,
17:05
Speaker 1: especially Saturday in a big game. defense became kind of
17:15
Speaker 1: top 15, top 20 that made it. So the offense,
17:18
Speaker 1: you know, could kind of do its thing and not
17:20
Speaker 1: have to outscore everybody by a bunch. And Kelly has
17:24
Speaker 1: been awesome. This group has picked up where they left off.
17:26
Speaker 1: They're probably even better. You know, in terms of like
17:30
Speaker 1: yards allowed points allowed at this point, they're not taking
17:32
Speaker 1: the ball away as much as they did last year,
17:34
Speaker 1: although they're still positive in margin. So the K-pop demon
17:38
Speaker 1: hunters continue to do their thing.
17:41
Speaker 2: What about the question mark of the year? There's head scratcher,
17:44
Speaker 2: like the, where is this guy? We come into seasons
17:48
Speaker 2: with expectations and, you know, for Utah, there was a
17:51
Speaker 2: couple of individuals we thought would be, you know, taking
17:54
Speaker 2: a big role in either the offense or the defense.
17:56
Speaker 2: And they just haven't. Is there a guy or two
17:58
Speaker 2: at BYU that fits that category?
18:02
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that there's kind of a
18:05
Speaker 1: head scratcher guy. I He's going to have been a
18:12
Speaker 1: good blocker, but there's been some injuries and certainly took
18:16
Speaker 1: some people out of certain moments. Like I thought would
18:18
Speaker 1: have a big influence on the year. You know, LJ
18:21
Speaker 1: Martin being out like LJ, then I think he's one
18:24
Speaker 1: of the top running backs in the country. I think
18:26
Speaker 1: he still is, but yeah, defensively and whatnot. I think
18:32
Speaker 1: bottom will have towel has done a great job of right.
18:34
Speaker 1: Tackle starting Notre Dame, which by the way, he got
18:37
Speaker 1: engaged over the weekend. That's a congratulations, Kim. Yeah. I
18:41
Speaker 1: don't know if there's a guy that like, Hey, we're
18:43
Speaker 1: still waiting for you to show up. Kind of guy. No,
18:45
Speaker 1: none of this.
18:47
Speaker 2: .
18:49
Speaker 1: .
18:57
Speaker 2: .
18:59
Speaker 1: .
18:59
Speaker 2: Uh, how is that being received? Uh, you know,
19:03
Speaker 2: there's a, there's a way you can do that and
19:06
Speaker 2: people are going to like it. There's a way you
19:07
Speaker 2: can do it. And they're going to think that it's
19:08
Speaker 2: sacrilege and that you're mocking the religion. I am, I
19:13
Speaker 2: am not a member of the predominant faith here in
19:15
Speaker 2: the state. Uh, I thought that was a huge moment though,
19:18
Speaker 2: for the drove home. Why BYU athletics is very much
19:23
Speaker 2: a missionary tool and a vehicle for exposure. for the
19:26
Speaker 2: church overall but i i don't want to put words
19:29
Speaker 2: in anyone's mouth so how how is that being received
19:33
Speaker 2: among the grander populace.
19:35
Speaker 1: I thought it was awesome i i really do and
19:38
Speaker 1: you come to find out he didn't actually go up
19:40
Speaker 1: there prepared to do so so there was a video
19:42
Speaker 1: of some students who and Pat talked about it yesterday
19:45
Speaker 1: on the show, that kind of threw the small Book
19:49
Speaker 1: of Mormon, as he called it, a baby Book of Mormon,
19:51
Speaker 1: that hit his ankle. And he turned and looked at
19:54
Speaker 1: it and the crowd cheered. And he's like, oh, should
19:57
Speaker 1: I open this up and read it? And they cheered again.
19:59
Speaker 1: This is like during a break. Then he's looking through it.
20:01
Speaker 1: He sees some highlighted passages. He picks one. He turns
20:04
Speaker 1: to the crowd. And then he chose to read two
20:10
Speaker 1: different ones later, just like randomly. And the crowd really
20:12
Speaker 1: reacted like, this is awesome. Honestly, I thought it was
20:15
Speaker 1: a great day. You know, the Book of Mormon was
20:16
Speaker 1: trending on Twitter and just like created some interest in like,
20:20
Speaker 1: what is this? You know, so I thought it was
20:22
Speaker 1: great overall. The church was replying to people about it,
20:24
Speaker 1: you know, and on Instagram and Twitter and whatnot. So
20:28
Speaker 1: I thought it was awesome. Like it was just a
20:30
Speaker 1: positive day of exposure. And he did a good job of,
20:33
Speaker 1: he said, I try and lean into and learn about
20:36
Speaker 1: that school and what they're about. And obviously the church's
20:39
Speaker 1: connection is a big part of it. I actually told
20:41
Speaker 1: Austin Colley, um, Saturday, cause he came over to her.
20:43
Speaker 1: I said, I said, little did you and Ryan Smith
20:46
Speaker 1: know that like your relationship with Pat would, would yield
20:48
Speaker 1: this beautiful fruit that we're seeing today of just like
20:51
Speaker 1: positive exposure, whether you believe in it or not, or
20:54
Speaker 1: like it or not, just of like, Hey, this is
20:56
Speaker 1: something that we, uh, we care about. And, uh, here
20:58
Speaker 1: it is for the world to see. I thought it
21:00
Speaker 1: was a cool moment.
21:01
Speaker 2: So can we put to bed the idea And I
21:03
Speaker 2: think it's an idea that's only held by a very
21:05
Speaker 2: small but vocal portion of the populace that yells at
21:10
Speaker 2: me every time that I bring up the idea that
21:12
Speaker 2: maybe somebody at church headquarters doesn't want Kalani Satake to
21:16
Speaker 2: go somewhere else. Every time I suggest something like that,
21:20
Speaker 2: I get responses like, you don't know what you're talking about.
21:23
Speaker 2: They have bigger fish to fry. They're not paying attention
21:25
Speaker 2: to football. And I know that's not true. I have
21:28
Speaker 2: firsthand accounts from a member of the 70 who's like, no,
21:33
Speaker 2: they talk about it in the office because they're BYU
21:35
Speaker 2: fans also. There were six apostles at the game, I
21:39
Speaker 2: was told. Can we put to bed the idea that
21:42
Speaker 2: that the church doesn't care about the sports.
21:45
Speaker 1: Speaker 3 I, yeah, I believe they care. Um, I
21:49
Speaker 1: believe it's important. I believe it's a missionary tool. You know,
21:52
Speaker 1: I speak for just myself, not athletics from the university,
21:55
Speaker 1: but yeah. And like BYU is very relevant right now. The,
21:59
Speaker 1: the church is, uh, more relevant right now. Like when
22:02
Speaker 1: missionaries show up this week and different houses around the
22:04
Speaker 1: country in the people know they beat Notre Dame. It's
22:07
Speaker 1: like a talking point. Jimmer for that success was very relevant.
22:12
Speaker 1: Tyler Haas told me a story one time that he
22:15
Speaker 1: was on his mission in the Philippines and the guy
22:16
Speaker 1: saw him as an American and said, Oh, do you
22:19
Speaker 1: know Jimmer for that? And he's like, little do you know,
22:21
Speaker 1: I was like literally about like three to 50 million Americans.
22:25
Speaker 1: You found me. Yeah. That's funny. Crazy story. You know
22:28
Speaker 1: what I mean? And, and it's, it's all, it's all positive,
22:32
Speaker 1: you know? And it's fun to see like former BYU
22:34
Speaker 1: athletes who are, 70s and giving conference talks like Vice
22:38
Speaker 1: Sikahema and Gabe Reed, excuse me, Elder Sikahema, Elder Reed,
22:42
Speaker 1: Brother Reed, right? A Brother Pat, Elder Saban, which is
22:46
Speaker 1: really funny. I think it was just a really positive,
22:49
Speaker 1: great weekend for all of that. And as President Shane
22:52
Speaker 1: Reese at BYU has said, we have to win to
22:55
Speaker 1: be relevant. And so there's a certain amount of physical, emotional,
22:59
Speaker 1: financial investment that comes with that. And right now, things
23:02
Speaker 1: are going really well.
23:04
Speaker 2: I could have told you guys this many years ago.
23:06
Speaker 2: I'll be why you needed to get over the hump
23:08
Speaker 2: and get more positive exposure is have a Catholic quarterback
23:12
Speaker 2: and then you're good.
23:15
Speaker 1: Listen, that's like when the bell said with the miracle
23:18
Speaker 1: boy goes, listen, a Catholic through to a Methodist. for
23:22
Speaker 1: the hail Mary. And then a Mormon kicked the PA
23:25
Speaker 1: T you know, the Mormon won the game in LaBelle's way.
23:29
Speaker 1: That was really funny. It, it is cool because that
23:32
Speaker 1: not only is it, you know, bears bears Catholic. And
23:35
Speaker 1: by the way, I talked to his dad over the weekend,
23:37
Speaker 1: like how much did they like Notre Dame and embrace
23:39
Speaker 1: that when Michael Bachmeier bears a dad is a place.
23:53
Speaker 1: I love Notre Dame. I respect the heck out of
23:56
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. If I had a chance to go to
23:57
Speaker 1: Notre Dame, I might have gone there too. What a
23:59
Speaker 1: great place. We've seen members of the church Dale, Chris Badger,
24:04
Speaker 1: you know, from Tempe a couple of years ago and others,
24:05
Speaker 1: there have been members who have embraced that and said
24:08
Speaker 1: their experience was so awesome. Likewise, the BYU, you have
24:12
Speaker 1: the Bachmeyers and other like Trey Alexander, not a member
24:15
Speaker 1: of the church from Georgia. You know, as Ben Crittle
24:18
Speaker 1: would say, double minority. And he loves BYU. He loves
24:22
Speaker 1: the honor code. So it's just, it's just great. It's, it's,
24:25
Speaker 1: it's representative of people of faith. do they have to
24:28
Speaker 1: be the faith? Not necessarily like come and ball and,
24:31
Speaker 1: and avoid certain distractions from the typical college life. Be about,
24:36
Speaker 1: be about the game and, and represent and enjoy. And
24:39
Speaker 1: there's been an awesome representative of a bunch of places
24:42
Speaker 1: like BYU in the church. I.
24:44
Speaker 2: I, I, I was laughing because as someone who is
24:48
Speaker 2: a Mormon adjacent, as I like to call myself, I
24:51
Speaker 2: often find myself answering questions about, you know, LDS culture
24:56
Speaker 2: and about Mormonism to people who have no idea, because
25:00
Speaker 2: I know a lot about it without being a member.
25:02
Speaker 2: I'm married to someone who is right. And so like,
25:06
Speaker 2: I know it without being it. And I never in
25:10
Speaker 2: a trillion years would have thought I would see Pat
25:12
Speaker 2: McAfee sitting on, not at college game day, but sitting
25:16
Speaker 2: on his own set on his own show, after being
25:20
Speaker 2: in Provo and doing the same thing where like other
25:23
Speaker 2: people who don't know as much as Pat knows, which
25:26
Speaker 2: is wild that Pat knows anything. We're asking him questions
25:29
Speaker 2: and he was like, no, it's not John Smith. It's
25:31
Speaker 2: Joseph Smith. I was just, I was cracking up because.
25:34
Speaker 1: He was like, Nope, then Brigham Young. Then they moved.
25:36
Speaker 1: Like he knew the history. I love that. He's like,
25:41
Speaker 1: like in Ted Lasso, he talks about like be curious.
25:44
Speaker 1: I think that's a great life principle. Like learn other things,
25:47
Speaker 1: learn from other people in other ways. You don't have
25:59
Speaker 1: I love his curiosity.
26:00
Speaker 2: It was really, it was just really fascinating. And it's
26:02
Speaker 2: like the Venn diagram that, that you're just like a
26:06
Speaker 2: sports guy who then gets sucked into the, the BYU
26:09
Speaker 2: thing and the Mormon thing. I never thought it happened
26:11
Speaker 2: at that level.
26:12
Speaker 1: But it did. I, I joked with, you know, a
26:15
Speaker 1: Steve Bonta, who he still talked to AJ's dad. Like
26:18
Speaker 1: I call him elder Devonta because he fields questions like
26:28
Speaker 1: out there. It's he said it's coffee and certain teas,
26:32
Speaker 1: you know? And I go, yeah, that's right. I haven't
26:34
Speaker 1: made an AI version of a name tag for him,
26:36
Speaker 1: you know, if he needs it. So BYU has done
26:38
Speaker 1: an excellent job to helping spread the word of what
26:43
Speaker 1: BYU is about, what the church is about, whether they
26:45
Speaker 1: are a member of said church or not, they have
26:48
Speaker 1: brought in different people, influencers to experience BYU. You know,
26:53
Speaker 1: obviously the show that is the game, the school, I
26:56
Speaker 1: think BYU has done a tremendous job from a PR
26:58
Speaker 1: standpoint of bringing people in to see what it's actually about.
27:02
Speaker 1: And once you see it, you understand it way better.
27:06
Speaker 2: Last thing before I let you go, This win for
27:09
Speaker 2: the program is huge. This win for Kalani Satake makes him, like,
27:13
Speaker 2: even more bulletproof down there in my mind. And obviously
27:17
Speaker 2: we had an unpleasant storyline at the beginning of the
27:20
Speaker 2: season that, you know, some disagreement, some discord, and a
27:24
Speaker 2: changing of the organizational structure. Now you've beat Notre Dame
27:28
Speaker 2: and you're the number two team in the country. It's
27:29
Speaker 2: the highest ranking in forever for the school and all
27:32
Speaker 2: these things. I mean, his status has to be elevated
27:36
Speaker 2: even more by this win. Is that accurate?
27:39
Speaker 1: I think so. And he's been respected nationally, but it's like, what's,
27:44
Speaker 1: you know, what's your best win? Like how good is BYU?
27:48
Speaker 1: They've never, they've never been better in sort of the
27:50
Speaker 1: more modern context of BYU football. And just to see
27:54
Speaker 1: that battle with Notre Dame on that stage, like the
27:57
Speaker 1: biggest stage, arguably BYU has ever been on. you know, Hey,
28:00
Speaker 1: they won the Natty holiday. Well, the technology was not
28:03
Speaker 1: the same. It's just different. You have game day and
28:05
Speaker 1: Uber nation delivered. It was awesome. And then you're on
28:08
Speaker 1: ABC Saturday night football. He got the number one crew
28:10
Speaker 1: with Fallon. Her street was super cool. I worked with Holly,
28:15
Speaker 1: by the way, 20 years ago on true blue is
28:17
Speaker 1: a BYU show. I was a student. She was the host.
28:19
Speaker 1: I learned a ton from her. It's great to see
28:20
Speaker 1: her again. It was just, it was just awesome. There
28:23
Speaker 1: was a moment Sean in 2019 where BYU was struggling
28:28
Speaker 1: at the start of that year and they played Boise
28:29
Speaker 1: state in the middle of the year. And there was
28:31
Speaker 1: this thought that if you didn't win that game or
28:33
Speaker 1: kept losing that maybe they would let go of Kalani
28:35
Speaker 1: like that. The seat would be hot. BYU wins that game.
28:39
Speaker 1: And it's kind of not looked back since they finished
28:42
Speaker 1: 2019 strong. 2020 was awesome. 21 was awesome. And they've 24, 25, 26.
28:48
Speaker 1: It has taken off since that point. He just won
28:50
Speaker 1: his 90th game, which in his sixth game of his
28:54
Speaker 1: 11th year, Gregor Bell said, LaBelle did the same exact thing.
28:57
Speaker 1: 90th win sixth game of his 11th year. I was like,
29:00
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? He joked that he was going
29:02
Speaker 1: to be the Polynesian in the Valley. He wanted to
29:04
Speaker 1: be that. He is. He's the perfect guy, as I've
29:07
Speaker 1: said a million times from BYU right now, completely aligned
29:10
Speaker 1: with BYU and the church. And BYU's winning and doing
29:13
Speaker 1: it the BYU way. It's just a perfect match. And
29:16
Speaker 1: it's really fun to watch right now.
29:19
Speaker 2: Well, enjoy it until November 7th. And then don't enjoy
29:24
Speaker 2: it as much.
29:24
Speaker 1: And then it's on, like Donkey Kong. Yeah, I can't
29:27
Speaker 1: wait to embrace in the press box and just have
29:31
Speaker 1: a great competition there. It's going to be fun, but yeah,
29:34
Speaker 1: big game Saturday. Utah, Houston, excited to watch it because
29:37
Speaker 1: Houston feels like a very good team. Utah is awesome.
29:39
Speaker 1: So that's going to be a game that feels like
29:42
Speaker 1: a potential play out of the big 12 championship game,
29:46
Speaker 1: not playing, but like a, are you out with the tiebreakers?
29:49
Speaker 1: I don't know. It could get complicated. I'm cool for
29:54
Speaker 1: the two schools.
29:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, going to be a weird one. We'll talk about
29:56
Speaker 2: that next week, and we'll talk about basketball next week.
30:00
Speaker 2: I could pick your brain longer, but we're way over clock.
30:02
Speaker 2: So thanks for your time, Jerem. Enjoy basketball media days,
30:05
Speaker 2: and we'll chat next week.
30:07
Speaker 1: John, thanks for the time, man.
30:09
Speaker 2: That is Jerem Jordan. Red and blue brought to you
30:12
Speaker 2: by our friends at Murdoch, Ford, Santa, Quinn.