Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Red and Blue: Jarom Jordan previews No. 8 BYU facing No. 3 Notre Dame in Provo, Biggest home game ever for BYU (?) + more
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: My father taught me many things. You know what they say.
- 0:06Speaker 1: He taught me, keep your friends close, but your enemies close.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Time to check in on the team down south. They
- 0:14Speaker 1: have done absolutely nothing wrong, but they're blue. This is
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- 1:08Speaker 2: now to talk about a massive game for BYU as
- 1:12Speaker 2: they welcome the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a top
- 1:14Speaker 2: 10 matchup.
- 1:15Speaker 1: College game day will be on campus. Big one in Provo. Jerem,
- 1:19Speaker 1: how are you?
- 1:22Speaker 3: Speaker 2, I'm doing great. How are you? Great. Great. Yeah.
- 1:26Speaker 1: Highly anticipated weekend for the folks down there.
- 1:29Speaker 3: Right. And what's interesting is because this was announced kind
- 1:32Speaker 3: of shortly after the pop-tarts bowl in around January, there,
- 1:36Speaker 3: there hasn't been this like years lead up. It was like, Oh,
- 1:40Speaker 3: the ACC played and said, Hey, we're going to play
- 1:42Speaker 3: nine conference games. So Cal bowed out of a game
- 1:45Speaker 3: with BYU, USC canceled Notre Dame. This was literally the
- 1:48Speaker 3: best possible in the Buick could have had because Notre
- 1:51Speaker 3: Dame has not come to provost since 2004, despite having
- 1:55Speaker 3: multiple opportunities. They played in Vegas four years ago. It
- 1:58Speaker 3: was a good game. And here we are in BYU
- 2:01Speaker 3: for the first time ever at home has a top
- 2:04Speaker 3: 10 team to match up with another top 10 team
- 2:07Speaker 3: and game day acknowledges how sweet this game is. And
- 2:10Speaker 3: obviously they can get Notre Dame on the air. They will.
- 2:12Speaker 3: And I mean, there could be a massive number with
- 2:14Speaker 3: a Saturday night on ABC Fowler herb street. Welcome back
- 2:19Speaker 3: Holly row. Who's been on both sides of this rivalry,
- 2:22Speaker 3: obviously Utah grad and a lot of time at KBYU
- 2:25Speaker 3: and BYU TV. When I was a young student, I
- 2:28Speaker 3: worked on a show called true blue with host Holly row.
- 2:30Speaker 3: So it'll be great to have her back in Provo.
- 2:33Speaker 3: And it's a, it's a big game in for a
- 2:35Speaker 3: good Jillian reasons. Can't wait.
- 2:37Speaker 2: So I've heard many answers to this question and I
- 2:40Speaker 2: wanted yours. Is this the biggest game ever in Provo?
- 2:44Speaker 2: Is this the biggest matchup ever in Provo? And I
- 2:47Speaker 2: asked my father-in-law this question last night. He was a
- 2:50Speaker 2: former walk-on at BYU and he was part of some
- 2:53Speaker 2: big years down there and he remembers a lot of
- 2:56Speaker 2: BYU football and he said, well, no, the number one
- 2:59Speaker 2: team in the country came It came to town back
- 3:03Speaker 2: in the day and BYU beat them. But like you
- 3:05Speaker 2: just said, that wasn't a top 10 BYU team. So
- 3:08Speaker 2: even though it was an upset, I don't know if
- 3:09Speaker 2: it was as highly anticipated as this one.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Is this the biggest game ever at Lavelle Edwards Stadium?
- 3:16Speaker 3: Now, there are two different things here. The biggest win
- 3:20Speaker 3: in BYU history to me, and I think to the
- 3:22Speaker 3: majority of BYU fans, is 1990 versus Miami. Miami's number one.
- 3:27Speaker 3: They had won the national championship the year before you
- 3:29Speaker 3: had to beat them. They end up number three. They
- 3:31Speaker 3: were awesome. And tight ever is launched into a Heisman
- 3:35Speaker 3: campaign that ends up winning him the eyes and not
- 3:37Speaker 3: in that moment, obviously, but later that's a big freaking deal.
- 3:39Speaker 3: Cause the 1984 Natty is the biggest thing you've always
- 3:42Speaker 3: ever done in sports. The second thing is the Heisman
- 3:44Speaker 3: with Ty, this situation, this buildup, this hype, this anticipation,
- 3:51Speaker 3: the top 10 matchup, the college game day, the primetime ABC.
- 3:57Speaker 3: this is the biggest set up for a game, which
- 4:00Speaker 3: I think is the question in BYU history. Now it
- 4:03Speaker 3: was that twice last year. What was it? What are
- 4:06Speaker 3: you talking about? It was at Texas tech. That was
- 4:08Speaker 3: the biggest buildup. First top 10 matchup ever for BYU.
- 4:12Speaker 3: They lose 29, seven. That was a bummer. They dropped
- 4:14Speaker 3: four spots. I want to remind people when you lose
- 4:16Speaker 3: to a top 10 team, you don't, you don't go
- 4:18Speaker 3: way down. Well, Florida did It's like Florida, Florida, you know,
- 4:24Speaker 3: showed up one week and then didn't the other and
- 4:26Speaker 3: got crushed. So it's not quite the same. Then the
- 4:30Speaker 3: big 12 championship game was the biggest game in BYU
- 4:32Speaker 3: football history up to that point, because they had a
- 4:34Speaker 3: chance to secure an opportunity to get into the playoff
- 4:38Speaker 3: and they lost big again. So this is an opportunity
- 4:42Speaker 3: for BYU to really help itself in a gajillion ways.
- 4:46Speaker 3: If they win, oh man, they're top five and they're
- 4:49Speaker 3: playoff chances are way up. Like they might, they might
- 4:52Speaker 3: be able to lose two conference games and still get in.
- 4:55Speaker 3: Like that could happen. Maybe if they compete and lose,
- 4:59Speaker 3: but go, go, Hey, it'd be always pretty good. They lost.
- 5:01Speaker 3: It didn't have LJ Martin, you know, dot, dot, dot
- 5:03Speaker 3: Notre Dame's pretty good. That would be a respectable loss.
- 5:06Speaker 3: If they get blown out now, you just go, well, okay,
- 5:09Speaker 3: got to win the big 12, you know, got to compete.
- 5:11Speaker 3: And Utah's coming up in a couple of weeks and
- 5:13Speaker 3: UCF is a huge game next week because it's emotionally
- 5:16Speaker 3: either way, whether you win or lose to Notre Dame.
- 5:19Speaker 3: I think the answer is yes. And there's a lot
- 5:21Speaker 3: riding on it, but it's not everything, but it's certainly massive.
- 5:26Speaker 3: I think it's a huge moment in the, in the
- 5:28Speaker 3: history of BYU football.
- 5:30Speaker 1: I don't think anyone can dispute that.
- 5:32Speaker 2: And obviously there's the, the bells and whistles and the
- 5:35Speaker 2: circus coming to town. Like you already mentioned with college
- 5:38Speaker 2: game day, human nature is undefeated, but this seems like
- 5:42Speaker 2: a pretty disciplined dialed in team. You know, they, they
- 5:46Speaker 2: handle things in a very professional manner. I think that
- 5:48Speaker 2: this coaching staff has a routine down that they like.
- 5:51Speaker 1: There's been a lot of recent success.
- 5:54Speaker 2: And sometimes these games can pull you away from that
- 5:57Speaker 2: a little bit. I mean, for your quarterback, there's going
- 5:59Speaker 2: to be extra media to do this week and things
- 6:02Speaker 2: like that. But, I mean, at the end of the day,
- 6:06Speaker 2: how much of a distraction, how much of a coloring
- 6:08Speaker 2: outside the lines project is this for BYU football because
- 6:13Speaker 2: of all the extra stuff?
- 6:15Speaker 3: I think BYU is getting used to being good and
- 6:19Speaker 3: having this kind of attention. And yes, with game day here, there's,
- 6:22Speaker 3: there's kind of a little more there, but think about it.
- 6:24Speaker 3: The last three years, BYU has been in the top
- 6:27Speaker 3: kind of 15, top 20, quite a bit this year.
- 6:30Speaker 3: BYU has now been inside the top 15, the entire time,
- 6:34Speaker 3: the whole season, preseason. And now they've been top 10,
- 6:37Speaker 3: the last four weeks, top 11, last five bear Bachmeier
- 6:42Speaker 3: 17 and two as a starter, like that. BYU was
- 6:44Speaker 3: almost in the playoff last year. I think BYU is
- 6:47Speaker 3: used to sort of this situation. It's not kind of 06, 07, 08,
- 6:52Speaker 3: where you start slow and you kind of catch up
- 6:54Speaker 3: and you're trying to maybe crack into the new year's
- 6:57Speaker 3: six kind of thing. It's just different. It's power conference football.
- 7:00Speaker 3: I think BYU is pretty comfortable in that space. BYU
- 7:03Speaker 3: has played some really good teams over the years. Notre
- 7:05Speaker 3: Dame is one of the best teams BYU has played
- 7:07Speaker 3: in a long time. Like I think that tech team
- 7:09Speaker 3: last year was, was pretty good, especially that defense. So
- 7:13Speaker 3: it's not like BYU hasn't played a team of the silk.
- 7:16Speaker 3: I also want to remind people, Notre Dame hasn't come
- 7:18Speaker 3: to the mountain times in 13 years. And, you know,
- 7:22Speaker 3: they haven't had to play like a top 10 true
- 7:24Speaker 3: road opponent in a minute and, and when, you know,
- 7:28Speaker 3: those are tough things for them too. So I think
- 7:30Speaker 3: it is a heavyweight battle. Notre Dame should be favored
- 7:34Speaker 3: in this game. I agree with that. They're very good
- 7:37Speaker 3: watching the film on them. I think they're fantastic. They're,
- 7:39Speaker 3: they got five NFL draft picks on defense, including a
- 7:43Speaker 3: top five pick and Leonard Moore, who's questionable with a concussion.
- 7:47Speaker 3: But he's the best corner in America, maybe the world
- 7:50Speaker 3: in college, you know? So yeah, they got a lot
- 7:53Speaker 3: of dudes. It's going to be, it's going to be
- 7:54Speaker 3: a heavyweight battle. It's going to be awesome. And I
- 7:56Speaker 3: think BYU is humble enough to know like, Hey, we
- 7:58Speaker 3: like survived against TCU. And then it was the biggest
- 8:01Speaker 3: 14 point blowout in the history of college football Friday night.
- 8:04Speaker 3: Cause BYU had plus 300 yards on Iowa state, but couldn't,
- 8:09Speaker 3: couldn't punch it in very well in the red zone.
- 8:11Speaker 3: So certainly there's room for improvement, but I don't think
- 8:14Speaker 3: BYU has shown their best game quite yet. And this
- 8:16Speaker 3: would be a great time for a Saturday night.
- 8:20Speaker 2: Bear Bachmeier was huge in that game, 400 plus all
- 8:25Speaker 2: purpose yards for him, ran for over a hundred pass
- 8:28Speaker 2: for over 300.
- 8:29Speaker 1: And, you know, he, in a, in.
- 8:32Speaker 2: A game where I don't know if you needed to
- 8:34Speaker 2: do it exactly that way, but where you're, you're down
- 8:36Speaker 2: your top two running backs against Iowa state.
- 8:39Speaker 3: Right.
- 8:40Speaker 1: Um, and didn't get a lot going with the backup guys.
- 8:44Speaker 1: Bear did run.
- 8:45Speaker 2: Well, uh, he passed incredibly well. He was on time
- 8:48Speaker 2: with this throws. He was efficient with this throws. I
- 8:51Speaker 2: guess a couple of things bogged down in the red zone,
- 8:54Speaker 2: as you already mentioned, but if you rewind a year,
- 8:57Speaker 2: could bear Bachmeier have done that last year?
- 9:00Speaker 1: Could he have, could he have passed that successfully?
- 9:03Speaker 2: Could he have been a guy that's like, I don't
- 9:05Speaker 2: know if there was a conversation with Aaron Roderick, like, Hey,
- 9:08Speaker 2: we're going to have to pass to win this game.
- 9:10Speaker 2: I don't know if any of that happened, but I
- 9:14Speaker 2: guess I'm asking a question about his development. Is that
- 9:16Speaker 2: something we saw from him against Iowa State where I
- 9:19Speaker 2: was like, all right, this guy can run to win
- 9:22Speaker 2: you the game, or if you need to rely on
- 9:24Speaker 2: his arm, he can do that too. Did he have
- 9:27Speaker 2: that in him last year?
- 9:30Speaker 3: I think he did. I think he is better, though,
- 9:32Speaker 3: to your point. But last year against West Virginia, he
- 9:36Speaker 3: threw for. 351. Against Iowa State as well last year
- 9:39Speaker 3: when L.J. Martin earned the second round. quarter. He threw
- 9:41Speaker 3: for three Oh seven in the bowl game when LJ
- 9:43Speaker 3: Martin didn't play through for three 25 against ranked Georgia tech.
- 9:46Speaker 3: So he definitely had it last year. What I think
- 9:48Speaker 3: he's better at this year is the deep ball. You
- 9:50Speaker 3: always got four pass plays of 60 plus. Now, one
- 9:53Speaker 3: of those was Roger Salipanga on Friday running to the
- 9:56Speaker 3: 60-plus mark, but three to Legend Glasker. Legend Glasker is
- 10:01Speaker 3: one of the best deep threats BYU's ever had, one
- 10:02Speaker 3: of the best in the country. He's fifth in yards
- 10:05Speaker 3: run per route. He's one of the top-rated freshmen in
- 10:09Speaker 3: America from Pro Football Network. He is outstanding, and he
- 10:12Speaker 3: is something that, you know, if Leonard Moore played, he's
- 10:15Speaker 3: probably matched up with Legend Glasker. a Colorado transfer, DJ McKinney,
- 10:20Speaker 3: who's played BYU now four years in a row at
- 10:21Speaker 3: Oklahoma state, two years at Colorado, now Notre Dame. He'll
- 10:25Speaker 3: be aware of legend Glasgow. So bear, I think is
- 10:28Speaker 3: a better deep ball thrower. He's more accurate down the field.
- 10:30Speaker 3: He struggled a bit with that last year at times,
- 10:33Speaker 3: especially outside the numbers 20 plus that's a tough throw.
- 10:35Speaker 3: That's an NFL throw, but he's getting better at it. Yeah.
- 10:38Speaker 3: And B and BYU, I think silence some of the
- 10:41Speaker 3: critics of like can Bear pass it? And last week,
- 10:46Speaker 3: BYU needed to with Noel J. Martin for sure, and
- 10:48Speaker 3: they did a great job. And then, oh, by the way,
- 10:50Speaker 3: he ran for 109, which is wild. The third BYU
- 10:53Speaker 3: player ever, by the way, to go 300 past 100 rush.
- 10:55Speaker 3: The other two, Steve Young, Taysom Hill. The top three
- 10:59Speaker 3: dual threats with Bear Bachmer in BYU history.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Jerem Jordan is our guest here talking the BYU-Notre Dame
- 11:05Speaker 2: matchup coming. BYU, of course, top 10 team in the country.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Notre Dame, top 10 team in the country. Huge thing
- 11:11Speaker 2: happening in Provo This weekend, and I'm seeing reports BYU
- 11:16Speaker 2: getting healthier. Still no Andrew Gentry, still no LJ Martin,
- 11:20Speaker 2: but who are they going to get back?
- 11:24Speaker 3: The hope is that Raider Damone is back at safety
- 11:27Speaker 3: after a knee injury in the opener against Utah tech.
- 11:30Speaker 3: That'd be good. Although Tommy Pratt said his best game
- 11:32Speaker 3: as a Cougar last week at safety opposite follow tell
- 11:35Speaker 3: South to Walla cannon debris would be a nice addition.
- 11:37Speaker 3: If he can return a BYU's punt return to starting nickel.
- 11:41Speaker 3: And frankly, I don't know that viewing needs him at nickel.
- 11:44Speaker 3: Evan Johnson slides over to nickel and then David Williams,
- 11:47Speaker 3: the Mississippi state transfer has been playing very well at
- 11:50Speaker 3: kind of a second corner spot next to Trey Alexander
- 11:52Speaker 3: and So hopefully Candidate Breeze can play a punt return.
- 11:55Speaker 3: Last week, you know, Tiger Bachmeier really struggled. He started
- 11:58Speaker 3: strong with a 16 and a 22-yard return, and then
- 12:01Speaker 3: he muffed a punt, recovered it, and then he fielded
- 12:04Speaker 3: a punt at the one, and then he muffed another punt.
- 12:06Speaker 3: So that was tough. You don't get that kind of
- 12:09Speaker 3: game and then thrown back in the rotation very quickly,
- 12:12Speaker 3: very often. So, you know, hopefully Candidate Breeze come in there,
- 12:16Speaker 3: and if you can return a punt, well, great. If not,
- 12:19Speaker 3: just fair catch and let the BYU offense do its thing. And,
- 12:22Speaker 3: you know, Sione Mo and Isaiah Glasker aren't ruled out.
- 12:26Speaker 3: Glasker with the knee injury, you know, two weeks ago
- 12:29Speaker 3: against TCU. And then Sione Mo dealing with the knee
- 12:33Speaker 3: injury from the first game. So I'd be surprised, frankly,
- 12:37Speaker 3: if Mo and Glasker played. I hope they do. If
- 12:39Speaker 3: they're good enough, that'd be great. Some of BYU's top
- 12:42Speaker 3: 15 players. But I think DeVries and DeMoney could have
- 12:46Speaker 3: an impact on this game.
- 12:48Speaker 2: Isaiah Glasker being out last week against an Iowa State
- 12:52Speaker 2: team that has shown some ability to run the ball effectively,
- 12:55Speaker 2: I thought was going to be a much bigger problem
- 12:58Speaker 2: than it actually ended up being. And I think that's
- 13:00Speaker 2: a testament to K-pop and to everything else that this
- 13:03Speaker 2: BYU defense is doing from a talent and an execution standpoint.
- 13:09Speaker 2: Towsili Akana continues to excel. Alexander, he had an incredible game.
- 13:16Speaker 2: This defense, even without one of its best players, looks
- 13:19Speaker 2: like still one of the best defenses in the conference.
- 13:22Speaker 3: Yeah, they're playing great. And, uh, you know, I, we,
- 13:25Speaker 3: we have a relationship with, uh, stats perform. So I
- 13:27Speaker 3: asked them when's the last time BYU held a powerful
- 13:29Speaker 3: team to 10 points or less in back-to-back games. And
- 13:33Speaker 3: it was 06, 07, the end of the sixth year
- 13:35Speaker 3: to 07. So K-pop has kind of answered the call
- 13:37Speaker 3: of like, is this BYU defense going to be as
- 13:39Speaker 3: good or better? Uh, yeah. Uh, I, I think they're
- 13:42Speaker 3: more dynamic, uh, on the, uh, defensive line. I think,
- 13:45Speaker 3: like you said, Talcelia kind of is the a fourth
- 13:49Speaker 3: highest rated edge rusher in America from pro football network.
- 13:52Speaker 3: He's been great. County town of Vasa is kind of
- 13:54Speaker 3: figuring it out, which by the way, his wife is
- 13:56Speaker 3: like three weeks away from having a baby, which coincides
- 14:00Speaker 3: with the BYU Utah week, by the way, he told
- 14:02Speaker 3: me is due the week of BYU.
- 14:04Speaker 2: He told us that at big 12 media days when
- 14:08Speaker 2: we were down there and he was just like, yeah,
- 14:09Speaker 2: my wife is due like the seventh.
- 14:13Speaker 3: What are you going to do? That is, that is
- 14:16Speaker 3: some heavenly timing there. That's pretty funny.
- 14:18Speaker 2: And like, they're going to induce, right. If everything's going well,
- 14:23Speaker 2: she's got, they'll, they'll have the baby beforehand. So it
- 14:25Speaker 2: doesn't have to worry about it.
- 14:26Speaker 3: Right. I know. Right. You would hope on like, you know,
- 14:29Speaker 3: Wednesday or Thursday, you could kind of knock that out.
- 14:31Speaker 3: Modern medicine's awesome that way, but hopefully things go great.
- 14:34Speaker 3: I know he's excited about it. And then, as you
- 14:36Speaker 3: mentioned with no Isaiah Glasker, Jake Clifton's done a great job.
- 14:39Speaker 3: So BYU got a steal of a deal. This dude's
- 14:41Speaker 3: a member of the church wanted to go to BYU
- 14:44Speaker 3: from Oklahoma. Didn't really get recruited. In fact, one of
- 14:47Speaker 3: his high school teammates signed with BYU and he's like, Hey,
- 14:49Speaker 3: I'm right here. What's going on? So he goes to
- 14:51Speaker 3: K state does really well plays a bunch before his mission. uh,
- 14:56Speaker 3: comes back from his mission, decides he wants to transfer
- 14:58Speaker 3: to BYU and he has filled in really well. He's
- 15:00Speaker 3: done a nice job, uh, you know, in Isaiah's place
- 15:03Speaker 3: and Isaiah is awesome. So, uh, BYU defense has been good. Trey, Alexander,
- 15:07Speaker 3: as you mentioned, I agree. I thought that was his
- 15:09Speaker 3: best game as a BYU Cougar. They called pass interference
- 15:11Speaker 3: on him. I didn't agree on that at all. He
- 15:13Speaker 3: made some, a couple of third down stops, the TFL,
- 15:16Speaker 3: like he's flying around. He is. And he is a
- 15:18Speaker 3: very fun personality and he, and Evan Johnson form, perhaps
- 15:22Speaker 3: the best cornerback tandem BYU has ever had. And then
- 15:25Speaker 3: behind him as follow it, tell South to wallet, who
- 15:27Speaker 3: has really high end NFL potential. there's, I mean, and
- 15:31Speaker 3: Katie will have it kind of out of quiet night,
- 15:32Speaker 3: but there's, there's just playmakers all over the place. And
- 15:35Speaker 3: K-pop is unpredictable in what he's showing. They don't give
- 15:38Speaker 3: up explosive plays. They were incredible on third down two
- 15:41Speaker 3: of 13, eight and four was limited at 86 yards
- 15:43Speaker 3: after two 12, the week before that's BYU strength going
- 15:47Speaker 3: into this game is this defense. Now they do need
- 15:49Speaker 3: to take the ball away. A couple of times, Notre
- 15:51Speaker 3: Dame's only thrown one pick and they have not lost
- 15:53Speaker 3: a fumble. That's why they're being so good. They take
- 15:56Speaker 3: care of the football and they've been very explosive with
- 15:58Speaker 3: the three headed monster running back dynamic receivers. And then
- 16:01Speaker 3: their defense is number one in the country in yards.
- 16:04Speaker 3: They take it away a ton. So BYU certainly has
- 16:06Speaker 3: to win the turnover margin to sort of disrupt the
- 16:09Speaker 3: Notre Dame team.
- 16:10Speaker 1: That's awesome.
- 16:11Speaker 3: They haven't played a top 40 SB plus team, but
- 16:14Speaker 3: you know, BYU, this is the best BYU team ever
- 16:16Speaker 3: that is facing another top 10 team. Like it's never,
- 16:19Speaker 3: it's never been this sort of heavyweight on heavyweight where
- 16:22Speaker 3: BYU actually could throw back a few punches, not out
- 16:25Speaker 3: of the blue, but just go toe to toe. And
- 16:27Speaker 3: that's the hope, right? And again, I'm not like BYU
- 16:30Speaker 3: has to win or no, no matter what I need
- 16:32Speaker 3: BYU to at least keep this a one score game
- 16:35Speaker 3: because it would be a respectable loss, but Hey, if
- 16:38Speaker 3: they win, let's go.
- 16:40Speaker 2: So what's the matchup where, when you're looking at it,
- 16:44Speaker 2: you're like, okay, BYU might have, an advantage here, or
- 16:48Speaker 2: maybe it's just a neutral. And then the most problematic
- 16:51Speaker 2: of matchups in this game for BYU when it comes
- 16:54Speaker 2: to a really, really talented Notre Dame roster.
- 16:58Speaker 3: I think BYU's run defense against Notre Dame's run offense
- 17:02Speaker 3: is going to be really interesting because it's a three-headed
- 17:05Speaker 3: monster for Notre Dame. They've done a great job. They
- 17:08Speaker 3: kind of give each guy a series. It's interesting. Jonas Walton,
- 17:12Speaker 3: who broke off a 97-yard touchdown run last week against Stanford,
- 17:16Speaker 3: He's a freshman, set a freshman season record there. Nolan
- 17:20Speaker 3: James Jr. and Aeneas Williams. Remember, they lost two first-round guys,
- 17:23Speaker 3: Jadarian Price and, of course, Jared, my love, to the
- 17:26Speaker 3: Seahawks and Cardinals, respectively. So they're trying to replace those guys.
- 17:29Speaker 3: BYU is giving up two-ish yards per carry. So is
- 17:32Speaker 3: Notre Dame. The other one where I have a little
- 17:34Speaker 3: bit of pause is BYU's run game offense versus Notre
- 17:37Speaker 3: Dame's defense. BYU without LJ Martin is not the same
- 17:41Speaker 3: rush offense. So last week, Bear Bachmeier really carried the load.
- 17:44Speaker 3: Nine carries 109. That's an incredible number. I think that
- 17:48Speaker 3: BYU might need to run Bear 15 to 20 times.
- 17:50Speaker 3: And this is going to be a physical beat-up Bear
- 17:53Speaker 3: after this game, but it's whatever it takes to win
- 17:55Speaker 3: in this one. And obviously in the red zone, they
- 17:57Speaker 3: need to pound it in with Bear a little more.
- 17:59Speaker 3: They did not. They experimented a little bit. They used
- 18:00Speaker 3: some other stuff. some other place. And Aaron Roderick revealed
- 18:04Speaker 3: on one play bear misheard what he said. And he
- 18:07Speaker 3: called the wrong play to the team. And they ran
- 18:08Speaker 3: a fourth down kind of throw to walk the lines
- 18:10Speaker 3: on an out in the end zone. And he was like,
- 18:12Speaker 3: that wasn't the play that I called. So, so calm
- 18:15Speaker 3: kind of failed in that particular instance, but it didn't
- 18:19Speaker 3: cost me the game or anything. But I think the, the,
- 18:22Speaker 3: the opposing run games is where the game's going to
- 18:24Speaker 3: be one and lost to me.
- 18:26Speaker 2: What would be a hotter t-shirt to sell in Provo
- 18:29Speaker 2: Mormons versus Catholics and uh, prophets versus popes, which one
- 18:34Speaker 2: would sell better?
- 18:37Speaker 3: I think it'd be hilarious if someone did, uh, Catholics
- 18:39Speaker 3: versus the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like
- 18:42Speaker 3: just spell out the whole church name. To me, that
- 18:45Speaker 3: would be really fun. I, the dynamics. So, so good
- 18:49Speaker 3: in this one. Um, there've been some funny tweets about
- 18:51Speaker 3: this exact thing too, by the way, Joe, we tweeted
- 18:54Speaker 3: Notre Dame, rich religious history, national fan base, when independent
- 18:58Speaker 3: last one in 90 in the eighties, never won a
- 19:00Speaker 3: New Year's six PCS game, inexplicably left out of the playoff,
- 19:03Speaker 3: despite having a resume deserving of it. Rudy was baptized
- 19:06Speaker 3: in there into their religion. They're really Eastern time zone, BYU. That,
- 19:11Speaker 3: that made me laugh. That made me laugh really hard
- 19:15Speaker 3: that full respect to Notre Dame, like the, you know,
- 19:18Speaker 3: four horsemen, Joe Montana, touchdown, Jesus, Rudy, all the stuff
- 19:22Speaker 3: like it's, it's fun to have them in Provo. Like
- 19:25Speaker 3: this is a, this is a really cool opportunity.
- 19:26Speaker 2: Speaker 3 I think I saw your tweet about your
- 19:31Speaker 2: prediction on a celebrity guest picker.
- 19:33Speaker 1: Do you have any more insight? Have you been having
- 19:35Speaker 1: this conversation?
- 19:36Speaker 3: Yes.
- 19:37Speaker 2: Yes.
- 19:37Speaker 3: Okay. You know, there's, there's some whispers that perhaps we'll
- 19:41Speaker 3: see that Riley Arnold of dancing with the stars who's
- 19:46Speaker 3: from Provo and dating tight end Walker lions could be
- 19:48Speaker 3: the guest picker. We it's not finalized, you know, there
- 19:51Speaker 3: are people in the mix, but I'm hearing that that
- 19:53Speaker 3: w that is one that that was a dark horse
- 19:55Speaker 3: pick for me, given the sort of you know, a
- 19:58Speaker 3: synergy with ABC. I thought maybe Ken Jennings, cause it's
- 20:00Speaker 3: just a little more popular there. The host of jeopardy,
- 20:03Speaker 3: of course, a BYU grad would be in there. I
- 20:05Speaker 3: would be interested to see if BYU, if game day
- 20:07Speaker 3: goes non-athlete, right? Like not that she's not an athlete
- 20:11Speaker 3: for dancing. I mean, non-former BYU football player, like, do
- 20:14Speaker 3: they go that route or do they kind of go
- 20:17Speaker 3: with the non non-football player route? We'll see.
- 20:21Speaker 2: Riley Arnold, for those of you who don't watch dancing
- 20:23Speaker 2: with the stars is 21 years old. That would, she'd
- 20:26Speaker 2: have to be like tied for the youngest guest picker ever.
- 20:31Speaker 3: I'd be pretty young, right? Yeah. That's a good, that's
- 20:33Speaker 3: a good point. Who's been younger. If it's her, we'll see.
- 20:36Speaker 2: Like they usually don't have college age people doing any
- 20:40Speaker 2: of college game day, but it, that'd be cool. That'd be,
- 20:44Speaker 2: she's got a pretty big following again. I, I don't
- 20:47Speaker 2: know what their algorithm is for how they pick these
- 20:50Speaker 2: people in every case. You know, if you're like trying
- 20:53Speaker 2: to expand an audience by, by bringing her in, you would,
- 20:57Speaker 2: you would probably bring in some non-traditional college game day watchers,
- 21:02Speaker 2: at least for her segments.
- 21:03Speaker 3: Right.
- 21:04Speaker 2: Or do you, do you lean into what you always
- 21:06Speaker 2: lean into and say, no, let's pander to the.
- 21:09Speaker 3: Football fans or bring it in Steve Young or Jim
- 21:12Speaker 3: or for dad or whatever. Yeah. Like Donny Osmond, you know,
- 21:15Speaker 3: you go outside of like, wait, it's fun to see.
- 21:18Speaker 3: Cause the guest picker from your school, like you have
- 21:20Speaker 3: to evaluate, like, wait, how many good former athletes do
- 21:23Speaker 3: we have? How many, how many sort of celebrities exist
- 21:27Speaker 3: from among the alumni? Like would they go to, you know,
- 21:30Speaker 3: Ryan Smith, given the kind of McAfee friendship or whatever,
- 21:32Speaker 3: like to me, Ryan's like a top five choice there.
- 21:35Speaker 3: It's been fun to think about that. The other thing is,
- 21:37Speaker 3: I don't think they're going to do it, do it
- 21:40Speaker 3: in the parking lot where they did in oh nine.
- 21:42Speaker 3: And then where they did big noon kickoff, I think
- 21:44Speaker 3: they're going to do it somewhere else. And there's some
- 21:46Speaker 3: other good options that BYU has sort of enabled just
- 21:48Speaker 3: in case from a kind of logistic standpoint. So I'm
- 21:51Speaker 3: excited to see what they do at Helaman fields, which
- 21:54Speaker 3: is just south of, of the football stadium or perhaps
- 21:57Speaker 3: the baseball field or on campus somewhere, maybe Brigham square
- 22:00Speaker 3: outside the Wilkinson center. So I don't think we're going
- 22:03Speaker 3: to get the, just in the parking lot, which is
- 22:06Speaker 3: a beautiful shot of the stadium and the mountains. But I,
- 22:08Speaker 3: I think, I think we're going somewhere else. We'll see.
- 22:11Speaker 1: Interesting.
- 22:12Speaker 2: Do you think that changes attendance or anything like that?
- 22:16Speaker 1: People are going to show up wherever it's at.
- 22:18Speaker 3: I think they'll show up wherever I, my pick would
- 22:20Speaker 3: be the baseball stadium, Miller park. Like you can put
- 22:23Speaker 3: people on the artificial turf field. You can put them
- 22:26Speaker 3: in the stands. You have, you have the beautiful shot
- 22:29Speaker 3: of white mountain. You've got the merit center right there.
- 22:31Speaker 3: You can use the existing sort of infrastructure for fiber,
- 22:35Speaker 3: for all the logistics and tech that they need. So
- 22:38Speaker 3: my vote is the baseball field. We'll, we'll see. I know,
- 22:40Speaker 3: I know game day picks, but BYU says, Hey, we
- 22:43Speaker 3: have these spots are logistically available to you. What do
- 22:46Speaker 3: you want? And then they select BYU. And I bet,
- 22:49Speaker 3: I bet we'll find out here in the next day
- 22:50Speaker 3: or two, the guest picker and the location soon, but it's,
- 22:53Speaker 3: it's exciting. People, it probably was buzzing, man. People are stoked,
- 22:57Speaker 3: not only for the game, but for game day and everything.
- 22:59Speaker 3: And I told my eight-year-old son, I said, dude, we're
- 23:01Speaker 3: going to have a five 30 Saturday, man, man. We
- 23:03Speaker 3: got to be there at six. Let's let's go. Let's
- 23:05Speaker 3: get ready.
- 23:06Speaker 2: I I'm going to be in Chicago. So on the
- 23:09Speaker 2: other end of the travel for for this game, right?
- 23:13Speaker 3: Everyone going to note, you're going to South Bend.
- 23:15Speaker 1: I'm going to go in the wrong direction.
- 23:17Speaker 2: I am calling fights in, in Chicago this weekend. So, uh,
- 23:21Speaker 2: the that's where you travel to and through for anyone
- 23:24Speaker 2: who's never been to South Bend. That's where all the
- 23:26Speaker 2: Notre Dame fans are going to be coming from Chicago
- 23:28Speaker 2: to Provo and vice versa. So I, I guess I'll
- 23:31Speaker 2: be on the other end of the travel spectrum while
- 23:33Speaker 2: you guys have all your fun in Provo.
- 23:36Speaker 3: You'll say hi to everybody as they're going by in
- 23:38Speaker 3: the airport and they're, and they're fighting Irish green, which
- 23:41Speaker 3: would be fun. Yeah. It's, it's, it's a huge opportunity, man.
- 23:44Speaker 3: And then I think BYU Utah, regardless of what happens
- 23:47Speaker 3: to BYU, I think BYU Utah could also be another
- 23:49Speaker 3: top 10 matchup November 7th. Like there's a decent chance
- 23:52Speaker 3: that happens again.
- 23:54Speaker 1: Utah fans are getting mad at me because I'm saying.
- 23:56Speaker 2: You don't have to root for it actively, but It's
- 24:01Speaker 2: better for Utah if BYU wins this game. And then, obviously,
- 24:06Speaker 2: the only positive outcome is you have to beat BYU.
- 24:09Speaker 2: But in that case, if BYU wins, then Utah's got
- 24:13Speaker 2: a top five BYU team coming to Rice-Eccles Stadium on
- 24:16Speaker 2: November 7th. And you beat a top five team, not
- 24:19Speaker 2: only is it better for the bragging rights here in state,
- 24:22Speaker 2: but it looks even better for the pollsters and all
- 24:25Speaker 2: that stuff.
- 24:25Speaker 1: Utah fans are not thrilled with my take on.
- 24:27Speaker 3: That, though. Oh, I get it. Like, yeah, you don't,
- 24:30Speaker 3: you don't want to root for BYU. I get it.
- 24:32Speaker 3: It would, it's huge for the league too. Like the
- 24:35Speaker 3: league's best chance at two teams is BYU beating in
- 24:38Speaker 3: the playoff is BYU beating Notre Dame. Because then if,
- 24:41Speaker 3: if BYU loses, let's say BYU loses one other regular
- 24:44Speaker 3: season game and they're in the big 12 title game
- 24:46Speaker 3: and they lose that they have two losses that Notre
- 24:48Speaker 3: Dame win will lift them in. Like I, I really
- 24:50Speaker 3: believe that an 11 and two BYU team, again, you
- 24:53Speaker 3: can't like lose by 20 plus in the two losses
- 24:55Speaker 3: and feel you know, like last year, you know, we
- 24:59Speaker 3: might've been in, but you can't do that and have
- 25:01Speaker 3: much to say there. So compete, you know, and all that,
- 25:04Speaker 3: but yeah, it really helped the league. It's a big
- 25:07Speaker 3: moment for everybody in the league because it was the
- 25:10Speaker 3: Oregon win. Now Oregon's unranked. Like that win is good,
- 25:12Speaker 3: but it's not as good as it was. What's the
- 25:15Speaker 3: big win from the big 12 right now? This is
- 25:17Speaker 3: an opportunity.
- 25:18Speaker 2: All right. So what's the outcome, Jerem? What's your real
- 25:22Speaker 2: prediction on how this thing goes on Saturday?
- 25:25Speaker 3: I think it's going to be a one score game.
- 25:27Speaker 3: You know, I could see all kinds of scenarios, but
- 25:29Speaker 3: I don't see BYU winning by 10 plus. When BYU
- 25:32Speaker 3: has beaten a top 10 team, they've done six times.
- 25:35Speaker 3: It was always one score. So if BYU wins, it's
- 25:38Speaker 3: by one score to me. I can see where the
- 25:40Speaker 3: BYU defense gives Notre Dame some trouble. The question is,
- 25:43Speaker 3: is BYU offense going to be able to get into
- 25:45Speaker 3: the 20s and kind of hold down Notre Dame? So
- 25:48Speaker 3: I'm thinking this game's probably in the 20s, and I'm
- 25:51Speaker 3: hoping it's a BYU 24, you know, 20 win realistically one,
- 25:58Speaker 3: one score either way. I could very well see that.
- 26:01Speaker 3: My hope is that BYU competes well. What I don't
- 26:03Speaker 3: want is, you know, what happened against Texas tech last year.
- 26:05Speaker 3: And I think this team's learned quite a bit from
- 26:07Speaker 3: those two games.
- 26:23Speaker 2: I mean, and
- 26:26Speaker 2: obviously a win over Notre Dame is something that you just,
- 26:29Speaker 2: it's a nice feather in the cap for a coach's resume.
- 26:33Speaker 3: This would be a good, quote-unquote, issue to deal with
- 26:37Speaker 3: if everyone's calling. And they have been for years, right?
- 26:39Speaker 3: It's not like this is the first year BYU's good.
- 26:41Speaker 3: Last two years, BYU's been good. you know, top 15,
- 26:44Speaker 3: top 20 good. So yeah, this, this would be, but
- 26:46Speaker 3: this would be a new kind of stratosphere of like,
- 26:48Speaker 3: if BYU wins this game, they are top five for sure.
- 26:51Speaker 3: And they have a real opportunity to make the college
- 26:53Speaker 3: football playoff for the first time, which would be great.
- 26:55Speaker 3: Cause BYU has been knocking on the door for a
- 26:56Speaker 3: long time. They, they knocked it over in 84. It's
- 26:59Speaker 3: a different era. They took advantage. It was awesome. They
- 27:01Speaker 3: didn't play a super crazy schedule. They took advantage. But
- 27:04Speaker 3: you know, in 90 BYU is in the top five
- 27:06Speaker 3: for several weeks after beating Notre Dame and kind of
- 27:09Speaker 3: spins out at the end, you know, 96 BYU is
- 27:12Speaker 3: top five. And then it's like, Oh one BYU is
- 27:14Speaker 3: knocking on the door of the BCS, but they, they lose,
- 27:17Speaker 3: you know, six, seven, eight, nine. Those are good teams.
- 27:19Speaker 3: They never kind of got to that BCS or new
- 27:21Speaker 3: year six game, you know, 20, 21, 24, 25. Now
- 27:25Speaker 3: the huge opportunity and BYU has a game in Provo
- 27:29Speaker 3: to prove itself, which is very exciting. So hopefully BYU
- 27:33Speaker 3: can take advantage here. All right.
- 27:34Speaker 2: Here's another question that annoys me to even have to ask,
- 27:37Speaker 2: but has BYU ever before had a, Two players in
- 27:42Speaker 2: the NBA or the NFL or Major League Baseball or
- 27:45Speaker 2: any pro sport who are among the top three or
- 27:48Speaker 2: top five at their position. This is something that typically
- 27:51Speaker 2: belongs to Ohio State, to Miami, to USC. And right now,
- 27:58Speaker 2: I mean, Puka is back and two healthy games back
- 28:01Speaker 2: is showing that he's one of the top receivers in
- 28:04Speaker 2: the country. And of course, Fred Warner continues to dominate.
- 28:08Speaker 2: And that's a way for me to sneak in Niners
- 28:11Speaker 2: beat Seahawks. But, you know, they're both, but they're both
- 28:16Speaker 2: BYU guys and they're both, especially in Fred's case that,
- 28:20Speaker 2: you know, very vocal alum about being a BYU guy.
- 28:23Speaker 2: So like, have they ever had this before where you've
- 28:26Speaker 2: got two of the best at their respective positions in
- 28:29Speaker 2: pro sports?
- 28:31Speaker 3: At first, I thought you were going to like Yegor
- 28:33Speaker 3: and AJ because they played last night. You know, we
- 28:35Speaker 3: hope AJ is like MVP caliber in the next couple
- 28:38Speaker 3: of years. And I think Yegor could be you know,
- 28:40Speaker 3: kind of a fringe all-star guy eventually. But I don't
- 28:43Speaker 3: think so. You know, in, in BYU's heyday, you know,
- 28:46Speaker 3: you had, you had Steve Young as MVP multiple times,
- 28:48Speaker 3: and I'm not sure there was kind of another guy there,
- 28:50Speaker 3: unless you're like Barto, it's a center. Yeah.
- 28:53Speaker 2: I mean, like, like was Rob Morris considered a top,
- 28:56Speaker 2: whatever linebacker when Steve Young was his thing?
- 28:58Speaker 1: I don't think so.
- 28:59Speaker 3: Right? No, I, no, I don't think so. we've always
- 29:02Speaker 3: had very good players, but like all pro guys and
- 29:06Speaker 3: everyone knows it kind of thing, especially with the attention.
- 29:09Speaker 3: Now that the NFL has, this is a special time
- 29:12Speaker 3: for BYU football and it's credit to Klein stock. Puka
- 29:16Speaker 3: is a guy who got out of the portal and Fred,
- 29:17Speaker 3: the guy that he recruited away from USC to come
- 29:20Speaker 3: to Provo is kind of a, a four-star guy. And
- 29:23Speaker 3: they have blossomed in an amazing way. And there's they're
- 29:26Speaker 3: in their prime still like Puka is just getting going
- 29:28Speaker 3: and Fred still has several more good years. So yeah,
- 29:31Speaker 3: it's an exciting time for, for these guys in the pros.
- 29:34Speaker 3: Cause let's be honest. There was a point where it
- 29:36Speaker 3: felt like BYU was like, at some point I felt like, oh,
- 29:39Speaker 3: it's not our job to get them to the NFL.
- 29:41Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, it is in the, maybe the previous
- 29:44Speaker 3: regime and Bronco was producing NFL guys, but I don't
- 29:46Speaker 3: feel like it was emphasized. I feel like it's important
- 29:49Speaker 3: to BYU now, like we want to get you there
- 29:52Speaker 3: and we're going to help you get you there. in
- 29:54Speaker 3: the men's basketball side, it's actually front facing. It's kind
- 29:57Speaker 3: of the number one thing. It's like, we're going to
- 29:58Speaker 3: get you the NBA. We also want to win in
- 30:00Speaker 3: the NCAA tournament. Like it's, it's very interesting. And because
- 30:03Speaker 3: of that, BYU is recruiting at a really high level
- 30:07Speaker 3: in basketball and in football, they just came off their
- 30:09Speaker 3: highest ranked recruiting class ever, you know, Ryder Lyons and
- 30:13Speaker 3: Brock Harris were top five guys at their position. And
- 30:16Speaker 3: they're coming to BYU after their missions, which is exciting.
- 30:20Speaker 1: Rams and Niners, both active this weekend, by the way.
- 30:23Speaker 2: So they, Fred Warner or Puka cannot be celebrity pickers.
- 30:26Speaker 3: And Chiefs. No Andy Reid. You go, nope, nope, nope. So, yeah.
- 30:32Speaker 3: Is it Riley Arnold? Is it Ken Jennings? Is it
- 30:35Speaker 3: Ryan Smith? Is it Donny Osmond? Is it, you know, yeah,
- 30:40Speaker 3: there's Taysom Hill's available in Provo if they want it.
- 30:42Speaker 3: We'll see where they go, man. I'm guessing they go
- 30:45Speaker 3: non-former player. I shouldn't say non-athlete. Riley's an athlete. Non-former
- 30:50Speaker 3: football player.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Jeremy, the man, appreciate you giving us some time. Enjoy
- 30:54Speaker 1: it this weekend.
- 30:56Speaker 3: Hey, have a great call in Chicago on the fights, man.
- 30:58Speaker 1: I'll do my best.
- 31:00Speaker 2: That's Jeremy Jordan for Red and Blue, BYU Insider, BYU
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