CougarCast: BYU Sports

This week, Keith welcomes Vanquish The Foe’s Jake Welch (@BYUAllBlue) on to the podcast!

The BYU Cougars have won two in a row! Next up, the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Mississippi State is 2-3 and are looking to bounce back after a tough loss to Auburn. However, BYU isn’t really the easiest or best team to try to right the ship against. Can Dan Mullen’s squad make the trip to LaVell Edwards Stadium and find their feet again against a BYU team that is building momentum?

In addition, Jake and Keith discuss the big road win at Michigan State, Jamaal Williams’ brilliance, the challenges that the Mississippi State Bulldogs present, and Jake’s use of Jake Oldroyd as a personal life success measuring stick.

In this episode:

• Jamaal Williams everybody! (2:10)
• The win against Toledo may have been bigger than initially realized. (6:00)
• The state of Michigan has not been friendly to BYU Football. The last time BYU won in the state of Michigan was 1968. The last time the Cougars scored a touchdown in MI? 1970. (8:45)
• Michigan State’s defensive scheme is nicely suited to take away what BYU’s offense is comfortable with. (10:30)
• The Spartans top NFL Draft prospect DT Malik McDowell is out for the 1st half against BYU following a targeting penalty against Indiana. (15:00)
• Have defenses taken away Jamaal Williams this season, or have they persuaded Ty Detmer to call more pass plays with their alignments? (16:45)
• BYU is constructed like a Big Ten team. (17:45)
• The BYU defensive line must generate more pass rush. (20:30)
• Don’t sleep on Kai Nacua’s greatness. (22:00)
• BYU defense has sure missed a lot of tackles over the past two weeks. (24:15)
• Ten for Tosh! (25:40)
• Tosh’s game and score predictions (32:15)
• Keith’s game and score predictions (34:45)

The Cougars are 1-3. Tosh and Keith discuss the idea of "learning how to win close games." Keith feels that all that is going on with BYU football can be explained by human's natural fear of death. They look into the talent Toledo Rockets football team. Ten For Tosh. General Conference talk. Finally, predictions for Friday night's contest with the Rockets.

The Cougars are half a team. The defense has played well enough to have BYU at 3-0. The offense has not played well enough to equal the defense. So, BYU is 1-2.

Next up for the Cougars are the West Virginia Mountaineers. Taysom Hill is still the starting quarterback against WVU, can the Y find points this Saturday?

Can the Cougars get it going on offense against the Bruins?

In this episode of CougarCast:

• Tosh’s experience at the University of Arizona game (1:00)
• First impression of Ty Detmer’s offense and Taysom Hill’s return (2:50)
• Ilaisa Tuiaki’s defense looks tough and fun to watch (5:00)
• Special Teams Observations (6:30)
• Jamaal Williams, everybody! (9:20)
• Is Utah in BYU’s head? (11:10)
• Utah has dominated field position battles, ball security, and special teams against the Cougars over the last 5 games. (15:15)
• Utah has generated 5 defensive touchdowns during their 5-game win-streak. (19:50)
• Ed Lamb has been watching game film on Utah every day even during the Arizona game week (20:40)
• BYU’s Offense vs. Utah’s Defense — how to beat Taysom. (23:10)
• Redzone offense for BYU is going to be huge. (24:40)
• Utah DTs Lowell Lotulelei and Filipo Mokofisi are a load for any offensive line. (27:00)
• The way to beat Utah’s defense. (28:50)
• Does the Utah offense scare you? (31:35)
• How much was Utah hiding their playbook against Southern Utah? (33:45)
• Tosh and Keith’s game predictions (36:12)

It is game week! Keith and Tosh preview what they think will go down at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona this Saturday night.

New BYU Football defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki begins to fill in the shoes of Bronco Mendenhall. Mendenhall caused disagreements among Cougar fans on every front except one — Bronco knew his stuff on the defensive side of the ball.

Tuiaki has already made a big change from the Bronco era. The Cougars are now playing a 4-3 defensive scheme. Will BYU keep points off the board in 2016?

In this episode of CougarCast:

• How do you replace a defensive genius? (2:30)
• What a 4-3 defense will give the Cougars? (4:10)
• Which defensive group makes Tosh the most confident? The defensive backs. (6:15)
• The different job BYU is asking its cornerbacks to do this season. (9:45)
• Will the new defensive scheme generate turnovers and big plays? (13:00)
• The linebackers are solid, but are unproven -- outside of Fred Warner. (14:30)
• The defensive line is critical -- as is getting Travis Tuiloma healthy again! (17:30)
  
• The treachery of playing without confidence in your kicking game. (23:00)
• Punt and kick returners will be guys that actually should be returning kicks and punts! (27:50)
• The return of practicing tackling! (29:45)

It was announced that Taysom Hill will be the starting QB against Arizona. Keith took the time to speak with his Dad about a season that will kickoff with Taysom at the helm. 

Plus, Dad wanted to talk about the Big 12.

The BYU football season is quickly approaching. There is a lot to be excited about. Ty Detmer is back! Taysom, Tanner, Jamaal are back!

In this episode of CougarCast:

• How different everything looks if Taysom Hill or Tanner Mangum is the starting quarterback (1:30)
• Taysom Hill’s passing (4:00)
• The deep collection of workhorse running backs (11:30)
• Can any of the running backs catch out of the backfield? (15:00)
• Wide receivers add some experience in Nick Kurtz and Mitchell Juergens and promising newcomers Jonah Trinnaman and Beau Tanner (17:15)
• How tall Vanilla Ice is (20:10)
• The big worry with the wideouts is that they will be soft. (22:15)
• The journeyman offensive line (23:45)
• The BYU coaches made the O-line much bigger (28:30)
• The multiple seasons long tight end train wreck (29:30)
• Excitement over the “Macho Man” Cody Savage and Solomone Wolfgramm as new tight ends (31:30)
• The importance for BYU in passing for 3,000 yards (35:15)