Blaine Fowler (@BFowler16) on BYU MBB talk, CFB coaching changes around the state, a look at BYU & Utah FB next season + more

enough to join us from time to time. One of my favorites fellow Northeast boy Blaine Fowler b YU TV on a Friday afternoon, Blaine, Happy Friday, Stir.

kind of over hyping him right now. Now, those guys work ethic and taking the talent to a hundred times. What they were at that age is what makes them some of the greatest players of all time. But but those are the types of talent you know that you're going to compare him to out of high school. It's crazy to even think that he's coming to be like you. I couldn't fathom until until a few weeks ago. Now I started to hear, you know, kind of what his

thought process was. He was very well guided by his parents. He'll notice that he didn't hire an agent. They just hired a financial advisor to do some things, and they made it a very, very big family decision. Both his mom and dad were very very involved in what he was going to do, and they did a ton of research.

And when when when you listen to the people behind the scenes talk about what they were worried about, what they were looking for, then all of a sudden he thought, you know what, you know, you might have a chance on this thing, especially with Kevin Young there and what he brings, with the staff that he brought in. And I'm not just talking about the coaching staff who have a bunch of NBA and d League and international experience, but I'm talking about their Nu Christian specialists the strength

and training people. They all have NBA experience, they've all worked with lottery picks, They've all developed great players. They all have ties to guys like Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. Those guys still look to them for guidance and come and work out with him in

the off season. And believe me, those guys weighed in when AJ's dad reached out, those guys return calls and said, yeah, I would I would go this staff and Kevin Young in particular, if I knew I was a one and done player with his kind of talent, I would go

to those guys to be developed. And so there was a lot going for Byu when when you heard about what his family was doing and what was important to them, and it wasn't hey, who's going to be the highest bit rout here, who can get the most money with Once Byu is able to kind of be in the ballgame on that and all things equal, and by the way, the family itself said, here's what we're looking for and we're tapping it, and we know we can get more money than that, but we don't care about more money.

We want the money to be all equal, and now we want to know who's going to develop and who's going to get ready to play. Is the first round pick next year and possibly the number one pick and be what you want out. It's just crazy to me since.

he's there. But but a guy like aj Aj has deals that are in place and when we're't dependent necessarily on which school he went to, with places like Red Bull and Nike, and and so a lot of the dollars that we're talking about are NIL dollars that are big international sponsors, not just local guys throwing some dollars in there. You know what I mean. When it's a whole different it's a whole different story than what we're used to talking about with football recruits and regular role

basketball recruits. Right, It's it's a completely different deal where these football you know, we're looking to local car dealers and we're looking to local businesses and locally based businesses. He'll fund these these nil consortiums to help get dollars to these players and have him do things. Somebody like aj he's in the national team, he's gotten national dollars coming and saying, hey, when you go there, we want to be part of you, We want to be part

of you in the future. So so that everybody thinks that Ryan Smith just pooning up a bunch a bunch of dollars, and he had a lot, his influence was definitely there. I think the Danny's influence is definitely there. But I think people are way overstating his financial interest in all of this because there are plenty of people willing to step up to the plate and help with the dollars to make things balance for AJ.

I felt like is what he said. I felt like I needed to bring in an NBA stat you know, I need to hire a general manager that has front office experience that can help us navigate NIL to value what players are worth, to help match NIL deals with player talent level, to be able to speak that language because this is where basketball is going, and he took the job I think knowing that that's where college basketball was going, but because of it, I think BI us

way ahead of the curve, way ahead of the curve with everybody else. And then they have all of these contacts with players in the NBA that have worked with all these folks that have helped them develop. So now you're a young potential first round draft pick and you're talking to different colleges and b what you sit you down with people that say, hey, listen, I worked with this person and this person and this person and they were drafted here and here and here, and they've been

an All star in the NBA. We've worked with them in the offseason. These are the things we do for them. You remind us of this guy that we coached, and we think we can get your skill set into the same place that his is, and this is what he's done in the NBA. All of a sudden, you're going, wait, nobody else is talking to me like this, Like I actually believe these guys, Like I've heard Kevin use the

word this isn't a hypothetical. My staff have coached a bunch of NBA All Stars and developed a bunch of NBA All Stars. We know what the talent and the skill set looks like to get there. We know what has to be done to advance them and get them to the upper rachelon in the NBA. And we can do that with the right players here in college basketball. So recruiting has just been on a rocket shit advance right now. The thing is they can develop these guys.

They can develop the skill sets. I actually don't doubt that at all because they've done it. Now, can this staff coach in big games in the Big twelve? You would think with all their experience, you know, add a bunch of international sprints at the Gola Olympic coach on the staff, they've got you name it, they've got it. But can they come together as a staff and then they put all these talented players out on the floor and have them mesh and play with a style that

fits the Big twelve in college basketball? Very physical this league is, and ken they win a bunch of games. We know they can talent. They can they can they can get talent and they can bring it here. And here's the crazy thing, Spencer, if they can win. So before all of this, you know, before the signees and all of the news, they were picked down in the

middle of the pack in this league. If they co finish in the top three in this league this year, Bennett he like, I don't know how you open up the recruiting more than it is, but but I think it perpetuates it and now they can kind of go out and get whoever they want. And Kevin understands that. I've had a long talk with him about this. It's like, I'll talk with him here in another two hours. We'll going to meet with him at five thirty to get

ready for the game tonight. But he understands that for BYU to be good in the long term, they not only have to get the one and dons that fit the model for BYU and fit the culture, but they have to have a core of guys like the down Halls and the Richie Saunders and those prototypical BYU guys that will stay around for three and four years and be the core and be the guys that take the young talented guys under the wing and help them develop

and help them survive for the year they're here. He knows he can't do the Kentucky model that we were all saying, you remember, Spencer, Like, how do these guys not win a national championship? Every year? They have like four first round draft picks and they don't win. He knows that that model doesn't win. He wants one or two of those a year, and he wants a core of really real high level guys like a Richie Saunders and like those guys to be the core and the

long standing folks that are there. And he feels like that mix is almost like the mix that Mark Few has had up at Gonzaga, where he gets one or two high, high level draft picks and then the best regional players in the Northwest to come and fit in, and then he's final four after final four. That's the vision I think Kevin sees. I think winning would help help a lot to get all those other kids, and then one or two of these guys the year and

you're right up there competing in final fours. And that's the vision. I believe in it right now. We'll see how it goes.

new running backs coach, all with BYU ties. It's just so amazing how this rivalry works with Utah guys on BYU's coaching staff and BYU guys on UTA's coaching staff. But what's the Blaine father take on the happenings with the coaching staff up here in Salt Lake.

think everybody knows what he did down there. That's the place that has not been good for a long time offensively, and with Devin Dampier, who's bringing up there, they end up number four in the country in total office. They were four hundred and eighty plus yards of game last year Spencer and a place that has not been good,

like just overnight. And I think it helps that he's bringing Dampier with him because he's like the true prototypical you know, five ten, two hundred pounds physical, I'm gonna run it, I'm gonna throw it. You don't know what I'm going to do. We're gonna spread you out, We're gonna run urpo and you're gonna have a heck of a tar stopping it because we're gonna read it on the fly. No matter what you do defensively is gonna

be wrong. And this is a guy that threw for almost our ran frolmost twelve hundred yards and nineteen touchdowns and threw for twenty eight hundred yards and the next about five and six record that's because they were just absolutely awful on defense, so they got no help on defense, and they produce those kinds of numbers. So I think what Kyle's doing is gonna lead to a winning record and then being competitive and it's the top of the league again next year. Because we always know they're gonna

be great on defense. So I thinks the moves he's made are gonna really really help. I could see him coming back competing for a title next week, and then finally stepping down and going there. I did not want to leave on a bad note. I'm gonna hand it over to Morgan now after they have success. I think he's pulling the right strings to try to make that happen. Now, they they got to stay healthy. They were not healthy

this last year. I mean all of that plays into it, but I think he's setting himself up to come and make one more run. It will be successful.

and disciplineal program right, and he turns it around. If they've been losing, he'll take the pieces that they have, he'll get new pieces, and they'll immediately be better because they'll be immediately be way more effective at what they're supposed to do because they'll be disciplined and they will execute on both the ball and then win more games. The problem for Bronco is I think that he comes and he does that, he turns around and they get

to a level where they're winning consistently. You know, b Uyu going to bowl games, winning televen games and I think he gets bored, I mean, needs another project, and so I think that's why he took the New Mexico job. And that was a place that he coached before. But he saw that as like, this is the biggest project ever. Let me take it. And five and six at New Mexico is almost heroic in recent years, you know, to

take them from five and six. But I think he looked at Utah State and I think he felt like that's a job where traditionally you can win with the right kids. I know how to use I know how to recruit the guys them to take there, know how to recruit the state of Utah and the Inner Mountain West.

I know what a formula is to win there. We can turn that thing around quickly, way quicker than we could maybe at New Mexico and go out and compete for a championship in that league, which I'm not sure he could ever do it New Mexico and I can leave my mark. I think that sites him and I think he can do it like we watched him do it before. Now will he be there for the next ten years as the guy I don't think he will.

I think he'll turn it around and then I don't know, four or five years, he might get bored and then go do something else, or maybe you retire again. I don't know. But if you're Utah State, you'd take that, wouldn't you take the rebuilding, get him on the right footing and hand it up to somebody else. And yeah, he's one of the best in the country at doing that for sure.

the stretch that causes problems. Our quarterback was really banged up from the Utah game, from the first quarter of the Utah game on until that last game, and we got to be grateful for where we went and now we need to try to step it up and do even better. But first things first, let's go win this

bowl game. And it's a really quality opponent and the back bowl outside of the college football playoff with a ton of eyes on it because you got Dion and shdur and you got Travis, you got the whole game coming, and Dean says they're all going to play. And so now I think there's some energy back around it. Think I think for a little while there is a little bit of man, we just didn't finish this thing off and had an opportunity to do something magical and menifall.

But I feel I've been to practiced a couple times this last week. I feel like the energy's back there and they're really wrapping their heads around who they're playing and the eyeballs it will be on it and they're excited about this Bowl game.

a miraculous improvement, you can compete. But we want to tell you where you are, and if you want to go to the trans report, we're gonna help you find a place. You know, you had several of those on the list, right, and it's a small list to begin with. They do have needs and they are talking. They signed an offensive lineman that they really like out of Southern Utah that I don't know how. He's just sprosiac. I can't even

remember how you say it. But you know a three year started for Southern Utah like almost eight hundred snaps as an offensive lineman and has never given up a sack in three years of starting and recruited by cal and Stanford turned down cal and took Vyu. I think he's a really really nice addition. So they don't have a lot of room to add guys with the one oh five, so they have to be really really selective. They take Carson Ryan Ucla, Utah, and those are really

the only few right now. I know they're in active conversations with a couple of defensive tackles. I know that they're looking for a running back. They feel like they're finite quarterback. They're going to go try to get a freshman, and so they don't have a ton of needs right now, but they're trying to address the ones that they do have. A couple of offensive linemen, a couple of defensive tackles, and maybe a running back is what they're looking for now.

Some unbelievable talent is out there and reaches out, You're always going to consider that. But those are the needs right now, and they're just not as big as they have been in the past. Reviewing she's had a lot of youngins to play the last this last year. And then about Chase, I have it like I'm gonna say, I feel the same way about Kyle that I do about Chase right now. Yeah, I feel like Chase is

going to run it back. I think I think he's gonna you know, and I think a lot, you know, if he goes out and has just a crazy ballout game in this Bowl game and and what the NFL scouts are saying, is you know, I'll wait a minute, which I'm second thought, maybe we'll take you in the third round. That could change. That's why I'm not saying absolutely is coming back. But he's in a position where he's not quite as old as everybody thinks. He's not

twenty five. I think he's gonna turn twenty four. And with Darius gone next Chase has a chance for them

to be the guy. And I think if Aaron and those guys are re recruiting, like I think, he's the most important guy in under recruit right now, on an entire roster, and not to go for the transfer porta, but to come back because you could say to him, listen, come back and catch seventy five balls and have a thousand yards receiving and you have the body to be in the NFL, and you have the numbers to support it, and we're gonna give you a really nice nil deal.

And you know, the NFL is a long shot for anybody, but if a lot less of a long shot, if we can get you drafted in the first three rounds, come back and catch seventy plus, we're gonna target you ten to twelve times a game. We're gonna put a good NL deal together and come back and do it. I think that would be good for Yu, and I think that would be good for Chase, and that's what I would like to see. I think maybe those conversations

are going on. I don't have definitive news, but I had this gut feel like I did about Kyle, that Chase may come back and run it back.