Excited for This does not happen often because he's very busy. I had a chance to go play in his charity golf tournament. It was a first class event, one of the best to ever do it, both in college and pro football. Steve Young kind enough to join us on a Monday Steve, Happy Monday, sir.
How are you you two? Spence great to have you last week. And your brother Nate and Roan is a r h o any. You got to get that out there because he's built a business that's amazing. It's I don't wear the suits all stretch so for church that's all I wear. I don't wear anything else. Never again will I wear anything other than stretch suits. Man, I'm not missing around.
I'm with you.
I'm currently wearing round. I wear it every single day. And I'm certainly proud of my little brother man. He's certainly built a great company. Unfortunately, Steve, he doesn't have a lot of time to play golf, as you saw from the scorecard.
Yeah, and that's okay, none of us do so fine, it's fun, it's good to be together. Good Danny Aings came down and I love you know. Danny was the one that I watched when I was a freshman, just killing it at BYU and gave me the idea that you could be great at something. And I remember I was equipment manager. Fret Floyd Johnson at the time had me come in and do the visiting team towels so that after the game, I and during the game I would give them towels and then I would clean up
the you know kind of the shower and everything. After that, those guys left on the bus and that was my job. And I got to sit on the visiting bench to watch Danny Ainge and that team in nineteen eighty dominate. And so anyway, he came down and joined me for the tournament last week, as you saw, and I love seeing him.
And I remember playing basketball lacrosse against your little brother. I hadn't seen Jimmy in a long time, so it was just great to be with everybody. And I can't thank you enough for having us out, Steve, so I appreciate it.
By the way Jimbo, Jimbo played lacrosse. He was He loved playing defense a long stick, and I go, Jimbo, what if lacrosse it looks like to me? You just hacket people just take the stick and just wrap. What kind of game is this? Man? It was fun to watch that. That was great.
Yeah, most defensive players that's all they do is hacket people. You would have been a.
Great lacrosse player, hey, Svens. Just like anyone in defense on look, defense is all about just leon want to screw you up saving football, you know, I mean, how can you play defense in football? What's my job? Just to screw everything up? I just want to screw up. I just want to I want to mess everything up. Like what kind of world is that to live in? I don't understand it.
Yeah, no, I hear you, Steve.
So I want to start with just a Macro overview question about the season Brigham Young has had after Vegas set the over under at four and a half and the media picked them to essentially finish last. And yes, they've lost too straight, but if they win on Saturday, that's a ten win season, which is nothing to shake your head at at all.
What do you most attribute.
What most people believe is a very surprising season from BYU football this year?
Well, Number one, I think Jay Hill's built a defense, especially the first three quarters of the season, and all of us are wondering kind of here at the end, what's gone you know, not gone wrong, because, like you said, the expectations, but we just have to let's deal with the Big twelve championship every year and let's just be that right. And so if we say to ourselves, how
did we get here? We got here on the first five games on a defense that was not going to let the game get away from us, and because he didn't get away from us. And I really appreciate Jake let Retsloff and his work that he did in the offseason to change his game. He got better and when he showed up in the fall, he was a better
player than he was the year before. And I just admired that because so much of that is the grinding work of the school work of going in the film memorization, it's the stuff that is boring and tedious, and I was I appreciated that. So that allowed Jake to come out and learn and have some space in those early games, and they could. They didn't. He didn't do anything crazy bad.
He just took some time to grow, and the offense grew with him, and all of a sudden, the stars showed up all over the field, and to me, that's how it happened. And then we just we won some
close ball games and kind of got some momentum. And I think just here when we got to six in the nation and everyone we watched all week at ESPN when when they were doing the show and also beat while using the top four and getting a buy and maybe Ohio State comes to you know, to us and you know, it just was it was heavy, heady things that we had not had the privilege of being around for a long long time. And to be there and if to taste it was amazing and we got to
get used to it. And I think the last two games particularly are ones that we I don't know that we were ready ready yet like we have to we have to well you have to wear the shoes. You got to be in those games and know what's at stake and know and you know, deal with the build up and and it's just an emotional sophistication that you get over time that we need to just be, you know, we need to kind of grow into. So that's my kind of sense of the season. I couldn't be I'm
ecstatic at what we got out of the season. There's no question what we can still get out of the season. But if we're you know, I just pray that we get a shot at the championship because if we can be unleashed again emotionally and kind of stand in the shoe that we were in the middle of the season, I think, as I said then, when I remember when Fox came to town for the Arizona game, we can we can stay with anybody, but we have to we have to we have to, you know, be comfortable in
the shoes that we're wearing the time. So I know it's a bad analogy, but you get the idea.
No, I get the idea, And I actually wanted to follow up there because it's different when you are not expected to do much of anything and you just catch everybody off guard. But ultimately they were at nine to zero with everything in front of them, the old cliche
that I don't like controlling their own destiny. So what's the type of mentality and the approach that you have to take once you go from nobody expected us to be here too, We're at the top of the mountain and all we need to do is handle our business.
Because they have not been unable to do that.
Steve in the past two games, like, what's the change in mindset once you get into that space.
Well, it's human nature when you you know, as I said, we need to start every season with we're going to go to the big World Championship and that is it's make or break, and we're going to recruit that way, We're gonna play that way, we're gonna call we're gonna call defensive offense that way. And that's where we have to live and we have to have that expectation, the idea that we thought we'd be four an hour. They're like,
what's amazing. I mean, we thought we'd be fourteenth and then we'd be I'm not much for that, Like we need to have we're going to be in the Big twelve, but we're going to compete. Let's go do it. And I love what basketball's done and what football is going to do and what is do what they're doing today. So the last couple of games you could tell that
emotionally again I felt it. It was funny like you know, as you're watching again watching the ESPN and you're watching the they described you know, the playoffs, whose seedings and what it was going to be and it's just really really heavy stuff. And so I think when you're not used to it, which how can you be used to it? We've never been there, and even when we won the national championship nineteen eighty four, it wasn't the same kind of situation. And so this is just a we're in
a new spot. It's really cool, it's fun, it's like exciting. But human nature is when you get those huge expectations you're not used to it, you tend to retract, you know, you tend to to you know, kind of be careful and uh, and because you don't want to lose it, you know, like, oh my gosh, I have a shot here.
This is amazing. Let's not blow it. And it's just natural when you're not when you haven't done it very much, that you don't get as you're not as expansive as you were when you're inhabiting to lose, and all of a sudden you have lots to lose and it gets hard. And so the way I would get through it, which
is hoping. What I was hoping for last week is that after getting you know, kicked in the teeth in Canada at home against Kansas that we would say, Okay, enough of that, Let's fake it till we make it, Like let's shust We're not going to do it this way,
let's let it rip. And I think in the second half last week we did and we almost pulled it off, but because we started slow, it's and I guess we have to You have to go through it, organize, you know, the school has to go through it, fans have to go through it, the coaches have to go through it, the players especially have to go through and so build those muscles. And that's what the season is amazing about.
But I don't want any right now. I don't want any talk about oh, what a great well, it doesn't matter we'd had a great season. Oh Like, no, we are here own it. Jump in like don't give an inch, and like we just pray that somebody lose this week so we can get in that championship game and build the muscles that we're gonna need for the next twenty five years. Like this is not going away. We don't
want it to go away. And so I just can't stand when we settle when things have gone so well, like no, this is how we got this is us every year, so nothing but and so I just I want to make sure that people kind of hold on that one.
Of the best to ever do with Steve Young is our guest. On a Monday, Stevie referenced the improved play of Jake and I want to dig into it because I love talking to quarterbacks about other quarterbacks. And last year zero to four as a starter and just way too many mistakes and unfortunately that interception down the stretch against Sasu was costly. But he's been in so much better than he was a year ago, and I think so much better than most people thought he could be.
Probably people even down there, what do you attribute most his overall improvement to and how good can he be moving forward next season?
One of his best qualities is I called him a swashbuckler. You know, it's like the I'm not sure what that actually means, but in the image of my mind is somebody who gets back and it's going to let the ball's coming out, and it's going to be aggressive and and and so I like that about him, But the problem is it was unreally and wild and reckless. And so the only way to take what is a good quality and hone it so that it becomes something profitable.
Is to own the data you have to Your brain has to be able to have reflexive recall of coverage and and and have instinct instinctive sense of when safeties are rotated, where does that mean? I'm where's win in weaknesses? Where are people going to be That's the one thing about defensive football is sooner or later they'll tell you what's happening. If you've got to pay attention, and you
have to be able to own the data. To get there, you have to be able to come out of the huddle not be thinking about the play, not be thinking about motion that should be instinctive, not thinking about blitz, not thinking about you know, you know, tendency. It's like I got all that, it's in my mind. It's reflective. Now I can really just hone in on safeties, follow them, and that'll tell me the truth of what this defense is doing. And then I'm not throwing it into people's chest.
I'm ahead of it. So even when there's little, you know, little nuanced things that happen where receivers adjust or whether I have to move in the pocket, your brain is now processing something that you can actually it's not wild. It's like set and that's where every quarterback's trying to get. And so that's why Meyer Jake's work to really start to hone that in as he's there all the way obviously not but I want to tell him that I know how hard that was, and he has gotten significantly better,
and I hope this week that he is. I know you got to school and now you do have to go to school this week, do you So he should be studying eight hours a day to try to make sure that he has that reflective recall, so that against Houston everything, I'm ahead of the data. There's nothing that happens that shocks me. I still might make a choice to take a risk. I still might make you know,
someone might knock the ball out of my hand. I still might try to I might make an athletic move that costs me where you know, I fumble or the ball slips out of my hand. There's things that physically can happen, but my mind will always be ahead of every play. And if that's the case, you're going to play great football.
So I want to ask you a question about Kilotate. When Kloane was up here as the decordinator. We did a coaching show every week, and I you know, became, you know, a real fan, not just of him as a football coach, but of him as a person. I'm not sure how you can not be a fan of Kilani.
And there was this really cool video going around social media Steve of Killani in twenty seventeen after the East Carolina loss, which was their seventh straight, showing up to do his coaches show on BYU TV and then seeing all of his family, uh, you know, kind of fill in and the players and their families fill in to kind of fill uh the area, to show their support because there was a lot of heat around him, and
Kilone started crying when he saw the support. And so I've always pulled for him because I want him to stay employed and do well and all of our.
Utah guys, you know, a rod et cetera.
What sort of questions do you think Kilanie has answered as far as the way he's been able to figure out this new reality of college football with a really solid season.
No matter how it ends.
Kilani is a great He's he's an inspiration. You want to play for him, you want to win for him. He'll stand there, He'll take it. You know, he's accountable. He he he's he's willing to risk it for you. Like he makes you feel like like you know, he's got my back and and no matter what happens, and and I love that about him. And he's you know, he's trying to kind of channel the vewards in his heart and he talks about it a lot. And I
see that. I see the ability to see other people in their potential and kind of inspire them to be better. That that's his best quality now. And I think defense, he has instincts for defense. And I think when he jumps in and really helps there, it matters. And with Jay, I think that he's got somebody there that is, you know, top line recruiter. That's number I mean it's not normal one,
but j Hill is a number one recruiter. Like he's very good and we're getting We're not are requires a long answer, but back to Klonnie, But we we recruit sometimes we can be petty at times, we can be a little institutionally lazy a little bit where we you know, if you don't want to be here, maybe this isn't the right place for you. We got to you know. And I think we're changing, we're getting so that we'll
we'll compete against anything. It will if we lose to Georgia, if we lose to Utah, we lose the USC, that's okay, We're going to be in the mix. And we're going to get in the mix more and more. And so Jay Will I think it's to help the chronic can get on defense. And then a rod I think he's got people around him that can go do those things that to alleviate the stress so that he doesn't have to do too much. And uh, and I think on
the offensive side, we've got to be better recruiters. We've got to be able to attract you know, we have, you know, four or five great quarterbacks and then pick and we've got to, uh, you know, do the do the outreach. We've got to do the day to day. We got to do the blocking and tackling. We've got to do the the all the stuff that's gonna help Killanne be able to put a team on the field because everybody in the country, I mean, Lewis Riddick is a good friend of mine. He does ESPN college games.
I did Monday night, Kyle count down with him for a couple of years. I love Lewis. Lewis a smart, dynamic human being and and when he came out to buy U, he had thought about what BYU is going to be and he left with like inspired, and how so much it was about Kilane and about Tom's athletic program and and the and a sense of inclusion that they've built and the way that Klannie coaches, the way he teaches, and the way that he's authentic day to day, and so all of that is so vital about diversity
and all the other issues. Lewis Ritick left is like, man, be what you and Colanie like I'm in And I think that that's the way the country's starting to understand. And that's why he's so important to us. We need Colannie, We need him to be all of who he is and then also look for the help for the things that he you know that that you know he can't do everything, and so I think he's finding that balance. And so I love what you said about in twenty seventeen.
I'll rally. I mean, if Colonie's in trouble, I'm going to show up. I'll be there. You know what I mean, I want to rally around Klanie and that's the kind of guy he is, and so like you can. My sense of it is is that we're in the Big twelve. Let's act it, let's be it, let's be all about it. And this is not a this should not be a surprise, and and Colonnie's not surprised. Let's go do it every year.
See before, Yeah, you lose.
I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to ask you about your I don't think i've ever heard you speak on this, your opinion on what college football has become and what do you think it will eventually become when the dust actually finally settles and there's no more chaotic alignment. I mean, you know, obviously nil
transfer portal. I am for these players getting paid. I mean, ultimately, they have always been the product and a business was built on their backs and they didn't get a piece of it. So I'm fine with it, But a lot of people aren't necessarily down now. It hasn't affected ratings, it hasn't affected attendance. But what's the Steve Young take on the ever changing landscape of college football and what do you think comes next.
Well, look, equity value in sports is just growing exponentially. It's nuts. The NFL equity values and that's the value of the of the of the team, like if they got a fan stock is like, this is the value of the team for the Sanrusco forty nine ers. Let's say in two thousand, it was three hundred million dollars, four hundred million dollars. In twenty twenty four, it might
be twelve billion dollars. Like, it's insane. And so college football has equity value, and that's what everyone's trying to grab, right, everyone's trying and the players college kids were trying to speak to the NCAA for years. Look it's this money is just growing exponentially, and we're the ones on the field, and we're the ones that are like, have the injuries and don't we're not graduating, we're not we're not insurance,
and we're like, like, this is crazy. And so the NCAA basically just closed their ears forever and it got burned because then it went to the judiciary and jujitsuary said, look, these guys, it's not fair. And so then now it became the Wild West. Now this year as you know Spence coming in twenty five is the twenty million dollars. It's like there's money that's going to come now from the school. It's going to be a portion of the proceeds.
It's going to be revenue sharing, which is smart, Like it starts to stabilize what is insane right now and the NIL and the wild West, and then the schools are you know some schools are they're in charge of the NIL when they're not supposed to, and it's like the whole thing is is such a mess. So that will bring some stability and unfortunately that stability will bring stability to the conference shifts that have happened. Like there's
something like Stanford's going. I mean they go play you know, Duke and North Carolina State like it's they go to Rutgers like it's crazy, Like UCLA going to de Penn State. Like it doesn't. Long term, it can't, it's not sustainable. But for a little while, that revenue sharing from colleges and from a kind of sharing the equity value to the players in a form of payments is going to stabilize things for a little while. But it's not it's
not over time. Sustainable. You've got to figure that whatever the Pac twelve was will come back at some point. It just makes too much geographic sense. You've got to figure that somehow. But the Big twelve and the Big ten other than the West Coast teams are set, I think for some time, as he sees set for some time. And look, there's a good friend of mine's kid who was highly recruited and he's getting paid a quarter million dollars a year as a you know, as a kid
in college. And so that's the reality now. So that's those are that brings with it all kinds of complications and and and challenges at a younger age. It was always a challenge for pro players at twenty two twenty three being the first ones in your in your family history to have any kind of wealth. What does that mean for the family in general? For you? How do
you deal with it? Now? You're asking eighteen year olds, sixteen year olds as they pay, try to pay kids that are still in high school and go around like signing deals and you know, card deals, and you know, so you've got a kid who's a sophomore, who is a highly recruited kid, and now he's you know he's collected one hundred thousand dollars a year, one hundred fifty thousand dollars as a fifteen year old, and the pressure
puts on him the family. These are all complications that are not going away, and we have no answer for it right now.
Well, Steve, thanks so much for the time and now busy you are and it was a pleasure seeing you last week. I really appreciate the invite, so have a great thanksgiving. All the blessings and love to you and your family, and you're welcome to come on the show anytime.
Steve. I'll tell you that, Sveett.
You know, it's like you don't have me reoffen, so I got to let it all out. And once I apologize for that, you can tell it's a therapy session for me because my wife doesn't care, my kids don't care. I only have one place to tell it. So I got to tell you everything. I feel that now you have it, and good luck to you.
Thank you, my friend there he is the great Steve Young, one of the best to.
Ever do it, both in college and pro football.
You can find more information about his charity at Forever Youong dot org. That's who We were kind of supporting last week at his charity golf tournament in Scottsdale,