Podcast Links:
News and Notes:
Poppinga: “Now that I’m a coach I’m not really one of the boys anymore.”
Poppinga: “We have started to take a look at Nebraska which we believe is going to be Oregon State with a running QB.”
Poppinga: “Coaches typically report a weak early for fall camp. They’ll report August 7th and practice starts August 8th.”
Poppinga: “The team started position specific drills this week.”
Poppinga: “With Coach Wintrich coming on we were able to coach up individual S&C coaches and they will be working with our guys at their specific positions.”
Criddle: “Jonny was sitting next to me while I interviewed Coach Wintrich yesterday and he was sitting there pulling out what hairs he had left and was saying, ‘Man, I could’ve been so much more athletic!!'”
Poppinga: “Each guy has their own individual things that they need to work on.”
Poppinga: “Tyler Cook is a guy who’s had back issues so one point of focus for him has been doing a lot more yoga.”
Criddle: “There’s a clause in the Big 12 contract that allows for each team added to get the same share of the cut as the other schools.”
How We See It:
Twestion: What’d you learn from BYU Media Day?
Criddle: “I learned from Anae, Bronco, and Holliday that they each had been offered jobs outside of BYU but decided to stay.”
Criddle: “I had heard that Bronco turned down a job and Holly was so upset that she didn’t talk to him after.”
Criddle: “Holly is an incredible support system for Bronco and she’s a jovial woman, there are times I’d rather hang out with her than Bronco.”
Poppinga: “One thing I was blown away with was the number of former players who came and showed up for BYU.”
Poppinga: “There are guys from a number of different eras who have relationships with guys that they played with and they can bring them in.”
Poppinga: “Tapping into the alumni is a great resource for recruiting and it helps us out a lot.”
Poppinga: “I will take any email from any alumni about any player.”
Poppinga: “You have to put the top 3 plays up front. Those are the ones I’m looking for and if they don’t stand out, I don’t keep going.”
4:30 Segment:
Criddle: “Kelly was a part of the greatest scout team ever assembled at BYU. It had me, Jan Jorgensen, him.”
Poppinga: “My oldest daughter is 5 and I think I have about 8 years before it starts getting stressful and at that time my hair will go gray really fast.”
Poppinga: “One thing I love about Coach Mendenhall is that he comes out and speaks his mind.”
Poppinga: “I do think that the TV deal with ESPN has helped with recruiting and getting better depth.”
Criddle: “I would trade my conference championship rings for a chance to play Missouri, UCLA, Michigan, and Nebraska.”
Criddle: “I would rather play Mizzou and Wagner instead of CSU and New Mexico.”
Criddle: “My best memories are playing Boston College, TCU, Oregon.”
Poppinga: “I think that independence has been able to be a transition from the Mountain West to the P5. We aren’t fully in, but we’ve got a foot in the door.”
Poppinga: “Let me tell you, two teams that BYU can’t look past this year are Cincinnati and ECU.”
Cougar Insider Report:
Criddle: “I heard through the grape vine that Jonny Linehan is really developing well.”
Poppinga: “From within 45 yards, Trevor is extremely accurate. He doesn’t have the strongest leg but he got it done last year.”
Poppinga: “Corey Edwards is a guy who has a very strong leg who can boom it, but he needs to work on his accuracy.”
Poppinga: “Not only can Jonny kick the ball far but he is really accurate.”
Poppinga: “He came and tried out in the spring but we told him to focus on rugby and come back in the offseason.”
Criddle: “Against TCU, 50-51 we lost because we didn’t have a long snapper.”
Criddle: “We missed 3 FG’s against BC in the 4th Q because of long snapping.”
Criddle: “We lost 3 games in 2012 by a total of 7 points.”
Mike Riley Interview:
Riley: “I still maintain friendships from my time at Alabama and I have lots of contacts down in the south.”
Riley: “I surprised myself by leaving Oregon State. My wife and I decided that we had time for ourselves to have one more adventure.”
Riley: “When I brought it up to my wife she said we should keep talking about this because it interested her.”
Riley: “Chris Peterson is a guy that I talked to because of the situation he went through and I was able to talk to him. I realized that I wouldn’t lose the connection to my home town just because I left.”
Riley: “Some people would say the toughest would be the place with the highest expectations but I think that every guy in the world of college football has that pressure in a different way.”
Riley: “When I first went to OSU the team had experienced 28 straight years of losing seasons.”
Riley: “Bronco is one of the great people in our profession.”
Riley: “We want our kids to be prepared for life after football and life after school.”
Riley: “There aren’t any other pro or college teams so the excitement is really only concentrated on Nebraska football.”
Riley: “We want to use the resources we have in a very wise way.”
Riley: “I heard that BYU was mentioned as an addition to the Pac 10 and I think they would’ve been a great representative of the conference.”
Riley: “We eventually will be getting to our game against BYU and we’ll need to have an identity figured out so we can execute.”
5:30 Segment:
Poppinga: “Man, David Nixon and Bryan Kehl didn’t even watch film when they played!”
Poppinga: “David, Bryan, Kyle, Jordan, Spencer, Alani, those are all guys who had great instincts.”
Poppinga: “Kyle is one of the greatest students of the game that I had the privilege to coach.”
Top 5 Defensive Players:
Poppinga: “My number 5 guy is Jan Jorgensen, he took advantage of some great OLB play to get a lot of his sacks.”
Poppinga: “Andrew Rich was a great safety in 09 and 10 and even led the team in tackles one year.”
Poppinga: “Bryan Kehl is third on my list, he’s a talented guy.”
Poppinga: “Cam Jensen was a great LB so I put him at number 2. His leadership was more important than the production.”
Poppinga: “Number one is my guy KVN. In my opinion he could go down as one of the top players in BYU history.”
Allen Kinney Interview:
Poppinga: “David Nixon and Daniel Sorensen were two great guys. But one guy who could’ve been the best was Jordan Pendleton. He was able to go out and cover slot receivers.”
Poppinga: “If he would’ve stayed healthy he could’ve gone in the 4th round of the draft.”
Kinney: “I think that Oklahoma’s President tried to do what he could take control of what he thinks is best of the conference.”
Kinney: “Obviously if Texas wants something to happen in the Big 12, they’re opinion is the strongest but I think that Oklahoma is pretty valuable as well.”
Kinney: “My understanding was that the Big 12 would be able to give equal shares to other teams.”
Kinney: “There would be some money lost from bowl games, distributions, NCAA tourney appearances that would be changed from 1/10 to 1/12.”
Kinney: “I don’t know if the revenue distribution is something that is somewhat workable.”
Kinney: “Memphis, Cincy, BYU, UConn are all teams that have been mentioned in the Big 12’s expansion.”
Kinney: “There isn’t really a Big 12 network at this time. It’s the individual conglomerations of these schools.”
Poppinga: “I think we match up better with teams in the B1G. There are a lot of schools that match up well with us in skill set.”
Poppinga: “I think the Big 12 is something that we would be fired up if that happen.”
Poppinga: “I don’t want to be a pessimist but I’d like to think it’s never going to happen and be pleasantly surprised when it does.”
Poppinga: “I think that BYU looks like Stanford defensively. But it’s not similar at all on Offense.”
Poppinga: “I think our depth started to get better in 2014 and now it has gotten even better between now and then.”
Poppinga: “Skill set guys, we had better receivers than Wisconsin, they had great RB’s, but the difference was definitely on the OL and DL.”
Popppinga: “You can get anyone if you get them on the right day.”
Poppinga: “These guys from out of the country aren’t going to step in and contribute immediately it’s going to take 2-3 years of development to get them on the field. But with that being said, we’ll continue to go out and recruit them.”
6:30 Segment:
Poppinga: “I think the guy that’s going to Africa for recruiting will be the most desperate to be getting a raise.”
Poppinga: “Coach Atuaia was out on a hike when he was recruiting in Samoa and a pack of wild dogs attacked him and he was bit by one of them.”
Poppinga: “There was like an inch of muscle missing out of his leg. He had to get a rabies shot and go back home cause he kept getting infections.”
Poppinga: “BYU fans are critical of Coach Anae but he broke the rushing record with Curtis Brown, Harvey Unga, and is on track to do it with Jamaal.”
Poppinga: “He broke the receiving record with Austin Collie and then with Cody Hoffman.”
Poppinga: “Number 5 is Austin Collie, Number 4 is Harvey Unga, Number 3 is John Beck, Number 2 is Dennis Pitta, and Number 1 is Max Hall.”
Random Thoughts:
Criddle: “Everyone was balling on the hardwood except for me. I was made fun of because of my double ankle braces and shape up shoes.”
Criddle: “These guys are competitive. I was out there to get some cardio in and Kehl is going 150%.”
Poppinga: “My wife is making me watch Once Upon a Time and you know what, I’m actually pretty intrigued.”
Hicken: “There are some shows that you would never watch as a single guy but once you get married or get a serious girlfriend you watch these shows like Once Upon a Time, the Bachelorette.”
Criddle: “Being a chef in Japan is as important as being a doctor in the US.”
Poppinga: “We had guys from 38 states at our camp this week, guys from 4 countries. I don’t think any other school in the country could do that.”
