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BYU Football Showed Different Character With SMU Win & Now Eye 3-0 at Wyoming

BYU Cougars edge out SMU Mustangs in a nail-biting 18-15 victory. Can the Cougars maintain their momentum against Wyoming's fierce defense?

"Turnovers really hurt us against SMU," Pay admits. "But our defense stepped up big time. They bailed us out when we needed it most."

Connor Pay breaks down BYU's win, highlighting the offense's turnover struggles and the defense's crucial role. He previews the upcoming road game against Wyoming, discussing the challenges of playing in Laramie and Wyoming's physical defensive style. Pay also shares insights on the offensive line's performance, the impact of running back injuries, and even his unique in-game gospel discussions with opponents.

Key topics include BYU's defensive resilience, the offensive line's PFF grades and areas for improvement, and strategies to support backup running backs in the absence of LJ Martin and Aidan Robbins. Pay also reveals his experiences of sharing the Book of Mormon with opposing players during games, adding a personal and spiritual dimension to the competition.

Don't miss this deep dive into BYU Cougars football and their path to success.

Duration:
39m
Broadcast on:
10 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

BYU Cougars edge out SMU Mustangs in a nail-biting 18-15 victory. Can the Cougars maintain their momentum against Wyoming's fierce defense?

"Turnovers really hurt us against SMU," Pay admits. "But our defense stepped up big time. They bailed us out when we needed it most."

Connor Pay breaks down BYU's win, highlighting the offense's turnover struggles and the defense's crucial role. He previews the upcoming road game against Wyoming, discussing the challenges of playing in Laramie and Wyoming's physical defensive style. Pay also shares insights on the offensive line's performance, the impact of running back injuries, and even his unique in-game gospel discussions with opponents.

Key topics include BYU's defensive resilience, the offensive line's PFF grades and areas for improvement, and strategies to support backup running backs in the absence of LJ Martin and Aidan Robbins. Pay also reveals his experiences of sharing the Book of Mormon with opposing players during games, adding a personal and spiritual dimension to the competition.

Don't miss this deep dive into BYU Cougars football and their path to success.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Five-hour energy shots give you the feeling of alertness and energy you need to get in the zone and get things done. With zero sugar, a convenient portable size, and coming in several flavors like watermelon, tropical burst, or my personal favorite grape, it's exactly what you need to get through the day. Head to 5hourenergy.com, the set of our 5hourenergy.com, and use our code LockdownCFB to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. Go to 5hourenergy.com today. The BYU Cougars are now 2 and 0 on the season by virtue of their victory over SMU last Friday. Now they turn their attention to the Wyoming Cowboys. Got a guy on the show today who's probably got some stories about Laramie and what to expect from Wyoming fans. Let's dig into it on Lockdown Cougars. [MUSIC PLAYING] You are Lockdown Cougars, your daily podcast on the BYU Cougars, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, everybody? I'm Jake Hatch, your host here on Lockdown Cougars, resident BYU insider. Thank you for making Lockdown Cougars your first view and/or listen of the day. And they get to all of you, who are everydayers with us right here on your original, daily podcast focused on the BYU Cougars. Today's show is brought to you by our friends. Over at 5hourenergy, go to 5hourenergy.com. Use the promo code LockdownCFB and get 20% off your order from 5 hour energy. All right, let's talk to the man, the myth legend, team captain for the BYU football program and good friend of the podcast, Connor Pei and Connor. Gonna start you off with an easy one today. What did you and the offense do/get for the defense for bailing you guys out on Friday night? Gosh, I don't know if I don't know if I have enough money to get them what they deserve. But yeah, they had our backs big time in that game and we are, you know, greatly appreciative. Yeah, I can understand that now. A big win for you guys, all things considered, 18 to 15, the final. I talked about it on yesterday's podcast about going back and rewatching the game but feeling watching the game live versus rewatching it for me, I had two different feelings on this game 'cause in the moment, obviously the turnovers from Jake are, they almost were backbreakers. And the nice part was you have guys like Brayden Kime who puts his head in there and makes a big tackle on one of those interceptions and you're, like I said, the defense bells you out. But then rewatching the game, I really felt like it was actually a fairly decent performance by this offense just undone by some uncharacteristic mistakes. Would you have that same assessment? I don't know, I don't know if I would say that it was a good performance outside of the turnovers. I thought it was just outside of the turnovers, it was okay. And we were still moving the ball down the field and, you know, just too many, too many self-inflicted wounds. You know, it just seemed like every time we just got ourselves a little bit of momentum, you know, that we would do something that, you know, hurt ourselves, you know, which is, I mean, the main, the main big positive we can take away is that, you know, when you get into that, when we got into those kind of character testing moments, you know, when we needed to touchdown, we drove down the field and got a touchdown. And when, you know, when we needed to go down and score to go ahead with two minutes left in the game, we were able to get it down, have some big four-down conversions and put points on the board. So, you know, it was just, obviously it was just overall just slow, too sloppy and in too many areas. And, you know, I think, but I think the one thing that we can be proud of is just that, you know, when we got tested and we got put against the fire, we had enough to get it done. And we didn't wilt, you know, when all that, when all that pressure was on and we were able to handle all that adversity pretty well, for the most part. - Now, you and I have talked a lot about the adversity, especially from last season and how things went down last year. Give me your honest assessment. If this were last year's team, would you guys have crumbled in that game in your opinion? - Probably. - Okay. - Probably. - I can appreciate the frankness on that. I think everybody can on that front. Now, where do you think that in this case of this team, where does the character come from? Has it just been the fact that you has been hearing all off season about how down, quote, unquote, this program is gonna be what drove you guys to get through that? - I think just having, where obviously a lot of guys were turning just more maturity on the team as a whole. And as you mature in the game of football, you understand that not everything is gonna go your way, you know, all the time. All right, dude, the best teams are the teams that can find a way to win when they don't play well. 'Cause you're not gonna play well in every single game of the season. You know, there's no team ever who has played well, really well in every single game of their season. You know, there were games where they were tested and they found a way to win when they hit those adverse situations. And so I think kind of being on the flip side of it last year, I think we're able to handle it a little better as leaders and just to be like, hey, you know what? Crap happens in football, next play. Let's go score on the next drive. You know, and that's a weird time to tell Jake too on the sideline, you know, like, okay, hey, you know what? Bad play happened, let's move on. We got bigger fish to fry. We gotta go down and score on this next drive. We can't be, well, we'll deal with all the, you know, the criticisms and the assessment later, you know? But in the moment, we have a game we need to go in. And, you know, I'm proud of the way the guys responded in that. And nobody felt it. Nobody started pointing fingers or blaming people or getting angry and frustrated. It's like, okay, hey, you know what? We don't have our best stuff right now. So we're gonna have to dig that much deeper to put these drives together and go down and score points. And thankfully we did just enough. - Talking with Kalani Satake during his press conference earlier this week is what air later in the week, but he mentioned, and I asked him the question about the turnovers for Jake. And one of the phrases he used in the answer for me, Connor, and it's a pretty direct response. Take care of the stinking ball. Now, let me pull back the curtain for some people out there that may be listening and are watching this. Coaches speak to their teams through the media. I think that was a message to Jake. Hey, we know that you had mistakes in that game against SMU. And I think it was for the entire offense. And it's a message, hey, gotta clean it up here. Has that been the message internally as well? - Of course, of course, the message is always softer to the media, boy, always. And so it's like, 'cause I mean, it's a taking care of the balls of the 11 man deal. And so there was a play where there was a lot of, I mean, the screen play where the deal I'm in fell down, that was a tough play. That was almost flooky in a sense where it's like Jake looks up and sees a delignment on the ground, you know? And then goes to throw the ball and he pops up and snags. Like, that's tough, that's tough, you know, that's tough. But, you know, I think, you know, there's not a single person on the planet. It doesn't know we have to take care of the ball better. You know, first and foremost, Jake, like, he knows that. And he's feeling that. And he felt the weight of those mistakes we all did. 'Cause we all made mistakes. There was a play where my timing was off on the snap. You know? - That was the fumble, right? - That's the play up, you know? And so, you know, I think we're all, you know, we succeed as a team and we fail as a team. You know what I mean? And so it's like, yeah, maybe one guy made a mistake here that was, you know, a little bigger than some of the other ones. And some guys did it on different plays too. But at the end of the day, you know, 11 guys have to execute. And we just didn't execute well enough. And again, we had flashes of it. We had moments like we still, I think we still ended the game averaging or almost four yards a carry, you know? Which is still good in the run game. But we didn't, we just didn't have it consistently throughout the whole game. It came in spurts. And so there's just, and so that's kind of what happened today. You put those two, it was like two different teams playing on some of those drives. Or it's like, hey, like, what's going on? We're making all these mistakes right here. Guys going the wrong direction. And a couple things, then we come out in the next drive and we look like a well-oiled machine. You know, and we're moving the ball right down the field and we score a touchdown. And so it's just like, just have to be a little more consistent. And it was just too sloppy at times, you know, obviously. So there's a, there's a good laundry list of things for us to address during the week. Aaron Roderick said that the play you referred to with your snap count, that was the fly suit that was supposed to go to Cody that ended up being that fumble for Jake in the first quarter. And if you re-watch that play, honestly, I know that you're going to beat yourself up over that snap count and it happens. But you look at that play, it was ready to rock and roll because Caleb in the tight end, I remember who the tight end was on that play, they were out there and ready to rock and roll with Cody on the edge. Yeah, I know it was. And so, you know, having to, because in the moment, I didn't know, I didn't realize I had snapped until they didn't feel late in the moment and I go back and I'm watching it, you know, and so that fumble is my fault. OK, if I snap the ball on time, then we hand the ball off, no problem, you know? And so that's not Jake's fault, that's mine, you know? And so, like I said, you know, everyone, you know, as the quarterback, you know, everyone's going to blame you when things go bad and everyone's going to hype you up when things go good, you know, that's just the way it is. And so, but, you know, I guess in the building and as a player, you know, that it's, you know, it's an 11-man deal, you know? And it's not all on one person to get the job done now. Obviously, did he make some mistakes, too? And some dumb decisions? Sure, but so did all of us, you know? All right, now you guys turn your attention to the Wyoming Cowboys. Now, I know your dad, you've got family who know a lot about the Wyoming Cowboys. You've probably heard plenty of stories yourself. You're probably looking forward to that game. We're going to dig more into that momentarily roll on, right here, on locked on Cougars. Today, I was brought to you by our friends over at Ultimate GM. They have a brand new mobile game called Ultimate College Football HCA. 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See terms at discover.com/creditcard. - Thank you once again for making locked on Cougars, your first listen of the day. If you have not done so already, please check out our friends over the locked on college football podcast. It's Mr. McLaughlin's getting you caught up on everything going on in the greater college football. The universe, all the storylines, the reaction to the biggest games. It's all available wherever you get your podcasts also available on YouTube. It's locked on college football. Proud part of the locked on podcast network. Of course, it's your team every day. Rolling on now with Connor Pay and you guys turn your attention out of the Wyoming Cowboys Connor. Your dad played against Wyoming back in the day. You've talked about how Mike MP is practically an uncle to you at this point in your life and I'm sure it's a bevy of other former BYU players that you know well. What have they told you about going up to Laramie, Wyoming and playing in War Memorial Stadium? - Yeah, I mean, of course, there's all kinds of crazy stories. You know, but you know, they really hate BYU. You know, and they, any time they get the chance to have BYU come to Laramie, they get up for it. - Yeah. - You know, and it's, you know, as a player, having heard the stories, I'm pretty excited about it. I'm pretty excited to go experience it because honestly, in a lot of ways, hostile environments are a lot of fun to play in. And so, you know, I'm hoping that coming out of the tunnel, I don't get peed on, you know, like, has happened in the past or have alcoholic beverages dumped on me, you know, but who knows? Who knows? You know, crazy things happen in Laramie and you know, what else do they have to do out there? Besides get excited for their football team, you know, you have to wait in a crappy place like that at least they got, they got one thing and that's Wyoming football. So, props to them for being passionate. - Okay, one of the few times, one of the few times that Lavelle Edwards ever kind of like strayed from being the, the Lavelle that we all know and love was a comedy made about Laramie. He said, "I'd rather lose and live in Provo than win and live in Laramie, Wyoming." And that quote has existed for decades now and I know that Polk's fans, it drives them nuts. My dad was there one time Conner when the urination off of the railing on to BYU football players took place. As I understand it, they've since revamped where the opposing team comes out of the locker room. So that's kind of hard to do now. So I think they'll be a little safer on that side of it. But this is also a crowd that I've, let's just put it this way, I've heard grandma's chanting F-U-B-Y-U and it's not, it's not the letter F. Let's just put it back. - Of course, of course, right? - It should be a fun one. Now, with regards to second straight road trip here, you guys get the win in Dallas, you come back home, you got to make another trip, it's not as far, you got to go over to Laramie, so it's not as far of a flight. But what's the biggest challenge with back-to-back road games? - You know, I think honestly, it's probably just the travel aspect, you know, I think. And I mean, this one really isn't that bad because we played on a Friday last week. So we had an extra day of recovery and an extra day of preparation. And so, you know, I think last week was a little different because we were going on the road and we were playing on a Friday. And so everything was accelerated and we had to travel. So obviously, we don't have to do that this week. So, and with Wyoming being so close, I don't, you know, I mean, I think the most difficult part about it is just not being at less, you know, 'cause it's just different, you know, obviously home games are just super fun. And so I think that's the most challenging part about it. It's just not being with our fans at home, you know? And I mean, SMU almost felt like a home game, you know? We had just as many fans there as they did. And so we'll see, I feel like over the years, I'm sure Wyoming has put in some type of system or safeguard to keep that from happening, you know, because BYU fans travel so well. So we'll see how many end up there. But, you know, I think, yeah, that's probably, those are probably just the more challenging aspects I think of going on the road and back-to-back weeks. But yeah, thankfully, it's not a super long distance. And so it'll be different if like we were going to the East Coast twice and switching time zones 'cause that messes up your sleep and all this other stuff. So, but no, I think this one's not too bad, so. - Now, the thing about it is, as I understand it, War Memorial Stadium up there, when it's filled, and this might be a little outdated, at one point, Connor, when they fill that stadium up, it was the fourth largest city in the state of Wyoming. So. (laughs) Do it that what you will. - That's awesome. - It kind of shows you just the kind of how you-- - Yeah, there's like a small part of you that just has to respect it. - Yeah, you do. And here's the thing. - Like, you know what, like they show up for their team. - They do, well, okay. The last time they beat BYU, I don't know if you know this, they tore the goal post down and prated him down Main Street in Laramie. And that was a game, and I think it was 03 or 04, between two losing teams, Connor. Neither team was going bowling at that point, but they still, they prated the goal post down Main Street. So. (laughs) - Yeah, so they're in it. - They are. And they have a healthy disrespect and hate for BYU. It's a sports hate, maybe visceral, but, you know, at the same time. Now, Kalani, Sataki, and Aaron Roderick, both who've lifted the lid on this, saying that both L.J. Martin and Heathley Rapide are considered doubtful for this week. So, you're top two running backs unavailable in this game. What do you guys do as an offensive line to bail out guys like Miles Davis, Iniknawahine, Pokai Honga, the other guys who are now going to have to step up into that role. - I think, you know, obviously nothing's going to change, you know, schematically or things like that, 'cause they know how to run our offense. You know, Enik popped in and had a huge fourth down touchdown run. Like, they know how to run our offense. I think for us, Miles isn't going to have any issues. You know, he's been here before. If I remember correctly, he played really well last time we played Wyoming. - Career high in rushing yards. - Yeah, and probably would have had another touchdown if I didn't get an olden call, but, which we watched it again today, thankfully. Coach Woods decided to bring that one up yet. But, I don't think he knew I held though. So what I told him, when he brought that clip up, it was a great touchdown run. I was like, "Yeah, well, didn't count." - Felt that coach. - Yeah, after watching it again, two years later, still not a hold. - Okay. - Still to this day, not a hold. But anyways, and so I think, but for younger guys like Enik, you know, I think it's just we, as an old line, got to be on our P's and Q's to, you know, set up our combo blocks really nice, make his reads clear, you know, not have any technique issues that muddy his reads. And so I think that's where, you know, we can make the biggest difference, is just come off the ball, knock them back, give him space to make his decisions and just make it the easiest we can on him. You know, and so, because if we're offered, or the timing is not right or our combos aren't clean, it really makes the reads that the running back has to go through really muddy on what hold they should hit. And so I think that'll be a big thing we can do to help Enik out this week. - Now, Wyoming is known as a pretty hard-nosed defense. I kind of, they've built their reputation on under their coaching staff. I know that they have a new head coach, this is Jay Savel, but he's been there for quite a while, obviously working with that staff in Craig Bull. What do you see on tape? What do you expect from them? - Yeah, I mean, honestly, I'd see on tape exactly what I saw when we played them a couple of years ago. You know, obviously they're not the most skilled team we're gonna play this year, right? But what they do is they know their defense and they play hard. You know, their hard-nosed dudes, blue-collar dudes, and they hang their hat on that. They hang their hat on effort and physicality is gonna make up for what we lack, you know? And so when I see them on defense, you know, I see guys like, they don't do a ton of crazy stuff. You know, not a lot of twisting, stemming, not even a lot of blitzing. They kind of line up and play and say, "Hey, here we are, we're gonna hit you in the mouth." You know, and see how you handle it. You know, see if we can, if you can handle it. And so, you know, I think that's why they've been successful on defense. You know, in the past is, you know, it's, they overcome those things with just physicality and effort, right? And they play hard, they do, they play really hard and they try to hit you, they get caught at times, you know, kind of, you know, like we saw in the ASU game being outclassed a little bit in some areas. But, you know, I think, you know, they, and I watched that ASU game to the very end and they were, they were getting killed and the effort didn't change, which is, which I have a lot of respect for, you know? And so, I think we gotta come on ready, be ready for them to be physical and we gotta be physical or more physical back. And, you know, and, you know, try to get the ball moving against these guys. And so, you know, I think I'm looking forward, looking forward to the challenge. - All right, last thing on Wyoming for me, you know what the answer, it'd be a long elaborate answer. You taking your cowboy hat or boots to layer me with you? - No, I don't have either of those things. - Okay. - I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna disgrace cowboy culture by trying to claim that I am one, you know? And so, I think everyone has a country face in their life where it's like, man, I would love to just own a ranch and do that and then, you know, six months later, you snap out of it, you know? But, yeah, no, I'm not gonna claim that. I'm not gonna claim that. I'll leave that to the real cowboys. I'm not gonna disrespect them like that. - All right, sounds good. All right, we will finish up this edition with Carter Faze, we typically do. With your questions, our listeners always see, send those in. We'll give those momentarily right here, on locked on Cougars. Today's show is about to you by our friends, over at Five Hour Energy. Now, Five Hour Energy is for you here for you guys, get you through whatever you happen to be doing. 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Link both in the show notes on YouTube as well as wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Connor, time for the people to shine as I like to say and ask their questions to you. First one goes to Danny. I am curious how the defensive line from SMU compared to his experience from defensive lines in the Big 12 last year. - They were, they definitely were pretty good. I mean, number 10 on the inside, I played against him before. He was a DTAC-led Arkansas when we played them last year. So we were familiar with him. Number five, one of their DNs, number five was a really good player. He was really a good player. He's probably one of the better DNs we'll face this year. But I would say, I guess in comparison to the rest of the Big 12, I mean, we played, I mean, that's a hard comparison for SMU because I think we played four of the top 10 Dtacles in our draft class last year. And so it's like, I mean, you know, they weren't as good as some of those guys, you know. And so, you know, I think they're probably obviously probably middle of the pack. - Okay, fair enough. Next question, this actually kind of relates. So when most people hear and are listening to this, Monday is the 100th birthday of President Nelson, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saying it's a big celebration for him to reach the 100 year mark, really cool thing. I'm gonna relate that with this question from Taylor, says this, has anyone asked Connor about the church during a game? - Oh yeah, tons. - Okay. - Tons are usually, usually starts with teasing or something, making fun of something. And then you like correct them in a snarky way. And they're kind of like, wait, what? And then, you know, like, yeah, this is actually how it's done. And then they'll ask you, like, really? So I've had, ironically, I've had quite a few gospel discussions on the field. - Okay, so you-- - Even led to a Book of Mormon hand out of the end of a game once. - Really? - Yeah. - Can we ask which gamer do you want to keep that to yourself? - It was a couple years ago, it was after Georgia Southern. - Okay, very cool. - And so, I mean, I remember it was a big news story when Isaiah, like, actually, Kefusi, actually gave a physical copy of a Book of Mormon. I had just, the detail I had gone into that whole game, we chatted the whole game and ended up following each other on Instagram afterwards. And 'cause I had told him at the end of the game, I was like, dude, I'll send you the link to the Book of Mormon. It's pretty sweet. And he's like, dude, send it. So, we still correspond on Instagram every once in a while. But yeah, I think he ended up transferring errors on the state and finished his career there. But yeah, I ended up DMing to him the link to the Book of Mormon online, so. - Look at you accomplishing your 99 plus one request from President Nelson, just a couple of years ahead of time, you know? Same day. - Exactly, exactly. - All right, next question comes from Christie. Is the team taking Wyoming seriously? Don't want to get cocky with a smiling face emoji. - Very, very. All right, you have to earn the right to play well every single week, regardless of who your opponent is. You know, and that's earned Monday through Friday, right? And, you know, I don't think we didn't get enough job last week of taking advantage of every single day of the week in preparation for the game. You know, I had a couple sloppy practices last week and it led to a sloppy performance on the field. And so, you know, as crappy as that is, you can definitely look at a cause and effect, right? So, you go out and have crisp, clean practices this week and earn the right to be confident and play well on Saturday. And 'cause, I mean, we've played these guys before. We know how hard they play and how badly they want to beat us, you know? And so, definitely not overlooking them by any stretch. - Let me ask this, are there offensive goals that Connor has in mind for the Wyoming game in particular? That's why I moved the ball consistently, right? Can't be this like we were last week. Gotta get out of third and long, right? Gotta move the ball in first and second down, you know? And so, I think, you know, I think that's, I mean, I guess for me, you know, it's just to making sure that we're on our Ps and Qs in the run game, so we can do that. We can get four or five yards a pop when we need to set up second and third manageable, right? And we're in third and long too much this last week. - Good question here from Tom. We said the offense suffer after L.J. Martin went down with his injury. What does L.J. do for the offense? Maybe other running backs on the roster don't bring to the table. - That's a good question. I think just, L.J. has a great feel, you know, a great feel for the game in terms of, and he's just, you know, he's thick in his lower half and he's a strong runner, but he's also really smooth and almost like glides through people and people kind of just bounce off of them. You know, and I think, I think in, I think full-out is almost kind of similar in that aspect, but you know, L.J. just has a great feel, can find the hole and slip through it and get three or four extra yards with guys, you know, breaking arm tackles and guys bouncing off of him and saying, I don't know, there's almost, I feel like the best way I can describe it is there's almost like a smoothness to it. - Okay, well, I think anybody who watches that can see that from L.J. you can tell he is a polished, polished runner. He's a lot in the mold of a Tyler Algier in my mind. I know that's lofty praise, but you see similarities between those two in my mind. All right, good question here as well. This comes from Daniel. Now, pro football focus in their grades are what us as fans and media kind of rely on and they had you and Kayla BTN as the top two rated offensive lineman for BYU against SMU. But Daniel asked this, can you ask Connor who graded out best from the offensive line in the game if he can answer that? - Kayla did, I'm pretty sure. - Okay, so is that- - Yeah, Kayla was the player in the game. - Is that, what was he, I guess compared to Southern Illinois, same level, where did it go there in terms of his grading? - Off the top of my head, I can't remember the comparison of the two. - Okay. - But I know that we graded out higher as a group. This week than we did against SMU. Or I mean against Southern Illinois, sorry. So, I mean, as a group there was definitely, you know, you could see that there were definite areas of improvement and I would just gotta go put it together a little better for four quarters. - Now, I'll tell you this, pro football focus loves you and Kayla because you guys have had pretty good grades in the first two games, so I guess. - I haven't even looked. I mean, I have a love-hate relationship with PFF. - I think we all do, we all do, bud. - Because it's like, a couple years ago, I think they had me as the highest rated pass protector in the country after my sophomore season. So it's like, hey, I like pro football focus. They're saying nice things about me. You know, and it's like, you know, and it's like, I guess any, I mean, for the NFL, any publicity is good publicity, I guess, when they're saying you're playing well. But also at the same time, it's like, this is a random person watching your film and trying to guess what your responsibility is and grading you based on it. So it's a double-edged sword. Like I get, and I mean, PFF is not a film company. They're a data company. You know, and so all the data that PFF provides is awesome. Like they're doing some pretty cool stuff in that aspect. You know, I can go and look up teams and find any percentage I want on anything for their defense and stuff like that. Like it's pretty cool, pretty cool stuff that they're doing. So, but, you know, the grade, the grading is pretty subjective. So it's, I mean, so I'm glad that there's someone's watching my film and thinking I'm playing pretty well. So I'm glad I just, you know, but obviously my opinion is that definitely falls into the hands of coach Woods. So that's who I'm paying attention to. - Absolutely. Well, it's the fun part about Caleb is he's a top 10 rated tackle according to PFF right now. So that's pretty cool to see that. All right, got one more serious question and a couple of fun ones we'll get you out on those, Connor. So the, the serious one comes from Josh Glenn. Two games in, how is the coach to player helmet communication? What's his take? - I like it. I like it. We're just able to go faster, you know, and so it's like, and it's not like we've never played slow. I think since I've been here, we always like pushing the pace, but it's just nice to be able to just, even if we're not huddling, you know, the perimeter guys stay in your spots, look at the signals, we just turn around, quick little huddle, Jake hears it, relays it and bam, we're on the line of scrimmage prep and for the next place. So I've really liked it so far. - All right, it's a couple of fun ones here. Robert asked this, what is Connor's favorite classic car? And if he could have one, I'd just buy it. What would it be? - Ooh, I'm not a, I'll be honest. I'm not, I'm not a big car person in the sense that I know a ton of the classics. - Okay. - Like I've never, I don't know if I've ever had like a classic car that I love, you know, that I've always just dreamed of having. I mean, obviously there's ones I've seen where it's like, oh man, that would be, that's a pretty sweet car. Like some of those old retro cars that you see, but like I don't know, I don't know what they are. And so I mean, my dream car, since I was a teenager, always been a forerunner after. - And you've got it. - No, and I got it. You know, I bought, I bought one in January from Doc Maine, actually. - Oh, okay. - That strength was his. And he knew that I loved foregraptors 'cause I'd tell him all the time how much I loved his truck. And so when he, when he finally decided to sell it, he had said, hey, do you want it? And he gave me a fair price on it, so I was like, sure. - That NIL money spent wisely there, Connor. I can do it. - Yeah. It's pretty easy to have a car payment when your rent's $500. - Sure. - You know, my rent and my car payment is less than some people's rent alone, let alone a mortgage. - Yeah, well, as a guy who's got a mortgage and a car payment, I'm very jealous. Let's just put it that way. All right, Spencer asked this, for Connor, what are some of the best Boy Scout pranks you have done in your life? - Boy Scout? - Yes. - Pranks? - No, we're gonna have to go deep into the archives here. See if I can remember, 'cause I got my Eagle when I was 13. - I got mine when I was 14, so I got it. - So I did it fast for the purpose of not having to go back to Scouts again. Unless it was a camp out or a Scout camp, 'cause those were fun. - Sure. - Is there any pranks? I mean, honestly, like it's so dumb, but the prank we would always do was we always zip tied people's tent shut. - Okay. - Where it's like, you couldn't get out. Like, that's such a stupid one. But like, I remember doing that. - Well, Spencer says here, for example, 'cause my troop hit out in the trees during their staff hunt during camp and shot other scouts and the staff with paintball guns. - Yeah, we never did anything like that. Your troop sounds awesome. - I can tell you from my experience, we almost started to forest fire at one point. No forest fire broke out. We got very close. - No, I guess that's true. We were definitely not. We did not shy away from the pyrotechnics. I'm trying to think, I mean, there was obviously a ton of funny stuff that happened, but I'm trying to think of deliberate pranks that we would pull on people. I mean, honestly, it was probably more against the leaders. - Okay. - Like I remember on Klondike, when we built like snow caves to sleep in, and the leaders had one and the scouts had one, and we had like deliberately set up the, or we went and kind of sabotaged their cave so that the next time they moved the little door thing they had, a bunch of snow would come crashing down on top of them. I'm just looking back on it like, that could have ended really badly. You know, like that was probably a pretty stupid thing to do. - As a guy who had a fellow scout jump on the top of the cave, I had created and crashed in from the roof. Yeah, that's not that much fun. - Thankfully, when they did it, it wasn't a ton of snow. - That's good, that's good. - Maybe 10 or 15 cubic feet at most. - All right. - So we'll be using your. - Okay, one final one from Brandon here. Does Connor have a favorite Disneyland or Lagoon ride? - Lagoon? No, 'cause I haven't been in a really long time. I haven't been since high school, and I didn't fit on anything at high school very well, so, and I'm bigger now, so I don't know if I want to go back there and experience that. But, I mean, my all time favorite ride has always been Space Mountain, the Disneyland, since I was a kid, been my favorite, but I'm going to kind of deviate a little bit and go to Disney World. Hopefully, hopefully I can count that in this question. Because the new Tron ride and the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Disney World are top notch. - Okay. - And it's like, they're so good. So, those are like the three for me that are kind of in a world of their own. - Now you're making me feel like I need to go to the UCF game so I can get over and ride those two, but. - Yeah. - We'll see. - You should cut. - Did your reporter get your free company to pay for you to go out there? - Well, I have other responsibilities on game day back in Salt Lake. So, that's where the rub comes into this. So, we'll see what happens. - Tell me who I need to talk to and I'll say that, look, Jake has to cover BYU for the UCF game. - Just so he can go to F. Cotton and Disney World. - They don't need to know that. That's on your personal time. - I will send you a text with the person to contact, okay? - All right, Connor. Well, thank you for all the time. As always, best of luck this week. - Of course. - Wyoming and we will catch up with you next week when attention turns the big 12 play. - Absolutely. - All right, for Connor, I'm Jake. Big thank you as always for all of your support of the podcast. Appreciate all of you for being every day as well this year and obviously making lockdown Cougars, your first view and or listen of the day. And until tomorrow, have a great rest of your day. This has been the lockdown Cougars podcast. - A prime members, you can listen to this lockdown podcast and free on Amazon music. 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