BYU fans carry Fred Warner following the Cougars’ victory against Boise State, in Provo. Warner now stars for the San Francisco 49ers.
Rick Bowmer, Associated Press
This article was first published in the Cougar Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Tuesday night.
Hello readers of Cougar Insiders, the Deseret News’ weekly newsletter that is usually authored by venerable sportswriter Dick Harmon, one of the state’s sports institutions. Harmon is vacationing this week and next, so I’m taking over this epistle for the next two editions.
So what’s going on in the world of BYU sports?
In basketball, the Cougars suffered a rough Saturday, as the men’s team lost 82-74 at San Francisco and the women’s team fell 69-59 at home to Santa Clara. Ouch.
At least BYU’s men’s volleyball team is off to a decent start, improving to 4-0 with a sweep of Fairleigh Dickinson last weekend.
Meanwhile, the Cougars’ football team is back on campus with the start of winter semester and getting acquainted with the new strength and conditioning staff. After a flurry of coaching news in late December and a steady stream of transfer portal updates in January, BYU football news has slowed until Feb. 1, which is national signing day.
Then again, the Big 12 Conference is expected to release its 2023 football schedule any day now, so perhaps we’ll see a bump before the first Wednesday in February, a day that used to be huge but is now mostly an afterthought due to the instigation of the early December signing period.
There’s always the NFL to talk about. And these days, the NFL includes plenty of players and/or coaches with BYU ties, most notably former Cougars linebacker Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers and Andy Reid, a one-time BYU player who just hit another milestone as an NFL coach. Reid has now led two franchises — Philadelphia and Kansas City — to at least 10 postseason victories.
Warner’s emergence as one of the NFL’s best players got me thinking about the four years I covered him when he was at BYU. I knew the mature, well-spoken product of Mission Hills High in the San Diego area would be good and have a long and productive NFL career. But this good? Can’t really say that I saw this coming.
At the rate he is going, Warner could be a Hall of Famer.
Warner was a member of some of the worst, and best, BYU football teams of the last decade. He was a junior on the 2016 BYU team that went 8-4 and lost those four games by a combined eight points. That team, Kalani Sitake’s first, also featured now-NFL players Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams and was a couple plays away — the failed two-point conversion attempt at Utah, the blocked field goal at Boise State — from having a really special year.
That 28-27 loss at Boise State in 2016 produced Warner’s signature play as a Cougar, an interception return for a touchdown in which he tight-roped the sideline and broke several tackles en route to the end zone.
In 2017, Warner was easily the best player on a team that went 4-9 and was one of the worst in BYU’s storied football history. A senior captain, Warner persevered to lead the team with 87 tackles, 48 solo.
It is a wonder that NFL scouts discovered him through all that losing, with the 49ers taking him in the third round of the 2018 draft. And the rest is history.
Cougar tales
Former BYU football player Andy Reid, who suited up for the Cougars from 1978 to 1980, is just one win away from coaching the Kansas City Chiefs in another Super Bowl. Reid’s former teammates at BYU share their memories of the coach’s days in Provo.
From the archives
From the Twitterverse
Unpopular opinion:
— Steve Young (@SteveYoungQB) January 24, 2023
Pro teams by nature compete for championships. That's the whole point. So if you don’t want to experience the emotional rigor of pursuing excellence alongside your team — which at times can include big playoff losses — then maybe don’t follow pro football? 😬 https://t.co/bianwqN3bu
We will see when they play someone, like this weekend. The 4-0 start is very deceitful, this team has a lot to prove if it wants to get back to the top.
— Justin Christensen (@gr8justinc) January 23, 2023
The top quarterbacks at the 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl will have everyone talking as BYU's Jaren Hall leads the group into Mobile. https://t.co/vDWcDS3zCC
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) January 23, 2023
Extra points
- Rebounder supreme Lauren Gustin adds to her repertoire (Deseret News)
- Watch for these returned missionaries on BYU football team (KSL Sports)
- It only gets tougher for slumping BYU men’s basketball (Deseret News)
- Reviewing BYU’s recent football season (KSL.com)
Fanalyst
Comments from Deseret News readers:
Last week on a BYU basketball article I said BYU would be lucky to split this week’s road games (at Santa Clara and San Francisco). I was too optimistic. BYU treats their games like a community service project. They give away their possessions to anyone that wants them. If the team was a great shooting team, they’d still be able to overcome that, but alas, they aren’t. Average to even slightly poor shooting coupled with generous turnovers equal losses.
— Bifftacular
BYU is really doing a great job with the portal. They’ve signed at least 8 players who will make an immediate impact on the field next season. I might be most excited for this signing. Cornerback is the biggest position of need, and (Eddie) Heckard will have a huge impact at his position for BYU. Great job, Kalani! Keep ‘em comin’.
— befair
Up Next
Jan. 25 | 8 p.m. | Men’s volleyball | vs. UC Irvine | @Irvine, California
Jan. 26 | 7:30 p.m. | Women’s basketball | vs. Saint Mary’s | @Moraga, California
Jan. 27 | 8 p.m. | Men’s volleyball | vs. UC Irvine | @Irvine, California
Jan. 27-28 | 10:45 a.m. | Indoor track and field | @Fayetteville, Arkansas
Jan. 27 | 7 p.m. | Women’s gymnastics | vs. Utah State | @Logan
Jan. 28 | 3 p.m. | Women’s basketball | vs. Pacific | @Stockton, California
Jan. 28 | 8 p.m. | Men’s basketball | vs. Saint Mary’s | @Provo
BYU linebacker Fred Warner (4) takes the field in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016. Warner, now a star on the San Francisco 49ers, will be on center stage Sunday when his team takes on the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News