POP-TARTS BOWL: BYU COUGARS VS GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS

December 24, 2025

Jay Hill

Isaiah Glasker

Camping World Stadium

BYU Cougars

Press Conference

JAY HILL: Good morning. I guess Merry Christmas Eve to everybody. Super fun time for us to be in Orlando and be involved in a Bowl game, especially against such a great opponent. We have tons of respect for Georgia Tech. Just look back five or six weeks ago, they were undefeated, one of the top six or seven teams in the country. They have great personnel and a great coach.

In a way, I don't know if you guys were at this event last night, but the two head coaches talked and it is two very similar teams going at it. You can tell that they rely on obviously great talent, hard-nosed, tough, detailed football and that is what we are going up against. We have a ton of respect for them. They have a really talented offensive line.

Love the quarterback that we are playing. They have skilled guys on the perimeter to get the ball to. We have our work cut out for us, but it is a task we are super excited about.

Q. When you look at a guy like Haynes King what kind of stands out how about him and what kind of challenge does he present to your defense?

JAY HILL: Well, I think his feel for the game is obvious. He can throw. He can run it. He does a great job of distributing the ball to the right people at the right time. I really think that's what makes a quarterback is getting ball to the play-makers in space and making good decisions.

He is one of the best we faced this year, and we faced some really good ones. Yeah, doesn't throw a lot of interceptions and doesn't make a lot of mistakes that way.

So he is one of these guys that earns what he gets and he does a great job at it.

Q. Your impressions of Haynes King and Georgia Tech's offense?

ISAIAH GLASKER: I'll just say he's a great quarterback all around. He can run, throw. They have a great O-Line. I feel like their offense moves well and I feel like i ts going to be a great challenge.

THE MODERATOR: Defensive MVP of the Alamo Bowl last year. What's your approach to Bowl games, and what do you hope to take away from them? Nice when you can take away from MVP hardware as well.

ISAIAH GLASKER: Really just to win. This is the last game being around the boys, especially the seniors and I really feel like you just do it for all them.

Q. You guys have an opportunity to win 12 games for the first time since 2001. What would that mean for you guys and what would it mean for the program itself?

ISAIAH GLASKER: Really just to prove that we belong. I feel like we didn't get the opportunity we wanted to playing in the playoffs, and getting this 12th win hopefully can show what our team really can do.

Q. So there are a lot of seniors on your guys' team. What has been the overall message and how excited are you all for playing in the last Bowl game of your season and your career?

ISAIAH GLASKER: Really just to play with each other. I love all the seniors that are here, and they have been along the ride. I don't know, just being able to go out there and play and get this win would be a big thing.

Q. A little bit on that note. You've got a lot of seniors that are pretty open about want to go play in this game. I know the guy next to you has a pretty big decision he wants to make after the Bowl game, still, if I remember right. What is it about this group of seniors that it seems like they really want to kind of finish the job with this group and go keep playing football?

JAY HILL: This is a group when I first came to BYU they were some of the young guys on the roster and to watch them grow and develop put their trust in me and me put my trust in them and just to watch what it's grown into has been pretty special. It is a great group. They won 22 games in the last two years, and they have proven that they are one of the elite teams in the country defensively and offensively this year. Just it is hard to watch the seniors go for me. There is so much that they have put into the program, broad, sweat, tears, education, all those things that they have worked so hard to get. It is pretty special to get them to this moment. Iti s sad to watch them go, but this is a group now that they are going to go off into the future and be super successful. Just based on what they have done in football and in their academic careers. I can't wait to watch what they become.

Q. Is this Georgia Tech offense comparable to any you guys have faced already this year, besides maybe BYU's own offense?

JAY HILL: You know what, it is. The run game I would say is pretty similar to the University of Utah. There's a lot of shifts and motions, and zigging and zagging and eye discipline for the back end is going to be very critical.

I really like the way they call the game. You see how one play sets up the next. I think they are very creative in what they do. They have got obviously very good talent.

So these are those challenges that you get excited for as a coach because they do. They pose a lot of challenges for us.

THE MODERATOR: I know you have some head coaching experience from your time at Weaver State. What do you think that has brought and added to the program over the past few years you've been here?

JAY HILL: I think you become a way better assistant coach once you have been a head coach. As a head coach, you know what was important to you and you know, like, the assistant coaches and what they did to take things off of your plate as a head coach.

So, I would hope that Kalani feels the same way -- that me being a head coach helps him. There are things that I try to see beyond the game, like just the struggle in certain players. You get good at just seeing what these young men are going through in their lives. Sometimes you forget they are 17-, 18-, 19-year-old men trying to figure out how to maneuver this life. I think that that has really helped me as a position coach, again as a coordinator.

One thing we are lucky at BYU, we get to coach some of the greatest young men in the country, I believe. They are very motivated guys. They do well in the classroom. They do pretty well in the football field. We are pretty blessed who we get to coach.

THE MODERATOR: I'll close with this for Isaiah. I know boast your players played ports at BYU. Can you speak to the sense of family that comes with playing at BYU, a lot of guys with fathers and mothers and relatives that played. What does it mean to continue that tradition at BYU?

ISAIAH GLASKER: I feel like it is really important. Both my parents played at BYU. So, just being able to play at BYU, I am super grateful for it. I am grateful for the coaches and the players, who have taken me in and showed me everything that I know, and I don't know. If it wasn't for this coaching staff, then I wouldn't be where I am at. So, I am super grateful for that.

JAY HILL: We appreciate you guys being here. We know what a crazy day it is. Thank you for coming.