SportsBeat Afterhours

SportsBeat Afterhours is Utah college football talk with the rough edges left in. Hema Heimuli Jr. hosts alongside co-host Zak Hicken, and the show moves at a clip, trading quick agreement cues and thoughts that get corrected on the fly. The episode titles make its range clear: Utah, BYU and Utah State each get a 2019 preview, and another episode is titled 'Previewing Utah-USC, Washington-BYU, and Utah State-San Diego State'. That last one is a sensible first stop, because its title alone covers all three programs. The analysis usually starts with a take and then works back to the reasons. On Washington-BYU, the two hosts agree that BYU looks different from the year before, with a new attitude and a coaching staff that knows its identity on both sides of the ball. Then comes the counterweight: Washington, they argue, is effectively rebuilding around talented but very young players. Even the corrections stay in, as when a point about a local player turns mid-sentence into the realization that he sat out the previous year. Guest episodes go deeper and run to longer explanations. Mitch Harper, who is back for another appearance, gets a welcome from hosts joking that he brings more credibility and gravitas than they do. His BYU preview goes through the defensive line player by player, from weight-room work ethic to a lineman coming back from a back injury. The Utah preview with Jeremiah Jensen stays on the front four, arguing that the defensive line is why a Pac-12 title pick for the Utes makes sense. It also includes a story about asking Kyle Whittingham to name the defense's question mark and getting laughed at. In the Utah State preview with Matt Glade, a misfired play is compared to one from 2013, and a pass rusher's explosive first step against Mountain West tackles draws real excitement. The humor is loose and frequent. A fake throw is compared to fooling a dog during fetch, and a 48-ounce cup of 'Utah Kool-Aid', revealed to be Dr. Pepper with cherry, sits across from promises of blue Kool-Aid for BYU fans. The intros are a running gag of their own, billing Hicken as the local lovable Canuck, welcoming listeners in Spanish, or asking everyone to rise for O Canada. Sign-offs tease a crossover, a high school football preview and a vow that someone will eventually get a tattoo on the show. Some jokes drift into locker-room innuendo before the talk returns to football. The tone is mostly excited, warmer when a player or matchup catches someone's eye, and dry in the asides. What listeners get is a clear, position-by-position read on each in-state program from people who clearly enjoy arguing about it.