Jay Drew moving to the Deseret News

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I'm excited about this. I've found out more of the inter dealing of BYU sports from Jay than anyone else in the area. Yes, he has had tendencies to dwell on the negative, but man the guy gets out there and does the job he was paid for. It will be interesting to see if his writing changes. I don't mind negative writings on BYU when its the truth, I just don't want to see that be someone's entire focus and you would have to be loony to believe that such an agenda wasn't pushed by the SLTrib. That's why they began way back when and they continued to be that "other" voice in the community--often with not much objectivity.

EM_Puma wrote:

I'm excited about this. I've found out more of the inter dealing of BYU sports from Jay than anyone else in the area. Yes, he has had tendencies to dwell on the negative, but man the guy gets out there and does the job he was paid for. It will be interesting to see if his writing changes. I don't mind negative writings on BYU when its the truth, I just don't want to see that be someone's entire focus and you would have to be loony to believe that such an agenda wasn't pushed by the SLTrib. That's why they began way back when and they continued to be that "other" voice in the community--often with not much objectivity.

Agreed. If this were Reddit or something similar you'd get heavily downvoted by the "true hardcore" BYU fans. It's apparently fun to hate on Drew simply because he works for the Trib or because some can't handle a little criticism.



I actually can't handle BYUSN sometimes because they are just too blue goggled. I like to watch/read/participate in engaging converstations that show both sides of the story. It's hard to find people that like BYU but also offer some objectivity and some real analysis.

EM_Puma wrote:

I'm excited about this. I've found out more of the inter dealing of BYU sports from Jay than anyone else in the area. Yes, he has had tendencies to dwell on the negative, but man the guy gets out there and does the job he was paid for. It will be interesting to see if his writing changes. I don't mind negative writings on BYU when its the truth, I just don't want to see that be someone's entire focus and you would have to be loony to believe that such an agenda wasn't pushed by the SLTrib. That's why they began way back when and they continued to be that "other" voice in the community--often with not much objectivity.

This nails it. He was a good writer, but I stopped reading anything by the Trib years ago. Anybody who takes a paycheck molds their performance to management expectations, and those expectations took him places I wasn’t interested in going.



I am looking forward to giving him a try again this season.

I hope he keeps his objectivity. I Love Harmon but I was buying his koolaid and I have been burned by it too many times. I don't want constant negativity either.

frdbtr wrote:

I hope he keeps his objectivity. I Love Harmon but I was buying his koolaid and I have been burned by it too many times. I don't want constant negativity either.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2019/8/18/20810225/byu-football-kalani-sitake-kavika-fonua-tyson-williams-middle-linebacker-running-back



Agreed. He did a great job his 1st article. Good info and found interesting stuff to talk about which can’t be easy with the limited media access.

CougarCrazy wrote:

I hope he keeps his objectivity. I Love Harmon but I was buying his koolaid and I have been burned by it too many times. I don't want constant negativity either.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2019/8/18/20810225/byu-football-kalani-sitake-kavika-fonua-tyson-williams-middle-linebacker-running-back



Agreed. He did a great job his 1st article. Good info and found interesting stuff to talk about which can’t be easy with the limited media access.

That's what I felt when I read it.

Maybe he is reborn!!!

Or maybe he's the same writer he has always been but has just been given a bad shake by BYU fans...

byufan4ever wrote:

Or maybe he's the same writer he has always been but has just been given a bad shake by BYU fans...

Maybe. He sure seemed overly negative when I gave up on him.



Read college coverage in other cities. Think about how it compares to what BYU gets in their home market. I have moved around a little and I think the coverage BYU gets from their local media is weird.

byufan4ever wrote:

Or maybe he's the same writer he has always been but has just been given a bad shake by BYU fans...

On second thought maybe it’s possible. Writers don’t pick the headline and an article sitting under a headline like : “Utah lands basketball recruit Caleb Lohner, a prime BYU target” would look dumb.

CougarCrazy wrote:

Or maybe he's the same writer he has always been but has just been given a bad shake by BYU fans...

On second thought maybe it’s possible. Writers don’t pick the headline and an article sitting under a headline like : “Utah lands basketball recruit Caleb Lohner, a prime BYU target” would look dumb.

No, Jay Drew just sucks. Don't need a blue-goggled homer necessarily but he's as bad as Kragthorpe when it comes to BYU.

CougarCrazy wrote:
Read college coverage in other cities. Think about how it compares to what BYU gets in their home market. I have moved around a little and I think the coverage BYU gets from their local media is weird.

Totally what I've felt the 18 years I've lived here in Utah. I've never seen a home market that had so much opposition from the local media. It just doesn't make sense. Could you ever imagine what would have happened if the local media had ever treated Puketah in the same manner as BYU? There would have been people hurt.

Was Jay Drew and Ben Criddle just playing with us yesterday? Criddle and Moose Bingham were interviewing Drew from the Deseret News and talking about the Rocky Long's muck about BYU players being 25-27 years old when the actual average is in the 21 year old range.



Criddle mentioned how players rarely, if ever came back in better shape after a mission and then asked Drew, "Jay, did you go on a mission?" Drew responded back, "Yes I did". Then Criddle asked him, "Well did you come back in better athletic shape than before your mission?"



I was like, "What? Are they playing with me?" They never moved on to note that what he had said was in jest, but when Jay Drew was assigned to cover the Cougs with the SLTrib many moons ago, I thought that was interesting to have someone who was non-LDS cover BYU sports full-time. He's been criticized for echoing the anti-LDS rant that has been a main-stay of the Tribune it's whole life. So, to hear that he is an RM would be very surprising. I still like the guy, and I like him better now that hes at the DN, but Drew an RM, incredulous.

I've never gotten an anti-LDS vibe from Drew.



Passive-aggressive anti-BYU? For sure.

snoscythe wrote:

I've never gotten an anti-LDS vibe from Drew.



Passive-aggressive anti-BYU? For sure.

Yes, that's better said. Thanks. A bit anti-BYU and who living in Utah don't know others like that.



The other item that blew my mind from the interview was that Rocky Long was born in Provo and both of his parents attended BYU. What?