BYU Buzz: 2006

Thursday, December 14, 2006

BYU loses in overtime

BEAUMONT, Texas — A bunch of junior-college transfers ganged up to whip BYU with an ugly stick for most of the contest and then Lamar, of the Southland Conference, delivered a deadly knockout blow in overtime Wednesday, capturing an 86-77 win over the Cougars in the Montagne Center before a crowd of 3,150.

Des News

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Todd Christensen, former BYU fullback and All-Pro tight end for the Oakland Raiders, offers his view that Beck is the best QB in the nation. He rests on his credentials as a "sports jock" and forty years of football experience as a player and broadcaster. Of course, he readily admits that everything is subjective:

His points:

* Neither Ohio State nor Notre Dame's schedule was stellar: (i) The Big-10 had a less than stellar year, and Ohio State was able to have its toughest game at home and avoided playing Wisconsin; and (ii) Notre Dame padded its schedule with service academies and bottom feeders of the Big 10/11 (struggling against Mich State, Purdue and a last gasp win against average UCLA)

* Ohio State and Notre Dame have the top five to top ten recruiting classes in the nation each year, while BYU rarely gets even one blue-chip prospect. Simply, Beck doesn't get the advantage of a team mate of top caliber. That's proven with Beck throwing TDs to 14 different players and seven BYU receivers having 20+ catches. Beck has to spread it around to everyone because there aren't any star receivers on the team.

* Beck bests the other two in QB rating, ypg, completion percentage and yards per attempt. Quinn bests Beck only in TDs, but Beck had to skip an easy game against Utah State thus unable to pad his stats like Quinn did against cellar dwellers.

* Beck was uncommonly consistent. His worst game was against Colorado State, where Beck went 22 of 30 (73% completion rate) for 290 yards.

* Beck made it count when it mattered. He didn't turnover the ball when the game was on the line, and he delivered against Utah in the clutch and destroyed then #15 TCU.

* Smith almost choked against Michigan. He played well against Texas on the road with so-so numbers, and had a great first half against Michigan. But in the second half, Smith had "turnovers and scared play" which nearly doomed Ohio State. He was bailed out by 100-yard games by his tailbacks. Quite simply, take away those tailbacks and Smith goes down in flames, and Michigan is #1. Smith needed help.

* Quinn laid a pair of eggs against Michigan and USC. He didn't step up when he was needed.

Herald Extra

Personally, I think that it's refreshing that Todd Christensen, who has more experience than anyone here in playing and analyzing football, comes up with the same conclusion that I have expressed: that Ohio State struggled against Michigan and that but for those two tailbacks, Smith goes down hard and Michigan is #1.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Cougars rally but fall short vs. BSU

BYU basketball played poorly against Boise State and lost. They were down big time, 24 points, but somehow rallied back to fall short by just a few.

Des News

Technorati Tags: byu, byu sports, men's basketball

Wright leads No. 23 BYU past Harvard

In Boston, BYU forced 28 turnovers and came away with a 66-51 win against Harvard last night.

Mercury News

Technorati Tags: byu, byu sports, women's basketball

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Ainge flourishing as a starter again

Austin Ainge is getting more minutes as a start in BYU basketball as his shooting percentage excels and his assists stay high.

SL Trib

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Oregon to Face BYU in Vegas Bowl

Oregon has accepted a bit to play #20 BYU in the Vegas Bowl. It will be the sixth meeting by the two teams, with Oregon owning a 3-2 advantage so far. This will be the fourth time BYU has played a Pac-10 team in a bowl game, with BYU only coming away with one victory against Washington State, and losing a close one against Cal last year.

BYU Release

Who's Screwing the Pooch?

USA Today has a fancy-smancy chart to compare coach compensation in college football. On average, a college coach gets paid $1 million/year to field/coach his team. So how are they doing, and who is screwing the pooch by not getting the work done?

I picked a few schools, and compared them based on $/win.

School 	Salary	Wins	$/Win
BYU		500000	10	 50,000 
TCU		952162	9	 105,796 
Navy		1003309	8	 125,414 
Michigan	1454619	11	 132,238 
Florida		1524000	11	 138,545 
Ohio State	2012700	12	 167,725 
Louisville	1743000	10	 174,300 
Nebraska	1690317	9	 187,813 
Air Force	755370	4	 188,843 
Notre Dame	2000000	10	 200,000 
Vtech		2008000	10	 200,800 
Auburn		2231000	10	 223,100 
A		2012200	9	 223,578 
Tennessee	2050000	9	 227,778 
USC		2782320	10	 278,232 
Florida St	1691900	6	 281,983 
Alabama		1766853	6	 294,476 
Texas		2664000	9	 296,000 
Fresno State	1253982	4	 313,496 
Oklahoma	3450000	10	 345,000 
Virginia	1785000	5	 357,000 
Iowa		2840000	6	 473,333

'Course, you have conference wins and BC$ bowls. Based on that, I'd say that Michigan, Florida and Ohio State is getting a great deal. BYU/TCU and Navy are getting steals. Meanwhile, Iowa's coach has all the pooches in his bedroom, while Oklahoma, Virginia, Fresno State, Texas and Alabama aren't too far behind.

Give style points to Oklahoma and Texas, because at least they have been fighting for the the national championship almost every year lately.

USA Today Chart

BYU: Cougars could learn bowl game foe Tuesday

Looks like Las Vegas is going to choose Oregon to play against BYU in the Vegas bowl. Arizona State has fallen into disfavor after it fired its football coach.

SL Trib

BYU runner brings home national title

>Josh Rohatinsky turned in a performance of Jordan-esque proportions, recovering from flu-like symptoms all last week to win the men's individual title at the NCAA championship meet.

This is the first national title in cross country for BYU since 1984.

CSTV Article

Monday, November 27, 2006

Upon further review: Irish not worthy of BCS

John Walters, writing for NBC Sports, comments that there's a great quarterback who plays for a religious-affiliated university, and that QB is not the one playing for Notre Dame.

He further suggests that Notre Dame do the right thing and bow out of the BCS bowls. After all, there are about eight other teams with an equal or better record than Notre Dame, and at least they are not 0-4 in BCS bowls, as is Notre Dame.

NBC Article

BYU Clips of BYU-Utah 2006

Here is the best clip of the game. It has the last minute touchdown of Utah, followed by the march all the way down the Utah field followed with a dramatic throw by Beck into the end zone with time expired.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GMbcOBeNWfU

Best BYU-Utah Game Ever...Until Next Year

>Wow. Just when you thought the annual Utah-BYU game couldn't get any better than last year's overtime thriller, this year's game comes along and tops it. Whether John Beck's last pass was completed or not, it was still a classic game that may go down as the best Utah-BYU game ever ... at least until next year ...

Des News

MWC Volleyball Tournament: Aztecs shock Cougars

BYU was bounced from the MWC volleyball tournament in the quarterfinals by SDSU. It was the first time a top seeded team lost in the MWC tournament.

Whoops.

SL Trib

Cougars cruise past SUU 80-61

From the article:

>The tenderness in Trent Plaisted's ankle and his game recovered at the same time Friday. Shaking off a three-game slump, which was triggered by a combination of a sprained ankle and soft play, Plaisted got better against Southern Utah. The sophomore center finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds in Brigham Young's 80-61 victory over the Thunderbirds in the Marriott Center.

SL Trib

#20 BYU Receives NCAA Volleyball Invitation

The No. 20-ranked Cougars women volleyball received one of 33 at-large selections Sunday after achieving a 24-5 overall record. The Cougars will play UC Santa Barbara at 5 p.m. PST at USC.

http://www.byucougars.com/Filing.jsp?ID=8482

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

BYU First: 10,000+ Yard Passer + 3,000+ Yard Rusher

BYU's Fields First 10,000+ Yard Passer and 3,000+ Yard Rusher
This article points out that BYU is fielding, for the first time, a 10,000 yard passer and 3,000 yard rusher. Beck is second only to Ty Detmer for passing yards. He is also poised to beat Steve Young's passing efficiency record. Another record set by McMahon is ready to fall. He has the size to be able to play well in the NFL - bigger than Troy Smith but smaller than Brady Quinn.

Couple that with the fact that BYU's running game is also setting records and it makes you step back a little. Maybe this is good for a small potatoes school like BYU. Do the big BC$ schools have dual assets like this year to year (or this year)?

I'm thinking the career numbers might not mean much (other than that they have been playing competently for three years each). 'Course, Beck is #2 on the QB rating list, though certainly Quinn is far better.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650208875,00.html

News on the un-BC$ bowls...

Washington State Bowl Hopes Dim

Las Vegas, Emerald and Hawaii Bowls Interested in Arizona

Cal likely to receive a Holiday Bowl bid

Alamo ready to extend invite to either Iowa, Minnesota

Gamecocks to Liberty - Bring Your Coats

Monday, November 20, 2006

Celebrating Cougars well aware of next opponent

BYU nailed down a victory over visiting New Mexico on Saturday, and accepted the invite to the Pioneer Vision Bowl in Las Vegas. It returns to the bowl after having lost last year against California in a closely fought battle. The bowl game is already sold out, and online orders are reserved for those belonging to the various alumni clubs. Students will have a chance at some tickets later.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Las Vegas Bowl Sold Out Before Invites???

Supposedly there are rumblings that BYU deserves a better bowl game than the Las Vegas bowl. So the Las Vegas bowl is bragging that they have already sold all the seats (all 40,000 of them!) where the top MWC pick will meet the #4 Pac-10 team.

LAS VEGAS - No teams have been invited and kickoff is over a month away, but the
15th Annual Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl sold out of its allotment of
tickets on Wednesday and is taking the next step to help accommodate what is
sure to be a record crowd.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=294&sid=648810

How can you sell out the game before the teams are even invited?

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/200329/3/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/nov/15/111510567.html

BYU Turns Cold; UCLA Pulls Out Win

After leading at halftime, BYU went stone cold in the second half against 6th ranked UCLA. Turnovers and a lack of rebounds did the Cougars in.

STrib Article

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

UCLA Ducks BYU

BYU wanted to take on a quality team outside its conference. It got UCLA. But UCLA wanted the game on its terms. That means BYU travels to UCLA, but no tit for tat. UCLA refuses to travel to the Marriott Center in Provo to play BYU. Don't even ask.

So why does the Pac-10 need to protect themselves by only playing MWC teams on their home court?

Herald

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

#20 BYU Women's Volleyball to Face CSU for #2 in MWC

At 22-4 overall and 11-3 in MWC play, the BYU women's volleyball team will be facing off against CSU to determine who sits as second. Winning will be important for higher seeding in the MWC and the NCAA tournaments.

BYU Cougar article

BYU upsets No. 4 Stanford, 55-52

Brigham Young's Haley Hall banked in a go-ahead three-point shot with 16.5 seconds left, and Stanford then missed three shots from close range, lifting the No. 22-ranked Cougars to a 55-52 upset of the No. 4 Cardinal in the second round of the preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament on Monday night.

LA Times

Monday, November 13, 2006

BYU vs. Notre Dame against Air Force

Offense     #23-BYU  #5-ND 
Total Yards   411     383 
    Passing   258     207* 
    Rushing   153     176 

Comp-Att    23-31   14-19 
Yards/pass    8.3    10.9 
Rush-Att       34      27 
Yards/rush    4.5     6.5 
First Downs    22      19 
Possession  31:01   21:25 

Defense 
Total Yards   229     405 
    Passing    39     205 
    Rushing   190     200 
First Downs    16      24 
Turnovers:     +2      +0

So Notre Dame got run over by Air Force, but comes out with more points because of big plays (TDs of 24, 51, 76, and 23). Beats Air Force by about the same margin as BYU, but BYU's defense is far stronger than ND's. And that's a reason to move ND up? Because it equaled BYU vs. Air Force on offense, but looked terrible with its defense?

How's that? Notre Dame is looking like a #20 football team. It's playing as well as the best of the MWC. Hardly something in the top five.

*About 175 yards of this was all in four hail-mary passes. ND used the Hawaii offensive scheme...

BYU keeps moving up in polls 11/13

After last Thursday's 55-7 thrashing of Wyoming, national voters finally took notice, voting BYU into all three major polls -- AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive -- for the first time this season.

Daily Herald

BYU sweeps Wyoming

Though the BYU volleyball match against Wyoming wasn't as dramatic as when these teams went five games in Laramie, the No. 21 Cougars won 30-21, 30-27, 30-22 to improve their record to 11-3 in the Mountain West Conference and 21-4 overall.

DesNews

#4 Stanford Faces #24 BYU in Women's Hoops

Freshman center Jayne Appel, a McDonald's All-American from Carondelet High in Concord, makes her collegiate debut tonight in the second round of Women's Preseason NIT. The fourth-ranked Cardinal (1-0) face No. 24 BYU (1-0) at Maples Pavilion with a trip to the semifinals of the 16-team event on the line.

SF Chronicle

BYU men qualify for nationals

The BYU men's and women's cross country teams came away with strong finishes in the NCAA Mountain Region meet on Saturday.

Des News

Thursday, November 9, 2006

From Ineptitude to Competence

After in inept start, losing games due to an inability to hold a ball upright for a kicker, people are applauding BYU. Overkill? Worthy of a top 25 ranking?

Tradition Restored

Beck earns 4th award

Football is back at BYU

Cougars ranked for first time since 2002, appear in AP poll at No. 25

Biggest surprise this season.

BYU went from having one of the worst defenses in the country in 2005 to now having one of the better ones. BYU leads the nation in turnover margin, sitting at +12. The two prior years, BYU was at +2 and -10.

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/198274/3/

Recently, BYU held Air Force to 80 yards under their average. The defenses against Air Force have given up:

BYU: 190 Navy: 193 New Mexico: 262 Tenn: 281* SDSU: 297 Colo State: 318 Wyoming: 327

*Likely due to Tennessee not seeing the AF option attack very often, as opposed to MWC teams and other service academies.

Highlights from the 1980 Holiday Bowl

Highlights from the 1980 Holiday Bowl, in which BYU came from down 45-25 with 4:30 left to win...

Cougars blunder away their season.

This article makes that argument that BYU has the talent to be in the top-25, it just doesn't execute. Nails it.

Top 10 Reasons BYU Lost at Boston College

Taken from an article...can't find it now.

Why did the Cougars lose another winnable game? Why are the Cougars 1-5 under Bronco Mendenhall in games decided by a touchdown or less? Why aren't the Cougars 3-0 right now and nationally ranked after beating a ranked team on the road? If you watched the Cougars lose 16-13 at Arizona and then stumble in double overtime at Boston College, you know the Y not only could be 3-0, they should be 3-0.

Think about it, the Cougars should be crushing Utah State next week, improving to 4-0. It would set up a gigantic MWC showdown between undefeated and 16th ranked TCU and an undefeated and ranked BYU team on a Thursday night in Ft. Worth.

Yes, the Cougars aren't just letting down BYU fans, they are killing the hopes on MWC fans from San Diego, to Las Vegas, to Laramie, not to mention athletic directors who have already spent the BCS money. With apologies to David Letterman, here are the Top 10 reasons BYU can't win close games.

10. Gary Crowton: How long can everything that goes wrong in Provo be blamed on Gary? I'm not sure yet, get back to me. But the fact is they had it. They lost it on his watch and they haven't gotten it back yet. He has to share in the blame.

9. Bronco Mendenhall: He has had 15 games to change the attitude, to his credit, he recognizes the problem and called the players out at halftime in Boston, but recognizing the problem is just the first step. He has to inspire his players. Ute fans will point out Urban Meyer took over a losing team and changed his players attitude in half a season, of course he inherited a quarterback who rarely made mistake and was a born leader. Bronco, well.

8. John Beck: He is wound a little tight. In a Wednesday afternoon interview you can't help but notice how intense he is. If the Cougars were undefeated, this would be a positive. Since they are 1-2, I wonder if a guy who is wound tight mid-week is way too intense to perform late in a close game. Beck is 1-10 in games decided by a touchdown or less. There is a famous Joe Montana Super Bowl story. Montana's 49ers trailed the Bengals in the 4th quarter. Standing in the huddle waiting for a TV timeout to end, Montana pointed in the stands and said, "Hey look, there's John Candy." Everybody cracked up, stunned Joe could be scanning the stands, then the 49ers drove down the field, John Taylor scored the game winning TD and the legend was cemented. Is it fair to compare any quarterback, especially a college QB, to Montana? No. But the story illustrates that there is more to quarterbacking, and leading, than athletic talent. Now here is a Super Bowl story that takes John Beck off the hook.

7. Trent Dilfer and Penalties: The Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl with a perfectly mediocre QB managing the offense and staying out of the way of a great defense. Quarterbacks don't have to make plays if the rest of the team is rolling. This BYU team can't line-up in a legal formation, and stay on-sides and the kick return team is a disaster. BYU is averaging ten penalties a game, they have to cut that number in half. At Arizona they had second and goal at the four and should have been able to run the ball into the end zone. Instead they took a penalty and settle for a field goal. At Boston College they led 7-0 and forced a fumble on the Eagles first play. They were 35 yards away from a 14-0 lead, took two penalties, Beck overthrew an open receiver at the goal line and BYU missed a field goal. The Cougars let B.C. off the hook.

6. Big Plays: When BYU makes them they roll. In the win over Tulsa the Hurricanes trailed 28-17 but the Cougar defense forced a turnover and the offense scored a touchdown. At Boston College Ben Criddle couldn't hold an interception in the end zone and B.C. scored on the next play. Meanwhile the Eagles came up with a spectacular one-handed interception. The Cougars did force four turnovers but didn't convert any of them into points. Zero points off of four turnovers, almost unheard of, but the Cougars did it.

5. Fundamentals: In a game where every play could be a game winner, BYU does little things wrong. Mike Hague lines up as a receiver on the right side. He runs across the field, takes a hand-off tries to turn the left end but it run out-of-bounds. He had the ball in his right arm, his inside arm. He exposed the ball to the defense increasing the chances of getting stripped and he couldn't stiff arm the tackler. I dismissed it, figuring he is a freshman, but a couple plays later senior Curtis Brown did the same thing.

4. Execution: Marc Lyons is a former Cougar and not the first guy to criticize BYU. But after the Boston College game he was lamenting the Cougars lack of execution, botching three plays in a row in the red zone, or the blue zone as they call it. The former players know what they are seeing and they don't like it. Lyons isn't the only ex-player bothered by the Cougars losing mentality.

3. Not So Special, Special Teams: From the horrible kick coverage in the Las Vegas Bowl, to the bad holds on field goals, to the missed field goals, to the penalties on the hidden ball kick returns (2-2 so far this season) too often the special teams are hurting the Cougars.

2. Jason Beck: How often do you see a holder muff a snap? Beck dropped a snap at Arizona and another snap went flying thru his hands in overtime at Boston College. Thousands of high schools kick millions of field goals and extra points every week. Catch the snap.

1. They don't believe. I know it is ironic for a religious school's team to lack faith, but Eddie Kehl said Bronco told the team at halftime to stop playing like they were surprised to be in the game. Sure Boston College is an upper tier ACC team, but the Cougars should have had a double digit half-time lead. Look at the two losses. Look at the remaining schedule. This team could have been in a BCS bowl game.

Recruit shuns Nebraska to sign with BYU. http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,640194149,00.html What the heck was he thinking? BYU now has verbal commitments from 22 kids. It intends on only giving out 22-23, so if the verbals hold up the recruiting season for BYU is pretty much over.