August 2007 - Cougarsportsline - mailman.xmission.com

Cougar Sportsline, Vol. 28, Issue 4
by hb arnett 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett(a)fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> PO Box 50424 Provo, Utah 84605 Vol. 28, Issue 4, August 27, 2007 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions BYU WILL NEED TO MANAGE ARIZONA GAME BYU coaches are not expecting Max Hall, BYU's new starting quarterback, to win the upcoming season opener against Arizona, when the Cougars open the year against the Wildcats in Provo, Saturday, Sept. 1. He is simply too green and inexperienced to make enough plays against a quality defense and do it all by himself. What coaches are expecting, however, is for Hall to not lose the game. That means he will be expected to protect the ball and give his teammates a legitimate chance to come away with a win. Hall is a gunslinger. He is used to being the big gun on the field. That is how he played in high school and how he has tried to play this fall. He is used to being a star that makes plays that lead to wins. We expect that same thing to happen at BYU, but not anytime soon and especially not in Hall's first two games against the legitimate Pac 10 defenses of Arizona and UCLA. If Hall was running the show, he would come out in full gunslinger mode. That is just who he is. He is not running the show. You can expect BYU coaches to put Hall's gun in the holster for the next two games. If you are hoping for a BYU offensive explosion coming out of the gate against Arizona, you will likely be disappointed. The NFL Way We expect Bronco Mendenhall and his staff to try and win this game the way most NFL coaching staffs do. They will try and win with field position, kicking and defense. It makes sense to us. The BYU defense is the strength of this team. Expect Mendenhall to try and let them win this game for him. Arizona returns 10 starters from a defense that held BYU in bay last year in Tucson and only allowed one touchdown. Yeah, we know that another touchdown was nullified by a suspect call by a Pac 10 crew, but in the books and on the scoreboard, BYU couldn't muster enough offense for a win. That was with John Beck, a seasoned and talented quarterback, who is now in the NFL. We would be surprised if Max Hall is allowed to throw the ball against Arizona more than 25 times. If he does throw it more than that, it will be because most of those throws will be while he is dumping the ball off to his running backs and adhering to the low risk, protect the ball mode Cougar coaches want. The BYU passing game will not be vertical against the Wildcat defense. Running Game For BYU to win they will have to have a productive outing from their running game. It will be required to take the opening game pressure off Hall and to create and maintain the field position that will be vital to producing a win. That means that Harvey Unga will have to live up to his preseason billing and Fui Vakapuna will have to be healthy enough to return to his early-season physical form of last year. Manase Tonga, a returning starter in the BYU backfield, will not play against UofA. He will be fulfilling his one-game suspension imposed by Mendenhall earlier this summer. While Hall's job is to protect the ball and not make any dumb decisions and ill-advised throws resulting in turnovers, it will be the job of Unga and Vakapuna to rush for at least 100 yards between them. If they can't, BYU can't win. We expect the Cougar defense to do their job. Arizona is bringing a new spread offense to Provo, but they are also bringing the same quarterbacks from last year to run that pass-happy offense. Scheme and Talent Despite some devastating injuries on the defensive side of the ball, BYU has a good enough scheme and enough talent defensively to disrupt this new Arizona scheme. We expect BYU's offense to do its job. They should be able to protect the ball and not commit an extraordinary amount of turnovers. They should have a good enough offensive line and running game to deflect the heat from Hall in his first outing. They should also be good enough to not lose the field position war between the two teams. The defense under Mendenhall is a proven commodity. Don't expect Arizona to light up the scoreboard with their new offense against this BYU unit. In the three-part formula for a win, the BYU offense should give the Cougars good field position and be able to run the ball enough to keep the clock running and the chances of a win real. The Cougar defense will give up an occasional big play to Arizona, but they won't allow them to run up and down the field. Kicking Game That leaves the BYU kicking game as the final piece of the game-plan puzzle. Winning the field position game requires that you have a decent-to-good punter. It also implies that you have a kicker that can give you decent field position on kickoffs. But most importantly, it implies that you have a consistent kicker that can make field goals from 40 yards in. We don't know if BYU has that and neither do the BYU coaches. C.J. Santiago will be the punter after transferring into the program this summer from Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. Mitch Payne will handle the kicking duties. The redshirt freshman is the younger brother of former Cougar kicker Matt Payne. Quite frankly, the Cougar kicking game was spotty during fall camp. There was some improvement made in the late going of camp, but it should still be a concern for coaches. An even bigger concern should be how these two key guys perform when the "lights are on" and the game is on the line. Explosion With a new quarterback at the BYU helm going up against a veteran and talented Arizona defense, we would consider anything over 17 points, an offensive explosion for the Cougars. We expect this game to be a defensive battle and a game that will be decided by turnovers. While we expect this to be a defensive game, we also expect the BYU offense to shake the ground just enough to get a win. We call it BYU 20 Arizona 13. BINOCULAR BONUSES Most football fans focus on the ball when watching a game. Nothing wrong with that. Here are a few binocular bonuses that we suggest you watch and think will provide you with some insight to the match up this Saturday when Arizona comes to town to face BYU. Find Antoine Cason on the Arizona defense. He wears #5. See where he lines up and against whom. He is a legitimate lockdown corner for Arizona and a projected first round NFL draft pick for next April. Who he takes on will tell you whom the UofA defensive coaches want to take out of the game. We expect them to have Cason defending Austin Collie for most of the afternoon. Now find #32 for BYU on offense. That would be sophomore tight end Dennis Pitta. See how Arizona is going to match up with him. It should be interesting to see if they try to line up against him with a safety or linebacker. BYU is hoping this will be a season-long mismatch for defensive coordinators. They are assuming that because Pitta is 6-3, 250 pounds and can run and catch, that linebackers won't have the speed to cover him, and defensive backs won't have the size to win the one-on-one battles. Put your binoculars on wide angle when BYU is on offense and focus on the line of scrimmage. This is where the game will really be decided with the match up of the Cougar offensive line versus the Arizona defensive front. Seven or Eight We think you will be seeing at least seven, and maybe eight, future NFL draft picks battling against each other. BYU is thinking this is their most talented offensive line in some time. Arizona is banking on its defensive line's size and speed to wreak havoc with opponents. If BYU can run against this Arizona defensive front, they can run against anybody else on their schedule. The key for the BYU passing game will be the match up of BYU's two offensive tackles, Dallas Reynolds and David Oswald, against the outside speed rush of Wildcat defensive ends Louis Holmes and Jonathan Turner. These match ups won't show up on any highlight reels or news clips, but they will more than likely specifically determine the outcome of the contest. Here's another one. Look for #62 on BYU's defense. That is Eathyn Manumaluena, the true freshman nose guard. He is forced into play early in his career because of the devastating injury to Russell Tialavea. If you want to know how the untested freshman is performing, middle linebacker Kelly Poppinga will let you know. If Poppinga is making plays around the line of scrimmage, that means that Manumaluena is doing his job and plugging gaps and eating up blocks. If Poppinga is making most of his tackles downfield, it means that UofA offensive linemen are getting to the second level and getting a helmet on Poppinga. That will take him out of the action until he has to make tackles downfield after the Wildcats have picked up nice yardage. Recruiting Reality It is the nature of football recruiting that fans expect every BYU recruit to see action as a true freshman because of the talent they exhibited on high school playing fields. We all get caught up in the hype. It is good for selling subscriptions and keeping fan interest alive during the off season. The reality of recruiting, however, is that very few true freshmen contribute unless they have freakishly good abilities or freakishly bad depth charts forces them into action. Bronco Mendenhall is hoping that he eventually gets a handle on his depth chart and LDS missions so he doesn't have to play true freshmen. BYU's latest recruiting class is indicative of just how subjective the terms "Can't Miss" and "Four Star" really are. If was just a few months ago that Cougar fans were sure that at least four or five Cougar high school signees would be starting for BYU this fall. It comes with the fun of following recruiting, but it isn't reality, at least the way Mendenhall wants to make it. Here is the official signing list of BYU from last February and where they are now. This will give you a more accurate picture of the talent and time frame from which the Cougars have to work in recruiting. Famika Anae, OL...Will Serve LDS Mission before enrolling. David Angilau, DL...Will redshirt this season and be on Scout team Tyler Beck, LB...Good enough to make travel and special teams. Is a player. Brannon Brooks, DB...Will redshirt and participate on Scout team. Braden Brown, TE...Will Serve LDS Mission before enrolling. J.J. Di Luigi, RB...A can't miss, who is missing the year with foot injury. Even healthy, he would be a spot player this season. Will now redshirt. Scotty Ebert, DB...Didn't qualify academically and is now at Snow College. Kaneakua Friel, TE...Will redshirt and see scout team action. Austen Jorgensen, LB...Will play this season, but sparingly. Ryan Kessman, WR...Was an internet legend, but will now be a redshirt and scout team participant at BYU. Star Lotulelei, DL...Didn't qualify academically. Levi Mack, OL...Juco who is now injured and will redsirt. Devin Mahina, TE/DE...Will serve LDS mission first. Eathyn Manumaleuna, DL...Was just considered a throw in by recruiting pundits a few months ago, but now is the key guy of the entire class because he is the only one of the signees that will be a starter. That status was precipitated by injury, but he would have played this year anyway. Marcus Mathews, WR...Serving an LDS mission before enrolling. Jason Munns, QB...Big and talented, but will redshirt and qb the scout team. Gary Nagy, DB...Redshirting and on scout team. Jordan Pendleton, DB...Is on the depth chart because of rash of injuries to other safeties. G Pittman, DB...Will play because he has shown that he has the ability to play at this level without redshirting. Houston Reynolds, OL..Now serving LDS mission in Germany. Jordan Smith, WR...Could redshirt, but will dress early in season to see how receiver injuries shake out. Has some ability because of 6-4 size and speed. Steven Thomas, DB...Should redshirt, but still tentative because of DB fall camp injuries. Manaaki Vaitai, OL...Will redshirt. Aveni Leung Wai, LB...Is serving LDS mission first. Out of the 24 players BYU signed last February, only one will see significant minutes and six still have a chance to see spot action. Other scholarship players that will be redshirting this season include: Matt Reynolds, OL and Matt Putnam, DL. Walkons also redshirting include: Blake Morgan, Spencer Wolfley, Steve Fendry and Matt Shirley. Can't Help But Drool Despite the disclaimer that most of recruiting is hype and that at BYU recruiting is a four year wait because of missions, we still can't help our self. BYU commit Justin Sorensen, a kicker extraordinaire, hit field goals from 59 and 51 yards last week in a battle of the two top high school teams in Utah. Sorensen and Bingham defeated Alta and star running back Sausan Shakerin 23-20. Sorensen has a huge leg. Because he can put the ball out of the end zone on kickoffs, he will be a huge asset at the next level now that the NCAA has added an additional five yards to all kickoffs beginning this season. The ball will now be spotted at the 30-yard line instead of the 35-yard line for kickoffs. MOUNTAIN MESS...BIG HAT, NO CATTLE The Mountain Network is the perfect drug store cowboy. They are now wearing a big hat extolling MWC fans to call their satellite companies, but they still have no cattle or significant cable distribution in place. The talk and excuses are big, but without a satellite deal in place, the actual distribution of the Mtn network is small and limited. That means, barring a last-minute surprise, watching BYU football and basketball on TV for Cougar fans will be the same as it was last year. You can't watch the majority of BYU games unless you have access to the Mtn. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. Arizona Saturday, Sept. 1 at Provo Kickoff: 3:30 pm, Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. UCLA Saturday, Sept. 8 at Pasadena Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. Tulsa Saturday, Sept. 15 at Tulsa Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CSTV As a subscriber, you are allowed to access our new blog. You can view it by going to www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <http://www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/> Just a reminder that we are now sending the newsletter via two separate email accounts to help solve distribution issues that many subscribers experienced last year. That means you may receive two identical letters. If that is the case, please just discard the extra.

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Cougar Sportsline, Vol. 28, Issue 3
by hb arnett 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett(a)fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> PO Box 50424 Provo, Utah 84605 Vol. 28, Issue 3, August 20, 2007 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions IT'S STILL A PLAYER'S GAME We love Bronco Mendenhall's creed and code of coaching. What's not to like about his core values he has installed in the BYU football program. He has certainly established himself as unique in his approach to being a head coach. That said, he still has to adhere to the basic coaching principle of football. After all is said and done, your best chance for winning games is still about getting your best football players on the field for as long as possible and hoping your best is better than your opponents. With Arizona less than two weeks away as BYU prepares to open its 2007 season, here is how BYU's best shakes out. Quarterback...If all goes according to plan, Max Hall is the guy BYU coaches think is ready to lead the Cougar offense. We will buy that, but what happens if BYU has a Ben Longshore moment against Arizona? Longshore was the LDS redshirt freshman starting qb at California who broke his leg against Cal State Sacramento in his opening game a few years back and was lost for the rest of the season. If Hall is hurt early, his backup, Brenden Gaskins will still be nursing an injured finger on his throwing hand. Head for the exits early if that scenario ever plays out because despite having some very talented quarterbacks behind Hall and Gaskins, neither James Lark, Jason Munns nor Sam Doman are anywhere close to being ready to play now. Running Backs...Three guys will get almost all of the carries. Manase Tonga, Fui Vakapuna and Harvey Unga will be the triumvirate toting the football for the Cougars. All are big and tough. Unga, despite being just a redshirt freshman, is the most talented of the trio. It may take a few games and no injuries, but he has a chance to be special. We know what Vakapuna and Tonga can do. They run over people. Unga can do that too, but he can also run around them and run from them. He has just enough shake and speed to be scary good. Wide Receivers...There have been several new names mentioned making wide receiver waves during fall camp, but those waves will never make it to shore. It is still the big four. Austin Collie, Matt Allen, Michael Reed and Bryce Mahuika will be the guys making plays and scoring touchdowns. If you are looking for the fifth guy in the rotation, by mid season, our money is on incoming freshman Ryan Kessman. Tight Ends...There won't be many other teams in the nation that have three quality tight ends on their rosters. BYU does. Cougar offensive coaches can mix and match with their tight ends against any team on their schedule and not miss a beat. Dennis Pitta, Vic So'oto and Andrew George are all extremely talented and all will see action, but it will be Pitta that grabs the headlines because he will be scoring the touchdowns. He is the ultimate mismatch for linebackers and safeties because he has great size and speed for a tight end and can catch the ball better than most wide outs. Offensive Line...This is a group that won't get a lot of accolades, but they are the heart of the offense. New offensive line coach, Mark Weber, is one of the best in the business at teaching technique and he has eight guys that can play. Depth will not be a problem this year. The top eight guys include starters Sete Aulai at center, Travis Bright and Ray Feinga at guard and Dallas Reynolds and David Oswald at tacke. Garrett Reden, Tom Sorensen and R.J. Willing are next in line. Defensive Line...The loss of Russell Tialevea at noseguard is a crushing blow to this group. Despite having two returning starters at defensive end in Jan Jorgensen and Ian Dulan, the rest of the depth chart is totally unproven and extremely thin. Another injury here and you can turn out the lights. Linebackers...It is exactly the opposite at this position. BYU is loaded. Once suspensions and injuries run their course, the depth chart is in excellent condition. With lots of guys who can play, it will still be the big three that gets most of the attention. Bryan Kehl and David Nixon are big-time playmakers on the outside. Kelly Poppinga will open some eyes and shut others with his hard hitting style of play. If the defensive line can just keep blockers off this unit, they will be extra special. Defensive Backs...There is no question that the loss of Dustin Gabriel and David Tafuna to season-ending injuries will hurt. Their experience will be missed. Corby Hodgkiss will now play in that spot. With the injuries grabbing the headlines, what shouldn't be forgotten is that the other safety, Quinn Gooch, is still a major talent. Ben Criddle returns from injury to reclaim his starting boundary cornerback job. It looks like Jaime Hill, the BYU secondary coach, has found his replacements for Justin Robinson, who graduated. Kayle Buchanan and Brandon Howard are neck and neck in this battle for playing time at field corner. Buchanan has more experience but Howard has more talent. He also has three more years to play and you can expect him to get most of the playing time as the season moves along. Kicking...Early signs from fall camp show that this might be something that is average at best. It certainly won't be great. Mitch Payne will do the kicking and incoming juco transfer C.J. Santiago will handle the punting chores. We hope our assessment is wrong and that Payne turns out to be a productive and consistent kicker. He certainly will have plenty of opportunity to prove himself because we expect a lot more offensive drives to end in field goal attempts this season instead of touchdowns. WE CAN'T PREDICT THE SCORE OF THE BYU- ARIZONA GAME, BUT WE GUARANTEE THAT MAX HALL WILL THROW AT LEAST ONE INTERCEPTION We freely admit that Max Hall, BYU's new starting quarterback, has been better than we thought he would be during fall camp. The real question is will he be good enough to beat Arizona in his first collegiate start on September 1? Okay, a guarantee is a little strong. How about, we are extremely confident that there will be at least one or more interceptions thrown by Hall against the Wildcats. We don't base that prediction on what we have seen of Hall in fall camp. We base it on the first game histories of the most recent BYU quarterbacks. Here's the list: John Beck, Matt Berry, Brett Engemann, Brandon Doman, Kevin Feterick, Steve Sarkisian, John Walsh, Ty Detmer, Robbie Bosco, Steve Young and Jim McMahon. All, except one, threw at least one interception in their first full start (where they played four quarters) as a qb for BYU. The lone exception was Kevin Feterik. He was 13-20 with no picks in his first collegiate start as a Cougar. Most Talented? Feterik certainly wasn't the most talented BYU qb, but he was still the only recent qb to avoid turning the ball over through the air in his Cougar pigskin premiere. Some of the numbers are interesting. Ty Detmer, who had rock star status as a backup to Sean Covey, opened his starting career with a bomb, and we aren't talking touchdowns. Against Wyoming in Laramie, Detmer was a miserable 9-26 for 133 yards and 4 interceptions. The Cowboys defeated BYU 24-14. Steve Young also had four picks in his opener against Georgia. Robbie Bosco never lost a game in 1984, but he did open his career against Pittsburgh with 2 interceptions. Before Brandon Doman had his miracle 2002 season, his first start the previous year saw him go 7-17 with 2 picks against Colorado State. John Walsh opened with a 17-28 night and two interceptions. Brett Engemann was 35-54 with one aerial miscue. Matt Berry was 14-27 and also threw a pick. John Beck was just 22-45 and two interceptions in his first real start against Stanford. Fall Camp Fall camp is what it is. It is all about hope. The good news is that we actually have seen concrete signs that the hope may be warranted. We have also been around long enough to know that it usually takes some time before the hoopla that naturally surrounds every new BYU starting quarterback comes to fruition. BYU coaches have hooked their wagon to a horse named Max Hall. He may well be a big-time thoroughbred, but historically speaking, he will more than likely stumble a few times coming out of the gate in his first few starts. That is the way it has always been and we see no reason for that to change. An isolated interception, in our opinion, will not be the determining factor for BYU and Max Hall winning or losing games. What will be critical in the Cougars' eventual win-loss record for 2007, is the frequency of interceptions in games. Based on what we have witnessed, Hall and BYU can likely survive at least one and sometimes two interceptions against everybody they play, including Arizona, and still win. Exception The lone exception is UCLA. Their defense is too good to allow BYU to squander any offensive possessions and hope to survive. The BYU defense is not the same caliber as UCLA, but the Cougars are good enough defensively and have a good enough ground game to control the clock and still squeak out wins against the other teams on their schedule, despite being a little sloppy in protecting the ball. We understand why, at this stage of Bronco mania, some would think that anybody that Mendenhall designates as his guy at qb is destined to be a star. There are even some who may think Hall and the Heisman are appropriate alliteration. Unfortunately, history doesn't corroborate it. Give the guy some time. It was what all other good BYU quarterbacks required. The more serious question should be, what if Hall never is the guy, despite having been anointed as the next great QB by BYU coaches two years ago? What if he isn't? How long does BYU go with him if he doesn't perform? And what other options do they even have for this year if he doesn't meet expectations? 0-3? What if the Cougars are 0-3 to open the season and lack of adequate quarterback play is the reason? We certainly aren't expecting that to happen, but we have been around the football block enough times to know that there are plenty of sure-fire-can't-miss quarterbacks that do. And Hall isn't the only guy that needs to prove himself this season. The same can be said of Brandon Doman and Robert Anae. We don't subscribe to the theory that if a coach is hired by Bronco Mendenhall or BYU, they are automatically good coaches. Like Hall, in our opinion, these two BYU offensive coaches still have something to show us. Their first two seasons, they inherited an NFL caliber quarterback in John Beck. In Beck's senior season, the only coaching required was to let Beck know that the opponent was in a third and long situation and he should get ready to get back on the field. Now Doman and Anae will have to earn their money and reputations with a quarterback that may have potential, but has zero Division I snaps. Not Same It won't be the same; especially in the early going of the season. We still like this BYU football team, but not as much as we would if we had a seasoned and proven quarterback and an offensive coordinator and quarterback coach who had actually worked with a new unproven quarterback before. We certainly hope that we will be singing the praise of all three come October and November, but despite what we all want to believe, breaking in new quarterbacks is always a scary proposition. A TEN PERCENT LOSS OF ASSETS WOULD CERTAINLY DRAW SOME ATTENTION When it comes to a bank account or balance sheet, a loss of ten percent would certainly be reason for some serious concern. The same applies to college football teams. A ten percent reduction in assets would certainly get your attention. That is basically what has happened to Bronco Mendenhall and his team. Every Division I football team is only allowed 85 scholarship players per year with which to compete against other Division I teams. Sometimes, because of NCAA recruiting sanctions, scholarship numbers are reduced. There could be other legitimate reasons why a school isn't at the full 85 grant in aids. At BYU, they still have 85 scholarships allocated, but only 77 of those scholarships can be used this season because of an inordinate amount of season-ending injuries that have plagued the program this season. Before fall camp even started, juco offensive line transfer Levi Mack was lost for the year because of surgery required to repair an injury coming out of spring ball. The same can be said of Nate Hutchinson, Kyle Luekenga and Jeff Rhea, three other scholarship players. Jadon Wagner, a walkon, also is gone for the year with a foot injury. Worse Once fall camp got underway, it got worse. In the last two weeks, BYU has lost Russell Tialavea, a starting noseguard, Dustin Gabriel, a starting safety and David Tafuna, another safety, who was going to start in place of Gabriel. J.J. DiLuigi, a promising freshman running back, didn't last past the first scrimmage of fall camp before requiring surgery to repair a broken foot. By our math, that is eight scholarship players not available this year due to injury. That is actually 9.4% of operating capital that BYU will have to do without this season. Unlike the NFL, you can't scan any waiver wires in hopes of picking up players and you can't go back and offer scholarships to players that you originally passed on. Fortunately for BYU, they have a dynamic walkon program that may not provide the same caliber of talent that was lost, but will fill the numbers void and help facilitate practice and play. The key injury that will be the hardest to overcome this season is the loss of Tialavea. The defensive line was extremely thin to begin with and both of his backups, true freshman Eathyn Manumaleuna and redshirt juco transfer, Mosese Foketi, have never played a down of Division I football. Moved BYU coaches moved offensive lineman Rick Wolfley over to the defensive tackle spot in order to try and help, but he too has never played a down in his career. He certainly has the body type of a noseguard at 6-3, 340 pounds, but if we are going to worry about the lack of experience at quarterback, we should be absolutely panicked when it comes to noseguard. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. Arizona Saturday, Sept. 1 at Provo Kickoff: 3:30 pm, Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. UCLA Saturday, Sept. 8 at Pasadena Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. Tulsa Saturday, Sept. 15 at Tulsa Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CSTV As a subscriber, you are allowed to access our new blog. You can view it by going to www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <http://www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/> Just a reminder that we are now sending the newsletter via two separate email accounts to help solve distribution issues that many subscribers experienced last year. That means you may receive two identical letters. If that is the case, please just discard the extra.

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Cougar Sportsline, Vol. 28, Issue 2
by hb arnett 13 Aug '07

13 Aug '07

HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett(a)fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> PO Box 50424 Provo, Utah 84605 Vol. 28, Issue 2, August 13, 2007 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions HOPE NOW HIGHER WITH HALL'S FIRST WEEK OF CAMP We still maintain that BYU's 2007 football season will be in direct correlation to Max Hall's first-year performance. What you get from Hall is what you will get from BYU as a team this coming year. If he is ordinary, count on BYU being the same. If he is below average, ditto for the Cougars. With the talent surrounding him at running back, offensive line and wide outs, all he has to do is protect the ball and BYU will win 8-9 games minimum. If Hall can make plays when the game is on the line, he will be very good and so will BYU. It really is that simple. We have to admit that we have been skeptical of Hall as a first-year quarterback. We still have some serious reservations that won't be removed until he has at least a year of experience under his belt, but his performance in the first week of camp has given us hope. He was better than we anticipated. He has the pedigree for performing, but we still want to see him with the "lights on" against another opponent's defense. Sun Out He wasn't bad, however, when the "sun was out" Saturday against the Cougar defense in the first real scrimmage of fall camp. Hall completed 11-14 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns. He had offensive help. The BYU ground game had 120 yards. Harvey Unga, the redshirt freshman, is more than capable of replacing Curtis Brown, and he showed it in the scrimmage. He is bigger than Brown and has more shake and open-field speed than Brown, who currently is vying for a spot on the Cincinnati Bengals' roster. Unga is also the reason BYU didn't pursue Matt Asiata out of Snow College. Both are talented, but Unga will have four years to play and Asiata only two years. If you can't wait to see Unga in action against Arizona, we currently have video of him from high school up on our blog at www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\HB\Desktop\www.cougarsportsline.blogs pot.com> . Defensively, the Cougars have had their moments during this first week of camp. We like the linebackers. They will be the playmakers. How it will all shake out personnel wise for this season is still to be determined, but after five years of Mendenhall running the defense, we think we can trust him to deliver the goods. Remember, he has lined of with some very good players before and some "athletically challenged" defenders on the field and still consistently produced results on the field. Kicking Game We like BYU's kicking game. It will be very good...next year. That is when Riley Stephenson, the kicker from Pine View HS in St. George, should be back from his LDS mission. Until then, BYU is fully invested in a scholarship with Mitch Payne, the redshirt freshman from Ogden. Payne is the younger brother of former BYU kicker Matt Payne. Describing his first week of kicking as erratic is euphemistic at best. If there isn't some serious improvement, the kicking game will end up costing the Cougars some games. INJURY BUG CONTINUES TO HURT DEFENSE Just two days into fall camp, backup quarterback Brenden Gaskins injured a finger on his throwing hand and hasn't practiced since. The prognosis for him is that a special splint will get him back on the field as early as this week. The injury news was more bleak on the defensive side of the ball for the Cougars. First it was starting Katback, Dustin Gabriel, who was lost for the season and now it is starting defensive tackle Russell Tialavea who appears to be gone for the year. Gabriel was scheduled to have four surgeries to repair nagging injuries - after this season - but additional pain and problems with his feet, was the straw that broke the camel's back. Gabriel's timetable for surgery has now been moved up and he will miss the entire year. In BYU's first full scrimmage of fall camp, Russell Tialavea, the starting defensive tackle, injured his knee. The early prognosis is not good and he also will likely miss the entire season. Options While the loss of Gabriel is big, BYU at least has some viable options for replacing the senior from Allen, TX. David Tafuna and Corby Hodgkiss, are seniors and both have seen playing time before. There are other options also available, in our opinion, if Tafuna and Hodgkiss can't get the job done. Senior Kayle Buchanan and sophomore Brandon Howard are neck and neck for securing the field cornerback job. If both are very close, then why not move Ben Criddle from the boundary corner to Katback and let both Howard and Buchanan play the two corner spots? It remains to be seen how it shakes out in replacing Gabriel, but there are plenty of bodies to work with to remedy this situation. That isn't so with the loss of Tialavea. This one will sting. Going back to Bronco Mendenhall's first recruiting class, there were many, including us, who wondered why there wasn't more attention given to recruiting defensive linemen. Obvious It has been obvious now for three years that this was an extremely thin spot for the Cougars. To be fair, Mendenhall has said that it would take a few more recruiting classes to completely fill his defensive pipeline. The question we have is, if that was the case, why not plug a few leaks in that pipe with some jc linemen? We are not questioning the high school recruiting of defensive linemen for BYU under Mendenhall. His first year, he brought in Tialavea and Jan Jorgensen. Both redshirted as freshmen. The next year he signed Matangi Tonga and Romney Fuga. Both are gone now. Fuga is on an LDS mission and Tonga still has some serious legal issues to resolve. We don't expect him to ever don a BYU uniform again. This past recruiting year, two good prep defensive tackles were signed in Star Lotulelei and Eathyn Manumaleuna. Lotulelei didn't qualify academically. It will be up to Manumaleuna to pick up the pieces now. You can't second guess the Cougar coaching staff on their recruiting. They have signed some nice high school defensive linemen, but they are still at least two years away now from having any kind of depth in that area. Painful The injury to Tialevea and the legal issues of Tonga, now make the defection of early commit, Sealver Siliaga, even more painful. As you know, he committed to the Cougars and then changed his mind and now says he will sign with Utah. This guy is extremely talented. Under the previous staff at BYU, they were always mining the juco ranks for defensive tackles. While Bronco's effort in that area seems to have been a little weak to date, BYU already has one jc defensive lineman committed for next year in Tevita Hola, a 6-1, 310 pound tackle from Snow College. In hindsight, BYU probably should have pursued Hola's teammate, David Tufuga, much more aggressively. BYU obviously thought he wouldn't be eligible to play this year because he still had classes to take this summer, but Texas A&M stayed on top of the situation and Tufuga, who is LDS, is now enrolled at College Station. You can count on BYU and Bronco getting control of this defensive line recruiting situation and getting the pipeline filled, but that doesn't do anything to solve the situation now. No Waiver Wire Unlike the NFL, you can't go looking for players off the waiver wire or sign free agents. You have to play the hand you have. Maybe it is time to look at the other hand available on the offensive side of the ball. BYU already has eight guys who can play and contribute on the offensive line. Besides those eight, they have a surplus of legitimate players, who won't see any time this year. If anybody is asking, we would immediately move at least three players from the offensive line over to help shore up the numbers on the opposite side of the ball. Even if these guys can't play, they would at least facilitate practice sessions over there. For what it is worth, we think it is a slam dunk that Matt Reynolds is the next John Tait as a left tackle for BYU. Regardless, as a true freshman, he won't be playing much this season. He is so talented that we can't see why he couldn't be used as a defensive end for this season and allow either Jan Jorgensen or Ian Dulan to try their hands inside at tackle. Others Available Also available from the offensive line side of the ball are guys like Rick Wolfley, a 6-3, 325 pound redshirt freshman, who won't see any offensive action this year. Manaaki Vaitai is a true freshman that tips the scale at 6-3, 300. In BYU's defensive scheme, the linemen are not required to be playmakers. Their job is to hold gaps and eat up blocks so the BYU linebackers can make plays. In our opinion, borrowing players from the offensive side of the ball to temporarily patch the defensive line leaks until some more serious plumbing and recruiting can take place down the road, certainly seems like a viable option.. NFL ROSTERS There are still a couple of more cuts remaining before the start of the NFL season, but we checked the rosters of NFL teams on Saturday for players with BYU ties and here is what we found: Buffalo Bills...C.J. Ah You, defensive end. He ended his college career at Oklahoma, but he started at BYU; Ryan Denney, DE. Miami Dolphins...John Beck, QB. How could you not know he is on the Dolphin roster?; John Denney is the brother of Ryan and is a deep snapper with Miami; Brian Soi, DT, signed with BYU out of high school. New England Patriots...Garrett Mills, TE. BYU passed on this LDS player when he came out of Oklahoma. He was a four-year starter at Tulsa. Baltimore Ravens...Haloti Ngata, DT. BYU fans think this talented player commited to BYU and then flew the coop to Oregon. Actually it was his mother that commited to Gary Crowton that her son would sign with the Cougars, but Ngata himself, never gave a verbal to BYU. Cincinnati Bengals...Curtis Brown, RB. Picked up by the Bengals a week ago when they needed bodies. Actually may have a chance to stick; Daniel Coats, TE; Jonathan Fanene, DE. Signed with BYU, but couldn't get in. The next year he signed with Utah. Houston Texans...Scott Jackson, OL. Pittsburgh Steelers...Chris Hoke, DT; Brett Keisel, DE; Shaun Nua, DE; Marvin Philip, Center. Tom Holmoe recruit at Cal. Returned LDS missionary. Indianapolis Colts...Rob Morris, LB; Jonny Harline, TE. Philadelphia Eagles...Scott Young, OL; Zac Collie, WR. Chicago Bears...John Tait, OL. Green Bay Packers...Brady Poppinga, LB. Minnesota Vikings...Fahu Tahi, FB. New Orleans Saints...Ben Archibald, OL; Jake Kuresa, OL. Arizona Cardinals...Aaron Francisco, DB; Todd Watkins, WR. San Francisco 49ers...Colby Bockwoldt, LB. Seattle Seahawks...Cameron Jensen, LB. Not On NFL Rosters...There are at least four ex-BYU players who were on NFL rosters last season that aren't this year. That would include Itula Mili, TE, who last played at Seattle; Reno Mahe, RB, Philadelphia; Doug Jolley, TE, Tampa Bay and Gabe Reid, TE, Chicago. Roster Scoreboard For those who like to keep track of the NFL roster race between BYU and Utah, it is currently a dead heat. There are 22 BYU players and 22 Utah players on NFL rosters. Those numbers will change when final cuts are made and we will re-tally the totals again. Here are the Utes in the NFL: Steve Fifita, Dolphins; Brett Ratliff, Jets; Sione Pouha, Jets; Andred Dyson, Jets; Mike Anderson, Ravens; Jonathan Fanene, Bengals; Chris Kemoeatu, Steelers; Quinton Ganther, Titans; Lavale Sape, Titans; Josh Savage, Titans; Spencer Toone, Titans; Jesse Boone, Raiders; John Madsen, Raiders; Barry Sims, Raiders; Eric Weddle, Chargers; Cliff Russell, Lions; Kelly Talavou, Falcons; Jordan Gross, Panthers; Maake Kemoeatu, Panthers; Steve Smith, Panters; Parris Warren, Buccaneers; Alex Smith, 49ers. FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF BYU now says that they likely won't be signing a high school quarterback for this coming recruiting year. That decision was made easier when the Cougar's number one qb prospect apparently turned down BYU for UCLA. Kevin Prince is LDS and preps at Crespi HS in Encino, CA. He made a couple of trips to BYU this summer, but when UCLA said that he could have a scholarship if he would go on an LDS mission before enrolling at Westwood, BYU was basically out of the picture. Prince's father is an alumnus of UCLA. Speaking of quarterbacks that won't be at BYU, we hear that Cade Cooper, the apparent backup coming out of spring until he hurt his foot, may end up at Oregon. Jacob Bower, also left the program and is projected as the starter for the Bakersfield College Renegades. They are rated as the No. 5 juco team in the nation. As for the current BYU qb, Max Hall, he gets the pleasure of opening his college career against two projected NFL first round draft picks. Arizona will feature Antoine Cason, a 6-1, 185 pound cornerback and Louis Holmes, a 6-6, 270 pound defensive tackle, on their defense. Holmes' playing status is up in the air because of an arrest earlier this summer, but we fully expect him to be on the field against the Cougars. Arizona does have an LDS qb on their roster. Jimmy Bevell is an invited walkon for the Wildcats. He is a 21-year old freshman and arrived mid year after serving an LDS mission to Argentina. His brother Darrell was a four-year starter at Wisconsin and is now the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. The Wildcats also have another LDS player that is a three-year starter. Spencer Larsen will be at inside linebacker for UofA. BYU is recruiting several players from Kahuku HS in Hawaii and also Bingham HS in Utah. The Cougars already have verbal commitments from Austin Holt, a tight end from Bingham and Shiloah Te'o, a safety from Kahuku. Both teams will face each other on September 1 in a game that is set to be played in Cedar City at SUU. BASKETBALL BRIEFS BYU will leave for France this week for a series of exhibition games. One player who won't be going is Jimmer Fredette. He can't go because of NCAA rules that restrict new recruits from traveling with the team on summer trips abroad. Apparently we didn't make it clear in our latest newsletter that Fredette is a scholarship player who signed with the Cougars last November and will be a true freshman this season. BYU will also sign Charles Abouo to a letter of intent this coming November. The 6-4, wing from Logan HS, was recruited and evaluated by BYU coaches last spring, but they decided to back off. After a stellar summer of AAU play, BYU is back on his doorstep. Abouo, who is originally from the Ivory Coast, will play this coming season at Brewster Academy, a prep school in New Hampshire. We will have video of Abouo up on our blog later this week. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs Arizona Saturday, Sept. 1 at Provo Kickoff: 3:30 pm, Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs UCLA Saturday, Sept. 8 at Pasadena Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs Tulsa Saturday, Sept. 14 at Tulsa Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CSTV As a subscriber, you are allowed to access our new blog. You can view it by going to www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <http://www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/> Just a reminder that we are now sending the newsletter via two separate email accounts to help solve distribution issues that many subscribers experienced last year. That means you may receive two identical letters. If that is the case, please just discard the extra.

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Cougar Sportsline, Vol. 28, Issue 1
by hb arnett 06 Aug '07

06 Aug '07

HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett(a)fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> PO Box 50424 Provo, Utah 84605 Vol. 28, Issue 1, August 6, 2007 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions As a subscriber you are allowed to access our new blog. You can view it by going to www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <http://www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/> Just a reminder that we are now sending the newsletter via two separate email accounts to help solve distribution issues that many subscribers experienced last year. That means you may receive two identical letters. If that is the case, please just discard the extra. IT'S REALLY JUST A THREE-GAME SEASON The problem with Bronco raising the bar for BYU football is that he has also raised the expectations of Cougar fans. The 2007 season shows 12 games to be played by BYU. But with the bar raised, it is really just a 3 game season within a season that will make or break BYU football this year. How Bronco and his boys do in these three games will determine if BYU fans remain invested, invigorated and interested. Let's break down the schedule and see if you don't agree. The three games that really matter include one at the start of the season and two at the end of the season. In between is just busy work. Let's start with the busy work which totals eight games. They include five games on the road against Tulsa, New Mexico, UNLV, San Diego State and Wyoming. It also features Air Force, Eastern Washington and Colorado State at home in Provo. We can count at least 5 absolute gimme games against this group. Quite frankly, anything less than a 7-1 mark against these opponents would be extremely disappointing. If we had to pick a loss here, we would most likely check the weather forecast for a possible blizzard in Laramie in November or a quarterback in Albuquerque. If either of those things occur, BYU could stumble at either locale. Loss in Los Angeles We have already penciled in a loss to UCLA. The Cougars and Bruins will face off in the Rose Bowl on Sept. 8. With a loss to the Bruins and a law of averages loss to some team in the busy work section of the schedule, that puts the Cougars on track to a repeat record of 11-2. That means the meat and potatoes of the season and the measuring stick of the program in 2007 will be determined against the three remaining teams on the schedule. That would be Arizona on September 1 to start the season and TCU and Utah to close out the year in November. All three games are in Provo, and in our opinion, those three contests will make or break BYU football's 2007 season. Nobody really knows how good BYU will be this year. On paper, it looks promising, but in the history books, it looks suspect. When BYU rolls out a new quarterback, it has not been a banner year. The lone exception to that rule is 1984 when Robbie Bosco, in his first year as a starter, led BYU to a national championship. We like Max Hall, but we would like him better if he had actually taken a snap in a Division I football game. That is our early assessment of the season, but we expect it to change as fall camp unfolds and there is actually something to evaluate and report. Those assessments will start in next week's letter after BYU has a week of practice under its belt. FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF Since Bronco Mendenhall has injected a little ecclesiastical element into the football program, so will we. We have a subscriber from Salt Lake that is a die-hard Utah fan. This guy is born and bred in Utah, but is not LDS. He is very successful in business and has many associates and friends that are LDS. Why he takes the letter is still puzzling, but we have had many interesting and enjoyable conversations during the years. The best came just last week when he confessed that after watching the BYU-Utah game last year and repeatedly being subjected to replays of the Beck-to-Harline finish, he finally can comprehend the LDS doctrinal concept of "time and all eternity". In case you missed it, Bronco Mendenhall was given a contract extension and pay raise by BYU. We thought BYU paying market value for a coach was a sure sign of the last days, but then we remembered that BYU administrators were probably just complying with the new minimum wage standards that went into effect last month. Bronco did a very nice job giving LDS firesides around the West earlier this year. Kyle Whittingham has followed suit. Well not exactly, but Whittingham and his family spoke in Sacrament meeting just a two weeks ago in their new ward where they recently moved. Again, according to a subscriber and former mission president who lives in that ward, they did a very good job. We know we are in a BYU minority in this opinion, but Whittingham is actually a very good coach and a very good guy. We now rejoin the BYU majority, however, because we still hope he loses every game he coaches at Utah. The fact that BYU plays Arizona to begin the season opens a few old officiating wounds for some Cougar fans. The Matt Allen td reception that was called offensive pass interference in Tucson last year comes to mind. It was a Pac 10 crew that worked that game. Pac 10 officials won't be working the game again in Provo, but apparently it won't be a MWC crew either. The officials will be from the Big 12. We have a family connection with one of the crew that will be working the UofA-BYU game. He lives in Nebraska and is a Big 12 official. A few years back, he also worked a Utah-Arizona game in Salt Lake. We don't know, but would be willing to bet that either Arizona or the Pac 10 in general have a clause in their game contracts with the MWC that calls for Pac 10 officials when the games are played at their venues and non-MWC officials when the venues are in the MWC. Just a guess. Ty Detmer will have his number retired during halftime of the BYU-Arizona game. Gifford Nielsen will also be honored in the same ceremony. Both wore #14 while playing for the Cougars. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. Arizona Saturday, Sept. 1 at Provo Kickoff: 3:30 pm, Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. UCLA Saturday, Sept. 8 at Pasadena Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. Tulsa Saturday, Sept. 14 at Tulsa Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CSTV SUMMER SUMMARY OF BYU BASKETBALL Now that BYU started football camp last Saturday, you can expect the next newsletters to be all football, all the time. It will take about a week and several days of practice before there is anything real to write. Before we do, now seems like a good time to catch up on BYU Basketball during the summer. The months of April and July are actually the two most critical months when it comes to recruiting. Forget the high school basketball seasons. They mean very little these days. When it comes to recruiting and evaluation and deciding who will get precious scholarships, that was basically decided last month during the AAU tournaments held around the country. Summer Squatting If you want know where BYU's recruiting interest lies for the future, all you need to do is follow Dave Rose around in July and see which summer tournament games he attends. The last two weeks of July says plenty about where Rose and BYU's focus is in recruiting. He and his assistant coaches attended every game of 6-9 Jeremy Olsen. He is at Collins Hills HS in Atlanta and will be a junior this coming season. This LDS prospect was playing on the Worldwide Renegades AAU team. He was also playing against some of the elite AAU teams in the country. It was a little hard to get a handle on him because in the three games we saw, he probably had less than ten touches. His teammates were reluctant to get him the ball. He does have a mid-range game, but against the elite athletes we saw, he is a mediocre rebounder and has some serious defensive liabilities against bigs who have quickness. That said, he is a player who would flourish at BYU. His recruitment will not be a slam dunk. He has programs like Ole Miss, Xavier and Utah involved. In games we saw he had at least one of his family entourage who attended the games in Las Vegas wearing a t-shirt that said, "Friends don't let Friends Go To BYU" Michael Boswell is another 6-9 player that BYU bird-dogged in Las Vegas. He is from Aloha HS in Beaverton, OR. He played for the Oregon Rebels. We can see why BYU is interested, but we thought he played soft. Hot On Haws There is no question that BYU's biggest recruiting target for the near future will be Tyler Haws, the 6-5 guard from Lone Peak HS in Highland, UT. The reports we get is that both BYU and Utah have already offered scholarships. His summer play include a Lone Peak team stop at North Carolina and appearances in Long Beach and a late stop in Las Vegas in July where Dave Rose was front and center for all seven games. Of course so was Jim Boylen, the new coach of Utah. Haws also spent time this summer at Ben Howland's UCLA camp and the Bruins have been on Haws' heels since. Haws will be a junior this coming season and based on his play this summer, will definitely end up being a national recruit. He was at his best late in July when he played for the Salt Lake Metro Prospects in Hal Pastner's Las Vegas Summer Classic. The SL Metro team had just seven players, four from Lone Peak HS and three from Pleasant Grove HS. They were coached by Marty Haws, the former Cougar basketball player and father of Tyler. They breezed through pool play without breaking a sweat and then dominated in bracket play, which is basically a one and done tournament which featured all other undefeated teams from their respective pools. Playing in the top Platinum bracket, they defeated the Fairfield Ballers from Northern California 75-67, beat a very talented Arizona Stars Bibby team from Arizona 95-84 and also whipped a good local Las Vegas team in Dogcatchers Elite 87-78. That got them to the championship game against Cecil-Kirk, a team from Baltimore. Salt Lake Metro, after having a 60-49 lead midway in the second half, eventually lost 83-85 in double overtime. Because of only having seven players and experiencing foul problems, they played the second overtime with just four players on the court. Here are Haws' stats for those last four games: Ballers; 3pt=0-0, 2pt=10-17, FT=4-6, Total Pts=24, Rebs=4 Arizona; 3pt=0-2, 2pt=18-28, FT=11-14, Total Pts=47, Rebs=11 Las Vegas; 3Pt=2-5, 2pt=13-23, FT=3-5, Total Pts=35, Rebs=15 Baltimore; 3pt=0-0, 2pt=14-22, FT=5-11, Total Pts=33, Rebs=9 The players from Lone Peak HS on the Salt Lake Metro Prospects team included Haws, Josh Sharp, Kimball Payne and Nate Austin. Austin reportedly played well enough in Las Vegas and other AAU venues to make himself a prospect. He will be a junior this coming season. He is thin, but being 6-10 makes him interesting. Keep your eye on him. Another Lone Peak player made himself a Division I prospect this spring with his play. Justin Hamilton played a lot in the spring, but his summer play was limited because he accompanied his mother, who is Serbian, to visit family overseas and won't be back until school starts. Hamilton will be a senior at Lone Peak this coming season. He is also 6-10. Also on the Salt Lake Metro Prospects team were C.J. Wilcox and his cousin, LeSean Wilcox from Pleasant Grove HS. Both played well in Las Vegas. They are both juniors this coming year. C.J. is the son of former Cougar basketball player Craig Wilcox. He signed out of Georgia and played for Roger Reid. C.J. is 6-4 and LeSean is 5-10. While this appears to be a lean 2008 recruiting class for LDS basketball prospects, there is no question that it picks up dramatically from here with top junior LDS prospects Haws and Olsen. Throw in Sean Carey of Bountiful, whom BYU coaches also watched this summer and the future is bright. You can even go one class deeper to find top notch LDS prospects. BYU spent time watching and have already expressed major interest in a player who has yet to play a minute of high school basketball. Last year Jordan McLelland, a 6-3 shooting guard, played at Stapley Jr. High in Mesa, AZ. This year he will be a sophomore at Mountain View HS. He has already made a name for himself this past spring and summer while playing for the Arizona Magic Blue AAU team. BYU, Utah and Stanford are all currently involved. European Tour Dave Rose and his BYU basketball squad will embark later this month for France and a ten-day exhibition tour. This is part of the NCAA rule that allows teams to tour internationally once every four years. Rose will take his staff and seven players. New incoming recruits or those who have never been on the roster are not allowed to participate. Those headed to France include Trent Plaisted, Jonathan Tavernari, Lee Cummard, Gavin MacGregor, Sam Burgess, Ben Murdock and Chris Miles. Vuk Ivanovic could go, but he opted to play for the Serbian National team this summer and forgo the trip to France. Miles returned last Wednesday from his LDS mission to Seattle. He was able to be released about a month early from his normal release date to help get back in shape and make the trip. Miles, a 6-10 post player saw significant minutes as a freshman in 2004-05. There had been some rumblings that he was not happy at BYU during his freshman year and even some talk that he might return and enroll elsewhere, but the hiring of Dave Rose and the success the Cougars have enjoyed in Rose's first two season, cured all those potential problems. The trip to France is nice, but the main benefit for BYU is that it allows the team to officially practice with coaches in preparation for the trip. Official practices normally don't get underway until October. Because the official practices cannot involve new incoming recruits, and because the Cougars only have seven players, former Cougars have been recruited to help scrimmage and participate in practice. Jimmy Balderson, Mike Hall, Keena Young, and Derek Dawes are just a few former Cougars who are helping out with practices. New Recruits There are eight new recruits that are already on campus who have been playing in organized pickup games. Most of those eight recruits have already been enrolled in school for this last summer semester. Only six will show up on the official roster because they are on scholarship, but two others are here and participating as invited walkons. The six new players with scholarships include Chris Miles, a 6-11 post from Timpview HS in Provo (Okay, he is a returning player from an LDS mission who played as a true frosh), James Anderson, a 7-0 post player who signed two years ago out of Page HS in AZ and just enrolled for the first time after serving an LDS mission and Chris Collinsworth, a 6-9 forward from Provo HS. He signed with the Cougars last fall during the early signing period. Lamont Morgan, a 5-10 point guard from Saddleback JC in California, also signed early with the Cougars last November. The two remaining scholarship players include Archie Rose, a 6-5 wing from the Bahamas. He signed this past spring after playing two seasons of juco ball. His first year was spent at Northeast Colorado in Sterling, CO and his sophomore year was at Lee JC in Baytown, TX. Rose also spent this past season at Baytown, getting his academics in order to facilitate his moving on to Division I basketball. Consequently, he has no redshirt remaining. The last scholarship player is Michael Lloyd, a 6-2 guard from Palo Verde HS in Las Vegas. The two non-scholarship players who have been participating in workouts are Matt Pinegar, a 6-2 guard from Timpview HS, and Nick Martineau, a 6-1 point guard from Davis HS. Pinegar is returning from an LDS mission and Martineau will play as a non-scholarship walkon this year, go on an LDS mission and then return to play with a grant-in-aid. Impressions We have watched the newcomers play this summer in pickup games against the returning players. Here are some of our evaluations. We have always like what we saw of Jimmer Fredette on tape. We weren't disappointed in person. He has tried to fit in and curtailed his shooting attempts, but our scouting report on him remains the same. He has great range on his outside shot and can also create his own shot. He is strong and can also get to the basket. He will play this year. Chris Collinsworth has been able to consistently hit a mid-range jump shot this summer. That ability will make him a very good player because he can post up, run the floor and has some athleticism for his size. The sleeper and surprise for us is Archie Rose. This guy is a player and will see minutes this year. He has some size for a guard and is strong going to the basket. Our biggest surprise was how well he shoots it from outside. In our opinion, this guy is the surprise of the recruiting class. Michael Lloyd and Lamont Morgan are both guys who will struggle offensively, but both can penetrate and get to the basket. Their playing time will be situational and depend on how well they can defend opposing guards with quickness.

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Get A Free 1/2 Year Subscription to Cougar Sportsline
by hb arnett 03 Aug '07

03 Aug '07

Let Bronco and BYU Help Pay For Your Subscription Last year BYU football had a terrific season, going 11-2 on the year. After that fantastic finish, Bronco Mendenhall told Cougar fans that the best was yet to come. If he is right, his prediction could help pay for your Cougar Sportsline subscription. Here is how it works If Bronco and the Cougars can duplicate or surpass last season's football record, we will give you a free one-half year subscription to Cougar Sportsline. That means 20 free issues of our weekly newsletter and 20 weeks of free access to our Cougar Sportsline Blog. For you to be eligible to cash in on another great BYU football season, all you need to do is order, renew or extend a current subscription with our new half-year subscription for 20 issues. This new half-year subscription will only be available during the month of August and costs $25. The Cougars have 12 regular season games and bowl game in front of them. If BYU goes 11-2 or better in this new 2007 football season, we will add an additional one-half year or 20 issues to your subscription and 20 weeks to your blog access at no additional charge. You do the math. If BYU has another great year, that means you get a full year subscription for half price. That's right! You have nothing to lose and plenty to root for this coming football season. You get the 20 issues you paid for when you renew, order or extend with our special half-year subscription, and if BYU duplicates or betters last season's 11-2 football record, you get another half year subscription free. This really is our best offer yet! Even if Bronco's prediction of the better things to come doesn't happen this year, and BYU doesn't win 11 or more games, you can still cash in on the Cougars. If BYU only wins 9 or 10 games, we will still give you 10 free issues to add to your subscription. Order, renew or extend for a half-year Cougar Sportsline subscription now for just $25 and let Bronco and BYU win you another one-half year free. You believe in Bronco. Why not let him and his team pay for part of your subscription? The more they win, the more free issues and blog access you receive. Order today online by Clicking <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type=450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here. You can also send a check or credit card to: Cougar Sportsline PO Box 50424 Provo, UT 84605 Or call 801 372 0819 This one-time offer expires August 31, 2007

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