HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> .com 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 30, Issue 11 - October 19, 2009 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions BYU TAKES A 38-28 ANY WAY YOU CAN WIN OVER SAN DIEGO STATE If you were disappointed in BYU's 38-28 win over San Diego State last Saturday night, you need to watch more college football. Winning on the road is not easy, especially in conference games. BYU did what two top-ten teams couldn't. They won a league game on the road. Virginia Tech was ranked No. 4 in the nation last week, but lost to league opponent Georgia Tech on the road. Granted, Tech was also ranked at No. 19, but Ohio State, ranked No. 7 a week ago, lost to lowly and unranked Purdue in West Lafayette on Saturday. Bronco Mendenhall always preaches two things. Winning league games on the road is hard and he is always facing the world's greatest coaches. One out of two ain't bad. Winning on the road is difficult, but San Diego State is still San Diego State, even if Bronco's buddies are now drawing paychecks from the Aztecs. It was just a couple of years ago that Chuck Long was turning the corner at SDSU. The new mantra from Mendenhall is that with his former colleagues Brady Hoke and Rocky Long on the payroll, SDSU is tougher and more intense. Could be, but it looked like the same old Aztecs to us. They have always had great skill-position players, especially at QB and wide receiver. They just don't win. It was the same story last week. It was an interesting game, mainly because BYU is still BYU. They have never had great athletes in the secondary and still don't. They have trouble defending the pass against good QB's who are throwing to good and fast receivers. BYU won this game because it does what it always does. It had a better quarterback and great tight ends that were constantly making plays. Max Hall was exceptional and so were his two tight ends Dennis Pitta and Andrew George. They made plays when the game was being contested. With the win, BYU is now 6-1 on the year and 3-0 in league play. Hall had an exceptional day throwing the ball completing 27/39 passes for 346 yards, but his best play of the day was an improvisational one-yard scoring scamper with time expiring in the first half. Hall also hooked up with Dennis Pitta who made a nice NFL-quality catch in the end zone to keep SDSU at bay. George also responded to a SDSU score when he caught a 19-yard td from Hall. HOLIDAY INN, MOTEL 6 and TCU I have actually spent a couple of nights in a Holiday Inn Express. According to the television commercials promoting the national motel chain, that allows me to perform heart surgery, deliver babies and repair rockets. I always make a point of offering my services in those areas to the families to whom I am assigned to home teach. To date, I have had no takers. Consequently, I have now lowered my aspirations and hotel tabs by staying strictly at Motel 6. It's not obstetrics or rocket science, but here are my Motel 6 memos to Mendenhall and company on how to beat TCU. 1. Get Bryan Kariya the ball and let him run north and south. Harvey Unga is a great back and J.J. Di Luigi shows promise, but dancing in the hole and trying to get wide and outrun the TCU defense is not going to work. The Cougars tried running wide last year in Fort Worth and it was a disaster. BYU doesn't have the speed, but they should have the power to run straight ahead against the Frogs. 2. No matter what type of running scheme BYU comes up with, it won't be effective against TCU. Stopping the run is what the Frog defense does. That means the Cougar offensive line needs to protect Max Hall and allow him time to throw the ball. 3. BYU has put up huge offensive numbers the last two weeks. Against UNLV it was 611 yards of total offense and last week against the Aztecs of SDSU it was 512 yards. That won't happen against a TCU defense that is giving up an average of only 238 yards per game. This will be a field position, special teams and kicking game. I don't care how successful BYU has been on fourth down conversions, if they try to go for them in this game, they will lose. 4. Maximize Max. The senior quarterback is playing some of his best football right now. He won't be error free in this game and will likely throw a couple of interceptions. The Frog defense is too good, but if BYU is going to win this game, it will be Hall's play that does it. 5. Stop the run. BYU has to keep TCU from running wild on the ground. The Cougars can still win with Frog QB Andy Dalton throwing the ball effectively against them. San Diego State, CSU and Florida State all had success in the air against BYU, but just throwing it won't beat BYU. It was the 313 yards rushing by Florida State that cost the Cougars their only loss of the year. If TCU gets close to 200 yards on the ground, it won't be pretty. 6. Keep the turnovers under two and forget balance. BYU can't afford turnovers, but they can still win with less than two. More than two, and Cougar fans won't be happy campers (See my KOA reference below). Throw the ball and keep throwing it. Trying to show some kind of balance by running the ball just means you have less opportunities to throw it and score. Those are my Motel 6 keys to the game. My logical prediction for the game has it TCU 24 BYU 21. The Frogs are too good for the Cougars. Thank goodness for my latest lodging experience sleeping in a tent at a KOA campground. It defies logic. The ground and this game are both hard. I survived and so will the Cougars. BYU 27 TCU 24. DAVE ROSE USING BISHOP STOREHOUSE FOR RECRUITING Settle down. Now that we have your attention, we said Bishop storehouse, not Bishop's Storehouse. We are referring to the Bishop Gorman storehouse of players in Las Vegas. The top flight high school program has already given BYU one basketball player. That would be Jonathan Tavernari, the senior forward for the Cougars who has already been selected as a preseason first-team all MWC selection. It was actually two BYU assistants that helped deliver Tavernari. Walter Roese was a BYU assistant and Tavernari's uncle. He brought him to Provo where he played for Timpview HS. Because of his visa, Tavernari couldn't play beyond his junior year for the Thunderbirds. That is where another BYU assistant, Dave Rice, stepped to the plate. Rice's brother, Grant, is the head coach at Bishop Gorman. He was more than happy to take Tavernari for his last season of prep basketball. The 6-6 Brazilian then signed with the Cougars and returned to Provo. The BYU-Bishop Gorman connection is a good one. It should be with two brothers involved. The Gaels have been to Provo to participate in Dave Rose's team camp. We mentioned that Bishop Gorman gave BYU Jonathan Tavernari. Now BYU wants more players from that program. Two Offers The Cougars already have two offers on the table for Gael players. Anson Winder is a 6-3 senior guard. He has offers from BYU, Nevada-Reno and Idaho. He also has his own web site, www.ansonwinder.com <http://www.ansonwinder.com/> . You can check it out to see his profile and highlights. Here is one profile of Winder by Scouts, Inc., which is different and not to be confused with scout.com. Winder possesses a nice frame with long arms and overall solid length for the 2-guard position. He is a Division I sleeper who needs some polish in terms of skill development. He plays with great effort at both ends and thrives in transition where he can attack the rim. His frame allows him to draw contact and finish as well. He is a streaky player who plays in spurts and needs to be more consistent to draw D-1 interest. He can knock down the 3, but his shot is streaky and a tad flat in its trajectory. In addition, he is much more effective in a catch and shoot situation than pulling up in transition where he has a tendency to get off balance. Winder has the tools, he just needs to mature as a player in both skill and savvy. BYU also has offered another Bishop Gorman player without ever seeing him play varsity basketball. We are talking about Rosco Allen, a 6-7 sophomore, who will be playing his first year of varsity basketball this season for the Gaels. He played last year on the junior varsity, but was seen by a lot of college coaches who would come early to the school to get a look at Allen. He also received a lot of looks and offers this summer while playing on his AAU team, the Las Vegas Lakers. Allen has been offered by BYU. He also has offers from UNLV, Arizona, Arizona State, USC, Washington State and Santa Clara. We mentioned a few weeks back that current Cougar guard Michael Loyd, Jr. has a younger brother playing at Bishop Gorman. BYU has not offered the 5-9 Johnathan Loyd, but he does have offers from Cal Poly, Northern Arizona, SMU and UC Riverside. While we are talking about early BYU offers, Dave Rose and his Cougars have an offer on the table already for Jabari Parker, the ninth grade LDS player from Chicago. He is at Simeon HS. It is going to take a lot of chairs for the Cougars if they hope to have a seat at the recruiting table for this kid. In addition to BYU, he already has offers from Illinois, Washington, Northwestern, DePaul and Baylor. His most recent offer came from Kansas. We said he was a 6-3 guard, but most services and schools list him at 6-6. As we said last week, his older brother, Christian is a redshirt freshman at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls and Dave Rose and his staff have been making stops there. In case you missed it, Christian Parker signed with BYU-Hawaii out of high school, redshirted as a frosh in Laie and then served a two-year LDS mission in Atlanta before enrolling at CSI. QUARTERBACK QUEUE Max Hall...His passing numbers are going up. He was 27-of-39 for 346 yards and three touchdowns. The TD tosses were to Bryan Kariya (1-yard), Andrew George (19-yard) and Dennis Pitta(9-yard). Hall also ran in from one yard out with time expiring in the second quarter. For the second week in a row, Hall had no interceptions. Riley Nelson...He helped the BYU football budget by not sweating or getting his uniform dirty against San Diego State. His uniform did not have to be washed as Nelson did not play. James Lark and Jason Munns...Both are still serving missions. Lark is due back in January and Munns will return in May. Jake Heaps...The BYU-bound senior quarterback from Skyline HS in Seattle accounted for 4 touchdowns in a 42-0 blowout of league rival Issaquah. Heaps threw two touchdown passes and ran it in twice more from 1 and 10 yards out. Tanner Mangum...Again, it was another loss for Timberline HS, where the sophomore LDS signal caller plays. This time it was a 28-14 setback to Boise HS. Mangum completed 21-37 for 264 yards and one interceptions. Alex Kuresa...A big, big day for the junior qb. He threw for 450 yards and 5 TD tosses in a 57-22 win over Ogden HS. FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF BYU is still recruiting a running back. They would like to sign Joshua Quezada, a 5-11, 210 pounder out of La Habra HS in California. He has had a couple of good weeks running the football. Two weeks ago he rushed for 247 yards and 3 touchdowns on 30 carries in a win over San Clemente. Last week, because of a 62-0 blowout of Buena Park, he only touched the ball 11 times, but still had 136 yards rushing and another 3 touchdowns. There is a BYU connection here. The head coach of La Habra is Frank Mazzotta. His brother Casey played safety for BYU a few years back. His dad, also named Frank, is the long-time head coach at Cerritos JC. That is a school that fed BYU a lot of players during LaVell Edwards' tenure as coach. When it comes to stats and penalties, BYU has committed 50 infractions in seven games that has cost them 457 yards. We are sure BYU keeps track of which players are responsible for those penalties, but there are no public stats indentifying the culprits. If there were, our bet would be that the top two penalty guys are Nick Alletto and R.J. Willing, two of the starting offensive lineman. That is normal. Most offensive penalties on most teams are generated on the offensive line. Most of those calls, from our observation and opinion, are for holding or illegal procedure for getting started too early. That said, the BYU offensive line is performing extremely well. What should be noted, is that the name of Matt Reynolds is seldom called. This guy really is a big-time player. While we are talking offensive line, Braden Brown, the redshirt freshman tight end/offensive lineman, saw significant action at right tackle against SDSU. He also saw time against UNLV two weeks ago. BYU thinks he will be the next in line for tight end, but he is talented enough to also be a very good offensive lineman. He wears No. 75 when playing offensive line and No. 89 when seeing other action. The official BCS rankings came out Sunday night. BYU is ranked No. 16. TCU, the Cougars opponent this weekend is ranked No. 8. Utah is ranked No. 20. For a non BCS team to be invited to a BCS bowl, they have to be rated in the top 12 or No. 16 or better if there is a team from a qualifying conference that is ranked below No. 16. In a first for BYU, the ESPN "Game Day" television show will be hosted in Provo. The crew will be in town to feature the TCU-BYU matchup of MWC ranked teams. What makes the appearance by the national network team even more unusual is that ESPN will be promoting a game that will be shown on another network. The game is set to be televised by Versus. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. TCU Saturday, Oct 24 at Provo Kickoff: 5:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus BYE Saturday, Oct 31 BYU vs. Wyoming Saturday, Nov 7 at Laramie Kickoff: Noon Mountain Time TV: The Mtn BYU vs. New Mexico Saturday, Nov 14 at Albuquerque Kickoff: Noon Mountain Time TV: The Mtn BYU vs. Air Force Saturday, Nov 21 at Provo Kickoff: 1:30 pm Mountain Time TV: CBS C BYU vs. Utah Saturday, Nov 28 at Provo Kickoff: 3:00 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn and CBS C