HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@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.