HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
801
372 0819
hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission
Vol. 28,
Issue 2, August 13, 2007
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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:
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
Roster Scoreboard
For those who like
to keep track of the NFL roster race between BYU and
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
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
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.
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
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
BASKETBALL
BRIEFS
BYU will leave for
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
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs
Saturday, Sept. 1 at
Kickoff: 3:30 pm,
Mountain Time
TV: Versus Network
BYU vs
UCLA
Saturday, Sept. 8 at
Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain
Time
TV: Versus Network
BYU vs
Saturday, Sept. 14 at
Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: CSTV
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