HB Arnett’s
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West 800 South –
Vol. 33,
Issue 38 – May 6, 2013
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Reveling and Revealing
The past few weeks have been a time of
reveling for BYU fans. What’s not to revel in with two Cougar teams
competing for national championships in
Ziggy Ansah and his first round selection
by the Detroit Lions is a feel good BYU story if there ever was one.
We should let the reveling sink in for a
few more days or weeks, and then examine the revealing nature of these BYU
athletic stories.
Sorry for jumping the gun on the revealing
nature of the news, but here is my take on what I have seen the last few weeks
and during the past BYU athletic year.
Coaches at all levels come in all shapes,
sizes and abilities. Some are bad. Some are good and some are better.
BYU has coaches employed in their athletic
department. They come in all shapes, sizes and abilities. Some are bad. Some
are good and some are better.
It would be nice to have a good coach in
charge of a particular program, but based on what I observed recently and
during the Cougar athletic year about to be completed, it is better to have
good players than good coaches.
Three BYU sports in particular validate my
point, in my opinion. After watching BYU Rugby win the Varsity Cup against
perennial power
While BYU Volleyball’s national
title aspirations didn’t turn out as well as
This past fall, BYU’s women’s
soccer showed that they were loaded with top tier talent in their run to the
elite eight of the NCAA playoffs. It was also painfully obvious after about
twenty minutes in the game against
My point being is that coaching is needed
and nice, but good national caliber players are essential to playing on the
national stage for any sport.
I back up that assertion with the recently
completed NFL draft. I think it proves my point perfectly.
As good as the Ziggy Ansah draft story is,
it was a BYU sidebar story and nothing else. The real story of the draft, in my
opinion, was the correlation between the numbers of players drafted from the
top teams in the nation.
Here are the final top ten rankings for
football teams for the 2012 and 2011 seasons with the number of drafted players
from those teams.
2012
- Notre
Dame…
- Stanford…3
2011
- LSU…5
- Stanford…4
Here are the draft
numbers and names by season for BYU. Also included are the season records for
each year.
2012…1…Ziggy Ansah (8-5)
2011…0…(10-3)
2010…0…(7-6)
2009…1…Dennis Pitta…(11-2)
2008…2… Austin Collie, Fui
Vakapuna…(10-3)
2007…1…Bryan Kehl…(11-2)
2006…1…John Beck…(11-2)
2005…1…Todd Watkins…(6-6)
2004…3…Brady Poppinga, Scott
Young, Shaun Nua…(5-6)
2003…1…Colby Bockwoldt…(4-8)
2002…2…Dustin Rykert, Spencer
Nead…(5-7)
2001…5…Doug Jolley, Ryan
Denney, Brandon Doman, Luke Staley, Brett Keisel…(12-2)
2000…2…Owen Pochman, Tevita
Ofahengue…(6-6)
We should include Harvey Unga in the list.
He was a supplemental pick by the Chicago Bears after missing his senior season
for Honor Code issues.
In my opinion, BYU’s best team in
this time frame was the 2001 team which also had the most NFL draft picks on
the roster.
I recognize that Bronco Mendenhall has
turned in multiple double digit win seasons and also finished in the top 25
multiple times in his coaching tenure, but his continuing mantra of BYU having
the goal of winning a national championship and being a big factor on the
national college football stage is not justified based on the correlation
between NFL draft picks and teams that finish in the top ten annually.
Mendenhall is a good coach. He is just not
justified in continuing to say his goal is to win a national championship in
football until he can get the draft picks to back it up.
This is not meant to say that BYU football
in particular and BYU sports in general can’t be very enjoyable to follow
and root for with or without draft picks. They are very enjoyable, just like
regional theatre is enjoyable, but it is still not a Broadway production.
When it comes to
There is always hope and supposition for
BYU that the NFL draft picks will be just around the corner. Until proven
otherwise, I don’t buy it.
BYU could have one or two picks a year for
the next five years, but despite double digit win seasons, until the Cougars
consistently put three or more guys in the NFL draft, playing at the highest
level with the big boys is not going to happen.
Meanwhile, I am going to buy tickets to
Les Miserables for the touring show now playing in
If you are counting names and numbers for
BYU in the NFL draft for the last decade, it comes up short on quarterbacks,
but especially short on offensive linemen. That is not a good combination to
have if you want to move the football in the air and on the ground.
Ziggy Is
It couldn’t happen to a nicer and
more deserving guy.
That would be Ezekial Ansah, the BYU
defensive end, who was selected as the 5th pick overall in the NFL
draft by the Detroit Lions.
If you can read, watch TV or browse the
internet, you know Ansah’s story. It is spectacular and special and also
well chronicled.
He has gone from crash to cash in just
three short years. From a crash course in how to put on pads to the cash of a
huge signing bonus makes a great story.
As good as the story is, Ansah, the
person, is better. He has represented himself, BYU and the Church extremely
well in his whirlwind tour with the
Now all he has to do is show he can play
NFL football. Even if he can’t do that, he can still cash his checks for
the next three years.
I’m betting on him not only cashing
checks, but cashing in as one of the better pass rushing defensive ends in the
NFL before his career is done.
BYU
BYU defeated
As a guy who doesn’t know a lot
about rugby, I do know this. The game was physical, compelling and exciting.
While my knowledge of the rules of rugby is very rudimental, I do know that
when two evenly matched teams are going up against each other, it is a lot like
regular football.
It is about field position, turnovers and
the kicking game. The team that wins those battles wins the game.
That held true for BYU against
BYU was able to maintain field position,
came close to
You spell superior J-o-n-n-y
L-i-n-e-h-a-n. The freshman from
Bronco Mendenhall already has taken two
rugby players to play football in Paul Lasike and Ray Forrester. He
wasn’t in the crowd of close to 5,000 who watched the game, but he should
have been there. He would have seen a kicker that he could also use on the
football team.
Granted the ball is different, but the leg
strength, accuracy and technique of Linehan was impressive. There would be a
major transition from rugby to football, but based on the dismal showing of BYU
kickers over the past few season, it seems like it would be worth a try (rugby
pun intended) to see if Linehan could make the transition.
Speaking of foot fetishes and failings,
BYUtv has come up short again in its failure to televise BYU rugby.
Granted it is club sport, but a sport that
is known world wide would seem to be a good fit for BYUtv International and
Global, if not regular BYUtv.
It’s not like they were showing more
riveting programming by passing on a national championship game between the
Cougars and
Instead, they showed a BYU softball
doubleheader against St. Mary’s. The Lady Cougars won the doubleheader,
but did so in front of a whopping 362 fans. That paled in comparison to the
thousands that were watching BYU defeat
Thrill of Victory and
Agony of Defeat
If you are old enough, you may remember
the intro for the old ABC sports program, Wide
World of Sports.
The opening included the line, “The
Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat”.
That pretty wells sums up BYU Men’s
Volleyball’s last week of play. The Cougars experienced the thrill of
capturing the regular season championship of MPSF play. They followed up on
that accomplishment by eking out come-from-behind heart and gut wrenching wins
over
That was culminated with a win over
That wrapped up the thrill of victory for
BYU. The agony of defeat was delivered by UC Irvine in a crushing 3-game loss
to the Anteaters in the championship match. The agony was even more ironic in
the fact that BYU had defeated UCI both times they faced the Anteaters in
regular season MPSF play.
BYU finished their year with a 26-5
record.
BYU BASEBALL STILL IN
HUNT FOR WCC POST SEASON TOURNAMENT
Mike Littlewood, the first year BYU
baseball coach, set a goal of getting his Cougars into the four-team WCC post
season tournament later this month.
As of today, he is on schedule to reach
that goal. The Cougars are 10-8 in conference play and 24-18 overall after taking
two of three games last week in
BYU has six league games remaining in
conference play. All are at home in
|
2013 WCC Baseball Standings |
|||
|
Team |
WCC |
PCT |
Overall |
|
18-6 |
.750 |
31-14-1 |
|
|
14-7 |
.667 |
29-19 |
|
|
12-9 |
.571 |
28-20 |
|
|
10-8 |
.556 |
24-18 |
|
|
9-9 |
.500 |
23-20 |
|
|
9-9 |
.500 |
18-29 |
|
|
10-11 |
.476 |
22-25 |
|
|
8-10 |
.444 |
16-28 |
|
|
0-21 |
.000 |
10-35 |
|
^2013 WCC regular season champions
Fluff and Stuff
The last day for spring signings in
basketball is next week, May 15. Dave Rose and his staff are still trying to
find at least one more player to sign in the next week. They came up empty on
Juco Sai Tummala, the 6-7 wing from
He opted for
In softball, the Lady Cougars clinched the
Pacific Coast Softball Conference championship last week with a four game sweep
of St. Mary’s. BYU will have one more regular season game against
Television
Timetable
BYU vs.
Friday, May 10 at
First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, May 11 at
First Pitch: 1:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. St.
Mary’s (Baseball)
Thursday, May 16 at
First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. St.
Mary’s (Baseball)
Friday, May 17 at
First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. St.
Mary’s (Baseball)
Saturday, May 18 at
First Pitch: 1:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv