HB Arnett’s
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West 800 South –
Vol. 33,
Issue 13 – October 29, 2012
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Cougars 41 Tech 17
BYU Beats the “Dickens”
out of Georgia Tech
Charles Dickens had no idea that he was a gifted sportswriter.
It was 153 years ago that the famous English literary giant accurately
described BYU’s current football season..
Dickens dished it out in A Tale of
Two Cities and told it the way it is with Bronco Mendenhall’s
current Cougars when he said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all
going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."
BYU’s 41-17 “Dickens” of a defeat of Georgia Tech
last Saturday in
It was nothing but the best of times for BYU against Georgia Tech. As a
matter of fact, things were so good that it accentuated the BYU bad times this
year when BYU coaching decisions were as bad as it gets. Here are some best and
worst of times of Georgia Tech and this season.
Best of Times
Riley Nelson played well for the second week in a row. He had a hiccup
and interception early, but overall led the BYU offense to the win. He again
missed at least 3 wide open receivers, but as a healthy quarterback was plenty
good enough to get the victory and move the Cougars to 5-4 on the season.
He had good numbers. He was 19-28 for 204 yards and 1 touchdown passing
the ball. He also had a nice 10-yard touchdown run.
Worst of Times
You just can’t dismiss the not hitting open receivers and
hitting defensive backs in the hands. Anyway you cut it Nelson’s
touchdown-to-interception ratio this season is atrocious. It will get better
with the remaining cupcake games this season, but Nelson did not have the kind
of senior season that other prominent senior BYU quarterbacks have turned in.
Best of Times
What Bronco Mendenhall has done as a defensive coordinator this season
is amazing. What he did against Georgia Tech and their prolific ground game is
stupefying. Tech had been averaging in the high 300’s on the ground this
entire season.
BYU’s defense held the Yellow Jackets to just 117 yards on the
ground. The also denied GT zero third down conversions. Paul Johnson’s
offense went 0-10 in the game.
The best Georgia Tech drive came as a result of three consecutive BYU
personal foul penalties. All the Jackets could manage was a field goal. It was
the only points produced by the Tech offense.
Worst of Times
That would have to be the 270 yards put on BYU on the ground the
previous week against Notre Dame. Worst became a lot more relative, however,
when we saw that ND also put up 200 plus yards on the ground against
Best of Times
Riley Nelson is showing that when healthy BYU can win games and be
productive on offense, even with his accuracy liabilities.
Worst of Times
It remains to be told if it was Nelson’s stubbornness in wanting
to play hurt or Mendenhall’s stubbornness in not wanting to disappoint
Nelson in his dream, but Dickens nailed it on the two losses to Utah and Boise
State as it related to quarterback play when he said, “it was the age of
foolishness; it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Darkness; it
was the winter of despair; we had everything before us,
Best of Times
Taysom Hill showed that he is a big time Division I quarterback and the
future at that position for BYU beginning next season.
Worst of Times
You know the story. It was the Tale of Two Knees. Hill should have
taken one, instead he wrecked it.
Best of Times
J.D. Falsev was spectacular last week returning kickoffs. He had three
against Georgia Tech for 129 yards and an average of 43 yards per try. It had a
major impact on the outcome of the game.
Worst of Times
It took BYU special teams’ coaches 6 games to figure out that
Falsev was better than Joe Sampson returning kicks.
Best of Times
Jamaal Williams is the real deal. He sealed that deal against Georgia
Tech with 4 touchdowns, 107 yards rushing on 28 carries and 39 yards receiving.
Worst of Times
I printed this about Jamaal Williams on Sept 10 after two games into
the season when he was averaging about three carries a game
BYU has good running backs, but most
of them are not intuitive and instinctive runners. They use power, hard work
and grit to gain yardage, but they are not physically tooled to see a crease
and get to it and through it.
Unfortunately, most of those
instinctive and intuitive backs are at the big BCS schools and in the NFL.
The good news is that BYU may have a
back like that in Jamaal Williams. He won’t play much until later this
season, but there is a reason that he is already averaging 5.2 yards per carry
in mop up action. Go back and watch his carries and see if you see gaping holes
that he is running through. He sees creases and gets to and through them.
Georgia Tech Broadcasters also saw Williams’ ability to see a
crease and get to it and through it. They were very complimentary of the
freshman running back.
The worst of times moments come when you wonder about BYU
coaches’ abilities to recognize talent and get it on the field.
I am convinced that Williams would still be getting 3-4 carries a game
if not for the unfortunate arm break of Michael Alisa. That certainly was the
worst of times for Alisa personally. Unfortunately, his best of times as a
starting running back may be gone with the emergence of Williams.
Best of Times
Brandon Doman is on a hot streak as an offensive coordinator. Who knows
why, but he is now calling some good games. He has been on point beginning with
Worst of Times
It wasn’t too long ago when Nitro, Grit, and quarterback draw
were nasty words in a BYU football fan’s vocabulary.
Best of Times
Georgia Tech is certainly not
Worst of Times
The continuing conundrum of player personnel and evaluation decisions
and total lack of game management skills in some games, still makes me chuckle
when Mendenhall mentions National Championships.
Best of Times
According to a recent piece in Sports
Illustrated, BYU should have three players selected in this
April’s NFL draft.
Here is what Tony Pauline said on Oct 27 in his Risers and Sliders
article in SI regarding the NFL Draft.
Risers
Ezekiel Ansah/OLB-DE/BYU: Ansah, the former
track athlete from
Notes
•
BYU has been the surprise of the scouting community thus far in 2012. Entering
the season with a pair of seniors graded as late-round picks, the Cougars now have
three players who are considered top-90 selections. Besides Ezekiel Ansah, the
senior defender previously mentioned as a potential first-round pick, junior
linebacker Kyle Van Noy presently grades as a second rounder and offensive
lineman Braden Brown is receiving third-round consideration.
Worst of Times
BYU had zero, zip, nada, nobody drafted by the NFL last season.
Bowl Game with
I am referring to the Poinsettia Bowl set for Dec. 20 in
The Aztecs of SDSU and Rocky Long made themselves bowl eligible this
past Saturday with a 24-13 win at home against UNLV. The Aztecs are now 6-3 on
the year with three games remaining against
BYU is already set for a Poinsettia Bowl appearance as long as they can
get a sixth win. That shouldn’t be that difficult for the Cougars with
The Cougars get a bye week and then face the Vandals of Idaho in
The SDSU matchup with BYU is almost a guarantee. Bowl officials want to
sell tickets. BYU will do their part and
This will be a matchup of former colleagues in Rocky Long and Bronco
Mendenhall. The game will have even greater meaning, however, because
They still talk about it on radio shows. It involved a fumble by J.J.
DiLuigi of BYU against the Aztecs in
The bitterness grew in
Ring a bell now? The bells and bitterness in
The Poinsettia Bowl can probably bank on at least another thousand
tickets sold to SDSU fans that just want to boo BYU for what they consider an
injustice that proves they have been right to hate BYU for the last two
decades.
Rose Needs an Abouo Answer
This basketball season for Dave Rose and BYU isn’t hard to figure
out.
The leading scorer for the Cougars will be Brandon Davies. He will be
followed by Tyler Haws.
Haws will pick up the missing points from Noah Hartsock. Davies will
improve on his points per game last year.
Matt Carlino will not score as much, but the overall guard line will.
This is a much, much better perimeter shooting team. If Carlino gets out of
control like he did during some games last season, BYU has answers to replace
him and settle him down.
The unanswered question is where will the points come from to replace
Charles Abouo?
The likely answer will be two fold. If Josh Sharp and juco transfer
Agostino Ambrosino can come up with 11 points per game between them, then this
team will be hard to beat.
Much has been made about the departures of Chris Collinsworth and
Stephen Rogers because of injuries.
You can’t miss what was already missing last year. Neither was a
contributor and counted on last season because of health issues. Both provided
a little depth, but neither was going to be a factor this season.
Davies is a force. He will have to be double teamed in the post. That
means there will be games when he will be held in check.
Last year, the go to guy was Hartsock. This year, in my opinion, the go
to guy will be Tyler Haws.
When BYU needs a basket, look for Haws to get it.
This should be a great year again for BYU basketball, but as good as
BYU has been during the last 5 seasons, the best years are just around the
corner. As soon as this new missionary system gets established and implemented,
look out.
Women Continue
The BYU women’s soccer and volleyball teams continue their strong
play in WCC action.
In soccer, the women improved their season record to 16-1-1 overall and
5-0-1 in WCC play. That is good for first place in the league standings. BYU
finished their regular season home season with a 5-0 shutout of St.
Mary’s last Saturday afternoon.
BYU will finish the regular season with two road contests at LMU and at
No. 18 Pepperdine. BYU is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation and is hoping
that their nice record and season will let them host some early round NCAA
playoff games in
In volleyball, the women are currently tied for first place in WCC play
with
The two teams, BYU and
Television Timetable
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 3 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: BYUtv
BYE
(Football)
Saturday, Nov 3
BYU vs.
Friday, Nov 9 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 10 at
Kickoff: 8:15 pm Mountain
Time
TV: Most likely BYUtv
BYU vs.
Tuesday, Nov 13 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Friday, Nov 16 at
Tipoff: TBA
TV: truTV
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 17 at
Kickoff: 2:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPNU and ESPN3
BYU vs.
Notre Dame or
Saturday, Nov 17 at
Tipoff: TBA
TV: truTV
BYU vs.
UT-San Antonio (B-Ball)
Wednesday, Nov 21 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov. 24 at
Kickoff: 1:30 pm Mountain
Time
TV:ESPNU and ESPN3
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 24 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Wednesday, Nov 28 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: BYUtv