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Vol. 33,
Issue 1 – August 6, 2012
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You Won’t Like November
If you are reading this newsletter, the demographics of Cougar Sportsline
indicate that the chances are about 95 percent that you are a BYU football fan,
will vote for Mitt Romney and know who Jabari Parker is.
Brace yourself. You aren’t going to like November.
Come November, BYU should already have at least 4 losses and be out of
any BCS consideration. Mitt Romney won’t be President of the
That’s a tough triumvirate to swallow.
In an effort to make it go down more smoothly, gulp down this. I have
been wrong before and am hoping I will be wrong again.
A year ago, almost to the day, I wrote in this same newsletter that the
2011BYU team would be “Stupid Good” and was on track to have a
truly spectacular football season. The only thing that was close in that
statement was the word stupid. It applied not to BYU being stupid good, but to
my preseason football IQ and intellect.
Calling four losses before November almost guarantees that BYU will
finally back me up and really be “Stupid Good” this season. On the
other hand, road games at
Win those games and a BCS sunrise is possible. Lose the first two road
games at
Almost a month ago, I followed my political conscience and again
didn’t vote for Orin Hatch. Regardless of party, I refuse to vote for anybody
who has served two or more terms in any office. Needless to say, my track
record in picking political winners is abysmal. Mitt is probably safe.
The smart money in recruiting circles nationally says that Jabari
Parker will sign with either Duke or
I put that money on the line in June offering a free subscription if
Parker didn’t sign with the Cougars. Of the three projections, Parker not
signing with BYU in November is the most likely to happen.
The word from his camp now, i.e. his dad, is that he could wait until
next April, and the spring signing period before making his college choice.
The Jabari Parker story has evolved into a made for television
mini-series. It never ends.
What is just starting, however, is BYU fall camp, so let’s talk
football.
If it’s fall camp, that means there is nothing new happening,
just new names.
When you have experienced as many of these deals as we have, nothing
changes.
There are no shows, injuries, discipline issues, promising prospects
and an ever increasing horde of media asking the same questions they have asked
for decades.
Media: Coach, how does player x look to you?
Coach: He has a chance to be a good player.
Media: Coach, what are your expectations for this season?
Coach: I’m optimistic. The players came back in good shape and
this could be a good year.
Not once in thirty plus years has a coach ever said that the player
with all the press clippings and recruiting hype is a wasted scholarship or
that he has a sub-par team. They save that analysis for the coaches’ only
meetings.
That said, the scenario may be the same, but as mentioned, the names
are different.
Here are names and games that make this fall interesting.
Riley Nelson…Let
the revival begin. If Nelson was an evangelical preacher, he would almost have
me converted. He is the heart and soul of this current football team. If games
were won on guts, glory and grit, sign him up for Heisman consideration.
Last time I checked, Elmer Gantry never won the Heisman so let’s
get real. BYU’s running game will definitely be better this season, but
it is not SEC or even Big East caliber. To win big games on the road, the
Cougars are going to have to do it the old fashioned BYU way.
Nelson is going to have to have a completion rate of at least 65
percent or better and at least a 3-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio for the
Cougars to have a big season.
Last year, Nelson completed just 57.4 percent of his passes and he had
7 interceptions compared to 19 touchdowns thrown.
Max Hall in his 11-2 senior season, which included a season opening win
over
For BYU to also be as successful as they want this year, Nelson will
have to hover around the 90 percent rate in another category: Games played.
Nelson’s ability to extend a play and make something out of
nothing is what makes him exciting and a great leader. It also makes him
vulnerable to injury as was proven last season. Grit, Guts and Glory are good
things when used in context with this quarter back axiom: Get Down Dude.
If Nelson can find some common ground between those two things, this
really could be an uncommonly good season.
Nelson said recently in a Spanish language interview that he has
aspirations of playing in the NFL. His statement was that NFL coaches will have
to drag him away from a camp because he won’t be going away quietly.
Again, this is our opinion, but the NFL is definitely a long shot for
Nelson. A more realistic landing place for the senior signal caller would be
the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame.
He can secure a spot on that wall during a five day period next month.
BYU plays at
Two wins in those five days will insure Nelson’s place in fame
and in the hearts of BYU fans forever.
Also in the Spanish interview, Nelson fluently said that the game he is
most looking forward to this season is the matchup with the Utes in
For those non-Spanish speakers, let me translate. “I hate
Max Hall…The
fiery former quarterback at BYU is back. He wasn’t picked up and invited
to any NFL camp this summer and will be enrolled in school in
As a non graduate, he can serve, as per NCAA rules, as a student
assistant on the staff. He will help Brandon Doman with a specific
responsibility of tutoring the Cougar quarterbacks. This deal has been in the
works for some time.
Taysom Hill…Don’t
you hate it when we are already talking about the next season and this one
hasn’t even kicked off?
With the exceptional athletic ability of Hill, it is unavoidable. He
will play this year, but where and how much is to be determined.
James Lark is a journeyman backup at best. BYU can’t win on the
road against
That’s not the coaches speaking, that’s me stating an
opinion.
Hill’s playing time at quarterback this season will not be
determined by the schedule this year, but what is on the plate for next year.
Hence Hill will see action at quarterback this season.
Lingo, Lane and 15 Cow Wives…Who
would have thought Johnny Lingo and Lane Kiffin, the current USC head coach,
would ever be linked?
Lingo got our attention years ago with his 8-cow wooing of a wife.
Kiffin got our attention last week with his 15-scholarship quarterback.
You may remember that USC was assessed a 15-scholarship penalty by the
NCAA for beating around the (Reggie) Bush, among other infractions.
Yet, down 15 scholarships, USC has a legitimate chance this year of
playing for the national title in January.
Asked how that can happen, Kiffin told an ESPN reporter last week that
a big-time quarterback is worth at least 15 other scholarship players.
Apparently, Matt Barkley is a 15-cow quarterback. Baylor and Stanford
may find out this year how many cows are out of their barns this season when
they have to line up and play without Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck.
If you are wondering why the first three items above were all about BYU
quarterbacks, it is because BYU’s football fortunes always have and
always will be about how “Lingoed” up the Cougars are at
quarterback.
As the “cow factor” at quarterback at BYU rises, the
losses in any particular season lessen.
Last year Riley Nelson was probably three cows better than Jake Heaps
in Lingo lexicon. He will need to have beefed up his bovine resume by at least
another two cows if BYU is to get through the tough road schedule ahead of
them.
O’Neill Chambers and Joshua
Quezada…The news that O’Neill Chambers and Josh
Quezada wouldn’t be back on the BYU team this fall hit me like a ton of
clothes dryer lint.
Quezada’s exit from the team was his decision. Chamber’s
latest attempt to rejoin the team was nixed my Bronco Mendenhall, who said that
Chambers was not currently in good standing with the program.
Neither was going to play or make an impact. I saw each play enough for
at least two seasons. They were both victims of recruiting hype.
They came into the program proclaimed as the next Jerry Rice and Walter
Payton. They left, at best, as two journeymen squad members.
Jamaal Williams…Welcome
Walter Payton. See, we can roll out the recruiting hype with the best of them.
Williams is the latest can’t miss BYU prospect. He signed out of
Summit HS in
Based on the excitement of BYU offensive coaches and video we have seen
of him, Williams is the real deal.
Walter Payton he isn’t and won’t be. If he stays healthy,
Williams, at 6-2, 200 plus pounds, could be a Pac 10 caliber feature back that
BYU hasn’t had since Luke Staley.
Get, Got and Gut…If
you continue to do what you have always done, you will always get what you
always got.
That describes my love affair with Dr. Pepper and Doritos. The two have
always been at the top of my basic food groups. Consequently, what I got and
still have is a gut.
For years, I rationalized my gut with the fact that I resembled a BYU
offensive lineman.
Those days are over. Not the Dr. Pepper and Doritos, but the gut. Not
mine, but those of BYU linemen.
BYU has hired a nutritionist, contracted with a cutting edge strength
and conditioning group and gone gutless this season.
BYU linemen in particular and BYU football players in general, have
lowered their body fat significantly since Bronco Mendenhall instituted this
new program over the summer.
Lean is good, but we still are wondering who will be able to block Star
Lotulelei of
Kicking…Last
season, BYU’s place kicking game, was marginal, at best. Between Justin
Sorensen and Riley Stephenson, both of whom are on the roster again this
season,
BYU converted 15 of 25 attempted field goals. That’s a 60 percent
conversion rate.
Those numbers in the NFL will get you fired.
Here are the field goal stats for the top 5 ranked teams that ended
last year at the top of the AP poll.
With a much tougher schedule this season and an almost too tough
schedule for 2013, the Cougars will need an improved kicking game if they want
to be competitive against a better class of opponents that know how to play
defense.
Jordan Johnson…Bronco
Mendenhall has a proven track record as a defensive coordinator of stopping the
run. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that when BYU takes away the ground game, teams have to
go to the air.
That means that Jordan Johnson, the sophomore field corner from
Johnson will be tested early against Mike Leach and
2012 Schedule…It’s
hard to see BYU going undefeated with the following schedule. It’s also
hard to see them losing 4 games. Make your own call.
Aug 30, Thursday,
Sep 8, Saturday, Weber
State at
Sep 15, Saturday,
Sep 20, Thursday,
Sep 28, Friday,
Oct 5, Friday,
Oct 13, Saturday,
Oct 20, Saturday, Notre Dame
at South Bend
Oct 27, Saturday, Georgia Tech
at
Nov 10, Saturday,
Nov 17, Saturday,
Nov 24, Saturday, New
2013 Schedule…Tom
Holmoe said that the November schedule would be getting better after the first
two years of independence in football.
He may be biting off more than he can chew, but he certainly has
started to make good on his original promise when it comes to scheduling. Here
is the 2013 schedule as it sits now. There are still plenty of TBA’s to
be TBAed in order to complete the schedule.
9/7…..Texas in
9/21…
10/4…
10/12…Georgia Tech
at
10/19....Houston at
11/9…..Wisconsin at
11/23…Notre Dame at
12/7…..Hawaii at
Timpview Twosome…The
local high school just north of campus is giving back to BYU two pretty good
players.
Craig Bills and Bronson Kaufusi are both back from LDS missions.
Kaufusi is a likely candidate to redshirt, but should make an impact next
season on the defensive line. He is an extremely gifted athlete.
Bills saw action as a true freshman and will see even more action in
the secondary for Bronco Mendenhall this season. He is already making noise in
fall camp with his play.
Football Fluff and Stuff… Devin
Mahina, the sophomore tight end, will miss at least 3-4 weeks after breaking
his hand last week. It must be a BYU tight end thing because Dennis Pitta, the
former great Cougar tight end, also broke his hand last week in the Baltimore
Ravens’ camp. He is expected to miss 5-6 weeks.
You might remember that Mahina, missed all of last season after
cracking a vertebrae in his neck during last fall’s camp. What BYU has
missed the last two seasons is Pitta himself. With just one good hand, he is
still better than any of the five or six tight ends in BYU’s fall camp
this year.
Cody Hoffman and Joe Sampson, both have missed a couple of days of
practice due to “team discipline issues”, according to Bronco
Mendenhall. That brings up why and what happened. The more salient question
should be when. As in when they get back, both will be key guys needed for the
Cougars to have a big year.
Television Timetable
BYU vs.
Thursday, Aug 30 at
Kickoff: 8:15 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPN
BYU vs.
Saturday, Sep 8 at
Kickoff: 1:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, Sep 15 at
Kickoff: 8:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPN2
BYU vs.
Thursday, Sep 20 at
Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPN