HB Arnett’s
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West 800 South –
Vol. 33,
Issue 5 – August 31, 2012
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TOO MUCH
RILEY! REALLY?
BYU laid a 30-6 licking on Mike Leach and his Washington State Cougars
Thursday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The high flying and high profile offensive guru of a coach hasn’t
been in hiding during the last two years while out of coaching. He probably now
wishes he had opted for the Witness Protection program instead of Wazzu.
The last two years have been spent diving in
Depose this.
BYU dominated WSU in all phases of the game, except pre-game hype and
hope from WSU fans and media.
The Cougar (BYU) defense was spectacular. The BYU offense was good and
will get better. That is a scary thought. The kicking game is still
questionable in my mind and the running game can use some refining, but it was
a big win anyway you cut it.
Offensively, the BYU blue Cougars accounted for 426 yards of offense
and three touchdowns. The BYU defense stifled and stuffed the Wazzu offense by
holding them to 224 yards.
When it comes to Riley Nelson and his quarterback play, not only
against WSU, but last year, we take our tone and tenor from that trial lawyer
who famously said “If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit.”
Nelson has acquitted himself extremely well. We may not think he has
the grand gloves of a big time throwing quarterback. We may not think that he
will survive the physical beatings he takes. Like those infamous gloves, Nelson
doesn’t fit the prototypical BYU quarterback mold. All he does is win and
make plays.
He is the gloves and gears of BYU’s offense. I cringe along with
all other fans every time he takes off and lowers his head and find myself
muttering to myself; “He won’t last four games.”
That’s why I’m taking my gloves off and discarding the
Johnny Cochrane mantra of ill-fitting mittens for the Austin Collie mantra of:
“Magic Happens”.
Give Nelson the ball. Let him do what he does best and make plays. Turn
him loose to be the leader of the parade and this season.
If this is going to be a magical season, Nelson will wield the wand and
keep getting up from the mayhem, chaos and collisions that he seems destined to
take.
Having Nelson reel in his competitive and playmaking nature isn’t
the answer. We saw the alternative to Nelson and his style of play early last
year.
It didn’t work. Nelson is.
Too much Nelson is a good thing, no matter how much it makes us cringe
when we see it. As long as he is wearing the gloves that could have the Cougars
gliding to a magical season, in my book he is guilty and as good as gold
bullion in the BYU bank.
NAMES AND GAMES
Last Weekend It was this
guy…Luke Worthington, 6-9, 240, Homestead HS, Mequon,
WI…Dave Rose and his staff had Worthington on campus last weekend for an
official visit.
This Weekend, It was These
Guys…Jabari Parker, the 6-8 LDS phenom from Chicago was
back on the BYU campus for another unofficial visit on Thursday. You might
remember that he was here two weeks ago for a short visit with BYU admission
officials and
Also in for the game and official recruiting visits were Lone Peak HS
teammates and top 100 ranked national players, Nick Emery and Eric Mika. While
both have been committed to the Cougars for some time now, they got the same
regal treatment as Parker and all other top tier targets that Rose recruits.
Keilani Unga, the
6-2 forward, is back on the BYU’s women’s basketball roster. Her
husband, Harvey Unga, was cut by the Chicago Bears, last Monday. That is when
we noticed her back on the official roster. The Unga’s have two children.
With the graduation of Kristen Riley, Jeff Judkins needs more size and an
inside scoring presence. That is what Unga will provide. The addition of Unga
also may explain why Alexis Kaufusi was not retained on scholarship. You may
remember that story. Kaufusi, who was in remission from cancer, was given a
medical waiver which would allow her to continue to have her education paid
for, but she wanted to play her last season. She was not going to see the court
at BYU and instead will finish her eligibility at
Family Trees…Before
she was Keilani Unga, she was Keilani Moeaki. She had two brothers play
football for BYU and a third brother, Tony Moeaki, play for
Mike Leach, the head coach of
Questions Answered…It
was Forrest Gump who said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what
you are going to get. Same with football and first games. There were some
questions and now we know some of the answers.
Taysom Hill
is not going to redshirt and you can see that BYU offensive coaches are going
to get him groomed for next season. Any production and big plays in that
grooming process will be a bonus.
Bronson Kaufusi
is not redshirting. For a guy who never showed up on the depth chart released
earlier this week and for a guy who just arrived home from
Jamaal Williams
is not redshirting. If this was the NFL, BYU should put the franchise tag on
this kid. He saw only mop up action, but he will have to see more than that if
the Cougars are going to reach their aspirations. See below for why.
The Running Game against
WSU was okay, but not good enough to beat quality defenses. What’s not to
like about 123 yards rushing? Plenty. Against good defenses and in games that
are going to be about field position and time of possession and running the
clock to maintain a slim lead, it has to get better, especially between the
tackles.
Most of BYU’s rushing yards came off play action or change
of pace action. When the Cougars lined up in a double tight end formation with
a fullback in front of a tailback and tried to run the ball between the
tackles, they were average. We like Michael Alisa and David Foote. They both
produced against WSU. But neither has proven yet that they are great at running
the ball for tough short yardage when the defense knows they are coming right
at them.
It is way too early to say that Jamaal Williams can do that, but in his
cameo appearance, he showed me that he may be the feature type back that can
break big plays and also move the chains with tough yards between the tackles.
When the Cougar offensive line gets down in a three-point stance and
Nelson is under center and Alisa or Foote are lined up deep behind a fullback,
yards in the running game are still scarce.
Did we mention that a good between-the-tackles run game will also take
away the beatings that Riley Nelson will have to endure this season. Teams are
going to go after him. He won’t back down. That means that something has
to give and most likely it will be the health of Nelson.
Pac-12 Referees…When
the announcing crew makes it a point to pontificate about the officiating crew
being from the Pac-12 after questionable calls, it says plenty about their
performance. In fact, on several series they seemed to even be a cut below the
current and controversial NFL replacement refs.
On both WSU scoring drives that ended in field goals, they were the WSU
Cougars’ offense. WSU’s first field goal was a 10 play drive of 57
yards of which 30 yards were two back-to-back 15-yard personal fouls on
BYU’s Joe Sampson and Jordan Johnson. I admit I am a little biases but it
appeared that the officiating crew also had a Pac 12 bias. I will always feel
that way based on how they hosed
The second scoring drive also came in the second quarter for the WSU
Cougars. It was a 46 yard drive that ended in a field goal. Of those 46 yards,
27 were the result of a very, very questionable 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct
penalty against Spencer Hadley and a cheesy hand to the face mask call against
Ziggy Ansah.
I admit my bias. It is real, as real as some of the biased or botched
calls of this Pac-12 crew.
BYU connected football players at
Utah or Utah State…There was an interesting piece in
the Deseret
News a few days ago detailing LDS returned missionaries playing football
and D-1 schools. We found it interesting how many BYU connected players are
playing elsewhere. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have a daughter attending
Cash For Clunkers…It
was just a while back that the government had a program designed to take old
gas guzzlers off the road. The official name of the program was The Car
Allowance Rebate System (CARS), but quickly became known as "Cash for
Clunkers".
It was a $3 billion
A study published after the program by researchers at the
Based on what
One game doesn’t make a trend or break the bank, but when Mike
Leach was hired by WSU athletic director Bill Moos, he put Leach on the payroll
for $2.25 million per year. That works out to be $187,500 per game that Leach
earns on a 12-game schedule.
Broken down farther, that works out to be $46,875 per quarter.
Do you think Moos and WSU fans and boosters thought they got their
money’s worth last night? We think not when taken in context of the
previous WSU coach, Paul Wulff, who was costing a lot less and producing
more. The final year of Wulff’s employment last season, his team
was averaging 30 plus points per game and over 400 yards per outing of offense.
He was hired at $600,000 per annum and in his fourth and final season was
making $827,500.
From what we can gather, BYU’s Bronco is making a lot less than
Leach and probably a little more than Wulff was when he was let go. Again, it is
only one game, but BYU’s seems to be getting plenty of Bronco Bang for
their Bucks.
Both Mendenhall and Leach have their quirks, especially in how they
deal with the media. Leach has marketed himself into a millionaire with his
quirkiness. But for all the supposed offensive genius of Leach, Mendenhall has
proven that he is on par or above Leach on the other side of the line of
scrimmage.
If Mendenhall had a better PR guy and the goal of gathering a boat load
of money, he would already have the label of a defensive guru. What he does
with scheme and execution with mostly ordinary defensive players is remarkable
in my opinion. What he appears to be doing with some real athletes on his side
this season, should be interesting and entertaining.
FLUFF AND STUFF
Robbie Buckner, the senior cornerback, was a late addition to the
football roster despite having lettered and been on the team for years. His
absence was originally explained as a private matter.
That matter turned out to be testicular cancer that was diagnosed in
late spring. He is now in remission and back on the squad. He also saw the
field in a back up role to Jordan Johnson against WSU. His recovery and return
to the team is great news on two fronts. His health is improved and his return
to action gives BYU some much needed and quality depth at cornerback.
Two more defensive backs and returned missionaries are now on the team.
They both transferred from other schools. Drew Reilly is here after starting
for
On the injury front, there appears to be no serious issues coming out
of the
Ditto for Ian Dulan. He is still nursing a back injury and another week
out of action against
Ziggy Ansah suffered a shoulder strain against WSU, but returned to
action later in the contest and will be good to go against the Wildcats of
Weber.
The BYU Women’s soccer team rebounded from their 1-0 loss to
Television Timetable
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
BYU vs.
Friday, Sep 28 at
Kickoff: 6:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPN
BYU vs.
Friday, Oct 5 at
Kickoff: 8:15 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPN