HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
801
372 0819
hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission
Vol. 28,
Issue 11, October 15, 2007
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We Love
It When History Helps And We Only Have To Cut And Paste
As it says at the
top of this week's newsletter, this is our eleventh issue of the current
publishing year. It will cover the football game played last Saturday, Oct. 13
between BYU and UNLV.
Don't ask us how
or why, but before we even started to write this week's issue early this
morning, we accidentally accessed our eleventh issue of 2005. It reported on
the BYU vs. CSU game played on Oct 15 of that year.
It was a Twilight
Zone moment.
Reading what we
wrote almost exactly two years ago was eerie and made this week's writing easy.
At least for a few
paragraphs, all we had to do was cut and paste the name of Max Hall for John
Beck and Harvey Unga for Curtis Brown. We didn't even have to alter the score.
Both games were 24-14 wins for the Cougars.
The original was
written during Bronco Mendenhall's first year as BYU's head coach. It was a
season in which he finished with a 6-6 record and furnished big promises of
future success.
Based on the
context of two games almost exactly two years apart and the identical scores,
we think this gives a good barometer on Bronco and his ability to back up what
he promised.
Here is an excerpt
of what we wrote in 2005. We only had to add a few different names and
statistics.
PATIENCE AND POUNDING THE FOOTBALL PRODUCE 24-14 WIN OVER
CSU (UNLV)
The perception of BYU as a passing football team is not inaccurate. There have
been enough numbers put up this season by John Beck (Max Hall) and company to
validate that assessment.
In
BYU's 24-14 win over
Somewhere in that alliteration you also need to add patience.
Behind the 31 (25) carries for 147 (177) yards and two (one) touchdown of
Curtis Brown (Harvey Unga) and the 274 (227) yards rushing the ball put up by
the BYU ground game, the Cougars literally pounded the Rams (Rebels) into
submission and their first (second) conference loss of the season.
BYU now improves to 3-3 (4-2) on the year and 2-2 (3-0) in conference play.
The Cougar football team (2005) is a lot like living in
Living in
BYU's sudden surge of 2 consecutive wins doesn't mean that that the football
program (2005) has revived itself to its former level of success, but at least
now we can catch a glimpse of the end that Bronco Mendenhall continue to say he
has in mind for this team.
Improving
It is obvious that both the team and coaching staff are improving. We were
pleasantly surprised that the coaches had the patience to stick with the
running game. We were also delighted to see that the runnig game could be
executed so consistently and proficiently.
The play of Brown (Unga) and his running mate Fahu Tahi (Manase
The ground game produced early and often and more importantly, they produced
late and under pressure, when first downs and touchdowns were needed to secure
the win.
As good as BYU ground game was, however, a little caveat is in order.
BYU still needs to be able to pass the football, because the numbers against
CSU (UNLV) should not be used to judge how BYU will rush the ball against other
teams.
Okay, let's fast
forward two years to the UNLV victory last Saturday night.
The Cougars were
on the verge of a major computer crash against UNLV. They had turned the ball
over three times in the first half and were nursing a 7-6 lead at the
intermission.
When a passing and
pass protection program isn't working properly, it is time to shut it down and
reboot in a safe mode.
That is exactly
what BYU offensive coaches did in the second half.
The restarted the
offensive program in a safe mode. It allowed the offensive tackles of BYU to be
able to retreat and forget the fact that they haven't been able to handle any
speed rusher they have seen this year.
Instead, they were
able to play to their strengths instead of their weaknesses and start pushing
people off the line of scrimmage and opening huge holes for BYU running backs
to run through.
The running game
employed by BYU in the final two quarters also gave Max Hall some time to
reboot.
The redshirt
sophomore has been extremely good for his first season, but even the home-town
honks would have to acknowledge that he struggled throwing the ball against Vegas.
He was 21-33 for
just 214 yards and one touchdown. More poignantly, he had three picks, all of
which cost the Cougars three scores.
Hall has now
thrown 8 interceptions on the year. More are on the way. Don't panic. We didn't
write this, but we did find it in the statistical archives of BYU football.
Ty Detmer threw 28
intercetions in 1990. Steve Young had 18 picks in 1982. Robbie Bosco was
intercepted 24 times in 1985.
Don't expect Hall
to be anywhere near that neighborhood this season. The difference is that he
has a running game to bail him out when the passing is not as pure as it should
be.
While the Cougar
running game garnered the headlines in this win for BYU, it was the defense
that did the dirty work that went mostly unnoticed.
UNLV was having
success this season running the ball with their talented back Frank Summers
gaining 100 plus yards in each of his last three games.
BYU put a stop to
that streak, holding Summers to just 50 yards on 13 carries.
Taking a step back
to what we wrote before, in Vol. 27, Issue 34 which was published after one
week of spring football this past April, here is what we said about Unga.
A lot of names have surfaced in this first week as potential
running back candidates for the fall.
They are all just background noise. Harvey Unga, who is still being held out of
full contact, will be the primary ball carrier for the BYU offense this coming
fall.
Most people have no idea just how good he is. He will be a redshirt freshman.
His size to speed ratio is outstanding. He is the real deal.
In case you forgot, he was injured his hip against
All of which made us shiver when we saw him on some special teams situations
this past week.
Trust us that won't last long.
Despite what transpires during the next few weeks of spring drills, when fall
comes around and BYU lines up against the Wildcats of Arizona on Sep 1 in
Provo, Unga will be on his way to becoming BYU's leading rusher for the 2007
season.
For those keeping
track, Unga is on track to be a 1000-yard rusher for the Cougars this year.
At the mid way
point of the season with six games played and another six yet to be contested,
Unga has rushed for 539 yards on 110 carries. He is averaging 89.8 yards per
game and 4.9 yards per rush.
With the win over
UNLV, BYU has solidified its role as MWC front runner and the odds on favorite
to repeat as league champ.
They are currently
4-2 overall and 3-0 in league play.
EWU
Better Than A Bye
No disrespect to
the Eastern Washington Eagles. They will be in town this Saturday afternoon to
face BYU in LaVell Edwards Stadium.
They are playing
well and hold a 4-2 record. They are averaging 34 points per game and putting
up almost 500 yards of offense per contest.
Their two losses
have been by a total of 8 points. In one of those losses to
They are a balanced
offense and seem to move the ball well passing and running.
The point we want
to make is that EWU is a good Division I-AA team.
To be more
accurate, they are a good Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team.
Based on BYU's current
three-game winning streak against MWC opponents, the Cougars appear to be a
pretty decent Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) club.
There is a huge
difference between the two classifications and it should be readily apparent on
Saturday when the two teams collide.
It was just a few
weeks ago that Appalachian State, another I-AA or FCS team shocked
Don't expect a
repeat of that upset in
EWU doesn't have
the kind of team speed that Appalachian State displayed against the Wolverines.
For BYU this game
is better than a bye.
It is the best of
both worlds for Bronco Mendenhall. He can play his first units on both sides of
the ball for two quarters to allow them to stay sharp and work on specific
aspects of their game that he deems necessary.
He can even rest
and not play personnel that are still dinged up.
Best of all, he
should get the chance to play second and third unit players for at least two
quarters and reward them for their hard work all fall. It will allow him to
acknowledge those players for their full investment in the program with a
payout in playing time.
We will let you
call the score on this one because nobody knows how many minutes BYU starters
will log or how intensely BYU backups will play.
We will simply
call it a BYU win.
The only way the
Cougars lose in this one is if a key player goes down with an injury.
FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF
In the past we
have criticized Bryce Mahuika for a non-descript career as a kick and punt
returner. He was anything but non-descript last Saturday against UNLV.
He had his
career-best outing against the Rebels. He returned four kickoffs for 104 yards
and put the Cougars in good field position on each kick.
UNLV punted five
times during the game, but Mahuika fielded just one for a fair catch.
C.J. Santiago and
BYU punted just once during the contest. The punt was 37 yards.
There certainly
weren't any style points awarded for BYU's field goal and point after attempts.
All were
successfully made by Mitch Payne, but they were anything but artistic or
airborne.
We still maintain
that the BYU kicking game at its present level, will likely cost the Cougars a
win this season.
As good as Harvey
Unga has proved to be this season, he may end up hurting BYU in the recruitment
of running backs this season.
If you were
somebody like Sausan Shakerin, whom BYU has offered, would you want to come and
play for a team that will have a premier and go-to back for the next three
seasons?
That is why the
Adam Timo’s early commitment is so valuable. The junior tailback from
Snow Canyon HS in St. George has already said that he will be signing with the
Cougars in 2009. That puts a minimum of two years between Timo and Unga in
eligibility.
Throw in a
redshirt year for Timo and a potential LDS mission and the two talented
tailbacks could never even cross paths at BYU. Timo rushed for over 200 yards
in each of his last two games.
We should have
never said never. That is what we thought about Matangi
It now appears
that if all goes well for the sophomore defensive tackle, he will be back on
the Cougar roster this coming January.
GLOSSY
IS GOOD, BUT BEATING
Sooner or later,
the message is received by all BYU coaches. Regardless of how you paint your
program, you eventually have to prove that you can beat
For the most part,
when it comes to coaching, we have laid off the women's side of the BYU
athletic equation.
Now it is
time to take on soccer.
Let's start with
the positives. BYU has established a very good women's soccer program.
They are
perennially a contender for the league title and almost annually get an invite
to the NCAA post season tournament.
The coach,
Jennifer Rockwood, has an amazing coaching record. She is currently 204-62-20
in her career at BYU. She has earned many conference and national accolades for
her program. She almost always has her team nationally ranked.
You can't ask for
more.
Well actually you
can.
You can ask that
she beat
Manning was hired
at
Even when it
appears that BYU has superior talent, they can't whip the Manning coached Utes.
In six seasons
Manning is 4-2-1 against the Cougars. In the last three years, he has not lost
to BYU.
The latest loss
came in
It only took
Bronco Mendenhall one loss to
Dave Rose figured
it out very early in basketball.
Since Manning took
over the Utes five years ago, maybe it is time BYU administrators and fans
finally started to pay attention to how he has manhandled the Cougars.
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Saturday, Oct. 20 at
Kickoff: 3:30 Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn
BYU vs.
Saturday, Oct. 27 at
Kickoff: 7:30 Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov. 3 at
Kickoff: Noon Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn