HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> .com 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 30, Issue 14 - November 9, 2009 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions BYU 52 Wyoming 0 COUGARS OUTSCORE COWBOYS, BUT NOT WEATHER BYU totally dominated Wyoming last Saturday afternoon in War Memorial Stadium in Laramie. The Cougars scored on their first-seven possessions while jumping out to a 31-0 halftime lead before calling off the dogs en route to a 52-0 win. Max Hall was spectacular. So was the BYU running game. The Cougar defense shutout the Cowboys and looked dominant in doing it. Don't you hate it when there is nothing to criticize after a BYU football game? Wait, as certified Cougar curmudgeons, we finally found something critical to say. Bronco Mendenhall and the Cougars couldn't outscore the game-time temperature in Laramie. According to the national weather service, it was 54 degrees at kickoff. LaVell Edwards and Gary Crowton never had that problem. Winning in Wyoming didn't always happen for the two previous coaches, but you could at least count on them to out score the wind-chill factor. Don't let Mendenhall's 5-0 record against Wyoming fool you. Until he can beat global warming in Laramie, he has a long way to go. Perfection And don't let Max Hall's 20-of-22 for 312 yards and 4 touchdowns fool you either. When is he going to learn that if you want to be considered as a BYU quarterback great, you need to complete all of your passes. Max Hall threw two incomplete passes against the Pokes. He now only has three more games in the regular season to achieve the perfection fans expect of him. What's with Robert Anae? Doesn't he understand the game?. All good pitchers understand the importance of a good change up. It keeps hitters off balance. You just can't throw fastballs all the time. A fastball is all Anae and his offense threw the Pokes. Trust us, scoring on seven straight possessions will come back to kill you. Good hitters and coaches will eventually catch up to the fastball if it is all you have. Good offensive coordinators would have thrown in an occasional change up with a three-and-out, and a few punts. It keeps opponents off balance. Anae may think that racking up 52 points and punting only once while amassing 231 yards of rushing and 312 yards passing for 543 yards of offense is good, but the real Cougar cognoscenti know better (sorry, but if Todd Christensen can use cognoscenti in his broadcast, we have no problem borrowing it). Played Well? Jaime Hill and his BYU defense may think they played well by holding Wyoming to just 13 first downs, no points, 225 yards and picking off two passes, but they are no Utah. The Utes showed how real defenses play Wyoming when they held the Cowboys to 202 yards, 12 first downs and 10 points two weeks ago. Despite the same numbers, we all know that BYU is bad and Utah is good. We will be glad when we can get back to criticizing the Cougars for real next week. That might be hard because next week is 0-9 New Mexico in Albuquerque. Just wait, we will be proven right. BYU is not as good as they looked against Wyoming. We fully expect to see the Cougars punt twice against the Lobos. We call it BYU 42 UNM 21. NUMBERS TELL THE TALE You can tell a BYU blowout by the numbers. The most obvious tell is the scoreboard: 52-0. That is what showed in Laramie last Saturday as BYU defeated Wyoming. If you were at the game, the second biggest tell of the BYU blowout was how often you had to refer to the game program in the fourth quarter. There were players for BYU seeing time that seldom, if ever, see the field. Before the scoreboard ballooned to its final tally, 10:10 was a pretty good tell of what was happening. That was the time left in the third quarter when the Wyoming faithful headed for the exits and I-80. If you didn't see the game, know the score and only heard the post-game comments, 27 is a telling number. That is how many times the words execution, preparation and passion were used by Cougar players and coaches. Actually, on second thought, that isn't that great of tell because those same words preceded by "lack of" were heard in the two games this season in which BYU was blown out. Good Tell Riley Nelson's numbers are also a good tell. The backup quarterback took 17 snaps in this game. That means the Mendenhall mercy rule was in effect early with Max Hall going to the bench in the middle of the third quarter. Part II of the mercy rule was also in effect. That was when third-unit qb Brenden Gaskins replaced Nelson and promptly took a knee three times. The Cougars, Cowboys and Cumberland all used in the same sentence is a good tell. In addition to alliteration, those three C's also are indicative of a blowout. Cumberland was defeated by Georgia Tech 222-0 in 1916. It is the most lopsided score in NCAA football history. In the last three seasons, the BYU-Wyoming cumulative score is 186-17. Throw in the 55-7 spanking in 2006 and when it comes to playing BYU, Wyoming may want to consider a nickname change to the "Cumberland Cowboys". We can explain the BYU-Wyoming discrepancy. BYU is pretty good and Wyoming isn't. Explanation This may be a good time to explain the 222-0 Georgia Tech-Cumberland discrepancy. It isn't Cougar related, but thanks to Wikipedia, we found it interesting and wanted to share. Cumberland College, a school in Lebanon, Tennessee, had discontinued its football program before the season but was not allowed to cancel its game against the Engineers. The fact that Cumberland's baseball team had crushed Georgia Tech earlier that year 22-0 (amidst allegations that Cumberland used professionals as ringers) probably accounted for Georgia Tech coach John Heisman' running up the score on the Bulldogs. He insisted on the schools' scheduling agreement, which required Cumberland to pay $3,000 (a big sum in those days) to Tech if its football team failed to show. So, George E. Allen (who was elected to serve as Cumberland's football team student manager after first serving as the baseball team student manager) put together a scrub team of 14 men (including some of his fraternity brothers) to travel to Atlanta as Cumberland's football team. MARRIAGE COUNSELING I have been married 33 years. During that time, I have received a lot of marriage advice. Some of it came from books, seminars, ecclesiastical instruction and even a few hints from my wife. The best marriage advice I have ever received, however, came several years ago from my heating and air conditioning guy while he was repairing my furnace. He told me his rule for a successful marriage: "I would rather be happy than right". Trust me. It is a sound matrimonial philosophy. It also can apply to coaches and their relationship with their fan base. It is my opinion, based on observation and the words of Bronco Mendenhall, that he considers the Cougar fan base as a necessary nuisance and requirement of his job description. For a guy who continually professes that he never reads the paper or listens to sports shows, he certainly is well aware of what the BYU fans say and think about him. Like a lot of misguided husbands, he also wants to have the last word when it comes to those fans. There is no question that fans are usually uninformed, uneducated and just plain unrealistic in their expectations of BYU football. Bronco has said so many times. He is subtle and sophisticated in how he couches those comments, but it is obvious that is how he feels. It still rankles him that he was booed in his first game of his career. Blame it on Al Gore. Since he invented the internet, he has turned up the heat and inanity from fans towards coaches. Bronco is a good coach, but if he wants to be a happy coach, we suggest he call our heating and air conditioning guy. It is better to be happy than right in marriage and dealing with a fan base. QUARTERBACK QUEUE Max Hall...With the Wyoming win, Hall now has won 28 games as the qb starter for BYU. He is one more win away from matching Ty Detmer who currently holds the record for wins by a BYU quarterback. Riley Nelson...Rushed for 71 yards on just 10 carries against Wyoming. BYU receivers should be excited for next year. Nelson will mean that opposing defensive coordinators will have to account for him running the ball. That means one less defender for wide receivers and tight ends to deal with. James Lark and Jason Munns...Returning from LDS missions for next season. Jake Heaps...Now in the state playoffs, Heaps threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in a 42-0 blowout of Kendtridge. Tanner Mangum..Season is over for the sophomore from Timberline HS in Boise. Alex Kuresa...He threw four touchdowns and ran it in for another while completing 23-of-31 passes for 407 yards in a quarterfinal state playoff 48-7 win over Highland. This week it will be a semifinal game against Timpview. BIG WEEK FOR BYU BASKETBALL BYU will kick off its basketball season for real this Friday in the Marriott Center when they face the Bradley Braves. The Jim Les coached team will be a pretty good barometer for BYU basketball. The Braves are coming off a 21-15 record from last season and also will get a boost from the return of their best player and athlete on the team coming back from a redshirt year. Andrew Warren is a 6-5 guard who missed last season due to a broken foot. BYU is coming off an easy exhibition win over Trinity Western last week. The Cougars defeated the Canadian team 74-56 and were lead by Jimmer Fredette's 24 points. Before facing Bradley, Dave Rose and his team will play another exhibition Tuesday night against Central Washington. Signing Two The following day, Wednesday, is the early letter of intent signing day for basketball. You can't win without talented players and BYU will be signing at least two. More on that later. Meanwhile, here is how we see BYU basketball shaking out this season. They have the makings of a very good team with Jimmer Fredette and Jonathan Tavernari both returning. Fredette will be the go-to guy this season and be counted on to make the big shot in big games. It is well documented that BYU is expected to be good with the big cast of returners who have experience. Going from a very good team to a great team, will be decided by how the boys from Provo and Page play and the points in the paint they provide. Great teams have an inside presence. Just ask the Utah Jazz. When Trent Plaisted and Rafael Araujo produced, BYU was almost unbeatable. The problem with the post play of BYU over the years, however, is that, in our opinion, the play has been inconsistent or non-existent. Provo and Page That is where Provo and Page will need to produce this season. BYU's hope for a post presence will have to come from senior Chris Miles, freshman Brandon Davies, both from Provo and James Anderson, a junior from Page, AZ. Miles has the body to bang at this level, but if he hasn't shown any consistent offensive game in his first three years, we shouldn't expect that to change this season. Anderson will have his moments, but is not the post presence needed to take BYU from good to great. Brandon Davies is too new and too raw to make any immediate impact, but he is also very athletic and talented. One of the raps on the BYU coaching staff over the years is that they don't have a coach that can develop post players. We will finally see if that is really true because with Davies, they have an unmolded, but extremely talented post player. If BYU is going to be making the next step from good to great anytime soon, it will be because Davies develops and becomes the post presence that BYU needs. It will be a very good season, with just enough glimpses of good post play to keep the hope for greatness alive. BYU WILL SIGN AT LEAST TWO Dave Rose and his staff will sign at least two new basketball recruits on Wednesday during the early letter of intent signing period. The big fish is still Kyle Collinsworth, the 6-7 multi-talented guard from Provo High School. BYU has had him targeted as their top recruit for the past three years. His outside shot could still use some work, but despite not looking extremely athletic, he can get to the basket whenever he wants. This is a big get for the BYU program. Anson Winder is a guy we first mentioned a few weeks back. He is a 6-3 guard from Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. After watching a little video, our first assessment is that he is a stronger and more athletic version of former Cougar guard Luis Lemes. We will have more details and bios on these two latest recruits after they officially sign later this week. We also still expect BYU to sign another junior college player, but think that signing and scholarship will be held until next April and the spring signing period. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. Central Washington Tue, Nov 10 at Provo (exhibition game) Tipoff: 7:30 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUTV (live) BYU vs. Bradley Fri, Nov 13 at Provo Tipoff: 7:30 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn BYU vs. New Mexico Saturday, Nov 14 at Albuquerque Kickoff: Noon Mountain Time TV: The Mtn BYU vs. Air Force Saturday, Nov 21 at Provo Kickoff: 1:30 pm Mountain Time TV: CBS C BYU vs. Utah Saturday, Nov 28 at Provo Kickoff: 3:00 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn and CBS C