HB Arnett’s
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Vol. 29,
Issue 26 – January 26, 2009
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BYU
SPLITS HOME GAMES WITH UNLV AND SDSU
It was a second
half meltdown that led to an unexpected 76-70 loss to UNLV last week in the
Despite those
chinks and thanks to a subsequent 77-71 win over
Heading into the
third week of conference action, six of the nine league teams all have two
losses. That includes UNLV at 4-2, TCU 4-2, BYU 3-2, SDSU 3-2,
With
The game against
UNLV was bizarre as BYU blitzed the Rebels and almost ran them off the court in
the first twenty minutes of action.
The Cougars held a
13-point lead at intermission, but went stone cold from the field for most of the
second half.
That extended dray
spell and BYU's inability to get any production from the paint spelled defeat
for BYU.
Tavernari
Jonathan Tavernari
led all Cougars with 21 points. Jimmer Fredette had 19 points and Lee Cummard,
who was held scoreless in the second half, finished with 10 points. While
Tavernari had 21 points, it took 22 shots for the Brazilian junior to get those
points.
BYU's big men,
Chris Miles and Gavin MacGregor were non existent in this game.
It was an renewed emphasis
by Dave Rose to get more involvement from the BYU big guys that helped the
Cougars salvage a home split. That split came thanks to a 77-71 win over
Despite 14 points
from the triumvirate of Miles, MacGregor and James Anderson, it still took a
clutch three pointer from Jonathan Tavernari with just 1:30 in the game to seal
the win.
From that point
on, it was a matter of the Cougars making free throws.
The renewed
emphasis on post play will get a severe test on Tuesday against Luke Nevill and
the Utes.
Player
of the Year
Nevill is on track
to be the league player of the year. He is having a big year and a big impact
on games.
We expect the same
against BYU. We don't see any way BYU can contain the 7-1 Australian.
As
Unless Dave Rose
can find a way to negate Nevill on both ends of the court, we look for more
Cougar ordinary against the Utes.
The spotty play in
the post for BYU will do one of several things for the future.
It will put more
of a spotlight on Brandon Davies, the 6-10 post from Provo HS. He was one of
three local post players to be signed early in November.
The other two,
Nate Austin of Lone Peak HS and Ian Harward of Orem HS, both will serve LDS
missions before enrolling.
That means that
any needed post help BYU and Dave Rose needs for next year will have to come
from Davies or the junior college ranks.
Finding good post
players at the juco scene is very hard to do. That leaves Davies as the next
best option for improving post play at BYU for next year.
We will be paying
closer attention to him now and you can bet that BYU coaches will be the same.
FOOTBALL
FLUFF AND STUFF
BOWL GAME TV RATINGS...In real estate
it is all about location, location, location. In television, it is all about
viewers, viewers, viewers, which in turn, more often than not, translates into
money, money, money.
Those college
football teams that generate the most viewers, consistently make the most
money.
Here are some of
the viewership numbers from this past bowl season compiled by Nielsen TV
Ratings Data.
It is interesting
to see how BYU fared in TV viewership in their Pioneer Bowl matchup with
The number of
viewers is affected by what medium the game is shown, when it is shown and with
whom you are matched up. For example, the Texas Bowl which pitted Rice and
The BCS
Championship game was shown on FOX and drew almost 27 million viewers. The Rose
Bowl was on ABC and had 20 plus million viewers.
To more accurately
compare BYU's television numbers from their bowl appearance which was televised
on ESPN, we will compare those numbers only with other bowl games that were
broadcast by the same network.
As mentioned
earlier, the date, time and opponent are all in the mix, but we found the
numbers interesting. Maybe you will too.
BYU vs.
The Poinsettia
Bowl, with TCU and
We found it
interesting to see how BYU-Arizona stacked up with other ESPN televised bowl
games.
The Las Vegas Bowl
had more viewers than Wake Forest-Navy, Southern Miss-Troy, LA Tech-Northern Illinois,
BYU-Arizona didn't
have more viewers than Florida Atlantic-Central Michigan, Hawaii-Notre Dame,
West Virginia-North Carolina, Florida State-Wisconsin,
The Utah-Alabama
Sugar Bowl drew 13.369 million viewers on FOX.
BYU AND BCS MONEY...Speaking of BCS
payouts and money,
Here's the kicker,
nobody will officially say so, but based on what Jerry Jones is paying for
college football matchups in his new billion dollar stadium in Dallas, the
Cougars could be making more from their upcoming game against Oklahoma than the
Utes did for their showdown against Alabama. And BYU doesn't have to share with
anyone else in the MWC.
According to
published reports, Jones has put together a ten-year deal with Texas A&M
and
The figures
released say that both the Aggies and Razorbacks will make $5 million apiece
per year.
You can bet that
Word we get
filtering out of BYU is that the Cougars are ecstatic with what they will be
making this fall on just this game alone.
The check
certainly will solidify athletic department budgets and have an immediate and
positive impact for all sports sponsored by the Cougars.
WE LIKE OUR STORIES SANITIZED...When
it comes to the BYU football program, since Bronco Mendenhall has taken over,
there has not been one single honor code violation.
There have been a
few violations of team rules that have resulted in players being dismissed from
school, but no honor code violations.
The good, even
great news is that those violations of team rules have been few and far
between. The bad news is that when you have 120 players in your program, honor
code hiccups or violation of team rules vagaries have always happened and will
continue to happen. It is the nature of the beast.
It is the
frequency of the infractions and severity of those infractions that grabs the
headlines.
If rumors and
reports turn out to be true, we expect to hear more about some "violation
of team rules" soon.
It won't be the
only infractions that have reportedly occurred during a big recruiting weekend
of hosting prospective players.
Our guess is that
if anything is actually publicly made known, we won't hear of it until after
national letter of intent signing day.
That may
disappoint, but it shouldn't diminish the overall character and core of the BYU
football program. It is at an extremely high level. This program is loaded with
outstanding student athletes.
That said, the
football program is like any other organization. it has a few kinks that always
need to be worked out.
It shouldn't
surprise that some players don't like certain coaches. That happens at all
programs. It shouldn't surprise that some coaches don't always see eye to eye.
And just because you coach at BYU doesn't automatically make you a good x's and
o's coach or a good recruiter.
And it especially
shouldn't surprise that with 120 players in the program, you are occasionally
going to have some problems that need to be addressed whether they call it
honor code or violation of team rules.
NEW RECEIVER?...With the graduation of
Michael Reed and the departure of Austin Collie to the NFL, BYU's receiving
corp looks a little thin.
McKay Jacobson is
back from his LDS mission to
Another new
missionary on the roster is Collin Fanning. He played baseball for the Cougars
in 2006 and 2007 and it looks like after a mission he is changing sports.
Others returning
to the roster include Spencer Hafoka and Luke Ashworth.
Another name to
add to the receiver corp might be Stephen Covey. We are hearing that he wants
to switch from qb to wr this spring.
If that happens,
it would open up the backup qb this fall to Riley Nelson, the transfer from
We are also
hearing that Adam Timo, the running back from Snow Canyon HS in St. George,
will sign with the Cougars but serve an LDS mission before enrolling in school.
BYU
MISSES MANTI BUS
The Manti Te'o bus
made a stop at BYU, but when it left, the Cougars were still standing on the
curb.
Te'o is one of the
top rated high school football prospects in the nation and BYU thought they
were going to sign this LDS athlete.
He told Bronco
Mendenhall last Saturday that he would not be doing so and now will make his
college choice from either USC, UCLA or Notre Dame.
While the Te'o
news was not good, the encouraging thing is that there will be another LDS
top-prospect bus coming by again in just another few months.
The LDS prospect
pool of football players is big enough now that a bus will be coming along
every year.
Unfortunately,
while the buses keep coming, BYU football keeps standing on the corner.
There are plenty
of theories and thoughts on why BYU can't reel in the big LDS football fish,
but so far the only thing proven is that BYU must be using the wrong bait.
Not only did the
Te'o bus already come and go, we don't expect the Cougars to be picked up by
Xavier Su'a Filo. He was the other LDS national caliber recruit that BYU had
hope to sign.
There are always
excuses and circumstances that seem to explain away the dismal record of the
Cougars when it comes to signing the big fish, but the cold hard facts always
remain. BYU will be shut out again on the national recruiting stage.
While the big fish
swim away, the Cougars did reel in a smaller fish this past week. That would be
Cody Hoffman. He is a 6-3, 210 pound wide receiver from Del Norte HS in
Here is the
current list of verbal commits for BYU. National letter of intent signing day
is set for Wednesday, February 4.
Terry Alletto, OL, 6-3,
260, Ponderosa HS, CO
Trevor Bateman, DB, 5-11,
180,
Craig Bills, DB, 6-2,
205, Timpview HS, UT
Thomas Bryson, DE/LB,
6-3, 215,
Tui Crichton, OL, 6-4,
280, Timpview HS, UT
Jray Galea'i, DB, 6-0,
175, Kahuku HS, HI
Anthony Heimuli, RB,
5-11, 225,
Cody Hoffman, WR, 6-3,
210, Del Norte HS, CA
Peni Maka'afi, RB, 5-10,
215,
Mitch Mathews, WR, 6-5,
195, Southridge HS, OR
Ryan Mulitalo, OL, 6-3,
285, Hunter HS, UT
Riley Nelson, QB, 6-1,
190, transfer from
Remington Peck, TE/LB,
6-5, 215, Bingham HS, UT
Brett Thompson, WR, 6-3,
210,
Adam Timo, RB, 6-1, 190,
Fono Vakalahi, OL, 6-4,
320,
Kyle Van Noy, LB, 6-4,
215, McQueen HS, NV
Brad Wilcox, OL, 6-7,
240, North HS, OK
Richard Wilson, TE, 6-3,
225, Spanish Fork HS, UT
MAKING MOVIES AND BASKETS DOESN'T MAKE YOU A DEEP THINKER
I am constantly
amused how fame and fortune seem to automatically make shallow thoughts seem
like deep philosophy.
Why is it that
fluffy film stars and some fifth-grade educated professional athletes are
awarded Socratic status for almost everything that seeps from their mouths?
Take away the fame
and fortune and you have a better chance of having a meaningful conversation at
a truck stop in
I am also amused
by seemingly Socratic supporters of BYU football that suddenly go to the
shallow end of pool just because an 18 year boy splashed a little water in
their face.
Speaking of
meaningful conversations, when was the last time you had one of those with a
teenage boy? Even your own.
Even more puzzling
is why things an 18 year-old kid says, does and decides causes us so much
distress, discombobulation and discomfort, especially when it comes to BYU
football?
Why can't Manti
Te'o be as smart as me? Why can't he see that he can help make the BYU football
program better which will then enhance my experience as a BYU football fan and
make it easier for me to prove to
If he could only
see this through my eyes, then he could never say no to BYU. If he could only
understand how not signing with BYU impacts me as a die hard BYU football fan,
then he would get it.
I know my status
as a supporter of BYU football is not specifically asked about by
ecclesiastical leaders when they quiz me once every two years, but I sure wish
it was. I sure would like that question better than the one that inquires about
my family. I always sheepishly admit I have a daughter, brother, mother and
uncle that graduated from The University of Arizona. Three of the four did go
on LDS missions, but none of that made BYU a better football team.
Why can't this
Te'o kid grow up and see things the way I do as a mature and well grounded
grownup?
Believe me, If I
ever run in to him at a truck stop in
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Tue, Jan 27 at
Tipoff: 8:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn
BYU vs.
Saturday, Jan 31 at
Tipoff: 4:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn
BYU vs.
Air Force
Tuesday, Feb 3 at USAFA
Tipoff: 6:00 pm Mountain
time
TV: Mtn