HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
801
372 0819
hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission.com
Vol. 29,
Issue 5 September 1, 2008
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BYU 41 UNI 17
WOULD
THREE MORE TOUCHDOWNS MAKE IT BETTER?
We are puzzled.
BYU blitzes
Northern Iowa 41-17 and you would think the Cougars were just drubbed by
We read the papers
and it says BYU struggles and needs to improve big time if they hope beat
anybody else.
We go to a couple
of chat rooms and people are wondering how the Cougars can be ranked.
We just
We watched the
game and it was never in doubt. UNI had 14 points gifted wrapped for them and
they had no clue how to stop the BYU offense in general and Dennis Pitta in
particular.
Would 62-17 make
everyone feel better?
The Panthers can
thank some sloppy ball security and four fumbles for thinking they had a chance
when it was 27-17 in the third quarter.
Fumbles are
fickle. Four fumbles lost in a game is very rare.
Those same fumbles
cost BYU an additional 28 points.
The Cougars were
cruising at 27-3 at halftime and were picking up where they left off in the
third quarter. They had driven the ball to the UNI 21 yard line when Wayne Latu
coughed it up. That was one touchdown left on the table.
Backside
Bumble
In the same
quarter, Hall was sacked from the backside while in the Cougars end zone and
the ball was on the ground and recovered by the Panthers for seven points.
Again BYU was
driving and at the UNI 29 yard line when J.J. DiLuigi put the ball on the turf.
That's another touchdown squandered in the third quarter.
BYU again
drove to the 4 yard line and had a sure score when Max Hall muffed the snap and
fumbled away another seven points.
This game could
have easily been 62-10 if not for BYU fumbling the ball five times and losing
four of those miscues.
Fumbles are fixable.
Fumbling 5 times is an anomaly.
What wasn't
unusual was Dennis Pitta having a 213-yard receiving day. The junior tight end
was unstoppable. He had 11 catches on the day and could have had more. When he wasn't
making catches, he was downfield waving his hands indicating that he was still
open.
If Pitta was
having a big day, that also indicated that Max Hall was on fire. He finished
with 486 yards passing and two touchdowns while completing 34-of-41 passing
attempts. Hall also had a one-yard qb sneak for a score in the fourth quarter.
Two
Tosses
Hall's two scoring
tosses were a 27-yard connection to Michael Reed and a 19-yard pitch and catch
to Harvey Unga. Both scores were in the first quarter.
Unga scored again
in the second quarter on a 2-yard run and again on a 1-yard run.
For the game, Unga
had a total of 64 yards rushing on 18 carries. The Cougars had 77 total yards
of rushing, that when combined with Hall's 486 yards passing, gave BYU a 563-yard
offensive outing.
Defensively, the
Cougars were decent enough to hold UNI to 10 points. The other seven points
were given up by the BYU offense when Hall fumbled in the endzone on a sack.
UNI finished with
362 yards of total offense, but 145 of those yards came on two plays. The first
was a 69 yard option keep by UNI's qb and was the result of a missed assignment
by a BYU defender. The Panthers also scored in the third quarter after a BYU
fumble when they employed a double reverse pass that caught the Cougars napping
and went for a 76-yard touchdown.
Tune Up
This was a very
good tune up game for Bronco Mendenhall and his crew.
He now gets to
preach ball security to his troops and point out all the mistakes the Cougars
made. That will be enough to get the team's attention. On the other hand, with
all the turnovers in this game, it was still a blowout. That should emphasize
that this is a very good offensive football team.
One thing that
Bronco won't point out, so we will have to, is that BYU is woefully thin at
running back.
Fui Vakapuna was
held out of the game because he was late qualifying academically.
We better hope
Harvey Unga doesn't go down with an injury that will keep him out of any big
games.
We reiterate what
we said a few issues ago. Seta Pouhaha not qualifying academically and coming
in as a freshman, really hurts the Cougars at running back.
Here's another
stat that doesn't show up in the box score, but is huge.
Justin Sorensen,
the new freshman kicker from Bingham HS in
Only two of those
kickoffs were returned. One went for 18 yards and the other for 24 yards.
In the battle of
field position, Sorensen has already earned his scholarship.
HUSKIES
AT HOME WILL HOLD SERVE
On paper, BYU
should handle
The game will not
be played on paper, however, but in
BYU has never beat
UW in
As a matter of
fact, betting against BYU on the road against non-league foes, is almost a sure
winner.
Since 2000 BYU has
a 4-14 mark against non conference teams and have lost nine straight road games
and 12 of its last 13 against non-league teams.
They have lost
when they were underdogs and they have lost when they are favorites.
Maybe it is a good
omen for the Cougars that there is no opening line out of
There is no line
because the Vegas oddsmakers list Max Hall as questionable.
Hall did take a
good lick against UNI and had his bell rung and was excused early from
post-game interviews when he wasn't feeling well, but we expect him to be ready
and play.
Once the Vegas
boys come the same conclusion, we expect them to list the Cougars as a 3-4
point favorite.
That may seem like
a slim margin based on the 44-10 shellacking that
BYU will be facing
the most athletic quarterback they have faced in years. Jake Locker is a
playmaker and will put pressure on the BYU defense to contain him.
He is a very
ordinary passer, but BYU defensive history says that they have trouble with
mobile playmaking quarterbacks.
We can guarantee
that Dennis Pitta will not have another 200-plus yard game against the Huskies.
UW will do what it
takes to make sure of that. That means that the Cougars will have to move the
ball on the ground and get the wideouts the ball.
On paper, we like
BYU in this spot. In
We call it
Washington 24 BYU 20.
NEITHER RAIN, SLEET OR SNOW...
With
The two latest to
matriculate from Snow this past spring have both turned out to be contributors.
Coleby
The 6-3, 220 pound
transfer was neck and neck with Vic So'oto at outside linebacker coming out of
fall camp. Even Bronco Mendenhall singled out the juco transfer for his play
last Saturday.
So'oto will have
to pick it up if he expects to hold off
While So'oto is
making the adjustment from tight end to linebacker,
While at Snow,
Tough
Times
His toughness that
was exhibited against NIU, also lent some credence to the old adage we have
heard for years about
The way it has
been told to us is that a father was giving his son some advice on picking a
wife. He told him that he should try and marry a girl from
We
Andrew Rich also
transferred from Snow to BYU last spring. He didn't receive a scholarship, but
is now the third safety on the current depth c
He turned down
scholarship offers from
Rich, a 6-3, 205
pounder, was an all WSFL first team defensive selection last year as a
freshman. As a sophomore, he has three years of eligibility remaining for BYU.
Trio
There is currently
a trio of players on the Snow Roster this year that have BYU connections. Atem
Bol is a 6-2, 200 pound wide receiver from
Star Lotulelei is
a 6-3, 280 pound defensive lineman that signed with BYU in 2006 out of Bingham
HS, but also didn't qualify academically. He didn't enroll anywhere last year
and is now taking up football again with the Badgers.
Sam Doman also was
a scholarship quarterback with the Cougars two years ago. He transferred to
While there was a
lot of talk about Mantangi
His playing
problem is that his eligibility clock is still ticking.
Football
Food Chain
Snow isn't alone
in serving as a feeder program to other schools. BYU is currently feeding
Cade Cooper, a
quarterback, transferred to BYU from
Tico Pringle, a
cornerback, has almost the same travel itinerary. He came to BYU from Snow,
bypassed
Levi Mack
transferred to BYU from Eastern Arizona JC, and after a year, is playing for
the Thunderbirds.
NAMES
AND GAMES
Then reality set
in.
We remembered that
this was
Our advice to Ute
fans is to take a deep breath. You have a very good football team, but in a few
more weeks, that win will be diminished by how many more teams beat up on
We remember when
BYU won the national championship in 1984 by defeating Bo Schembechler and
Most national
pundits discredited the Cougars because the Wolverines were only a 6-5 team
coming into the bowl game.
We expect the
Ute's big win to suffer the same fate and fade.
Apparently we
aren't the only ones to think this way.
This is a
Please Manti, Make It Okay
It is no secret
that BYU is trying to bust the BCS and get a bowl bid from the big boys who
control college football.
It is a nice goal,
and if it happens, it will be laudable and lucrative.
While BYU strives
to bust through the BCS ceiling, there is another barrier to be burst, that, in
our opinion, is even more important and urgent.
Bronco Mendenhall
and company need to somehow convince "top tier" Polynesian recruits
that it is okay to come and play for BYU.
Who knows, maybe
breaking the BCS barrier will lead to the popping of the LDS Polynesian ceiling
in recruiting.
While the Cougars
have more than their s
It started decades
ago with Mosi Tatupu opting for USC instead of BYU. It has continued through
the years. In the beauty pageant of recruiting, when BYU is up against the
elite of college football, the Cougars are always crowned Miss Congeniality.
You know the list.
We will just remind you of some of the most recent names.
J.T. Mapu...
Duce Lutui...USC
Sione Fua...Stanford
Uona Kavienga...USC
We are not naive.
BYU isn't the only school losing top prospects to USC and the Pac 10, but BYU
is the only school losing top-tier LDS prospects to USC.
Right now, USC is
the cool choice. They are hip and they are very, very good.
Somebody,
somewhere, has to make it okay for these top LDS Polynesian recruits to play
for BYU.
The next hope will
be Manti Teo, the LDS linebacker from
BYU wants him in
the worst way. So does USC.
Busting the BCS
would be a good thing. Hopefully, it will also help break through the current
recruiting roof that has kept the Cougars from landing the LDS Polynesian top
dogs.
Please Manti, make
it okay.
BASKETBALL
BRIEFS
BYU has definitely
improved its athleticism for this year. In fall informal workouts, C
The return of
Jackson Emery from his LDS mission also will increase the athletic ability of
this BYU team.
Chris Miles is not
nearly as athletic as Emery and Abouo, but he is much improved from last
season.
Noah Hartsock just
showed up, but has been home from his LDS mission for two months. He spent
those two months at home in
He will play
because he can score. He will not be in shape, but he will score. When this guy
gets a year under his belt, watch out.
Speaking of
watching out, BYU coaches were watching as two of their top targets this
recruiting season were on visits this past weekend to other schools.
Tyler Haws was at
Stanford and Bran
Both are on BYU's
priority list with Haws at the top. Davies will still have some academic work
to do before he can make it to Division I, but that isn't stopping top programs
from going after him.
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Saturday, Sep 6 at
Kickoff: 1:00 PM Mountain
Time
TV: Fox Sports Northwest,
BYU vs.
UCLA
Saturday, Sep 13 at
Kickoff: 1:30 PM Mountain
Time
TV: Versus
BYU vs.
Saturday, Sep 20 at
Kickoff: 1:00 PM Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn
BYU vs.
Friday, Oct 3 at
Kickoff: TBA
TV: TBA
BYU vs.
Saturday, Oct 11 at
Kickoff: 4:00 PM Mountain
Time
TV: Mtn