HB Arnett’s
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372 - 0819
1391
West 800 South –
Vol. 34,
Issue 26 –January 27, 2014
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BYU Loses Two
Cougars
Gump and
It was Forrest Gump, the
principal protagonist of the movie by the same name that said, while sitting on
a bus bench in
That also describes BYU basketball this season. You never know what you are going to get with this team. Earlier in the season it was all Cougar caramels covered in delicious milk chocolate. The team looked tasty and talented and capable of being competitive with the big boys of college basketball.
Now BYU’s box of chocolate choices is relegated to dark chocolates that nobody wants. Like the dark chocolates, BYU basketball is now also less palatable and hard to swallow.
The inconsistency is maddening. Consequently, the BYU Basketball box of chocolates is down to slim pickings. The good stuff has been squandered. There will be no WCC championship and there will be no NCAA invite.
Granted, there might be a good piece of chocolate lost in the second layer of the box. That is how I would describe Tyler Haws’ 48 points against Portland, but as the eventual triple overtime loss played out, BYU was good and then bad in the same game. That is the definition of inconsistency. The final score, however, was well defined: Portland 114 BYU 110.
Some boxes of chocolates put a map and description inside the box top depicting what each chocolate is. There is no map or definitive description for BYU players. As Forrest Gump said, you never know what you are going to get game to game. Except with Gonzaga. What you are going to get is a spanking. The Zags whipped BYU 84-69. The Cougars are now 5-4 in conference play and 13-9 overall.
Tom Hanks, who played Forrest Gump in the movie has moved on to play Captain Phillips, in the aptly titled film of the same name. Now it’s time for BYU to move on to more consistent play. That means either better players, or a better scheme offensively and defensively to fit the players BYU currently has and the league in which they currently reside.
If the answer is better players, then Captain Dave Rose will eventually right the ship. He has the recruiting pipeline full. But I think he has enough players right now. The problem appears to be that opposing WCC coaches are taking the roles of the Somali Pirates in the Captain Phillips movie and holding Rose and his preferred style of play hostage.
Am I the only one who thinks that if Roger Reid with his half court sets was given this team and a few weeks, he would be winning this league? Yes, I know that the Roger Reid ship sailed and left port long ago. I’m not advocating a Roger Reid coaching sequel at BYU, but it might not hurt if Dave Rose turned movie critic and reviewed some of Reid’s game films.
He might find a few Oscars and offensive and defensive sets that may be a good place to start in trying to solve the current inconsistency problems BYU seems to be having this season.
Like all Cougar fans, I am hoping this current BYU basketball movie has a happy ending. Unfortunately, after the first half of WCC play and 9 league games and a 5-4 record, the plot hasn’t thickened. What we are currently watching is Cougar Cinéma vérité and the reality of BYU’s inconsistent play has definitely thinned the Cougars’ chances for league hardware and post season appearances.
Winning solves everything, even for BYU basketball. If the wins aren’t more frequent in the second half of league play, you can expect a higher frequency of Forrest “Grumps”, including me, wanting to re-examine the box of chocolates and brand of basketball that BYU currently plays.
My Old
HS Gym Locker Combination
Talk about coincidence and Cougars…of the future, 17-9-26 was my old high school gym locker combination. It also is the points scored last Friday night by three future BYU basketball Cougars.
In a 74-53 win over
Riverton last Friday night, Frank Jackson, the sophomore guard at Lone Peak HS
in
Haws, of course, has already signed with BYU and Seljaas and Jackson are verbal commits to Dave Rose and the Cougars. I’ve posted lots of videos of Haws, but here are a few videos to get us started on the upcoming stars, Jackson and Seljaas.
Frank Jackson…More Jackson…Haws and Jackson together
Zac Seljaas – Freshman and Sophomore Highlights….Spring 2013 AAU Highlights
Updating
the BYU Coaching Cupboard
Last week I listed names of potential replacements for Dave Rose when and if he decides to hang up his whistle and move on from BYU. It generated some response from readers.
One wanted to know why
Quincy Lewis, the fabulously successful coach at
You can also take the name of Mark Madson off the potential list of replacements for Rose. A reader who is well connected tells us that Madsen, the current director of player personnel for the LA Lakers, is set to replace current Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins as soon as next season. That seems improbable considering Stanford’s current record of 12-6, but this guy insists it will happen.
The same guy, who appears to be wired in to all things BYU, says that Mark Pope is getting antsy to become a head coach and will be looking elsewhere if Rose retains his post for a long time.
That actually might work out well. If Pope leaves and is successful, he then becomes the clear front runner to replace Rose when he does decide to leave. If Pope leaves in a year or two, that would also open up a spot for Dave Rice to return.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, the UNLV natives are restless with Rice and his less than spectacular results in his early tenure at Thomas and Mack.
Rice has plenty of talent to work with, but that’s the problem because he can’t win consistently enough with that talent to satisfy Rebel faithful. UNLV boosters and stake holders still consider their program one of the top in the country. Rice and Rose reunited could very well happen sooner than most of us expect.
BYU Football
Recruiting by the Numbers
Here is what we know about BYU recruiting with 9 days remaining until National Letter of Intent Signing Day.
The Cougars have 3
offensive linemen committed, only one of which will show up in the fall. Bronco
Mendenhall and his staff also want 4 new receivers. They learned very quickly
last season that walk-ons won’t work against the likes of
They other thing the Cougar brain trust learned last season the hard way was that their original thinking that BYU’s roster and recruiting matrix was good enough to back up Bronco’s boast of being a National Championship contender was wrong. Very wrong.
That is why this staff is making a very late push to recruit faster and better athletes and in greater quantity than they have in the last 9 years.
It is no accident that
all of a sudden BYU is putting more coaches than usual in
So let’s get to it. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video should be good for a couple of million. If the video is good enough, it might even be worth millions to the player in the video. That is what is happening to Kyle Van Noy right now and what happened to Ziggy Ansah a year ago.
Here are the 16 current commitments for BYU as of today.
- Nick Kurtz, WR, 6-6,
215,
- Fred Warner, LB,
6-3, 215, Mission Hills HS,
- Kavika Fonua, DB,
6-0, 200,
- Trey Dye, WR/DB,
5-10, 175,
- Teancum Fuga, DL,
6-1, 315, Edison HS,
- Tejan Koroma, OL, 6-1, 255, Allen HS, TX Video
- Sione Takitaki,
LB/DL, 6-2, 240, Heritage HS,
- Earl Mariner, DL, 6-4, 300, Washburn HS, KS Video
- Matt Bushman, TE/LB? 6-5, 220, Sabino HS, AZ Video
- Tyler Cook, LB, 6-3,
220, Vista Murrieta HS,
- Neal Pauu, QB/WR/DB,
6-4, 200, Servite HS,
- Cedric Dale, WR/DB,
5-10, 185,
- Michael Shelton, DB, 5-10, 165, Wakefield HS, NC Video…already in school as an early high school graduate.
- Zac Dawe, DL, 6-4, 285, Pleasant Grove HS, UT Video
- Austin Chambers, OL,
6-5, 285,
- Chandon Herring, OL, 6-7, 265, Perry HS, AZ Video
We said BYU wants 4 new
receivers in this class. They have one already in Kurtz. They hosted Devon Blackmon on campus this past weekend.
He is the former teammate of Jamaal Williams at Summit HS in
Keyon
Dilosa, 6-3, 195 is a wide receiver who played at Round Rock
HS in
Two other receivers will be joining the Cougars next fall. Trey Dye is already in the fold and will sign Feb 5th. You can see his video above.
Josh Weeks signed two
years ago and has been serving an LDS mission in
Big Boy,
Big Buffet
Damien Mama is a big boy,
big recruit and a big get for BYU if they can land him. At 6-5, 360 pounds,
Mama, who is LDS, is in a class by himself when it comes to offensive line
play. That fact that he has offers from
Mama will be here for an
official visit this coming weekend. BYU is in the hunt because Mama as
announced that he will leave for an LDS mission after graduating from high
school at St. John Bosco HS in
Guys like Nick Kurtz and Fred Warner will be the icing on the cake in this recruiting class, but if Mama signs he is the cake. He is also the big Enchilada and the big Cheese. As a matter of fact, for BYU he would be the whole buffet.
Surprises
and Suspects
If there are going to be any surprises in this recruiting class, They will come from this group of players who are in areas that BYU does not normally spend a lot of time recruiting.
Ronald
Monroe is a 6-2, 175 pound dual-threat quarterback from Bush
HS in
Courtland Sutton,
DB, 6-3, 190, Brenham HS TX…Should come down to BYU or
Jaterrius
Gulley, DL, 6-3, 325, Hoover HS, AL…Has recruiting
interest from
Kiante Walton has
interest from
Returning missionaries: Some of these will be announced as part of the 2014 class. Others will return in the summer and likely redshirt.
Josh Weeks, WR,
Travis Tuiloma, DL,
Manu Mulitalo, OL
Graham Rowley, DL
Austin Heder, LB
Colby Jorgensen, TE
Corbin Kaufusi, DL
Baker Pritchard, DL
Brian Rawlinson, OL
Matt Sumsion, TE
Kesni Tausinga, DL
Phillip Amone, LB
Micah Hanneman, DB
Troy Hinds, DL
Steven Richards, DL
Derrick Brown…Down the road…Bronco
Mendenhall extended a scholarship offer to this 6-5, 270 pound sophomore
defensive lineman last week. He is LDS and plays out of Lanier HS in
Where are they?
If recruiting is need based, where are the
offensive linemen in this class? As of today, there are only three commits and
two of those commits are headed on LDS missions right out of high school. Maybe
BYU is hoping for some help from the group of missionaries returning, but the
list I am looking at doesn’t jump out and say “Help at Hand.”
Maybe BYU has a secret plan or surprises
planned for next week, but logic and the lack of good play last season on the
offensive line, would seem to scream, more and better bodies.
Speaking of body changes, look for some
weight to be lost and added with two current Cougars. There is word circulating
that Bronson Kaufusi is losing weight so he can play a combo DE/LB next season.
Also Mike Alisa is reportedly trying to get bigger and stronger to move back to
outside linebacker, the position he played as a freshman.
Also when it comes to playing positions
where he played before, backup quarterback Ammon Olsen has left BYU and is
currently enrolled at
BYU
Television Timetable
BYU vs.
Pacific
Thursday, Jan 30 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
St. Mary’s
Saturday, Feb 1 at
Tipoff: 9:00 pm MST
TV: ESPN2
BYU vs.
Thursday, Feb 6 at
Tipoff: 9:00 pm MST
TV: ESPNU
BYU vs.
Saturday, Feb 8 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv