HB Arnett’s
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West 800 South –
Vol. 34,
Issue 16 – November 18, 2013
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Notre Dame Next
BYU
Goes Grantland On
With Notre Dame up
next this coming Saturday in
Bold type indicates
where I have substituted and changed a few words of Rice’s rhetoric.
Outlined against a blue-gray November sky, the Four Horsemen rode again.
In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death.
These are only aliases. Their real names are Williams,
Hine, Hill and Brown. They formed the crest of the Provo cyclone before which another fighting
Idaho State football team was
swept over the precipice at LaVell Edwards
Stadium yesterday afternoon as 58,645
spectators peered down on the bewildering panorama spread on the snowy plain below.
A cyclone can't be snared. It may be
surrounded, but somewhere it breaks through to keep on going. When the cyclone
starts from
Saturday the cyclone struck again as BYU beat Idaho
State, 59 to 13, with a set of backfield stars that ripped and
crashed through a not so strong ISU
defense with more speed and power than the warring Bengals could meet.
BYU won its seventh game in ten starts through the driving power of one of the greatest
backfields that ever churned up the turf of any gridiron in any football age.
Brilliant backfields may come and go, but against
No doubt Grantland
Rice was a gifted writer of sports and also maybe a little football fiction. He
had the good fortune to write sports for a living before football games were
televised for all to see.
I don’t have
Rice’s gift of writing, but I do have a TV and so do you. That means you
saw what I saw: Outlined against a blue-gray November sky, BYU pounded and
pulverized a patsy from
It did make for a guaranteed winning exit in 22 players’ last appearance in LaVell Edwards Stadium. They included; Tyler Beck, JD Falslev, Kaneakua Friel, Spencer Hadley, Mike Hague, Cody Hoffman, Adam Hogan, Austin Holt, Austen Jorgensen, Scott LeFrandt, Eathyn Manumaleuna, Marcus Mathews, Blake Morgan, Jason Munns, Kevin O’Mary, Skyler Ridley, Daniel Sorensen, Justin Sorensen, Uani Unga, Manaaki Vaitai, Kyle Van Noy and Richard Wilson.
Famine isn’t exactly
how I would describe BYU’s rushing attack against
Pestilence
or Pimples?
And pestilence certainly
didn’t describe Taysom Hill’s passing performance against ISU. I
would substitute pimple for pestilence. Hill completed 11/19 passes for 153
yards and threw for 2 touchdowns. The pimples would be the 3 interceptions
produced by Hill. Three interceptions is not a life threatening issue,
especially against a team like
Three turnovers against the Irish and sure defeat will likely join death and destruction in the alliterative prediction of the outcome of the BYU –Notre Dame game in South Bend on Saturday.
This is
a Sandwich Game for both BYU and Notre Dame
Losses to
Had BYU been able to beat
As it stands now, the
Cougar – Irish matchup Saturday in
This game has no college football relevance nationally, but it certainly is still relevant to both fan bases.
Notre Dame needs a home
win over BYU to try to make a salvageable sandwich out of the tail end of their
season. They lost to a very ordinary 5-5 Pitt team on the road two weeks ago
and will undoubtedly lose to a currently very good 8-2 Stanford team in
BYU
The Irish are hoping that BYU will be the lunch meat between the two bread beatings of Pitt and Stanford that will make the year end Notre Dame Sandwich easier to swallow for their fan base.
BYU is still trying to
digest the bratwurst beating at the hands of
A win over Notre Dame just might be the Pepto-Bismol Cougar fans need to lubricate the loss to the Badgers and finally get it through the digestive track of defeats BYU has ingested this season.
While this may be a sandwich game for both teams, there are no secret ingredients to how this contest will turn out.
It will hinge on quarterback play. The team whose quarterback performs the best will win the game. Notre Dame will come with Tommy Rees. BYU will counter with Taysom Hill. How the two play will determine who wins and who loses.
Rose
Reveals and Revels in New Recruits
Here is Dave Rose’s official assessment and announcement of the new BYU basketball recruits that signed with the Cougars last week.
PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball coach Dave Rose announced today that high school seniors Ryan Andrus, Payton Dastrup, TJ Haws, Dalton Nixon and Jake Toolson have signed National Letters of Intent to play for the Cougars. Rose also announced that Jordan Chatman and Isaac Neilson will return from two-year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and play for BYU in 2014-15.
“We are very excited about this group of signees,” Rose said. “The commitments from these players mean a great deal to our staff and to our basketball program. This group is comprised of great players that will be terrific teammates. We are looking forward to the opportunity to coach each one of them.”
Andrus, a 6-foot-10 post player, earned first and second-team all-state honors last season while playing for Doug Meacham at American Fork. He averaged 19.4 points and 6.5 boards and led the Cavemen to a 17-9 record and a trip to the 5A state semifinals.
“Ryan is a complete post player,” Rose said. “He can score with his back to the basket, runs the floor very well and is an excellent defender and rebounder. He’ll be a great fit in our system.”
Dastrup
plays for Gary Ernst at
“Payton has a very special gift of size and skill,” Rose said. “He can score with his back to the basket, and can stretch the defense to the 3-point line. He is a great passer in the post and can put pressure on defenses in so many ways.”
Haws’
accomplishments place him among the best all-time in
A second-team all-state honoree as a freshman, Haws has earned first-team honors in each of the last two seasons and was the 5A MVP in 2012-13. He was also the MVP of the 2012 5A state tournament. Haws averaged 17.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.9 steals last season. He is ranked 57th and 67th nationally among all prospects by Scout.com and ESPN.com.
“TJ
has enjoyed great success at
Nixon is
a two-time first-team all-state honoree out of
“We’re
very excited about
Toolson
he hails from
“We love Jake’s game,” Rose said. “He has a great basketball IQ and helps his team win in so many ways. He is a great shooter, can drive the ball, in a very good rebounder and really understands the game. He’s a natural fit for us.”
While all five have signed National Letters of Intent, Dastrup, Haws, Nixon and Toolson plan to serve two-year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prior to enrolling at BYU in the fall of 2016. Andrus plans to play for the Cougars next season.
Rose will
also welcome the return of Chatman and Neilson from LDS missions. Chatman, a
6-foot-4 guard who originally signed in November 2011, is currently serving in
“
Neilson,
a 6-foot-10 center, averaged 15.3 points, 11.3 points and 5.0 blocks as a
senior while leading
“Isaac is a winner and a very skilled big man,” Rose said. “He runs the floor very well, and is an excellent shot blocker. He’ll give us a great presence underneath the basket on both ends of the floor.”
Basketball
Briefs
BYU is currently 4-0 with
wins over
Here is my early season assessment of BYU basketball based on those four games: Dave Rose was right. Eric Mika and Kyle Collinsworth are very good players. They have played how he said they would.
Matt Carlino is good and bad. Fortunately, this season he has been 97 percent very good and only 3 percent bad. That is a big improvement from his 70-30 percentage numbers of last season. BYU needs a very good Carlino and so far he has delivered.
Nate Austin is improved and has learned his role. Anson Winder is healthy and it shows. Frank Bartley is young, but very talented. His upside could be unlimited.
Tyler Haws is not
healthy. When he is, he is still BYU’s best player. When he isn’t
healthy, shoot him up with pain killers and he will still be BYU’s best
player. Luke Worthington needs experience and time, but as a freshman, he has
been better than
Skyler Halford is the guy that has made Carlino better. He gives Rose a serviceable to occasionally, for a few minutes, a spectacular replacement for Carlino. Halford is the competitive reason that Carlino can be controlled by Rose and has reduced his poor play moments to only 3 percent of his court time.
Josh Sharp is serviceable in a pinch, but still 3-5 inches short of being a real front court contributor. That’s why Bronson Kaufusi, in my opinion, will rejoin the team in Januar
Last season BYU couldn’t shoot 1-of-21 from beyond the arc and win. This year, they can do that and still win. That is a testament to their open court game, and ability to defend when pushed and prodded by Rose.
This team won’t go undefeated, but they will be indefatigable and fun to watch. I see NCAA tournament as a gimme.
Ladies
before Gentlemen
In women’s
basketball, the Lady Cougars are currently 3-0 on the year. Their latest win
was a 70-69 overtime victory over
In soccer, BYU defeated
In Volleyball, the BYU
women swept both Gonzaga and
In cross country, the
Cougar women were extended an at large berth in the National Cross Country
Championship. That will take place in
Also in cross country, men got the biggest win of the season when the NCAA relented on a final appeal for Jared Ward, BYU’s best runner and allowed him to compete as a senior this season.
He will join an already
strong BYU squad and participate in the men’s side of the NCAA cross
country championship. That meet is also held at
BYU
Television Timetable
BYU vs.
Wednesday, Nov 20 at
Tipoff: 7:30 pm Mountain Time
TV: ESPNU
BYU vs.
Notre Dame
Saturday, Nov 23 at
Kickoff: 1:30 pm Mountain Time
TV: NBC
BYU vs.
Monday, Nov 25 at
Tipoff: 5:30 pm Mountain Time
TV: ESPNU
BYU vs.
DePaul/Wichita State (Men’s Basketball)
Tuesday, Nov 26 at
Tipoff: TBA
TV: ESPN2 or ESPNU
BYU vs.
Tuesday, Nov 26 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 30 at
Kickoff: 1:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: CBS Sports Network
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 30 at
Tipoff: 2:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, Nov 30 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv