I sent this letter late Saturday night after the SF basketball victory. I normally send the letters on Monday mornings. Experience has taught me that when I send the letter earlier than expected, I will get emails today wanting to know where the letter is. Consequently, I am resending it again on Monday morning to keep up the regular routine. To justify resending the letter, here is an update. Robert Anae has already made his first bad call. The high temperature in Provo for today is forecast to be 23. Tucson is expected to reach 73. HB Arnett's 801 372 - 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 33, Issue 23 - January 7, 2013 Click <http://cougarclicks.com/product/Order-Cougar-Sportsline?ID=3173> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions ANAE IS ADEQUATE.THAT'S ALL BYU NEEDS FOR NOW Get real. You didn't really think that BYU was going to get an offensive coordinator like the ones running the Oregon and Texas A&M offenses did you? You didn't really think BYU was going to persuade a highly paid LDS guy like current Seattle Seahawk offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell to move to Provo, did you? Doug Scovil is dead. The days of a high flying offense at BYU that puts up 50 a game are gone and not likely to return. What BYU needed offensively is a coordinator that was adequate. If he somehow morphs into something more than adequate, that is a bonus. When BYU was putting up big numbers in the old days, it was necessary to score gobs of points. In case you forgot, as good as BYU was offensively, they were as bad defensively. Look, you can say what you want about Tom Holmoe and Bronco Mendenhall, but they are legitimate football guys. They know football and they know the current BYU football scene. Adequate Enough As long as Mendenhall is here, BYU is going to be good to great defensively. That means that they just need an offense that is adequate to good enough to produce 10 plus wins a season, regardless of the perceived nature of future schedules. Robert Anae gives BYU adequate. That is a big step up from the inadequate status of BYU's offense the past two seasons. All Anae has to do is produce 4 touchdowns a game for BYU. He can do that. Twenty eight points last season offensively for BYU would have resulted in Boise State being embarrassed in Boise. It would have broken the Cougars' four game losing streak to Utah and it would have kept Notre Dame out of the national championship game. BYU doesn't need the Johnny Football offense of the Aggies. They don't need the pinball production of the Oregon Ducks. They just need a consistent 4 touchdowns a game from the offense to match the spectacular defense of Mendenhall. Get that and BYU is right back in the mix and talk of a BCS bowl. BYU couldn't afford a proven high octane coordinator. They couldn't take a chance on hiring another very young LDS offensive coordinator like Steve Clark of SUU and Kevin McGiven, the offensive coordinator of Montana State who was just hired as the OC and QB coach at Utah State. Both guys were former graduate assistants at BYU. Role Reversal The roles have reversed with Cougar football. It used to be that offense was king and defense just needed to be adequate. Now it is the defense that is king and the offense that needs to be adequate. It will be with Anae. Anything better will be an unexpected bonus. An adequate offense the next couple of years will be good enough to get BYU back in the national spotlight mix in football. The other rationale for hiring Anae beyond experience is the high praise from his two years at Arizona from players, coaches and media. Even better is that Anae helps the BYU brass in the athletic department take a step closer to an initiative they decided on more than a year ago. Cougars want back in business BYU wants to get back in the premier Polynesian recruiting business. Your head has been in the sand if you think BYU has been anything but an also ran when it came to signing the best LDS Polynesian football players over the last decade. There is a reason that Tom Holmoe rescued Mark Atuaia from a desk job with the general BYU administration and put him on hold in a manufactured job in the athletic department. That's my opinion of course, and not official doctrine from the BYU public relation machine. He was put on hold until he can be added to the football staff and help BYU get more aggressive in their pursuit of Polynesian football players. Look for Atuaia to be a full time coach next season. Polynesian Points Anae is not known as a big time recruiter, but if he can produce points at BYU, it will score points in the Polynesian community. He is part of the Tom Holmoe plan. Meanwhile, I am more than happy with Anae and his adequacy. In my opinion, it will immediately move BYU up the rung to respectability on the national scene. And anything more than adequate will be just fine. And whether by accident or over aggressive adequacy, I still think a 50-plus point game is not out of the question, even next season. Write that down and be sure and email me in October if it doesn't happen. Wait, most of you already do that. I am not waiting until October, however. I think Robert Anae will pay immediate dividends for BYU football. And all he has to be is adequate. PRAISE THE POLICY.VAN NOY IS BACK FOR HIS SENIOR SEASON Forget the current BYU football recruiting season. Bronco Mendenhall just landed the biggest unexpected recruit of his eight year career. Kyle Van Noy announced that he is returning to BYU for his senior season. That means that BYU is getting a proven player that far supersedes any 5-star recruit that the Cougars could possibly land this coming February. In Bronco Mendenhall's surfing context, this is the biggest off season wave he has caught since he took up the sport. In surfing jargon, Van Noy coming back could be considered "Mondo" for BYU's defense next year. "Mondo" doesn't come without money. Van Noy is certainly a good football player and a good guy, but his altruism towards BYU football stops when it comes to injury and a future payday in the NFL. That's why, in my opinion, I would bet big bucks that Van Noy now has an insurance policy to indemnify against any and all injuries that could preclude him from a career in the NFL. That's what sure-fire NFL prospects do when they postpone a pro career to return for another shot at the college game. Here's my personal thanks to Lloyds of London and whoever loaned the money for the policy. The return of Van Noy for his senior season should be good for my business. It certainly is also a boost for Bronco Mendenhall and BYU football fans. As they say in surfing and sacking of quarterbacks, it's "Mondo". And don't forget Marriage. It could be "Mondo" on the mind of Van Noy. This is just guessing on my part, but it wouldn't be a surprise to me to see Van Noy thinking that a wife would provide him with more stability at the NFL level. Currently Van Noy is still single. Just my opinion, but a good guy, which Van Noy is, needs a good wife to survive the NFL lifestyle. He has a better chance of finding a good wife during another year at BYU than he would stuck in Cleveland as a rookie. Plus a guy without a wife would have a hard time spending all the "Mondo" signing bonus money. BYU Hoping to Get Some Gas Pumped Their Way in Georgia In 1993, Lenny Gomes, a BYU defensive lineman, became a permanent fixture in the lore of BYU vs. Utah football games when after a loss to the Utes he said, "When I'm making $50-60,000 per year, they'll (Utah players and fans) be pumping my gas." Gomes, who now uses the surname Gregory, is still loyal to BYU and is still trying to pump some players to the football program. Gregory is the defensive line coach at Grayson HS in Loganville, Georgia. A couple of years ago, he sent the Cougars Korey Gaines, a safety that signed with the Cougars. He didn't last in the program. Now Gregory is trying to get one of his star players to consider BYU and it looks like the Cougars may be in the hunt. Zach Barnes is a 6-3, 225 pound defensive end/outside linebacker that committed to Tennessee last June after attending one of the Vol's summer camps. Zach Barnes When Tennessee made a coaching change, Barnes opted to re-open his recruitment and BYU is now in the mix. Barnes will be making a visit to Provo on January 18. He is also now considering Indiana, Southern Miss and possibly Tennessee again. BYU is working very hard on trying to land Barnes. They are even going to bring back former Cougar defensive back Corby Eason to talk to Barnes. Many recruiters try to sell players the notion that BYU not being friendly to Blacks. Eason, who is black and also from Georgia, will try and counter that argument by relating his own experiences in Provo to Barnes. BYU also used Eason with Trent Trammell, the juco cornerback from San Francisco City College who signed with the Cougars in mid December. New Mexico thought they had convinced Trammel that Albuquerque was much more racially friendly than Provo and BYU. Don't know if Eason's rebuttal was the deal clincher, but he certainly didn't hurt in the process. TJ Haws is still the little brother.and I can prove it There has been some discussion on just how tall TJ Haws, the high school junior at Lone Peak HS in Utah is. Some say that he is as tall as his older brother Tyler, who currently is playing at BYU. I can settle that argument once and for all. TJ is at least 18 inches shorter than his older brother. Here is the picture to prove it. I found this photo on the twitter page of former Cougar basketball player Jeff Chatman. It's from a BYU fathers and sons camp a few years back. .
From left to right on the back row is Andy Toolson, unknown, Chatman and Marty Haws. In front row from left to right is TJ Haws, unknown, Jordan Chatman (signed with BYU last year and currently serving LDS mission in Taiwan) and Tyler Haws, who is clearly a foot and a half taller than his brother. Case closed.
Last year I wrote that I thought TJ would be a better college player than his older brother Tyler. That sounds kind of absurd after Tyler posted 42 last week on Virginia Tech. Regardless, I am sticking with my projection, barring injury. To ameliorate the comparisons, I will also say that both Haws brothers will be special, special players for Dave Rose during their respective careers. Most of you get to see Tyler regularly on BYUtv, but few subscribers actually get to see TJ play. If you are one of our Cougar Clicks subscribers, you have already seen this video of the younger Haws. For the rest of you, you might enjoy this glimpse of the future of BYU basketball. Click here <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4rAP28YKUA> to see it. Fluff and Stuff The word is that Bronco Mendenhall and new offensive coordinator have invited Brandon Doman to stay on the staff. Most likely it would be as quarterback coach. If Doman does decide to go elsewhere, many think that Max Hall would be hired as the new QB coach. Hall is currently a volunteer coach who was back in school to get his degree. If he is to be considered, he will have to have that degree. BYU will hire nobody as a coach unless they have at least a bachelor's degree. A few weeks ago when there were stories floating about BYU and conference expansion, a writer claimed that he had ESPN sources that said BYU was getting $4 million dollars a year from the national network.
From what I hear and know, that is not correct. My understanding is that BYU is guaranteed a minimum of $4 million per annum.
That is based on the contract stating that a minimum of 4 football games are to be broadcast per year. Of course, if you are counting, in the first two years of the contract, there have been many more than 4 games a year broadcast on the ESPN platform. That means that there has been more than the reported $4 million minimum per year earned by BYU. BYU made the announcement that Lance Reynolds was retiring after the Poinsettia Bowl. Since then, he has received some nice kudos for his 30 year service as a BYU football coach. It was BYU's choice and not Reynolds choice to retire. That is coming from one of my good sources. The fact that Reynolds has been considering taking a job with Hawaii and Norm Chow, would lend credence to that source. Carlino Carries Cougars with 2 Wins Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. Matt Carlino has left his two best games as a Cougar in the same place. Last season it was Carlino's 30 points that gave Dave Rose his first win over San Francisco in WCC play. Tonight it was Carlino and his 22 points that secured another 80-76 come from behind win on the road against the Dons. BYU played like the famous fog for the first half and look like just another low level team on the road. They picked up play significantly in the second half, when BYU compensated for Brandon Davies' foul plagued performance. Besides Carlino, the much maligned, especially by me, Brock Zylstra, actually was instrumental in keeping BYU in the hunt until Carlino could seal the deal. The win moves BYU to 12-4 on the year and 2-0 in league play. BYU defeated Loyola Marymount on Thursday while running away and hiding from the Lions. The final was 92-51. Carlino had 21 points in another outstanding effort from the BYU point guard. Next up for the Cougars is Pepperdine. The Waves will be in Provo on Thursday in a game that will be televised by BYUtv. On Saturday, the Cougars travel to Santa Clara. The Broncos are surprisingly good after being so bad last season. That game will be televised by Time Warner Cable. Television Timetable BYU vs. Pepperdine Thursday, Jan 10 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Lewis (Men's Volleyball) Friday, Jan 11 at Provo Start: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Santa Clara Saturday, Jan 12 at Santa Clara Tipoff: 2:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Time Warner Cable (feed likely picked up by BYUtv) BYU vs. Lewis (Men's Volleyball) Saturday, Jan 12 at Provo Start: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Saint Mary's Wednesday, Jan 16 at Provo Tipoff: 9:00 pm Mountain Time TV: ESPNU BYU vs. UC Irvine (Men's Volleyball) Friday, Jan 18 at Provo Start: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. San Diego Saturday, Jan 19 at Provo Tipoff:7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv
