HB Arnett’s 801 372 - 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net 1391 West 800 South – Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 33, Issue 14 – November 5, 2012 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type=450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions 4 More Games 4 More Years, 4 More Days and only 4000 More TV Commercials to Watch This past weekend, it was a barrage of 4. One political persuasion was touting 4 more years. The opposing party was making its case for only 4 more days until they took power. And then there was the political waterboarding of the Utah 4th District congressional race. The way I understand torture tactics is that waterboarding creates the sensation of drowning. In the 4th District congressional race in Utah, I have already been drowned 47 times by Democratic TV spots. But instead of dying, I keep being resuscitated by the Republican spots only to have to endure more political waterboading by both parties. I don’t know what party Roberto Duran was associated with, but he was ahead of his time politically when he said, “No Mas!” If I was running Gitmo, making detainees watch 4000 political TV spots from Mia and Matheson would be the ultimate torture. Before being inundated with 4000 emails, I get the importance of this current national election. If this was a political newsletter, I would steal my platform from Margaret Thatcher. She said, “Socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.” But this is primarily a BYU football and basketball letter. 4 More Games When it comes to Cougar football, there really are only 4 more games this season. Still, the line between pigskin and politics sometimes is blurred. BYU’s current football platform, on which Bronco Mendenhall is running the program, centers on Honor, Tradition, Spirit and Firesides. Sign me up. What’s not to like about that platform. Unfortunately, that platform only works when there is a surplus of wins on the BYU budget sheet. At 5-4 currently, Bronco Mendenhall has a firewall to fall back on. It’s called Idaho, San Jose State, New Mexico State and San Diego State in the Poinsettia Bowl. As they say in politics, however, San Diego State, coming off a 21-19 win at Boise State and with a 7-3 record, now may still be in play in the loss ledger for the Cougars. That would give the Cougars a season record of either 9-4 or 8-5 and keep the Margaret Thatcher and Mendenhall platform alive. Socialism and BYU football only works until you run out of boosters and ticket buyers’ money and good will capital. Entitlements If Bronco Mendenhall and BYU football were on the ballot this year you could be sure that “entitlements” would be discussed. You don’t need 4000 TV spots to know that Mendenhall is anti-entitlement when it comes to players on his roster. The following is not a political TV spot, but a recent email from a subscriber last Saturday morning. He addresses entitlement. Dear HB: I was listening to Game Day on the way to my office this morning and they said that Boise State has a chance of getting to a BCS game because they are ahead of Nebraska in the polls. Not sure how it works, but it made me think that BYU could easily be in the BCS picture this year had they won their "winnable" games. As you wrote after the Utah game, I believe we win that game if Jamaal Williams is running the ball. We should have beat Boise and we could have beat Notre Dame if we have a different quarterback. It just makes you scratch your head about some of the coaching decisions? If Williams is so good, and we as fans can see that, why couldn't the coaches see that at the beginning of the year? In my opinion, Bronco's disdain for entitlement is clouding his vision and hurting his teams. It is a shame that BYU should be undefeated or have one loss, but instead we are relegated to absolute irrelevance again this year. Too bad for the players. I can't believe that some of them don't feel the same way. A subscriber (name withheld) Politically, “entitlements” can be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective. The same holds for BYU football. There are times when anti-entitlement sentiment can be a good thing. I can think of two distinct cases where non-scholarship players turned out to be significant and contributing players since Bronco has been in charge. That would be Andrew Rich as a safety and currently J.D. Falsev as an all purpose player. I can also think of cases where entitlement was warranted. You have to play your most talented quarterback. He may not have the intangibles of your platform, but if you want to win at BYU, you have to have throwing talent at this position. All the other stuff, like grit, determination, leadership and team chemistry don’t mean squat if you can’t throw the ball and complete passes. At all levels of football, you don’t win without talent at quarterback. Pee Wee football puts the most talented player at quarterback. High School football puts the most talented player at quarterback. Successful college programs put talent over all other qualities at quarterback. You can be a jerk at quarterback, but if you are also a talented jerk, you still play because of that talent, even at the highest level of football. Check out Chicago and the quarterback of the Bears. Running Back It is obvious to almost everyone now that Jamaal Williams is the most talented BYU running back to come down the pike in the last few years. Yet, except for an unfortunate injury to another BYU running back, he would not be touching the ball as much as he does now. That is the example that some fans are fond of pointing out when it comes to entitlement or anti-entitlement. Even more telling, in my opinion, is that if not for an unfortunate injury to Eathyn Manumaleauna, Ziggy Ansah would still be a back up linebacker and situational player this season instead of now being touted as a potential NFL first round pick. Talent is the ultimate entitlement when it comes to football at all levels. If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be so much emphasis and cheating in recruiting going on in college football today. BYU doesn’t cheat and doesn’t need to in football. They just need to realize that talent is the ultimate trump card and somehow balance it with the platform under which it now operates. Political Handicapper If I was a political handicapper and Bronco Mendenhall was running for office as BYU’s head coach, he would be a slam dunk for re-election. Tom Holmoe is Mendenhall’s current campaign manager and he is still actively supportive of him. But Holmoe is smart enough to realize that BYU football is a socialist state. It only survives on wins, booster cash, ticket sales from happy fans and media money. Four more years of the same support is not a slam dunk if that money dries up and is gone because losses are piling up. In case you missed it, Holmoe appears to be on the same page as Margaret Thatcher when it comes to socialism and football. In my opinion, Holmoe is well aware of the importance of fans and boosters and their support. He went out of his way to try and appease those fans and boosters with comments made last week about the current status of the BYU football team. Here is what Holmoe said last week about this season while at the WCC basketball meetings last Monday in Los Angeles. His remarks were reported by Greg Wrubell on the KSL Website. You can read it in it’s entirety by clicking on the following link. <http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.ksl.com/%3Fsid%3D22756157%26nid %3D498%26title%3Dcougar-tracks-byu-ad-holmoe-on-the-wcc-and-football-team-sh ortcomings&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgBIAAoATAAOABA1dC9hAVIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=3fjhKLt Jb-I&usg=AFQjCNHt_Dj6fBVMfyyazfgzQZaPx13PHw> Cougar Tracks: BYU AD Holmoe on the WCC, and football team "shortcomings" Future Schedule Has Big East Flavor Last week, BYU and Cincinnati jointly announced a two-game home and home series in football between the two schools. According to the terms of the agreement, the Bearcats will travel on Oct. 24, 2015, to Provo, and the Cougars will return the visit on Nov. 12, 2016. While the Cougars are not a member of the Big East conference, the future football schedule for BYU is beginning to take on a Big East bias. In addition to Cincinnati, BYU has already signed a home and home deal with Houston, a multi-year scheduling deal with Boise State, a return game with Central Florida and more than likely a meeting with San Diego State this December in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Big East is still courting the Cougars as a football only member, but barring a big money deal for media rights by the Big East, we don’t see the Cougars going anywhere. Big money is relative. Right now, there is talk that the football only Big East schools would be getting between $6-8 million per year from the league in TV money. Boise State and SDSU are ecstatic over those numbers. It beat the snot out of the $1 million or less they are getting now for TV revenue. BYU already gets that much, if not more. Why would they give up rebroadcast rights, BYUtv and ESPN affiliation for less money? Now if Fox Sports comes up with a mega deal that would pay out to BYU as a Big East football only member something in the $15 million or higher range, then Big East and BYU talks would get serious. Money talks and in that range, BYU would start listening. GUARDED OPTIMISM AT THE GUARD LINE AND WITH JABARI This is what we know about BYU basketball this season when it comes to guard play. Dave Rose has said publicly that the outside shooting in particular and the guard play in general last season wasn’t good enough. He made it a priority to improve in that area. That was manifest by signing and bringing in two new guards. That would be true freshman Cory Calvert and juco transfer Raul Delgado. Before the start of the season and the first two exhibition games, Rose pronounced that the guard line play will be better. Yet in the first two exhibition contests, from my viewpoint, no dramatic improvement in guard play seems evident. Steven Hayes, the psychologist said, “If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.” Description of Guard Play That seems to also describe this year’s guard play for BYU. Despite some minutes by Calvert and Delgado, the majority of minutes at guard for BYU in two exhibition games looked a lot like last year. Matt Carlino, Craig Cusick and Brock Zylstra are getting all the minutes. Despite Rose’s declaration that he wasn’t pleased with the guard play last season, this year looks like he will get what he always got. At least that is what I see based on the minutes played. Granted, Anson Winder isn’t playing because of an ankle injury, but he was also part of the problem last year outlined by Rose. Calvert is getting some minutes as a backup point guard, but Delgado apparently isn’t a big enough improvement to make a dent in minutes played. I know that it is very early and the season doesn’t start for real until this weekend against Tennessee State, but Carlino, Cusick and Zylstra currently look like we are going to get what we always got last year from the Cougar guard line. Up his Sleeve Hopefully I am wrong and Rose and company have something up their sleeves for guard play when competition starts for real. Right now, when Rose rolls up his sleeve, from my vantage point, the forearm and forecast for Rose still looks a little hairy for the coming season on the guard line. Getting a tattoo is the ultimate commitment. To date, Jabari Parker’s forearm is a tattoo free zone when it comes to choosing a college. The fact that Parker has not verbally committed to Michigan State, Duke or Florida after visiting those three schools, is good news for BYU. You have no idea how big the pressure is from those big time basketball schools to get a commitment from Parker while he was on campus. In recruiting, the school that gets the last visit in both football and basketball usually is in a good spot. BYU is in a good spot, but they are in a better spot because of the new LDS missionary age requirement. I have no source or attribution, just a gut feeling that Parker will leave on an LDS mission early next spring, regardless of where he signs. I also have a gut feeling that Dave Rose could be telling Parker that even if he leaves for a mission at 18 and never returns to play college basketball for any school, he might as well sign with BYU and give the Cougar program a major Public Relations boost. Unlike the reported boost in guard play with recent recruits, Jabari Parker would be the ultimate upgrade in recruiting for BYU. Speaking of boosts, there is some talk now that Bronson Kaufusi, the 6-7 freshman defensive tackle for BYU, could be joining the basketball team in late December when the Cougar football season is over. Kaufusi is a very good athlete and was an extremely talented high school post player for Timpview. He would add some added depth and bulk in the front court, especially with the loss to injuries of Chris Collinsworth and Stephen Rogers. If it happens, it wouldn’t’ be the first time a football player came over to help the basketball program. During the disastrous 1996-97 season of 1-25 with Tony Ingle, he brought in tight end John Moala and running back Tyrone Brown after the football season to try and bolster BYU’s fortunes that year. It didn’t work. The Cougars kick off their season for real on Friday, Nov 9 against Tennessee State at the Marriott Center. The game is a preliminary contest as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Tipoff is set for 7 pm Mountain Time and the game will be televised live on BYUtv. Football Dreams, But Fútbol Lives the Dream It is the dream of the BYU football program to be a player on the national stage. The BYU women’s soccer team (Fútbol) is currently living that dream. With a 2-0 shutout of No. 22 ranked Pepperdine on the road in California last Saturday, the Cougar women finished off their regular season with an undefeated WCC season and captured the league championship while at it. With a record of 18-1-1 over all and a 7-0-1 WCC mark, the No. 4 ranked BYU women now await the NCAA Championship seedings and draw on Monday afternoon. The selection show can be seen streamed live NCAA.com at 4:30 p.m. EDT this afternoon. There is a very good possibility that the Lady Cougars will be hosting multiple games in the early rounds of the tournament. In volleyball, the Ladies also continue their winning ways after taking two matches last week from San Diego and Loyola Marymount in Provo. They are currently 22-2 overall and 10-2 in WCC play. That puts the Cougars atop the WCC standings with three league matches remaining. Television Timetable BYU vs. Tennessee State (B-Ball) Friday, Nov 9 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Idaho (F-Ball) Saturday, Nov 10 at Provo Kickoff: 8:15 pm Mountain Time TV: Most likely BYUtv BYU vs. Georgia State (B-Ball) Tuesday, Nov 13 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Florida State (B-Ball) Friday, Nov 16 at Brooklyn Tipoff: TBA TV: truTV BYU vs. San Jose State (F-Ball)… NOTE NEW TIME CHANGE Saturday, Nov 17 at San Jose Kickoff: 8:30 pm Mountain Time TV: ESPNU and ESPN2 BYU vs. Notre Dame or Saint Joseph’s (B-Ball) Saturday, Nov 17 at Brooklyn Tipoff: TBA TV: truTV BYU vs. UT-San Antonio (B-Ball) Wednesday, Nov 21 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv BYU vs. New Mexico State (F-Ball) Saturday, Nov. 24 at Las Cruces Kickoff: 1:30 pm Mountain Time TV:ESPNU and ESPN3 BYU vs. Cal State Northridge (B-Ball) Saturday, Nov 24 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Montana (B-Ball) Wednesday, Nov 28 at Salt Lake City Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: BYUtv