College Gameday Coming to Provo

ESPN's College GameDay is coming to Provo for the BYU, TCU football game this saturday.  The game is set to kick off at 5:30pm.  However, the college gameday show will begin at noon.  The game will not be televised on ESPN or ABC, but the day's college football action will be brought to you from Provo.

Over the weekend the first BCS standings came out.  BYU fell into place at 16.  TCU is the leader of the conference at number 8.  The no. 8 vs. no. 16 match-up is definitely the reason ESPN is coming to Provo this weekend.

This morning KSL interviewed Bronco Mendenhall and asked him how he felt about ESPN coming to LaVell Edwards Stadium for the game.  He said that he was proud of his team.  He feels they are a good football team and have deserved that kind of recognition.  When asked how he would keep his team focused on the game and not the attention that will be brought to Provo on Saturday, he said that the preparation will be similar to how the team prepared for the Oklahoma game.

BYU Oklahoma Game

What a weekend it has been for college football. Okay, not really. Most of it turned out the way the analysts predicted, with the exception of one game - BYU vs. Oklahoma. Nobody expected BYU to play as well as they did against the number 3 team in the country.

Key to the Win
Many people have said it was Max Hall who was instrumental in BYU's upset of Oklahoma. While I feel he was key leader in the game and led a very important scoring drive in the fourth quarter, I feel there was anothe key to BYU's suceess on the football field. The defense was excellent. They held the Sooners to only 265 total yards in the game. If you want to blame that on Bradford's injury, think again. The reigning heisman trophy winner, only threw for 96 yards in the first half, which means he was on track for about 200 or so total yards passing. Wasn't his average last year something like 500 yards per game? The Cougar defense was impecable.

The offensive line deserves credit too. While many say that Oklahoma's struggles began with their "rookie" offensive line, I believe that BYU's "rookie" offensive line did an excellent job of protecting Max Hall. They are "rookie" and did make some mistakes. So I can't call them the key to the win, but I do feel that they did an excellent job and will undoubtably soon be as strong if not stronger than last years line.

One Last Thought
I am happy to have McKay Jacobson back from his mission. Austin Collie will be missed, but Jacobson will fill his shoes well. He was a bit jittery in his first game back and in front of a crowd full of his family and hometown friends. But he will do better and become BYU's leading receiver this season.

Way to go Cougars. You beat the Oklahoma and got your picture plastered all over ESPN's front page.

BYU 2009 Schedule

BYU has finalized their non-conference schedule for 2009. There are some revisions to the original opponents, but if you're a BYU fan, you can't complain about who the cougars will play. 2009 already looks to be a good year posting the best home schedule BYU has played in years. Home opponents will include, Florida State, Utah State, Air Force, Colorado State, TCU, and Utah.

In addition to an excellent home schedule, BYU will also face Oklahoma in what proves to be a quality season opening game. The game will be played on September 5, 2009 at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. The BYU-Oklahoma match-up will be the first game played in the new stadium which will be the new home of the Cotton Bowl. The Labor Day weekend contest will kick off in primetime and be televised on ABC or ESPN as part of the second annual ESPN Kickoff Week presented by Gillette.

For complete details, click here.

The rest of the non-conference schedule is as follows.

September 5 - Oklahoma - Arlington, TX
September 12 - Tulane - New Orleans, LA
September 19 - Florida State - Provo, UT
October 2 - Utah State - Provo, UT

ESPN Showcasing BYU

Checkout the front page of ESPN.com. The lead article showcase's BYU as the top non-BCS school in the country and one of ESPN's top picks for the 2008 season.

This picture was actually from earlier today. The picture has moved to the bottom of the page, but it can still be seen along with other pictures of Max Hall. Apparently BYU's match-up tonight against TCU is one deserving of national attention. Obviously it is, this game and the November 22 clash against Utah will decide the fate of BYU in the BCS. It's nice to see BYU getting some of the attention it deserves.

Below are the links to ESPN's current articles about BYU.
Hall poised to become one of BYU's best QBs
Breaking the huddle at the season's halfway point

Hall Getting National Heisman Attention

In a recent article about week 4 performances in college football, ESPN's Mark Schlabach mentioned Max Hall's name with the other Heisman candidates.

Since the beginning of the season, Max Hall's name has been thrown around in Provo as a Heisman candidate, but not much national attention has been shown. However, in today's article "On the Mark: Week 4" by Mark Schlabach, not only was the Mountain west conference mentioned a being better this year than the Pac-10, the ACC, and the Big East. Max Hall was also brought up as a candidate for this years Heisman trophy. Of course, leading BYU to a BCS game this year would certainly help his cause.

For the complete article click here.

Analysts put BYU in the BCS

Last week, ESPN analyst, Mark Schlabach, predicted that BYU would face up against Georgia in this years Allstate Sugar Bowl. This week, his co-worker, Joe Fieldman, has joined in with similar feelings. Joe put BYU in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl against the the Sooners of Oklahoma. Complete bowl predictions can be found here.

With the way BYU is playing, its hard to not see national attention. In the past two games the extremely efficient BYU offense has scored a combined 103 points and the defense has allowed 0 points. That's right two shutouts in a row, and with Utah State on the way there is a good chance it could end up being three shutouts in a row.

If the two shutouts don't grab your attention, check out the season stats for the defense. In four games the BYU defense has caused 8 fumbles and intercepted 4 passes. The defense has scored twice (fumble recovery ran in for touchdown, interception ran back for touchdown). But overall, how's this stat for you. The defense only gives up an average 11 points per game. Its counterpart offense scores an average of 43 points per game. This combination makes BYU nearly a tough opponent on either side of the ball.

Thank you national media for finally giving BYU the recognition it deserves.

Max Hall - National Player of the Week

For his stellar performance against UCLA on Saturday, Max Hall has been named the Walter Camp National Player of the week. Walter Camp is known as the father of modern football. The Walter Camp Player of the Year award is given at the end of the season to a college football player that showed superior performance throughout the season. It is considered by many to be the runner up award to the Heisman Trophy. This is a well deserved honor for Max, especially since he is considered a the Heisman. ESPN said, "Quarterback Max Hall needs to be considered a dark horse for the Heisman if he's not already."

For the complete press release on this award, click here.

Controversial Win?

ESPN's Opinion of BYU's Last Second Victory of Washington

If you watched ESPN's Sportscenter yesterday, you probably saw the clip I have posted above. It seems that the ESPN analysts and others feel that BYU's win over Washington was given to them by the officials.

They say that somehow the outcome would have been different had the officials not flagged Jake Locker for throwing the ball in the air. I guess they are right. BYU would have blocked the PAT from the 2.5 yard line and still would have won.

Okay, let's talk about the rules. Here is what it says.

"After a score or any other play, the player in possesion immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot.

This prohibits: ...
(c) Throwing the ball high in the air."

Take a look at the video. Jake Locker clearly throws the ball into the air. It is not simply throwing the ball over his shoulder, like some of the analysts are claiming. He throws it at least 10 feet in the air. If that is not considered "high in the air" then I don't know what is. It is clear that Jake Locker violated the rule. That can't be disputed. If you don't like the rule, take it up with the NCAA at the end of the season, because nothing is going to be changed mid-season.

As for the outcome of the game, I have already said that it might have changed how BYU won, but not necessarily that BYU won. Let's not forget that BYU won the Las Vegas Bowl last December with a last second field goal block. The team is capable of winning a game by blocking a kick. The official's call did no create an automatic blocked field goal for BYU.

Also, Field goals are made from 35 yards out on a regular basis. It's can't be argued that the official's call made the PAT an impossible task. Yes, it was more difficult, but let's remember that BYU was the one that blocked the field goal. It was not like the Washington kicker muffed the kick. Had BYU not blocked it, odds are in favor of it going in for Washington. Like I said before, 35 yard field goals are made on a regular basis in college football.

Let's get over this dumb controversy. The officials made the right call. Like it or not, the officials did make the right call. Jake Locker clearly celebrated. It is sad that a game had to end with such a call, but it did. And no one is to blame but Locker.

BYU only non-BCS team that can bust the BCS

ESPN The Magazine has release the statistics that from all of the previous BCS busters since 2003. They have marked the key attributes that were in common with all of the previous BCS busters they year before they went to the big dance. This year BYU is the only team that has all of the these key attributes. Here are what they say it takes to get the a BCS bowl if you are from a non-BCS conference. Last year, you must have:

1. Averaged 31 points or better per game.
2. Allowed fewer than 400 yards of offense per game.
3. Had either a 2,950 yard passer or a 1,700 yard rusher.
4. Had two or fewer regular season loses.

BYU hits the mark in all of these categories and ESPN the magazine predicts they will bust the BCS this year. Go Cougars!