BYU Football's Jacobson out 4-6 weeks

While streching before Friday night's game against Utah State, BYU Football's McKay Jacobson injured his hamstring.  He was held out of the game as a precautionary measure.  Over the weekend, he had an MRI performed and it was found that he has a torn hamstring.  Team doctors are reporting that he will be out four to six weeks.

In his stead, Bronco Mendenhall said that we will see Brett Thompson.  Mendenhall made it clear that Thompson would not be taking the place of Ashworth and Hafoka.  He would just be next in the depth chart and therefore would be seen on the field.

Assuming the worst (out 6 weeks), Jacobson would miss games against UNLV, San Diego State, TCU, Wyoming, and possibly New Mexico.  This is a hard blow to the Cougars.  Jacobson was really starting to come forth as taking the shoes of recently departed Austin Collie.

BYU continues winning streak against Utah St, 34-14

In a game that was never a question for BYU fans, Utah State made the score look like it was a lot closer than it really was. The BYU defense shut out the Aggies for the first three quarters, but allowed two scores in the fourth quarter after defensive capitain David Nixon left the game with an injury.

BYU started this game quickly scoring 24 points in the first quarter. The defense forced USU to punt on their first posession. After that it only took three plays for Max Hall to find Austin Collie. Collie hauled in the pass and turned the corner on two USU defenders to go 76 yards for the touchdown.

That was just the beginning of the first quarter scoring frenzy for BYU. On the next USU posession, quarterback Diondre Borel fumbled the football. BYU defensive back, Brandon Bradley, scooped up the ball and ran it 35 yards for the touchdown. On the next USU posession, the BYU defense caused another fumble, and the offense capitalized with a 44 yard field goal by Mitch Payne. USU's next posession was ended on the first play when David Nixon intercepted a pass. The offense took one play to score. Harvey Unga ran it in from 11 yards out to make the score 24-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter was really rather boring, with no points being scored by either team. The third quarter picked up with BYU scoring 10 more points, putting them ahead 34-0 and continuing an 11 quarter shutout. It ended, however, in the fourth quarter, when the BYU defense looked like it was playing its first game of the season. They allowed two scores, and almost three. USU put one in the end zone with only a few seconds on the clock, but it was called back by a penalty. BYU ended the last play of the game by sacking QB Diondre Borel.

This game reminded me of Nick Saban's comments on his Alabama team's big win over Georgia a week ago. He said that the game was a coaches dream because they won the game, but his team played so poorly in the second half that he still had so much to work on in practice. I imagine Bronco Mendenhall has similar feelings. I'm sure he was happy to win the game, but probably walked out of the stadium with a list of things to work on before they take on New Mexico next week.

Player of the Game
Austin Collie
Collie hauled in 8 passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns. His long of 76 was a signature play that will show up on Collie's highlight reel for years. Although Pitta appeared to be Hall's favorite target as the season opened, Collie has now emerged as the top BYU reciever.

BYU gets second straight shutout with 44-0 win over Wyoming

For the second straight week, BYU walked all over their opponent. However, today's offense wasn't quite as impressive this week because the defense did a lot of the work. In both the first and third quarters, the defense turned turnovers into points on the board without the help of the offense.

On the first drive of the game, Wyoming seemed to be making a quick strike. They threw a lateral on the BYU 36 yard line. The pass was incomplete, but Scott Johnson was smart enough to recognize that the incomplete pass was actually a fumbled ball. Johnson scooped up the ball and ran it 64 yards for the score.

That was BYU's only score in the first quarter. The second quarter was when the offense started to get together. BYU scored three times. One on a one yard run from Harvey Unga. The other two came on Austin Collie receptions, including a 62 yard pass from Max Hall.

Collie was Hall's favorite reciever today. He had 8 receptions for 122 yards and two touchdowns. Hall also connected with Harvey Unga in the third quarter for Hall's third touchdown pass.

It was in the third quarter that the defense put their second set of points on the board. Wyoming's quarterback Karston Sween attempted a pass. It was tipped and David Nixon came down with the ball and ran it 17 yards for the score. With the exception of a 31 yard field goal, by Justin Sorensen, that ended BYU's scoring for the day.

BYU pull all of its starters by the mid third quarter. Obviously this was to done in part to preserve the health of the starters and give other's some experience. Some criticize Bronco Mendenhall for not trying to boost the teams stats and look better for the nation critics. Bronco's response was simple. "If that's at the expense of polls, rankings or points, then it's at that expense," Mendenhall said. "I have been around selfish teams that do that. That's not who we will be."

Although BYU's stats only looked "average" in todays win, the nation will have no way on not acknowledging two straight shutout wins by the Cougars.

Player of the Game
This week's player of the game goes to Austin Collie. Collie had 8 receptions for 122 yards and two touchdowns. His long today was 62 yards for a touchdown. Collie has proved to be consistently Max Hall's primary target. During the first two games, many believed that Dennis Pitta was emerging as the Hall's primary reciever. However, in 4 games Collie is averaging 7.5 catches and 96.5 yards per game.