BYU Football - Colorado St - Final BYU 42 CSU 23

It was a great game today for the BYU football team.  In a game that many believed would be close, BYU jumped out to a quick 21-0 in the first quarter.  Although Colorado St managed to put 23 points on the board, the game wasn't ever really close.

I was happy to see BYU football playing like traditional BYU football.  Last week's loss to Florida St got me a little bit scared.  (In addition, don't get me started on how mad I am that Florida St fell apart today against USF.)  It looks like the team is back to what we saw against Oklahoma and Tulane. 

BYU Football - Tulane - Post Game

Max Hall is certainly making a name for himself after a second week passer rating of 170.49 in the BYU football team 54-3 victory over Tulane. With the exception of one interception, Max played the game just about as well as he could have. He completed passes to the open players. He made the right decisions on the key downs.

BYU soundly beat up on the Tulane this weekend, claiming a 2-0 starting record. I knew that Tulane was no Oklahoma, but I grossly over-estimated their abilities. I sincerely thought they would score at least two touchdowns in today's game. I guess if that says anything, it certainly says that BYU has a strong defense.

I would have to say that I feel Max Hall was the player of the game. Although he wasn't in pressure situations during this week, like he felt last week, he still held himself as the captain of the BYU football team. My hat off to him. He is showing himself as the leader that was lacking last season. This season he appears much more mature and more of a person that stays composed in pressure situations.

Bryan Kariya has stepped up in the stead of Harvey Unga. Unga didn't play in the game opener against Oklahoma, and he left early in today's game. However, without Unga no gap was felt in the back field. Kariya has showed he can run, he can catch, and he can block.

Up next - Florida State...in Provo.

BYU Football - Tulane

I am not sure what to think about this weekend’s BYU football game against Tulane. I heard an interview with Tulane’s head coach yesterday. He spoke about the youth and inexperience of their program. He said that he hoped his team would be able to play competitively with BYU. It almost sounded as though he had no faith that his team would be able to even put up a fight against BYU.

It seems odd to me that a coach would be willing to admit that his team didn’t stand much of a chance against a top 10 team. Even though I agree with him, I wonder how you present that to your team in the locker room before the game. Therefore, I am not buying it.

Everyone around the country thinks that BYU is going to dominate Tulane in tomorrow’s football game. Therefore, why shouldn’t the coach play into their opinions and allow BYU to be lulled into a false sense of security. I think the only person in America that truly believes that Tulane can win this football game is their head coach.

Even if it is a ploy to get the BYU football team to look ahead to Florida State, I don’t think they will buy it. The culture of the BYU football team is different this year than it was last year. BYU is focused. They take time to celebrate their wins, but they continue to focus on the next game ahead while not looking ahead to what could come in the future.

I think this is a fairly easy game for BYU. I wasn’t impressed with Tulane’s game against Tulsa last week. BYU wins the football game soundly by three touchdowns.

Prediction

BYU 38, Tulane 17

BYU 2009 Official Schedule

BYU recently announced their complete schedule for the 2009 football season. It includes some exciting match ups including, Oklahoma, Florida St, Utah, and TCU for homecoming. Below is the complete schedule.

Sept 5 - Oklahoma (Dallas, TX)
Sept 12 - Tulane
Sept 19 - Florida State
Sept 26 - Colorado State
Oct 2 - Utah State
Oct 10 - UNLV
Oct 17 - San Diego St.
Oct 24 - TCU (Homecoming)
Nov 7 - Wyoming
Nov 14 - New Mexico
Nov 21 - Air Force
Nov 28 - Utah

Home games listed in bold.