NFL

  • Who Is BYU Football Going to Play This Fall? byu stands

    It’s August 2nd and BYU’s 2020 football season is in serious trouble. 

    With four of the fiver power five leagues announcing they will play conference-only schedules to minimize the spread of COVID-19, BYU has lost 6 games from its schedule: Arizona State, Stanford and Utah from the Pac-12; Minnesota and Michigan State from the Big 10; and Missouri from the SEC. Rumored replacement games against Alabama and Texas A&M are also out of the question.

    With just six games remaining on the schedule, including three against teams from the Mountain West Conference-which is likely to follow suit and go conference only-BYU needs a big break in order to find a competitive schedule this season. So what are the program’s options?

    Part rumor, but larger part Twitter speculation from overzealous BYU fans, there was talk that BYU could play in the Big 12 conference this year. However, according to Matt Mosley from the Dallas Morning News, there is “no chance” that the Big 12 will give them temporary membership for the season.

    Brigham Young’s best opportunity appears to be getting the Mountain West to toss them a lifeline and let them join for the season, but they are at the mercy of commissioner ...

  • Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta – Aggie Legends – But Not Done Yet 13336040_web1_utahstateweb

    “Winning team, losing team, winning team, losing team!” The epic chant rattled off the walls of the Spectrum last Saturday night, solidifying a big conference win for Utah State over Boise St. and sending the crowd into a frenzy. On a night where we celebrated Aggie legends of the past – Wayne Estes, Ladell Anderson – among others, we were able to witness the legends of the present – Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta- dawn the blue “State” across their jerseys and lead the team to victory. 

    In February of his senior year, Merrill is on the last leg of his illustrious college career. The sharp-shooting captain is 4 points away from eclipsing the 2,000 points mark. (and 6 points away from surpassing Estes as the third leading scorer). But his skills go beyond just his shooting. The 2018 Mountain West player of the year’s ability to defend opposing teams best guards, his leadership on the court, and a fierce competitive drive have made him a true star.

    By the end of his sophomore year, Merrill had already proven himself as the Aggies go-to player, but in order to push this team over the top, they had to feel in some ...

  • Previewing the Utah College Football Quinfecta utah college football

    This Saturday really is going to be a special day because we will have the Grand Utah College Football Quinfecta: What is the grand Utah College Football Quinfecta, you may ask? Well, every division 1 football team in the state(yes Weber and SUU count) have home games all on the same day. And I will be going to all of them. Just kidding. But anyways in celebration of this special day, I will preview all of these games, like what they will have to do to win, how it will affect the season and whatever else I feel like saying. Also, mother nature is clearly not a fan of the Grand Utah College Football Quinfecta because have you seen the weather for Saturday? Smh. 

    Utah St: vs. Nevada @8:15 2 weeks ago Big Blue ill-advisedly got stuck in a cage with Mike the Tiger and got thrashed around for 3 hours. But luckily they had last week off to put on some bandaids and heal some wounds and they should be ready for Nevada. The Wolf Pack come to Logan with Last Chance U quarterback Malik Henry and are hoping to ride some momentum off their win against ...

  • West Coast Football Power Rankings for Week 5 utah usc 3

    4 games into the college football season and we are starting to get a taste of who is good and who isn’t out west. This highly scientific poll based on my personal opinion ranks all the teams in the Pac-12 and Mountain West, + BYU + Weber. 

    1. Cal: The mighty Golden Bears of Berkely are the Pac 12’s only undefeated team left and possibly their final hope for making the playoffs (Good luck). They have not entirely over-powered anyone in any game, (ex: Cal 23, North Texas 17), but their victory over Ole Miss and their one-point win over Washington in Seattle puts them number one on the list.
    2. Washington: The lightning delay game against Cal was probably a fluke and the Huskies would likely win in a rematch, but we here at PMH respect head to head wins and therefore put Cal ahead. Anyways, Washington QB Jake Eason is playing well, and UW is coming off two impressive victories over BYU and Hawaii and looks like the best team in the Pac-12.
    3. Oregon: Oh ducks. Ya blew it. With the whole country watching opening weekend you let a 15-point lead slip away while Auburn Freshman Bo Nix rallied his team to victory. Oregon ...
    4. Takeaways From the Aggies 23-17 Victory Over San Diego St. Saturday Night aggies sdsu

      By Jacob Nielson

      Big-time win for the Aggies Saturday night. They beat San Diego St. for the first time since being in the Mountain West and started conference play with a solid road victory. Here are some takeaways from the game, and the season in general:

      Anxiety Aggies: The gray-cladded Utah State Aggies once again found a way to make things interesting when it seemed to be well in hand late into the game. It reminded me of the Air Force game last year how we were dominating when all of the sudden Air Force gets some fluke touchdowns and its a one-possession game. This one was a little bit scarier, because the Aztecs had the ball with time and a chance to win, and there was some serious PTSD from the Wake Forest game. Luckily the defense was able to get that final stop and come out of there with the win. 

      But I still have some serious concerns about our performance in tight games. Can the team just step up and look confident at the end of the game? If our 4th quarter performance is turning blow-out games into sudden nail -biters, what will happen when we’re ...

    5. My Weekend Trip to Texas A&M 12th man

      My son and I, who are both contributors to this blog, took a trip this weekend to see one of the great programs and traditions in all of college football – Texas A&M. Though the Aggies were unfortunately outplayed and lost the game to Auburn, the weekend did not disappoint.

      Ironically enough, we flew in and out of Austin to get there (Houston is 30 minutes closer, but the flight times did not work for us). Upon arriving in College Station, our first stop after meeting up with my brother-in-law, his bro and a buddy, was to hit a place called The Warehouse, south of campus. Picture one of those empty, big box retail-type buildings you see turned into a Halloween store every October, but bigger. Then imagine that store stocked entirely with Texas A&M Aggie swag. And this place stays open year-round! It was quite impressive.

      Warehouse

       

      Friday evening we dined on some sensational BBQ from a place called C & J Barbeque. While there, none other than former Utah State Head Football Coach and shall I say legend, Matt Wells, sauntered through the same BBQ joint. These days donning Texas Tech gear, Coach ...

    6. Thoughts on BYU heading into the Washington Game BYU field storming over USC

      The excitement of the past two weeks has created the kind of buzz the BYU Football program has not experienced in many years. There have been some big wins over the past 8 years or so of independence but never two in a row over Power 5 teams, and in such dramatic fashion.

      It remains to be seen if the Cougs have some magic left for Washington tomorrow. Can they line up and go toe-to-toe with a team that pounded them 35-7 last year? If BYU were to win tomorrow, they would most certainly climb into the top-25 rankings and BYU fans along the Wasatch Front and throughout the country would be absolutely delirious.

      I have attended each of the first 3 BYU games. The atmosphere at Lavell Edwards stadium to start the Utah game was electric. That obviously faded in the 2nd half. The showing of 13,000 BYU fans in Tennessee was amazing and was a great reminder of two things: 1) BYU really does have a national fan base and 2) Wasatch Front BYU fans are crazy about their team and are willing to spend time and money to follow them. While in Tennessee, I met several die-hard fans from ...

    7. BYU’s Win Over Tennessee Exemplifies the Cougars’ life as an Independent byu tennessee 2

      “Snap Zach, handoff Ty’son, to the five, four, three, pile is pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, he gets to the goaline!, no signal, they mark him short but he’s in the endzone – Touchdown! They signal touchdown! He got in and the Cougars win!” -Greg Wrubell

    8. Turnovers, Trenches, and Zach Moss doom Cougars usa_today_13279188.0

      By Jacob Nielson

      Drip. Drip. Drip……

      The tears of the football gods came pouring down late Thursday night, putting the game on hold and giving the majority of the disappointed fans the opportunity to call it a night with 9:00 minutes still left to play. The unexpected downpour turned out to be the only thing different about this year’s Holy War, as the #14 Utes won the season opening game over the Cougars 30-12.

      Since the gut-wrenching loss in Salt Lake last November, last night’s game had been the #1 priority of the BYU football team for the entire off-season, with every practice and workout session geared towards the opener. But last night, the aspirations of the team faded away about as quickly as one can say, “beat Utah” in a post practice huddle. It was a familiar formula for the Utes, taking advantage of BYU mistakes, establishing the run game, and wearing the Cougs down in the trenches.

      Everybody in the state of Utah understood that Kalani’s squad had a 0% chance of winning if they lost the turnover battle and spotted the U free points. And well, that’s exactly what happened. At about the 10 minute mark in the second quarter with the game ...

    9. Ranking the Importance of the 12 games of the USU season 5872-44637-original

      By Jacob Nielson: The 2019 football season has been met with hype and anticipation seldom before seen in Cache Valley. With the return of Head Coach Gary Anderson, Star quarterback Jordan Love, and a talented defense, expectations are high in Bridgerland. But there are question marks as well. How will the new staff perform? How will the offense make up for the loss of RB Darwin Thompson and a handful of talented Wide Receivers? How will they handle the toughest schedule possibly ever? These questions will remain unawnsered until the season begins, but for now, lets take a look at the games we play, and rank the anticipation/importance level for all 12. 

      • 12. Stony Brook (9/7): The second game on the schedule will be the lightest test of the year, an opportunity for Mike Sanfords offense to work out the kinks, and for the Freshman students to memorize the Scottsman because that thing will likely be played like 35 times this game.
      • 11. New Mexico (11/30): The final game of the season will be against a lowly Lobos team that is expected to be last place in the mountain division. With the presumably automatic dub the Aggies post-season destiny will most likely not ...