- Pre-Season Thoughts on BYU Football
More interesting than the win/loss record this season will be the attitude of the BYU fan base: seeing what attendance is, gauging the growing dissatisfaction with Bronco, the reaction to watching their rival have a solid year again in a power conference.
- It is highly likely BYU will be 1-3 after the first 4 games of the season
- Nebraska is the most winnable game but you don’t just waltz into Lincoln and beat a storied program. BYU will also be missing players due to suspension from the Miami Beach Brawl. BYU gets Nebraska in their first game with a new coach so that may help.
- I think Boise State is a flat-out better team and program than BYU. This is essentially BYU’s only real home game of note. If the Cougs do win at Nebraska, Lavell Edwards Stadium will be a mad house for that Boise game and perhaps they’ll have a chance.
- Though they are getting too much hype, UCLA will be more talented than BYU
- Michigan is a winnable game…..if you’re playing them week one like Utah is. However, I think Harbaugh may have that ship turned around by the 4th game. Could spell trouble for BYU
- Because of what will likely be a ...
- College Football Conference Realignment – 5 Years Later
BYU and Utah fans remember it well – five years ago Utah received word they were joining the Pac-12 and leaving BYU behind. BYU football decided to go Independent. Check out this link to a fantastic read from Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports, one of the premier college football writers. He provides a great summary of all the conference changes and how the affected teams have fared in the 5 years since. It’s a really fascinating break-down. Hard to read if you’re a BYU fan.
Biggest winners, losers five years after realignment hell broke loose
- What Really Needs to Happen for BYU to Get Into the Big-12
Here’s a link to a well thought out article from Lafe Peavler in The Deseret News regarding BYU potentially moving to the Big-12. It’s not as automatic as some Cougar fans think. He makes some very good points about the options the Big-12 has to avoid another college football playoff snub going forward. Expansion is just one of those options. And there is no guarantee BYU is even on the list. Don’t forget Sunday play. That will be an issue for BYU sports other than football.
Peavler: The Big 12 has a problem; can BYU be part of the solution?
- Interesting Spin on Former BYU Nemesis – Urban Meyer – Doing Cougars a Favor
Interesting angle here from Kurt Kragthorpe of The Salt Lake Tribune. Former Utah head coach, Urban Meyer, who now coaches Ohio State, saw his team jump into the top 4 of the college football ranking after destroying Wisconsin on Saturday. (Wisconsin is interestingly enough coached by former Utah defensive coordinator and Utah State head coach, Gary Anderson). The fall-out from Ohio State’s big win is that it shut the Big-12 out of the innagural college football playoff. There is now rampant speculation the Big-12 will have to expand and play a conference championship game. Part of that speculation is that BYU could be a team that’s invited to join the Big-12, should they expand.
Kragthorpe: Old rival Urban Meyer inadvertently helps BYU
- College Football Playoff – Just as Crooked as the BCS
The college football playoff committee gave an early Christmas gift to every sports talk radio show in America today – a week’s worth of material and crazed phone calls to fill segment after segment. Up to this point, we had been led to believe the committee was actually acting like the intelligent, thoughtful group of 13 individuals they are. However, objectivity, reason, and sanity went out the window at noon eastern today when the final 4 teams were announced. Money, traditional names, power, greed and TV won out once again. Nothing shocking – we all know how college football works – it was just a little jolting because the committee had seemed to actually make sense up to this point.
These were the rankings (I just have the top 16) released last Tuesday night (just 5 days ago):
- Alabama
- Oregon
- TCU
- Florida State
- Ohio State
- Baylor
- Arizona
- Michigan State
- Kansas State
- Mississippi State
- Georgia Tech
- Ole Miss
- Wisconsin
- Georgia
- UCLA
- Missouri
Here’s the final top 10 rankings released today:
- Alabama
- Oregon
- Florida State
- Ohio State
- Baylor
- TCU
- Mississippi State
- Michigan State
- Ole Miss
- Arizona
TCU is out of the top 4 and Ohio State is in.
Here is what transpired over the weekend.
- #1 Alabama easily handled #16 Missouri 42-13 in the SEC title game and secured their spot
- #2 Oregon crushed #7 Arizona 51-13 in the Pac-12 championship game
- #3TCU destroyed a ...
- Attention SEC Honks – You can now come back down to earth
All year long we heard how unbelievable the SEC was, particularly the SEC West. That one division was gonna send 3 teams to the innagural college football playoff and perhaps allow one infidel from elsewhere in the country to participate. Of course a lot of this was driven by ESPN as they own the SEC network and will televise the playoff games.
Every time I heard this nonsense, I would wonder to myself if any of those people had ever stayed up till 2:00 in the morning to watch the likes of Oregon, Arizona, UCLA or Utah kick off at 8:00 Pacific time. Or if they had seen what Baylor was doing offensively in the Big-12 for the past 4 or 5 years. I don’t blame SEC fans and media for getting caught up in their own hype all year, but even they’ve got to acknowledge – the PAC-12 was loaded this year. In fact it was a much deeper and more competitive conference than the SEC top to bottom. The SEC was still #1 but not by as much as it used to be.
Just a few thoughts:
- The SEC and PAC-12 both have tons of skill position players that can change ...
- BYU Cougars Crush Texas – Now What?
After an impressive showing against Texas, here are the biggest questions for the remainder of the season:
Does Texas suck or are the Cougs really that good?
- Texas is a bit dysfunctional but they will still probably go 8-4 on the year – or better. So yes the Cougars are good. Their defense is very good. You simply aren’t gonna run over them or through them.
So then how did the Cougs win by so much when Texas has better athletes?
- Though I’ve been a critic of Bronco now for several years, you have to give him credit for building a great defense, largely based on scheme, effort and belief. Not to mention some pretty good players. Ziggy, Van Noy, Kaufusi.
- Another key answer to this question is Tasyom Hill. He was the best athlete on the field Saturday night and he was wearing a Cougar uniform. A single player can still dominate a college game. Vince Young used to do it for Texas. Reggie Bush did it for USC. Johnny Manziel did it for Texas A&M. You could probably argue that players #2-22 for BYU were not as good as the guys in Orange. Doesn’t matter – BYU’s #1 is so dangerous. If you ...
- It is highly likely BYU will be 1-3 after the first 4 games of the season
