Perhaps I’m as clueless as you suggest, but I’m betting not. Since the defensive captain for the Ute defense is my law partner’s son-in-law, I have a bit of knowledge about what happened from the guys on the field.

I’ll let your comment about magic and “Lassie” alone since it must hurt too much to admit that Collie just flat out beat McCain so McCain had to improvise. BTW Collie’s post-game comment was just plain stupid. But when the Y converts 4th and 18, it sure looked like a miracle. It felt like a miracle on par with the resurrection. I was in the stadium and the fans were all dead and buried after Utah scored. However, I’ve seen the Utes pull off enough miracles to know that they aren’t limited to Collie and his team.

4th and 18 and the Ute defenders just got beat. They didn’t blow the assignment so much as Collie blew by them.

No offense but you really don’t know what you’re talking about here. Watch the replay and note how McCain is cheating on the play looking into the backfield instead of taking the deep quarter like he should have been. Factor in Gary Anderson’s comments after the game and you’ll see how it was a defensive break down that left Lassie open, not simply his speed or God’s magic.

Unless you think divine intervention was involved in smiting the wicked Utes with that abomination of a play.

This goes along nicely with BYU football’s #19 ranking in the BCS standings as of this weekend.

Very nice.

The Las Vegas Bowl is licking their chops to get us in over there but the BCS is still making them wait since there is an extreme longshot chance we make it into one of their bowls still.

However, I have one gripe about the coaching which just left me shaking my head in wonder. In the first series of the 2nd half, BYU changed its defensive scheme and essentially ran a prevent defense. They rushed only 3 and most times only 2. With the pressure off, the Utes marched down the field to get a field goal. It was obvious that the scheme was not working after the first 3 downs, but they stuck with it. Now here is what has me just dumbfounded at the stupidity of this defensive move. Against TCU, BYU did the same thing in the last drive and it failed miserably. TCU moved down the field very quickly for a TD on the prevent defense. What is mystifying is that BYU had been applying a pressure defense during the entire first half of the Utah game with great results and there was absolutely nothing in the Ute offense to justify the change. Did I miss something or was this just a boneheaded coaching call that demonstrates that there is a hole in the head somewhere on the BYU coaching staff?

Regarding Hall’s shoulder, see this from R. Potkey’s blog:

After the game, BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall admitted Hall’s shoulder injury suffered against Wyoming last week was much more severe than the team led everyone to believe.
He said he was amazed Hall was even able to throw at practice on Tuesday because the sprain was pretty bad. Hall said the adrenaline helped pull him through, and it’s a good thing because he needed every ounce of strength in right arm for his 49-yard connection down the right sideline.