We are moments away from the second game of the 2010 season. BYU is in Colorado Springs to play Air Force this week. Kickoff coming up. I’ll give updates as we go.

Pregame thoughts
– The MWC has a “big 3” with BYU, Utah, and TCU. AFA is considered the #4 team. Nevertheless BYU has handled AFA fairly easily nearly every year under Bronco Mendenhall. Part of that may be that Bronco has some very specific defensive schemes he developed to slow down AFA.
– This game is the first of the BYU farewell tour in the Mountain West. For whatever reason fans and writers from MWC schools seem to be much more angry at BYU for leaving than they are Utah for leaving. Go figure.
– With the date being 9/11 there are several commemorations of the 9/11/01 attacks on the US

1st Quarter
– BYU receives the kickoff and returns to the 26. Nelson at QB. His passing looks atrocious this drive but he is killing the Falcons with his feet. (The receivers still are dropping passes too.) It looked like he almost knocked out one of the AFA linebackers in one collision. Touchdown BYU. BYU 7 AFA 0
– BYU squib kicks into the wind. AFA take over at their 38. Marching down the field on the BYU D. Easy touchdown pass on a major defensive breakdown by BYU. BYU 7 AFA 7 (more…)

We are moments away from kickoff as I write this. I’ll give updates on the game as we go.

Pregame
– Even before the game we are forced to talk about that celebration penalty on Locker two years ago. Two thoughts on that. First, it was the correct call based on the rulebook. Second, all UW had to do to tie the game was hit the not long filed goal for the extra point. They instead were blocked.
– Locker is a Heisman candidate. Lots of hype surrounding him. I however suspect the BYU defense will be the star of this game.
– I hope Sark wins a lot of games this season. Just not this one.

1st Quarter (more…)

After an exciting offseason for BYU athletics, it is finally time to start playing some games. The NCAA football season officially kicks off tonight and BYU’s first game is this Saturday vs. The University of Washington Huskies, coached by former BYU All-America QB Steve Sarkesian.

Here are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the 2010 version of BYU football:

Strengths:
– A tremendous offensive line led by All-America candidate left tackle Matt Reynolds. The line is experienced, huge, and deep.
– A solid and experienced defensive backfield. BYU lost their free safety but the other three starters and most back-ups are back with more experience.
– Perhaps the deepest receiving corps in BYU history. Lots of talent and depth at BYU receiver right now.
– Speed on defense. While much of the defense is short on experience these guys are faster than your typical BYU defense.

Weaknesses:
– Inexperience at QB. Bronco will be using both true freshman Jake Heaps and Junior Riley Nelson this season. All eyes will be on these two newcomers. Heaps has the big arm and big pedigree but Nelson has more experience, is a scrambler, and is known as a fiery competitor.
– No Harvey Unga. BYU has some young talent at RB but it hurt to lose our all time leading rusher.
– Inexperience at tight end. With Pitta and George gone, five guys are vying for playing time at TE still.
– Unsettled middle linebackers. Looks like five guys will be shuttling through the two MLB spots as well.

So with that here are my season predictions:
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It’s on folks.

SLTrib
San Jose Mercury
ESPN

Official statements:
BYU
MWC
WCC

Ever since Utah announced it was leaving the Mountain West Conference to join the Pac10 there have been rumors swirling about what BYU would do. The three main options were to sit tight in the MWC, hope for an invite to the Big12, or go independent. Well the Big12 invite has not arrived so it appears BYU has taken its fate into its own hand and decided to go independent. Here are some links:

SLTrib saying it is a done deal
Deseret News calling it a done deal too
ESPN predicting it last night
CBS Sports

It does indeed look like a done deal. BYU football will reportedly go independent and all other BYU sports joining the WAC starting in the Fall of 2011. This is very similar the the arrangement Notre Dame has with the Big East.

Should be an interesting week for BYU sports fans. Stay tuned.

From the fake scripture file:

1 Among “active” Mormons there are three levels or degrees of Eagerness;
2 And in order to obtain the highest and most time consuming jobs in the church, an active Mormon must enter into this degree of activity [meaning fully “Eager” and not “Less Eager” or “InEager”];
3 And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.
4 He may enter into the other less demanding callings, but that is the end of his institutional progress; he cannot have a promotion.

I feel a new cross-stitched wall hanging coming on…

The subject of loyalty came up over at a recent Bloggernacle Times thread. Jacob J stirred the pot a little by saying the following:

I think loyalty is vastly overrated. In all the cases when loyalty is cited as the motivation for virtuous behavior that same behavior could/should have been motivated by a less problematic virtue like fairmindedness or kindness. In plenty of cases, loyalty is a name for going against your better judgment to do something wrong, covering something up, or sticking up for a person who is in the wrong.

This comment was met with resistance but Jacob is entirely correct. Loyalty is a useful motivational tool to be sure but is hardly a virtue itself.
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The dominoes have officially begun to fall folks. Colorado just officially announced that it is leaving the Big12 to join the Pac10.

What is next? Nebraska is widely expected to leave the Big12 to join the Big10. If that happens then the Big12 is reportedly dead. The other big dogs (Texas and Oklahoma) don’t want to stay in the Big12 if Nebraska is gone. So there is a decent chance that most if the Big12 South will also defect to the Pac10 creating the Pac16.

If for some reason Nebraska stays in the Big12 that would be good news for both Utah and BYU. Utah is first in line to join CU in the Pac10 and BYU would surely be a top candidate to replace CU in the Big12. If the Big12 implodes things get messier because it would leave schools like Kansas and Kansas State without a conference at all. Maybe the Mountain West would be able to recruit them in that case.

Lots and lots of dominoes yet to fall folks. We’ll try to keep you updated in this thread as news goes comes in.

Alright I know posting on something like this is a cheap way to drive traffic and comments, but a recent conversation Kristen and I had with an LDS friend inspired me to post on the elephant (or two) in the room. What is the deal with so many Mormon women getting plastic surgery which normally includes but is not limited to adding big fake boobs? (Which they of course cover ever so modestly thereafter…)

I wish we had some data on this subject. What I don’t know is if Mormon women are more likely or less likely than their socio-economic counterparts to join in the plastic surgery trend. My guess is that income and region are far greater predictors of plastic surgery participation than religion. If that is true the question is: Should we be surprised about that? (more…)

As far as I can tell our scriptures don’t say anything specifically relating to world population. But don’t worry because wikipedia does. Here are a couple of interesting graphs from the world population wiki:

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The title of this post is a direct quote from a recent visitor here at the Thang. The observation came in response to a chilly reply I gave to one of her* comments. Of course “Jenny” was right. I often do come across as kind of mean to strangers on the web these days. I don’t know if running a blog for more than five years makes everyone jaded and suspicious about newcomers but it seems to have had that effect on me. I admittedly find myself warily sizing up newcomers and barely being able to hide my sneaking suspicion that this anonymous new visitor is A) an internet troll in disguise, B) a moron, or C) both.

The sad reality for anyone that runs a Mormon blog is that option C) proves to be the case too often. So I find myself a little jaded. How about you? Has blogging made you “kind of mean” and jaded, especially with strangers on the web… yet?

* Her handle was a female name but of course on the internet no one knows…
(See what I mean about being jaded?)