The good news is BYU football won a game today. The bad news is that BYU is fielding a painfully inept offense still. Baby steps I suppose. I expect the cries to fire offensive coordinator Robert Anae will only get louder.

The good news is quarterback Jake Heaps connected with Luke Ashworth for a touchdown. The bad news is Jake connected with a Wyoming linebacker for a TD as well. He seriously lobbed the ball directly to the Wyoming player. The further bad news is that BYU has tossed a grand total of 4 TD passes through eight games this season placing BYU near last in college football in touchdown passes. Yes, you read that correctly.

But through it all BYU is 3-5 now and if BYU can beat even more hapless UNLV and New Mexico then take down CSU, the Cougs could still get to a bowl game this year. Hard to believe but still true.

I guess that’s why you play the games. Two weeks ago SDSU crushed USU. Last week USU crushed BYU. So SDSU should really crush BYU right? Wrong. In a rock-paper-scissors-like twist, BYU beat SDSU this afternoon 24-21.

BYU did it with some really solid defense, a bruising running game, only a few passes, and some lucky calls by the refs. On the defensive side, Bronco’s decision last week to fire defensive coordinator Jaime Hill and take over that role himself looked really smart today. This was easily the best defensive performance of the year by BYU. They were especially effective at stopping the run. On offensive side, the o-line really showed up today and the running back committee of DiLuigi, Kariya, and Quezada pounded and pounded all afternoon. BYU ran the ball more than 70% of the time and completely dominated the time of possession by a 3-1 margin. As for the lucky calls, there was a borderline pass interference call late in the game that was useful to BYU. But the real doozy was the DiLuigi fumble that should have gone to SDSU in the 3rd quarter. BYU somehow was awarded the ball even after an officials review that showed it really was a fumble. It was likely because the line judge blew the whistle really early, perhaps before either team secured the ball. Aztec fans will be angry about that one for a long time (and rightfully so).

The game was as close as it was because of some silly mistakes by BYU. Jake Heaps made a bad pass into the end zone that was intercepted. Chalk that up to him being a freshman. One of the young tight ends had a really silly fumble that BYU lost as well. And the punter Stephenson shanked another 12 yard punt which didn’t help. Nevertheless BYU did just enough to win. Interestingly, BYU’s magic number is 24. When BYU scores 24 or more or holds the opponents to less than 24 BYU normally wins. Both of those happened today.

Perhaps this will be a turning point for this team. BYU fans sure hope so. BYU will face a top 5 team next week at TCU so that one will be very hard to win but there are some much easier games on tap after that. One think is for sure — this season looks better for BYU than it did after the game in Logan. This was a huge win for BYU and dramatically improves the Cougars’ chances of going at least 6-6 and making a bowl game.

After the 31-16 loss tonight at Utah State the Cougars of BYU drop to a 1-4 record and are likely to lose their next two games as well. (Congratulations to the improved Aggies BTW.) Next up is SDSU which has a BYE this week after destroying this same USU team last week. So in all likelihood The Aztecs will handle this anemic BYU team fairly easily. The following week BYU is at #4 TCU and that will likely be a severe beat down for the Cougs.

The BYU defense has been hapless all season, giving up gobs of points every game. To make things worse, the best player on defense, strong safety Andrew Rich, went down tonight with what looked like a pretty serious injury in the first half. Then star linebacker Jordan Pendelton had to be helped off the field in the second half. This follows on the heels of our starting nose tackle Romney Fuga getting his knee blown out on a dirty play by a Nevada lineman last week. The defense runs the real risk of going from weak to awful.

But as bad as the defense has been, the offense has been significantly worse. SDSU put up 41 points on USU; BYU only managed 16. The problem for freshman QB Jake Heaps is that while he is missing some passes, even when he is on target his receivers are dropping the ball way too often. BYU has been spoiled with mature NFL-caliber talent on offense for the last 5-6 years. The offensive talent on the field this year is either not experienced enough to win yet, not NFL-caliber, or both. It makes for a very non-BYU-looking team out there when BYU has the ball lately.

The upshot of it all is that BYU is now probably going to finish 5-7 or even 4-8 this season. Rebuilding year indeed.

Turns out the BYU football team isn’t very good this year. Florida State beat BYU this afternoon 34-10. Bad tackling on defense hurt all game long.

At least it appears the Jake Heaps era has begun. Jake throws a beautiful ball but he looks like a freshman out there. Still I hope Jake starts going forward. The offense needs to find a rhythm and there were some moments that it almost looked like things were starting to click today.

Anyhow, Nevada looked great in crushing Cal last night. They could crush BYU next week if the team doesn’t pull things together. I am now thinking that going 8-4 would be a major accomplishment for BYU this season.

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.

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.

The new men’s college basketball rankings came out this morning and the 20-1 BYU Cougars are ranked #10 in the coaches poll. This is the highest ranking for the Cougs since the ’87-88 team. I think this is the best BYU hoops team since the Danny Ainge days.

BYU is led by Junior point guard Jimmer Fredette out of New York state. I have long thought Jimmer was the best player on the team — ever since he looked like the best BYU player on the floor in the NCAA tournament game his freshman year. This year no one can deny Jimmer is one of the best guards in the country. He really turned heads nationally at the end of December when he dropped 49 points on Arizona in Tucson, setting a new BYU scoring record and a new McKale Center scoring record in the process. The only problem was that he came down with a case of mono right after that game and it has taken the better part of a month for him to bounce back.
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