I was blessed -or cursed- to be apart of two different Coaching regimes. One that went to consecutive bowl games and one that went home for consecutive bowl season. While seeing your family for an extra week during Christmas break is nice, the bowl games are more beneficial to individual players and teams.

I don’t want to kick a dead horse, but since the final game didn’t end the way anyone wanted it to -except the Utes- I still need to address some things.
(Some of these points have been talked about in comments, but I don’t know if everyone goes back and reads the comments or clicks the box to receive a threaded comment email.)
The first thing that made me optimistic for the bowl game -and possible next year- were the “new” plays designed to get the ball into Austin’s hands. I think …

Let’s get the bad news out of the way…
5 WORST THINGS:
5.   Not Dominating Washington.  At the beginning of the year perception can be detrimental to the psyche of the team.  We went into that game thinking Washington was supposed to be a good team.  They had a lot of hype around them this year coming in.  We were content with playing them tough and being ahead by a score.  Hindsight is 20/20 right?  Reference No.2 for this, but it would have been great to come out and stomp them like …

Outside of the actual game and preparation there are a lot of great NON-Football things that players get rewarded with by going to a bowl game.  Here is a quick list.
 1. A Week-Long Vacation, all expenses paid* (All travel costs are covered to and from the Bowl Game site, plus a per diem for food, gifts, etc.) The real bonus here is that if you are married the school pays for your wife (and kids) too. I got married 4 days after the Utah to make sure that my wife …

I understand everyone wants to crucify Max, but it’s not like our defense was consitently stopping the Utes from marching up and down the field.
Yeah, they were put in some bad situations with turnovers and sudden changes, but that’s still no excuse for giving up an average of 8 yards a pass play. True, the final score doesn’t completely explain BYU’s performance. Yet, I am left questioning if the Cougar defense could of held up against the Utes offense with the game on the line? We had success against UNLV, Colorado …

I’ve taken sometime to separate my self from the game -due to the fact that I didn’t want to write anything in haste. I sympathize with both teams this year. I understand what it feels like watching the home team fans rush the field in victory and I completely understand the frustration and disappointment of losing “the game”.
I’ll get the post game wrap-up  posted soon, but here are a few thoughts I’ve had as I have read through the comments after the game.

After that back breaking interception going into the half, I still thought BYU had a chance to overcome in the second half .
Even after the fourth interception, -fumble, I lost track- I still thought we could overcome.
Man, we blew it! It should have been closer.
I have to tip my hat to the Utes. They made plays, moved the ball, and capitalized off of the Cougars mistakes.
Lets hope the Cougs can heal up for their crappy bowl game.

As the game closes in, I have been thinking a lot about how BYU needs to play in order to come out of Rice Eccles with a win.  After watching film I am sure a win is possible as long as a few aspects of the game swing in our favor.

I have looked at every statistical category from TFLs allowed to Time of Possession to Punting and it all adds up to one very exciting, and very close game.  On paper the difference between BYU and Utah comes down to the decimal point, almost all the way across the board.  So what are the factors that will put BYU over Utah on the field?  I think this game is going to come down to 3 things, all controlled by the big boys in the trenches.

I, too, praise Quinn for keeping this blog running and for the unique insight that is given daily. Not only that, but thanks to him for taking the TIME to do it. Quinn tried to elicit my assistance a couple of months ago and I agreed to help out with the blog, only to

I also wanted to build on the emotion of this week and mention how important it is for both teams to play with emotion, -but at the same time be in control of their emotions. This game -more than others- it’s easy to pursue personal battles with red/blue jerseys. With your emotions running at def-com 9 it’s easy to forget about your team and instead try and humiliate the  faceless foe standing awkwardly in-front of you.

As I am sure most of you know Coach Mendenhall has closed the doors to practice. Many are probably wondering if that’s necessary, and some may think that it distracts simply because players recognize the coaches stepping in and acknowledging that it’s a big game. I say good move Bronco.
The media -and fans- pump this game up until they get themselves in a frenzy. Of course, the media loves it because of the hostile nature of their readers. Every reporter is hoping to get the next white board gem slipping …