Photo by Jason Olson/Deseret News
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.
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 we did the UCLA and Wyoming.
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 would be with me in Vegas.
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.
Photo by Ravell Call
At this point of the season there really isn’t a person on the field that is 100%. If you have endured 11 games without some sort of injury, you’re a stronger man then I ever was. That being said there are different levels of injury. Harvey is probably the most banged up player on the team, but that’s because of the style. Add in the fact that he touches the ball the most and you have a recipe for some sore Sunday mornings.
Most of Harvey’s injuries will only heal with time. Sorry folks, one week isn’t enough time for an aggravated nerve to settle down and go away. But his injury can be managed with some R and R during the week, physical therapy, and lots and lots of treatment, daily I vitamin, and massage therapy. I think he’ll still be very effective on Saturday and what he isn’t able to do, Fui will pick-up the slack.
After thinking about the Cougar’s and Ute’s situations I am left wondering if the build-up and anticipation of Saturday’s game is diminished because of BYU loss? The Utes lived up to their end of the bargain and enter the game with an unblemished record. BYU suffered a demoralizing loss to TCU, but has since rebounded and is once again playing good football.
The Air Force practice week is unique to say the least. Each day the game draws closer the Coaches work harder and harder to insure every player is keeping their eyes in the right spots and performing their individual assignments.
Scout team players tend to pick-up the tempo as they sense the Coaching staffs urgency throughout the week. Gone are the Wednesday’s with little contact and less running. Helmet practices turn into (more…)
Our defense is probably approaching this game with some mixed feelings. On one hand BYU has won nine games this season and extended their home winning streak to 18 games. On the other hand BYU has shown considerable weaknesses in five of those nine wins.
BYU fans are left to question what team will show up in Colorado Springs on Saturday? Will the team that pummeled UCLA and Wyoming show up or will the team from the TCU and Washington -both road games- (more…)
Over the last two weeks we have mentioned a lot about preparation for games and knowledge of assignments. I figured it would be a good idea to go through the week and show exactly how we prepare for a game.
Saturday:
Immediately after the games players are handed their scout DVDs. These DVDs have four games of our next opponent on them. These games are selected by the coaches by how closely they match what we expect to see in our own game. For example, this week’s DVDs for the defense will show SDSU’s offense against teams this year that also play a 3-4, most recent game and any other game the coaches feel will most closely resemble what we expect.
Tulsa falls to the mighty Razorbacks. It was a close game but Tulsa threw a late interception that sealed the victory for the Razorbacks.
Florida State is down late to GT and probably won’t be able to come back.
Minnesota fell to the Northwestern Wildcats on the final play of the game. Minnesota’s quarterback threw an interception, which was returned for a touchdown. This heartbreaking play put the Wildcats up as time ran out.
I hesitated in writing this one, but after reading some of the crap that was out there about G I thought it would be appropriate to hopefully give some Cougar fans a clean break.
G isn’t going to SDSU or any other MWC team. He is tranfering to Washington State. He will remain a Cougar, but with a few less wins. G’s family has been in contact with the WSU coaching staff and G feels like it will be a good transition for him personally.
Teams are taking advantage of our teams lack of sideline to sideline speed. Personally I think we are OK up the middle, but when our linebackers are in space is when they struggle.
The “Mike” and the “Backer” are the two players on the team that should be counted on to make the most plays –more specifically the Mick. The defense is schemed around the Mick linebacker. He has the most opportunities to blitz and also has D-linemen in front of him so he is free to make plays in the running game.