Week 2

I give a greeting to both of you who actually read this blog.  It's been an interesting weekend in sports.  BYU and Utah football played.  I'll also be talking about why neither of these teams can, or should be trash-talking until after the game is played.  Let's get to steppin'!

So BYU played Colorado State this last weekend in Fort Collins, Co.  After a 49-10 trouncing of the 3-8 (2-5) Rams, BYU and their fans were very excited and I don't blame them.  It was a big win and Jake Heaps had a big week.  Threw for 242 yards, and is starting to actually resemble a quarterback somewhat.  Good for him.  I'm happy for him, and BYU.  They did suffer a lot earlier this season, and it's about time that they started picking things up.  I will admit as well that Bronco Mendenhall (even though I don't like him), has impressed me a lot with some of the things he's done at BYU.

1- Bronco is the person who really developed and dare I say created the 3-3-5 stack defense.  This defense is Bronco's baby.  He made it big when he was at New Mexico as the D. Coordinator.  When he came to BYU it seemed like it spread throughout the land pretty fast.  I was impressed because Bronco abandoned it when he realized that it isn't working.  He got rid of it, and went to a more traditional 3-4.  That takes a lot of guts from someone who spent so much time trying to develop it.
2-He trusted someone else to be his defensive coordinator.  He did fire his d cooridinator this year, but there are many people (i.e. Gary Crowton) who don't allow assistants in their field of expertise.  Bronco did trust someone.  It didn't work out, but it was impressive to me.  Now he's taken his defense back, and they really  are looking good.
3-Bronco is one of the few people who realizes that BYU's success right now is because of the lack of competition.  On 1320 KFAN today on the DJ and PK show, Bronco admitted that BYU's recent success is due to a lack of quality competition.

I did some research about BYU's schedule recently.  The teams they've played in the 2nd half of the season.  They've played traditional powerhouses of college football, such as 3 win Colorado State, 2 win Wyoming and UNLV, and 1 win New Mexico.  The combined record of the teams that BYU has played or will play in the second half of the season is a combined 26-36.  19 of those 26 wins come from Utah, and TCU; however, BYU is the hot team heading into November 27th's showdown in Salt Lake City.

Utah football also had quite the weekend.  Quite the weekend indeed.  They headed to arguably the biggest college football powerhouse (not recently) in history, in South Bend, Indiana this week to play the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.  I had multiple friends at the game, and they all told me that this place is reaking with history.  Notre Dame has won more NCAA football championships than any other school, with 11.  Heading into this game, Notre Dame was 4-5 and they were going to be starting a true freshman at QB.  Utah was coming out with a chip on their shoulder, and had the opportunity to prove how good they were on national TV.  Couldn't be a bigger, or better setting for the Utes right?  Wrong!

Utah came out and scored a Field Goal on the opening drive.  3-0.  I thought to myself that I'd rather have a touchdown, but a field goal will do.  After that it only went down hill.

Utah's pass defense (which 3 weeks ago was ranked 6th in the nation) got torn up by the freshman Tommy Rees, for 3 touchdowns.  I could hear my Dad in Sandy yelling "TOAST!" to Utah's secondary.  I could see my brother Aaron putting his head in his hands, and my Mother pumping her fist, and screaming "'U' had it coming!" at the TV.  I, for myself, was sittin here in Ephraim, drinking Dr. Pepper and eating pringles in disbelief as I saw 1 of Sellwood's many punts on the day get blocked, and returned for a touchdown.

Utah is lucky to even be ranked still.  They don't even look like a top 50 team.  Jordan Wynn looks the the backup QB that played on my JV team in high school.  His passes aren't crisp, and the passes he is making, are horrible. I understand that Wynn might very well be, "the quarterback of the future", but he did NOTHING to earn his spot.

I love Kyle Whittingham.  I think he's a good person, as well as a great coach.  He is arguably one of the best defensive minds of our time in College Football.  Utah's defense has put up one of the best defensive teams in the nation year in and year out.  I've never been as upset, or frustrated with him, as I am right now.  Why am I frustrated?  On we go!

1-Shaky Smithson, who has been the bright spot of Utah all year, game in and out has made few mistakes this year.  Against Pitt he fumbled the ball twice.  In between the Pitt game, and the ND game, he had 3 returns for over 70 yards, 2 returned for touchdowns, and has been the best returner in the nation (hands down), showing flashes of football genius and doing things that I've never seen done.  He made one mistake against ND, and he got benched.  After 1 mistake, the best player at his position in the nation is benched.

2-Terrance Cain as a starter at the University of Utah is 10-0.  He's never lost.  He's perfect.  He might not have put up the biggest numbers, but the man won.  Other QB's that didn't put up big numbers but won big games...hmmm...Brian Johnson, or Brandon Doman perhaps?  If I remember correctly Johnson did lead the Utes to a perfect season, and a Sugar Bowl victory.  Doman lead BYU to an amazing come from behind victory AT Utah, and to a 12-2 season.  If you only throw for 100 yards every game, and win every game, I don't care what you do.  You're winning.  Terrance Cain is a man who wins.  Why is he benched?

3-Jordan Wynn is not winning.  He's Wynning.  I've never been a Jordan Wynn fan.  I didn't see him last year, but from what I've seen from him this year I don't like him.  I never have.  Going back to the mistakes thing, Jordan Wynn threw 3 interceptions against Wyoming.  Yes you read that right, 3 against Wyoming.  That really was the...uh...turning point of Utah's season.  After that game everything went downhill.  The offense, defense and special teams.  Wynn threw for 148 yards against TCU, and 194 against ND.  In those three games he's thrown 2 TD's, and 6 interceptions, they've scored a total of 35 points (they were averaging over 40 before this stretch) and the Utes are 1-2.  He's done something that Cain hasn't.  He's lost.  Why isn't Wynn on the bench?

Whittingham claims that he hasn't heard the boos or comments from Utah fans complaining about Wynn's recent performance.  Is he deaf?  Does he not read the newspaper, or listen to the radio, or talk to ANYONE who is involved, or likes, or even pays attention to the program that he is leading?  In the Salt Lake tribune after the Notre Dame game, he said that Utah was going to "re-evaluate the Quarterback position".  I was assuming that that meant Cain was going to start talking.  Today he came out and said that Wynn will get the start, "for now".  Does Kyle Whittingham not like winning?  Does he want our offense to not score points?

For BYU, and Utah it's been complete role-reversal.  BYU's first half opponents have a combined record of 37-23.  Those included games against 9-1 Nevada, and in Tallahassee to play a 7-3 Florida State team.  Utah's first half opponents?  16-45 including 2 teams that have won only 1 game.  Out of those teams, 10 of the wins come from a 5-4 Pitt team, and an underrated 5-6 Iowa State team.

What about the second half of the season?   Utah's opponents 38-25, and BYU's 26-36.  BYU fans don't realize that they are crushing the same teams that Utah has already owned.  Utah's been there and done that.  The Mountain West Conference as a whole is very very weak.  It's making TCU look like Boise State.  They get 1 big game a year, win it, than it's home free.  BYU is a little over-confident (as was Utah in the first half of the season), and Utah was (and still is) waaaaaaay overrated.  Utah is a mediocre team who crushed those first half teams in all their cupcake games, and lost all the big ones.  That's exactally what BYU is doing right now.  They are a very average team who is dominating the pillow-fight games that Utah has already yawned through.

Neither one of these 2 teams can trash talk.  Why?  Because both of them lost the big games that they played, and both teams are beating the same teams, that won't even finish with a .500 record to qualify for one of the way-too-many bowl games there are.  I think that overall the better team is Utah.  I really do.  However, it doesn't matter who the better team is, just who's hot at the time.  Just ask LeBron, Dwight Howard, or Joe Johnson about that.  BYU fans are trying to trash talk me, or other Utah fans about BYU's recent success.  What can they say?  "We beat CSU by 39!" Utah beat them by 53.  Or, "We've won 3 in a row!"  Utah won 8 in a row.  The point is, every game counts.  Some count a little more than others.  The ones that count a little more than others, neither team won.  They are two average teams, who will play a very heated game this year, and will get an average bowl game to go to, that don't really matter for anything anyway.  Utah very well could go to the Vegas Bowl, and BYU to the Poinsettia bowl, but neither of those games count for nearly anything when we put it into perspective.

Thanks for reading.  Don't be stupid fans.  Stay classy Utah!