Christmas Morning!!

I feel like I'm an 8 year old kid again as he wakes up for Christmas morning. I've been waiting for this day to come for over 8 months now, and it has finally arrived!...College Football.

For the first week, there are actually a ton a good games to see today. Obviously I'll be going to the BYU game at 4:00, which they should win. But I'm exited to see a couple of games in particular. First at 1:30, Utah vs Michigan (yes I'm rooting for the yewts, its good for the conference) on ABC. I'll be flipping between this game and Wazzu vs Oklahoma St on FSN (I'm just hoping WSU can win a few games this year cause it looks like it might be a long season on the Palouse. Then after the BYU game, UW takes on Oregon which I'm hoping UW wins so BYU can get some respect by beating them next week.
All in all its going to be an amazing day....time to open the presents!!

I have a problem

I just can't stop thinking about this dilemma I'm faced with. Every time I watch the Mariners play I can't decide if I want them to win or lose. I'll explain why. Obviously I want them to win because they're my team. It's embarrassing seeing your favorite team have the worst record in the American League and I would love for them to be able to at least catch the Royals or the A's, but thats not going to happen. I also want them to win because winning baseball is just plain fun to watch. Plus if this team could somehow put together a winning month of September, maybe their confidence will increase and they'll play better next year. They need to finish the season just under the .500 mark to avoid being the first team to spend more than $100 million and lose 100 games. That would be just embarrassing.


The only reason I almost want this team to lose is because of one guy, Steven Strasburg. If you haven't heard of this kid you will. Right now he's playing for San Diego St. and is eligible for next year's draft. He was the only college kid to play for team USA during the Olympics this year and is good enough right now to start for the Mariners. I saw him pitch last year against BYU and it was total domination. It was like he was facing little leaguers. He throws in the mid to high 90s with a nasty curveball and changeup.

There is only one problem. The Nationals are even worse than the Mariners and currently have the worst record in baseball which would give them the first pick in the draft next year, leaving Seattle with the 2nd pick. So here lies my problem, do I root for the M's to lose so they can become better in the future (2010 and beyond) or do I root for them now to win just cause it's fun and maybe it will boost their morale if they can win some games with the young kids that are playing right now. If they start winning, maybe that will carry them into next season with a winning attitude.

Tough decisions.

8th Wonder

Michael Phelps has done it! A perfect 8 for 8.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any more exiting after the dramatic finish against the French in the 4 x 100 free, he goes out and wins by a hundredth of a second in the 100 butterfly! Call it luck, call it fate, or just call it all those long hours of hard work in the pool in Baltimore.

Tonight he put the icing on the cake by winning in the 4 x 100 medley. All I gotta say is that Phelps better be buying Jason Lezak dinner for a long time for anchoring both of those amazing races. I mean he should be able to afford it after the 1$ million dollar bonus he'll be getting from Speedo. Hopefully you got to see all eight of his races. If you didn't, go to nbc.com and check them out.

Michael Phelps is a God and we are not worthy.

Yes I've been enjoying my time in the greatest place in the world (The Basin/Q-Town). Mostly spending time with the family so haven't had the time to write as much about the Olympics as much as I've wanted to but I thought I'd throw a shout out to the man, the myth, the legend himself, Michael Phelps.

As you've noticed, (and if you haven't where have you been?) Michael Phelps has already won 3 gold medals and is set to break Mark Spitz's record 8 gold medals this year if he can fulfill his expectations in Beijing. I'm sure he can stay motivated because if he wins 8 gold medals, Speedo will give him a 1$ million dollar bonus for being his sponsor. He has already matched the record held by 5 other Olympians with 9 gold medals in a career. We are truly witnessing something special. No matter what happens the next couple of weeks, Phelps will go down as the greatest Olympian of all time. Lets just bask in the greatest.

If you didn't get to see the 4 x 100 relay, you missed something special. The French team had been talking trash the whole week about how they were going to "smash the Americans." Here's
the link. Here's the link to the video. It makes you realize what the Olympics are all about, whooping other countries. Seriously though, doesn't this video just make you proud to be an American?

BYU Practice Open to the Public

So today's practice was the only open practice that BYU will have open to the public for this Fall camp. Luckily I'm not heading home to Washington till tomorrow so I decided to head on down to the practice facility during my lunch break because I work really close to where they practice.

When I arrived I noticed I had made a cardinal mistake, I had a red shirt on from work! Of course everyone else was wearing blue and white BYU colors and I'm there with my hated Utah colors. Here I am, one of the most die hard BYU fans, and people are looking at me thinking I'm a traitor. I guess thats why we shouldn't judge people by what they wear. Actually I don't think anyone gave me any weird looks so it was fun, even though I could only stay for about a half hour because I had to get back to work. Anyways, just a few observations:

Just as you walk into the facility, there are signs everywhere that say "No videotaping or internet posting." So I'll try not to be specific about things. I know Bronco doesn't like having open practices because of people who have taken advantage of having open practices by posting videos or giving away very specific details about plays, etc. So I'll try not to be one of those people so we can continue to have open practices in future years.

I figure that Greg Wrubell post the same things that I'm about to post but only in greater detail so I figure I'm OK. First, Fui Vakapuna looks like a monster (#1 pictured above). That boy is ripped. He didn't looked too slowed by his hamstring and I think he'll be ready to go by the season opener. Our receivers looked really good. O'neill Chambers (#11 pictured below) is going to be a stud. He looked confident, making all the catches. He is a physical specimen with all the tools to be great. He is a very confident/borderline cocky player. If you didn't see his interview on ESPN.com check it out here and you'll see why his fellow WRs won't be making him brownies any time soon. I would be very surprised if he didn't see some time this year either at kick return or WR.
He will have some serious competition though. Austin Collie is a stud. Michael Reed has been very impressive during camp. He's a proven receiver. Luke Ashworth and Spencer Hafoka are both back from missions and in great shape. So Chambers will have to fight for his playing time.

Overall it got me pumped for this season! I had goosebumps all over. Only 23 more days till the best time of year...College Football!!

BYU's odds of going undefeated

I just had a random thought today about what BYU's chances are of going through their schedule undefeated. With my mathematical mind I decided to go through each of BYU's games and figure out my own odds of them finishing undefeated. Let me know what you think of the odds for each game and what you would put as the percentages for each game. (The percentages listed are for BYU winning that game)

1. Northern Iowa: 99%. Bronco won't let us overlook anyone.

2. @ Washington: 74%. Locker has to have a big day running to beat us.

3. UCLA: 87%. UCLA is worse than last year, and its at home.

4. Wyoming: 97%. Wyoming is improved, but not enough to beat us at home.

5. @ Utah State: 99%. The Aggies are struggling.

6. New Mexico: 94%. This would be a difficult game on the road.

7. @ TCU: 79%. This will be a tough road game on a short week.

8. UNLV: 98%. Rebels are terrible

9. @ Colorado St.: 96%. I'll give them a small shot since its on the road.

10. SDSU: 98%. About as bad as UNLV

11. @ Air Force. 92%. The Fly Boys lose a lot of seniors.

12. @ Utah. 71%. Utes always tough. Probably toughest game of year.

Total odds of finishing undefeated....drum roll please.... 27%

Let me hear what you think!!

Just FYI...Vegas puts the odds of BYU winning the national championship at 60/1. I think if BYU was somehow able to reach the National title game, it would have less than a 50/50 chance of winning against the team they would play. Which would put BYUs odds of winning the title at around 10%. Obviously I'm a BYU fan so these odds are probably lower than I would like but I feel they are pretty accurate.

I'll also throw in a plug for my buddy Adam Olsen who has a great blog at http://www.go-cougs.blogspot.com/. He had some great comments on my post from Monday. You can check out what I thought about it in the comments section, but I just wanted to elaborate a bit on the receiver situation.

He's probably right about the Austin Collie situation, in that Austin will be fine and ready to go by Aug. 31. I just hope it doesn't become a situation where it affects him throughout the rest of the season like his ankle injury from last year. It seems like everytime a player has a minor injury, they say it is no big deal, then it lingers the whole season and it affects their play, then they admit after the year is done that it was worse than they led everyone to believe (Vakapuna last year, Hall's shoulder last year, Collie's ankle last year) I could go on and on.

I'm sorry but Michael Reed is not a deep threat. He's physical, has good hands, and is good across the middle, but doesn't have break away speed. Ashworth, Hafoka, and especially Chambers have the potential to become deep threats but Ashworth and Hafoka are just off missions and Chambers is raw. Mckay Jacobsen will become the next deep threat after Collie but he won't be back until next year.

Mariners Actually Make Some Smart Moves!!! Turbo released!!!!

Well the M's released Jose "Turbo" Vidro yesterday. All I can say is its about time. This could have been done last year but instead we waited around for him to be the worst DH in the AL and hit somewhere around .220 with no power. We also called up Wladimir Balentien to see if he actually is the real deal as we all hope he is. He struggled earlier in the season and was sent down so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain some consistency and earn a starting spot.

The Mariners have actually made a few other good moves. They just announced that Brandon Morrow was sent down to AAA Tacoma to be groomed as a starter! Now I'm not sure that Morrow is suited to become a starter because he mainly is a fastball pitcher with an average curveball and splitter. He needs to develop some off-spead stuff and control his fastball (which he has been doing fairly well) to become a good starter. The Mariners are desperate for some good starting pitching so this worth the risk. Even if it doesn't work out, they can still put him back into the bullpen and we know he is a stud coming out as the setup man or closer.

The Aussie, Ryan Rowland-Smith, was also sent down to Tacoma and is pitching well. Hopefully he'll get called up in the next few days so he can take Miguel "I'm hurt and thats why I suck" Batista's spot in the rotation.

Austin Collie injured

I'll be honest, Austin Collie's stress fracture has got me worried. This guy is our only deep threat who has the ability to stretch the field and open things up for Dennis Pitta and Harvey Unga. It'll be interesting to see how fast he can heal because we really need him, especially against UW. Northern Iowa shouldn't be too hard so I'm not worried about them. But UW scares me, mostly because of Jake Locker. For those of you who haven't heard of Locker, he's pretty much a better version of Tim Tebow, last year's Heisman trophy winner. Here's a highlight video from last year of him.

If you want to see some great updates on the first few days of practice, go to cougaroutpost.com which has links to pretty much everything important that is going on. Or check out Greg Wrubell's blog on ksl.com under the BYU page. Wrubell does a fantastic job during Fall camp. He normally posts audio interviews with the players each day which should satisfy my football fix until Aug.31 comes.