BYU Moves up in Polls. Now has realistic shot at National Championship

As painful it is for me to say that BYU has a good chance at a National Championship, it is a real possibility. It's painful because we still have tons of work to do. Three road trips against TCU, Air Force, and Utah are going to be real tests. TCU scares me because they are hungry. Yes they did get worked at Oklahoma but remember that OU is the #1 team in the country. Plus TCU held their own physically. It was their execution that spoiled their fun. They came out pumped up, ready to start a fight with OU, then got out coached and out executed. They held OU, one of the best rushing teams, to less than 40 yards rushing! We're probably going to have to throw the ball a ton to beat them. Don't even get me started about how we can't contain a dual-threat QB like Andy Dalton.

Then there's Utah. That game is going to be tough. Real tough.

Its a long season and I hate looking ahead and assuming we'll go undefeated. I catch myself looking at the other title contenders in the SEC, Big 12, Big 10, and USC and wondering what would happen if all but one of them ended up with 2 losses. Would we be in the title game?

I found Jan Jorgensen's comments today very interesting at the weekly press conference. He said that it "scared" him when he saw that BYU was ranked so high. I felt the exact same way yesterday when I saw the polls. We will now have a target on our backs the rest of the way.

For an example of this, check out Foxsports.com on the college football section. BYU has a main page about them. Mostly negative stuff but what else can be expected by a BSC/East Coast bias media?

Mark on The Bronco Mendenhall Show / Brandon Morrow near No-No

So ya I'm been kinda lazy about my whole blog thing the past couple weeks since school just started and its been kicking me in the butt. So I promise to blog a bit more now that I have everything under control.

First off...I gotta throw a shout out to myself for getting mentioned yesterday on the Bronco Mendenhall show. For those of you who don't know, the head coach of BYU has his weekly radio show with the amazing Greg Wrubell (voice of the Cougs) every Wednesday. Anyways I normally email in a question each week and yesterday they actually read it on the air. Here's the link to the show...just click on the audio link on the right side (9/10)...my question comes around the 14:30 if you wanna hear it.

I asked about the possibility of using G Pittman or Brandon Bradley in nickle or dime packages when teams try to spread us out. Bronco said that is a possibility now with the depth at linebacker. I also asked about if there were plans on moving to a 4-3, which he said there weren't any plans.

Gotta give some love for Adam Olsen (fellow Cougar blogger) who also had a message answered. He actually asked a question that I was thinking about asking, whether Terrance Hooks would be back this year. Coach said 5-8 weeks I believe. Wouldn't it be great to get both Vic and Terrance back for the TCU game? Thats going to be a tough one. Don't underestimate TCU. Especially on the road. Bronco mentioned that Vic might actually redshirt this year, which would be great since all of our good linebackers are going to be seniors next year, so we need to spread them out a bit.

Also gotta give a shout out to Mariner's pitcher Brandon Morrow for almost no-hitting the Yankees last friday night. I was on the edge of my seat after the fifth inning. It was a great weekend with the M's winning a series from the Yanks and basically putting them out of the playoffs, and beating the Huskies in dramatic fashion.

Brandon Morrow making first ML start against The Yankees!

Well the highly anticipated debut of hard-throwing Brandon Morrow is tonight. Against the hated Yankees of course. The Mariners made the right move by sending him to AAA Tacoma to work on his off-speed stuff. While its true he may be better as a bullpen guy, its worth taking the risk to see if he has the stuff to be a starter. If it doesn't work out we can always move him back to the pen.

While its unfair to Brandon, he will always be compared to Seattle native Tim Lincecum, who the Mariners passed on with the #5 pick in the 2006 draft. We now know that Lincecum is a horse for the Giants and was probably the better pick. But here's to Mr. Morrow to try and prove all his doubters wrong!