BYU's Defensive Philosophy

The "bend but don't break defense" will never get BYU to the BCS, or even win another MWC championship. In my mind, it is a weak defense. It relies on your opponent making mistakes, not being aggressive, thus taking the game out your own hands. If I were a coach, I would prefer trying to win the game instead of trying to not lose the game. This is the main reason we are something like 1-9 against ranked teams the last 4 years. We have no problem against weak offensive teams, but whenever we play somebody good, we get smoked. I'm not sure if its Bronco or Jaime Hill who likes this defensive philosophy but it needs to go. Take a page out of Utah's defensive playbook and mix it up a bit. Disguise your blitzes. Don't be vanilla. Be creative. Make it hard for an opposing offense!

One of the reasons that I hear everybody say the reason they believe we can't blitz is because we don't have the cover guys in the secondary. This really gets me fired up because we do have the talent. His name was G Pittman but we managed to screw that one up somehow. Not to mention Brandon Bradley. That kid is a stud if the coaches would let him get physical and not play 10 yards off the football. Have you ever tried to guard someone when you give them 10 yards of cushion? Its nearly impossible because they can run any route they want. Are you telling me that Brandon Howard isn't fast enough? He's probably the fastest one on the team.

Another thing that bothers me is that if the coaches make the excuse that they don't have the athletes to be successful, why aren't they recruiting the necessary people? Bronco himself said that it doesn't matter what "star" a person is on scout.com or rivals.com. But then he makes the excuse that it DOES matter? Something is contradictory here. Bronco told us as fans that we should not worry about recruiting, but this is exactly why we as fans get upset about not recruiting the talent necessary.

Which gets me to another point about Bronco. He is not good with the media. He doesn't like the media. He seems annoyed with the fans. Anytime he gets a chance to go to Cougar Club meetings or talk about the team on the Bronco Mendenhall show, he seems like he is too good to be there and shouldn't have to worry about such pointless things. News flast to Bronco! Those people are the ones who pay your salary. The boosters are the ones who allow BYU football to exist. Unlike other programs who get money from their universities, BYU athletics raises its own money through donations and funds raised through advertising, etc. Not a penny comes from tithing.

If you look at other top coaches from around the country, you will notice they are very good with the media. Coaches like Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, Jim Tressel, Nick Saban, and of course Pete Carroll build up their programs by positive publicity. They know how to attrack kids to their schools. I'm not saying that Bronco can't recruit. Because I think he is a good recruiter. But getting the top LDS kids in the nation, (like Manti Te'o) , requires you to be able to convince kids that we have a good system and defensive philosophy. And if kids like Manit see how our defense plays, i.e soft and passive, then why would he choose us over USC? We should be getting the top LDS kids in the nation. And probably a few good non-LDS kids like G Pittman to stay and enjoy BYU. We are a top 20 program that should be able to recruit the athletes necessary.

Well I just rambled along and vented some frustrations but hopefully in the next couple days I'll think of some positives that the program is doing. I promise I'm not a pessimist so I'll look at the positives also.

Thoughs on about everything

So this will probably end up being one of my longest post of all time because there seems to be so much going on in the BYU/Seattle sports scene. I wish I had the time/motivation to post everyday but school is kicking my butt right now. Two midterms this past week plus two this week have me going crazy. So I figure Saturday is a good day to catch up on everything thats going on.

First off I'm stoked about this years BYU basketball team. Last nights game was amazing to see. Yes we played terrible against a team we should have beat by over 20, but how can you not love Lee Cummard? The man is simply amazing. Check out this stat line: 36 points, 11 boards, 5 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals, 7-7 on free throws, and off the top of my head, somewhere around 14-17 from the field. He will go down as one of the greatest players in BYU history. I'm just glad I've had the opportunity to watch him play for 4 straight years.

On a negative note, Jonathan Tavernari was terrible. The rest of the team was below average but JT had probably the worst night I've seen him have. Somewhere around 8-24 from the field. That just can't happen for this team to be successful. I know I've been harping on this forever but he has to be more selective on his 3-point shots. He forces too many shots with a man in his face. Do a pump fake or something to mix it up. You said before the season you were going to focus on other things besides scoring, so DO IT! Make your teammates better please, like Lee Cummard does.

Moving on to Seattle Seahawk football. This weeks game against Arizona is a must win. I know that sounds cliche and I hate using words like "must win" but this game really is. If we lose this game, no playoffs for the Seahawks. Actually we can only afford to lose probably one more game the rest of the season, which would put us at 8-8. I'm assuming the Cardinals finish at 8-8 and we win the tiebreaker against them. The only reason I have hope is because Matt Hasselbeck is coming back this week. Go Seahawks!

Now to some important offseason news for the Mariners. They will probably name a Manager sometime this week. Ex-Mariner and current Chicago White Sox coach Joey Cora is in the mix. I would love to see Joey as the manager, mostly because I loved him as a player back in the 90s. Plus he's Latino, which would help some of our younger Latin players like Yuni Bentancour, Jose, Lopez, Felix Hernandez, and Carlos Triunfel. He probably won't get the job but you never know.

Oh yeah, there's also a BYU football game today! Its going to be a tough game. Air Force is a really underrated team, especially at home. I'm not worried about our offense, but our D might be in trouble against their triple option attack.

As I was thinking about Lee Cummard being one of the greatest players to ever play at BYU, I thought of how fun it is to watch another player who is the greatest Wide Receiver to play at BYU, Austin Collie. Not only does he lead the nation in yards, and is a Belitnikof award finalist, but only needs 165 yards to become BYU's all-time leading receiver. Oh yeah, and he's only a junior. He has said that he won't leave early for the NFL but we'll see. Go Cougars! Beat Air Force!

Utah's win keeps BYU's slim BCS hopes alive

It was a strange day for me on thursday. I was torn. Do I root for Utah to beat TCU so BYU still has a slight chance for the conference title and the BCS? Or do I concede that BYU is just not good enough to beat Utah anyways this year and root against Utah because I don't want them to go to a BCS game? Tough decisions. But I decided to root against TCU, instead of rooting for the dang Yewts. Just to justify it.

Anyways it was a strange seen as I watched the game at Legents Grill in Provo. There were a ton of people there, mostly BYU fans, and they were all cheering for Utah. Of course I understand why they would, but it was just bizarre seeing all these BYU fans rooting for our arch enemy. I chose to watch the game and never cheer outloud for Utah. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I was happy inside but I would never cheer openly for them.

I was honestly disapointed as I saw a few BYU football players sitting there watching the game and cheering for Utah. I couldn't believe my eyes. Come on guys!

So just a few thoughts on what has to happen for BYU to get a BCS game. First we need to win the rest of our games. Which will not be easy as we still have games @Air Force and Utah. Then we need either Boise St or Ohio St to lose. If you really want me to explain it to you then I will but I don't want to write a couple more paragraphs just explaining the BCS system. So bottom line, root against Boise St and Ohio St, and just win baby!

Quincy vs Ephrata...one of the great rivalries

On the eve of the biggest sporting event of the year in the Columbia Basin, I thought I'd reflect and give a shout out to one of the great rivalries in high school sports. As some of you know, Quincy plays host to Ephrata tomorrow for the "Battle of the Basin trophy". Let me tell you, there is no love lost between these two schools, much like Ohio St. and Michigan or BYU and Utah.

One of my greatest memories in this rivalry is beating them my sophmore year in football. We played them @Ephrata my sophmore year and it was my first year as starting QB. It was a great game. I can still remember some of their players so mad after the game that they refused to walk through the line and shake our hands. Then that same year we beat them in basketball (the same year we took 4th in state). It was awesome seeing Weddle crying after he got schooled by Scott Bierlink. I just wish we could have beat them more my junior and senior years.

I believe Ephrata has beat us the last two years so in honor of the presidential election, it's time for change! Go Jacks! Beat Ephrata!

Where are you Matt Hasselbeck? / G Pittman transferring to WSU!

I feel I need to say a bit about my beloved Seahawks. I seemed to get caught up in BYU sports and the Mariners, but believe me, I still love the Seahawks. Just ask Adam or Brett if they remember the 2006 Super Bowl where I almost started breaking things in Russ's parents house in Orem. I'm not sure if I've been as pissed after a sporting event in my life. For sure I've never been so upset at officials in my life. I was probably more disappointed/despressed after the Quincy state championship basketball game in 2005, but not pissed like the Super Bowl.

Anyways I was getting exited last week after the Hawks played well and beat down the 49ers, (led by drawer dropping Mike Singletary). There was hope. Even if our records was only 2-5. Luckily we play in the worst division in football where the best team right now is the Arizona Cardinals, who just happen to be notorius for choking is big situations.

Unfortunately we pulled another dud today as we got owned by the Eagles. Dropping our record to 2-6. This is already our third loss at home this season! I can't even remember three losses since 2004 at Qwest field. We always seem to dominate at homeBut don't lose hope yet Hawk fans! I was checking out our schedule and it is favorable. We still play Arizona twice, which could get us back into the divisional race.

But it all hinges on if we can get Matt Hasselbeck back in the next two weeks. If we can't get him back within 3 weeks, the season is over. I can see us going 6-2 over the next 8 games if we can get him back next week or the week after. That would put us at 8-8, and assuming we beat Arizona twice, we could win the division. Getting Deion Branch back wouldn't hurt too.

This has been a miserable year in Seattle sports. First the Sonics leave, then the Mariners finish in last place in the AL, then UW football can't win a game. Not to mention how terrible things are in the Palouse with the Washington State Cougars. If you read my blog entry about the Seahawks in August, they were supposed to be Seattle's last hope for what has been a horrible year. There's still time. Get well soon Matt!

While I'm talking about WSU football, I noticed on ex-BYU football player Quinn Gooch's blog that G Pittman is transferring to WSU next year. That would mean he would sit out a year and be able to play in 2010 as a junior. I was stoked to hear this news for a few reasons. First he is a very good player and I want the Crimson Cougs to turn things around. And it puts him in a similar situation as myself, as I am in the process of applying to WSU pharmacy school for next year so hopefully I'll run into G next year in good ol' Washington State.