Part 1 of 7 BYU special in-depth football preview: Offensive Backfield

BYU should be very solid next year in the backfield. Returning is senior QB Max Hall. Yes Hall did struggle at the end of the year, but he is still the best returning QB in the conference. BYU has had tremendous success with senior QBs in previous years. Expect a big year for Hall, especially if Collie returns. Lets not hype up the Heisman talk though, unless we somehow beat Oklahoma at the beginning of the year.
Backing up Hall will either be Brenden Gaskins again, or Utah St. transfer Riley Nelson (pictured above). Riley will be getting back from his mission in Spain in the next couple months. He was a freshman sensation with the Aggies two years ago and is the QB after Hall graduates. Just from watching James Lark and Jason Munns in practice, I was much more impressed with Nelson his freshman year. If I was the coach, I would have Nelson be the backup QB and let him play some serious minutes when the game is out of hand, just to get him some experience. Another option is just to redshirt him. Kurt McCuen is also an option.

We will be deep again at RB. Returning is workhorse junior Harvey Unga. His only weakness is his speed. If he can lose about 10 pounds for next year and gain some speed, he could be special. He has great hands and runs hard. Coming back for his senior year will be FB Manase Tonga (pictured below) if he can get back into school after being suspended for academics. He will be very important as he will take Fui's spot. He also has great hands and is an underrated runner.
Also looking to get carries will be sophmore J.J. Diluigi, returning missionary Mike Hague, and true freshman Adam Timo. Diluigi has not lived up to his hype, but in fairness to him, he hasn't really gotten the playing time necessary to succeed. The coaches quickly lost trust in him after fumbling twice in crucial situations. He looked good in spring ball and I believe he still can be productive. He is very quick, has good vision, and soft hands. Timo has some serious upside. Scout.com has him rated as a 4-star recruit with good speed. His highlights in high school are very impressive. I was impressed with Brian Kariya this year. The coaches trust him so he should get some carries as well. Expect a battle between these players to get playing time behind Unga and Tonga.

Next up is the WRs and TEs preview.

Worst year ever?

Ya this year has been hard on us Seattle sports fans. There is a great article on ESPN.com written by Jim Caple and Outside the Lines that covers just how bad it has been for us. Here's the link. Its a great read. Even for fans not from Seattle. You have to admire that fan, Lorin Sandresky, for his loyalty. And here I thought I was the loyalist Seattle sports fan. This guy actually would wait for the teams to get home from their flights! Trust me read the article.

I've been avoiding writing about the terrible weekend for BYU sports. I feel bad for the basketball team for absolutely getting robbed. I have never seen such a poorly officiated game in my 25 years of existence. No joke. I'm not exaggerating. How bout that star treatment for James Hardin? Ridiculous. Not to mention that the last play was inconclusive. It just goes to show that Pac-10 people take care of themselves and the national media and ESPN just look the other way. BYU should never play another Pac-10 school in anything unless it is on a completely neutral court with non-partial refs or replay officials. Hopefully the team can recover from this and beat Wake Forest on Jan. 3. That is going to be a huge can for us. It will be our only chance to get national attention and rebound from a tough loss.

On that note. I don't feel bad for BYU football, except for Austin Collie. Our coaching staff is too stubborn, ignorant, or just plain clueless in our offensive and defensive schemes. I heard it said once that a team reflects from a coach's personality. BYU now plays exactly as Bronco is, emotionless, passive, makes excuses, and unwilling to adjust. This team has talent coming back next year but the way we play in our formations and play calling, there is no hope to do anything special next year. Which is why I feel bad for Austin Collie, the guy is a stallion, a gamer, one of the best players to ever play at BYU. I don't blame him for wanting to get out of this mess and coaching staff. I will go into greater depth on our offensive and devensive schemes and why they are so bad in the off-season. Let me state that I like Bronco as a person. He would be a great Elder's Quorem President. But lacks in football IQ.

Blockbuster trade for the Mariners!!!! J.J. will be missed

Wow I didn't know I could be so exited about baseball in December. But this is a huge trade for the future of the M's. We give up J.J. Putz, Sean Green, Jeremy Reed, and Luis Valbuena. We get Franklin Gutierrez, Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Mike Carp, and some "minor leaguers".

Lets first discuss who we had to give up: J.J. Putz will be missed. He was been one of my favorite players the last few years and he was the leader of the team. But I understand why the team would want to trade him. He was hurt for most of last year, and when he did pitch, he stunk. Good luck in Queens J.J.! Sean Green will also be missed. He has been our best right-handed set-up man the last two years. Jeremy Reed will not be missed. He has basically no potenial upside and is basically a career .250 and 15 home run hitter with average defense. Luis Valbuena definitely has some upside. I was impressed by his bat and glove but he is the same player as Jose Lopez right now, just with a slightly better glove and less power, so one of them had to go.

Now lets get to the exiting part. I'm stoked about Franklin Gutierrez. He is going to be our center fielder for a long time! Great defense, decent offense, and great upside. Aaron Heilman isn't really that exiting, he's a downgrade from Sean Green. He wants to start but we already have too many starters so he'll probably be in the bullpen again. Endy Chavez will probably split time with Wlad in left. He's a great defensive player that can hit for average and has good speed. Mike Carp is a good minor leaguer that has potential.

Bottom line is that we drastically improved our outfield defense (and possibly outfield offense) but at the same time lost some key bullpen pieces. Another big question is do we move Brandon Morrow back to the bullpen? I really think this kid could be a great starter but now without Putz and Green, we need him as a closer.

Spring Training is less than 3 months away!

I think I owe JT an appology...for now

Yesterday's win over Utah St was huge. Not only did we beat a good team in Utah St....we actually won a game without Lee Cummard having to be like the government and bail us out. Jonathan Tavernari, who I've been very critical of, actually was one of the main reasons we won. Yes he did take his normal 5-6 terrible shots per game, but his hustle plays were the difference in the game. His steals were huge momentum swingers and sources of offense that were desperately needed without Lee in the game with foul trouble. Props to Jimmer Fredette for stepping up and drilling some huge 3's and the and-one at the end. Click here for video recap

Also of note is that I won a bet with a huge Aggie fan and now she has to wear a BYU shirt around for a day...so hopefully that will be as humilliating as possible.

Speaking of Aggie fans, I think its funny the way Utah St. thinks that they are big rivals with BYU. What makes it even more hilarious is that they REALLY HATE BYU. I would even guess they hate BYU way more than Utah. I think they might even hate us more that Utah does. Why all the hate? We don't hate you :) I guess it is probably the same reason that Utah hates us. Because they couldn't get into BYU so they're jealous? Because you think we think we are better members of the church than you just because we go to BYU? Thats just retarted. Get a life and stop wasting your time hating on BYU.

Around the world of sports, even though its hard for me to say, but congratulations to Cashmere for winning the Washington 1A State playoffs, and representing the old CWAC. Behind Ephrata, I think Cashmere is the next team I disliked the most in high school out of the old CWAC. On a crazy and suprising note, 2A powerhouse Prosser lost a heartbreaker in the finals. Click here for a video recap. I couldn't believe it when they lost...one of the best high school games ever in the state of Washington! I thought they'd win by 3 TDs after I saw them play last week for only a quarter.

Also of note is BYU will be playing Arizona in the Vegas Bowl. Alot of Coug fans are complaining about going to this bowl but I think we should be grateful. It could be worse. We could be playing in the New Mexico bowl! Yuck. If we can't go to a BCS game, then Vegas is the next best bowl. I just hope TCU plays Boise State in the Poinsettia bowl in San Diego so they can show just how much better the MWC is than the WAC!