When we last discussed the basketball team, there were a lot more questions than answers.  Let’s take a look at some of those questions.

Who is going to take over for Jimmer Fredette?

The obvious answer is that nobody on the team is another Jimmer Fredette.  Players of his caliber only come along once or twice in most teams’ histories.  When you take a deeper look, though, the answer is that everybody has to take over.  Everybody has to elevate their games, and a lot of teamwork is required. 

The Cougars have done a great job so far.  Four players are averaging double figures, and Brock Zylstra is chipping in with 9 ppg, with Stephen Rogers contributing 7.7 ppg.  We will have more to say about those in double figures later in this post.

I guess the best way to answer this question is that teamwork and defense are going to take over for Jimmer Fredette.  That is absolutely not a knock on last year’s team, either.  When you have a talent like Fredette, you have to let him shine.  Conversely, when a talent like Fredette leaves, it’s time for everybody to elevate their games and pick up the slack.  In basketball, as in football, the best way to do this is to pick it up on the defensive end. 

Should BYU even bother to show up this year?

Not if they had listened to the national press.  I doubt that many would have predicted the Cougars to even go .500 this year.  I wonder that those who predicted gloom and doom for the Cougars think now?  They aren’t getting much national TV time or publicity at this point, but the Cougar are 17-5 overall, and 6-2 in conference play.  In other words, the Cougars are playing a lot better than most national writers predicted them to, and the total collapse predicted by many just hasn’t happened.

We’ve all seen the pattern over and over.  For whatever reason, the Cougars are usually the last team to get any respect from the national press.  The football contract with ESPN has helped matters greatly, but the Cougars are still seen as an afterthought when upper-echelon teams are being discussed.  Only the stratospheric play of Jimmer Fredette got the Cougars any respect at all last year. 

Even so, most writers saw the Cougars as a one-man team, and at least one national sports personality found a way to predict them losing every game in the tournament before someone was finally right.  This year, Jerry Palm, who usually does a very good job at CBS, still has the Cougars as one of his last four teams to make it into the tournament. 

Palm usually gets a lot of his predictions right, especially toward the end of the season.  This is bothersome, because he apparently is brilliant at figuring out all of the politics that go into choosing the field.  Is a 17-5 BYU team really only deserving of a play-in game?  In the preseason coaches’ poll, the Cougars got exactly one vote as a top 25 team.  Even at 17-5, they only have one vote in this week’s poll. 

So, who has really stepped it up this season?

Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies have been the top scorers this year, and both have contributed a lot of leadership, besides their points.  Hartsock not only scored twenty against Pepperdine, but blocked three shots.  Along the way, he became the 43^rd player in Cougar history to score over 1,000 points.  In the loss to Loyola-Marymount, Hartsock had a career-high 28 points. 

Davies could have sulked after last year.  He could have transferred.  He could have come in with a bad attitude.  Instead, he has worked his tail off.  Davies scored 29 against Pepperdine, with 15-18 shooting from the free throw line, and contributed two blocks. 

From the outside, Matt Carlino, Charles Abouo are both shooting .444, and have combined for 41 percent from outside of the three-point line.   Fifth starter Zylstra and sixth man Rogers have combined to shoot .483, and .409 from three-point range. 

As we alluded to at the beginning, defense is where the Cougars have really shined this year.  While we all like to see scoring, the other half of the game is to not let the opponent score.  The Cougars have allowed only 65.1 points per game this year, while scoring 80. 

CBS, in whatever metric they use, has the Cougars as the number twelve team in the country in total defense.  While they are ranked around 100 in points allowed, this doesn’t take a lot of things into consideration, such as competition or the pace of the game in your part of the country. 

We like the scoring margin stat, in which the Cougars are 14^th in the country right now with a 14.9 point margin.  Conference leader St Mary’s, who are having a monster season so far, are in sixth place with a 16.9 margin.  While the Cougars are in third place in the WCC right now, we see them as the second-best team in the league.  A victory over St Mary’s in the WCC tournament, though, could change everything. 

And this brings us to our next topic:

So, where is this team headed?

The next three games should tell a lot.  Virginia Tech is first.  On paper, they look OK, with a 12-7 record, but they have pretty much lost to everyone they’ve played who is any good, and fattened their record with tomato cans.  They play in the ACC, which is one of the two toughest conferences in college basketball, but they are beatable.  If the Cougars beat VT, it will certainly help the respect level in the national press.

The next two conference games, though, will tell a lot.  It is essential that the Cougars at least win one of the next two home games against St Mary’s and Gonzaga.  If they win both, it proves that the Cougars are as good as anyone in the league.  If they lose both, they are going to have to work hard to get into the NCAA draw.  

The BCS “Championship” game was a joke.  It was a dull, boring game, played between the first and second-place finishers in the same division.  Everybody knows that it is much more difficult to beat a team twice than it is to beat it once.  In rematches, if the two teams are remotely equal, the team that lost the first game almost always wins the second game.  That is exactly what happened: ho-hum.

The BCS likes to say that, under the current system, “every game counts.”  This is just a flat-out lie on many levels.  First and foremost, how can anyone say with a straight fact that LSU’s victory over Alabama in the regular season “counted” for anything? 

Secondly, it has become obvious that, after one loss, any game played by any team not in the SEC doesn’t “count” for anything.  Ultimately, Oklahoma State’s 12 wins didn’t “count” for anything.  Neither did Stanford’s 11 wins in the regular season.  Oregon’s season was basically over after the first game, when it lost to LSU. 

The current system is a travesty.  Why is the NCAA’s largest revenue sport still the only one in which a true champion is not determined on the field of play?  The answer, plain and simple, is that it is all about the money, but not in the way one would think. 

The BCS in general, and the bowls in particular, wield an incredible amount of power over the NCAA.  Worse yet, they allow this voluntarily.  Human nature dictates that there must be something in it for the school presidents and athletic directors who continue to vote for this system, because people almost always act in their own self-interest.  To understand this fully, a little bit of background is necessary. 

The “Granddaddy of them All,” the Rose Bowl, was originally created in 1902 to promote tourism in Pasadena.  Soon, other cities followed suit, and by 1937, there were five major bowl games: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl Classic, Orange Bowl, and Sun Bowl.  These games were considered to be exhibitions, and had no bearing on who was called the National Champion, as all polls were done shortly after the season had ended. 

Now, there are so many bowls that 6-6 teams are being allowed to play, and 6-7 UCLA was even granted a waiver to play in a bowl this year.  The BCS was created in 1988, ostensibly to create the five “best” bowl matchups, including the “BCS Championship Game.” 

All it has done, though, is to create a “system” that is almost exactly like the old bowl system, but with two teams playing for a paper “championship” while other worthy teams are excluded.  Most teams don’t complain most years, because a major bowl with a payout in the $10 million range is a great “consolation prize.”

Really, though, it isn’t a prize anymore.  A bowl game used to be an exhibition game that would reward the student-athlete for a great year.  While the athletes are still rewarded with a week of activities and a great “swag bag” of gifts like iPods and popular video game systems, it is really nothing more than another road game, another week of hard work, and another opportunity to get injured. 

In other words, bowl games are now exactly what those who argue against a playoff cite as their main reason for arguing against a playoff: more wear and tear on the “student-athlete.”  With the new schedule that plays the “championship game” a full week after the New Year’s Day bowls, and lesser bowls playing the week in between, the other argument that a playoff would take too long is laughable.

So, why do the presidents keep voting against a playoff and refusing to even discuss it most years?  It is because the presidents get too many perks from the bowls.  Basically, too many bowls are a money-laundering operation where money is funneled from the general funds of the athletic departments and turned into vacations for the presidents, athletic directors, various trustees and school officials, and their families. 

Schools are required to “buy” amounts of tickets that they can’t possibly sell, and the difference is “made up” by the school purchasing the unsold tickets themselves.  This money is used to entertain presidents and AD’s, and to buy numerous gifts for decision-makers.  The Fiesta Bowl Scandal of 2011 is laughable, in that those who were fired were only doing what nearly every other major bowl is doing in a de facto sense: bribing school officials. 

Consequently, even though the NCAA is leaving a ton of money on the table by not having a true playoff, most bowl officials believe that a true playoff would diminish the importance of the bowls.  Bowl officials desperately want to retain their power, and don’t hesitate to use the relationships they have built with presidents and AD’s over the years to their advantage.

So, how does this affect the Cougars?  First of all, it is obvious that they need to stay right where they are.  If the Cougars want to play for the “National Championship,” they will have to run the table, but it is possible in a great year.  The trick is to schedule just enough games against high-quality competition to obtain high rankings, but not so many that they risk being knocked out of the running.

Until the system is changed, it just doesn’t make sense for the Cougars to join a conference.  At this point, they have one main competitor: Notre Dame.  If the Cougars are the best of the independent teams, they will probably get a slot in a BCS bowl.  Instead of competing against 10-14 teams for the honor, it is much better leverage to compete against a few independents. 

The Cougars have enough natural rivalries to fill out an entertaining schedule, and enough TV coverage to get ranked highly if they win between 11 or 12 games.   As we guessed last spring, it will take at least 10 wins to get into a BCS bowl, and probably 11.  Until the system changes, it just makes more sense to remain independent. 

If there is ever a playoff consisting of conference champions only, then the Cougars will be forced to join a conference.  In the meantime, though, they are in the best possible situation.  They can continue to grow the BYU brand, take care of business on the field, and set their sights squarely on overtaking Notre Dame as the top independent football program in the country.

Cougars win Third Straight Bowl Game

In August, we correctly guessed that anything less than ten regular season wins would keep the Cougars from a BCS bid and put them in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces bowl. Even though the bowl was in Fort Worth, the finish was more worthy of their early 1980’s appearances in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The Cougars came from behind twice, and would finally win the game in the last minute on a play for the ages.

As has been their habit against good teams, the Cougars started slow. Tulsa started their first drive on their own 24, and Brandon Ogletree was whistled for a facemask penalty, giving the Golden Hurricane the ball on their own 39. The Cougars then allowed Tulsa to drive down the field 61 yards for a touchdown in a little over six minutes. Tulsa would net 19 yards on the ground and 42 in the air. This would turn out to be one more rushing yard than Tulsa got for the rest of the game combined.

As we often see in bowl games against reasonably well-matched teams, most of the game was a defensive struggle. The Cougars scored on a 35 yard field goal by Justin Sorenson with seventeen seconds left in the first quarter to close the margin to 7-3 for Tulsa. On Tulsa’s second offensive drive in the second quarter, the defense went to sleep for four plays, and it would cost them an 86-yard drive for a touchdown that took only 1:16 off of the clock. A seven-yard run was followed by passes of 50, 14, and 14 yards to put Tulsa ahead 14-3.

At the end of the first half, special teams came up big, as David Foote recovered a Justin Sorenson punt that was fumbled by JD Ratliff at the Tulsa 17. If there’s one thing the Cougars have proven this year, it’s that they are able to take advantage of opportunities caused by turnovers. Riley Nelson did what great QB’s and teams do, throwing a 17-yard pass to Cody Hoffman on the first play for a touchdown to bring the Cougars to within 14-10 with twelve seconds left in the first half. On the play, which will probably be in a lot of highlight reels, Matt Reynolds lost his helmet, but then flattened Tulsa DE Cory Dorris, giving Nelson time to make what turned out to be a crucial throw.

In the second half, though, it was more defense. Finally, with 1:41 left in the third quarter, Nelson hit Hoffman with another TD pass, this time for 31 yards, to put the Cougars on top, 17-14. With 10:42 left in the fourth quarter, though, the defense would once again allow a big play for Tulsa, as they took advantage of a short field. They completed a 58-yard drive with a 30-yard TD pass, and would go on top, 21-17.

After failed drives by both teams, the Cougars would get the ball back at the Tulsa 48 with 4:18 and the season on the line. Riley Nelson will never be confused with a classic, drop-back, rifle-armed NFL quarterback, but he is one of the most competitive and fearless quarterbacks in the game. The last drive showed almost everything that is great about the Cougars in four minutes and seven seconds. After three plays for one yard, it was fourth and nine on the Tulsa 47-yard line. Failing to find an open receiver, Riley Nelson tucked the ball and ran 14 yards for a first down.

The Cougars then went to the running game with Bryan Kariya and JJ DiLuigi getting the ball to the Tulsa 13-yard line, and Riley Nelson getting the ball to the eight. Nelson would complete a pass to Marcus Mathews at the two. Then came the play that had the football world paying attention to the Cougars. BYU had no time outs left, and Nelson was yelling the signal to “clock” the ball. As the ball was snapped, everyone on the team did what they would normally do in a “clock” situation.

Everyone, that is, but Riley Nelson and Cody Hoffman. Nelson threw the ball to Hoffman on the right side of the end zone for a touchdown with eleven seconds left on the clock. A Justin Sorenson extra point, and subsequent kickoff into the end zone for a touchback would leave Tulsa with eleven seconds to go eighty yards. Tulsa would lateral the ball twice and fumble it once before Travis Uale would cover the ball up for the victory.

Game balls go to Riley Nelson, Cody Hoffman, and Matt Reynolds on offense. On defense, Kyle Van Noy had another solid game, with nine solo tackles, two sacks, and one QB hurry. David Foote gets the special teams game ball for his fumble recovery, and Justin Sorenson gets one for a very consistent game and for not giving Tulsa a chance to win the game on his kickoff.

In winning the Armed Forces Bowl, the Cougars won three bowl games in a row for the first time in their history. They also wrapped up their fifth 10-win season in the last six years, which they have only done once before, from 1980-1985. At the beginning of the season, we knew the Cougars had a chance of having a special season, but that it would take a few bounces going the right way for it to happen. All in all, though, 2011 turned out to be a very good year for BYU.

On the good side, BYU has found its next great quarterback. Once again, Riley Nelson probably won’t make it to the NFL, but he is the consummate team player, and one of the toughest quarterbacks in college. Most of all, Riley Nelson is a leader. Greatness is often measured in stats. With Riley Nelson, though, it has to be “measured” by the intangibles.

To be a great quarterback, you have to win games. Also, your team has to follow you. Riley Nelson has a very rare talent. He is able to make the team play better when he is in the game. Like a great point guard in basketball, Nelson’s strength is his ability to manage the team and get the job done, regardless of individual stats or glory.

When Nelson lost his job to Jake Heaps, a lesser man would have pouted and complained about “losing his starting job due to injury.” Riley Nelson didn’t do that, though. Instead, he “manned up,” contributed to the team in any way he could, and made sure he would be prepared for his next opportunity. When Nelson finally got the opportunity, he took full advantage of it, and the Cougars showed their respect by the way they responded with Nelson behind center. By the time it was all over, the Cougars had another ten-win season.

Thank you, Riley Nelson, for being such a great leader this season. The Cougars are in good hands for 2012.

When:  December 30  10:00 am, MST

Where:  Ford Stadium, Dallas

Teams:  BYU (9-3, independent) vs Tulsa (8-4, CUSA)

Tulsa is quite similar to the Cougars.  The Cougars won eight of their last nine games, while Tulsa won seven of their last eight.  Tulsa ran better numbers than the Cougars this year, finishing 23^rd in the FBS in total offense with 454.4 yards per game, and 24^th in scoring at 34.1 points per game.  Meanwhile, the Cougars finished 41^st in total offense with  410.8 yards per game, and 42^nd in points with 30.6 points per game. 

On defense, Tulsa allowed 27.6 points per game this year, while the Cougars allowed only 20.3 points per game to rank 23^rd in the FBS.  Remember that the Cougars’ total is skewered greatly by the Utah game getting out of hand to the tune of 54 Ute points.  

 Both teams lost to higher-ranked teams but took care of business against lower-ranked teams.    Both teams are balanced, though Tulsa is a little better at running the ball.  Tulsa averaged 204.6 yards per game on the ground and 249.8 in the air.  The Cougars gained 165.8 on the ground and 245.0 in the air. 

For Tulsa, here are the players to watch out for.

G.J Kinne, QB. 

Kinne started all twelve games for the Golden Hurricane and finished with 230 completions in 359 attempts for 2876 yards with 12 interceptions and 25 TD’s.  He also ran for 513 yards in 112 carries. 

Ja’Terian Douglas, RB.

Douglas ran the ball 108 times for 909 yards, which comes out to an impressive average of 8.2 yards per carry.  He scored four touchdowns. 

Trey Watts, RB.

Watts ran the ball 147 times for 872 yards for an average of 5.7 yards per carry and three touchdowns. 

Willie Carter, H-back/slot receiver.

Carter caught 61 passes in eleven games for 868 yards for an average of 14.2 per catch and 78.9 per game.  He had seven touchdowns and a long catch of 69 yards.

Bryan Burnham, Wide Receiver.

Burnham caught 50 passes in twelve games for 737 yards, an average of 14.7 yards per catch and 61.4 per game.  He had eight touchdowns and a long catch of 56 yards.

Carter and Burnham are just two of five receivers who got serious time and gained at least 355 yards in 2011. 

On defense, LB’s Cornelius Arnick (91 solo tackles) and Shawn Jackson (63 solo tackles) lead the way, with  Dexter McCoil (FS),Marco Nelson (SS), and LB Alan Dock right behind them.   

All in all, this looks to be a competitive matchup for the Cougars.  The Cougars are going for their third consecutive bowl win, which is something they have never been able to accomplish.  They are also going for their fifth ten-win season in the last seven years, which would put head coach Bronco Mendelhall in a class with Bob Stoops and Mark Richt as coaches who had five seasons of ten wins or more in their first seven years. 

The biggest question for the Cougars is who will back up Riley Nelson at QB if he gets injured.  James Lark was the backup QB when Nelson was injured, but we can’t even pretend to know exactly what is going on with the backup position right now.  All we can do is hope that Nelson is able to play the entire game, giving OC Brandon Doman ample time this spring to develop some depth at the position for next season. 

We have a feeling, though, that Doman may want Nelson to slide or go out of bounds a bit more often in the bowl game. 

Our take:

We think that Tulsa will have problems moving the ball against the Cougar defense.  We also expect the defense to come up with a turnover or two.  We see the game being played close to the vest in the first half, with the Cougars finally pulling away in the fourth quarter as Riley Nelson’s leadership and versatility makes the difference. 

BYU 34, Tulsa 14.

After the disappointment of losing to sixth-ranked Baylor by three points on Saturday, the Cougars could have expected to start a bit slow.  However, they didn’t expect to start by falling behind 14-3 to Buffalo in the Mariott Center.  Luckily, though, the Cougars still had more than enough to finish off Buffalo for a 93-78 win. 

Brock Zylstra scored 26 points and Anson Winder came off the bench for 20 points, giving both players career highs.  Noah Hartsock was in foul trouble in a scoreless first half, but came back to score 16 points in the second half.  Freshman point guard Matt Carlino continued to be a pleasant surprise, chipping in with 10 points and 11 assists.  He also added seven rebounds, missing a triple-double by three. 

And just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, the Cougars went up against the Santa Barbara Gauchos and won 89-75. Even without Jimmer, the gaurds are stepping up and shot 0.400 from the 3 PT line.  Thank you Brandon Davies for stepping up and making plays for 17 points!

The Cougars are now 10-3, with a visit coming up from UC San Marcos before the conference schedule begins on December 29 on the road at St Mary’s.  We see no reason why the cougars shouldn’t be 11-3 before hitting the road, which is an acceptable start and one that should help ensure that the Cougars make the NCAA tournament in their first year of the post-Jimmer era. Especially if we consider which teams the Cougars lost to.

We don’t think USU would beat the Cougars in a rematch, even though USU has a decent team.  The other two losses were to then #11 Wisconsin and #7 undefeated Baylor. The WCC has some good basketball teams to challenge the Cougars but even without the Jimmer, the team has shown it can compete at a much higher level than expected.

Outsiders didn’t give the Cougars much of a chance at getting back into the tournament this year.  From writers to oddsmakers, nobody seems to be giving the Cougars much credit.  They see the loss of Jimmer as an impossible obstacle.  Luckily, coach Dave Rose hasn’t told the Cougars that they can’t win. 

When a team has a star like Jimmer Fredette, the tendency, even for teams with a great work ethic, is to stand around and watch the star go to work.  And really, it makes sense.  When you have a player like Jimmer on your team, he is the person you want taking most of your shots.  Sometimes, though, other talented players are overlooked. 

This year, the Cougars will have “star by committee.”  Nobody is going to come close to what Jimmer did last year, but there will be some pleasant surprises.  Sometimes a balanced team that can beat you in more ways than one can outperform a team with a transcendent star.  We aren’t predicting a Final Four for this team, but we see no reason they can’t make the Sweet Sixteen this season. 

We plan on having fun watching.

Taking Care of Business: Hawaiian Style

Most of us expected the Cougars to take care of business against Hawaii on Saturday.  We just didn’t expect the return of Riley Nelson to the starting lineup.  Nelson not only managed to overcome rib and lung injuries to make the flight over to the islands, but was able to play, too.

In the first half, some may have begun to wonder if Nelson was healthy enough to play this game.  Nelson put up decent numbers, but the Cougars trailed 13-10 at the half, even with an 18:32 to 11:28 advantage in time of possession.  

For awhile, it looked like it could be one of those “anything that can happen will happen” games.  It looked especially bad in the second quarter when Justin Sorensen missed a field goal attempt wide left after missing one wide right in the first quarter.  Making it worse, Hawaii scored on a 79-yard pass on their first subsequent play from scrimmage.  

Sorensen would finally end a streak of five misses with a 33-yarder at the end of the half to make the score Hawaii 13, BYU 10.  At the half, besides the huge advantage in time of possession, the Cougars had outplayed the Warriors on both sides of the ball, but the one long pass play had put Hawaii ahead.  

 

The question during halftime was, “will the Cougars finally take advantage of the personnel differential and pull away, or would the Warriors find a way to stay in the game and make it close?  As we all know, the longer an underdog stays in the game, the more confidence they get, and the better their chances of pulling off an upset.  

Finally, in one glorious quarter, all of the questions for both Riley Nelson and the Cougars were answered.  The numbers?  BYU gained 37 on the ground and 168 in the air for a total of 205 yards, while Hawaii lost nine yards on the ground and gained fifteen in the air for a total of six yards.  The Cougars scored 28 points and the Warriors none, but it was even more dominating than the scoreboard looked.  

For the game, which ended in a 41-20 victory, Nelson had his career-best passing performance, going 25 of 37 for 363 yards and three touchdowns.  Cody Hoffman caught seven passes for 123 yards, and provided the best highlight of the game when he turned a one-handed catch into a 39-yard touchdown.  Ross Apo “only” had four catches, but two of them were for touchdowns.  JD Falslev and Marcus Matthews both had 80 yards, with five catches for Falslev and four for Matthews.  

The defense held Hawaii to 299 yards.  They were more solid than spectacular, but the one big play was a game changer.  Joe Sampson returned a Joey Iosefa fumble 26 yards on Hawaii’s first drive of the second half.  It would help set the tone for the quarter, and Hawaii was never a threat after that.  

Overall, it was an entertaining game for a national audience.  It was also a statement by Riley Nelson that he isn’t going to give up any opportunity start unless he is told not to play by the medical staff.  Nelson once again showed the toughness that has earned him the respect of his teammates.  

For this week, we had written a post about what we called the “Jake Heaps Question.” As we were about to post it, we got the news that Jake Heaps was, indeed, going to transfer from BYU. This wasn’t surprising, but it would have been better if he had waited until after the Armed Forces Bowl game against Tulsa, because another injury to Riley Nelson could put the Cougars in a bind.

Heaps is a talented QB who will probably get better. Right now, Heaps has two years of eligibility left. If he had stayed at BYU he would have had to sacrifice his personal stats and possibly his chances to play in the NFL by watching Nelson again next year, leaving him one more year to play football as the starter, or redshirt, learn and grow, and prepare to be the starter for two years.

If he had gone on a mission, it would have been the best option of all. He would have fulfilled the his church obligations, and he would have come back stronger, older, wiser, and more mature. He would have had to wait two years to play football, though, and that apparently would have been too long. As we’ve learned, Jake Heaps cares most about ….well…. Jake Heaps.

Heaps will still have to wait a year to play football unless he transfers to a smaller school where he can play right away. The problem with a smaller school is that it won’t further his ambition to be an NFL quarterback.

Ultimately, the answer to the Jake Heaps question is that Jake Heaps is more about his NFL career than he is about BYU or the LDS mission that BYU football really works for. To his credit, he acted like a man this year, and took his demotion with grace and class. This move, though, makes it obvious that he doesn’t have the patience to wait for one year for his chance to start, and that his personal agenda is more important to him than BYU as a team with a mission and winning football games together.

One of the dangers of being a program like BYU that holds its players to a higher standard is that often, players can’t quite handle it. In this era, the voices that encourage a player to think, “me, me, me” are a lot louder and more pervasive than the voices of reason. In this case, more playing time is more important to Jake Heaps than staying at “his” school or working within the team’s mission.

Ultimately, the Jake Heaps story at BYU will be one of unfulfilled potential and disappointment. It was tough that Heaps was demoted, but he didn’t move the team as well as Riley Nelson, and really left the coaches no choice. If he had stayed, he could have grown into a more complete quarterback, and he would have had an opportunity for a great senior season that would have catapulted him into one of the first two rounds of the NFL draft.

As fans, we’re pretty angry, and I’ve seen many others manifesting dissatisfaction throughout the social media channels. At this site, we’ve supported and stood by Heaps despite other criticisms because we believed that beneath what appeared to be self-interest, Heaps was personally committed to the team deep down. That is, apparently, not the case.

Now he will be remembered as just another guy (like Ben Olson) who came, went, made a little noise, but never really finished what he started. In the end, though, we wish him well. Jake isn’t the first kid to transfer from one college to another, nor will he be the last. We hope he grows a little during the year he sits out, and we hope that he doesn’t blow his next chance to “man up.”

This attitude, however, that Jake is all about Jake and not about BYU, is really the ‘hubris’ that was his downfall on the team.  Why did the players seem to play harder for Riley? Because he served a mission and Jake didn’t? No. It’s because Riley transferred to BYU because he wants to be a BYU quarterback, he loves the team and is committed to the school’s mission.  When Jake stood by and watched his interceptor run for the endzone, it sadly communicated to fans and the team where his heart was. Sorry Jake, but your actions have just shown that you don’t have that undefinable quality that it takes for greatness as a BYU QB, and it’s the whole reason you never had the team completely on your side.

We still wish Heaps well in his pursuit of his dreams, but BYU will go forward and be fine.  We will be grateful that he helped bring us Kyle Van Noy and Ross Apo. But to borrow from an old folk song, “Farewell, Jake: we hardly knew ye.”

Actually, the post-Jimmer era has already begun, but it has been met by resounding indifference everywhere outside of Provo.  At the time of this writing, the Cougars are 5-2, with victories over BYU-Hawaii, Longwood, Prairie View A&M, NAU, and Nevada, with losses to USU and Wisconsin.  

Really, it’s difficult to get a handle on this team so far.  They have squashed tomato cans, and lost to one rival and one elite team.  There are two things we do know: that Dave Rose is still Dave Rose and that the Cougars are going to have to lean heavily on Noah Hartsock, Brandon Davies, and Charles Abuou, with Anson Winder, Brock Zylstra rounding out the starting lineup.  There will be a lot of contributions from the bench this year, with Demarcus Harrison, Stephen Rogers, and Craig Cusick looking like the three main options.  

At first glance, the 73-56 loss to Wisconsin looks like a terrible game for the Cougars, but Wisconsin does that to a lot of ranked teams during the course of the season.  They play basketball like football, and they are one of the few teams who are consistently allowed to play what is known in the trade as “Duke Defense” without being called for fouls.  The result is that they push teams up and down the floor with impunity, play at their own, slower tempo, and make a lot of decent teams look really bad on the scoreboard.  

The Cougars learned from the Wisconsin game, and thanks to the seniors, are now stressing toughness in practice, getting ready for NAU.  Unfortunately, the practices have been so spirited that Noah Hartsock (ankle) and Stephen Rogers (knee) might not be available for the NAU game.  Chris Collingsworth isn’t ready to come back quite yet, so it could be a bit of a struggle against NAU.

Losing a player who scores as many points as Jimmer Fredette did is bad enough, but when that player was also your point guard, it is even tougher.  Jimmer scored as many points last year as many starting backcourts do.  So far, nobody has really picked up the slack yet.  The scoring is coming from Hartsock (16.8), Abouo (13.3), and Davies (12.0) right now, who are scoring 56.3 percent of the Cougars’ 74.8 points per game.  Stephen Rogers is contributing another 9.2 per game.  

As of yet, nobody in the backcourt has really emerged to do much more than run the offense and contribute the occasional bucket.  Until someone does, the Cougars will continue to be a work in progress.

Luckily, the schedule won’t be as demanding as it could.  The move to the West Coast Conference should work out well, and the Cougars can develop during the season without having to face a lot of elite teams.  They will face some solid teams, but non-conference games against Utah, Oregon, and Virginia Tech look much more demanding than most of their conference games.

If things go well, the backcourt will improve due to more experience, and somebody will emerge as a consistent, double-figure scorer.  Brock Zylstra is the best bet, but so far, he has failed to match his 17.3 point average from the trip to Greece.  In the meantime, anyone watching tape of last year’s Cougars will now be defending a post-oriented team instead of one that launched up (and made) mostly outside shots.  

Football Update – No Vacation in Hawaii

Coach Mendenhall is making sure the Cougars don’t fall victim to “island paralysis syndrome.”  This is what happens to many teams who go to Hawaii, decide they are on vacation, and look like it when they step on the field at Aloha Stadium.  The Cougars get Thursday to enjoy themselves, but will work hard on Friday, and be fully ready for the game on Saturday.  

It is important that the Cougars keep their focus and bring home a ninth win on Saturday.  There are still a lot of conference invitations yet to go out, and the Cougars need to make themselves look as attractive as possible, no matter how the conference realignments work out in the end.  

If there are superconferences with a playoff to determine a true National Champion, the Cougars need to be attractive enough to get an invitation to one of them.  On the other hand, if the BCS continues on its present route, the Cougars need to continue to look good on a yearly basis for the pollsters.

In a perfect world, the polls and the computers would always get it right.  The best teams would end up at the top, and every team would to to the bowl it deserves.  College football, though, is far from perfect.  At the top, where the decisions are made, it is driven solely by money, and the most attractive teams get the most attractive post-season games.

In a way, the rankings are a lot like the world golf rankings, but without the points.  Even though every year is a new year and every team is a new team due to the fact that students graduate, teams are often judged on their past as well as their present.  

So far, 2011 has been a good first year as an independent for the Cougars.  Other than the Utah debacle, they have stayed in every game, and the latter part of the year has been entertaining for the most part.  Even the TCU game wasn’t the blowout many in the national media expected.   

It is essential that the Cougars finish strong.  A victory over Hawaii would put the Cougars at 9-3, setting them up for a possible 10-win season.  In the eyes of the national media, the tenth win would be huge.  It gives reporters a double-digit number to look at when assessing the team’s value.  

Bronco Mendenhall knows this.  The players know it.  And they know that a tenth win is not possible if they don’t take care of business and get their ninth win on Saturday night.  

We are looking for a great performance.  There may be a few underthrown balls in the low altitude and heavy air at the beginning, but Jake Heaps should adjust quite well after a couple of drives, and the Cougars should take care of business on the Island for their ninth win.

Happy Senior Night

Senior day or night, like homecoming, is best done against a tomato can.  Seniors play their last home game, fans get to celebrate them, and those who stuck it out but didn’t play a lot often see some time in the fourth quarter.  The 2011 version against New Mexico State was a great final home game for the seniors and some of them made great contributions to the 42-7 victory.  

If honor of the seniors, we’ll look at some of their contributions first.  JJ DiLuigi ran 12 times for 75 yards, for an average of 6.25 per carry.  It puts him at 16th on the all time list, which is pretty good for someone who isn’t a burner but maximized every bit of his talent while in Provo. 

Bryan Kariya added another 30 yards and one touchdown in 7 carries.   Matt Marshall got one carry, but he made the most of it with a two-yard touchdown.  TE Matthew Edwards caught a 9-yard TD pass.  Terence Brown didn’t show up on any stat sheets, but his contributions on the offensive line have been greatly appreciated by everyone who has played QB during his stay in Provo, and he played a typically solid game.  

There were plenty of contributions on defense, too.  Jadon Wagner caused a fumble in the first half that was recovered by Jameson Frazier, and Wagner recovered one in the third quarter.  

As for the rest of the team, Jake Heaps was solid once again, putting up the kind of numbers we expected at the beginning of the year.  He was 21 of 36 for 238 yards with one interception and four touchdowns.  For his efforts, Heaps was named Independent Player of the Week.  It should be noted that Heaps took his demotion with class and dignity, didn’t complain, never stopped working, and stayed ready in case he was needed.  It is great to see Heaps rewarded for doing things the Cougar way.  

Ross Apo lead the team in receiving with five catches for 66 yards and two touchdowns.  JD Falslev and McKay Jacobson were over 40 yards, JJ DiLuigi had three catches for 31 yards.  Cody Hoffman and Kaneakua Friel were over 20 yards.  

On defense, Preston Hadley and Brandon Ogletree had seven tackles each to lead the Cougars, while Kyle Van Noy gave a typical Kyle Van Noy performance with 6 solo tackles and two tackles for loss.  The only thing missing for Van Noy was another turnover.  

All in all, the Cougars were very workmanlike in their methodical dismantling of New Mexico State, with seven points each in the first and fourth quarters, and fourteen points each in the second and third quarters.   The defense was also solid, allowing one touchdown in the second quarter but nothing the rest of the way.  

Congrats to the Cougars for another fine performance.  Next up: Hawaii in two weeks.  

 

Cougars Accept Bowl Bid

We already knew this would happen, so it is no surprise, but the Cougars were officially extended their guaranteed berth in the Armed Forces Bowl against a yet-to-be-named CUSA team.  Most of CUSA is similar to Central Florida, who played the Cougars tough but were ultimately not quite good enough.  

The only sticking point is that this game is being played on SMU’s home field, and SMU is currently projected to be the opponent.  Playing a road game against an up-and-coming team that is angry because it didn’t do better is not exactly a fair deal.  On the bright side, SMU is currently 6-5, with four losses in their last five games.  We’ll know later, but the intangibles appear to be solely on the side of the Mustangs.  

 

What is Going On with the Big East?

A few weeks ago, it looked like the Cougars to the Big East, along with Boise State, UCF, Houston, and aforementioned SMU, was a done deal.  Now, it is reported that the Cougars are holding the deal up, and that San Diego State might get their berth if they don’t settle by the end of next week.  

Reportedly, the first snag is money because BYU has a great TV deal.  That is negotiable and probably will require concessions on both sides.  The second factor, though, may be too much to overcome.  

Reportedly, the Cougars want assurances that the Big East will keep their BCS Automatic Qualifier status.  They want to be able to return to independent status with no penalty if the Big East loses its AQ status.  This is inherently fair because it simply forces the Big East to deliver on what they promise.  The problem here is that the Big East doesn’t see it that way.  

As it sits right now, the Cougars can realistically get into a BCS game by finishing  11-1 and being ranked higher than Notre Dame.   Some years, 10-2 might even be enough.  Even with all of the ups and downs this year, the Cougars can still finish 9-3.  The point is that they are really close to being able to make it to a BCS bowl as an independent. 

Therefore, it is perfectly natural for the Cougars to protect themselves before entering any agreement with any conference.  The politics here are very basic: the conferences want to lock everybody in with extreme punitive damages for leaving, while the schools want the flexibility to evolve with the current landscape.  

We hope that the Cougars don’t give in on their requirement that the Big East puts its money where its mouth is.  The Cougars are a very desirable program, and a move to the Big 12 or Pac 12 would make more sense than one to the Big East.  

The only real reason for the Cougars to join the Big East is for the AQ berth.  The travel, even in a “Big East Western Division,” will be very demanding.  If the Big East’s AQ berth disappears, the Cougars should be allowed to do the same. 

After all, what’s fair is fair.

UPDATE: The Big East deal appears to be dead. We’ll see, but BYU appears to really be in this independent status for the long haul.