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Hiatus Statement – 2012 Season
Sep 1st
Due to a critical illness in my family, this site will be on hiatus for the 2012 college football season. The sister website roadtotherosebowl.com will still be in operation. Thanks for your understanding.
Fourth and inches … Quick Slants
Aug 28th
Let the games begin! The 2012 college football season is finally here. Rev up your DVR because you won’t want to miss these games:
Thursday, Aug. 30
Washington State at BYU. Mike Leach’s new gig with the Cougars brings him back to the start of his coaching career against the Cougars.
My Pick: BYU 34 Washington State 31
Friday, Aug. 31
Tennessee at North Carolina State. Wolfpack made some preseason list noise and Dooley’s job is on the line this year.
My Pick: N.C. State 27 Tennessee 21
#24 Boise State at #13 Michigan State. Broncs are Kellen Moore-less for the first time in 4 years facing a Spartan squad that will challenge for the Big Ten crown.
Saturday, Sept. 1
My Pick: Michigan State 24 Boise State 20
#8 Michigan vs. #2 Alabama. Two of the most storied programs in college football history squaring off in Cowboy Stadium.
My Pick: Alabama 35 Michigan 20
#14 Clemson at Auburn. Early season statement game for the SEC vs ACC.
Sunday, Sept. 2
My Pick: Clemson 23 Auburn 17
SMU at Baylor. Old school SWC-type game. Curious to see what the Bears are like after R3?
My Pick: Baylor 35 SMU 31
Monday, Sept. 3
Georgia Tech at #16 Virginia Tech. Crucial ACC match-up right out of the gates.
My Pick: Virginia Tech 24 Georgia Tech 17
Clock winding down on BCS, but it’s a slow clock. The excitement generated this summer by news that the BCS will give way to a 4-team playoff will only continue to build over the next two years. The BCS is still running the show for the next two bowl seasons, with the national championship for the 2012 season taking place at the Orange Bowl in Miami in January 2013, and the title game between the #1 and #2 computer generated teams being held at the Rose Bowl in January 2014.
Over the next year, we’ll find out which TV network will carry the 2015 playoffs and host cities for the semifinals and title game.
Winners and losers among the 27 new Division 1-A head coaching changes in 2012 … Hopes are high across the country at some of the most prestigious college football programs. The five best hires: Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Mike Leach at Washington State, Larry Fedora at North Carolina, Tim Beckmann at Illinois and Jim McElwain at Colorado State. The five worst? Kyle Flood at Rutgers, Ellis Johnson at Southern Miss, Rich Rodriquez at Arizona, Todd Graham at Arizona State and Tony Levine at Houston.
New Mexico State vs. BYU by the numbers
Nov 18th
The Aggies are coming to town again. Not those Aggies – the New Mexico State Aggies. They know how to score points. And they know how to give up a lot more. They only have 4 wins, none of them against teams with winning records. The final score can be found in the following insights about NMSU:
Aggie Defense
Points allowed per game: 36.8
Total yards allowed per game: 466.3
Passing yards allowed per game: 258.6
Rushing yards allowed per game: 207.7
Most points allowed in 2011: 63, at Georgia (Nov 5)
Lowest points allowed in 2011: 16, UTEP (Sept 17)
Games NMSU could’ve won with a defense: Hawaii (34-45), Nevada (34-48)
Aggie Offense
Points scored per game: 29.1
Total yards per game: 425.0
Passing yards per game: 302.1
Rushing yards per game: 122.9
Most points scored in 2011: 48, Fresno St. (Nov 12)
Lowest points scored in 2011: 10, UTEP (Sept 17)
Games NMSU could’ve lost w/out an offense: New Mexico (42-28) Fresno St. (48-45)
Top impact player: Taveon Rogers: 44 grabs, 20 ypc, 9 TDs; 3 kick return TDs
BYU’s 5 key stats that spell victory
Passing yards allowed per game: 193.6
Interceptions in 2011: 13
Points allowed per game: 21.7
Yards rushing per game: 165.0
Third down conversion %: 51.4
Prediction
Look for the Cougars to disrupt the Aggie passing game with a heavy pass rush. If Jake Heaps is off, BYU’s rushing attack will provide enough points to win. But look for the Cougars to click on all cylinders. As long as the weather cooperates, the score looks like:
BYU 45 New Mexico State 17
BYU Report Card vs. Idaho
Nov 14th
They did exactly what was expected of them. Nothing more, nothing less. And that’s okay. Now that they’re getting used to the WACky portion of their schedule, the Cougars need to make sure they are thumping all of these third-rung opponents like Boise State did when it ruled the roost. Keep in mind the scorecard reflects the quality of the opponent.
Offense Grade: B+
Props to Riley Nelson who looked pretty good the short time he was on the field (4-7, 56 yards, 1 TD) and to Jake Heaps for coming in and keeping the offense chugging without a hitch (15-20, 185 yards, 2 TDs, 1 Int – and a big improvement with 9.3 ypa). Michael Alisa cranked out 9.9 yards per carry and a score on ten touches to lead the running backs. Bryan Kariya notched two scores on six carries (35 yards, 5.8 avg). Cody Hoffman is still proving himself to be the go-to guy through the air. He had 6 receptions for 114 yards and 2 TDs. His season stats are: 43 grabs, 672 yards, 6 TDs. The Offense had a nice blend of rushing attack (243 yards) and passing (262 yards) and dominated in time of possession, 34:02 – 25:58.
Defense Grade: B+
LB Kyle Van Noy (9 solo tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble and 2 TFLs) continues to demonstrate why he’ll be on every pre-season All-American list next year. It was nice to see Jordan Johnson and Alani Fua getting some more experience on the field – both played well. Johnson and Spencer Hadley each a pick, and Hadley returned his 48 yards. For all intents and purposes, the Defense hurled a shutout; Idaho got their points on the board in the last 4 minutes of the game when they were down by six scores. The Defense held Idaho to 10 first downs and 241 total yards.
Special Teams Grade: B
Justin Sorensen was perfect on six extra point attempts but missed on two field goal attempts of 35 and 47 yards. Riley Stephenson handled two punts for a 42-yard average with one kick inside the Vandals 20. Hoffman had a 38-yard kickoff return, and Falslev fielded three punts for seven total yards.
Coaching Grade: B+
The coaching staff kept the team from growing complacent during their two-week break. And they were smart enough to make sure James Lark got some field action. It will be important to get him some more playing time next week against New Mexico State, too, because at this point, he’s one injury away from being the starting QB for Brigham Young.
Overall Team Grade: B+
Idaho Hopes to Vandalize BYU
Nov 11th
No matter what you might think about BYU playing bottom of the barrel WAC teams like Idaho and New Mexico State in the last few weeks of the regular season, don’t expect these games to be easy. Idaho might sport a 2-7 record, but they’re not afraid to play anyone because they’re a Jekyll and Hyde type of team. You don’t know which one you’ll face on any given Saturday.
The Vandals are certainly battle-tested. They have played on the road in one venue much more difficult than Lavell Edwards Stadium – Texas A&M – and their other non-conference road game was at Virginia. They lost both of them, as expected, but the game against the Cavaliers went into overtime and Idaho lost 21-20 when they went for a two-point conversion instead of kicking the PAT.
The Vandals also lost to a decent Hawaii team 16-14 on a last minute field goal by the Warriors. And then there are those games where they got crunched by teams they should be able to hang with, like Bowling Green, Louisiana Tech, Fresno State and New Mexico State, but ended up with a win over San Jose State last week. Go figure.
Idaho’s offense is led by QB Brian Reader (53% completions, 1,498 yards, 9 TDs, 8 INT) and running back Princeton McCarty (4.2 ypc on 494 yards, 2 TDs). Reader has some decent receivers, most notably Mike Scott (45 receptions, 568 yards, 1 TD) and Armauni Johnson (23 grabs, 311 yards, 3 TDs). The Vandal defense should be pretty inviting for the rested up Cougar offense. They rank 77th in the nation in total defense and 70th in scoring defense giving up an average of 28 points per game.
The question this week is really more about the Cougars. They’ve had two weeks to recuperate and get over blowing a very winnable game against TCU. Did Bronco and his staff use that time to really improve this team in every phase of the game? Is this a hungry Cougar team that wants to steamroller their last 3 opponents and win a bowl game to finish 10-3, or are they going to show up overconfident, buying into the talk on fan boards and media opinion columns that the Idaho and New Mexico State teams are pushovers and that they deserve better opponents?
Put it this way: If Bronco and his staff don’t have this team fired up and ready to rock ‘n roll the rest of the season, then some big changes need to happen in the offseason.
Look for the Cougars to arrest the Vandals for trespassing in LES this weekend. Players down the depth chart will get some valuable game time as BYU wins this one 38-14.
4th and inches … Quick Slants
Nov 4th
Should #1 and #2 be allowed to play each other again in the BCS national championship game? No, of course not. Regardless of whether they’re the two best teams in the country at the end of the year, it would be pointless to allow a rematch in the national title game. That would be like allowing the Yankees and Red Sox to replay each other in the World Series after the historical 2004 American League Championship that Boston won in 7 games. They were clearly the two best teams in the majors that year, but that’s the way it goes in sports. We could go back over the past 20-30 years and find dozens of examples where the best teams didn’t play for the national or world championship in any sport, college or pro.
BYU has more in common with Notre Dame besides independence. Both programs had lofty expectations for this season. Both have three losses. And both could easily be undefeated at this point in the season, were it not for turnovers. Notre Dame had 13 giveaways in their three losses (5 vs. USF, 5 vs. Michigan, 3 vs. USC) and BYU had 12 (2 vs. Texas, 7 vs. Utah, 3 vs. TCU) and those stats aren’t totally reliable for the Cougars because they had 2 other botched punts against Texas Christian which were essentially turnovers that gave the Horned Frogs possession inside the red zone on one and on the BYU 37-yard line on the other.
With Pat Forde’s recent defection to Yahoo! Sports from ESPN.com and Bruce Feldman’s departure earlier this fall from ESPN to CBS College Sports, ESPN doesn’t even rank in the top 3 for online college football analysis. The top three online college football writing staffs are now at Yahoo!/Rivals (Forde, Ahern, Buchanan, Huguenin, Dienhart), SI.com (Mandel and Staples) and CBS (Feldman and Dennis Dodd).
You’ll note I left Graham Watson and Dan Wetzel off the Yahoo! Sports lineup and that’s because they’re not college football experts or analysts. A recent example of Watson’s shoddy and opinionated reporting refers to Mike Leach as having a “sordid past” while covering his interest in the Arizona head coaching position. Seriously. Leach hasn’t done anything to warrant describing his past as “sordid” (which is defined as morally ignoble, base, vile, dirty, filthy). Adam James even admitted under oath that he got into the electrical closet and videotaped himself as a joke.
Speaking of James … the biggest joke among college football awards is the new “Pony Express Award” which is intended to honor the memory of former SMU running tandem of Craig James and Eric Dickerson as it searches for college football’s best tandem each season. Considering that the former Mustang tandem helped usher in the death penalty at Southern Methodist, and the fact that James misused his position at ESPN to lie and blackball Mike Leach at Texas Tech, this award has a load of baggage on its saddle already before its even been handed out for the first year.
Best potential trap game this weekend … #6 Oregon at Washington (with road game at #4 Stanford next week).
Toughest final four regular season games … #13 Michigan (at currently 5-3 Iowa, at currently 6-3 Illinois, #9 Nebraska, #29 Ohio State) – tied with – #3 Oklahoma State (#17 Kansas State, at currently 5-3 Texas Tech, at currently 4-4 Iowa State, #7 Oklahoma).