Viva Las Vegas again in another "Rubber Match" with a Pac-10 program

Going into the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry game tonight it was pretty much determined that whoever won that game would face BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. Well it looks like we have our opponent and a familiar one at that.

Arizona.

Watching the second half of the "Duel in the Desert" I was thinking, wow BYU's defense would terrorize Arizona State's offensive line how bad they are. They have given up 38 sacks this season. The whole second half ASU QB Rudy Carpenter had happy feet causing him to force the issue on his passes resulting in turnovers. Jan Jorgensen and Brett Denney would have a field day on that unit. But then I thought, what if BYU played Arizona State in the LV Bowl blew them out then in '09 ASU would be gunnin' for the Cougs in the off-season when BYU heads to Tempe and we run into a buzzsaw in Max Hall's homecoming. That's not good so maybe no ammo for the Sun Devils is a positive thing.

Now we go to what looks to be our opponent, the Arizona Wildcats a team we have split meetings with in 2006 and 2007, with both meetings ending up in victories for the home team.

BYU has played well against Arizona the past two seasons but its been unproven BYU teams at the time.

In 2006, BYU was trying to find its self with John Beck at QB and looking for that big road win to jump start the program and get over the hump. Some costly turnovers and questionable Pac-10 officiating caused BYU's hopes for a big-win over a Arizona team who had a lot of Pre-Season buzz going in to a 13-16 loss in the desert.

---SIDE NOTE: The "Zona Zoo" is one of the most classless student sections you will ever find in College Football without a doubt; and Tucson looks like it is all meth'd out. Pathetic campus.

In 2007, BYU was coming off an 11-2 campaign in '06, the best season since the 14-1 '96 team. But there were a lot of question marks going in. Max Hall at QB. Harvey Unga at RB. Dennis Pitta at TE. Could the defense repeat its production in 2006? Those concerns were left with positive feelings after a blue-collar 20-7 win which should of been a shut-out had it not been for a late Arizona TD with one minute left in the ball game.

So now the rubber match on a neutral field in Las Vegas. This will be Arizona's first bowl game since the 1998 Holiday Bowl where they destroyed Nebraska en rout to a 12-1 season. Their one loss cost them a trip to the Rose Bowl. A loss to UCLA. Since then 'Zona has had four coaches; Dick Tomey, John Mackovic (who the team boycotted playing for), interim coach Mike Hankwitz and current coach Mike Stoops who has been feeling the heat in Arizona to produce wins since he got there. His program has underachieved with their talent until this season, and the success this year was due to a favorable schedule and 10 returning starters on an offense that was the best passing unit in Arizona football history in '07 led by QB Willie Tuitama and Offensive Coordinator Sonny Dykes who has put in the Texas Tech style of offense.

Arizona showed tonight they can move the football and BYU's defense better be up to the task and the Cougar secondary will get tested. Arizona WR's Mike Thomas, DeLashaun Dean and TE Rob Gronkowski and all gamechangers who break open a game with big plays.

What also hurts BYU is the fact that Arizona ended their season tonight, while BYU has already been done for two weeks. With the bowl game being on December 20th, two weeks from tonight. The Wildcats will just have a regular bye week and then the game. So BYU's defense could be rusty early on in the game which is a definite concern.

Here's some other information on the 2008 Wildcats.

- Record: 7-5 (5-4, 5th in Pac-10)

- All five of their losses came by less than 10 points. Three of those five were less than 7 points. So no one really blew this team out.

- They rank in the Top 50 in every major offensive category with their highest being Total Offense at #16 with 37 points per game.

- Lead the Pac-10 this season in yards per Punt Return with speedy Senior WR Mike Thomas manning those duties. He is getting 17.33 yards per punt.

- This is HC Mike Stoops fifth season in Tucson his overall record is 22-32. This will be his first bowl game appearance.

Should be an exciting bowl match-up if it comes to fruition. We will find out officially tomorrow night around 6 p.m. MST.

Go Cougs!

Recruiting: Quick thoughts from the Top of the Mountains Bowl

I was able to attend the Zions Bank Top of the Mountains Bowl featuring a rematch between Snow College (Ephraim) the #2 ranked team in Jr. College Football and Butler College the #1 team and defending champions in the JUCO ranks. I attended to see a few guys with BYU ties and recruits. Here's what I thought.

- Atem Bol, WR

Bol was watching the game from the stands wearing a Snow Badgers hoodie. He is listed on their roster but I assume he is redshirting this season. I really hope Bol can end up at BYU down the road. He has great size I saw him standing up and the guy is definitely 6'3 or maybe even 6'4. Good size. Hopefully everything is going well for him in school.

- Star Lotulelei, DL

Did not know Lotulelei was on Snow this season until today. Great to see him play first hand. The guy has some great athleticsm, was getting many double teams opening things up for the other DE, Utah commit James Aiono. Coming out of Bingham High, Lotulelei for his physical play and motor, I saw that today. He was listed as a Freshman on the roster so he is probably going to play 2009 at Snow then we will see if he is a prospect in the 2010 class.

- Jordan Brown, DB

Jordan Brown is a prospect who is visiting BYU next week along with many other Junior College players. Brown plays Corner for the Badgers and has D-1 speed but struggles to make tackles. He also returned kicks for Snow and seemed to struggle back there. That might be because of the new field they were playing on which was at the new Rio Tinto RSL Stadium, and that field was not suited for Football in my opinion. So I'm not sure, but I didn't come away overly impressed with Brown.

- Sam Doman, TE

Former BYU and Oregon QB, Sam Doman is on the Badgers roster as a Tight End. Did not see Doman participate today though.

- James Aiono, DE (Utah commit)

I have seen for awhile that Aiono is a 5-star prospect on both Rivals and Scout and I was always skeptical, so I was intrigued to see for myself today if it was legit. Aiono is definitely a D-1 player. He has talent, uses his length well and has a knack for knocking down passes which would probably be a good fit at Utah because it seems thats all Koa Misi and Paul Kruger did late in their season.

Mid-Year Signing Period starts on December 17th and National Letter of Intent Day for Fall enrollees is Wednesday, February 4th, 2009. Not too far away. BYU currently has 16 commitments.

Basketball: BYU-Utah State game was exciting from start to finish

An intense College Basketball game took place tonight at the Energy Solutions Arena as BYU improved their record to 8-0 with a with a 68-63 victory over in-state foe, Utah State.

From start to finish the game was a rocking atmosphere. Prior to the game starting the Utah State fans were doing all these pathetic choreographed cheers and chants to get the Aggies pumped up and the BYU squad intimidated. Seriously? Is this High School again? I know its bad enough living in Logan, but come on Aggie fans show some life for other games other than just BYU and show support for your football program, you can barely get 10K at Romney.

Anyways, let's just say the antics of the Aggie fans made me want BYU to win this game even more than before and I was pretty excited for this one leading up to it.

BYU played really well tonight but the game could of been a lot bigger margin of victory had it not been for lack of rebounding early on and missed free throws. Here are some positives and negatives I took away from tonights game.

POSITIVES

- Defensively BYU adjusted really well to the big men of Utah State, Gary Wilkinson and Tai Wesley. Early on Wilkinson was dominating getting to the line and having his way on the glass. BYU started double teaming and was doing a really nice job. Jonathan Tavernari is showing his improvement this season becoming an all-around player.

- Gavin MacGregor needs to be the #2 Center behind Miles. I remember back in the 2007 win at the Huntsman Center over Utah, MacGregor was holding his own against Nevill and basically shutting him down. MacGregor last year was out due to injury and this season he came back and is strong as ever. Hasn't seen many minutes till tonight due to foul trouble from Miles and James Anderson early on. MacGregor has great size and length to alter shots and has a nice touch around the basket. Anderson is going to be a nice player down the road but he's not ready for the big stage yet. MacGregor needs to see more minutes and he made a strong case for that tonight.

- BYU has a knack for forcing turnovers. Jackson Emery, JT and Jimmer just to name a few seem to find ways to produce turnovers and know the angles of basketball very well. The Cougs forced Utah State to 17 turnovers tonight, while BYU only had 9 which is always critical in big game situations like this.

- Finding a way to win a big-game without Lee Cummard being in the game down the stretch. Cummard had probably one of his nights as a Cougar and fouled out with five or so minutes left in the ball game. BYU came up clutch led by Jimmer, Emery and JT. Charles Abuouo made soem nice plays as well, but BYU is showing its definitely no one-man show and is a very deep team from 1-12.

NEGATIVES

- Free Throw Shooting. When BYU was causing all those fouls early in the second half it became huge in retrospect. BYU was in the double bonus early in the second half, had it not been for that BYU would of been in many missed front ends on 1 and 1s. Jackson Emery couldn't hit two free throws for the life of him, along with Jimmer who is usually automatic from the line. JT even missed a couple. The game wouldn't have came down to the final minute if the Cougs would of hit their free throws.

- Giving up Offensive Boards. 20 to 9 was the rebounding edge at half in favor of Utah State. BYU was even in the second half but that first half giving Utah State second chances prevented BYU from having a chance to start and pull away when they had a 10-point lead. Wilkinson and Wesley though are one of the better front-courts BYU will face all season. They are pretty solid. Against teams like Arizona State with Pendegraff and Wake Forest who have four guys above 6-11 it showed we have a lot of work to do. This team still has a lot of upside, they are not even close to peaking like some would suggest.

- Couldn't capitalize in situations to take control of game. This occured mainly in the second half. It seemed like BYU had a lead of about five for awhile and was getting numerous defensive stops but was rushing down the court on the offensive and forcing the issue on some bad shots. It was hard to have a more stable offensive output with Cummard having a bad night and the overall intensity of the game but the team shouldn't be afraid to dump in the low-post more. Miles and MacGregor have some really nice low posts moves. Go to them more and slow it down on occassion to get em involved.

All in all though it was a great game to attend. I was really pissed with Utah State fans chanting "Dave Rose Sucks!" How do you honestly chant that towards a guy who is a class-act in every sense of the term. Rose gives no one ammo to bash him, but it just shows what living in Logan can do to ya, and all the storming they do on the Spectrum floor over meaningless opponents. That was annoying, but again it was a great game and the Cougs are 8-0 and have Boise State on Wednesday night at home in the Marriott Center at 8. Time to get a little revenge on the Broncos who have been little pests that past few years.