For the past several weeks, you have been voting on the team MVPs in various categories. Well, today, you find out who rose to the top, as well as Peter’s and my individual picks for those polls as well. We’ll start at the bottom and work our way up:

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The season is officially over and I’m not entirely sure how to cope. Sure, there is still college football happening, but the BCS has created such a lackluster slate of big name games that its hard to get excited. USC and Illinois? Really? There are still some interesting things happening in BYU football, so lets get started: Continue Reading »

While everyone else, it seems, is talking about the Las Vegas Bowl, my mind is still filled with wonder at the experience I had with the football team the night before. Actually, I wasn’t alone; over a thousand people shared the experience, and with your indulgence, I’d like to share it with you.

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I’ll be the first to admit that the game was much closer than I anticipated. I figured this would be a romp in the park akin to last year’s thrashing of Oregon. BYU was an offensive machine against a fading UCLA that should have crushed the hapless Bruins, but with 4 seconds left I couldn’t help but think: How did this happen? How is it that UCLA is about to score and ruin BYU’s season?

I think we can all point to a single decision on BYU’s part that kept the game close. With 19 seconds left in the first half, inside the 5, when you aren’t trying to score, why hand the ball off? We’ll get to grades in a second, but Unga was getting hit before securing the ball on nearly every run, why did they think this would be different? Taking two knees would have left BYU up by 11 going into the half.

Now, on to the grades… Continue Reading »

My fledgling fetish for stats came to life in the wake of the first meeting between BYU and UCLA this season. Frankly, I surprised myself that the stuff I dug up actually held true, that UCLA would absolutely suck at converting 3rd and 5+ yards and that big plays would be the only way that UCLA could win the game. It was the first time that I realized that stats really can tell the story of a game and even help predict what the outcome will be based on a few select points of emphasis (not just turnovers and average points per game, either).

I was particularly excited to dive into this week’s numbers in order to see if anything’s changed for UCLA since the last meeting. Short answer: not remotely.

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