Dear Mr. Clawson…

Dear Mr. Clawson,

Until nearly halftime on Saturday, I didn’t know who you were or even aware that BYU had left the WAC.  Now, I am your biggest fan.  We had “Clawson Day” yesterday on campus with bear claws (get it…claws? Clawson?) and I have replaced my Nelly Furtado poster in my room with your smiling visage.  You see, you have single-handedly changed my life.  In one fluid and every so graceful movement, you swam past some poor plodding lineman and popped the reigning Heisman winner.  Before I continue singing your praise, I want to point out, as you so poignantly did, that it is unfortunate that the injury happened and you would never hurt a fly until it put on football pads and that would only be to keep it from scoring a touchdown.  However, with that well-timed collision, you thrust me to the front of Heisman race with Mr. Jorts, and he already said he’d donate his first one to me if I don’t win this year, so it’s a win-win-win situation.

Please accept this fruit bouquet and my signed headshot as a token of my gratitude.

Hugs,

Colt

Ok, so the above letter probably didn’t occur, but the name Coleby Clawson has just become a saint in official religion of Texas (and Big 12 country in general.)  His hit enabled multiple teams in the Big 12 to move into a spot for a National Championship, primarily Colt McCoy’s Texas Longhorns, and thinned the race from a three way tie to a two horse race.  The good news for Clawson is that it was a perfectly clean hit and is being portrayed as such in the media.

Where can you start or end about Saturday’s game?  I chose a highly lame fake letter.

Some quick points I can’t fail to mention:

-         Did anyone else chuckle after Oklahoma’s first 3-and-out and attribute it to beginner’s luck?  Then when I happened again look around to see if anyone else had seen BYU hold the most prolific offense of all time to less than 10 yards in 3 plays, FOR A SECOND TIME?  If we are handing out game balls, Jaime Hill, the new defensive coordinator, gets one.  For the most part BYU didn’t throw anything too fancy at Oklahoma, but has finally gotten the players and scheme to the point where things just click and the players can fly to the ball without over-thinking everything.  The goal line stand was entirely unexpected and a thing of beauty.  Collie must still be living right in Indianapolis.

-         Jordan Pendleton and Coleby Clawson look like they are on pace to match the intensity and game-changing prowess of Bryan Kehl and David Nixon.  Pendleton started his first game at a new position and dominated, even if it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet.  A goal line pass break up, knifing into the backfield, dropping into coverage: this kid is good.

-         Where did the secondary play come from? Logan looked exactly like the corner we have been waiting for at field corner (maybe shorter than we hoped, but beggars can’t be choosers.)  Aside from a few PI’s (one undeserved in the endzone) he locked down receivers a foot taller than him with speed to burn.  He even, gasp, broke up a couple of throws.  Bradley, believe it or not, led the defense in tackles (8) and did a great job on his side of the field and in run support.  Scott Johnson wasn’t standing out (which can be good for a free safety if it means he is shutting down his side of the field) and Andrew Rich was looking like an All-American back there on his way to earning himself conference honors on defense.  It was always strange to see a safety tackling players near the line of scrimmage, I was used to seeing them chasing guys down 20 yards downfield or diving at ankles.  Rich forced two fumbles and had a tackle for loss in addition to generally being disruptive.  He needs to lead with his head less to preserve himself for the full season.

-         Max Hall scares me.  He still is forcing the ball at times into tight spots where it shouldn’t be, then he turns around and orchestrates a 84 yard drive of beauty to win the National Player of the Week and conference honors. The play calling on that drive was possibly the most ingenious I’ve seen from BYU, from the hurry-up call on 4^th down (which had been decided when they crossed the 50) to having Pitta suck in about eight OU defenders to leave Jacobson wide open in the endzone, giving him some peace on his muffed punt.  It was the first game of the season, so he gets a pass for the time being.

-         How about that offensive line?  With so many story lines, we forget BYU not only replaced four lost starters, but Matt Reynolds is playing with a cast and they lost the starting left guard halfway through camp.  Not enough can be said for how well the offensive line played against one of the best defensive lines in the country.

-         Bryan Korea…Kariya…Where did he come from?  He looked good last year, but was an absolute workhorse, running and causing enough damage to force them to respect the run.  With over 100 yards alone, I think we found a good relief for Unga.  They tried to work DiLuigi into the game and he did fine, but I think Kariya will be #2 for the foreseeable future.

-         Wide receivers were present but not dominant which I’m OK with in this situation.  Jacobson still has speed to spare and I think Hall is still getting use to a guy who can be way down the field by the time he is ready to throw and will start hitting him in stride rather than making him slow down.  If the national talking heads didn’t know who Pitta was, they do now.  Not to mention George on the other side just taking care of business catching balls and scoring touchdowns.  I don’t know if anyone remembers this, but my favorite formation of the game is when they come out with multiple TE’s like a goal-line jumbo formation then spread them out wide.  Try matching up with Pitta, George, and Brown.  Yikes, I hope to see that more near the endzone.

-         Payne… Out of bounds when all we needed was any old kick that didn’t give them the ball at the 40.  Nightmare.  Missed PAT wasn’t game killing, but would have really come in handy there at the end.

-         Stephenson’s punt that landed at the 1 and bounced sideways was the most beautiful punt I’ve ever seen.  Not all were that nice, but I am now not at all worried about punting and its been years since that was the case.

-         If you had told me before the game we would give up four turnovers, I’d say BYU loses by 28 points or more.  BYU left points on the field with Chambers fumble (which was a fantastic defensive play, Chambers did a good job trying to hold on and anticipating the hit) and the missed field goal.

-         The players and particularly the coaches looked like they enjoyed the game more than they have in years.  Bronco willing his team to a goalline stand, Hill getting pumped, Hall running around yelling Provo obscenities (“Oh my gosh!”) Coach Mendenhall mentioned after the game he was going to enjoy the victories more and not the old “We had a good game 15 seconds ago, we celebrated and have already watched 2 games of the opponents and erased all good feelings we had.”  Hard work is important, but its still a game and the players will play better if they are having fun.

-         AND finally…We can talk National Championship and not be considered crazy.  Sure, it’s a long shot.  Sure, its statically improbable and would require a meltdown by several teams in the power conferences.  But we can talk about it!  For the guy who is going to comment that we need to focus on one game at a time: Unless you are on the team, your focus on the next game has zero impact on the results.   Let’s enjoy this win as fans and we look forward to a great season, even if we don’t win a second NC in 25 years.  If nothing else, we have one of the greatest BYU wins ever to remember.

Tags: Andrew George, Andrew Rich, Brandon Bradley, Brian Logan, Bronco Mendenhall, Bryan Kariya, Coleby Clawson, Dennis Pitta, J.J. DiLuigi, Jaime Hill, Jordan Pendleton, Max Hall, McKay Jacobsen, Mitch Payne, Oklahoma Sooners, Oneill Chambers, Riley Stephenson, Scott Johnson

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under BYU Football, College Football, Mountain West Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.