1. Establish the run: Geeh, Peter, insightful and piercing commentary.  BYU has looked awful at best trying to run against UCLA.  During the bowl game the defensive line was jumping the gaps and blowing up the running game before it could get started.  Unga had 17 yards on 18 carries.  UCLA is confident in their secondary to man up on BYU’s receivers and tight ends so they will load the box and dare BYU to throw outside.  If BYU can establish a run game (even if its just 50-75 yards in the first half) expect BYU’s offense to roll. Why do I think its possible?  Here is an interesting stat: BYU is 9th in the nation in tackles for loss allowed (just 2.5 per game.) Fui Vakapuna looks like he is having a jolly good time at fullback, blowing up defenders, opening holes for Unga to romp on the poor secondary.  If BYU can rush for 100 yards, BYU wins by 2 touchdowns.

2.  Keep Hall upright: Hall is a gamer.  A maverick.  A gun-slinger.  Word on the street is he has “it.”  He will stay in the pocket as long as he needs to make the pass.  Last year as BYU was driving to take the lead in Westwood a blindside hit jarred the ball loose and BYU’s January dreams evaporated in a blue-hued smoke.  So far, BYU has allowed no sacks (Utah can retain its “sackless” designation) and if they can keep him upright for the game that is a good thing.  I don’t doubt Hall’s ability to rebound from a hit, but an injury to Hall not only compromises BYU’s ability to win tomorrow’s big game but the whole season.

3. Receivers need to win the battles: Stacking the box against any team is inviting an air attack which seems very dangerous against a loaded BYU arsenal.  Collie had an uncharacteristically bad day last Saturday but still ended up with a handful of catches.  Last year Verner, one of the better cover corners in the country, had a hard time keeping up with Collie and could be a big day for Austin and Reed.  Pitta was kept out of the game by a physical defender (safety) who shadowed him every time he was in the game (Utah tried this as well.)  If BYU can open up the air raid and force UCLA to play honest defense, it will open up some nice lanes for Unga & Co. and vice versa.

4. Stop the big play: BYU’s defense has been sufficiently stingy besides for the occasional long play (long run by UNI and trick play, long pass for TD against Washington.)  BYU’s safeties need to play smarter as UCLA’s QB can be much more accurate than any foe thus far.  BYU needs to get good backfield penetration against a young and inexperienced UCLA offensive line to force bad throws.  Linebackers need to play assignment sound and fill their gaps. BYU allowed far too many 3rd and long completions (92nd in the country with 46.9%)  Take away the big plays and BYU rolls.

5.  Take the ball away: BYU has done a horrible job at taking the ball away from opponents (2 fumble recoveries, good for 106th in the country.)  If BYU is negative in the turnover margin they will have a hard time pulling away from a scrappy UCLA team.  BYU needs to get their first interception of the season, which shouldn’t be hard if the first half Craft (4 ints against Tennessee) shows up.

6. Win the position battle: Sorensen needs to put the ball in the endzone every time.  That itself should swing the victory to BYU’s side.

My prediction: BYU 35 - UCLA 17

BYU gets out to a quick start, 14-7 (defensive miscue allows a long UCLA TD) in the first quarter.  BYU gets out to 28-10 by halftime and cruises to victory.  Unga stuns UCLA with 120 yards and 2 touchdowns.  A linebacker gets the first pick of the season.  The media forgets about the Washington call and starts touting BYU as a real BCS threat.  I win the lottery.  Okay, last two are near impossible, but I can only hope.

Note: I am in Southern California for a business trip and will miss the live game.  The odds of me getting all the way back to SLC tomorrow night without hearing the score are slim to none, but I’m going to try (hence my disappearing from tomorrow’s conversation.)

GO COUGARS!

I’m not saying BYU deserved to lose. We all saw the complete lack of officiating competence up to that point that kept Washington in the game. I’m just saying that I’m glad it worked out for the Cougars in the end. They took advantage of an unexpected opportunity and decided the game for themselves. It’s a nice change of pace from three to four years ago when BYU found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Let’s hand out some game balls:

• Offensive Line: Even if the game had been played on natural grass, Hall’s jersey still wouldn’t have any stains on it. Near-perfect pass protection after a few hiccups last week. Punishing run blocking. It was great to see the improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. UCLA will be the stiffest test for the O-line this year, much stiffer than UW, so we’ll see if the hogs can continue to raise their game.
• Harvey Unga: 23 carries for 136 yards (stats from ESPN). Had the biggest impact on the game of anybody, thanks to the O-line. It never gets old watching him tote the rock. So big and powerful, but so fluid and agile. I’ve never seen anything like him in a Cougar uniform. As for his fumble, I wonder if it happened because Unga was gassed. They showed him on the sideline after the fumble and he was sucking wind like he had just finished the Beep Test. He had a lot of consecutive carries on that drive, if I remember right. With my amazing 20/20 hindsight, I think Unga should have been subbed out before that play.
• Dennis Pitta: If Pitta doesn’t have to twist himself into a pretzel to go for the ball, he makes the catch. 10 catches, 148 yards and a TD. UCLA had better spend a good deal of time this week trying to figure out how to take Pitta out of the game, if that’s possible.

Some of us have a pathological desire to demonstrate how much we know about football. This, we know with absolute certainty, will prove that we are manly men and that everyone should bow down to us. Somehow, being fans of the same team became a dogfight rather than a club.

Just as we ought to be more respectful toward fans of opposing teams, even Utah, let’s treat each other with uncompromising dignity. If you disagree with another’s opinion, show restraint in your response. Treat others how you would like to be treated. I don’t know what it is about

This thunderbolt struck my brain last week. After realizing that I had precious little enthusiasm left after being sucked dry by all the bad vibes, I went on a mental search for something to bring back the love. I arrived at what I consider to be the next step forward in my evolution as a human being: I had to stop competing with other BYU fans.

Sweet deliverance!!! It was like slipping off heavy chains. I don’t have to prove what would have made the difference between a win and a loss. I don’t need to have the final word on whether certain unheralded recruits deserved their scholarship offers over more lauded prospects. I can have opinions and expound on them, but I don’t have to fight tooth and nail to defend them as truth anymore. You know why? Our opinions don’t change anything. It’s quite liberating to acknowledge the notion.

Why are we drumming up all this strife if it doesn’t amount to anything? Let’s stop doing it! Look at the political environment in our nation right now. People have had differing opinions since the beginning of our nation. Over time, though, the spirit of cooperation in spite of differing opinions has been almost totally replaced by divisive, petty bipartisan posturing. Is it any wonder that our beloved nation is slowly slipping?

Well, it seems that more and more, we’re falling into the same trap as BYU fans (sports fans in general, but let’s not worry about anyone but ourselves on this one). Should our sports talk mirror the morass of political banter? What does it say about us that our discussions about sports carry the same tone and tactics as political rhetoric? Yowzers!

As a proprietor of this site, I suggest it’s time for each of us to examine his/her own attitudes and recommit to the highest standards of respect and patience towards each other. We want Cougar Legion to be a site where people can share their opinions in a respectful manner and be treated with respect in turn. I’ve done my fair share of trading barbs, and I apologize to any that I have offended. I promise that I will do better from now on. Will you join me?

BYU won a game against a talented but overmatched opponent by 24 points. It looked a lot better on the ESPN In-Game ticker after the game than it felt watching the game take place, which is a good sign for BYU. Not many voters will know about the mistakes but they’ll see the lopsided score, so no harm has been done to BYU’s early-season reputation. All that happened is we fans had to swallow our pride a little bit and realize that our team isn’t an unstoppable force yet. ESPN even highlighted both the Utah and BYU games during SportsCenter and didn’t have anything negative to say (except that BYU’s schedule isn’t very tough, which is true).

I didn’t want to buy into it, but Northern Iowa proved they are a fairly talented football team. In my opinion, UNI would probably beat around half of the teams in the Mountain West Conference if given the opportunity (UNLV, SDSU, and CSU for sure; a push against Wyoming and Air Force). It’s a shame that the win has to go down as being against a FCS team, because UNI is way ahead of the talent curve as far as FCS teams go. I was unhappy when Tom Holmoe announced BYU would be playing UNI, but I’m glad in hindsight that BYU got to face an opponent of decent quality (I mean that with all respect). For what it’s worth, I offer an apology to Mr. Holmoe for my earlier criticism.

Having won the game by a comfortable margin, I’m grateful that Northern Iowa was able to expose some of BYU’s weaknesses on both sides of the ball. There weren’t any systemic issues, just matters of execution that can all be fixed. As Mendenhall said in his post-game interview, it’s a very good thing that those problems showed up early and under circumstances that didn’t cost BYU a game. It was a shot in the mouth that will keep the team sober, abstinent from the toxication of inflated ego heading into the more challenging non-conference games starting this Saturday.

BYU was able to win the game despite showing very little on both sides of the ball. BYU surely installed new packages on offense during fall camp, but didn’t have to show any of it to future opponents during this game. It was the same old stuff that everybody knows about anyway. The defense also played completely vanilla and held the opponent to 10 points. I’ll take that for a season-opener any day.

I’ll admit that during that infamous third quarter, I was wavering in my prediction of an undefeated season and my opinion of BYU as a BCS-worthy team. I’m glad that I forced myself to withhold judgment and not leap to conclusions so hastily. The Cougars are still on track to acheive great things this season, thanks to Northern Iowa showing BYU their weaknesses so that they can be fortified.

If you haven’t been following camp, I recommend:

Total Blue Sports (Subscription required for some articles, very much worth it.)

Deseret News

KSL

Salk Lake Tribune

The good: Fall camp is here.  Reason enough to celebrate.  Only two non-qualifiers (Seta Pohahau and Atem Bol) and one no-show (but beyond his control) DL Bernard Afutiti.  He is waiting on his paperwork to come through from the JC and he’ll be on the team as soon as that is done, probably by the end of this week.

The bad: Injuries are already hurting the team, including several starters.  WR Austin Collie hasn’t participated yet due to a stress fracture in his leg.  OL Tom Sorensen, the projected starting center, is out for 4-6 weeks for shoulder surgery.  LB Matt Bauman hurt his foot in a scooter accident, will be back soon.  RB Fui Vakapuna tweaked his hamstring running for pro-scouts a while back and was chastised by Coach Mendenhall for not putting in the work in rehab to be ready for fall.

The good: No players have been lost for the season AND a lot of fresh faces are getting reps.  Coach Tidwell has said that he needs 4 players for the inside linebacker rotation.  Matt Ah You is getting reps in Bauman’s spot and that can only be a good thing.  Those fighting for #3 and #4 spots at wide receiver are getting more reps with the first team and getting a shot at working on their chemistry with Hall.  The most interesting, however, in my opinion, is news that Dallas Reynolds, a fixture at left tackle is getting reps at center with younger Matt Reynolds moving to LT.  I think Sorensen is great, but something about this new line-up is very exciting.

The bad: Player were getting chippy today, throwing some late hits and giving more contact that needed.  That last thing BYU needs is a hurt player due to a late hit by a teammate.

The good: Coach Mendenhall cut practice short to take advantage of the teaching moment.  He liked the passion, just not the way it was coming out.  The players are taking practice seriously and are ready to prove they deserve their #17 preseason ranking in the Coaches Poll.

The bad: Michigan was #24 in that poll.

The good: Kudos to Jeff Reynolds.  BYU has a whole new-website, updated daily, with great new features.  The list of award watches is growing.  They are putting up new videos daily, so visit it often (www.byucougars.com/football for those too lazy to look it up.)

The bad: As far as websites go, its still terrestrial (if you don’t get that lame joke, I have two friends in white shirts and ties I’d like you to meet…)  Some minor bugs and broken links, but overall still great.

The ugly: Freshman haircuts. The veterans are tired of shaving the freshman clean and have decided to get creative.  You can find more on the new BYU site blog.   No word yet if O’Neill Chambers corn rows are intact or not.