Welcome to CrashUtah – Where BYU fans Talk Sports

Brad Rock from the Desert News has compiled a fantastic list of interesting tidbits about BYU and Utah’s football teams. I’ve copied the list below for your perusal.

Take a look at the list of items for BYU:

• Did you know BYU defensive lineman Tyler Berry’s grandfather played professional basketball for the B.F. Goodrich Tiremen? I admit, I haven’t heard of them. But it must have been tough for opposing coaches to say with a straight face: “All right, men, go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow we have a big game against the Tiremen.”
Who’s up next, the Albertson’s Shelfstockers?

• Did you know freshman defensive lineman Brett Denney was recruited by Stanford and Harvard? Smart guy. I imagine while he’s crouching down before a snap, he’s actually figuring the answer to Poincare’s Conjecture. If you don’t know what that is, stop right there. You’re not smart enough to watch him play.

• Did you know junior linebacker Rex Doman is a cousin to former BYU quarterback Brandon Doman? So all he needs to do is beat Utah on the last drive of the game, lead the team to a 12-2 season and play in the NFL and nobody will make any unfair comparisons.

• Did you know junior defensive back Kellen Fowler is the son of former BYU quarterback Blaine Fowler? But until he can recite — verbatim — the entire script of “Caddyshack” like his dad, I won’t be impressed.

• Did you know junior offensive lineman Erik Freeman is a third cousin to former BYU star Bart Oates? Oates is the guy BYU pushed for all-America by mailing out envelopes with Quaker Oats inside. Does that mean if they want to promote Freeman, they’ll have to put little American flags in the envelopes?

• Did you know senior defensive back Aaron Gordon speaks English, Samoan, Tongan, Italian and Hualapai? That should come in handy if he ever wants to curse at the coaches.

• Speaking of cursing, did you know BYU has an offensive lineman named Nick Longshore? How convenient. When he gets hurt, he can curse like a longshoreman.

• Did you know junior wide receiver Troy Sheide is the son of former BYU quarterback Gary Sheide. So ex-QB’s Fowler and Sheide have sons playing for BYU. That’s nice, but what I’m really waiting for is Jim McMahon’s kid to show up.

• Did you know BYU has a defensive back named Tico Pringle? Just saying his name makes me hungry.

And here’s the list for the Utes:

Then there are the oddities about the Utes. For instance:

• Did you know 300-pound lineman Jason Boone comes from a family of 10 children? Do you ever wonder why people stop having kids when they’re one short of a team?

• Tight end Pate Moleni comes from a family of 11 kids — so they have a full complement of players. Wanna go for a kickoff unit?

• Freshman kicker Kepa Gaison’s full name is Bart-Jonah Iokepa Gaison. Or you can call him Notorious B.I.G. for short.

• The Utes have a player named Joe Giuliani and one named Joe Jiannoni, both linebackers. Which means, I guess, we can just call that part of the field “Little Italy.”

• Quarterback Brett Ratliff’s nickname is “Ratty.” You don’t want to see his apartment.

• Jason Voss, a 6-3, 268-pound tight end, showed dairy heifers in 4-H. Word is the judges kept pinning the blue ribbon on HIM.

• And finally, defensive back Mombroso Washington participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Imagine that — a player who understands the game against BYU really isn’t war after all.

I’d like to thank Brad for the entertaining list. However, just look at the list of tidbits. You can tell just by the length of the lists that he is obviously a Ute fan. Cut him he bleeds red…yada…yada…yada. I see right through you Brad. Next time just come out and say that you like the Utes and think their going to do better than BYU this season. So what if a few BYU fans can’t take your comments. At least give them the satisfaction of correcting you later. You’re not paid to make up “tidbits and idiosyncrasies.” You get free tickets to the games to give us water cooler fodder.

Oh! Don’t worry, I’ll be keeping this article for later in the season. When BYU has a great season going, I’ll write you and remind you how weak you were for not pointing out the obvious fact that BYU was going to have a great season. Maybe next time you’ll stop being afraid of BYU fans that are ALWAYS right.

P.S. The Jason Voss receiving the 4-H blue ribbon still has me laughing.

Since I’m outside of Utah I haven’t seen this, but a recent Desert News article said the following:

Given the ongoing Middle East conflicts, isn’t BYU’s marketing slogan of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” a little tacky? (But since the Cougars started it … what happens if no WMDs are found? Or if it all blows up in their face?)

Fantastic commentary!! Horrible slogan. It’s right up their with Doman the Dominator(or whatever it was exactly).

What would be even worse then not finding the WMD is if the WMD blow up in our face. I’m not personally concerned about our weapons. I’m concerned about our secondary and special teams. Those could possibly blow up in our face. At least they don’t have to go against a Charlie Weis offense this year.

-Coach Bronco Mendenhall said the Cougars will utilize up to eight different players on the defensive line.
-Asked what he’s going to tell his team about going on the road, Mendenhall replied: “I’m going to tell them we’re going there for one reason — to win the game.”
-”You always have the skeptics. You always have the pessimists,” linebacker Bryan Kehl said after Monday’s practice, “but I think we’re going to win some converts on Saturday.”
-”I can’t say anything bad about them[the defense],” said running back Curtis Brown.
-”It is a great mistake if anybody wants to overlook our running game,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said Monday. “We put a great emphasis in our ability to run the ball and no way do we consider ourselves one-dimensional. We know how we run the ball is vital and necessary to our plan.”

Here’s a list of most of the starters on BYU’s depth chart for the game with Arizona. Of course, there are some people left off like John Beck starting at Quarterback, Johnny Hairline at tight end and Curtis Brown at running back. Those are really just givens in my book.

-Ian Dulan, a 17-year-old from Hilo, Hawaii, is slated to start at left end. Backing him up is another true freshman, Matangi Tonga.
-True freshman, Romney Fuga, will back up senior nose tackle Hala Paongo.
-Redshirt freshman Jan Jorgensen will start at right end.
-Mike Hague is listed as a backup “H” receiver, behind Nathan Meikle.
-McKay Jacobson backs up Matt Allen at the “Z” receiver.
-Hague and Jacobson are both listed as first-team kick returners.
-Offensive line starters Eddie Keele (left tackle), Ray Feinga (left guard), Sete Aulai (center), Jake Kuresa (right guard) and Dallas Reynolds (right tackle) will be backed up by freshman Garrett Reden, sophomore Travis Bright, freshman Ryan Freeman, freshman Braden Hansen and sophomore David Oswald.
-Junior Markell Staffieri is starting inside linebackers, along with senior Cameron Jensen with outside linebackers David Nixon and Bryan Kehl.
-Junior Ben Criddle at right cornerback with returning starter Justin Robinson at left cornerback with Kayle Buchanan backing up Criddle while junior college transfer Andre Saulsberry backing up Robinson.

John Beck Named to O’Brien List

Jensen Named Butkus Candidate
Jensen Named Nagurski Trophy Candidate

Daniel Coats, Johnny Harline Named to Mackey Award List

Too bad this is just preseason so far. We’ll see how they play on the field. I can’t believe that Curtis Brown hasn’t gotten any recognition. Oh wait, this is BYU football.

“He[McKay Jacobson] just understands football,” said senior receiver Nate Meikle.
“McKay Jacobson can haul,” Beck said. “He has lightning speed.”
“I love McKay,” said coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “It’s hard to even view him as a freshman. When I talk about our receivers, I don’t view McKay as a newcomer. It’s an interesting feeling to have.”
“Spring really did a lot for me,” said Jacobson, who plans to serve an LDS Church mission after the season. “Nothing’s really new. I just feel like one of the other guys. Of course, the season is going to be a little different.”
“It’s awesome,” Jacobson said. “With John coming back, he’s a great quarterback. It’s awesome to play with somebody as good as he is.”

Let’s see how he does Saturday!!

Here’s a great image showing the various Mountain West Conference Bowls. BYU is really only interested in the Las Vegas Bowl. I guess we would be ok with a BCS bowl, but let’s not be too naive.

One of the biggest things I miss about being at BYU and in Provo is that I could go and enjoy a nice BYU sports team play all the time. One of my favorite sports to watch was Women’s Soccer. I liked it even better than the Men’s soccer because it was raw and enjoyable. Men’s soccer was so methodical that it wasn’t as unpredictable and therefore not as much fun to watch.

Well, this year there are high hopes for the BYU women’s soccer team. However, with high hopes that puts a lot of pressure on BYU to win. Fans will start coming out if a team with high hopes wins. Many fans stop coming when the team starts losing. This year they also need to make sure that they are peeking at the right time. The end of the year. Not midseason like last year.

Unfortunately, when it comes to soccer it’s almost like a coin toss. The better team doesn’t always win. So, rather than telling you to play well…I’ll just say…Good Luck!!

An excerpt from the Tribune article says:

Mendenhall suspended Cole Miyahira on Tuesday afternoon, six hours after the safety clashed with secondary coach Jaime Hill. The potential starter can’t return to the team until after the Sept. 2 season-opener against Arizona.
…
In his first season at BYU, Hill is a fiery coach not afraid to criticize his players. His emotional nature has irked some players, who haven’t been accustomed to this type of coaching.
After Tuesday’s incident,
Hill declined to address the issue. At that time Hill said he could talk Wednesday, but declined again.
“He knows the line between coach and buddy-buddy,” said safety Dustin Gabriel. “He never breaks that, so you always respect him. He knows his stuff.”

Good thing Dustin Gabriel is a great Safety. Gabriel’s only concern was health issues since he’d had so many concussions. This news can’t help BYU’s secondary. However, as long as Gabriel can stay healthy then we should be ok. Hopefully, Cole Miyahira comes back like Fahu Tahi did after his suspension.

BYU Athletics recently sent out a press release that Luiz de Toledo a prized brazilian basketball recruit out of Modesto Christian High School in Modesto, California has decided to leave the team to pursue a professional basketball career in Brazil.

There are a lot of rumors going around about why he is doing it. I think the most plausible one was the sickness of his father with the medical bills piling up. I guess Brazil doesn’t have socialized medicine?

From all the recruiting reports it sounded like Luiz really had the tools he needed to be a great ball player, but could have really used a refinement of his basketball skills that BYU would have offered him. Hopefully the decision works out well for him and his family.

I don’t think his departure will mean anything for BYU’s basketball team this year, but could certainly show it’s impact a couple years down the road when he was suppose to be a future BYU star.