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Freshman kicker Ben Jaekle was sitting in the stands with his parents watching UNLV dominate visiting Division I-AA Idaho State when his cell phone rang.

It was coach Mike Sanford, telling him he was kicking the in the second half.

When senior Rebels kicker Sergio Aguayo suffered a knee injury in the first half, Sanford got Jaekle’s cell phone number from players sitting near the UNLV sideline.

Sanford told Jaekle he had to report to the locker room, suit up and play the second half.

“He asked, `Who is this?’ I said this is coach Sanford, and this is not a joke,” Sanford said.

Jaekle responded well, converting a field goal and three extra points during UNLV’s 54-10 win over Idaho State.

I guess Mike Sanford is more resourceful than I thought.

With fall classes begun the BYU rugby team prepares to tackle its 2006 Fall season. The Cougars will take on the usual in-state rivals and host the University of New Mexico September 9th.

BYU’s fall season, although not counting towards any conference or league standing, is important for its preparatory purposes. The returning Cougars will work on refining their skills and fitness, while new players will get acquainted with the BYU rugby program, and in many cases the game of rugby.

BYU kicks off its fall practices this Thursday, September 7th. The Cougars won’t waste a moment as recently returned College All-American Head Coach & BYU Head Coach David Smyth will have his team taking a fitness & skills/agility test to evaluate his returning and new players.

BYU wastes even less time when they square off against their rival Utah for the first of a duo of fall scrimmages two after the Cougars’ first practice. BYU then plays host to the Lobos of New Mexico in a highly anticipated rematch.

The Lobos last visited Provo in March of 2000 and lost 70-13. New Mexico is expected to be a national contender in 2006-07.

BYU then closes out the 2006 fall season with a brace of games against Utah Valley State College and then again with the Utes.

BYU’s Smyth sees the 2006 fall season as a time to prepare his team.

“We’ve set up this fall’s season with a purpose to give our returning guys a chance to get themselves sorted and allow our new guys a lot more playing time,” Smyth noted, “These fall games and practices are to get our team in order to for 2007. The results of the game are important, but development and improvement are the key things.”

With the graduation of multiple players, notably USA Eagles Salesi Sika and Alipate Tuilevuka, the Cougars are finding themselves in the need to reload and rebuild.

Smyth expects his young Cougar standouts to return and continue what Sika, Tuilevuka and the other graduating seniors left behind.

“We lost a lot of good players to graduation,” he said,”But we have a very good group of guys to continue to build and improve on.”

Such returning players include All-Americans Derek Smith (Prop, Jr.), Ikani Taumeopeau (8/Lock,Jr.), Taylor Kjar (Center, Jr.) and Craig Clark (Lock, Sr.). Smyth will likely be leaning on these players to lead his team to an improved 2006-07 season.

-Source

MSTAR to carry the mtn. MountainWest Sports Network in addition to CSTV and Versus as a part of its basic residential cable offering. MSTAR includes iProvo and UTOPIA, MSTAR is also Utah’s first licensed Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) provider.

“We are pleased to welcome MSTAR as an inaugural distribution partner and bring their viewers a deeper array of MWC athletics, including Utah and BYU, than has ever been available in the past,” said Kim Carver, vice president and general manager of the mtn.

By MSTAR carrying the mtn. CSTV and Versus before the satellite providers DirectTV and DishNetwork, that puts MSTAR in a fantastic marketing position. We’ll see how well they are able to capitalize on it.

More importantly, who owns a slingbox and MSTAR that wants to let me stream the games to Las Vegas?