Welcome to CrashUtah - Where BYU fans Talk Sports

Someone please help me understand why BYU fans will spend hours posting comments on message boards like CougarFan and CougarBoard and yet hardly anyone comments on my BYU sports blog. Quite honestly I don’t know why people aren’t as outspoken on blogs as they are on the message boards. I don’t know if people see it as a matter of respect because this is my website and not a forum where everyone is talking. Maybe people just absolutely agree with everything I say and so they have nothing to add or take away from what I’ve said. We know how mythical that is.

Please someone explain it to me!

I’m considering putting a big virtual sign at the bottom of my posts saying: “PLEASE COMMENT! I promise it won’t hurt you” Do people really need encouragement to comment on my blog? I’m sure that a lot of people that read my commentary don’t agree or can help point out errors in my thinking. In fact, I encourage people to do it. There are so many people out there that know more about BYU sports than I do and I value their feedback. In fact, I’m still open to having other people participate in this blog if someone’s interested. I know I enjoy having this as an outlet for me to talk about BYU sports. It’s my platform to say whatever I want. I just wish that more people would comment on what I say.

I don’t think I could heap enough praise on Jeff Judkins. I’m not just saying that because I’ve followed him since he was at Utah since he was my high school friend’s uncle. She always kept me informed. I’m saying he’s great because he’s done marvelous things with BYU women’s basketball. I think they’ve been successful and overachieved ever year that he’s been a part of BYU women’s basketball. He’s brought some fantastic wins and BYU’s win over Stanford is just one more example.

I’m not sure what Jeff Judkins does, but it works. Now he just needs to do one more thing for me. Make women’s basketball interesting enough for it to be on TV so I can watch it. I really enjoy watching women’s basketball. My sister instilled that in me, but honestly you can’t compare watching a women’s game with a couple hundred fans to a men’s game with a packed house. I’m not sure what can be done for the women’s game, but I feel bad that it still sits in obscurity compared to men’s athletics.

The past couple years I’ve read way too many articles completely denigrating the special teams for not playing well. People have hemmed and hawed about how special teams killed BYU and could have been the difference between a win and a loss.

Well, how come this year I haven’t read any articles about the special teams giving them credit for not choking? Well, we could write about the missed field goal at Boston College, but otherwise special teams has been solid this year. Unfortunately, no one really cares because BYU has been taking care of business and so special teams hasn’t been nearly as important this year. Sorry special teams, but you don’t get credit. You only get responsibility if something goes wrong.

On second thought BYU special teams did get some credit last week with the 2 nice kick returns. However, they still haven’t gotten nearly the praise they should be getting. Which for a BYU fan is a good thing.

Looking at the schedule ahead for BYU football it looks like we need a bunch of ranked teams to lose in order to help our ranking. We only have New Mexico and Utah ahead and I don’t see wins in both of those games helping BYU’s rankings in any way. All we can hope for in the rankings is for other ranked teams to lose so that BYU can move up. Of course, BYU does have to take care of business against New Mexico and Utah, but don’t expect BYU to move too much farther up the rankings with those 2 games.

Looking forward to the Las Vegas bowl, I don’t see a win against a low ranking Pac 10 team helping us either. If BYU football breaks the top 20 in the rankings, then I’ll be very happy.

I was just checking on the BYU Basketball schedule and realized that BYU will be playing UCLA in 6 days. However, I haven’t seen any schedule of who will be broadcasting the games. Don’t tell me that the different networks don’t know who will be broadcasting the games. They’ve been working on these types of things for months. I personally hope that the basketball games are broadcast on CSTV and not some other channel which I don’t have.

Maybe I missed the schedule. Does anyone else have more information on who will be showing the various BYU basketball games? I just hope it’s not the Mtn.

BYU sounded like they are playing pretty well in the exhibition games. I’m looking forward to this year in basketball. Rose seems to be doing a good job preparing the team to win. Now if the media could only get themselves together so that we can watch the games.

BYU has seven sets of brothers on its current roster, plus another five players with brothers currently serving Mormon church missions.

Can you name them all?

Is that called nepotism or good recruiting?

The MWC shunned ESPN’s contract and went with the higher paying CSTV contract this year. A lot has been said about the CSTV deal and the MWC network called the Mtn. For being the MWC CSTV deal, I still find it amazing that BYU hasn’t played on CSTV at all this year. Well, tomorrow night BYU will be playing Wyoming on CSTV. Finally, BYU football on TV. It’s such a novel concept. I’m excited to see us play on TV. The time is a little tough with work, but we’ll be ok. I might just have to come home early from work.

A little birdie also told me that people with a broadband connection could see BYU football on CSTV using a live P2P player called TVUPlayer. I hear it’s not perfect, but it’s better than the radio.

As a side note, all those Irish Football fans that want to see Notre Dame and Air Force battle it out on CSTV could try out the free live internet stream also. I guess the Notre Dame fans in South Bend don’t have CSTV as an option with their cable TV providers. Watching Notre Dame and Air Force is a game I’d like to watch too. Air Force is a pain in the butt and I’d like to see how Charlie Weis prepares his team for them. This week I like the CSTV contract. BYU and Notre Dame on CSTV. Not a bad TV lineup.

It’s driving me nuts to look at BYU football’s record. 7 and 2. 2 losses. Granted, they were two losses to teams from BCS conferences. But who really cares? BYU had a chance to win those games and 2 field goals stick out in my head. It makes me sick how close BYU was to being undefeated at this point in the season.

I’ll admit that losing those 2 games and then killing everyone in the MWC is nicer than winning those 2 games and then choking in the MWC. However, BYU should have at least one of those 2 games and didn’t. That still keeps me saying what if.

We’ve clinched a winning season. We’ve pretty much clinched the Las Vegas Bowl. We’ve all but clinched the MWC title. Why don’t I feel satisfied?

We need to beat the Utes. Simple as that. Until it happens, I won’t be satisfied with this season.

The BYU Women’s soccer team is heading to the NCAA tournament. It’s always a good thing to be going to the NCAA tournament. I remember when I was at BYU and how exciting it was to watch the tournament. Besides the fact that my all sports pass didn’t cover the game, I absolutely loved watching BYU’s women’s soccer team with the win or go home mentality of tournament play.

What I don’t understand is why CSTV can’t cover the NCAA tournament game so that I can watch BYU women’s soccer at its best? Don’t tell me that ESPN or some other network has the contract for the tournament. At least, don’t tell me it unless ESPN is going to air the women’s soccer tournament.

BYU has a great match up with another ranked team in Portland. That will be a tough match up for BYU, but the best part is that in soccer every team has a very good chance of winning. BYU could pull this off. If BYU wins we play the winner of Utah and Idaho State. Two teams we’ve already played. Granted it would be a home game for Utah, but what would be sweeter than beating Utah on its home field in the tournament? I’ll tell you what…

Being able to see BYU beat Utah on CSTV here in Las Vegas.

BYU basketball season is upon us. I always seem to get lost in the football season and forget that basketball is starting up soon. Here’s a look at some key players we’ll have this year.

STARTERS RETURNING
• Trent Plaisted, C, freshman all-American, all-MWC
• Lee Cummard, F, 4.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg as freshman
• Keena Young, F, leading rebounder, all-MWC
• Rashaun Broadus, G, second in MWC in assist/TO ratio

HOPE TO RELY ON …
• Austin Ainge, G, team leader as combo guard
• Jimmy Balderson, G/F, 10 points a game off bench
• Fernando Malaman, F/C, forward scored 7 ppg
• Vuk Ivanovic, C, post play could move Plaisted to forward
• Mike Rose, G, outside shooter

PLAYERS LOST
• Brock Reichner, G, 10 ppg, team leader
• Jackson Emery, G, serving LDS mission
• Derek Dawes, C, discontinued playing due to injury