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That is really all BYU did this week, but I can’t complain. The rise to 8 in the AP poll and 7 in the coaches poll was to be expected after the rash of upsets that took place over the weekend. The great fear now is of overconfidence. I’m glad BYU gets Utah State on the flipside of their bye week so that even if they don’t play a perfect game they will still win most likely.

The biggest upside to being ranked this high so early is that all BYU has to do is maintain and they will be in a BCS bowl. It would be really hard to move them down in the rankings as long as they keep winning. Perhaps the brightest spot in these rankings is that BYU has garnered enough respect to move up even when they don’t play. This shows that people are noticing what is going on in Provo. Recognition will only aid in furthering the program.

While the added attention should help with recruiting, the rash of losses amongst big name schools this week goes to show that who you play isn’t nearly as important as how you play. Parity in college football is glaringly evident these days. The difference now and in the future will be the effectiveness of coaching, and I am glad we have Bronco to lead us into the future.

So I have to admit that I absolutley hate bye weeks. I realize it is necessary, and a good chance for the team to recover, blah blah blah, but I really hate it. You get all amped for the season, and it is cruising along, and your team is doing great, and then: nothing. What am I supposed to waste my time at work doing? In reality, Arkansas is coming to Austin today so I won’t have much freetime at work, but that is beside the point. I love everything about the college football season. The build up during the week, watching the game, or the anticipation of score updates when you get a chance, reading the post game interviews, and finally the releasing of the polls. It is all so much fun. No other sport provides me as much enjoyment while it is in season. So while I absolutley hate bye weeks, I guess I will just enjoy a little less stress today since I won’t be wondering what the score is.

Anytime you shutout another team and put 44 points up on the board you can’t really complain too much. I am sure the first stringers are a little frustrated by only plaing half games, but I think this will pay huge dividends later in the season when the games are closer, especially if there should be some injuries. The coach in me still sees some areas for improvement. The most glaring being the penalties. Nine penalties for 79 yards will be a lot more painful in a close game. I have to admit I did not see the game, so some of those may have come at the end in garbage time, but it caught my eye.

The move up in the rankings seems just about right. The only team I would suggest we could go ahead of right now is Texas Tech, but they are in a BCS conference so they automatically get some advantage. It will be interesting to see how willing the voters will be to move BYU up from here as teams ahead of them inevitably lose. The most likely losers being Texas Tech, Wisconsin, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and even though I live in Austin, Texas. Obviously, there are a million different variables, but the real question is what teams will jump over BYU even if they go undefeated.

Congrats to TCU for cracking the rankings. It is definitely deserved. They are putting up some great numbers with the nations best overall defense, and number six in points allowed. It makes that showdown on Oct. 16 even more interesting should they keep playing well.

No Holding Penalties on the Offensive Line
No Official Sacks
32 of 41 third-down conversions (78.1 percent)
#11 and #14 national ranking (depending on poll)
No end zone celebration penalties (ie. “flipping” the ball)

Now if only we could have 0 turnovers. OK, now I’m just getting greedy.

I decided to go over and watch the BYU vs. UCLA game at my coworker’s house. This isn’t the normal coworker. He’s an 86 (give or take a year) year old pharmacist. The guy is absolutely hilarious and I had a wonderful time watching the game. Of course, it was made even more wonderful watching BYU just clobber UCLA.

This 86 year old man couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful it was to watch BYU’s offensive line at work. Maybe in his short life he’d never seen a BYU offensive line.

All of that stuff aside, my favorite part of the BYU drubbing of UCLA was the first time that UCLA attempted a field goal and blocked it. I leaned over to my coworker and told him that BYU was going to block the field goal. I told him BYU had been practicing it and I just felt like BYU needed to prove the mess that was last week’s BYU vs. UW blocked extra point wasn’t an abnormality.

I couldn’t have been happier than I was at that moment as BYU in some small way seemed to vindicate themselves by blocking that first UCLA field goal.

Looking to Wyoming
Mendenhall took issue with a reporter’s premise that the Cougars should “cruise” past 2-1 Wyoming on Saturday, saying “I don’t think that ‘cruise’ and our philosophy here match.”

There is so much that could be said about that beautiful game on Saturday. What I liked most about it though is how BYU took all of the negative media from the last week and laid it to rest, at least to some degree. One sign of a good team is one that can win the close games when they come, which will inevitably happen in college football. Another is a team that will jump all over their opponent’s mistakes, and then refuse to let up. I’m not talking about running up the score, because I am against that. What I am all for is continuing to execute no matter what the score is. Why shouldn’t the reserves be allowed to bring their best to the field and show what they can do? It is in games like this that they gain invaluable game experience.

My biggest congrats has to go to the defense. Good on you for maintaining the shutout all the way to the end. It really upset me the last few years when BYU would be up big and the reserves would come in and let the other team score a couple of times. I realize it is just my pride talking, but for a defense that was oft criticized this week by just about everyone, they should have a little swagger in their step for a couple of days. Now they just need to work on legitimizing it for a few games in a row.

Due to the huge volume of posts and articles on the internet regarding the legitimacy of the celebration call at the end of the game I will add my two cents by simply saying it was a good call on a really stupid rule.

Now for my opinion of the game as a whole. It was exactly as anyone would expect with a PAC-10 officiating crew, which can be well shown by a couple of pictures:

I’ve seen less holding in a BYU dorm room. I am well aware of the fact that calls get missed on every single play of any given game, but when it is as deliberate as some of those holds on Saturday someone needs to address the situation.

It would be a logistical nightmare initially, but why isn’t the NCAA the group that oversees officiating. Doesn’t it seem like a conflict of interest to anyone else that each conference is responsible for their own officials. At the very least an endeavor like the MWC and Big 12 are trying to workout would be beneficial. Regional officiating crews that don’t have direct conference ties would be more successful and would in large part alleviate any idea that crews are biased to their own conference. If there wasn’t some advantage to having your own officiating crews, why would the PAC-10 insist on using only their crews for non-conference games?

The call against Locker in the BYU vs. UW game might be the most ESPN press BYU gets this year. It led off College Game Day and even had 2 segments on Sportscenter. Here’s a video of The Call in case you’re living in a hole.

I don’t think there’s much discussion on whether the rule is a good one or not. That’s easy: it’s a horrible rule. However, a rule’s a rule.

The best part of the video is when the football hits Locker on the head after celebrating with his teammate. If he just “tossed it over his shoulder” like many of the ESPN analysts said, then why did it take forever for the ball to hit him on the head?

Bronco’s response in the final interview won’t get much coverage, but shows exactly why Bronco will be one of the greatest BYU coaches ever. If I find the video of the interview I’ll post it.

Finally, Congratulations Jan on making Sportscenter’s #1 play on a Saturday filled with amazing plays.

Far too often in sports, there is an enormous amount of arrogance and cockiness involved. Some certainly would argue that those elements are what make some players great (see Jim McMahon). However, for some reason I love a player or coach that is humble. Maybe the President Benson’s Beware of Pride article I was asked to read each week on my mission is the reason I appreciate humility so much. Maybe it’s just because humble people are more likable. Either way, I was really impressed with the following Anae quote:

“Northern Iowa exposed flaws on our side in the way they pursued and got off blocks, exposed flaws in securing the football,” Anae said.

“We were outcoached by them in basic fundamentals. Nothing is more basic than blocking and securing the football, warding off blocks and stripping the ball loose.”

I love how Anae takes the blame on himself saying that they were outcoached. Let’s hope this lesson in humility translates into great ball security this weekend. If we don’t need it this weekend, we’ll definitely need it next weekend against UCLA.

As soon as I saw Washington on the schedule I was taken back to 1996 and the one blemish on our record that year. I remember watching that game and just dying at how they blew the game early and couldn’t recover. The difference this year is Washington is not nearly the same team. They are dead last in the Pac-10 in total defense, points scored and points allowed, and they are number nine in total offense with a whopping 242 yards. Pitta had almost that many by himself.

While I am not nearly as worried this year, the four fumbles last week sure didn’t instill any confidence. On the other hand, Washington got stomped pretty good last week by Oregon, and this is not the Oregon with Dennis Dixon. This game should be a nice step up from last week without being overwhelmed, but being a road game is the x-factor with BYU teams of late.