Welcome to CrashUtah – Where BYU fans Talk Sports

After much waiting and anticipation there is finally a gametime and network for the BYU vs. Oklahoma game.

The September 5 game that is part of the kickoff week for college football will be televised on ESPN at 6 pm central time. That’s 5 pm mountain for those of you in Utah.

I tried to look at the OU website to see if they were saying anything about the game, but there was more there about the Cowboys new stadium than the game itself.

Tickets have been released for season ticket holders, but the rest of us will have to wait for a little while to get our chance. They are going for $50-$80 as of right now, but I expect they will get a lot higher as the game draws closer.

Most people will be better off paying the $30-40 for parking and just watching the game on the big screen. It is ridiculous how much it all costs, but that is Jerry Jones for you.

Either way, I am really looking forward to this game. In the past when we have played great teams we have had lots of questions on our team, but this time, the nucleus is still there. The biggest question is how good our o-line will be, but I am not really worried about it. We always have at least an average O-line.

I’m getting really excited, and seeing as how there are no major sporting events between now and the start of the season, we should start seeing more and more about college football.

Sorry, I forgot the NBA Finals will start in almost a week. They just last so freaking long that they feel like the regular season never ends. Plus all these long breaks between rounds make me lose interest.

Forgive my sidetrack. BYU is going to have a good season, and may very well have a great season if they get a few good calls, and some favorable bounces.

This modern era of information overload is no different in the sports world. However, when it comes to college football, it may have come too far.

Not only can you get daily reports on every practice of your favorite team including play by play and stats, you can now watch the spring games on ESPN. That is just going too far.

It used to be special to watch a game on national tv. You would anxiously read articles about what games would be televised. This was even a bigger deal if you were an out of town fan, and your team was going to be on a network station. Growing up in Texas and being a BYU fan I was lucky to see one or two games a year, but now you can get not only every single game, but spring games and practices.

While I do appreciate being able to watch more games than I used to, I almost miss the old days. The quality of broadcasts has totally fallen off of a cliff. From the broadcasters themselves to the game production, it just isn’t nearly as good. Now we are stuck with former players that never made it, and never should have been given a spot in the booth.

The days of classic sporting events analyzed by well known broadcasters is gone. Instead we would probably be better off hitting the mute button and just enjoying the game itself.

The one exception I have found to this is that most radio broadcasts still carry classic announcers. I realize they can’t live forever, but by and large most teams keep the same broadcasters on the radio. I have found myself muting the tv and listening to the radio because they do such a better job.

So while I will continue to watch and read everything I possibly can about BYU, I wish the quality of broadcasts would go back up to what it used to be.

My friend sent this to me in an email, so I can’t link to it properly. However, it’s too good of a post to pass up.

Opening the mailbag: Ball State, BYU and Bush

October 7, 2008 8:01 PM

Posted by ESPN.com’s Ted Miller

Let’s just dive in…

Adam from Berkeley writes: Hey Ted, What exactly has BYU done to deserve a top ten spot? I’m looking at the teams that they’ve beaten and their opponents schedules thus far and there is nothing truly impressive other than that they have won games by a huge margin. It seems like the only reason that they’re in the top ten is because of their preseason ranking along with their victory over UCLA (right after they beat Tennessee). Seeing how that is no longer a noteworthy win, why don’t they drop in the polls?

Ted Miller: Know why BYU is ranked really high?

Because folks who do the rankings think the Cougars are really, really good.

Why do they think BYU is really, really good?

Because BYU has really, really good players. And a really, really good head coach.

If you’re looking for accomplishments, well, there are plenty of teams that haven’t done much — Texas Tech, Texas, Penn State, Florida, Oklahoma — that haven’t done a whole lot.

Why are those teams ranked highly?

Because folks think they are really, really good.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Now I just hope we can keep playing like we’re really, really good.

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.

Today I came across this post today titled “I Say Under-rated by Your System”. Before reading the post, I was already prepared to read a post by a BYU homer that’s disgruntled about the BCS system and the coverage on ESPN. While I won’t argue whether the post is by a BYU homer or not, I must admit that the post was well done and Herbstreit did do a horrible job trying to talk about BYU.

Here’s a quote from the blog post:

Herbstreit slammed the AP rankings in this ESPN piece as he preceded to give reasons why BYU is overrated and should not eve be talked about as a BCS bowl consideration until, at the earliest, week 9. He continues to point out that Fresno State is a better team then BYU, but even they shouldn’t be talked about as the next “Boise State” yet.

The thing that gets my panty hose all bunched up is that Herbstreit doesn’t want us even talking about BYU as a BCS contender until week 9. Seriously? Does he really think it shouldn’t be talked about? BYU has done a ton of good things to merit the discussion of the possibility as much as any other team.

Plus, if Herbstreit thinks that BYU is overrated, then how about he gives us some reasons why he thinks they’re overrated. The big problem is that Herbstreit doesn’t have any reasons since he doesn’t know much of anything about BYU. If he did, he could easily run off a list like the following:
-Inexperienced walk on secondary
-Haven’t been successful on road out of conference
-Losses/Injuries at Running Back
-Injury to leading wide receiver
-Injuries and graduating players at Linebacker

That’s just the start. If Kirk new anything about BYU he’d have no problem talking about these challenges, but all he knows is his BCS schools. I wish for once he’d just say that he really doesn’t know much about BYU and so he can’t give an honest opinion. Certainly that will never happen so we shouldn’t expect the commentary on ESPN to get any better when it comes to BYU.

Also, don’t assume that I’m down on BYU this year. Just call me a realist. Every year you could easily make a long list of challenges and concerns about every team. This year is no different. The above was a list of my fears. I could just as easily have listed my hopes:
-Crazy good offensive line
-Amazingly strong deffensive line
-Can you say Unga?
-A guy named Max
-Perfect schedule

When all’s said and done. This is going to be an exciting year to watch BYU. Just don’t expect ESPN analysts like Herbstreit to be able to analyze it.