For 3 1/2 quarters BYU-Utah was the kind of game that deserved to be seen by nobody on the VS. network. Four field goals and nothing that would do much beyond induce sleep. Utah was down 9-3 and barely had over 150 yards of total offense. BYU just couldn't convert.
The Utes then had a 7+ minute drive that culminated in a 10-9 Utah lead with 1:34 left. A drive that BYU appeared to have stopped several times, but could not. Utah went 5 for 5 on 3d down conversions in the drive.
BYU got the ball and started at the 20. The Utes defense came out fired up and not only had the Cougars stopped, they had them at 4th and 18. Everything was there for the big Utah upset to claim the Mountain West on BYU's own field. Payback for BYU's last minute win in Salt Lake City last year.
I had this elaborate post up tonight about Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan breaking Ty Detmer's NCAA career touchdown pass mark tonight against Fresno State. I even stayed up late waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . .
And now I'm witness to one of the most vicious hits I've EVER seen in the game of football. While scrambling early in the fourth quarter attempting to get a first down, Brennan was drilled in the head by a flying defender and sent directly to the ground.
I'm pretty sure it was lights out after that. Hell, it looked like he was decapitated. Check YouTube in a few hours if you have the stomach.
Anyway, he now stands at 121 career touchdown passes, the same number as Ty Detmer. That's a tie so his glory will have to wait for another day if he even plays again in the next few weeks. Dude's not gonna remember tonight because his brain just got rattled something special. Oh well.
"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.
This year, Ty Detmer will have his jersey retired by Brigham Young University. Detmer was an All-American, passed for over 15,000 yards in his career, and won the Heisman in 1990. He became the Heisman Trophy frontrunner very early with this game on September 8, against #1 Miami in Provo.
Miami took an early lead, but BYU answered, and went into the half with a 17-14 lead. A little more than 3 minutes into the second half, Miami took a 21-14 lead. They never scored again.
Detmer led the Cougars down the field, but had to settle for a field goal. Then BYU took the lead with a touchdown pass (Detmer's 3d of the night) and a two-point conversion to take a 28-21 lead that was the final score. Detmer passed for 406 yards.
The otherwise fantastic season for BYU and Detmer ended with a thud when the (Rainbow) Warriors of Hawaii routed them in the season finale, 59-28. It actually managed to get worse when Texas A&M demolished them in the Holiday Bowl 65-14. Detmer was knocked out of the game with two separated shoulders.
Despite the poor ending to 1990 for BYU, it doesn't take away from one of the finest college football quarterback performances, and the greatest upset in BYU history.
"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.
This game is classic early 1980's college football. We had SMU's "Pony Express" team with Eric Dickerson and Craig James. We had upstart BYU with the man who would later be known as "The Punky QB": Jim McMahon.
We had a classic running team delivering an absolute first-half beatdown of BYU and its newfangled pass attack.
And we had one of the greatest comebacks in college football history.
SMU held a 35-13 first-half lead before BYU narrowed that with an early second half touchdown. However, SMU just kept on scoring, building a 45-25 lead on the strength of James' crazy legs. What happened next is the stuff of legend with diving touchdowns, mad scrambles, onside kicks, missed conversion attempts, a blocked punt with 0:13 left and a Flutie-esque Hail Mary.
This game established credibility for both BYU and the wild reputation of the Holiday Bowl. The furious finish also overshadowed a fantastic overall performance by James.
In the 1980 Holiday Bowl, James' offensive production of 225 rushing yards and 9.9 yards/carry were both Holiday Bowl records that stood for 13 and 15 years respectively.
With the Big Ten fledgling network still involved in a public spat with Comcast, comparisons to the Mountain West's less than spectacular first year with "The mtn." sports channel are inevitable. In the first year of operation, the mtn. has made it to a whopping 1.2 million homes.
In its annual meeting Tuesday, the MWC Board of Directors voted unanimously to retain Kelly Crabb, the lawyer originally hired and retained last week by BYU and Utah, in efforts to clarify the nature of the TV contract and delineate distribution strategies of The mtn. network.
Crabb will work with Commissioner Craig Thompson and an ad hoc committee made up of three Board members - BYU President Cecil Samuelson, Texas Christian University Chancellor Victor Boschini and Colorado State University President Larry Edward Penley. The conference presidents spearheaded the TV deal that the MWC settled on a year ago with the network co-owned by Comcast Cable and CBS' College Sports Television.
However, there is widespread displeasure because of the troubles in getting The mtn., distributed.
This has fueled speculation that the Mountain West may try to find a way to get out of its deal, and pull the plug on the mtn. The mtn. has not been picked up by either satellite provider, and very few sizable cable operators in the markets (PDF) where the schools operate (Comcast in Utah and Cox in Las Vegas and San Diego are the largest carriers that have it).
Junior college transfer Cade Cooper has left BYU almost as swiftly has he arrived.
The Snow College product arrived in the spring expecting to challenge for a starting job with Arizona State transfer Max Hall. He left the spring with a severe foot injury and likely facing several younger challengers for the #2 job next fall. Enter the fallback route for itinerant quarterbacks: the transfer.
Cooper's injury - compared to the Lisfranc injury where ligaments tear in the foot - is fairly serious, requiring at least a year of recovery. Hall clearly beat him out in the spring, but the injury, recovery time and depth chart issues may have forced his hand and the transfer.
What does this mean to the average college football fan? Not much, but it would behoove you to scratch his name out of the Phil Steele College Football Preview's BYU page. He was listed as a PS#5 quarterback, headlining BYU's signing class. Sadly, expectations are all for naught after a cruel twist of fate did in not his elbow or back but a solitary foot.
FanHouse's friends at AOL Sports are compiling a list of the worst uniforms ever. Because they're our friends and the subject matter lends itself to hilarity, we thought we'd join in the fun. So here's our look at the worst uniforms in college football history.
This is always a difficult thing for college football fans, because everyone knows that Oregon is the be-all and end-all of hideous uniforms. They've been rocking their day-glo green and yellow combinations for decades, mixing in smatterings of black, white and truck-bed gray whenever the mood strikes them, which is constantly. There's no debate: Oregon has the worst uniforms in college football and probably in the entirety of sport. So, yeah. Brian Grummell highlighted five of the ugliest Oregon unis of all time in a separate post. The rest of the world is just trying to finish second.
You may notice that many of these "worst uniforms of all time" are recent creations. There is a simple reason for this and it resides in Oregon: Nike. Dishonorable Mention: Penn State. What? Penn State? Yes. It's no coincidence that uncommitted recruits in EA's NCAA series have helmets that look like PSU's, as Penn State's uniform is really more of an absence of style than anything else. What one perceives as clean, classic, and unadorned is just boring to another. The kicker: you can trace the irritating trend of teams removing names from the back of their uniforms, thus confusing onlookers as to just who the hell is who on your newly "unified" team full of team players who play on a team right back to the Nittany Lion getups. While the PSU uniforms don't rise to the level of horror the following do, they're always amongst the most overrated uniforms in college.
5. The Nike One-Shoulder Look. This can't be blamed on one team. Rather, these hideous creations are the fault of Nike's phantasmagoric uniform torture lab, which decided it would be really cool to make some football teams look like stormtroopers.
Miami, Virginia Tech, and a few others obliged; the results were eye-melting. Though these are legendarily ugly, points are taken off because they were a one-time stunt.
Players Terrance Deshawn Hooks and Vitale TaAaga Magauli So'oto were arrested and cited for burglary. BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall suspended the players Sunday. A news release from BYU athletics said that sophomore inside linebacker Hooks and sophomore tight end So'oto were suspended from the team "for violation of team rules."
It seems the girlfriend of Hooks was leaving a dance when some guys on the third floor of a nearby apartment building were tossing water balloons off of their balcony into the parking lot. One of the balloons hit the girlfriend of Hooks on the leg. She yelled at them, they yelled back, and she left for her boyfriend, who brought So'oto with him as back-up.
More yelling from the parking lot to the balcony before Hooks and So'oto headed into the apartment to find the water balloon tossers to, um, talk.
Naturally the players got turned around and confused -- not even sure which was the right apartment they wanted. That didn't stop them from choosing a door.
When no one answered immediately, Edwards said Hooks kicked the door in. The group in the "wrong apartment" called security, who happened to be an off-duty Orem police officer. The officer told them he was on his way over and to call the police.
When Hooks, Dew and So'oto actually found the apartment they were looking for, they kicked that door in and proceeded to the back room where, Edwards said, the balloon throwers had retreated. Before they got to them, the security officer and police arrived in the apartment.
Hooks, Dew and So'oto were taken into custody for burglary, in that they entered or remained unlawfully on a premise with the intent to commit an assault.
Police cited the balloon throwers with criminal mischief for their part in the incident.
Considering that the players went to the trouble to kick-in two doors to find them, the balloon tossers probably weren't too upset over a minor misdemeanor versus what would have happened if security and police hadn't arrived sooner.
Well, Cougar fans, if you're in Provo tonight at 5PM and want to watch some BYU football, you're in luck. No, it's not the beginning of spring practice, the football team will actually be performing the traditional Maori Haka dance at intermission of the tennis match between the Cougars and the Denver Pioneers.
The Haka dance has suddenly become very prevalent in college football, as both BYU and Hawaii, with their large percentage of Polynesian players, perform the dance pre-game to pay tribute to their heritage. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing a Haka, here's a clip to show you the goods:
For 3 1/2 quarters BYU-Utah was the kind of game that deserved to be seen by nobody on the VS. network. Four field goals and nothing that would do much beyond induce sleep. Utah was down 9-3 and barely had over 150 yards of total offense. BYU just couldn't convert.
Maybe ever.
With the Big Ten fledgling network still involved in a public spat with Comcast, comparisons to the Mountain West's less than spectacular first year with "
Junior college transfer Cade Cooper has left BYU almost as swiftly has he arrived.
In a rather over-the-top and ultimately costly macho display, 
