Ninth verse, same as the first

Colter Peterson, Deseret News

Don't really have much to say, other than congratulations, Seth, for winning the Guess the Score contest by predicting Utah would win 30-18. The $50 Amazon gift card is on the way!

Other than that, it was a fairly typical BYU-Utah game. Utah ground it out with the running game (Moss is seriously impressive) and scored many of their points on defense. Zach imploded, throwing two pick sixes and otherwise looking harried and outmatched.

I think this game broke me, because I've never had less faith BYU could beat Utah in the future. After the rain delay, there were 9 minutes left in the game and there was maybe some hope BYU could stage a miraculous comeback, but Utah just methodically ran the ball 34 times and ran the rest of the game clock out in one drive. BYU KNEW all they wanted to do was run and couldn't stop it. That's demoralizing.

Someone on CB posted that seven of the last thirteen BYU home games have featured BYU scoring a single TD or less.

12 pts & 1 TD vs Utah, offense gave up 2 TD's

6 pts, no TDs vs N Illinois 

11 pts (1 TD in garbage time plus defensive TD) vs Cal

6 pts (no TD's) vs Wisconsin 

10 pts (includes 1 garbage time TD) vs UMass 

7 pts vs Boise State 

13 pts (1 TD) vs Utah

That's abysmal. Poor BYU fans who attend the games. BYU's offense seems entirely broken, and has been for almost a decade now. I don't know if it's going to fixed any time soon.

What year is it?

Look at this photo. It's November, 2009, and BYU has just beat Utah, at home, for the third time in four seasons. All three wins had been close, but they were wins, and it was a good time to be a BYU fan.

That was the last time BYU beat Utah in football. 9 years and three months ago.

And, for the first time since then, I've felt like BYU has a QB who can have a good day against Utah.

The average stat line for BYU quarterbacks from 2007 to 2017:

17 for 36
205 yards
less than one touchdown
just over one interception

For a sparkling NCAA quarterback rating of 98.6.

Neither Max Hall, nor Jake Heaps, nor Riley Nelson, nor Taysom Hill nor Tanner Mangum could have a good day against Utah's defense the last decade. The last BYU offense to put up 30 or more points against Utah was John Beck in 2006.

That said, the best passing day a BYU QB had against Utah since Beck was true freshman Zach Wilson, who posted a 20-29 passing day, with 204 yards, with 2 TD and 1 INT. It was the third-best passer rating posted on Utah in all of 2018.

Again, he was a true freshman last year.

So can sophomore Wilson put up good numbers versus a Utah offense that's as good as it's been in the past and maybe even better? I think he can, and I think that's key to winning in Provo on Thursday.

So I'll be there Thursday, cheering my guts out at 9 PM for my Cougars to finally come through after eight tries versus Utah. Here's hoping they give me a lot to cheer about.

Aaaaanyway, I believe in BYU's QB again, so it's time for another Guess the Score contest! Leave your best guess for what the score will be Thursday for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card!

Submissions must be made before kickoff on Thursday (around 8:15 PM, Mountain Time).

Rise and shout!

Second verse, same as the first

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it? The moment the game broke open from a boring 6-0 defensive slugfest into a BYU crushing of Texas. If you look closely, you can see the Texas fans in the background have their hearts broken.

Taysom was great. 67% passing. 3 rushing touchdowns. Another through the air. No interceptions. He was nails most of the night. 

And the offensive line was mostly great, as well. A few bad snaps and horrible plays aside, I thought they stepped up to the challenge of a solid Texas defense and gave Hill, Williams, Brown and Hine the space they needed. 

It's really, really early, but I think this team can run the table and make it to a New Year's bowl against a good opponent. No way they make it into the playoff, but an unbeaten run this year will set up a very interesting 2015. 

That said, I fully expect the Cougars to fail to show up in a game or two this season; the trick will be to get the win anyway. See: Nevada 2013.

Again, I am getting ahead of myself. Great win for BYU, on national TV at a big name opponent. Don't get may shots at that, and to come out with a victory was huge.

Go Cougars!

BYU @ UConn highlights

What's that you say? Football is here again?

loyalcougars.com

I have to admit, I am not particularly excited about the 2014 BYU football season.

Reasons:

1. That beat down the Cougars took from Washington last December has really stuck with me. The Huskies were nothing special, but they rolled over BYU on offense and defense the entire night, with an interim coach on the sidelines. I don't know that nine months is enough time for the players involved in that debacle to improve a whole lot.

2. Taysom sounds like he is still Taysom. Incredible runner, but in fall camp, he struggled with accuracy. One play he'll hit a streaking Kurtz perfectly in stride down the sideline for a TD, and the next play a 15-yard pass over the middle to a tight end is in the dirt. It's maddening that he can't seem to put it together.

3. BYU hasn't won their first three games of the season since 2008. 2008! It's almost a guarantee that this team will drop a game sometime in the next couple of weeks, and now that BYU is Independent, that solidifies a trip to the Miami Beach Bowl in December, no matter what.

So here we are. BYU starts its campaign against the mighty Huskies of Connecticut, a team that won three games last season and is very much a football team at a basketball school. I mean, some schools can manage to be good at both major sports (see Florida), but mostly, to be elite at one, you must be terrible at the other. The saving grace for UConn is that BYU is traveling to the Eastern Time Zone for this game, and has historically been pretty awful when asked to fly that far east in the past. Look no further than the 2013 opener against a terrible Virginia team; spoiler: BYU lost 19-16. This was Virginia's only Div-I win of the entire year. Ouch.

Also in the Huskies' favor is their returning quarterback, Casey Cochran. All three of the team's wins last season came at the very end of the season, and Cochran started all three of those. He even had four touchdown passes in the final game of the year in a 45-10 win over Memphis. While BYU's secondary is rumored to be the best its had since 1996, I still worry when a capable passer matches up against the Cougars.

And while I am very excited about BYU's wide receiver corp this season, we won't see two significant pieces of that group in this game. Nick Kurtz is out for at least four weeks, and probably closer to 6, and junior college transfer Devon Blackmon is suspended for the Connecticut game after an unspecified violation of either team or BYU rules. That said, UTEP transfer Jordan Leslie has also turned a lot of heads at fall camp, and he'll be ready to go, along with returning wideout Mitch Matthews, who is fully recovered from a shoulder injury he sustained last season.

Another missing piece is starting running back Jamaal Williams, who will miss the Connecticut game due to an arrest earlier this year for underage drinking. Backups Algernon Brown and Adam Hine should be enough to match up against the Huskies, however.

But for me, the million-dollar question is: how improved will the offensive line be? Those guys were anywhere from bad to awful much of the 2013 season, and memories of them getting beat up the middle and to the outside time and time again are seared into my memory. Taysom's accuracy issues can in part be attributed to the line not giving him much time at all.

BYU's latest depth chart, released today, shows some familiar names from last fall, but the important thing is that reportedly, there are fewer guys being rolled in and out of the offensive line on a play-to-play basis. Cohesion is important in the trenches, and know what the other guys on the line with you are capable of is valued. Here's hoping coach Tujague can find some consistent starters.

All things considered, I see an ugly win for BYU this Friday, along the lines of 19-13, to go with a 9-win season and a general meh feeling to the season. If, however, BYU stomps the Huskies by 40 and Taysom looks unstoppable, let the hype train begin!

A pivotal time

For both BYU football and the Utah Jazz, these next few weeks and months are huge for the futures of these programs.

BYU was just classified as a non-Power Conference caliber team by both the ACC and SEC, a decision that fairly clearly shows what many in the world of college football think of the Cougars.

The upcoming schedule is not an overly difficult one, and there are games against Texas, Houston, Virginia, Boise State and Cal that will be barometers for whether or not BYU belongs at the big kid table. And with a returning quarterback on many  Heisman watch lists, a running back who had the most successful freshman and sophomore seasons ever at BYU and a wide receiver corp that is better than the Cougars have seen in years, they have the talent to prove they belong.

The question is the offensive line.  They have been mediocre to bad since 2009, and the coaching staff has had some time to fix it. If there are not major improvements this season, this team will lose games it should not. It's that cut and dried.

Overall, I have to admit I am not that optimistic. I attended the Spring Scrimmage, and Taysom did not look very improved over last season. Overthrew some balls, underthrew some, shorted a few, etc. Accuracy was a big problem, in my opinion. And the offensive line needs to take such a big leap from last season to this, that I just don't see it happening. BYU will likely go 8-4, a middling record considering the schedule.

As for the Jazz, they are sitting on a potential top-5 pick in the best lottery of the last decade, are searching for a new head coach, and have five young players all taken in the top 12 of past drafts (Burke, Hayward, Kanter, Favors, Burks). That is a lot of talent, and adding another very nice piece this summer will put Utah is a fantastic position to succeed in the ensuing years.

And a lot of that is dependent on who the new coach is. If the new guy is like Mike Brown, the Jazz's young guys will wallow in a terrible system with no structure, little development, and few wins. If the new guy is the second coming of Greg Popovich, the young players will flourish, talent will develop into elite talent, and the Jazz could compete for the Western Conference title within three or four years.

Of course, that also hinges on the Jazz picking an alpha-level, franchise player in the draft. The Jazz have a lot of capable second and third bananas, but no one who can carry a team, scoring 25 points a game and getting 10 assists or rebounds to go along with it. Add one of these guys, and Hayward can slide back into his natural spot of being Robin to someone's Batman, as this last season clearly proved he is not capable of being The Guy.

So two jobs, Jazz brass: Find the next Greg Popvich and draft the next LeBron. No big deal.

And BYU? Just win. Stomp Virginia. Embarrass Texas again. Don't let Boise State sneak past you. Win the tough games, up the respect you have nationwide, and hopefully you won't be on the outside looking in when this Power 5 Conference thing is finalized.

Jimmer's career night in New York

Jimmer belongs in the NBA. There's really no arguing this. He's probably not a starter, but as a sixth man, off the bench guy, he can succeed.