By Totals 4U
Brigham Young (10-1, 6-1 Mountain West) The Cougars ground out a tough come from behind 38-24 win at Air Force last Saturday, giving up 323 yards on the ground to the Falcons while tallying 354 yards of their own through the air to earn their 3rd-consecutice double-digit win season and now have a chance to earn Co-Conference Championship Honors over their state rivals at Rice Eccles Stadium. Anyone who says that violence is against the Mormon code just hasn’t seen this defense play ball. A NCAA-best 17 times BYU this season has turned over their opponents via the fumble with 3-4 linebackers 6’3” 233 senior SLB David Nixon (67 T, 9 ½ TFL, S, 3 INT, FR), 6’1” 232 junior ILB Matt Bauman (84 T, 8 ½ TFL, 2 S, FR), 6’2” 232 junior ILB Shawn Doman (51 T, TFL, 2 FR), and 6’3” 220 junior WLB Coleby Clawson (40 T, 9 ½ TFL, 4 S, FR) plus key rotation backups Daniel Sorenson (11 T, 3 TFL, S, INT) and Matt Ah You (35 T) extremely quick to the ball and ready to lay the licks while teammates strip. 61 team tackles for loss including 20 sacks have help opposing squads to just 18.2 points per game on 337.5 yards (130.2 rush at 3.6 per carry, 207.3 pass at 6.5 per attempt) – a feat against the wide-open Mountain West Conference – with a superior 5 man rotation up front setting the tone. 6’4” 260 junior LDE Brett Denney (25 T, 7 TFL, S, 3 FR), 6’3” 300 junior NT Russell Tialavea (16 T, 2 ½ TFL, BLK), and 6’3” 274 junior RDE Jan Jorgenson (42 T, 7 ½ TFL, 5 S, FR, BLK) – who owns conference record with 21 ½ career sacks – will get the starts this week against the Utes but you will also see all kinds of sharp play from NT Ian Dulan (18 T, 4 TFL, 3 S, FR) and freshman phenom 6’6” 237 DE Matt Putnam (21 T, 3 TFL, 2 S, INT) whom the pro scouts will be drooling over once he grows into his body. Keep your depth chart at the ready; Defensive Coordinator Jamie Hill likes to use all the toys in his toy box! And speaking of toys, check out 6’0” 210 sophomore CB Brandon Bradley (25 T, FR with 34-yards TD return) who was snubbed by his hometown Seminoles, brought his dynamite size out west, and looked pretty damn good last Saturday in his first career start. SS David Tafuna (39 T, INT), NB/S Andrew Rich (20 T, INT, FR), and CB Brandon Hayward (29 T) join him in the defensive backfield plus 5’11” 187 senior FS Kellen Fowler (58 T, FR) who pound for pound must be one of the surest tacklers in college football. Say a little pre-game prayer, bust you in the chops for 60 minutes, then say a little post-game prayer…just another Saturday in Utah.
So just what hasn’t their been said about an offense that boasts a Mackey Award finalist, a Biletnikoff Award finalist, and a Davey O’Brien Award semi-finalist (finalists will be named on Monday)? Well, first of all you have got to notice the beef along this offensive line. LT Matt Reynolds, LG Ray Feinga, C Dallas Reynolds (will make his 50th straight start on Saturday), RG Travis Bright, and RT David Oswald measure in at an average of 6’6” and 326 pounds per man - which may be decisive against the small Utah front - and have allowed just 14 sacks in some 380+ drop-backs while maintaining a 4.0 yards per carry mark on the ground (129.1 yards per game rushing). Which brings us to second, the beef in the backfield. 6’0” 239 sophomore RB Harvey Unga (189 for 857 yards and 6 TD rushing) has great hands for a big man (34 for 280 and 4 TD receiving) and is actually the “little guy” in the backfield compared to 6’1” 253 RB Fui Vakapuna (42 for 193 and 2 TD) who will simply crack skulls in pass protection. Thirdly…oh, nevermind, let’s just get to these stars! 6’1” 201 junior QB Max Hall (251 of 353 for 3070 yards, 32 TD, 7 INT) is the newest member of a long list of great Cougar quarterbacks that includes Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Brandon Doman who’s 33 touchdown passes were good enough to earn him runner-up honors for the 2001 Heisman Trophy. 6’5” 250 junior TE Dennis Pitta (67 for 879 and 6 TD) is the only 2-time John Mackey Weekly Award winner in college football this season and 6’2” 206 junior WR Austin Collie leads the NCAA with 1185 receiving yards this year on the 5th-best 78 catches plus has banked the bacon 13 times through 11 games. This is some major firepower to account for plus 6’1” 202 senior WR Michael Reed (33 for 391 and 2 TD) and 6’5” 243 junior TE (16 for 142 and 5 TD) are more than capable of making teams pay that lock down on Pitta and Collie. By the numbers, Brigham Young’s offense averages 36.2 points on 443.9 yards per game while converting a whopping 58% of their 3rd down conversions. And be careful in the kicking game; Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall’s crew has already blocked 5 kicks in 2008.
Utah (11-0, 7-0 Mountain West) Coach Kyle Wittingham’s (35-14 in 4th season) drilled San Diego State last week 63-14 on the strength of 5 first-half TD passes by 6’1” 200 senior QB Brian Johnson (211 of 317 for 2333 yards, 20 TD, 9 INT) and a pair of second-half interceptions returned for scores by backup senior safety Deshawn Richards. Johnson has a decent arm and good wheels but we give a lot of credit to his receiving corps. 6’3” 197 senior Bradon Godfrey (47 for 466 yards and 3 TD) and 6’4” 215 senior Freddie Brown (57 for 678 and 7 TD) bring NFL size and disciplined route running while fellow starter in the Utes’ base 3-receiver set 5’10” 198 senior Brian Casteel (36 for 487 and TD) brings major quickness and is tough as nails. Backups David Reed (19 for 309 and 4 TD) and Jereme Brooks (21 for 237 and TD) have produced big plays out of the 4 and 5 man alignments that most teams just don’t have the quality athletes to match up with effectively and keep an eye our for 6’4” 250 senior TE Colt Sampson (9 for 73 and 4 TD) in the Red Zone where Utah has banked 32 touchdowns in 45 trips. From the single-back set, Coach Anderson will run some direct snap plays to the backs with powerful 5’11” 230 junior RB Matt Asiata (122 for 633 yards and 10 TD) the most likely carrier of the ball in that situation although 6’0” 220 senior RB Darrell Mack (110 for 493 and 3 TD) gets equal touches is most games with 5’10” 200 sophomore RB Eddie Wide (30 for 183) breaking some long runs once the opponents have been worn down by the horses. By the numbers the line of LT Beadles, LG Schlauderhoff, C Taylor, RG Conley, and RT Hensel (average 6’4 ½” and 306 pounds and made all 55 possible starts) fuel an offensive attack that pounds out 36.5 points on 403.9 yards (173.5 rush, 230.5 pass) per game.
Coach Whittingham is a big believer in keeping his players rested during the season, typically giving them Monday’s off, and this approach has certainly paid off on defense (16.6 points per game) where his chosen starting 11 have basically made every possible start this season – allowing for subtle strategy and alignment changes. Defensive tackles 6’4” 260 senior Greg Newman (44 T, 8 ½ TFL, 1 ½ S, INT, FR) and 6’3” 245 freshman Derrick Shelby (27 T, 3 ½ TFL, S, FR) are massively undersized for the position but make a ton of tackles with their quickness while ends 6’3” 263 junior Koa Misi (57 T, 8 ½ TFL, 3 S, FR) and 6’5” 265 sophomore Paul Krueger (50 T, 15 ½ TFL, 7 ½ S) bring as much pain to the pocket as humanly possible considering the really must maintain lane assignments and edge control more than guys book-ending a couple of wide bodies. Without a doubt, Krueger won’t be spending his Sunday’s playing with the kids or watching football in the near future. Keeping in line with the philosophy of keeping players fresh, Defensive Coordinator rotates quite a bit with his unit of linebackers but the front line of 6’2” 224 junior Stevenson Sylvester (61 T, 5 TFL), 6’2” 230 junior Mike Wright (65 T, S, FR), and 6’0” 235 sophomore Nai Fotu (35 T, 5 ½ TFL, 2 S, FR) are dynamite in run support, allowing opponents to average only 94.9 yards per game on the ground at 3.0 yards per carry. Utah’s pass defense has been equally stingy, surrendering 189.8 yards per game with opponents converting only 30% of their 3rd-down attempts with size a huge asset. Junior starters 6’3” 214 CB Sean Smith (36 T, TFL, 4 INT) and 6’2” 195 FS Robert Johnson (33 T, INT, FR) bring the beef to tangle with anyone while fellow starters 5’9” 182 senior CB Brice McCain (28 T, 2 TFL, S, INT) and 5’11” 197 junior SS Joe Dale (56 T, 6 ½ TFL, S, INT) have plenty of support from key nickel and dime backs R.J. Stanford (32 T, 2 S) and Terrell Cole (30 T, 2 ½ TFL). At the college level, often the kicking game is judged by how little it hurts a team but that is certainly not the case for the Utes. Senior P/K Louis Sakoda (41.5 yards per punt, 19 of 21 field goals with long of 53) was a 1st-Team All American at punter in 2007 and is a candidate for both the Lou Groza and Ray Guy Awards in 2008.
FREE SELECTION: The Utes were the original BCS-Busters, finishing 12-0 in 2004 and hammering Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl but the Cougars just match up too well against them to lay a full touchdown here. Take BYU +7 and let Rivalry Weekend begin!