Hype and Hope

Image by Getty Images
via Daylife

I started to write this post back in July but I think a lot still applies.  BYU was receiving a lot of attention and hype (and some nay-saying which, to me still counts as hype... any talk about BYU in the preseason is good).  I had hope that they would live up to that hype, but had serious concerns that all the hype would go to their heads.  Bronco is a great leader and coach, but he can't be with the players every hour of every day to help them stay grounded, especially during the off season.

As much as Bryan Kehl was a great player and team leader, the chant "January start today" that I believe he originated at the beginning of last season bugged me a little bit as, to me, it violated some of the key components of Bronco's philosophy (like win the games, let the rest take care of itself).  And I don't know if that particular phrase specifically caused them to lose focus early in the season, but I do know that you're not likely to win games today if you're focused on the post-season already.

Which brings us to this season.  Say what you want, but getting a lot of national media attention and especially getting put on Heisman watch lists after a blow out of a PAC-10 team has got to mess with your head a little bit.  And I think that's what we saw during the first quarter of Wyoming, whether Max will admit it or not.  It took a score by the defense to ignite the team.  Hopefully the memory of his performance will scare him back to earth for future games (it certainly seemed to get him back in a "win this game" frame of reference in the second quarter).  TCU, Utah and others aren't going to give Max the chance to easily recover from early miscues like Wyoming did.  Hopefully he can remain grounded so that the Cougars can live up to the hype.  And while I'm very optimistic about this season, I've been burned before so I'm going to take it "one game at a time".

Summer Shutdown

It seems that most Cougar sports blogs tend to shutdown during the summer.  After the Blue and White game (which I skipped this year) and before Fall Camp, there's not a whole lot to talk about.  Not to say that there aren't other sports, but the Deseret News, KSL and BYUCougars.com cover those fine.

In any case, I meant to blog better last fall, but for a variety of reasons didn't take the time to do so.  So now I'm thinking forward to next fall.  What I'd really like to do is provide decent quality photos from the homes games.  I fancy myself an amateur photographer but sports photography is both tricky and expensive... and especially so from the stands.  In any case, I'd like to try to do a better job with the blog.  I'll probably rework the look of the site too...

So look for better coverage in the fall, but probably nothing major until then...

I Still Believe in Bronco

After the Tulsa game, I wrote a post entitled My 2007 Motto: Believe in Bronco. I clung to this motto fiercely during the waning moments of the Las Vegas Bowl this year. Unfortunately, may others did not. The people behind us constantly questioned the play calling throughout the game and then LEFT as UCLA was setting up for their field goal attempt in the final seconds. Definitely goes in the "Cougars Behaving Badly" group.

As we go into the off season, I hope that fans can stay "Fully Invested". It's easy to cheer for a winning team. I'm glad that we were given a few opportunities to weed on the True Cougars from the pretenders.

And I still believe in Bronco!

Going Bowling

I'm meeting my family in Las Vegas to go to the bowl game together this weekend. I also have my TiVo set so I can replay the game later as necessary :) I'm really excited since we went two years ago (mental note: post photos from that game) and it was a little disappointing to lose even though it was still a good game and fun to watch. Unfortunately we weren't able to go last year which would have been fun even though it was a blowout.

Watch for photos in the days after the game. If you have photos posted somewhere, leave a note in the comments as I'd love to see them and share them with others!

And as much as I hate to say it, I was happy to see the Utes win tonight and help represent the conference with a bowl victory. It would be awesome if the MWC could go 5-o in their bowl games which, given the match ups, is very doable. So Go Falcons, Horned Frogs and Lobos!

But more than that, GO COUGARS!!!

Broncoism: If you're not writing about him

"What I think is a tribute to him [Corby Hodgkiss] is, no one has noticed. Not to take anything away from Dustin Gabriel or David Tafuna, but if he wasn't playing well, everyone would know," Mendenhall said. "Because he is playing well, no one has made a point of it. It's just simply him doing what he's supposed to do and helping our football team. Maybe the highest compliment that can be paid to him is that you're not writing about him. In the secondary, if you're not writing about him, it's usually a good thing."

from BYU's Hodgkiss stepping out of shadows

"Corby has played solid the entire year," Mendenhall said. "I haven't heard one word that our secondary suffered because Corby is playing. He's simply been inserted and we've moved right along."

from Cougars know there is room for improvement

I thought it was hilarious that as soon as Bronco says that they aren't writing about Corby Hodgkiss, there are suddenly mentions about him in both the Deseret News and the Daily Herald. Of course the interception returned for a touchdown probably had something to do with it, but I still found it funny.

Broncoism: She made some popcorn

"This weekend was the first time I have watched a Mountain West Conference game. My wife wanted to watch it," he said. "It was Air Force vs. UNLV and I would have never done so unless Holly was up for it. She made some popcorn."

from BYU hopes to avoid recent upset bug

Photos from Tulsa

My brother recently moved to Dallas and traveled with his ward up to Tulsa for the game last Saturday. He took some photos and videos of the campus and the game and gives a little commentary about the game and the fans on his blog. They aren't professional by any means, but they give a "raw" view of the game.

Trip for BYU at Tulsa (photos and videos)

My 2007 Motto: Believe in Bronco

I listened to part of the radio broadcast of the Tulsa game earlier this week to see what KSL's bunch had to say. I only listened to the first quarter of the game though as it was too painful knowing what was going to happen. I did listen to all of the pre-game and post-game coverage though. I wanted to hear 1) what Greg and Mark thought of the game and 2) what the fans that called in thought of the game.

I've considered starting a series called "Cougars Behaving Badly." I'm always befuddled by the actions of some BYU fans. I don't think it's all of them, or even the majority, but the "vocal minority" is often hard to ignore. Sometimes it's just silly, but potentially dangerous, things like throwing posterboard airplanes in the stands (this happened during the second half of the Arizona game in the south end zone where the 14 was displayed at half time). But other times it's all but thirsting after blood after a tough Tulsa loss. "When are we going to see Bronco punish the players that are getting penalized?", "Why didn't he bench those guys?" was an oft heard refrain on the post-game show. My question is who do these people think they are? Do they think that Bronco is just letting these things go? Do they not believe that Bronco is agonizing over everything that went wrong?

I'm going to guess that those missed opportunities (penalties, turnovers) keep Bronco working overtime. The concentration penalties that were committed are the antithesis of everything that he believes about winning football games and everything that he is building as the core of the BYU football program. I'm confident that he is doing, behind the scenes, what he feels is appropriate. Bronco is not going to bad mouth his players in public. A good leader does not do that. And Bronco is a good leader.

In "The Bronco Way", the following was said about Bronco. "He’s a master learner. He reads, he underlines, he ponders, he prays about it." Here it is referring to the Harvard Business Review, but I'm sure it applies to everything the man does. He reads, he ponders, he prays. And he acts.

I started writing this post before I listened the The Bronco Mendenhall Radio Show broadcast on Wednesday night and was pleased that a lot of the sentiments of the fans that asked questions of Bronco were similar to my own. I was happy to hear from more upbeat fans. And I heard the same topic addressed in a different way. The question was "There is obviously a problem with penalties. How do you plan to address it?" I've given form to this attitude and have adopted it as my motto for the season: "Believe in Bronco". Win or lose, Believe in Bronco, believe in the program.

How quickly we, as fans, forget what we love about this man that is our head coach. And I say our head coach because I feel like the fans really are the "12th man" on the field. He has taught us how to be better fans through his words and his example. "Raise the Bar" applies just as much to the fans as to the play on the field.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't critique the play of the team or game time coaching decisions. But as fans we have an incomplete view into what is going on and so as right as we feel, we're usually going to be wrong. I know that Bronco's not always going to get it right either. We don't have to go any further than the last two weeks to see that. But in his weekly press conference on Monday he mentioned that they would be switching up the practice routine this week to emphasize different aspects of the game. Will these changes show immediate results this week against Air Force? I hope so.

But even if they don't, I still Believe in Bronco. I believe in the program that he is building. And I believe carrying that belief inside you is what it means to be a True Cougar. It's what it means to be Fully Invested.

Speaking of Mark Philbrick...

I found this photo slideshow of the BYU/Arizona game with Mark Philbrick photos (and others) and KSL's audio (featuring Greg Wrubell and Mark Lyons). Enjoy!

BYU/Arizona Recap Photo Slideshow

Who paid off the AP photographer? BYU at UCLA

ESPN's coverage of the BYU/UCLA game has a "photo gallery" that I assumed would capture the highlights of the game, or at least give a somewhat valid representation of how the game was played. Maybe I could even find a photo that I could use in a desktop wallpaper. Instead we get photos with the following captions. (I was going to select some, but instead present all of them (abbreviated, but quoted exactly) to illustrate how lopsided it is and that I didn't just "cherry pick" the "bad" ones.)

• UCLA's Nathaniel Skaggs, left, tackles BYU quarterback Max Hall while he attempts a pass (see right)
  
• UCLA running back Kahlil Bell, right, breaks the tackle of BYU's Quinn Gooch
• UCLA quarterback Ben Olson, left, and head coach Karl Dorrell, right, celebrate their 27-17 victory over BYU
• UCLA running back Chris Markey, center, runs for yardage as BYU's Kayle Buchanan (34), and Corby Hodgkiss (14) tries to stop him
• BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall watches the field
• BYU wide receiver Michael Reed, right, can't hold on to a pass
• BYU wide receiver Austin Collie, center, tries to catch a pass
• UCLA running back Chris Markey holds up the ball while scoring a touchdown
• BYU tight end Vic So'oto, right, fumbles the ball
• UCLA quarterback Ben Olson, right, drops back to pass with protection
• UCLA's Trey Brown, left, runs an interception back for a touchdown past BYU's Harvey Unga
• BYU quarterback Max Hall, right, is sacked

This is journalism? From these photos it looks like UCLA dominated ("tackles", "breaks the tackle", "scoring a touchdown", "with protection", "interception for a touchdown") and BYU was a pathetic bunch of losers that couldn't catch, tackle or hold onto the ball ("tries to stop him", "can't hold on to a pass", "tries to catch a pass", "fumbles the ball", "is sacked").

The only photo even remotely "neutral" is the one of Bronco but even that was is framed as him being mad about losing in the fourth quarter. Presumably the AP photographer got some good shots of the Cougars in action, but either didn't hand them over or ESPN decided they weren't worthy of their site. I would expect such one sided coverage from a local newspaper, but not from a national network such as ESPN.

While I don't think any of these photos and captions are wrong per se (they accurately represent the moments that were captured), it is disturbing that there is an obvious lack of photos with captions such as

• BYU quarterback Max Hall completes a pass to Michael Reed as he's being tackled
• BYU's Austin Collie catches a touchdown pass from Max Hall
• BYU's Kayle Buchanan picks off UCLA's Ben Olson

or the one found on the photo (see right) with the BYU press release:

• Linebacker Bryan Kehl sacks former roommate Ben Olson. The defense held Olson to just 126 yards passing.

While UCLA did win and is higher ranked, it would have been nice to see at least a token effort at balance. To be fair to ESPN overall, the written coverage of the game states:

• Much of the game he was outplayed by BYU quarterback Max Hall
• Hall was leading the Cougars on what looked like their third straight scoring drive when he fumbled after a Bruce Davis sack.
• BYU had not lost since a 23-20 overtime defeat to Boston College nearly a year ago.

The writeup is not very flattering to UCLA. Unfortunately the photos didn't match the copy. Thankfully we have Mark Philbrick :)

Broncoism: I like our heart

"I like our heart. I like our willingness and our fight, but our execution in making the critical plays and doing what we're supposed to do wasn't good enough to win today."

From Comeback Falls Short

Broncoism: I didn't appreciate that

"C.J. had some kicks that I'm sure he'd like back," Mendenhall said. "It's interesting to me even with the relative success the past two years that the fans would be that harsh that early. I didn't appreciate that. But at the end, I think he redeemed himself. It will take time. I think we knew that."

From Cougars' special teams still have some work left to do