Thursday, September 2, 2010

Would You STOP Icing the Kicker?

The Utes beat Pitt 27-24 in overtime.  And they're darn lucky to get a win here - I guess the boys still had some summertime rust to shake out.  Not just the players - WTF was with the double-icing of the kicker there, Coach?

Some thoughts -

- Versus is definitely the best choice for Mountain West football viewing.  'Course when your only competition is The Mtn. (aka UVU's remedial broadcast journalism class), that's not saying much.  Happily, I only have one more year of this and then we're off to the Pac-10 and back on ESPN (no more sideline interviews with the defensive coordinator from Hayville High School that coached Wyoming's quarterback when he was in 8th grade - Hooray!)

- Addendum to above - I realize that Versus' emphasis is on college sports, but must we take constant breakaways to Pitt's glorified frat house party?  I mean, good grief - they're the visiting team.  Their fans don't get the privilege of showing off their stupidity.  Pan over the MUSS all you want (okay, fine - and the opposing team's fans that made the effort to travel to Salt Lake, if you must).

- I would also advise Pitt's cheerleaders - choose a more flattering color for your tops next time.  That gold blends into your skin too well.  I kept thinking the cheerleaders were topless - which I guess meshes well with the frat house theme.

- Three words - Too. Many. Penalties.  Three more words - Be. More. Awesome.

- I'm not overly opposed to the icing the kicker move.  While it's become an overused tactic in college and pro football, I like it when it works in my favor and I hate it when it works against me.  But for it to work - don't you want the second (hopefully missed) attempt to be the one that counts?  Coach - you know I love you, but.... why the second timeout?  WHYYYYYYYY????

- Most appropriate name - Shaky Smithson.  I haven't heard of him before today, but if that's his real name... wouldn't that have been an indication? (Probably worse if that's his nickname).

- Pitt's ranked #15?  Well, rankings this early in the season are like ice trays to Eskimos.  And the BCS and AP rankings typically fail at life anyway, so who's counting.

- And this may not be the venue for it, but I wasn't very attentive when this initially made news, so I'm going to bring it up here - BYU's going independent?  To what point and purpose?  The BCS has never even sneezed in your direction.  Oh, you may have been mentioned at the beginning of a few seasons, and perhaps a little in the middle, but you've always - ALWAYS taken yourself out of BCS contention by Thanksgiving (blame the fact that the only place programmed into your GPS - besides the two-for-one line at the St. George Chuck-a-Rama - is Las Vegas).  Whereas Utah, Boise State and TCU have all been courted and even had success in BCS bowl games (honestly, if anyone should go independent, it's TCU).  Yes, you're a private religious school, blahdy-blah - but quit trying to be Notre Dame.  You, my... friends... are no Notre Dame.

- Calling BYU "friends" - I threw up a little in my mouth.

- All that being said - Jordan Wynn is amazing.  If it didn't look like jail bait, I'd marry him.  And that other kid that caught the interception - Brian Blechen - the girls that live next door had better make him cookies.  Because I would.

Bottom Line - I'm glad we won.  I'm not happy about the way we won - but I take come comfort that this was early in the season and now we can iron out the wrinkles (Win pretty or win ugly - just win).

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