In Layman's Terms

BYU was kind enough to send me an email called "My BYU News", letting me know (among other things), what the Chemistry Department is up to. Apparently they are "dedicated to the investigation of the supersonic expansion into the first vacuum stage of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer..."

Isn't that what the scarecrow said when he got his brain?

The Answered Prayer: Part II

No matter how much better BYU is than Utah every year, we always make sure to play poorly enough to keep the game close. Last year's last second "answered prayer" was the epitome of this strategy, but this year's rivalry game was equally excruciating to watch.

BYU dominated the majority of the game, but due to extremely poor execution in the red zone, we were only leading 9-3 toward the end of the 4th quarter. Our defense had played well the entire game, but on Utah's last drive we appeared somewhat tired, and we allowed Utah to grind out a long touchdown drive and take the lead 10-9 with about one and a half minutes to go. Every BYU fan was torn between a sick "not again" feeling, and a feeling of hope based on what happened last year in the same situation.

Our hopes quickly shrank as the Cougars went backwards on the first series. We had one last chance on 4th down and 18 yards to go -- get a miracle or go home. Max Hall took the snap, scrambled a bit, and hurled the ball downfield to a wide open Austin Collie, for a 49 yard gain! Just like last year, BYU's prayer was answered.

We only needed a field goal to take the lead, but rather than take any chances, Harvey Unga smashed into the end zone for a touchdown. The 2 point conversion made it 17-10. Utah had one final series, but their Hail Mary from midfield was batted down, and the roller coaster came to a jubilant end.

BYU has a 1 in 42,512 chance to get into a BCS bowl

How long will we have to deal with this obnoxious nonsense called the BCS? Here's my brother Mark's take on what it would take for BYU to get into a BCS (Bowl Championship Series) bowl game:

Anyway, it just occurred to me that if Hawaii, Oregon, ASU, USC, Tennessee, and San Diego State all lose this weekend, then BYU will get an automatic bid to a BCS bowl! I wonder what the odds are at Vegas for that happening? Each team individually actually does have a decent chance of losing. The reason it matters is that if BYU gets into the top 16 of the BCS rankings and UCLA is Pac-10 champion with a lower BCS ranking, then BYU gets in automatically. So the absolutely critical games are ASU, USC, and, of course, San Diego State.

If ASU and USC don't lose, then the other possibility would be if Hawaii, Oregon and Tennessee lose, and Boston College loses badly. Then BYU would probably end up at #14 in the BCS and would have a great shot at being the fourth and last at-large pick for the BCS bowls (behind Georgia, ASU, and Kansas). This only works because each power conference can have only 2 teams in the BCS bowls, and the Big 10, Big East, and ACC don't have good second options. Even so, the stinking BCS people would probably pick Illinois or Clemson because they are corrupt.

Is that confusing enough for you?

By the way, how 'bout that Utah game? Go Cougars!!!!

Covering the Spread in Las Vegas

This past weekend I went on a little road trip to Las Vegas with my brother Benj and another friend Jake, to watch the BYU UNLV football game. Las Vegas is about a 5 hour drive from Phoenix.

BYU pretty much dominated the entire game, only punting once, but they had so many turnovers that they were only up 7-6 at the half. During halftime the coaches must have made a conscious decision to run the ball nonstop until UNLV showed that they could stop the run. They couldn't. Harvey Unga was good for 4-10 yards on every play, so the passing game wasn't really even necessary. With a couple minutes left in the game we were up 24-6. Take away our 4 silly turnovers and it would have been more like 44-6.

On the last UNLV series, our defense got lazy and UNLV scored to make it 24-12. But that's where the game got a little bit interesting. UNLV went for 2, to pull the game within 10, presumably so they could try an onside kick and get a quick touchdown or field goal and then do it again and tie the game. BYU lined up all their "good hands people" to thwart the expected onside kick attempt. But inexplicably, UNLV kicked it away, they didn't even go for the onside kick. Basically, they gave up and didn't try to win the game. I was wracking my brain to figure out why on earth they would do that, when I remembered what Benj had mentioned earlier -- THE SPREAD WAS 11 POINTS! (Meaning that BYU was favored to win by 11 points.) So instead of trying to win the game, they were making sure they covered the spread! If they had gone for the onside kick and failed, BYU might have scored again, causing them not to cover! So instead they just gave up!

I couldn't believe it at first, but then I realized were we were... in the gambling capital of the world. Why wouldn't the coaches have a little side agreement going, when they play in a stadium named for a blackjack dealer? I'm really having trouble coming up with an alternate explanation, so I'd like to hear if anyone can offer a logical reason for why you would kick away down 10 points with 1:11 to play.

(More pics here.)