Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Counting down to Saturday:Preveiw



I was just reading the weekly news conference from Tulane Coach Bob Toledo. Here is the opening paragraph on BYU. Thought this was kind of funny.

'They're an older, much more mature football team than anybody in the country. They've got guys going on 2-year missions and they come back. I would venture to say that I heard that there's like forty-something guys that are married on that football team and I know they have kids too. So, they're mature guys who are responsible people too. But they're an experienced football team because of the Mormon Faith they have to do the 2-year mission as I mentioned, they come back...I know one guy went away as a quarterback and when he came back he was a nose tackle. They grow and mature."

Anyone know who the nose tackle turned Quarterback is? Anyway it sounds like he's already making excuses for the beat down Tulane is going to get this weekend. We should be used to this by now, if BYU sucks it's because they are old, white guys, if they are good then of course it's because of how mature and big the Mormon missions make them. Now for the Tulane offensive preview:

Quarterback: Joe Kemp is a young kid who made his first collegiate start last week. He started out really slow and looked nervous. He really started to play well in the 3rd quarter, but because he is young he makes a lot of mistakes. I think we will get a couple picks and a lot of sacks on Saturday. Tulane does pass well enough that if our secondary doesn't come with the same intensity that it did against Oklahoma (or somewhere close to that) then we will get burned a few times.

Running Back: Not sure there is much to go off in this game. Tulane only rushed for 39 yards and they weren't going up against Oklahoma's D-line. I don't think we need to worry about their run game too much.

Receivers: Here is where I think we could get burned for a few quick touchdowns if we're not ready to play out of the gates. Jeremy Williams had 5 catches for 139 yards and was Tulane's leading receiver.

O-line: All the message boards point to the o-line as one of the big weaknesses of the this Tulane team. I expect our defensive front to own their offensive line and to create a lot of problems for their offense. Bronco said in the MWC news conference that Tulane is usually good for a few trick plays a game. I think they will use a lot of trick plays to try and stay in the game. Our guys need to stay home and trust their teammates to make plays.

Special Teams: The biggest weakness of this team was the special teams play. Tulsa returned a punt for a touchdown and had a lot of kickoff return yards. Just poor coverage and poor tackling. Jacobson and Chambers should have big nights.

I'm knocking on wood as I'm typing this, but I think Saturday will be a blow out. No chance that we lose focus and let Tulane stay in this thing. It's only the 2nd game of the year as Bronco said, so it won't be hard to keep the guys focused on The Green Wave. Plus you can add in the fact that our older, more mature and players will be ready to play, because of their 2 year Mormon missions of course.
Here's my score prediction BYU 45 Tulane 13

I'm also going to start predicting the scores for the rest of the MWC. Here they are:
Texas 21 Wyoming 7
TCU 35 Virginia 21
Weber St. 13 CSU 31
Air Force 38 Minnesota 35
Tulsa 34 New Mexico 21
SUU 13 SDSU 28
Utah 31 San Jose St 21

1 comment:

  1. And so it begins. BYU's success is only because of the missions, age gap, marriage, kids, blah, blah, blah.


    Here is my favorite blast from the past:

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2001/11/07/life_of_reilly/

    ReplyDelete