Cougaracity Predictions: Boise State

Scott Gower (@smg1981)

Even after three weeks into the season, we still don't know what we have in BYU, but, additionally, we don't what we have in Boise State. Boise State played a very close game against Michigan State, considered a top-10 or top-15 team by many. However, both teams were breaking in a new QB and neither offense looked good. In fact, both offenses look very sloppy. Both defenses, on the other hand, filled the stat sheet, but because the offenses were so bad, it is hard to tell if it was because the defenses were actually good.

Since them, Michigan State beat up on Central Michigan, and then got beat up by Notre Dame (and we don't know how good ND really is either). Boise State had a week off and played Miami (OH) last weekend. The Broncos struggled early, but ended up winning by a sizable margin after Southwick and Harper got going.

BYU's defense is much better than Miami's, especially on the run defense. I don't believe there's any chance Harper runs for half as much as he did against Miami, so Boise St. will have to rely on Southwick, and I'm not sure that will work out very well for the orange and blue. Since the offenses of Michigan State and Miami (OH) are nothing to write home about, we'll see how good Boise St.'s defense really is, but I'm guessing it's not as good as Utah's, so I think we'll be able to move the ball somewhat better than Saturday night showed.

BYU 27, Boise St. 20

Jake Welch (@BYUAllBlue)

Since the ball bounced the other way so many times last game, let's hope that odds are in our favor today. Joe Southwick didn't inspire in the opener but performed as expected against Miami of Ohio. If Riley can stay healthy and the defense can contain D.J. Harper then we have a good shot at stealing this ball game. If both of those things can happen is unknown. It's hard to gauge the morale of team after Saturday's game. I feel like they have some fuel in the tank. Also, just for the record, I'd much rather have Riley's corpse play QB over just about anybody.

BYU and the Honor Code: Back in the News

The subject of BYU and the Honor Code is in the news again, as ESPN recently aired an interview with Tico Pringle in which he said blacks and whites are treated differently by the Honor Code. He also suggested Jimmer wouldn't have been suspended like Brandon Davies.

Rather than post/link anything else from the interview, I decided Cougaracity would better serve its readers by posting video footage of interviews of former BYU athletes who disagreed with comments like Pringle's.

Former BYU linebacker Bryan Kehl, who came to BYU as a member of the LDS Church, gives his two cents on the Honor Code:


Former BYU running back Brian McDonald, who came to BYU without being a member of of the LDS Church, shares his opinion on BYU and the Honor Code. Also, McDonald share his experience with the Honor Code Office after being cited for underage drinking.

My Daughter, the Bracketologist

It's that time of the year again: March Madness. A time where school, job, and sometimes family take a back seat to the bracket. Many of us, I'm sure, have spent an hour or two trying to figure out the perfect bracket only to find out later today and tomorrow our bracket was as accurate as your office's curmudgeon is during one of his rants.

This year, I decided to take a different approach.

I still spent too much time on a bracket destined to give me nothing but heartbreak, but I decided to recruit someone who didn't really didn't care, and, in fact, most likely did not even know what was going on around: my two-year-old daughter.

She took all of the "science" out of it. The only thing she knew about college basketball is whatever was absorbed while she played with her toys during BYU games (and that was pre-Davies suspension, so how credible is that knowledge?).

We went through every game in the first round, and I held out both of my hands and gave her the match-up, with each hand representing one of the teams. Brilliant strategy.

Brilliant, that is, until she got tired of picking hands that had nothing in them. So we moved on to using two blocks - both red, both cubes. That also went well...until she found a blue block and decided to put it in the middle.

Then when I took that one away, assuming we were cleaning up, she would grab both red blocks at the same time and give them back to me. Foiled again!

I decided that, as a last resort, I would grab two character from her barnyard gang, and use them. While she did grab another one to join in on the fun, I was able to use these to finish out her very bracket.

Certainly, she has a lot of upsets picked that are, quite frankly, indefensible, but she ended up with a pretty coherent Final Four, with Ohio State winning it all.

What's the more pathetic thing: that I spent well over an hour filling out a bracket with someone who had neither an interest in it nor an idea as to what was even happening or that her bracket, even with the prediction of the first #16 to beat a #1 and other ridiculousness, might still beat plenty of people in my ESPN group: Jimmer and the Fredettes?

Alone with Rome

Jimmer was interviewed on the ESPN program "Jim Rome is Burning" the other day. Also, Rome talked with Andrew Siciliano afterward about Jimmer's NBA prospects. In case you missed it, here it is: