Episode 9 – The Cougars pick up where they left off (good), as did the Utes (bad). Plus a little about baseball and the Utah Jazz

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It can be a little difficult at times being a Utah fan discussing sports with a BYU fan, particularly during the college football season. Utah has had a good run the past few years, but that tide seems to be swinging back in BYU’s favor. Some Cougar fans are even trying to play the “payback” card; meaning BYU fans are now getting even with Utah fans for the few seasons of obnoxious Utah dominance. Of course, what those Cougar faithful fail to realize is Utah still isn’t finished with payback for the previous decade of obnoxious Cougar dominance. Of course, Zach and I are fans enough of each program that we can find the peaceful middle ground. Right, Zach? Hello? Zach?

BYU looked pretty good in a victory over league whipping-post UNLV. As with any victory over a vastly inferior opponent it’s difficult to gauge how well they really played, but it was a very decisive victory. John Beck had another astronomical passer rating and is beginning to garner a little bit of national attention for his performance. Curtis Brown played very well, as we expect from him when he plays a poor team. Fans of the Cougars (as I certainly consider myself) would like to see him run as hard against better teams. A hard running Brown might have made a world of difference against Arizona and Boston College. All of that speculation aside, the Cougars are decisively in the driver’s seat in the Mountain West Conference, thanks to their butt-kicking of UNLV and Air Force’s loss to San Diego State.

Utah lost ugly. Again. I don’t really know what more to say, except this was a different brand of ugly loss from what we are accustomed. I suppose I should also say New Mexico played hard and deserved to win the game, because that is certainly true. Utah was well in control of the game at the half, and even had a lead in the fourth quarter, but could hang on to none of it. The offense looked better from previous weeks, and even though Brett Ratliff will clearly never be John Beck, he looked better. (Yes, I just compared Utah’s quarterback to BYU’s, even though I am the token Utah guy. Take heart, Ute fans: next year we will be saying: “Max Hall looks pretty good, but he’s no Brian Johnson.”)

Here’s one last interesting salvo in the Rivalry War (which is still heating up, I think, in spite of lackluster Utah performances). I learned about a conspiracy theory being cooked up by my friends at the Ute Fans message boards that Kyle Wittingham is on a secret mission for his alma mater (he was a linebacker at BYU, for those of you who don’t know) to undermine and demolish the Utah Football Program from within. Now, I don’t really believe that, and to be honest, I don’t think anyone at the Ute Fans boards does either (although it’s pretty fun to talk about). I have long thought Coach Wittingham is a good coach that might need a few years but should get this program rolling. However, I do like a good conspiracy theory, and my eyebrows were raised by one of his comments on the weekly press conference: “There's a lot of jockeying for position in the conference right now. Except for the Cougars. They're sitting there on top right now, unblemished.” (I added the italics and boldface, obviously.) Doesn’t that seem like a little too positive a thing to say about your rival? Did you catch the gushing about the glorious Cougars like I did? Did you read the same exclamations of perfection in his choice of words? Did you… Oh, never mind. Conspiracy theories are stupid.

The World Series is underway between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The series is tied 1-1 as I am writing this, although not without controversy. If you have been avoiding your television for the last 24 hours let me catch you up to speed. Kenny Rogers (the pitcher for the Tigers, not the purveyor of delicious roasted meals) had some sort of mystery goo on his pitching hand, which the Cardinals noticed, and the umpire asked him to wash off. Rogers claimed it was just mud, which is an excuse that might fool a blind person who had never heard of pine tar. Of course, because it’s baseball and sports broadcasters need any excuse to spice the game up, it’s been headline news on every SportsCenter broadcast and local lead-in. Man, I will be glad when baseball goes away for another year.

Well, that’s about it for the blog part of the Utah Sports Cast. Please e-mail us and let us know what you think. You can reach us at comments@utahsportscast.com or individually at zach@utahsportscast.com or nate@utahsportscast.com. We would love to hear from you, and thanks for listening and reading! Of course, you can also comment on this blog at the bottom.

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posted by Nate and Zach @ 9:22 AM