BYU-OU notes

Well, I was wrong about a lot of things with this game.

1) I liked the BYU defense before the game. I should have loved it. This was a blitzing, confusing, hard-hitting, flying-all-over-the-field D. What I thought all off-season turned out to be true: they upgraded at every position or brought back a returning starter (with more experience, i.e. an upgrade). A lot of people talked about Oklahoma's line looking new and totally confused: I would say the entire OU coaching staff was confused. That was not the BYU defense that they had seen on film or prepared for. Plus they had multiple goal-line stands and held OU to 13 points despite OU starting SEVEN possessions on their own 40-yard line or better (3 of which occurred while Bradford was still in the game: last year that was at least 21 points). The question now is: can they bring that intensity every week the rest of the season?

2) BYU has constantly folded under the pressure of the big game, ever since I can remember. The difference is that in most of those games they weren't that big of underdogs. There is no pressure if nobody expects you to compete. So I overestimated the amount of pressure they would be feeling. Now, the outlook may not look so good for the Florida State and TCU games since those will be big-time games with big-time consequences and high expectations. I do believe they drop one of those games, although this team proved me wrong yesterday: I hope they do it in both those games as well.

3) Oklahoma NEVER attempted to utilize the speed advantage on offense and I'm not sure they had a real big speed advantage on D (other than Gerald McCoy, the 300-pound defensive tackle who seemed to catch BYU running backs from behind). It also goes to show you that execution can neutralize speed. A precise route can get you open just as easily as outrunning somebody, though BYU actually did both of those during the game.

4) BYU did not have to play perfectly to win, as evidenced by the 4 turnovers (2 in their own territory and another on the 1-yard line going in to score), 10 penalties for 87 yards, and gift-wrapping 10 points to Oklahoma. As I said a few weeks back, it's a good thing the game was played in week 1: Oklahoma still needed to work out a few kinks, and BYU was able to overcome their kinks.

A few other thoughts: I figure BYU should jump in the AP to about 13 or 14, maybe as high as 12, based on teams ahead of them that lost (Oregon, Georgia, and maybe even Va Tech or Oklahoma), didn't play (Florida State and TCU), or had less impressive victories (Utah and maybe Georgia Tech). I'm not sure about the Coaches Poll, there are a lot of teams to jump since they are 24 in that poll, but I think they can probably move up 9 or 10 spots and get to 14-15. BYU fans have now become Oklahoma fans, as it won't be as impressive to have beaten a 6-6 Oklahoma team (much like Utah's win over 3-9 Michigan didn't carry as much weight later in the year). I imagine Cougar fans will be cheering for Florida State on Monday against Miami as well. For an encore, BYU needs to beat Tulane next week by at least 4 scores. Having watched parts from the Tulane-Tulsa game, that shouldn't be too hard. Tulane has a large, but very slow and unskilled offensive line. Their receivers catch everything thrown near them. Their QB looked fairly poised and has a cannon but did not look very light on his feet. Their D plays disciplined but without much size or speed, even by BYU standards. The precision of BYU's offense should be able to put points on the board. If Harvey Unga does play, I expect him to run for over 100 as Tulsa had 4 players who averaged over 5 yards/carry. The running game for Tulane is pretty much a non-factor, so if BYU can put together a few blitz packages, they should be able to stuff the Green Wave offense cold. Whether they can/will do it, I don't know, but I know they NEED to follow up the win in Dallas with a blowout in Nawlins. That game is on ESPN2 at 3:30pm ET, 1:30pm MT.

For a while now, the knock on the non-BCS schools is that they don't have the depth to play in the big conferences. Well, both teams had injuries coming into and during the game, but BYU won the game in spite of theirs (stud RB Harvey Unga didn't play a snap in the game, they started a former walk-on scout team player on the O-line, and their defensive team captain and last year's leading tackler went out in the 2nd quarter and did not return). I know none of those injuries is a Heisman trophy winner, but hey, it's Oklahoma, their backup QB is supposed to be better than any QB in the lesser conferences... That also puts OU, who has won the last THREE Big 12 championships, at 1-3 the past 4 years against good non-BCS opponents (1-1 against TCU, loss to Boise State, and loss to BYU). So you have the flagship program of the 2nd best BCS conference only able to beat the flagship programs of the non-BCS 25% of the time, maybe the gap isn't as big as people imagine...I'm thinking if the MWC adds Boise State, drops New Mexico, Wyoming, or SDSU, then it MIGHT be the 5th best conference in the country (also ahead of the ACC who went 4-6 this week: 3-2 over I-AA teams and 1-4 against I-A teams including 1-0 against the Sun Belt and 0-4 against BCS conference teams). I know one week doesn't say a whole lot about a conference, but Boise State and the MWC did much better than the ACC this week. The Big East had a phenomenal record: 4-0 against I-AA teams, 1-0 against the MAC, and 0-1 against BCS teams. MWC: 3-0 against I-AA, 1-0 against the WAC, and 2-2 against BCS conference teams and Boise State beat a ranked BCS conference team.

I also believe that an undefeated BYU team could have a legitimate shot at the title game. Obviously it depends on a lot of things: other teams losing and doing it at the right time (i.e. when BYU is high enough in the rankings to surpass them) and BYU actually going undefeated being the two major ones. Unlike most undefeated non-BCS schools in the past, they will actually be helped by the computers, assuming that the MWC does OK outside of conference. They are off to a decent start: they won all the games they should and pulled off two upsets. CSU picked up a huge win today over CU and obviously BYU's win yesterday. I thought CSU's running game and D would carry them early in the year, but the passing game was extremely sharp in addition to a solid rushing performance and a stifling D that held CU to 1.4 yards/carry. SDSU jumped out to an early lead against UCLA before sucking it up the rest of the game and New Mexico is just trying to embarrass me because I picked them to finish so high in the MWC, losing 41-6 to Texas A&M.

Other MWC notes: Virginia lost their home-opener to I-AA William & Mary. That hurts the MWC for two reasons: TCU is now playing a MUST-WIN game against Virginia and if and when they do win, it is less impressive because a I-AA team also did it. Of course, it also means TCU is more likely to win the game because Virginia is obviously not a very good team. Essentially, it steals the Mountain West of a chance of getting a quality win on the road over a BCS team: there is no quality in it.