The Perfect Storm

While the Southeast gets hit again and again, Knute forcasts a huricane right here in Utah this Saturday!

Much has been made recently of all the Hurricane activity in Florida and surrounding swampy areas. Well, look out over the Great Salt Lake and you can see a storm a brewin'. We'll call it Hurricane Trojute and it's course suggests widespread damage in Utah county and Cache county.

Of course I speak of the impending slaughter of both bovines and carnivorous mountain cats by ancient Mediterranean soldiers and Great Basin indigenous warriors.

Utes at Utah State.

Trojans at BYU.

Oh the humanity!

More on this in a bit but first, Knute's R&R (ramblings and ruminations) on the week that was.

I thought maybe Arizona would put up double figures. Either Utah's defense is that good, or Arizona offensive coordinator Mike Canales really IS auditioning for the USU job. The Wildcat offensive performance looked like something straight out of Logan.

Do the BYU fans attending road games get to boo?

Note to USU offensive coordinator Bob "Rainman" Cole, they are called "RUNNING BACKS", they are supposed to run...with...the...ball. They are actually a part of many offenses throughout the U.S. and are even used at times in Canada. The only real exception is the Arena League and that doesn't count.

Notre Dame beats Michigan, UC-Provo fans go nuts and proclaim the program resurrected! Stanford fails to receive the memo.

Notre Dame beats Michigan, Urban Meyer tells his realtor to hold off on the "For Sale" sign...for now.

Well, FrankenBerry starts and gets the team off to a nice lead. Then he gets hurt...SURPRISE!...and Josh Beck comes in. So THAT is the Beck that FrankenBerry fans say he's better than. I thought they were referring to the singer.

Speaking of musical QB's, spies tell me Gary Glitter was getting ready to suit up and play QB late in the game at Stanford. Couldn't have been much worse.

Went to the USU/Idaho game Saturday. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a worse first half of football in my entire life. I can't even say anything funny about it because it was that bad.

Although, watching a game at Romney really ruins Church for me on Sunday. Spending 3 hours in near silence on Saturday night makes services seem like a rodeo.

If it's possible to come through with a must-win and STILL further jeopardize your future, Mick Deadasme did it Saturday night.

TOUCHDOWN STANFORD!!!

The Ute offense wasn't quite as awe inspiring as it was against Texas A&M. I hear it was retro week at Urban's house and he threw away the X-Box, Madden 2005 playbook and switched to Atari. You know, just cuz things were getting boring.

The Aggies were really working on some plays leading up to the Idaho game. Seems to me they have the "Turnover" play down pat.

Still, five turnovers and still a win? Hey, there has to be SOME silver lining doesn't there?

Long time readers will remember a couple of years ago when I said Bob Cole was going to walk down the hall to the then-Aggie-defensive coordinators booth and throw him out the window because the offense was putting up 40 a game and still losing? Well, current USU D coordinator Dave Kotulski is about one more three and out/turnover away from returning the favor.

Who'da thunk we'd see the day when it was great to be a Ute football fan and painful to be both an Aggie AND Cougar fan?

Now, on to the Old Crystal Ball.

USC @ BYU

The Trojans are coming! The Trojans are coming!

That battle cry is resounding throughout the UC-Provo campus and co-eds all over the place are lining up! Imagine their surprise.

USC looked bad against Virginia Tech. Matt Leinart had tendonitis and was throwing with all the velocity of Rod Decker. The USC linemen looked fat and a step slow and no receivers stepped up. They still won. Then last week they beat CSU like they were mad about how bad they looked in the opener. UC-Provo on the other hand, playing in front of a friendly crowd full of friends and family got worked by a Stanford team that will be decent this year, but will not likely finish in the top half of the PAC 10. True, it hurt to lose yet another QB but Stanford was moving the ball like Elway was back. What happened to the vaunted BYU defense? That's the crazy thing about bronco Madmanhall's defense. One week they look like they could stop Tom Brady and the Patriots and the next they couldn't stop the Brady Bunch. Which shows up this week? Doesn't matter. Some Zoobies out there still refuse to live in the present and are talking about last year's close game and the fact that this year they beat Notre Dame who just beat Michigan. Big Deal. If you want to look at it that way: You almost lost to Stanford by more points than San Jose did.

Reggie Bush is going to abuse the Zoobs as will Leinart. The USC defense is the real deal and even the magic of The Patron Saint of the Perpetual Frown Stadium can't beat USC. USC rolls 42-17.

Utah @ USU

Now we head north to see what devastation Hurricane Trojute will wreak upon poor Logan. The Aggies looked absolutely dreadful last Saturday night. They did get the win and their defense did turn in a stellar effort despite being on the field nearly 40 minutes. They gave up 7 points and made the plays when the game was on the line. I liked that and I like Dave Kotulski's scheme. Too bad they don't have enough horses to slow down Utah. One of their best players, freshman All-American Terrance Washington won't be manning one cornerback slot as he's done for the year with a blown knee. Andre Bala will likely replace him and Bala played well Saturday night but Washington is a special player.

Poor Travis Cox. His feet were happier than a pig in...er...crap last Saturday night. That coupled with the lack of any effort to run the ball leads me to believe that there is absolutely no confidence in the USU offensive line. They are plugging in quite a few new guys and it takes time for a unit to gel but Idaho spent almost as much time in the backfield as Cox did. Cox does look to have some good receivers in Tony Pennyman and Kevin Robinson, and TE Jason Stephens made some big catches. Now if Rainman would ever use them further than 3 yards down the field or for plays other than that blasted flanker screen.

There's nothing more to say about Utah other than they are the real deal. TOCB keeps telling me that USU is due for an "out-of-their-heads" type game and that they just might pull the biggest upset of the year. Usually I let TOCB call the shots, but this time, Knute is vetoing TOCB. Utah wins this one 900-2. Real score you say? Okay, 56-10.

If TOCB ends up being right I'll wear UC-Provo gear all year and sing "Rise and Shout" on the Utah Campus.

Thar she blows folks! Tune in next week when we dissect the remains of the impending car wreck!