Week 2: Utah 42 UNLV 21 -- The Red Sea

Week 2: September 6th, 2008

Ahhh, another Saturday filled with football. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that football season is back. I woke up around noon (typical for an Average Joe Saturday). I then walked down to the living room and got ready to watch BYU play at the University of Washington in Seattle.

I am from the state of Washington, but I grew up on the east side of the state in the Tri-Cities. In Washington, you are either a Husky (UW) or a Cougar (Washington State). I was a Cougar. Every year, our teams battled it out in the Apple Cup. The Huskies were dominant during my youth. They even won a national championship in the early '90s. So, as a Cougar, I've always hated the purple and gold of the UW Huskies.

If any of you have ever seen me in the morning, you can attest that I am not a morning person. I look like one of the zombies straight out of the thriller video, except without the cool '80s garb (or the dancing). I sleep-walked straight over to the fridge and pulled out some five-day old Chinese food for breakfast. I admit it was a bad idea, but it seemed like an okay idea in my comatose state.

My roommate Kyle came in to watch the game. It was my first experience watching a BYU game with him, but he added quite a twist to the viewing pleasure. My friend Lex also joined us in the festivities. We ordered some take-out from La Frontera (a fabulous dirty Mexican joint off Bangerter Highway) and enjoyed watching the first half of tight football.

I had a dress rehearsal for a gig with my guitar friend Mike later in the day so I had to take off and miss the second half. I caught the final minutes of the game on the radio and it turns out that BYU won 28-27 after a controversial "excessive celebration" penalty pushed a game-tying extra point back 15 yards that BYU blocked to win the game.

Should the flag have been thrown? No. Was it? Unfortunately, yes. Was it a violation of the rule? Yes, UW QB Jake Locker (see photo) threw the ball 20 feet above his head, so a flag could have been thrown. Look, PAC-10 officials messed with their home team. Their officiating has been terrible for years (see Oklahoma at Oregon in 2006).

The solution: Stop using your own referees at your home games in non-conference. Other conferences don't. Why do you have to be the only ones? This is why nobody wants to play you in the West Coast in non-conference. Sure, you get Oklahoma coming back and Ohio State this weekend, but if anything fishy happens in those games, your reputation turns from burnt toast to charred biscuits.

Okay, now to those hated Utes. After my gig, I drove up 4th South to Rice-Eccles Stadium. I've never noticed how deserted downtown SLC can be on game night. It felt like a ghost town.

I parked at Little Caesar's so that I could down some crazy bread on my way up to the game. It's amazing how terrible the parking situation is for a 45,000 seat stadium. If it weren't for TRAX, it would be an absolute nightmare!

As I waited for my ticket from Rhett (I arrived just before halftime), I happened to be standing by the smokers area just outside the gate. I admit, it was a little weird seeing 30 people crammed into a tiny area for their nicotine fix. That wouldn't have even existed 15 years ago. Smokers can really start to understand segregation. I know second-hand smoke smells bad, but at an open air stadium? Sometimes, I start to believe that smokers have some rights too.

As I entered the Red Sea, I felt a little sick to my stomach. Why did I buy Ute season tickets again? (oh yeah, November 22 when BYU comes to town). Why did I choose to attend a Utah versus UNLV game? Because there was nothing better to do on a Saturday night, and I wanted a blog entry.

Our seats were pretty good. Check out the photo. Pretty much the entire stadium wore red and white Ute apparel. In my ignorance, I wore a blue shirt from my earlier gig. It wasn't a BYU shirt, but I felt weird and proud at the same time.

UNLV (a bottom feeder in the Mountain West that shut out Utah last season 27-0 in Las Vegas) played Utah to a 14-14 tie at the break.

Utah took over in the 3rd quarter with three touchdowns to put an end to any upset hopes the Rebels may have had for a upset of a ranked team and ended up winning in a landslide victory 42-21.

Surprised observations:
I was actually impressed with everybody wearing school colors at the stadium. I was also impressed that people knew when to cheer and what the main cheers were for (1st down, etc.). The wave was pretty impressive as well. I loved the student section: the muss - where an entire section is dedicated to students who will stand up for the entire game and wave flags after touchdowns. I wished with all my heart that BYU had such an organized function that I could join during my time there. They are missing out on a golden opportunity.

Bad observations:
I can't believe that such a dumpy stadium hosted the Opening Games for the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was the 10-year anniversary of the renovation of Rice-Eccles stadium. Apparently, 50 million dollars was invested into remodeling the stadium once Utah earned their Olympic bid in the mid 1990s. From what I hear, the stadium was much crappier with wood benches and such before the money was raised. I can't believe that Coach Ron McBride actually competed with BYU in the 1990s with such pathetic facilities.

Another bad observation:
I attended a fireside last night at the University of Utah institute building featuring head coach Kyle Whittingham. I've never had any personal experience with him, but wow, I wasn't impressed. Even if I were a Utah booster with money to donate, his presentation wouldn't have sold me. He isn't very good at addressing a crowd at all. In fact, he was smart to let his secondary coach Morgan Scalley (a captain of the 2004 undefeated Ute team) speak last, who was a much more eloquent speaker. At least Whittingham understands his weaknesses.

The thing that drives me nuts, is that the Utes thrive on ripping BYU in any given opportunity, including a fireside in a church dedicated building when the BYU game is 10 weeks away! You would never hear BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall go out of his way to insult the Utes. Do you know why? He doesn't need to. It's not in his interests. He is focused on winning against the next opponent. Kyle barely mentioned that he was playing at Utah State this weekend. But he took two or three occasions to go out of his way to rip BYU, his alma matter, and the school who first offered him his first head coaching job.

I am so glad that Kyle chose to take the U job, so that he could continue to lead them to mediocrity and teach sportsmanship by onside kicking on Wyoming with a 40 point lead. I wish BYU would have never even offered him the position to begin with. Hiring Bronco was the best thing to happen to both of these programs and their ultra-fierce rivalry. see: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview08/news/story?id=3529952

Next week: Did BYU beat UCLA soundly to regain some national respect? How will Norm Chow be embraced back in Provo?