Deep Shades of Blue

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone out there for their thoughts and prayers for my uncle, Dave Rose. It was amazing support and I know he feels it and it helped him pull through.

Dave feels he has been handed a second chance at life, I can’t imagine how these “close calls” can change a person but I imagine he will cherish everything a little more now, and have greater perspective. For him to get through an intense surgery with all hands on deck and then later be declared cancer-free was incredible, one of the more amazing things I’ve ever heard. It was not looking too good a week ago.

So far in the last year we have talked about all aspects of what it means to be a BYU Football player, except the role the guys play as students at BYU and the challenges that presents. Being a Student Athlete is a unique experience. This should help to give you a little insight into what the players face on a daily basis in the classroom and answer the age old question, “Do athletes get special treatment from their teachers?”

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These 7 on 7 games are a blast. For those of you who played in high school it is just like passing league. In layman’s terms 7 on 7 is pick up football. You know the rules, no blitzing, no run plays, two hand touch. There is no OL or DL and although there are no alligators being counted, you better believe the QB will catch some flack if he holds onto the ball forever.
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The problem some folks are running into is with Internet Explorer’s latest version and the wordpress blog -which I run. I had the same difficulties accessing the blog from a PC running Vista with the latest version of IE. I normally access the Internets via Firefox or Safari, and neither of those browsers have had problems. I will be running a wordpress update tonight, which will hopefully resolve the issue. If it doesn’t please let me know and I’ll dig deeper to find out what could be the problem.

Thanks for coming by and visit often!

This time of year is what players like to refer to as Mandatory Optional Workouts. According to NCAA rules you can’t force players to be at workouts during this period of the year. I believe you are not even allowed to take role. However, as a player you are mislead if you think that skipping out on these workouts won’t affect your playing. Coaches are not allowed to be involved in the workouts, or even be in the weight room or on the field with players. So the question is who keeps track of guys and how do the coaches know what players are doing during the summer? Read the rest of this entry »

I feel like this topic has been misconstrued from day one and my hope is that this will help everyone understand what Coach means when he says, “we don’t focus on the other team, we focus on ourselves.”

I wrote an entire post dedicated to the players preparation last season and I will not repeat it, but I do want to offer a few tid-bits from the Coaches Point of View.

It is impossible to approach a football game without having first scouted out your opponent to find out 3 very important things; Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you have been asking about the role that Manase plays on the team and how it would have affected last season, and what impact it will have this season. In the next two paragraphs I will address this in a very frank manner.
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Austin Collie: 4th Round (127th pick) - Indianapolis Colts

What a great day for Austin! Sure he was the 20th WR (19th if you don’t count Pat White as a WR, Miami isn’t) taken in the draft when he should have been about 6 or 7, but he is going to have a great opportunity. Think about it. He is going to have the best QB in the game throwing to him. Tell me that Peyton Manning is not going to make Austin Collie look absolutely amazing.

What is Collie’s Role?

Peyton Manning finally got his Wes Welker. Indy already has there “deep guys” but I think Austin can contribute right away as a possession receiver for them. I am so pumped for his opportunity there.

Fui Vakapuna: 7th Round (215th pick) - Cincinnati Bengals

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The summer is also a very important time to continue to build the team chemistry. The summer before our 2006 season we had a softball team that a bunch of us played on. That was a great team bonding experience and it was in a competitive atmosphere so it kept our juices pumping. We learned in a different sport how to be team players.

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Right now the players have just finished the most grueling part of the year. From January to April your body is just completely exhausted all the time. During spring ball you are still working out just as hard as normal, so the last few weeks have been extremely tough. For the next couple weeks players are going to shy away from the weight room and field for a little while trying to focus on finals (so they are eligible) and maybe even get out on a few dates now that they have all this free time.

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For the most part this years spring drills have been fairly quiet -except for the fight, post Andrew George being planted by Scottie Johnson, but Andrew hung on…so, you win offense. With Coach Mendenhall closing the gates and keeping the public out. It has given the coaching staff and players the oppornunity to focus on fundementals. Keeping the crowds behind fences will also provide the coaching staff ample time to “encourage” young players to preform their best.

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In a few short lines I am going to tell why we switched our game to play OU instead of ASU.

1. Last year we started with a cupcake schedule and that gave our team a false sense of accomplishment. Even Coach Mendenhall admitted after the TCU game that BYU was not the team he thought they were. Playing the National Champ in your first game ON THE ROAD, that will let you know right away what kind of team you have.
2. Read the rest of this entry »