Wednesday, September 30, 2009

One of the BYU-related articles in today's paper, which you can find here, focused on Harvey Unga's broken pinkie finger.

I wasn't able to include a lot of details, due to space limitations, for the printed version of the newspaper, so here's a little more on Harvey's fourth finger.

Unga said it happened on BYU's first offensive play from scrimmage, an 11-yard run by Manase Tonga, against CSU.

"I was just blocking a guy, and my hand got caught in his pads," he said. "He was going one way. I was going the other. I tried to shove him, but it just got caught up in there, and it snapped."

Unga said "it hurts like any other broken finger, I am assuming," but is not something he can't manage. Asked if he will play on Friday, he said, "as far as I am concerned, yeah, unless something else comes up."

As reported earlier, coach Bronco Mendenhall said Unga will probably have surgery on the finger when the season is over. Here's Unga's take:

"I hope it is healed by then. If not, then yeah. But if not, then yeah, I will probably have surgery. But I really don't know what the deal is. How it is going to feel, whether it is going to stay broken or whatever. We are playing it by ear right now."

Unga said he doesn't think he will have trouble holding onto the ball.

"Not particularly, no," he said. "The only thing holding me back is that stupid cast that they are having me put on for practice to protect it. But other than that, I don't fnd it too [hard]...I got four more good fingers that I will try to hold onto the ball with. Then just always try to cover it up with the left hand as well."

---------------------------

Apparently, some television broadcasters have taken to calling the Unga-Tonga backfield combo the "Pineapple Express."

Asked about that, Unga said:

"I don't mind it. I am not big into the name callings and all that funny stuff. I just come out here and play the game and have fun. They can call us whatever they want. As long as we are winning, I will be happy."

----------------------------

Here's Unga's thoughts on playing Utah State:

"It is going to be a tough game. Utah State is a good, talented team. They went down to Texas and played a good game down there. They have a lot of physical guys, and some good coaches up there, the coaches that left from the U. to help out there, and whatnot. I think they have great coaches.

This team has a lot of potential. And any instate rival game, whether it is Utah, Utah State, Weber, Dixie, whoever it is, there is always that kind of grudge match where teams come out to give it their all and play their best.

Not to say that other teams don't give it their best, but I think there is a lot more intensity when it seems to be the rivalry."

Asked what he remembered about last year's game in Logan, Unga replied:

"I remember it was a little closer than I wanted it to be. A little too close for my comfort. And they came out there, they were ready to play for the most part. They made some mistakes and we capitalized on their mistakes. But they are going to come down here to play as well. So last year was last year. We can't do much about it. We just got to focus on this game this week."

-----------------------

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall was asked if USU's crowd reaction last year was impressive.

"I think it impressed on [BYU's players] a lot. I was impressed that the fans would be cheering like that, when the team was down that far and didn't have a chance to win. But it mattered that they could score, it mattered that they could compete. I don't think anyone on our team will forget that, and I think they are preparing for a tough game. Utah State is much improved," he said.