BYU Sports

We took a look at the success of Air Force’s defense in the newspaper today, and wondered how the Falcons have turned into a top 10 defense despite some obvious limitations.
BYU quarterback Max Hall said he is especially impressed with what Air Force has done, after watching flim on them this week.
“They are playing with kind of a different swagger and confidence than they have in year’s past, at least since I have been here,” he said. “And they have a lot of seniors and some leadership on the defense, so I think it is going to be a tough challenge for us as an offense.
But at the same time, I am excited for it. We look forward to a challenge and to see what we can do against it.
You just prepare like crazy and get ready, and hopefully we can do some things that will cause some trouble for them.”

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Unfortunately, tonight’s BYU basketball game at Hawaii won’t be televised. Here’s my advance of the game as coach Dave Rose goes for his 100th win.

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Back to football, BYU’s Dennis Pitta doesn’t need to be reminded what happened the last time the Cougars faced Air Force.
“Yeah, it is pretty burned in my memory,” he said.
The Mackey Award candidate for the top tight end in the country suffered a knee injury after catching a pass last year during BYU’s 38-24 win in Colorado Springs when Air Force cornerback Reggie Rembert hit him low.
Pitta played the following week against Utah with a heavy brace on his knee, but was not  close to 100 percent.
The senior called it “an unfortunate injury” and said he holds no anger toward the Falcons.
“No, not at all,” he said. “It was a clean play, and obviously DBs go low a lot of times, especially on myself, being a bigger receiver.  It is something I have seen before, and it just caught me at an awkward angle. No hard feelings at all, no hostility.”

Just heard from a BYU football spokesperson who attended tonight’s practice, which was closed to the media.
Running back Harvey Unga practiced tonight on his sprained left ankle.
Coaches will “probably decide on playing status Saturday,” according to the official.

BYU forward Jonathan Tavernari must be feeling like a man on an island these days, and not just because he’s with the Cougar basketball team in Hawaii.
Tavernari can’t hit the ocean from a boat with his jump shot to start the season. Maybe being surrounded by water on Friday night will help.
However, coach Dave Rose said after Tuesday’s 87-53 beatdown of Idaho State that he’s not concerned.
“I think the first game he forced a lot of shots,” Rose said. “There were quite a few shots that were ill-advised. We kind of worked through that. I think tonight he took really good shots, for him. He’s just having a hard time making them, but he’s a confident guy and we have a lot of confidence in him.”
“JT has been really, really good for us the past three years, and he is going to be really, really good for us this year, too. But that’s part of the deal. You just have to work through it.”
Tavernari is 7-for-30 in two games, including a frosty 3-for-14 from three-point range.
Jackson Emery said JT should do what he always does -- keep shooting.
“I got all my misses out the other night,” Emery said. “Just kind of JT’s philosophy: Just keep shooting  and eventually they will fall.”

The Cougars tore Wyoming’s defense to shreds with screen passes two weeks ago in that 52-0 lambasting, then really didn’t attempt that many against New Mexico.
They tried one, you might remember, but Max Hall didn’t throw it high enough and a UNM defensive lineman snagged it out of the air.
I asked offensive coordinator Robert Anae yesterday if he got gun-shy after the pick and decided not to call any more screens.
“Actually, the game plan, we didn’t have that many screens in against New Mexico. But, you know, I guess you could look at that game plan and chuck it out the window, because it didn’t work very well.
“Some game plans include more screens that others,” he continued. “Some game situations include more screens than others. So it is just kind of a thing we go by, and if it is there we call them. And if we don’t think they are there, we don’t. It was pretty obvious it wasn’t there against New Mexico. So we just kind of try to put players in their best position to have them succeed, be it screen passes or whatever we’ve got.”
Having Harvey Unga miss almost the entire second half obviously didn’t help BYU’s offense, but Anae said that’s no excuse.
“Oh yeah, we missed Harvey tremendously as an offense.” he said. “But I would like to think we can answer the call and be able to run the ball if Harvey has got something ailing him, an ankle or whatever it be. And we didn’t, and that is cause for challenge for us, to be able to run the football effectively, no matter who our running back is.”

More problems for the beleagured San Diego State athletic department, with news breaking today that athletic director Jeff Schemmel has resigned in the midst of a school investigation into his use of school funds to pay for a trip to have an affair with a woman in Alabama.

SDSU's football team plays at Utah on Saturday, and needs two wins to become bowl eligible after falling to Wyoming 30-27 last week. The Aztecs led that game 27-6 in the fourth quarter.