Utes Thrive, Cougs Wallow in Controversy and Division

It has been a crazy summer and pretty interesting first two weeks of the season for our respective teams that this blog focuses on. For the Utes and Cougs things started off well in week 1 with big wins and both teams entering the Top-25, the Utes at 20 in both polls and BYU entering the Coaches at 24.

However, week 2 sent both teams in opposite direction. The Utes had the week we expected, a dominating win over UNLV, 38-10 and, somewhat surprisingly, jumped six-spots in the polls to #14 thanks to a bunch of losses ahead of them, including the collapse of the ACC (it is a travesty that the Big East and ACC have auto-bids and MWC does not by the way. But BYU had a devastating week.

A loss to Air Force was bad enough, something that hasn't happened in about 5 years, but the week, game, and post game was wrought with division. Predictably, (did anyone really not see this coming??) due to the two QB system Bronco decided to go with. In the game against Washington it worked, in the game against Air Force it was a disaster. Apparently, and I didn't watch the game, at one point Jake Heaps was benched and the Cougs went with Riley Nelson. Apparently Heaps was ticked off. But even worse is the fact that Riley can't throw. Sure he's a heck of a runner, but he either missed receivers or checked down to running backs the whole game. Their top two receivers, McKay Jacobson and Oneill Chambers didn't have any receptions...a travesty for BYU football.

It is also rumored that during the week in practice Chambers went off and yelled, "it's because we have a running back as our QB" and was subsequently kicked out of practice. This is unsubstantiated and based upon a source feeding a poster on Utefans.net, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened, having a two QB system will ALWAYS create division.

It was a stupid idea on Bronco's part. He needs to pick a QB and stick with it. The Utes went into last season with the same problem that the Cougs had this year, Whittingham handled it beautifully and as a result the Utes have thrived. Bronco needs to have this fixed this week, he needs to grow some cojones and do what is best for the program. And that means he better pick Jake Heaps. Move Riley to RB or TE or something, he probably shouldn't be the back up either, they are too different in style to be able to have Riley come in at a moments notice.