Making The Rounds: Labor Day Edition

Air Force

The big question of the week will be what Air Force team will show up and will the Falcons be ready against BYU: 

"After evaluating today, off the bat, I’d say no," defensive end Rick Ricketts said. "BYU is very well coached and last year we had some trouble with their passing game. If we’re having trouble with Northwestern State’s passing game, that’s an eye opener. We’ve got to pick it up for BYU."

Cornerback Reggie Rembert left Saturday's game with a neck injury and his status for the BYU game is up in the air: 

Coach Troy Calhoun said he would be very cautious when determining when Rembert would return to action. He wouldn’t even rule out that the senior wouldn’t play again, although that scenario seems unlikely as long as all the tests show no abnormalities. Rembert could play next week against BYU, although that will depend on if he can practice during the week

BYU

The two quarterback system worked good against Washington and even though people should be skeptical of this, however a fan sent a mass email to people who cover BYU and says it has been done before and with great success:

Two quarterbacks that also came from the same high school in Tallahassee, Wally Woodham and Jimmy Jordan, both SHARED the QB role for not part of a season or even one season...but for THREE seasons [at Florida State]. How good were they? Well in 1979, the 'noles went 11-0 before losing to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. They gave teams grief because both had different styles and defenses had to constantly adjust.

While that maybe true of having success with two quarterbacks anyone can churn out at least a ten-to-one ratio (or higher) that proves the opposite.

The Salt Lake Tribune's Gordon Monson believes that the two quarterback system will fail, soon: 

But sometime this season, the 50-50 quarterback split will hurt the Cougars. Mark the words. It will backfire, sooner or later. That’s why coaches don’t swap out their quarterbacks like Goodyears on their cars.

The Huskies had a shot at BYU but special teams and going for it on 4th down late in the game when a field goal would have been just fine doomed Washington:

Chris Polk slipped on a kickoff return that gave the Huskies the ball inside the five. On another, Polk let a squib kick that the up-man should have fielded anyways, skip past him, setting up the Huskies inside the 15. The UW punt-coverage team seemed incapable of finding the ball in the air and let kicks bounce into the end zone. Will Mahan was incosistent with his kicks. Only Erik Folk had a good day, blasting a career-long 54-yard field goal at the end of the first half.

There were plenty of other factors that led to the Huskies losing the game. Jake Locker was high on his throws, wide receivers dropped passes, the defense missed tackles and turnover opportunities, and the play-calling at the end of the game was questionable.

But when UW looks back at this game and focuses on one single aspect that may have cost it the game, it's going to be the special teams. On a day when the Huskies needed that unit to be good, they were awful. UW showed that it is not quite to the point where it can overcome an entire unit collectively failing.

Colorado State

The Rams are playing a lot of freshman and will have to suffer through the growing pains in a hurry in hopes in ending their ten game losing streak:

The newcomers, of course, made some mistakes, too. Thomas was intercepted three times, Orakpo was flagged for a questionable roughing-the-passer penalty that helped CU score its first touchdown and cornerback Shaq Bell got confused on a crossing pattern and blew an assignment that left Buffs receiver Scotty McKnight wide open for a 27-yard touchdown.

New Mexico

While Oregon's offense was amazing in their beat down over New Mexico, their defense is good as advertised:

The defense was as advertised, forcing 5 turnovers and holding the Lobos to 107 yards and 8 first downs. New Mexico was totally unaccustomed to playing against a team of Oregon's speed and strength, and could barely hold onto the ball, fumbling on seemingly every other play. One of my favorite defensive plays was by Casey Matthews, who showed his increased speed by sticking with a slot receiver and moving on the ball during the first quarter.

TCU

Post game thoughts from Gary Patterson:

UNLV

Bobby Hauck will not make a decision until midweek on the quarterback position: 

So who starts next Saturday at Utah? UNLV coach Bobby Hauck, upon naming Clausen his opening night starter a week ago, said it would go on a game-by-game basis.

"I kind of said all along we would probably play Omar some," he said. "He came in and did a nice job. We'll go back and look at the tape, figure out who we're going to start next week."

Post game podcast from The Las Vegas Sun:

Utah

Do not ever mention the BCS to Kyle Whittingham:

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham didn’t even need to hear all of a reporter’s question late Thursday before the Utes’ leader shut him down.

All he heard was "BCS," and he answered with a growl, "We aren’t thinking about the BCS."

As tempting as it might be to look ahead and wonder if the Utes could be BCS busters one final time after they opened the season with a 27-24 overtime win against No. 15 Pitt, the Big East favorite, Whittingham is having none of it.

San Diego State

What was the point in scheduling Nicholls State:  

Anyway, in no way am I suggesting State should do something stupid and play four of their first five games on the road against Washington, Wisconsin, Air Force and Arizona, as they did in 1998. Seasonal suicide is not the answer.

But what was gained by this? We still know basically nothing about this football team that we didn’t know after fall drills. Quarterback Ryan Lindley can throw to receivers DeMarco Sampson and Vincent Brown and coordinator Rocky Long’s defense is going to come after people from everywhere but the front pew in church.

Hard to not agree but San Diego State needs some wins.

Wyoming

Check out the full break down of Wyoming's close win over at Cowboy Altitude, but here is an excerpt:

The Good:

Austyn Carta-Samuels got off to a phenomenal start to the season throwing for a career high 319 yards and three touchdowns. He had never had before thrown over 260 yards in a game so this was a nice way to start the year. For the game ACS was 26 for 32 and he was so accurate with his passes. The one negative tonight was an interception in the end zone on a tipped pass that was grabbed by Safety Matt Holley for a touchback.