Daily Herald, Darnell Dickenson: Last year BYU was predictable on offense and changes were not made to adjust. Now this year in an attempt to change that with Bronco Mendenhall passing along play calling to defensive coordinator Jaime Hill:
"I'll take more of a consultant role," Mendenhall said. "But I reserve the right to make a play call in a critical moment, a key third down. I'll work toward managing the entire game."
This might make the difference for BYU since last year they were very predictable, and maybe a new prospective will do BYU good. Bronco did pass it off as no big deal but it is because of how last year the team flamed out against good opponents.
Lya Wodraska Salt Lake Tribune: Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham is now the top of the MWC and the non-BCS schools for his 2008 season. Coach Whittingham is taking it in stride by telling players that 2008 was great but it is behind us, and here is what he specifically said about moving forward:
"What we did last year was great, but it's time to move on," he said. "We had that meeting in January. It wasn't easy to put it into practice, when the town was having parades, there was no clean cut from last year. Hopefully everything is behind us and we can move forward."
Smart move for Whittingham to move forward and focus on 2009. He does have experience since he took over after the 2004 Utah team that went undefeated, so hopefully he picked up a few tricks to keep the team focused.
Stefan Stevenson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Jerry Hughes had two goals he wanted to accomplish from his playing career at TCU, which is why he did not go to the pros last year. Which was to get his degree and get a ring:
"I felt like the season we had last year we left a lot of things incomplete," Hughes said. "TCU is a great academic school and I always knew if [a degree] was something I had an opportunity to get I was going to go through with it."
Very smart for Hughes to want to get a degree to help himself once he is done after his NFL career, and hopefully if TCU is as good as they should be his draft stock will only increase.
Ken Ritter, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson who has been lobbying for change feels that it will take five years before any change, if any, will occur with the BCS.
"If you perform and you win games and you're playing quality opponents and you're beating the Oklahomas, the Alabamas, the UCLAs, the Michigans, and all the people we've beaten," he said, "that should be our statement."
I typically do not always agree with the Commish, but this is the only way to get inclusion. In my opinion the MWC is very close to earning an auto-bid for the BCS, and if they have another year of multiple teams in the top 16 then the MWC deserves an auto bid to the BCS.
Jay Drew, Salt Lake Tribune: With all of the hissy fits that were thrown in an effort to find out who did not vote for Tim Tebow brought out another major flaw in the voting process that everyone knows: coaches do not fill out their own ballot. BYU head man Bronco Mendenhall believes that voting should not start until week six:
"I don't think it is possible to pick, nor do I think, philosophically, that there ought to be any preseason polls, period," he said. "I don't think there ought to be a preseason conference poll, nor do I think there should be a preseason national poll."
Six might be a bit much but after week four should be the date when polls are released. We all know that will never happen, because television wants to promote we have such and such ranked here so come watch out game. Plus, even with the Harris Poll starting their voting in October it essentially mirrors the AP and coaches poll when it is released.
Lya Wodraska, Salt Lake Tribune: This article is something I have been harping on with the unfairness of money distribution of BCS money. Finally MWC Commissioner, Craig Thompson, is bringing this to the for front. Currently the non-BCS teams share nine percent of the revenue each year, but in a year when a non-BCS gets in the money is an additional nine percent, but that is shared with all five non-BCS schools.
That money should be awarded to the conference for sending a team to the big money games, but since everyone is greedy the other four leagues cry foul with that statement since that is a way they improve their football program. Here is what Thompson said on the issue:
"I can see those other four leagues getting some for participation, but the best for us would be when a conference gets a team in the BCS, the other nine percent goes totally to that conference,"
Common sense is a dangerous word in college football, because not many have it and it is needed in this situation to realize the league deserves the money for qualifying. As a side note MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson was renewed through 2012.
If you like what you read be lazy and Subscribe to The Mountain West Conference Connection by Email or in your Feeder or follow us on Twitter.