Bear Down Wildcats

Wonder if this will affect our game at all:

Any destination city could do that. A bit overboard IMO. Vegas is open and rolling. If you go and are not vaxxed, that’s on you I feel. I doubt they shut down Vegas again since we have the vaccine. It’s now a personal choice

I imagine BYU will require the players to double up like they do on their missions to avoid the sins in sin city.

After all, how do you keep a Mormon from drinking all your beer?

BYU does not require vaccinations for employees or students. This might be interesting.

Too bad the NCAA hasn't done the: you will forfeit if you can't play like the NFL does.

At least the UA would get a win that way.

Sure don't want that kind of win.
Rather see a loss where we at least give a good effort and don't do too many stupid things, both coaches and players.

Candidly I never enjoy playing BYU. No upside- and opponent from a smaller conference with a limited albeit national recruiting pool. They play about as dirty of a brand of football (alongside Utah) as anyone in the NCAA. You should beat them every time and yet we haven't been. I also get that there aren't a ton of programs out west to play OOC early.

But hey, football is football, and we don't have Noel Mazzone on the payroll anymore so I'm honestly pretty stoked.

Who is Stormy Buonantony? Sounds like a mob boss

azcat49 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:36 pm Who is Stormy Buonantony? Sounds like a mob boss

https://www.stormybuonantony.com/

azcat49 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:36 pm Who is Stormy Buonantony? Sounds like a mob boss

azcat49 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:36 pm Who is Stormy Buonantony? Sounds like a mob boss

The first half makes me think of Stormy Daniels, the second half, Goodfellas.

I thought all women named Stormy or Busty were porn stars.

Fendicent4ever wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:11 pm Candidly I never enjoy playing BYU. No upside- and opponent from a smaller conference with a limited albeit national recruiting pool. They play about as dirty of a brand of football (alongside Utah) as anyone in the NCAA. You should beat them every time and yet we haven't been. I also get that there aren't a ton of programs out west to play OOC early.

But hey, football is football, and we don't have Noel Mazzone on the payroll anymore so I'm honestly pretty stoked.

Here I thought I was the only one that thought BYU was a traditionally dirty cheap shot football team.

tgrumpy2 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:46 pm

Fendicent4ever wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:11 pm Candidly I never enjoy playing BYU. No upside- and opponent from a smaller conference with a limited albeit national recruiting pool. They play about as dirty of a brand of football (alongside Utah) as anyone in the NCAA. You should beat them every time and yet we haven't been. I also get that there aren't a ton of programs out west to play OOC early.

But hey, football is football, and we don't have Noel Mazzone on the payroll anymore so I'm honestly pretty stoked.

Here I thought I was the only one that thought BYU was a traditionally dirty cheap shot football team.

My non-football educated wife has seen them play a couple times in person and calls them the Dirty Boys. Lol

BYU being a dirty football team is known nation wide.

There had been some discussion of hotshot freshman Jacob Conover coming in and throwing the ball all over the yard, although the talent and depth of their WRs is debatable. This tells me they're going the safer route, at least in Game One. They've got a big, physical defense, a very good kicking game, big O-line, and 220-lb RB Tyler Allgeier (1,130 yards/13 TDs.) So, they'll pound it with an occasional safe pass to 6-6 TE Isaac Rex (12 TDs.)

TheCatInTheHat wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 11:48 am There had been some discussion of hotshot freshman Jacob Conover coming in and throwing the ball all over the yard, although the talent and depth of their WRs is debatable. This tells me they're going the safer route, at least in Game One. They've got a big, physical defense, a very good kicking game, big O-line, and 220-lb RB Tyler Allgeier (1,130 yards/13 TDs.) So, they'll pound it with an occasional safe pass to 6-6 TE Isaac Rex (12 TDs.)

They're starting Jaren Hall who was 31 of 46 for 420 yards, 1 td, and 0 picks in 2019. He didn't play last year.

The "there had been" comment about Conover (past), versus the "this tells me" (present) about the QB decision by Sitake was a response to your first re-tweet of the speculation yesterday, as confirmed by Lev today, along with what I view as some of the impact of that decision. Sorry if that was confusing.

Romney's senior year of high school was in 2014 and is married to a BYU pole vaulter.

Hall is also married and has a baby girl.

Don't know if Conover is married, but he already went on his mission too.

Men playing against boys.

28-7. BYU.

All things considered, that sounds like a decent guess. You figure Fisch's more complex offense will struggle in a first game, and we may have a bit of deer in the headlights effect with a game in Vegas on ESPN right out of the chute. So, if we shoot ourselves in the foot with a couple of turnovers they cash in, that could inflate their score. Otherwise, I'd be a little disappointed if our newfound front 7 size and depth and presumably improved secondary surrenders 28 straight up. If there's such a thing as accepting a loss, I'd feel better with something like 24-17 and a chance well into the 4th quarter, but I don't know if that's in the cards. In any event, Mandalay Bay, here we come!

I assume (and hope) we'll go with the white/white/navy uniform combo as the visitors at Allegiant Stadium next Saturday. BYU is going all blue. In a word...eesh. Here's a (good single malt scotch) toast to tradition.

TheCatInTheHat wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:44 am I assume (and hope) we'll go with the white/white/navy uniform combo

YESSS!!! Now let's just hope SB3 doesn't get stuck on too much cactus trudging through all that beautiful natural desert along Hacienda Ave. and the 15 Fwy on his way to Allegiant Stadium.

Game week!

My hot take is that the Arizona OLine will be greatly improved and get the upper hand against BYU. A new OLine blocking scheme ( multiple TEs and a FB) and quality coaching under Carrol. I also like all 3 RBs.

I think someone hit the nail on the head when they said men against boys. Average age of BYU has to be 21 or 22 and some 24 I would guess.

Conover was a stud QB at Chandler High...I think he graduated a year ahead of my kid. Not big, not super fast, not a gunslinger, but just seems to do everything right. I am kind of happy he isn't the starter, as, despite not being a BYU fan, I hope he has a pretty good career.

I remember the Vegas Bowl vs BYU closed off beer sales on their side of the stadium. Like, not even there for the tempting. So a lot of the less devout LDS were hovering around the walkways and concourses of the Arizona side. I was on the back row of the first section of seats and on the aisle, so one of the BYU drinkers was standing next to me and we got to talking. He was amazed we were so into it...he said something like "we are in this bowl just about every year. Crappy stadium, far from the strip, average games...why are you guys so excited about beating us?" And we were...the entire lower section was standing most of the game and just going nuts. I said to him "this is our first bowl game in 10 years. Yeah, this bowl may only be a handjob, but if you wait 10 years for a handjob, it's going to be one hell of a release."

I was a little drunk, but the analogy was on point, I think. He laughed a bit, but seemed embarrassed about the sexual nature of the analogy, and headed back to Little Provo. Probably shoved a few mints in his mouth on the way. But I think he got the overall point I was making...one fan's Massage Envy is another's 24 hour industrial park massage parlor.

ESPN thinks the UA only has a 19% chance of winning.

Good locker room material.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... rprpLTM96Q

Here are the FPI win probabilities for each game on the Wildcats’ schedule:

vs. BYU (19.1%)
vs. SDSU (39.6%)
vs. NAU (92.0%)
at Oregon (4.5%)
vs. UCLA (18.6%)
at Colorado (16.3%)
vs. Washington (16.3%)
at USC (6.9%)
vs. Cal (37.8%)
vs. Utah (16.1%)
at Washington State (21.3%)
at ASU (9.4%)

Forgive me if this comes off as stream-of-consciousness, but just a few thoughts from stories somewhat related to our game that I've stumbled across...

There's a story in a SLC paper about BYU's "brand" in Vegas. Well, they certainly turn out there. 57,000 tickets sold for the game, and I doubt more than maybe 10,000 Arizona fans in that group. So, even if they've got 20,000 neutral Las Vegans just out for any old college football game, we'll be pretty heavily outnumbered. (But the beer vendors will vastly prefer us.) I'm sure they travel fairly well, particularly within about a day's pickup drive from Provo/SLC. But, it's also a little bit like D-Backs announcers talking about "all the fans who drove over from LA" whenever the Dodgers come to town. Uh, no...not for a midsummer game or two in Phoenix; like it or not, most of the people in the blue gear tend to be locals. Meanwhile, there are something like 100,000 Mormon residents of the greater Vegas area, with no doubt some arm-twisting encouraging them to show up, whether they went to BYU or not.

There's some discussion in the Athletic about the Big XII inviting BYU and Houston to replace Texas and Oklahoma when they leave for the SEC. That makes a lot of sense, and it makes more sense for Houston than the bogus theory put out by Jon Wilner, the Pac-12's self-appointed supreme analyst of conference realignment and media deals, who seems to have hypnotized everyone in the Pac-12's media footprint as the seer of seers, thanks to his syndicated column on league news. (He promoted the idea of Houston to the Pac-12. No way. Back to your video games and fantasy league magazines, Jon.)

Finally, for those of us preparing to go party in Vegas (and yeah, go to the game), there are a couple of things. First, while the Raiders (and the NFL?) have a policy requiring proof of vaccination for entry, the Raiders do not own Allegiant Stadium. They have a lease, but for non-Raider events, there's a Las Vegas board that runs the facility and sets policy. Per Arizona Athletics, there's no requirement to have a vax document (although I always keep mine handy, just in case.) Meanwhile, not to get a dig in, but just FYI, per another story I came across, 50% of the Mormon population are what is described as "vaccine hesitant" or "resistant."

So, that's the stuff I came across.

BYU's game notes:

https://byucougars.com/sites/default/fi ... -%20AZ.pdf

EVCat wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:56 am Conover was a stud QB at Chandler High...I think he graduated a year ahead of my kid. Not big, not super fast, not a gunslinger, but just seems to do everything right. I am kind of happy he isn't the starter, as, despite not being a BYU fan, I hope he has a pretty good career.

I remember the Vegas Bowl vs BYU closed off beer sales on their side of the stadium. Like, not even there for the tempting. So a lot of the less devout LDS were hovering around the walkways and concourses of the Arizona side. I was on the back row of the first section of seats and on the aisle, so one of the BYU drinkers was standing next to me and we got to talking. He was amazed we were so into it...he said something like "we are in this bowl just about every year. Crappy stadium, far from the strip, average games...why are you guys so excited about beating us?" And we were...the entire lower section was standing most of the game and just going nuts. I said to him "this is our first bowl game in 10 years. Yeah, this bowl may only be a handjob, but if you wait 10 years for a handjob, it's going to be one hell of a release."

I was a little drunk, but the analogy was on point, I think. He laughed a bit, but seemed embarrassed about the sexual nature of the analogy, and headed back to Little Provo. Probably shoved a few mints in his mouth on the way. But I think he got the overall point I was making...one fan's Massage Envy is another's 24 hour industrial park massage parlor.

I was absolutely hammered. I believe I fell on some poor old lady (byu fan) after high fiving everyone around me. Felt bad, but she choose to sit in the Arizona section and it was one of the best games I’ve ever attended. We were going fucking nuts!

azgreg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 4:33 pm

What's the capacity of the stadium? Anyone know? I'm too lazy to look it up...

MountainCat wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 4:38 pm

azgreg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 4:33 pm

What's the capacity of the stadium? Anyone know? I'm too lazy to look it up...

65,000

65K.

Last time I was in Vegas for a wedding, I stayed in Henderson to avoid the fees the city charges hotels for the arena and football stadium.

It's honestly probably going to be near a sellout with 45k being BYU fans, 5-10k being Arizona fans and the rest being random Vegas locals.

I don't expect the UofA to beat BYU but I believe the game will be closer than Vegas thinks. I would be surprised if the Cats are not prepared for this game. Under Sumlin, that would be a different story.

I have read multiple takes that BYU O-line and D-line will be so much bigger than Arizona players. So is that really true?

BYU Oline Averages: 306 lbs; 6'-6"
BYU DlIne Average: 285.5; 6'-3.25"

Arizona Oline Average: 314.4 lbs; 6'-5.2"
Arizona Dline Average: 282.25 lbs; 6'-4.25"

So, BYU might be older, but they are not bigger than Arizona in the trenches. Are they more talented? No idea, but I wouldn't make any decision based on that last year or the terrible scheme that offense/defense ran.

I'm not sure how Saturday is going to go, but I have confidence that both lines will be greatly improved.

Why are the Mo’s all up in arms about this tweet?
No we don’t want your precious “school” in the Pac-12. Deal with it.

I missed that BYU has a new OC. BYU promoted their Passing Coordinator that was the former Utah OC in 2015 and 2016 before being fired. In those years Utah had a top 40 rushing offence and a 80ish passing offense.

Arizona's game notes:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... vs_BYU.pdf

Interesting that the depth chart is blank.

So exactly who did BYU beat last year that was so impressive? They beat Boise St in impressive fashion but it wasn’t a vintage BSU team?

They won 11 games against a pretty ordinary schedule snd they had the top QB in the country based upon the NFL draft.

They play 5 PAC teams this year and I doubt they can get three wins out of the 5. I could be all wrong but I just don’t see this game being a two TD BYU win

azcat49 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 9:17 am So exactly who did BYU beat last year that was so impressive? They beat Boise St in impressive fashion but it wasn’t a vintage BSU team?

They won 11 games against a pretty ordinary schedule snd they had the top QB in the country based upon the NFL draft.

They play 5 PAC teams this year and I doubt they can get three wins out of the 5. I could be all wrong but I just don’t see this game being a two TD BYU win

It's not so much how good they are but rather how...... hope I'm wrong.

Here's what they did last year.

@ Navy W55-3
Troy W48-7
Louisiana Tech W45-14
UTSA W27-20
@ Houston W43-26
Texas State W52-14
@ Boise State W51-17
North Alabama W66-14
@ 18 Coastal Carolina L22-17
San Diego State W28-14
UCF W49-23 (bowl game)

azcat49 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 9:17 am So exactly who did BYU beat last year that was so impressive? They beat Boise St in impressive fashion but it wasn’t a vintage BSU team?

They won 11 games against a pretty ordinary schedule snd they had the top QB in the country based upon the NFL draft.

They play 5 PAC teams this year and I doubt they can get three wins out of the 5. I could be all wrong but I just don’t see this game being a two TD BYU win

I mean, we went 0-7, none of the 7 games was particularly competitive, and got beat 70-7 in the final game. I'm not sure I'd look down my nose at a ho hum 11 win season.

The have a fair number of new parts on D but were #10 in total D and #4 in scoring D last year. It wasn't just Wilson. They won 10 of their 12 games by double digits and 8 games by 30+ points.