2008 Football TV Schedule

Some of the non conference games have yet to be finalized for TV, because of they are road non conference games which will be either on one of the ESPN’s, ABC, Big Ten Network, Fox Sports, and CBS.

One notice is that 93% of the games are on Saturday, and while this is what the conference wanted, but I feel they should have one game a week on a Thursday or Friday night, because there are less choices for football. Yes ESPN has the Thursday night game, but who would not want another game on that night to see some pretty good football. Plus, The Mtn. is on DirecTv now so it’s ok to have these once a week games on Thursday or Friday.

First look leads me to some odd choices for TV, and this could be to the equal coverage game, or the fact that The Mtn. is now on DirecTv. One game that stands out is Navy @ Air Force, Navy has a new coach and Air Force’s team has lost most everyone to graduation. Then the other obvious odd choice is that the BYU v. Utah game has traditional been on The Mtn., BUT have had simulcast on Versus and what is now CBS College Sports. Yeah The Mtn, is on DirecTv but it still not on Dish or other cable providers across the country. This game should be on Versus or at least simulcast the game, but there is a time gap after the first Versus game that begins 2 and a half hours before the Utah and BYU game.

Check out the Schedule

Las Vegas Bowl Preview

#19 (10-2) Sam Boyd Stadium 5PM PT TV: (6-6)

So how good will this sequel be?

Utah 44 Louisville 35

No that is a not a misprint. This was a game that is what the conference needs, by being the only game on a Friday night on ESPN going against a high powered offense. Most people including myself thought the Utes would be able to hang around for a half and then the Cardinal offense would take over. The Utes got off to a quick start leading 21 – 0 before Louisville scored. The Utes did it all in this game which included a fake field goal for a first down, Freshman QB Corbun Louks running for a 16 yard TD run early on, and the most impressive performance came from Darrell Mack who ran for 162 yards and 3 TD’s.Brian Johnson played well by throwing for 312 yards a TD and rushing for another.

This team is so Jekyll and Hyde, they are able to pile it on against UCLA and L’Ville, but UNLV and Air Force loses?? Since I am a Ute fan I hope that this is a wake up call showing that they are a good team, and another lesson they can learn is that they must get up for every game not just against ranked or good teams. We will see next week when San Diego State comes into town.

I will do a larger review Monday with the traditional weekly review. Also here are highlights from the game from ESPN

Robert Johnson is national defensive player of the week

This is a pretty good honor for his first ever collegiate start. The Ute Sophomore Johnson had 6 tackles, 3 solo, 2 interceptions, and also forced a fumble that turned into a touchback against then ranked #11 UCLA. The offical award is the Bronko Nagurski Weekly Award and now that Robert Johnson made the list he is now on the national watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy which is for the national defensive player of the year award. We will see if he can keep this up.

Player and team of the week

  I was thinking about this since Thursday watching Air Force beat TCU on some defense heroics and trickery on 4th and inches.  That was until the Utah Utes took field at Rice Eccles when they destroyed an overrated Pac-10 team in UCLA.  The Utes brought out the trickery by playing true Freshman QB Corbin Louks and Darrel Mack having the first 100 yard rusher for the Utes since the 2005 Emerald Bowl when Quenton Ganther did it then.  This win will mean nothing if Utah does not capitalize on this win and keep the speed going forward. 

As for Player of the Week this is a tough one there are so many worthy players in Donovan Porterie who threw for 327 yards and 3 TD’s, ther is also Darrel Mack who had a career high in rushing yards and had 3 scores himself, or Jim Ollis from Air Force who had 138 yards rushing and an amazing 71 yard TD run on 4th and inches. But for this week I am going with the team that had the huge uspet so this week Darrel Mack is the player of the week.

Monumental Upset

I never would have thought the Utes could pull this one off. This is the highest ranking team Utah has ever beat at home since Colorado State in 1994 when they were ranked 12th at the time. Utah is also now 9-0 at home against teams from a BCS Conference. This is not a full review but Coach Whittingham brought everything out and out coached UCLA by using Freshman QB Corbin Louks to mix up the offense and it worked especially in the touchdown pass late.  You have to give it up to DB Robert Johnson who had probably the play of the game when he dove and knocked the ball away from a UCLA receiver when they were at the one yard line and the ball went through the end zone and gave the Utes the ball because of a touch back.  Also, Johnson had 2 picks in the game and then the running game was amazing with Darrel Mack who was to redshirt had 3 TD’s with 2 receiving and then rushing for 107 yards and another TD.  Hopefully this will propel the Utes to build off of this win for the rest of the season.