And they call me an Engineer

Mendenhall talks to players before 2006 TCU game — From Wikipedia

It’s all summed up in a single quote from BYU’s head coach, Bronco Mendenhall:

“What’s happening here isn’t about me,” he says. “My ultimate goal is for my job to be expendable, where I could walk away from this program and have it continue on without missing a beat. We’re a lot closer to that than we were three years ago.”

He’d like to work himself out of a job!  Now how many FBS (Division-I) coaches would ever say that?

* In an interview for Rivals.com (read the full article)

Does it matter that it was 15 yards further?

So what’s all the controversy?  I’m so tired of hearing the reports of the BYU vs Washington game on Saturday.  All the ESPN analysts kept talking about the “controversial” call by the refs.  In reality, the call made no difference in the outcome of the game.

The call came after Jake Locker scored what seemed to be the overtime-forcing touchdown with mere seconds left in the game.  As he stood up, he flipped the ball over his head, sending it a considerable distance into the air.  According to the rule (which is not a judgment call, but a hard and fast rule) that action is considered celebrating and is illegal.  The referees were forced to throw a flag and access a 15 yard penalty on the PAT.

On the PAT, BYU broke through the line and smothered the ball.  Take a peek at that image.  If Jorgensen hadn’t blocked it, it looks very likely someone else would have.  Does it really matter that it was 15 yards further than normal?  So it was more like a 35 yard field goal rather than a PAT kick.  That’s still a routine kick for a PAC-10 (or any NCAA) kicker.  If the kick had been missed, it would be a different story.  But it was blocked easily.  You can’t even claim that the kicker had to alter the tragectory. It really didn’t matter.

Not once did the national media mention anything about the amazing block by BYU?  The entire focus of the game was on that one call by the referees that really had no bearing on the game.

Congratulations BYU!  Well executed block.

PS.  Jorgensen was even being held on the block.  You can see it in the picture.

In celebration of the Olympic Games that start today in Bejing, China, Google has created a widget that contains a medal tracker as well as event and venue information. All built on their mapping technology. 

And here it is:

[If you don't see the embedded map, view the web original post on the site]

Be sure to come back often to see how the medal tally plays out.

I recently rediscovered the following clip. It’s one of the funniest clips I’ve seen (or heard) from The Onion.

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: ‘Drive Fast’

Dale Murphy recently fired out at Barry Bonds for his “unknowingly” taking performance enhancing drugs.  I was shocked at the public display of, well, hatred he has toward Bonds.

“…  I’ve heard the last few weeks, that that he’s being treated unfairly. You know, life just usually isn’t like that. You don’t usually get treated unfairly. You usually get what you deserve. This is what Barry deserves. He’s a hard guy to like. He’s a hard teammate to have and, you know, he’s set a terrible example for our kids.”

And that’s from a relatively respectable source.

And he’s right!  Here’s someone who cheated (regardless of whether it was explicitly against the rules or not, the spirit of the rules were breached), and is being rewarded with a very coveted record in a major US sport… “America’s Past Time.”  And we honor him.  That’s the “American Way.”

I recently started following a blog from a 19-yr old Entrepreneur, Ben Casnocha. A recent post struck me as quite insightful. Ben outlines 8 things that you need to teach your kids that they most likely are not learning in high school. These are things that not only help them in higher education, but also in the business world. Some might seem a little odd or against the norm, but after some careful consideration, you see the reasoning.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is it just me, or are the BYU football games getting boring?

The last 4 or so games, I have watched, but not really enjoyed. There are some good plays, but very little along the lines of great or amazing plays. There is no drama because they are blowing out their opponents. This last game against Colorado State was a little exciting in the first quarter. That was just because BYU didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders at first.

It’s great that they are doing so well, but it would be nice to see some more amazing plays. The BYU offense has become a machine that just marches. It doesn’t do anything flashy… just gets the job done.

I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Wow! What an amazing game for Mendenhall and the BYU Football Team! Talk about a ground breaking and fantastic game.

Of course, this being one of the most important games in recent BYU football history, I didn’t get to watch it. I was still at work. We released a new version of our product this afternoon. It was really just a maintenance release, but we fixed some major bugs. There were problems with a few changes, and so we didn’t actually get the release pushed to our production servers until after the game was over. And of course, I had to stick around till the end to run a conversion script once it was in production.

Read the rest of this entry »

This wasn’t the most exciting game and to be honest, I didn’t watch all of it. I missed several parts and didn’t really care much about the game. I knew (or at least expected) it to be a blow out. Just a few surprises.

The USU running back, Marcus Cross, had a very admirable game with 127 yards, accounting for more than half of USU’s total 242 yards. Not a bad performance when your team got completely shut out.

Read the rest of this entry »

I failed to write a summary for BYU’s loss to Boston College.  My prediction was somewhat close although I was not expecting double overtime.  I was disappointed in the play of BYU.  They looked really pretty good the first half.  Everything seemed to be flowing as expected.  There was nothing spectacular, but definitely consistent.

The second half was a little different.  It seemed as if BYU lost their drive.  They didn’t seem to have the killer instinct necessary to close out BC.  Too many opportunities were squandered.  They consistently drove the ball down the field, but once again failed to get the touchdown and had to settle for the field goal.

Read the rest of this entry »