Bronco Mendenhall has announced that Fifa ...er...Manase Tonga will be serving a one-game suspension for his arrest.
As many predicted, this suspension will be the first game of the season against Arizona. While I really wanted Tonga to play in that game, I recognize that is the most fitting punishment for what happened. Back-up fullback, Joe Semanoff, may not be as versatile as Tonga but is no stranger to the field. He is more of a pure fullback and Vakapuna will likely get most of the carries.
In other news, today and tomorrow are the MWC media days in Las Vegas and they have just released the Preseason Media Poll and All-MWC preseason team.
I am actually impressed that BYU is projected to finish #2 in the conference. The MWC media realizes more than the national media that it was more than just the seniors that made the 2006 squad great.
Last year BYU inexplicably had only 1 player on the All-MWC defense after a great season. This year, Bryan Kehl and Quinn Gooch are both on the pre-season team as are Sete Aulai and Dallas Reynolds on the offensive side of the ball.
My 3 Cents: If BYU is #2 in the conference, it will be because #1 TCU is in a BCS bowl game. I think the race is very tight and both teams have young quarterbacks at the helm. It should be one of the best games in MWC history in November.
I think by the end of the season we will see 1-2 more BYU players on the All-MWC team on offense and 1-2 more on Defense. I would venture a guess that Collie/Reed and Pitta on offense and Poppinga and Jorgensen on defense. What other players could emerge as stars?
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9 comments:
Beck signs!
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,695194391,00.html
According to ESPN it is a 3 year contract with an option that gives him $2.25 million in guaranteed money. Not bad for a guy who graduated from college less than a year ago.
I am glad about Tonga's suspension. Had he not been given this punishment, all of Bronco's talk to this point would have proved hollow rhetoric. And if we can't beat AZ without Tonga. . .then we probably wouldn't beat them with Tonga. He's a great player and I am happy to have him, but we will need a lot more than one running back to bring their A game.
I expect that we will, and I look forward to a great game.
BYU by 17
According to article by Darnell Dickson today (Sat) Fui may not be fully recovered until Arizona on Sept 1. He is so strong & muscle bound that he is almost a freak and I hope he doesn't turn out to be injured most of the time like Luke Staley who because of that reason never made it in the NFL even though he won the Doak Walker award in 01. If we lose him in addition to Tonga against Arizona we could be in for trouble.
Still would like to see BYU return to their original Royal Blue color.
Seems during the Master Bateman era a decision was made by him, in conjunction with fearless Freddie to change to Navy Blue because they could sell more items. The Master was quoted on TV as saying the new color is the "deepest color of Royal Blue"!
Kentucky has never had a problem selling their Royal Blue items and fill their stadium with the fans wearing BYU's stolen color.
North Carolina is totally successful with their tradition of sell their color of powder blue items.
Lets make the tradition come back complete, returnig to our Royal Blue that was taken from us with the philosophy of , "not a soul will be lost"!
3 year BYU track letterman, class of s'66 & Head Cheerleader 1963.
Water boy for BYU's 1st champion football team which played in Royal Blue.
The Zman
The only reason Luke Staley won the Doak Walker Award in '01 is because both Deshaun Foster (UCLA) and William Green (Boston College) got suspended that year. They were both vastly superior backs to Luke Staley.
Staley was a good back, but he wasn't a pro-caliber back even without the injury problems.
But the reason the Staley did not make it in the NFL, if my memory is correct, was not due to talent...it was due to being hurt sll the time.
Josh,
You are full of crap about Staley. He would have been an NFL back no doubt if not for injuries. A 6,1 230 pound back who runs a 4.4 and has great hands out of the back field is an NFL caliaber back.
My apologies. Staley would have been a great 3rd string back in the NFL had injuries not cut his career short.
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