Oh, Airwolf, you make reading this board such a delightfully controversial experience. I honestly believe that you could make an obviously true statement (i.e. "the sun rises in the east" or "football and basketball are different sports)" and you would immediately have someone pounce on it and declare it erroneous just because of the mentality you have created.

But I have to give you props: Unlike so many people with unpopular opinions, you stick around to back them up. You probably simply enjoy stirring the pot in whatever way possible and personally I have no problem with that. It is an interesting sidenote to check how far your karma has fallen every time I log on.

But as for your argument, I find it easy to find both sides of the issue. Yes, many quarterbacks have a learning curve and improve as the season progresses. It could be tough to start against relatively strong defenses like Arizona and UCLA.

But on the other hand, as others have mentioned, a number of BYU quarterbacks came in with relatively little D-1 experience and excelled (Sheide, Wilson, McMahon, Young, Bosco, Detmer, Sarkisian). Others that did pretty well have been forgotten because of the plethora of great names (Jensen, Covey, Hancock).

The truth of the matter is no one knows how a quarterback will perform until he gets on the field. We hear all about confidence, arrogance, poise, strength, leadership, decision-making, mobility, accuracy, and of course "it," but the truth is only time will tell whether a QB will be successful on the field or not.

Plus there are so many other factors: Line play and experience, receiving corps, grasp of the offense, defensive ability to give the offense opportunities, running game, weather, officiating, etc.

An 6-6 season or worse in 2007 will be a major blow to the program and the fan base (but probably not for Airwolf), an 8-4 season will be satisfactory, 10-2 will be excellent and 12-0 will be incredible. I can absolutely guarantee that with Hall (or Gaskins) at the helm, the Cougars will fall into one of those catagories.

Right now, BYU is undefeated ... as is every other team in the country. And fans have every right to believe that their team will remain that way until proven wrong. Sure, it's not realistic but with the season still over a month away, realism is overrated.

You can believe that too, Airwolf, if you chose to.

But for some reason, I don't think you will, at least not here.

buzzard wrote:

How can we set up a pool on when and who takes Airwolf's Karma to -300, 500, or even -1000? It gets almost to the point where I do it just on principle.
And Airwolf, you might be too young, naive, and/or biased to remember, but Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, and Robbie Bosco all were called on to start with little or no D1 experience. They seem to have done allright.

I would add Steve Sarkisian, and John Walsh to the mix as well. They were both JC transfers without D-1 experience and both were VERY COCKY. I happen to like the both of them and hope Max has a bit of both of them in him as well.

GO COUGS!

Airwolf84 wrote:

Guys who are arrogant and cocky like Hall reportedly is have a tendency to either fall apart at the seams emotionally or become so frustrated that they lose confidence fast when faced with adversity and against Arizona’s D, that’s all he’s going to have, especially with no running game to relieve pressure off him. If you guys think Max is going to step in and rack up 300 yards passing per game and 30+ points, you're nuts. It took Beck 3 years to blossom into a good QB, but somehow, Hall is going to be an instant star? Right. Remember Paul Shoemaker? How about Bret Engemann? Or Matt Berry? These guys all had the "tools" to be the next great BYU QB and they faded into oblivion. This isn't to say that Hall won't, but he isn't going to step in and take over the reigns of the offense as if Beck were still under center... that's ridiculous. He will have a big learning curve and maybe he will be another great BYU QB or maybe he'll be a bug bust. One thing is a given... this season will be a learning experience for him, especially against defenses like Arizona, UCLA and TCU.

Are you kidding? Guys who are arrogant and cocky have a tendency to either fall apart at the seems ,blah, blah, blah.... Like McMahon did, and John Elway. Of all the QBs you listed, maybe Berry and Engemann might have had a slight rep for being a little cocky. I don't hink I would go that far though. Beck clearly needed to have his head straightened out, and his confidence built UP. It took three years because Bosco was not a good QBs coach. Doman IS.

Who is saying Hall is going to step up and throw for 300 yards passing per game and 30 points plus? All these guys are saying is that he is showing the leadership qualities very early that could very well (and I believe will) lead to early success. Yes, there is a learning curve, not nearly the negative you AGAIN try to make it out to be. I'm predicting still more egg on your face early this year.<br><br>Post edited by: Iceman, at: 2007/07/30 19:50

At least Airwolf has given up on even pretending to be a fan of anything related to BYU now. Since he seems to be even more bitter now than before maybe he is a Stanford fan and needs to get a lot of anger out.

I wasted my karma before so there are still about 5 hours and 55 minutes before I can use up any more.

Ben Olson did seem to be quite arrogant in the few interviews I have heard him do. I haven't heard the same from Hall yet so I'll wait and then probably decide that he is confident and not cocky at all.

Airwolf84 wrote:

Also... if Bronco or any of the coaches are burning an undefeated season into the minds of their players, they're setting up their guys for a big letdown emotionally because an unrealistic expectation like that is going to weigh heavy on their psyche once they start out 0-1.

If Bronco is telling his guys anything other then they will be undefeated this season then he should be let go as head coach immediately. Losers set low goals and achieve them, Winners set goals in the stars and Achieve them. Bronco is a winner Airwolf. BYU probably will not go undefeated this year but if the coach or any of the players have the attitude that BYU can't go undefeated, I wouldn't want them coaching or playing on my team.

Airwolf84 wrote:

Guys who are arrogant and cocky like Hall reportedly is have a tendency to either fall apart at the seams emotionally or become so frustrated that they lose confidence fast when faced with adversity and against Arizona’s D, that’s all he’s going to have, especially with no running game to relieve pressure off him. If you guys think Max is going to step in and rack up 300 yards passing per game and 30+ points, you're nuts. It took Beck 3 years to blossom into a good QB, but somehow, Hall is going to be an instant star? Right. Remember Paul Shoemaker? How about Bret Engemann? Or Matt Berry? These guys all had the &quot;tools&quot; to be the next great BYU QB and they faded into oblivion. This isn't to say that Hall won't, but he isn't going to step in and take over the reigns of the offense as if Beck were still under center... that's ridiculous. He will have a big learning curve and maybe he will be another great BYU QB or maybe he'll be a bug bust. One thing is a given... this season will be a learning experience for him, especially against defenses like Arizona, UCLA and TCU.

Funny that you say that wolfie...For some reason it reminds me of the season opener against Arizona...I remember people in AZ saying the same things about Tuitama...FSN did a whole segment on him and he did a fantastic job of talking about how great he was...maybe this here he'll back it up...just food for thought...<br><br>Post edited by: sunsfrk, at: 2007/07/30 22:23