BYUROCKS wrote:

TimO wrote:

Blue-White Scrimmage Set for Saturday
by Jeff Reynolds, BYU Athletic Communications


PROVO, Utah (April 8, 2008) -- In what will be an exciting and entertaining conclusion to the spring season, the BYU football team will participate in the 35th Annual Blue-White Spring Scrimmage on Saturday, April 12 at Edwards Stadium. The scrimmage is free and is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. (MT).

Grade-school youth between the ages of 5 and 12 will be able to participate in a free football clinic at Edwards Stadium, beginning at 12 p.m. (MT). Members of the BYU football team will be on hand to teach basic fundamentals.

Stadium gates will open at 11:00 a.m. A promotional football poster will be available to the first 2,500 fans.

Concessions will open by 11:30 a.m. on the west (upper & lower level) and east sides (lower level) of the stadium.

Parking is free for the spring scrimmage

My brother and I are going early just so we can play football on the field before and after the game

byucougars.com/Filing.jsp?ID=10626

dang I wish I could go my sisters wedding reception is that day :(

Better get your priorities in line. Hey it's not like it's YOUR wedding reception!

Is Mahuika injured? I never saw him at all. Collie, Ashworth, and I think either White or Kozlowski were "returning" punts.

Di Luigi did look really good as did Hafoka and Ashworth (he made a tough catch on a way late throw by McCuen and got open deep a few times although our back-ups didn't seem to see him). Pittman seemed solid and had a nice break-up on a deep pass. Rich looked pretty good.

I'm really worried about our back-up QB, whoever it turns out to be. I thought both Gaskins and McCuen looked very shaky.

Short_Changed wrote:

Is Mahuika injured? I never saw him at all. Collie, Ashworth, and I think either White or Kozlowski were "returning" punts.

Di Luigi did look really good as did Hafoka and Ashworth (he made a tough catch on a way late throw by McCuen and got open deep a few times although our back-ups didn't seem to see him). Pittman seemed solid and had a nice break-up on a deep pass. Rich looked pretty good.

I'm really worried about our back-up QB, whoever it turns out to be. I thought both Gaskins and McCuen looked very shaky.

yeah, he tore a ligament in the lv bowl. Minor tear though, he'll be back for fall camp.

I guess I must have been watching a different game on Sat. One poster said that McEuen and Gaskins looked "shaky"? But I have always thought that Gaskins was shaky and didn't look it. McEuen has been my choice for quite awhile. Having watched practices alot this spring, he has outperformed Gaskins day in and day out. His throws are downfield with something on them. To play at this level, some of your passes are going to be dangerous. Watch Max sometime. You shake your head sometime at who he throws it to and danger of it. But he pulls it off. You have to have that kind of arm and mentality. IMO Gaskins doesn't have the arm or the heart to do it. Most of his were his normal 3 yard over the line with a longer run attached to it. Covey is not going to make it. Completed 2 passes for 6 yards or soemthing? He didn't look all that different in high school. He doesn't have the arm for D1 ball. Maybe he will donate his scholie to McEuen, who is much more deserving of one IMO again. Maybe McEuen would consider a name change?

But I thought the scrimmage was great. The light finally came on in the coaches heads that the younger guys need reps and what better place. Does Max have to prove anything? No. So why waste reps on him at this game? Give them to other guys who don't get looks and the experience. John B's last spring he got so many reps at the Blue/White game. Were they unsure about him? Wasted opportunity for other guys. We will need those other guys to be better prepared than in the past if something happens to Max (and whoever else). The more reps they get, the better prepared they will be. Remember what Coach Doman said about them being potential starters. If theya ren't ready, we are in a world of hurt. I, personally, think we will be in good shape if something happens. We have to build our depth (besides praying fervently nothing happens).

Go Cougars!!!!!!

Considering our relative lack of depth at QB and Covey's life long dream to play QB, I don't see how it can hurt for him to sit this year and attempt to learn the position. It's not like he won't be conditioning and lifiting weight should he be asked to play special teams or db in the future.

We all know the Steve Young 8th string QB story......while I pray that Max stays healthy for the remainder of his playing days, you can never completely remove the potential for disaster of getting a couple QBs hurt in a season. Honestly, I don't see how BYU football is hurt in any way by getting Covey snaps at QB in practices right now.

BTW - anyone that balked at playing Northern Iowa in Provo next fall needs to start thinking about what Bronco is doing. Our starters are not getting a lot of snaps and I don't expect them to get a ton in the fall either. The absolute beauty of playing a solid but very beatable (and small) team like UNI, is that it achieves several purposes, not the least of these is solid real gametime experience for the starters and avoiding the risk of injuries to experienced starters in fall camp.(obviously the game is an opportunity for injury, but there's also a 'W" in the balance while fall camp offers nothing but cohesion, timing, and sorting out the depth chart). Guys like Clawson, Chambers, Tuitama, Rich, Hafoka, Pittman, etc. need fall camp but honestly the risk of getting a Jorgenson, Unga, etc. is too much considering we already know where they are on the depth chart.

Our losses to UCLA and Tulsa were so close that I can see what Bronco is thinking. Imagine a healthy Tialevea, etc. going into those games. A few tackles more, 10 yards better field position, a missed 3rd down by those teams, and we may honestly have been taking about BCS last year. An injury or two may have made all the difference. These are the things you have to consider when you're striving for perfection.

If and when we go undefeated this year and challenge for a BCS bowl game, I hope we can look back to the Northern Iowa game as an asset.

mountaincougar wrote:

Covey is not going to make it. Completed 2 passes for 6 yards or soemthing? He didn't look all that different in high school. He doesn't have the arm for D1 ball. Maybe he will donate his scholie to McEuen, who is much more deserving of one IMO again. Maybe McEuen would consider a name change? :)

While I'm not claiming omniscience concerning Covey's future, I have the opposite impression than you of his potential. Considering that the last time Covey played QB was in high school, your observation "He didn't look all that different in high school" should be expected. Covey was recruited as an athlete and was set to fill-in depleted depth in the secondary during his freshman year. Mendenhall agreed that Covey would be given a shot as a QB after his mission. He has had 6 weeks to not only shave off two years of mission rust but to refine QB skills he hasn't touched for over three years, and apply them in an offense he has never worked with before, at a level that must be instinctive to be effective. He's also competing against two QB's who've had a full year of workouts, drills and learning the offense, as well as actual practice repetitions.

Given all that, and not having seen him play before, I was not expecting to see much when he came on the field during Saturday's scrimmage. What I observed, however, was not a guy "who's not going to make it". I saw a guy who will benefit by learning more of the offensive system. I also saw a guy with athleticism who showed poise and threw a very clean looking ball. A guy who, despite the shortcomings, may have more of "IT" than the other two. The same kind of "IT" that pushed Brandon Doman into a starting job with two games left in his junior year after struggling his entire collegiate career to persuade the coaches that he was not a backup DB. Covey's may have been just a glimmer, but I think "IT" was there.