Blue and White Debate

By Matt Sonnenberg

Staff Writer

1. Thoughts on USU Football

It's time to get on board. Every Utah fan I've talked to since that game has said over and over how impressed they were with the Aggies, and for good reason. The team only has few kinks that need to be worked out and rust to be shaken off before the Texas A&M game next week. Get the offensive line back to where they were at the end of last season and Diondre Borel's passes locked in like we also saw last year and this team could be a legitimate contender in the WAC this season. At the very least the Aggies will strike fear into every team they face for the rest of the year.

2. Who is going to win the Super Bowl

I hate to have to say it, but it won't be the Chicago Bears. They're getting all sorts of preseason love because they finally have a quarterback, but there's plenty more missing to consider them a Super Bowl caliber team. I think with the self-shooting distraction gone from their locker room, the New York Giants are going to be a more focused team than we saw a year ago when they went 12-4 in the regular season. I think they'll meet the defending champion Steelers, who I also believe are in for another solid season, in the Super Bowl and pull off the upset of the defending champs.

3. Is BYU football for real?

I'm still saying no. Oklahoma showed up thinking they were going to walk all over BYU, and BYU treated that game like their own Super Bowl. I couldn't help but notice that every time Oklahoma started blitzing against BYU's offense, Max Hall would freak out and either make a poor throw or get sacked like he always has. Bob Stoops for some reason never quite realized that the opposing quarterback couldn't handle the pressure in his face. My guess is it'll be another year where Utah State football exposes BYU for the fraud they really are when they get massively over-hyped to start the season.

4. Where is Derek Jeter's place in baseball history?

Derek Jeter looks like he is going to forever have his name attached to this era in New York Yankees history. Guys like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, and Mickey Mantle all had their run of being THE guy to wear the New York pinstripes. Jeter will be the franchise hits leader with four World Series titles under his belt. That is more than enough on a player's resume to carve a place in franchise history. Not to mention he's been among the top-five players at his position for close to 15 years now. While it seems that a player like Jeter might not belong in the company of the aforementioned named, it's tough to argue against it by now.

5. Rant

If you are one of the people who walks around campus wearing BYU apparel, just know that you've brought upon yourself any and all verbal assaults you receive from your fellow students. I don't care if your parents raised you a fan of them, or whatever past loyalties you had. You could have gone there. You didn't. You're on the dark side now. Embrace it. For those who claim they don't want to cheer for a team that loses like USU, and cheer for BYU instead, quit half-assing your fanhood and cheer for the Florida Gators and Pittsburgh Steelers. By your logic you should only be supporting winners, and I'm pretty sure those two are the current BCS and Super Bowl champions, not some third-place Mountain West Conference fraud of a team.

By G. Christopher Terry

1. I'm feeling it. I love the team, I love the new coaching staff. It's a good time to be an Aggie fan. I knew I stuck with this team during the last two decades of wandering through the desert for a reason. The season opener against a Utah was a great cover. After a bye this week, next Saturday will see USU traveling to College Station, Texas to face second-tier Big XII squad Texas A&M. Although Texas A&M's quarterback Jerrod Johnson may be the most athletic player USU will face this year, I give the Ags a great chance at their second straight road cover.

2. Although it's going to make Matt's buddy Bart Bowen scoff, I'm picking the Green Bay Packers. I think the schedule sets up well for Green Bay to finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-4 and if they get home field advantage in the playoffs, it's going to be a tall order for another NFC team to walk onto Lambeau field and beat the Pack in December. Uninformed fans might be worried that Brett Favre is in Minnesota, informed fans know that Aaron Rogers is better. The defense is switching to a Dom Capers-coached 3-4, and management devoted virtually the entire draft to finding personnel suited to the new scheme, highlighted by mammoth nose tackle BJ Raji and outside linebacker Clay Mathews. With Mathews, AJ Hawk, Nick Barnett, and converted defensive end Aaron Kampman, Green Bay's 'backers should be flat out nasty. A healthy Cullen Jenkins should give Green Bay one of the toughest front sevens around, teams didn't start running all over the Pack last year until their most disruptive lineman was knocked out by injury. Right now a lot of people don't know the names of the Packer's players, they went 6-10 last year after all. That's fine, they'll know them by December.

3. No. An upset win over no. 3 Oklahoma was great for the program, the Mountain West conference, and don't forget the waterhead fans. But it doesn't happen if Sam Bradford doesn't get hurt. Plus, under Bob Stoops, Oklahoma has proven quite beatable in big games: see recent bowl losses to Boise State and West Virginia, or their 2005 undressing at the hands of 25-point underdogs TCU. I will go on record as saying that BYU will lose to one or more of the following teams on their remaining schedule: Florida State, UNLV, TCU, and/or Utah. I still think they could win the Mountain West, due to getting the Utes and Frogs at Lavell Edwards stadium, but I don't see an undefeated season in their future. And two words to the BYU fans who have said the words "national championship game" over the course of the past week, as they were carried away with the euphoria of their win in Arlington: Seek therapy.

4. I can't believe Derek Jeter is 35. The Captain is now a Yankee of legend along with the Iron Horse, the Babe and the Mick. On a side note, he's also perfect and he can't do anything wrong.

5. Since I just barely watched the Pittsburgh Steelers win in overtime against the Tennessee Titans, let's discuss the NFL's sudden death overtime rule. I love it. Others hate it because it seems intrinsically unfair to them that a team can lose without ever getting possession of the ball. The game, they say, is decided by the coin toss. This would be true if defense were not a part of the game of football. Tennessee could have won the game by forcing a fumble, an interception, or a punt, and scoring on offense. They didn't lose because of a toin coss. They lost because they couldn't pressure Ben Roethlisberger or cover his receivers.