Random thoughts from Saturday

It was good to see LaVell Edwards on the field Saturday, albeit briefly. BYU has a tradition of picking a player prior to each game to run the team’s “Y” flag onto the field. This year, a new tradition has been added — an alumni flag. The team chooses a former Cougar to run out with a “Y” flag. In the debut of this new tradition, the players selected the legendary Edwards, who was joined by his son, Jimmy (a former Cougar player). It was a fitting tribute to the man who put BYU football on the map.

Speaking of debut, outside linebacker Coleby Clawson, a junior college transfer from Snow JC, was impressive Saturday against Northern Iowa. He delivered a ferocious hit on Northern Iowa quarterback Pat Grace in the first half and finished with six tackles, including 2.5 tackles-for-loss for minus-17 yards. He also forced a fumble.
‘It was everything I hoped it would be and more,” Clawson said of his first game as a Cougar. “It was fun to be in the big stadium with the fans. It’s fun to have a big crowd behind you.’

Another memorable moment: receiver Reed White making his first catch as a Cougar — a diving grab on a 30-yard pass from his cousin, quarterback Max Hall, on the one-yard line in the fourth quarter. After the play, it looked like Hall was more excited than White about White’s first catch. The next play, Hall scored a touchdown. Keeping it in the family, Hall’s brother-in-law, Dennis Pitta, caught 11 passes for 213 yards.

BYU freshman O’Neill Chambers told me earlier this week that he guaranteed coaches he would return a kickoff for a touchdown (it hasn’t happened at BYU in a decade). He never said that guaranteed kickoff return would come in the first game. Still, he nearly did it with a 51-yard kickoff return against the Panthers.
Meanwhile, he made a freshman mistake on a punt return, calling for a fair catch inside the 10-yard line, which is a definite faux pas. The next play, Northern Iowa scored a touchdown on a Hall fumble in the end zone.

I predicted that Utah would defeat Michigan in the Big House. Honest (Dick Harmon as my witness). If there’s one thing that Ute coach Kyle Whittingham is a master at, it is getting his team ready for a big game. He’s done that in the last three years against BYU, and he’s never lost a bowl game as a head coach.