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The "Harline's still open" game was on the Mountain the other night. I haven't been smacked really hard in the groin with a rubber mallett recently, and I really miss that feeling, so I decided to watch.
A couple of thoughts:
1. That BYU offense was unstoppable with Beck, Harline, Brown, and a bunch of scrubs at receiver. Had Austin Collie not been fighting the gaucho's revenge and horrible crotch rot in South America, that offense may have been your best ever.
2. Watching the game made me realize that Utah has really improved the overall speed of the team in three years, particularly at LB and Safety. The '06 Utes started Casey Evans and Steve Tate at Safety. That is not a joke. Those are not the two fastest safeties ever at Utah, although Kimball Christianson would have made them both look like Usain Bolt. Compared to Joe Dale and Bob Johnson, however, they look as quick as Candace Parker. The LBs for that game were Brady, TahitianNoni, and Mokofisi, compared to Sly, Wright, and Gaison. Just an upgrade in speed all around.
3. It's interesting what Utah's success last year has done to dull the pain of TCU 2005 through UNLV 2007. Without the SUGAR BOWL victory, there's no way on God's green earth that I would ever have watched the second half of the Beck to Harline game. Never. I'd have rather done something totally out of character like help my wife stain the front door. However, with 2008 in the rearview mirror, I bravely watched the second half with a sort of sick satisfaction, resigned to the inevitable finish and the corresponding climaxing of James Bates. I felt almost no animosity towards that mouth breathing ADD patient John Beck, and only found myself bitching about pass interference calls silently, somewhat halfheartedly, rather than at full voice with the vocal power of Pavarotti and the vocabulary of a young Eddie Murphy.
I guess what I'm saying is, the SUGAR BOWL saved me, in every way that a sports fan can be saved. I'm not threatened by the Mighty Cougars anymore. I don't hang on every ridiculous phrase that Bronco Mendenhall utters, hoping for a chance to pounce on some ninniness. I don't give two shakes about what dweebs like Craig James think of the Utes. Phil Steele picked SJSU over Utah? Whoopity freaking dooo!
I was even, perish the thought, happy without reservation that the Cougars beat the Sooners. Had Utah not worn Nick Saban's ass like a hat, I wouldn't have experienced this mighty change. Now, however, even the sucker punch that was Beck to Harline doesn't bother me anymore. I am changed. I am a new creature, an evolved Ute fan.
And I know I will feel this way until Utah's first conference loss this year, at which point I'm sure there's a nice warm pool of vomit somewhere waiting anxiously for the return of this particular dog.
A couple of thoughts:
1. That BYU offense was unstoppable with Beck, Harline, Brown, and a bunch of scrubs at receiver. Had Austin Collie not been fighting the gaucho's revenge and horrible crotch rot in South America, that offense may have been your best ever.
2. Watching the game made me realize that Utah has really improved the overall speed of the team in three years, particularly at LB and Safety. The '06 Utes started Casey Evans and Steve Tate at Safety. That is not a joke. Those are not the two fastest safeties ever at Utah, although Kimball Christianson would have made them both look like Usain Bolt. Compared to Joe Dale and Bob Johnson, however, they look as quick as Candace Parker. The LBs for that game were Brady, TahitianNoni, and Mokofisi, compared to Sly, Wright, and Gaison. Just an upgrade in speed all around.
3. It's interesting what Utah's success last year has done to dull the pain of TCU 2005 through UNLV 2007. Without the SUGAR BOWL victory, there's no way on God's green earth that I would ever have watched the second half of the Beck to Harline game. Never. I'd have rather done something totally out of character like help my wife stain the front door. However, with 2008 in the rearview mirror, I bravely watched the second half with a sort of sick satisfaction, resigned to the inevitable finish and the corresponding climaxing of James Bates. I felt almost no animosity towards that mouth breathing ADD patient John Beck, and only found myself bitching about pass interference calls silently, somewhat halfheartedly, rather than at full voice with the vocal power of Pavarotti and the vocabulary of a young Eddie Murphy.
I guess what I'm saying is, the SUGAR BOWL saved me, in every way that a sports fan can be saved. I'm not threatened by the Mighty Cougars anymore. I don't hang on every ridiculous phrase that Bronco Mendenhall utters, hoping for a chance to pounce on some ninniness. I don't give two shakes about what dweebs like Craig James think of the Utes. Phil Steele picked SJSU over Utah? Whoopity freaking dooo!
I was even, perish the thought, happy without reservation that the Cougars beat the Sooners. Had Utah not worn Nick Saban's ass like a hat, I wouldn't have experienced this mighty change. Now, however, even the sucker punch that was Beck to Harline doesn't bother me anymore. I am changed. I am a new creature, an evolved Ute fan.
And I know I will feel this way until Utah's first conference loss this year, at which point I'm sure there's a nice warm pool of vomit somewhere waiting anxiously for the return of this particular dog.
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