The Las Vegas Bowl

So hell froze over...well metaphorically at least. With an odd David Hasselhof national anthem...Arizona beat (17)BYU, and so far the schwab is 3-1 on his picks. I picked Arizona to beat (17)BYU simply due to the fact that (17)BYU barely beat Washington, and by the way the Huskies are 0-12 for the season. Senior QB Willie Tuitama was efficient for the game completing 24 of 35 for 325 yards. Although Tuitama had -4 yards rushing he had a 6 yard touchdown rush. (17)BYU QB Max Hall was 30 of 46 for 328 yards 1 touchdown and 1 INT. Hall also had a rushing TD and had 16 yards on the ground. (17)BYU had a total of 28 yards more than the Wildcats but gave up 76 yards on 10 penalties. The cougars had 116 yards total rushing to the Wildcats' 91 total yards. Although Max Hall gained more yards than his opponent, Tuitama threw for a higher completion percentage, more TD's, high yards per attempt and was sacked 1 less time than hall. WR Austin Callie (119) and Micheal Reed (117) lead the Cougars in receiving, and Terrell Turner lead the wildcats with 111 yards receiving.

When this game came up most thought this would be a hard nosed, bang it out or smash mouth football game. With both teams letting it go to the air the leading rusher did not break a 100 yards for the game. (17)BYU's Harvey Unga had 71 rushing yards on just 17 attempts and averaging only 4.2 yards per Cary with 1 TD. Arizona RB Nic Grigsby had a game high 87 yards on a solid 20 rushing attempts with 1 TD and a 4.4 yards per attempt.

* The positives for Arizona: this is the wildcats first bowl game in a decade and they came out with an upset win against a ranked team. Coach Mike Stoops has finally gave this a chance to get on a national stage and play well in the postseason. Although the loss of 3 year stater Willie Tuitama will hurt the Cats', Arizona fans will still have high hopes for a team that did so well this season.*The positives for (17)BYU: QB Max Hall looks like he will be back next season and with that gives him a chance to break 10,00+ passing yards. The Cougars season ended less than favorably, yet this can still be looked as a positive. (17)BYU gets a strong arm back and junior wide out Austin Callie might stay for his senior year as well. max hall and his cougars may have another shot at a BCS bowl or even a national championship if they can get back on the right page for the 2009 season.