Eye On The Y is a weekly Salt Lake Tribune newsletter covering all things BYU athletics. Subscribe here.
Remember when former BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall was interrupted by an elderly gentleman during a speech at a booster gathering a few years ago? The fan stopped Mendenhall in mid-sentenced to remind him that BYU home football games were no longer played in the afternoons anymore.
He was mostly right, which is why the humorous interaction got plenty of air-time play.
I’ve been told that particular fan has passed away, but I had to smile anyway when it was announced Monday that the Oct. 27 game against Northern Illinois at LaVell Edwards Stadium will kick off at 1:30 p.m. Yes, that’s in the afternoon.
The game will be televised by ESPNU.
BYU fans everywhere are rejoicing, especially those that sat through last week’s 49-23 win over Hawaii that kicked off at 8:26 p.m. when the temperature was 51 degrees. With a stiff breeze making it much colder, thousands of fans left early due to the sub-40 temperatures in the fourth quarter.
Rounding Them Up
In case you missed them, here are some of the stories, player profiles and columns the Tribune has brought to you this past week:
• The Cougars played well in all three phases to knock off Hawaii 49-23 last Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Trib
• Tribune columnist Gordon Monson caught up with senior quarterback Tanner Mangum after the six-game starter in 2018 was replaced in the starting lineup by freshman Zach Wilson. Trib
• BYU coaches made the right move in starting Wilson against Hawaii, if only because it somehow inspired the other guys to play better. Trib
• No fewer than six players who were born in countries other than the United States are on the BYU women’s basketball team this year — two from Brazil, three from New Zealand and one from Sweden. Trib
• It could be a rough season for the BYU women’s basketball team, but West Coast Conference coaches still voted them to finish third in the WCC race, behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. Trib
Views From Elsewhere
• Deseret News columnist Doug Robinson outlined the various other times BYU has made a midseason quarterback switch. Dnews
• Deseret News columnist Dick Harmon reminisces on the life and talents of the Voice of the Cougars, Paul James, who passed away last week. Dnews
Quotable
Of course, the big news last week was the coaches’ decision to start Wilson against Hawaii. Here’s what coach Kalani Sitake had to say after the game about why he made the change:
“You guys have heard us say that guys are competing every day,” Sitake said. “Every position gets evaluated. We feel like everyone has to compete for their job every week and there are a lot of positions where we’ll be making some changes, and that just happened to be one of them this week. The last couple of weeks, we felt like [Wilson] was doing a good enough job to give him the starting spot because he deserved it.”
Around campus
• BYU’s women’s volleyball team swept Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine last week to hold on to the No. 1 spot in the national rankings for the sixth-straight week. The Cougars (18-0, 8-0 WCC) host LMU on Thursday at Smith Fieldhouse.
• BYU’s women’s soccer team dropped its first conference game last week, falling to Pepperdine 2-1 at Malibu. The Cougars had defeated Portland, Gonzaga and San Diego before losing to the Waves. BYU is at Pacific on Thursday and Saint Mary’s on Saturday.
• BYU’s men’s golf team placed fourth at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate in Alabama earlier this month and will hit the links against this weekend at the Pacific Invitational in Stockton, Calif.
• BYU’s women’s golf team hasn’t played since finishing seventh at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational in Seattle Oct. 9-10 and will be back in action Oct. 29-31 at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu.
