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Show Inside Today Baseball Scoreboard B6 B7 B8 B12 w52usiness ..... Weather complete look at Thursday's prep action, B3, B6. A PORT & tDlTOR: TAD WALCH Bl THE DAILY HERALD 344-25- FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, 1999 BYU 34, COLORADO STATE " us, - v Tad Walch Small group merits at. large part of credit ?for swift BYU start PROVO 3 1 2 Cuffing!? BYU BEAT in New conference. Same old story. The Mountain West opened its doors for business Thursday night at Cougar Stadium with a dream 'matchup, No. 23 Colorado State vs. .No. 25 BYU. 5 'Part of the story line included Rams coach Sonny Lubick, who came from Miami to turn CSU into a power and who responded with three WAC ' titles in the last five years. Meanwhile, some hiked to think that La Veil Edwards and Co. had slipped at BYU. Perhaps the coach and school which had ruled the WAC roost with 18 conference champin 27 years was on the slide. ionships ; The Cougars were the biggest, bad-dedogs in the WAC, the football program that earned the league national respect. But what had the Cougars done Jately? s BYU has to the contrary J division conference or seven 'iymm pities in the first nine years of this "decade it felt like the glory days 1,Jiad ended. Or if they hadn't ended, the possibility of future glory- was slipping " ' from BYlTs grasp. Dick Harmon (Mk, ' r II 1 3 jr) ! v . Cougar pride paying off big for Staley ;' PROVO They stole one. By all rights of the draw, BYU st '4 .r' 5 - s?.-Fact- -- '' THURSDAY'S 3 thrashing of the Rams should eradicate such 34-1- i $ notions. By the end of this one, ESPN announcers were speculating about the Cougars' ability to run the table elbow their way into the Bowl X4" M-S- Xd v : 5tUlUtS : l: u ! g t IUI U1CU Ulg BllUWtUH3, JCIUttpt) : a. s. a. i t i V snouiuj ue LOonmg meir iira-seai, jioky "Mn eggs into BYlTs basket. rarS'ilf the Cougs did manage to muscle ' into the BCS, or at least pound on the i'Ubor, they would be carrying the new r 2.h?ague with them. .Just the way a certain national ' WAC. boosted the rampionship , wAnd a certain 1996 campaign corns' piete with 14 wins and Cotton Bowl J,championship rattled the old Bowl 1 ' - Q" flVTT C VTC? I l uiworua Vio nave DJ i uiiu u: uu assistants to thank for those grand veasons, not to mention the sudden r fitifmnn1inr a 0 .i nmffrtint "There are problems. If the special Steams unit isn't fixed, it will lose a AAttmiBm 'time. There've been too many penalties S and other mistakes. - But you must admit the coaches bfcive been brilliant in these respects: .VS For 6tkking with Kevin Feterik 2' through thick and Drew Miller '(Edwards and Norm Chow). For tweaking the offense with ' the shotgun (Chow). "v? ' for getting the offensive line so eady that even the players are shocked (Roger French). For dashing the offensive hopes and Colorado State of Washington i schemes (Ken defensive ,with great Schmidt, Barry Lamb, Tom Ramage 'nd Brian Mitchell). " For a great 1999 recruiting class "vWhkh has filled the biggest holes : wrth Luke Staley and Fahu Tahi ' "(including Chris Pella, Robbie Bosco , and Lance Reynolds). i ..There are a lot of games left r between now and the (bowl season)," Edwards cautioned. But WAC or Mountain West, it's no .surprise the road to the league title now leads through Provo. ifj !- ' n j-- -- is The Daily Herald's 'TadWalch ' sports editor. Phone 344-255- 0 tusilch &ieraldextracom. 7T OR COPY or sah , . ..M.,:: ..... . KJCVIN A ,.-r- .. l.KE'Tw Daily Hen Running man: BYU tailback Luke Staley recorded a hat trick on Thursday, rushing for two touchdowns and adding a touchdown reception. prr. Cougs knock off CSU to claim MWC debut By SCOTT BELL The Daily Herald 'Championship Series. While Mountain West officials SseJeht have liked a more comDetitive - freshman Luke Staley should have been snapped up and signed by Nebraska. Or perhaps Oregon, UCLA, or Washington in the Pac-1By BYUs luck, he should have swallowed the Rose Bowl pitch hook, stem and petal. In the cruel world where Mormon stars like Bruce Hardy, Sean Salisbury and Fred Mortensen slip through the net, Staley should be sitting the bench as a Husky. But something happened on the way to Staley 's newly hatched career as a terror of defenses in the Mountain West Conference. He'd always wanted to be a Cougar He was BYU's from the start, sealed by a commitment before he even played his senior season at Tualatin High in Oregon. And Thursday, on his 19th birth-- , day, in his second appearance before ESPN, young Staley continued to amaze the masses in BYU's win over Colorado State. No freshman should be this good. If Rob Morris is the Freight Train, Staley is the Golden Zephyr. If ESPN's Lee Corso adopted a PROVO This time around, BYU got the blowout right. The Cougars manhandled No. 23 Colorado State on Thursday night at Cougar Stadium. The victory was BYlTs second straight in front of a national audience on ESPN. The win also came in the Mountain West Conference's inaugural game. "The big thing is we're in conference," BYU coach La Veil Edwards said. "We've got three more games and a chance to get a few thing? straightened out." BYU flirted with defeat despite dominating Washington a week ago. But this time there were no questions. "I guess we are for real, huh?" offensive lineman Matt Johnson 6aid. 25th-ranke- d 34-1- 3 0 It certainly appears so. But the real issue is the quality of this Colorado State team. After their performance Thursday, it's a wonder the Rams actually blew out Colorado in their BYU's defense made sure the Rams' offense wouldn't repeat that performance. For the night, Colorado State gained 316 yards, but most of that came against BYU's reserves in the fourth quarter. They couldn't get around end, and they couldn't cut back," defensive end Byron Frisch 6aid. "So where were they season-opene- " r. going to go?" The biggest worry for the Cougar defense came in the third quarter when Butkus Award candidate Rob Morris had to leave the gfeme. Morris was diagnosed with a lower abdominal strain and did not return. "I was going to come back and try, but we were up, so there was no sense in playing," Morris said. "We've got a long week, and 111 be ready to go." 34-1- I KEVIN Lfci- - lhc Daily lloaid Pitch and catch: BYU quarterback Kevin Feterik came through with another stellar performance on Thursday against Colorado State. Cornerback Brian Gray left the game with a similar injury. His stains is still unknown. Morris, Frisch and the rest of the defense spent much of the evening making Colorado State quarterback 3 6on, it would be Luke, CSU's spook. In Thursday's crisp autumn air on a national TV stage, Staley scored his third, fourth end fifth career touchdowns. HIS FIRST was a twisting, dive in the first quarter. His second came in the first half when CSU's best pass rusher, Clark Haggans, dropped back in zone coverage. You got it. He took Cool Hand Luke. Matt Newton pale in comparison to But on the play, BYU quarterback Kevin Feterik started to scramble to sack-me- n his left and as all are wont to do, Haggans Sec BYU, B5 Sec STALEY, Bf QB-eatin- g Class 5 A heavyweights set to clash C By DARNELL DICKSON - . The Daily Herald Last season, Brighton jumped out to a 21-- lead and held a advantage headthe fourth into quarter. ing But Mountain View rallied and scored a touchdown as time expired to pull to within one point at Quarterback Casey Rehrer was stopped on the conversion just short of the goal line on the game's final play. "I really thought the turning point to our season was about the second quarter of that game," Randy Rehrer said. "We really came on after that." Mountain View went on to win its next six games before falling to Skyline in the Class 5A quarterfinals. This season, Casey Rehrer and the Mountain View passing game will once again 0 28-1- 4 OREM - You'd think Randy Rehrer and his Mountain View football team (ranked No. 1 in The Daily Herald Valley Top 5, No. 4 in Class 5A) would be weary of playing the biggest game in the ralley every week. First it was an emotional game with Lone Peak. Then a contest with Orem. And now, a showdown with Brighton. If tonight's Region 3 matchup is as entertaining as last year, fans should prepare tor a real corker city-rivalr- y second-ranke- d launch its aerial assault against a talented, experienced Brighton secondary. Randy Rehrer is also worried about new Brighton coach Tom Cushions multipl- 35-3- 4. two-poi- nt 4 e-set In : offense. the past, we kind of felt we could get some good preparation for Brighton by playing Orem," Rehrer said. They ran their own stuff but essentially both teams just came at you with power footbalL See SHOWDOWN, B5 BRIGHTON (0-- 0, 3--0) at MOUNTAIN VIEW a3QHTQN jfi r 113 (1-- 0, 3--0) Game time: 7:00 psn. Audiblex Last year, Brighton Tom Mountain View is his in first Cushing year as the head coach at Brighton. He 35-3- 4. replaces Lynn Freestone, who y5 H V died in an auto accident this summer. ... Brighton will play its first Region 3 game tonight. TOMGtiTS SCHEDULE Timpanogos at AJta Brighton at Mountain View Orem at HScrest Pleasant Grove at Timpview American Fork at Spanish Fork Payson at Provo 7 pin. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p m. 7 p.m. 7 p m. lone Peak at Spnngvtfe Lehi at Park City Union at Wasatch North Sanpete at Delta Juab at Marti North Summit at Gunnison 7 pm. 7 p.m. 7 p m. 7 p.m. 7 p m. 7 p.m. |
