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Show 5 SPORTS Football Notebook: Season not over yet Tuesday, November 27,2007 www.dQilyutahchfonide.corr) conference. Moving on Air Force will likely represent the With the annual rivalry game on the books, the Utes are now in the military in the Bell Helicopter Armed uneviable position of waiting for Forces Bowl against the Big-10 No. 6 a bowl selection committee to call (likely Purdue). TCU will probably end up playing in the New Mexico their name. The popular vote in the media has Bowl against the No. 2 seed from the pitted the Utes against Navy in the Western Athletic Conference and Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 20, but the New Mexico might steal a bid from team won't know for sure until late the Big-12 in the Texas Bowl (lack of Saturday after BYU takes on San Di- eligible teams). ego State. Biding time If BYU wins the game and jumps While the Utes wait to hear where high enough in the rankings, there's an outside shot that the Cougars they are going to end up, Whittingwould be accepted to play in a Bowl ham and the Utah coaching staff Championship Series game. In that have decided to take it easy on the case, the Las Vegas Bowl would prob- players. The. team will practice only ably select Utah to play against the three days a week over the next two weeks. Pac-10 No. 5 (likely UCLA). After such a mentally and physi"I wish they'd let us know sooner rather than later, but we'll find out cally draining game against BYU, the soon enough," Utah head coach Kyle Utes welcome some time off. "It's nice to finally be able to get Whittingham said. "We're assuming we're going to the Poinsettia Bowl, off our feet and get a little rest," Utah quarterback Brian Johnson said. "It's but it's not set in stone." The Mountain West Conference a nice change and now we'll be back has five bowl-eligible teams. Because to nearly 100 percent when the bowl there is a lack of bowl-eligible teams game rolls around." The Utes will resume a full pracin the country this season, there is a strong likelihood of allfiveMWC tice schedule the week before their schools receiving bowl bids. Air bowl game. c.brunner@ Force, TCU and New Mexico join the chronicleMtalvedu aforementioned pair of rivals for the Cody Brunner ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Licking the wounds In a game that will likely go down in the history of the rivalry as "Fourthand-i8," the Utes had every chance to win against rival BYU. But they didn't. The Utah offense struggled to get anything past BYU's smothering defense, scoring its only touchdown late in the fourth quarter and finishing the game with 244 total yards. The Ute defense held the Cougar offense in check for the majority of the game, but buckled under pressure late and gave up the game-winning touchdown—an 11-yard run by BYU's Harvey Unga—with 38 seconds left. The Utes still had an opportunity to reverse their fortunes, getting the ball at their own 40-yard line with less than 30 seconds to go. But dropped passes and penalties kept Utah from advancing, and a last-second Hail Mary was batted down in the end zone. "We still had a chance when we got the ball back late in the game, but it just didn't happen. We didn't execute," Utah quarterback Brian Johnson said. "(BYU) did a great job of taking things away from us." Junior Darrell Mack, who had been TYLER COBB/fftf DsilyUuhOiionkl Jereme Brooks rushes the ball against BYU on Saturday. the focal point of the Utah resurgence this season, ran the ball merely 14 times for 56 yards and one touchdown. "Their defensive front was really aggressive and that kind of took away from our production in the run game," Mack said. "It was tough to get yards up front for the whole team." Jazz continue woes in N.Y NEW YORK—Isiah Thomas rattled off a list of all the things Stephon Marbury did right. Hard to believe it's only been two weeks since Thomas didn't think his point guard was worthy of starting. Marbury continued his turnaround with a season-high 28 points, and the New York Km'cks beat the Utah Jazz 113-109 on Monday night. "I thought Marbury was great," Thomas said. "His leadership throughout the game, during the course of the game, his decisionmaking, his defense, his shot-making ability— just from start to finish he was great. Overall a good team effort, but No. 3 was really good tonight." Zach Randolph added 25 points and 14 rebounds, and Jamal Crawford had 22 points for the Knicks, who have won two in a row following an eight-game losing streak. Randolph, who grabbed a huge offensive rebound in the final seconds, has eight double-doubles in the 10 games he has played this season. "Right now we feel like we can beat anybody," Randolph said. "We got a lot of talent in here, and guys have got to be ready to play. Like I said to the guys, when we compete, we can play with anybody in this league. I really mean that." Carlos Boozer scored 16 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, but the Jazz had their three-game winning streak snapped. Deron Williams added 26 points and eight assists for Utah, which played Sunday in Detroit and seemed a step slow on defense, allowing the Knicks to shoot 53 percent from the field. "I didn't think our energy was as high as it should've been," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We didn't seem to have tremendous energy to try and stop them." The Associated Press FOOTBALL POWER RANKINGS Briqham Young (9-2,7-0 MWC) Next Opponent: 12/1 at San Diego State The Cougars won a hard fought battle over their neighbors to the north last Saturday. The reward was an outright Mountain West Conference title and a bump up to No. 19 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings.The win gives BYU an outside shot at a BCS bowl. At the minimum, the Cougars area lock for the Las Vegas Bowl as they wrap up the season with a gimme makeup game against SDSU. I Air Force (9-3,6-2 MWC) J Next: Bowl eligible The Falcons have done all they can.They needed Utah to knock off newly crowned MWC champion BYU in order to snag a share of the title, but the Utes fell short.Still, the Falcons have the consolation prize of theirfirstbowl berth since the 2002 San Francisco Bowl.Their chances of representing the U-S.military services in the Fort Worth Armed Forces Bowl are good. Utah (8-4,5-3 MWC) J Next: Bowl eligible If'whatifs" could win games, the Utes would be on top of the world right now with a win over rival BYU. What if they had run the ball more? What if they had gotten point-off turnovers? What if they had stopped the Cougars on fourth-and-18? But those kinds of questions can't change the past, so the Utes will have to wait and hope for a bowl bid. New Mexico (8-4,5-3 MWC) 4 Next: Bowl eligible The Lobos were a couple of plays away from knocking off both Utah and BYU this season and continue to prove themselves as conference contenders.Their 27-6 win over UNLV last week won't hurt hopes of landing their fifth bowl appearance in the last six years.They'll have to leave Albuquerque for the game, though,as they cannot go to the New Mexico Bowl two straight years. Texas Christian (7-5,4-4 MWC) 5 I It's amazing to think that this once-ranked TCU team might get held out of a bowl.The MWC isn't readily accepted as a competitive conference in the first place, so losses to Air Force, BYU, Wyoming and Utah won't appeal to many bowl committees.Still,the Horned Frogs have a shot at the New Mexico Bowl. San Dieqo State (4-7,3-4 MWC) 6 Next: Bowl eligible Next Opponent: 12/1 BYU I This year the Aztecs stuck around for an MWC championship longer than they have since 2002. Still, senior quarterback Kevin O'Connell leaves the school without a winning record under his belt.O'Connell and the Aztecs can go out with a bang this week against conference champ BYU, but will need to bring their A+-+-+ game to do so. Colorado State (3-9,2-6 MWC) Next: Not bowl eligible The Rams snuck out of the MWC cellar last week with a win over downtrodden Wyoming.The win bumps CSU's record up to 3-9—the worst record for a Sonny Lubick-coached team since 1981 when he was the frontman for Montana State It is uncertain whether Lubick will return to Colorado State next season as the 15-year head coach recently met with the CSU Athletic Director to discuss his future. Wyoming (5-7,2-6 MWC) 8 9 Cosmo has been found Next: Not bowl eligible Wyoming head coach Joe Glenn saw his Cowboys go from on top of the world—after their win over highly touted Virginia earlier this year—to the gutter in the past four weeks with losses to SDSU, Utah and BYU.Most recently, the Cowboys failed to gain bowl eligibility after flopping against Colorado State in the Border War, 36-28. UNIV (2-10,1-7 MWC) The Chronicle would like to thank: Paul Stemle Senior, teaching mathematics for saving this fair campus from Cosmo the Cougar. We'll make sure Cozzie gets into rehab so he doesn't drunkenly stumble onto our campus in the future. Next: Not bowl eligible Finishing dead last in the conference might be easier to swallow if the Rebels had some company, but they do not. Colorado State's win forced the perennial cellar dwellers back into the deep dungeon of MWC combatants by themselves once again. The only bright spot in yet another poor UNLV season was a win over injury-prone Utah in week four. Compiled by Cody Brunner Rankings by Sports staff IGSKIN Week#14:Nov.29-Dec.2 m NCAA Fresno St NAME ICKS Last week's winner: Grafton Hull (I.D. required) (14-2)To pick up your prize come to Union Room 236 @o vs. New Mexico St. Louisville NFL Packers Deron Williams drives past Chris Paul in Friday's 99-71 win against the New Orleans Hornets at EnergySolutions Arena. Cowboys Chargers E-MAIL Rutgers Oklahoma v Chiefs Texans @ Boston College Virginia Tech Tennesee Washington Hawaii Oregon St. Oregon UCLA TrtiiKS Titans Lions Vikings Dolphins Browns Cardinals Giants Tie Breaker: Pick the final score of Missouri Bears Bengals @ Oklahoma. Fill out the Winner's Box and submit sheets to Union Room 236 by 6 p.m. Thursday. Winners announced every Tuesday, but just because you win Pigskin Picks doesn't mean you can tell your mom what to do. Weekly Top 8: Grafton Hull (14-2) J o n Gilbert (12-4) J i l l Ladewig (12-4) JoAnn Kanegae (12-4), Ashley Freitas (11-5), Tony Pizza (10-6), Jason Peterson (10-6), Wanda Brown (9-7) ..t. Steelers |
