SB Nation User Blog: papthegreek

Andersen leaving spells trouble.

papthegreek — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:32:51 -0000

The road to Utah State University is a perilous one. Logan Canyon is a steep, winding highway full of blind turns and black ice. In December and January, the average temperature up the canyon is 20 degrees below freezing with a wind chill that makes snowmen shiver.

This is where defensive coordinator Gary Andersen wants to make a living, and the cold will be the least of his worries.

Utah State has been a cemetery for college football coaches. The Aggies are a perennial favorite for the ESPN Bottom 10, the popular news network’s measure of futility. Brent Guy, their recently fired head coach, won nine games in four seasons, a 19 percent success rate.

Utah fans wonder why Andersen would leave his cushy spot on the Rice-Eccles Stadium sideline, where he propelled the Utes’ defense to No. 18 in the nation. He is one of the most important pieces in a perfect season and is a finalist for the 2008 Broyles Award, an honor that goes to the top assistant in the nation.

These are the exact reasons he is leaving. A true competitor is not content with his lot, and strives for a lot more.

Andersen was named the new head coach for Utah State on Thursday and leaves holes bigger than Kennecott to fill for the Utes. With him, Andersen will reportedly take two important cogs to Utah’s success. Kalani Sitake, the inside linebackers coach, will be his new defensive coordinator. Aaron Roderick, the wide receivers coach, will be his new offensive coordinator.

Andersen has the longest tenure of any coach on the Utah team besides Kyle Whittingham. He was the defensive line coach during the historic 2004-2005 season and has kept the defense nationally ranked ever since.

Sitake has put three players on the all-conference team, including two second-team selections for Stevenson Sylvester. Roderick helped guide wide receiver Freddie Brown to a second-team selection as well.

While the on-the-sidelines presence of these two assistants cannot be discounted, their offseason production is a greater loss. Sitake is the main recruiter for the Hawaiian Islands, Tonga and Samoa—a major source of the brute force on the Utah lines. Roderick is the recruiter for Orange County and San Bernardino, Calif., and has brought the talent of Brown and Aiona Key, a receiver who should erupt next year, to Utah.

Think of a coaching staff as a team of salesmen. Their job is to take a broken-down jalopy and sell it as a jewel. Utah is close to having a product that sells itself, but still needs the men who get the signatures. The ties that Andersen, Sitake and Roderick have forged in the West will be deeply missed and their absence could be disastrous during the Utes’ offseason sales drive.

Those ties now live in Logan with a football team that is the equivalent of a jalopy after a demolition derby. What will it take to get student athletes to drive away in blue and white today? Andersen might be the flashy paint job the Aggies have desperately needed.

Another Perfect Season

papthegreek — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:42:43 -0000

Prior to the historical 48-24 win against BYU on Saturday, I wandered the halls of the Rice-Eccles Stadium press box and glanced at a framed montage highlighting the 2004 season. A picture of Alex Smith detailed his famous shovel pass. One of Urban Meyer displayed him prowling the field and pointing off in the distance—in the direction of a flawless season.

The most difficult part of attaining perfection is finding something to do for an encore. As the crowd chanted "BCS" before storming the field and rattled the gates as the clock ran out, I realized head coach Kyle Whittingham and his Utah Utes had eclipsed Meyer's opening act.

"'04 was probably a little bit more of a glamorous football team," Whittingham said. "I don't think there was any game where we faced adversity."

Four years ago was prestigious—a squad given riches from the beginning that basked in its fortunes. If any team would be the first to break the highbrow BCS, it was Smith and his gang of aristocrats. The team won by an average margin of 25.8. The closest any opponent came was 14 points.

"This is more of a blue-collar team," Whittingham said, "with a grind-it-out, tough-guy mentality."

Brice McCain, Stevenso Sylvester, Paul Kruger and their ragtag group bare-knuckled their way through an entire season, with three games decided by a field goal and one by a touchdown. The outcome was often heart-stopping.

Whittingham calls this team his favorite in 25 years of coaching. I doubt he is alone. All year long, Utah was the classic underdog—a team no one believed could accomplish the impossible. Early on, it was the penalties that would eventually catch up to the Utes. Midseason, Johnson's mobility and his poise in the pocket were the naysayers' bandwagon. TCU was given odds over Utah. BYU came into town as spoilers.

Not until the last play of the season did Utah finally get to breathe in the crisp autumn air as an team undefeated. Brian Johnson started the season as a good player and grew into a true leader. The defense put the entire weight of the stadium on their shoulders and carried it until the job was done. Every unanswered question was answered.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. The Utes left everything on the field.

In the press conference, a reporter asked Johnson if the team should be given a shot at a national championship.

"Why not?" said Johnson smiling. "Obviously, I think we're talented enough."

The Bowl Championship Series needs to start learning to tolerate these commoners sitting at the table with their feet up in the dishes. They need to be prepared to sip tea at parties alongside blue-collar workers, cheering over steins of ale. The Utes are the leaders of a college football revolution. This team—every team—deserves a chance to realize a perfect ending to a perfect season.

This team is better than 2004

papthegreek — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:22:16 -0000

Casual football fans want flash.

They think greatness is a barrel of trick plays, streaking routes and high scores. After Thursday, the casual fan wouldn’t call the Utes great, but simply lucky. The same could be said when this team came back from an eight-point deficit against Oregon State. The casual fan would say great teams blow out their rivals.

I beg to differ. Blowouts don’t prove greatness. They prove the weakness of the opponents.

This is the difference between the 2004 Utah Utes and today’s team. When the season ends, these Utes will have played three ranked teams. Time has shown that Oregon State wasn’t just a giant killer. Since its stunning defeat at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the team has gone on a four-game winning streak. These Utes deflated TCU, the highest-ranked opponent ever to venture into the Wasatch Mountains. Brian Johnson put together a stunning 80-yard drive against the Horned Frogs’ defense, which was No. 2 in the country.

In 2004, Alex Smith and his men in red scored more than 45 points a game. Smith had a passer rating of 176.52—enough to make him the first pick in the NFL draft. I’m sure he looks back on those numbers with dreamy eyes while sitting on the 49ers bench rubbing his small hands together.

No one can question the numbers Smith put up during his years as a Ute, but his life as a pro quarterback only shows how overrated he was. Urban Meyer put him in an efficient system, and he ran the system efficiently—nothing more.

Utah didn’t play a ranked team until it met Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl, but the Panthers were the forgotten middle child in a large BCS family.

In contrast, the 2008 Utes have won close, hard-fought battles against an improved MWC, taken on historically great Michigan Wolverines in their own backyard—regardless of their record—and found a way to win every game to date.

The casual fan looks at the big numbers, but it’s the smaller numbers that count. This year’s team gives up 97 rushing yards per game, which amounts to the No. 8 rushing defense in the nation. The 2004 Utes gave up more than 140 rushing yards per game. This year’s team is ranked No. 11 defensively, while the 2004 team was No. 39. If Smith faced a defense that’s as fast as TCU, would the team have found a way to simply outscore it?

We can debate how great the overall team is in history, but I would argue there is no question this is the best defense to ever take the field.

While we bring up the big names—the Smiths and the Johnsons—let’s not forget the best Ute to ever play the game. Louie Sakoda is the difference between these teams. This year, Sakoda has scored 94 points for Utah, including two field goals from more than 50 yards. He has been in more clutch situations than I can count.

The 2004 Utes always went for it on fourth down against weak defenses—David Carroll kicked five field goals the entire year. If the Utes had gone into the BCS against elite stoppers, such as Texas, Auburn or Virginia Tech, it would have been high noon without a pistol. Sakoda is a crucial weapon in critical situations.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself. There are more games to be played. To speak of the 2008 Utes in the same sentence as our historic BCS busters, remaining opponents SDSU, BYU and an eventual bowl opponent must fall. If all that happens, this team will go down as the best in history.

Let’s just hope we don’t play Pitt again.

An Epic Win

papthegreek — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:20:17 -0000

The Utes need to learn how to tell a story. The exposition makes the characters into classic losers. The rising action is filled with dull sentences and four-yard plays. Brian Johnson nervously fidgeting in the pocket feels like watching a comedy. Every game feels like a suspense novel. The team just can’t seem to make up its mind on the narrative.

I will give Utah credit for one thing. They sure have perfected the ending.

While the Utes were finishing the final pages of Thursday’s game, I was writing a story of my own. Journalism is about meeting deadlines—timing is everything. In the press box, I sat surrounded by reporters busy at their laptops with five minutes left in the game. The room was filled with the sound of clicking keys—book reports written without reading the final chapter.

I am no better. I had written a lame line or two about wearing black to a funeral. There were paragraphs about broken dreams, enduring to the end, and “nobody’s perfect.”

For now, the Utes still are. Nine plays, 80 yards, and two minutes later, I was encircled by audible groans. It was followed by the constant sound of backspace keys.

I’m not sure why we were surprised. The game felt like volume two in a series. Against Oregon State, the Utes looked baffled for 58 minutes. The offense couldn’t move the ball. The defense built dams the Beavers couldn’t break. And then, Johnson put together one miraculous drive for the win.

Sound familiar?

Around the national press, stories will be written with the old cliché about TCU not being beaten, but beating themselves. The Horned Frogs had six false starts in crucial situations, and 70 penalty yards total. Ross Evans missed two field goals when they mattered most.

Their words forget the background. Penalties don’t happen out of thin air. There’s a reason the MUSS keeps a running tally of false starts. With each one, a “5” was added to the front-row banister. The defense twitched like ADHD kids without Ritalin, constantly moving up and down the line of scrimmage. It will splinter the nerves of the most disciplined team.

As Utah began their final, heroic drive from their own 20-yard line, hope still existed in a stadium where, only days before, hope came alive for a nation.

Yes, we can, chanted the sellout crowd.

Yes, we can.

With the last page written, Johnson walked into the pressroom wearing a Barack Obama shirt. He pointed at it with the throwing hand that kept hope alive.

“He did it, and we did it,” he said.

“While we breathe, we hope,” Obama said in his acceptance speech, “And where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people. ‘Yes, we can.’”

Hope is everywhere now. In ideas as large as prosperity, peace, and the “American Dream,” and as small as a season that will end in the Wasatch Mountains on Nov. 22.

There is still more to be written. The story has many authors. Johnson was asked by reporter what he feels the team accomplished today.

“Nothing,” he said. “Still, a long way away. Still got more football games to play.”

I, for one, can’t put this book down. It’s turning into an epic tale.

The Johnson Redemption

papthegreek — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:01:08 -0000

Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

That's what Red said to Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption."

With two minutes left in the game Thursday night, I found myself on the verge of insanity. The lights at Rice-Eccles Stadium, cast with the shadows of moths, were soon to go out on the entire Utah season.

Eight points in two minutes is an impossible task. A reporter sitting next to me had already written the first line of his breaking story:

"The dream has died."

Utah had played a miserable second half, allowing Oregon State to score 19 straight points. The goat was Brian Johnson. Throughout the game, the Ute quarterback seemed to hold the ball like it was a precious keepsake, taking four sacks along the way. Two of the Beavers touchdowns were on his shoulders, one an interception for a touchdown, the other a fumble deep in Utah territory.

After the last Oregon State score, indifferent Ute fans began to file out of the stadium. Two minutes is a long time to wait, and they would have more luck beating traffic than the Utes beating the Beavers.

Johnson said it best after the game-"they were about to miss a show."

The show began on a four-play, 60-yard scoring drive that ended with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Bradon Godfrey. The score was 28-26.

The second act was a controversial pass interference call, followed by a sprint by Johnson into the end zone for a two-point conversion. The score was tied at 28-28.

The reporter's laptop next to me was closed. The dream wasn't dead. The crowd was in an uproar. I was about to explode.

There is a rule in the press box at Rice-Eccles Stadium-or any stadium for that matter-no emotions allowed. Cheering for one team over the other is blasphemy in journalism and one who commits this offense is subject to quick dismissal and possible spankings. That's why four student reporters ran out of the press box. That's why, when the elevator wasn't coming fast enough, we sprinted down six flights of stairs to get to the field.

The show had a twist. Oregon State was forced to punt, and Utah was able to set up a last-second field goal for "the King." The wind was at the back of Louie Sakoda as he took the field. The ball went through the uprights the same way it had 47 times before.

And then, total mayhem.

Hope is something that can't stay bottled up. The fans who believed, the fans who stayed, swarmed Sakoda as fellow players held him on their shoulders.

The unsung hero, though, was Johnson. He swam through a river of sludge for 58 minutes and came out clean on the other side.

In the press conference, after the chants of "Louie" began to die down, Johnson sat in front of the same boring reporters with the same boring questions. He kept alluding to how he hadn't wanted the loss to be on his shoulders, how he knew he'd had a bad first half and didn't want to let his team down.

He wanted someone to ask the question that was running in circles through his head: "Brian, how does it feel to be redeemed?"

No one did, and it didn't matter. After his round of questions was over, Johnson looked across the press conference table at defensive end Paul Kruger. Kruger looked back, and they both started giggling. Not laughing, but giggling like they were back in grade school.

It's hard to contain yourself when the impossible becomes possible.

Yes, Utah didn't play a perfect game, but Johnson and the rest of the players learned a lesson that will carry them through the rest of their careers. No team is perfect. It's how you deal with the imperfection that defines you.

The dream is alive. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Don't Complain Until U Lose

papthegreek — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:31:43 -0000

I sat down with a few other reporters at the press conference after Utah’s 37-21 defeat of Weber State on Saturday. I put a hat on my chair and asked one of them to save my seat. He didn’t need to. When I returned, I found only a smattering of reporters, some looking at their watches, others looking in the distance, planning where they were going to stop for a late dinner. The mood was as somber as it has been game after game this year. Yes, the Utes are still undefeated. Yes, Louie Sakoda became the highest scorer in Utah history—a phenomenal feat for a program that started in 1892. Sorry, Louie. No congratulations for you from this objective crowd. Oregon State just defeated the biggest and best godforsaken team in the whole college football world! The best USC team to ever take the field was just humiliated by our next opponent. The end is nigh! The players knew it, too. They walked into this somber room and spouted their usual, somber comments. One reporter asked quarterback Brian Johnson: "It feels like you lost even though you won the game. Could you comment on that?" I looked from the press box and saw a half-full student section for an undefeated team. The fans have succumbed to the same virus in the air that hung heavy in the cold, concrete press room. This team is like a guy or girl you’ve had some great dates with. Sure, you like them, you really do, but you just know they’re hiding something. The fans aren’t ready to give the Utes the keys to their house, let alone their hearts. "Sure, you’d like to play perfect every game," said coach Kyle Whittingham. "Every team would, but none of them do." No one is perfect. Not your husband or wife. Not your boyfriend or girlfriend. And not the Utes. Still, they haven’t betrayed your trust yet. Said Whittingham: "We can’t lose sight of the fact that it was a win." A lot of teams can’t say that this week. Five teams higher in the rankings than Utah lost. USC, Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin, and Wake Forest would have all preferred an unconvincing win over Weber State. These are the teams that deserve depressing press rooms and heartbroken fans. Utah is beginning a short week, playing Oregon State, the giant killers, on national television Thursday. The time has come to let go. There is no excuse for a student section that isn’t standing shoulder to shoulder. The bandwagon has stopped and I’m saving you a seat. Take it now. After we beat Oregon State, there isn’t going to be any room left.