BYU vs. SDSU: Josh's prediction

Well, this has been a busy week, what with a major project at work, my (failed) attempts at getting a certain professor to give me my assignments before the quarter is over, our final push for Prop. 8 early in the week, and the election of the Solution to All of Our Problems as president. Because of all this, I'm just going to provide a quick, mildly informed opinion on the game tomorrow.

San Diego State is a terrible football team. This much is clear. Geneil and I were hanging out with some friends tonight, and we got on the subject of BYU football, and our friend's wife said, "But wasn't San Diego State ranked pretty high just a couple years ago?" I said that it wasn't so, she insisted, and so our friend Scott jumped online and looked up SDSU's record over the past, oh, 10 years or so. Turns out, I was right. SDSU hasn't had a winning season in many, many moons. This year, they come to Provo with a 1-8 record and the worst run defense in the country.

However, despite SDSU's general ineptitude on the field, BYU has lost to them twice in recent memory. At the Homecoming game my freshman year, BYU went ahead 15-13 with less than a minute to play, and we thought the game was in the bag. But San Diego State drove down the field in the last 45 seconds of the 4th quarter, and kicked a field goal to win 16-15 on a rainy and miserable Saturday afternoon. Then in 2005, BYU got blown out at SDSU 31-10 in one of the most embarrassing and inexplicable losses of the Bronco Mendenhall era. No rhyme or reason to it--BYU just came out flat, and it showed.

But these were anomalies. Last year we stomped them by 3 touchdowns. The margin was even worse the previous year. This year, BYU lost to No. 11 TCU on the road. By comparison, San Diego State lost to Cal Poly Pomona, a 1-AA school, at home. BYU averages 35.6 points per game. SDSU averages 30 points as their losing margin, and their starting lineup is a literal triage of injuries.

Although BYU's defense has put on a veritable clinic in arm tackles and blown assignments over the past 3 weeks, SDSU gives them a chance to get back on track before tough road games at Air Force and Utah. The Cougar defense needs turnovers to stay in the game, and they'll get them from SDSU. Harvey Unga will score. Austin Collie will score. Fui Vakapuna will score. The defense will score. And BYU will win 49-7 behind a punishing ground attack and an opportunistic defense that will show flashes of its success from the last time it played a team from the great socialist paradise of California.