BYU Football Fighting for Its Existence, Relevance

BYU Football Fighting for Its Existence, Relevance

It's rivalry week. Utah thinks that they don't want to play their intra-state rival anymore. Especially the Saturday before their conference final.

BYU is 6-5, Utah is 8-3. Both have done good things this season and both have had some heartaches. Both will go bowling. Utah State, the smaller school Aggies of the north, is the highest ranked. (Go figure).

The Utes. Some of us think that they think they are  above the private school 49 miles to the south. Yes, we Cougars are a pesky thorn in their plans for PAC-12 conference relevance. They have to play us before their coveted conference championship, the same conference BYU fought and sacrificed for for many decades to be a part of, and was rejected by when Utah was invited. Years back, there were other times, when BYU was winning a national championship making the Inter-Mountain West relevant. Long before Fresno State or Boise State became big. People thought a religious school, an obscure place with obscure outdated rules like no drinking or pre-marital conjugal relationships before matrimony was a fool's errand. Hundreds of young men proved otherwise.

And those standards have remained. And they will. Some say BYU cannot get enough young athletes to abide by such peculiar old fashioned standards.

Some Utes and others may think that BYU prevents them from national relevance.

Not so. USC deals with Notre Dame. Look what they do. USC is big time program. No complaints.

Utes, get used to it. 

BYU will always be there as your rival. 

If you do not recognize that, then you will slide from national relevance.

 So, good luck this Saturday, and good luck down the road. I hope you do great, really. I love the state of Utah, your coach, and tons of your students and alumni.

Slight future scheduling of your religious brother down south at your peril.

BYU has higher standards, pays its personnel less, has tons of returned older missionaries like you do,  and has lots of in-state and national and international fans.

We are not better than you. Brigham Young football is not morally superior, just different.

Like Air Force or Army or Navy Academies, BYU plays to a different standard.

And Utah, this is part of who you are. It's your identity.

If you dink out of the rivalry, you will be left behind. Don't do it.

Again, best of luck. Get ready to play. Don't forget who you are.

BYU football fan and alum,

Eduardo

Hoosier Basketball Analysis: 5 Games In

Hoosier Basketball Analysis: 5 Games In

First of all, a shout out to this incredible looking Duke team this year: they lost tonight to Gonzaga. It came down to the last possessions as Gonzaga led most of the way. Way to go, Bulldogs! Now I hope that BYU can knock off a top notch Zag team, like in years past. Oh, and Maybe Indiana can play with these Blue Devils...

IU has a lot of promise, but some things are unsure for now. Archie Miller is considered good enough to make them a good enough team. We shall see. We. Shall. See.

I'll analyze the players individually, then put it together.  

1. Juwan Morgan, 6'8" athletic senior forward. He is a superb player who wins games; he will be a professional next spring. He can play great inside. He can hit three pointers. One weakness that I have seen this year and from last year, when he was their best player on a team to qualify for the NIT: free throws. He is not going to get all the FT points that the Hoosiers need in tight games. He will draw the fouls, however. Speaking of fouls, IU may not have enough quality big bodies to keep Juwan rest and foul trouble free. Which also has to do with IU's health, which now in game 5 is really bad. Too many dinged up dudes.

2. Romeo Langford, 6'6" everything  freshman shooting guard. Biggest home grown recruit since Cody Zeller around 2010. We have to have this guy. By the end of the year he will be better than Juwan, and maybe more clutch. He has played pretty good defense, and his threes and free throws need some work, but this should come. He is a natural and will be done after spring 2019, so IU needs to ride him and he them to the end of March. Hopefully.

3. Robert Phinesee, 6'0" freshman point guard. This kid is poised and can play. He proved that he could hit a key three on the close road loss to a pretty impressive Arkansas squad. He can control the ball, pass and hustle. Very cool. He seems to be about perfect. Time will tell.

4. Aljami Durham, 6'4" sophomore guard/forward. He might be the X-factor. He seems much improved from last year, and last year he was not bad. He hurt his back and left the game early last night, but he should recover and contribute a lot.

5. Justin Smith, 6'7" sophomore forward. Extraordinary athlete. Can do a little of everything. I really hope he matures and channels his talents. He could be a big reason the Hoosiers do well. Or not. Like Juwan, needs to improve his free throws, and probably go to the line more. He needs to dunk more, based on his unworldly jumping ability. (48 inch vertical, 6 inches higher than anyone else ever at IU. And he's tall).

6.  Evan Fitzner, 6'10" senior forward. He can shoot the three, but seems a bit weak and skinny. Hopefully gets stronger throughout the year. But, he is a senior, so will he fill out much this late in college. He seems pretty smart inside, too. Good addition.

7. Deron Davis, 6'9 junior forward/center. He has good inside presence but is a bit slow and less than explosive. His achilles injury from last year seems to be lingering into November. Currently hurt.

8. Devonte Green, 6'3" junior point guard. He has talents and skills that good do much for the team: energy, depth, hopeful intelligence and poise. Currently hurt.

9.  Zach McRoberts, 6'6" senior guard/forward. Red-shirt senior. He is savvy and seems to be in the right place at the right time. Shoots more confidently now. Currently hurt.

10. Damezi Anderson, 6'7" freshman forward. This guy, if developed right, could be a huge difference. He hit a key 3 late in a tight game against a lesser opponent at home last night (UT-Arlington); if he gets smart on the court maybe he will be part of the Hoosier depth and success.

11-13. Race Thompson, Jake Forrester, Jerome Hunter. Three young guys that may provide some depth and muscle. Mostly currently hurt.

14. Cliff Moore, 6'11" sophomore center. Can be an inside presence; showed some aptitude to getting buckets. 

The team has a lot of injuries in November, but as the Coach said, this has given some young guys some early experience on the court and as a team.

Very impressive performance at home versus a tough Marquette team, a close loss where Arkansas showed some grit and hustle away from the friendly confines, and tough resistance win against a very scrappy team from Texas. With starters leaving with back aches and bloody noses. 

This team might develop into something special.

We play Duke in a week. We shall see. 

New Long Term Goal: Antarctica (Free Asia Bibi)

New Long Term Goal: Antarctica

I have new long term end of life goals.

 
Can you read...? Sorry. Experimenting with font and script colors...

  Ok, my red color for the Hoosiers beginning their championship season tomorrow. Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan et al. Update: 1-0. Decent start.

Goals:

I wish to be the first centenarian to live a whole winter in Antarctica. That would be around 2070 plus.

Some time later I would probably like to die and be buried there.

Things can change, sure. Death can come with many options.

A great man, husband, father, mayor, soldier, officer, church member, person, just tragically died in Kabul, Afghanistan over the weekend.  He was 39. No promises.

Thankful for his service and example.

Great example.

So if God grants me another half century, I might make it at to my goal.

And do something that would have a benefit beyond my own life, to serve and bless others.

I would set up interviews or something.

The future will tell. 

Oh, yes: free Asia Bibi. She certainly deserves life and dignity.

https://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2018/10/22/the_metoo_movement_has_forgotten_asia_bibi.html

  

My Heart Break Hoosiers-- They Find a Way

My Heart Break Hoosiers-- They Find a Way

To Lose. Again. It's not financial ruin or famine or catastrophe or war. It's Indiana football. Losers most of the time. It should not matter much, but it is hard when you care. Like me.

Last night, it happened again. The Indiana football team was on the road, they had more seasoned veterans against the youthful and down on their luck Golden Gophers. IU was considered to be the winning pick by the Fox1 professionals touting the Friday night match up, estimated to win by a touch down by all of them. These are smart guys, former coaches and Heisman winners. I was set and watching every minute. However: no, they don't know how Indiana football performs. Or chokes. As they did end up doing by the last minute of the game on this cold rainy night. Again. Minnesota had been crushed last week by a very struggling Nebraska squad. IU had played Penn St. tough enough to win the Saturday before. Both teams going in different directions? The Gophers had more key injuries.

Even the he rain probably helped the Hoosiers more in Minneapolis.

IU moved the ball the first half decently, but ended up with 3 field goals for a measly 9 points. One FG came after 3 downs and done subsequent to a fortuitous turnover by the home team. But the HOOSIERS could not move the ball! Meanwhile the never played before D-1 Minnesota back up QB Tanner Morgan picked the Hoosiers apart for 21 points. Down by 12 at the half. This was a pretty poor start but correctable.

It got worse in the 3rd quarter, then trailing the hometown heroes 31-9. I was in despair. They probably had a better crowd than what IU fans would provide in Bloomington. Typical. Minnesota was 3-4, IU 4-4.

We--ahem, IU had the Penn State Nittany Lions beat just last week! We outproduced them! But lost on special teams play. What was going on with these guys?

Do I sound defeatist? Like a pessimist? Let me take you back down some of my memory lane...

I remember following some IU football back to the 1970s. I fully recall Indiana playing the vaunted Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints school Brigham Young in the crazy Holiday Bowl of 1979. I was eight. It was a big party occasion at the Wankier/Gilchrist home. Little did I know then how much I would devote myself later in life to either program. I am became quite ensconced by 1983 or so. I am devotee of both teams: the often hapless Hoosiers and the more than often gritty BYU Cougars.

Maybe it all started for me in 1979? Maybe it will go on for me till 2079, but I digress... 

We cannot know the future. Maybe Indiana will go back to Rose Bowl some day? Not for now, assuredly...

IU had its first bowl win over BYU in 1979, a harbinger of less to come. BYU went on to greatness in the early eighties, while my hometown Hoosiers also did have a decent run from the late 1980s to the early 1990s by going to six bowls in 8 years. Then the train derailed by the mid 1990s, until once in 2007 when they rallied for a dead coach Terry Hoeppner (all respect to him and his loved ones), a formerly fired coach who got them to two bowls that they lost (Kevin Wilson), but were highly competitive in them two and three years ago (2015, 2016).

Enter the current second year coach Tom Allen, who has emphasized defense.

Not enough so far, that is for sure.

Otherwise, we beat Penn State last week, we beat Minnesota last night. 

We would be 6-3, on the way to a bowl, no matter the last 3 games in November of this year.

Now, they all matter, most likely to a resurgent Purdue (despite them coming up short to Michigan State over the weekend). Maryland should prove as tough as last year, when my wife and I watched IU lose a shoot out in College Park, mostly on dumb IU errors. We saw IU barely beat Rutgers (there is a really struggling program) a few weeks ago in Piscataway. Yet, historically, Rutgers has seen more success and bowl seasons than Indiana.

It is relatively easy to qualify for a bowl game nowadays. Just go 6-6, and occasionally 5-7. Even 5-7 looks hard now for my hard pressed Hoosiers.

Ugh.

My Hoosiers, sounds too much like losers. Do I have to resort to only the basketball team as thousands of native Hoosiers have already done over the long, trying decades?

No. This team can still win.

I don't know if they will, against the Terrapins, the Wolverines, the Boilermakers, who look like world beaters after crushing number 2 Ohio State.

Ugh, I care too much.

Go IU: fear the Turtle, take care of the ball. And win.

I saw them beat Michigan and Ohio State in the same year. We can do this.

I pray that Tom Allen keeps them coming. IU will break some others' hearts. Other than our own, my own.

Yes, I am not a realist. I am an IU football optimist.

We can win... Just not as likely.

We find ways--er, the Indiana Hoosiers find ways-- to lose. Yes.

Maybe thus it will ever be.

The game last night? In our hands. Then out of our hands. We had tied it at 31 with the possession to win!

Thus is the pigskin, the elusive game of bashes and bruises.

Not a bull to be slain like in a Hemingway novel, or gloves to knock faces or the current vogue of the UFC. This is a another "man's game", dressed in colorful uniforms and helmets of non-deadly use.

This is how we care sometimes.

 

 

You Don't Have to Believe in Jesus as Lord and King--But You Should

 You Don't Have to Believe in Jesus as Lord and King--But You Should

There are around two billion Christians in the world as of 2018. Two out of seven, give or take. That's a lot. However, when speaking of a lot, in the 21st century there are many more "nones" than ever before. More people than ever do not subscribe to any organized belief or religion, many are convinced atheists.

But you should find him. He's there.

Keep searching, don't give up.

Children are Good-- And necessary

Children are Good-- And necessary

Right?

We as humans have been raising children for millenia; before us in the last thousand years, our evolutionary ancestors did this for millions of years. We are animals, yes. God sparked or not, our roots stretch beyond horizons that are difficult to fathom. Before the modern times of the demographic shift (children surviving in large numbers, becoming dependents rather than immediate assets in the micro-economy), offspring were key to survival because of sheer labor on the farm, or as a defense across the vast expanses where various tribes or factions would threaten families' livelihoods or existence.

We live in a modern, or post-modern age, where children can seem like a drawback, like anchors on the modest ships that we, their parents, are, floating across the waters of life. They can seem like a drag.

But of course, we still need them. 

Children are Good-- And necessary

Right?

We as humans have been raising children for millenia; before us in today's times, in the last thousand years, our evolutionary ancestors did this for millions of years. We are animals, yes. God-sparked or not, our roots stretch beyond horizons that are difficult to fathom. Before the modern times of the demographic shift (children surviving in large numbers, becoming dependents rather than immediate assets in the micro-economy), offspring were key to survival because of sheer labor on the farm, or as a defense across the vast expanses where various tribes or factions would threaten families' livelihoods or existence.

We live in a modern, or post-modern age, where children can seem like a drawback--like anchors on the modest ships that we, their parents--are, floating across the waters of life. They can seem like a drag.

But of course, we still need them. 

They need us, we need them.

As parents we discover how we fit into their lives and they in ours.

No one fit is the same. Just like any relationship, it is unique.

Every parent needs their  autonomy; but they, these smaller dependent organisms, like limbs and fingers, a larger, older body needs their appendages, which children become as an adult parent matures and ages.

To a larger degree the community, communities in which all of us live, is the same.  Parents without children, which seems impossible, is possible through any community. Society has its independents and dependents; in the end we are all dependent on one another.

As lonely as a person may be: he or she as a hiker, a driver, a lone customer at a rural night cafe or an urban early morning diner-- that loner depends on others not to drive in their path, not to rob or harm them, not to disrupt their life in a way that obstructs their existence.

Everything, everyone has its place, literal family or no. 

Thus, a parent, and more hopefully a duo, more intrinsically connected and interwoven with their own blood and charge, forge forth to provide and develop their youth.

This is the family.

This is life. Parent of one, five, eight, or none, we are all parents. 

And we are all children.

We need grandparents, uncles, aunts, good neighbors in every sense.

And yes, we need our children, as much if not more than they need us.

The life cycle continues.

The earth, our great wet planet, needs parenting too. It is our child.

We come from it, we impact it, we leave it better or worse.

This is humanity's great collective marriage. 

And we, its children. Are we anthropods, us gangly bipods, necessary children to our home planet?

I think we are. And all its other iterations of the seven odd kingdoms, protozoa, fungi, and strange invisible eukaryotes: we all belong, we are all life's children.

And the parent from afar, it must certainly exist.

Children need parents, thus it ever was.

Who is the parent of your soul? Is it only the vast sky and beyond and above, the larger universe?

You are a child.

God is your parent. Or rather, there must be teams of them.

In the biological sense this is true to the tune of thousands of progenitors. 

I submit that this is cosmically so as well.

Lies the Adversary Will Tell You

Lies the Adversary Will Tell You

God is non-existent.

And, if He, this alleged God, is around somewhere, He is awfully cruel.

God is maybe a God, but He is not a He. He might as well be a She. 

God is a She.

No;  God has no gender. 

God has no body, parts, nor passions.

God is everything and nothing. 

Wait: there is no God!

God wants you to submit to Him and not know why.

God makes promises that He does not fulfill.

God is a God of lies.

God wants your misery.

There is no point to life.

There is no lasting eternal anything.

No one can know everything.

Nothing is all powerful.

Everything is finite, nothing lasts forever. 

Love is not real.

And even if God permits a real love to exist, and so many feel it. it cannot last forever.

Nothing exists after death.

Death is final.

Hate and all passions are fickle emotions.

Feelings are transitory.

There is no such thing as eternal joy.

God does not talk to people, face to face.

God does not a spirit to touch His subjects, His children.

God created nothing.

The universe is an accident.

Life is probable but not by design.

Life has no plan.

There are no absolutes rights or wrongs.

Truth, morality is relative.

God has never made promises to His creations.

Promises from an unknown God, from dubious sources like human witnesses who deceive, are not helpful to the human condition.

Believe it.

Or: read on. Read more. Read, ponder, and pray.

Try a thing called faith. Attempt to commune with the Universe, with your soul, with ... God.

Do not take my word for it.

But, trust me-- do not believe in the words or temptations of the adversary.

Follow your heart. Be guided by your feelings. Let your brain rationalize the settings.

Do not give in to fears or doubts. 

Fears and doubts exist for a reason: to arrive at the eventual goal.

Who, or what is your adversary?