Utes Parade

Utah paraded down State Street today and was met by huge crowds. I was very surprised by how many people turned out to greet them. At the rally Mayor Becker, President Young, Congressman Matheson, Coach Whittingham, Brian Johnson and Louie Sakoda all spoke. Governor Huntsman concluded and even called Florida out. He told the crowd that he was going to call Florida's governor and tell them that Utah will meet them anytime, in any stadium in America to determine which team is really #1.

A fitting celebration to an incredible season. Go Utes!

2008 by the Numbers

• Bought a house worth 142 times as much as my 1995 Geo Prizm aka Lurp Truck III
  
• Used 201 kWh of electricity (since June 25th)
• Used 25 DTH (decatherms) of natural gas (since June 25th)
• Increased my hourly wage by 2 times (Have I mentioned that I love my job recently?)
  
• Added 1 baby to the family for a grand total of 2 kids
• Read 34 books for an average of 38.75 pages per day or a grand total of 14,137 pages
• Spent $974.29 on woot.com (which doesn’t include $679.98 worth of purchases for my dad)
• Spent 1001 minutes on airplanes flying in the sky
• Visited 8 states
• Wrote 164 blog posts (34 of which were reviewing the books I read throughout the year)
• Took 3 final exams
• Voted 2 times
• Went to 6 football games (all of which my team won) 1,2,3,4,5,6
  
• Enjoyed parts of all 366 days
• Turned 27 years old
  
• Met 1 apostle (and he called me on my cell phone)
  
• Increased our living quarters square footage by 1,594 square feet
• Most viewed blog post was written in 2007 and had 240 views in 2008
• Had visitors from 67 countries to this blog (Even from China. The Great Firewall of China is not blocking Lurp’s Lounge… yet)

Faces of Defeat

Just how bad was Alabama's loss?

Utah 31, Alabama 17

2009 Sugar Bowl Champions! And in incredible fashion!

There are few times in my life when I am glad that I am wrong. Last night was one of those times. I had to watch the game again today to be sure that everything happened the way that it seemed to happen yesterday.

It did.

Utah did in fact come out swinging in incredible fashion yesterday. Their first three drives rival some of their best drives of the season. Alabama's vaunted defense looked as porous as a sponge and Brian Johnson and Utah's receiving corp were as crisp as well-cooked bacon [end of bad similes].

I'm not sure whether or not Utah's offense or defense was more impressive. The same Alabama team that only gave up 1.1 sacks per game gave up 8 yesterday (as well as numerous tackles for loss). Alabama's rushing offense averaged almost 200 yards a game during the season but was only able to get 33 yards on 31 carries. Stevenson Sylvester had the game of a lifetime and the rest of Utah's defensive players were mistake-free as well.

On Alabama's biggest news website (al.com) more than 50% of voters think that Utah should be the #1 ranked team in the nation when the final polls come out. This may have something to do with the fact that Utah dominated Alabama (the game was not as close as the score suggests) while Florida struggled against them. Another 25% think that Utah should be ranked #2 (behind the winner of the Florida/Oklahoma game). They are the only undefeated team left and just beat the team that was the ranked #1 for almost 40% of the season. I think that they should be national champions as well. Realistically, they will get a handful of first place votes and hopefully end up in the top three, but this has certainly thrown a wrench into how the BCS works. Orrin Hatch has promised (once again) to have Senate inquiries into whether or not the BCS is fair - hmm, that's a tough one.

Great win Utes!

Game Day

It's a good day to be a Utah fan. The Utes will finally meet Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Do they deserve it? I'm not so sure. But they have completed the challenges placed in front of them and are now the only undefeated FBS team left. They also hold the nation's longest bowl-game winning streak.

I don't think that Alabama will blow the Utes out (and I'm pretty sure that Utah won't blow Alabama out either). I think that Utah will surprise a lot of people and be a better team than they expected. They have shown poise and the ability to execute under pressure all season and that is something that is going to work in their benefit. Utah will surprise Alabama with their speed but the Utes will have no good answer to Alabama's size.

My hope is that Utah is able to come away with a statement win and show the nation (and the 90% majority that have picked Alabama to win this game) that the Mountain West Conference plays some good, tough football. My prediction is that Alabama beats Utah by less than 7 points. If Utah is playing crisp and Johnson and his receivers are all on the same page then Alabama should watch out but, all good things must come to an end sometime...

In reality, this is a win-win situation for Utah. They aren't expected to compete with the Crimson Tide and if they do it only helps to make them look good. If they lose, they still get a truckload of money and everything simply played out the way the experts thought it would.

I hope I'm wrong.

Squire Holiday Times - Volume III

It's Christmas Eve and we finally got our family newsletter out. Most of you probably received this over the e-mail, but if you didn't, click on the photo below to be taken to an online version (use the Forward to a Friend button at the top to send yourself a copy. It will automatically subscribe you to our future mailings). We hope that everybody has a safe, healthy and happy Christmas!

Christmas Kate

We took Kate to get some Christmas Photos taken a couple of weeks ago and I don't think either Alison or I posted these. She's a cutie!

Bowl Season

Have I mentioned that it's a good year to be a Ute fan lately? Nope. Apparently I haven't mentioned anything lately... Sometimes I decide to not be a blogger anymore, but don't worry, I'll always come back.

Anyways, back onto topic. I love bowl season. I look forward to catching a few minutes of every game that I can. There are always a few that are can't miss games. This year the games to watch are the following:

1. Allstate Sugar Bowl - Utah vs. Alabama, January 2, 2009

I won't go so far as to say that I think Utah will win this game, but I don't think they'll get blown out. I think that there is a good chance that Alabama overlooks the Utes and the Utes are able to surprise them in the first half. By the second half, it will be anyone's game.

2. San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - Boise State vs. TCU, December 23

This game is being billed as one of the best matchups of the bowl season. Two stingy defenses meetup in the clash of the Mountain West and the WAC. If I were a San Diego State fan wanting to see a good football game (a rarity in San Diego) I would already have my tickets. I'll be pulling for the Horned Frogs in this one.

3. FedEX BCS National Championship Game - Florida vs. Oklahoma, January 8, 2009

I was disappointed to see that Oklahoma's star runningback is hurt. Regardless, I still think that this will be a better title game than any in the last few years involving Ohio State.

4. Rose Bowl Presented by Citi - USC vs. Penn State, January 1, 2009

This should be (and probably will be) an easy win for USC. On the odd chance that this game is competitive, it could be a good one to watch.

5. Las Vegas Bowl (two relative unknowns), December 20, 2008

I was surprised to see that BYU isn't favored in this game. While they struggled against every good team they faced (including a strong Washington team that almost won a game) I expect them to beat Arizona easily. The odds makers obviously see something in Arizona that I don't. I expect the Mountain West to continue this year's domination of the PAC-10 in this game.

As an added bonus (because I like you) I'm linking to a bowl schedule similar to the one that I posted at the beginning of the football season. I've got mine all printed out in color 11x17 and hanging on the wall of my office and at home. You can thank me by making a donation to the Crimson Club. Download the schedule here (or click on the picture below to make it bigger).

Almost Famous?

In the October 2008 issue of EC&M magazine, my company (Spectrum Engineers) was featured in a cover story about mentors and mentoring programs. Because I’m the best mentee they’ve got, they interviewed my boss and I for their story. Holding true to form (and always quotable) I made it into the article a bunch of different times both in picture and print. The article is available online here or a pdf copy of the actual article can be downloaded here (ok, my host isn't cooperating. I'll post links later, and yes, I do have a stupid smirk on my face in most of the pictures...).

Utah 48, BYU 24

The only reason this game was so close was because the Utes left a lot of points out on the field. Their defense should have intercepted four more balls than they did, a couple of which would have obviously been returned for touchdowns.

This turned out to be a great game... for Utah fans. Just as we expected, when Max Hall bleeds, his blood is as red as any true Ute fan. He showed last night why the team voted him the MVP of the game (even with the $10 payoff they had to give him to throw the game). The game started out strongly in Utah's favor as they took a quick 17-3 lead. BYU smartly used their runningbacks to get to the outside and were able to rack up quite a few yards on the ground, tying the game at 17. This was the closest that they would be.

It wasn't long after this that Max Hall started imploding. Utah's defense mixed it up a bit and used a couple of defensive schemes that they have never used before and that Hall had never seen before. Their defensive ends started switching sides off and on and a couple of times they even dropped back into coverage rather than blitz the QB. Each of BYU's last five drives ended with a Max Hall turnover. The Utes turned three of these turnovers into 21 points in the fourth quarter, making a close game not look that close by the final score.

Most of Hall's interceptions came when Utah was blitzing. They didn't record a single sack all night, but when they blitzed 5, 6 or 7 Max Hall couldn't make a play. Out of Hall's 41 pass attempts, 6 ball were batted down at the line, 5 ended in interceptions and 4 hit Utah's defenders in the chest or hands but they couldn't bring them in. Johnson, on the other hand, only had 6 incompletions, over 300 yards and 0 interceotions.

In my opinion, the player of the game award goes to Paul Kruger. He had one of Max Hall's interceptions, lots of tackles and was a big part of the pressure that gave Max Hall fits. On the offensive side of the ball, Utah quarterback Brian Johnson had one of his best games ever.

Now, Utah gets a second chance to play in a BCS bowl game, but us Utah fans shouldn't be satisfied with that. Once again, the Utes will be left out of the battle for the national championship game - even though that have yet to lose. With a playoff, Utah would at least have a chance to play for a national championship - if they continue to win. The BCS is, and always will be, a joke. (I'm not saying that I think the Utes are a championship caliber team, just that I think that until a team loses, it shouldn't be out of the title hunt. This includes you Boise State and Ball State!).

Go Utes!