All was good cheer and gaiety at Tuesday's weekly meeting of the media and Big 5 football coaches, with one glaring exception.
Utah coach Ron McBride, still smarting from last Saturday's devastation at the hands of Arizona State, offered just a few terse comments before departing early to address the Ute booster club - an opportunity he no doubt eagerly anticipated.Even Southern Utah coach Jack Bishop, the only other opening-day loser, was downright cheery by comparison with the glum McBride.
But, as coaches are prone to say (over and over), we have to take them one at a time, and this is a new week, and cheaters never prosper, so here's the midweek outlook:
BYU (1-0) - The Cougars face Hawaii this week in Cougar Stadium, looking to avenge last year's heartbreaker in which they fumbled away what appeared to be a locked-up win.
Coach LaVell Edwards stressed that he wasn't in any way disappointed with last Saturday's three-point victory over a New Mexico team expected to finish well south of the WAC border.
"It's nice to escape with one like that," he said. "If you're going to have a good year, you have to sneak by in a couple of tough games."
Edwards said what he usually says between Game 1 and Game 2, that he expects big improvement this week.
"Over the years we've had some disastrous opening nights and come back and played extremely well."
Utah (0-1) - As mentioned, McBride wasn't overly impressed with what he saw in Arizona.
"We didn't play well," he said. "We didn't play with a lot of effort. It was a surprise to me as a coach."
Yeah, coach, but other than that, how'd the guys do?
"We got beat in all three phases," he continued. "Offense, defense, special teams."
OK, coach, but what do you think about this week's opponent, Utah State?
"Our biggest problem isn't Utah State," he said. "Our biggest problem is Utah."
And then he left.
Utah State (1-0) - Always-ebullient coach Charlie Weatherbie was plum tickled that his team came away with a win in its historic first conference game in Louisiana.
So tickled, in fact, that he turned on the cliche tap and waxed platitudinal about the upcoming encounter with Utah.
"We know it's going to be a battle," he offered.
Can you beat Utah this week, coach?
"Can we beat Utah this week?" he repeated, stalling for time. "If we can score more points we can."
(Ah, so that's how it works.)
Like McBride, Weatherbie suggested that Utah was its own worst enemy in the Arizona State debacle.
"Arizona State had some big plays, and it wasn't always so much a case of Arizona State playing great as Utah stubbing its toe," he said.
Stubbing? How about shooting itself?
Weber State (1-0) - Coach Dave Arslanian's Wildcats take on mighty Cal State Northridge this week, and if Northridge didn't have enough problems, it lost its starting quarterback last week in a loss to San Diego State.
Arslanian said last week's opponent, mighty Sonoma State, was tougher than he'd anticipated. In other words, slightly better than palooka level.
The coach said his team still has a lot to learn, but quickly pointed out (no doubt for the benefit of certain other coaches), "It's certainly a lot more fun to learn from a win than it is from a loss."
Southern Utah (0-1) - Speaking by mumblephone from Cedar City, Bishop sounded like a guy who started the season 1-0 instead of 0-1.
"We played about as good offensively and defensively as we can play," he said. "We just made some mistakes that cost us the game."
That's all.
The T-Birds take on Angelo State (we think that's the state next to Sonoma) on the road this week. Apparently confused about what season this is, Bishop summed up with, "We need to rebound."