Time of possession proved to be a critical factor in Utah's win over BYU on Saturday, with the Utes having the ball more than twice as long as the Cougars.
Time of possession was also a critical factor when looking at what KTVX-Ch. 4 did with its postgame show on Saturday afternon.Ch. 4, of course, was the beneficiary of ABC's decision to pick the BYU-Utah game up regionally. And Ch. 4 took advantage of that by scheduling a postgame show featuring sports anchor Carl Arky. But here's how that postgame show - which ran 23 minutes and 45 seconds - broke down:
Commercials - 8:30. Self-promotional commercial - :30. News headlines - :30. Lame bit featuring Sparky Mortimer: 4:00.
Actual postgame show: 10:15.
Was this just a way to sell more advertisements or what?
Arky's interview with the Lusk brothers, Harold and Henry, was fine. The brief chat with Chris Ma'afala was less successful. (Ma'afala proved to be a great running back but a dreadful interview on Saturday.)
Allowing that screaming mob behind Arky was a mistake, making it difficult to hear what was being said. (And that bunch could have been kept away.)
And the Sparky Mortimer bit? There are few things worse than bad imitations of David Letterman humor. KTVX should not have attempted it.
Altogther, if you missed the only local part of the coverage Saturday's big local football game, you didn't miss much.
BENCH WARMERS: We already knew that ABC wasn't taking the Utah-BYU game particularly seriously. Broadcasting it on only five stations to a paltry 1.9 percent of the nation's television households made that point rather clear.
But the assignment of Gary Geroud and John Spagnola as the broadcast team emphasized that point. (Gary who? John Who?) Any of the local stations could have done a more professional job.
But we weren't getting ABC's first, second or even third team. Not only did ABC have the Penn State-Michigan game as the first half of the doubleheader, but it had four other regional games running concurrent with the BYU-Utah game.
We got the benchwarmers.
MAKE THE SWITCH: Local viewers, of course, didn't see all of Saturday's game. They missed the kickoff and BYU's first drive, which ended in a Utah interception, so ABC could broadcast the end of the Penn State-Michigan game.
Now, in many instances, it's a terrible idea to switch away from a game before it's over. But the last 4 minutes and 40 seconds of broadcast time (not game time) of the earlier game consisted of watching Penn State - with a 10-point lead and the ball - run out the clock.
Then we got a minute of promos for ABC and Ch. 4, followed by a minute of commercials.
If all that had been dispensed with, local fans would have missed little if any of the Utah-BYU game.
COMMERCIAL TIME: If BYU's lack of success against Utah continues much longer, nobody will want to be LaVell's buddy.