BOW-WOW BUSS: After BYU coach LaVell Edwards planted a kiss on Utah coach Ron McBride at Tuesday's Big 5 Huddle luncheon, McBride was asked if he'd ever been smooched by Edwards before. "No, that's the first time. I tell you what, he's really hurting when he kisses me. I think I'm his only friend; he's probably my only friend, too. At least he can share a little bit of the misery. A guy will look at him and look at me and say, `Oh, they're both dogs.' "
FUN IS NORMAL: During a three-game losing streak, it seemed inappropriate for Southern Utah players and coaches to joke around as usual. For last week's homecoming game with UC-Davis, though, "We went back to our normal stuff and started kidding around again," says first-year coach Ray Gregory, whose team won, 37-27. "It was a lot more fun. We said don't worry about winning and losing, let's just have fun, and they did. We're going back with that attitude. We're back to normal."BACK-TO-'BACK: BYU's Rob Morris did about all he could defensively in last week's 14-3 upset loss at Texas-El Paso. The sophomore middle linebacker tallied 19 tackles (12 unassisted), two tackles for loss, a hurry, a sack and two memorable hits on Miner opponents.
But as he stood on the sideline watching an ineffective offense, did the one-time freshman fullback think about getting in some licks - and some yards - on offense?
"Yeah, defensive guys always want to get a bit of glory," said the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Morris. "You want to do anything to help, but unfortunately that (playing running back) is not the answer."
LONG EXPLANATION: "I didn't have to come (to the Big 5 Huddle) today," said McBride, "but I just thought that if I didn't come, you folks would think I was dodging you. And that's sometimes how you feel when you don't play well. You don't want to walk out and see your neighbors. People walk by you and pretend they don't know you. And that's to be expected. But, hey, handle your responsibilities, and you can't dodge the bullet. The bullet hit you right square in the forehead, you gotta stand up and accept whatever you've done wrong, whatever you've done right. So that's why I'm here today, basically."
WHY BLOCK?: Southern Utah's Gregory says Northern Iowa has "a couple of defensive linemen that we haven't seen, but in our scheme, we don't block their best players, so they'll probably have about 17 tackles. Since we figure we can't block them, we just let them go."
BIZARRE BOUNCES: "The ball is not bouncing correctly," says McBride of his team's inability to get a break, even on a Tulsa fumble that turned into a 44-yard gain from the Tulsa 1-yard line after it had been ruled that Juan Johnson didn't score on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Tulsa's Charlie Higgins fumbled in the Ute secondary, and several players booted and prodded the ball on the play, Tulsa finally recovering for good at its 45.
"That was crazy," said McBride. "It was bouncing right by me, and I said, `What the (heck), get the ball.' I almost jumped on the (darn) thing."
STAFF INPUT: "We had two interceptions this week," says Gregory. "I think our whole coaching staff cringes when I call a pass."
UTES CAN'T RUN: "The Tulsa game was a piece of junk," says McBride of Utah's inexplicable 21-13 loss to one of the NCAA's worst defensive teams, a team with only one other win, and that against a team that's still winless.
"Everyone knows they're not very good on defense, especially run defense. A couple problems we had is, No. 1, we haven't got one healthy running back. Juan (Johnson) and Chris (Fuamatu-Ma'afala), if they're healthy, they're going to run up and down the field, but they can't make cuts. So what happens is, the holes are huge, but they can't get to the holes. But they can get up there and jam forward for 5 or 6 yards.
"There's legitimately about 400 yards worth of running game against that team."
PERPLEXED COACH: "They're a pretty average football team," McBride said of Tulsa. "So what can you say? You lose a game you should win by probably three touchdowns, at least. I've seen some strange things in my football career, but this was a little hard to understand."
BUT, REF . . .:"I probably shouldn't say too much, but I think I've complained about the officiating for a couple of weeks, and I think now it's coming back to haunt me," said McBride. "It's kinda like a cop. If you're out there and you keep giving a cop a lot of (crud), he's going to nail your (rear). And officials are kinda like cops. You can complain and do all that stuff, but they're going to get you in the end.