Congratulations, Brian and Louie! To go and play the way you guys did in front of ~105,000 (~3,000 were Utah fans at the stadium) opposing fans with Michigan talent coming at you is as admirable as you can get. I'm happy that the Conference recognizes how tough and how important your roles were in the outcome of that game

WAY TO GO!

These two players did great. Who doesn't love Sakoda? What a game for him - I loved the 60 yard punt and of course the 53 yard field goal. I wish the circumstances had been different on Louie's last punt as the Utes would have let him put another ball through the uprights from 53 or 54.

Congrats Brian and Louie!

Hey Whit, nice call in the end having Louie punt the ball rather than try a Field Goal. Had Louie missed, which he most likely would not have, Michigan would have taken over in good field goal territory. However, Whit, next time they give you 8 DB to cover the SPREAD, run the darn ball down their throats, punish them with your power runners!

GO UTES!!

Here's the part that really bites about getting this recognition: they are still utes.

Get over your Xeno[Ute]phobia. The only thing worse than a little brother BYU hater, is an arrogant Utah hating BYU fan.

Brian and Louie deserve the recognition for great performances in the Big House.

The Utah coaches, on the other hand, deserve the raspberry award for getting aligator arms in the second half and nearly costing the Utes the victory with their conservative play calling.

Where are all the BYU players? I thought NIU was a great team... lol

Nice strawman (look up the term) but, where did you get the idea that NIU was a great team?

You're welcome to go back and check ALL of the posts from the past month and I doubt you could come up with a single post that claims NIU is a great team by 1-A standards.

Northern Iowa is a great team, by 1-AA standards, but, by 1-A standards, UNI was ranked consistently at the level of a Wyoming, Colorado State, Nevada or San Diego State. If you think those are great 1-A teams, then I guess you could claim that other bloggers thought the Panthers were a "great team" also.

lol at your feeble strawman!

good to see BJ looking like the BJ of old...if we can just get him to throw the ball away instead of taking the sack (which i am sure they have already talked about since the game) then he will be hard to stop...

Louie is just Louie...enough said...he might only miss if the line doesn't do their job and a kick gets blocked...

I wasn't worried at all about the Offense, but the Defense had a few question marks...it was great seeing that they played a remarkable game...for Michigan to do anything, it had to be a perfectly executed play (or Utah giving them the ball practically in the end zone)...

Here is to the Defense to keep doing what they are doing, and to the Offense/Special teams to fix a few simple things that will lead to a great season!

Utah is now in the top 25 and is ranked 13 in Sagarin's computer rating. BYU is way below that.

Hey; Go to USA Today on-line and vote for SAKODA as player of the Week! He deserves it!

elephant's tail...
(in other words, not looking at the whole picture)

BYU is ranked 15th in the Coaches and AP polls

Utah is ranked way below that, actually

23rd in the Coaches and 22nd in the AP

BYU is ranked 23rd in Sagarin, btw.

Expect the computer rankings of the two teams to fluctuate wildly from week to week until October.

With BYU playing Washington and UCLA the next two weeks, BYU's ranking (assuming they win) will go up significantly.

With Utah playing UNLV and Utah State the next two weeks, win or lose, Utah's ranking is going to drop significantly.

He was being sarcastic you fool. That's embarrassing for you.

Sakoda is very deserving of his recognition. Johnson played well, but I think the league was trying to add some shine to the Michigan win with his selection as offensive player of the week. That should have gone to BYU's Dennis Pitta, who didn't just lead the MWC in receiving yards but led the nation in receiving yards. 213 yards on 11 catches is pretty amazing. Hall played better than Johnson as well, but Pitta was outstanding.

Pitta / 11 receptions / 213 yards / 19.4 yards per catch
Hall / 486 yards / 2 touchdowns / 0 interceptions
Johnson / 305 yards / 1 touchdown / 1 interception

Sakoda played great though, he was definitely the MVP of the Michigan game.

The reason Johnson got the award is because he had good stats against a good defense. The level of talent of the NIU Defensive players would not even recieve a second look by MWC recruiters let alone Big Ten teams. If Hall and Pitta can put up those numbers agains the UCLA or Washington teams then they will deserve the accolades. Until then let's try to keep it real, shall we?

Pitta and Hall did have great games. No question about it. The real story lies in who they played against. The UNI defense set itself up to be beaten by the TE position because they double teamed the WR's the entire game, leaving nothing but Linebackers to try to stay with him. What they didn't plan for was how BYU uses the TE more like a receiver than an actual TE, going downfield more instead of just running short middle field routes. We will see how well they do against teams that don't have to double team the receivers to stay with them. If they continue those kinds of numbers, they will deserve those awards. From what I was told by several BYU fans was that Hall had all day long to throw and no one could stay with Pitta. It would have been disappointing if they didn't get those kind of numbers. That being said, I won't be calling for our guys to win those awards next week, even if the numbers look better. I expect Johnson to have better numbers than Hall next week because the quality of team they are playing is very different.

way to take the bait, hook, line, and sinker!