Evaluative Conclusion

Well this is my 20th and last blog entry for this assignment in Writing 150. I thought this was an interesting assignment because it was an interesting and different way to write than we are accustomed to in an english type class. One regret that I have about this assignment is not remembering doing blog posts in the early months of the semester like September and October. But nevertheless I thought this was a rewarding assignment because I have never been a kind of person who keeps a journal or writes down things about my life. I guess for this blog I had two types of posts that i really enjoyed writing about. One type of post that was a pattern in my blog was current sport issues that were happening, and what my opinion on them were. I love sports, and being able to analyze and write what I thought about these different topics in sports for a school assignment was great. Another type of post that I enjoyed writing about was some spiritual topics. Being able to blog and talk about spiritual things helps spread the gospel, even if were not aware of it. Having blog posts about gospel oriented things is us bearing our testimonies to the world and whoever stumbles upon our blogs. Like I said the pattern I saw was my continuous writing on sports and giving my opinion. Which also shows that a change has happened within me since coming here to college. I am now more open to giving my opinion to people on issues and not afraid if someone might potential disagree. I believe I will continue to write in this blog here and there because for my passion in sports and a new passion in giving my opinion.

Back to the Old Routine

This Sunday was the fourth round of the Chevron World Challenge with Zach Johnson having a one stroke lead over Tiger Woods going into the round. Everyone was wondering if this was finally the tournament that Tiger would win and get over that hump. He hadn't won in over two years since the "Thanksgiving" episode and all the drama that would follow it. His game suffered tremendously because of it and had not won a tournament since then. Anyways, him and Zach Johnson went back and forth throughout the round until Zach took a one stroke lead on the 16th hole with two holes to play. Then Tiger put on his old magic from Sundays past and birdied the last two holes to win at -10. Watching Tiger on those last two holes was like watching the Tiger of old in the fourth round of tournaments. He finally got over the hump and won a tournament, and hopefully this win will now chain together some wins as he goes into the 2012 season. I hope to see if this is Tiger getting back to the old routine, winning a majority of the tournaments he enters, and closing out tournaments.

Our Choice to be Grateful

This month's First Presidency message in the December Ensign was about gratefulness by President Eyring. Especially during this time of year with Christmas and Thanksgiving, it really is our choice to be grateful. We need to choose to be grateful because we can sometime take for granted the blessing that the Lord has bestowed upon us. Because we have so much more than other people, we need to take in consideration of the people who need help. People like here in America who have lost their job or are in economic hardship, or people in Africa who do not have as much as we need to be in our thoughts and prayers. We here at college are blessed to be able to come to this great university and get an amazing education, we are blessed to have a roof over our heads, we are blessed to be able to eat whenever we want to, and we are blessed to be able to go back to our loving families and see them at the holidays. I know if we serve during these holidays that we are showing the Lord that we are grateful for what we have and that we are serving our fellow man. If we can show our gratefulness to the Lord then he will bless us even more, because like President Monson has said, we must have an attitude of gratitude about us always.

Great Day to be a Cougar

Today there were two games that BYU fans could watch and get excited about. The first game was BYU v. Oregon in basketball, where it was played in EnergySolutions arena in Salt Lake City. We easily crushed a pretty decent Oregon team 79-65 giving us our first decent OOC win. Noah Hartsock once again was our steady, leading contributor with 23 pts, 12 reb, and 4 blocks. Our win was fueled by two players off the bench named Nate Austin with 9 points and Stephen Rogers with 16 points. This should continue to keep our momentum going, and we might be ranked by the time we face off, as of now, #8 Baylor as they come into the Marriott Center, and where Matt Carlino makes his anticipated debut. After the basketball game, the football game of BYU v. Hawaii was set to take place. This was a revival of a rivalry that was created when both teams were still in the Western Athletic Conference. BYU got off to a slow start, but turned it up in the second half and winning this game 41-20. Riley Nelson, coming back from that fractured rib and punctured lung injury, had a career game throwing for 363 yards and three touchdowns. Joe Sampson also recovered a fumble for a touchdown for his first one in his career. Now our last game of the season will be at the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces bowl against a Conference USA opponent. And with Houston losing today, most likely we will either play against Houston or Southern Miss.  Overall a really great day to be a Cougar.

BCS Conundrum

The regular season for college football has finally ended, and as usual the season ends with controversy. Every year this happens because we have the BCS system, instead of a playoff system. Once every season ends there is rarely any consensus on who should be playing in the national title game. With LSU's 42-10 win over Georgia in the SEC Championship game, it saved the BCS from complete chaos. With them being the only remaining unbeaten team in the country, after Houston lost embarrassingly to Southern Miss. 49-28 in the Conference USA title game, the BCS now has to pick out out of five one loss teams to face against LSU for the national title. Those five one loss teams are Alabama, Oklahoma St., Stanford, Houston, and Boise St. Houston and Boise St. can pretty much be eliminated from getting into the title game let alone a BCS bowl. Stanford although they only lost once to Oregon would probably be skipped over in the title game discussion. It now it comes down if there is going to be a rematch between Alabama and LSU where LSU won in OT 9-6, or if Oklahoma St. will get there crack at LSU. I personally want to see a LSU v. Oklahoma St. game for a couple of reasons. One reason is that the LSU and Alabama game was kind of boring, featuring only field goals and pretty much just defense. There were no electrifying plays that got the audience excited. Another reason is I want to see if Oklahoma St.'s offense can be effective against LSU and if they could really give them a game, because LSU has looked unstoppable. Anyways my heart says a LSU v. Oklahoma St. title game, but my head says LSU v. Alabama title game.

Inaugural Pac-12 Title Game

So tonight was the first ever Pac-12 championship game featuring the Oregon Ducks and the UCLA Bruins. People expected this to be a blowout but instead Oregon only won 49-31. Anyways the rule with the Pac-12 championship game is that the division winner with the best record would host the championship game. So this year the championship game was at the Autzen Zoo. But the commissioner, Larry Scott, did some things that did not make the Oregon fans all too happy. Larry Scott tried to take away from Oregon's home field advantage that they had earned and make it more neutral. Here are some of the following things that he did. He removed the Ducks home PA announcer and brought in an objective 3rd party. Did tot allow the Ducks field practice time at Autzen for the past several days while Pac12 people give the field an overhaul to again make it more neutral. Student tickets for the game were $50 and many of the UofO student sections have been moved to different areas of the stadium. And Lastly, the scoreboard was operated by an objective 3rd party, so no Oregon cheerleading on the board (things like "Make Noise!" signs when UCLA is in a third down situation, those kinds of things). It was just funny because the conference rewards the best team with having the championship game at home, but tries to take away the home field advantage aspect. While it did not make such a difference in this game, who knows how would have it affected if the game was against USC.

Silence Hurts

This last Wednesday on November 30th Utah St. had a home game against Denver. The Utah St. administration and the athletic director previously before the game had issued an apology to BYU for its actions and words that were said during the BYU game at the Spectrum. These actions, words, signs were of a sexual nature referring to what Brandon Davies was suspended for last year. The Utah St. fans were not that pleased about the apology. Then to compound onto this frustration, the administration "supposedly" put in rules for cheering, like fans were not allowed to point or talk to any of the players, or use certain chants. These rules outraged the student section, which then caused them for the first three minutes of the game to be silent with no cheering. Some fans even went as far as putting duct tape over their mouths. Well this caused the players to be greatly affected by this, which caused them to lose the game 67-54 and snap their 33 home game winning streak. After the game, Stew Morril called out the student section for being immature and hopefully will be in the game the next time. I thought this was a very immature act by the student section of Utah St. Not only did they cost their team a win at home, but that also came off as cry babies. I feel bad for the team, who really feeds off crowd energy for a win at home.