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Utah turnovers, BYU mistakes mar first half of the Holy War

By Bryan FischerSep 10, 2016, 9:20 PM EDT
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Holy War? Try Holy Moly.

BYU and Utah played a game of hot potato to renew the regular season edition of their gridiron rivalry on Saturday evening, with the Utes narrowly jumping out to a 14-13 lead at halftime thanks to a late scoring drive.

Things got weird early and didn’t seem to let up at all before both teams went to the locker room in Salt Lake City. BYU’s first play of the game was intercepted off a tipped pass, which Utah linebacker Sunia Tauteoli snagged out of the air before running 41 yards to the end zone for the first point of the game.

That would turn out to be about the best thing to happen for the Utes until the final few seconds of the half considering the team’s offense turned the ball over four times. Quarterback Troy Williams threw two interceptions — one in the red zone — and the team fumbled twice to end a pair of first quarter drives. If there was any individual bright spot, tailback Troy McCormick rushing for 60 yards on just nine carries was likely the extent of it until Williams found Tim Patrick in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown and the late lead.

 

Cougars quarterback Taysom Hill did rebound from his first pass of the game, throwing for 69 yards in the first half and scrambling for 39 on a touchdown run in the closing minutes of the 2nd quarter. Safety Kai Nacua was all over the field for BYU in the first half and recorded the two interceptions off of Williams.

Both head coaches appeared to be visibly upset with their teams heading into the locker room and one can certainly understand why after such a sloppy first half from each side.

 

New college football video game becoming a reality in 2020

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By Kevin McGuireApr 23, 2018, 11:28 AM EDT
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For college football fans with a craving for some college football goodness on their home video game console, there is some good news on the horizon. Although EA Sports continues to keep its distance from reviving the beloved “NCAA Football” franchise, another company is moving ahead with a tentative 2020 launch for a highly anticipated college football video game to satisfy the cravings in the market.

IMackulate Vision Gaming has announced its upcoming title, “Gridiron Champions,” is now slated for a release in 2020, although a more specific date has not been confirmed. The game will avoid the legal loopholes that come with licensing college football school logos and conference tie-ins that have led to legal battles for EA Sports with its licensed NCAA Football game by having 126 fictional teams. However, gamers will have the option of customizing their teams in the game, allowing for the option to recreate official teams right down to the player names.

The new attempt at a college football game will have some new features as well, including a customizable playoff format that allows for a 16-team playoff field.

EA Sports previously had the option to fully customize rosters for the “NCAA Football” franchise, but the game came packaged with rosters that were strikingly similar to the real-world rosters. “Gridiron Champions” would avoid that all together and leave that to the consumers who purchase the game. IMV Gaming claims over 1,300 fans have purchased a copy of the game during its pre-launch fundraising efforts.

The game will be made available for the Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One and on PC. Sorry Nintendo Switch fans. For now, you’re left out of the game.

Transferring USF TE Kano Dillon tweets move to Oregon

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By John TaylorApr 23, 2018, 8:58 AM EDT
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After opting to leave a Group of Five program, Elkanah “Kano” Dillon has to continue his collegiate playing career at a Power Five school.

Dillon posted a tweet to his personal Twitter account Saturday that read simply, “Oregon is the real deal.” Subsequent to that tweet, both The Oregonian and ScoopDuck.com reported that the tight end has decided to transfer to the Ducks.

“Yes sir, I’m going to Oregon,” Dillon texted the latter website.

The move comes nearly three months after Dillon opted to transfer from South Florida.  As a graduate transfer, Dillon will be eligible to play immediately at Oregon in 2018, his final season of eligibility.

Last season at USF, Dillon caught 11 passes for 119 yards.  He finished the Bulls portion of his career with 504 yards and four touchdowns on 28 receptions.

Of the 33 games Dillon played, the 6-5, 262-pound tight end started eight of those contests.  Three of the starts came this past season.

Starting LSU safety Grant Delpit tweets he’s set for surgery

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By John TaylorApr 22, 2018, 10:10 PM EDT
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LSU didn’t come out of its spring game this past Saturday completely unscathed.

On his personal Twitters account Sunday, Grant Delpit tweets that he’ll undergo surgery Monday morning. While the defensive back didn’t specify the nature of the medical procedure, both Ross Dellenger of the Baton Rouge Advocate and Andrew Lopez of the New Orleans Times-Picayune are reporting that Delpit sustained a broken collarbone.

In his tweet, Delpit wrote that he’ll “be back soon ready to work!”; Dellenger’s and Lopez’s reports put the timeline at 6-8 weeks for a return, which means the rising true sophomore would be healed well before the start of summer camp in early August.

A four-star 2017 signee, Delpit was the starting safety for 10 of the 13 games in which he played as a true freshman last season. The Houston native finished fourth on the Tigers with 60 tackles and was fourth as well in passes defensed with nine. He was also one of six Tigers players with one interception on the year, second to Andraez Williams‘ team-leading six.

Ex-Michigan LB who directed threatening tweets at Jim Harbaugh says he’s ‘being harassed by police… being told I’m mentally ill’

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By John TaylorApr 22, 2018, 7:26 PM EDT
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And the disturbing trainwreck continues.

Elysee Mbem-Bosse sent out a string of alarming and threatening tweets last Monday night that seemed to be directed at U-M head football coach Jim Harbaugh.  Even as U-M’s athletic director expressed concern for a player who left the football program in mid-November, the University of Michigan Police Department had already confirmed that they had launched an investigation into the social-media threats; the man the tweets were directed at subsequently called them “a serious matter.”

In a tweet posted Sunday morning, Mbem-Bosse “apologize[d] fully” for his social-media missteps, writing that “I take full responsibility for the tweets i (sic) made regarding the safety of Coach Harbaugh.” The former linebacker, though, went on to accuse the university’s police department of harassing him and telling him he’s “mentally ill without proper evaluation.”

The latter accusation came a day after the football player posted a photo of a form in which it shows that a psychiatrist personally examined Mbem-Bosse at the University of Michigan Health System for 35 minutes on Friday, April 19, of this year. That psychiatrist determined that Mbem-Bosse is mentally ill, meaning he “has a substantial disorder of thoughts or mood that significantly impairs judgment, behavior, capacity to recognize reality, or ability to cope with the ordinary demands of life.”

Mbem-Bosse tweeted the photo of the form to Harbaugh’s Twitter account, describing the determination made by the university’s doctor as “Mafia work.” “[U]nbelievable the extent men will go [to] just to cover up their mistakes and flaws,” Mbem-Bosse wrote, presumably alluding to Harbaugh, whose grandfather was born in Sicily and moved to Italy as a young child, dismissing the player back in November amidst what Mbem-Bosse has described as a family crisis.

Other than confirming that an investigation had been initiated, there has been no update from the university’s police department on the probe’s status.