COLUMN: A tale of two teams
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” Never could Dickens’ words have been as true as they were Saturday.
Should I start with the good news or the bad news? Because we want to end on a happy note we will start with the Utah State football team (bad).
What happened? I was watching another football game and they kept flashing the score from the Utah State-Fresno State football game. I couldn’t believe how fast Fresno was scoring. It was like watching that big sign at the Jerry Lewis telethon that shows how much money people are giving. 56 points in the first half? Yikes. Even basketball teams don’t score that much in a half.
So if that wasn’t enough, once again we were accused of foul play. I now count five different teams this year that have accused us of this. I’m sure that players have a bunch of excuses, but you can only blame the other guys so many times. When there is this much smoke, there must be fire. What else would explain Fresno State’s mild mannered, Christian, family man quarterback David Carr taunting our sidelines after a touchdown or his post game quote: “It’s hard for me to have respect for that football team, and I’m glad we ran them over.” A lot of these players have less control over themselves than my one-year-old nephew has over his bladder.
Whether it’s fair or not, dumb penalties reflect on the coach. USU Head Coach Mick Dennehy needs to control this issue somehow. Until he does, he will continue to have as much control over his team as a middle school substitute teacher. This is exactly what prompted Fresno State coach Pat Hill to scream at Utah State coaches from across the field.