John and Hans Show

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WEDNESDAY EDITION: THE JOHN AND HANS DAILY MIX
November 18th, 2008

GUEST LIST FOR WEDNESDAY’S SHOW

You can hear interviews from Tuesday’s John and Hans show on the 1280thezone.com audio page with Ryan Denney (Buffalo Bills, BYU), John Beck (Miami Dolphins, BYU), Dennis Pitta and Tom Holmoe. On Wednesday, we have Eric Weddle at 7:10 AM (Utah, SD Chargers), Urban Meyer at 7:30 AM, Kyle Gunther in studio from 8-10 AM and Reno Mahe at 8:30 AM (BYU, Philidelphia Eagles), and former Utah DB Dave Revill, who likes to lose bets to Hans, at 9 AM.

GET YOUR RED-BLUE RIVALRY CLASSIC TICKETS HERE

Revil and Mahe are playing in the Red-Blue Rivalry Classic, the celebrity flag football game featuring legends from Utah and BYU alumni. You can get more information, rosters and get tickets at SmithTix.com here.

PITTA TO PLAY

If you missed the show this morning, Hans spoke with several sources close to the BYU program who said that Dennis Pitta was a 100% go for the game on Saturday. They also said that they expect Pitta to be 90% or so effective. Obviously you can’t project what he’ll be like once the game starts but he should be good to start. Hans also spoke to a couple players from the U and BYU who played the week after MCL sprains, and they said while painful, they were effective. Good news for BYU fans.

BOWL PROJECTIONS

These have been wrong all season, so why look now? Because you have plans to make and SI.com says BYU to Vegas no matter what and if the Utes lose, they get Boise State in the Poinsettia......
“If Utah (11-0) beats BYU (10-1) this weekend, the eighth-ranked Utes will likely wrap up a BCS berth. The Las Vegas Bowl, with first choice of Mountain West teams, plans to select the Cougars for a fourth-straight season, win or lose. If Utah loses, it likely falls to the Poinsettia Bowl, which is where Boise State appears headed if it doesn’t make the BCS.” For BYU fans, this means either Arizona, who is 6-4 overall, 4-3 in the Pac-10 or Cal who is also 6-4/4-3, but Arizona beat Cal earlier this season. Arizona has Oregon State and Arizona State at home, Cal has Stanford and Washington at home. Utah is likely headed to the Sugar if they win to play the Florida-Alabama SEC title game loser. The Orange Bowl has been talked about, but it will come down to the Sugar picking between the Big East auto-bid team, Cincinnatti or Pitt and the Utes. I think Utah gets the nod and the ACC and Big East champ play in the Orange aka Orphan Bowl of teams no one wants.

DO BYU FANS HAVE HOPE?

of a BCS bid if they beat Utah? Vegas seems to think so, as they have installed Boise State as only 4 to 6-point favorites on the road against 6-4 Nevada this weekend. If Boise loses and BYU wins, the Cougars are likely headed to a BCS game, either the Sugar or Orange. As stated above, it looks as if BYU is headed to the Vegas vs. Cal or Arizona with a loss.

THIS GUY HAS LOST HIS MIND!

This is the second time that Tom Dinehart at Rivals.com has mentioned Andy Ludwig’s name for the openng at Utah State. I like Dinehart, but this is clearly a case of a guy trying to get a guys name out there for a job. When I was in Portland, I was called by an agent who wanted to get Rick Barry’s name out there for the Blazers HC job, when I was in Detroit, I got a call from an agent for a black HC canidate. If Ludwig, who can’t even handle the Utah O-Coord job, gets the USU gig, all 3 Aggies fans should throw a fit. He mentions John L. Smith as well. Dinehart has Utah right, but he has the wrong side of the ball. Utes D-Coord Gary Andersen has interest in the job but won’t let it be known offcially until Utah is done with its business this week. Insiders tell me that Andersen has a plan to succeed at USU.

THERE ARE OTHER GAMES ON TAP THIS WEEKEND

You need something to do before Utah-BYU this weekend, so here are some options:
MICHIGAN @ 10 OHIO STATE (ABC, 10 AM)- Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire, Stacey Dales: HEY! Didn’t you used to be Michigan-Ohio State?
COLORADO STATE @ WYOMING (MTN, Noon)- James Bates, Todd Christensen, Natalie Vickers, Andrea Lloyd: CSU is bowl eligible with win.......
WASHINGTON @ WASHINGTON ST. (FSN, 1pm)- Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis, Jim Watson: Who is the worst team in the Pac-10 anyway? HEY! Didn’t you used to be the Apple Cup?
AFA @ TCU (Versus, 1:30pm)- Joe Beninati, Glenn Parker, Tim Neverett...If TCU wins and BYU wins, three way tie for MWC title. TCU favored by 19.
BOISE STATE @ NEVADA (KTVB, Boise TV market only) 2pm)- Mark Johnson, Tom Scott, David Augusto: Boise is only favored by 6. If BYU wins and Boise loses this game, Cougars have a good chance at BCS bowl.
14 BYU @ 7 UTAH (MTN, (HD) 4pm)- Rich Cellini, Jon Berger, Blaine Fowler, Sammy Linebaugh, Toby Christensen: Utah wins, BCS Sugar Bowl....lose...Poinsettia possibly vs. Boise iof they lose. BYU Vegas vs. Arizona or Cal with win or loss, possible BCS with win and Boise loss.
PITT @ CINCINNATTI (ESPN2, 5pm)- Mark Jones, Bob Davie: Winner will likely represent Big East in automatic berth for BCS bowl.
21 OREGON STATE @ ARIZONA (Versus, 5pm)- Ron Thulini, Kelly Stouffer, Lewis Johnson: OSU wins and beats Oregon at home next week for Rose Bowl berth. Utes can say they beat Rose Bowl team.....
2 TEXAS TECH @ 5 OKLAHOMA (ABC, 6pm)- Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters: Tivo this game. Could be one of the year’s best. Tech wins, they play Missouri in Big 12 title game to go to National Championship. OU wins and creates three way tie with win over OK-State next week. Both teams could be BCS bound regardless.

RICH ROD HAS IT RIGHT: GET A LIFE

I’m into the rivalry week as much as anyone, it’s kind of like Utah sports radio Christmas. Having covered and done the week of radio on the air leading up to big rivalry games between Ohio State-Michigan, Oklahoma-Texas, Oregon-Oregon State and others, I must agree with Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez who tells Michigan fans that it’s just football people and to get a life.It’s important, but Utah fans survived the last two years other than a few mental bruises. The economy, your kids, the war, those are real life stories. Sports are just a sidebar, we forget that sometimes during these crazy weeks leading up to big games.

BRIAN JOHNSON IS NOT COMMITTING AN NCAA VIOLATION BYU FANS

As much as Cougar fans would like, Brian Johnson sitting courtside at the Jazz-Suns game Tuesday night is not an NCAA violation. BJ laughed when I told him about the commotion being caused by e-mailers on our show sending camera pics and by people on the boards wondering what he was doing there in front row seats. Relax Utah fans and try again BYU fans, Johnson told me he’s a “Little smarter than to put his whole team in jepordy that way.” You can stop sending the photos in now BYU fans, it’s on the up and up.