BYU vs Boston College Preview

2 a days are almost over, fall practice is winding down, and game preparation is starting, in a little over a week, Boston College will travel to Provo Utah to play BYU in both teams season opener.

It looks to be a great game, BC has an undeniably strong running game, BYU has a great defense and the addition of playing at an altitude of 4500 ft.

Some players to watch for in this game:

BYU

• Manaia Brown, 99, Named Lombardi Award Candidate


• Cameron Jensen, 35, Named Lombardi Award Candidate & on the Bronko Nagurski watch list


• Jake Kuresa, 73, Named Lombardi Award Candidate & named to the Outland Trophy list


• Todd Watkins, 1, Biletnikoff Award Candidate


• Lance Reynolds, 54, Rimington Trophy Candidate


• Daniel Coats, 20, Mackey Award Candidate


• John Beck, 12, Davey O’Brien Award Candidate

Boston College

• Quinton Porter, 15, Davey O’Brien Award Candidate


• Patrick Ross, ##, Rimington Trophy Candidate

Now I know that BC has more Awards list players than this, but I’m having some trouble finding them, and I’m not in a position to do a full out search, I’d appreciate for anyone with that info to leave a comment or send it to me.

Thanks!


The Lombardi Award, in its 36th year, honors the finest lineman in college football.

The Bronko Nagurski Award is given annually to the nation's outstanding defensive player by the FWAA/Charlotte TD Club.

The Outland Trophy is awarded to the best interior lineman in the country on offense or defense

The Biletnikoff Award is an Annual Award Given To The Nation's Best College Receiver.

The Dave Rimington Trophy presented to the nation's premier college football center.

The John Mackey Award is presented annually to the nation's top tight end.

The Davey O'Brien Award is given annually to the nation's outstanding quarterback by the Davey O'Brien Foundation.


More great BYU Football information at http://www.cougarcorner.com/

Rocky Anderson is a Bad Mayor

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s never ending quest to prove he is the least dignified, most irrelevant, worst and biggest media whore mayor in the United States reached new heights the other day when President Bush attended the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. The mayor decided to organize and lead a protest against the President. He called upon all Utahns to attend his protest.

I’m disgusted by the lack of respect that Anderson has for the President, the man and the office, his lack of respect for his office and mayoral status and the city. He has neither the right nor the influence to call on Utah to join him in his protest. It would be like the Governor of New York calling on the people Connecticut to attend their protest.

Like it or not, you give up certain freedoms when you are entrusted with public service jobs. You are expected to act for the public good, to act on behalf of your constituents. I would be appalled if Governor Leavitt had organized and rallied a protest when President Clinton had visited Utah.

Ultimately Rocky, you are a very bad mayor. You don’t act for your constituents, you act for yourself, you will stop at nothing to build your own power, even at the cost of tearing SLC apart, polarizing it’s people.

An Open Letter to Fuddruckers

An Open Letter to Fuddruckers

8/19/2005

Dear Management of Fuddruckers,

I would first like to compliment you and your stores on the basis of your food. I've always been a huge fan of your Chili-Cheese Fries. In fact, ever since the Orem, Utah store first opened I've been a very regular customer. At some points, I ate lunch there 2 - 3 times a week. I've always found your staff to be extremely friendly, calling me by name and seemingly genuinely happy to see me.

For years I’ve enjoyed the Chili-Cheese Fries, topped from your condiments bar with plenty of diced onions. Recently however, your service no longer included diced onions, only sliced onions. That is fine, most people probably prefer sliced onions for their hamburgers. The first time I saw this, I asked if I could have a knife to dice the sliced onions myself, but the manager insisted he do it for me.

Since that time, I’ve always asked the staff, when ordering, if they would mind preparing diced onions for me. Actually, they would often ask me before I even ordered if I wanted diced onions on my chili-cheese fries, they knew me so well.

When I visited on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 2pm. I was prepared for my usual fare, but the young man taking my order seemed hesitant about cutting onions for me. He asked his manager, a new manager for the store, a Mr. Picard, who informed him that the staff would no longer be providing cut onions to guests; it was their new policy not to serve guests what they had ordered.

I wanted to inform you of my dissatisfaction with the way that the event was handled by the store manager, who even though I was standing right there would not explain to me his policy of not treating the customer as #1, but rather to talk through a 16 year old employee.

If you have any idea where the old manager now works I would gladly go and eat at any restaurant he is managing, because he knows how to treat his customers, but I do not want to eat where seemingly such a simple request is refused, rudely.

Thank you,

Chad Cluff

Ps. A copy of this letter will be on my blog at http://www.chadcluff.com/blog.html I will be happy to publish any response you may have at the same site for fairness.

The Great Train Wreck

The Great Train Wreck of Cindy Sheehan

I had hoped to avoid the train wreck of Cindy Sheehan. Let’s face it; she is nothing more than a train wreck that has been hijacked by the worst extremists our country has today.

First, a little history:

Casey Sheehan was tragically killed in Iraq while voluntarily serving his Nation and the people of Iraq. Spc. Sheehan was not a green recruit, but had served for several years, and had actually re-enlisted for duty after the onset of the war. Make no mistake, the choice was his to be there.

After Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed, Pres. Bush met with and consoled the Sheehan family, all reported to be in high spirits after meeting with the President, including Cindy.

After a year or so, it appears that Ms. Sheehan felt that she was no longer satisfied with the war effort, and began a vigil for peace outside of the President’s Ranch, claiming to be desiring to meet with the President.

At this point, I feel there can only be 3 options for her behavior, or maybe it’s better said as three stages.

1. A genuinely bereaved mother who has cracked after the pressure of losing her son.


2. A woman being manipulated by groups that don’t really care about her or her son and just want to use this tragedy to spew their anti-Bush hatred.


3. An opportunist who see’s a chance to push her political agenda on the death of her son

I honestly believe it started with stage 1. Parents should never have to outlive their children. It’s, or would be, a horrible and painful ordeal for any parent. The pressures of a year of pain could have made Ms. Sheehan look for someone to blame. Suddenly the President, who had made you feel so good about your sons courage and sacrifice before becomes in your mind the sinister uncaring monster who caused his death.

Secondly, other groups with a clear and stated history of hatred for President Bush stepped in, with a pitiful (and by pitiful I mean someone Inspiring or deserving pity which perfectly describes Ms. Sheehan) spokesperson to show in front of cameras they could advance their ideology in a way that would never have been accepted from the likes of Michael Moore.

Third, Ms. Sheehan may see this instant fame as her chance to dictate to a willing media and country what she has felt all along. Currently she has more control over the media than any other public figure since John F. Kennedy, she’s free to spout Her political views on President Bush, taxation, and more. Every day this is less about Spc. Casey Sheehan and more about Ms. Sheehan, and that is a tragedy.

---

I watched two different news casts last night, both of them led off with Ms. Sheehan stories, and neither of them mentioned that other parents of fallen soldiers in Iraq actually support the war and our President. To hear them speak, you would think we have this growing army of parents ready to impeach the President when nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, that’s not even the case with the Sheehan family. Most of the family would rather honor Spc. Casey Sheehan’s memory and his service, it’s Ms. Sheehan that is intent on using her son’s death for political gain. It’s already caused the breakup of that family.

Another mother supporting Ms. Sheehan spoke on camera saying, ‘I have a 23 year old daughter, and she will be drafted in the next draft – I don’t want her fighting for this administration.’ Wow, could any statement be more of a lie? There is no draft, there will not be under this administration. The only people who have even talked about having a draft have been democrats, Charlie Rangel, a democrat and cosponsored by 14 other democrats, all top members of the Democratic Party.

I hope that truth will prevail.

Movies for Thought

Movies for Thought

I spend a few hours over the weekend watching two very different movies, both of which had interesting themes relating to war. One was Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and the other was The Great Raid. Both approached the topic of war in very different ways, but both had, what I thought, were relevant insights.

The War of the Worlds, which was at best a mediocre movie, show cased a fight against an enemy that would stop at nothing and had no other motivation than our utter destruction. The parallels between this movie and our current situation fighting extremist terrorists should be clear. Of course because it is the left wing Spielberg there is the classic scene with Tom begging his son not to join the army as they fight against the alien attackers, “I know it seems like you have to fight, but you don’t have to!” that’s right, there are other braver people willing to fight and die to protect your way of life. I may have missed the point however, perhaps he was trying to say that we can count on germs killing terrorists.

The other movie, The Great Raid put into light all the terrors of what war crime is really about.

Set in the Philippines in 1945, "The Great Raid" tells the true story of the 6th Ranger Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) who undertake a daring rescue mission against all odds. Traveling thirty miles behind enemy lines, the 6th Ranger Battalion aims to liberate over 500 American prisoners-of-war from the notorious Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp in the most audacious rescue ever.

This movie probably wont do great, because it lacks star power, but it’s a fantastic story of the honor in our military. In fact, not only is it a great story from our past, it’s a fantastic movie that was well acted and made. Naysayers would love to have us believe that ours is a regime of the most cruel men and women on earth, to rival even the atrocities of the Nazi’s. Nothing could be further from the truth. Watching this movie will show you what atrocities really are, and you will come away having learned a fine lesson about our military.

Ultimately this is our war, and there is no one else who can or will fight it, sorry Spielberg, it is up to us. We can fight it with honor and dignity, as we have been. There have been some mistakes and excesses along the way, but overall we have the best trained most professional army in the world, and I for one am proud of that and of them.