Oklahoma and Florida can battle for the BCS. But we've already crowned the true national champ.

Fantastic article by Rick Reilly on ESPN about the Utah Utes and our National Championship.

"Some gifts people give are pointless: Styling mousse to Dick Vitale. An all-you-can-eat card to Kate Moss. The BCS Championship given to Oklahoma or Florida.

It means nothing because the BCS has no credibility. Florida? Oklahoma? Who cares? Utah is the national champion.

The End. Roll credits.

Argue with this, please. I beg you. Find me anybody else that went undefeated. Thirteen-and-zero. Beat four ranked teams. Went to the Deep South and seal-clubbed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The same Alabama that was ranked No. 1 for five weeks. The same Alabama that went undefeated in the regular season. The same Alabama that Florida beat in order to get INTO the BCS Championship game in the first place.

Yeah, that's how it is now in the shameful, money-grubbing world of college football. If you're Florida and you beat Alabama, you get a seat in the title game. If you're Utah, you get a seat on your sofa."

Read the whole article here

How sweet it is to be 13-0 and the only undefeated football team in the country!

What a win! What a season! The only UNDEFEATED team in the country! All this talk of how a team from Utah can't even hold an SEC team's jock. All this talk of how physical Alabama was, how we were about to face a "real" team. Screw you Barry Switzer! Screw you Saben! Screw you ESPN! 13-0! GO UTES!!! We have the longest winning streak in the country. We have the longest bowl game winning streak in the country. We were the first non-BCS school to go to a BCS bowl, and we are now the first non BCS school to win TWO BCS games. Alabama had 33 carries for 31 rushing yards. Alabama had allowed 17 sacks all season, and Utah had 8 tonight.

Utah has four wins against top 25 teams, and two wins against teams in the Top 10.  NO other team in the country has that kind of resume.

There were shirts in New Orleans that said that Utah was from the WAC and not the Mountain West Conference, and evidently, there were clappers and other assorted items they were going to give to fans at the game, but they spelled UTES as UTHES.  Once they were informed of the printing error, they stowed them away and didn't give any out.  That's not as bad as when after the Fiesta Bowl in 2004, the scoreboard read "Congratulations UTAH STATE" after we beat Pittsburgh.

Nick Saben of Alabama said that his team was the only undefeated team from a "REAL" BCS conference to go 12-0.

“I know where I’m voting us. I’m voting us No. 1. End of story,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said afterward.

“I don’t know why they wouldn’t deserve that consideration,” he added later. “Somebody has to explain to me why they wouldn’t. There is only one undefeated team in the United States of America right now in Division I football, and it’s these guys right here.”

“What else do we have to prove?” Johnson said. “Without question, we’re one of best, if not the best team in the country.”

“They jumped ahead of us early in the game. I don’t think we gave them their due respect coming into the game,” Coffee said. “That’s something we never should have allowed to happen.”

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/ncfnation/0-5-66/Speed-wins-over-power-in-Allstate-Sugar-Bowl.html

Utah Vs. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl

Tonight, my beloved University of Utah Utes will play the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Some of our fans rode a bus 36 hours from Salt Lake to New Orleans to get there. We've been calling it the Hell Bus on our message board. I really wish I could have been able to get down there to watch it live. I made the trip to Tempe, Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl in 2004, but couldn't afford the trip to N'awlins. I made a huge pot of chicken and sausage gumbo, and am ditching work early to view the game with family. GO UTES! Check out all the fun at www.utefans.net

From Wikipedia: A little info about the University of Utah and the football team

The Utah Utes are the athletics teams of the University of Utah. They are named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans.  The University of Utah college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at Rice-Eccles Stadium since 1927.

The Utes have a record of 10-3 (.769) in bowl games, which is the highest percentage in the nation for teams who have been to more than 10 bowls. They have won 26 conference championships, including six in a row from 1928 to 1933 when they were part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

The Utes have a 75-33 (.694) record since the beginning of the 2000 season. Along the way, Utah engineered an 18-game winning streak and went to bowl games all three seasons, winning all three. They also produced the best season in school history in 2004, when the Utes were 12-0 and became the first school from a non-Bowl Championship Series conference to play in a BCS bowl game. The Utes played the Big East Conference champion University of Pittsburgh Panthers in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, winning 35-7. The Utes finished the season ranked #4 in the AP poll. Later that year Alex Smith, who was Utah's quarterback for the 2003 and 2004 seasons, was drafted #1 by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft. He became the first player in the state of Utah to ever be drafted first. This culminated in the University of Utah becoming the first school in history to produce two #1 professional draft picks in the same year when Andrew Bogut became the #1 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. Utah is currently coached by Kyle Whittingham, who took over for Urban Meyer after Meyer left Utah for Florida after two seasons with the Utes. In Whittingham's four years the Utes are 36-14 overall and 22-10 in conference play and have won three bowl games (the Emerald Bowl, the Armed Forces Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl). During the 2008 regular season, Utah again went undefeated with a 12-0 record and have been invited to play in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

This is from the final home game of the year where Utah beat their rival BYU 48-24

Here is part of the pep rally from down in New Orleans.

Such a good night

BYU's football team lost tonight to TCU.  I'm almost sad that they lost...almost.  While it would have been cool to have both Utah and tds (team down south) be undefeated going into the final game of the season, I can't cheer for my arch enemy.  I can't be disappointed that TCU beat them before Utah.  That's like asking Batman to be sad that the Joker was captured by a swat team.  It's like asking Superman to cry that Lex Luthor foiled his own evil plans.  Someone else got them before you did, but you can still beat up on them later, and it will still be just as sweet.

Utah still has to play TCU, but it's in Salt Lake, and Utah has much more speed than tds, so I am cautious, but not overly worried.

The arrogant slogan "Quest for Perfection" that has graced the beer belly of many a tds coed has now been changed. 

 The fans that have been calling local radio shows, and asking what the chance of their team playing for a national championship will now be silenced.  Life is good.

GO UTES!

Sundance announces 2008 competition films

Sundance announced the competition films for this year, and nothing really stands out to me. I should get up there more, but the quality has really slipped the last 10 years. It's now about people trying to see "Stars" eating pizza on Main Street in Park City, instead of going to see unique and creative films. Here's the list:

Sundance Film Festival: U.S. Documentary competition

-- "An American Soldier" looks at military recruitment, as writer-director Edet Belzberg (an Oscar nominee for "Children Underground," Sundance '01) follows one of the U.S. Army's most successful recruiters.

-- "American Teen," a cinema-verite look at four Indiana high-school seniors, directed and written by Nanette Burstein (co-director of "The Kid Stays in the Picture," Sundance '02).

-- "Bigger, Faster, Stronger*," in which director Christopher Bell (co-writing with Alexander Buono and Tamsin Rawady) examines how he and his two brothers used steroids to pursue the American dream of victory.

-- "Fields of Fuel," which follows environmental activist Josh Tickell (who wrote and directed) in his "Veggie Van" on a quest to find solutions for America's oil addiction.

-- "Flow: For Love of Water," in which director Irena Salina examines the world's dwindling resources of water.

-- "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," directed by Alex Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," Sundance Choke '05), chronicles the heyday of the legendary journalist and recreational-drug consumer, including never-before-seen footage and manuscripts.

-- "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo," in which writer-director Lisa F. Jackson travels to the war zones of the Congo, and meets survivors of the systematic raping of women there.

-- "I.O.U.S.A.," directed by Patrick Creadon ("Wordplay," Sundance '06), explores the nation's current fiscal crisis, and a looming financial meltdown.

-- "Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)" follows Thavisouk Phrasavath's struggle to survive the chaos that stemmed from U.S. foreign policy in Laos, and his father's involvement in the war. Phrasavath co-directs with famed cinematographer Ellen Kuras.

-- "The Order of Myths," written and directed by Margaret Brown, witnesses Mardi Gras in Mobile, Ala., where the parades and celebrations are still segregated.

-- "Patti Smith: Dream of Life," a profile of the iconic rock star by director Steven Sebring.

-- "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," directed by Marina Zenovich and written by Zenovich, Joe Bini and P.G. Morgan, examines the scandal - when the famed director pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage girl, then fled the country - and whether he will ever be allowed back into the United States.

-- "Secrecy," co-directed by Peter Galison and Robb Moss ("The Same River Twice," Sundance '03), is a history of government secrecy - and the balancing act between security and democracy.

-- "Slingshot Hip Hop," directed by Jackie Reem Salloum, looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lyrics of young Palestinian rappers.

-- "Traces of the Trade," in which director Katrina Browne (with collaborators Alla Kovgan and Jude Ray) looks at her ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, and travels with some of her relatives to Rhode Island, Ghana and Cuba.

-- "Trouble the Water," directed by Tia Lessen and Carl Deal, is a chilling video diary of a couple and a family surviving the flooding of New Orleans.

U.S. Dramatic competition

-- "American Son," directed by Neil Abramson and written by Eric Schmid, follows a young Marine (Nick Cannon) home for Thanksgiving leave, confronting his violent past just before shipping out.

-- "Anywhere, U.S.A.," directed by Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine and written by Haney-Jardine and Jennifer Macdonald, is billed as "a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices and family dynamics," starring Perla Haney-Jardine.

-- "Ballast," written and directed by Lance Hammer, is set in a Mississippi Delta town where a tragic act has torn a family apart.

-- "Choke," the writing-directing debut of actor Clark Gregg ("The New Adventures of Old Christine"), an adaptation of a novel by Chuck Palahnuik (Fight Club) about a mother and son, fear of aging, sexual addiction and historical theme parks. The cast includes Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston and Kelly Macdonald.

-- "Downloading Nancy," directed by Johan Renck and written by Pamela Cuming and Lee Ross, tells of a suicidal woman (Maria Bello) who hires someone over the internet to kill her - but they start falling for each other. Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell and Amy Brenneman co-star.

-- "Frozen River," written and directed by Courtney Hunt, is the story of a single mom (Melissa Leo) who gets involved in illegal immigrant smuggling through a Mohawk Reservation on the U.S.-Canadian border. Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott and Michael O'Keefe co-star.

-- "Good Dick" follows a lonely girl (Marianna Palka, who also wrote and directed) lured out of her apartment by a doting video-store clerk (Jason Ritter).

-- "The Last Word," written and directed by Geoff Haley, shows the offbeat romance between a man (Wes Bentley) who writes other people's suicide notes and the sister (Winona Ryder) of one of his former clients.

-- "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," an adaptation of Michael Chabon's first novel by writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber ("DodgeBall"), follows a teen (Jon Foster) and his adventures with a debutante (Sienna Miller) and her hoodlum husband (Peter Sarsgaard). Mena Suvari and Nick Nolte co-star.

-- "North Starr," written and directed by Matthew Stanton (who co-stars), in which a young African-American man flees Houston and lands in a racially intolerant town.

-- "Phoebe in Wonderland," written and directed by Daniel Barnz, stars Elle Fanning (Dakota's little sister) as a girl with dysfunctional parents (Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman) who finds enlightenment from an unusual drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson).

-- "Pretty Bird," the writing-directing debut of actor Paul Schneider ("All the Pretty Girls," Sundance '03), a comedy about three friends who market a rocket-powered belt and must deal with their success. Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup and Kristen Wiig ("Saturday Night Live") star.

-- "Sleep Dealer," directed by Alex Rivera and written by Rivera and David Riker, is a science-fiction drama about three people (Luis Fernando Peña, Leonor Varela and Jacob Vargas) trying to break technological barriers in a near-future of closed borders and virtual labor.

-- "Sugar," directed and written by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ("Half Nelson," Sundance '06), chronicles a Dominican baseball player (Algenis Perez Soto) as he enters the minor leagues.

-- "Sunshine Cleaning," directed by Christine Jeffs ("Sylvia") and written by Megan Holley, is a comedy about a woman (Amy Adams) who recruits her sister (Emily Blunt) to start an unusal business: biohazard removal and crime-scene cleanup. Steve Zahn, Alan Arkin and Amy Redford co-star.

-- "The Wackness," directed and written by Jonathan Levine, a comedy about a teen drug dealer (Josh Peck) who trades pot for therapy sessions with a psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) and falls for the doc's daughter (Olivia Thirlby). Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen and Method Man co-star.

World Cinema Documentary competition
-- "Alone in Four Walls (Allein in Vier Wänden)" (Germany), directed and written by Alexandra Westmeier, follows adolescent boys in a Russian home for delinquents.

-- "The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins" (New Zealand), directed and written by Pietra Brettkelly, about an artist obsessed with adopting twin orphans from Sudan.

-- "Be Like Others" (United Kingdom), directed by Tanaz Eshaghian, an intimate portrait of Iran as seen by young Iranian men choosing to undergo sex-change surgery.

-- "A Complete History of My Sexual Failures" (United Kingdom), in which actor Chris Waitt (who directed and co-wrote with Henry Trotter) tries to figure out how women - from ex-girlfriends to his mum - really see him.

-- "Derek" (United Kingdom), director Isaac Julien's profile of the confrontational British director Derek Jarman, who died of AIDS in 1994.

-- "Dinner With the President" (Pakistan), in which director/writers Sabiha Sumar and Sachithanandam Sathananthan measure their country's feelings on a range of issues - through interviews with regular folks to a dinner with Pervez Musharref.

-- "Durakovo: The Village of Fools (Durakavo: Le Village des Fous)" (France), directed and written by Nino Kirtadze, which examines Mikhail Morozov, who rules his young followers in a castle outside Moscow, tending the roots of a growing right-wing movement.

-- "In Prison My Whole Life" (United Kingdom), directed by Marc Evans and written by Evans and William Francome, which looks at the life of journalist and death-row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal.

-- "Man on Wire" (United Kingdom), written and directed by James Marsh, chronicles aerialist Philippe Petit's famous 1974 high-wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center.

-- "puujee lowercase is cq " (Japan) is a young girl who tames horses on the plains of Mongolia, in this doc written and directed by Kazuya Yamada.

-- "Recycle" (Jordan), directed and written by Al Massad, follows a man trying to provide for his family in the hometown of Muslim leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

-- "Stranded: I've Come From a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains" (France), directed and written by Gonzalo Arijon, interviews for the first time survivors of the infamous 1974 Andes plane crash.

-- "Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma" (Canada), directed by Patrick Reed, follows the former head of Doctors Without Borders on a return trip to Africa.

-- "Up the Yangtze" (Canada), directed and written by Yung Chang, introduces us to young men and women working a cruise ship at the edge of the Yangtze River where the Three Gorges Dam has radically altered China's landscape.

-- "The Women of Brukman (Les Femmes de la Brukman)" (Canada), written and directed by Isaac Isitan, shows what happened when workers took over their Buenos Aires clothing factory and instituted a self-management model.

-- "Yasukuni" (Japan), in which Chinese filmmaker Li Ying looks at the controversial Japanese shrine, where swords used to kill Chinese soldiers were forged.

World Cinema Dramatic competition
-- "Absurdistan" (Germany), directed by Veit Helmer and written by Helmer, Zaza Buadze, Gordan Mihic and Ahmet Golbol, is an allegorical comedy about two people in love - and what happens when the women in their village protest a water shortage by holding a sex strike.

-- "Blue Eyelids (Párpados Azules)" (Mexico), directed by Ernesto Contreras and written by Carlos Contreras, about a woman (Cecelia Suárez) who wins a vacation trip and invites a stranger (Enrique Arreola) to join her.

-- "Captain Aub Raed" (Jordan), written and directed by Amin Matalqa, about an airport janitor who is mistaken for a pilot by some poor kids - so he tells tall tales to give the kids hope.

-- "The Drummer (Jin. gwu)" (Hong Kong), written and directed by Kenneth Bi, about a teen gangster who matures through the inspiration of Zen drumming.

-- "I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster (J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster)" (France), written and directed by Samuel Benchetrit, a comedy in four vignettes of aspiring criminals who might want to reconsider their career choices.

-- "Just Another Love Story (Kærlighed på film)" (Denmark), directed and written by Ole Borendal ("Nightwatch," Sundance '95), is a drama about a family man (Anders W. Berthelsen) who causes a car crash that leaves a woman with amnesia - and has her thinking he's her boyfriend.

-- "King of Ping Pong (Ping Pongkingen)" (Sweden), directed by Jens Jonsson and written by Jonsson and Hans Gunnarson, tells of a table-tennis-playing teen in conflict with his more-popular younger brother when their father resurfaces.

-- "Máncora" (Spain/Peru), directed by Ricardo de Montreuil and written by Oscar Torres, about a Peruvian man who tries to escape reality by going to a beach resort with his stepsister and her husband, but the trip unleashes more troubles.

-- "Megane (Glasses)" (Japan), written and directed by Naoko Ogigami, a comedy-drama in which a woman on a beach vacation discovers an unusual community with strange traditions.

-- "Mermaid (Rusalka)" (Russia), written and directed by Anna Melikyan, tells of a young woman who must reconcile her modern life with her childhood belief that she can make wishes come true.

-- "Perro Come Perro (Dog Eat Dog)" (Colombia), directed by Carlos Moreno and written by Alonso Torres and Moreno, follow two bungling hoods who break the unwritten code of Colombia's crime world - with deadly consequences.

-- "Riprendimi (Good Morning Heartache)" (Italy), directed by Anna Negri and written by Negri and Giovanna Mori, captures a young couple with a new baby in the middle of their break-up - which is being captured by a documentary crew.

-- "Strangers" (Israel), written and directed by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv, a romance between an Israeli man and a Palestinian woman during the World Cup finals in Germany.

-- "Under the Bombs (Sous les Bombes)" (Lebanon), directed by Philippe Aractingi and written by Aractingi and Michel Léviant, in which a Dubai woman convinces a cabbie to drive her through a bomb-scarred region of Lebanon to find her sister and her son.

-- "The Wave (Die Welle)" (Germany), directed by Dennis Gansel and written by Gansel and Peter Thorwarth, a drama about a teacher whose experiment to demonstrate life under a dictatorship spins out of control.

-- "The Wind and the Water (Burwa Dii Ebo)" (Panama), a collaborative film about an indigenous teen in Panama City who encounters a wealthy girl in two different circumstances.

A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan

I don't usually blog about politics, but I saw today that there was an article from Salon.com where a televangelist from Florida who receives 40,000 emails a day, has stated that a "vote for Mitt Romney, is a vote for Satan", because Romney is a Mormon. Normally, I ignore the uneducated rantings of the misinformed, but this guy got under my skin today so please excuse me while I pull out the old soap box.

His reasoning went like this: Romney's election would serve as a giant advertisement for a competing religion, Mormonism, which Keller and others believe has falsely portrayed itself as another form of Christianity in an effort to find converts.

"He would influence people to seek out the Mormon faith," Keller predicted of a Romney presidency. "They would get sucked into those lies and they would eventually die and go to hell."

Aren't we as a nation beyond stupidity like this already? I don't write this as a supporter of Romney, or as a Mormon. I write this as a citizen of the United States that is worried about our future. I don't care if you are Mormon, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish....how are you as a PERSON? In politics, or in business...Are you the best person for the job? I don't care what color your skin is. I don't care if you pray 5 times a day, or 5 times in your entire life. Are you trustworthy? Do you put others before yourself? How do you treat your spouse/children, etc.

To judge another person based solely on their religious beliefs is asinine to me. I don't understand it. When 41% of white evangelical Christians who attend church weekly say they are reluctant to vote for a Mormom, that worries me. I wonder how many of these people have ever met a Mormon, done any research on their beliefs, etc. My guess, is that many have simply been told that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a cult, and have accepted that and allowed the teachings of their ministers to taint their perceptions. The majority of Mormons that I know are just like anyone else. They are hard working, intelligent, kind and decent people. They, like all of us, are seeking a way to make sense out of a world that seems senseless a lot of the time. They have families that they love, a country that they cherish and seek to better themselves and their communities. That sure sounds weird to me.

When I tell people that I am from Salt Lake City, I often hear "Really?" or "Wow" followed sometimes by "Why?".

I have been asked if we have roads for our horse drawn carriages. (WE ARE NOT AMISH, we have freeways, cars and even an international airport!)

I have been asked if we just ski everywhere we go. (Even though the majority of the state is desert).

I have also been asked how many wives I have. (Just one)

And if I really, honestly like living here. (Yes I do thanks!)

It's the 21st century, not the 12th. We need to open our minds to other realities and our hearts to our fellow man. The more we learn about each other, the more we realize how much alike we are, and that we're not as different or as scary as we thought we were.

------------------------

"Now it's come to this

It''s like we're back in the Dark Ages

From the Middle East

to the Middle West

It's a world of superstition

-

Now it's come to this

Wide-eyed armies of the faithful

From the Middle East

to the Middle West

Pray, pass the ammunition"

- Rush "The Way The Wind Blows"

A new era in Utah basketball began tonight

I didn't get to go to the game at the Huntsman Center tonight on the University of Utah campus, but it sounds like the Jim Boylen era is off to a good start. I know it's pre-season and we played Montana Tech, but an 83-40 win is very nice. I like Boylen's passion, his emphasis on accountability, team, communication, dedication, toughness and heart. It's all the things we were lacking under Coach Giacoletti the last few years. Here's to being competitive in conference and post season play this year, with Mountain West titles and deep NCAA runs in the coming years.

GO UTES!

I just had my first hit from Iran

I don't know why, but the idea that someone in Payam, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari in Iran clicked on my blog and read about the upcoming Terminator 4 film is really amazing to me. I'm just a guy in Salt Lake City, Utah and someone from Iran found my page and read about that upcoming film. HOW COOL IS THAT? All geeks of the world are welcome here.

This is why I avoid Provo as much as possible

PROVO, Utah -- A star runner at Brigham Young University was arrested after getting out of his car and striking a pedestrian with a mop, police said.
Kyle Perry's vehicle apparently got too close to the man, who was pushing a bucket with mops across a street June 14, witnesses told police.
"Angry words were exchanged," Provo police Capt. Cliff Argyle said.
"Mr. Perry exited his vehicle and grabbed a mop out of the pedestrian's mop bucket and started to strike the pedestrian," Argyle said. "The pedestrian grabbed another mop and used it to defend himself. Eventually the pedestrian was shoved over a planter box and fell onto his back."
The man, who had a bump on his head, blocked Perry's car until police arrived and arrested the track star for aggravated assault, Argyle said. Any legal action from the mop fight is up to prosecutors.
"From my understanding, he's not at fault," BYU cross country coach Ed Eyestone told the Deseret Morning News. "I think he may have acted hastily, but we'll just see how that plays out."
In 2006, Perry won the Mountain West Conference title in the 1,500-meter run. He finished 12th in the same event at the NCAA track championship. His performances were limited this year by injuries.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press