Kirk Herbstreit Should Resign

Or at least he should give the Mountain West some respect. Once again, Herbstreit predicted the outcome of a BYU game and got it wrong. (See my post on his prediction of the BYU-UCLA game last year.) On ESPN, Herbstreit was stating that BYU's defense was no match for the Heisman-winning quarterback, Sam Bradford, and BYU's offensive line would be crushed by the more athletic and experienced OU front 7. Wrong. Not only was BYU not crushed, they hung on for the win. OU is now 0-3 against Mountain West opponents in season openers, and BYU leads their series with OU 2-0.

Critics will argue that the only reason BYU won is because Sam Bradford got injured. That's a fair point. He's is the best in the nation. When OU needed a come-from-behind score in the closing seconds of the game, Bradford would have had the poise to pull it off; the back-up QB did not. Bradford is a fantastic player and I wish him well.

But look at BYU's defensive performance in the first half of the game: they held a potent OU offense to just 2 scores when that team usually scores 45 or more points in a game. They kept pressure on Bradford, forced four 3-and-out's, and forced two fumbles, all in the first half before Bradford was injured. Then in the second half, the defense denied OU the endzone on 5 consecutive plays at the goal line (BYU got a pass-interference call and gave OU a fresh set of downs, but OU still couldn't come up with the two yards they needed). I think the defense proved they can hang with the the nation's elite.

Then there was BYU's offense. Even without star players like Harvey Unga and Austin Collie, the offense got things done when they needed to. Did the OU defense force mistakes? Yes, painful mistakes. A fumble in the endzone, two interceptions, a load of penalties, and a dismal running game. But when it was time for Max Hall to get the job done at the end of the game, he pulled it off and lead a spectacular drive going 78 yards on 16 plays (including converting a 4th and 4) and ate up almost nine minutes off the clock. The drive finished with Hall executing a perfect play to misdirect the OU secondary and hit a wide-open McKay Jacobson in the back of the endzone.

One of these days, they are going to have to give the Mountain West teams some respect and stop calling it a "fluke" when a team from a non-BCS conference knocks off a BCS team. Utah has busted the BCS twice and BYU, Utah, and TCU (all Mountain West teams) are considered perennial favorites for being BCS-busters. BYU still has 3 ranked opponents on the schedule for this year, but things are starting out right this season.

All I'm asking for, Herbstreit, is a little respect.