The Texas Longhorns baseball team saw its three-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the BYU Cougars.
The Texas Longhorns baseball team saw its three-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the BYU Cougars, who defeated Texas 7-5 in Big 12 baseball action Thursday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The Cougars built a 6-0 lead before Texas got RBI singles from Dee Kennedy and Peyton Powell to cut the deficit to 6-2. After BYU got a run in the top of the sixth, the Longhorns got a solo home run from Jack O’Dowd before Kennedy’s double got him to three RBI in the contest.
Still, after getting 10 hits through six innings, the Longhorns mustered only two hits over the last three innings of play.
The win broke a six-game losing streak for BYU, 12-14 (5-8). Ben Hansen (4-3) picked up the win for the Cougars, giving up four runs on nine hits while striking out five Longhorns batters.
Lebarron Johnson Jr. (1-3) took the loss for UT, giving up four runs on six hits in three innings while striking out four batters. Andre Duplantier II struck out five batters, pitching the eighth and ninth innings.
Texas, 18-12 (6-4), and BYU continue their three-game set Friday in Austin.
Up next in the Unpacking Future Packers draft preview series is BYU offensive lineman Kingsley Suamataia.
The Unpacking Future Packers Countdown is a countdown of 100 prospects that could be selected by the Green Bay Packers in the 2024 NFL draft.
As it stands right now, the Green Bay Packers may have their future starting left and right tackles. Rasheed Walker showed that he’s more than capable of protecting the blind side of Jordan Love, while Zach Tom developed into one of the best right tackles in the league.
The depth behind those two is lacking, which is why it wouldn’t be surprising to see Brian Gutekunst get his hands on one of the top offensive tackles in the 2024 NFL Draft.
A player that Gutekunst could target with the 25th or 41st overall pick is Kingsley Suamataia. The BYU offensive linemen checks in at No. 81 in the Unpacking Future Packers Countdown.
A five-star recruit out of Utah, Suamataia started his collegiate career as a member of the Oregon Ducks. After one year in Eugene, Suamataia transferred to BYU. During his first year at BYU, Suamataia started 12 games at right tackle. This past season, he moved to the left side and started 11 games at left tackle.
“Suamataia was a huge part of the BYU offense in 2023, partly because some of the other guys struggled mightily in BYU’s first season in the Big 12,” Jay Drew, a BYU reporter for the Deseret News, said. “Suamataia battled through some nagging injuries and was the rock of the offensive line. The Cougars won just five games, but this unit — led by Suamataia — did a nice job protecting quarterbacks Kedon Slovis and Jake Retzlaff.”
Suamataia, the cousin of Detroit Lions right tackle Penei Sewell, moves like a tight end. The 6-4, 329-pound offensive lineman was No. 3 on Bruce Feldman’s Annual Freak’s List.
“Suamataia is a freak athletically,” Drew said. “For a big man, he moves extremely well. He runs fast. It will be interesting to see what kind of 40 time he clocks at the NFL Combine, and at BYU’s Pro Day — assuming he chooses to run the 40.”
“Coaches have always been great resources for this project over the years. That said, it’s been awhile since I stared at a response as long as I did the one I received from BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick this month.
“Kingsley Suamataia is the most athletic and violent OL I’ve ever coached. More athletic than Garett Bolles when I was at Utah. More athletic than Blake Freeland,” he wrote.
The 6-6, 325-pound Suamataia didn’t allow a sack last season, a run of 361 pass plays.
“Kingsley is off the charts,” BYU sports scientist Skyler Mayne says. “He’s faster than our linebackers. He’s just a Freak in the weight room. What makes it look different from Blake is that Kingsley just makes it look a little more effortless. Blake was a better jumper, but Kingsley was our fastest lineman by a good bit.”
According to Mayne, Suamataia hit 21.5 MPH last year as a 318-pound freshman. That’s good for a 218-pounder, much less an athlete 100 pounds more than that.”
The former five-star recruit has quick feet and the lateral mobility to slide and cut off outside speed. He uses his length to keep edge rushers at bay and plays with good knee bend. He’s strong as a bull and can stonewall against power. Over the past two seasons at BYU, Suamataia has given up two sacks, both against Texas this past season and 26 pressures.
“He’s big, he’s strong, and he’s got excellent feet,” Drew said. “He moves his feet as well as any BYU offensive lineman I’ve covered in 15 seasons. I don’t remember the sacks he was said to have given up, but I’d be surprised if he was beaten one-on-one. It also should be noted that the aforementioned Slovis was not the most mobile quarterback in the country last year. He had good pocket presence, but he didn’t have the escapability a quarterback needs to help out his offensive linemen.
Suamataia is a fluid mover as a run blocker and shows good range. He keeps his feet moving at contact to create movement and delivers a jolt upon contact.
Fit with the Packers
As it stands right now the Packers need to find a swing tackle. With his experience playing both tackle spots and the potential to possibly kick inside to guard, Suamataia could be an attractive target early in the upcoming draft.
“I would draft Kingsley because he’s not only a dynamite offensive lineman, he’s a fantastic person,” Drew said. “He works hard, uplifts his teammates, and takes accountability for his shortcomings. He will have a lengthy NFL career because he combines unreal athleticism with a solid work ethic and outstanding character.”
The BYU offensive lineman checks all the boxes with his size, strength and movement skills. On top of that, he has the potential to kick inside to guard and he’s only 21 years old. He’s a big ball of clay waiting to be molded.
Protecting Jordan Love is the mission and while Walker played well down the stretch, he did have his fair share of hiccups. Adding competition to that room would be wise. Adding a player with all the tools that Suamataia possesses is a no-brainer. He has all the tools to develop into a franchise left tackle. Landing in a place like Green Bay where he could potentially sit for a year would do wonders for his development.
Here is how you can watch the Oklahoma Sooners women’s basketball team take on the Houston Cougars.
While the Oklahoma Sooners women’s basketball team struggled to end nonconference play, they are red hot in the Big 12 season. They are 10-6 on the season but 4-1 in conference play.
They defeated the [autotag]Texas Tech Lady Raiders[/autotag] 73-55 last weekend. Now, they face Big 12 newcomer Houston Cougars. The Sooners are undefeated against the newcomers, with wins over BYU and Cincinnati so far.
Houston is 11-5 on the season and 2-3 in conference play. This is part of a two-game road trip for Oklahoma. So, let’s take a look at some key players to watch for and how you can watch the game.
Minnesota’s fourth starting QB of the season is a rookie out of BYU
The Minnesota Vikings are swapping out quarterbacks. Again.
With Kirk Cousins still injured, and having tried Joshua Dobbs and Nick Mullens under center, the Vikes are turning to rookie Jaren Hall in Week 17 when they host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football.
It’s certainly a choice.
Not only is the first-year pro out of BYU making his second NFL start against a division rival in primetime, he’s doing it with the team’s playoff chances in the balance.
According to ESPN’s playoff projections, Minnesota has a 20% chance to make the postseason. That jumps to 39% with a win in Week 17 as the Detroit Lions already clinched the NFC North.
So what should fans know about Hall as he gets set for a high-stakes start?
The 49ers added help in the secondary and on the offensive line in the latest two-round mock draft from USA Today’s NFL Draft Wire.
With conference championship weekend wrapped up, the college football regular season is over, and bowl season is on the way. With the regular season in the books, the smoke around mock drafts is beginning to clear with different names to follow throughout draft season.
Curt Popejoy of USA TODAY’s The Draft Wire recently released his latest two-round post-college football regular season mock draft with two players landing in Santa Clara with Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers.
With their first pick in the first round, Popejoy addressed the secondary, penciling in Penn State’s cornerback Kalen King to the 49ers with the No. 29 overall selection.
Throughout the 2023 campaign, King has only allowed 25 receptions for 290 yards and zero touchdowns on the season for the Nittany Lions. King hasn’t notched an interception this season, but has recorded a pair of pass deflections.
With the second pick in The Draft Wire’s latest mock, the 49ers landed help in the trenches with BYU offensive tackle Kingsley Suamataia. The 6-foot-6 big man is coming off a second-team All-Big 12 campaign with the BYU Cougars.
After beating Baylor in overtime on the second Saturday of September, [autotag]BYU[/autotag] was 2-0 and knocking on the door of the top 10 in both the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and AP Poll. Things since then haven’t gone according to plan for the Cougars, however.
BYU was routed the following week at Oregon before rebounding with wins over Wyoming and Utah State to close September.
The Cougars haven’t won since.
Notre Dame largely controlled the Shamrock Series contest against BYU before letting them back in the game late before holding on for a 28-20 victory. Since then Arkansas (52-35) and Liberty (41-14) both put whoopings on the Cougars.
BYU closed their October to-forget with another loss, this one a 27-24 defeat at the hands of East Carolina as they allowed over six yards per carry in their latest loss that puts them at 4-5 overall.
Notre Dame fans can relate to BYU supporters as some outlets (I’m looking at you, USA TODAY Sports College Football Preview) had the Cougars in the preseason top 10 but with just three games to play a bowl game is far from a sure thing.
BYU travels to Boise State next week before finally reaching their bye week. They close the year with games against Utah Tech (yes, that’s a real program) and Stanford. The Cougars will have to go 2-1 over their last three to become bowl-eligible, something few if any saw coming this preseason.
Not that Notre Dame is in a position to compare their best wins to others for anything of real significance this season, but that victory over a ranked opponent at the start of the month looks more and more like another close call against a mediocre foe with each passing week.
Game information for next weeks matchup against BYU has been announced.
As the No. 8 Texas Longhorns prepare for their game in Houston versus the Cougars, the game time and broadcast information has been released for the Horns’ matchup when they play the BYU Cougars.
Texas will be back at home in Week 9 for the first time since their win against the Kansas Jayhawks, in which they won 40-14.
The Longhorns will play the Cougars in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Oct. 28 at 2:30 pm C.T. on either ESPN or ABC.
🚨 Game time announcement 🚨
Texas vs. BYU on Oct. 28 will kickoff at 2:30 PM CT and be televised on ABC or ESPN 🤘 pic.twitter.com/Zj6an05Wy3
BYU has won four out of five games against Texas. Texas’ only win came in 2011, with a score of 17-16.
The last time these two teams played was in 2013, and it may give Texas fans some bad memories. BYU quarterback Taysom Hill rushed all over the Texas defense for 259 yards and three touchdowns. Texas was ranked No. 15 at the time.
Texas will look to get their first win over the Cougars in over a decade when they face off in Week 9.
Notre Dame and BYU will meet for the ninth time ever on Saturday when the two take center stage in Las Vegas in the annual Shamrock Series game. It’s the first meeting between the two in almost a decade and will be the first between the two that doesn’t take place on a college campus.
Perhaps the biggest showdown the two programs ever had wasn’t actually a game but instead for the 1990 Heisman Trophy. BYU quarterback Ty Detmer beat out Raghib “Rocket” Ismail of Notre Dame with 1482 total votes to the 1177 for The Rocket.
Below are the eight all-time head-to-head results between Notre Dame and BYU while after that are some of the best photos of the two over the years.
Packers DC Joe Barry acknowledged the challenge in defending Taysom Hill, the only player since the 1966 merger with 10 TD’s as a passer, runner, and receiver:
The Green Bay Packers know Taysom Hill well. They signed him out of BYU when he turned pro so many years ago, envisioning him as a potential understudy for Aaron Rodgers; things didn’t work out, though, and the New Orleans Saints picked him up after noticing him while studying one of his teammates at the roster cuts deadline.
And the rest is history. Literally. Hill has carved out a unique role in New Orleans, becoming the first player since the 1966 NFL-AFL merger to score double-digit touchdowns as a passer (10), receiver (11), and runner (23), including the playoffs. He’s also logged 1,101 snaps on special teams and record 15 tackles in the kicking game, blocking two punts. It’s a resume not seen in decades.
He’ll have a chance to suit up against the team that first gave him a shot on Sunday, and Packers coaches are acutely aware of the challenges he’s bringing to Green Bay. They have to prepare for his package of plays well as the more-typical system the Saints run with Derek Carr under center.
“It’s two different offenses,” Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry began. “It really is, based on who’s at quarterback. They do a really great job. In essence, he’s a tight end, but they line him up at No. 1, and he runs routes like a receiver. They line him up in the backfield like a halfback. Use him in protection, but then also use him in the passing game out of the backfield. But he truly is a weapon when he’s lined up.”
Hill has gotten off to a strong start in 2023; he’s run for more yards on his own than the Minnesota Vikings have as a team through the first two weeks. Fantasy football nerds may hate it, but he adds something new to the Saints offense that opposing coaches have to account for.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur admitted as much, saying: “He’s a weapon, that’s for sure. You spend a lot of time preparing for a guy like that because he can throw it over your head. He’s done it before. He’s started games in this league at quarterback. So he’s a guy you’ve got to have a very good plan for.”
Hill is finally returning to Lambeau Field, where his NFL career began; his last two games against the Packers were in New Orleans (in 2020) and Jacksonville (in 2021, relocated due to the impacts of Hurricane Ida). The Packers have done a great job of defending him in the past, but they were gashed for 211 rushing yards just last week, so they’ve clearly got some vulnerabilities the Saints could exploit. Hill ought to be a big part of that.
Upset fans took to Twitter and Facebook this weekend to voice their anger over Arkansas’ loss to BYU.
Talk about one of life’s greatest tragedies. After perusing social media Saturday night, following the BYU loss, I’m guessing suicide hotlines across the state of Arkansas were ringing off the hook — as we would say it, back in the day.
Apparently, some immediate therapy came in the form of Twitter and Facebook, where upset fans flooded the Internet with their complaints, suggestions, and even a list of Razorback football employees and players who need to be fired or booted, immediately.
I will be the first to admit that I am a Hog homer, have my name engraved in the sidewalk, and bleed the deepest shade of Razorback red. But as my son and I glumly walked out of Razorback Stadium after Arkansas squandered a two-possession lead in the first half, then again in the second half, it was hardly a time to converse. Just a lot of head-shaking and rock-kicking.
It felt eerily similar to our stroll out of Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on January 2, 2016, having just watched the Hogs blow a 24-0 halftime lead to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl.
Unfortunately, as Razorback fans — or as fans of any sports team, for that matter — it’s the heartbreaks we remember most. But in the scope of life, the outcome of that game had no more bearing on my health or livelihood than the field-storming win over Texas two years ago. You win some, you lose some. It’s still just a game. We are still just fans. If a team that you happen to root for is the top priority in your life, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate how you’re living.
The pain of Saturday’s loss will linger for a while … unless we beat LSU this weekend. Amazingly, wounds can heal as quickly as they are inflicted.
And losing to a pretty good Power 5 team isn’t as bad as getting fleeced by an outmanned Toledo or Citadel team, but nonetheless, Arkansas should have beaten the Cougars going away. The crowd was electric, the early 14-0 lead felt like a blowout in the making, and this team was said to be different than recent years.
BYU did make some miraculous plays along the way, like Isaac Rex’s one-handed catch early in the second quarter to set up a touchdown, and Chase Roberts’ single-handed snag for the game-winning score in the fourth. But the Hogs simply could not get out of their own way. For every step forward there were often two steps in reverse.
Sep 16, 2023; Fayetteville, Arkansas; BYU wide receiver Chase Roberts (2) catches a pass for a touchdown in the fourth quarter against Arkansas at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. BYU won 38-31. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
And, of course, we all witnessed some “questionable” calls that did not go in favor of the Hogs. I generally do not buy into “the refs are against us” theory, but when a call can completely change the trajectory of the game, it’s a little more magnified. Especially when it is an opposing Big 12 officiating crew.
Case in point, a flag that created a drastic change in the flow of the game, even as early as the first quarter. Freshman tight end Luke Hasz caught a pass from Jefferson for a first down, and it looked like the Razorbacks were nearing a commanding 21-7 lead. But despite replays appearing to show Hasz getting hit by the defender, he was penalized for offensive pass interference. That thwarted a promising drive and BYU quickly took advantage, scoring on the second play after a shanked Arkansas punt. So, instead of 21-7, it was suddenly 14-14. And that early momentum had left the building.
The Razorbacks had plenty of opportunities to respond all night long, but continued to shoot themselves in the hooves, until the disappointing end. It was mainly with undisciplined mistakes and 14 costly penalties, many of the pre-snap variety. But those things can be corrected.
And yes, I too wondered why we ran out of the shotgun on 4th-and-short with a tank at quarterback. But I will leave those decisions up to the guys making the big bucks to do so.
Other than a smattering of Enos bashing, the two biggest lightning rods for fans, following the game, were Head Coach Sam Pittman and quarterback KJ Jefferson. Many fans apparently want them gone now.
Not to make excuses, nor dispute those who feel that way, but let’s at least put things into perspective. I read that “Pittman is barely over .500 since he got here three years ago.” When you realize he took over a dumpster fire that had gone 4-20 (0-18 in the SEC) the two previous years, that “barely over .500” ain’t too bad. He has yet to lose to an unranked, non-Power 5 opponent, which the previous staff did on a regular basis. And he has a chance to be the first Razorback coach to ever win three straight bowl games. Yes, I’m saying there’s still a chance.
And okay, KJ threw a costly pick in the second half, but that was the first interception he has thrown in 77 passes this season. He completed 24 of his 35 passes in the game for 247 yards and finished with a 131.6 passer rating. Yet, he threw one bad ball, so he needs to go? Talk about perfect expectations. I can promise you, about every other SEC team out there would take him in a heartbeat. I know Saint Saban would.
So, keep pounding the keyboard and ranting if that’s what makes you feel better. It’s your prerogative. I won’t blame you.
But I think I’ll just continue to be a loyal Razorback fan and root them on any time I have the opportunity, whether it’s football, tennis or ice hockey. I have discovered that being bitter over a game only makes me more miserable. And while the outcome of the game, itself, has absolutely no bearing on my life as a husband or a father, treating a game like a life or death situation, can certainly disrupt my well-being and demeanor in a much greater way.
