[bigboydan]

July 23, 2007

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- BYU running back Manase Tonga, arrested during a traffic stop earlier this month, will miss the season opener for violating team rules.

Tonga can practice with the Cougars when his legal problems are resolved, but he will not play when BYU meets Arizona on Sept. 1, coach Bronco Mendenhall said.


"There is an expectation of conduct associated with being a member of this football program. I believe Manase has learned a very valuable lesson from this and we look forward to having him back," Mendenhall said in a statement.

Tonga was pulled over for running a stop sign on July 3. He was arrested for failing to pay an $82 fine from an earlier identical offense. Police said he also gave a false name.

Tonga, a junior this season, ran for 297 yards and two touchdowns in 2006. He also caught 23 passes, including two for touchdowns.

[shrax4]

Excellent news! I'm considering placing a small bet on Arizona when the line opens.

[ShamsWoof10]

July 23, 2007

Tonga was pulled over for running a stop sign on July 3. He was arrested for failing to pay an $82 fine from an earlier identical offense.

Come on baby shake your body do that Tonga I know you can't control yourself any longa...

My question is: Why does media do selective reporting...? He had an IDENTICAL OFFENSE last year but I don't recall it making the news or a punishment for it...

[shrax4]

The way I read it was that the arrest was made because of the failure to pay for the previous infraction. Getting arrested = violation of team rules.

[pags11]

on a side note, theres this chick at my gym that played hoops at U. of Utah...I know that most hoops chicks aren't that great, but this broad is hot...I've wanted to bang her for over a year, but she's in a serious relationship...just had to get it off my chest...she knows a lot about sports...her early lean is to Utah and the points vs. OSU in week one...

[FightForCalifornia]

I am already going to be jumping on Arizona +3 @ BYU so this is even better

[pags11]

I'm a little pissed I haven't seen that girl at the gym this week...but I did see some lines come out locally and I'm leaning to Utah +8 at OSU on opening Thu...

[linebacker]

July 23, 2007

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- BYU running back Manase Tonga, arrested during a traffic stop earlier this month, will miss the season opener for violating team rules.

Tonga can practice with the Cougars when his legal problems are resolved, but he will not play when BYU meets Arizona on Sept. 1, coach Bronco Mendenhall said.


"There is an expectation of conduct associated with being a member of this football program. I believe Manase has learned a very valuable lesson from this and we look forward to having him back," Mendenhall said in a statement.

Tonga was pulled over for running a stop sign on July 3. He was arrested for failing to pay an $82 fine from an earlier identical offense. Police said he also gave a false name.

Tonga, a junior this season, ran for 297 yards and two touchdowns in 2006. He also caught 23 passes, including two for touchdowns.

Arizona all the way.

[dodif]

oh hell yeah boyz

as a HUGE HUGE HUGE Arizona Wildcat Fan and 2000 Alumni this is the play. Az has the best cb in the country in cason. A D that held USC in check till very very late in the game last season. A great defense with 10 guys back. You know stoops was gonna get the D in check coming from OK. The problem has been the offense under stoops. Bring in ****in SONNY DYKES baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our new offensive coordinator. Our QB Tui has never been able to stay healthy. He gets pummeled and gets a concussion. Not likely this season. Dykes has said in this offense he wont have to worry about that cuz the ball is gone by that time.

Oh yeah. I was watching College Football Gameday and they interviewed the QB from Texas Tech. Last Year under Sonny Dykes' offense he passed for 4555 yards and 38 TD and a QB Rating of 145.5.

Thats just a snippet of the 100 pages I could write about this team.

Playboy came out today and had AZ ranked #24. Man now thats a good issue!

ARIZONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dodif]

You know we call this Air Zona right people??????????? We're putting up the ball, big time.

My "real names" ACE. I'm a pro sports bettor and gambler in Vegas. I do a lot of other shit too. Real estate etc.......My site was lexussports.com but toyota sued me and I took it down. Been too busy to get my site back up. I'm a gambler not a pick salesmen but i like people on my shit. Its way more fun plus I believe I am the best. I also think everyone should think there the best and bet mostly there own picks. Unless ur a tool. Then follow whoever u want or go hire dr bob or one of the few honest guys. But if thats the case then this isnt ur gig. But no site up so I am just pumped for the football season.

I rate my plays from 3-5 stars with the 10 star thrown in,

AZ is a ten star for me. I love it. This is the time.


Freshman 'beast' big new target for Tuitama
8/3/2007

There he was. No. 48 in white. The man-child, the myth. Rob Gronkowski.
I went to Arizona's first practice of fall camp Thursday night with the express intention of seeing what the fuss was about, having been intrigued by Gronkowski's status as the gem of the new recruiting class and a couple of recent quotes.
"Gronkowski is a beast," UA quarterback Willie Tuitama said last month.
"That tight end is a monster," UA coach Mike Stoops said last week.
Beast or monster, I half expected Gronkowski to enter the practice facility to the blare of trumpets, emerging from behind a veil of smoke.
Either that or maybe he would descend from storm clouds, throwing thunderbolts to the turf with his right arm and crushing a football with his left.
"We had a swimming race the other day, and it's the first time I had seen him without his shirt on," said Dana Dimel, the associate head coach in charge of the tight end position.
"I mean, the guy could be a male model and make millions of dollars. He doesn't need to be playing football. What a body on an 18-year-old guy. It's crazy.
"Everybody in the country dies to have a guy who looks like that. Nobody has tight ends who look like that kid does. And that's why he was recruited by everybody in the country."
So how did Gronkowski look in a helmet, shoulder pads and shorts on Day 1 of Year 4 of the Stoops era?
Big. Yeah, he looked big. Other than that, I thought he looked like a freshman football player at his first day of practice, getting his feet wet at a competitive position.
"Today, I'm sure he had no idea what was going on," said offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes. "But he'll improve every day."
OK, so maybe I expected too much Thursday night, but there was still plenty to get the hearts of UA fans beating a bit quicker.
The last thing an 18-year-old football player probably needs is to be fawned over before he has even earned a spot on the depth chart, but these are Dimel's words after practice, not mine:
"You know those guys who go on to play in the NFL and you put them on your résumé? Robbie will be on my résumé."
Makes you want to see this guy in game action sooner rather than later.
"And you should see his dad," Dimel said, referring to Gordon Gronkowski, the owner of national fitness retail outlets.
"His dad is 50 years old and he's chiseled out of stone. He's probably 255 pounds and he wears his shirt sleeves all rolled up with his guns hanging out."
Rob Gronkowski, whose family is from Williamsville, N.Y., is listed at 6 feet 6 inches and 250 pounds, but coaches put his weight at around 265.
Gronkowski, who is said to be able to do a set of 10 reps on the bench press at 315 pounds, came in so physically able that strength coach Corey Edmond was immediately able to concentrate this summer on other things.
Edmond is working on making him a more efficient runner, with better balance, more adept at cutting in and out of routes.
"Coming in physically ready, he can concentrate on learning," Edmond said.
"And that's the greatest thing for a freshman. If you come in physically ready, now all you have to do is learn. You're a step ahead of the curve."
With Gronkowski, redshirt freshman A.J. Simmons - "He's really, really going to be an outstanding player," Dimel said - 2006 starter Brandyn McCall and veteran Travis Bell, the tight end position will be a key in UA's new spread offense.
The deep talent pool at that position, along with guys such as Earl Mitchell, another physical specimen at fullback, is why this offense likely will more resemble BYU's version of the spread, rather than Texas Tech's.
The Red Raiders don't use the tight end position much, usually going with four wideouts in their spread. BYU tight end Jonny Harline, meanwhile, caught 58 passes, including 12 touchdowns.
When Hal Mumme ran this spread offense at Kentucky, James Whalen caught 90 passes in a season, a major college record for a tight end. Dimel, with a smile, envisions Gronkowski lining up at an inside position and on the outside, matched up with much smaller defensive backs.
"As time goes on, he definitely will be able to flex out because he runs so well," Dimel said.
"What you want to do with a guy like that is get him the ball in space, because you want DBs to try to tackle a guy like that. They're not going to want to. After a while, they're going to find a reason not to tackle him."
But, first, you know, he has to earn some playing time. The next week or two will be critical because the coaches want to identify the best players and start giving them the bulk of practice reps.
"There is no doubt Robbie is going to be a spectacular player," Dimel said. "It's just going to be a matter of how long it takes."
We'll soon find out if the future is now.



Cats' new breed of offense off to productive start
Wide receivers guide Air Zona in first practice

Published: 08.03.2007

The UA football team split up, blue shirts on one side and white shirts on the other. After six months of theory, film work and voluntary workouts, it was time to see what the Wildcats' new offense was made of.
In a stunner worthy of last year's UA victory over Cal, the Air Zona offense lived up to its name on the first day of fall practice.
Quarterback Willie Tuitama zipped passes with precision to a stable of receivers eager to make an impression. Wide receiver Anthony Johnson snared a pass one-handed, and Mike Turner — making a move from defensive back — burned his old mates on a slant route at the Rincon Vista practice facility.
The first-day highlights were enough to give Arizona's new offensive coordinator some hope heading into a month of grueling workouts.
"We felt like it was important to start out on a high note and improve from there," Sonny Dykes said. "I thought we executed well on the first day. If we can continue to improve the way we have, we've got a chance."
Tailback Xavier Smith drove Dykes' point home like a 2-yard score.
"The defense didn't whup us today, and that feels good," he said.
Arizona needs its offense to improve from the 2006 performance that found the Wildcats 115th out of 119 teams nationally at 252.83 yards per game.
Many of the 2006 memories have been chased away, along with most of the offensive coaching staff. Dykes and his veteran crew replace Mike Canales, who resigned under pressure after the season. The Wildcats' former seniors have been replaced by a crew of new receivers eager to make a first impression.
Redshirt freshmen Delashaun Dean and Terrell Reese fit right in on Thursday with veterans such as Johnson and Mike Thomas.
"I think all our receivers looked better," UA coach Mike Stoops said. "You can tell we're building some depth at some key positions, and that's going to make us a better team."
The offense also showed a swagger rarely seen during 2006. The unit wasn't afraid to throw into the teeth of the Cats' vaunted defense or gash a run past the oversized defensive line. Tuitama credits a new sense of camaraderie. Arizona's offensive players are all staying on two floors of a UA dorm during camp, leaving the defenders on a separate floor.
"Now," Tuitama said, "we don't even see them."



The Sonny side of life
Forecast bright with whirlwind offense led by new assistant

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.10.2007

Everybody likes Sonny Dykes. Ask 'em. "People person," said UA receiver Anthony Johnson.
"Great guy," said quarterback Willie Tuitama.
"He understands the concept of getting along with people," said Larry Hays, who was Dykes' baseball coach at Texas Tech. "He's got a lot of personality."
Hired to coach football at his alma mater in 2000, Sonny Dykes found himself in a potentially awkward position. His father, Spike Dykes, Tech's football coach for 14 seasons, had been forced to resign in a bitter episode similar to Dick Tomey's Arizona exit.
Before Tech's new coach, Mike Leach, heard the first suggestion of nepotism/favoritism or any ism, he disarmed the subject, saying "even if I was coaching at the University of Alaska, I would have gotten Sonny up there."
So who doesn't like Sonny Dykes?
At 37, he is viewed within the college football industry as one of the Next Big Things, a dynamic young coach who is on every athletic director's Watch List.
Over the last three years he has been interviewed for head coaching positions at Stephen F. Austin, Rice and Southeastern Louisiana and has flirted with such faraway schools as Clemson and East Carolina, both interested in hiring Dykes as their offensive coordinator.
You ask him about those jobs, his popular profile, and he dismisses them.
"Aw," he said, "we haven't gained a yard here yet."
You ask him about the genius/guru stuff, and he cuts you off before the question is complete.
"There's not a thing we run that hasn't been stolen from someone else," he said. "Our stuff isn't sexy. It's just an emphasis on fundamentals and repetition."
It doesn't take long to see why people like him.
"When he gets a bit older," said Tech's Hays, "he's going to become a lot more like his dad. He's going to put that sense of humor to work for him more. There's a lot of charisma there."
Unlike those at Clemson and East Carolina, Mike Stoops was the most successful in getting to and persuading Dykes to leave his hometown and yield his position at one of America's most watched, copied and admired passing offenses.
But this is not about happy faces. Not yet. It is about doing trench work: gaining more yards and scoring more points at a place long viewed as a place where offensive coordinators have gone to get fired.
And, indeed, in the ultimate irony, Sonny's big brother, Rick Dykes was part of the John Mackovic regime, an ill-fated Arizona offensive coordinator, 2001-02, who left town in the spray of coaching turbulence.
The difference is that Sonny has been coupled with a skilled and experienced defense in a program feeling its first sense of momentum since 1998. In similar situations here — under Tomey, Jim Young and Larry Smith — all that was asked of the offensive coordinator was not to mess things up.
That is what is so intriguing about Dykes' assignment. He is being asked to launch an offense that for most of the past three decades would have been turned away at the door.
Although it belies Dykes' demeanor, installation of his offense is not Fun, Inc. This is, rather, heavy lifting.
Johnson, a fifth-year receiver who has been in Arizona's program since the Mackovic days, has enjoyed the eight months learning Dykes' offense. His reaction?
"Don't mistake Coach Dykes' kindness as a weakness," Johnson said. "He's demanding and precise. We work harder than we ever did, and we've become more consistent.
"People say he's an offensive genius. There's a good reason for that. He expects the best every play."
You do not see any riotous laughter (or any laughter) at Dykes' practices. He believes in running an economy of plays — "over and over," he said. To get the most from that preparation, you see little (or no) wasted time and motion at practice.
Two of his biggest (and least sexy) beliefs:
1. "Don't try to do too much; for everything we add, we subtract something else."
2. "Don't ask a guy to do what he can't do. Work on what he can do, and work on it again and again."
As a college baseball player, Dykes examined himself the way he evaluates the Wildcat offense.
"I couldn't run very well, didn't have a lot of talent, and I couldn't field very well," he said. "But I could hit a little bit so I became a first baseman and made the best of it."
Which is exactly what Mike Stoops is asking him to do this year.




I'll keep u guys informed

[pags11]

I can't buy into any Arizona hype...

[bigboydan]

I can't buy into any Arizona hype...

Me either Pags. They gotta prove themselves to me first.