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I don’t know about you, but watching a former foe lose actually brings me some pleasure. Memphis takes on the U Conn Huskies at home at 4:00 pm PT, and BYU welcomes Boise State to town at 7:15pm PT. I’ll never forget the 2008 59-0 beat down we took at the hands of BYU, and even though we have seen retribution since then, I don’t think I’ll ever hold a soft spot for the Cougars. Our loss to Memphis this year was just plain embarrassing, so I’m definitely a U Conn fan on Friday.
Memphis at U Conn, 4:00pm PT, ESPN
The favorite here is by far Memphis, who is coming off a beatdown at the hands of University of Central Florida. Riley Ferguson looked like a Heisman candidate against us (not hard to do with the state of our defense) and he was definitely off last weekend. The general public is pretty sure that he and the rest of the Tigers’ football team will bounce back and get the win. U Conn’s head coach, Randy Edsall, has been quoted as saying his team “is still learning how to win”, so I’d expect to see their struggles continue this weekend.
Boise State at BYU, 7:15pm PT, ESPN
Here’s a rivalry for you—these two teams have no great liking for each other, as illustrated in former defensive tackle Elliot Hoyte’s quote, when he describes the relationship between these two teams as “a hatred. It’s an absolute animosity I have. They pretend they’re high and mighty, but they have some of the most grotesque trash talk I’ve ever heard. There’s an affinity for those types of hits, they try to hit you there when you’re on field-goal block, too.” He even went on to say that if Boise State lost every game in a season but beat BYU, he’d be happy. Wow. I think we can all sympathize with that, having lost to Southern Cal the last two years. One of the big unknowns for BYU is who exactly will start at quarterback. There are literally five options, and three of them have played this year. I’d expect this game to be the Friday highlight given the rivalry between the two teams.
Go Bruins!