The Y upsets #3 Oklahoma in Cowboy Stadium!

So, my Mom and Dad gave me a ticket to the BYU vs Oklahoma football game, for my birthday. My Dad also got a ticket so that he could fly down with me. The game was being played in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, so it was going to be quite the experience, win or lose. It's the very first real football game to be played in the stadium. The Cowboys played a preseason game in it before.
My Dad and I set flight Friday night to make it down there. We booked a hotel for the weekend and also rented a car. Before the trip, my Dad asked me what the chances of BYU winning were. I responded "slim to none". That was the feeling of almost any fan.
Saturday morning, we headed to Six Flags Over Texas to enjoy the day before the game. It was nice because it kept our minds off of the game and we were able to enjoy some of the raddest roller coasters. The lines were incredibly short, so we were able to ride about every roller coaster there. We rode one called "Titan" twice at the end. It climbs at the beginning and has an immediate 255-foot drop into a 120 foot dark tunnel. It's incredible! Forces of up to 4.5 G's are sustained for several seconds. Both times I remember nearly blacking out.
Back to the Game - We parked at Six Flags for both the theme park and the game. We walked about 1/2 mile to the stadium.
So, I have to tell you about the stadium. We walked through the hot sun and humidity and it just got more and more miserable. When you get within 5 feet of the stadium, you can feel the cold air pouring out and hitting you. Yes, the dome stadium is fully air conditioned! So, we were able to enjoy the whole game without the heat bothering us. We also got our own individual seat, even though we were on the 4th floor near the top. The screen is 159ft. 7in. long. It's in HD quality and was just amazing!! Anywhere you sit in the stadium, it's not a bad seat. Here are a couple pictures to show how incredible it was.














The game started and BYU held tough. The defense was very impressive throughout the entire game! Max Hall had a great game as well! He had a few mistakes, but he recovered. Harvey Unga (RB) was unable to play the game and we knew that would hurt the Cougars. At Halftime, the score was 10-7 in favor of Oklahoma. Keep in mind that BYU was a 22 point underdog. Sam Bradford, Oklahoma's Heisman winning QB, got hit really hard on a play right before halftime. He landed awkwardly on his shoulder, sending him out of the remainder of the game. The injury was unfortunate, but the hit was incredible. The defense remained tough.
The second half began and BYU held strong. Oklahoma kicked a field goal to put them up 13-7 entering the 4th quarter. BYU got the ball with just under 12 minutes left. This was it for them. They needed to make big plays here. There drive was nearing an end when they failed to convert on 3rd down. They faced a 4th and 4 and decided to do a hurry up play to throw off the defense. Max hiked the ball and dropped back. He quickly found Dennis Pitta for a huge play down the middle. They were within scoring range. A few plays later, Max Hall found RM Mckay Jacobson in the back of the endzone WIDE OPEN! With the extra point, it put BYU up 14-13! The defense held again and BYU pulled off one of the greatest upsets in BYU history!
What an incredible game and the trip was even better with a BYU win. My Dad and I had a blast doing everything we did! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present!

Promoting BYU Football!!

Football Season is anew!!

The BYU football season is about to start again. My heart is pumping and I am really excited!! The season will start with a game in Texas and my Dad and I will be flying there. I will definitely post pictures here, once it is complete. BYU will be playing against Oklahoma in what will be the first football game ever played in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

As far as my life goes for the past little while... I am still at eBay and was recently promoted to Supervisor. I Supervise our prohibited items team. They monitor things like, sale of firearms, fireworks, military supplies, police supplies, nazi products, etc. It's exciting and I am really liking it.

I have been participating on a BYU ultimate frisbee team and we just entered tournament play. We won our first game 12-4 and we will be playing the best team in our division, besides us, on Thursday. :)

Other than that, my summer has been consisting of Real Salt Lake soccer games, Bees baseball games, spending time with the family, and whatever else I can think of that sounds fun.

Here are some highlights for BYU football to get you excited about the season!

http://video.cougarboard.com/video/140.wmv
http://video.cougarboard.com/video/135.wmv
http://video.cougarboard.com/video/131.wmv
http://video.cougarboard.com/video/128.wmv

GO COUGARS!!!

BYU Basketball

So the season is almost over and I haven't blogged a single thing about it. I wanted to add a few pictures on here that I took.

BYU had a fantastic start and lost a heartbreaker to Arizona St. They lost by shooting a last second shot at the buzzer. They made the shot, but it was too late. Then BYU had another big game against Wake Forest. This game was in the Marriott Center, so we thought this was our chance. We were up by as much as 8 at one point, but we lost the game. This was one of the loudest games I've ever heard. Kirk, Brian, and I were all at that game. We had to stand behind the last bench, so we didn't get to sit the whole game.

The other big game at home was the Utah game. At this point, BYU is 2 games behind Utah in the conference. They have a better overall record, but if Utah wins this game, then they seal up the MWC championship. It was so big of a game, that students camped out for it in order to get seats. For students, it's first come first serve. I got there at 9:00am on Saturday and there were at least 1,000 people ahead of me. I stuck it out and hoped for a good seat. While I was standing there, Athletic Director Tom Holmoe came around and talked to people. I told him to save me a seat which when I saw him later, he told me he saved the seat that I got. Funny...

Jimmer Fredette and Lamont Morgan Jr. (two current BYU players) also came around. I joked with them for a little bit and got a picture with them. Note that I am taller than both of them...

After we got into the stadium, we were at the top of the lower bowl. Almost perfect seats, if you ask me. Being closer is fun, but I like where we were. Kirk and I were there and Kendra came with me. It was again one of the loudest games that I had been to. BYU was trailing by 2 at half in what was an ugly first half. In the second half, BYU started really well and started to get the crowd into the game. Jackson Emery then hit a 3 putting the Cougars up by 1. This was incredible and the crowd erupted! Then Lee Cummard stuffed Luke Neville, a guy who is over 7 feet tall. This made the crowd even louder. It was over from there as Utah never took the crowd out again. BYU ended up winning by 13.

When BYU won this game, it put them just one game behind Utah. Utah just played New Mexico this last week, in New Mexico. New Mexico one the game and it put BYU, New Mexico, and Utah all in a tie. BYU swept San Diego St., so if all 3 of the top teams win tomorrow, BYU takes the #1 seed in the tournament. What a crazy turn of events.

My Journey to Financial Freedom

I've begun a new blog. This will still be focused on my life and what I am up to. You can follow my new blog about Financial Freedom. It's a step by step guide for getting Greg out of debt. It will be a fun little thing to do and you'll be able to know every little thing about me.

Hopefully if you follow it, you'll be able to learn a little something about getting out of debt. During this time of recession, it's important for all of us to get out of debt and become more self-reliant.

http://crustaceanfinance.blogspot.com/

BYU 41, UNI 17

BYU opened up the 2008 season with Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa is a team from the FCS, not the BCS. That just means that BYU should blow them out because they're a league higher.

BYU opened up to a 20-3 lead, but later it was closed to a 27-17 lead. There were some mistakes on both offense and defense that made this happen. Fumbles are the fans biggest concern right now.

Max Hall showed that he still has "it" by throwing for almost 500 yards and a pair of TDs, with no interceptions. Hall did fumble once in the endzone and that led to a TD for the other team. I would blame that on the OLine though. Dennis Pitta was Hall's main receiver, catching for over 200 yards. He will be a main contributor this season.

I took Kendra to the game and we both had a blast! There was somebody on our bench that shouldn't have been there, so it was a little scrunched. Okay, so we were realy scrunched. We were short a seat, but we improvised. We had so much fun though. I took my motorcycle and Kenj rode on the back. It's still nice to get that premium parking and be able to pass all of the cars.

This was the first game that we sat in the student section. Brian, Kirk, my roommate Derek, and I all have All-Sport Passes. We are in the endzone on row 18. We got some pretty decent seats. I would like to be about 10 rows behind us though. I think we're a little too close to see what is happening at the other end of the field.

After the game, Kenj and I went to join the rest of the family at the storytelling festival. We heard a couple of stories and they were pretty funny. My Grandpa was in the hospital and we found out he had cancer and was not doing well at all. We ended early and My Mom, Dad, Bethany, and I all headed out to South Dakota in one night. That is where the night ended.

After a week in South Dakota, we found that my Grandpa has improved quite a bit. He was barely responding when we go there and he was attached to a breathing tube that was keeping him alive. The last day we were there, he was in a chair and talking to us. He is still a little confused and will never be the same. It was good to see that he recovered the way he did. He was nice to visit both my Grandma and Grandpa.

BYU 17, UCLA 16 - The Rematch!

My Dad and I travelled down to Las Vegas without the rest of the family this time. We were really excited to get down there. No, we did not ride our motorcycles down. :)

We stopped in Mesquite and went to a little tailgate party. The BYU bookstore was there giving flags to each car, so we picked one up. We also bought a few more for our bikes next year.

We stopped by our hotel and checked in real quick. We stayed at the Las Vegas Club hotel on Fremont St. It was a nice hotel and we got a $4 buffet with it. So, we went to the buffet right after that.

Right before the game we stopped by Circus Circus for the 2nd annual face painting. The picture explains it all.

My Dad and I had seats on the 9th row this time, so we could see a little bit more, but we still had to guess the yardage at times. We were right next to the band. In fact, we were so close that the picture you see was taken by a band member. I was getting very frustrated at the band. The instructor would blow the whistle during the plays and there were times that we thought the ref was calling the play dead. Then there were times that the band was playing while we were trying to hike it. That helped our O-Line hear the snap. One play it even caused a false start. Enough ranting about the band.

We took an early lead, but toward the end the game was so close, again! A dumb playcall at the end of the first half gave UCLA the ball off of a fumble and an opportunity to get back in the game. They took that opportunity and were successful. At the end of the game, UCLA had the ball and they were only down 16-17. They made a huge play to give them field goal position with little time left in the game. They lined up for the field goal and the crowd was loud. At this point, I'm not going to lie, I was thinking about how I was going to make it out of that stadium. I clasped my hands together as if I was praying and just hoped and wished. The ball was snapped... the kicker ran... and the ball was BLOCKED!! From our view you could see the tip and the ball start to fade. I started running toward the field and realized we had Binocculars. I ran back to help my Dad pick them up and we ran down to the field. Our aisle went straight down onto the field, so it was really easy. That was the end! We enjoyed the celebration on the field and kept saying "I can't believe it!". Matt Allen (BYU WR) gave a speech and asked "How many of you doubted, for a second, that we would block that?" My Dad and I just looked around and sort of whistled to ourselves as everyone else cheered. I know that everyone doubted it. If anything, that's a for sure win, especially when your kicker was on all game.

We spent the night in the hotel and headed back home after the game. Again, what a game!!