BYU Football!

Well, I was suppose to have all this time and be able to look up stats and follow the BYU football team like no other man has before, but as you can tell, I have failed at that. So, it looks like this will be the recap of the season and a look at next year.

Bronco Mendenhall was in his second year, his make or break year. You see, the first year he has all the recruits from the former head coach. In his second year, he has had two recruiting classes come in and he has started to build his team the way that he would like them. So, how did Bronco do?

I would personally give him an A-. Yes, I know I might be a stickler or a jerk for doing so. BYU went to another bowl this year and won, were Mountian West Conference Champs, won 11 games, beat a ranked opponent, and went undefeated in conference, oh and beat Utah! But, the thing that really kills me and leaves me with some uncertainty are those two losses.

Both of them were on the road. One was against a ranked team in Boston College, the other under a second year head coach named Tom Stoops who was turning a very bad Arizona team around.

I haven't quite figured this out but BYU has yet to come out to play in their first game of the season. The chance to hit new people and show everyone what they are about and start the season off on the right foot, and BYU seems to stumble. You can see that they have all the keys and all the weapons, they just cannot put everything together and win the game. Arizona was a lose by a score of 16-13. A game in which BYU lead the entire game but seemed to fall apart slowly but surely until they lost it. We saw sparks of that dangerous BYU offense, but not enough to get into the endzone more then once. A strong BYU defense that wasn't getting much help from that offense. It was a good game and a game in which you could tell the future was looking bright, but a very sore losing seeing that BYU could have hammered that Arizona team.

Lose to Boston College. If Mendenhall was looking for a better time to show that BYU was a force to reckon with, this would have been the game. A lose in double overtime due to, what I believe to be two but may have been three, missed field goals. It was a good game and give it a little time and we will be winning those games.

Had we won both of those games, BYU might have broke into the BCS and John Beck may have been a little bit higher on that Hesiman list.

Some things that were impressive this year. Undefeated in conference and knocking off a ranked TCU team on the road on a short week (the game was played on a Thursday rather then on Saturday). Beating Utah on the road with a miraculous last minute drive to win the game. It is always good to beat your rival, even better to beat them on the road.

The most important thing that I noticed this year was the humility in which the team handled thing. They made sure that their focus was on the game that they played that week, not next weeks game or the game three weeks from now. The took it one game at a time and made sure that they took care of business.

I am glad to see that Mendenhall choose the Las Vegas Bowl. Not only to get home before Christmas but because it was a PAC-10 team that they played. Many people are talking about BYU and pretty soon they will be a good team in a good conference, as long as TCU can keep upsetting Oklahoma or at least sticking it to them.

Next season... Well, there is a lot of question marks there. Losing a lot of guys due to graduation, leaving on missions, and so on. But, Mendenhall has turned this program around and I am certain that they will be moving forward and making progress.

God speed.

Ice Cream

Its the middle of winter and I am enjoying myself a nice big bowl of chocolate ice cream. There is six inches of snow and I am having ice cream. Ice cream has to be one of my top things to eat. I use to eat a bowl of ice cream everynight before/while I was doing my homework. It made me happy, brightened up my day and helped me to relax. The bad part was I would get mad at my step mom for the kind of ice cream she would buy or somewhat frustrated when we would go a week or even two with out it.

I am really not on here to talk about ice cream but merely saw it as a means to get things going. I know I had my little "Back from a small break" blog but you know, that blog really didn't do it for me. I am still tense and not really opening up in my writing. I am having a hard time of thinking of what to write next and the things that I am getting ready to write about really need a strong argument, need a strong presentation, need someone who can write that is not named Eric Fraley.

Besides all that, what I really need to do is get my life together. You know, take some time and figure out what I am going to do. Usually I can come up with these conclusions with in an hour or two after the problem has presented itself, but for some reason, these problems aren't getting solved and I keep "hitting a wall" of you will. Its like writers block but more like problem solving block. Its gotten so bad that a friend of mine asked me why I was so serious all the time, I don't know, I can't get things straightened out or fixed up.

I guess that is the real problem. I am never all the way into something. Wrestling, I knew it all, every move that the coaches showed me, I knew, and then some. Why wasn't I a state champ? Real simple, I never wanted it. I would say and go through the motions, but I never did. Summer workouts, never went. Lifting, never did it. Practice, was always there, but never pushed myself to the limit.

Band is another good example. Great teacher, great love for music, but never really cared. I could have gotten scholarships to play at some good schools, but that requires practice, something that I never wanted to do, so, I never did it. I would screw around during rehearsals, never really listened, and never pushed myself to be the best musician I could be.

Life, I seem to have the same problem. I'm lazy, unfocused, not committed, and well, never want anything bad enough to go get it. I know the problem but I don't want to fix it. Yeah it bugs, but its easier to just ignore it and not do anything then to work at it and try to fix it. A lot of people have told me that I could be something or someone great... Well, I am here to tell you, that is a lie! If you are putting your hope and trust in Eric Fraley, you better rethink your go to guy. Great people have to act, they have to actually do and have a desire to do things with their life. I lack the desire, the will to act, and don't care if I do or don't do.

Anyways, enough about me, lets start talking about things that matter, like football.

God speed.

Back from a small break...

Well, I don't know if it was exactly a break, it was more like I didn't have time and then when I did, I was too lazy to actually get on here and write. Right now, I just got in from playing basketball, something that I am not very good at, but I figured that it is time, time for me to write. I have a lot of things to write about, I always do, I am a long winded guy, what can say?

Well, I am sure some of you regular Eric Fraley blog readers are wondering how things about the sacrament, the prophet, general conference, and repentance end up on my blog page. Real simple, I teach seminary, or did teach seminary and I assigned my students to write papers on those subjects. In return some of them wanted me to write them, so, one weekend, I wrote four papers on those subjects. Are they any good, hopefully they are, but I never really know what I am talking about so you might want to do your own research and come up with your own opinion of what I said.

Other then that, before I start this three hour blogging session, I would advise you to listen to a song that has become one of my favorites. I am going to paste the artist, title, and lyrics below and leave it up to you to look up the song. Well, sit back relax and start reading. Lets see how much crap I can come up with.

Brand New
Soco Amaretto Lime Lyrics

Passed out on the overpass
Sunday best and broken glass
Broken down from the bikes and bars
Suspended like spirits over speeding cars
You and me we're kings over the parkway tonight
And tonight will go on forever while we walk around this town like we own the streets
and stay awake through summer like we own the heat
Singing "everybody wake up (wake up)
it's time to get down" (everybody, everybody wake up it's time to get down)
And when I pass the bottle back to Pete on the overpass tonight, I bet we laugh

I'm gonna stay eighteen forever (cut me open)
So we can stay like this forever (sun poisoned)
And we'll never miss a party (this offer...)
cause we keep them going constantly (...stands forever)
And we'll never have to listen (new haircut)
to anyone about anything (new bracelet)
cause it's all been done and its all been said (eyeliner)
we're the coolest kids and we take what we can get

The hell out of this town
Find some conversation
The low fuel lights been on for days
It doesn't mean anything I
've got another 500, 'nother 500 miles
before we shut this engine down, (we shut it down)

I'm gonna stay eighteen forever (cut me open)
So we can stay like this forever (sun poisoned)
And we'll never miss a party (this offer...)
cause we keep them going constantly (...stands forever)
And we'll never have to listen (new haircut)
to anyone about anything (new bracelet)
cause its all been done and its all been said (eyeliner)
we're the coolest kids and we take what we can get (wait forever)
(you're just jealous cause I'm young and in love)

Eighteen forever (first kisses)
(your stomach's filled up but you're starved for conversation)
So we can stay like this forever (new stitches)
(you're spending all your nights growing old in your bed)
And we'll never miss a party (collar weekend)
(and your tearin up your photos cause you wanna forget... it's over)
cause we keep them going constantly (appearance ticket)
(you're just jealous cause we're young and in love)
And we'll never have to listen (November to...)
(your stomach's filled up but you're starved for conversation)
to anyone about anything cause it's all been done (...remember)
(you're spending all your nights growing old in your bed)
and it's all been said (nightswimmers)
(and your tearin up your photos cause you wanna forget... it's over)
we're the coolest kids and we take what we can get
Just jealous cause we're young and in love

You're just jealous cause we're young and in love
You're just jealous cause we're young and in love
You're just jealous cause we're young and in love
You're just jealous cause we're young and in love
You're just jealous [turntable scratch]

God speed.