On Friday our family made our annual tubing adventure down the Provo River to celebrate my wife’s birthday, and I’m happy to report I survived again. I know it’s a pretty easy activity but as I get older I start to wonder when my body will not let me do things like that anymore. But everything was great, including my dismount off the tube to get out when we were done.

Even the Russian judge gave me a 10.0.

Let’s get it started

Week 0 of college football saw Georgia Tech upset No. 10 Florida State, SMU rally from nine points down to beat Nevada and New Mexico lose an 17-point lead in a loss to FCS school Montana State.

What are you expecting from BYU in Week 1?

Some Cougar fans are just hoping for a win, others want a blowout. BYU is 18-0 against FCS schools but last year’s less-than-impressive 14-0 victory against new FBS school Sam Houston (which went on to lose its first eight games) in the opener is still pretty fresh in their minds.

Southern Illinois had a pretty good defense last season but lost some key players to graduation. The Salukis are replacing their all-time leading quarterback and have some significant power conference transfers joining the program.

I have to admit, I will be pretty disappointed if the Cougars don’t dominate this game. A Big 12 team should be superior at the line of scrimmage, which is a place BYU has worked very hard to improve, and should be able to impose their will on an FCS team.

I believe we’ll see both Jake Retzlaff and Gerry Bohanon at quarterback during the game, with Retzlaff getting the start.

I’m rolling with a three-touchdown victory, something like 35-14.

Meanwhile, BYU fans are losing their minds on social media, per usual. Settle down, folks. Have fun with it.

Spell it for me

I play word games against strangers on Facebook and I often find myself losing to people who get more words in the time limit than I do. Then I check their list and they don’t really seem like real words. One person I played recently picked up 44 points for the word “Zep” (apparently a long sandwich made from a crusty roll that’s split lengthwise and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables and condiments) and 28 points for the word “Zea” (a genus of large grasses with broad leaves and monoecious flowers).

I’ll bet they’re just putting letters together hoping to get points out of it. I mean, who has even heard of those words?

Lunch discussions

The local media that covers the BYU men’s basketball program recently sat down in a casual setting with new coach Kevin Young. It was a rare opportunity to just have conversations about life and ball. I won’t go into too many details but I will say this about Young: He’s as genuine a guy as you’ll ever meet. He was a tough, hard-working basketball player who wasn’t offered out of high school, went to junior college and eventually earned a scholarship. He worked unpaid the first three or four years of his coaching career.

He’s a guy who will grind and get things done. He doesn’t accept “You can’t do that because BYU has never done that before.” He’s already shown he can recruit at an incredibly high level, far beyond what has ever been done in Provo. Cougar fans should be pretty excited for the future.

Deep coffers

CBS Sports .com asked 100 coaches which three college basketball programs have the best NIL situation. No. 1 was Arkansas (73.7%), No. 2 was Kansas (43.2%) and No. 3 was … BYU (30.6%). A couple of things that stood out: The Cougars are listed one spot ahead of Kentucky (16.9%). Also, the article pointed out that most coaches are skeptical of the numbers they hear about NIL, suspecting that they are often inflated by agents to try and get more money for their clients.

All I know is that the perception of those 100 coaches is that BYU is getting it done in the NIL space, and that’s pretty cool.

Ouch

“Let it sit for two minutes” is definitely the most ignored instruction among microwave users.

Thanks, indeed

DeVaughn Eka of Lehi is my new favorite high school football player.

Not only because he’s a terrific running back, but last week he thanked the Lehi Free Press for the story about the Pioneers victory against Davis.

There are still newspapers covering your son’s, daughter’s, brother’s, sister’s or neighbor’s high school games. We appreciate Eka’s comment and your support.

That’s all for now, but for this: Stand up and salute Charlotte defensive lineman Demon Clowney, Duke defensive end Memorable Factor and UTSA safety Pig Cage. We’re just five days away from the actual start of BYU’s college football season and we’re all here for it.

Have a terrific week.