Cougars vs. Ducks tonight in Vegas Bowl

Published 12:00 am Thursday, December 21, 2006

Las Vegas Bowl – 8 p.m. ESPN

No. 19 BYU (10-2) vs. Oregon (7-5)

In addition to having the ugliest uniforms in college football, the Oregon Ducks have lost three straight games to end their regular season and they’ve lost three straight bowl appearances.

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In those three losses, a quarterback controversy emerged with starter Dennis Dixon pulled in favor of Brady Leaf – that’s right, the younger brother of Ryan Leaf.

Oregon is in the top 10 (or bottom 10) in the nation in turnovers.

After a few down years, BYU is making their second straight bowl game.

In last year’s Las Vegas Bowl, Cal beat BYU, 35-28.

Head coach Bronco Mendenhall and senior QB John Beck have led the Cougars back toward what BYU used to be.

The Cougars went 8-0 in the WAC (including a 31-17 win versus TCU), are averaging 36.7 points per game and Beck was the conference’s offensive player of the year.

Oregon also averaged more than 30 points per game.

There offense, no matter who’s at QB, is led by two good sophomore running backs; Jonathan Stewart (960 yards, 10 TDs) and Jeremiah Johnson (603 yards, 10 TDs).

Line – BYU by 3

My pick – BYU, 41-17