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One of Bronco Mendenhall's stated game-by-game goals is to hold the opponents to 24 points or fewer; since 1972, BYU has won 84.11% of its games when doing so.
After last week's win over Utah State, BYU has now won 30 consecutive games when allowing 24 or fewer, a new BYU record dating back to '72 (Lavell Edwards' first season as head coach).
The previous three longest such streaks:
From Sept 8, 1979 (an 18-17 win at Texas A&M) until Sept 11, 1982 (a 17-14 loss at Georgia), BYU won 29 straight games when allowing 24 points or fewer.
From Sept 18, 1993 (a 27-22 win at CSU) until Oct 25, 1997 (a 14-3 loss at UTEP), BYU won 28 in a row when allowing 24 or fewer.
From Sept 8, 1988 (a 47-6 win v. Texas) until Dec 30, 1991 (a 13-13 tie with Iowa), BYU won 25 consecutive games when allowing 24 or fewer.
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Another one of BYU's weekly goals is to score 24 or more; the program's win rate when that occurs is 89.42% (since 1972). Since a 35-28 loss to Cal to end the 2005 season, BYU is 31-3 when scoring 24 or more.
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From my "stats sensei" Ralph Sokolowsky:
Former BYU QB (and current radio analyst) Marc Lyons' best year of total offense was his sophomore year, when accounted for 1,450 yards--finishing 3rd in the WAC and 24th nationally. In 25th place: O.J. Simpson, with 1,448 yards of total offense.
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During a Wednesday visit to the Marriott Center to catch up on the hoopsters, I was able to visit with three former Cougars who had shown up to ball with the current BYU players. Lee Cummard, Keena Young and Shaun Broadus were all on hand--staying in shape while waiting for European playing deals to be finalized.
Young and Broadus have been playing abroad ever since leaving BYU, while Cummard was recently bought out by Alba Berlin in Germany. Cummard, however, is confident of an imminent re-signing--possibly back in Germany for a different club. In the meantime, he is living with his wife and son in Provo and staying ready to fly at a moment's notice.
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It's purely exploratory at this point and nothing is set in stone (so don't hold me to this), but I noticed during my stop-by that a small number of blue stadium seats had temporarily replaced the old yellow chairs in one lower corner of the Marriott Center seating bowl.
Evidently, the school is looking into replacing the outdated existing bleacher benches with new bleacher benches, and there is some thought to making the replacement benches blue. That being the case, the school tried out some new blue chair seats in the chair seating area, and those seats were actually installed as a "test" in that one small area of the arena.
I imagine any seating change/color scheme change would have to wait until next season at the earliest, due to the fact that the current season is already at hand, and because since the new would-be chair seats are wider, the seating configuration itself and ticket allotment would ostensibly change--with fewer seats available.
I have kind of cringed at the "sea of yellow" for years, and have long wished for an all-blue Marriott Center interior, so yesterday's observation was a sight for sore eyes. I only hope the "trial run" is a sure sign of things to come.
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