By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard
Can someone explain what’s going on at BYU? They took several cheap shots during the football season and now it appears that attitude has made it’s way over to the hardwood. Last week BYU’s Nick Emery punched Utah’s Brandon Taylor. It’s only the latest incident involving a BYU athlete and shows a pattern of players losing their temper during a game.
Nick Emery was ejected after punching Utah’s Brandon White during a game. For The Win did some digging and it appears that this isn’t a first from Emery. Emery was suspended for one game by the West Coast Conference.
Moving over to the gridiron, there were several incidents where a BYU player took a cheap shot or made a very questionable hit on a player. In fact there have been so many that there is even a YouTube playlist of them.
Add all this to the brawl at the end of the Miami Beach Bowl last year and it’s safe to say that this is a pattern. One that doesn’t stop with the players but goes up to the coaches and to the Athletic Director Tom Holmoe.
The University of Virginia should have taken a long, hard look before hiring former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall to head up their football program. All of the incidents (except for the basketball stuff of course) happened under his watch. He may not be the person that should be heading up a football program at a University that has it’s own image issues.
BYU DRAG’S ITS HEELS ON PUNISHING PLAYERS
The NCAA should take notice and start asking some questions of BYU as to why these things are happening on the football field and now the basketball court. And then ask BYU why it is so slow in dishing out punishment. This is a University that has dismissed players in the past for violating the schools Honor Code. Where is that now?
We’re all for tough players and a hard hitting game but BYU players have repeatedly crossed the line and with little or no punishment as a result. This is BYU, a school with high moral standards and a great athletic history. It’s disappointing to see these things happening and we hope that they are dealt with in the future in a more swift and appropriate manner.
Sideline Signals 