Three-Point Stance #1

The NFL Lockout is over.  College Football practices kick off next week.  And there are back-to-school commercials at every click of the button...in July?  What in the name of Peyton Manning is going on around here?  After a long break from football and a much, much shorter summer for students everywhere, Fall and football will be here you know it.  So what does that really mean?  It's time for "On The Ball" to break out into a "Three-Point Stance" - a  tripod of football facts and figures to keep the football season fun and interesting.  So here we go:  "Down...Set...Hike!"

Could Brett Favre really make yet another comeback - for the fifth time?  We
might find out sooner than you think now that football is back.

NFL
The post NFL lockout activity will be fast and furious as teams rush to sign free agents, fill holes in key positions, and work to negotiate rookie contracts with players they drafted during the lockout way back in April.  Due to the lockout, teams did not have the chance to work with new and/or young players on their offensive or defensive playbooks.  Look for teams with limited turnover in their key skill positions and coaching staffs to have the advantage in the early part of the season, which should be good for some important victories for many teams.  FYI - If any teams are in the market for a veteran quarterback with a ton  of experience, it appears that some guy named Brett Favre may be close to his phone...again!

Star quarterback and Heisman-hopeful, Kellen Moore, will lead his Boise State
Broncos into the mighty MWC (insert sarcastic smile here) in 2011.

College
So Boise State is picked to win the Mountain West Conference and Utah is picked to finish third in the Pac-12 South?!  Sounds weird, right?  But it's the reality in the re-aligned 2011 version of college football.  Boise State stormed in the MWC with the preseason player of the year, Kellen Moore, and garnered 28 of the 31 first-place votes as soon-to-be (in 2012) Big East team, TCU, cleaned up the other 3 first-place votes.  So it appears that the MWC went to a potential power conference with BYU, Utah, TCU, and Boise St. leading the way to the Boise State Invitational starting in 2012.  Well done, MWC.  Utah, meanwhile, jumps to the newly-created Pac-12 and will kick off the "real" football season (after an opening-day yawner against Montana State) on the road against USC in the coliseum.  On playing the first Pac-12 game at USC, Coach Kyle Whittingham said that it was "Baptism by fire".  Careful, Kyle, one of the principal reasons the Pac-10 took Colorado over BYU as the 12th team in the new conference was due to the "R" word (Religion) and its direct effects (i.e., "Sunday play").  I would be cautious of any references to religious ordinances or Reggie Bush when you go to USC.

High School phenom, Tanner Magnum, will bring all his summer football camp
awards back to Idaho this fall for his senior season, then to BYU in 2014.

High School
BYU 2012 commit and senior-to-be, Tanner Mangum, is having a pretty good summer.  After committing to play football at BYU after his two-year mission (2014) on April 7, Mangum has been throwing around the country preparing for senior year and BYU glory.  Mangum wowed national experts at a seven-on-seven team passing competitions, "The Opening," in Beaverton, OR, and last week Mangum earned MVP honors at the prestigious Elite 11 camp on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.  Why is that such a big deal?  Well, 22 of the 32 starting NFL quarterbacks at the end of the 2010 season participated in the Elite 11 camp, let alone were the MVP.  In fact, current BYU sophomore, Jake Heaps, was the MVP of the Elite 11 camp in 2009, leaving BYU fans more than happy that Mangum will be ready to follow Heaps' lead again in 2014 after Heaps completes his four-year run in Provo in 2013.

Are you ready for some football?!