Bleacher Report - Articles by Anthony Marietti

Utah's Attorney General Marky Mark Leaves a Sour Taste

Anthony Marietti — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:57:31 -0500

Congratulations again to my 13-0 Utah Utes. It was wonderful to watch you work your magic through the season.

However, now I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth, this time not from the BCS. This time it's from Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Now I must regretfully inform the reader I voted for Marky Mark.

Mark has seen fit to use taxpayer dollars to launch an investigation of the BCS. Talk about a waste of hard-earned money. Now I'm a vocal critic of the BCS, but really, Marky Mark? Is this the right time or place to challenge the BCS?

It just reflects poorly on Utah and our program that Mark sees this as a proper use of his time and our money. Counterfeiting, Identity Theft, Kidnapping, these apparently all pale in comparison to the BCS.

This isn't the method we need to employ in order to secure a playoff, because it will never work. All the BCS will do is change their bylaws slightly and they can keep on keeping on. Mark needs to realize this before he wastes millions of taxpayer dollars on something, that in comparison, is pretty minor in its impact.

Keep playing well Utes, enjoy the sweet taste of victory and ignore the sour gibberish that is spewed forth by Marky Mark.

Wow, Are You Freaking Kidding Me? Utah Stems the Tide

Anthony Marietti — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:12:53 -0500

Looking at Utah's bowl match up I thought the most I could hope for was a good game, and maybe a close victory by some fluke chance. Instead I got a 21-0 Utah lead in the first quarter. It was like asking for a Hyundai for Christmas and waking up to a Ferrari.

Up until this point in time Alabama had only allowed 27 points total in the first quarter. They nearly matched that total in the first quarter of the Sugar Bowl. John Parker Wilson was severely missing the presence of Andre Smith when he was sacked for the eighth time on the night.

Utah snuffed out the Bama run game, holding Glen Coffee to 36 yards rushing and Mark Ingram to 26 yards.

Utah came out with the edge and put Alabama on their heels early, but the Tide responded scoring 17 unanswered points, but Utah responded with a touchdown of their own and never looked back until 13-0.

One of the biggest statistics in this game is offensive touchdowns. Alabama had a single offensive touchdown with the other coming from a Javier Arenas 73-yard punt return. Utah on the other hand had four offensive touchdowns.

The only thing I loved more than the first quarter of this game was the halftime report. Watching Barry Switzer have his own words replayed back so he could eat them on national television was priceless.

I don't think Bama was overrated, they are a dang good team. My Utes were just underrated.

Thanks so much Utes for another undefeated season!

Boise State-TCU: No Matter Who Wins, Both Teams Lose

Anthony Marietti — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:36:20 -0500

Heading into the bowl selection, I was excited for all of the possibilities that existed.

TCU vs. Texas Tech and Boise State possibly getting into the BCS, albeit by a longshot.

No matter who these teams played, it would help bring a little bit of respect to the mid-majors as they finished with five teams ranked in the top 25 this year. Utah, Boise State, TCU, BYU, and Ball State. Not only that, but BYU and TCU's only losses came to ranked teams. BYU lost to Utah and TCU. TCU lost to Oklahoma and Utah.

As a MWC conference fan and University of Utah student it was like a dream come true.

Now what I have is a travesty. TCU and BSU are going to play Dec. 23 in the Poinsettia Bowl, while Ohio State will go on to the Fiesta Bowl to play Texas, and Texas Tech goes to the Cotton Bowl to play No. 25 Ole Miss.

No matter what the outcome on the 23rd, both teams are going to lose.

If BSU wins, then TCU and the MWC conference are diminished, and BSU's win will just be chalked up as a win over another mid-major that wasn't as good as everyone thought. If TCU wins, then it will be all about BSU's lack of strength of schedule and that they didn't really belong in the BCS and this game proves it.

But, BYU can gain some attention from beating Pac-10 powerhouse Arizona right? Yes, beating a team sitting at fifth with 7-5 in the Pac-10 will really garner some national respect and attention for BYU. Just like Utah's win over Pitt in 2004 brought them all sorts of media attention and respect.

Even though BSU has a horrible tie-in with the Humanitarian Bowl, I'd rather see them decimate a horrible Maryland team than watch them play TCU, because I want to see Boise State have success in the long run along with TCU.

Now put TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl against another BCS team and I'd watch both those games in eager anticipation. Now before this article gets spammed, I know that this wasn't going to happen as BSU didn't want to play another marshmallow team that would gain them zero respect.

TCU wanted to matchup against someone they thought would be a worthy opponent. It's just sad to watch the second and third best mid-major teams (I'll let you decide who'll be the second and third behind my Utes) beat up on each other.

However, it's an imperfect world and in it you have to take what comes.

That being said, I think TCU is going to win the game. They've already seen the high powered passing offense of Oklahoma, so anything Boise State brings to the table isn't going to scare them, and their defense is simply smothering.

I take TCU 28-17.