Did done gradjiyated

The lack of blogging activity over the past three weeks hasn't been because of lack of activity.

The same week as my Daily Herald finale, BYU had its graduation ceremonies. Even though Erin and I both graduated in December, we wanted to participate in the ceremonies. We were in town anyway, staying in Provo while I worked and while we decided where we would be heading after leaving Provo. And, even though we already had our diplomas framed and everything, it was still nice to have some more formal recognition.

Both of our families came to Utah to see us and celebrate with us. On Thursday we had commencement, which was a gathering in the Marriott Center for all of the graduates. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke. Then on Friday we divided by colleges for our individual convocations. Even though Erin graduated with a major in family studies, she joined me at my communications convocation. I loved having her with me (and I'm sure our families appreciated not having to go to two convocations!).

The convocation was nice too. I thought the speeches by Ray Beckham, Briana Carr and Christine Clark were great and inspirational.

I just had two complaints about convocation:

1) When Erin's name was called, it was mispronounced. Even with phonetic instructions on the name card, it was messed up.

And, 2) there was no recognition of the existence of The Daily Universe. I'm not saying The Daily Universe is the end all be all of the BYU Department of Communications. But I never understood why the newspaper is treated like an afterthought when it should be treated like a flagship. I'm sure most of the parents and alumni there remember The Daily Universe from their BYU days, more than the Ad Lab or BYU Eleven News. (Maybe I'm just jealous that I didn't get to speak at convocation, haha.) Anyway, it brought up some of the emotions I had when I wrote this post back in January.

But, all in all, it was fun to be a part of graduation.

Thanks to Beth Mathews for taking pictures!

This one is a meme waiting to happen.

So that was just one big event in our family that week. We also moved out of our apartment, which was a bigger task than I imagined. We did it in stages, which was nice. We moved some big stuff a month earlier, most of our stuff when Erin's dad and brothers and their big muscles were in town, and the rest of it when it was time for the landlord to prepare the place for new tenants.

But at the same time, it seemed like it would never end. I was working, and so I didn't actually do a whole lot of packing or cleaning. Which makes Erin the hero for getting all of it done.

What we came up with for our plan to transition from Provo to Iowa City was to store most of our things at Erin's grandparents' place in West Valley. And then we stayed there for about a week and a half, while I worked at my other job making money right up until the bitter end of living in Utah, and while Erin waited for Jamie's homecoming from her mission in Peru.

Then, we drove from West Valley to Erin's family's house in Tomball, Texas. This will be "base camp" for a couple of months. We still haven't been to Iowa to look for a place to live, and it will be easier to do that from here, where we don't pay rent and where I don't have to ask for time off work. Plus, between Erin and I we have three siblings graduating from either high school or college, and it will be nice to not have to ask for three weekends off in June. I don't highly recommend unemployment, but it does make your schedule more flexible!

Like we did last summer, we accomplished yet another successful Despain Family Road Trip. (We will have photos on our family blog soon, but I'll post a few here.)

After going to church with our ward in Provo one last time, we spent Sunday night at a hotel in Page, AZ. We first tried getting there via Highway 14 from Cedar City, but it was closed for some reason. So we instead got there with Highways 59 and 389 through Tocquerville and Hurricane, and still got there before midnight (thanks to Arizona's opting out of Daylight Savings Time). We're pros.

From there we went to the Grand Canyon and spent the morning and early afternoon there.

We wanted to get to Four Corners Monument before it closed, but we weren't sure if we would make it. From the park we had more than 200 miles to go, not on a freeway, and only about 3 1/2 hours to do it. But due to my expert driving, we made it just in time. The lady at the gate even let us in for free since they were almost closed. It meant we didn't get any Navajo tacos or fry bread, but we did get some pictures of us standing in Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico at the same time. And we got to our motel in Cortez, CO, nice and early.

The next morning we went to Mesa Verde National Park. I was excited about this one, because finally I was taking the well-traveled Erin to somewhere she hadn't been before. For those of you who haven't been there or haven't heard of it, the national park preserves cliff dwellings built by the Anasazi Indians about 800 years ago. You can hike to some of them, but all the stairs and ladders would have been too much for Allisyn. So we went on a driving tour that had some good views.

We spent that night at a motel in Tucumcari, NM. Then, yesterday was spent just driving. We went through Amarillo, Fort Worth and Dallas on our way to Tomball.

In about a week, Erin and I will fly to Iowa and spend a few days there getting to know Iowa City, and we hope to find our new home while we're there. We plan on moving to Iowa with another road trip sometime in July.

And that's our summer so far.

Family Blog Update

Good ol' Erin has been doing a fantastic job updating our family blog. There's everything since leaving New York City, including the road trip home, Trent's and Nadia's wedding, a Wake family reunion and a Despain family reunion, a trip to the Hogle Zoo, and the opening night of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.

Oh, and tons of super cute photos of Allisyn.

Be sure to check it out!

Throw down!

My latest for The Brooklyn Paper:

Throw down! Austrian takes world pillow-fighting championship in Williamsburg

That's right. The first ever Pillow Fight World Cup took place here in Brooklyn last week. You might think it's a joke, but don't tell that to the Austrians.

We just got back from a weekend trip to Church historic sites in and around Palmyra and to Niagara Falls. And it was another wildly successful Despain road trip. We're getting really good at those.

It was quite an experience to be driving through quiet, open spaces after literally not leaving New York City for almost a month. The New York countryside was beautiful. And, of course, the sights were a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My favorite was the Sacred Grove, but I also loved Niagara Falls. Keep watching our family blog for photos and stories from the weekend!

*Just because I'm tracking these things, I'll mention that I have another byline on the Brooklyn Paper's website. It's just one sentence, a notification that the Twilight Tattoo that I wrote about earlier had been cancelled because of rain. But whoever wrote it was nice enough to credit me! Thanks. (I guess that shows I'm an intern, I'm appreciative of getting one sentence published, haha.)

Embarking

Tomorrow begins the next phase of my journalism career.

After wrapping up Winter Semester 2011, I packed up Erin, Allisyn and as much of our apartment as I could and we left on a Great American Road Trip to New York City.

The road trip was actually tons of fun. Somehow, I must have been boosted by some Mario Bros. invincibility and was able to drive the entire time, even though usually when we drive to Oregon I have to give Erin a turn. I honestly think I was riding high on the excitement of coming to New York.

Erin did a great job (with only a little help from me) of blogging on the road. Here's where you can find our travel log:

Day 1 (Provo, UT, to Kearney, NE)
Day 2 (Kearney, NE, to South Bend, IN)
Day 3 (South Bend, IN, to Somerset, PA)
Day 4 (Somerset, PA, to Hatfield, PA)
Day 5 (Hatfield, PA to NYC!)

And here are just a few photos (go to our family blog to see all of them):

Somewhere in Wyoming

Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple

Notre Dame

I give BP's mere presence a thumbs down. (Read a buncha my blog posts from last summer to find out more.)

 

Sandusky, Ohio! Home of Callahan Auto Parts!

Cleveland skyline

Allisyn in front of the Newel K. Whitney Store in Kirtland, OH

Newel K. Whitney Store, Kirtland, OH

Kirtland Temple

The Phillie Phanatic!

Liberty Bell

Philly cheese steaks! Where have you been all my life?!

Independence Hall

New York City coming up!

For our stay in New York City, we are living in the International House, a part of Columbia University especially meant for international students. The building was built in 1924, and it's got a lot of character, as my mom would say. It's actually two buildings, and the two together make quite a labyrinth.

(Click here to scroll to the bottom to find a video tour of our apartment.)

But, Erin, Allisyn and I did escape from the maze enough to explore Times Square today. Erin wrote about it on our family blog: Exploring the subway/Times Square

Anyway, the ultimate purpose of moving to this amazing city is for my internship at The Brooklyn Paper, which starts tomorrow. I'm not really sure what to expect. But I know that the editor is really excited to work with us (Dan Ng, a fellow BYU print journalism student, will be working there too), and I think it will be a comfortable environment. I expressed interest in writing about sports, especially the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team, but I also think this would be a good opportunity to branch out. Branching out means doing something I've never done before, which makes me a little nervous. But, I'll just do what I did when I first became a reporter: jump right in and do my best, and I'll surprise myself.

I'll tell you all how it goes tomorrow!

Also, be sure to follow my family blog. I'll keep this one updated, but Erin's good about sharing our travels and adventures on there, which very well could be more exciting than whatever I do at the paper. So check that one often.

Vegas Roundup

I'm back in Provo after a great experience in Las Vegas at the Mountain West Conference Tournament. The last game for BYU was a tough one, but not all hope is lost. It's hard to beat a good team three times in one season (evidenced by New Mexico in the same tournament).

Our Daily Universe crew was super productive. Altogether we wrote 13 stories! Here's where you can find them, in reverse chronological order:

By me:

BYU worriers can rest assured

Nothing less than phenomenal

Back on track to break the curse of the Lobos

Rams win would be a Cougars win too

Not down and out, just turning out

By one of our men's basketball writers, Steve McCall:

So close, yet so very far away

San Diego State challenges BYU a third time this year

Fredette's 52 points help Cougars get revenge on New Mexico

Cougars survive quarterfinals scare

Cougars start conference tourney vs. Horned Frogs

By one of our women's basketball writers, Whitney Brooks:

Jimmer does it again

BYU women lose last-second upset to rival Utah

Semifinal draws rivalry for Cougars

For photos, check out The Daily Universe website.

And, these stories were done here in Provo, having to do with Selection Sunday:

BYU a 3 seed, will play Wofford - by Kristian Ekenes

How to craft the winning bracket - by Kirsten Bowe

Nothing less than phenomenal

Photo by Chris Bunker for The Daily Universe

What a game!

Here's the viewpoint I wrote:

Nothing less than phenomenal

And that it was.

I'll never forget this game. I'll be able to tell my grandkids I was there. I was there when Jimmer made 52 freaking points in a conference game. (Wish I could have said "52 freaking points" in the newspaper, haha.)

Sometimes, it's good to be a sports writer.

Catchin' up in Vegas

Now that the long day is over, I think I'll relax and do a blog update or two.

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First, I'll follow up on my brief stint as a celebrity. Since my last post about it, not too much has happened other than I did the Israel Sports Radio interview with Jasmine Marcus. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to talk to someone who was so interested. You can listen to the interview here (look for "Jumpshots with Jasmine- BYU sports editor JJ Despain, Ari Bluestein, Cornell squash club Dan O’Connor and YU basketball star Jeremy Pressman").

Oh, on my way to Las Vegas I was catching up on my podcasts. And I was sort of mentioned in one! It was the ESPNU College Basketball podcast, with Dana O'Neil and Eamonn Brennan. What was cool was that it was Dana who called me last week, but Eamonn who brought me up in the podcast. It's cool to think of all these people in Bristol talking about me.

Go to the podcast here and go to the 6:47 mark if you want to skip all the way to where I come in.

Also, a couple of friends from the newsroom are involved with a project called "Her Campus: A Collegiette's Guide to Life." It's like Seventeen magazine, but online and for college-age girls. Tiffany, Lauren and Darrian are involved with BYU's HerCampus.com site, and they have a "Campus Celebrities" section (not to be confused with the "Campus Cuties" section, haha). Anyway, Darrian asked me a few questions and I guess I'll be on their site! That should be cool. By being featured on a site somewhat linked to Seventeen, I'm well on my way to Justin Bieber's path to stardom.

The last thing is that I got some feedback from Cory Giger, the DJ at ESPN Radio 1450 AM. He sent me some direct messages on Twitter:

That was nice to hear from him again, although it's too bad he doesn't have that audio available. And it's nice that, even though he doesn't like the Honor Code, he's respectable about it.

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This weekend, I'm in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament. I'm here as a sports columnist representing The Daily Universe. And I've already cranked out three editorials!

1) Not down and out, just turning out

This one I wrote literally in the van while we were pulling into Las Vegas. I was very impressed to see how many BYU students were planning on coming to the tournament and supporting their Cougars, instead of writing off the season after the Brandon Davies announcement and the embarrassing New Mexico loss that followed.

2) Rams win would be a Cougars win too

Yesterday and this morning I was probably thinking more about the Colorado State vs. New Mexico game than the BYU vs. TCU game, to be honest. For some reason I've just been really intrigued by coach Tim Miles and the Rams this season. I was rooting for them to get into the NCAA Tournament, although it looks now like they've definitely missed that chance.

Anyway, I wrote this viewpoint to discuss how Colorado State could win against New Mexico (and why that would be good for us). I knew that the viewpoint would only be relevant for about six hours, haha. In fact, I don't know if it was ever published on the website, just on my blog. But I wrote it for fun, and now you guys can read it if you're interested.

3) Back on track to break the curse of the Lobos

This is what I wrote after it turned out Colorado State lost to New Mexico (after a really good fight). During both the BYU game and the Colorado State game, I was sort of struggling to think of what to write. But this is what I finally came up with. Hits newsstands in about six hours, but you can read it here first!

And it's too bad Colorado State didn't win, because I wrote two different beginnings to my editorial so that I would be ready for either outcome and I liked my Colorado State winning one better:

The Colorado State Rams overcame the New Mexico Lobos __-__ yesterday, even though they trailed about __ percent of the game.

Around the 12-minute mark in the second half, Wes Eikmeier made a big three that kept the Lobos from running away with a win. Eikmeier's shot was followed by a steal and breakaway layup from Pierce Hornung to take back the lead and make the score 47-46. ... New Mexico kept the game close, very close. The Lobos even grabbed the lead __ more times. But CSU coach Tim Miles and his Rams persevered and kept their finesse until the final buzzer.

While the Rams celebrated their miracle win, BYU was probably celebrating just as much.

During the conference season, BYU swept every team in the league but could not get past New Mexico. Fortunately for Cougar Nation, Colorado State nicely pushed them out of the way for us.

Rams win would be a Cougars win too

I cranked out this editorial this morning in my hotel room. It will be obsolete in about 5 1/2 hours, so I'll put it here in case it doesn't get on The Daily Universe's website in time.

Rams win would be a Cougars win too

by J.J. Despain

LAS VEGAS – The BYU vs. TCU match-up today isn’t the only game I will be paying attention to.

Immediately after the Cougars and the Horned Frogs take their turn at the Thomas & Mack Center, Colorado State and New Mexico step onto the floor. Whoever wins between those two will be BYU’s next opponent (as long as TCU goes down, like it has by an average of 19.5 points to BYU this season).
Although in MWC Tournament history BYU is 3-1 against New Mexico and 1-1 against Colorado State, the Lobos have clamped down on BYU since 2009. A victory for the Rams would be almost as beneficial for BYU as it would be for them.
Granted, either team will not be a cake walk for the Cougars. Colorado State, led by coach Tim Miles, has stayed in the top four of the conference all year, earned its highest seed ever in the MWC Tournament and is working hard to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.
But the Cougars have a game plan for Colorado State, while they can’t seem to brush off New Mexico. So if Colorado State can beat New Mexico, BYU will have almost as much to celebrate as the Rams will.
Colorado State and New Mexico split their season series, with the home team winning each time. The Rams are the most recent winner, with a close 68-62 win in Fort Collins on Feb. 12. But since then, the Rams went 2-4, including a 17-point loss to the MWC No. 6 seed Air Force Falcons.
Heading into both Lobos games, the Rams knew they would have to focus on rebounding. Even though Colorado State has the conference’s fourth best rebounder in Andy Ogide, New Mexico won the board battle 46-29 in January and had 14 second-chance points in their first meeting. But by February, the Rams caught up enough to get within six rebounds of New Mexico. Colorado State will need to keep up the improvement and rule the territory under the basket today.
One weapon the Rams have is their shooting. Colorado State and Ogide himself both lead the MWC in field goal percentage, with 47.3 percent for the Rams and 58.8 percent for Ogide. Adam Nigon is third-best in the conference for three-point percentage with 41.2 percent and seventh-best in three-pointers made (two spots ahead of New Mexico’s Phillip McDonald). Dairese Gary leads New Mexico with 14.5 points per game, but Ogide has him beat with 17 points per game.
As a team, though, Colorado State is behind New Mexico in scoring offense and scoring defense. So Ogide and Nigon will have to depend on the rest of their team if they are to ultimately knock out the Lobos from the tournament and keep them out of BYU’s way.

New York, New York!

I'm in a New York state of mind since Dec. 8.

I officially got an internship with Newsweek magazine this April!


The BYU Communications Department has a New York internship program, where students who earn a spot get to live in the International House on Columbia University campus near Harlem. In addition, BYU's got the hookups at a few places, Newsweek being one of them. And that's where I ended up! Staying up all night putting together my portfolio (it had copies of every single clip I've ever had from The Daily Universe, plus most of my The Dalles Chronicle ones) paid off!

Me and my little family are so excited for our New York adventure! So far, the plan is that we'll be there starting around the middle of April and stay for six weeks. We might live at the International House, or find an apartment on our own, we're not quite sure yet. I don't know a whole lot about what I'll actually be doing, because a lot of changes will happening at Newsweek around the same time I get there. But I imagine it to be like the career of my friend McKay Coppins, who interned there last summer, was asked to extend his internship and stay all summer, and ultimately was hired and never came back to Provo.

We are going to have so much fun in New York. We have plans to see all the sights (we've already put money toward a Broadway show). We are also driving out there, so we'll have our car to go on trips to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Niagara Falls, and Palmyra. I had a little bit of the big city experience when I was a missionary in downtown Cordoba, Argentina. And I loved it. I don't think I'd ever want to raise a family in the city, but I still want to try it out for a while. And now is a great time, because Allisyn's young enough that the challenges of the city won't really be a problem (she doesn't need a backyard to play in, we don't have to make sure we live in a good school district, etc.).

For any of you who will be on the East Coast between April and June, stop by!

Alternative Ending!

The fireside story that I talked about on Saturday is on today's front page.

BYU football team shares gospel messages while on the road

There are actually two endings to the story that didn't make it in the paper.

1) This one just didn't make it because there wasn't enough space on the page.

One of these heroes, BYU running back David Foote, said he enjoys meeting fans and church members just as much. “It’s my favorite part, to meet everyone after [the fireside], and seeing the faces in the crowd that’s cheering us on,” Foote said. Alex Petersen, a Colorado native who is proud to be 7 1/2 years old, was one excited Cougar fan who collected Foote’s autograph as well as many others. Alex said the fireside helped him plan for his future. “I learned about being a missionary,” Alex said. Some day, when Alex is serving and preaching and blessing other people’s lives as a missionary, those people will at least partly have BYU football to thank.

2) Here's one I wrote that I knew wouldn't make it in the paper. It had some potential for controversy, and it didn't really fit in the story. But I wrote it for fun anyway. In talking with Elder Arntz who is quoted in the story, it came up in our conversation the fact that Jake Heaps said earlier this season that he wasn't planning on going on a mission. Anyone who knows me knows how passionately opposed I am to this. :S And Elder Arntz agreed with me, of course. So he said he would talk to Jake Heaps, and afterward I asked how it went.

OPTIONAL EXTRA ENDING:
The football players weren’t the only ones giving spiritual guidance.
Arntz said he was eager to meet quarterback Jake Heaps, who earlier this season said he was not planning on serving a mission, and offer some persuasion.
“If I get to talk to him tonight, I’ll probably ask him, ‘Are you going on a mission?’” Arntz said. “And if he says no, I’ll do like all missionaries are supposed to do and be devastated. Hopefully that will have some sort of effect on him. I know that he’ll be blessed if he goes on a mission. I know that he’ll have more blessings than he’ll have room to handle.”
After the fireside, Arntz did get to talk to Heaps, who said he is thinking about a mission.
Mendenhall said his players, the fans and even he can all learn from the teachings of the Book of Mormon prophet Alma.
“The real message was this, which is the same message to each of you, and to me, and our team,” Mendenhall said. “‘Even to experimenting on my word.’ That means act, even if you’re afraid. And then see what will happen.”

So, yes, obviously I was pushing my own agenda, haha. But, I wrote it anyway, and I figured it would at least work as another "DVD special feature" for the blog.

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Here's another extra you get for reading my blog: While our football writer Sarah went to the postgame press conference for the BYU coaches and players, I went to the CSU press conference to get quotes, in case Alex or Sarah wanted them for their stories.

I got some interesting stuff:

Head coach Steve Fairchild

Well, you all saw it like I did. I mean, there’s no excuses. We totally got outplayed, we got outcoached, we got outclassed. Today I did not see this coming. I thought we had a very good week of practice and preparation. But I give credit to BYU, Bronco Mendenhall and his staff, because they certainly played a terrific game, and we did not. Now let’s go back to work, and hopefully we can finish up the season on a good note in Laramie.

I knew that they were playing pretty good football. Anytime you go out and just lay the ball on the ground like we did and give up the big pass play and let them get rolling, I mean, you’re going to get what you’re getting them. We couldn’t get them off the field on third down, we couldn’t make plays offensively. So again, rather than look at us, you know we’ll certainly look at us and try to correct mistakes, but I certainly want to give BYU and Bronco Mendenhall credit.

The effort was there. I just think you can’t turn the ball over like we did, like I said, give up third-down conversion after third-down conversion, you’re going to be in for a long effort.

It did surprise me. I thought we were coming on defensively. … It was silly. If you can’t get off the field, they’re going to score points, and that’s what happened.

There’s no question. No, I think we were too [coming off a perfect storm]. I just think they executed better, they played better, we turned the ball over, and … I certainly don’t want to take away from anything that BYU did. They played a good game, I give Bronco and his staff all the credit in the world.

We just handed it away in the first quarter.

Elijah-Blu Smith – recovered BYU’s first fumble

It was a big blow to the team, like everybody saw. We started off pretty good, we had some good momentum going into the game. We just didn’t capitalize it into a win for us.

[Did they do anything that caught you off guard in their pass game?] Not really. We knew they were going to throw some play actions at us, and those kind of passes. We had to execute and make plays for us.

[on Ashworth coming out of nowhere] We knew they had firepower in all their receivers. [Number] Two [Cody Hoffman] was the guy that came in who we tried to focus on, but definitely they came battling, ready to play, and they showed it.

They put them up on us. They were making the plays. They got more than we did. They ended up taking us overall.

Defensive coordinator Larry Kerr

[on Ashworth] Well, he ran by our guy one time, and we were in a two-deep coverage, and it never should have happened but it did. So they got a big play there. And then there was another play where we got two defenders right there, we just don’t find the football. So their guy made the plays, we didn’t.

You look at that whole game, and they won every battle and that’s the credit to them. Very disappointing for us.

Ricky Brewer

The result wasn’t what we wanted. …

[on his own personal good game] Obviously you want to play well individually. [But] if everyone plays well individually, we win games. I just want to go out and do my part. As far as the team is concerned, I’d rather win and have no tackles then obviously lose the way we did today.

Oh man, it happened so fast. We just didn’t show up in the first quarter. I mean, we beat ourselves, to be honest. Obviously, they’re a great team. I’m not taking anything away from them. But penalties, turnovers – those are the recipe for disaster. That’s what we served up today.

BYU’s not a bad team. They’re bowl-eligible, they’re going to a bowl game. And I think we underestimated them, to be honest. They came out swinging, and they won the game.

[on extra emotions because of senior night] I don’t think that we came out too fired up. I just believe that we didn’t do a great job of executing. Like I said before, we beat ourselves and basically served it up to them. That’s all I have to say about that.

Raymond Carter

[on his fumble, that was recovered by Kyle Van Noy for a touchdown] I caught the ball, and I didn’t see him coming, he just hit me. Everything happened so fast, you can’t really react to it. BYU came out playing hard, we got to prepare good this week and get ready for Wyoming, finish out strong.

That was the plan, to get the running game going. But like I said, we got off to a slow start. Once we picked it up, we was moving the ball. We just have to maintain that. …

This was a winnable game for us. If we would have came out harder than what we did, and we would have pulled out the game. But unfortunately we didn’t. ... We got a lot of talented guys, and our talent, we didn’t really show that today. …

Freshman quarterback Pete Thomas

This is the most embarrassed I’ve ever been after a football game. We played pretty bad on offense, and, I mean, you can’t turn the ball over three teams and expect to win a ball game. We can’t put our defense into situations like that. It’s just tough. I thought we came out of the tunnel pretty good, but nothing was clicking.

[on senior night] That’s the most disappointing them about this whole game. I personally feel like I let the seniors down. … We let them down today.

[on being forced to throw their game play out the window] Definitely. Obviously, we had to abolish the game plan pretty quick, and that’s not good. … It all started with the way we played in that first quarter, on offense.

To me it felt like we never quit, we stayed in there. We just couldn’t do anything. That’s the most disappointing thing, because we had probably our best week of practice we ever had. But today our plans just fell apart. And we can’t let that happen again.

I’m embarrassed. I know our fans our embarrassed. I think we didn’t expect to come out like this. Thank God we have another game…

[on BYU leaving the conference, and not being able to grow up with Jake Heaps as freshmen quarterbacks] That would be a good rivalry, but I just can’t control any of that. We just got to play who’s on our schedule.

Zac Pauga

[on losing on senior night] … It’s the opposite of what I wanted to happen. Even if it was a loss, I would have liked to play them closer and play them tougher. I’m definitely disappointed with what happened today.

I really have no idea. Even when we were sitting on the sidelines, it just felt like we couldn’t get a break, that things weren’t going our way, and I really have no idea.

It felt a lot like the game we played against them last year, where they just jump out on you, they’re so quick. Football’s such a game of emotions that if you get down even a little bit when you’re that far behind, it’s almost impossible to come back. And I kind of felt like that’s what happened.

We obviously would like to run the ball. And when you’re down 35 points, the run game’s kind of out of the window, and you’ve got to throw it if you want to stay in the game.

[on what was talked about at halftime] We just talked about getting back into the game and playing with a little bit of pride and showing people who we are. That’s what we tried to do.

I just felt like after those first couple turnovers when it was 21-0, it kind of surprised us and shocked us, and I feel like we didn’t really recover until the fourth quarter. I don’t know if that’s true or if that’s what the reason was, but that’s just how it felt to me on the sidelines.

Mychal Sisson

[on getting the first fumble recovery] We thought we was going to give it to them right out there after we caused that turnover. But they came back and responded. Just like any team should.

Everybody had high hopes. Especially the seniors, you try to send them out with a last victory at Hughes. So, it just didn’t come out how we really planned it and hoped it would come out to.

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Here are the two football stories about the game itself:

BYU capitalizes on turnovers, picks up first road win (Sarah's story)

Ashworth has career day in leading pass attack (Alex's story) (The article's not on the website yet, but go to page 6 of the PDF) And make sure to read the beginning. It should give you a smile:

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The whole newspaper looked great today, especially the sports stuff. Check out these stories:

Packing the house, by Josh Bolding (Some great front page photos by Luke Hansen!)

Mascots play for charity, by Holland Davis (Some more cool, fun photos, by Jamison Metzger - go to page 8 of the PDF)

Pottermonium Comes to BYU

I've had cartoons in The Daily Universe, and I've been on the front page of The Daily Universe. But never both at the same time.

http://newnewsnet.byu.edu/pdf/du20101112.pdf


To get everybody ready for the debut of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, opening next week, this week's tab had four Harry Potter-related stories. It was an obvious choice for the front page, and someone brought up the idea of an illustration to connect Harry Potter to BYU and asked me to do it. And voila.

This cover almost didn't happen though. The day before putting the tab together, department advisers almost changed our two weeks' worth of plans at the last minute. I realize most older parents and grandparents maybe think of Harry Potter as simply the most popular children's book of all time, not really newsworthy. But my generation knows it's much more than that, especially at BYU. (Just go to "Overheard @ BYU," and you'll see Harry Potter references make up about half of all campus overheard conversations). As Harry Potter devotee and enterprise editor Tiffany Wallace said, "it defines our generation." Fortunately, Dumbledore's Army prevailed and Harry Potter made the front page anyway.

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In other news, I am blogging straight from the press box at Hughes Stadium at Colorado State. I'm lucky enough to go on another Daily Universe trip, this time for the BYU football game against the Rams. It should be a good game - BYU's on a roll after last week's huge victory over UNLV. If we play the same way against the Rams, we're well on our way to a bowl game, and maybe even an upset over Utah (who lost horribly to TCU last week).

Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium - press box view

I was assigned to write a story about last night's football fireside. We haven't covered one this semester, and it's exactly the sort of feel-good story that BYU loves to see in The Daily Universe. I had a lot of fun talking to Fort Collins church members and interviewing them for my story. There were a lot of dads who brought their kids to see these tough football players who aren't too tough to share their spirits and testimonies. The fireside itself was great, I had never been to one before. I saw another side of Bronco Mendenhall, one I knew was there but was still cool to see in a suit and tie and with scriptures in hand. The coach is definitely more comfortable behind the chapel microphone than he is behind a press conference microphone.

The story should be on the front page of The Daily Universe on Monday. Make sure you check it out!

My First Road Trip

It was a tough weekend for Cougar Nation, but I had a fun time.

This was my first time going on the road as a sports writer, and really my first time going on the road to follow a sports team at all (unless you count my trips to Pilot Rock and Stanfield as a high school athlete). The Daily Universe got a lot of extra advertising money this semester (thank you, Macey's!) and so we've planned trips to all of BYU football's away games.

This weekend was my turn. I got to go with one of our 321 football writers, a photographer and my boss Rich to the game against Air Force. I had the assignment of writing a story apart from the game, and write about all of the activities going on to commemorate 9/11.

Being at the Air Force Academy for a football game on a 9/11 anniversary is pretty special. I got to talk to Kenny Haskell of the FDNY and Steve Hayden of the NYPD, who came to the game as honorary captains for the Falcons. I also talked to one of the volunteers passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution at a stadium gate, and he so happened to be the founder of the organization who had the constitutions.

Here's my story:

Air Force honoring the heroes of 9/11

It was a unique opportunity and I'm grateful to have had it.

Here's a photo gallery of more 9/11 celebration:

Photo Gallery: BYU football at Air Force

If you want to read the Universe's coverage of the game, go here:

BYU embarrassed by disciplined Falcons

Turnovers a big key in Cougar defeat*

*(Go to page 6, to the lower left corner.)