NCAA Football brigham young Cougars

New Washington football coach Steve Sarkisian wanted to make major strides with in-state recruiting, but that campaign was dealt a blow Thursday when Skyline High School (Sammamish, Wash.) quarterback Jake Heaps announced his intentions to attend BYU for the 2010 season.

You can now rest easy safely ensconced in your wintry bed, we've found the video that delights young and old alike in wonderment and awe. We're talking of course about last week's National Anthem performance by the one and only David Hasselhoff at the Las Vegas Bowl.

In a better world, we all would have seen it nearly live with just a seven second tape delay. Unfortunately there's college basketball and the world isn't as awesome as it would seem. ESPN was set to show the Las Vegas Bowl, but a college basketball game scheduled before it ran entirely too long and some cutting had to be done to the early part of the football broadcast. That meant no discussion of OMG SNOW IN LAS VEGAS until the third quarter. No lengthy pregame table setting by Joe Tessitore. No Hoff Anthem. Sad faces everywhere, we know.

Fear not, what was taken from us can be at least partially restored, thanks to the Las Vegas Sun which put together the video, which is after the jump.

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

So it snowed in Las Vegas this week. Cheeseburger happy David Hasselhoff sang the national anthem at the Las Vegas Bowl. Alcohol, drug and sin-free BYU fans made their way to America's modern Gomorrah. Yeah, weird was in the air.

Makes sense then that a Pac-10 team would turn the tables on what is usually the home to embarrassing bowl defeats for the conference. Arizona did the honors, holding off a late BYU rally to prevail 31-21. A pair of receivers were the stars in a sloppy game marred by countless fumbles and questionable organization by game officials.

For three quarters the game was up for grabs until Arizona broke through with a 24-yard touchdown pass at the end of the third quarter to go ahead 24-14. BYU threatened early in the fourth quarter getting to Arizona's 31-yard-line before quarterback Max Hall was intercepted in the back of the end zone thanks to a spectacular snag from Wildcat defensive back Marquis Hundley.

The beginning of the end. It's the time for bittersweet feelings. Finally some college football after a couple weeks of nothingness (no offense to the 1-AA and D-II and D-III playoffs).

At the same time, it is a countdown to the end of it all. When all there can be are obsessing over recruits and signing day, ridiculous speculation about who will be the team to beat in 2009, and spring games. As Lucy Van Pelt would remind us, "Try not to think about it, five cents please."

The bowls kicked off before lunchtime with Wake Forest beating Navy, 29-19. In case you need a reminder (all times Eastern):

New Mexico Bowl, Colorado St. - Fresno St., 2:30 pm, ESPN

magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl, Memphis - South Florida, 4:30 pm, ESPN2

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, Arizona - BYU, 8 pm, ESPN

We couldn't bring ourselves to spend the entire day liveblogging away. Instead, we will be liveblogging during the Las Vegas Bowl starting around 8 pm. A chance to discuss the game in progress, look back on the other three games and look ahead to games in the coming days.

You know what makes going to your school's first bowl game since 1998 more enjoyable? Hearing that David Hasselhoff will be performing the national anthem.



Could he eat a hamburger too?!

Hasselhoff, who has a daughter that attends Arizona, has been picked to sing the national anthem because, in all seriousness, he "is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most watched television star in the world."

I just wanted to point out that the school I attended in Tucson isn't exactly the Harvard of the west. People like dinner with a side of partying, and lots of it. The football team has stunk for years but students still attend the games, even if it's just the first half. And now, the Wildcats finish with a winning season, a respectable 7-5, and the first bowl they send us to in years is in Las Vegas?!? Really?

Now, we find out that not only will most of our Wildcat buddies be enjoying their time in Las Vegas, but we get to hear the 'Hoff belt out the lyrics before the kick? Thank you Jesus, you just made 2008 a touch better.

After the jump is a video of Hasselhoff singing, in case you needed to get your eardrums ready for the party. David, if you join us at Tao after the game, I promise to buy you at least one drink. Cross my heart.

(Also, I will be at the game, so pending any huge problems with my camera, I will be videotaping his performance. Should be memorable.)

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas, Nevada), which pits BYU against Arizona.

Overview/Matchup: The beauty of going to a bowl game in Las Vegas is that, well, it's Las Vegas. The tremendous downside is that, well, yeah, it's still Las Vegas. In other words: college student in Sin City is always dangerous. This year, it's the Cougars of BYU and the Wildcats of Arizona that will face temptation and each other.

Hotels: If you're going to be in Vegas you might as well stay on The Strip. All three of these hotels are Las Vegas landmarks. They each offer rooms that cost several thousand dollars a night, but Caesars Palace and The Venetian also frequently have rooms for one or two hundred. If budget's a concern, avoid the Wynn Las Vegas. It's worth trying to find a cheap room to stay in the heart of Sin City. As for convenience, the stadium is only five minutes away.

Restaurants: Mesa Grill is Bobby Flay's signature restaurant. Try the coffee-spiced rotisserie filet mignon with wild-mushroom-ancho-chili sauce and horseradish potato gratin. Trust us, you won't be disappointed. Burger Bar offers the best burgers in Vegas. From huge and greasy to elegant and refined, they've got the burger for you. Try the Kobe beef and lobster burger. Pink Taco... the name's a little scandalous, but they serve creative Mexican fusion and the restaurant is adjacent to the pool at the Hard Rock, so it's a great place to get appetizers and party.

Jim McMahon, Jr. does not seem to care -- or at least won't publicly say anything. His relationship with BYU was always an awkward fit that twenty-some odd years later still defies logic. Almost as soon as the gun sounded on the last game on Jim McMahon's career as a Cougar, the school suspended and then expelled McMahon for violations of the school's honor code. The move left McMahon nine credit hours short of graduation. Not that McMahon cared.

"Happiness was Provo in the rearview mirror," McMahon said in his autobiography.

What not graduating also meant, however, was that McMahon was ineligible for the the BYU Hall of Fame. That graduation requirement was put in place while McMahon was playing at BYU. Some called it the "McMahon Rule." It was widely suspected that it was implemented as a way to keep from honoring a player that the school's administration disliked intensely for his less-than-Mormon-like behavior.

Jim McMahon, Sr., however, has decided that his son should be honored. First he sent a letter to the BYU Athletic Director and then started forwarding copies to newspapers in Utah.

This is exactly why you need to join us on the adventure that is Thursday night college football. The Florida State/North Carolina State headliner was alright, but down on the rodeo-mad Versus network TCU was putting the whuppin' on previously undefeated BYU 32-7.

BYU was almost staring down a 21-0 first quarter deficit, before it appeared to pick off a TCU pitch near the end zone. In the typical banana republic fashion of college football reviews, the interception was overturned and TCU got redemption with a gimme field goal to go up 17-0 and never looked back.

The Horned Frogs' smashing victory -- this thing was over well before the end of the first half -- ends BYU's nation-leading 16 game win streak and narrows by one the already dwindling list of small conference BCS crashers. We know you want your MTV -- and Boise State and BYU and Ball State. Problem is, until someone like TCU makes their season beating the Oklahomas on their schedule (they lost to the Sooners 35-10), unfortunate defeats like this seem inevitable.

Next year, right? Hmmmmm ok.

We don't want to get too sappy, but this may be Bobby Bowden's last major primetime game as the head coach at Florida State. Mind you its on a Thursday night, but when your program takes the turn Florida State's has, them's the breaks, sadly.

Maybe ESPN will ignore the significance of it, or maybe there's a goofy showing of respect/admiration/appreciation with montages of Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke and Deion Sanders and a million other interesting players and events that have been part of the man's remarkable career.

And if all of that stuff somehow bores you, we'll also be monitoring another game starting a half hour later, No. 9 BYU at TCU. Whatever strikes your fancy, it's College Football's Monday night, and we're here to emcee.

Festivities begin at 730 ET (BYU at TCU begins at 8 ET on Versus). Chat application after the jump.