The Tournament Continues: Team Hansen vs Team Smith

 -- Wherein Hall, Collie, and Unga reunite

Welcome back everyone. Here's how the bracket looks after Team Odysseus defeated Team Magathisll last week.

Today's matchup pits the #3 seed Team Hansen vs the #6 seed Team Smith. 

Team Hansen rolls out ...

QB Steve Sarkisian        DL Byron Frisch
RB Jamal Willis             DL Romney Fuga
RB Lakei Heimuli          LB Cameron Jensen
WR Austin Collie           LB Fred Warner
WR Reno Mahe              DB Rodney Rice
WR Ross Apo                 DB Tom Holmoe
TE Jonny Harline

while Team Smith counters with ...

QB Max Hall                 DL Hans Olsen

RB Harvey Unga           DL Travis Tuiloma

RB Fui Vakapuna           LB Bryan Kehl

WR Glen Kozlowski      LB Paul Walkenhorst

WR Michael Reed          DB Dayan Ghanwoloku

WR Aleva Hifo              DB Jenaro Gilford

TE Tevita Ofahengaue

Date: 8/14/2020
Location: West Lake Junior High
Odds: Team Hansen -3.5
Over/Under: 60

First Half Recap

Welcome to the 2006 through 2007 bowl! There's officially 9 players between Team Smith and Team Hansen that hail from either the '06 or '07 squads: Collie, Harline, Fuga, Jensen, Hall, Unga, Vakapuna, Reed, and Kehl.11. Editor's Note: The 2006 through 2009 run was so special. It's unfortunate that so many fans fail to appreciate it just because we never made a BCS bowl. It makes my blood tickle just picturing the most lethal offensive combination in the history of the storied BYU program on the same field together once again. 

Alas, this time Austin Collie and Max Hall line up on opposite sidelines.  

Speaking of Collie, the greatest receiver in BYU history leads Team Hansen's lethal receiving squad, which is going to be a problem for everyone in this tournament. You want to double Collie? Go ahead -- Harline and Mahe will run free. You somehow have enough bodies to cover Collie, Harline, and Mahe? There goes Lakei Heimuli, the guy who caught 21 more passes in his career than Aleva Hifo,  6 more than Michael Reed, and only 2 less than Kozlowski. You shut down the receivers, the tight end, and Heimuli?? Here comes Jamal Willis who makes one handed catches look routine. You stop everyone including Willis?

The last man standing doesn't have as many claims to fame as the other five, but Ross Apo did have a 9 TD season and played the receiving part of the prettiest passing TD since Sark hit KO in the Pigskin Classic against Texas A&M.  

But let's be honest. No one stopped Collie in college. Only injuries stopped him in the pros. Coach Smith knows this, and decides to leave Gilford on an island against Collie, rather than double him and let the rest of the roster run amok. It kind of works ... for both teams? Collie has 6 catches for 89 yards and 1 TD on Team Hansen's first two drives, both of which result in seven points. But the rest of the team is mostly silent and certainly out of sync. 

On the opposite side Max Hall is an incredibly unique situation. Of all the QBs in the tournament, he is perhaps the only player whose fantasy team is not as good as his real life team was.   

The Max Hall haters dismiss his accomplishments based on this fallacy - that he succeeded only because he had an all-time great WR (Collie), TE (Pitta), and RB (Unga) on his team. I disagree with vigor. It takes two to tango - Jerry Rice doesn't become Jerry Rice if he's catching passes from Mitch Trubisky and JaMarcus Russell. 

Collie, Pitta, and Unga were great, but Max made them great too. Look at McKay Jacobsen for example. He played with John Beck, Max Hall, Riley Nelson, and Jake Heaps. Which QB elevated Jacbosen to his best performance? Jacobsen's best year came when he played with Max Hall. The fact that Jacobsen's career-best 2009 numbers came despite playing in only 9 games and despite being just off his mission further validates the positive impact Max Hall had on him.  

But I digress. I've already defended Max Hall here, here, and here. The point is in today's game Max turns to the familiar early and often, completing passes to Unga, Reed, and Vakapuna in style. It's a wise strategy because Rodney Rice is blanketing Kozlowski early and Hifo's drops in practice have cost him Max's confidence. Unga punches in two goal line scores to make it 14-14 early in the second quarter. 

Sarkisian keeps targeting Collie, and Gilford finally wins a matchup, intercepting a ball and returning it to the 15-yard line. Unga delivers again, this time getting a push in the rear from Fui to overpower Cam Jenson into the endzone. It's the 5th time in his career Unga has three TDs in a game; it's the first time he's had three in one half. 

On defense it looks like Team Smith is finding its footing as well. After the interception by Gilford, Kehl gets a sack on first down and Dayan snuffs a screen pass intended for Heimuli. It's 3rd and long and Sarkisian decides to go long. Collie pushes Gilford, Gilford pushes Collie ... and the ball is caught by Collie! He's gone! It's an 86 yard TD pass. Collie doubles his receiving yards on one play and the game is tied at 21 at halftime. 

Second Half Recap

Both defenses have made flagrant adjustments in the third quarter and the game has slowed down considerably. Coach Smith has called on his safeties to start shading towards Collie, while Coach Hansen has instructed Fred Warner to abandon all duties and team up with Jensen to neutralize the Unga threat. The result is a quarter filled with punts. On the last of these, Aleva Hifo breaks loose and returns a punt into scoring territory. After a Max Hall scramble gets the ball to the 2, Harvey Unga, ever the charitable fellow, calls for Fui to get the goal line carry. Vakapuna crosses the line and team Smith leads for the first time, 28-21. 

Coach Hansen is frustrated on the sideline. Jonny Harline has struggled to find space all game, as Bryan Kehl is one of the few athletes in Cougar history with the size and speed to hang with the dynamic tight end. Hansen instructs Sark to begin attacking the other linebacker, Paul Walkenhorst, with a combination of intermediate routes to Mahe and dump offs to Willis and Heimuli. In the first drive of the 4th quarter this works to perfection: Sark completes 7 passes for only 52 yards but Team Hansen moves into the redzone for the first time in the second half. Jamal Willis finishes the drive with a 9 yard TD run to tie the game once again. 

Team Smith stalls on their following drive and suddenly Sarkisian is in the old 1996 rhythm, spreading the ball with diplomacy on a clock-killing, 14-play TD drive to put Team Hansen up 35-28.  

With two minutes left in the game it's starting to look like Team Hansen has answers for everything. Cam and Fred are keeping Unga in check, Rodney Rice has held Kozlowski to 0 catches, and Tom Holmoe has proven equal to the Michael Reed task. The one thing they aren't stopping? Max Hall's clutch gene. 

At BYU Max Hall was 11-0 in games decided by 7 points or less. He had seven chances to deliver last minute, game-winning drives in his career, and he succeeded in all of them except the Tulsa game which was only his third start (Utah '07, Washington '08, UNLV '08, CSU '08, Oklahoma '09, Utah '09). 

So it doesn't matter that his back is against the wall, or that his weapons are struggling. Max Hall just decides to do it himself. Max isn't Taysom Hill, but he had over 18 yards rushing in 13 of his games at BYU. He went over 30 yards 8 times. He rushed for a career high 56 yards in his home finale against the Utes in 2009. Hall combines these two most underrated elements of his game -- clutch timing and scrambling ability --  to convert three first downs with his feet on the final drive of the game. He finishes the drive with a QB sneak for a TD with 3 seconds left. We're headed to overtime folks.  

Overtime Recap

Team Smith has the ball first and faces a fourth and 1 at the nine. There's no way the field goal unit is coming on. The playcall is a QB sneak again, but this time Cam "The General" Jensen stops Hall short. Team Hansen needs only a field goal to win. 

They don't need it. On the first play of overtime Heimuli fools Walkenhorst with a wheel route and it's a perfect throw from Sarkisian for a 25-yard TD strike. Game over.   

Final Score

Team Hansen 42 

Team Smith 35

Player of the Game

Austin Collie, 13 receptions, 219 yards, 3 TDs

Other Noteworthy Performances

Harvey Unga, 17 carries, 144 yards, 3 TDs; 4 receptions, 23 yards