The BYU Cougars find themselves in a precarious situation that has been partly brought upon by themselves and partly by the media in search of another BCS-buster like Utah in 2005 and Hawaii in 2008. Although a “sexy pick” to go to the 2009 Fiesta Bowl, I for one am not yet convinced that BYU has it in them and I will give you three reasons why.
BYU still has not been able to win non-conference road games consistently
The past two years have been deja vu for Cougar fans. In 2006-07, BYU lost two early non-conference road games to Arizona and Boston College; in 2007-08 BYU did the same at UCLA and Tulsa. In both seasons BYU ran the tables after and went undefeated the rest of the season, but all four of those road losses the past two years were all winnable games.
QB Max Hall Looks to lead BYU to their first undefeated season since 1984
-2006 at Arizona - BYU made made costly turnovers and never got their offense going, lost on a last second field goal after they had missed one that would have sent the game into overime.
-2006 at Boston College - Jared McLaughlin had a short field goal for the win and missed, quarterback John Beck threw an interception in overtime to secure the win for the Golden Eagles.
-2007 at UCLA - BYU doubled UCLA in total yards, but did the same in turnovers as well. BYU stormed back in the second half, but only after they were non-existent in the first.
-2007 at Tulsa – In this touchdown party with over 1,000 total combines yards by both teams, BYUs defense was what Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall called “unprepared.” The offense had a costly late turnover.
BYU can get the monkey off their back early with two challenging games at Washington and at home with UCLA. UCLA comes armed with a new head coach Rick Neuheisel and new offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who is a familiar name to Cougar fans. Chow was only on BYU’s football staff for 27 years, from 1973-1999. If BYU loses one of those two games they might as well kiss a BCS Bowl goodbye and say “hello” to the Las Vegas Bowl for the 4th straight year.
BYU still must lean heavily on schools ahead of them to lose
Just like Hawaii last year, BYU has to hope that schools in front of them lose at least twice. Even two-loss teams from “Major Conferences” have the potential to jump BYU in the polls. Last year, BYU started their season ranked lower than any other school compared to their previous year. BYU finished the 2006-07 season ranked in the top 15 and started the the 2007-08 season as far down as the mid-30s. BYU finished last year in the top 15 as well, this year they will start #17 in the Coaches Poll and #16 in the AP Poll. College football is very unpredictable though, who would have thought South Florida and Kansas would have been in the top 5 last year? Whoever answered “yes” to that question is a liar and a cheat.
BYU still has to beat the University of Utah in Salt Lake City
The last two years BYU has beat Utah on miracle catches in what will go down as two of the best rivalry games in their history. Throw records out the window, this rivalry is one of the most heated in the nation. Many may shrug that comment off, but just ask any national reporter who has taken part in this rivalry and they will agree. What adds more to this years rivalry is Utah changed sponsors from Nike to Under Armor. By the way Utah is talking, their new “partnership” will make them faster, quicker, and stronger. Who knew bad commercials could empower a group of football players so much?
Tags: NCAA
August 18th, 2008 at 11:51 am
You are spot on with this one, not to mention BYU did end the regular season last year on a down note having to win the Las Vegas Bowl with a blocked pitch shot field goal against a depleted UCLA team.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
The thing that also worries me is that BYU is missing quite a bit of their offense from last year. The dilemma with this is that their defense was less than stellar last year. While ranked higher this year than in years past, I hope that the coaches and other poll are seeing something that I am not, because I am more than a little worried this year.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
As much as I would love to see BYU play in the BCS game this season, I do not think that it is going to happen. All of the points made in the article are very true and they are things that BYU needs to really focus on. At least BYU’s head coach, Bronco Mendenhall, is leading the team down an excellent path so that maybe in a few seasons the Cougars will be in a position to play in the big BCS game. Go Cougars!!
August 19th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Our defense always seems to play well in big games – sans Hawaii in 2001 – but our juggernaut offense seems to come up short in the Mendenhall era. Obviously, Bronco has nothing to do with this, it just seems like we get really conservative in big games. Then again, maybe I’m wrong. This year will be interesting to say the least.