I have recently been asked to give my opinion for the upcoming BYU season. ESPN just wrote an article projecting the possible Bowl matchups even though we are two months before the first games are played. They predicted BYU would be in the BCS Fiesta Bowl versus the overrated Oklahoma Sooners (the same team that keeps going to BCS games and loses to LSU, USC, and Boise State in the infamous game).
I really do want BYU to go undefeated and get to and win a BCS bowl game, which I think is a possibility especially if it were the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, but there are two things that I can't get over.
First, BYU always starts out slow under coach Bronco Mendenhall. They were 1-3 in his first season and 1-2 in the past two seasons. We could've won a few of those games, namely the double-OT loss at Boston College and the Arizona game. Luckily for the Cougars I think we'll take care of UCLA at home this year, but we've always had trouble in Seattle at the University of Washington. Remember Lavell's last great year in 1996 when the team went 14-1 and beat Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl? The only loss on what could have been the first ever 15-0 season in college football history: at Washington.
Second, the Cougars have gone 8-0 in Mountain West Conference play the past two seasons. That, in and of itself is amazing! It means we have swept every team in the conference at THEIR place and at OUR stadium. Previously, in the 10 year history only three teams (the 2004 Utes, the 2005 TCU Horned Frogs, and the 2001 Cougars) had gone undefeated in conference play. We have done it two stinking years in a row in 2006 and 2007. No matter how much better the Cougars may be than the rest of the league, I just don't see it happening for a third straight season. Even if we get beat the Huskies in Washington and exact revenge against UCLA, I could still see the top-10 ranked BYU lose at TCU or at Air Force or (gulp!) at Utah with the hated Utes seeking revenge for the John Beck miracle of two years ago. I'm just not sure Harline is still going to be open.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but after being a loyal Cougar and Jazz fan my entire life, I must be a realist and I don't see the Cougars crashing the BCS just yet. My prediction is that Max Hall has a great junior year with an 11-2 record and another Las Vegas bowl win. But the reality will set in that we are not quite there yet, but a BCS bowl is possible in 2009 with a very talent laden senior class, but expectations are way too high this year. I hope karma makes me eat my words come January.
3 comments:
i hate to be a chad, but i have to agree with you joe. unless the offense can morph into another 2001 juggernaut and average 40+ pts per game, it'll definitely be tough to go undefeated, especially when utah has consistently been an emotional coin toss. also, pat forde called out the secondary, which has always been byu's achilles' heel (along with their ridiculous prevent defense at the end of halves/games).
lemme get this straight -- the cougars are going to be so bad this year because they've been so good lately? now, if there were specifics like laziness, loss of personnel or different road schedule that could be cited i think there would be more reason to worry. two well-done seasons with slow starts is hardly an alarm bell, unless you say that everything is just a little too perfect. that's a reason to have anxiety.
byu by no means will be bad this year. in fact, they'll be very, very good. their primary roadblock keeping them from national glory is the bcs. the bcs voters and computers have consistently required perfect seasons from non-bcs conference teams in order to vie for one of their high-and-mighty games.
the odds are stacked against byu (even though they're a preseason top-15 team in a pretty weak conference) and any other non-bcs team of coming out of a 12-game schedule unscathed. and it really doesn't help when teams like last-year's hawaii are paid millions after running the table and making the sugar bowl and then humiliate themselves in front of millions of viewers. (picture the emperor palpatine of the bowl empire with egg on his face--not a happy camper.)
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