Doomsday Scenario for Cougar Fans and Week 4 Review

Doomsday Scenario for Cougar Fans and Week 4 Review

0

I briefly mentioned yesterday that a potential hang-up of a BYU move to the Big 12 would be the 180 the Cougars would have to pull on on the West Coast Conference after just one year. Kind of a love em and leave em type thing.

Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune dives into this issue a little deeper. He throws out a scenario in which BYU’s new-found affiliation with the religious institutions of the WCC would be of the utmost importance. That BYU, with it’s religious mission, would in no way want to be seen as just another school sacrificing relationships, agreements, good will, etc. in the name of the almighty college football $. Monson goes even one step further suggesting the hypothetical of BYU going the way of BYU-Idaho and doing away with inter-collegiate competition altogether.

Gordon Monson: Is BYU on path to downgrading sports?

Clearly BYU is not getting out of the Division 1 college football business. They would not have built an indoor practice facility for the boys 7 or 8 years ago. They would not have signed a huge TV contract with ESPN and made the bold move to independence. In fact, BYU finally bolting the lousy MWC was a sign that their own well-being was finally more important than that of their long time brethren of the MWC and old WAC. (That, and the fact that their supposed most loyal of partners, Utah, blew the whole thing up by jumping to the Pac-12, leaving trusty old BYU with a big bag of nothing. No one in their right mind can blame Utah for ditching BYU).

All that said, BYU desperately wants to perform on the big stage but does not want to appear like they are “selling their soul” to do so.

Can they go to the Big-12 as “football only?” Can they go to the Big 12 with just football and men’s basketball, leaving everything else in the WCC. Would that type of compromise keep the school’s reputation intact and still give their rabid fan base what they want: a guarantee that they are still worth cheering for in the sports that matter most?

As for the actual games being played right here and now –

BYU obviously got some big plays on special teams and defense against UCF on Friday night to gut out the win. They did establish something of a run game. However, the offense still did not march the length of the field and finish with a touchdown. Jake Heaps struggled in the game. I really thought he was going to have a break-out year. I was wrong. He still has all the physical gifts to be great, it’s just going to take longer than we thought. The offense still needs to be more creative. The one misdirection touchdown that Di Luigi scored was a great play call. The Cougars need to do more of that, and find a way to get the ball into the hands of Cody Hoffman more. Hoffman’s kick-off return for a touchdown was electrifying!

On the whole, the defense continues to be the most consistent part of the team. Aside from Hoffman’s return, the Cougar defense is about all that’s worth the price of admission. I’ve heard from several in attendance at both the Utah and UCF games that all the buzz in the stadium is coming from the D. And when the offense takes the field it just kind of sucks the life out of the place. This certainly came through on TV as well on Friday night.

As for the team the Cougars will face this coming Friday night-Utah State; the Aggies can’t seem to get out of their own way. They suffered another gut wrenching loss on Saturday. Not sure if the Colorado State and Auburn losses will demoralize them or just rile them up even more for the BYU game. Stay tuned. BYU is a 7.5 point favorite early in the week according to Vegas.

Matt Nielson has been writing about the college sports landscape in Utah and the Intermountain West since 2010. When he’s not pretending to be a professional blogger, he works full time as a residential real estate agent and house flipper. Matt graduated from Brigham Young University in 2000. He and his family reside in Salt Lake City, UT.

Twitter 

Leave a Reply