I remember when Boise State wanted to join the MWC soon after we split from the WAC. We felt that they were not good enough.
I remember when we felt playing Utah State was below us but we felt we needed to because our beloved coach, LE, went to school there.
I remember when we felt that we were better than Utah Utes.
I remember when we had players like Steve Young,
Jim Mac Mann, Ty Detmer, et al.
I remember when we were on the front cover of virtually every pre season football magazine.
I also remember that before LE we were not noticed much by anyone.
I remember when we ----never mind. That was than and this is now.
We are coming back. We are on the right track. We are learning how to play the big boys. Most importantly, we are now hungry.
We are now focused. No more cute slogans. No more excuses.
We know what to do. We are now starting to do it and I am grateful.
First year I have been optimistic in a while or excited about the offense. We play a great schedule and a winning record will be earned with not a bunch of give me’s. It’s been a long time since dismal bb when I had to continually check out the Zags scores. I AM excited about BYU football
Against virtually all odds,
from Las Vegas Odds and the Line
to our own Desert News, to our Provo Hearld, and to our
blog sites like this one at Cougarfan.com and the board, plus all the others, I really do feel that we have a chance, (more than a chance/it’s my expectation), that we will defeat #15 in the Nation, team that is projected to win the Pac 12 South, and possible, the Pac 12. I think we will beat our rival, the Utah Utes.
Thank you for your reply. Welcome to cougarfan.com. I am happy to see that you are among the positive people posting about our cougars.
I think that among our biggest accomplishments is that we have now learned to really be hungry. We are starved for success. We know that we are the underdog. We have no more cute slogans.
We no longer use our honor code as an excuse for not doing what we want or being where we think we should be.
We are real now. We know what we have to do now. We no longer offer excuses. Now we just work harder. We will now earn our respect. We no longer feel like we need to legislate our opportunities.
When we were in the WAC and in the MWC, we thought that we
were one of the best teams in the Nation and that all teams should feel honored to play us with our storied history.
Now as an independent, we know what we must do to be as
good as we use to think we were, playing our G5 schedules.
Yes, we are hungry, hungry, hungry and we are fighting for our survival and we will survive, and when we finally get to where we need to be, we will be the best team in our entire history of football. I am proud of where we are now. I like being hungry instead of fat and out of shape.
I am holding out, with optimism. The pre-season hypesters are always telling telling us that quote, “This is the year”!, or “Look out for the Cougars now.” Too many sports writers have plagued us with the next phenom gun slinger that under pressure skidded to a rather yawn-able end. Disappointment, unreached potential, and taking the abuse from countless Ute fans have me reeling in doubt. Don’t get me wrong, I am as hopeful as anyone, but it is a guarded optimism. I will take a let’s wait and see attitude.
“First year I have been optimistic in a while or excited about the offense.”
We all have a lot to be excited about this season.
This season we are hungry. We are foaming at the mouth. We want our due.
No cute slogans. No more excuses for nonperformance. No more reasons for nonacceptance. Now we just work harder. We demand more of ourselves.
We know that in that football world that we want so much to be a part of, we are the underdogs.
We know how hard we have to work. We know that we are not the best, but we are determined to keep working until we become a part of the best.
We no longer feel that we have to be in a P5 conference, sure we would jump at the chance if invited, but until that time comes, if it ever does come, we are working to become an undisputed competitive Independent P5 team that nobody can deny. We don’t need anybodies permission or invitation. We only need to stay hungry, team and coaches alike, and keep working until we reach that goal;.
Have you heard of the SEC in college football. Perhaps you will believe each and every team in that conference. They all count us as an Independent P5 team for SOS programing.
My opinion is that, if we go back to G5 conference, we will never be better than a non significant G5 team.
We don’t get better by playing easier teams. We get better while learning to play harder teams. We must all be patient and give the process more time.
Winning easy teams means nothing to me and isn’t worth watching.
Like you, I too, get upset and extremely disappointed after the start of each season, when we find that we are not nearly as good as all the preseason hype would lead us to believe.
Having said that, I would rather lose a close game vs P5 teams, than to win close games vs. G5 teams.
I find it less shameful to lose to a P5 team than it is to lose to a G5 team.
I am much more proud to tell my friends on my California street, that our schedule includes Utah Utes, Tennesee, USC, Washington and Boise State than to say our schedule inlcludes Idaho State, Weber State, Fresno State and San Jose State.
Okay, I eat crow on this one.
Who would have thought that Williams would have thrown 2 pic 6’s and have a fumble? Who would have thought that our play callers would have sent in our back up QB while in the red zone? Who would have thought that we did not use Ty’Son Williams more than we did. When we did use him he scored. Who would have thought that we would have had some stupid 15 yard penalties?
Who would have thought---------Looks like not enought thinking went into this game vs. the Utes. But we are still learning.
We will see tomorrow. If we can come out on the road against a below average Tennessee and look good then there will be optimism for tomorrow. If we don’t-we will probably start 0-4 and Sitake will be on the way out most likely.
If we would have played the first 3 quarters like we played the last quarter and the two overtimes, we would have looked great with the win.
I screamed as loud as I could when with 3+ minutes on the clock and a chance to tie or win the game, and we were in the Tenn side of the field, we chose to kick on the fourth down instead of going for it on the fourth down. Maybe I missed something somewhere down the line as I have heard no other complaints about that,
I kept thinking that with just 3+ minutes to play all Tenn had to do is run only the ball, hand on to it, perhaps drop to the knee when the time came and run out the clock.
ya, I had to miss something because as it happened, we did prevail in the second overtime period.
You weren’t alone-we we’re all screaming to go for it. Sometimes things turn out despite what we do. I counted numerous play calls that left me scratching my head. I have seen numerous play calls like delayed hand offs that have been blown up in the backfield this year from different teams. Sometimes it’s better just to go fast and hard
We were doing pretty good in the 1st half against u (except for those dumb mistakes) then we went dead in 2nd half. Against Tenn maybe.
Yeah, I did say “WHY PUNT, That doesn’t make sense.” But luckly we got the ball back with very little time left but bad spot. And I was glad Tenn DB took down Micah Simon when we still got time left on the clock (7 seconds?).
WE LUCKED OUT ON THIS ONE, but those 2 OT were sweet as a whole BYU team. We should be happy to have Jake Oldroyd with perfect 3/3 FG and perfect PAT.
We are learning to play P5 teams. Our wins agains Tennessee and USC were great. Our losses to Utah and Washington were not. We have a very long way to go before we can call ourselves competitive vs. P5 teams.
The biggest disappointment to me this season was not the Utah or Washington games, but it was to lose to the first team that we were favored to win and that was in Toledo (21-28).
Unfortunately, I must agree with you. Losing to Toledo, the only team to date that we were favored to win, was more disappointing than losing to Utah or Washington, where we were the underdogs from start to finish.
Quote:
“BYU is a G-5 contender at best Membership in the AAC or MWC is the best BYU can do. We are not accepted by P-5 leagues.”
I agree that our performance as an Independent has not reached the level of a P5 team.
To reach the level of a P5 team, some rules must be changed.
We must go to the rules before Lavel Edwards, whereas the head coach does not have to be LDS and in good standing with the Church. We must go after the best coaches in the Nation if we ever expect to be among the best teams in the Nation.
Next, if we have an opportunity to go after the best coaches in the nation, we must be able to pay a competitive stipend to get that coach,
Next, we must keep scheduling (win or lose) as many P5 teams as possible in order to keep in perspective how well we are or are not doing as a team.
I would rather lose a very close competitive game vs a P5 team than to win a G5 team. I find it disgusting for us to play a FCS team. If we were already in a P5 conference, we could get away with playing a FCS team. Being in our position, we can not afford it.