BYU Football!

Well, I was suppose to have all this time and be able to look up stats and follow the BYU football team like no other man has before, but as you can tell, I have failed at that. So, it looks like this will be the recap of the season and a look at next year.

Bronco Mendenhall was in his second year, his make or break year. You see, the first year he has all the recruits from the former head coach. In his second year, he has had two recruiting classes come in and he has started to build his team the way that he would like them. So, how did Bronco do?

I would personally give him an A-. Yes, I know I might be a stickler or a jerk for doing so. BYU went to another bowl this year and won, were Mountian West Conference Champs, won 11 games, beat a ranked opponent, and went undefeated in conference, oh and beat Utah! But, the thing that really kills me and leaves me with some uncertainty are those two losses.

Both of them were on the road. One was against a ranked team in Boston College, the other under a second year head coach named Tom Stoops who was turning a very bad Arizona team around.

I haven't quite figured this out but BYU has yet to come out to play in their first game of the season. The chance to hit new people and show everyone what they are about and start the season off on the right foot, and BYU seems to stumble. You can see that they have all the keys and all the weapons, they just cannot put everything together and win the game. Arizona was a lose by a score of 16-13. A game in which BYU lead the entire game but seemed to fall apart slowly but surely until they lost it. We saw sparks of that dangerous BYU offense, but not enough to get into the endzone more then once. A strong BYU defense that wasn't getting much help from that offense. It was a good game and a game in which you could tell the future was looking bright, but a very sore losing seeing that BYU could have hammered that Arizona team.

Lose to Boston College. If Mendenhall was looking for a better time to show that BYU was a force to reckon with, this would have been the game. A lose in double overtime due to, what I believe to be two but may have been three, missed field goals. It was a good game and give it a little time and we will be winning those games.

Had we won both of those games, BYU might have broke into the BCS and John Beck may have been a little bit higher on that Hesiman list.

Some things that were impressive this year. Undefeated in conference and knocking off a ranked TCU team on the road on a short week (the game was played on a Thursday rather then on Saturday). Beating Utah on the road with a miraculous last minute drive to win the game. It is always good to beat your rival, even better to beat them on the road.

The most important thing that I noticed this year was the humility in which the team handled thing. They made sure that their focus was on the game that they played that week, not next weeks game or the game three weeks from now. The took it one game at a time and made sure that they took care of business.

I am glad to see that Mendenhall choose the Las Vegas Bowl. Not only to get home before Christmas but because it was a PAC-10 team that they played. Many people are talking about BYU and pretty soon they will be a good team in a good conference, as long as TCU can keep upsetting Oklahoma or at least sticking it to them.

Next season... Well, there is a lot of question marks there. Losing a lot of guys due to graduation, leaving on missions, and so on. But, Mendenhall has turned this program around and I am certain that they will be moving forward and making progress.

God speed.