Winning ugly is still winning

I was just telling Joe on the phone yesterday that I've been trying for a while to get back to just enjoying a BYU win, regardless of how perfect or imperfect their performance is. So many BYU fans are insecure and are constantly worried about how good their team looks to the media, and others on the "outside." He probably wouldn't approve of this, since it's a paid subscription, but I found the following quote by HB Arnett appropriate for this topic (sorry it's so long):

It used to be that if BYU lost a game or even won, but didn't play well, I couldn't sleep at night. How could the Cougars let me down?
Those days are long gone. It's Division I football.
Good teams lose. Great teams lose. Bad teams occasionally win.
If BYU played Oklahoma another 9 times this year, they would lose at least seven of those games, with or without Sam Bradford.
The Sooners now have tape of the Cougars. Who cares? BYU's win over OU was the ultimate entertainment and is one of my all-time favorite BYU football moments.
If BYU played Florida State another 9 times this year, the Cougars would likely win at least five of those games.
How can Florida State pummel BYU but struggle to whip Jacksonville State and get beat by South Florida? It's Division I football.
College football is a lot like the national political scene. Substance is gone, regardless of party affiliation. Without a playoff, we don't really know which teams can beat other teams.

Instead, it is about sound bites, snippets of video and talking heads on networks who tell us who is good and why we should think like they do.
Take away the studio hosts and sets and it is still Division I football where real teams with real players with abilities and talent are spread among all teams. Those teams then actually go out and go mano a mano on the football field.
How else do you explain USC getting beat by Washington last week and this week Cal getting pummeled by Oregon or highly regarded Penn State taking it on the chin at home against Iowa. How do explain a nondescript team like Colorado State making BYU look ordinary?
In their opening game at home this season, Iowa had to hang on for dear life and a bad opposing field goal kicker to defeat Northern Iowa.
That means that since BYU pounded Northern Iowa last year, they could beat Iowa and in turn could have beaten Penn State.
Crown the Cougars champions of the Big Ten.

At the risk of sounding like one of those talking heads, BYU is a very good football team, one of the top 25 in the nation, but they are not an elite team. They don't have a good enough defense or enough speed to bang heads consistently with the elite teams of the nation.
Regardless, they are still very entertaining to watch and follow. They are what they are. Craving respect is in my rear view mirror. What I am looking for is entertainment and some much needed recreation and relief from real life.
BYU football provides that, thank you.
BYU will win some big games. They will lose some big games. Harking back to Hawkins, "It is Division I football." That is what happens.
In the last two decades BYU has won a lot of football games and most of the time looked good doing it. That said, there are plenty of teams that can beat them or make them look ordinary just because it is Division I football.
BYU isn't the only team with decent coaches who watch film and find deficiencies they can attack and defeat.
Give any coach in the MWC a little bit of talent in the right spots, enough looks at enough film and enough times on the same field with BYU, and they will eventually make it competitive. As Dan Hawkins shouted, "It's Division I football."

BYU 42, CSU 23

If you didn't see the game but tuned in for the post game show it would have been easy to get the impression that BYU lost, badly. A multitude of armchair quarterbacks called in to complain about only having 3 long drives against the CSU defense, and droned on about how lucky BYU was to have 3 short fields to start the game. These wankers were clearly expecting an apology for a 19 point win.

BYU's defense came out srong and made some amazing plays—2 interceptions and a blocked punt— and their offense capitalized with touchdowns (not field goals) to jump out 21 points. Every point was earned, no points were spotted, clearly though, this is not acceptable to pretender-fans.

I get the impression that BYU can play under stress at times due to fan expectations, and my heart goes out to them. Including this year, over the past 4 seasons BYU has a record of 35-8, beating Utah 2 out of 3 years, has gone undefeated in conference twice, 2-1 in bowl games, beat a #17 ranked TCU on the road, and #3 Oklahoma on the road. Doomsdayers will see those accolades differently. Three, and now four seasons without a championship of the world—for shame BYU.

I think it comes down to pretender-fans expecting a choreographed game, where Hall throws for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Unga gets his 100. Instead of being proud of our boys for finding ways to win, all the pretender-fans constantly nitpick over how BYU wins.

That's why I have the friends that I do. XOXOXO. I'm happy to watch the games with you fellas and go through the highs and lows of a season. It's what makes college football exciting. Sometimes our team botches a seemingly easy extra point (you try kicking one, not so easy) sending us into a Rumpelstiltskin-type rampage, while other times they convert on a 4th and 18, or beat a top 5 team on one of college football's biggest stages.

Terrible, bitter-sweet and all-together beautiful.

Doubleplusgood

#8 Speaks to how I feel at the moment.

1. 'Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas ' Seen on a church sign in Arkansas , prior to the 1969 game.
2. 'After you retire, there's only one big event left... and I ain't ready for that.' Bobby Bowden / Florida State
3. 'The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.' Lou Holtz / Arkansas
4. 'When you win, nothing hurts.' Joe Namath / Alabama
5.'Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.' Lou Holtz / Arkansas
6. 'If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, 'Roll, tide, roll!' Bear Bryant / Alabama
7. 'A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.' Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
8. 'There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.' Woody Hayes / Ohio State
9. 'I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation.' Bob Devaney /Nebraska
10. 'In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant.' Wally Butts / Georgia
11. 'You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life.' Paul Dietzel / LSU
12. 'It's kind of hard to rally around a math class.' Bear Bryant / Alabama
13. When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world. 'No, but you can see it from here.' Lou Holtz / Arkansas ....
14. 'I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.' Bear Bryant / Alabama
15. 'There's one sure way to stop us from scoring-give us the ball near the goal line.' Matty Bell / SMU
16. 'Lads, you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died.' Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
17. 'I never graduated from Iowa , but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's.' Alex Karras / Iowa
18. 'My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor.' Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee
19. 'I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.' Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
20. 'Always remember... Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David.' Shug Jordan / Auburn
21. 'They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that's real small pieces.' Darrell Royal / Texas
22. 'Show me a good and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure.' Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
23. 'They whipped us like a tied up goat.' Spike Dykes / Texas Tech
24. 'I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: 'Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good.' Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State
25. 'Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.' Bobby Bowden / Florida State
26. 'Football is not a contact sport - it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.' Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
27. After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his postgame message to his team: 'All those who need showers, take them.' John McKay / USC
28. 'If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.'Murray Warmath / Minnesota
29. 'The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb..' Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
30. 'Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon.' Spike Dykes / Texas Tech
31. 'It isn't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it.' Knute Rockne / Notre Dam
32. 'We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches.' Darrell Royal / Texas
33. 'We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking.' Wilson Matthews / Little Rock Central High School
34. 'Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad. Darrell Royal/ University of Texas
35. 'I've found that prayers work best when you have big players.' Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
36. 'Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.' John Heisman

I don't want to talk about it

Predictions for the Gypsy Funeral

OK, fellas. Last chance to be a hero. We are 48 hours from the 'Noles making their debut in Edward's Stadium, and the vitriol is flying from both sinners and saints. FSU fans are ripping on Mormons for having too many wives, and Mormons are ripping on FSU fans for not having enough. Personally, I think there is a nice middle-ground we can all agree on. One wife, many mistresses. Zoing! Wham! Am I right married guys?

As it stands right now, only myself, Gregan, and Cedric have the minerals to throw our predictions down for all to see. I guess that makes the rest of you all, scared little scaredy cats who are scared of making predictions because they are too scared to to predict.

I'm sorry I had to be so harsh, but how will you all learn if not for tough love?

Predictions thus far

Gregan-BYU by ten points

Cedric- BYU 34 FSU 14

Joseph- BYU 42 FSU 21

Florida State Predictions!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a prediction in last game, since I didn't check the blog before the Tulane game was already over (coming here is part of my victory digestion ritual, along with reading every article I can find about the cougars until my neck hurts because it's propped up against my bedpost. My neck hurts so much right now).

But I've got to say, BYU looked pretty smokin', and I feel much better about the Florida State game after seeing them nearly choke against Jacksonville State. I know we're all superstitious on some level, and I would hate to jinx it, but I think we're going to go undefeated out of conference. There's no reason why BYU shouldn't beat Florida State (and Utah State goes without saying), especially if FSU plays anything like they did yesterday. Of course, they won't play like that, since they'll definitely pull out all the stops for a game against the Cougars that could spell redemption for their program.

However, FSU QB Christian Ponder seemed frustrated and confused throughout the entire game against Jacksonville, and that wasn't dealing with the mighty Cougars. Plus, it's in Provo. I give BYU this win by ten points.



Also, go Max! He's ranked number 4 this week in the Heisman Watch.

BYU-Tulane Predictions

Everyone who reads this is opinionated. I know, because I personally hand picked all of you.

So, let's see who has the Kuh Hoe Knees to put their over-developed ego on the line by boldly predicting outcomes of the games this year....before game time. No doubt, you all predicted BYU would beat Oklahoma by 1 point in a defensive-heavy game, I just want to give everyone the chance to cement their prediction on this blog for all to see. Go on, be a hero.

Whomever comes closest won't get pricked by my AIDS needle.

I'll start. BYU 40, Tulane, 17.

BYU, #9 Ap Poll, #12 Coaches Poll

Hasn't Sunk In Yet

This will be a short post as I'm trying to see my screen through tears of joy. 14-13 BYU! The exact opposite of how I thought they'd win. Who knew a defensive battle would take place? I cannot see how the BcS can argue against the MWC, anymore. The team up north beat Alabama last season and now the Cougs open up with a win over BCS darling, Oklahoma.

All without starting running back Harvey Unga.

Eff the Man.

Quack Talking

When has it ever been beneficial to trash talk before a game? I love that this Douche Bag not only guaranteed an "ass whoopin" on Boise State and proclaimed that Oregon owns BSU, but he then went on to carry the ball 8 times for negative 5 yards.

That's got to be a hard pill to swallow, but people can be forgiving. Even though he talked quack, and dramatically underperformed, he could have saved face by going to his interviews with cap-in-hand, humbled by what should have been a learning experience.

Not this hero.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2009/09/blounts-punch-adds-to-rough-night-for-oregon/1

I have wonderful news, everybody! After seconds and seconds of exhaustive research I have come to the undisputable conclusion that BYU is going to beat Oklahoma and then go undefeated and win the national championship!

Observe:

Fact number one: 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1984 national championship season and the Utah media has been overflowing with nostalgia.
Fact number two: BYU's first game in '84 was at Pittsburgh, the #3 team in the country.
Fact number three: BYU's first game in '09 is (kind of) at Oklahoma, THE #3 TEAM IN THE COUNTRY!

Those are the facts, baby, and facts are stubborn things! It's written in the stars, my friends. You can't argue with science.