A Season Of Change...

 I am, admittedly, a sports fan. My favorite sports to follow in no particular order is National Team Soccer, some olympics, other soccer leagues, and NCAA sports, especially college football. This month, a premier NCAA conference blew up...the chard remains exist for the time being, but could all but disappear soon.

That's a damn shame.

I don't know all the details of how and why the destruction of the Pac 12 happened. I've read some theories...it appears to be a combination of greed, arrogance, and laziness. Like I said, I have no first-hand knowledge of the why, and it doesn't really matter anyway. What's done is done. I feel bad for the good people who worked hard and did their jobs to keep the Pac 12 functioning. It's not their fault things went south. 

As a fan of the University of Utah football team, I was worried. The very real prospect that the Utes would be left out of the conference party existed. Thankfully, they were invited into the Big 12 (funny how the numbers following the Big 12, the Big 10 no longer matter...). Thankfully, the Utes accepted.

It's been an interesting week as a college sports fan.

Many of my friends are BYU fans...they definitely bleed blue. They begin conference play in the Big 12 this year after wandering in the independence desert for a long time. I can't wait for them to again be part of a conference race, to try and win the conference, to complete for a shot at the playoffs. It's exciting. They deserve it. Utah has one final year of Pac 12 play, then they'll join the Big 12 family, and boy--it's going to be fun. 

I have no idea what changes are in store for college sports, but change is definitely in the air. Things have happened no one could have imagined even ten years ago. The next ten years could be even more nuts, but as long as I can watch my beloved Utah Utes don the crimson and white and play to the best of their abilities...

I'll be a happy fan.

Did You Hear That? It's The Sound Of The Unfulfilled Unrealistic Expectations...

In the short space of eighteen hours, a wave blew across the landscape. Perhaps you heard the cries of anguish, the gnashing of teeth, the profanity and pseudo-profanity. For if you are a sports fan of Utah's two largest college football programs, this was not a good weekend.

In fact, it sucked.

But, if you look at the games with a non-fan perspective, the outcomes might not be surprising. The local teams lost to national powerhouses, or, at least, programs with storied pasts. On any given weekend, our local teams would lose to those programs again and again. 

So, why the frustration? Why the angst, the pain, the sad faces across the state?

One reason--unrealistic expectation.

The die-hard fans thought--no, expected--the local teams to win. We thought our teams were better than they actually were. And this weekend, the truth--truths that were always there, we just chose to ignore them--showed their ugly faces. It didn't help that national media pegged the Utah Utes as a dark horse playoff team, nor did it benefit anyone that the BYU Cougars were 2-1, even thought their record could be 0-4, if it weren't for a couple of plays and lucky bounces. We flat-out thought our teams were better than they were, or that the limitations in the teams were either not there, or would not show up for big games.

Yes, the pain is real. We wished things had turned out different, but they didn't. The lofty goals some imagined will have to wait until next year, and they may never happen (another hard truth that may be tough to swallow...). The sound we heard this weekend may return again. Although, I suspect, if it does happen, it won't be as loud, or as impactful. After all, we all learned something this weekend, whether we wanted to, or not.

I Guess I Didn't Jinx BYU's Football Team After All...

Back on September 28 of this year, I posted a blog about BYU's football team. You can check out the post by clicking: HERE. I wrote the post because at that point in the season the team (and, by extension, their fans...) were flying high. They had beaten a Pac-12 team, almost beat another, and took down the then Number 6 team in the nation, Wisconsin at their house. 

The point of the post was to highlight a renewed feeling about the team. After the year before, they and their fans needed some good news and they got it.

Of course, the day after I wrote that post, BYU traveled to the Great Pacific Northwest to face one of the best teams in the nation, Number 11 University of Washington Huskies. No one gave BYU a chance when they faced a higher-ranked opponent in Wisconsin. Many believe the boys in blue could pull off another miracle.

Well, things didn't quite work out that way. The Huskies mauled the Cougars 35 - 7.

The next week BYU played their brothers to the north, Utah State University. This game was in Provo, but the score didn't favor the hometown team. BYU lost 45 - 20.

I thought maybe I had jinxed the team.

Okay, I really didn't believe that. I'm not that superstitious. I think we believe in superstitions because it gives us a sense that we have some control over our lives. Wearing the same clothes on game day can't guarantee a win, nor do the other countless things we do in hopes of a good outcome. So, my rational mind knows just because I wrote that post had absolutely nothing to do with the team losing two straight games.

The next week BYU played the University of Hawaii. They started their freshman quarterback phenom and beat the Rainbows 49 - 23. If they had lost, my unfounded belief that my post had something to do with their latest loss might have been strengthened. 

The future looks bright for the team. They did not play this week. They've got five games left and two of those games are against teams that have had their number as of late. So, playing the odds, they could finish 7 - 5, much better than last year. And many believe they could win out and finish with a record of 9 - 3.

Of course, none of that has anything to do with my blog post,..

Or does it?

I'm Seeing A Lot More Blue Out There Lately...

If you live near me, you're probably seeing more of the color blue lately, and it's not just because the fires have weakened and the sky is clearer. It's because fans of a football team located approximately sixty miles to the south me are excited, excited about the prospect of the future.

And they should be.

It's not that the BYU blue went away entirely--far from it. There have always been and there will always be fans of the school, be they alumni or not. They support their team, they wear their colors. But last year was a down year for the program, very un-BYU-esk. They didn't have a winning season and they didn't go to a bowl game. But when your team starts the season 3-1 including beating a top-10 team on the road, that's a reason to break out the flags, hats, shirts, bumper stickers, and neckties on Sunday.

I've made no bones about the fact that this team, this school's sports program in general, is not a favorite of mine. It stems from constantly getting beat down by their programs year after year in the 80s and 90s. They destroyed all local competition (and many of big national teams, too...). Finally, FINALLY, after decades of abuse and humiliation, the tide turned. The men in red began to defeat the men in blue, and more and more red began appearing on the scene.

I have no idea how the rest of this season will go. BYU, currently ranked #20, plays another nationally ranked team in Washington tomorrow. When BYU beat Wisconsin a few weeks ago, I was generally happy for them. They played better and they beat a team that didn't respect them. I doubt Washington will make the same mistakes Wisconsin did. Still, the fans, the players, everyone involved in the program is excited for the challenge. If they win tomorrow, they could end up having a historic year. 

And, if BYU wins tomorrow, I know I'm going to see more blue out there. That's not a bad thing.

Congratulations...To The BYU Cougars!

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I could only watch the first half before I had to go to work. And from what I saw, I thought the men in Blue would have a long trip back to Utah.

Turns out, the second half--the half I didn't get to see--was all Brigham Young.

I've written a couple of times about the Cougars. Growing up they were the premiere team in the state and one of the best in the country. Those days of dominance haven't returned for a couple of decades, but that's the way of things. The game's gotten so much bigger and more expensive. If you're not one of a half a dozen teams, you might get lucky and have a good year, but to be the best year after year, it's so much harder to do nowadays (just my personal opinion, of course...).

When the Y hired Kalani Sitake as their head coach, I knew the program made the right decision. How can I be against a guy who helped make my Utes a defensive powerhouse with numerous alumni playing in the NFL? Even if he brings BYU back to its former glory and they thrash the Utes year after year, I'll always be grateful to him for what he did while he wore red on the sidelines.

Today's win was a good one, one that helps a team with a new coaching staff and identity build confidence. I don't know how good or bad Michigan State is this year, but going into anyone's house and beating them like the Y did today is impressive--a good win.

But as good as the win was, BYU's pre-game moment was perhaps the best part of the game for me. They placed bouquets of roses on the field in honor of two Michigan State players who died recently. 

Class act, Cougars--class act!

I don't know if I'll always be rooting for BYU, but today I was and I'm glad they won.

* Photo used without permission from: BYU Photo @BYUphoto on Instagram

College Football In Utah Yesterday...The Agony And The Ecstasy

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If you're a fan of college football in the state of Utah, you saw something yesterday that was, in a word, shocking.

Shocking on many different levels.

To my BYU football friends, I must tell you, I know how you feel. And I know this because...

It's the way I felt time and time again when I attended classes at the University of Utah. I can't tell you how many times I watched as my team, the Utes, got their tails beat by a better team. Meanwhile, my BYU friends watched as their team, led by LaVell Edwards, beat up almost everyone they played. Now, I know it wasn't always like this.

It just felt that way.

Time and time again, BYU won their Saturday game; the Utes lost theirs. Because back in the late 1980s--early 1990s, BYU was a better team, better program, better players. That didn't make it easier to stomach, though. But as a Utah fan, I hung in there and over the past almost thirty years, things have changed. BYU's still a quality program, good players, good coaches, great fans.

But I wonder if Utah's is just plain better. 

At least, maybe they are this year, or this past weekend. I recorded both games and watched them after I was done with Comic Con. That BYU game was so brutal to watch. And the fact that they lost to a team that Utah had previously beat only added salt to an already badly bleeding wound. Watching that game reminded me of all those weekends decades ago when things were different and I was the fan wishing my team was better and was winning all those games. The season's not over yet. An injury here, an interception there and the wheels can come off the Ute's program, but at least for today, I'm experiencing the ecstasy because I've known the agony.

* Photo taken without permission from the Instagram account of: @elishamataele