Thursday, December 28, 2006

Craziness

Oi Vey! What am I getting myself into? I'm going on a date with a girl I've only met online, but we're going up to SLC to see the lights with her YSA ward. So it's like a blind date with 20+ people. And I won't have a car for my own use. Here's to hoping we totally click! It'll totallly suck if things are awkward for very long. But's not like I had plans for Saturday evening. And she is cute. This is a bigger risk than the trip to Las Vegas!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas

I hope anyone that happens upon this humble blog is having a Merry Christmas surrounded by family and friends.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Vindication

Well, that was awesome! Our seats were really bad, and we had a bunch of rowdy Duck fans nearby that were getting more inebriated by the minute, but we had good time at the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl. I was kind of nervous when the Cougs kept dropping passes in the first quarter (very uncharacteristic). But I was cautiously optimistic when we had two sacks on Oregon's first offensive series. Actually, I was quite surprised that BYU routed Oregon so handily. Harline was amazing, and ended up getting the MVP award. My brother and I went out on the field after the game with everyone else, though he almost fell to his doom in the process. The only bad part about the game was that it was the last one of the season. The team has all but exorcised its demons, the final step being a continual process of winning in the coming seasons, not letting this team be a one hit wonder. But everything else that this class of seniors had failed to do, they did this year.

1. Protect Homefield: In recent years the Cougs have not protected LES, but this year BYU were the most dominant home team in the country.

2. Field a balanced team: When one thinks of BYU, scoring lots of points comes to mind, defense does not. But the best BYU teams of the past have had good defenses to go with theirpowerful offenses. In 2003, the Cougar defenders experienced a role reversal, they were one of the best units in the country, but the offense was one of the worst. Last year it flipped back, and the defense was a liability. There were too many question marks going into this season, but most thought that the defense couldn't get any worse. Well, they were radically better, and it lead to holding opponents to just over two touchdowns a game.

3. Win a conference championship: BYU had not won a conference championship in four years, a feat the Cougs accomplished almost annually in years past. In 2006 they won the outright conference championship with one more game to go, but could they...

4. Beat Utah: I didn't start watching sports until I moved to Florida, so I didn't really know anything about the rivalry with Utah until I came to school. But then I only saw wins against 'the team up north' in my first two seasons at BYU. Since then, my loathing for the Utes has only grown. And part of this is anger at the Cougars themselves, but it seemed like Utah could always get itself psyched up to play BYU, and BYU would come out flat, and not just in football. I would have liked to have seen a blowout in Salt Lake this year, but I think it is so much sweeter that the Cougs finally...

5. Won a close game: John Beck had a reputation for not being able to win the close ones. Which is kind of unfair, since he only touches the ball for part of each offensive play, and has no influence on defensive plays. Nevertheless he had the reputation, and he only added to it in the only two losses this year. In every other game the offense and defense totally dominated opponents. He didn't get many chances to dispell the reputation, but he finally put it to bed by beating the Utes after time expired on the second to last play of the game. Fire in his belly and ice in his veins.

6. Win a bowl game: BYU went back to the Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl for the second straight year, but had not won in 10 years. And they did it against a "Premier" team in the Pac-10's Oregon Ducks.

Now that is satisfaction. Keep it up Cougars!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Hitting the Road Fully Invested

I haven't been to an away game in years, but thanks to a (relatively) close locale and only slightly overpriced tickets, my brother and I are headed to Las Vegas. I'm not a betting man, but this trip is a bit of a gamble. I dropped a little more than two days wages on the tickets, not including travel expenses. The Cougars had better win, or this trip will really be all about Lost Wages!