BYU Football Blanked: Fans are Chagrined, Cultural Implications
Ach, nein! The BYU Cougar football team, in the second year of Coach Kilani Sitake, in the beginning month September of 2017 in the Superdome of New Orleans, in the second game of the season, are blanked for only the third time this century. It has happened now once each to the last three coaches of this Church school, which expects a lot from its team and players. And coaches.
Prior to being held to 0 in 2003 against arch-rival Utah at the end of an ill-fated season, and under the then ill-fated Coach Gary Crowton, Brigham Young University had held the NCAA record for consecutive games without being blanked, which had gone on for decades, since 1975, and it happened versus Arizona State. That auspicious streak had run for 28 years! Not bad. And possibly still the best ever this far into the 21st century. But this is a new era since Coach Edwards stepped down in 2000.
BYU was again held to no points in 2015 against Michigan, which turned out to be the last year of a decent tenure of Bronco Mendenhall, he who succeeded a less than successful Crowton.
And now enter Sitake. Can BYU push another 26 year scoring streak, which would would push out to 2043 or so? Time will tell.
For now, the here-to-fore optimistic Cougars must lick their wounds and get ready for another formidable opponent in Utah next Saturday. BYU has to figure out how to move the chains and score some points. Perhaps it will not win, which is one concern,like they have lost to the Utes the last five years in a row, but they have to show up on offense. Win or lose, they must score.
No matter the score at the end, the Cougars score points. And they are a respectable school for football, coast to coast, in general competition and winning as a program. They win most of their games consistently. They go to bowl games every year. They are successful, and this is an imprimatur since the mid-1970s of the legendary Lavell Edwards, the coach who put Provo on the college football map.
Having grown up as a part of the Latter-day Saint community in the Mid-West, where many people are not sure who or what Mormons are, the BYU football team represented our faith with some degree of respectability and pride. Winning the national championship in 1984 certainly was a big deal, not just on a sports level, but showing that a smaller state, a smaller religion, could rise to the level of power and influence and be something, be the best. Some might say that this bespeaks the greatness of the United States, and also as a new American religion attempting to be legitimate along other Christian faiths, perhaps this was the bellwether moment of the Church of Jesus Christ's "arrival".
Through an all-American and heralded sport such as football, the Church proved that it belongs, and this by the 1980s. This is a new relatively small faith. It showed, to a certain degree, at least psychologically for many Mormons and non-members, that the LDS Church is a partner and presence to be reckoned with.
In the years since, the team has never achieved such a height as that 1984 renown, but its power has been displayed decade after decade. And it had that scoring streak as part of the proof.
BYU may not always win all its games, but it plays with the best and it scores points.
And to a few of us, the cultural implication, like a good Catholic who supports Notre Dame, our faith is bolstered by the impressive exploits of the team. The faith in our faith remains higher because of a sport with a pig-skin, and its reputation of formidability.
So, when the team fails to score (as Saturday's final against Louisiana State 27-0 pitifully ended), and the team that since the late 1970s plays anybody, anywhere, showing it is as good as Notre Dame, or certainly Texas Christian or Baylor, capable of competing against and AND beating the best of the college world, a few of us fans and members of our faith take it as a psychological blow.
Doubts, although logically improbable, start to seep in.
Maybe our team is not as good as we thought we were? Check.
Maybe BYU as a football and even academic institution is not as good as we thought, or hoped? Check.
Maybe all those criticisms and jokes about Latter-day Saints and their culture and practices have more truth than we would like to admit? Check.
Maybe believing in modern day prophets and scripture besides the Bible is far fetched, and simply wishful or even delusional thinking? Check.
Maybe even the Bible itself, and the mission of the Son of God, and all the hopes and missions of all Christian and other religious holy people over the millenia is based in wishful thinking, that has no greater benefit to it? Uh, check.
Maybe the world is only what we see? Empirical truthes are all we can trust in? There is no supernatural power beyond ourselves? Well, check.
And all this, to me and maybe a few others, because Tanner Mangum and his running backs and receivers and tight ends could not get near the LSU endzone.
Football and BYU team fans have to watch themselves in such trying times on this existential slippery slope of confusion and despair.
Be careful, Cougar fans. There is next game. And we will score. We may not beat Utah for the first time in my youngest child's lifetime, but BYU will move the ball. And fine the endzone.
I have hope and faith. Check.
We are, after all, who we thought we were.
We are: the Brigham Young University Cougars.
We are coming for your team next.
Best of luck next time, LSU Tigers. We will be back, hopefully with no historic hurricane involved.
And your defense better be ready.
Check.
Having grown up as a part of the Latter-day Saint community in the Mid-West, where many people are not sure who or what Mormons are, the BYU football team represented our faith with some degree of respectability and pride. Winning the national championship in 1984 certainly was a big deal, not just on a sports level, but showing that a smaller state, a smaller religion, could rise to the level of power and influence and be something, be the best. Some might say that this bespeaks the greatness of the United States, and also as a new American religion attempting to be legitimate along other Christian faiths, perhaps this was the bellwether moment of the Church of Jesus Christ's "arrival".
Through an all-American and heralded sport such as football, the Church proved that it belongs, and this by the 1980s. This is a new relatively small faith. It showed, to a certain degree, at least psychologically for many Mormons and non-members, that the LDS Church is a partner and presence to be reckoned with.
In the years since, the team has never achieved such a height as that 1984 renown, but its power has been displayed decade after decade. And it had that scoring streak as part of the proof.
BYU may not always win all its games, but it plays with the best and it scores points.
And to a few of us, the cultural implication, like a good Catholic who supports Notre Dame, our faith is bolstered by the impressive exploits of the team. The faith in our faith remains higher because of a sport with a pig-skin, and its reputation of formidability.
So, when the team fails to score (as Saturday's final against Louisiana State 27-0 pitifully ended), and the team that since the late 1970s plays anybody, anywhere, showing it is as good as Notre Dame, or certainly Texas Christian or Baylor, capable of competing against and AND beating the best of the college world, a few of us fans and members of our faith take it as a psychological blow.
Doubts, although logically improbable, start to seep in.
Maybe our team is not as good as we thought we were? Check.
Maybe BYU as a football and even academic institution is not as good as we thought, or hoped? Check.
Maybe all those criticisms and jokes about Latter-day Saints and their culture and practices have more truth than we would like to admit? Check.
Maybe believing in modern day prophets and scripture besides the Bible is far fetched, and simply wishful or even delusional thinking? Check.
Maybe even the Bible itself, and the mission of the Son of God, and all the hopes and missions of all Christian and other religious holy people over the millenia is based in wishful thinking, that has no greater benefit to it? Uh, check.
Maybe the world is only what we see? Empirical truthes are all we can trust in? There is no supernatural power beyond ourselves? Well, check.
And all this, to me and maybe a few others, because Tanner Mangum and his running backs and receivers and tight ends could not get near the LSU endzone.
Football and BYU team fans have to watch themselves in such trying times on this existential slippery slope of confusion and despair.
Be careful, Cougar fans. There is next game. And we will score. We may not beat Utah for the first time in my youngest child's lifetime, but BYU will move the ball. And fine the endzone.
I have hope and faith. Check.
We are, after all, who we thought we were.
We are: the Brigham Young University Cougars.
We are coming for your team next.
Best of luck next time, LSU Tigers. We will be back, hopefully with no historic hurricane involved.
And your defense better be ready.
Check.
The Cougs have scored every game since. They have not won as much as they should have, but they have scored...
ReplyDelete3 years or so and counting.