BYU Football Progresses in Year 3 of Sitake

BYU Football Progresses in Year 3 of Kalani Sitake

The Bigger Picture is What Matters to the School and Its Supporters

1.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has, since its inception in 1830, been a bold proclaimer of certain large messages. Apart from its claim of authority and proper priesthood restored on the earth, which throws down a gauntlet to all other organized religions, there is the Christian imperative to:

2. Repent and sin no more! To urge and encourage all people to live up to high moral standards that the Savior would have us live, according to the moral laws of the Church, and the Lord who runs it. This is different than any other college or university, especially in the 21st century. No premarital intimate relations, no tobacco or alcohol, no cursing or radical hair styles...

Therefore, the flagship school of the Church embodies what the faith espouses; the football team is a very public part of that mission and effort.

Since 1922, prophets and presidents, apostles and general authority educators of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, have started and then supported the BYU Cougar football to represent the school and its values. By the 1970s the team became a factor in national rankings and bowls.

Since the retirement of legendary Hall of Famer LaVell Edwards in 2000, three different coaches have had their chances to continue the success of the team that achieved the national championship in 1984, a feat causing multiple fissures and cracks throughout college football that has had its effects up until today (2018).

The newest head coach, the first Tongan football head coach in the United States, took over in 2016 and led his first team to a respectable 9-4 record. Season two went upside down when the Cougars finished an embarrassing 4-9, their worst record since the 1950s. Sitake was under a hot microscope.

Year 3, this 2018 season, was a big deal.

By losing 4 close games in close fashion, mixed with some good wins (Arizona and Wisconsin), it was left for the end of the season bowl game for the then 6-6 Cougars to come out winners or not.

And they did, thankfully, having a great third quarter and crushing the Western Michigan Cowboys 49-18.

7-6 overall, progress noted and second losing season averted.

Next season will open with really tough teams and opponents, including starting with arch rival Utah; the Utes that BYU almost beat this year and has not beaten in 8 straight competitions, despite close finishes almost every time. Many Cougar fans and critics are heartened and hopeful that many Sitake youthful recruits and returnees will have the power and skill to handle themselves against the likes of the Pac-12, a conference that spurned BYU in including as part of their expansion 8 years ago. The exclusion may possibly have been based on religious reasons. 

We will see what will happen on the field.

As far as what the Church of Jesus Christ declares through its university football team and its leadership and players, the message is the same: we value clean and Christlike lives. We expect our men and women to be awesome ambassadors of both sport and purity. Cleanliness and morality as we believe it should be.

Like Army, Navy, and Air Force (the Knights, by the way, just finished a fantastic season), there are other priorities at play with BYU. Cadets at the U.S. military service academies are expected to be trained warriors to fight for their country, to serve the president and defend the Constitution. This is an added burden to accomplish while running against men and women who are civilians, looking to make a buck or serve in their respectful fields of work as non-military.

Cougars have the burden of Christ, which Jesus says Himself that it is "light".

There are other religious affiliated schools, but they do not require the same enforced standards of living like Brigham Young. Notre Dame, Texas Christian, Southern Methodist, Boston College: they have their allegiances to the Higher Power and their denominations, but I am not aware of much more commitments to a written Honor Code other than attending additional church services. Maybe I am wrong.

Winning shows that we can do it. Serve a higher Master, live His laws as best as possible, repent of the sins that we commit, and play with a pigskin on the rugged grid iron, and win.

Whether you and others believe in the principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that is your prerogative.  Whether you believe in the missions of the U.S. Army or others, the liberal aims of Stanford or UC-Berkeley, or the University of Miami or wherever, fine. We can agree to believe the same or disagree.

BYU. Football team.

It's fun to watch, but it definitely is a statement of belief. 2018 ended up being a decent demonstration of that ethic.  We shall see how it goes for Kalani and his young men in the future.

Go Cougs. See you in 9 months, Utes. I respect your returned missionaries. I respect your school.

The Cougars will keep doing its thing, which will be your on the field nemesis. But not off it! May it ever be so, and may good sport continue to flourish in the state of Utah.