Woe be unto him who crieth, “All is well in Cougar Town!”
Thanks for the great football season, Cougars. We know there are four more season games scheduled, but your dominating performance Saturday against Air Force is a clear enough message that we’re the best in the conference. It’s time to pack it in.
Kindly tell Colorado State, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah to stay home because we already know you’ll beat them. While you’re at it, tell the MWC officials to ship the conference trophy to us ASAP, and ask the NCAA to let us know which bowl game we’ve qualified for. By the way, it would be nice if they’d tell us when they’re going to post our ranking in the top 25 so all the fans can buy a copy of the newspaper that day.
It’s easy to see how BYU fans can get caught up in euphoria and count their chickens before they hatch. After all, few on campus are old enough to recall the 2001 Cougars and their 12-2 season; most of us just remember the dark days of the BYU football apostasy.
Don’t get us wrong, we’ve always supported you and cheered as loudly as we could over the past four seasons. But with a combined record of 20-27, it was a time when fans learned what it means to mourn with those that mourn. But, this season, the light is breaking through the clouds, the shadows of apostasy are slowly melting away and we’re excited about it.
You, the 2006 Cougars, appear to be a restoration of the fullness of BYU football glory. At home, you score an average of 46 points, and, on the road, you turn opponents’ home field advantage into an old wife’s tale. Curtis Brown is about to become BYU’s all-time leading rusher, John Beck was named national player of the week by Cingular and sometimes it appears that the mantle of LaVell Edwards descends upon Bronco Mendenhall when he folds his arms and stoically scans the field. To a certain extent, the fans are allowed to lose themselves in the moment. But you, football players, must remember Yogi Berra’s words: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
There are still four more games left in the regular season. Among those games is the anticipated showdown with Utah, which has lost two conference games. It would be easy to assume we’ll beat them this year, but therein lays the danger. With their dreams of a conference championship all but gone, Utah has nothing to lose and everything to gain by beating us.
With four games left to play, no one can be overlooked nor taken for granted; you can’t afford to be lulled away by the fervor of the moment, like so many fans have been. Strive ever more diligently so that when all is said and done, you will win the prize in reality, rather than just in some devote fan’s whimsical wish.
