BYU announces 2012 football schedule

After some last-minute game alterations, BYU has announced its football schedule for this upcoming season.

After starting the 2011 season away at Ole Miss, BYU is starting the 2012 season off with two consecutive home games against Washington State and Weber State.

“The first game of the season is always so important,” BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said, “especially when you play someone at home. If we get that win under our belt, we set the tone for the rest of the season.”

BYU will play mostly home games during the first half of the season until the Cougars head to South Bend, Ind., to compete against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, followed by a game at Georgia Tech.

“This will be a tough travel,” Holmoe said. “It is tough on a team. … This is a little bit of a challenge to go back to back against these challenging teams.”

Similar to last season, BYU scheduled several games against WAC foes later in the season. Last year, this caused an unhappy fan base in November. This year, a game scheduled at San Jose in mid-November will be exciting for the large fan base near the bay, Holmoe said, hoping to keep the last part of the season energized.

As one of four independent schools in the country, BYU’s schedule is more flexible than most other schools, making the scheduling more opt to change, Holmoe said. This was in part the reason for the delayed schedule, with some changes in the last couple months scheduling teams and moving some dates around with several Wac teams.

However, Holmoe shows confidence in this upcoming season.

“It is a good schedule, I think it will be better than last year,” he said.

• Saturday 09/01/12		Washington State Cougars LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
  Saturday 09/08/12		Weber State Wildcats LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
  Saturday 09/15/12		at Utah Utes Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, UT
  Saturday 09/22/12		at Boise State Broncos Bronco Stadium, Boise, ID
  Saturday 09/29/12		Hawaii Warriors LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
  Friday 10/05/12		Utah State Aggies LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
  Saturday 10/13/12		Oregon State Beavers LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
  Saturday 10/20/12		at Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame, IN
  Saturday 10/27/12		at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Bobby Dodd Stadium, Atlanta, GA
  Saturday 11/03/12	—	Open Date
  Saturday 11/10/12		Idaho Vandals LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
  Saturday 11/17/12		at San Jose State Spartans Spartan Stadium, San Jose, CA
  Saturday 11/24/12		at New Mexico State Aggies Aggie Memorial Stadium, Las Cruces, NM