On Sept. 5, 2009, the BYU Cougars football team won its biggest game in well over a decade, upsetting the third-ranked Oklahoma Sooners 14-13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas. In that game, the BYU defense held the Sooners to under 300 yards of total offense, while quarterback Max Hall threw for 329 yards and two touchdowns.
It was the first time the Cougars had beaten a top-10 opponent since 1990, when the Ty Detmer-led Cougars upset the No. 1 Miami Hurricanes en route to the school's sole national championship.
It would also be the last time that would occur.
The Cougars have notoriously struggled over the last decade to not only beat a top-10 opponent, but to beat a ranked team at all. The 2009 season, in addition to beating the Sooners, had the Cougars defeating the 21st-ranked Utah Utes in overtime and 18th-ranked Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. The win against the Beavers was the last time BYU beat a ranked opponent.
Since former Head Coach LaVell Edwards retired after the 2000 season, the Cougars have a record of 4-17 against ranked opponents. During the Gary Crowton era between 2001 and 2004, BYU went winless in five games against top-25 teams, losing to USC twice, and once each to Air Force, Boise State and Utah.
Current Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall took over the BYU reins in 2005. The Cougars played a Boston College team, ranked 21st in the nation, right from the start, losing 20-3 in Provo. During the eight seasons in which Mendenhall has been the head coach, the Cougars have played a top-25 team 16 times, posting a record of 4-12.
Of those 16 games, six have come against a top-10 opponent, and besides the win against the Sooners, BYU has gone winless. And it hasn't been pretty, as the Cougars have lost those games by an average of 25.4 points.
However, on a somewhat encouraging note, since 2010, the Cougars have fiercely competed against ranked opponents, losing every game in heartbreaking fashion by one point each: to No. 22 Utah in 2010; to No. 24 Texas in 2011; and to No. 24 Boise State earlier this season. The Cougars have been on the cusp several times over the last few years but haven't been able to break the not-so-imaginary barrier that is the top 25.
But Saturday's game against Oregon State set the Cougars back both in the sense of the 2011 season, which finds the Cougars at a precarious 3-3 record, and the overall competition against ranked teams, as the Beavers pulled away from a close game in the 4th quarter to win 42-24 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The schedule doesn't get any easier for BYU in 2012, as the team faces another top-10 opponent this week in South Bend, Ind., against No. 5 Notre Dame. The back-to-back games against top 25 opponents is the first time this has occurred since 2004, when the Cougars played top-ranked USC, followed by Boise State.
The Fighting Irish have had an impressive 2012 season, defeating ranked opponents in Michigan State earlier this year, and Stanford last week in overtime. The game will have lots of national attention, being aired nation-wide on NBC, and could have resounding implications for both teams going forward. For Notre Dame, a win would mean another large step forward to a potential spot in the National Championship. For BYU, a win would eclipse the ramifications of the 2009 victory over Oklahoma and get the proverbial monkey off its back. It would also bring much-needed national attention to a program that has quietly found itself ranked in the top 25 at the end of the season during five of the last six years.
A loss, however, could mean another step backwards into the realm of 'So-Close-Yet-So-Far' in which too many teams find themselves.