The Square Life

BYU annihilated UCLA 59-0. BYU earned national respect. BYU is being seriously talked about as a BCS buster. All of this brings up one very important question. Where is all of this leading to?

Watching Max Hall throw 7 (7!) touchdown passes last Saturday was amazing. I was having Ty Detmer hot flashes every few minutes. Well, that or the unusually hot September sun. Watching BYU destroy a big school like UCLA was equally satisfying, and even alarming. What was so alarming was what the blowout produced within me. This past weekend, for the first time in a very long time, I became an outright believer.

So what do I believe? That BYU could actually compete for a national title.

I know, I know. I'm acting very homer here. "National title?" you may ask in your most snooty voice. I mean it, though. I’m not saying that we are the best team in the nation, and I’m certainly not making any predictions. What I am saying, however, is that after last weekend’s shellacking of UCLA, I believe that BYU could beat any team in the nation. I’m also saying that if by some miracle the cards play out perfectly for BYU, I believe we could win a national championship.

Do I think we will win a national championship? Of course not. But to be honest, this newfound fantasy is fun to play with. The last time I dreamt this big, I was thirteen years old. It was 1996, and BYU gained national respect after beating Texas A&M. I remember distinctly fantasizing that BYU could win it all. I would go in my backyard and daydream that I was both Steve Sarkisian and K.O. Kealaluhi in the final moments of the national championship game. I would throw the ball really high in the sky and then catch it, while dodging make believe defenders. And then I would always slide on the grass like K.O. did in the closing moments of the Texas A&M game.

Of course, after our dreams were quickly halted by Washington that year, I returned to this little obscure hole I’ve been hiding in ever since.  The disappointment of 1996 was then followed by my teenager years. By the time I finally got through that awful era, I was the sarcastic person I am today. The daydreams were gone, and I was a person who had been beaten down by the man (and bigger conference schools) enough to lose all hopes of crazy concepts like national championships.

So sue me for peeping my head out of the hole for a little nostalgia. Sue me for dreaming of a really good team having a chance to prove they are the best. Dreams like that are probably not meant for smaller schools like BYU in ridiculous organizations like Division I football. Never mind that big name schools like USC have been cheated out of opportunities to prove they’re the best, let alone “Non-BCS” schools like us. What was I thinking?

Back to my original question: where is all of this leading to? Now that I am a believer, what’s the point of hoping for a BCS berth? I want the championship. I mean, I think it’s great that Utah was happy going undefeated and busting the BCS back in 2004. They should have been. They had never done anything like it. For them, that was the shiny new object on the horizon. They had never gotten that far, so kudos to them.

But BYU has been there. We’ve won the national championship and in 1996 we came darned close, finishing the season ranked #5. Sure we’ve never busted the BCS before, but the accomplishments of 1996 are roughly equal to that.

It’s all relative. In the present college football world, we’re told to accept small victories. After all, when all is said and done, only two teams are even allowed to “prove” anything. The rest of us shoot for smaller victories. Don’t be mistaken, any year when we beat Utah is a good year for me, but the idea of a great year is sometimes too daunting.

Now, again I ask: where is all this leading to? Do we have a chance now that many of us believe we could pull off anything? We’re already ranked #11 in the Coaches Poll. We are in what has miraculously become a power conference (albeit not a “BCS” conference). Even Mark Schlabach of ESPN is saying that we are the fifth best conference, ahead of both the ACC and Big East (and only behind the Pac-10 because of USC). That’s good, right?

Plus, with a 59-0 beat-down (by the way, noticed how many exciting ways I can describe our victory on Saturday?) of a team that beat a good SEC team the week before, and with upcoming road games against very good TCU and Utah teams, our schedule is suddenly much more respectable. That’s good too, right?

So where ARE we heading to!? Should I get out of this hole and look around, or should I just enjoy this brief peep? Is there any hope for us to actually win it all?

Are we leading into a situation where the winner of the BYU-Utah game will go on to play in the BCS? That would at least make for the biggest “Holy War” ever. That would certainly be cool. Right? Or am I just preparing myself to accept some lame “small victory” like a more compelling rivalry game? I mean, I don’t really need BYU-Utah to be any bigger than it already is. I already have an amorism every time they play.

WHERE IS ALL THIS LEADING?

Unfortunately, I don’t know right now. I am completely void of answers. After last Saturday’s stomping of UCLA, all I can really say I have is a newborn hope; a belief. And for now, I guess I should just be thankful that I believe.  

Wait a minute—am I just accepting some lame small victory?