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Celebrate, there are only one hundred more days to wait |
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A_King | Thursday, May 25, 2006, 12:48 pm
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Aaron King
COUGARBLUE
The clock on the Cougar Countdown has finally reached all zeros.
Well, except for that single number declaring the wait for the 2006 BYU Football season one-hundred days away. For the impatient Cougar fan it's hard to celebrate, but as we enter the last ninety-nine quiet days of summer here's a little fix for that awful Cougar Football craving.
First things first: Will we be able to see the games?
That's been a popular question since the announcement of the MountainWest Sports Network (MTN) set to air this fall. The MTN along with CSTV will be broadcasting every Mountain West Conference game this year. Now, that should be reiterated with an emphasis on conference games. Every game played between two MWC teams will be on either CSTV or MTN, but only some out-of-conference games will be on those networks.
The graphic below shows the entire season with those games covered by the MTN in blue and those covered by CSTV in orange. The gray boxes are games that are on CSTV or MTN but you have to look at their opponent's column to find which network.
For those of us who love watching Mountain West Football, don't plan on doing anything else on Saturdays.
Still a far cry from "Home Sweet Home"
What used to be a stronghold for the Cougars has completely crumbled in the last four years. Among losing to our rivals twice at home, the Cougars have lost 13 out of 24! Yeah, more than half of the games played in "CougarTown" have been losses.
To put that into perspective, the 24 games prior BYU lost only four games with two seasons - 2001 and 1998 - where the Cougars were undefeated at home.
Can anyone even remember what it feels like to win 20 out of 24 home games?
With this year's very easy home schedule, the Cougars have a chance of regaining that presence of intimidation LaVell Edwards Stadium used to have. Not to mention the north and south end zones will start to fill up again.
I'll even go further and say that if BYU does not go undefeated at home this year it will be a disappointment. One loss to either New Mexico or San Diego State won't ruin the season but two losses at home will certainly be a major letdown.
In 2005 BYU averaged 33 points per game, and allowed an average of 29.3 points scored against their defense. Here is a comparison of all our opponent's scoring averages.
Tulsa
2005 Scoring Offense: 23rd 33.08 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 43rd 23.5 ppg.
Utah State
2005 Scoring Offense: 99th 18.91 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 103rd 32.7 ppg.
San Diego State
2005 Scoring Offense: 56th 26.92 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 71st 27.1 ppg.
UNLV
2005 Scoring Offense: 100th 18.82 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 109th 34.6 ppg.
Wyoming
2005 Scoring Offense: 68th 24.64 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 69th 27 ppg.
New Mexico
2005 Scoring Offense: 40th 29.64 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 84th 29.7 ppg.
Tough away schedule keeps BYU needing those victories at home
BYU will have its toughest games this season played on the road. The top five difficult games on the schedule are in order: Boston College, Utah, TCU, Arizona, and it's a toss-up between Air Force and San Diego State, both teams could be dark horses this fall.
While this schedule won't rank BYU as high as previous years on a scale of difficulty, it has poor fortune to play four of their most difficult games on the road. These difficult road games could be disastrous for the Cougar offense that faired best at home last year.
Yet, even with having a home-field advantage, BYU started out the season 1-4 and went 3-3 at home.
Will they do that again?
Without knowing how the defense will pan out during fall camp, BYU potentially could lose all of their first three games @ Arizona, Tulsa, and @ Boston College. How many of you want to see BYU down 0-3 again? Not me.
Tulsa and Utah State are home games that should give the Cougars every opportunity to come into the TCU game 2-2. Even better would be if BYU pulled off a season-opening victory at Arizona to give us a chance to finish September above .500.
The Cougars could even pull off a Boston College upset, but BYU needs to beat Tulsa and Arizona pretty soundly if hopes are going to rise that the Cougars could leave Chestnut Hill with a victory.
BYU has its two toughest competitors of 2006, and its hopes for a MWC title, away at Amon Carter Stadium and Rice Eccles - if the Cougars want to be taken seriously by poll voters and the BCS loving media they need to pull off two victories there.
If September ends with a victory over TCU and Boston College, and BYU is 5-0, then at-large BCS bowl hopes are going to be on the horizon.
Without that kind of perfection in September BYU fans will just have to be satisfied with a potential great record of 8-4 or better, a possible victory over their rival, a bowl game and a whole slew of offensive yardage.
Basically...fans won't have to wait past September to see if the BYU Cougars have a chance at that new 5th BCS bowl.
Again, here are the scoring stats of BYU's away opponents.
at Arizona
2005 Scoring Offense: 80th 22.91 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 64th 26.4 ppg.
at Boston College
2005 Scoring Offense: 64th 25.83 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 7th 15.9 ppg.
at TCU
2005 Scoring Offense: 22nd 33.17 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 15th 18.6 ppg.
at Air Force
2005 Scoring Offense: 36th 30 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 100th 31.7 ppg.
at Colorado State
2005 Scoring Offense: 58th 26.75 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 91st 30.8 ppg.
at Utah
2005 Scoring Offense: 36th 30 ppg.
2005 Scoring Defense: 50th 24.1 ppg.
2006 Stat Watch
While some of us hope BYU pulls a miracle and repeats a 1996-esque performance ten years precisely after that amazing 14-1 season, most of us will have to enjoy the smell and atmosphere of college football weather and pay close attention to the Cougar stat records that are close to being broken.
Senior QB John Beck has a total of 7,139 career passing yards. Last season he threw for 3,709 yards and should he at least get 3,000 again in 2006 he will be the second all-time leading passer for total yards in BYU history. With an even 3,000 more he will have 10,139 total yards earned. That's a great second place finish pushing Jim McMahon to third place, but it still keeps him 4,892 yards behind all-time leader Ty Detmer.
Beck's senior season can put him in the stat books forever with 3,000 yards or more. But, most Cougar fans won't care what kind of yards he gets until he leads the team to wins along with it.
Senior RB Curtis Brown has a total of 2,211 career rushing yards. BYU has never been known for its running backs so all Curtis Brown needs to beat career all time leader Jamal Willis is to gain 760 yards this upcoming season. Curtis earned 1,123 yards last year, but he didn't have rising favorite Fui Vakapuna to compete with.
While Vakapuna will be a great back alongside Curtis, chances are Curtis will still gain his 760 yards to take over as all time leading rusher at BYU. But, he'd have to score 18 more rushing touchdowns this season to beat Luke Staley's career record of 41 rushing TDs.
Don't hold your breath waiting for that record to be broken, but it will be interesting to see if Brown can gain his necessary 760 yards this season with the depth we have at running back this year.
Aaron King can be reached at
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