BYU 18, Arizona 16

General Thoughts:

• I was at this game.[1] It was the very first time I set foot in University of Phoenix Stadium for any reason.  What a great facility!
• I don’t know how I never knew this, given the massive number of college football games I’ve watched over the years, but I never knew that BYU fans wear white.
• There was a very touching ceremony before the game to honor the late Zach Hemmila.
• BYU’s band wasn’t at the game,[2] so at one point during the Pride of Arizona’s pre game show, they faced the BYU side of the stadium and played “Rise and Shout,” which is BYU’s fight song. From memory.[3]  And the drum line played the drum cadence at the end with the same gusto as if it were “Bear Down” or “Fight Wildcats Fight.”  That was awesome.
• Now the game. Arizona was lucky to only lose by two.  Why?  Let me count the ways…
  • BYU owned both the offensive and defensive line.
  • BYU’s quarterback had a much cooler head on his shoulders. He didn’t panic-throw.  He scrambled whenever a running lane opened up.  He didn’t have tunnel vision.  Solomon was sacked several times, and almost every single one was his fault because he had NO FIELD AWARENESS.[4]
  • BYU had 450 yards of total offense and forced two turnovers, yet they only scored 18 points. Arizona gave up 450 offensive yards and turned the ball over twice, yet only lost by two.  I don’t know what to make of this game.
• BYU has GREAT fans. They are loud.  They are supportive.  And yet (on the whole) they are not obnoxious, and they are very nice people.
• When BYU missed the extra point after their first touchdown – making the score 9-0 –Tommy wondered aloud if that might come back to haunt the Cougars. Well, it almost did…
• When BYU missed the two-point conversion after their next touchdown – making the game 15-3 instead of 17-3 – I thought, “Well, we’re technically not out of this yet…”
• …and then Nick Wilson scored a 15-yard touchdown run, making the game 15-10, and I thought, “We may actually come back here. ”
• …and then the defense got a nice stop, and the Arizona offense sputtered, and I thought, “Thanks for getting my hopes up.”
• …and then the defense got another huge stop, and then Nick Wilson busted loose for a 49-yard touchdown run, and I yelled myself hoarse. I turned to Tommy, and to Josh (and Aaron, who was on the other side of him), and to the guy sitting in front of me whose name I never caught, and I asked over and over, “How are we ahead?!??”
• …and then Solomon panicked on the two-point conversion, scrambling to his right without realizing that the receiver on the left had a mismatch, and threw a terribly telegraphed pass that brought back memories of Jake Plummer’s pro career, making the score 16-15 instead of 18-16.
• …and BYU’s offense kept their cool, marching methodically down the field to kick the game-winner with four seconds left.
• Shortly before the field goal play, BYU committed a false-start penalty. Since they had a time out left, the ten-second runoff did not happen.  Wouldn’t that have been a bizarre way for Arizona to steal the game?[5]
• Even still, Arizona had one shot at the end zone with four seconds left. I still haven’t figured out what the heck they tried to do there.
• After the game, one BYU fan told us that “you guys probably deserved to win, but we’ll take it.” We were like, “Seriously?  We’re grateful that we only lost by two.  You guys dominated that game.”  Again…I don’t know what to make of this game.
• The same fan asked us, “Please beat Utah.” College football is great.

September 4, 2016, 4:30 pm MST

[1] Thank you to my good friend Josh White for taking me to this game.  I also made two new friends – Aaron and Tommy – who also came with Josh to the game.

[2] I don’t know why they weren’t there.  I haven’t found anything yet stating why.  If anyone out there knows, please tell me and I will add it to this column and give you credit.

[3] Keep in mind that it is highly unlikely that they will ever have to play that song again…and yet they still memorized it and played it with everything in them.

[4] This lack of field awareness showed in crunch time of the Fiesta Bowl two seasons ago, and it probably cost the Wildcats the game.  But he was a freshman then.  Now he’s a junior…

[5] I read a blog from foxsports.com that called it “a goofy rule that allows you to call a timeout to avoid a penalty.”  Two things: 1) BYU was still penalized five yards for the false start, and 2) the ten-second runoff was added to prevent a team who was out of timeouts from intentionally committing a penalty near the end of a half in order to stop the clock.  Since BYU still had a timeout left, allowing them to use a timeout to avoid the ten-second runoff is perfectly reasonable.