Warning: Sports!
I think it's time to say this:
After 5 weeks, I am convinced that BYU's football team really IS one of the 10 best in the country.
I wasn't at first, and I especially wasn't after the escape in Seattle, but after 5 weeks tehre's something we know now that we didn't know then. It's this: there aren't any teams in college football that can win every time out even if they don't play well [caveat: Oklahoma and maybe Alabama are exceptions].
We prove this several ways. Florida just lost at home to OLE MISS. USC was famously punked by Oregon State. Wisconsin lost to the worst Michigan team in the history of football. Wake Forest lost to Navy. Etc. All of the teams listed first had no business losing to the teams listed after, they are all much better teams than the leams they lost to, but facts faced, they lost.
BYU may or may not be better than UW (they are, but that's not the point), but they won when they played on the field. When BYU needed to block a kick to avoid a big upset, they got it. When Florida needed to make a kick to avoid a big upset, it was blocked. The examples go on and on. What it boild down to is that the best teams in college football are not the ones that have the biggest, fastest athletes. That's just not enough. The best teams are the ones that play disciplined, systematic football and don't beat themselves.
By any possible measure, BYU is one of those teams. Undefeated is undefeated. This season, more than ever, to go undefeated is a really difficult task. That includes every conference, not just the SEC. BYU has played a schedule comparable to many of the great football powers, and BYU is 4-0 with two shutouts. Name the other team in the country that can say that.
Right. There isn't one.
Talk all you want about the shutouts being against Wyoming and UCLA. Is UCLA, on a neutral field, going to be an underdog to Ole Miss? To Michigan? To NAVY? No? I don't think so, either. BYU beat UCLA by eight touchdowns. Not only was BYU victorious, it was never, not for ten minutes, in doubt. Utah beat Michigan at Michigan. Wisconsin? Not so much.
The UW victory continues to be the sticking point for many folks, and I grant that win was not impressive. Let me name for you some of the teams that would give a kidney to have won their close game against an unranked team with a losing record this season: East Carolina, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Florida, USC, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Oregon, and Cal. And I didn't do a lot of research. Those were just the ones that came to mind. You have to win when you play. It doesn't matter how tough your schedule is if you lose.
So there it is, folks. If and when BYU (or Utah, have to admit) loses, then we can talk about relative strengths of teams and whether this team is better than that one. Yeah, I get that Percy Harvin is way faster than any of the BYU players. Didn't look to me like it mattered on Saturday.
And that's all that counts.
After 5 weeks, I am convinced that BYU's football team really IS one of the 10 best in the country.
I wasn't at first, and I especially wasn't after the escape in Seattle, but after 5 weeks tehre's something we know now that we didn't know then. It's this: there aren't any teams in college football that can win every time out even if they don't play well [caveat: Oklahoma and maybe Alabama are exceptions].
We prove this several ways. Florida just lost at home to OLE MISS. USC was famously punked by Oregon State. Wisconsin lost to the worst Michigan team in the history of football. Wake Forest lost to Navy. Etc. All of the teams listed first had no business losing to the teams listed after, they are all much better teams than the leams they lost to, but facts faced, they lost.
BYU may or may not be better than UW (they are, but that's not the point), but they won when they played on the field. When BYU needed to block a kick to avoid a big upset, they got it. When Florida needed to make a kick to avoid a big upset, it was blocked. The examples go on and on. What it boild down to is that the best teams in college football are not the ones that have the biggest, fastest athletes. That's just not enough. The best teams are the ones that play disciplined, systematic football and don't beat themselves.
By any possible measure, BYU is one of those teams. Undefeated is undefeated. This season, more than ever, to go undefeated is a really difficult task. That includes every conference, not just the SEC. BYU has played a schedule comparable to many of the great football powers, and BYU is 4-0 with two shutouts. Name the other team in the country that can say that.
Right. There isn't one.
Talk all you want about the shutouts being against Wyoming and UCLA. Is UCLA, on a neutral field, going to be an underdog to Ole Miss? To Michigan? To NAVY? No? I don't think so, either. BYU beat UCLA by eight touchdowns. Not only was BYU victorious, it was never, not for ten minutes, in doubt. Utah beat Michigan at Michigan. Wisconsin? Not so much.
The UW victory continues to be the sticking point for many folks, and I grant that win was not impressive. Let me name for you some of the teams that would give a kidney to have won their close game against an unranked team with a losing record this season: East Carolina, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Florida, USC, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Oregon, and Cal. And I didn't do a lot of research. Those were just the ones that came to mind. You have to win when you play. It doesn't matter how tough your schedule is if you lose.
So there it is, folks. If and when BYU (or Utah, have to admit) loses, then we can talk about relative strengths of teams and whether this team is better than that one. Yeah, I get that Percy Harvin is way faster than any of the BYU players. Didn't look to me like it mattered on Saturday.
And that's all that counts.
posted by Cj at 10:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home