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Knudson: The Slant on the New Mexico Bowl


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December 15, 2010

by Mark Knudson

 

What if?

It’s a question asked over and over again by dozens of teams at the end of every season.

What if we would have not fumbled late in that game…what if we would have not dropped that interception…what if our kicker had made that easy field goal at the end of regulation? What if…

There are no good answers for that question, because unless you’re Marty McFly, it’s impossible to go back and rearrange things after the fact. But what it you’re Bronco Mendenhall? Are you asking yourself, “What if I’d been running my defense since day one? Where would we be playing our bowl game?”

The answer to that one is not likely in Albuquerque, where the 6-6 Cougars will take on the 6-6 UTEP Miners in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday.

Since its inception, the New Mexico Bowl has been the place that a 6-6 Mountain West team went to play, not only as a reward, but also presumably as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things (although that part hasn’t really worked out so great).

BYU doesn’t really fit into either category.

Yes, BYU finds itself grateful to be playing in any bowl after a horrendous start to the season. Yet they’re also frustrated that they’re the lowest slotted MWC bowl team.

BYU doesn’t view itself as belonging in the lowest-slotted anything.

Go back to October 1, the Cougars were in the midst of a three game losing streak and sat at 1-3 heading into a game against in-state rival Utah State. It was the game BYU was supposed to get well in and get things turned in the right direction.

Wrong.

Instead of a big turnaround win, the Cougars suffered a dismal 31-16 loss to the Aggies and found themselves sitting at 1-4 and needing to win five of their last seven games to get to 6-6 and be bowl eligible.

Two of those games were against top ten teams TCU and Utah.

It didn’t look good.

The turning point came after that loss to USU, when Mendenhall fired defensive coordinator Jamie Hill.

At the time, the Cougars were giving up better than 400 yards and almost 30 points per game. Mendenhall took control of the defense himself.

Remember, we’re talking about BYU here. Lavell Edwards. Norm Chow. Offensive-minded coaches that helped create “Quarterback U.” There’s no school in the country - not even the University of Miami - that can match the number of big time quarterbacks that BYU has produced. And now the head coach is going…defensive?

An odd move? Maybe. The right move? Obviously.

Since the time Mendenhall has taken over the defense, the Cougars have played as well as any team in the Conference, with maybe the exception of TCU. They gave up less than 20 points per game and also saw their young offense grow up the rest of the way.

BYU did indeed go 5-2 in those last seven games and might have been 6-1 if not for a couple of special teams failures against Utah.

What if, right?

Mendenhall set the tone for his team by coming out for his first game as his own DC wearing a gray t-shirt that said simply, “Band of Brothers” on the back. They were facing a very good San Diego State team. No fancy coaches shirts or jackets. Just a plain gray BYU football t-shirt.

There had to be a message in there to his players: Get back to basics. Block. Tackle. Play hard. No finesse. “Old time football…”    

Message received. In very un-BYU like fashion, the Cougars proceeded to run the ball down the Aztecs throat while putting the shackles on the powerful Aztec offense. Yes, they got a fortuitous call that was a major help in the 24-21 win. They outrushed the Aztecs 271-53.

But from that point forward, BYU was not the old BYU. They ran the ball. They played physical. They played terrific defense. All this at “Quarterback U.”

Now they find themselves on familiar turf but in an unfamiliar situation. A loss means the first losing season for a Mendenhall team at BYU. They play a sort-of-familiar opponent in old Western Athletic Conference rival UTEP.

The Miners had the opposite kind of season, starting out 5-1 before losing five of their last six. They had a lot of injuries and played a pretty tough slate down the stretch, which may explain the late season swoon.

Nonetheless, there’s no getting around the fact that one team comes in hot, the other not.

And you sense that BYU is still hungry.

It says here that the Cougars come out of Albuquerque with a 37-17 win, their last as a member of the Mountain West Conference.

What if, right?