Why I Root for BYU

(Obviously, this cartoon doesn't apply to this football season. This is from 2009, the year of Andrew George.)

I don't know why anyone would root for the Utes.

Obviously, people do root for them, so there must be some reasons. And I'm sure some of the reasons, maybe even  most of them, are good. I certainly understand if someone grew up in Salt Lake City and the Utes are their hometown team, or if someone's family has been going to the University of Utah for generations.

Of course, if all you care about in choosing a football team is if it wins, then Utah would be the clear choice. Utah has beat BYU three years in a row, for the first time since 2004, and since the rivalry started in 1896 Utah has won 60 percent of the time. And now, Utah is a BCS school, which by default makes its wins more valuable in the eyes of many beholders.

But it's hard for me to imagine how someone would consciously choose to support the Utes, when so much of what they stand for is the polar opposite of what BYU stands for.

What makes BYU football unique is that it doesn't even stand for football. Tradition, spirit, honor, character, morality, service, intellect, faith, family, friends and everything else aren't just marketing buzzwords. I have seen evidence of it time and time again. Coach Bronco Mendenhall doesn't just pay lip service to these ideals because otherwise he would be fired. It is honestly a part of who he is and the program he runs. And the grand majority of BYU's athletes are exactly the same way.

It makes BYU pretty strange, I'll admit. And probably even annoying to some. BYU sports won't play on Sunday, and the Honor Code severely limits BYU's recruiting possibilities.

Maybe another football program and its fans are glad or relieved to not have those additional hoops to jump through. But programs outside of BYU at the very least should admire BYU's methods, even if from afar.

Many, if not most, college football programs across the country are also admirable and deserve their devoted fan bases. But there is also an ugly side to college sports. With the inexhaustible drive to increase profits, campuses with football stadiums on the side are increasingly mutating into football stadiums with a campus on the side. From my vantage point, it seems like President Samuelson is the only university president who has duties other than dealing with conference realignments and clashes with the NCAA. The zeitgeist that puts football on a pedestal and says it can do no wrong has caused a lot of wrongs. Penn State isn't the only college culture that needs a reality check.

In some ways, Utah isn't any more at fault than a typical university, because it is a typical university. It tries to build a football team that will win championships any way it knows how within NCAA rules (begrudgingly or not), largely because that's what fills the coffers. But Utah has made a deliberate effort to contrast BYU.

The university and the athletic department go out of their way to hire coaches who aren't members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's in the name of "diversity," but it also gets all those pesky standards out of the way. (The school made an exception for Kyle Whittingham, mostly to keep him from accepting a job offer at BYU. And I'm sure Whittingham does keep those standards. But he isn't exactly forthright with it, even to the point of mocking BYU's no-Sunday play that you would think he would hold some respect for.) The athletes are more at the mercy of the university, where they and their coach don't have as many conflicts. No one has a problem with playing on Sunday or selling beer around the sporting events. The campus community makes money, no one complains, everybody wins.

Whittingham and the University of Utah don't hold back in appreciating their "flexibility" in recruiting. When a coach only has to look for players with talent, character and maturity optional, it does make his job easier. They join the ranks of other schools to whom laws and bylaws are no longer the bare minimum of decency, but bothersome inconveniences. (And even then, it's only a bothersome inconvenience if a cover-up is uncovered.)

And then there are the fans. I know there are rude and ruthless fans on both sides of the Point of the Mountain, which I'll talk about in a minute. And I also know that many Ute fans are respectable human beings. A couple of my favorite mission companions are Utes. But when a fan base is, again, cheering for all that BYU is against, it causes embarrassing, immature, senseless and extraneous outbreaks. I know a few BYU fans, including my own mother, who were hit with beer cans for no reason other than they were wearing blue at a football game. A few journalists two years ago were pegged with ice and snow, ice and snow that was aimed at coach Mendenhall. (If you click on the link, go to page five.) It's one thing to have a snowball fight with another fan. But to hit someone just trying to do their job, while aiming at one of the most well-known figures in the state of Utah? These kids might as well have thrown ice at Gov. Gary Herbert or Larry Miller. And these are just the few incidents that I am distantly connected with. Add to it the breadth and depth of all other blows struck by Utah fans, and it becomes more and more natural to sympathize with Max Hall.

I know BYU fans can be just as harsh, although from another direction. I would guess that a lot of Ute fans' animosity toward Cougar fans is caused by the perceived "holier-than-thou" attitude coming from Provo. And I'm sure there are a few BYU fans who exemplify that. I apologize for their behavior and don't condone it at all. BYU fans shouldn't step down from their higher ground and rub it in the faces of Utah fans, and when they do I believe they are no longer true BYU fans.

But I still believe a true BYU fan is on higher ground.

BYU isn't perfect or beatified by any means. The school still does things that I disagree with and that get on my nerves. But when a football coach's routine the night before a game is to give a fireside and spiritually uplift the community (if you click on the link, go to the bottom of page one), or a basketball program keeps its standards even at the risk of cutting short its run in the NCAA Tournament, or a women's rugby team forfeits a tournament because a game is scheduled for Sunday (go to page three), I am grateful for a university that makes an eternal perspective part of its very core. There are plenty of Utes with that same perspective. But when the eternal scheme of things is a part of a university's DNA, the sinews that hold it together, the fibers of its being, it makes a difference.

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Whether these words consoled you in the wake of a heartbreaking loss, or only fueled your fire of rage against BYU, you gotta admit: the two-year hiatus in the rivalry after 2013 might help everyone just simmer down.

Remember way back when...

... I used to do podcasts?

I only just now realized I haven't blogged about the last few. Sorry, BYU football fans!

Here they are:

CougarCast: BYU vs. Idaho

CougarCast: BYU 42, Idaho 7

CougarCast: BYU vs. New Mexico State

CougarCast: BYU 42, New Mexico State 7

CougarCast: BYU vs. Hawaii

CougarCast: BYU 41, Hawaii 20 and the 2011 Season

Change in Plans

Remember the amazing internship I got with Newsweek magazine?

My family and I were excited to have such a special opportunity to live in New York this summer, and for me to work with a national magazine. Things could not get much better for starting out my career, and we were looking forward to a great adventure as a little family in the Big Apple.

Well, a couple weeks ago that internship came into doubt. With the merger of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, we at the BYU end of things weren't sure what would happen. After trying multiple times to contact people with Newsweek and The Daily Beast, it was confirmed yesterday that there is no longer a place for me at Newsweek. The Daily Beast already has its own interns coming, and won't be needing any more. The special access BYU has with Newsweek seems to no longer exist.

Cue the quandary.

We're still going to New York. We've already begun the paperwork and the payments, and besides, why would anyone pass up on New York?

And Professor Campbell was able to find some extra internship opportunities in New York, so I am guaranteed a place at either The Brooklyn Paper or The Riverdale Press. Both are very localized weekly newspapers, specifically for Brooklyn and the Bronx. So, even though I've never heard of them, it's still journalism work in New York City! And I might get to do sports, which I wouldn't do much of at Newsweek, I imagine. The Brooklyn Paper offers "the world's best Cyclones coverage," meaning the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Class A Minor League Baseball team. That might be fun to be involved with. (It would be like last summer when I went to a bunch of Orem Owlz games, only I'd get to write about them.)

But since yesterday afternoon I have been welling up with a lot of emotions, none of them very positive. I feel like I was duped once again. Just another on a long list of missed opportunities:

- Last year, I thought I was going to get to go to New York for a journalism student convention. But I got the invitation before the trip was actually approved by the department, and so I jumped the gun a little bit and got my hopes up for a weekend in New York.

- Around the same time, I was asked by Rich and the sports editors to represent The Daily Universe at the NCAA Tournament regional games in Salt Lake City. BYU didn't make it that far, but they were going to send me anyway just to cover the games and get that experience. Which would have been amazing. But alas, the NCAA pulled a reverse and decided college newspapers were not eligible for media credentials. Then, we were going to try and borrow media credentials from The Daily Herald in Provo, because they likely weren't going to use them unless BYU was in those games. But they decided to use them anyway (or at least not give them to The Daily Universe, who knows what they actually did with them).

- This past football season, The Daily Universe sold enough ad space for a special football section every Monday after a football game. With the extra ad money, we had the chance to send at least a couple of people to every away football game. My co-editor "Sparky" went to the Florida State game in Tallahassee, then the TCU game in Fort Worth, Texas was going to be my turn. But then, when it got closer to the TCU game, somehow plans were changed because the broadcast program had connections that could make things cheaper. As far as I can tell, because one of the broadcast kids had family in Texas and everyone could stay there for free, the department gave the trip to them instead of to The Daily Universe - you know, to the side of the department that actually earned that ad money in the first place.

Even now, I'm signed up to go to the MWC Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas, but I won't really believe I'm going until I'm sitting in the BYU rental van driving down I-15 toward Nevada. I've been trained by now to never get my hopes up.

But I thought this Newsweek internship would be immune to this trend of disappointment. I needed this internship to graduate from BYU with a degree in communications, so I didn't think it would be messed with. (An internship with The Brooklyn Paper, The Riverdale Press or somewhere else would still count for the graduation requirement.) This was a sure thing. After all, I got the internship. It wasn't that I merely hoped for something that didn't happen. I earned this, and it was taken away. Even this, the pinnacle of my BYU education and of my journalism career so far, turned into a letdown too.

To be fair, in many ways these circumstances were out of my control and out of the BYU Communications Department's control. And I haven't always been left out. I did get to travel to BYU football games in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, Colorado. And I've also been able to talk face-to-face with Bronco Mendenhall, Harvey Unga, Jake Heaps and other football players, Dave Rose, Jimmer Fredette, Jackson Emery, LaVell Edwards, David Nixon, Mark Lyons, Mike Scioscia and many other amazing people.

I'm just bummed right now.

But I need to have an attitude that this happened for a reason. I have to think that this will work out somehow. One day, I'll probably look back on all this and I won't be able to imagine doing anything but The Brooklyn Paper, Riverdale Press or wherever. Looking back, this will all make sense. This will be right. At least, that's what I have to think. That's what I have to tell myself.

What's ironic is that the day I got the bad news was also the day Erin and I were praying and fasting that I would keep my Newsweek internship. Professor Campbell literally gave me the news while my stomach was a-grumblin'. I got the opposite of what I was asking for.

But maybe that means that this is what is supposed to happen. I don't know exactly how the Lord works. But maybe the opposite of the answer I want is still an answer.

At any rate, I have to make the best of it. It's the only way to get through life.

Is it football season yet?

Don't get me wrong. I am infested with Jimmer Fever and I can't wait to cover the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas and hopefully a few NCAA Tournament games.

But with National Signing Day, I'm starting to get excited for football again.

Since no reporters were available yesterday morning, I filled in and went to a Signing Day event at Rio Tinto Stadium, where a few of Utah's top recruits signed their letters of intent. There were six there who were headed to BYU, and I talked to Austin Heder, Kesni Tausinga and Baker Pritchard. They were a lot of fun to talk to, especially Kesni. He's going to be a lot of fun for reporters in the future.

Here's my story:

BYU football signs recruits

BYU had its own press conference yesterday afternoon, and again no reporters could go. So Alex and Sarah went to this one. From what Alex said, it looks like the press conference wasn't so much about the new recruits as it was about the future of BYU football generally. About going independent, exposure on ESPN...Bronco was actually excited. And that's saying something.

Here's Alex's story:

Mendenhall enthused about future of program

Our good friend at the copy desk Brandon put together a chart listing all the new recruits. Click here and go to page 7.

Update on the Two-Quarterback System

I had just a quick blurb in the paper today. But I never get tired of seeing my name in print!

Nelson will start at QB

I basically just compiled the Bronco Mendenhall quotes I got on Twitter yesterday. I wrote this article in like ten minutes.

Viewpoints for the Weekend

A viewpoint from me in the paper two days in a row:

The best of both worlds

In this one I give my take on the new two-quarterback system announced by coach Mendenhall. Instead of choosing between Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps, why not pick both?

I liked this one too. Maybe I can write about football after all.

My fellow sports editor David had a viewpoint in today too, this one about the running backs. Not only did that position open up during the offseason like the quarterback one did, it was left open by Harvey Unga. Unga would probably have been the biggest sports hero on campus if it weren't for his less-than-proud departure from BYU because of an honor code violation. Everyone misses Unga, and will miss him even more if the new running backs don't measure up.

Anyway, I'll let you read his viewpoint before I give it all away:

Are BYU running backs ready?

The whole newspaper today is actually really good, full of great football stuff from not only David and me but Brandon and a few 321ers.

A New Era

Former, Future Legends Unite for Day of Football (April 5, 2010)

This story was a lot of fun to do. I was assigned to cover football practice on Friday, and I hit the jackpot! It turned out I came on an alumni reunion day. Thousands of former BYU football players and their families came to see the 2010 team practice. I interviewed coach LaVell Edwards and David Nixon who happened to be there. I also saw Marc Lyons, a BYU quarterback from the '70s.

Here's the story:

Former, future legends unite for day of football

I wrote quite a long article, and of course it didn't all fit. So here's the article I wrote in its original splendor:

Years of BYU football tradition came together Friday to remember the past and look forward to the future.

More than 1,000 coaches, players and managers from seasons past crowded the sidelines during spring practice to get a look at how their team is doing in 2010.

George White, a BYU wide receiver in 1967, said each football season is a new chance for greatness.

“Hope springs eternal,” White said. “I think they’re going to have a great season.”

Former BYU head coach LaVell Edwards was also in attendance to watch the team prepare for the fall. But he said it is too early to make any predictions for the upcoming season.

“I never did make them when I was coaching and I certainly don’t make them now,” Edwards said. “You can’t tell much from spring practice. I don’t think they [the current coaches] even know. You never know how it works out. [A player] may or may not be the one to go the distance, you just have to wait and see.”

David Nixon, a recent BYU linebacker now on the Oakland Raiders roster, said he came to see the prospects competing for open positions on the team.

“I’m excited to see what happens with the quarterback battle and see who comes out on top of that one,” Nixon said. “There are lots of spots to be filled. Hopefully a lot of guys can step up and show potential and make a contribution.”

White, Edwards and Nixon had plenty of exciting football to watch.

In the scrimmage game, three touchdowns came from plays of 50 yards or more. Quarterback Riley Nelson led the offense in all three scoring drives, but it was running back Harvey Unga who threw the first touchdown of the day with a 75-yard pass to O’Neill Chambers.

Nelson threw for 137 yards and two touchdowns, a 75-yard pass to McKay Jacobsen and a 56-yard pass to J.J. Di Luigi.

Jake Heaps provided in 85 passing yards and James Lark gave 31.

BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said the spring reunion has been an annual event since he started coaching. The event has grown since the first year when it attracted only about 150 alumni.

“It was fun for the players and fun for the former players, that was really more of what today was about,” Mendenhall said. “I think just the enthusiasm for the program, the number of people that are supporting and excited to be back and wanting to show their appreciation of what’s happening, that really is the takeaway from today.”

Edwards had good things to say about Mendenhall’s team.

“I think he’s doing an excellent job,” Edwards said. “They’ll be another very good football team.”

Pete Strickland, the father of a former player and a big Cougar fan, said he is looking forward to the coming year for BYU football.

“It was very exciting to come down and watch the team play this last year, and we hope to keep doing that,” Strickland said. “We got some new blood in as the quarterback this coming year. And I’m glad to see Harvey Unga coming back. So I think we’ll do well this next year.”

Many of those involved with BYU football’s past had stories to tell.

Larry Heaps (a distant relative of Jake Heaps) was a wide receiver from 1967 to 1970. He said his favorite part of his BYU football career was the friendships with teammates.

“That’s what stands out the most,” Heaps said. “There’s a lot of nostalgia with coming back. It’s great to see all the old players and reminisce over days gone by.”

Craig Colyar was a team manager from 1993 to 1998. He said his associations with the heroes on the team have influenced the rest of his life.

“It was a dream come true to be around the athletes and learn from a lot of those players that were such good examples and such good people,” Colyar said. “It really helps set a tone for the rest of your life in terms of how you act and the way you treat people and work hard and you’ll be rewarded.”

Colyar said football practices involved less technology during his time as manager.

“[Coach Mendenhall] has the big clock out here counting down the drills. It was a little bit more laid-back in terms of the schedule back in the day,” Colyar said. “We ran it off a Coach Edwards schedule that he used to prepare on a sheet of white paper and a pencil. It was my job to copy that off and give that to the rest of the coaches and staff members.”

Mel Farr was a manager for the team in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and was there when BYU won the Holiday Bowl in 1980. He said the team always helped him feel involved even though he was not a player.

“I graduated high school at 4 feet 9 1/2 inches, so I was too small to play,” Farr said. “[But] I enjoyed it. I was still part of the team. They made me feel it.”

Farr said the game has changed over the years.

“They’re faster now than they were then,” Farr said. “The style of coaching is different too. They have different rules than they did way back then, so you have to adapt your coaching philosophy.”

Carol Hansen, the wife of former lineman Danny Hansen and aunt of current lineman Braden Hansen, also remembered the Holiday Bowl. The players’ wives were invited, and Hansen said she was the brave one who led the wife carpool to San Diego.

“I was the only one who would dare to drive the car and drive everybody around,” Hansen said.

Hansen said the economy was different in the ‘70s and ‘80s when her husband played for the Cougars.

“What my husband got was $175 a month,” Hansen said. “And our rent was $165 and our phone bill was $10. [So it] paid exactly that.”

Coach Edwards said the best part of the day was visiting with his players, staff and friends.

“It’s always great to see them,” Edwards said. “There’s no question about that.”

For White, the highlight of the reunion was seeing how far BYU has come and sharing it with his old teammates.

“It’s great to see the BYU tradition mature and become more entrenched in the community,” White said. “That’s been wonderful. The best thing for me is just seeing all your old friends.”

BYU Swim and Dive Team Members Headed to NCAA Championships, Football Players Vie for Top Spots on Team (March 19, 2010)

Double stories today!

I've got a preview for the three BYU swimmers going to the NCAA Championships.

And, a report on BYU football's spring practice. I had a lot of fun with that one. When I showed up, I wasn't really sure what was going on. But then I got to chat with Malosi Te'o, a freshman running back, coach Bronco Mendenhall and coach Brandon Doman. It's funny to talk to Coach Mendenhall now, because at the beginning of the semester when I interviewed him for a story on the draft, I was intimidated and awestruck. Now it's just another day on the job.

One of the most interesting things going on with the football team is that it's time to pick a new quarterback. I've been assigned to do a story on how that process is going so far. I got some good material yesterday and I'll be going to football practice again today to find out more. For some reason I'm really looking forward to it.

Rebirth!

This blog has found a new sense of purpose.

Since September I have become increasingly involved with the BYU newspaper, The Daily Universe. Last fall when I was waiting and preparing to be part of the BYU journalism program, I regularly contributed editorial cartoons for the Views & Opinions page. Cartoons of mine had been published before, but this time almost everything I submitted was included on the page, which motivated me to draw more. (Thanks, Heather!) As for this semester, it hasn't even been a week long and I will already have two cartoons published. (Thanks, Alexa!)

In addition to the cartoons, I also am taking Communications 321 this semester. In this class I essentially work as a reporter for the Universe, for free (other than college credit). In only a few days this assignment has been overwhelming and crazy. But I look forward to all of the experience that I will gain. I have been chosen to work for the sports desk, which is a little intimidating because even though I love sports I don't know a whole lot about it. I'm no ESPN armchair athlete. But I think I'll catch on and catch up quickly. And I'm jumping right into the thick of things. In fact, today I will be attending a press conference with Bronco Mendenhall, the BYU football coach (!).

Sometime soon, I'll post all the cartoons that I had last semester, and I'll start posting cartoons and articles from this semester. Hope you enjoy them!