It's officially football season!

I always look foward to football season, but it just isn't football until I am sitting in Cougar Stadium for the home opener. Pure bliss! BYU had their season opener at home against Arizona yesterday. We are coming off an undefeated home winning streak from last year. With losing 3 key players to the NFL (John Beck, Johnny Harline, -GO COLTS!- and Daniel Coats), questions arised as we anxioulsy waited for the 2008 season to see how the Cougars would respond. Well, we answered with a 20-7 victory over the Wildcats. It was SUCH an awesome game! The guys came running out of the tunnel and you could feel the confidence and camaraderie between the team. Oh mann, any wonder I had about the team was answered at that moment. I knew we were in for another great season- just as I suspected.

Everyone was very eager to see new Quarterback, Max Hall, take the reigns. I have to say, I was impressed. He had a definite leadership presence and didn't intimidate very easily. He called upon the offense and they followed him accurately. Sure, there is room for improvement, but I am really liking what I'm seeing.

Our defense is just phenomenal! I want to say Arizona only had 2... maybe 3 first downs by the time the 3rd quarter started. It was just boom, boom, boom, 3 and out! There was no moving the ball on us. Arizona only scored their 7 points within the last minute of play in the game. If you ask me, the ref's pretty much gave them those point through faulty calls, but whatever. That's a whole other subject matter.

Overall, BYU showed up to play and did so looking great! I am so stoked for this season! My favorite play of the game? Well I can't be sure who the player is, but I think it was the Running Back MVP of the game Harvey Unga. The ball was snapped to him, and he had a good 5-7 yard gain when an AZ player made a "tackle". The Arizona defendant and Unga both went down, but Unga's knee never touched the ground. Arizona let go of Unga, but it was still a live play so Unga took off to obtain an additional 30-35 yards or so. Oh mann! It was pretty damn sweet!

OH! Let's not forgot how the victory was also great considering the back story. BYU had a full on AWESOME team last year, going 11-2 overall, 8-0 in the conference (Winning the conference out right), and beating... no... humiliating the Oregon Ducks in the Vegas Bowl 38-8. (I will never forget how the commentator said, "This has become an Old Fashioned Butt Kicking!") Well, the 2 games we lost last year came from Arizona and Boston College. We outplayed Boston College, but suffered a heart wrenching loss in OT 23-30. Arizona was a joke! I don't remember much from that game since I have tried to block it from memory. The misssed roughing the kicker call amoungst others still haunts me to this day when I think of that 13-16 loss. Both of those games should have a W in the column. So don't mind me being smug and getting our payback a year later.

The promotional poster for the football team pretty much says it all. The Cougars are back and fully reloaded. (Remind anyone of the Matrix Reloaded?) Strap yourselves in for some good old fashioned, hard hitting football. GO COUGARS!

PS. How freakin' awesome was that Appalachian St. win over 5th ranked Michigan? Dude, so cool!