AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
If you love college football and didn’t see this game tonight you missed a real gem.
In the first regular season game at “Jerry-Land” stadium, #20 BYU upset #3 Oklahoma (who mind you is lead by current Heisman Trophy Winner Sam Bradford) 14-13.
My understanding about the scheduling of this game was that no one wanted to play Oklahoma (understandably so). BYU agreed to the match up and Ill be honest with you, I didnt think they were going to pull this off. I WAS WRONG!
Very late in the second quarter, Colbey Clawson for BYU drilled Bradford into the turf (it was clean) and the he was out for the night. I hate to see anyone get hurt in football games, and I wish him a speedy recovery. However, up to that point, Bradford hadnt done much. Statistically, BYU’s Max Hall was better. In fact, ALL of Oklahoma’s points came off turn overs. ALL of THEM. Which means BYU’s defense showed up.
So far the media has said nothing of “BYU Winning” or “BYU Upsetting”, nearly all of the articles you see on the web say: “Oklahoma Loses Bradford and Game”. This was no fluke. Granted both teams played sloppy- but the last drive by BYU was amazing: Hall was 9 for 10, 76 yards, including a 4th down conversion. The defense played outstanding all game.
Aside from the fact that I played football at BYU for 5 years, I really, REALLY enjoyed this. No one gave BYU a snow balls chance of winning tonight. They had enough guts to get into the ring with a giant, and they pulled it off. Its a beautiful thing!
Never be afraid to challenge yourself. Never be afraid of opportunities where you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Stop finding excuses to be mediocre. Identify your giants (fears), prepare yourself and face them head on.
On a sad note, I learned this morning that a good friend of mine passed away yesterday. She had been battling cancer for a while now, so we knew it was coming. This is the second friend Ive lost recently, very young…my age. I spent some time thinking about her and our conversations. She had so many dreams she shared with me….they wont be realized, at least in this lifetime. Im not saying this because I want sympathy (which I dont), but its a real eye opener and its getting me thinking again. Life is waiting for us, so many opportunities waiting, and it seems we find so many excuses to be mediocre…we never know when our time is. Im not saying my friend was mediocre, but she didnt attack life and its making me wonder about myself and what I am doing. Im constantly finding reasons to be mediocre.
Ill be posting more on this later once I get my thoughts squared away.
What position did you play?
Trust me, the game and few othes were on at my house yesturday, I always get a little sad come football season because a piece of my husbands attention is forever lost….well pretty much til after college basketball is over :)! I guess that is how he probably feels about my photography at times……hmmm never thought of it like that. Maybe college football isn’t so bad :)!! Michael thank you for sharing something so personal, you have given me a lot to think about :)!
Go Cougars!!!! That was an awesome season opener!
we watched both this game and the alabama game..DVR is a great invention. I must say though that I think BYU might not have pulled it off if the OK guy didn’t get hurt. That’s just my opinion. It was however a very tight game. I mean they won by 1 pt.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I think the question would be irregardless of her dreams and hopes in this life, was she happy?
Sorry about the loss of your friend….losing someone always makes you re-think everything, doesn’t it?
I thought OU would come out and pummel byu. sadly, bradfort got hurt and the backup got hurt and could not do squat. BYU had no chance had he played the whole game. great upset, but it was a fluke. MWC is still a joke. go SEC
It is hard to hear about people leaving this life early. I do think being mediocre is an opinion.
Anyone who thought the BYU win over Oklahoma was a fluke or would have lost if Bradford stayed in either: 1. Didn’t watch the game 2. Has child-like football IQ. – The whole reason Bradford got hurt is because BYU linebackers were hitting him over and over. Bradford played a full half and only tossed for 90+ yards. In case you missed it (which Im guessing you so-called-pundits probably did) BYU’s defense held Oklahoma’s offense within 5 yards of the goal line….for 6 plays!! Not a fluke. BYU’s offense was a little sloppy at times, however- they drove the length of the field against the starting Oklahoma Defense. As for the SEC vs MTN….what happened to Bama last year when they played Utah? Was that a fluke too? haha
I know this is not a sports blog so I won’t get too excited, I promise. But Bama was a tad bit over ranked last season (despite the 5 weeks @ #1..) as we were still rebuilding. I wouldn’t call it a "fluke" that Utah beat Bama, however, I would DEFINITELY not agree that Utah was better than Bama. They had a bad game full of mistakes which Utah capitalized on. What do you consider a tougher schedule anyway.. I’d rather be 12-2 in the SEC than 13-0 in the MWC anyday. As for BYU, I can’t sit comfortably saying that they deserve national attention for beating OU without their star player by 1 point. If by 14+, you have my attention..
oh, and btw, OU was missing Gresham, who is a beast. No way they could have gotten beat had he been in the game. And not only him, but the OLine was gone from last season. A fluke? Yes, but OU was over rated sitting at #3. they are a top 10 team. Not a top 5.
"….but we had players with owies!!!"
I’m sorry to hear about your friend dying. That’s so difficult… I spent this weekend with a close family member who’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She’s only 31 and has a husband and young daughter. She was telling me that her mom has just been diagnosed with the same kind of cancer and she’s pressed to go see her and share the gosple of Christ with her one more time, because she knows her mom is not saved.
The older I get, the more I look at what I’ve accomplished with eyes towards eternity, not just towards the end of this physical life.
A wise man once told me that the meaning of life is this simple….it’s the time we spend on earth during which we make the decision where we will spend eternity, either heaven or hell, and how many people we influence to go our way…
Everything we do has value, but not everything has eternal value…. I’m dealing hard with that right now…
If you lose, you lose. No such thing as "shoulda coulda woulda". Zack- how can you honestly believe that after Utah beat (destroyed) Bama that Bama is still "better"… Your comment makes absolutely no sense. From the clips I saw, the OU players and coaches respected BYU’s win and lost with grace, pity some fans have such poor sportsmanship.
I’m glad it wasn’t me who resolved to name calling, but find it eye opening that you are the first person to tell me that in 22 years. Thank you! It’s simply a difference of opinion, why do you think the majority of the analysts were predicting Bama to win that game? Btw, did Utah "destroy" Utah State the other day, by your standards?
Im not sure where I called you any names Zack & you still haven’t answered my question. How can a team (Bama) be "better" than a team they lose badly to (Utah), as you suggested? Im not even a BYU fan but BYU deserves to be congratulated on a great win.
utah did come prepared for the game against Bama last year. They beat them fair and square. Bama had too many distractions, the biggest one was Superman pounding them at the SEC championship game. But that is no excuse. The fact is that Utah can’t hang with games like that one every week….they will not go undefeated in the other conferences (except ACC, which is a joke, of course)