BYU's nationally ranked football team arrived in San Diego Monday night and wasted no time. The Cougars promptly reported to San Diego State to hold a two-hour workout in preparation for Friday's Sea World Holiday Bowl game with Penn State. And this was on Christmas Night.
Are the Cougars serious or what?"It would help us so much if we won this," says BYU coach LaVell Edwards. "Really, if we finish up with a win, this would be the most solid season we've had since our national championship year (1984)."
Edwards knows well what a bowl win can do for a team. Last December, the Cougars went to the Freedom Bowl desperately needing a win after having lost three of their last four regular-season games. They got it. Freshman quarterback Ty Detmer came off the bench down 14-7 and rallied BYU to a 20-17 win over Colorado - a team that is unbeaten this year and ranked No. 1 in the nation heading into the Orange Bowl.
"That game did as much to kick this year off as anything we had happen to us," says Edwards. "We made a big point with the players about that game. We were so upset with the way we had finished the regular season. That had never happened to us. It was the first time it all came apart on us. We really committed ourselves to (the Freedom Bowl). As it turned out, we beat a great team."
This season the Cougars claimed the Western Athletic Conference championship for the first time since 1985, won 10 of 12 games and climbed to 16th in the national polls. With a win over 18th-ranked Penn State, they could crack the top 10, and who knows what it would do for next season, when they return the likes of Detmer, halfbacks Matt Bellini and Stacey Corley, tight end Chris Smith, and most of their wideouts and offensive linemen.
But first Penn State. In the month since their last regular-season game on Nov. 25, the Cougars have held only eight practices. Coaches reasoned their players needed the break after 31/2 months of nonstop practice.
The Cougars, who have appeared in 12 consecutive bowl games, are following their traditional bowl routine. Still, there is the old concern of maintaining the peak form they achieved late in the season, particularly on offense. It's no secret that BYU has rarely played in bowl games the same way it has played during the regular season. In their last four bowl appearances the Cougars have scored 7, 10, 16 and 20 points. They haven't scored more than 24 points since 1981. This from the nation's most prolific offense of the decade.
"I'm not sure most teams do play well in bowl games," says Edwards. "A lot of it (for BYU) is the weather. When we practice indoors, we can't throw the ball. And we're down there (in California) only four or five days."
But this time around the unusually mild winter has allowed the Cougars to practice outside every day but one. Says Edwards, "I think we've stayed pretty sharp, but it's hard to tell. We were not really making practice very intense, because they're tired of it at this point. It's been low key."
Given BYU's poor offensive showings in bowl games, offensive assistant coach Norm Chow decided to do something about it in recent years. While the rest of the team is given two weeks off, he gives his receivers and quarterbacks only one week off. "They run through a workout that Ty knows," says Chow. "It's similar to what we do everyday. They run through all our pass patterns. Of course, you can't simulate a game, but you do the best you can."
"All I want to do is play well and play hard," says Edwards. "Then if you don't win, you can live with that. We don't want to go down there and turn the ball over."
If Detmer's record is any indication, the offense will play at least par BYU football on Friday night. Detmer has been nothing, if not consistent. In 13 games as a starter he has never thrown for fewer than 320 yards. The offense has suffered only one lapse this year _ a 14-point night against Hawaii. What's more, despite a high-risk offense, the Cougars averaged less than three turnovers a game _ while averaging 40 points and 540 yards a game. For his part, Detmer led the nation in passing and broke or tied 13 NCAA records.
"To have Ty come in at halftime last year in the Freedom Bowl and do what he did, that really set the stage for this season," Edwards says.
If there is one other major factor that contributed to BYU's Comeback Season, it was injuries. The lack of them. All along Edwards maintained, as he does every season, that if the Cougars could stay healthy, they would be successful. Only two starters missed playing time this season because of an injury _ linebacker Rocky Biegel, who missed just three games and returned to the lineup, and safety Troy Fuller, who was sidelined for the remainder of the season in the eighth game.
Following the regular-season finale, the Cougars lost another starter when Budd Orr, the team's best defensive tackle, underwent back surgery. But as luck would have it, BYU happens to have an experienced, one-time starter, senior Craig Patterson, ready to step in for Orr in the Holiday Bowl.
Most everything has gone the Cougars' way this season, so it should come as no surprise to hear Edwards talk with a certain optimism about Friday's game. "What makes you feel good is to be playing the Penn States of the world and feel like you have a legitimate chance to win," he says. "It's one thing to play Penn State, it's another to feel like you can win."