BYU's football season is just days away, and expectations are higher than they have been since the post-national championship 1985 season.
The Cougars have been ranked on just about everyone's preseason Top 20 list, they have eight starters back from an offensive squad that proved in last year's Holiday Bowl that it could score on anyone, and they have a Heisman Trophy favorite in quarterback Ty Detmer.In a best-case scenario, here's how the Cougs' season could go: After trouncing UTEP in the season opener, they surprise national champion Miami in Provo as Detmer picks apart the Hurricanes' vaunted defense. That win vaults them into the Top 10, and a victory over a strong Oregon team on the Ducks' home field lands them in the Top 5. Then comes a blitz through the WAC, culminating in a conference title-clinching triumph in Hawaii on Dec. 1, the same day it is announced that Detmer has captured the Heisman. On Dec. 29, the Cougars defeat Notre Dame - and earn their second national championship - in the Holiday Bowl's first battle between No. 1 and No. 2.
Far-fetched? Probably. A more realistic scenario would include a close loss to Miami, 10-2 season, WAC title, Heisman for Detmer, and Holiday Bowl victory over Ohio State.
Wait a minute. A Heisman for Detmer is realistic? Yep. He's that good. And all daydreams aside, this team has a lot going for it, enough that the Cougar faithful are talking about a trip to the Promised Land, led by the lanky junior passer with the Texas drawl.
"He's in the same category with the great BYU quarterbacks," Coach LaVell Edwards says of Detmer, who already holds 13 NCAA records.
That category includes such as Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Marc Wilson, Robbie Bosco and Gifford Nielsen - all of whom set NCAA records, earned Heisman votes and were drafted into the NFL.
But while the unassuming Detmer is flattered by the comparison, he doesn't encourage it. "It's really hard to compare yourself to the others," he said recently. "They played at different times on different teams and against different people. I just try to worry about what's going on with myself."
What he sees as going on with him now is pursuit of another WAC title. He brushes aside talk of personal honors - and the Miami matchup - in favor of focus on lowly UTEP. "I don't even think about Miami," he says. "What I'm thinking about now is UTEP. We've got to win that one because it's a conference game. The most important games in September are the conference games, UTEP and San Diego State."
And though Detmer says the Heisman talk is "fun," he's also realistic about it. "You have to keep it in perspective," he says. "If I don't get help, we're not going to play good. No other BYU quarterback has won one, and they've all had great seasons. The quarterback in BYU's system always gets the attention."
For now, he's had his fill of attention. A genuinely personable guy, Detmer spent the off-season fielding requests for everything from riding in parades to speaking at LDS church meetings (even though he's not LDS). Once practice started the media took over, as major newspapers coast-to-coast requested interviews, almost daily.
Detmer says he's glad to get the exposure for his team, but that giving the same old answers to the same old questions gets . . . old. "It takes up a lot of time," he says. "I'd just rather go about my business, just be a normal person."
It's too late for him to try to be normal, obviously, but Detmer says his teammates are always ready to help him with perspective. "You start getting a big head and they let you know right away," he says, smiling broadly.
That doesn't mean his teammates think he has a big head, however. Edwards points out: "He's extremely well-liked by his teammates. Even the other seniors who have made big contributions to the program, like Matt Bellini and Chris Smith, are just totally supportive of him."
"Everyone would give his left arm for this kid," says junior fullback Peter Tuipulotu. "He's such a down-to-earth kid. He's handled all the attention really well and the team's behind everything he does."
What he does - at least on the field - is make BYU a potent offensive force.
"He has such a great presence on the field," Edwards says. "He's so in control of situations. He doesn't lose his poise or get down. But he's competitive - even combative at times - too."
Without the football gear, Detmer looks anything but combative. He looks more like a farm boy who says "Aw, shucks" a lot and fishes with a bamboo pole. At his first meeting with Edwards, the coach wondered if the kid was as good as his high school All-America billing.
"You wondered, looking at him, but we didn't have him very long before we knew he had an awareness of everything that was going on," Edwards says. "And the more we worked with him, the more we realized he's just a special guy."
Part of Detmer's success has lain in his ability to avoid injury. Tuipulotu, one of the guys whose job it is to block for Detmer, says that's no accident. "He doesn't let himself get in many positions where he's vulnerable," Tuipulotu says. "That helps us out a lot."
Two other factors help a quarterback from getting hit: a legitimate running game and a powerful offensive line.
Detmer realizes that BYU is deep at running back this season, and says he'd be more than willing to lose some passing yardage in favor of more running plays, if it works. "We may not throw as much this year, and it won't bother me as long as we win."
The offensive line is a veteran group (four returning starters) of jumbo proportions (6-foot-5, 285-pound average). They may have lost Outland Trophy winner Mo Elewonibi, but they say they have gained something more important - unity.
"I've been here five years, and I've seen lines come and go," says senior tackle Neal Fort. "In the past it's been sort of shaky, in terms of unity.
"We'll get the job done up front. The unity we feel will help us achieve our goals."
Those goals, of course, are to keep Detmer healthy and - as everyone on the team is quick to remind anyone who inquires - to win the WAC.
"Our team goal is just to win the WAC," says Tuipulotu. "That's my personal goal, too."
"My only goal is to win the WAC," echoes Detmer. "Whatever happens after that is pretty much bonus."
"You hear people talk about a national championship, but that's out of our control," says senior fullback Mike Salido, who missed out on last year's WAC title while redshirting because of a broken leg. "I just want to get a championship ring before I leave here."
Edwards, naturally, is the team's best example when it comes to focusing solely on the WAC. And in his understated way, he speaks highly of his team's chances.
"I felt before practice started that we had a chance to be a really good football team," he says, " and I haven't seen anything to make me think other than that."
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(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
BYU
DATE TEAM TIME
Sept. 1 at UTEP 7 p.m., Ch. 5
Sept. 8 vs. Miami 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Sept. 15 vs. Washington State noon, Ch. 5
Sept. 22 vs. San Diego State 1:30 p.m., Ch. 5 (CBS regional)
Sept. 29 at Oregon 2 p.m., Ch. 4 (ABC regional)
Nov. 3 at Air Force noon, Ch. 5
Nov. 17 at Utah noon, Ch. 2
Nov. 24 vs. Utah State noon, Ch. 5
Dec. 1 at Hawaii 10 p.m., Ch. 5