The BYU football team will play the WAC Championship some 380 miles from Provo, but the Cougars should feel right at home.
Las Vegas' Sam Boyd Stadium, site of the league title game, will certainly have plenty of Cougar fans Dec. 7 when seventh-ranked BYU faces No. 21 Wyoming.The BYU ticket office has been pleasantly surprised by the demand for tickets for the inaugural league title battle. BYU was originally given 8,000 seats to sell starting Monday morning. By Monday afternoon all 8,000 were gone and BYU was asking for more.
By Tuesday afternoon, some 14,200 tickets for the WAC championship had been sold by the BYU ticket office alone. That doesn't include the thousands of seats sold directly to Cougar fans out of the game's Las Vegas offices.
"On a really good year we would sell 10,000 tickets to the Holiday Bowl," said BYU assistant athletic director Val Hale. "I can't think of a bowl game when we've ever sold this many tickets. The ticket demands are reminiscent of the early '80s."
The game is already a near sellout in the 40,000-seat stadium. Wyoming will likely have around 7,000 fans, BYU will have more than 20,000 with the rest primarily being Las Vegas locals who aren't particularly partial to either team.
ROOM IN THE INN: While plenty of BYU fans have their tickets and are planning to make the trip to Las Vegas for the game between the Cougs and the Cowboys, finding accommodations may be difficult. The national championship rodeo is going on the same weekend as well as other conventions. Hotel rooms are filling up rapidly.
WAC officials are suggesting fans call 1(800)332-5333 to help them find available rooms.
BEATING 'EM ALL: The state of Utah has three Division I-A football teams - BYU, Utah and Utah State.
As James Dye pointed out after the Cougars' 37-17 dismantling of Utah in Rice Stadium last Saturday, he's now beaten all three. Dye, as a member of the Cougars the past two years, downed USU twice and the Utes once.
He was also a part of the 1993 Utah State team that beat the Cougars - his future teammates - 58-56.
P.J. UPDATE: Paul James, the long-time voice of the Cougars, had successful open-heart surgery Tuesday at LDS Hospital. James, who had six bypasses, was resting in the intensive care unit and listed in critical condition as of Tuesday evening, which is customary following heart surgery of that kind. James, 65, will miss calling the play-by-play for the WAC Championship Game, but hopes to be back for a bowl.
SARK ATTACK: Steve Sarkisian, who threw only a dozen passes for 70 yards against the Utes, maintained his status as the nation's most efficient passer. His 177.35 passing efficiency leads the country. He dropped several spots in the national total offense stats, however. Sark was fourth in the country in total offense prior to the Utah game, but he fell to ninth afterward, averaging 286 yards per game.
STATS & STUFF: Stats accrued in the WAC title game will count in the season totals. Stats in bowls don't count in season totals, however . . . BYU is atop the 16-team WAC in three of the four team categories. The Cougars have the best total defense, scoring defense, and rushing defense. They are third in passing defense . . . After the first three games this year the Cougars were at the bottom of the WAC's rushing totals. Now they are fifth. BYU, led by the dynamic duo of Brian McKenzie and Ronney Jenkins, are averaging 188 yards per game on the ground . . . Individually, McKenzie is 12th in the league in rushing, while Jenkins is 17th . . . Dye leads the WAC in punt returning, averaging 17.6 yards per return.