If anyone appeared destined to become a BYU football player, it was Kirk Chambers.
While growing up in Provo, Chambers was a big Cougar fan. When he played the sport as a youngster, he pretended to be Ty Detmer. His parents are BYU graduates and longtime BYU season-ticket holders. For heaven's sake, his mother's uncle is former BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson. While attending Provo High School, located in the shadows of BYU, Chambers was one of the nation's top prep offensive linemen and his coach was David Mills, a member of the Cougars' 1984 national championship team.
All the while, Chambers imagined what it would be like to play college football at BYU's 65,000-seat stadium.
On Saturday, he'll finally get that chance, though he won't be dressed in BYU blue. "I've always dreamed of playing there," Chambers said this week. "I never thought I'd be wearing red."
Neither did anyone else. Still, when BYU and Stanford square off for the first time (4:30 p.m., Ch. 5), Chambers will take the field clad in a Cardinal-and-White uniform.
A 6-foot-7, 315-pound senior, Chambers is a four-year starter at left tackle for Stanford. He will face a program he knows intimately. His roots with BYU run deep.
While Chambers has been eyeing this game for years, he's trying hard to avoid distractions. "It's my hometown, so that's exciting," he said. "Other than that, it's like any other game. Our goal as a team is to be bowl-bound. It's a game we need to win."
For the Chambers clan, this is far from any other game.
Kirk's parents, Brent and Carolyn, have printed up T-shirts for the occasion to be worn by the 35 family members who will watch the contest together in the stands. "The shirts say 'Chambers,' '67' (Kirk's number) and 'Stanford'," Carolyn said.
Kirk's younger brother, Craig, is currently a BYU student, and Kirk's wife, Marilyn, is a BYU graduate. "Right now, we're into the red. We'll turn a little more blue next year," Carolyn said.
No matter what happens in the game, it promises to be an unforgettable experience for the Chambers family. "It's going to be really special," Brent said. "We'll be there for (Kirk). We hope he plays well and that it's a good day for everybody."
Brent and Carolyn have organized a pre-game tailgate party that they say will attract about 160 people, including the relatives of other Stanford players. "It will kind of be like a family reunion," Brent said.
Even when the game is over, the family reunion won't end. Instead of leaving with the rest of the Stanford team, Kirk is scheduled to stay behind in Provo for an extra day. His wife, Marilyn, whom he began dating at Provo High, gave birth to the couple's first child, Marianne Deniece, in July. The baby girl will be blessed at an LDS wardhouse in Provo on Sunday so all the Chambers family can be there.
"It'll be a busy weekend," Brent said.
So how did Kirk Chambers wind up at Stanford anyway?
While starring for the Provo High Bulldogs in 1996 and 1997, he was heavily recruited. He narrowed his choices down to BYU and Stanford after hearing sales pitches from then-Cougar coach LaVell Edwards and then-Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham, who now coaches at Notre Dame.
"It was very difficult," Kirk recalled of the decision-making process. "I mulled it over for weeks."
The turning point came when he took his recruiting trip to Palo Alto, Calif. "That changed my whole perspective," he said. "The campus is beautiful and there's a great caliber of people there. It came down to academics. I felt I couldn't pass up the opportunity to study at one of the world's most renowned institutions."
He added that he didn't feel comfortable with BYU's place in college football. "At the time I was recruited, BYU was in the 16-team WAC," Chambers said. "I compared that to the Pac-10, where you get to play big-time teams all the time."
Chambers' parents would have loved for him to attend BYU, but Kirk says they were very supportive. "It was a really tough decision for him," Carolyn said. "But it was a decision between two good things. Coach Edwards told him no matter what choice he made, he'd be OK."
After high school, Chambers departed for a two-year LDS mission to Berlin, Germany, and upon his return, he enrolled at Stanford as a freshman in 2000. He's started all 35 games since for the Cardinal. Almost as impressive, his parents, who are school teachers, have attended all but one of those games.
Chambers says he doesn't regret his decision to attend Stanford. "It's been an opportunity to get out of Provo and be who I am elsewhere, away from home," he said. "It's a chance to be an example of what I believe."
As the oldest player on the team (age 24) and the only married player, Chambers' teammates look at him as an example both on and off the field. He's the only returning starter on an O-line that features a slew of players with very little experience. In 2001, as a sophomore, Chambers was named honorable mention All-Pac-10.
Stanford coach Buddy Teevens is grateful for Chambers' contributions. "He's really been a true leader for us. He's been a mentor to a lot of the young players," Teevens said. "He's done a tremendous job bringing along those young guys. He's a settling force in the huddle. He's seen it all before. He's a good teacher. He's been a tremendous plus for us, especially this year, where he's the only old guy we've got out there."
Leading up to this weekend's game, Chambers' teammates have been asking him questions about what it's like to play at Edwards Stadium. He said the most apt description came from Stanford offensive line coach Steve Morton, who quipped, "It's the loudest, most sober crowd you'll ever face."
Chambers laughed. He understood perfectly. After all, nobody in the Cardinal football program knows BYU better than Kirk Chambers.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com