Uh-oh, here we go again.
It’s starting again, already. The bad luck or whatever you want to call it.
Jamaal Williams is gone for the season.
Last year it was BYU’s star quarterback; this year it’s BYU’s best running back and one of the most prolific rushers in school history.
Now the football gods are just piling on.
It’s been one thing after another for the Cougars the last few years. Ignored by conferences, adrift in the world of independence, skunked on draft day, jerked around by recruits, key injuries, suspensions, bowl-game brawls, honor-code casualties.
Did we miss anything?
This era has been for the Cougars what the ‘60s were for barbers and what the 2000s are for music.
Can the Cougars just go back in time a couple of decades?
Take injuries, for starters. They don’t just have injuries — they have season-altering injuries. Taysom Hill won his first two starts as a freshman quarterback and then a week later suffered a season-ending knee injury when he was tackled by a Utah State defensive back. Last season, just as his Heisman Trophy campaign was heating up and BYU was off to a 4-0 start, Hill broke his leg — against Utah State while being tackled by the very same defender who tackled him when he was injured as a freshman.
Nice touch, football gods. That’s lightning striking twice in the same place.
The loss of Hill started the Cougars on a four-game losing streak, undoing everything they did the first four games.
Then there is Williams. He is on pace to become the school’s all-time leading rusher, but we’ve been noting that for more than a year. It’s difficult to gain yards when you’re not on the field.
Williams missed six games last season, five of them because of injuries, the other a suspension. Now we learn that he has dropped out of school for some unexplained reason. He’s expected to return next season, but don’t hold your breath.
The Cougars were silly with injuries last season. Three-fourths of the secondary was out at one point, as well as the team’s leading rusher, a receiver and a lineman. Before the 2014 season started, Nick Kurtz, a receiver so good he was offered by USC, was making a promising showing during two-a-days — and then hurt his foot and missed the entire season.
When it isn’t injuries, it’s suspensions. Five players got called to the principal’s office last year and were forced to sit out a game, this time for some shenanigans at a party. The year before that, the school’s all-time receiving leader and its defensive leader were suspended.
The recruiting business has been fun, too. Charles West, a Texas prep running back, was arrested just days after signing to play for BYU last February. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in an incident that reportedly involved a woman from an escort service. He also was charged with possession of marijuana, giving him the triple crown for honor code violations. Oh, and in July he was shot in the arm while playing pickup basketball.
Garett Bolles, a blue chip lineman from Snow College, committed to BYU and then changed his mind, which means he probably doesn’t understand the definition of “commitment.”
Nothing is going right.
BYU got shut out in the NFL draft. For the third time in five years not a single Cougar was drafted.
The coup de grace last season was the Miami Beach Bowl, in which the Cougars not only lost in double overtime to Memphis but then also got suckered into a lengthy post-game brawl that made national headlines.
But all these problems take a back seat to one overarching issue: no conference affiliation. When college football’s latest game of musical conferences was played, the Cougars couldn’t find a seat in one of the Power 5 conferences, so they’ve been an independent for going on five years. This makes everything more difficult.
Last year the ACC and SEC, which require their teams to play one Power 5 non-conference game, decided independent Notre Dame would count as one of those opponents, but BYU would not. Later, both conferences reversed the decision, but the whole business was a real slap in the facemask.
The Utes won’t even play the Cougars every year, ending a decades-long rivalry that was one of the highlights of the Utah sports season. Which might be just as well; the Cougars have lost five of their last six games to the Utes, and nine of the last 12. Which shows how much fortunes can change. From 1972 to 1992, the Cougars beat the Utes 19 of 21 times.
These are hard times for the Cougars, who face a schedule so difficult that it looks like it was put together by Chris Hill.
They can only hope the new season reverses their fortunes.
Doug Robinson's columns run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Email: drob@deseretnews.com