Fandom is fascinating. It’s loyal and true like the waves of the ocean.
No matter the year, the month or the day, the waves keep coming. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, they are bigger in size and sound, but there is never a day when they don’t show up.
The true power of an ocean wave is its consistency over time — and its loyalty. Even if the Pacific Ocean is having a bad year, its waves never transfer over to the Atlantic. They just keep coming where they are.
As I watched 55,000 BYU fans sit through the cold air during an even colder losing streak last Saturday, I thought of the power of this group. They just keep coming. Some days they are bigger in size and sound, but there isn’t a day when they don’t show up.
And even during a disappointing year, BYU fans don’t transfer their loyalties to another team. They just keep coming where they are.
The Cougar faithful in Boise this weekend face a challenging setting — BYU (4-5) is reeling and the Broncos are rolling (6-2). Boise fans are hostile toward BYU fans and rain is in the forecast. However, when the Cougars take the field, there will be a familiar roar to welcome them.
While loyal and true, home or away, invested fans do get restless during a frustrating season. Talk shows echo disappointment and point fingers while internet experts use alias names to propagate unsubstantiated rumors — hoping one of them proves right so as to justify the rest. They are like a riptide that thrives on dragging swimmers into the sea of despair.
Winning triggers just the opposite. In fact, wins cover sins while losing exposes everything. All is good when a team is winning. It’s why fans love it so much when they are in it and why they can’t stand it when they are not — emotions fluctuate accordingly.
Case in point — Aaron Judge. To the summerlong joy of New York Yankees fans, Judge and his teammates delivered the East Division title while he broke the American League home run record.
However, Judge and the Yankees were booed off the field by their own fans after getting swept by Houston in the American League Championship Series. Fans love to hold on to history, but they live in the moment. They can’t help themselves.
Former BYU basketball coach Steve Cleveland reminded us on the “Y’s Guys” livestream show that winning has never been about the coaches or the fans.
“Players win games,” he said.
Cleveland took over a BYU basketball program that had just finished 1-25 the year before. He and his new staff, including Dave Rose, worked tirelessly to turn things around, but they didn’t start winning until they had the players that could do it.
Four years later, in 2001, the Cougars won the Mountain West Conference regular-season title and the conference tournament in Las Vegas to reach the Big Dance for the first time since 1995. For each year that has followed, the pattern has been the same — the better the players, the more the wins.
Football is no different. Kalani Sitake’s team entered this season having won 21 of their last 25 games. The team was hyped with a variety of potential NFL prospects who have either been slowed by injury or underperformed. Today, they find themselves needing to win two of the next three to become bowl eligible.
At just about every turn I’ve been asked, ‘What’s wrong with the Cougars?’ or ‘What’s happened?’ or ‘How are we going to compete in the Big 12 like this?’ and on and on. The questions are fair and mostly reasonable.
BYU began the season with a roster full of good players with a lot of experience, but absent from the list, with one or two exceptions, are the kind of guys that will keep playing at the next level — and that matters.
Last season, the Cougars enjoyed the services of running back Tyler Allgeier. He was the kind of guy that could make a broken play look like a brilliant call from the offensive coordinator.
Not only did Allgeier break Luke Staley’s single-season rushing record, but he carried the Cougars to a 10-3 record. Last Sunday, as an NFL rookie, he started for the Atlanta Falcons and scored a touchdown.
During the 2020 COVID-19 season, when most fans had to stay home, BYU went 11-1 with future NFL starters Zach Wilson (Jets), Dax Milne (Commanders), Brady Christensen (Panthers) and Allgeier all on the field.
Players win games.
As the Cougars embark on the Big 12, it will be up to Sitake and his staff to recruit bigger and better players who are capable of playing professionally. Getting them to Provo should be easier than ever with BYU’s Power Five conference membership.
The growth will take time and patience and probably bring more losses than BYU fans are used to, but Sitake’s long-term contract gives him the freedom to build and improve and the blueprint will always demand finding players who are built to win, not just built to compete.
BYU’s history is decorated with high-profile players who delivered high-profile performances when it mattered most.
The 1984 national championship season began with Adam Haysbert’s touchdown catch to defeat No. 3 Pittsburgh. It required Kyle Morrell’s goal-line tackle to survive at Hawaii and Glen Kozlowski’s amazing touchdown grab to sink Michigan in the Holiday Bowl.
The Cougars were surrounded with capable coaches and loyal fans throughout that 13-0 season, but it was the players that made the plays, won the games and earned the title.
This current group also has a strong supporting cast and an even larger fan base, but none of them can make a tackle, or a catch or defend a pass — something the players have struggled to do collectively in all four defeats. That is all on them. They are also the ones that can fix it and if BYU is to upset Boise State on Saturday night (5 p.m. on FS2), it will be to the credit of the players for pulling it off.
“Players win games.”
Coach Cleveland’s words ring as true as the consistency of the ocean that sends its waves to shore no matter the year, the month or the day. It’s also true for BYU fans who pull for their program no matter the season, the hostile venue, or the forecast and the transfer portal is never a consideration.
Happy or sad, disgruntled or content, fans are fans and they stick with their team, during good times and bad — both the good fans and the bad — all while waiting and watching for that group of special players to step up, make plays, and win.
Yes, fandom is fantastic, but players win games.
Dave McCann is a contributor to the Deseret News and is the studio host for “BYU Sports Nation Game Day,” “The Post Game Show,” “After Further Review,” and play-by-play announcer for BYUtv. He is also co-host of “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com.
Cougars on the air
BYU (4-5)
at Boise State (6-2)
Saturday, 5 p.m. MDT
Albertsons Stadium, Boise, Idaho
TV: Fox Sports 2
Radio: KSL NewsRadio 102.7 FM/1160 AM