College Football Conference Previews: QB Keenum, receivers return for Houston Cougars
HOUSTON — Houston has its quarterback, leading rusher and most of the receivers back this season from the nation’s second-best offense in 2008.
About the only thing missing now is the element of surprise.
Running the same pass-happy system as Texas Tech, the Cougars averaged 563 yards and scored at least 40 points in seven of their last nine games in Kevin Sumlin’s first season.
"Everybody says the second year, you’re going to be better on offense," said Sumlin. "It also gives the defensive guys (on other teams) eight months to sit and watch every play that you ran last year. They’ll have a better plan. They’ve got coaches, too."
The Cougars are still considered one of the favorites to win Conference USA after going 8-5 last season and winning a bowl game for the first time since 1980.
Quarterback Case Keenum was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for 5,020 yards, second nationally to Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell. Keenum is only a junior now and could be the school’s second all-time passer by the end of the season.
Behind him again is Bryce Beall, who rushed for 1,247 yards in 2009, a school record for a freshman.
Keenum said the Cougars should be even more efficient this year because they’ve had a full offseason to master the offense. It’s virtually the same scheme used by the Red Raiders because Houston’s offensive coordinator is Dana Holgorsen, who worked at Texas Tech for eight seasons before joining Sumlin’s staff in 2008.
Four of the top five receivers return from last year, including Tyron Carrier, who had five 100-yard receiving games and pulled in nine touchdown catches in 2008. The Cougars also added junior-college transfer James Cleveland, who was Iowa’s second-leading receiver in 2007.
"I feel like I’ve got a really good understanding of what coach Holgorsen wants," said Keenum, who threw 44 touchdown passes and only 11 interceptions last season. "Now, it’s just a matter of staying on the same page with him and getting the receivers on the same page with me. I’m really excited to see what we can do."
Sumlin also nabbed two junior-college transfers — Jarve Dean and Roy Watts — to add depth to the offensive line. The Cougars have only two returning starters up front after losing all-conference left tackle Sebastian Vollmer and senior right tackle SirVincent Rogers.
"We’ve got a bunch of guys inside, but our tackles will be an issue in this offense," Sumlin said. "We’ve got physically talented players in there. You just have to get them to play like a nickel, instead of like five pennies."
The defensive line has only one starter back, junior defensive tackle Isaiah Thompson. All three starting linebackers return for a defense that allowed 414 yards and 31 points per game in 2008.
The Cougars play Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Mississippi State in the first month of their season, a demanding schedule that will give Houston opportunities to move into the national spotlight.
"We’re looking for guys who want to play in meaningful games," Sumlin said. "We’ll find out who we are. I talked about maturity a lot with this team. How we handle the early part of the year is going to say a lot about what happens."
Rice regroups after historic season
HOUSTON — Rice had one of the best seasons in school history in 2008, winning 10 games and a bowl for the first time in five decades.
This season, it’s time to rebuild again after losing record-setting quarterback Chase Clement, receiver Jarett Dillard and versatile James Casey, the trio that helped Rice blossom into one of the nation’s top offenses.
Coach David Bailiff will pick from a trio of candidates in fall camp to find a successor to Clement, who threw 44 touchdown passes and ranked seventh in pass efficiency in 2008.
Senior John Thomas Shepherd played in eight games last season, but threw only 15 passes. Nick Fanuzzi, a former high school star in Texas, transferred to Rice from Alabama. Redshirt freshman Ryan Lewis played well enough in spring practice to be considered.
"It comes down to their decision-making," said Bailiff, entering his third season. "In the spring, one day, one of them would be 25-for-30 and make great decisions and then the next day, he’d be 5-for-30. We’ve just got to continue to give them reps and hopefully, one of them will separate and help us make the decision."
The Owls ranked 10th in total offense (470.9 yards per game) and 16th in scoring (41.3 points per game) last season. Offensive coordinator Tom Herman left for Iowa State and Bailiff hired former Purdue quarterbacks coach Ed Zaunbrecher. But Bailiff said the offense itself will remain the same.
"Our kids believe so much in what we do, we didn’t want to change the language or anything," Bailiff said.
Casey and Dillard both topped 1,300 receiving yards to rank among the nation’s top 10 in 2008.
The next receiver on the depth chart was Toren Dixon, who made 50 catches for 598 yards as a junior. Dixon had eight catches, including a touchdown, in Rice’s 38-14 win over Western Michigan in the Texas Bowl.
"Toren will be able to fill a lot of the void there," Bailiff said. "I think we’re talented there, young but talented. Now, it’s my job to turn this into a team as soon as possible. We may have some tough times, but we are talented there."
Rice had to win several high-scoring shootouts in 2008 because the defense ranked 111th nationally, giving up 452 yards per game.
The Owls have eight starters back on that side, including defensive ends Scott Solomon and Cheta Ozougwu, linebacker Terrance Garmon and safety Andrew Sendejo, the Owls’ leading tackler last season.
"We have experience on defense, so we can let them play fast and let play confident," Bailiff said. "There’s not going to be any indecision on what to do, and that’s critical. They don’t have to think about what they’re doing anymore, they can just react."
Rice has a demanding early schedule, with road trips to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in the first three weeks, followed by home games with Vanderbilt and perennial Conference USA favorite Tulsa.
"It’ll challenge us and test us mentally from day one," Bailiff said. "We’ll see right away how we pull together when the obstacles hit."
-- Chris Duncan
Coach June Jones sees turnaround coming at SMU
DALLAS — Coach June Jones greatly overestimated what kind of success SMU could have on the field his first season. He admits that.
"We had an opportunity, I felt, that we’d probably win four or five games," Jones says now, though he never made such a public prediction before his first game. "Then I kind of said, if we win four or five, it may lead to one or two more."
The Mustangs instead will begin their second season under Jones the same way as the first: With a 10-game losing streak and coming off a 1-11 record.
Still, Jones is making a much more public proclamation this time.
"This season or next season, we’re going to a bowl game," Jones said. "I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t win enough games to go to a bowl game this year."
A lofty goal for a program that has had only one winning record (6-5 in 1997) in the 20 seasons since returning from the NCAA death penalty for paying players and breaking rules.
Jones knows about rebuilding awful programs. He took over a winless Hawaii team that went 9-4 his first season, the biggest turnaround in NCAA history. He was 75-41 in nine seasons at Hawaii, where his last game was in a BCS bowl, the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day 2008.
At SMU, Jones installed his run-and-shoot offense before last season. He had a true freshman quarterback who started every game, learning a scheme he had never played. Bo Levi Mitchell threw for 2,865 yards and 24 touchdowns, but also had 23 interceptions.
"It was probably unfair to him to throw him into the situation he was in, but we kind of knew that’s what we had to do," Jones said. "He was feeling his way while the receivers are learning what they’re doing. For him, he got better as the season went on."
The Mustangs do return two of the nation’s most productive receivers in senior Emmanuel Sanders (67 catches, 958 yards, nine TDs) and junior Aldrick Robinson (59, 1,047, 11).On defense, the Mustangs plan to utilize more three-man fronts, a move that frees up Youri Yenga, who had a team-high 6½ sacks last season, to move from end to outside linebacker.
Overall, Jones said his team "from January to now, this is a different group of kids," a group that stayed together and learned from last season.
"That builds for what we’re going to do this year," Jones said. "That 1-11 season will be the reason we win and learn how to do it."
Price wants to bounce UTEP back into bowl picture
DALLAS — Texas-El Paso went nowhere for three years after Mike Price took the Miners to bowl heights the tucked-away border university hadn’t seen in half a century.
The coach who twice led Washington State to the Rose Bowl knows the momentum is gone, and plans to do something about it.
"We really had it going," Price said of his first two UTEP seasons, when the Miners reached back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 1954-55. "We let it get away from us. We could have really been good if we’d have gotten back to a couple of more bowls in a row. That’s our goal right now is to get back to a bowl."
Price and UTEP were a perfect fit from the start. He needed a place to resurrect his career after losing a dream job at Alabama before he coached a game because of a drunken episode in a Florida strip club. The Miners needed a coach who knew how to win and didn’t mind hiring someone with baggage.
The peak came late in his second season in 2005, when UTEP was 8-1 and received its second straight bowl invitation with two games remaining, almost unthinkable at a place where two-win seasons were the norm for decades.
That’s when the slide started. The Miners lost the last three games of 2005, including a 45-13 loss to Toledo in the GMAC Bowl. The trend continued with a 1-5 finish in 2006 and a six-game losing streak at the end of 2007.
Price now has more losing seasons than winning ones at UTEP, but his 30-30 record means he’s stayed in El Paso longer than those who figured he would make a quick stop in coaching purgatory on his way back to a bigger program.
He knows he’s not at Alabama, or even Washington State, but now he’s talking about being a BCS buster such as Boise State, Utah or Hawaii.
"I just feel like we’re trying to make a move," Price said. "If we win some games, people are certainly going to know about it."
The defense will have a say in whether that happens. The Miners were making a move last year, winners of three straight when they took a 3-3 record to Tulsa. They simply couldn’t stop the Golden Hurricane, giving up 791 yards in a 77-35 loss that started a 2-4 finish.
UTEP was 115th in total defense among 119 Football Bowl Subdivision teams last year and has several transfers who figure to help. The list includes defensive lineman Isaac Tauaefa from Air Force and linebacker Justin Hickman, who originally signed with New Mexico when second-year defensive coordinator Osia Lewis was there.
"I think we’re on the mend defensively," Price said.
Quarterback Trevor Vittatoe returns after setting a school record with 33 touchdown passes against just nine interceptions while throwing for 3,274 yards. He has two experienced receivers in Jeff Moturi and Kris Adams, and most of his offensive line is back.
The schedule features two Big 12 tests early, at home against Kansas and at Texas, which played a regular-season game in El Paso for the first time last year. The Longhorns won 42-13 and will be heavily favored again.
"We’ve got a schedule that’s very, very competitive," Price said. "If we want to be somebody, we’ve got a chance to be somebody."
-- Schuyler Dixon
Troy expected to top emerging Sun Belt Conference
NEW ORLEANS — If the Sun Belt Conference had anything going for it when it became a football league early this decade, it was location.
The schools joining the new league had something to sell to the multitude of top recruits in the South. They offered a chance to play major college football close to home if the depth chart was a little too crowded at their preferred SEC or ACC schools.
If chances for playing time were slim at Alabama or Auburn, there was always Troy. If a south Florida standout couldn’t latch on with Miami, longtime college coach Howard Schnellenberger was waiting with open arms over at Florida Atlantic’s Boca Raton campus.
"The state of Florida is our recruiting area and most off the recruits who come from the state come to us from south Florida," Schnellenberger says.
During its first eight seasons, Sun Belt teams have gotten better and the number of bowl tie-ins have grown.
This season, the league formally welcomes its ninth team, Western Kentucky, which played a Sun Belt schedule last season as it prepared to officially enter the conference in 2009.
In 2008, Troy and FAU both went to bowl games. Schnellenberger’s Owls beat Central Michigan of the Mid-American Conference in the Motor City Bowl — FAU’s second bowl triumph in as many years — while Troy lost in overtime to Southern Mississippi of Conference USA in the New Orleans Bowl.
Sun Belt coaches picked Troy to win the league for a fourth straight time, which would tie the mark set by North Texas in the conference’s first four years. Troy would like to take it a step further and become the Sun Belt’s first BCS buster. Coach Larry Blakeney figures the Trojans would need to win at least 11 of their 12 games to have a shot.
That might be more realistic if the Trojans’ Sept. 12 visit defending national champion Florida was the only difficult game on their schedule. Troy also must play at Arkansas on Nov. 14, and Blakeney doesn’t want to get ahead of himself when it comes to the Trojans’ league schedule, either.
"That doesn’t look like it would be very easy right now," Blakeney said of the prospect of winning 11 games. "We’ve got teams in our league that can beat us."
Troy was 8-5 overall last season, losing only one game in the Sun Belt, when Louisiana-Monroe (the same team that shocked Alabama in 2007), upset the Trojans 31-30.
Troy has key players back on its high-scoring offense, including quarterback Levi Brown (2,030 yards passing, 15 TDs), running back DuJuan Harris (1,077 yards rushing) and receiver Jerrel Jernigan (868 yards receiving).
Meanwhile, teams across the Sun Belt are putting a premium on games against other BCS non-automatic qualifying conferences. The hope is that winning more of those games will earn Sun Belt teams more consideration from bowl committees.
"The more out-of-conference wins you have in those type conferences, the bigger slice you get," Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill said. "When you have those type of wins, it helps your conference and it helps the perception of your conference."
A capsule look at the teams in predicted order of finish:
TROY — Key Players: QB Levi Brown, RB DuJuan Harris, WR Jerrel Jernigan, DE Brandon Lang, CB Jorrick Calvin. Returning starters: 7 offense, 5 defense.
Notes: The Trojans averaged 414 yards and 33 points per game last season. ... The big question will be the offensive line following the departures of tackles Dion Small and Chris Jamison. ... Lang, Calvin, LB Bear Woods and LB Borris Lee all were preseason all-conference selections.
ARKANSAS STATE — Key players: QB Corey Leonard, RB Reggie Arnold, DE Alex Carrington, RB Derek Lawson. Returning starters: 6 offense, 8 defense.
Notes: The backfield is loaded, starting with Leonard, who passed for 2,347 yards and 16 TDs last season. Arnold has had three straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons rushing, and Lawson rushed for 685 yards and four TDs last season. ... The Red Wolves can gain the inside track to a conference crown if they can win their Sun Belt opener at home against Troy.
FLORIDA ATLANTIC — Key players: QB Rusty Smith, TE Jamari Grant, WR Cortez Gent, S Ed Alexander. Returning starters: 6 offense, 4 defense.
Notes: Smith passed for 3,224 yards and 24 TDs last season and could do even better this season with top playmakers at receiver and tight end. ... FAU is trying to become the first Sun Belt team to win bowl games in three straight seasons.
MIDDLE TENNESSEE — Key players: S Jeremy Kellem, LB Danny Carmichael, RB Phillip Tanner, QB Dwight Dahser. Returning starters: 9 offense, 7 defense.
Notes: Tony Franklin is the new offensive coordinator for the Blue Raiders. If their spread offense looks like Troy’s, that’s because Franklin was a Trojans assistant before a brief stint at Auburn. ... Dasher lost the starting job last season but his return gives MTSU a better scrambler at quarterback.
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL — Key players: WR T.Y. Hilton, OL Brad Serini, CB Anthony Gaitor, LB Scott Bryant. Returning starters: 10 offense, 5 defense.
Notes: Hilton had 41 catches for 1,013 yards and seven TDs during his freshman season. ... Golden Panthers hope they found a run stopper in 340-pound DT Jonas Murrell. ... Gaitor had five INTs and had 175 return yards and 2 TDs last season.
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE — Key players: OL Brad Bustle, OL Chris Fisher, LB Antwyne Zanders, CB Orkeys Auriene. Returning starters: 7 offense, 9 defense.
Notes: The Ragin’ Cajuns will have some huge holes to fill on offense with the loss of QB Michael Desormeaux and career rushing-leader Tyrell Fenroy, the only player in school history to rush for 1,000 yards in each of four seasons. ... The offensive line has five returning starters.
LOUISIANA-MONROE — Key players: LB Cardia Jackson, S Greg James, RB Frank Goodin, QB Trey Revell. Returning starters: 7 offense, 7 defense.
Notes: Revell replaces seasoned quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster. Revell started only one game last season, but played a key role in ULM’s biggest win of the year. ... The defense is switching from four down linemen to three, and the scheme is expected to feature more blitzing.
NORTH TEXAS — Key players: WR Casey Fitzgerald, LB Tobe Nwigwe, QB Riley Dodge, RB Cam Montgomery. Returning starters: 8 offense, 9 defense.
Notes: After a redshirt year, Dodge is ready to step in as starting quarterback, the same position his father, current North Texas coach Todd Dodge, once player for the Texas Longhorns. ... The strength of the defense should at linebacker. Nwigwe led UNT with 111 tackles and also made 3 INTs.
WESTERN KENTUCKY — Key players: QB Brandon Smith, RB Tyrell Hayden, WR Jake Gaebler, FS Mark Santoro. Returning starters: 7 offense, 3 defense.
Notes: Smith, the likely starter, played in only four games last season and did not throw a touchdown pass. ... The Hilltoppers were 2-10 last season and little is expected of them in their first official year in the Sun Belt.
-- Brett Martel
ACC out to prove its swagger is back
It’s hard to believe a conference with Miami and Florida State could lose its swagger. The Hurricanes and Seminoles in their hey days practically invented the term.
But that’s what has happened to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Virginia Tech gave the league’s national reputation a boost with a much-needed BCS victory in January, the ACC’s first win in the Bowl Championship Series in nearly a decade. And putting 10 teams into bowl games also gave the ACC a reason to gloat. No conference had ever done that.
"We were fortunate enough to go to two (BCS) bowls (but) the first two, we lost, so that basically was a letdown to us and to the ACC," Virginia Tech tight end Greg Boone said. "Last year, we redeemed ourselves."
And the rest of the league, at least to some extent.
After Tech’s face-saving victory over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl, there’s plenty for the league to like entering this season.
The loaded Hokies are favored to rule the ACC for the third straight year and are the closest thing the ACC has to a national championship contender.
Georgia Tech returns nearly every key member of its unique option offense that gave both the conference and rival Georgia fits. The Seminoles and Hurricanes, whose rivalry game has returned to Labor Day, insist they’ve taken steps toward returning their once-dominant programs to superiority. Wake Forest, North Carolina and N.C. State are primed to continue their recent upswings.
And if nothing else, the ACC’s offenses should benefit from some experienced stars.
The league’s rushing title could shape up as a two-man race between Clemson’s C.J. Spiller and Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer, the ACC’s reigning player of the year. And 11 of the 12 schools return a quarterback who has started at least one game under center, including N.C. State’s Russell Wilson, the first freshman signal-caller to be named to the all-ACC first team.
Despite that, not everybody is convinced offense will dominate the league.
"With the amount of talent that comes back on offense, there’s the same amount of talent that comes back on defense," Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said. "Somehow, it’s going to balance itself out."
A capsule look at teams in predicted order of finish:
Coastal Division
VIRGINIA TECH — Key players: QB Tyrod Taylor, TE Greg Boone, FS Kam Chancellor, Sr. Returning starters: 8 offense, 7 defense.
Notes: TB Darren Evans, who ran for 1,265 yards last season, is done for the year because of a preseason knee injury. .... The Hokies’ national title hopes will rise or fall dramatically in their season-opener against Alabama. ... Hokies don’t play Florida State, Clemson or Wake Forest, and N.C. State comes to Blacksburg.
GEORGIA TECH — Key players: RB Jonathan Dwyer, QB Josh Nesbitt, WR Demaryius Thomas, S Morgan Burnett. Returning starters: 9 offense, 8 defense.
Notes: Dwyer is bidding to become the first two-time ACC player of the year since Florida State QB Charlie Ward in 1992-93. ... Yellow Jackets play five of seven games on the road from Sept. 17-Oct. 31.
NORTH CAROLINA — Key players: QB T.J. Yates, RB Shaun Draughn, S Deunta Williams, LB Quan Sturdivant. Returning starters: 6 offense, 9 defense.
Notes: Tar Heels need someone to step up and catch the ball, after three top receivers moved on. ... Biggest obstacle to school’s first BCS appearance might be the schedule: Toughest two Coastal games (Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech) are on the road.
MIAMI — Key players: RB Graig Cooper, OT Jason Fox, K Matt Bosher, LB Sean Spence. Returning starters: 8 offense, 8 defense.
Notes: Jacory Harris takes over QB job on full-time basis after Robert Marve transferred to Purdue. ... Biggest offseason addition: Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, the QBs coach on the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers team that won the Super Bowl. ... Hurricanes haven’t finished with double-digit wins in any season since joining the ACC.
VIRGINIA — Key players: QB Jameel Sewell, OT Will Barker, OT Will Barker, CB Ras-I Dowling. Returning starters: 5 offense, 6 defense.
Notes: Coach Al Groh added two former FBS head coaches to his staff, offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon (Bowling Green) and special teams coordinator Ron Prince (Kansas State). ... Sewell sat out last season because of academics. ... Cavaliers were one of two ACC teams left out of postseason in ‘08, joining Duke.
DUKE — Key players: QB Thaddeus Lewis, RB Re’Quan Boyette, DT Vince Oghobaase, DE Ayanga Okpokowuruk. Returning starters: 5 offense, 5 defense.
Notes: Lewis is 2,879 yards shy of the school’s career record for passing yardage and has thrown for at least 2,100 yards in each of his first three seasons. ... Blue Devils will need seven wins to qualify for school’s first bowl berth since 1994, because they play two FCS teams: Richmond and North Carolina Central.
Atlantic Division
FLORIDA STATE — Key players: QB Christian Ponder, OG Rodney Hudson, C Ryan McMahon, LB Dekoda Watson. Returning starters: 8 offense, 5 defense.
Notes: Tough schedule awaits Seminoles: Each of their 11 FCS opponents reached a bowl last season. ... Season could be determined by five-game stretch that includes visits from Georgia Tech and N.C. State and trips to North Carolina, Clemson and Wake Forest.
CLEMSON — Key players: RB/KR C.J. Spiller, WR Jacoby Ford, OL Thomas Austin, LB Brandon Maye. Returning starters: 7 offense, 8 defense.
Notes: Coach Dabo Swinney figures to lean on Spiller until his young QBs gain experience. ... Reason for optimism in Death Valley: Five regulars return on the offensive line.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE — Key players: QB Russell Wilson, RB Jamelle Eugene, WR Owen Spencer, DE Willie Young. Returning starters: 7 offense, 7 defense.
Notes: Wilson, the 2008 ACC rookie of the year, has to work to keep his job from redshirt freshman Mike Glennon. ... Wolfpack have the talent to contend for a division title if they stay healthy; Wilson, Eugene and RB Toney Baker were among the key players who missed significant time last season.
WAKE FOREST — Key players: QB Riley Skinner, RB Kevin Harris, OT Chris DeGeare, DT Boo Robinson. Returning starters: 9 offense, 4 defense.
Notes: Skinner looking to become first QB to lead Demon Deacons to four straight bowl games. ... Another win against Florida State would put coach Jim Grobe in exclusive company as one of few coaches to beat Bobby Bowden four straight years.
MARYLAND — Key players: RB Da’Rel Scott, QB Chris Turner, WR Torrey Smith, P Travis Baltz. Returning starters: 6 offense, 4 defense.
Notes: Terps hope Smith can step in at receiver for first-round draft pick Darrius Heyward-Bey. ... Former UMass coach Don Brown, who takes over as defensive coordinator, has little experience to work with.
BOSTON COLLEGE — Key players: RB Montel Harris, OT Anthony Castonzo, DE Alex Albright. Returning starters: 7 offense, 6 defense.
Notes: Only ACC school to have no quarterbacks who have started at least one game. ... Defense will miss ACC defensive player of the year Mark Herzlich. The linebacker is sitting out this season to fight cancer.
-- Joedy McCreary
BYU early schedule can make/break BCS hopes
SALT LAKE CITY — BYU is preparing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the most unlikely national championship teams.
The Cougars of 1984 went from unranked to the top of the polls, beating every team on the schedule and the college football system to claim the national title, despite playing in a conference that was often overshadowed by America’s rich and powerful leagues.
Sounds like a plan for the current Cougars.
In 2009, BYU will again try to overcome tradition to win a national championship. No team from outside the power conferences — excluding independents such as Notre Dame — has won a national title since BYU’s.
But the current Cougars have the type of team — and the type of difficult nonconference schedule — to do it again. If the Cougars can beat Oklahoma and Florida State in September on the way to an undefeated season, it’ll be hard to keep them out of the national championship game in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 7.
Lose to the Sooners and Seminoles, and BYU’s Bowl Championship Series hopes end before fall begins.
"I’m not going to back away from that," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "If it costs us an undefeated season and the BCS-buster spot, I’m still looking at the broader perspective. Eventually, we’re going to get there and the lessons we learn in those games are going to help us get there."
In recent years, perfect seasons by Utah, BYU’s Mountain West Conference rival, and Boise State and Hawaii of the Western Athletic Conference have earned those teams bids to the Bowl Championship Series.
BYU and the rest of the potential BCS busters know that the next step beyond just crashing the party is to be the team to leave with the biggest trophy.
"If they were to run the table, I don’t think there’s any question that there would really be some serious challenge for it," said LaVell Edwards, coach of BYU’s 1984 title team. "It would be interesting to see what happened. It would have to be a heck of a year."
A team from one of the nonautomatic qualifying conferences has made the BCS four of the last five years. While that has sated some of the BCS critics, Utah’s perfect season in 2008 and Sugar Bowl victory against Alabama sparked a new round of outrage.
The Mountain West has been pushing all it can for changes to the BCS, proposing a playoff format that was shot down by the other conferences and then taking the fight to Capitol Hill.
Unless Congress throws a block on the BCS, though, the best argument leagues such as the Mountain West and the WAC can make is to beat teams from the six conferences that created and dominate the system.
"If it’s not going to happen postseason, currently, under the system, then we’re going to make a point to make it preseason," Mendenhall said.
The Cougars entered fall camp confident about senior quarterback Max Hall, who has lived up to the lofty standards set at BYU by players like Steve Young, Jim McMahon and Ty Detmer. Hall completed 69 percent of his passes last season while throwing for 3,957 yards and 35 touchdowns.
Hall has a new offensive line in front of him, but still has bruising back Harvey Unga to keep defenses from focusing only on the pass. Unga has averaged almost 5 yards per carry in his career and is 841 yards short of Curtis Brown’s school rushing record.
"I’m very excited about this football team. I think we’re going to win a lot of games," Hall said. "I’m as focused as I’ve ever been in my life on the game right now. This is the most prepared team I’ve ever been associated with."
They’d better be.
The Cougars’ nonconference schedule already included a home game against Atlantic Coast Conference contender Florida State on Sept. 19, when BYU added to its degree of difficulty by agreeing to play Oklahoma at the Dallas Cowboys new stadium in the opener Sept. 5.
"That’s something we’ve been wanting. We’ve been wanting to be in the national spotlight and to prove ourselves against a team like Oklahoma and prove all the doubters wrong," tight end Dennis Pitta said.
That’s nothing new at BYU. The Cougars opened the 1984 season out of the polls despite going 11-1 the year before. It took an upset of No. 3 Pittsburgh in the season opener to get BYU in the rankings. Then they slowly moved up as every other team lost at least a game or two.
The Cougars reached the top of the polls in mid-November when Oklahoma beat Nebraska and Navy upset then-unbeaten South Carolina, leaving BYU as the only unbeaten team in the country.
This was long before the BCS and any of the bowl coalitions that preceded it. The Cougars’ postseason invitation was to the Holiday Bowl, where they beat a so-so Michigan team 24-17 on Dec. 21, then had to wait 10 days to learn their fate once the New Year’s Day games were finished.
Once the final votes were tallied, BYU was still on top.
"The longer it goes, it still boggles my mind that it happened. It took a combination of a lot of factors," Edwards said. "I think when it finally happened and we got to be No. 1 then I think people just thought ‘you know, these guys have been knocking around for a while now so they might be pretty good."’
The biggest criticism BYU faced that year was the schedule, playing in the Western Athletic Conference and getting little television exposure compared to the big-name conferences.
That hasn’t changed a whole lot. BYU no longer plays in the WAC, but the strength of the Mountain West is questioned much the same way, although Utah’s 31-17 win over Alabama in January certainly gave the league some credibility.
BYU players will be wearing a patch on their jerseys this season, commemorating what the Cougars did 25 years before.
"We’re in a similar position now. We get to see all the things a team like that accomplished and it gives us a lot of hope," Pitta said. "We’re confident in the things we can do and we know that we can be a great football team."
-- Doug Alden
