Every year, as college football teams progress further and further into the season, the true contenders climb to the top while the pretenders descend into a season of heartbreak and probable mediocrity.
After Thursday’s game, BYU proved to the college football nation that they are nothing more than overrated pretenders.
Coming into the season, BYU was coming off a close bowl win against UCLA and had gone undefeated in Mountain West Conference play. The Cougars were ranked No. 16 and were looking to have their first undefeated season since 1984. But all that came to an abrupt end in Fort Worth, Texas.
BYU lost because TCU was the better team. With the No. 1 overall defense in the nation, the Horned Frogs kept BYU to 23 total rushing yards and forced the Cougars to rely on the passing game. It also didn’t help that BYU had four turnovers, all by quarterback Max Hall as TCU stifled him into a long, dreary night.
Not only did the offense stall for the Cougars, their defense was obsolete. After only giving up 17 points in their last four games, BYU’s defense surrendered a season-high 32 points.
But the loss to TCU shouldn’t have come as a surprise to those who followed BYU’s season. Although the Cougars did remain perfect for a majority of the season, the warning signs showed that BYU would not finish prancing in the minds of Bowl Championship Series folk.
One of the first signs that BYU was ranked too high was its second game of the season against Washington.
The Huskies’ last drive was too easy. Washington was able to string together that late drive to seemingly tie up the game. A blocked extra point prevented the Cougars from overtime and BYU escaped Seattle, Wash., victoriously.
If it wasn’t apparent against Washington, there were certainly warning signs when they went up against Utah State. The Cougars were expected to breeze by the Aggies and jumped out to a 24-0 lead after the first quarter. But they then struggled the rest of the game and were out-scored by Utah State 14-10.
Even with wins that didn’t look impressive, BYU created the illusion they were a BCS-contender when they trounced UCLA 59-0. While the Bruins did beat Tennessee in Week 1, UCLA and the Volunteers have proven they are certainly not in the upper-echelon this season.
The final sign for BYU came only five days before playing TCU, when the Cougars took on New Mexico. Although BYU came away with the win, their offense only managed 21 points as New Mexico kept the game competitive.
It is still unclear, though, just how overrated BYU really is. Their performance during the remainder of the college football season will determine just that. The only way BYU can prove they are less than overrated at this point in the season would be a win against Utah.
No matter what else happens, BYU has shown not only they shouldn’t be ranked high in the polls, but that they never deserved to be there in the first place.
James Boehly