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SALT LAKE CITY — As the college football world moves into weekend No. 2, BYU is still happily standing its ground as a hopeful soon-to-be in the Top 25 polls.
After a comfortable 30-6 win over Washington State last Thursday, even folks outside the Provo bubble think BYU will have a good season.
Game Notes- BYU (1-0) vs. Weber State (0-1)
- Date: Saturday Sep. 8, 2012
- Time: 1:00 p.m. MDT
- Site: LaVell Edwards Stadium Provo, Utah
- TV: BYUtv
- Radio: KSL Radio 1160 AM, 102.7 FM and ksl.com
- Series Record: BYU leads 2-0
- Last Meeting: 1979 (BYU 48-3)
- Kickoff Weather: Mostly sunny, temps in the upper 80s
The Cougars received shout-outs across the nation from such websites as ESPN, Yahoo! and The Examiner, with one Yahoo! article claiming BYU could be crowned a perfect 12-0 season come December.
Among the many experts impressed by BYU's romping of Wazzu was ESPN's Mark Schlaback, who dubbed them as one of three teams with an impressive season debut in his weekly "On The Mark" video blog.
"Thought BYU quarterback Riley Nelson almost looked Tebow-esque ... and again, BYU's defense really pushed around the (WSU) Cougars," Schlaback said. "So, pretty impressive victory for a team that's under the radar as an Independent."
In the latest NCAA football polls, BYU is just shy of the Top 25 title, ranked 27th and 28th. Only two of BYU's foes are ahead of the Cougars — No. 22 Notre Dame and No. 26/25 Boise State.
Through a mixture of confidence, skill and sheer luck, the Cougs could very well steamroll their "gimme games" against Weber State, Hawaii, San Jose State, Idaho and New Mexico State; create enough of a bubble of points in their should-win games facing Utah State and Oregon State; and manage to come out on top of close games against four tough road games versus Utah, Boise State, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech.
But projections and speculation are just that: educated guesses. For now, with the weight of what could be on their shoulders, the BYU Cougars are taking one game at a time and treating no opponent different from the next.
Although BYU is a heavy favorite for Saturday's game against in-state foe Weber State, head coach Bronco Mendenhall claimed the team is chugging along as it always has: "Plans are getting to be where they're more in grain for this week; increased confidence from assignments where we were yesterday. ... I don't really see much difference between this (game) and last week's so far."
BYU quarterback Riley Nelson echoed Mendenhall's thoughts and said BYU's recipe for success would include recognizing coverage, reading the safeties down through the front and linebackers, and executing the proper play.
When asked whether there's a difference in preparation concerning Top 25 teams versus anyone else, "Not at all" was Nelson's response.
"You want to go out, you want to perform and you want to play," Nelson said. "There's going to be 60,000 people in our stadium on Saturday paying good money to watch us perform. So it's just another game."
Though these first two games were and should be two comfortable wins for BYU, coaches and fans both hope that the game time experience will remind returners of potential toss-ups, and prep newcomers for the more dangerous game beginning next week at the University of Utah.
