BYU seniors look to the end of the season and beyond


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PROVO — BYU will finish its regular season campaign at Cal on Saturday and that means the end is near for 26 seniors. Those seniors include unique stories from Christian Stewart’s winding path to Jordan Leslie the one-year wonder. They are looking at a series of finals, a final regular season game, a final bowl game, last team meetings, and even last media interview sessions. But first, last Saturday they said goodbye to playing at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

“The last game in the stadium, it was tough,” said senior Craig Bills. “It was sad, growing up wanting to play there, watching my brothers play there. It was sad knowing it’s my last game.”

Bills says there is still a lot of season left, he plans on trying out for the NFL and completing his last few semesters of school.

Team captain and senior Paul Lasike made the transition from rugby to football and now from blocker to ball carrier. He plans to rejoin the rugby team in January and complete his final year with them. His words focused on work ethic, growth and how much he has changed and learned playing football at BYU. He said his most memorable game was last year at Notre Dame, but now he is excited to sit in the stands and support his boys, he is thankful for and at peace with his unexpected football career.

“It was Senior Day last week, but I kind of look at it differently.” Lasike said. I’m just so grateful for the opportunity. Like I said I was only supposed to come to play rugby.”

Christian Stewart left Snow College to finish strong at BYU … in academics. That was before the Cougars found themselves with a shortage of quarterbacks after the departure of Ammon Olsen. After the injury to Taysom Hill, Stewart has seen the field more than anyone would’ve expected.

“I’m just trying to enjoy the moment,” Stewart said. “I know it’s not gonna last forever. About a month left, and I’m just trying to soak it all in, enjoy being the starting quarterback at BYU, something I’ve always dreamed of. Also just prepare myself in every way so I have no regrets and I play to where I feel confident and comfortable going forward.”

Stewart says he’s excited for the senior guys who got to play against Savannah State, guys who worked hard and played with him on the scout team. Stewart sees Cal as a quality opponent like they haven’t seen in awhile. He wants to finish the season 9-4, something he can be proud of. After school, he also says he has a job lined up in San Francisco and big things on the horizon.

***

As these seniors prepare to finish their college careers, they know for BYU the final games they play in will have an effect on the future. BYU has the opportunity to finish the season with a win against a P5 school and cap a five-game win streak with a bowl victory. Cal is a high-scoring spread team with a bowl bid on the line. BYU sees a victory there as a resume builder and a message to P5 conferences. Senior Alani Fua gave some frank thoughts on BYU’s intentions.

“I think everyone knows we're trying to go to another conference,” Fua said. “Get to a big conference, winning games like this is gonna give us an argument, I guess, to get into conferences like that. The more we can show we can play with these other teams in power five conferences the more chance we have of getting into one.”

Fua has been nagged by injuries all season and wants to “go out with a bang” and show what he’s got. Fua called his final game at LES emotional but the end won’t hit him until it really is the last week of preparation. When his college career ends, he says he is looking forward to the NFL.

***

Jordan Leslie came to BYU for his final year of eligibility, and he’s wasted no time being a star on and off the field. Leslie is an outgoing and magnetic personality, active on social media and a fan and media favorite. Today he gave three one-on-one interviews and met with the general media. In between and after, he found time to joke his way around and into the interviews of Christian Stewart and his coach, Guy Holliday, a man instrumental in bringing Leslie to BYU.

Holliday has been something of a father figure to Leslie and was emotional talking about the end of their time together at BYU. He said that he did not quite cry, and emphasized several times he does not and will not do that, but he sure looked close. He had many kind words about Leslie, but this one might sum up how comfortable and close they are.

“You embrace the idiot in everybody,” Holliday said as Leslie climbed over the table behind him to inform the media that Holliday will in fact cry.

Holliday praised Leslie’s hard work. He said you can’t get him to stop practicing or playing, and this year he had no other options. He also said Leslie spent much of the season around 60 percent healthy. More importantly however, Holliday spoke to the success he believes Leslie will have after school and football. Holliday said most players have been playing since they were 5, and 95 percent will not continue on after college. Some don’t handle it well, but Leslie has an engineering degree and Holliday believes he will move on to great things. He hopes he can continue playing but knows he is well-prepared for life. Holliday says when someone leaves your life like the seniors are, you’re thinking beyond football.

“Just as a person, you want to know that you reached that person,” Holliday said. “Whether it's two years, whether it's five years, whether it’s one year. You wanna know you made an impact on that person’s life.” Mitchell Marshall is a KSL Sports Radio intern and broadcast journalism student at Brigham Young University where he anchors and produces sports. Find him @mitchellive on twitter.

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