The Many Meanings of This 'W'

Those of you who are up on your McAllister family history know that we are BYU fans. I don't know that we can claim the title of 'most fanatical' Cougar fans, but we definitely take BYU sports more seriously than we should. That's why Saturday's win over heavily favored Oklahoma means more to me than 1-0.

First, this has given BYU back the swagger it had through the 80s and 90s. I remember vividly watching BYU hold on to defeat Miami in 1990. I watched that game with my old man. That 3 hour game felt like a week long to us, we just wanted the game clock to read 0:00 and BYU to be ahead. I also remember being at the Ed in September of 2004 watching BYU play #1 ranked USC. Leading up to that game, there wasn't a BYU fan alive that seriously thought we would win that game. This win has changed that mentality. From now on, the Cougs will fear no team, tradition, field, or point spread.

Second, the Cougs are threatening to bust more than a BCS bowl game. College football fans have often hypothesized different scenarios by which the BCS will finally go away. Many people think that every year an undefeated team from the SEC or a 1-loss USC team gets shut out of the national championship game that we will finally submit to a playoff. Won't happen that way. But do you think that the power conferences will sit idly by and watch an undefeated and supposedly inferior BYU compete for a national championship without screaming in outrage? I don't know if BYU can hang on and win the rest of its games, but if they do, and the computers and voters are kind enough to put them in the top two, you will see massive unrest in college football.

Third, this game will most likely have a direct positive impact on my health. No, seriously. I told Amy that if the Cougs won this game that I would give up soda for a year. People have been asking me if I'm seriously going to do it. These people don't understand how bad I wanted this W...it'll be the easiest thing I've ever done.

And finally, this win did something I did not expect. It gave me a strange silent respect for the Utes. Hear me out. Those who know me know my level of dislike for the U. But after what they did to Alabama, and what we did to Oklahoma, two teams that are constantly despising each other for once have joined forces and served notice to the traditional powers in college football. The kind of respect that we are getting for this win perhaps would not be as great had Utah not throttled Alabama in January. And we will garner even more respect later this year if we beat them. Weird.

I read a headline this morning by Deseret News columnist Brad Rock that read something to the effect of 'chill out BYU fans, it's a long season'. I didn't read the column...I didn't have to. The season IS long, the Cougs DO need to bring it every week now because we have a bullseye painted on our heads. Bronco's job is to make sure that the team does not start reading its own press clippings. And after the way we trained in the offseason, and they way we played on Saturday, I have no doubt that they will be focused every week. But as far as I'm concerned, as a die-hard BYU fan that has been waiting almost two decades for a game like the one against Oklahoma, thanks Mr. Rock, but I will not chill out. In fact, I might just go watch the replay for the 17th time.