EPIC WIN!!!

Well, my friends, what words can I choose to describe this weekend? I elected to go with epic. In my mind, this was the third most significant win in BYU history already, and depending on how the rest of the season goes, it might climb from there. (In case you're wondering, I put Michigan in the Holiday Bowl at #1 because it clinched an NC, and Miami 1990 at #2 because they were in fact a bigger, badder juggernaut than Oklahoma. But not by much.)

I had an awesome trip. It was very brief, but tons of fun. A huge thank you to the Lindseys for letting me sleep at their house on Friday night to catch my early flight out of Reno, and Sam in particular for driving me to and from the airport, the outgoing flight at a dreary 6:40 am.

I arrived in Dallas around noon, and the Hawthorne hotel very promptly picked me up with their shuttle. I was quite impressed with my hotel. It was all smoke free, very clean and quiet, and the staff was first rate. A good part of the stay. But enough about that. My brother Joe and his wife, Kamie, picked me up a bit after 3 pm and we headed to Cowboys Stadium. To say the place is huge is an enormous understatement. It is the largest domed structure in the world when the roof is in place, and it looks it. Here is a picture of the three of us at the entry gate:


And a picture of Joe and me in the vain attempt at encompassing the entire structure in the view frame:


This picture is from closer in. I tried several times to get the whole thing to fit, but this was the best I could do. I was practically on the ground to take this picture, which is I think the reason the OU fan there is giving an odd look. But only at an extreme angle and practically at ground level could I get the view top-to-bottom. Once we got in, we had to climb for what seemed like 20 minutes up a series of ramps to get to our seats, which were 4 seats from the very top:


In the stadium itslef at the endzones they have these standing room only areas. Each of them has a little breastwork that the ticket purchaser could set a drink or lounge against and rest themselves while watching the game. (Wicked priests of Noah, anyone? That's what it reminded me of, anyway. A little Book of Mormon humor for the LDS reader.) I took this picture from one of those breastworks. Behind the ledge is a vast area for standing room only, where you can't really see the field but can see the video screens. There were quite a few people who paid to come in and sit there:


Side view of the field. I thought this would be from where we were sitting, but it turns out the fellow fans who told us we were in the wrong section on our inital assent were themselves mistaken and sitting in our seats. By the time I discovered the mistake, they were in the process of being removed by others whose chairs they were in. So, we watched the game a little closer to center than this:


While we were waiting, I bought a pulled pork sandwich and a bottle of water for $13.50. The picture of the sandwich made it look very large, and had chips and a pickle on the plate with it. The real thing was about the size of McDonalds regular hamburger bun, and not well stuffed. It also did not sit well after the game. But, that's what you get with concessions, I suppose. Here is a picture of one of the speakers. I am told by Joe and Kamie (who were in Dallas several days in advance and toured the stadium and had all sorts of fascinating nuggets of info) that the speakers are roughly the size of tractor trailers:


A side view of another speaker:


Here is a picture of an air conditioning duct. I'm not sure whether you can tell from the people in this picture, but I'm telling you, you could comfortably crawl through these things with a party of 10 people:


More on the screen in a moment, but here is a picture of my friend and fellow law school classmate Mark Atuaia, a former BYU running back and now coaching assistant. He's on the right in this picture:


Me in front of the field as the teams were finishing their warmups:


The Sooner Schooner. I meant to take a picture of BYU as they came on to the field, but I was too caught up in the excitement and forgot:


And the famous screen. I can now say that my eyes have gazed upon the largest big screen HD in the known universe! They rarely showed the Y oval on the big screen, it was almost always the OU symbol instead, so I had to be quick to get this one. You'll notice the Mitsubishi Electric letters under the screen. Those letters are 5 feet tall, if that gives you any perspective. The screen is 7 stories in height and stretches from 20 yard line to 20 yardline, 60 yards wide. Really I don't think you can appreciate how massive this thing (the whole place, really) without physically standing there:


Me in front of the screen as time expired:


And, it took me several tries to get a good scoreboard pic as my camera wasn't picking it up really well and it was hard to fiddle with the settings what with the Cougar celebration going on around me, so this was the best I got:


Afterwards Joe, Kamie and I went to a little "fast" food joint called Whataburger. We waited approximately 29847638392384 years for the OU fans in front of us to order and get their food, which consisted of several bags. I suppose the defeat left them hungry. At any rate, we ordered and were sitting at the window for a very long time. Joe then said that he should get gas (it was a ff/gas station combo) while we waited. I said, nah, can't be much longer. Joe said it again after several minutes, and Kamie said nah, it can't be much longer. Lo several minutes after that, Joe suggested it again. So I got out of the car and stood there while they drove away, gassed up, got back in the car, and backed in to the drive through once again. And then we waited even longer to get our food. Very irritating, and not great fare anyway.

We ate it in Kamie and Joe's hotel room in the Marriott, on the concierge floor. It was very high class, those two travel in style, I'm telling you.

And then it was back to the Hawthorne for a few hours sleep and the return trip.

All the OU fans I interacted with were very gracious and complimentary. I was impressed. They were without a doubt the best opponent fans I have come accross, even after just getting beaten.

The return trip was kind of crazy, as I got a taste of what it must be like to be famous or a celebrity or something like that. Naturally I was wearing a lot of Cougar gear, and not less than 20 times before I quit counting in the DFW and Reno airports did I have someone yell something out to me about the game, or stop me to talk, or make some other comment. Some groups of Texas fans applauded as I walked past. Pretty funny. I suppose it just goes to show how widely watched this game was.

My thoughts on the game itself: I felt vindicated. Those die hard Cougar fan readers know that I have been preaching since circa 2006 that recruiting was shaping up such that the 2009 season would be "the year" for BYU football, with an experienced, senior laden defense, tons of awesome skill players, and a talented, even if younger, oline. Of course, at the time I thought Collie would be on this team, but I stand by my prediction. The defense looked as good as I thought it would, and the offense clearly has some weapons. The kicking game appears to be the only glaring weakness. I also feel good because I was telling everyone to have some faith in the team that they could win. I'll admit in the hours before kickoff, my own faith wavered quite a bit.

But in the fourth quarter I was reminded of BYU v. Utah 2001. In that game BYU was down 11 points with just over 6 minutes to go; Utah had the ball; BYU was 10-0 coming into the game, and the stadium was deathly silent. We were sitting in the North endzone, and I stood up and started yelling that I believed the Cougars would win the game. I got a lot of strange looks from my fellow BYU fans. Long story short, BYU got the ball back, scored, held Utah 3 and out, got the ball back, scored again, and intercepted a pass to win the game. As that memory came to mind, I made the decision to believe that they were going to win. And they did!

Now, I realize that this is sports, and in the grand scheme of things, not that important. But I really do think there are valuable lessons to be learned from this, even if BYU had lost. It never hurts to believe. It can only help. The same is true in our other endeavors, work, family relationships, personal goals, etc. But I digress.

It's hard not to be excited. Virtually the entire season is left, but BYU is in control of its own destiny as far as a BCS game goes, and if the chips fall right, possibly to play for a national title. It's a great time to be a Cougar fan.

I am going to leave the poll up until the Tulane game. I selected "Cougars all the way" along with one other individual. Whoever you are, I salute you and your faith in the boys in blue.

On a final note, this trip was very meaningful for me in particular because I was not personally at BYU's triumph over #1 Miami in 1990. Dad was only able to get so many tickets for that game, and couldn't get enough to take the whole family, so it was he and Mom and a few of my older brothers. I suspect that if he had known how the brothers would shake out in terms of sports fanaciticism and rooting interests, I would have gotten one of those tickets, but this is nearly 20 years ago. My younger brother and I ended up watching that game at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle LaDell's house in Farmington, Utah, only an hours drive from the stadium when we lived some 9 hours away. I have often wished that I could have been there. (Note I have no animosity about this, just wish I could have been there. The elder brothers deserved it what with their senior status in age.) But now I have a game of nearly as great a stature where I can say I was there. It was worth every red cent. And the biggest thanks to Rebecca for putting up with and even encouraging a severe BYU sports addiction.