The Homecoming Game: BYU

After battling our Catholic conference opponents, Boston College, we move onto playing against our Mormon out-of-conference opponents, BYU. Last year BYU finished at 10-3 after a Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl victory over Tulsa, following a BYU Conference Title (lol independent jokes). Honestly though, I have no idea what that 10-3 record means, seeing as the only BCS opponents they beat were Ole Miss (they beat a pretty sorry Ole Miss team 14-13 in week 1) and Oregon State (who finished 3-9, including a 29-28 loss to FCS Sacramento State), and they got absolutely whipped by Utah (yes, THAT Utah) by a score of 54-10. Long story short, pretty much anyone of any merit that they played against beat them -- their best wins were probably against UCF (24-17), Utah State (27-24), and Tulsa (24-21).

What do we take from all this? Beats me. Let's look at the stats: they finished 47th nationally in passing with 245.4 yds/game, and 55th nationally in rushing with 160.3 yds/game. Now what have we learned? They're average and balanced -- sweet. However, the one really telling stat may be their 22nd ranked defense, which gave up 20.4 pts/game -- though even that may be a function of their overall weak schedule (again, they beat 3 bowl-eligible teams).

Overall, looking at this game I'm actually a little nervous. Here's a team we don't know TOO much about, who will come in with a talented defense and nothing to lose. However, it IS our homecoming game, meaning the crowd will be plenty amped and the team will be playing with a charge in it. I think that we come out of this game with a win, but I think we have reason to approach the game with caution and focus, lest we get beaten by a team we really shouldn't be losing to.

Who's in for a Homecoming victory? Will BYU be better than advertised? Will the crowd be nasty and bigoted like some of the BC trolls suggest?