The Worst BYU Football Game EVER

Poor Taysom :(
From www.good4utah.com

Ok, maybe it's not really THAT bad, but on Friday night as it just got worse and worse and worse as I watched helplessly from the stands in LES, it sure seemed like it!

I don't really care that we lost to Utah State. I've thought it was a possibility since the season began, and I never believed we would go undefeated. It was never really a winnable game, since the BYU defense decided not to show up for some unknown reason. They had to beat us eventually, so whatever. That's not what still hurts. That's not what matters at all. What matters is that we've lost Taysom Hill to a broken leg, as well as several other key players for who-knows-how-long.

Heisman Campaign = Gone.

Special Season = Gone.

Word after this morning's practice is that Taysom's leg was even worse than originally expected. Every major ligament in his leg was "shredded." They had to put in 8 screws and a metal plate. Ouchie . . .

As far as I know, there's still no word on the other team members who were injured during the game: Alani Fua, Brayden Kearsley, Dallin Leavitt, Michael Alisa, and one other player who they said had a head injury, but now I can't remember who it was. Seriously, I've never seen so many injuries from one team in a single game before! No one from Utah State got injured, right? Kind of suspicious . . . They even took out a referee!

Really the only tiny silver lining I see coming out of Taysom's injury is that I think it greatly increases the odds that he will return to BYU for his senior year. He didn't injure his left knee again, thank goodness, so he should be back and good as new by spring. But the remainder of this season could be really painful.

Don't get me wrong-- Christian Stewart is a talented quarterback. He's got a really strong arm (probably stronger than Taysom's), but he needs to work on accuracy and taming the aggression just a tiny bit. He's capable of running, but definitely not running like Taysom. I'm excited for him to get the chance to lead the team as a senior, but I question whether he will be able to settle in and get used to the flow of the game fast enough to salvage the season. The timing almost couldn't be worse-- they've got a short turnaround to head out to Orlando to play UCF on Thursday, and then they've got to come back and play Nevada, a MWC team that has turned out to be much better than anyone expected, for Homecoming. And THEN they have to go play on the Smurf Turf at Boise State. That's a really tough 3-game stretch for an inexperienced QB. But Stewart is confident, and I hope he can at least pull out a 9-ish-win season.

Then again, after the deplorable defense on Friday night, maybe the QB isn't the problem at all . . .

We've probably lost the fair weather fans, but the loyal members of Cougar Nation are still pulling for you, boys! We've still got lots of football to play!