As you should know, Vicky and I have been looking forward to the weekend of Sept. 6, 2008 for a long time. Or at least I have. In this time of great anticipation we have been preparing Benjamin for this memorable weekend. "Ra Ra, Cougars!!" says Benjamin everytime he sees the BYU "Y." Vicky also taught him, "Goo Cougars!" He says it in his little boy Benjamin voice. It's really cute and we need to get it on tape. The moment I knew that Vicky and I had succeded as parents was game day morning. Wearing my cougar blue with a large Y on my chest I was ready for the day. I went to get Benjamin out of bed because I could hear him talking. As I approached him he excitedly pointed at me blue and white "Y" shirt and said, "COUGARS!"
That weekend we were also treated to the visit of a few of my friends who had come up to Washington to go to the BYU/UW game and site-see. They flew in on Thursday night. On Friday we drove down to Seattle and saw a number of the city's sites. We visited Chinatown, took a tour of Safeco Field (Mariners), visited Quest Field (Seahawks), went up the Space Needle, saw the Ballard Boat Locks, watched large salmon swim up stream from large underwater windows, ate at Ivars, rode a ferry to Whidby Island, and visited Anacortes. On Saturday we went to the game (I will get to this below), visited the Seattle Temple, and drove senic Chuckanut Drive at sunset. And on Sunday my buddies flew home.
Okay, now to the game. What a game! Wow. We were all very excited to support BYU at this harbor side stadium. Of the 60,000 plus fans there were 10,000 BYU fans in attendence. Even though I was a little disapointed in how BYU played, when the Cougars needed to make a play, they did. As many know, BYU preserved the win by blocking Washington's extra point attempt. And all I can say is that a win is a win.
The play previous to the blocked kick unfortunately is what everyone seems to remember. And as much as I LOVE ESPN (and my love has still not waned), they were completely wrong in how they treated the outcome of this game. UW's amazing sophomore quarterback ran five or so yards for the game tying touchdown and left only two seconds on the clock. What happened next is what ESPN and many many many many many others have gotten completely wrong and have made something out of nothing. Trust me, I was sitting on the same side of the field it happened on. After scoring the touchdown the very excited UW quaterback then threw the ball up into the air. Did anyone notice that ESPN, Fox, nor anyone else ever showed on TV how high that ball flew straight up in the air? I have seen each replay of the play at least 100 times (no joke) and never is it shown how high that ball went. It went at least 30+ feet into the air. Because of this, a celebration penalty was called on him. We need to remember here that the NCAA rule book says when a player throws the ball high into the air after a touchdown, this is a celebration penalty. A rule is rule and we all must live by the rules to make things fair. The penalty is a loss of 15 yards on the extra point attempt. So instead of Washington getting a PAT (point after attempt) at 20 yards it was pushed back to 35 yards. ESPN claims that UW lost the game because of the celebration penalty that pushed the PAT back. A field goal from 35 yards should be a piece of cake for any field goal unit. If you can't make a field goal from 35 yards, you shouldn't be playing high school ball. Jan Jorgenson of BYU said that he knew he had to make a play here. So on UW's PAT Jan Jorgenson blew through Washington's guards and while standing on his feet he blocked the PAT. STANDING ON HIS FEET!!! (ESPN has a sweet picture of it on their website. It also was the #1 top play of the day on ESPN that night.) Jan Jorgenson saved the day and this is why UW lost. Not because of a controversial call. HOG WASH! (If we want to talk about controversial calls, why not talk about the Pac 10 referee's home cooking and blantly missing at least six obvious calls that really helped UW. . . . I better stop here.)
Okay, I needed to get that off my chest, because I am sick of ESPN and everybody else not giving BYU any credit for the win.
Wasn't yesterdays kiester whooping of UCLA great! BYU went up from #18 to #14 in the polls because of it. (Not to mention that the Moutain West Conference played four Pac 10 teams yesterday and we ran the table! BYU over UCLA, TCU over Stanford, New Mexico over Arizona, and UNLV over #15 ASU!)
Below are some of our memories from the game. It was really fun to be there and loudly cheer our Cougars on to victory.
Excited Cougar Nation!
BYU Captains. (#74 is a Construction Management Major.)
BYU COUGARS!!!
HAKA!
Cosmo and the boys at halftime.
GO BYU!
Faithful CougarTown!
Victory! (You can see the score, and Bronco visiting with UW's coach.)
For the record, BYU has not lost a game when Benjamin has been in attendence (he's up to 9 wins including wins over Utah, Arizona, TCU, and Washington.) Nor has BYU lost to Utah since Benjamin has been born. I hope this continues. . .
