BYU-TCU: Cougars Should Have Taken a Page from Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

(Holy Bible, King James Version, Prov. 16:18)

TCU 32, BYU 7.

Should it surprise anyone? Certainly not...

Of course, I have BYU sitting pretty at No. 5 in my most recent B/R Top 25 (and Utah at No. 4). Perhaps I was as overconfident in assessing the Cougars' chances of going undefeated as they were.

To be fair, I resolved to keep both Utah and BYU advancing up the ranking as events dictated, and each week teams above them obliged by losing: Ohio State to USC, USC to Oregon State, Florida to Mississippi, Georgia to Alabama, LSU to Florida, Oklahoma to Texas...

College football, circa the early 21st century, seems to be tailor-made for bringing the haughty down to earth—if only temporarily. Each new "king of the hill" also seems to be ripe for the knocking down, as the balance of power has become more equitable (if not at NFL-style "parity").

The "Horny Toads" brought their top-class defense, that much is clear. The vaunted BYU attack sputtered and ultimately stalled on the turf of Fort Worth, leaving the Cougars' BCS hopes utterly exposed, like a ripe insect, to be devoured.

A key stat that coaches dwell upon—to the point of graying hair, or losing hair, or pulling out their hair—is turnover margin.

BYU turned the ball over four times; TCU turned it over once. Advantage, TCU.

Another stat that shows just how exposed the Cougars were was rushing. 28 attempts, 23 yards (0.8 per carry). Compare that to TCU: 51 attempts, 240 yards (4.7).

Now, BYU is not necessarily unusual in relying upon putting up obscene offensive numbers in order to outscore the opposition and win games. However, such a strategy will be overridden by a strong defense that can contain the running game and disrupt the passing game.

TCU is only one such program that has that capability. Despite the Horned Frogs' loss to Oklahoma, they are still a class defensive act.

Oklahoma has a powerful offense as well, but then again, perhaps if the Oklahoma-TCU game had been in Forth Worth on a Thursday, things *might* have been different. For parallels, think Corvallis a few weeks ago...

I'm not so much surprised by the fact of the loss as by the margin. Was this the same BYU program that demolished UCLA and Wyoming? Possibly. Perhaps UCLA and Wyoming are truly that bad (and I won't deny that, even being a UCLA alumnus).

Perhaps BYU was never deserving of being ranked so high in the polls, and the gap between the "BCS" conferences and the "mid-major" conferences is still that large.

Or perhaps the Cougars began thinking (as is human nature—see the Proverbs verse above) that they were invincible, and that they would march triumphantly through the schedule to a BCS bowl, or perhaps a title game.

Any good coach is able to spot this pride, this haughtiness, and nip it in the proverbial bud before it ends up in the inevitable fall.

That's the job of a good coach, or at least his assistants and staff: to bring the players back down to earth, and restore some sense of perspective, and more importantly, a sense of humility, both regarding one's own shortcomings and regarding the worth of one's opponent.

A good coach will drill the following into his charges:

"Take NO game for granted, take no OPPONENT for granted; get your heads out of your *cough* text messages *cough* and pay attention to this week's FOOTBALL tasks. Assume NOTHING, prepare for ANYTHING, and give EVERYTHING of yourself, during practice, during the game, and in your life. Don't tell yourself how GOOD you are; ask yourself...demand of yourself...how you can become BETTER, as a player and as a person."

I don't know if BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall (still a contender for "best name for a coach") said something like this to his players in the past week. If he did, they heard but didn't listen. What I do know is that players (as a group) who don't follow this basic advice will end up teaching us—and hopefully, themselves—a valuable lesson.

To get theological: Pride is a deadly sin, and humility is a heavenly virtue. You don't have to be Judeo-Christian to make use of this, of course. That's the great thing about human insight—it often doesn't have any theological affiliation.

For all those on the "good list" (the B/R Top 25 or one of the other polls), take a page from Proverbs 16:18.

NOTE: I am making no judgment about the relative worth of any religious denomination, but merely using a Biblical reference to apply to college football as I know it. Any resemblance to sermons or other religious commentary, present or past, is completely accidental and unintended. Thank you for your consideration.