So I get back to Bainbridge Island from a YMCA campout at Orcas Island with my five-year-old daughter at 3:30 p.m. yesterday, and I still don't know who won the Boise State game. I have to bee-line it with my older daughter straight to the Bainbridge-Seattle ferry in order to make what turned out to be a terrific game between the Seahawks and the Raiders. I bought a Sunday paper on the ferry (the Dawgs-Ducks game was featured in a little panel on the front, so I knew it had the late scores), and with great anticipation turned to the scoreboard (apparently the Utah-Boise game didn't even merit a blerb)...and...and...what? no score down among the U's...looked up by the B's...and...could it be? what did I see? "OH NO!!! MY GOD!!! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!!!!" But these were just my thoughts. I quietly laid down my paper, threw back my head, and let out a bitter, scornful, pained laugh.
My daughter ogled me as if I was mad; from her insular world in the middle of Puget Sound, she has no appreciation, and there's no way I could convey to her, my complex, love-hate relationship with the football Utes.
It's hard to overstate how terrible this loss is for the Utes. It's far more serious than was the basketball team's loss to Utah State for two reasons, having to do with the quality of the Ute basketball program and tradition vs. Ute football's, and the manner in which success and failure are measured in basketball vs. football:
First, our basketball program has an illustrious tradition that we can fall back on during darker times, providing assurance that the good times surely will return, whereas our football team has a virtual void insofar a tradition is concerned. Colorado's route by CSU was bitter for Buff loyalists to swallow, but they can think back on a national title in the past five years, a hatful of Big 12 titles, etc., and recieve the inner comfort of knowing that, like the stock market, the Buffs will return. Same with Washington Dawgs loyalists after losing to BYU and Air Force, and Sun Devil worshipers after the debacle against New Mexico State. Even lowly Washington State has a Pac 10 Title and courageous effort in the Rose Bowl game against No. 1 Michigan in their history. The football Utes, in contrast, NEVER WON A SINGLE WAC TITLE IN THE 30+ YEARS OF THE CONFERENCE'S EXISTENCE!!!!
The second reason that the Boise State loss is so much worse is that a successful football season is measured by going to a major bowl and at least playing compeitively. Because the Utes' schedule is so weak, the loss to Boise State means a major bowl is out of the question unless the Utes act totally out of character when they travel to CSU, Air Force and BYU in the balance of the season. Now there is no room for error. In contrast, as we saw last year, one of the pleasures of a college basketball season is that a team is given space, indeed expected, to grow and jell as the season progresses, such that an early season loss to a patsy can be long fortgotten by March.
As I say, the Seahawks-Raiders game was terrific, the stadium was full, and louder than a rock concert. Hopefully the Seahawks exorcised two demons that have plagued them in the '90's--an inability to beat the Raiders, and an inability to win a game that would put them on top of their division. Sound familiar? Well, the Seahawks didn't just sit tight--they sacked their prior coach, who usually fielded a competitive team but couldn't quite seem to turn the corner to greatness, losing an inordinate number of close games that he should have won, often due to turnovers and special teams busts. And the Seahawks went the extra mile and hired Mike Holmgren.
McBride has a fair amount of support because our standards have been beaten down by almost 40 years of bad to mediocre coaches (Giddings, Meeks, Lovatt, Howard, Fassell, McBride). Still, almost eleven years into McBride's tenure, Wyoming's tradition towers over ours. Even though Wyoming is in Laramie ('nuff said), and has less than 10,000 students, it has to its credit maybe 10 WAC titles, a Sugar Bowl appearance, a hatful of bowls, and always fields a tough team.... It's time for Chris Hill to do something dramatic and risky like the Dawgs did when they hired Rick Newheisl from Colorado (the Huskies, much depleted after 7 years of Lambright, beat a tough Oregon team--and a bitter rival--Saturday night for only the second time in 7 years).
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