There is talk that Brigham Young University needs some kind of shakeup in the athletic director’s office or in the coach’s office or maybe even among the on-field talent. They are losing. In one game they didn’t even score, never even made it past mid-field.
The talk in Utah County includes: “Yeah it’s not so good now, but you just wait, you just wait and see, BYU will find its groove, those guys will figure it out soon and then, you just wait, they’ll start winning. It’s a sure thing, you can bet your infernal salvation on it.”
And they do, they figure it out and they start winning. For a time, things are good again and heads go into the sand.
But those whose countenance includes a modest patina of reality understand that the winning starts about the time BYU’s schedule goes soft, about the same time the Wagner, The East Carolina and the Finkelbaum High School kids line up against them. It’s then, in the stands at Lavell Edwards Stadium you’ll see kids flirting with the edge, the fans with shocking blue and white paint on their faces, raise a “We’re #1” finger (thankfully the index) for each time the PA announcer utters “Another Cougar first down” and the cougar growls.
It seems the team finally figured it out … until the next tough opponent.
It’s that fan reaction in mid to late season, “The sun is shining now” mentality that makes for dirty air along the Wasatch Front. It’s the, “Everything is OK now,” attitude that keeps the BYU fan base mostly placated as they watch their guys play another fruit bowl game because they went 6 and something.
There is a parallel here.
When the dirty air hits the Salt Lake Valley, and people begin to question Brigham Young’s “This is The Place” articulation and wonder why he couldn’t see the demise of the horse and the advent of the automobile, it’s then, and it’s as inevitable as the early season losses for the Cougars, it’s then that we all start talking.
Sometimes even those who make our laws, our legislators, in the hallowed halls of government begin speaking among themselves. They look outside their windows and between phlegmish coughs, discuss the possibility that something must be done. Special sessions are contemplated, committees are formed and there actually is talk about doing something.
It must be about then that someone must say, “But hold on here, just wait until the seasons change our air is going to clear right up.” And it does, the sun shines and there is no more clean-air talk until the next bout of coughing, retching and pulmonary paralysis.
It’s the head in the sand approach.
Utah air quality can be made better, but those who make the rules, those who govern will need to take their heads out of their … sand piles and finally do something.
When the air is relatively clean, when the schedule is soft everything is good. But it never stays that way.
California doesn’t have clean air, but it’s better than it once was. Maybe it’s time to adopt some of their tough rules, because the schedule isn’t always soft, the sun doesn’t always shine and the reality is the air we breathe is much more serious than football.
Lynn Lehmann, Salt Lake City, is a writer and former television producer.