BYU football: Portland St. could be the key to the Cougars beating LSU

BYU football gets a tune-up game before the big matchup against LSU. The Tigers won’t. That could make all the difference.

September 1, 2007. The day Appalachian State shocked the world.

The Mountaineers went into the Big House and walked away with a 34-32 win over #5 Michigan. It’s one of the biggest upsets in college football history.

And it happened in Week 1 of the 2007 season.

Last year, Fox Sports published their Top 10 Week 1 upsets of the last decade. Unsurprisingly, the Appalachian State win topped the list.

Spoiler Alert: BYU football’s upset over Oklahoma in 2009 was No. 2 on the list.

It’s not unusual to see upsets or near upsets during Week 1. Maybe it’s rust, maybe it’s the adrenaline of finally taking on another team.

Whatever it is, the top teams are often most vulnerable in their first game.

Last year alone, five heavily favored teams fell in the first week:

• Eastern Washington 45, Washington St. 42
• South Alabama 21, Mississippi St. 20
• Western Michigan 22, Northwestern 21
• Houston 33, Oklahoma 23
• Northern Iowa 25, Iowa St. 20

Three other heavy favorites were tested in their opening matchups as well: Tennessee, Michigan State, and Arkansas.

The Viking Tune-Up

Often, a team’s greatest improvement comes between their first and second games. The rust and jitters are gone, and the cohesion is vastly better.

With that in mind, Tom Holmoe should get a lot of credit for scheduling this season’s opening matchup with the Portland State Vikings.

Next: Cougars Have Youth And Experience

He took advantage of the Hawaii rule, which lets any team that plays at Hawaii schedule a 13th regular season game and schedule their opening game one week earlier than other teams.

As a result, BYU football opens a week before most others, hosting the Vikings on August 26th. They’ll get those kinks and jitters out a week early.

That’s not to say the Cougars should overlook Portland State. BYU football is just as prone to being toppled by the Vikings as Michigan was by Appalachian St.

But the real advantage comes in their second game. The Cougars travel to Houston to take on LSU, a game in which they’ll be the heavy underdogs.

This’ll be LSU’s first game of the year though. They won’t have a tune-up game to shake out the rust and work out the jitters.

This is one area where the Cougars will have an edge.

Does it mean BYU should be favored to take down the Tigers? No.

Does it mean the Cougars are the better team? Not likely.

Buy maybe, just maybe, it’ll be enough of an edge to put BYU on that upset list for a second time.