BYU Football: Cougars getting some respect after Arizona win

BYU Football’s win over Arizona has Cougar fans excited for improved play, and the nation is taking notice too.

It’s amazing what a win can do.

After the nightmare 2017 season, most of the nation expected BYU Football to struggle to reach a bowl game. While that’s still possible, the Cougars’ 28-23 win over Arizona has most of the nation doing a double-take.

Suddenly BYU looks a whole lot more dangerous than anyone expected.

And a lot of updated polls, rankings, and computer models are singing a different tune in Week 2.

For example, USA Today re-ranked all 130 FBS teams after the first full week of games. Last week, the news site had the Cougars sitting at No. 82.

This week they’re No. 49.

That’s a 33-spot jump, tied for the biggest leap with Ole Miss and Cincinnati.

USA Today isn’t the only one. Last week ESPN’s FPI had the Cougars winning only five games. They’ve now got BYU winning six, with an edge over UMass and a greater shot to beat Cal and Utah State.

That one’s not too big of an adjustment, but no one’s accused ESPN of being ahead of the curve in a while.

And finally, there’s the AP Poll.

The new poll came out on Tuesday, and there’s an interesting name sitting in the “Others Receiving Votes” category: BYU.

The Cougars received three votes, unofficially ranking them No. 41 in the nation. It’s the first time that BYU has sniffed the poll since the preseason rankings of last year.

Three writers had the Cougars ranked No. 25: Syracuse Media Group’s Brent Axe, The Winston Salem Journal’s Conor O’Neill, and ESPN’s Rece Davis (let’s take back that ESPN crack from above).

Does this mean it’s time to start clamoring for the Cougars to play in a New Year’s Six bowl?

Not even close.

But does it mean that fans can enjoy the fact that the Cougars look like a much better team in 2018 and that others are noticing it too?

Yep.