BYU Football: Three reasons the UMass game could be trouble for the Cougars
By Ron Jensen
Before you mark down UMass as an easy win for BYU Football, let’s take a look at a few matters that Cougar Nation should watch out for.
Some may scoff at this, but there are a few things that BYU Football should be leery of when it comes to UMass.
Last season, there’s no question that the Cougars did not take the Minutemen seriously, and as a result they suffered one of the program’s most embarrassing losses in recent history.
In front of a home crowd, no less.
Though seemingly impossible this time around, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that it might happen again.
Here are three reasons why:
1 – BYU Football’s Struggles in the East
BYU football has played 47 games east of the Mississippi River in its history. In those, they’ve accumulated a record of 14-33. Besides not being impressive, it makes this coming game a little more worrisome.
Before you ask, Lavell Edwards went 5-15 in the eastern time zone. Gary Crowton was 1-3 during his tenure. Bronco Mendenhall could only conjure up 5 wins out of his 15 attempts. Kalani Sitake is currently 2-2.
Some power programs are among these losses, but so are quite a few fairly mediocre teams. In many of cases, the toll the travel took on players was too much for BYU Football to overcome.
Can such a seemingly insignificant factor play a roll in this year’s matchup? For the Cougars sake, hopefully not, but If the past tells us anything, it will.