Is UCF game a must win?

I saw in my twitter feed that Coach Mendenhall doesn't consider the UCF game to be a must win. Maybe I'm missing Coach's explanation because--at the expense of biasing poll results--I have a hard time seeing how it's not a must win game for BYU.



I learned volleyball from BYU great Carl McGown, and he taught that there are 5 times to never miss a serve: team's first serve of the match, your first serve of the match, after a time out, on your team's match point, and on your opponent's match point.



Similarly, I think there are 5 times a college football team should never lose: the first game of the season, the first conference game of the season, a game coming off a bye, a game coming off a loss, and a bowl game.



Just because BYU lost last game makes this a must win in my book. Add on top of that the manner in which BYU lost, the opponent BYU lost to, and the context of independence and realignment, and I have a hard time understanding how this isn't a must win.



What to you think?

BYU can still make a bowl - all that's left to play for - if they lose this game. But if they want to avoid an absolute debacle of a season then they can't lose on Friday.



I really believe a loss on Friday - especially if the offense struggles - will kill whatever fight the team has left. They lose on Friday, they'll lose to Utah State, TCU, Oregon St and Hawaii at a minimum.

SpiffCoug wrote:
BYU can still make a bowl - all that's left to play for - if they lose this game. But if they want to avoid an absolute debacle of a season then they can't lose on Friday.



I really believe a loss on Friday - especially if the offense struggles - will kill whatever fight the team has left. They lose on Friday, they'll lose to Utah State, TCU, Oregon St and Hawaii at a minimum.

Agree. This is a must win if byu in it's first year of Indy and wants to be even remotely relevant.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

Define "must win". BYU really needs to turn around their season and a win against UCF would be a nice start. But, BYU doesn't HAVE to win that game, in fact UCF is most likely going to be a loss which will be sad, but I've thought it would be a loss since last season. UCF usually has a good team and BYU hasn't done well against a "good" team but once in a while.



BYU football will not be lost due to the UCF result, unless you're some weak sauce bandwagon fan.

No.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

We absolutely must win this game - especially considering the current fragile psyche of this team. Bronco just stated on Monday, "If we don't respond it can set us back...that is something I have to acknowledge as we prepare for UCF. The more wins we can get our first year of independence the better."



Additionally we just got blown out in front of 2 million viewers on ESPN - another loss on ESPN to a good team puts us on the map to irrelevancy. We want positive exposure not the type that dismisses our team as second tier.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

byucougar1 wrote:
We absolutely must win this game - especially considering the current fragile psyche of this team. Bronco just stated on Monday, "If we don't respond it can set us back...that is something I have to acknowledge as we prepare for UCF. The more wins we can get our first year of independence the better."



Additionally we just got blown out in front of 2 million viewers on ESPN - another loss on ESPN to a good team puts us on the map to irrelevancy. We want positive exposure not the type that dismisses our team as second tier.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

IF the loss to the :utard: had been a 1 score loss, a UCF loss would be bad but not devastating. We need a win on national TV to get the mental part of the game right. Got to get back on the horse when you get bucked off.

It's as close to a must win as a team without a conference championship has. But given what I saw last Saturday this team's psyche isn't strong enough to rebound that quickly.. 6 days is too soon. The "here we go again" mentality will start mid 1st quarter.

What Bronco tells the media and what he tells his players are 2 different things. Bronco has been asked that same question MANY times and has never admitted that any game is a "must win". Last year before the utah state and the SDSU games he was asked and said no on both occaisions but I can GUARANTEE you that the urgency in team meetings and practice was different.

I always felt every game was a "must win", if you go in thinking it's not, you won't!

No, sadly.

Bronco knows this is a tough, tough game. 50/50 chance of winning, given their strength on defense and especially pass defense. Their strength against our sort of strength.

Why would he want to set himself up by saying this is a must win? Then what if he loses? Yep, many of you start jumping off the ships along with the other rats.

"our team needs to respond" is code phrase for we have to play our hardest and execute and if hte other team beats us bc they were the better team, we can still say we responded. Not too unrealistic, if you ask me.

I agree with the psyche argument. I was around in the pre-Edwards era (Tom Hudspeth, et. al.) and there was clearly the feeling that when BYU took the field, they were going to lose. It was a "oh well, we're really good at basketball" mentality. Nobody cared about football, the stadium only held 30,000, and it seemed like there was little enthusiasm by either fans or players. Then came the Edwards years and they put BYU on the map. Much of that was because BYU did things that nobody else did and it took other teams about a decade to catch up. Coach E. even traveled around the country giving workshops to other coaches!



We could easily slip back into the malaise that was the late 60s. Last year it almost happened until Bronco took over the defense. He can't take over the offense too. A couple more losses in a row and we'd be in a death spiral, at least for this season. Once that happens, it affects recruiting, making it more difficult to land good recruits, and that leads to more mediocrity and the death spiral continues. We must go at least 2-1 in our next 3 games to prevent this. Get back to .500, have a shot to qualify for even a low-level bowl game, and keep things alive. Still, after the same scenario last season, a repeat of that seriously impedes your credibility as a football program with any long-term prospects. As an independent, that credibility is all we have.

One more thought. When BYU started its unique passing attack in the early 70s, QBs were lining up to play at a place where they could star. USC, the same era, had running backs linking up to play there, where they could star. If we want good running backs, we have to run the ball enough to entice them to come. Just like a passing QB will not want to play somewhere that never passes, a top-notch rusher isn't going to want to play at a place that never runs the ball. I'm hoping that we'll see more balanced play calling in the UCF game. .

Yesish if we don't want to see our games moved to 6:00AM on ESPN 9!



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">