Before the season started, I had Arizona State as one of two “automatic” losses for the Cougars. The reasoning for this was that with the Utah game the week before, BYU Football would either be riding a wave of pure euphoria or be down in the gutter mentally with the result of the game.
While this is still a very real concern, with the announcement of the Big 12 expanding on Friday morning one day before the Utah game, the Cougars showed me that they can handle emotional highs and still play at a very high level.
But let’s be honest, the emotion of beating Utah was more of emotional high for these players, in part because most of the current players on the roster won’t ever play in Lavell Edwards Stadium when there is a Big 12 logo on the field.