There is an ongoing anecdote that says that the Sam Boyde Stadium should have been given a new name and that it shall be known as the Lavell Edwards Stadium South. Why? It appears that the Brigham Young University Cougars almost always win in that place and it has been a destination for them during post season.



The last time that the lost a game in that place was about three years ago when the Cal-Berkeley team overpowered them under the leadership of head coach Bronco Mendenhal who was on his first year. It was also during a Las Vegas Bowl.

Not a lot of people have committed that game to memory since that was the last game for the Brigham Young University Cougars' transition period wherein they where restructuring their team. At the same time the difference in the score was not that significant at 6-7. From that time on they won three seasons with ten wins per season and they also won two bowls with another one looming on the horizon.

This year has a very different picture with extreme performances ? either they played awesome football or had a dismal showing.

This Las Vegas Bowl will be a different one because they have other motives. They have this certain drive to avenge the loss that they had in this particular stadium and another is the loss that they suffered on the hands of the Arizona Wildcats last 2006. It is not easy to win over the Wildcats though and the Brigham Young University Cougars has to dominate the game very early in order to do that.

Arizona's team is a Pac-10 contender and had a great season so far with eleven wins. They have a very talented line-up who played consistently well all year round. Though they lost to Stanford and New Mexico as well as to University of Southern California and the Oregon St Beavers the difference in the scores were not very significant.

The BYU started the season very well but in the latter games it seemed that they had to exert more effort just to win. This was evident in their game with New Mexico and has continued for some time now. The ones that they won had a short leads.

Thus if the fervor to win over the Arizona Wildcats is still very strong then the Brigham Young University Cougars will need to have an early lead. If this does not happen, they might be in for a hard struggle just to attain victory. The Wildcats are as "wild" as ever just like their namesake and the Cougars might be tamed by them.

Who will gain upper hand and be in control of the game? Who will prove to be fiercer? The answers we have yet to know.