By Kurt Kragthorpe
Tribune Columnist
Brigham Young coach Bronco Mendenhall apparently was not consulted about the theme for this section. Not surprisingly, the linguist who also dabbles in football coaching has framed the Cougars' Las Vegas Bowl appearance in his own terms: "as a season in and of itself." In other words, as much as he believes his team can beat California, he's not risking BYU's 6-5 record as a double-or-nothing bet in Las Vegas. He's already claiming a winning season, based on what the Cougars did from September through November. What happens in December stays in December - at least, according to Mendenhall, who describes the bowl game as "a bridge from this season to the upcoming season." Nice try. While the NFL keeps separate categories for the regular season and the playoffs when it comes to coaching records and individual statistics, it's different in college football. A bowl game is treated as a 12th game, and everything counts the same. There is no regular season. Mendenhall can use all the semantics he wants, but a loss to Cal would leave BYU at 6-6. That's not a winning season. Going 6-6 with a bowl invitation would still be a definite sign of progress for the Cougars in Mendenhall's first season, better than the 5-7, 4-8 and 5-6 records they produced in the previous three years. But 7-5 would sure look better than 6-6 in Mendenhall's biography and BYU's record books. Mendenhall is consistent, I'll say that. After the Cougars' 35-21 victory at Wyoming on Nov. 12 lifted them to six wins, he was far more willing to talk about the significance of a winning season than about his team's bowl possibilities. The school's news release summarizing the first 11 games also includes the phrase "finishing with a winning season." But it's just not true. Not yet, anyway. The Cougars could have clinched a winning record by beating Utah in their final regular-season game. But they failed to take advantage of a great opportunity with a first down near midfield in the last two minutes of regulation, and could not match the Utes' overtime touchdown. So they're headed to Las Vegas with a winning season at stake. There is significance attached to playing in the postseason, certainly. In basketball, fans measure a program by whether or not it plays in the NCAA Tournament. In football, a bowl bid is the determining factor. Even if the Cougars finish 6-6, they will be judged more as successful than New Mexico (6-5) and several bowl-eligible teams that did not receive invitations. But BYU, Utah and other 6-5 teams that lose bowl games would finish with worse records than some who stayed home. Historically speaking, 6-6 would forever be 6-6 - no asterisk included. So if you ask me, the Cougars do have a season to save Thursday. They have to finish with a winning record to consider the year a genuine breakthrough.
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