BYU Football
By Kurt Kragthorpe
The nature of football, especially in a program with Brigham Young's recent tradition, is that the quarterback, offensive coordinator and head coach receive most of the credit and all of the blame. Usually, in that order. It's not necessarily fair, but it's the reality of life in Provo. So no matter how many yards he racks up, John Beck will not rank among the Cougars' all-time great quarterbacks unless his win-loss record improves dramatically by the end of next season. That's OK with him. "Stat-wise, we had a great offense this year," Beck said. "We set records, we did a lot of things, but when it comes down to it, it's the wins that matter most." The 3,357 passing yards? Impressive. The 6-5 record? Improvement. But not since the LaVell Edwards Era was launched in 1972 - and the world began, according to Cougar football followers - has any quarterback started anywhere near as many games as Beck with so little success. Thursday's Las Vegas Bowl against California will mark the junior's 26th career start. It is encouraging to the Cougars regarding next year that no quarterback other than Ty Detmer has had that much experience going into his senior season. Then again, by the night of his 26th start, Detmer already had 21 victories and a Heisman Trophy. Beck stands 12-13, which obviously is not all his fault, having lived through the program's downturn under former coach Gary Crowton. And Beck hardly could have done more Sept. 24 against Texas Christian, throwing for 517 yards and five touchdowns in a 51-50 overtime loss. He did rescue the Cougars' signature victory of the season, leading two fourth-quarter scoring drives in a 27-24 win at New Mexico two weeks later. Those performances helped him become BYU's 16th all-conference quarterback in 32 years. But he could not deliver a comeback victory over Utah, even with a perfect opportunity to cement himself as a clutch player - and a winner.
"It's frustrating," he said recently, "because I feel like if I had another chance in the same situation, I could get it done." He's talking about the most overlooked sequence of Utah's 41-34 overtime victory: BYU's last possession of regulation. BYU took over the ball at its 38-yard line with 2:11 remaining in a tie game. On the second play, Beck's 9-yard pass to Todd Watkins gave the Cougars a first down at their 49, and everything was right in front of them. All they needed was another 25 yards to set up a winning field goal.
But that pass to Watkins was Beck's only completion in his last eight attempts, completing a 27-for-47 game. He had thrown two incompletions from the Utah 20 on the previous drive as BYU settled for a tying field goal. This time, he fired three straight incompletions, the most glaring coming on third down when his slightly high throw missed tight end Jonny Harline, who had broken free over the middle. The difference between winning and losing? "Just a matter of a foot [lower], maybe taking one mile per hour off the ball," Beck said. "It's frustrating, because things are so minuscule. . . . You're making the decision in a split-second. You don't have time to think about it, and then you watch it on film and you can see easily what you should have done." BYU punted, the game went to overtime and, after Utah's touchdown and BYU's four-plays-and-out series, Beck's chance for glory was gone - at least until Thursday, when he starts in the school's first bowl appearance in four years. Beck could enhance his reputation significantly with a December victory, considering how even Detmer was only 0-2-1 as a starter in bowl games. He also has another season to come, with a loaded offensive unit including Harline and running back Curtis Brown returning. With production in 2006 that approaches this year's, Beck would depart BYU with a No. 2 ranking behind Detmer on the school's career passing-yards list. But not even 10,000 yards would leave much of an impression, if Beck still has a sub-.500 record. The repair work could start Thursday. Playing an unforgiving position, in a program that demands a lot of its quarterbacks, Beck is eager for another chance to prove himself in 2005. Obviously, many other factors will determine whether the Cougars win or lose against Cal. But since when have any of those things mattered?
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