Cougars excited for Irish

PROVO — It's finally here — the week the BYU football team has been waiting for all year. In a few days, the Cougars will make the long journey to South Bend, Ind., for a much-anticipated meeting with Notre Dame.

"It's been hard since spring ball, since we heard that we were playing Notre Dame, it's been hard to even stop thinking about it," said senior offensive lineman Brandon Stephens.

Of course, this is not the scenario he imagined. Both the Cougars (4-6) and the Fighting Irish (3-6) are struggling, having posted a combined 7-12 record this season. Notre Dame needed a last-second field goal to beat Navy, 27-24, last Saturday in South Bend.

BYU, meanwhile, is coming off a bye week. The last time the Cougars played, on Oct. 30, they got hammered at home by Boise State, 50-12.

Facing the Irish is something special, Stephens said, regardless of the circumstances. "We're all excited to go back there and play. I'm sure if you talk to (Notre Dame), their record doesn't indicate anything about their season. They've probably lost games they should have won."

The Cougars are hoping to win their last two games, including a showdown with arch-rival Utah on Nov. 22, to help erase some of this year's bitter disappointments. "The two games we've been thinking about all year, Notre Dame and Utah, happen to come the last two weeks of the season," Stephens said. "Maybe this has built up to a climax and we can finish our season how we're supposed to."

Crowton put his team through some physically demanding practices during the off week and Stephens said it was a good experience. "When you think about bye week, it's synonymous with a rest week," he said. "Last week was anything but a rest week. For some reason, it felt really good to go out and hit like that."

Last weekend, Stephens and center Scott Jackson took their wives to Stephens' in-law's house in Jackson Hole, Wyo. While he said the trip was relaxing, Stephens spent plenty of time pondering what's gone wrong this season.

"I couldn't sleep all weekend just thinking about the Wyoming and Air Force games," he said. "If we win those games, we're sitting pretty good right now. Even up in Jackson Hole, Scott and I were up watching movies all night thinking about how we could have beaten (Wyoming and Air Force)."