PROVO — Ghosts?

Oh, THOSE ghosts.

College football's most famous and mystique-laden team rolled into Provo, Saturday night, national TV coverage, gold helmets, green-shirted fans and famous fight songs in tow. Which was impressive.

But while Notre Dame has its four horsemen and leprechauns — and gave the Cougars a good scare — BYU had LaVell.

Who has been known to pull off some fairly spooky stuff of his own.

Roll the 1984 highlight film, please.

Where are Robbie Bosco, Vai Sikahema and Co, anyway?

They were right there in Cougar Stadium, thank you very much.

With a 20-17 win, Saturday, the Cougars not only got off to a happy start on the season, but may have done themselves an unintended favor. Besides winning, they nudged Irish coach Tyrone Willingham a shade closer to unemployment. That, in turn, could make Utah coach Urban Meyer a possible replacement candidate.

Think of it: a win over a legendary team AND the chance to get Meyer out of their hair.

How good is that?

Like chocolate-on-chocolate cookie, it's double the pleasure.

It is a well-publicized fact that Meyer has clauses in his contract that would allow him to take the coaching job at Ohio State, Michigan or Notre Dame without a buyout penalty.

But Meyer's future was only a distant subplot. The main story: BYU's move to resurrect its football program, which began smoothly enough.

A 13-0 lead. A defense that only allowed the Irish into BYU territory once in the first half. A 20-3 lead in the third quarter.

And, of course, a visit from former coach LaVell Edwards.

Notre Dame seemed an ideal opponent for BYU. Not simply because it is the most famous football school of all, but because the Irish seemed genuinely beatable. What better way to get off to a good start than to play a legendary team that is coming off a not-so-legendary 5-7 season?

So what does a win over Notre Dame mean?

It means the Cougars are probably better than last year. And that they have good momentum. On the other hand, the Cougars won their opener each of the past three seasons, but only one of them turned out well.

That, however, hasn't done much to stop people from hoping. The fan base, in fact, has remained remarkably loyal. Even during the past two losing seasons, the Cougars sold all but about three thousand tickets per game.

Likewise, on Saturday the crowd came out in force, 65,251 strong. (OK, a few of them were cheering for the Irish. What do you expect from a school that has the best winning percentage and more Heisman winners of any team in history?)