BYU football: New quest is to match win total of last 2 years

PROVO — A season that began with hopes of going undefeated has turned into this — BYU is now looking for a bowl victory to match the win total of the previous two seasons.

The Cougars (10-2), who got thumped by Utah, 48-24, Saturday at Rice- Eccles Stadium, can post an 11-2 record for the third straight year if they can finish off the campaign with a win in a bowl game.

In the moments after losing to the Utes, wide receiver Austin Collie reflected on the regular season, which also featured a humbling setback at TCU.

"I thought we could have done better. I thought we had the potential to go undefeated. But in the two games that we did lose, we didn't show up to play. That's what happened (Saturday)," Collie said. "Each year we want to get better. We ended up in the same spot, 10-2 (in the regular season). We didn't win the Mountain West Conference championship, and that was our main goal coming into this season. To not win it, to have two losses, and kind of find out that we're right back to where we were last year, is a little disappointing."

Said quarterback Max Hall, who threw five interceptions and had a fumble against the Utes: "We've only lost two games. In my opinion, that's a successful season. We're not the conference champs that we wanted to be. We didn't make it to a BCS game. Those were two of our goals at the beginning of the season. But I'm proud of my guys and I'm proud of the season we've had. We're going to go prepare and win a bowl game now."

Linebacker David Nixon said his team should appreciate what it has accomplished.

"There aren't many teams in the country that can say they've gone 10-2 this season," he said. "The character we've shown as a team throughout this year says a lot about our team."

BYU, which dropped to No. 20 in the Associated Press poll, No 19 in the USA Today coaches' poll and No. 18 in the BCS standings on Sunday, isn't expected to find out its bowl destination until Dec. 7.

The Las Vegas Bowl has first choice of bowl-eligible MWC teams, excluding 12-0 Utah, which is expected to receive a BCS berth. The Poinsettia Bowl has the second choice.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall said he has no preference when it comes to a bowl game.

Collie agreed. "A bowl game's a bowl game. Whatever bowl game we're in, we're going to try to learn from our mistakes and get better."