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Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Here’s what’s going on inside Darnell’s head as I prepare for snow showers on Saturday. We’ve been lucky so far, I guess. Make sure you bundle up for Senior Day (game starts at 11) and I’ll be thinking about you from my spot in the warm, covered press box at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

BYU football got the job done at Cincinnati, riding the broad shoulders and thundering power of junior running back LJ Martin to a 26-14 victory.

If only winning a game was all you needed to do to impress the College Football Playoff Committee.

Kalani Sitake has forever preached focusing on winning, which is the right thing to do. But we all know the beauty contest of college football wants big, flashy, sexy wins, especially if you aren’t a member of the SEC or Big Ten (or Notre Dame).

The Cougars produced a gritty, physical victory with three of its best offensive players either injured (wide receiver Chase Roberts) or banged up (quarterback Bear Bachmeier and running back LJ Martin). The passing game was a non-starter on Saturday, so BYU lined up and dared the Bearcats to stop the running game.

They couldn’t.

That’s impressive, and the Cougars were robbed of a scoop and score on defense by a quick whistle in the fourth quarter that would have likely put the game away earlier. The CFP Committee will glance superficially at the final score and determine the win wasn’t impressive enough to move BYU up in their rankings. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Miami at 9-2 moves ahead of both BYU and Utah to further prop up Notre Dame.

Crisis time

Dr. E. Gordon Gee, recently retired president of West Virginia, wrote an op-ed piece that highlighted the fact that college athletics are in crisis, losing billions of dollars each year.

College football is America’s second-most popular sport by viewership but only fifth in revenue. It’s viewership is twice that of the NBA but brings in only half of the NBA’s media revenue.

Gee writes, “College football is stuck in an outdated, fragmented system that holds back its earning potential.”

He proposed two common sense changes: Unifying the media rights and optimizing scheduling.

It just makes too much sense but it does require the bloated, massive egos of those running the Big Ten and SEC to acknowledge they need all the other college institutions to survive. To be honest, I suspect most of these power brokers would rather watch the entirety of college athletics burn to the ground than surrender even one iota of control and power.

Don’t hold your breath.

Now it’s time for Perfectly Rational Overreactions (PROs).

PRO No. 1: BYU got lucky against Cincinnati.

This has been addressed before, but I loved Keanu Tanuvasa’s comment after the win at Cincinnati. While the players try to focus on just winning, they can’t help but hear the drum beat of negativity that engulfs social media.

“A lot of people say we’re lucky,” Tanuvasa said, “but we’re diligent and expect to win.”

BYU is 21-3 in the past 24 games.

That’s a lot of luck, right?

PRO No. 2: The Cougars’ wins aren’t impressing the CFP Committee.

Believe me, Kalani, I’m on your side. Winning should be more important than running up the score and style points. In the NFL, a win counts the same whether it’s one point or 30 points. The CFP chooses which data points support its position and ignore the ones that don’t. Look (in my Taysom Hill voice) BYU just went 5-1 against an absolute gauntlet of bowl-eligible teams (at Arizona, Utah, at Iowa State, at Texas Tech, TCU and at Cincinnati) whose combined overall record is 48-18.

The Cougars shouldn’t have to beg the CFP Committee for anything.

PRO No. 3: LJ Martin in a future NFL player.

There was a moment in BYU’s final drive late in the game when Martin came up limping after a carry. He glanced over to the sideline, then hobbled over to the huddle. He tapped backup Enoch Nawahine on the shoulder to send him on his way and settled in for more carries.

Martin is a guy I want on my side in anything from bowling to a football game to fighting zombies in the apocalypse.

Martin certainly has the size (6-2, 225) to play at the next level. He’s a junior so he could come back next season or he could throw his name in the NFL Draft. He’s just so skilled and built to solidly I would think an NFL team would give him a chance whether he gets drafted or not. He’s leading the Big 12 in rushing and starting to get some buzz.

And finally, PRO No. 4: BYU is overachieving this season.

The oddsmakers had the Cougars winning 6.5 games and after Jake Retzlaff left for Tulane, and I couldn’t disagree with them. Then Bear Bachmeier happened and the Cougars just keep finding ways to win every week. Well, in 10 of 11 weeks, anyway. Not much else they can do. Sure, a few more blowout wins could move the needle a bit (Utah certainly has ridden that train to flirt with the CFP) but the Cougars are focused on going 1-0 every week. It would be a shame if BYU misses the CFP at 10-2, with both losses to Texas Tech (theoretically).

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

LJ, LJ, LJ. It stands for “Little John” (his father is also John Martin) but nobody stood bigger against Cincinnati. He finished with 35 touches for 266 yards and two touchdowns. And he completely carried the team on his back on a final drive to clinch the victory.

After the game, he said the way his offensive line blocked made Saturday the, “easiest night of my life.”

If any of us carried the ball that many times we would be in intensive care.

Time to leave

I got kicked out of the Delta Center on Friday after the BYU-Wisconsin men’s basketball game.

For real.

Not just me, but the dozen or so other media and BYU staffers that were in the press room were all asked unceremoniously to leave the building immediately so they could prepare for the Jazz game.

This isn’t about having to finish my game story standing outside of the Delta Center in the cold. Heck, I’ve written stories sitting in my car with my computer propped up against my steering wheel, crouched on the floor in a high school hallway and in my camp chair just outside the end zone of a football field.

It’s about the simple lack of respect for people who are doing their job.

How hard would it have been for the Jazz to come in ten minutes earlier and tell us we had ten minutes before we had to leave so we could finish up our work?

Too hard, evidently.

The game was good, though. The Cougars manhandled a good Big Ten team (Wisconsin), even with AJ Dybantsa missing about ten minutes in the second half due to foul trouble. It was also excellent extended minutes for guys like Dominique Diomande, Tyler Mrus and Khadim Mboup. Those guys are crucial to BYU this season off the bench.

So tired of hearing it

Somebody suggested on social media that every time a road student section starts to chant, “(Expletive) the Mormons” at BYU football games that school should have to donate to the Cougars NIL fund.

Or at the very least, have to make an appointment for a missionary discussion.

It’s the least we could do to save souls.

That’s all for now, but for this: BYU men’s basketball recently signed big man Adbullah Ahmed, who has played two seasons as a professional in the G League.

I’m not against giving athletes opportunities. Europeans who have played professionally have been coming over to the states to play college basketball for a few years now.

I just find it curious that the NCAA just shrugged its collective shoulders and said, “OK, go ahead.”

This is the same organization that six years ago suspended BYU forward Yoeli Childs nine games for FILLING OUT PAPERWORK IMPROPERLY.

Times have really changed.

Have a tremendous Thanksgiving week (even if you listen to Christmas music while fixing your turkey) and remember to be there for each other.