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The Cougars sing the fight song with the fans following their 33-27 win over Arizona

Sterling Funk, Special to the Herald

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Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Here’s what’s going on inside Darnell’s head as I try to focus on BYU’s double overtime victory at Arizona and NOT the 98th version of the best rivalry in college football coming up on Saturday.

When the legendary LaVell Edwards was hired by BYU in 1962, it was in large part because he was one of the few high school coaches still running the single-wing offense.

I couldn’t help but think about Coach Edwards smiling (yes, he did that quite often, just not during games) in heaven as he watched the Cougars survive in double overtime at Arizona on Saturday.

The single wing was an offense from the early days of football that incorporated a shotgun-like snap to a big, bruising fullback-type in a powerful running attack.

Sure, it’s not a perfect comparison, but watching No 47 (Bear Bachmeier) take the snap and hurl his 230-pound frame into the Wildcats defense 22 times for 89 yards and two touchdowns in Tucson certainly provided single-wing vibes and an old-school mentality that embodies the toughness the Cougars and Bachmeier showed in overcoming adversity to stay perfect at 6-0.

As LaVell often said, “We’ve got a chance to be a pretty good football team.”

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

PRO No. 1: Bear Bachmeier is the greatest freshman to ever play football at BYU.

I’m probably forgetting somebody really good, but the names of wide receiver Austin Collie and safety Aaron Francisco immediately come to mind as freshmen who made an early impact. Running backs Luke Staley and Jamaal Williams were pretty good in their freshmen seasons. And remember what Tanner Mangum did in his first two games as a freshman, beating both Nebraska and Boise State with Hail Mary throws?

None of what those guys did was in as tough a stretch as Bachmeier is facing in the Big 12. There’s no question he’s making freshman mistakes, but he also has the right mentality and focus to get the “W,” six of them so far without a loss.

PRO No. 2: BYU got lucky at Arizona.

The Cougars have won 17 of their past 19 games. Many of them have been close. There are a lot of quotes about what luck means but the bottom line is winning. I don’t know if I remember a game where so many things went wrong for BYU: Key injuries, turnovers, blown assignments and bad mojo with the weather delay, as well as really questionable officiating (what in the heck was that personal foul on Isaiah Glasker, anyway?). But don’t forget that those same officials called a key holding penalty on Arizona after the Wildcats had scored a TD in overtime and threw two pass interference flags on the home team on the Cougars final drive.

Football is a game of opportunity, luck and fortune. Better on your side than the other.

PRO No. 3: The injuries on defense are going to be BYU’s downfall.

It was looking pretty grim, wasn’t it? Jack Kelly didn’t even play, Raider Damuni went out early after taking some friendly fire, Isaiah Glasker is hobbled and Keanu Tanuvasa was ejected for targeting. Then we were subjected to watching Arizona take advantage of backup BYU defensive backs for touchdown passes. I truly think the Cougar defense was reeling but found a way to come up big at the end. It’s really tough for the visiting team to survive in overtime but the Cougar D made plays and forced Noah Fifita into some very difficult throws. This next stretch of games (Utah, Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU, Cincinnati) is going to really stress BYU’s defense. It might end up being a war of attrition and we’re going to see backups play key roles on the defensive side.

And finally, PRO No. 4: The Cougars are making way too many mistakes to be a true college football playoff contender.

Dropped passes, penalties, missed assignments — BYU certainly committed their fare share of those on Saturday. The resilience they showed was admirable but also creates a very high level of difficulty. The Cougars overcame all of their mistakes — barely — and won in double overtime. It’s a dangerous game to replicate this cycle to a victory every week. Kalani Sitake talks about “cleaning some things up” pretty much after every game. He and his coaching staff definitely have plenty of reference points to show the players this week. You would hope a team would play cleaner and with fewer mistakes as the season progresses and that’s the challenge for the Cougars heading into this next stretch.

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

Linebacker Siale Esera was a warrior with 15 tackles on Saturday, especially with Kelly out and Glasker not completely healthy. LJ Martin ran for a career high. But no one deserves this honor more than Bachmeier. Can you imagine the pressure of not only playing quarterback for the Cougars as a true freshman but knowing you have to carry  a big load as a runner as well? Putting the ball in Bachmeier’s hands can sometimes be an adventure — he did throw two interceptions and fumbled, after all — but his goal line running at the end of regulation and in the overtime session was a tough and clutch as a player can be.

Weekly grind

As I watched the No. 18 BYU women’s volleyball team get a 3-1 victory against Houston on Saturday, I’m appreciating how tough it is getting through the Big 12 schedule.

The days of the blue Cougars sweeping everybody but one or two teams in the WCC are long gone.

The score of Saturday’s match (25-17, 25-27, 25-19, 25-17) doesn’t really indicate how hard BYU had to play to get by the red Cougars. Every single match in the Big 12 is really, really difficult. The one coming up at the Smith Fieldhouse against No. 8 Arizona State is the most challenging match yet.

A typical Friday night

I’m doing a feature this week on Provo three-star athlete Gehrig Orchard, who plays quarterback for the Bulldogs but also starts for the basketball and baseball teams. Provo destroyed Uintah 64-2 on Friday and Orchard threw six touchdown passes in the first half. I also found out his grandfather is long-time BYU equipment manager Steve Bushman and that Orchard is dating his offensive coordinator’s daughter.

Man, the stuff you can learn on a football Friday night.

Support at its finest

I really feel for the Uintah fans who made the six-hour round trip trek from Vernal to Provo and back on Friday. That’s a long way to go to get beat that badly, but there they were, cheering the few positive plays by the Utes and ringing their cowbells.

Reminds me of when I was a kid, maybe 9 or 10 years old. We’d driven over the Medford to watch our local high school team (the fighting Illinois Valley Cougars) lose big to Eagle Point. After the game I mentioned how badly IV had played and my Uncle Dub looked at me with all seriousness and said protectively, “Them’s my boys.”

Hats off to friends, family and fans of every team out there, at all levels, whether they finish with more points on the scoreboard or not. Your support doesn’t go unnoticed.

By the way, do yourself a favor and watch the “Mic’d Up” video produced by BYU football featuring Tanner Wall’s wife, Corinne. It’s hilarious.

That’s all for now, but for this: Good luck to my wife, Barbara, who is spending ten days down in St. George playing volleyball on two different teams at the Huntsman Senior Games. I don’t think there’s any other activity in life that makes her as happy as playing 30 or more games and coming home with a medal or two.

Have a great week and remember to be kind to at least one Ute this week. It’s good karma.