This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Provo
Good night now.
BYU's slumber has started, the Cougars rocked into deep sleep Saturday night here by bad play and by the war chants of the tomahawk chop, but their BCS dream is over, big time. Gone with a defense that was hapless, an offense that was careless, and, rather shockingly, an overall effort that was listless.
The sorry numbers on the board: Florida State 54, BYU 28.
Bronco Mendenhall said afterward the visiting Seminoles played "more physical" and "with more hunger."
He added: "Our execution was not the same, nor was our urgency to finish plays."
Bobby Bowden thought the home team underestimated his team.
That convergence of circumstances was remarkable, given all that was on the line, a shot at what Max Hall called "a special chance to do something."
That something included an open shot at a top-five ranking, a building BCS berth, and ongoing hullabaloo as the darling of the 2009 college football season.
It was all blown to bits at LaVell Edwards Stadium, on account of some PlayStation football. Florida State Xboxed BYU to death, scoring at will, humiliating the Cougars.
"It's tough, the way we came out and played," said Jan Jorgensen. "It's actually embarrassing. ... We couldn't even make a tackle. They ran the ball on us, and when a team does that, it takes the life out of you."
The Cougars were lifeless, then, too.
They had issues to deal with on Saturday night against Florida State, foremost among them the matter of not shaming themselves against a good-but-not-great ACC team.
Win, and BYU would affirm itself as a valid national contender.
Lose, and BYU would be tossed aside, discounted as another non-automatic-qualifying fraud.
Fraudulent, they are, again.
It was that clear-cut here. No shades of gray, no doublespeak, no ambiguity. Just untouchable flashes of streaking garnet and gold, an all-or-nothing prospect at LaVell's place.
Turned out, it was nothing.
The Seminoles flat-out punished BYU, right from the jump, crushing the Cougars in a way that hadn't been seen around here since the almost-but-not-yet-quite-forgotten Gary Crowton years.
Florida State rolled up 512 yards of offense, and the 'Noles could have taken that total as high as they wanted. They made good on their first nine third-down conversions, suffering their first failure on third down in the last minute of the third quarter. They punted once. They punched BYU in the mouth with a run game that, at times, made the Cougars look silly. And they outclassed them with a throw game BYU couldn't contain.
By the end, it got stupid, the Seminoles scoring so easily whenever they possessed the ball, a resultant touchdown was never in doubt. In total, FSU got seven of them.
Worst of all for BYU, the Seminoles' thrashing absolutely erased whatever it was that happened a couple of weeks ago against Oklahoma in Dallas, the suddenly distant victory that had rocketed the Cougars up the rankings.
What happened Saturday night will sink them even quicker.
That's the thing about BYU playing teams like FSU. Since they aren't on the schedule every week, mixed in only on occasion with the more common Mountain West fare, they are more important in legitimizing a program desperate for a nation's respect.
The risk dashed the opportunity against the Seminoles.
Respect is now a rumor.
The only thing that stopped Florida State was ... well, nothing.
The Cougars turned the ball over five times. They were outplayed in every way. And they were painfully less prepared.
Mendenhall called the defeat "one more lesson to learn."
More than that, it was one more blown chance for a big national splash, which is one practice, the only practice, BYU has made perfect over the past few years.
GORDON MONSON hosts the "Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com" Target="_BLANK">gmonson@sltrib.com .