July 17, 2002

By Patrick Ridgell
Provo Daily Herald

EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah - In the only athletic endeavor to be held over the next several months in which BYU football players competed and few actually cared who won, no one knew who the victor was.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday marking the completion of Cougar House II, five Cougars -- Logan Deans, Andrew Ord, Reno Mahe, Brady Poppinga and Spencer Nead -- took on men from Kuhni Landscaping in a sod-laying contest. It ended in what appeared to be a tie. Maybe as the grass grows in future months, a more clear winner will appear.

Two clear winners Tuesday were Ord and the BYU athletic department. Ord received the first Cougar House scholarship and BYU got $141,500 from the Utah Valley Home Builders Association, whose annual Cougar House project raises money for scholarships at BYU. Interest on proceeds from sales of the first two Cougar Houses will pay an athletic scholarship at BYU yearly.

The games about which everyone will care start soon, however. BYU newcomers start practice on Aug. 5.

The full varsity starts Aug. 8. Syracuse opens BYU's season on Aug. 29 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Tuesday was everyone's day off, which meant rather than running 110-yard sprints on 140-degree FieldTurf, these five laid sod instead. While they sounded confident and optimistic when asked to discuss prospects for 2002, Ord, Nead and Mahe also cited items that concern them as they start camp three weeks from Thursday.

"I don't know if you'd call them concerns, but there are a couple of big games early on in the season -- Syracuse and Hawaii -- games that we let get away from us in years past," Ord said. "They're games we're excited about vindicating ourselves with. The Carrier Dome two years ago, Bret Engemann getting knocked out with a shoulder injury -- I think he's got something to prove and we all do. We're just going to go out and do our job.

"There's a lot of anxiousness, a lot of angst to get on with the season. I think everyone's kind of tired of talking and contemplating about the future, the season, what's going to happen, (coach Gary) Crowton's second year, (Luke) Staley's gone and all of that stuff. I think we just want to get out there and prove to everyone that we're going to be just as good as last year."

Last year was an adventure. BYU finished No. 24 in the final USA Today/ ESPN Coaches poll and No. 25 in the final Associated Press poll a year ago, going 12-2. The Cougars led the nation in total offense (542.85 yards per game) and scoring offense (46.77 points per game).

They ran off the first 7-0 mark in the MWC's three-year history and won their second league title in three years.

BCS bowls scouted BYU up until the week before the Cougars' last regular-season game at Hawaii. BYU centered a roaring national debate over the fairness of the BCS. Staley's Doak Walker Award highlighted league and national accolades earned by several Cougars.

All of these achievements could possibly be both a source of inspiration and a burden at the same time.

"Just having to top last season," Mahe labeled as his main concern entering the season. "You always want to do better than last year, but it's going to be hard."

Said Nead: "Inexperience. Complacency. Coming off a big year, thinking that we can do that again. I think one thing we have to realize is that we worked so hard last year to accomplish that, and we have to do the same thing this year. We've done it so far, but we have a long way to go."