Arkansas’ weird non-conference schedule continues with its first-ever trip to Provo, Utah. Let’s meet the Cougars.
It looks like the Hogs will be in home reds, as BYU has chosen to rock white uniforms with these sweet custom helmets:
Series & Program History
This is the first meeting between these two schools.
BYU’s football history really starts with LaVell Edwards, who coached the Cougars from 1972 to 2000. He won the 1984 national title and helped BYU spend much of the 1980s in the top 25. BYU remained strong during the 1990s, but declined after Edwards retired and the Cougars hired Gary Crowton, who coached for four seasons. After Crowton was dismissed, Bronco Mendenhall led the Cougars from 2005 to 2015, going 99-43 with two Mountain West titles.
Current coach Kalani Sitake replaced Mendenhall for the 2016 season. He got off to a slow start, even going 4-9 in 2017, but the program is 25-6 over the last three seasons.
BYU has had only four losing seasons since 1974.
2022 Season
The 2021 BYU team exceeded expectations, winning 10 games after losing star QB Zach Wilson to the NFL. That created high expectations for the 2022 season. So far, the Cougars are roughly meeting those expectations, although the advanced stats say they’ve taken a pretty sizable step back.
BYU crushed South Florida 50-21 in their opener before upsetting Baylor 26-20 in Provo. That hot start didn’t stick around, however, as the Cougars got blasted by Oregon, 41-20. After a couple not-pretty wins over Wyoming and Utah State, they fell to Notre Dame in a neutral-site slugfest, 28-20.
BYU’s offense is their engine, and it’s wired to win shootouts. The Cougars create a ton of explosive plays and rarely turn the ball over. They aren’t overly efficient, however, especially on the ground, where they’ve struggled to consistently run well.
The Cougar defense is a weak point and presents an ideal matchup for Arkansas’ offense. BYU’s defensive front is not strong, leaving it very vulnerable to efficient run games, which is exactly what Arkansas is bringing. The secondary is better but has been vulnerable to big pass plays.
Names to Know
A player you’ve heard of: Ty Detmer. There are a lot of options here – Steve Young and Steve Sarkisian both played here – but we’ll go with Detmer, the 1990 Heisman winner. He threw for a then-NCAA record 5,188 yards that season with 41 touchdowns.
A coach you’ve heard of: LaVell Edwards. The great quarterback play in BYU’s history is due largely to Edwards, who played a significant role in innovating the college passing game. He developed elements of the West Coast offense into a scheme that Hal Mumme and Mike Leach later used as the basis of the Air Raid. The Cougars won the 1984 national title under Edwards.
A game you’ve heard of: BYU 28, Miami 21 (1990). The defending champions were heavily-favored to repeat, but this stunning loss to Detmer and BYU spoiled that. Detmer was 38 of 55 for 406 yards and three touchdowns in the win. Rather than win the national title, Miami had to settle for the Orange Bowl, where they defeated Texas 46-3 in a game filled with so much taunting by the Hurricanes that the NCAA created the 15-yard “excessive celebration” penalty in response to it.
Random Facts & Arkansas Ties
BYU is named for Brigham Young, a significant early leader in the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and founder of the school (and the University of Utah). Young didn’t found the religion – that would be Joseph Smith – but Young was responsible for moving Mormon adherents to Utah following a period of intense persecution.
Young cultivated a vision of an theocratic Mormon state called Deseret that was to span a large chunk of the American West. This vision took a hit when the United States seized the West from Mexico in 1848 and then discovered gold in California in 1849, leading to large-scale emigration the West coast, right through Mormon-claimed territory. Mormon leaders, concerned that they would soon be outnumbered by these emigrants, grew increasingly hostile to their wagon trains, even raiding and attacking on occasion, sparking a conflict known as the Utah War.
In August 1857, Brigham Young declared martial law in response to a US Army expedition ordered by President James Buchanan to deal with attacks on emigrants. Just three months before that, Mormon leader Parley Pratt, a major church figure and traveling missionary, was murdered outside a courthouse in Fort Smith by a man angry that Pratt had successfully converted his wife.
All of this set the stage for the most famous confrontation between Mormons and Arkansans.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The last time a large group from Northwest Arkansas traveled to Utah and encountered Brigham Young, it didn’t end well. If you’re never heard of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, here’s your primer.
In April 1857, a large wagon train known as the Baker-Fancher Party departed from Harrison. Consisting of emigrants from Carroll, Marion, Johnson, and Crawford counties, it was headed for greener pastures in California. The party entered Utah in August, right after Young declared martial law and ordered Mormons to refuse to trade with emigrants.
On September 7, the party came under attack by Mormon militias at Mountain Meadows, in southwest Utah. The wagons were encircled and a siege was laid. After four days, the attackers offered to escort the emigrants out of the state. With no other options, the party agreed. After leaving their defensive positions, the assailants turned on them, killing more than 120 people, including women and all children old enough to remember the event. Younger children were taken into Mormon homes.
A subsequent US Army investigation found that the militias attempted a cover-up by claiming the massacre was perpetrated by Paiute Indians. What’s unclear is the exact role Brigham Young himself played. The version accepted by the Church is that riders were sent to Salt Lake City to ask Young what to do about the party, but the attack happened before Young’s response could be transmitted back to the local leaders, thus absolving Young of the massacre. This flies in the face of what is known about Utah under Brigham Young: nothing in the state happened without his personal knowledge and approval.
Militia leader John Lee was finally arrested in 1876 and executed in 1877. The remains the only person punished for one of the biggest massacres in American history.
Markers commemorating the Mountain Meadows Massacre are located in downtown Harrison and in the small town of Carrollton, where many of the emigrants were from. The US Army put up a memorial cairn at the site in 1859; it was replaced with a new one in 1999 by the LDS Church and is located in Veyo, Utah. In 2017, Senator John Boozman secured the return of a child victim’s skill that was taken from the site by the army and hosted at a museum in Maryland. The skull was given a proper burial at the site.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow us on Twitter.
The latest from Fayette Villains, straight to your inbox
Enter your email to subscribe and receive new post alerts and other updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.