The obituary for the bowling season may already be written.
But BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick isn’t reading it.
Never mind that Notre Dame, Iowa State and a number of other schools opted out of the postseason this year. The chance to play one more game — and end the year with a win — still means something, Roderick argued this week as the Cougars prepared for the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
“People think bowl games are pointless or something,” Roderick said. “That’s not true, man. I still think bowl games are very important in college football because otherwise there’s only one team in the country that feels good at the end of the season.”
“There’s just so many teams and there’s so much hard work that these guys put into what they do. And so I just really hope for our seniors that we go out there and play well and let those guys experience another win.”
The No. 12 Cougars will take on No. 22 Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon in Orlando, Florida. The game begins at 1:30 PM MT and will be televised on ESPN.
It will be BYU’s chance for its first 12-win season since 2001, when Gary Crowton’s team reeled off a dozen straight wins to capture the Mountain West title.
“To be able to do that as a senior, with this team and with my brothers, it’s going to be something super special and go down in the history books,” Chase Roberts said.
Senior linebacker Isaiah Glasker said he wants one more win, “really just to prove that we belong.
“I feel like we didn’t get the opportunity we wanted to play in the playoffs,” he said, “and getting that 12th win can hopefully show what our team can really do.”
Roderick, meanwhile, put the game into context for the Cougars and their fans, who felt let down despite winning 11 games in consecutive campaigns.
“We went 5-7 our first year in the Big 12. And we had some tough losses and some humbling losses that year where we really found out how hard it was going to take us to compete at a high level in this conference,” he said. “And most of these seniors have been a part of that. And then to put in the work and then come back after 11-2 seasons … to get to the championship game this year, you know, we came up a little short. But these guys deserve to go the right way.”
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