Ignore me if you want, no biggie.

I understand the concern about the quality of schedules, especially home schedules in November. Scheduling and bowl game access have to easily be the two largest problems with Independence.

That said, I was able to drive up to Lavell Edwards Stadium on my trip to Utah. Ever since I was a little kid, my brother and I would put our hands over our hearts and face the stadium with a moment of silence whenever we'd drive by it as a half-serious gesture of respect. Now I get to see the stadium about once or twice a year, and its usually during the offseason. The feeling you get when you walk around the stadium can't be matched. I could almost smell the cinnamon roasted almonds and Cougar tails, hear the George Q. Cannon go off in my head, hear Cougar Voice excitedly describe a 50 yard completion or an advertisement about Rhode's rolls. It was all incredibly nostalgic.

I'm not merely excited about who we play, nor do I expect us to go undefeated. The perpetual pattern will likely present itself again this season. We'll lose 1-2 of our first 3 games and then dominate by the end of the year due to easier opponents and us finding a groove. We'll have injuries and suspensions that will make us wonder what might have been. The coaches will make some mind-numbing play call that will (almost) cost us a game. Still, I keep coming back. I'll watch from home while BYU plays until 3 am EST, knowing someone in Greenland is watching it from 1 am to 5 am. All of these problems will likely rear their ugly heads for years or decades to come with few exceptions. It doesn't matter - the feeling BYU football brings just can't be matched.

Many fans that live in Utah don't realize how good you have it. I don't care if BYU is playing Provo High, I'm just excited to see BYU gear up again and play. Forgive me if I don't understand why some people decide not to attend a game when they're in Utah because of the quality of the opponent. To me, they're as illogical as the Ute fans draped in PAC 12 garb, excited to see Utah get drubbed in person simply because Oregon or USC is coming to RES. As Troy Hinds (the biggest recruit the state of Utah has had in years and one of the nation's premiere DE recruits in 2012) aptly put it when he closed down his recruiting and committed to BYU before his HS Senior season:

"It's the school, not who the school plays"