"Papa, BYU football?" He was holding onto the little plastic BYU football his mother bought for him at the BYU/Houston game. I kind of tried to play it off, but he was persistent. He picked up the remote, brought it over to me and again said: "Papa, BYU football?" After handing me the remote, he looked at me, looked at the remote, then turned and faced the TV while holding tightly onto his blue BYU football. It was awesome.

So, I went to the DVR and pulled up the BYU/Texas game. (It's the only game I have saved on the DVR, by the way.) I started it as the third quarter began and just let it play. While the game was going on, our grandson would toss the ball in the air, run around, then fall onto the floor. He would try to tackle me and would then grab his blue football and say: "BYU football, Papa!" So, I played along and we watched the second half of the BYU/Texas game. My grandson would want to sing the fight song after every TD. (He knows it pretty well.) So, we clapped and sang "rah, rah, rah, rah, rah . . . gooooo Cougars!" a lot.

As we watched BYU vs. Texas, it was amazing to note the differences. First, BYU played with serious moxie. They oozed with confidence. Forget that Texas is having a down year, BYU came out to play and they did not let off the gas. Taysom was the clear leader of the team and everyone seemed to feed of his emotion, courage, confidence and obvious talent. It was sad to watch considering what we have witnessed of BYU in the past four games. Losing Taysom was a terrible blow. That's obvious. However, he was not just a great QB, but the clear leader of the team. He even made the defense better, because Taysom could help sustain drives more consistently.

With Taysom, there's no way we would have lost to UCF and UNR. We probably would not have lost to USU; however, I am a little undecided about that one because our defense already was showing signs in that game that it would be unable to stop USU's offense - even with Taysom in the game. (I was feeling the loss coming even before Taysom's injury.) It's hard to say how BYU would have done at BSU with a healthy Taysom. However, I suspect that BYU would have gone to Boise with a record of 6-1 or 7-0 vs. Boise, and that there would have been a great deal of life and enthusiasm on the BYU sideline instead of apathy and self defeat.

Hill is just a unique, special player. Sadly, I think not only the players, but the coaches had way too much riding on his shoulders. He was so valuable; yet, Taysom played with absolute abandon that put him in position to be out for the second of his three seasons with BYU. With someone so valuable on the team, I just wish the coaches would have schemed better to protect him, insisting that he not take on LB's, that he actually slide, get out of bounds, run less, and stay healthy. I suppose some of this is on Taysom, who had to be feeling some level of invincibility with all the great things he was able to do. It is sad to see it all come crashing down. I have to wonder how much Taysom's injury adversely impact other players to the degree where they lost focus and, as a result, sustained injuries. (And what's with all the ankle injuries? Is BYU looking into the guys who tape the ankles, cleats they wear, etc.?)

Anyway, I guess I was just thinking about what could have been as I watched BYU roll Texas. We were there - standing to the BYU fight song so much that, by the time we got up 34-0, I was starting to feel a little embarrassed for Texas fans and kind of ratcheted down the enthusiasm - much like BSU fans did around us last Friday night (consoling us as their team dismantled and slaughtered the Cougars with ease).

I hope there might be another game from 2014 that I can save on my DVR. Here's hoping. . . . Either way, whenever my grandson begs for more BYU football, we'll be watching Taysom conquer Texas and remember how great things really were at that time.