BYU’s ‘Quest for Perfection’ faces first real challenge

At this time last season, the Washington Huskies were preparing for their second game, their home opener against a midmajor with BCS aspirations backed up by the nation’s longest winning streak.

Just like today.

At noon, Washington and No. 15 Brigham Young will meet at Husky Stadium in a game that closely resembles the situation of last season.

Then, the opponent was Boise State, ranked No. 24 and winner of 14 straight games including the wild Fiesta Bowl win that made them the nation’s darlings.

The Broncos came into Husky Stadium hoping for another stamp of legitimacy against a Pacific-10 Conference team. They went home 24-10 losers.

This season, BYU of the Mountain West Conference is the highest-ranked midmajor in the nation and the one generating the most hype as a BCS contender.

The Cougars come in with motivation to equal that of either Boise or Hawaii last season.

They know that they may need a perfect regular season to be invited to a BCS bowl – their football media guide includes a section titled: “The Quest for Perfection.”

From the moment their schedule was announced, the three games that were circled as most dangerous to that quest were the two Pac-10 opponents – today at Washington and next week against UCLA – and the season-ender against state rival Utah.

However, for coach Bronco Mendenhall, the quest is more limited: Win the next game.

“I wish I could tell you that I was considering the BCS, and it’s probably a disappointment to our fans and maybe even some of our team members,” he said this week. “But this game to me is really not more important than our Northern Iowa game. I would like our team to play the very best they can each and every week, and I really don’t place one game above the other. We try our best in every game.”

Their best has been good enough for 11 straight games. The streak began last Sept. 15 with a 55-47 win at Tulsa, and it continued into this season with a season-opening win last week over Northern Iowa, 41-17.

BYU’s last loss came against a Pac-10 team: 27-17, at UCLA.

UW wants to avoid a 0-2 start – especially with fourth-ranked Oklahoma visiting next week. Of course, the Cougars are on a quest for perfection.

“We understand the importance they are placing on this football game,” UW coach Tyrone Willingham said. “And for us, it’s a really important game. It’s our home opener. We believe we have a lot of things going, and we didn’t show them last week.”