{"id":5455,"date":"2017-09-16T10:47:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T15:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2018-08-20T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T21:28:29","slug":"know-your-enemy-byu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/know-your-enemy-byu\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Enemy: Brigham Young University"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wisconsin Badgers will take on their second Utah-based opponent in three weeks, the Brigham Young University Cougars, on Saturday afternoon. But unlike the Utah State Aggies, BYU has a football program that\u2019s pretty well known. Alums include current Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, and also Jeopardy<\/em>\u2019s Ken Jennings and that guy from The Benchwarmers<\/em> who looks like Napoleon Dynamite. So even though BYU is off to a meh 1-2 start to this season, they do have the potential (at least historically) to pull off an upset.<\/p>\n

The game is being played in Provo, Utah, so it\u2019s fairly unlikely that you will run into any Cougars here in the wilds of Wisconsin. But should you see one, or if you\u2019re in Provo right now, here are a few things you can say to break the ice.<\/span>\n

The Mormon Church owns the school<\/h3>\n

Utah has a huge Mormon population. Around 62% of Utahans are members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, and the religion\u2019s headquarters is located in Salt Lake City. So perhaps it\u2019s unsurprising that the church owns the state\u2019s largest university, and it employs an \u201chonor code\u201d<\/a> that prohibits students from extramarital sex and alcohol consumption, per Mormonism\u2019s conservative values.<\/p>\n

That said, you don\u2019t have to be Mormon to go to BYU, much like you don\u2019t have to be Catholic to go to, say, Notre Dame. However, if you\u2019re not a practicing Mormon and you enroll at BYU, you may chafe against the honor code \u2014 after all, we Badgers love our beer.<\/span>\n

The Cougars\u2019 lone Heisman winner is a former Packer<\/h3>\n

Currently BYU\u2019s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Ty Detmer was a college football star. Not only did he win the Heisman Trophy in 1990 (to date the only Cougar to do so) but he was also a two-time consensus All-American and College Football Hall of Famer who then enjoyed a 13-year career in the NFL, mostly as a backup.<\/p>\n

One of those reserve jobs was his very first. A ninth-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers in 1992, Detmer spent four seasons as understudy to the man the myth the legend Brett Favre.<\/p>\n

Detmer was a major player in one of the great Favre anecdotes of all-time<\/a>. The superstar quarterback asked Detmer to explain to him the common \u201cnickel\u201d defensive package, which Favre had no clue about even though he was already a multi-year starter in the NFL by that pont. (For the record, it\u2019s when a linebacker is replaced by an extra defensive back.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I\u2019d been around anybody that just kind of winged it,\u201d Detmer said. \u201cHe was a genuine guy that loved playing the game, but didn\u2019t really put a ton of time into it.\u201d<\/span>\n