The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football (68 page)

Inside the stadium gates, vendors fired up popcorn machines and rotisseries with fried dough, pretzels and cotton candy. Members of BYU’s marching band milled around. Leach ducked into a stadium tunnel for a quick pregame interview with ESPN’s sideline reporter. The players filed into the visiting locker room. Two big tables greeted them, one stocked with boxes of bananas and energy bars, the other holding two giant Powerade sports drink coolers bearing the NCAA logo. Game jerseys hung neatly in front of each locker—Tuel, Wilson, Long, Fullington.

For the next ninety minutes the players stuck to a carefully scripted schedule that included stretching, on-field warm-ups and walk-throughs. At 7:56 the players left the field for final pregame preparations. Leach paced around the locker room, a cup of coffee in hand. Rap music blared as players, already sweating, sat on stools in front of their lockers. Leach made his way around the locker room, patting players on the shoulders, shaking hands.

“All right, bring it up,” Leach yelled. “Get in here. Everybody, up.”

The music went off. Players huddled around him.

“All right,” he said. “Now take a knee.”

Players dropped to one knee.

“Grab the guy next to you,” Leach said. “Lord’s Prayer.”

The players held hands and bowed their heads.

“Our Father who art in heaven,” Leach began. The players repeated his words. At the end of the prayer, everybody stood.

“Okay, now listen,” Leach said. “Here’s what’s important. You’ve got to make sure you do your job for sixty minutes. Make sure you make the routine plays for sixty minutes. Make sure you play the next down for sixty minutes.”

The players clapped and screamed.

“All right,” Leach yelled. “Break it down.”

The players clapped and yelled louder as they huddled even tighter.

“Let’s go,” one of the captains shouted. “Let’s go.”

“One, two, three, win!”

Over the summer Bronco Mendenhall had finally awarded Ziggy Ansah a scholarship. Two years of slogging away as a walk-on had paid off. He was
promised a lot more playing time, too. On WSU’s first possession of the game, Ansah watched from the sideline as quarterback Jeff Tuel methodically drove his team from its own twenty-yard line deep into BYU territory, completing passes for four, one, five, twenty, seven, thirteen and four yards. It was exactly the kind of drive Leach wanted. On second and six from BYU’s eighteen-yard line, Mendenhall called Ansah’s number.

On the snap, an offensive lineman grabbed Ansah’s jersey, trying to drag him down. Tuel dumped a pass behind the line of scrimmage to a running back. Shedding a blocker, Ansah dropped the ball carrier for a five-yard loss, setting up third and eleven from the BYU twenty-three. Mendenhall declined the holding penalty drawn by Ansah. Tuel threw an interception on the next play. Minutes later BYU scored to go up 7–0.

BYU added two more touchdowns and a field goal in the second quarter while WSU could only muster a couple field goals. Down 24–6 at the half, Leach tried to rally his team. “Everybody, up,” Leach said as the players crowded around him in the locker room. “Now I want you to listen to me. Players and coaches, listen. Here’s what needs to happen. First of all, think about why you came to Washington State. The reason you came to Washington State was to pull the fuckin’ trigger, to play hard and to get excited about making plays.

“Here’s the problem with the first half. We go out there frantic. We’re a combination of frantic—trying to do too much. We’re timid—you’re afraid to make mistakes. We already know you’re going to make mistakes! But the biggest mistake is hesitating. Do not fucking hesitate. You didn’t sign up to play college football to hesitate.”

Washington State nearly ran the second-half kickoff back for a touchdown. The return man was dragged down at BYU’s thirty-five-yard line. But on the first play from scrimmage, Van Noy beat his man and sacked Jeff Tuel for a big loss. WSU drew a penalty on the next play, setting it back further. Then Van Noy beat his man again, forcing Tuel to throw under duress. His pass was picked off and returned all the way to WSU’s nine-yard line. Minutes later BYU kicked a field goal to go up 27–6.

WSU never recovered. Van Noy ended up with four solo tackles, two sacks, one pass breakup and three hurries. WSU ran the ball sixteen times for a total of minus five yards. Leach’s offense reached the red zone just one time the entire night. The final score was 30–6.

Leach removed his headset and stood in silence on the sideline as his team and assistant coaches headed to the locker room. It wasn’t supposed to begin this way.

Two weeks later, BYU traveled forty-five minutes north to face Utah. It marked the eighty-eighth time the two teams had squared off in a rivalry known throughout college football as the “Holy War,” a reference to the vastly different cultures represented by two schools where the majority of students were Mormons. But the rivalry had taken on a nastier, personal tone since the 2005 season, when Bronco Mendenhall and Kyle Whittingham were named head coaches at the two schools within days of each other. In head-to-head competition, Whittingham had beaten Mendenhall four out of seven times in what
Sports Illustrated
’s Stewart Mandel called the best coaching rivalry of the decade.

There were parallels to the heated rivalry between Notre Dame and Miami in the 1980s, when Notre Dame fans printed infamous T-shirts that said, “Catholics vs. Convicts,” helping fuel a pregame brawl and finger-pointing between the teams’ head coaches, Lou Holtz and Jimmy Johnson. Things got so ugly that Notre Dame fans complained of being spit on and having beer poured on them by Hurricane fans at the Orange Bowl. The longtime Notre Dame beat writer Tim Prister described the atmosphere at the Orange Bowl as “nastiness” and “evilness,” adding, “It was the most vile, vicious venue for a college football game that I’ve ever been in. They weren’t there just to see Miami win. They wanted blood from Notre Dame.”

Things were headed that way in Utah, especially after a dramatic BYU comeback in 2007, highlighted by a dramatic fourth-and-eighteen catch by future NFL receiver Austin Collie. “Obviously, when you’re doing what’s right on and off the field, I think the Lord steps in and plays a part in it,” Collie said afterward. “Magic happens.”

Two years later BYU won 26–23 in overtime, thanks to a touchdown pass by Max Hall. “I don’t like Utah,” Hall said after the game. “In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program. I hate their fans. I hate everything. So, it feels good to send those guys home.” Hall apologized the next day but insisted that his “family was spit on, had beer dumped on them and were physically assaulted on several occasions” at Rice-Eccles Stadium a year earlier.

Van Noy wasn’t around back then. But as BYU’s brightest star, he endured the wrath of Utah fans as he and his teammates entered Rice-Eccles Stadium in street clothes to make their way toward the visiting locker room on September 15, 2012. The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” was playing on the stadium’s sound system. A guy waving a Utah flag leaned over a railing separating the bleachers from the field to greet the Cougars. “Welcome to hell, boys,” he said.

“You assholes,” another shouted.

His earbuds in, Van Noy didn’t hear any of it. That night he had one of the best games of his college career, chasing Utah’s quarterback all over the field. “Fuck you, Van Noy,” one boisterous Utah fan yelled from behind BYU’s bench after Van Noy threw Utah’s quarterback to the ground, registering his fourth sack.

While Van Noy shone, Utah built a seventeen-point lead going into the fourth quarter. But with under thirty seconds to play, BYU had cut the lead to three and was nearly in position to kick a game-tying field goal. Then, with time running out, quarterback Riley Nelson’s third-down pass was deflected and fell incomplete as time expired. Utah fans rushed the field, taunting BYU players. The scene on the field quickly became chaos. But Bronco Mendenhall protested that one second remained on the clock when Nelson’s pass hit the turf. After officials reviewed the play, they restored one second to the game clock while boos and expletives rained down from the stands. Thousands of fans had to be cleared from the field so BYU could attempt a fifty-one-yard field goal. The kick was blocked. By the time a BYU player recovered the ball and was tackled behind the line of scrimmage, Utah fans had rushed the field again. This time Utah players joined fans as they rushed toward BYU’s side of the field, finger-pointing and celebrating. But there were penalty flags, and Utah was assessed a fifteen-yard unsportsmanlike conduct because the fans had run onto the field during the play. As the penalty was announced, BYU fans returned the favor, pointing and ridiculing Utah players and fans.

Calm amid the swirl, Van Noy stood on the sideline, helmet tucked under his arm, silently looking on as security cleared Utah fans from the field a second time and officials marked off the penalty. Then BYU lined up again to attempt a game-tying field goal, this time from thirty-six yards out. The kick hit the upright. Utah held on 24–21. Fans rushed the field a third time. Police had to step between as Mendenhall went toe-to-toe with a heckler as the Cougars tried to get off the field.

“I hate losing,” Van Noy said, standing in the back of the end zone as Utah fans celebrated all around him. “I hate losing more than anything. I hate losing at tic-tac-toe. So words can’t describe how I feel right now. But win or lose, I’m grateful to be part of this university. I’m grateful to be alive. That’s all that matters. Not many people in the world get to know what it’s like, playing the game of football.”

Later, a BYU official led Van Noy to the postgame press conference.

“Talk about that finish,” a local reporter said. “Was that as crazy as anything you’ve been a part of?”

“In my life?” Van Noy said, flashing a smile. “No.”

“On the field?” the reporter said.

“Yes.”

Through the first three games of the 2012 season, Bronco Mendenhall used Ziggy Ansah as a situational player, mainly as a defensive end or an outside linebacker in passing situations. In every case, his instructions were simple—get the quarterback. But in week four, everything changed. Early in the game at Boise State, noseguard Eathyn Manumaleuna, the Cougars’ best defensive lineman, sustained a season-ending injury.

When the Broncos recovered a fumble on BYU’s one-yard line with 8:19 remaining in the third quarter, Mendenhall sent Ziggy in to play nose-guard. Boise State had no scouting report on No. 47 as a noseguard; Ziggy had never played the position. He introduced himself immediately. On first and goal Ansah exploded out of his stance and met running back D. J. Harper just as he took the handoff, stuffing him for a one-yard loss. On second and goal Harper got the call again, and again Ansah beat his man, dropping Harper a yard behind the line. Van Noy made a tackle behind the line of scrimmage on the next play. The Cougars ended up taking over on downs.

That goal-line stand erased any questions BYU coaches had about Ziggy’s ability to stop the run. Ansah ended up with a career-high eight tackles. The next week against Utah State he started, recording two sacks and two quarterback hurries. From then on Mendenhall started him in every game. Playing every down, he became a nightmare for opposing offensive coordinators. After just four starts he led the team in tackles for a loss, and he was tied for twenty-fifth in the nation with tackles behind the line of scrimmage. NFL scouts who were watching Van Noy started noticing Ansah. After Ansah had another monster game against Georgia Tech on October 27 in Atlanta,
Sports Illustrated
’s NFL draft expert predicted Ansah could be a first-round pick.