To all of you who think this season was a failure, shut your mouths.

Can it be argued that the BYU football team has failed to live up to everyone's expectations? Absolutely not. since when is a 10-2 regular season record a poor record? Since when is finishing in the top 20 in the nation at the end of the regular season "underachieving?" People who continue to insist that the cougars have failed this season are spoiled rotten and need to take a look at what defines a good team.

In the last 3 seasons BYU has finished the regular season ranked in the BCS top 20, won 2 of the last 3 conference championships, and won 2 bowl games (the next has still yet to be played). The key to having a successful team is consistency. These statistics definitely show the signs of consistency.

Admittedly, entering into the 2008 college football season there were high hopes of a back-to-back-to-back conference championship, as well as a possible BCS-busting run. In order for that to have happened, it would have been necessary to go undefeated (assuming a win against TCU, BYU would still have to beat Utah to have won the conference). Statistically, there is less than a 1% chance that a team will go undefeated in any given season. Why are people so dang depressed that the cougars were unable to produce the second undefeated season in school history? When was the last time that any team has won three consecutive MWC conference championships? Try NEVER. It hasn't been since the streak of 89-93 (when BYU was still in the WAC) that the cougars have put together a 3(or more) year streak of conference championships.

Not to say that BYU couldn't have done it this season, or that we should not hope for such a lofty goal; however, where do people get off believing that the 2008 season was a failure? I remember that coach Mendenhall's first season as head coach was considered a great success when he led the cougars to the first bowl-birth since 2001. That season the Cougars went 6-6, finishing 2nd in the MWC behind Utah.

So lets simmer down a little bit and realize that the "Quest for Perfection" was never even about winning games. Coach Mendenhall made it abundantly clear that it was all about the quest for personal perfection in doing your personal best in every individual situation (eg., drills, weightlifting, etc.). If you thought that "Quest for Perfection" was a statement of going undefeated and wining a national championship, you completely misunderstood the meaning of the slogan.

Should we feel disappointed about losing to Utah? Yes, of course. But this does not mean that the season was a complete failure, nor does it make the bowl game this season any less significant than the bowl games of the last tow seasons which proceeded Mountain West Conference championships.