to participate in a Primary mission MTC activity. I think that commitment is why we won though I know some will say it was from that stake president who doesn't watch over stake conference weekends.

Friday, arrived in time for a 1:00 lunch at Pappasitos. For those of you who haven't eaten there, the beef fajitas are amazingly tender and flavorful. They cook them, unlike almost any other Mexican or Tex-mexican restaurant I've ever been to who all have the strange desire to cook every ounce of moisture out of their meat--medium rare. The ribs are also a must-have. They are an amazing combination of peppery and sweet. The tortillas are made in each restaurant, fresh, and are the perfect texture. If you go, please don't go and order enchiladas or tacos--you'll leave wondering why anybody recommended it.

Picked up a niece straight from work so she could make the game, too. Missed the pre-game stuff, but worth it for her, a die-hard BYU fan. Wife was an angel and found parking so the rest of us wouldn't miss any of the game (she likes going to the games but doesn't care if she misses anything).

I would estimate the BYU crowd at between 35-40% of the entire crowd. It looked like we were going to be about 50% but a ton of fans tailgated right up to and a few minutes into the game. Ran into fans allover before and after the game away from SMU, including mom of one of the tight ends in the rental car shuttles.

Hot and swarmy for about a half. Cooled down really nicely for the 2nd half.

Once again, we are so lucky to have the atmosphere we have at LES. SMU, like tons of other programs, have not figured out how to keep or generate energy from what happens during timeouts, between quarters etc. There was some good music occasionally blared over the loudspeaker. Once kind of weird thing was the fireworks after the game. Think I would hold off on fireworks when losing. Obviously all the SMU fans were gone by then and one guy next to me, that was sure nice of them to shoot those off for us to help us celebrate the win. The halftime show included Dallas (didn't hear which mission) missionaries facing the SMU crowd near the sideline singing American the Beautiful. The actual singing was pretty poor, including a majorly awful disharmonious part in the first verse that resulted in a complete key change. They managed to stay on key for the rest of it and the next verse, but it wasn't great. However, they were enthusiastic and the light in their eyes could be seen (on the big screen for most of us) and I saw some SMU fans (most were at concessions/bathroom etc) stand up and clap for them. The fans were mostly nice--one student not so nice-- angrily and loudly passed tons of BYU fans after the game accusing us all of "soaking--I know you do, just admit it."

We yelled ourselves hoarse every SMU 3rd and 4th down and every down their last drive. It was so awesome to see the defense play so well--bend and don't break on a couple of drives, seeming to hold them when they hit those two long FGs, and holding even when the offense put them in terrible positions. The intensity in the last quarter really grew and our crowd really responded to support the team. It was really fun to tell my 6 year old grandson after we won to wait because the players would come up to where most of the fans were to say thanks and sing the fight song with us.

Obviously the offense had a great first drive. LJ went out and the running game felt much different. Retzlaff was really effective running the ball on that one drive. That pitch on 4th and 2 was gutsy. Missed a ton of throws, and we obviously had some drops. Jake's turnovers were terrible. The defense amazingly mitigated their effect by holding them to FGs. I haven't seen the replay yet, but some are saying one of the interceptions was by a player who had fallen down getting back up as he through it. Hoping we'll see more of the Jake of last week vs the Jake of last year going forward.

This is a better team than last year, especially on defense. I think the offense will be successful if LJ can stay healthy and Retzlaff cuts down on some crazy mistakes like that interception where he threw the ball away while in the grasp.

Really glad we went. It's one of those games where, if we had lost, I think we would feel like the the season is doomed. It's much nicer to enjoy a win while recognizing we've got a lot of room--and need--for improvement.

Go Cougs