Losing, and Fair Weather Fans

It seems obvious. But I recall Dave Rose, BYU's head basketball coach, saying it on several occasions:

Winning is really tough.

It is particularly hard to do consistently. Even harder to do it continually, without a misstep somewhere for an entire season.

BYU's fall sports are doing great---Women's Volleyball, Women's Soccer, and Football in particular. Ranked in the top 25 by sporting poles, beating good teams, at times looking dominant.

But none have a perfect record.

Soccer fell to then-2nd-ranked Stanford on the road, giving up the only marker against them to date. They rallied and had lots of dangerous looks late, but couldn't quite pull off an equalizer.

Volleyball got their blemish from a solid USC team that was considered the 22nd best team in the country at the time, but has since risen to #3 on an unbeaten record, above where the Cougars currently rest at #10. BYU was close in every set, but couldn't put the pedal down, and fell in a sweep.

Football led the 10th-ranked UCLA Bruins for all but about 3 minutes of their clash in the Rose Bowl, but couldn't stop Perkins and the Bruin running game late, losing by a single point.

All of those losses were very, very close. This is little comforting, but at the same time, it almost makes it worse.

This leads to another obvious truism: losing hurts. It hurts a lot, usually proportional to the amount of effort and investment put into the endeavor. This is the case both for the fan and the competitor. It's very hard to be good at anything without putting a lot of effort and investment and expectation into it.

And guess what? All the Cougar teams are very, very good.

For football in particular, this pain can seem compounded. As one of the most punishing sports on the planet, where the field of play is referred to as "the gridiron," injuries and fatigue in football limit the number of games. There are only 12 regular season games to be had. If you lose one, that's a good chunk of the season. Lose two, that's 1/6th. Three, and you've lost a quarter of all your games. With other major sports, there's a lot more margin for error. But football can be almost as punishing to it's fans as it is to the athletes.

Taking that kind of pounding can leave a mighty bitter taste in the mouth. A lot of heavy feelings that aren't easily shaken off. A lot of people can't take it. Once they experience a loss or two, they decide to cut themselves off. They can't care any more, because the caring has caused too much backlash when everything doesn't come up roses.

This is called a fair weather fan.

The Fair Weather Fan is a necessary evil. When times are good, they slink back into the stadiums and arenas, adding that extra bit of atmosphere to the game and money to the program. But when times are not good (and this inevitably happens to every team everywhere) they are more than content to ditch their team and latch onto whatever else is the hot item. Bandwagon-ers of the world.

Not only is this sad, but it's kind of counterproductive.

For one thing, the Fair Weather Fan (in addition to lacking basic loyalty and fortitude) forgets that the pain of loss has a magical elixir to counteract it. It only takes one dose to banish the bitterness and heavy feeling in the pit of the stomach.

It's called winning.

And guess what? Even though they have all dropped a game, the Cougar teams are going to do a whole lot more winning. Collectively, this season still has the potential to be one of BYU's best. Plenty more Unforgettable Moments to be had.

But let's just say more losses happen. (There's a good chance they will, somewhere). Let's say you're feeling the crushing weight of disappointment and that stiff feeling in your jaw. This is no fun, I readily agree. In fact, it's pretty terrible.

Right there, you can choose to cut ties with the team you cheer for. It's definitely the easy thing to do.

Or you can do the hard thing: suck it up, and double down.

Click on those news articles and follow those twitter accounts. Tweet, discuss, and share it on Facebook. Purchase gear, decorate, and show your pride---pride that no matter what happens, you're throwing in with the Team. Show up to the stadium for the next one, buy their overpriced concession stand food, and shout your face off.

Heck, you could even write a blog.

Because if you invest even a tenth of what the players and coaches and administrators do into Your Team, when that win comes you will have a part of it. It will be in a small way your win, because you gave what you could to Your Team. Loyalty in the tough times, along with the interest, money, and enthusiasm you bring with it, just might be the key to getting the better recruits, the better venues, and the better games.

And guess what those bring? Better wins.

Being invested may make losing all the more painful, but there is nothing so sweet to the Loyal as a win. The season is still early. BYU fans have already had a whole lot of sweet, even though there was a dollop of bitter. Somebody said once you'd have to experience one to truly appreciate the other.

And Cougar fans are spoiled a little. No, BYU may not necessarily be a national power in sports (well, except for in rugby---4 straight baby!) but they certainly all win much more than they lose.

Seriously. All of them.

So if that isn't enough to win you back after taking a loss or two, perhaps this isn't the team for you. Maybe try Alabama. Oh wait---they lost last week, and looked pretty mediocre while doing it.

As for me, despite how the losses hurt, there's so much to look forward to that I think I'll stick with the Cougars.

I mean, it's right in the song: day or night, rain or snow---loyal, strong, and true.

Quick Hits:

Football

After a third near-brush with a last minute win last week, the Cougars have historically-vaunted Michigan on the road this week to round out September. Despite retaining the 22nd ranking in the AP poll to the unranked Wolverines, the Cougars are yet again the underdog for betting lines, somewhere around 4 points under. It's said Michigan has a tough defense, especially at the line, but I suspect the Cougars are going to come out very hungry. Tanner Mangum will make steady progress yet again, and the defense will once again find its stride, particularly if NT Travis Tuiloma is back from injury this week. That man can clog the middle.

Women's Soccer

It was a nice break for BYU last week, with only a single match against yet another overmatched Pac12 opponent, Oregon State. Yes, the score was a slightly disappointing 1-0 in favor of the Cougs, but with yet another lopsided shot advantage of 26-9, the Beavers never threatened too strongly. The Cougars have a pair of away games to round out their pre-conference schedule this week, followed by two conference away games.

Women's Volleyball

BYU swept both Utah (for the fifth time in a row---oh yeah) and UVU (who the Cougars have never dropped a set to...probably ever) last week to stay on top of the state. This inexplicably resulted in dropping their ranking in the AVCA national poll from 9th to 10th. That's probably a result of what the voting coaches thought of their competition. Zing.

The Cougars dive right into conference play this week against San Francisco and Santa Clara, the latter of which was only one of two conference teams to hand BYU a loss last year. The Broncos were also only one of two teams to take the Cougars in a sweep---them and national champ Penn State in the title match.

Quote of the Week

"OK, any more generalizations I can give you guys?"

---BYU OC Robert Anae, at the end of the media interview session

 Upcoming Games

WSOC	Sep 24, 2015 Thursday	at Cal Poly	7:00 PM PDT	ESPN 960 AM | Cougar IMG Sports Network
WVLB	Sep 24, 2015 Thursday	at San Francisco	7:00 PM PDT
FTB	Sep 26, 2015 Saturday	at Michigan	12:00 PM EDT	Cougar IMG Sports Network KSL 1160 AM / 102.7 FM	ABC
WVLB	Sep 26, 2015 Saturday	at Santa Clara	1:00 PM PDT
WSOC	Sep 26, 2015 Saturday	at Long Beach State	7:00 PM PDT	ESPN 960 AM | Cougar IMG Sports Network