I'm an old school gaming fan. Many were the the summer nights of youth that you'd find me and my Nintendo occupying the TV after my dad's evening news and Jeopardy! habit was fed.
So back in 2014, hyped for a coming BYU football season that featured Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams as a fabulous 1-2 punch of offence, I made a design for a t-shirt featuring the duo in the style of gaming's first great co op, Contra.
Who would have guessed that it would still be on point in 2016?
Even for the blue-blooded Cougar fan, there's always a few things to make you anxious in any new football season. This one?
Toughest schedule ever, chock full of P5s and rivals? Check. Brand new coaching staff with new schemes, including first time head coach and coordinators? Oh yeah. Big 12 expansion looming over it all like a giant alien ship that will either land with a welcoming party of Vulcans, or go all Independance Day on you without provocation? You bet your big shiny Texas belt buckle.
Some analysts have even said that even getting enough wins for a bowl game (which would be a continuing BYU record 11th consecutive invit) would be quite the accomplishment. Regardless of where a play here or there slides the win total, this I guarantee:
With Taysom and Jamaal, there will be more lighting and fireworks on the field than anything that will be fired off into the sky.
To be sure, a squad of good linemen and receivers are needed to unload the full arsenal. But even with only a little help, these two will have plenty of guns to keep BYU within firing range deep into the 4th quarter of every game.
Taysom Hill strikes a figure of superheroic proportions--only people can't seem to decided if he's Cap or Thor. His name strikes fear into the hearts of many a Longhorn, and when it doesn't it's at least met with a wince and an exclamation of, "What, that guy hasn't graduated yet?!"
And this year, with Columbus Touchdown Club of Columbus Freshman of the Year Tanner Mangum in the wings, Taysom is just going to Taysom, only harder than ever. Should the hero falter, the Miracle Man is ready, but until then, Coach Sitake has essentially given licence to BYU's senior quarterback to run wild and smash the twigs of linebackers and DBs under his might--when he isn't unloading to an open man on a nice timing route. At 26, he is close to his physical peak, and may never be stronger, faster, or more dominating.
In addition to his playmaking power, the emotional value of Taysom cannot be overstated. His return from a third season ending injury, staying with BYU even with a new coaching staff, the reason he changed his jersey number for 4 to 7---a mountain of rehab and work and rededication have put him emotionally in a much different place than ever before. Doubtless, he has his eyes on the next level, but he's buying the same thing that the best fans buy each year:
The singular sensation, granted during a small space of time, of standing on the field, hearing the faithful screaming as he takes off, breaks two tackles, and drags a DB like an annoying little brother at the kiddie pool into the end zone. The feeling of representing the team you chose, on the field and in life. The experience of college football itself. "This cannot be replicated. I am going to take advantage of it for as long as I can."
Taysom (along with Jamaal, and fellow seniors Harvey Langi and Kai Nacua) was recently voted by the players as their captain. It doesn't take a sociology professor to guess why.
And then there's that other guy.
The college football world seems to have forgotten about Jamaal Williams. A year and a half away from the field is a decade in media years, and national pundits have moved on to the latest flavor of clickbait. Even local coverage seems to just check Jswagdaddy off like gold star at the top of the sheet, and move on to analyse fresher faces, like Troy Warner or Jonah Trinnaman. No doubt, those guys have exciting potential worth talking about. But Jamaal Williams is both a proven commodity, AND still has just as big of a potential as the new guys to be even better.
The man is only 21. (A 21 year old redshirt senior at Brigham Young is like coming home to find Sasquatch raiding your fridge--yeah, it might happen, but seldom seen and even less frequently believed.) Jamaal clearly has his best football years ahead of him. If coaches, media observers, and a glance at his rippling shoulders are to be believed, he used his time off to level up what was already a Division 1 body, and not a little. The mix of size, speed, and vision that have had him eyeing the Y's rushing record has improved with age. His ceiling is, as of yet, an imaginary place, vaguely outlined by the talking heads and the dreams of the Cougar faithful.
And it's not as if he's fragile--one season ending injury doth not a glass player make. He's not error prone, either. To date, he has yet to lose a fumble. 979 touches. No lost fumbles. Gold.
And aside from that little snafu at Virginia in 2013 (and let's be fair, the ball was sixty pounds and greased like an eel in that monsoon down on Harrison Field), he's a pretty sure handed catching the passes, too.
Jamaal Williams is everything BYU could ask for in a running back.
There are plenty of other talented players on both offense and defense that will come up big for BYU football this year. But the best running and gunning, the best firepower, the best chance to put points on the board at any given moment they are on the field are in the hands (and legs) of this senior duo.
They're ready for the invasion of Wildcats and Utes and Bruins, and they are loaded for bear.
It's almost too bad they aren't running the Spread any more. For naming aesthetics alone, that would have been almost too perfect.
