Magic Happens

"I wouldn't say it was lucky. We executed the play well. We should have had another one. Obviously, if you do what's right on and off the field, I think the Lord steps in and plays a part in it. Magic happens." - Austin Collie referring to a catch on 4th and 18 to help BYU defeat Utah 17-10.

This comment has caused a little of commontion here in Utah and personally it make no difference to me what he said. But the one bit that I've pulled out of that comment is "Magic happens." Since the Las Vegas Bowl defeat of UCLA this phrase has returned to the BYU lexicon and is actually getting overplayed. So with that being said here is my report on my trip to Las Vegas for the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl.

Saturday, December 22

4:00 a.m. Wake up, rub my eyes, look at my clock, and realize I have another hour and 15 minutes before I need to get up.

4:20 a.m. Wake up, rub my eyes, look at my clock and realize I have another 55 minutes before I need to get up.

4:40 a.m. Rinse and repeat.

5:00 a.m. Wake up and contemplate just getting up. But with 15 more minutes to be had I go back to sleep.

5:15 a.m. Wake up and get up. It's Game Day and time to get ready for the game.

5:45 a.m. Head out the door on my way to Layton. I'm riding to the game with Rick Davis, a friend and colleague of mine. More on him later.

6:00 a.m. Get to Rick's house and like a good soldier he is ready to go. Anybody who has ever traveled with me to a BYU game knows not to mess with the schedule. It's carefully crafted so as to leave NO, ZERO, ZIPPO chance of being late to the game. Especially when you have to travel all the way to Las Vegas. Extra time has been added to the schedule to account for a flat tire, small bladder or irritable bowel syndrome. Rick suffered from one of these ailments and let's just say that we didn't have any car troubles.

6:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. It's smooth sailing to Vegas. The weather is fine, the roads are clear and it's sunny outside. Rick's a good driver except sometimes he likes to talk with his hands and use his knees to drive. I'm not kidding. He also likes to look at the person he's talking to. And I'm sitting to his right. You do the math. However with the prayers of faithful family members Rick probably could have drove standing on his head and we would have made it fine.

We covered quite a bit of topics mostly surrounding local government type stuff. Since most of you blog readers couldn't care less I'll spare you the details. Let's just say we've got every city in Utah critiqued with South Ogden and West Point getting the highest of marks.

11:30 a.m. We've arrived in Vegas and we head to Sam's Town to check in. I double check to make sure we have two double beds in the room. I don't want to replay the scene from "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". We drop our bags off in our room and I grab six layers of clothes for the game. Rick looks at me and gives me a smirk. He's obviously a Vegas Bowl rookie. I'm secretly stashing some extra clothes for me to sell to Rick when he gets cold during the game.

12:00 p.m. One important aspect of a trip like this is planning out your meals. Rick and I already had a pre-trip planning meeting to discuss the timing of food to go into our belly's during the trip. You want to eat good, but you don't want to stuff yourself as to make yourself sick so it is critical that the timing works out. We already hit McDonalds in Orem on the way to Vegas just as we had planned. Our next stop was the Rio World Buffet. Game on!

12:30 p.m. I had been to the Rio World Buffet (or "boof-et" as Rick called it) before about 10 years ago. I remember paying $10.99 for lunch. Just to put this in context the World Buffet is named such because it has about 10 different stations of different foods. Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, American, or (insert ethnic food here). My first time here I hit the first station and loaded up my plate before surveying the buffet. Needless to say I didn't realize that I filled up on hamburgers and french fries when I could have had prime rib and sushi.

The Rio World Buffet has changed. It is now $23.99. And that's for lunch. I coached Rick to survey all the stations before filling up your plate. So we took out second mortgages, paid our $23.99, and surveyed the food. I tried to get a sample from each station the first time around. I ended up with a little bit of Mexican, some Chinese and a huge slab of Prime Rib.

Plate #2 consisted of sushi, fish, shrimp and a crab salad. When I got the crab salad I realized this place has a salad bar. For what purpose I'm not sure. Hmmmm... "Hey Maude, let's head down to the Rio World Buffet so we can pay $23.99 for some salad."

Plate #3 was strictly a plate of spaghetti (I know what you're thinking, "Hey Scott, let's head down to the Rio World Buffet so we can pay $23.99 for a plate of spaghetti.") but I was on overload and I wanted to go "easy".

Rick, who I discovered on our trip is much smarter and wiser than I am, settled in nicely with a modest Plate #1. Plate #2 for Rick was about 40 crab legs. If you've ever eaten crab legs then you know that 40 crab legs is about 4 oz. of meat. So while I'm doubling over in pain, Rick is peacefully eating his crab legs and enjoying his meal.

I gather my "senses" just long enough to head to the dessert station. I limited myself to one plate (Plate #4 total if you're keeping score at home) but did not limit the number of items on my plate. Let's just say I ended up with a sampler platter. After I finished eating I was trying to figure out how I was physically going to get to the exit to leave the restaurant. The exit might as well have been in another country because I can't figure out how I'm going to get there. Finally I had Rick roll me out of there just like the chick who ate the special gum on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Just a little sidenote: My beverage of choice for the buffet was milk. Not water. Not pop. I figured it was the most expensive thing I could drink. Take that $23.99.

2:00 p.m. Yep, we spent 1.5 hours at the buffet.

2:30 p.m. Another rule of BYU football for me is arriving at the site at least 1 hour before kickoff. We get to Sam Boyd Stadium 2.5 hours before the game. At this time Rick is wondering who the anal retentive freak is sitting next to him in his car.

3:00 p.m. We've got a little bit of time to kill so we head over to the pre-game festivities. I actually like these just because it's a little different than a regular BYU game. We try out some of the booths and win a few prizes. We then head to the pep rally to get amped for the game.

The only problem is that the opening act is an acapella group called "Moosebutter". If you've ever been to BYU then you know that their are probably 1,500 of these types of groups on campus. Anything to get chicks. Now, I remember Moosebutter from last year because they performed at the same pep rally (Note to Rick: Last year we got to the game 4 hours early, so you got off easy this year). Moosebutter mixes a little music with a little humor (I chuckled a couple of times), but my biggest problem is that they were dressed in RED. These are BYU guys and they have on red from head to toe. Didn't they get the memo that BYU is pushing real hard to get fans to wear blue? I don't mean to be hard on Moosebutter, in fact they are probably googling their name as we speak and this blog will come up. So to appease them here you go: http://www.moosebutter.com/ There's your plug guys, now wear blue next time.

The rest of the time was a mix of cheerleaders, Cougarettes, and the band. It was a good ol' fashioned pep rally. After it was over it was time. Game time!

4:00 p.m. Rick and I head into the stadium and decide we want to see how the upper crust of society lives. Our real tickets are in the endzone about two rows from the top. Since hardly anybody is in the stadium we head down to the 45-yard line on the first row. These are the $100 seats. We're directly behind the UCLA bench and we're watching the UCLA team warm up. It's kind of cool to see the action this close. You getter a better feel for how big these guys really are and how much they really swear.

4:30 p.m. Some guys come down (more on them later) and claim their seats. They tell us we can stay there if we give them $100. We tell them "no thanks" and move two rows back. We sit there and make the one of the best decisions of our lives (probably a close second to choosing our respective wives). We decide to stay until somebody kicks us out.

5:00 p.m. It's close to kickoff and nobody is claiming their rightful seats. The only problem is, is that we're in the middle of the UCLA section. The rows directly to our left are the family and friends of the UCLA players. There are a smattering of BYU fans, but we're pretty much on our own. Except Rick doesn't seem to notice (more on that later).

5:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. The game is in flow and it's a hotly contested battle. The UCLA fans aren't too boisterous and since BYU isn't exactly lighting the football field on fire there isn't too much bravado coming from us. Until......UCLA sacks Max Hall in the second quarter and the three fans (three dudes in their mid-twenties who booted us out of there seats) turn around and face the crowd and do this gesture (similar to a referee signaling an incomplete pass) to indicate that they had just stopped BYU on third down. Now I've been to a few games in my day and didn't take any offense, but I think Rick wasn't too pleased. I think he thought it was directed at him, but nonetheless the gauntlet had been laid down.

BYU proceeds to punt. UCLA fumbles the punt and BYU recovers the ball. On the next play Max Hall hits Austin Collie on a fade route for a touchdown. As soon as the referee signals touchdown I see Rick take off down the aisle. He has so much momentum he almost flips over the railing onto the field. As soon as he catches his balance he is standing just to left of our three UCLA buddies. He starts doing the same gesture that they had done just minutes earlier (which is nowhere close to the gesture of signaling a touchdown, but Rick was trying to send them a message). Rick comes back next to me and our conversation goes something like this:

Scott: "Rick, what the heck are you doing?"

Rick: "I was just doing what they were doing to us."

Scott: "Are you crazy? You're going to start a fight with these dudes."

Rick: "I can take these guys. Look how small they are. You've got my back, right?"

Scott: "I don't know if you noticed but even if you take these three guys out, there are 2,000 UCLA fans in the very near vicinity that would love to jump in and finish the job."

Scott: (thinking to himself) Never go with Rick to a Wyoming game in Laramie.

Not to yada, yada the game, but the second half was a defensive struggle. However UCLA makes some plays at the end of the game to set up a 28-yard field goal to win the game. In a moment of doubt (O, Ye of little faith) I think the game is over. But Eathyn Manumaneleuna blocks the field goal attempt and BYU wins by 17-16. Bedlam ensues and fans rush the field. Except for our section. I'm trying to think of an exit strategy that won't get us killed since Rick made a few friends at the game. We bide our time and soak up the win.

I sit there and all I can think to myself is "Magic happens."

P.S. Just a little mention of how awesome my wife is. I was definitely on borrowed time for this trip. That's why it was so quick. I really couldn't ask for a better companion.

Speaking of companions, I hope I haven't treated Rick unfairly during this report. Traveling down with him made the trip really fun. For those who read this and actually know Rick will understand a little better the events that transpired. Some of the events concerning Rick are slightly exaggerated. I would gladly attend the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl (or BCS bowl) with him another time. But I will never, ever go to a game with him in Laramie.

Go Cougars!