BYU NewsNet - BYU Football Opens Quest with Lofty Goal

The BYU football team embarked on its 2008 season with a seemingly controversial motto that may put a target on the two-time Mountain West Conference and Las Vegas Bowl champions.

When head coach Bronco Mendenhall unveiled the team's motto, "Quest for Perfection," however, he had another idea in mind.

"I think [the team] knows it's very difficult [to be perfect], and I think I would rather call it personal best most of the time," Mendenhall said during the team's first week of fall camp. "That's what I believe our quest for perfection is. The expectation, now that we've gone 11-2 for two years, is that there are only so many more wins, though. But I've asked them not to focus on that part."

With only so much space to elevate their game past the seemingly normal end result of a Las Vegas Bowl appearance, the Cougars are looking at the bigger fish in the ponds. During the 2007 season, Hawaii shocked the country when the Western Athletic Conference champion received an invite to a BCS bowl game, the Sugar Bowl against Georgia of the SEC. Despite a pummeling that eventually dropped Hawaii from the Top 25, the Warriors proved it is possible to pop the "BCS bubble."

Now, BYU is looking to become this year's Hawaii. Nothing less than a BCS invite will fully satisfy this team.

"We just need to keep winning games and keep working down toward No. 10," quarterback Max Hall said after the Cougs were voted No. 17 on the USA Today Coaches' Poll. "If we want to end the year playing in a BCS game, then we've got to start somewhere. Seventeen is a good place to start, and hopefully we'll be one of the Top 10 by the end of the season."

Even Mendenhall, despite his earlier attempts to be conservative with the news media when talking about his team's chances for success, can't help but give a taste of what BYU expects from this season. In his fourth year as head coach, the former defensive coordinator is ever-so slightly tipping his hand with his high expectations.

"There isn't one player, nor a coach, that is satisfied [with being MWC champs]," Mendenhall said. "Personal best is what we want. We don't measure it by number of wins, like the world would do. We want more players and staff members to do the best they are capable of. I haven't done that yet, and that's what we're trying to get done."

According to many of his players, the current leader of the "Cougar Nation" can be taken at face value.

"With coach Mendenhall, what you see is what you get," 2007 backup quarterback Brendan Gaskins said. "We wouldn't have it on the T-shirt if we didn't want to win all of our games this year. So that's what we're going to try to do."

All-American candidate tight end Dennis Pitta agrees.

"It's always your intent to be perfect," Pitta said. "You never plan on losing. We have expectations to win every game, as you should every time. But we trust the players that are on our team and we know we can be successful."

But players and coaches are quick to point out that "perfection" extends beyond the field on game day.

"We're going to do everything we can do to do it [be perfect]," Hall said. "But if we don't go undefeated, is that going to be a failure of a season? Probably not."

"It's all about consistency," Mendenhall said. "[Former head coach LaVell] Edwards had 23 championships in 29 years. And we have two. I don't know how many conference championships we'll have, but I do know consistency will have a big impact on that."