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Show Amies plmPmMc m ofih cdkm home mme By GARY R. BLODGETT Sports Editor In the 25-year history of the Western Athletic Athle-tic Conference, there has never been a team emerge conference champion with more than one league defeat. Will this be the exceptional year? BYU's Cougars hope that their single loss to Wyoming last weekend will be enough to get them to the WAC title and a shot at the traditional Holiday Bowl. But it's going to be tough. And the Cougs are going to have a week to think about it. BYU draws a bye this weekend before playing Hawaii over on the islands on Saturday, Oct. 24. Wyoming has the inside track for the 1987 WAC crown with three straight wins against what the Cowboys term their three toughest opponents Air Force Academy, San Diego State and BYU. But there are a few things to take into consideration about the Cowboys. First, Wyoming played the Air Force in the first WAC game of the season when the Cadets were playing without their outstanding quarterback, quarter-back, whom Coach Fisher DeBerry had not even discovered at the time. Since then, the quarterback sensation Dee Dowis is among the leading quarterbacks in the nation and has literally "ripped his opponents to threads" with his pinpoint passing, exceptional excep-tional handling of the wishbone offense, and his dazzling running performance. , Probably the most under-rated quote by a college coach this season will be the one made preseason by Coach DeBerry: "Dowis has the potential to become the finest wishbone quarterback quar-terback that we've had at the Academy." He should have added, "the finest quarterback quarter-back ever to run the wishbone offense for any college team." If Dowis continues the pace he is presently setting, the sophomore sensation will be just that. So the Cougars will be struggling to stay afloat in the WAC even though they have only one defeat. BYU will have the "home field" advantage playing the Air Force Academy (Oct. 31), San Diego State (Nov. 7) and Utah (Nov. 21) in Cougar Stadium. The Cougars will also play one game, against Colorado State, on a neutral field in Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 4. Despite being in the driver's seat, undefe- r grated gr-ated Wyoming will play four of its five remaining remain-ing WAC games on the road. Only winless Colorado Col-orado State is "at home" in Laramie. In fact, the Cowboys wrap up league play with three tough games on the road Utah, UTEP and Hawaii. If BYU gets back on the winning track, fans may have to wait until the conclusion of the BYU-CSU game in Australia to know the WAC champ, or very possibly the co-champs. Wrapping up the season with co-champions can not be ruled out and Utah's running Utes could be a contender. Wyoming, BYU, Utah and Air Force would be strong contenders. Utah will be at Hawaii this Saturday then play two non-conference games against Utah State (at home Oct. 24), and Boise State at Boise Oct. 31 before meeting UTEP (Nov. 7) and Wyoming (Nov. 14) at home and playing BYU in Provo on Oct. 21. The Utes will play the Rainbows Saturday night in Aloha Stadium in what will be the third of nine home games for the Islanders. Hawaii plays the remainder of its seven-game schedule (including Utah) at home. Utah stayed alive in the WAC conference by winning a come-from-behind game with CSU in Fort Collins last weekend, 24-23. And it was three blocked kicks from the specialty team that denied the Rams points and gave the Utes a last-minute victory. With Weber State at Montana State, Utah State's Aggies will be playing the only home game of the deer-hunt weekend as they tangle with the University of Pacific. Kickoff is 1 p.m. The Aggies lost a heartbreaker to the University Univer-sity of Nevada at Las Vegas, 28-27, last weekend and will still be looking for their first win of the season after five consecutive losses. But the season record could be deceiving. Utah State opened against nationally ranked Nebraska and Kentucky on the road. The Ags then lost to Fullerton State in a conference encounter at home, and was defeated by BYU at Provo before losing the one-pointer on the final play of the game at Las Vegas. But the Aggies shouldn't have lost to the Rebels last week and they wouldn't have with any break from the officiating. Two very questionable calls in the final minute went in favor of UNLV and with it went the Aggies' hopes of a shot at the PCAA crown. |