INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Watch Out For Those Warthogs
by John Walters
Posted: Wed September 23, 1998
With 16 schools spread across four time zones, as far east as
Houston and as far west as Honolulu, the WAC finds air travel a
necessity. Last Saturday it almost became a tragedy.
About 7,800 above Boise, Idaho, the charter 727 airliner carrying
the Brigham Young football team from Provo, Utah, to Seattle for
a game against Washington nose-dived 500 feet to avoid a
collision with an Air Force A-10 Warthog. The Cougars' plane
passed within 700 feet of the Air Force jet.
The 727 took off without a full tank to compensate for the excess
weight in the form of football equipment and players it was
carrying. It needed to land in Boise to refuel. "I know how close
cars can be," said BYU defensive end Daren Yancey, "but this is
the closest I've ever seen two airplanes." The FAA is
investigating the incident.
Air travel always seems to exact a price, monetary or otherwise,
on WAC teams. Hawaii, which must fly commercially because charter
flights to the mainland would be prohibitively expensive (at
least $300,000 each), was delayed by mechanical problems for four
hours last Friday in San Francisco while en route to play Utah.
The Rainbows arrived in Salt Lake City at 3 a.m. Eleven hours
later they were headed to a 30-21 loss to the Utes, Hawaii's 21st
straight conference road defeat.
Two weeks ago Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick blasted his own
school for the Rams' no-frills flight to a game at Nevada. The
trip from Fort Collins to Reno, which took eight hours, included
a refueling stop and just one sandwich per player for sustenance.
"If you want to write anything," Lubick later told reporters,
"you can write about the trip and how Mickey Mouse that was." At
least Colorado State beat Nevada, 26-14. BYU made as many
touchdowns between Provo and Seattle as it did against the
Huskies in a 20-10 loss.
So far this season WAC teams are 4-14 in nonconference games to
which they have flown. That's a major reason only one conference
school is ranked in the Top 25. Which school would that be? Air
Force.
Issue date: September 28, 1998
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