“The fact that it’s such a big rivalry and we can be really physical with each other, compete really hard with each other and then drop our pride, drop our egos, drop what just happened for two to three hours and give thanks to God, that says something about both schools,” added Boise State’s Williams, a speed demon who is the reigning Mountain West Conference special teams player of the year with six career touchdowns on kick and punt returns. You gotta love them up a little bit,” said BYU’s Romney, a junior ranked 10th in the nation in receiving yards with 648. There might be hard feelings on the field but once you get off the field, they’re your brothers. “Football’s a competitive game, so you’re competing, you’re talking trash, you’re fighting people on the field, but at the end of the day it’s, you know, it’s just a sport. The schools have played each other for nine straight years and have games scheduled in 13 of the next 14 seasons.Ī couple of players said praying with their opponents was grounding. I was really impressed with them the entire game, just a great program with wonderful sportsmanship and you know, hopefully we can be able to have that type of impact on other programs as well when we play them.”įriday’s prayer had additional meaning because it happened in a budding regional rivalry. “We’re not going to turn that down, when a team invites our team to kneel down and praise God for the opportunity we had to play,” he said. “I don’t know if an entire whole team has joined us before in the years that I’ve been here. We play against other teams who didn’t let their players stay and pray, even though the players from the other team wanted to join us in prayer.”īoise State co-captain Avery Williams was stunned when virtually the entire BYU team joined the prayer circle. “We play against some teams who don’t have a chaplain. “I am appreciative for BYU’s coaches,” Thornton said this week. Then he called his players back to the 50-yard line. “Hey, we’re getting ready to pray,” he said. Then Thornton found BYU head coach Kalani Sitake. That’s why BYU’s players began filing off the blue turf on Friday night after the Cougars, then ranked ninth in the country, battered 21st-ranked Boise State, 51-17. He usually reaches out to the other school’s team chaplain before a game to invite the opponents to join the Broncos for prayer at midfield afterward, but he didn’t know BYU had a team chaplain. “We’re kind of like this: We started with prayer, we’re going to end with prayer, and we’re going to give the glory to God,” said Thornton, who is the team’s chaplain. BYU’s postgame prayer usually happens in the locker room and Boise State holds one at midfield each week. Prayer is a major part of both programs, according to interviews with BYU players Gunner Romney and Isaac Rex, and Boise State’s Avery Williams. 9 BYU got a rare opportunity to make a statement against No.
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