Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

If you’re looking for a textbook case on how to drop quickly off the national media map, look at the BYU Cougars.
While they’re still showing up in the football polls, the fervor has quieted. For awhile they were the darlings of the non-BCS schools ‘ right up until their Oct. 16 loss to TCU. Then next to nothing.
‘That’s as much media attention as we’ve had in a month ‘ ever,’ said associate athletic director Duff Tittle. ‘As soon as you lose, you fall off the face of the earth.’
Tittle, who joined BYU’s media relations staff in 1996, says he wasn’t around for Ty Detmer’s Heisman Trophy season in 1990, or BYU’s national title in 1984, so he can’t speak for that era. But prior to the TCU loss, the publicity staff was inundated by requests from the national media ‘ ESPN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Jim Rome, Dan Patrick and a host of other outlets.
The big difference between now and the 1980s and ’90s is the proliferation of sports talk radio and Internet sites.
‘It’s all on top of you. It’s unbelievable,’ said Tittle. ‘It’s amazing. Then, if you lose, suddenly it’s gone.’
Not all of it, he said, but a large part.
Meanwhile, undefeated Utah is running into the same situation. Interview requests are mounting and outside pressure is rising. The Utes may not want to get too comfortable in the limelight.
‘As soon as we lost a game,’ said Tittle, ‘the attention shifted.’