Clay Brown on independence

When ex-BYU star Jason Buck said he wasn’t sold on independence for BYU football, it annoyed a lot of Cougar fans. deseretnews.com

JASON BUCK

Now comes an opinion from ex-BYU receiver Clay Brown.

Asked on Saturday what he thought about all the changes in the BYU and Utah programs, he said, “I mean, monumental changes.”

He went on to say that “as far as going independent, that’s a hard decision to make, because we always had a good spot, because of the spot you’re in. But now it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds as an independent.

“We kind of thought we had some pressure on us, but now as an independent, there’s more pressure because you’ve got to be doing well enough to schedule the teams you want, in order to be in the national limelight. So it’s a great responsibility but a great opportunity, too.”

Sounds to me like he’s optimistic, but not yet convinced independence is the final answer.

CLAY BROWN

***

I got an e-mail from a BYU fan regarding my Brown column on Tuesday. <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700180910/BYU-footballs-Clay-Brown-changed-team-history.html
” target=”_blank”>deseretnews.com

The fan said when he was eight years old, he had a birthday party in January, 1981, about a month after the 1980 Holiday Bowl. He and about 15 friends were at his home eating cake and tossing a football when a car pulled up and two guys got out – Jim McMahon and Clay Brown.

His brother, who was a BYU student at the time, had asked McMahon if he’d come visit his little brother on his birthday. Sure enough, the two players came.

“Those two guys stayed and played catch with a bunch of 8 year old kids in the front yard for an hour. They gave me a real kicking tee and an autographed football (which I still have) signed by the entire 1980-1981 football team. It was awesome,” wrote the reader.

Needless to say, the guy is still a McMahon and BYU fan.