Honest question: Anybody around here give a flying rip about the Las Vegas Bowl?

Brigham Young's reward for a 10-2 season hasn't exactly stirred the souls of hardcore Cougar fans, let alone more balanced individuals who less zealously follow BYU football, or fans of all kinds who root for some other college team.

Nobody cares, much. That boat left the dock long ago.

And the reasons for the early departure, for the dearth of emotion and enthusiasm, are multifaceted, almost all of them swirling not from the bowl itself, but from the

The hard truth is, BYU is one of the most disappointing, dissatisfying 10-2 teams of all time.

Expectations were much higher than the actual result, pretty though it may be on paper.

When the Cougars finished fall practices, they didn't have winding up third in the Mountain West on their minds, and they wouldn't have appreciated their fans aiming that low, either.

As they broke huddles in camp, they adjourned them with the shout of one word: "BCS."

When they talked about the quality of their program, they often punctuated sentences with the phrase: "... as good as any team in the country."

They wore their team T-shirts with the notorious and, as is turned out, ill-fated motto: Quest for Perfection.

Apologists can scramble all they want to stress the Quest in that motto and de-emphasize the Perfection , and we've heard all that doubletalk a bajillion times, but it's undeniable that Bronco Mendenhall waited until the run-up to this particular season to pull that QFP ditty out of his bag, not back in the beginning of his term, when the Cougars won only six games.

Point is, he, and everybody else, thought BYU was going to be real good this year, ready to take another step up from back-to-back 11-2 seasons in which the Cougars went undefeated in conference play.

"Obviously, we wanted to see ourselves in a BCS game," says senior linebacker David Nixon.

That expectation was evident among the players and coaches and administrators, sent straight on through the media to the fans. The Cougars had a proven quarterback coming back, surrounded by virtually his entire offense, an explosive bunch that was supposed to have been a sure thing this time around.

There also may have been a few minor doubts and details, such as facing TCU and Utah on the road, and replacing departed players on the defensive side, but Mendenhall answered that last one by insisting his program was now mature enough to simply plug in capable understudies. As for the tough road games, the Cougars hadn't lost a league road game since 2005.

Warning shots were subsequently fired off when BYU struggled at Washington, but those were quieted, and the big dreams were enhanced, when the Cougars came back to smoke UCLA at home by a score as lopsided as a Pamela Anderson cartwheel: 59-0.

"That's a big number," USC coach Pete Carroll commented, after hearing the score.

So expectations soared.

And, then ... it was bad enough for the Cougars, and their fans, when their collective BCS hopes went poof! with the shattering loss in Fort Worth, but when that was followed by their initially-close-but-then-humiliating defeat against the Utes, excitement for the Vegas Bowl took the first train for the coast.

It was gonzo.

Even the players plumbed the depths.

"[The Utah game] still grinds at us," says Nixon. "We know we could have done better than we did."

Little boost was provided when Arizona was named as the other Vegas invitee. Had an undefeated Boise State been the opponent, maybe emotion for the bowl could have been stirred up, but the fifth-place Pac-10 team killed any last hope for a righteous buzz.

Still, the blame for the dead spot in passion lies at the feet of the Cougars, and they know it. They may be frustrated that their fans are a bit down in the mouth at a 10-2 season, but they had to haul themselves out of a funk, too. They seem to understand that if they're not into this thing, Arizona will kick them in the teeth.

"This is a chance for us to finish our season on a high note," Nixon says, sounding as though he really means it.

Problem is, it's not the highest note. Utah heading for the Sugar Bowl, and reaping the loud attention and goodies attendant therewith, is a bright crescendo.

No matter the outcome, the whole Vegas experience, the fourth straight trip to the bowl for BYU, will be totally eclipsed by the Sugar in sight and sound, played down and out in the silent dark.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.