Countdown to Kickoff (81): Taking a moment to appreciate Joe Critchlow

We here at Vanquish the Foe fully realize that committing to write 100 pieces of content leading up to the first game of the season was going to be a daunting task. There are a lot of things to talk about in regards to BYU Football but at a certain point it’s hard to come up with a unique topic every day.

That being the case, I (Jake Welch), decided to enlist the help of my dear wife to find out what she would want me to write about on this lovely Sunday. She’s been following BYU Football as a student and now alumni so I value her opinion on what she finds relevant. So what did she suggest?

“You should write about Joe Critchlow.”

Great idea. A lot of the attention last year has been on rising star Zach Wilson and his very talented backup Jaren Hall. Joe had an interesting trajectory in 2017 where he was buried on the depth chart and then thrust into the spotlight after a few injuries. He started and won a couple of games, becoming the smallest of bright spots in what was a pretty depressing season. Then in 2018 he slipped back into anonymity as Tanner Mangum and Zach Wilson took over the quarterbacking duties. Taking a moment to write about his trajectory would be compelling but it turns out that my dear wife had another idea for this post about Joe.

“Don’t write about football. Write about his wedding in France! The photos and wedding video are so beautiful!”

I’ll just go ahead and warn anyone who came here for real football coverage to click to any of our other articles from the past week.

I had no idea that Joe Critchlow got hitched earlier this year. In January he married Allie Romney, granddaughter of Utah Senator Mitt Romney. According to my very good source of Instagram, Allie served her mission in Paris and I guess she loved it so much that getting married there also made a lot of sense. I don’t know anyone who personally attended the Parisian affair but it looks like it was quite the soiree.

Joe might never play another down at quarterback at BYU but at least he got the wedding of his dreams in Paris. I mean, what guy doesn’t spend his entire life wishing that he could jet off to the city of love with his betrothed? I’m sure the entire offensive line was just plump with jealousy that he got to take his wedding photos in front of the Eiffel Tower. How romantic!

Anyway, I promise that tomorrow there will be a better BYU Football story on this website but on Sunday take a moment to celebrate by watching the wedding video of the Cougar’s backup quarterback. If you really need a football fix, go ahead and watch the highlight’s from Joe’s best game of 2017 against UNLV.