Bieniemy Doesn’t Want Any Reward After Defeat

Try to say “Bieniemy” (pronounced Bee-EN-Ahmee) 40 times in a row. Now you know how the public address announcer felt at Anaheim Stadium Thursday night.

Now, practice saying “Bieniemy” 40 times in your mind. Then stand in front of a microphone and say nothing. Now you know how the presenter of the Freedom Bowl most valuable player trophies felt when Colorado running back Eric Bieniemy failed to show at the postgame awards ceremony after the Buffaloes lost to Brigham Young, 20-17.

Bieniemy, a 5-foot 6-inch, 190-pound bowling ball of a back, carried 33 times for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he refused to accept the award as the Colorado player of the game because, “I didn’t deserve it.”

The trophy, which is almost as big as Bieniemy, sat on top of a trash can near his locker after Freedom Bowl officials--(it took two of them)--hand delivered it to the Colorado locker room. Teammates oohed and aahed over it while Bieniemy, a sophomore from Bishop Amat High School, took an extended shower.

“Heck, I’ll take it if Eric won’t,” one wide-eyed player said.

When Bieniemy finally returned, he said he probably would take the trophy because his mother would likely disown him if he didn’t.

But he insisted he was accepting it under protest.

“First, I’ll take a victory over any kind of personal performance,” he said, “and I’m going to live with this defeat until we get to play another game next season.

“Second, I didn’t play well enough to deserve any trophy, anyway.”

If he hadn’t played as well as he did, Colorado probably wouldn’t have scored at all. This little guy is a big man in the Buffalo offense.

Colorado quarterbacks completed only 5 passes all night and Bieniemy caught 2 of those, picking up 30 yards. The Buffaloes attempted only 16 passes and he threw 1 of them, an incomplete pass on a flea-flicker.

Bieniemy had 94 yards and both touchdowns in 21 first-half carries. His first touchdown came on a 1-yard run just 2 1/2 minutes into the game after Colorado’s Michael Jones recovered a fumble on the BYU 49-yard line. The second touchdown--another 1-yard dive--ended an 11-play, 46-yard drive during which he carried the ball 8 times.

Colorado led, 14-7, at halftime, but Bieniemy wasn’t too happy with the way things went after the intermission.

“Not to take anything away from their defense, but we beat ourselves tonight,” he said. “Our game plan was to pound them up front and control the ball. We did that for a while, but then we just didn’t execute the way we’re capable of.”

Then Bieniemy, who surprised no one by announcing that he was “an emotional player,” further laid the blame for his team’s defeat on his own considerably large shoulders. He said that he let his emotions run away with him in the second half after spending the first half running away from BYU defenders.

“I personally let my emotions take over and this time my emotions beat me,” he said. “I got frustrated when we weren’t moving the ball.”

Bieniemy wouldn’t accept his trophy, but his first action after the final gun was to present a trophy of sorts to his mother, who traveled with a large group of friends and relatives from West Covina to watch their favorite son. He tore off his jersey (No. 1, of course) and passed it to her before sprinting off to drown his sorrows in the showers.

So mom made off with two trophies, while her son will carry the burden of defeat around for the better part of a year.