BYU Cougars football

Brigham Young Cougars football
2015 BYU Cougars football team
First season	1922
Athletic director	Tom Holmoe
Head coach	Kalani Sitake 1st year, 0–0 (–)
Other staff	Ty Detmer (OC) Ilaisa Tuiaki (DC)
Stadium	LaVell Edwards Stadium
Seating capacity	63,470
Field surface	Natural grass
Location	Provo, Utah
Conference	Independent (2011–present)
Past conferences	MWC (1999–2010) WAC (1962–1998) Skyline (1938–1961) RMAC (1922–1937)
All-time record	484–369–26 (.565)
Bowl record	13–20–1 (.397)
Claimed nat'l titles	1 (1984)
Conference titles	23 1965, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2006, 2007
Heisman winners	Ty Detmer (1990)
Consensus All-Americans	13 Marc Wilson (1979) Nick Eyre (1980) Jim McMahon (1981) Gordon Hudson (1982 & 1983) Steve Young (1983) Jason Buck (1986) Mo Elewonibi (1989) Chris Smith (1990) Ty Detmer (1990 & 1991) Luke Staley (2001) Dennis Pitta (2008)
Colors	Blue, Grey, and White
Fight song	The Cougar Song
Mascot	Cosmo the Cougar
Marching band	The Power of the Wasatch
Rivals	Utah Utes Utah State Aggies
Website	byufootball.com

The BYU Cougars football team is the college football program representing Brigham Young University, a private university owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and located in Provo, Utah, United States. The Cougars began collegiate football competition in 1922, and have won 23 conference titles and 1 national title. The team has competed in several different athletic conferences during its history, but since July 1, 2011, it has competed as an Independent. The team plays home games at the 63,470-person-capacity LaVell Edwards Stadium on the university's campus.

History

The early years

The school's first football team won the regional championship in 1896.

BYU traces its football roots back to the late 19th century. Benjamin Cluff became the third principal of Brigham Young Academy (the precursor to BYU) in 1892 (the school was converted into a university in 1903) and was influenced by his collegiate studies at the University of Michigan to bring athletic competition to Brigham Young. The first BYU football team in 1896 played the University of Utah (winning 12-0), the Elks, the Crescents, the YMCA of Salt Lake City, the Wheel Club of Denver, and Westminster College; and it ultimately won the championship.^[1] In its second year of competition, the BYA football team won the championship too, but as a result of an accidental football-related death in Utah in 1900, football was banned from all LDS Church schools until 1919.^[2]

After a twenty-year ban on football, the sport was brought back to BYU on an intramural basis in 1919, and intercollegiate games were resumed in 1920 under coach Alvin Twitchell.^[3] BYU was admitted to the Rocky Mountain Conference in 1921 and had its first winning year in 1929 under the helm of coach G. Ott Romney, who BYU recruited from Montana State University the year before.^[4] Romney and his successor Eddie Kimball ushered in a new era in Cougar football in which the team went 65–51–12 between 1928–1942. In 1932, the Cougars posted an 8–1 record and outscored their opponents 188-50, which remains one of the school's finest seasons on record. The university did not field a team from 1943–1945 due to World War II, and in 1949 suffered its only winless season, going 0–11.

The team began to rebuild in the mid-1950s, recruiting University of Rhode Island head coach Hal Kopp to lead the Cougars, whom achieved back-to-back winning seasons in 1957 and 1958, led by southpaw quarterback Jared Stephens and nose tackle Gavin Anae. In 1961, Eldon "The Phantom" Fortie became the school's first All-American, and in 1962, BYU moved to the Western Athletic Conference. In 1964, Cougar Stadium was built, which included a capacity of 30,000, and in 1965, head coach Tommy Hudspeth led the Cougars to their first conference championship with a record of 6-4.

LaVell Edwards era (1972-2000)

In 1972, assistant coach LaVell Edwards was promoted to head coach replacing Kopp. Edwards and his staff installed a drop-back passing game considered to be an early implementation of the West Coast offense, resulting in Cougar Pete Van Valkenburg as the nation's leading rusher for that year. The following year the Cougars struggled to a 5-6 finish, but this would be Edwards' only losing season during his run as BYU coach over the next three decades. In fact, the Cougars won the conference championship every year except one from 1974-1985, including the national championship in 1984. However, the Cougars lost their first four bowl games. Their first post-season win came in the 1980 Holiday Bowl, which has become known as the "Miracle Bowl" since BYU was trailing SMU 45-25 with four minutes left in the game and then came back to win.^[5] BYU would win its 1981, 1983 and 1984 bowl games as well; and it earned the nickname "Quarterback U" for consistently producing All-American quarterbacks, which included Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon and Steve Young. During this period, Young finished second for the Heisman Trophy in 1983 and McMahon finished third for the trophy in 1981.

In 1984, BYU reached the pinnacle of college football when it won the national championship. The undefeated Cougars (12-0-0) opened the season with a 20-14 victory over Pitt, ranked No. 3 in the nation at the time and finished with a victory over the Michigan Wolverines (6-5-0). BYU defeated Michigan 24-17 in the Holiday Bowl, marking the only time a national champion played in a bowl game before New Year's Day. Coupled with the 11 consecutive wins to close out the 1983 season, BYU concluded the 1984 championship on a 24-game winning streak. Some college football pundits argued that BYU had not played a legitimate schedule and thus should not be recognized as national champion. Nonetheless, at the end of the season, BYU was crowned as national champion after being a near-unanimous number one in all four NCAA sanctioned polls AP, Coaches, NFF and FWAA.

In 1985, quarterback Robbie Bosco finished third in the Heisman balloting; in 1986, defensive lineman Jason Buck became the first BYU player ever to win the Outland Trophy; and in 1989, offensive lineman Mo Elewonibi also won the Outland Trophy. In 1990, the Cougars achieved their first victory over a top-ranked team when they defeated the #1 Miami Hurricanes early in the season, and the season culminated with quarterback Ty Detmer becoming BYU's first and only Heisman Trophy winner. In 1996, BYU won the first ever WAC Championship Game in Las Vegas and earned a bid to play in the Cotton Bowl against Kansas State of the newly formed Big 12 Conference, making it BYU's first ever New Year's Day bowl game, which they won 19-15. BYU finished ranked No. 5 in both the Coaches and AP polls, and became the first team in NCAA history to win 14 games in a season.^[6]

In 1999, BYU left the WAC along with seven other teams to form the Mountain West Conference, with the Cougars winning a share of the inaugural MWC championship. Just prior to the 2000 season, Edwards announced that it would be his final year as the program's head coach, and prior to Edwards' final home game, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that Cougar Stadium would be renamed "LaVell Edwards Stadium".^[7] Edwards was carried off the field following the season closer against the Utes.

2001-present

Fans storming the field at LaVell Edwards Stadium in 2009 after #19 BYU beat #21 Utah 26-23 in overtime

BYU wide receiver Cody Hoffman making a catch at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon in a 2011 game against Oregon State, which the Cougars won 38-28

Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Gary Crowton was hired to replace Edwards. His first season was successful, earning a 12-2 record and running back Luke Staley earning the Doak Walker Award, but the Cougars posted losing records the following three seasons and received negative publicity for infractions of the university's honor code.^[8][9] Crowton resigned on December 1, 2004.

Bronco Mendenhall, who had been brought into the program a year earlier as defensive coordinator, was named the next BYU head football coach. BYU returned to post-season play under Mendenhall's leadership and has competed in a bowl game each year of his tenure. During his tenure, Mendenhall has earned the 7th best winning percentage of all active coaches (.733). The Cougars' 2006 win over the Pac-10 Oregon Ducks in the Las Vegas Bowl (38-8) was BYU's largest bowl margin of victory in school history and BYU's first bowl win since the Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Day 1997, ten years earlier. The Cougars finished the year 11-2 (8-0 in conference), and ranked 15th in the nation, their first top-20 ranking since 2001. The 2009 season for BYU began against 3rd ranked Oklahoma at the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas, winning 14-13. The Cougars would go on to finish 11-2 overall and 7-1 in MWC play, losing only to conference champion TCU in October in a game preceded by the first-ever visit to Provo by ESPN College GameDay.

On September 1, 2010, BYU announced it would begin competition as a football independent starting in the 2011 season, following years of frustration with the lack of TV coverage and poor football competition in the Mountain West Conference. BYU later entered into an 8-year contract with ESPN in which 11 games would be broadcast on one of the ESPN networks and BYU would retain the rights to utilize its on-campus broadcasting facilities and nationally syndicated station. The Cougars were reportedly invited to the Big East for all sports during this period, and in February 2011, CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award Ben Cahoon joined the coaching staff as the wide receivers coach.^[10]

In 2011, BYU changed quarterbacks mid-season from sophomore Jake Heaps to junior Riley Nelson, and in 2012 three different quarterbacks were utilized at different points in the season. During the 2012 offseason, graduated defensive end Ziggy Ansah was drafted as the #5 overall pick of the 2013 NFL Draft, tied for the highest draft BYU alumnus with Jim McMahon '82.^[11] For the 2013 BYU football season, the Cougars were slated to compete against four pre-season-ranked teams.

In January 2015, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), which had previously announced that from 2017 forward all members had to play at least one non-conference game each season against a "Power 5" team (i.e., a school in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, or SEC, plus Notre Dame, an FBS independent but otherwise an ACC member), announced that games against BYU would also count toward the "Power 5" requirement. The move was seen as improving BYU's scheduling opportunities, and as an indicator of the program's strength; at the time of the announcement, the Cougars were coming off their 10th consecutive bowl appearance.^[12] Two months later, it was reported that the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which had announced a similar "Power 5" scheduling requirement from 2016 forward, would also count games against BYU and the other remaining FBS independent, Army, for this purpose. In the case of the SEC, this change in policy was driven more by the trend of "Power 5" leagues requiring nine conference games. At the time of the report, the Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12 either had nine-game conference schedules or were introducing them in the near future. The ACC has an eight-game schedule, but also has a scheduling alliance with Notre Dame that has five ACC members playing the Fighting Irish each season. Additionally, three SEC teams had a total of five games scheduled with BYU from 2015 to 2020.^[13] In July 2015, the Big Ten announced that games against BYU would count toward the conference's "Power 5" scheduling requirement that takes effect in 2016.^[14]

On December 4, 2015 Bronco Mendenhall accepted the Head Coaching position with Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).^[15]

Current coaching staff

Record book

BYU has had 18 final season rankings in the Top 25. The team has made 33 Bowl appearances with a record of 13–19–1. They have played in the Holiday Bowl (4–6–1), the Cotton Bowl Classic (1 –win0), the Las Vegas Bowl (3–2), the Copper Bowl (1–0), the Tangerine/Citrus Bowl (0–2), the Freedom Bowl (1–1), the Liberty Bowl (0–2), the Aloha Bowl (0–1), the Fiesta Bowl (0–1), the Motor City Bowl (0–1), the All-American Bowl (0–1), the New Mexico Bowl (1–0), the Armed Forces Bowl (1–0), the Poinsettia Bowl (1–0), Fight Hunger Bowl (0–1), and the Miami Beach Bowl (0–1).

Bowl Games

Top 25 Finishes

Record by Coach

Season-by-Season Record

Awards

Team awards for the BYU Cougars include 23 conference titles and one national championship in 1984. For player awards, BYU has produced 51 All-Americans (13 Consensus All-Americans),^[16] and one Heisman Trophy winner (Ty Detmer in 1990). Other BYU players finishing in the top ten in Heisman voting include Gary Sheide (8th in 1974), Gifford Nielsen (6th in 1976), Marc Wilson (3rd in 1979), Jim McMahon (5th in 1980, 3rd in 1981), Steve Young (2nd in 1983), Robbie Bosco (3rd in 1984 and 1985), and Ty Detmer (9th in 1989, Winner in 1990, 3rd in 1991). Detmer also won the Maxwell Award (best football player) in 1990.

Four BYU players have won the Davey O'Brien Award (best quarterback)—Jim McMahon, Steve Young, and Ty Detmer twice—more than any other school; and seven players have won the Sammy Baugh Trophy (best passer): Steve Sarkisian (1996), Gary Sheide (1974), Marc Wilson (1979), Jim McMahon (1981), Steve Young (1983), Robbie Bosco (1984), and Ty Detmer (1991). Luke Staley won the Doak Walker Award (best running back) and Jim Brown Trophy (best running back) in 2001. Two players earned the Outland Trophy (best interior lineman): Jason Buck (1986) and Moe Elewonibi (1989).

For coaching, LaVell Edwards received the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award in 1979,^[17] the AFCA (Kodak) Coach of the Year Award in 1984, and the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award (career achievement) in 2003.

Six player have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (Gifford Nielsen in 1994, Marc Wilson in 1996, Jim McMahon in 1999, Steve Young in 2001, Gordon Hudson in 2009, and Ty Detmer in 2011) and LaVell Edwards was inducted as a coach in 2004.

Uniforms

From the 1970s to 1999—a period coinciding with the some of the school's best and most prominent football seasons—BYU school colors were royal blue and white. The football team generally wore royal blue jerseys and white pants at home, and white jerseys and royal blue pants on the road.

In 1999, Coach Edwards' penultimate year, the school colors switched to dark blue, white, and tan, and the football helmets switched from white to dark blue. The block 'Y' remained on the sides of the helmet but received a new, more current treatment. The home uniforms consisted of dark blue jerseys with white "bib" and dark blue pants, and the away uniforms consisted of white jerseys with white pants. These new uniforms were disliked by both the conservative fans in Provo and the NCAA, who required the team to remove the white bib on the front of the blue home jersey in 2000 (NCAA rules require that a team's jersey have a single dominant color). The home jersey thereafter was modified with blue replacing the white on the bib area.

These uniforms lasted until 2004, when a uniform new style incorporating New York Jets-style shoulder stripes was introduced (the helmets remained the same). The new uniforms were worn in a "mix-and-match" strategy—e.g., the home blue jerseys were worn with either blue or white pants and the white away jerseys were worn with either blue or white pants. This uniform incarnation lasted for only one season.

Ultimately, the traditional design with the white helmet and former logo was re-introduced for the 2005 season. While the uniforms were also changed to be similar to the 1980s uniforms, the darker blue remained instead of the former royal blue, but all tan highlights were eliminated. This change was done at the insistence of new head coach Bronco Mendenhall, who wanted to return the team to the successful traditions of the 1980s. Normally, it takes a minimum of 1–2 years to create, design and approve a uniform change. When Nike, the team's uniform supplier, said that they could not possibly make the change in just five months, former head coach and BYU legend LaVell Edwards made a call to Nike and asked them to help the new Cougar coach. Edwards had worked with Nike on several occasions since his retirement, and with the legendary coach's weight behind the request, BYU was able to take the field in 2005 in new, traditional uniforms.^[18] One slight change in the uniform came in the 2007 season, when a small traditional 'Y' logo was added to the bottom of the collar. In 2009 BYU used a "throwback" jersey paying tribute to the 25-year anniversary of the 1984 National Championship. they were the same design as the current jerseys but royal blue instead of navy blue. They were introduced against rival University of Utah and again in the Las Vegas Bowl against Oregon St. BYU also introduced new "black-out" jerseys in the 2012 season, debuting at home, also against Oregon St.

Alumni

As of 2008, 146 BYU Cougars football players have gone on to play professional football. Team alumni have competed in 48 NFL Super Bowls,^[19] including Super Bowl MVP Steve Young and two-time Super Bowl winner Jim McMahon.

Rivalries

BYU's football program has two historic rivalries: one with the Utah Utes in a game referred to as "The Holy War", and another with the Utah State Aggies in a game referred to as the "Old Wagon Wheel". An emerging rivalry resulting from recent and anticipated future consecutive competition is Boise State, who BYU plays every year from now until 2023.

Future schedules

2016

2017

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 2	vs. LSU	NRG Stadium • Houston, TX
September 9	Utah	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 16	Wisconsin	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 29	at Utah State	Romney Stadium • Logan, UT
October 7	Boise State[20]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
October 14	at Mississippi State[21]	Davis Wade Stadium • Starkville, MS
October 21	at East Carolina[22]	Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium • Greenville, NC
October 28	San Jose State	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 4	at Fresno State	Bulldog Stadium • Fresno, CA
November 11	at UNLV	Sam Boyd Stadium • Paradise, NV
November 18	UMass[23]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 25	at Hawaii	Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2018

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 1	at Arizona	Arizona Stadium • Tucson, AZ
September 8	Cal	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 15	at Wisconsin[24]	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI
September 29	at Washington[25]	Husky Stadium • Seattle, WA
October 5	Utah State	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
October 20	at Boise State[20]	Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID
October 27	Northern Illinois	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 10	at UMass[23]	Gillette Stadium • Foxborough, MA
November 17	Hawaii	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 24	at Utah	Rice-Eccles Stadium • Salt Lake City, UT
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2019

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 7	at Virginia	Scott Stadium • Charlottesville, VA
September 14	USC	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 21	Washington[25]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 28	at Toledo[26]	Glass Bowl • Toledo, OH
October 4	at Utah State	Romney Stadium • Logan, UT
October 12	Boise State[20]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 23	at UMass[23]	Gillette Stadium • Foxborough, MA
TBD	at Washington State[27]	Martin Stadium • Pullman, WA
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2020

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 12	Michigan State[28]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 19	at Arizona State	Sun Devil Stadium • Tempe, AZ
October 2	Utah State	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
October 17	at Boise State[20]	Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID
October 27	at Northern Illinois	Huskie Stadium • Dekalb, IL
November 7	Missouri	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 28	at Stanford[29]	Stanford Stadium • Stanford, CA
TBD	Virginia	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2021

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 4	vs. Arizona	Las Vegas, NV
September 18	Arizona State	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
September 25	at USF	Raymond James Stadium • Tampa, FL
October 9	Boise State[20]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 27	at USC	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, CA
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2022

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 23	USF	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
October 8	at Boise State[20]	Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID
November 26	at Stanford	Stanford Stadium • Stanford, CA
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2023

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 2	Stanford	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
October 14	Boise State[20]	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
November 25	at USC	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, CA
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2025

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 13	UCLA	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2026

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 12	Arizona	LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

2027

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 11	at Arizona	Arizona Stadium • Tucson, AZ
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to game.

Additional Information

BYU and Notre Dame announced an additional four games to be played between 2014–2020 in both Provo and South Bend.^[30] A home-and-home series with Louisiana Tech scheduled for 2011–2012 will be delayed to a future date.^[31]

See also

• Haka performed by non-New Zealand sports teams § Brigham Young University

References

External links

• Official website