#92 - 12/2/78 – First NCAA game on foreign soil – BYU – 28, UNLV – 24

         As the BYU Cougars prepared for the 1978 football season, Head Coach LaVell Edwards had a problem. He had two future College Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks on his roster, and only one spot to play them in. Junior quarterback Marc Wilson had proven himself the previous year, when he took over for an injured Gifford Nielsen and led the Cougars to the WAC championship. However, sophomore QB Jim McMahon was also bristling with talent, and was very vocal about getting more playing time. So Coach Edwards was stuck with the unenviable task of keeping both extremely talented, yet extremely different, quarterbacks happy. He started the year with Wilson; but when Wilson pulled a hamstring in BYU’s 32-6 win over CSU, McMahon came in and took advantage of the situation, completing 7-of-9 passes for 112 yards and a TD. Wilson started the next three games, but was pulled early in games 5 & 6 in favor of McMahon - who led the Cougars to a 17-16 comeback win over Oregon by orchestrating two fourth quarter TD drives. For the next four games, McMahon was the starter, with Wilson being relegated to mop-up duty. However, in BYU’s 23-22 loss to Utah, McMahon hyper-extended his knee, and was forced to sit out the Hawaii game. Wilson played brilliantly in the 31-13 win and the controversy was back on. Which QB would be used in the season finale against UNLV?


LaVell Edwards
Quarterback Factory
Courtesy of BYU Photo

The first official NCAA game to be played on foreign soil took place at Yokohama, Japan and was billed the “Yokohama Bowl.” The BYU Cougars (8-3) who had played a pair of games against the Japanese All-Stars the previous season were invited to return to the Land of the Rising Sun. This time, their opponents were the UNLV Rebels (7-3), who were in their inaugural year as a Division I football team. Jim McMahon started at quarterback but was ineffectual, only completing 5-of-15 passes, and tossing an interception. The Cougar D was effective early, allowing only a 37-yard FG in the first quarter of play.

        In the second quarter, the Rebels busted loose with an 81-yard TD reception from Doug Robertson to Brian Harris to take an early 10-0 lead. Marc Wilson replaced McMahon at quarterback and guided a drive to the Rebel 8. From there, he completed an 8-yard TD pass to Bill Ring. Unfortunately, UNLV managed another scoring drive before the half ended. Michael Morton rushed into the end zone for a 3-yard TD rush to give UNLV a 17-7 halftime lead.

        In the third, defense again rose to the forefront. While the Cougar D held the Rebels scoreless, the Cougar offense mounted a drive to the Rebel 8. This time Wilson found Mike Chronister for the score, narrowing the deficit to 17-14 after three quarters of play.

        In the fourth quarter, the Cougars finally took the lead when Wilson lobbed a 2-yard TD pass to Tod Thompson. The Rebels came back, scoring on another 3-yard TD rush by Morton. With the clock ticking down, Wilson rallied the Cougars with another drive into the Blue Zone. Casey Wingard took the handoff and charged into the end zone for a 7-yard TD rush, giving the Cougars a 28-24 win in the first official NCAA football game played on foreign soil. 

        The win completed a 9-3 regular season in which the Cougars won their third straight WAC championship despite the season-long quarterback controversy. As WAC champions, the Cougars were slated to play in the inaugural Holiday Bowl against Navy (8-3). In the weeks prior to the big game, the quarterback controversy heated up again, with both QBs taking turns running the offense in practice. Wilson was named the surprise starter, but McMahon took over in the second quarter. Wilson came back in in the fourth. Neither quarterback was particularly effective, and it showed as Navy won 23-16. Neither quarterback was happy either, and both seriously considered leaving the team prior to the 1979 season. In the end, the controversy was eased when McMahon agreed to “redshirt” the 1979 season, leaving the field wide-open for Marc Wilson. The result: two College Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks and three of the most successful seasons in BYU football history.

Jim McMahon
Courtesy of BYU Photo

 

Marc Wilson
Courtesy of BYU Photo

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cougar Centennial preview

 This blog is dedicated to highlighting the 100 greatest games in BYU Cougar football history. I've been a BYU fan since I was a little kid, and attended the university from 1992-1996. When I realized that 2022 was the 100th anniversary of BYU's first official football game, I decided to compile a list of the 100 greatest games in the program's history (from 1922-2021) and do a write-up for each of those games. I did something similar for the 50th anniversary of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and figured I'd share my efforts with other BYU fans out there. Throughout the blog, I will be referring to Top 25 (or Top 20 prior to the expansion of the polls) rankings of either BYU or the teams they played. I realize that there are a couple of major polls, and even a few less famous ones, but for consistency sake I've decided to use the AP poll as the official ranking (even though BYU tends to be appreciated more by the coaches' poll). Also, many posts refer to the...
Read more

#98 - 11/1/80 – Most points in a game: #17 BYU – 83, UTEP - 7

Image
Junior QB Jim McMahon didn’t like to share the limelight with anyone. Yet that is exactly what he’d had to do in Provo. When Jim arrived in 1977, he found himself the backup to Marc Wilson, who enjoyed a spectacular sophomore season. The next year, the two QBs shared time behind center. That didn’t work out so well, so McMahon redshirted in 1979 - Wilson’s senior season. The result was the first undefeated regular season in team history. Now, it was Jim’s turn, and he wanted to break every single one of Wilson’s records, as well as set a bunch of new ones. Unfortunately, the Cougars started the 1980 season with a surprise loss to lightly regarded New Mexico. The loss served as a wake-up call to BYU, who were universally picked to repeat as WAC champions. The Cougars rolled out six straight victories, including a 28-3 win over Wisconsin on Sept. 20. These were convincing wins - with a minimum margin of victory of 16+ points. However, the Cougs didn’t break into the Top 20 until Oct. 18,...
Read more

#100 12/28/74 – BYU's first Bowl game: Oklahoma St. - 16, #17 BYU – 6

Image
               When the BYU Cougars (7-3-1) started the 1974 season with a 0-3-1 record, nobody would have guessed that they’d come back and win the WAC. However, since their 3 losses were against non-conference schools, they successfully won the conference title with a 6-0-1 record by knocking off two ranked teams (Arizona & Arizona State). As the winner of the WAC, the Cougars were invited to their first bowl game, to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys (6-5) of the Big 8 in the fourth annual Fiesta Bowl.                In the first quarter, the Cougar D corralled the Cowboys, forcing punts on each of the Cowboys first 5 possessions. The Cougar offense, meanwhile, moved the ball well early on. Senior QB Gary Sheide led the Cougars to the Cowboy 13, where Mark Uselman booted a 30-yard  field goal. Although they punted on their second possession, the Cougars took advantage of good field positi...
Read more