Centennial Cougars: The 100 Greatest BYU Cougar Football Games

                 The #20 BYU Cougars opened  the ir   2009  season against  the  #3 Oklahoma Sooners  in Dallas  in the first ever  college football game played in the Cowboys’ Stadium (the largest indoor stadium in the world) as part of ESPN’s Kickoff Week .   The Cougars finished the 2008 season ranked #25 with a record of 10-3, their third straight season with double-digit wins. However, the loss of WR Austin Collie, who had led the nation in receiving yards in 2008, to the NFL, and an injury to star RB Harvey Unga created big holes to fill. Oklahoma finished the 2008 season ranked #5 with a record of 12-2. Their junior QB, Sam Bradford, had been named named AP Player of the Year in 2008, while winning the Heisman Trophy, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Sammy Baugh Trophy. The Cougars were looking for thei r first win over a ranked non-conference opponent since 1998 . The Sooners, who were ...

               BYU kicked o f f the 1984 season against  the  #3 Pitt  Panthers  in Pittsburg h  in the inaugural college football broadcast by ESPN.   The Cougars, who finished the 1983 season ranked #7 with a record of 11-1, came into the season riding an 11-game win streak. With the loss of their two All-Americans, QB Steve Young and TE Gordon Hudson, and breaking in unproven junior QB Robbie Bosco, the Cougars were unranked in the preseason polls. Pitt finished the 1983 season ranked #18 with a record of 8-3-1. Their sophomore QB, John Congemi, had thrown 16 TD passes as a freshman and was protected by All-American OL Bill Fralic. The preseason polls ranked the highly regarded Panthers #3 - the highest ranked team that the Cougars had ever faced. Pitt came out throwing, completing a first down on their very first play. However, the Cougar D stopped them on the next three plays, forcing Pitt to punt. *On their...

                 One week after having Cougar Stadium renamed  LaVell Edwards Stadium in his honor, Coach Edwards took the helm for the last time as his BYU Cougars (5-6) faced their most ardent rivals, the Utah Utes (4-6), for the 76th  meeting in a rivalry that had spanned the decades since 1922. Over the previous 75 meetings (one every year save the three seasons canceled  by WWII), the Cougars’ record was a paltry 26-45-4; however, since Edwards took over as head coach in 1972, the Cougars had dominated the rivalry, with a record of 21-7. Five of those losses, however had taken place during the 1990s, the decade in which the annual grudge match had evolved into a true rivalry - with each team as likely to win as the other. With neither team bowl eligible, this year’s contest was their bowl game. The Cougars’ motivation was augmented by an intense desire to send their legendary coach off into the sunset with a win. Afte...

          In the  2007  Las Vegas Bowl, the #1 9  BYU Cougars ( 10-2 ) earned a rematch with the UCLA  Bruins (6-6) , who had beaten them 27-17 earlier in the year. At the time, UCLA had been ranked #13, and jumped to #11 with the win, but the Bruins went 4-6 down the stretch and were barely bowl eligible when the Las Vegas Bowl came calling. The Cougars, on the other hand, started the season 1-2, but won 9 straight games to win the MWC and earn a third straight invitation to Vegas. On the second play of the game, the Bruins knocked the ball out of QB Max Hall’s hands and recovered the fumble at the BYU 43-yard line. Although UCLA made it to the Cougar 3-yard line, the Cougar D tackled Chris Markey in the backfield for a 2-yard loss on third down. UCLA settled for a 22-yard field goal  to put the first points on the board. Near the end of the quarter, Hall completed a 31-yard pass to WR Austin Collie to move the ball into the Blue Z...

                 Since the creation of the Mountain West Conference in 1999, either the Cougars or the Utes had won the conference championship in five of the conference’s first eight seasons. Since their annual rivalry game was always scheduled for late November, the conference championship was often on the line. In 2007, th e # 23  ranked  BYU  Cougars (8-2; 6-0 MWC) were vying for back-to-back conference championships - something that hadn’t happened since ‘95-’96 when they played for the WAC. The Utah Utes (8-3; 5-2 MWC), could tie for the championship with a win and a Cougar loss to SDSU. Even more to the point, the Cougars had broken the Utes’ string of four straight victories in the rivalry the previous season in a game that wasn’t decided until after the clock had expired. Both teams were riding seven game winning streaks, and their respective fans felt that their team had what it took to win. The first half was a ...

                 In the first WAC Championship game, the #6 ranked Cougars  (12-1)  took on the #20 ranked Wyoming Cowboys (10-1) in a battle of WAC division winners  in Las Vegas .  On the line for the Cougars, was an invitation to a lucrative New Years Day bowl game (the first in school history), with a chance to crash one of the newly created Bowl Alliance bowl games by securing one of the two at-large slots. A BYU win would also tie the NCAA record for most wins in a season (13), with a shot to win an unprecedented 14 games. The Cowboys, which boasted the #1 passing offense in the country, were also hoping to earn an invite to a lucrative bowl, as well as dash the hopes of their longtime rivals.                Both teams started sluggishly, punting after 3-and-out possessions. On Wyoming’s second possession, they began on their own 23-yard line. On first down, their s...