1977 BYU Cougars football | |
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WAC co-champion | |
Conference | Western Athletic Conference |
Ranking | |
Coaches | No. 16 |
AP | No. 20 |
Record | 9–2 (6–1 WAC) |
Head coach |
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Offensive coordinator | Doug Scovil (2nd season) |
Offensive scheme | West Coast |
Defensive coordinator | Dick Felt (6th season) |
Base defense | 3–4 |
Home stadium | Cougar Stadium |
Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No. 20 BYU + | 6 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 9 | – | 2 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No. 18 Arizona State + | 6 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 9 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Colorado State | 5 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 9 | – | 2 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wyoming | 4 | – | 3 | – | 0 | 4 | – | 6 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arizona | 3 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 7 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
New Mexico | 2 | – | 5 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 7 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Utah | 2 | – | 5 | – | 0 | 3 | – | 8 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UTEP | 0 | – | 7 | – | 0 | 1 | – | 10 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1977 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 1977 NCAA Division I football season. The Cougars were led by sixth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, winning a share of the conference title for the second consecutive year, sharing the title with Arizona State with a conference record of 6–1.
The previous season, BYU was invited to the Tangerine Bowl, where they lost to Oklahoma State. Despite finishing the regular season with a record of 9–2 and ranked 17th in the AP Poll, the Cougars were not invited to a bowl game and dropped to twentieth in the final poll, and tied for sixteenth in the UPI Coaches Poll. [1] [2]
Date | Time | Opponent | Rank | Site | Result | Attendance | Source |
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September 10 | 7:30 pm | Kansas State * | W 39–0 | 35,196 | |||
September 24 | 12:50 pm | at Utah State * | No. 20 | W 65–6 | 20,103 | ||
September 30 | 7:30 pm | New Mexico | No. 15 |
| W 54–19 | 33,352 | |
October 8 | 2:30 pm | at Oregon State * | No. 13 | L 19–24 | 33,965 | ||
October 15 | 1:30 pm | Colorado State | W 63–17 | 29,110 | |||
October 22 | 1:30 pm | at Wyoming | No. 17 | W 10–7 | 25,398 | [3] | |
October 29 | 1:30 pm | Arizona ![]() | No. 17 |
| W 34–14 | 33,621 | |
November 5 | 1:30 pm | Utah | No. 14 |
| W 38–8 | 34,208 | |
November 12 | 7:30 pm | at No. 17 Arizona State | No. 13 | L 13–24 | 58,295 | ||
November 19 | 1:30 pm | Long Beach State * | No. 17 |
| W 30–27 | 21,322 | |
November 26 | 7:30 pm | at UTEP | No. 18 | W 68–19 | 7,800 | ||
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1977 BYU Cougars football team roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Offense
| Defense
| Special teams
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Roster |
Senior quarterback Gifford Nielsen completed 30 of 40 passes for 321 yards and six touchdowns. Head coach LaVell Edwards pulled Nielsen with about three minutes left in the first half and again at 3:46 in the third quarter while three more potential touchdown passes were dropped otherwise Nielsen's stats would have been even greater. On the road in Logan, the BYU players were actually cheered by the Utah State fans as they left field. [5]
Starting quarterback Nielsen injured his knee late in the loss at Corvallis on October 8, ending his collegiate career; he was replaced by sophomore Marc Wilson. [6] [7] [8] [9] The struggling Oregon State Beavers were seven-point underdogs, [10] [11] and went winless in the Pac-10 Conference.
Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
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Utah | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 8 |
BYU | 17 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 38 |
at Cougar Stadium • Provo, Utah
Game information | ||
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BYU's Marc Wilson threw for 571 yards, [12] breaking the single-game NCAA record set by Utah State's Tony Adams in 1972, also against Utah. [13] [14] Wilson was pulled with two minutes left, but returned a minute later and completed three passes, including a touchdown to John VanDerWouden, to set the record, [12] which drew the ire of Utah head coach Wayne Howard.
Scoring summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Player | Comp | Att | Yards | TD | INT |
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Marc Wilson | 164 | 277 | 2,418 | 24 | 18 |
Gifford Nielsen | 98 | 156 | 1,167 | 16 | 3 |
Jim McMahon | 10 | 16 | 103 | 1 | 1 |
Terry McEwen | 3 | 3 | 32 | 0 | 0 |
Scott Phillips | 1 | 2 | 29 | 0 | 1 |
Dan Hartwig | 1 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
John VanDerWouden | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Player | Position | Round | Pick | NFL club |
Todd Christensen | Tight end | 2 | 56 | Dallas Cowboys |
Gifford Nielsen | Quarterback | 3 | 73 | Houston Oilers |
Mekeli Ieremia | Defensive end | 6 | 158 | Chicago Bears |
Lance Reynolds | Tackle | 9 | 241 | Pittsburgh Steelers |
Reuben LaVell Edwards was an American football head coach for Brigham Young University (BYU). With 257 career victories, he ranks as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. Among his many notable accomplishments, Edwards guided BYU to a national championship in 1984 and coached Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer in 1990.
The Holy War is the name given to the American college football rivalry game played annually by the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars and the University of Utah Utes. It is part of the larger BYU–Utah sports rivalry. In this context, the term "Holy War" refers to the fact that BYU is owned and administered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the U of U is a secular, public university with a substantial LDS student population. The current president and head football coach at the U of U are also LDS Church members.
The Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars and the University of Utah (Utah) Utes have a longstanding intercollegiate rivalry. The annual college football game is frequently referred to as the Holy War. In the 1890s, when BYU was still known as Brigham Young Academy (BYA), the two schools started competing athletically. The schools have met continually since 1909 in men's basketball, and met once a year in football from 1922 to 2013, with the exception of 1943–45 when BYU did not field a team due to World War II. Both schools formerly competed in the Mountain West Conference, but both teams left the MWC in 2011—Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference and BYU became a football independent while joining the West Coast Conference for other sports.
Dave Kragthorpe is a former American football player and coach. He was the head football coach at South Dakota State University in 1969, Idaho State University from 1980 to 1982, and Oregon State University from 1985 to 1990, compiling a career college football record of 41–69–2.
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The 1974 Fiesta Bowl was the fourth edition of the college football bowl game, played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona on Saturday, December 28. Part of the 1974–75 bowl game season, it matched the unranked Oklahoma State Cowboys of the Big Eight Conference and #17 BYU Cougars of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). After falling behind early, underdog Oklahoma State won 16–6.
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The 1979 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Cougars were led by eighth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, winning the conference title for the fourth consecutive year with a conference record of 7–0. BYU finished the regular season with an undefeated record of 11–0. BYU was invited to the 1979 Holiday Bowl, where they lost to Indiana. They were ranked 13th in the final AP Poll and 12th in the final Coaches Poll.
The 1980 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 1980 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Cougars were led by ninth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, winning their fifth consecutive conference title with a conference record of 6–1. After a season-opening loss to New Mexico, BYU ended on a 12-game winning streak, including a victory over SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl, finishing 12–1 overall and ranked 12th in the final AP Poll. The Cougars' offense scored 606 points during the season for an average of 46.6 points per game. They scored over 50 points in a game five times, including two games scoring over 70 points.
The 1978 BYU Cougars football team represented the Brigham Young University (BYU) in the 1978 NCAA Division I-A football season as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The team was led by head coach LaVell Edwards, in his seventh year, and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. They finished the season with a record of nine wins and four losses, as WAC champions and with a loss against Navy in the Holiday Bowl.
The 1975 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University during the 1975 NCAA Division I football season. The Cougars were led by fourth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, finishing tied for fourth with a conference record of 4–3.
The 1976 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University during the 1976 NCAA Division I football season. The Cougars were led by fifth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, winning a share of the conference title with Wyoming with a conference record of 6–1. BYU was invited to the 1976 Tangerine Bowl, where they lost to Oklahoma State.
The 1963 Arizona Wildcats football team represented the University of Arizona in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) during the 1963 NCAA University Division football season. In their fifth season under head coach Jim LaRue, the Wildcats compiled a 5–5 record, and were outscored 166 to 136. The team captains were fullback Ted Christy and tackle Jerry Zeman, and their seven home games were played on campus at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.
The 1981 Washington State Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Washington State University in the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) during the 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their fourth season under head coach Jim Walden, the Cougars compiled an 8–3–1 record, and outscored their opponents 297 to 197.
The 1963 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) during the 1963 NCAA University Division football season. In their third and final season under head coach Hal Mitchell, the Cougars compiled an overall record of 2–8 with a mark of 0–4 against conference opponents, finished last out of sixth place in the WAC, and were outscored by a combined total of 222 to 91.