LaVell Edwards passed away this morning at age 86. He was a legendary coach and really reinvented the game with his passing offense.
Coached for almost 30 years at BYU, top 10 in all time wins, 20 conference championships, an impressive coaching tree, and of course one national title in 1984.
He will be missed.
Our '84 team would have beaten them by 3 TDs. We were on probation and banned from a bowl.
They went 13-0 undefeated that year (barely) against nothing but cupcakes. I don't think they played a single ranked team all year, including their bowl game. They beat a 3-7-1 Pitt team in their opener by 6. They beat Hawaii by 5, Wyoming by 3, Air Force by 5, and in their bowl game, they had to rally to beat a sorry ass, no account, unranked 6-6 Michigan team by 7.
In the final AP poll, they got 38 first place votes,11-1 Washington got 16, and we were ranked 3rd with 6 first place votes.
BYU went 0-0 in tough games. Washington went 1-1 in tough games (with an impressive bowl win). We went 5-1-1 in tough games (the 1-1 being the first two games of our season). Both the NY Times poll and the Sporting News poll had us finishing the season at number one which is more support than a half dozen of 'Bama's MNC claims.
So, yes, LaVell Edwards was a heckuva coach, deserves all the accolades, but hearing about that '84 MNC still rankles me.
Alex.
