1980 BYU Cougars football team

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.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 6	at New Mexico		University Stadium Albuquerque, New Mexico		L 21–25	16,840
September 13	San Diego State		Cougar Stadium Provo, Utah	ABC	W 35–11	36,178
September 20	at Wisconsin*		Camp Randall Stadium Madison, Wisconsin	KBYU	W 28–3	71,496
September 27	Long Beach State*		Cougar Stadium Provo, Utah		W 41–25	37,152
October 11	Wyoming		Cougar Stadium Provo, Utah		W 52–17	41,296
October 18	at Utah State*		Romney Stadium Logan, Utah	ABC	W 70–46	23,230
October 25	at Hawaii	No. 19	Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI		W 34–7	49,139
November 1	UTEP	No. 17	Cougar Stadium Provo, Utah		W 83–7	36,251
November 8	North Texas State*	No. 13	Cougar Stadium Provo, Utah		W 41–23	36,583
November 15	Colorado State	No. 13	Cougar Stadium Provo, Utah		W 45–14	40,515
November 22	at Utah	No. 13	Rice Stadium Salt Lake City		W 56–6	30,520
November 29	at UNLV	No. 12	Las Vegas Silver Bowl Paradise, Nevada		W 54–14	31,406
December 19	vs. No. 19 SMU*	No. 14	San Diego Stadium San Diego (Holiday Bowl)	Mizlou	W 46–45	50,200
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

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Personnel

1980 BYU Cougars football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class TE 85 Clay Brown Sr WR 88 Bill Davis Sr OT 72 Nick Eyre Sr RB Bruce Hansen Fr TE 95 Gordon Hudson Fr RB 36 Eric Lane Sr C 52 Trevor Matich So QB 9 Jim McMahon RJr C 50 Bart Oates So OT 64 Andy Reid Sr RB 23 Vai Sikahema Fr QB 8 Steve Young Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DE 93 Brad Anae Jr DT 78 Chuck Ehin So DB 46 Tom Holmoe So DT 66 Doug Kellermeyer  Fr DE 77 Mike Morgan So LB 41 Glen Redd Sr LB 47 Todd Shell Fr LB 59 Kyle Whittingham Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 10 Lee Johnson Fr	Head coach LaVell Edwards Coordinators/assistant coaches Norm Chow (WR) Dick Felt (DB) Roger French (OL) Garth Hall (RB) Mel Olsen (JV) Tom Ramage (DL) Doug Scovil (OC/QB) Fred Whittingham (LB) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Game summaries

San Diego State

Long Beach State

• BYU: Jim McMahon 339 Yds passing ^[2]

Wyoming

Wyoming came into the contest with a wishbone attack that was fourth in the nation in rushing and sixth in total offense at 450 yards per game while BYU featured the nation's second best passing squad behind Jim McMahon, the best statistical passer in the country.

McMahon finished 22 of 31 for 408 yards and four touchdowns, his fourth straight game over 300 yards to keep his number one ranking. Wyoming attempted to rush seven and eight at McMahon but the offensive line and backs, normally featured in the passing game, did a superb job blocking. McMahon was never sacked as Nick Eyre, Lloyd Eldredge, Bart Oates, Calvin Close and Ray Linford dominated the line of scrimmage for the Cougars.

With the Cowboys committing to the pass rush, McMahon threw at will to targets Dan Plater (8 receptions for 99 yards and a touchdown), Lloyd Jones (5/120, TD), Bill Davis (7/143, TD) and Clay Brown (2/61, TD), who faced one-on-one coverage and exploit this advantage.

Meanwhile, BYU's defense was just as dominating, consistently getting into the Wyoming backfield and limiting the wishbone options for a team that came in averaging 323 yards on the ground. With the defensive line of Glen Titensor, Mike Morgan, Chuck Ehin, Pulusila Filiaga and Brad Anae shutting down the run, all the likes of Glen Redd, Kyle Whittingham, Bob Prested and Ed St. Pierre had to do was clean up.

The game was decided in the first quarter as BYU scored on two of its first three possessions and Wyoming gained 30 yards rushing in four. By halftime, BYU led 17-3 and the Cowboys had only increased their rushing total to 42.

"I've never seen a team compare with BYU throwing the football and I don't believe we've seen anyone physically as tough. BYU is much stronger than we are", Wyoming head coach Pat Dye said.

Dye continued, "McMahon is a great quarterback. We knew the four-man rush wouldn't get to them, so we tried different things. Today, a four-man rush or a seven-man rush didn't make any difference."

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At Utah

BYU clinched its third straight Holiday Bowl berth and its fifth straight Western Athletic Conference title with the victory over their in-state rivals. Jim McMahon completed 21 of 34 passes for 399 yards, an NCAA record tenth straight game over 300 yards passing. McMahon also broke San Diego State's Dennis Shaw's 1969 single-season touchdown pass record of 39 with his first scoring toss and later surpassed Shaw for most total touchdowns in a single season (45). ^{[4] [5]}

External videos
1980 BYU at Utah – Highlights

Holiday Bowl

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References