BYU Football: Top 10 Cougar wins of all time
By Shaun Gordon
Where does BYU Football’s win last weekend over Wisconsin rank among the greatest wins in Cougar history? Pretty high.
Usually when you make a Top 10 list, it’s a chance to reminisce about past glory. You look back at the greatest games, the greatest teams, or the greatest players.
Top 10 lists fill the offseason when fans are hungry for sports-related content, or the end of a season to take a look back.
That’s not the case with this list.
BYU’s stunning upset at then-No. 6 Wisconsin is one of the biggest wins in the program’s history. The real question is where it stands among those other wins. How does beating the Badgers compare to the Miracle Bowl? How about Beck to Harline? The 1996 Cotton Bowl? Oklahoma in 2009?
Honestly, time will have an impact on how this upset ranks in the pantheon of great Cougar moments. How Wisconsin does the rest of the year may help or hurt how this game is looked at. How the Cougars do the rest of the year and beyond may do the same.
But looking at it right now, with no more BYU or Wisconsin games played since the upset, let’s look at where the win, by itself, stands among the Cougars’ most memorable moments.
No. 10
1974 – BYU 37, No. 16 Arizona 13
After a solid first season in 1972 for new BYU Head Coach LaVell Edwards, 1973 was a backslide as the Cougars finished 5-6. It would turn out to be LaVell’s only losing season as a head coach.
1974 didn’t start out much better, though, as the Cougars lost three non-conference games, then tied their conference opener with Colorado State. They righted the ship against Wyoming and UTEP before heading south to take on No. 16 Arizona.
The Wildcats scored the first touchdown, but the Cougars ripped off 28 straight points before halftime, blowing the game wide open. They coasted to a 37-13 win on Gary Sheide’s five touchdown passes.
This win was big for a few reasons.
First, it was LaVell’s first win against a ranked opponent.
Second, it proved to be the difference in the Western Athletic Conference Championship hunt, as the Cougars finished one game ahead of the Wildcats to claim the outright conference title.
Third, the win over Arizona (and a later win over No. 16 Arizona State) propelled BYU to a Fiesta Bowl invite, the first bowl game of Edwards’ career.