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BYU Football: 5 Luckiest/Unluckiest Football Moments

By Adam Gibby

DAYTON, OH - MARCH 17: Two Brigham Young Cougars fans hold up a flag during the first round of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Mississippi Rebels at UD Arena on March 17, 2015 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OH - MARCH 17: Two Brigham Young Cougars fans hold up a flag during the first round of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Mississippi Rebels at UD Arena on March 17, 2015 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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SALT LAKE CITY, UT – NOVEMBER 24: Dayan Ghanwoloku #5 of the Brigham Young Cougars tackles the leaping TJ Green #4 of the Utah Utes in the second half of a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – NOVEMBER 24: Dayan Ghanwoloku #5 of the Brigham Young Cougars tackles the leaping TJ Green #4 of the Utah Utes in the second half of a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /

Unlucky 1

Unlucky – Overall losses to Utah during the steak

Although two of the losses against Utah have already been mentioned on this list, it is almost safe to say that BYU has lost in just about every way possible in the eight game losing streak. Here is a list of all the ways that BYU has lost, and some of them can be blamed on just plain bad luck.

  • 2010 – Fourth quarter interception that appeared to seal the game for BYU gets called as a fumble. After reviewing the play, it appears that Bradley was down but there was no indisputable evidence to overturn the play (or was there?)
  • 2011 – No bad luck here. The only bad luck was that our TV’s didn’t all lose power as BYU was throttled 54-10
  • 2012 – BYU fails to hit two last second FG’s that would have put the game into overtime. The first kick was blocked but after students rushed the field, BYU was given another chance and hit the upright. Wait…students rushing the field? I thought BYU wasn’t a big game anymore…
  • 2013 – This game was full of controversy but the two biggest calls were a phantom holding call on Alani Fua when Adam Hine scored on a kickoff. Watching the play again, Fua doesn’t even touch a player when the flag was thrown. Maybe it was the wrong number but based off of that it was a missed call. Later in the game there was a lot of contact on the final throw of the game with Mitch Mathews and a defender and no call was made.  Watch the replays here. 
  • 2015 – Already talked about. Giving up 35 points in the first quarter just to lose by 7.
  • 2016 – Already talked about.  Two targeting penalties appear to go into the decision to go for two late in the game instead of sending the game to overtime.
  • 2017 – BYU and Utah play a low scoring game but BYU comes back from being down 16-0 to make it 19-13 with one more drive to win the game, and the Cougars drop three passes that hit them right in the chest to end any chance at the comeback win. 
  • 2018 – Cougars go up 20-0 and then 27-7 with under a two minutes left in the third quarter before Utah scores 28 unanswered points and wins the game. Just about every single Cougar is injured either before or during the game.

Credit to Utah for being able to win all of these games, but how many times has luck not gone on the Cougars way? Utah got lucky that the offensive line forgot to play on the two point conversion and Taysom couldn’t run it in. Utah got lucky that Bradley wasn’t called as down on the interception before the review. Utah got lucky that the field goal didn’t go six inches to the left to force overtime and the Utes got lucky that a holding was called against Fua.

Again, credit to the Utes, but they have seemed to have all the luck go their way during this streak.

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