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BYU Football Countdown: Player No. 96

By Adam Gibby

28 Sep 1996: Chris Ellison of the Brigham Young Cougars tries to outrun Kelsey Adams of the Southern Methodist Mustangs at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. Brigham Young won the game 31-3. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport
28 Sep 1996: Chris Ellison of the Brigham Young Cougars tries to outrun Kelsey Adams of the Southern Methodist Mustangs at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. Brigham Young won the game 31-3. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport /
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(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images)
(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /

We are now only 96 days away until BYU and Utah clash in the Holy War to open up the college football season.

96 reminds me of something… 1996. For those you who don’t know what 1996 is for BYU, it was a special year. First of all, BYU played 15 games. This was unheard of back then, and even today the only realistic way a team will get to 15 is if they play 12 regular season games, a conference championship and then two playoff games. The reason BYU got that far was they played their normal 11 regular season games, a “free game” versus Hawaii similar to 2017,  a team was able to play a designated “kickoff” opening game which they did, the WAC Championship game, and a bowl game.

In other words, BYU Football fans got a lot of football in 1996. Oh yeah, and they went 14-1 and finished ranked No. 4 in the final rankings.

I was young back then and didn’t quite understand the logistics of how teams got into the championship game and how the polls worked, I just loved football. Looking back at it now however, seeing a 13-1 team ranked behind a 10-1 Ohio State and 11-1 Florida is sort of a head scratcher for me. That season there were two undefeated teams, Florida State and Arizona State understandably leaving BYU outside of the National Championship, but the No. 5 rankings hurt the Cougars because they had to play No. 14 Kansas State in the Citrus Bowl instead of a better bowl game against a better team.

Another reason why the 1996 season works so well for us today is because the 96th best player to play for BYU happened to be on that team

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