BYU football has won a lot since joining the Big 12 Conference three seasons ago. I could bore you with a long-winded intro, but I think we're all better off if we just hop right into the list. These are the top 10 most memorable wins since BYU left independence.
10. 36-14 vs. Colorado, 2024 Alamo Bowl
Ironically, the first time the Cougars and Buffaloes played as conference foes was in a bowl game, all thanks to an absurd situation created by the Pac-12's desperation, but that didn't stop this game from becoming hyped. This was basically a second Big 12 title game because BYU and Colorado were the two teams in the four-way tie for first place that didn't get to play in Arlington. Plus, Colorado had two Heisman candidates on their team in Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, and they were playing at full strength.
BYU won this game in impressive fashion thanks to the fact that the object of the game is to score more points than your opponent, not to get ESPN to talk about you more than your opponent. In BYU's second year in a power conference, they got a bigger bowl victory than Utah has had in their 15 years in a power conference.
9. 25-21 vs. Georgia Tech, 2025 Pop Tarts Bowl
The fact that our two big bowl wins ended up at 9 and 10 is remarkable. At first, it looked like BYU was going to make the college football playoff, but then a team with a worse record and a worse strength of schedule made it instead. Then, it looked like BYU was going to the Alamo Bowl, but they decided to take a 7-5 TCU over 11-2 BYU just because they didn't want to have the same team two years in a row. Then, it looked like BYU was going to play 11th-ranked Notre Dame in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, but the Irish decided they would rather throw a fit about not making the playoffs than accept an opportunity to prove they deserved to make the playoffs.
So BYU ended up playing a 9-3 ACC team instead. To Georgia Tech's credit, though, they played hard, and they led 21-10 going into the fourth quarter. But despite not having LJ Martin and Bear Bachmeier at full strength, BYU finished the game scoring 15 unanswered points. What also made this game memorable was the ceremony with two Pop-Tarts sacrificing themselves, and the other pastry impersonating Notre Dame by backing out.
8. 33-27 (2OT) at Arizona, 2025
This game happened on my birthday, and it was quite the birthday present. BYU jumped out to a 14-0 lead, gave up 24 unanswered points, and then came back to win. Does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, because that's exactly what happened in the Beck to Harline game back in 2006. This game ended up aging well because Arizona ended the season in the top 25. Well done, Bear Beck-meier.
7. 18-15 at SMU, 2024
Speaking of wins that ended up aging well, how about this one? Both teams came in unranked, and yet this game ended up having college football playoff implications (or maybe it didn't because the committee ignored it and put SMU in ahead of BYU). SMU's offense averaged 37.8 points per game that season, and BYU held them to just 15 points on 5 field goals and 0 touchdowns. None of those field goals was as big as Will Ferrin's game-winner, which may have given him the confidence he needed for another game-winner later in this list.
6. 44-13 vs. TCU, 2025
Coming into this game, BYU had lost its last five games against TCU by margins of 25, 31, 28, 10, and 33. Before the season started, there was no other team on the schedule other than Utah that I wanted to beat more badly than the TCU Horned Frogs. And boy, did the Cougs deliver. They completely turned the tables, winning by 31 points. I still can't believe the Alamo Bowl chose TCU over BYU.
5. 38-31 vs. Arkansas, 2023
This is literally the only game from the 2023 season on this list, but it definitely deserves to be on here. It was absolutely wild. BYU went from being down by 14 points, to being up by 7, to being down by 10, to winning by 7. The game-winning one-handed touchdown grab by Chase Roberts was unbelievable. What I love even more is that a team that finished 2-7 in Big 12 play beat an SEC team on the road. It wasn't a fluke either because the next season, Oklahoma St beat Arkansas and then finished 0-9 in Big 12 play. These are two of the many hits SEC elitists have taken over the last several years.
4. 38-9 vs. Kansas St, 2024
BYU came in as heavy underdogs against the 13th-ranked Wildcats. For the majority of the first half, there was nothing but two long, excruciating Kansas St drives that ended with field goals. Even after BYU responded with a long field goal drive of their own to make it 6-3, it still felt like it was going to be a long game. But then, things suddenly took a wild turn. First, Tommy Prassas returned a fumble for a touchdown to make it 10-6. Then, Tyler Batty got a crazy interception, setting up a Chase Roberts touchdown to make it 17-6. Then, at the start of the second half, Harrison Taggart got an interception, and Darrius Lassiter punched it in to make it 24-6.
After that, things appeared to take a turn in K-State's favor as Parker Kingston muffed a punt, but then he picked it up and took it all the way across the field in two different ways: first from west to east, and then from north to south. During that stretch, BYU's offense ran 4 plays, and BYU scored 4 touchdowns. Credit to the BYU student section for making things impossible for the Kansas St offense while they were on the south side of the field.
3. 24-21 vs. Utah, 2025
In all my years of being a BYU fan, I had never gone to a football game against Utah because the ticket prices are always the wrong number of digits for me, so imagine how ecstatic I was when one of my friends offered to pay for me to go with him.
This wasn't just any BYU-Utah game, either. It was a ranked match-up that had Big 12 title implications and even college football playoff implications. (Except no, it didn't because apparently going 11-1 as a Big 12 team isn't good enough even though going 10-2 in a conference that was 1-6 against the Big 12 in the regular season is.) Literally throughout the entire game, I couldn't even hear myself talk because it was so loud. I couldn't even hear myself think when Bear Bachmeier carried like five Utes into the endzone. Just like Johnny Harline is still open, there is still a Bear on the loose in Provo.
2. 38-35 vs. Oklahoma St, 2024
Since 2005, I have watched almost every BYU football game with my Dad, but this season, I had to watch them by myself because my parents were serving a mission. However, they surprised us by coming home for this weekend, and the fact that they chose this weekend specifically was wild. With under a minute left and BYU facing 4th and 7 at their own 28 trailing 35-31, almost all hope was lost. Even after BYU converted and got the ball to the OSU 35 with 19 seconds left, they still needed a miracle.
But it happened. Jake Retzlaff threw a dime to Darius Lassiter, who evaded multiple Cowboy defenders and took it in for the game-winning touchdown, and my falsetto voice was activated. Sharing that moment with my Dad was awesome.
1. 22-21 vs. Utah, 2024
The first memorable thing that happened in this game was Keelan Marion's kickoff return touchdown. Over the last 20 years or so, Utah had had an absurd number of non-offensive touchdowns against BYU, and the Cougars hadn't had any, so to finally get one was unreal. But for the first three quarters, that was the only real highlight. My sibling, who was in another room, told me they were concerned that they had only heard me go crazy once because it meant BYU must not have been doing very well.
After trailing 21-10, BYU crawled back to make it 21-19 and had 2 minutes and 91 yards to go to win the game. After three straight incompletions, it was 4th and 10, and we all started wondering if it was too much to ask for BYU to crawl out of a hole like this for the second time in the last three weeks. With Retzlaff being cornered in the endzone, it appeared the game was over... until we were finally able to hear the whistle and found out BYU had called their final timeout just before the snap. Then, Retzlaff was sacked at the one-yard line, and it once again appeared the game was over... until we saw that beautiful yellow piece of cloth.
A holding penalty gave BYU new life. A 30-yard sliding grab by Chase Roberts and two first-down runs later, BYU was in field goal range. We all started having flashbacks of 2010 and 2012, but as Gregg Wrubell said, "Where there's a Will, there! Is! A! Way!" Will Ferrin drilled that field goal, and jubilation swept Cougar nation. Mark Harlan only made it better with his temper tantrum. When my dog was barking the next morning, I took a video of him where I talked to him as if he were Harlan.
We've had a lot of fun BYU football recently, and I hope this will continue next season.
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