When LaVell Edwards announced his retirement, media beyond the Wasatch Front took notice.
In fact, dozens of newspapers, Web sites and TV stations nationwide made note of the news. Here is a sampling of what some other media outlets had to say:
Denver Rocky Mountain News
He will be missed.
And he won't be missed.
They will miss him for his dry wit, his consummate class, his accomplishments, his legacy and his myriad contributions to the game they love.
What they won't miss is getting hammered by his team year after year.
Brigham Young living legend LaVell Edwards said Thursday he will retire at the end of this season, his 29th as head football coach at the Provo, Utah, school.
The always-friendly and ever-accessible man who built a private, church-owned school into a football empire will hang up his whistle after more than 250 wins, more than 20 bowl games, more than 20 conference titles. But there has always been much more to Edwards than numbers. His accomplishments have come without scandal, without controversy. He has run a clean program, a program beyond reproach. People didn't always like BYU, but that was because BYU won with such ludicrous regularity.
ESPN.com
Edwards, 70, announced last week he will walk away at season's end, walk away from his own personal 29-year air raid, from the gaudy records and offensive milestones. The man with the face of a mortician and the heart of a lion had planned on becoming a high school guidance counselor before BYU hired him.
Instead, he transformed a nothing program into 20 conference titles, 20 bowl games and a national championship in 1984.
That's the stuff of legend . . . .
There was this theory once about BYU football: Doug Scovil, credited for advancing BYU's passing game in its toddler stages, had just left as offensive coordinator to become head coach at SDSU. Many predicted BYU's offense would never recover, that the Cougars were speeding on a highway to nowhere. That was 20 years ago.
Moral of the story: Sometimes, it is just about one man. A man who is ahead of his time and knows when it's time to leave.
LaVell Edwards always was one step ahead of the game.
USA TODAY
(Edwards will) get a farewell tour.
"That's not something I ever worried about, that I ever thought a whole lot about," Edwards says.
"I know our (Western) location may be, from a national standpoint, a little bit of an issue. But we have established football as a presence at BYU. People around the country know who BYU is."
Mostly, they know it as the program that made the passing game cool.
If his perpetual sideline scowl is one of the 69-year-old Edwards' signatures, another is his 4,000-yard quarterbacks. Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Ty Detmer were consensus All-Americans.
Eight times — starting in 1976, when the Wishbone still was in its heyday — Edwards' teams led the country in passing. Five times, they led in total offense.
And they won.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Headline: It's come to pass: BYU's Edwards in last season
Las Vegas Review-Journal
When LaVell Edwards took over as Brigham Young's coach in 1972, what he proposed to do was quite daring.
He put in the West Coast offense before it was known as the West Coast offense. And he did it at a time when college football teams were winning national championships with the run and not the pass.
BYU hardly was a power at the time, but Edwards has made the Cougars a national player.
Associated Press
LaVell Edwards developed one of college football's most innovative offenses, groomed some of the game's top quarterbacks and won a national title.
In announcing his retirement, effective at the end of this season, he said his biggest achievement was building a program that excited the community.
Omaha World-Herald
Edwards' quarterbacks grew into some of the best passers in NCAA history, including four Davey O'Brien Trophy winners.
The string started with Gary Scheide and Gifford Nielsen in the 1970s and continued with McMahon, Young and Detmer.
BYU quarterbacks under Edwards have passed for more than 100,000 yards, about 57 miles. . . .
He was mocked when he installed a passing offense at a time when schools such as Oklahoma and Alabama were running the ball on virtually every down and winning national titles.
The (Colorado Springs) Gazette
Just about every week for the past 16 football seasons, Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry would sit down and write a note to his friend, Brigham Young University coach LaVell Edwards. Or he'd call. Or Edwards would.
Until now, they've been 60-something rival coaches separated by little more than the width of a football field. Both are considered deans of their profession. Both live their lives with profound religious faith. Both are famous for installing offenses that defined them and their careers.
LaVell Edwards. BYU. Pass-intensive pro set.
Fisher DeBerry. Air Force Academy. Run-intensive triple option.
Now, the gap widens. Edwards, 69, announced Thursday he'll retire as BYU coach at the end of the season. DeBerry coaches on.
"Football is losing one of its giants," DeBerry said. "He's been such a great friend to me. I often introduce him as my coaching daddy."