He won more major college football games than anyone living or dead if your name's not Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, Pop Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg or Bobby Bowden.
Seven of the quarterbacks who directed his offense are among the top 25 ranked passers in NCAA history. His teams led the nation in passing eight times, in total offense five times. He coached a Heisman Trophy winner, two Outland Trophy winners, four Davey O'Brien Award winners, 31 first team all-Americans and more than 100 NFL pros. He coached the top runner in the country once, the top punter in the country once, the top kick returner in the country once, the top receiver in the country once and the top passer in the country five times. He was national coach of the year twice, conference coach of the year seven times. He won 20 conference championships in 29 years. He took teams to 22 bowl games. In the 1980s his teams went a combined 102-26. He won a national championship.
More people liked him than the Beatles. He was as loyal as an Irish Setter. He never fired anyone. No one ever fired him. The NCAA never investigated his program. He never blamed a player for a loss. They named the stadium after him.
People would take bullets for him. His wife stuck up for him when he lost. His assistant coaches would follow him off a cliff if he asked them to. His kids adored him. He coached at the school voted second worst party school in the country and nobody thought of him as a square.
He didn't wear a headset and no one accused him of being detached. He never coached a minute on Sunday and no one considered him deprived. He never smiled and no one thought him a grouch.
During one stretch he had former players in the Super Bowl 13 straight years, and he never asked for a single ticket. He got job offers that would have quintupled his salary, and he never even bought a road map. He never had an agent. He was paid a fraction of what many other major college coaches got and never asked to renegotiate his contract. He gardened and no one called him soft. He listened to country music and no one considered him a redneck.
He coached one of his sons for four years and no one cried nepotism. That son didn't start and no one started a family fight. He lost star players to the school honor code and never contested the charges. He fielded post-game radio calls and never threw down his mike. He never yanked a player's scholarship. He never banned the media from his locker room. He lived in the same house his entire career. He coached at the same school longer than anyone except Stagg at Chicago, Paterno at Penn State, Frank Howard at Clemson and Dan McGugin at Vanderbilt. Only he and Paterno did it after 1965.
He beat Notre Dame, Miami, Penn State, Texas A&M, UCLA, Michigan, Miami, Washington, Arizona State, Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. He never lost to SMU. He defeated UTEP 24 out of 26 times. He defeated New Mexico 27 out of 29 times. He beat Utah and Utah State 45 times in 58 meetings. His teams finished the season in the top 25 thirteen times, in the top 10 four times. He won 80 percent of the time in league play. He won 80 percent of the time at home. He had one losing season out of 29. His teams scored in a record 324 straight games.
He first coached in a 28,000-seat stadium that never sold out and last coached in a 65,000-seat stadium that regularly sold out. He started out with returned missionaries nobody wanted and ended with returned missionaries everybody wanted. He sent nearly a dozen coaches and players to head coaching jobs. One of them won a Super Bowl. He coached in the Cotton Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, the Tangerine Bowl, the Aloha Bowl, the Freedom Bowl, the Copper Bowl, the All American Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Motor City Bowl and the Silk Bowl. He reinvented the forward pass.
But man! That LaVell Edwards was a terrible quote.
He was only a man.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.