It all began with a comeback victory and quarterback Robbie Bosco stretched out in the aisle of the team charter.
It was September 1984 and the BYU football team was flying back to Salt Lake City after beating Pittsburgh in the season-opener. Bosco, who had just made his debut as BYU's quarterback, had tweaked his back during a heroic performance, and the only relief he could find was to lie down in the aisle of the jet, forcing teammates to step over and around him.
A few hours earlier, the Cougars had found themselves in a tough spot against the Panthers. They faced third down and four yards to go at the 50-yard line, trailing 14-12 with 1:40 left in the game. The next play made Bosco and the Cougars and launched a young, green team on its drive to the national championship.
From the press box, BYU coaches had spotted a flaw in the Pitt defense. "The free safety is cheating up like hell," offensive coordinator Norm Chow told his fellow coaches. Safety Bill Callahan, Pitt's free safety, had been edging up closer to the line of scrimmage all afternoon to take away the short pass, leaving the deep middle zone open. Earlier in the day it paid off for Pitt when Callahan picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
For the rest of the afternoon, BYU receivers pestered their coaches — they insisted they could go deep down the middle. Charlie Stubbs, another offensive assistant coach, agreed — "(Callahan) has no respect for our deep pass," he told Chow.
With the ball at midfield and the game in the balance, Chow called a play that would force Callahan's hand: "63." Wide receiver Adam Haysbert ran a post pattern from the right side and Glen Kozlowski ran a dig route from the left under Callahan's nose. Kozlowski would normally be the primary receiver and Haysbert a decoy, but as Bosco dropped back he saw Callahan come up again, apparently biting on the underneath route.
Bosco, who had been so nervous at the game's outset that he could barely throw a pass, threw a strike to Haysbert, who had single coverage and no safety help. Haysbert caught the ball at the 20 and scored.
For Bosco and the Cougars, the season would start and end the same way — with Bosco hurting and throwing a late touchdown pass to win the game, the latter for a national championship. In the interim, the Cougars would produce many more big plays and narrow escapes to preserve their unbeaten season.
They lived on the edge that season. Every other week produced high drama. They finished with a 13-0 record, but five games went to the wire — 20-14 over Pitt, 18-13 over Hawaii, 41-38 over Wyoming, 30-25 over Air Force and then came more drama in the final game against Michigan in the Holiday Bowl, which served as an unofficial national championship.
Bosco was forced to the sideline by a knee and ankle injury after a late hit from a Michigan defender in the first quarter. He went to the locker room for assessment and treatment and then returned to the field in the second quarter.
His injury forced the Cougars to go to the shotgun, a formation that was rarely used in those days. Trailing 17-10 in the fourth quarter, Bosco led BYU on two long TD drives. The game winner was pure improvisation, with Bosco scrambling before finding halfback Kelly Smith on the left sideline for a 13-yard touchdown with 1:23 left in the game.
Bosco didn't lie down in the aisle of the team charter that night as the team flew home, but he did leave the game on crutches.
Many observers considered the '84 Cougars overachievers who had little real talent and lucked into the national title with timely losses by the traditional powerhouses. Time proved that to be wrong. Fifteen players from that squad were drafted by NFL teams, and that's counting only the players who saw regular action that season for BYU (Shawn Knight, for instance, would become a first-round draft pick three years later, but he didn't play much in '84).
Those drafted: Wide receivers Mark Bellini and Glen Kozlowski, running backs Lakei Heimuli and Vai Sikahema, quarterback Robbie Bosco, linebackers Leon White, Kurt Gouveia and Cary Whittingham, cornerback Jeff Sprowls, center Trevor Matich, guard Robert Anae, safety Kyle Morrell, kicker/punter Lee Johnson, tackle Louis Wong and defensive end Jim Herrmann.
Gouveia, who wasn't chosen until the eighth round, played 13 years in the NFL and won two Super Bowl rings. White, Johnson, Sikahema and Matich also had long NFL careers.
It also became apparent that the Cougars were well-coached. LaVell Edwards went on to become one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history (currently sixth, with 258 wins). On the occasion of Edwards' retirement, the BYU stadium was named after him.
Chow, who left Provo when BYU chose Gary Crowton over him to replace Edwards as head coach, become the highest paid assistant in the country at USC, where he won two more national championships; he also served as offensive coordinator for North Carolina State and the Tennessee Titans and this season will lead the UCLA offense.
Mike Holmgren, the quarterback coach in '84, led the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl as a head coach and helped the San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl as an assistant. Lance Reynolds, the running back coach in '84, is now assistant head coach at BYU.
Looking back at the '84 season, you can't help but notice that it was a different game in those days. That '84 Cougars were an oddity — they might be the whitest squad to win the national championship in either basketball or football in the last 30 years; only two black players and five Polynesians saw regular action that year.
The style of play was different, too. They actually had halfbacks in those days; now that position has virtually been eliminated by the popularity of the spread offense.
Players were dramatically smaller 25 years ago. Last year's BYU team had 14 players who topped 300 pounds; the biggest player on the '84 squad was 276 pounds.
One other thing has changed: The system for choosing a national champion has become even more convoluted. Who knows if the '84 Cougars would've even been invited to a BCS bowl if today's system had been in place that year. Even if they had received an invitation, it's highly unlikely they would have been invited to the championship game. One thing is certain: Nothing like BYU's unlikely national championship run has ever happened again.
e-mail: drob@desnews.com