The run to pass ratio was about 50-50, then LaVell started passing the ball. I thought, well, pass it to me too. – Jeff Blanc
There was a time when Jeff Blanc hit the line like a bullet. A tough-nosed kid with fleet feet and a competitive spirit, his fuse didn’t take long to ignite. And in his day, he was BYU’s career football rushing leader. He was the program’s first dual-threat running back.
Since then, many running backs have come along, some bigger, others faster. Guys like Harvey Unga, Curtis Brown, Jamal Willis, Lakei Heimuli and Ronney Jenkins. But there will only be one Boise Bullet.
Blanc came to BYU from Borah High School in Boise because he saw that Pete Van Valkenburg was toting the ball and later won the NCAA rushing title. “The run to pass ratio was about 50-50, then LaVell started passing the ball. I thought, well, pass it to me too.”
Today, Blanc, 60, is a senior security specialist for FedEx in Las Vegas. He just helped open up a half-million-square-foot ground facility where he’s a corporate detective, an investigation physician. He supervises three other guards who prevent and solve theft, pilferage and embezzlement. This job came after a similar post as a manager for Micron for 21 years and Northwest Research in Salt Lake City the past eight. After briefly playing for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1977, he joined the Boise Police Department, where he worked his way from patrol to detective.
Yes, he’s been shot at. And unlike most policemen who never fire their weapon, Blanc has had occasions to take out his weapon and fire it at a person who threatened life. He’s been a resource officer on the junior high level and dealt with “pretty bad stuff” in connection with sex crimes involving children. He’s also carried an M-16 rifle as a member of Boise’s special operations team. He once helped break up a jewelry theft ring in Dallas.
Working graveyard shifts in his early police days, Blanc said it was a thrilling job. “We’d come in after a night of chasing people and say, ‘can you believe they pay us for doing this?’ And sometimes we’d forget to pick up our paychecks.”
I ran into Blanc at Riverside Country Club in May. He was there to play in a Utah County Boys and Girls Club tournament primarily at the behest of LaVell Edwards.
These days, Blanc’s biggest hobbies are fishing and golfing. Can’t argue with those. He also likes to travel and makes trips to Hawaii and Mexico with friends and family. He fishes Warm Lake in Idaho and Payette and Salmon rivers. “I used to hunt with the guys in Boise but don’t any more. I still have my guns, but I don’t go.”
Blanc played football in an era when the game was pure. Oh, sure, there were still cheaters and recruiters breaking rules, but tickets were cheap, most games were not on TV, fans filled the stands, and corporations hadn’t crept in with signage and public address announcements every other minute. It was a time when rivalries ruled supreme and loyalty meant everything.
Blanc was first-team All-WAC during his years, 1973 to 1976. He played with the late Todd Christensen, Gary Sheide, Gifford Nielsen and Marc Wilson. “I’d like to think we had something to do with getting things started back then,” said Blanc in an interview this past week via phone.
Well, they certainly did.
Blanc says his college days changed his life. His associations, his friendships and his career opened doors for him he’s enjoyed all his life. “How can you trade something like that?”
His best football memory is something most folks will never think about, but it’s what lingers most in his mind. He can’t remember the opponent, he thinks it was UTEP. He can’t remember the score. But he remembers the play and the moment.
“I remember we were on the 2-yard line and it was my play, a 21 dive play where I was to run through the line as an I-back. I ran through the hole to get the ball and Gary Shiede pulled the ball back, went around the corner and scored it himself. I was so mad. I kicked the ground. I yelled, ‘It’s my play! It’s my play! Give me the ball, Sheide, don’t do that!’”
“I came over to the sideline and LaVell grabbed me by the face mask and he looked me right in the eyes. He was really calm, didn’t yell at me and said, ‘Hey, we’re a team here, knock that off. You’ll get your chance.”
Blanc was immediately humbled.
“I’ll never forget that as long as I live. What does a running back want to do? Score touchdowns. I got us down to the 2. So when it was time for me to score, Gary pulled it down and went. We are friends, so it wasn’t that. I just wanted to finish it. I never did that again. LaVell put me in my place and he did it in a calm manner and I learned.”
Recently, Blanc, who got very close with former O-line coach Dave Kragthorpe and his family while at BYU, saw one of his sons, Salt Lake Tribune columnist Kurt Kragthorpe, in Las Vegas and joked he ought to help him with a book titled “16 Yards Short.”
Kragthorpe looked at him and immediately knew what he meant. In the 1975 season, Blanc carried for 984 yards. Every running back wants a 1,000-yard season, and he came up 16 yards short.
In fact, these days one thing that bugs Blanc is seeing rushing records busted left and right in college football. Back in the day, players only got 10 or 11 games to do their work. Today, most teams play 12 games and with conference playoffs and bowl games, a 14-game schedule isn’t far fetched from the norm.
For old-timers like Blanc, they’d have loved to have had that many games and that many carries to add to their records. Blanc set four records at BYU, and the way the Cougars were passing the ball in the late ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, he thought some of them might stand for a long time. But he recognizes records are made to be broken.
“It kind of bugs me. The records really don’t jibe with me now, although I wish they’d get back to the QB factory and keep throwing the ball. But most records go by the wayside.”
He has a point. Perhaps an asterisk is in order for some records, whether done in 11 games or more. It’s not the fault of Blanc, Sheide, Nielsen or others they didn’t have more games on slate.
“When I tell people what I did at BYU, they are more impressed because of what we did with the passing game.”
Those teams in 1974 through 1977? “I feel we kind of got it started with Sheide, Gifford and Wilson. And we never lost to Utah the whole time we were there.”
Blanc is also a little bugged over conference realignments that have changed the landscape. He’s not sure if he’s sold on BYU’s independent schedule when there are Division I-AA teams signed to fill the schedule. He likes conference affiliation. Money, he says, has apparently taken over the sport.
Blanc remains close to this former teammates and especially Edwards, who he describes as a remarkable man.
Just over a year ago, Blanc and his wife, Lorie, divorced after having five children and four grandchildren. His youngest daughter just graduated from Utah State with a master’s degree. When Dave Kragthorpe asked Edwards if he’d heard that Blanc had become divorced, Edwards immediately called Blanc on the phone because he knew both the husband and wife. “He chewed me out,” said Blanc, who has since remarried.
“The guy is amazing. He went to my wedding in the Manti Temple in 1977. He did a radio spot for me when I ran for sheriff. We’ve stayed in touch ever since, and it’s been one of the greatest things in my life to stay close to my football coach."
After that golf tournament in May at Riverside, Blanc sent a text message to Edwards and told him how good it was to see him. “Man, you’re my coach, you are my friend, you are like a father. I love you.”
Edwards texted him back a message he said brought tears to his eyes: “Thanks, Jeff. I too love you like a son.”
Blanc said after 28 years coaching, Edwards remembers all his players' names and most of the names of their wives. “The guy is amazing. I love him and always will.”
Even when he kicks the dirt?
Especially when he does that.
Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com.