When it comes to big catches in BYU football lore, there are many.
Clay Brown’s improbable touchdown grab in the 1980 Holiday Bowl capped one of the biggest comebacks in college football history. Kelly Smith’s touchdown won the 1984 national championship. Jonny Harline’s touchdown broke Utah’s heart at Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2006. Austin Collie picked up 49 yards on fourth-and-18 in another comeback against the Utes in 2007. And Mitch Mathews silenced Nebraska with a Hail Mary grab as time expired in the 2015 season-opener.
Each dramatic reception holds its own significance, and there is a flurry of others including, more recently, Micah Simon’s 64-yard catch in the final seconds to set up a game-tying field goal at Tennessee in 2019; Puka Nacua’s game-winning circus catch at Boise State in 2022; Chase Roberts’ one-handed touchdown grab to stun Arkansas in 2023; and Darius Lassiter’s 35-yard touchdown in the final seconds to rally past Oklahoma State in 2024.
“It was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other. We all put (the ear holes) in our (helmets) up to Marc’s mouth when he was telling us the play.”
— Mike Lacey
Years before Simon, Nacua, Roberts and Lassiter etched their moments in Cougar lore, and even before Brown’s legendary grab to beat SMU, there was Mike Lacey — a California kid who flew so far under the radar not even his biggest catch is recorded in the official statistics — but it was big and maybe the biggest in program history.
“There are so many exciting ones, I don’t know if mine is the most significant, and it was so ironic that I was even the guy there,” Lacey told the “Y’s Guys” podcast. “I feel like I’m maybe one of the luckiest guys in the world to have been there at that time.”
Fresh off a mission and redshirt year, Lacey, a 6-foot-2, 222-pound product from Rancho Cordova, California, lined up at fullback as BYU set up for a two-point conversion attempt to try and upset No. 14 Texas A&M on Sept. 8, 1979.
The drive began with a partially blocked punt by Tim Halverson, and when Marc Wilson hit Clay Brown for a 3-yard touchdown pass with 52 seconds remaining, the Cougars had cut the Aggies’ lead to 17-16.
During BYU’s march down the field, Lacey picked up on a conversation between head coach LaVell Edwards and offensive coordinator Doug Scovil.
“I heard Doug ask LaVell, ‘What are we going to do when we score?’” recalled Lacey. “LaVell said, ‘We’ll go for two!’ So, I already knew, and I was out on the field when we scored.”
What Lacey didn’t know was he was about to become a major player in putting BYU football on the national map. Up until that night, the Cougars had never defeated a top-15 team or any ranked non-conference foe — and they weren’t supposed to win this one.
Wilson, still tender from undergoing an appendectomy during fall camp, called a timeout and trotted over to the sideline to discuss BYU’s next move.
“The crazy thing is, we just put in this play weeks before. It was a fake-draw-pass. Who runs a draw play on the goal line? Nobody!” Lacey said. “Doug called a pass play to the corner, but Marc didn’t want to run it. He said, ‘No, let’s run this new play.’ Doug and LaVell said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”
Due to renovations at the legendary Kyle Field in College Station, Texas A&M staged the season-opener at Rice Stadium in nearby Houston, but they were still very much the home team.
“It was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other,” Lacey said. “We all put (the ear holes) in our (helmets) up to Marc’s mouth when he was telling us the play.”
The Cougars broke the huddle and got into formation.
“I was the only receiver,” Lacey said. “I’m supposed to fake like I’m going to block the middle linebacker. Hopefully he shucks me off and I go out free and fortunately, he did.”
In what felt like a flash, Lacey turned to his left and here came the ball. Wilson had to alter his release to avoid an Aggie linebacker and Lacey stretched out to make the play of his life.
“When he released the ball, I thought, ‘Oh, this is impossible,’” Lacey said. “So, I just dove and thank heavens it landed there. I thought I made a one-handed catch, but the film makes it look like I caught it with two.”
The 18-17 victory, which was also the first football game televised on KBYU-TV Channel 11, catapulted the Cougars into a place that regularly developed NFL players and led to a national championship, a Heisman Trophy winner and eventual acceptance into the Big 12.
Like most of those who lace up their cleats for the Cougars, Lacey’s career (1975, 1979-80) ended without much fanfare. An ACL injury cut his time short, and he finished with more tackles at linebacker (21) and rushing attempts at fullback (seven) than he had receptions (three), but when it comes to the biggest catch in program history — Lacey is at the top of the list.
Still, as big as it was, you won’t find it in the record books because the NCAA excludes two-point conversions from individual stats. However, when considering all the big plays BYU has made since, Lacey can take heart in knowing it was his “under the radar” catch that put the Cougars on the national map.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com