Monday marks the 35th anniversary of one of the most important moments in BYU history:
The Cougars’ famed upset of No. 1 Miami.
To this day, the 28-21 victory over the Hurricanes remains the best in program history. While BYU did win a national championship six years earlier, even that didn’t earn LaVell Edwards and the Cougars as much widespread respect as beating Miami did.
“Never have all the components of the game of football come together more completely than they did that night,” Edwards later wrote. “As a coach, I can think of no game that has given me more personal satisfaction than this one because it was truly a team effort.”
The Hurricanes came into Provo as nearly two-touchdown favorites, having won two of the past three national titles and carrying a great deal of confidence — or to some, cockiness.
What Miami didn’t have, however, was Ty Detmer.
BYU’s junior quarterback was already known as a rising star within the sport, but Sept. 8, 1990, launched him into another universe. Detmer completed 38 of 54 passes for 406 yards and three touchdowns, finding Mike Salido for a 7-yard score late in the third quarter to put the Cougars ahead for good.
“Ty Detmer, to me, is unbelievable,” Miami coach Dennis Erickson said after the game. “He made some great plays and throws with pressure in his face. Obviously, he’s a great, great quarterback, and he showed it tonight.“
The effort proved to be Detmer’s “Heisman moment,” as he went on to win the coveted trophy that year thanks to 5,188 passing yards and 41 touchdowns.
“The win over Miami in Provo is a game people still come up to me and talk about,” Detmer said in 2015. “It was exciting, perhaps one of the most exciting I’ve played because of who they were — ranked No. 1 at the time and defending national champions. … You can’t describe the feeling of being in that intense game, putting everything you have into it, then coming out with a win.”
Upon BYU’s win, the more than 66,000 fans in attendance — many of whom were sporting “Ty’s Ties” — spilled onto the Cougar Stadium field in celebration, with Detmer being hysterically mobbed for his heroics.
“I was just trying to high-five everybody,” Detmer said. “I took more hits going in (to the locker room) than I did the whole game.”
But amid the rowdy postgame party, Detmer quickly fled to the locker room, thinking he was going to be late for Edwards’ postgame speech.
Instead, Detmer experienced his biggest surprise of the day.
“I was the first one in (the locker room) and I’m by myself. I get in here and realize I can’t go back out because of the crowd,” Detmer said in 2022. “It was a chance to reflect a little bit on what had just happened because it set the tone for the rest of the year, individually and as a team.
“I was just trying to high-five everybody. I took more hits going in (to the locker room) than I did the whole game.”
— BYU QB Ty Detmer on the chaos following the Cougars' historic victory over No. 1 Miami in 1990
“I was kind of the greeter as everybody came in, so that was cool. It was pretty exciting, electric.”
Since Miami, BYU has only hosted the No. 1 team in the country once (USC in 2004) and has only defeated one top-10 team in Provo (No. 9 Baylor in 2022).
Sure, the Cougars have captured plenty of impressive, notable and legendary wins over the past 35 years, but none of them come close to the mystique of humbling the Hurricanes.
And perhaps nothing ever will.
