There was a lot of running around in college football during the 1970s when LaVell Edwards, Doug Scovil and the BYU Cougars set out to change the game with the forward pass, and 1976 was the year they pulled it off. On Saturday, 50 years later, the team that did it will be back in Provo to take a bow.
“I think it was the team that really changed the course of college football, because everybody at the time was running the veer and wishbone,” said Gifford Nielsen, who threw for 3,401 yards and 32 touchdowns during that 1976 season and earned first-team All-America honors. He would later be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“Gary Sheide, Jay Miller, John Betham — those guys were amazing in 1974, but I think everything changed when LaVell (Edwards) went out and got Doug Scovil and brought in a new offense, and it’s the offense that everybody who was an innovator was interested in,” Nielsen said. “It’s the offense you see today — different variations of it, but it’s the offense you see today.”
Nielsen and the 1976 team will participate with the current squad during the pregame Cougar Walk. They will also “Light the Y” ahead of an Air Force KC-135 flyover and kickoff between No. 15 BYU and Arizona (1:30 p.m. MDT, Fox).
“We didn’t know it at the time, but (1976) was really the implementation of the West Coast Offense, and looking back on it, that is pretty remarkable to me,” Nielsen said. “There were several occasions when I came up to the line of scrimmage and thought to myself, ‘In about eight seconds, this place is going to go wild because there is no way they can stop this next pass the way they are lined up.’ That was a pretty special feeling.”
September memories
In addition to his achievements with the 1976 team, Nielsen is also linked to Max Hall, Taysom Hill and Jaren Hall as members of a unique club. Each one quarterbacked their Cougars to a meaningful September victory — at the expense of Arizona.
Fifty Septembers ago, Sept. 25, 1976, Nielsen threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to George Harris with three seconds remaining to stun Arizona in Tucson, 23-16, and claim the program’s 200th victory.
With the ball wet and heavy due to unseasonable rain, Nielsen drove the Cougars to the Arizona 43 with 18 seconds remaining. After a timeout to talk with Edwards and Scovil, the 6-foot-5, 203-pound junior out of Provo High returned to the huddle with the goal of getting 20-25 yards so they could attempt a field goal.
“As I dropped back to pass, I moved to my right and saw George down the right sideline,” Nielsen said. “He was kinda stopped, but when he saw me scrambling, he took off and I just let it go. I think I threw it into double coverage, but it landed perfectly into his arms for a touchdown. That was exhilarating. It was exactly what we needed to do. That win put us on a course that would take us to another level.”
The Cougars went on to finish 9-3 and win the first of nine consecutive WAC championships.
Nineteen Septembers ago, Sept. 1, 2007, Hall threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns in his BYU debut to beat Arizona 20-7 in Provo. Freshman running back Harvey Unga amassed 194 yards of total offense and two touchdowns. The win was the first of Hall’s program-record 32 victories as the Cougars quarterback.
Ten Septembers ago, Sept. 3, 2016, Hill drove the Cougars deep into Wildcat territory in the final minute in front of 50,528 (predominantly BYU) fans at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. True freshman Jake Oldroyd drilled a 33-yard field goal as time expired to give Kalani Sitake an 18-16 victory in his debut as BYU’s head coach.
Five Septembers ago, Sept. 4, 2021, BYU beat Arizona 24-16 in the first Vegas Kickoff Classic at the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Another throng (54,541) of mostly Cougar fans watched as Jaren Hall threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns, both to Neil Pau’u, and Tyler Allgeier rushed 17 times for 94 yards and a touchdown.
On Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, Bear Bachmeier will get his chance to join Nielsen, Max Hall, Hill and Jaren Hall as BYU quarterbacks with meaningful September wins against Arizona if he and the Cougars can top the Wildcats in the Big 12 opener. The sophomore knows how to do it. Last October in Tucson, as a true freshman, Bachmeier ran for a touchdown in the final minute to tie the game and then ran for another one in double overtime to win it, 33-27.
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.