Meanwhile, Vermeil and McKay both bolted for the NFL. Reid earned honorable mention junior college all-America honors, but in the fourth quarter of the last game of his sophomore season, he suffered a major knee injury. Recruiters backed off.

The Cougars are credited for sticking with Reid after his injury, but that isn't quite accurate. They were interested in Tidwell, Reid's buddy and fellow lineman. Tidwell told them that if they wanted to sign him, they'd have to sign Reid, too.

"We gave Andy a scholarship to get Randy up here," says Edwards, laughing.

"We were a package deal," says Tidwell. "I was nervous about going somewhere new by myself, and we were real close."

Tidwell became a starter. Reid wound up redshirting his first year at BYU while his knee mended. He was stuck behind star Nick Eyre the rest of his career.

The journeyman

Reid accepted Edwards' offer of a G.A. position on the coaching staff and pursued his master's degree. Edwards then helped him to land a position as offensive coordinator at San Francisco State, where he stayed three years. It was a barebones operation in which coaches were required to sell hotdogs on campus two days a week to help raise money for the team's budget. To make extra money for his family, Reid umpired baseball games and drove a limo (Rock Hudson and Loni Anderson were among his clients.)

Eventually, Edwards called Northern Arizona coach Larry Kentera to urge them to consider hiring Reid as an offensive line coach. As soon as he hung up, Kentera's phone rang again — it was Reid saying he wanted the job badly and wanted to meet with him as soon as possible. Kentera said he'd be happy to meet with him, but he was leaving on a recruiting trip to Sacramento and the interview would have to wait until he returned. When Kentera arrived in Sacramento, Reid was waiting for him at the airport. He had found out which flight Kentera was on and raced to Sacramento from L.A.

"Coach, I'm Andy Reid and I want this job bad," Reid told Kentera at the airport.

After a season at Northern Arizona, Reid coached at UTEP for two years and Missouri for three.

While coaching at BYU, Reid worked alongside of Holmgren, the Cougars' quarterback coach at the time. When Holmgren left Provo, he vowed that if he ever got a head coaching job in the NFL, he would call Reid. Holmgren landed the Packer job in 1992, and Reid was supposedly the first coach he hired, at the age of 34. He coached the offensive line and tight ends and in 1997 became the Packers' quarterback coach.

'He hasn't changed'