BYU's legendary coach still keeps tabs on teams

For the record, LaVell Edwards — the man whose name is emblazoned on the Brigham Young University football stadium and who still refers to BYU as "us" and "we" — has included BYU's traditional rival, University of Utah, in the top 10 of a weekly football poll he participates in for The Sporting News.

"I've had Utah at 7 or 8 for quite a while," he says. "I had us (that's BYU) higher than Utah until we got beat. I moved Utah up, especially after they beat (Texas Christian University)." BYU suffered its only defeat to date this season at the hands of the same team.

In the latest Legends Poll, Utah is 8th, BYU 14th.

Edwards, who built a Hall of Fame career during 29 seasons as BYU's head coach, is 78 years old now and hasn't coached a game since 2000, but he still follows the fortunes of football closely. Three years ago he was invited to join a panel of 18 "legendary" former coaches to form the Legends Poll, which provides weekly rankings for The Sporting News.

Ten of the 18 coaches are members of the College Football Hall of Fame, and six of them won national championships. The coaches include John Robinson, Vince Dooley, Don James, Frank Kush and Frank Broyles.

Each coach is given a weekly CD that contains a dozen or so of that weekend's games. After watching the games individually, the coaches discuss the merits of the top teams in a conference call on Monday morning ("We have some good lively discussions,") says Edwards — and then they vote on their top 25.

The poll has obvious advantages over other polls. For one thing, the former coaches are more knowledgeable than media voters. They have more time to devote to it than active coaches because they don't have a team to prepare for a game. And, as Edwards notes, "We don't have an ax to grind."

The Legends Poll is not one of the polls that is considered in the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) formula, but Edwards says, "We're trying to get that." Edwards believes it is a good way to rank teams. "At least it's based on study and not what you read in the paper," he says. "The whole thing is pretty well thought out."

Like everyone else, Edwards has been anticipating the showdown between Utah and BYU on Saturday in Salt Lake City, with both teams nationally ranked and making strong bids for invitations from major bowls. It is arguably the greatest BYU-Utah matchup ever, considering the teams' records and rankings and what's at stake.