BYU fans like to debate which Cougar team was the best all-time. The most compelling argument in favor of the '84 squad is this: No other team in school history has recorded an undefeated season.

"I don't know if we had a blue-chip recruit on the team. There were a bunch of guys that were overachievers or guys who felt they had something to prove," Herrmann says. "Guys that had been passed over by the bigger, more prestigious programs and ended up at BYU. They were talented and probably should have been at other schools. Luckily, we all showed up there together, and everybody felt that we were going to prove to the national media and everybody else that we could compete on the highest level."

Bosco remembers that team being one that worked relentlessly. "We didn't ease up in practice. I can remember scrambling in a scrimmage and somebody diving and hitting me. We carried that over to the games. We played really hard every play."

"It was a group of guys who loved to play football and loved to win, and we loved to compete," Kozlowski says. "In our practices, especially early on, our defense was just pummeling us. We'd have a fight every day because we were so competitive with each other, on the offense and defense. But we actually cared about each other, also."

What made that team special?

"We didn't have any egos on our team. We didn't have any superstars," Morrell says. "We were a bunch of hard-working guys, and we were always happy for each other when one was getting the limelight. There was no jealousy. We were all best friends, though we came from a lot of different backgrounds. Some were LDS; some were Catholic. Some grew up without religion. For some reason, we meshed really well together. We were best of friends. That's a big part of it. Everybody knew their spot on the team and they lived with it. I think we all played above and beyond our talents."

While they may not have been highly touted coming out of high school, more than a dozen players from that '84 team ended up playing in the NFL.

"We may not have had the physical specimens, but we had guys like Kozlowski," Morrell says. "You could cut his arm off and he'd go play and catch passes. I used to tease him all the time. 'Kozlowski, we could carry you off the field 30 times a game and you'd still keep coming back.' "

Kozlowski says the '84 team possessed a swagger.