BYU football: Y. survived a couple of close calls

That game was historic because it was the first live college football game televised by ESPN.

The Panthers were No. 3 in the preseason rankings and boasted All-Americans and future NFL mainstays Bill Fralic and Chris Doleman. The unranked Cougars, meanwhile, had lost stars like Steve Young and Gordon Hudson from the previous season.

"Once we got there (to Pitt) we knew the game wasn't going to be a pushover," Haysbert said later. "We were confident we could win, but we knew we had to play our best game. When we got into town I remember that the media were comparing us to a high school team. And before the game Pitt was taunting us and trying to intimidate us."

The game was a defensive struggle. It wasn't pretty offensively. It took junior quarterback Robbie Bosco, feeling the pressure of replacing Young, a while to feel comfortable in his first career start.

"That first game, we were very raw. I was lacking confidence," Bosco says. "I didn't have any confidence. I always felt good in practice, but game-time was a whole different thing. The way we won it and the way the defense stepped up, that brings back a lot of great memories. That was one of the great games."

At the half, BYU led 3-0. In the second half, Pitt surged to a 14-12 advantage thanks to a couple of interceptions thrown by Bosco.

With less than two minutes remaining in the game, the Cougars trailed by two points and had the ball, third-down-and-four at midfield. The plan was to be conservative and move deeper into Pitt territory to give Lee Johnson the chance to kick a field goal, which, if successful, would have given the Cougars a one-point advantage. But first, BYU needed to convert on third down.

In the huddle, Bosco called for play "63," in which Haysbert would run a post pattern to clear out the defenders underneath the coverage while Glen Kozlowski would cut across the middle. All afternoon long, it was apparent that Pitt didn't respect BYU's ability to go deep. So when Panther free safety Bill Callahan left Haysbert, Bosco pulled the trigger and drilled a strike to his senior receiver, who hauled in the pass and dashed into the end zone, propelling the Cougars to a 20-14 lead.

Haysbert said later that throughout that game, he and other Cougars noticed holes in the Panther defense and were waiting for the perfect time to exploit it. "I knew that I could beat them deep," he said.

The play was thrilling for BYU's defense, which had been waiting for the offense to make a big play.