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BYU national champs: 25 years later
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Great article about the 1984 National Championship team.
Although the 25th anniversary of the 1984 team will undoubtedly get the most attention this year, 2009 is also the 30th anniversary of the 1979 team that came within one play of an undefeated season. That team, led by QB Marc Wilson and DB Tom Holmoe among many others, is all but forgetten to most BYU football fans. I would love to see a similar article about them.
Thank you,
Robert Bledsoe
Temecula, CA
Let the brainwashing on the hill continue....
BYU 1984 forced the conferences whining about their national title to create the bowl alliance/BCS. Without that their wouldn't even be this new 'mythical' accomplishment of being a BCS buster and at least 3 out of the 4 teams that have done it wouldn't even have qualified without additional years of BYU tearing down the criteria for inclusion.
BYU will never see another chance towards a "National Championship" so keep the highlight films readily available so that you can cherish the one and only glorified moment in BYU Football History (even though it was a fraud).
P.S. Have you guys quit playing that Danny Ainge dribble against ND back in the days???? Or do you still run the play over and over again in the Marriott Center during your devotions, gymnastic, volleyball and basketball games during the half time ice cream social????
As Utah, Boise State, and Hawaii have proven, undefeated in a non-BCS conference is no longer sufficient even with two or three wins against teams from BCS conferences. As a die hard cougar fan it's easy for me to say what Utah accomplished last year was on par with BYU's NC (higher quality wins but still no consensus NC). If Michigan had been ranked 3rd to begin the season in 2008 then I believe Utah would have made it to the title game. Luck was on the Y's side in '84, but luck also played no small factor in the U's 2008 undefeated season.
I think we as BYU fans take ourselves a little too seriously if we think the only reason for the BCS was to prevent another 1984, but I'm sure that was on Washington's mind. I'd rather take credit for innovations contributing to the West Coast Offense and the multitude of future NFL coaches and players out of BYU during those years than think the BCS was created only to prevent another 1984.
Oh, and very interesting all the YBU'ers who started right out with negatives about the Utes (the article is about byu and 84)???????? Just tells ya where the mind set is! Always looking over your shoulders blue boys!
and work for the future.
13-0 with a weak schedule was not NC material.
SoCalUtahFan
There are the myriad of BYU "haters" spreading their venom; the Naysayers offering their best impression of Bryant Gumble's BYU played "Bo Diddley Tech".
Still, the milestone was set. The improbable occurred. Small steps by "unknown" stars led to BYU being the 1984 National Champion.
No one can take away the 1984 National Championship. Whether that occurance led to the many gyrations and versions of exclusion for the "have not" NCAA schools or not is immaterial. History bears out that the "BIG" schools did not proceed to monopolize until after BYU wins the National Championship.
The 1984 BYU National Championship was a catalysisic occurence that set up a chain of monopolistic events that led to the monopoly known as the BCS. Twenty-five years later, there are continous rumblings and eruptions as the BCS continues to try to "corner the market" on college football.
Let's go get OU.
No. 2 Washington -- Just simply look at which bowl they were playing in, the Orange Bowl, which obviously is a great bowl. However, Pac-10 champions play in the Rose Bowl, not the Orange Bowl. It's difficult to crown a 'national title' to a team who cannot even win a 'conference title.' One loss. (Pac-10 Champ USC had three losses).
No. 3 Florida -- Team was on probation. One loss, one tie.
No. 4 Nebraska -- As noted with Washington, Washington's opponent in the Orange Bowl was the Big Eight champion, Oklahoma, not Nebraska. Nebraska was not a conference champion and therefore played in the Sugar Bowl. So the same principle applies, it's difficult to crown a 'national title' to a team who cannot even win a 'conference title.' Two losses. (Big Eight champion Oklahoma had two losses and one tie).
No. 5 Boston College -- Independent team, so no conference ties. However, two losses.
DN, stop dwelling on this old story from BYU's long past "glory" days. Perhaps start focusing on the here and now, and that's the Utes!
and in response to 'hilarious' which is also ridiculous...of course they are going to show the amazing plays that happen. it would be dumb to not to! thats what people remember and love to see!!
The appropriate response from anyone with any social grace and class is to say "Congratulations, good job!"
By the way, the same comment applies to the 2008 Utah Team.
In 2008, the Utes’ final BCS ranking of #6 qualified them for the Sugar Bowl under the old standard. Boise St. and TCU qualified under the new standard, but due to the Utes earning the AQ, fell to an At Large standing, passed over for Ohio St, and falling ultimately to the Poinsettia Bowl.
This concludes my history lesson. Unless the moderators have censored any of my previous posts.
That is the sole purpose of the monopolistic manipulations of the "power elites" in the media and in the BCS schools. They have chosen to "corner" the college football market.
STOP the BYUs, Boise States, Utahs and the other schools of "nonbcs" "serfdom"; stop them NOW! The BCS wants to keep the aspiring serfs in their place. Their regal highness' do not understand why the surfs will not accept their crumbs.
Then when congress started having hearings they changed it to 12 then 16 teams, but still no big dance, even for undefeated Utah.
Dear Hilarious, what a joke. This was the way they decided who was champion. That was a fact of life, pure and simple. You simply went out and played and let the media vote. Start griping about them.
Utahs wins also were in the past, so I don't want to hear about them anymore, never, ever, because as you point out they were inthe past. Quit living on your past laurels, because they are gone.
Someone else from Utah said that conference was weak then. I don't believe their Utah was in the upper half if my memory serves me correct. SO they must have been really bad.
"16 players played pro ball"!
Let that resonate.
How many teams have had 16 players from a given year, ultimately collect paychecks in the pros?
BYU won 24 straight games over two years, for that Championship. They beat #3 Pitt early on which got the ball rolling.
Auburn and Washington would not accept an invitation to play in the Holiday Bowl, BYU was bound by contract, they were not, who ducked who?.
Washington chose the Orange instead. Then petitoined for the trophy, after beating Oklahoma, who had 3 losses and a tie. 1985, BYU 31-Washington 3.
Sorry bitter Utes, all BYU did was play the games in front of them. No ducking. They played the system at the time, and Won.
When doing team by team comparisons of who beat whom, one article had (with humor) Navy, as National Champs.
And the article then concluded, in 1984,
"Nobody ever beat Anybody, who beat BYU".
It was a big deal, and only those chomping on "Sour Grapes" could dismiss it.
History is history. BYU was a Consensus National Champion in Football, record books and trophy cases prove it.
Jealousy can be an ugly thing...
Another point for all you naysayers: If I recall correctly, all of the mighty one-loss teams fromt the '84 season had either lost to a very inferior team or lost to a team that had been beated by a very inferior team. (By inferior I mean D-II or sub-par WAC-type team.) End of the day, it was a season where there was no dominating team and BYU was the only team good/lucky enough to go undefeated. And yes, BYU could have beaten any collegiate team from that season. Would have they??? Don't know. Just like we'll never know if the U would have beated Florida last year.
Nice article!! Commemorating the past does not mean you're living in it.
This article is just as bad a watching reruns of Lawrence Welk on KBYU and classic football games on that stupid other BYU channel.
Boring Article, lets get on with life.
True -a more interesting article would be what these guys are doing with their lives today - especially, who is he ? hmmmm Lennie Gommes, I can't recall anymore, it is such boring history.
That BYU team was great... didn't they win something like 25 games in a row over 2 seasons. That said... I don't know if BYU could ever accomplish it again. Their offensive scheme was SOOO ahead of it's era... that it compensated for the teams inferior speed and athletic talent. Now days... the rest of college football has figured out the scheme... and BYU won't ever be able to recruit the defensive speed to compete for a national title (unless they get rid of the honor code). So BYU's national title... was probably a once in a lifetime event.
The worst part? BYU sits back and accepts the unjust system while UTAH works to tear it down through proving itself on the field and working for legislative and judicial reformation of the system.
That '84 BYU team had many players who actually drew paychecks in the NFL. For guys who never earned a High School letter, you're quite the experts, aren't you?
We're also quite sure that at Utah we'll never see a Heisman trophy, 2 Outland's, 4 Davey O'Brien's, 8 Sammy Baugh's or Doak Walker trophies. Or 55 All-Americans, with 11 being Consensus.
I doubt we will ever see several College Hall of Famers from Utah, let alone 6 of them, soon to be 7, with Detmer.
Nor will we ever see a Super Bowl MVP or a 2-Time NFL MVP, etc. Most of these came after 1984, no resting here.
Your insults of BYU's achievements, shows your utter ignorance, with a touch of 3rd grade petulance.
BYU was the "Consensus" Number One, by AP, UPI, and many others.
"COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS-IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD NINETEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR"!
Try getting that out of your mind, rather haunting for a Ute fan, eh!
You're yapping about how the "why?" beat Washington in '85, but didn't that same tdS team also lose to UTEP that year? Yes, they provided the Miners their ONLY WIN OF THAT SEASON.
The tdS lost 3 games in '85, proving once again, the '84 team was a bunch of pretenders.
I'm also VERY proud of the Utes' accomplishment last year, and felt they were cheated out of a chance at the national championship by a very biased BCS system. Kyle is a great coach (who by the way, played for BYU).
So, to both great Utah schools (and USU, Weber, and the rest) Good Luck this coming school year, and may the best teams win!
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