13 Most Important Wins in BYU History

Wrubell mentioned on his blog that KSL will be doing a 13 most important wins countdown as part of the Cougar Classics part of the Sunday Bronco Mendenhall show. They're taking email submissions and will put together a poll later. So, I'm trying to put my list together. Post your top 13 most important wins. The ones that come to my mind are:



1984 BYU vs Hawaii

1984 BYU vs Michigan

1990 BYU vs Miami

2009 BYU vs Oklahoma

1997 Cotton Bowl vs Kansas



The wins against Utah in 2006, 2007, and 2009 were big but I'm not sure if they were important (conference championship).



Thoughts?

Here's my list:



1979 BYU vs Texas A&M

1980 BYU vs SMU

1983 BYU vs UCLA

1984 BYU vs Michigan

1985 BYU vs Air Force

1988 BYU vs Colorado

1990 BYU vs Miami

1991 BYU vs SDSU (tie)

1992 BYU vs Penn State

1994 BYU vs Oklahoma

1997 BYU vs Kansas State

2006 BYU vs TCU

2009 BYU vs Oklahoma

I'd throw a few earlier ones in the mix for program perspective:



1922 Wyoming 7-0 First official win

1942 Utah 12-7 First win over Utah

1965 New Mexico 28-24 Clinched first ever conference title

1978 UNLV 28-24 First international win (Japan)

A&M to start the 96 season rolling should make the list.



Biggest Loss - well the game we lost in 1996 would be a contender. Who was it? Anybody remember? HINT: We lost 29-17. HINT: We get a chance for a little revenge Sept 4.



It would have been very difficult to deny BYU another moment in history had we gone 15-0 that season instead of going 14-1. I don't think anybody else has ever gone 14-1 even still and nobody will ever go 15-0.



Go Cougs

Mingjai wrote:
Here's my list:



1979 BYU vs Texas A&M

1980 BYU vs SMU

1983 BYU vs UCLA

1984 BYU vs Michigan

1985 BYU vs Air Force

1988 BYU vs Colorado

1990 BYU vs Miami

1991 BYU vs SDSU (tie)

1992 BYU vs Penn State

1994 BYU vs Oklahoma

1997 BYU vs Kansas State

2006 BYU vs TCU

2009 BYU vs Oklahoma

My personal list would be every single game played in 1984, since it took 13 wins to become Nat'l Champs. Otherwise, I agree with your list, for the most part. I would add the 1983 win over Missouri in the Holiday Bowl, very key to BYU's being set up for its 1984 championship season. I would drop the game against SDSU in its place.



The worst losses:



1979 BYU vs. Indiana

1980 BYU vs. New Mexico

1983 BYU vs. Baylor

1985 BYU vs. UTEP, UCLA, tOSU

1996 BYU vs. UW

2001 BYU vs. Hawaii

2003 BYU vs. :utard:

2006 BYU vs. BC, Ariz



Only the 2003 loss was about pride only, while the others hurt BYU's bid for undefeated immortality in those seasons and were games BYU should have won.

Cougarbib2 wrote:
I don't think anybody else has ever gone 14-1 even still and nobody will ever go 15-0.

Go Cougs

At least until there's a playoff.



Ohio State had 14-0 in 2002, only other team to win 14 in a season, but you're right about 15-game seasons...

Cougarbib2 wrote:
Biggest Loss - well the game we lost in 1996 would be a contender. Who was it? Anybody remember? HINT: We lost 29-17. HINT: We get a chance for a little revenge Sept 4.



It would have been very difficult to deny BYU another moment in history had we gone 15-0 that season instead of going 14-1. I don't think anybody else has ever gone 14-1 even still and nobody will ever go 15-0.



Go Cougs

Don't bring it up. Too much pain. 14-0 on Selection Sunday we would not have been denied the Bowl Alliance bid, and a perfect 15-0 and the only undefeated team = consensus national championship (should be unanimous, but I am skeptical that all the voters could get it right, even back in 1996).

You have to add 1984 vs Pitt. Pitt was ranked 3rd when we played them. That game showed what the 1984 team was all about.

I got my list put together and sent it to Wrubell. Here it is:



1. BYU 24, Michigan 17 (1984 Holiday Bowl)

2. BYU 19, Kansas State 15 (1997 Cotton Bowl)

3. BYU 28, Miami 21 (1990)

4. BYU 46, SMU 45 (1980 Holiday Bowl)

5. BYU 18, Texas A&M 17 (1979)

6. BYU 21, Arizona State 18 (1974)

7. BYU 31, TCU 17 (2006)

8. BYU 34, Utah 27 (2000)

9. BYU 16, New Mexico 15 (1975)

10. BYU 20, Colorado 17 (1988 Freedom Bowl)

11. BYU 28, Air Force 21 (1985)

12. BYU 31, Washington 3 (1985)

13. BYU 33, Utah 31 (2006)



If you are interested in why I selected each game, you can visit my blog for the explanations (http://byufootballtalk.blogspot.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

CougarPeasant wrote:
I would add the 1983 win over Missouri in the Holiday Bowl, very key to BYU's being set up for its 1984 championship season.

Perhaps I'm just disagreeing to disagree, but even with that win, the Mighty Cougs began the following season unranked. You'd really have to have the '84 Pitt game as one of them, because going into that game BYU was unranked, and Pitt was number 3. That win alone shot BYU from unranked to number 12 and 13 inthe AP and UPI rankings. I cannot think of another game that BYU played that had them go up in the rankings 8 or 9 spots (there were only 20 teams ranked back then)

How about BYU 27, New Mexico 24 (2005)? That come from behind win on the road was pretty much where our current coaching staff turned the corner with the program.

My list:



#1 - BYU vs. Michigan, 1984 (National Championship)

#2 - BYU vs. Miami, 1990 (Defeating #1, launch Detmer Heisman)

#3 - BYU vs. Kansas State, 1997 (Snubbed out of big bowl, needed win against quality team to give credibility to program)

#4 - BYU vs. SMU, 1980 (first bowl win)

#5 - BYU vs. New Mexico, 1975 (key turning point in LaVell's tenure - forward pass survives - Gifford Nielsen emerges)

#6 - BYU vs. New Mexico, 2005 (key turning point in Bronco's tenure - BYU rallies to defeat NM - John Beck emerges)

#7 - BYU vs. Pitt, 1984 (without this game, there is no number one game in BYU football history)

#8 - BYU vs. TCU, 2006 (key step for Bronco - big win on the road - launched 2006 team into arguably best team and campaign in Mendenhall era)

#9 - BYU vs. Utah, 2000 (last win for LaVell...avoids coaching a losing season)

#10 - BYU vs. Oklahoma, 2009 (lights, camera, action...BYU wins on perhaps the biggest stage in BYU history)

#11 - BYU vs. UCLA, 1982 (first win in the rose bowl...coming out party for Steve Young)

#12 - BYU vs. Utah 2006 (first outright conference championship under Mendenhall - undefeated in conference)

#13 - BYU vs. Oregon State, 2009 (big matchup of two top 20 programs in the Las Vegas Bowl...soundly defeat another top 20 program...solidifies the accomplishments of the 2009 team that struggled in losses to FSU and TCU).