Vai talks Jimmy Mac

The more you hear about Jimmy Mac from people who actually know him, the more you learn to love the private Jimmy Mac and laugh at the public Jimmy Mac:



http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/76/10009985/Vai-on-the-Cougars-Takes-on-Y-QBs-Jimmy-Mac.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

snoscythe wrote:
The more you hear about Jimmy Mac from people who actually know him, the more you learn to love the private Jimmy Mac and laugh at the public Jimmy Mac:



http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/76/10009985/Vai-on-the-Cougars-Takes-on-Y-QBs-Jimmy-Mac.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My dad worked for the Governor of South Dakota when I was just a little kid. While he was a missionary showed up for my baptism and that day they had a luau at the stake center; he did an awesome fire dance and talked to me til the sun went down about BYU football. I was a sports encyclopedia before the age of 10 and long before the advent of the internet.



My grandparents are very close to lavell and have been in Utah county since long before BYU was playing winning football, but my relationship with Vai during the time he served his mission in the area where I lived, sold me for life. His attitude and outlook on life is what has made him a success and loved by everyone that meets him. I'm not at all surprised that someone like Vai can see the best in others and color Mcmahon in a way that reminds us all how lucky we were to have such a personality and player like Jim call BYU home.



I can't wait for the day that McMahon finishes those measly 10 hours of credit and comes back to get the real credit he is due.

That was awesome.



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With Jimmy Mac, there was never any doubt about his leadership skills. I recall an instance when he was with the Bears and Coach Ditka kept sending plays that to Jimmy Mac made no sense. After several unsuccessful attempts at the goal line, the play called by the coaches came in. Jimmy, knowing it was an idiotic play call, told the team in the huddle "I'm going to change the play. Coach is going to go beserk. Don't anybody look over to the sidelines." Sure enough when the lined up, Ditka recognized that it wasn't the play sent in. McMahon bark the signals, hiked the ball, and touchdown. Only a guy like McMahon had the guts to take on Ditka, and as usual, Ditka was wrong and Jimmy Mac right. The guy was a winner and by the end, Lavell knew it too..........

SenorCougar wrote:
With Jimmy Mac, there was never any doubt about his leadership skills. I recall an instance when he was with the Bears and Coach Ditka kept sending plays that to Jimmy Mac made no sense. After several unsuccessful attempts at the goal line, the play called by the coaches came in. Jimmy, knowing it was an idiotic play call, told the team in the huddle "I'm going to change the play. Coach is going to go beserk. Don't anybody look over to the sidelines." Sure enough when the lined up, Ditka recognized that it wasn't the play sent in. McMahon bark the signals, hiked the ball, and touchdown. Only a guy like McMahon had the guts to take on Ditka, and as usual, Ditka was wrong and Jimmy Mac right. The guy was a winner and by the end, Lavell knew it too..........

McMahon was a prodigy. He was Peyton Manning good at reading and picking apart defenses.

It was a plain and simple fact when he was playing, that if defenses blitzed, he was throwing for six (he did this with only one good eye, by the way). He scared defenses so much that we didn't get blitzed much from Jimmymac till 1985 (you didn't dare blitz on SY either). In 1985, UTEP was one of the worst teams in the nation. They didn't stand a chance, so they figured, what the heck, let's try blitzing

(no one else has). They did, and had one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history.

bigbluepuma wrote:
It was a plain and simple fact when he was playing, that if defenses blitzed, he was throwing for six (he did this with only one good eye, by the way). He scared defenses so much that we didn't get blitzed much from Jimmymac till 1985 (you didn't dare blitz on SY either). In 1985, UTEP was one of the worst teams in the nation. They didn't stand a chance, so they figured, what the heck, let's try blitzing

(no one else has). They did, and had one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history.

That's not why UTEP won. Lavell will never say anything publicly about it, but from that game forward BYU has taken their own wireless communications sets on the road instead of using the host's integrated comms systems.

snoscythe wrote:

It was a plain and simple fact when he was playing, that if defenses blitzed, he was throwing for six (he did this with only one good eye, by the way). He scared defenses so much that we didn't get blitzed much from Jimmymac till 1985 (you didn't dare blitz on SY either). In 1985, UTEP was one of the worst teams in the nation. They didn't stand a chance, so they figured, what the heck, let's try blitzing

(no one else has). They did, and had one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history.

That's not why UTEP won. Lavell will never say anything publicly about it, but from that game forward BYU has taken their own wireless communications sets on the road instead of using the host's integrated comms systems.

It was almost like UTEP knew exactly what the play was going to be before they ran it.

hawkwing wrote:

bigbluepuma wrote:
It was a plain and simple fact when he was playing, that if defenses blitzed, he was throwing for six (he did this with only one good eye, by the way). He scared defenses so much that we didn't get blitzed much from Jimmymac till 1985 (you didn't dare blitz on SY either). In 1985, UTEP was one of the worst teams in the nation. They didn't stand a chance, so they figured, what the heck, let's try blitzing

(no one else has). They did, and had one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history.

That's not why UTEP won. Lavell will never say anything publicly about it, but from that game forward BYU has taken their own wireless communications sets on the road instead of using the host's integrated comms systems.

It was almost like UTEP knew exactly what the play was going to be before they ran it.

In that case, a QB like Jim McMahon--who changed plays at the line and to hell with the coaches--would have been perfect!

I have a lot of great memories of Jimmy Mac as a kid. He was a leader with lots of football sense. A winner.



It seems as though too many other BYU QBs lacked some of "it" that he had and the team lagged.....



Ignoring the coaches and winning games = classic!

His leadership qualities were on display during the "Miracle Bowl". On a fourth down, late in the game, the coaches sent in the punt team. Jimmy Mac sent them back and told his teammates that the game wasn't over, they could still win the game. The coaches listened to him, they converted the fourth down, and the rest is history!!!!!