Parallel worlds: BYU, SMU both followed winding path to college football relevance
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- BYU’s Jacob Robinson (0) takes down SMU quarterback Tanner Mordecai on a two-point conversion attempt to preserve a 24-23 Cougar victory in the 2022 New Mexico Bowl.
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- Former BYU quarterback Jim McMahon celebrates his team’s comeback victory in the 1980 Holiday Bowl against SMU.
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- SMU tight end Nolan Matthews-Harris (14) and defensive end David Abiara (10) celebrate after defeating Tulane in the American Athletic Conference championship NCAA college football game, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023 in New Orleans. SMU won 26-14.
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- SMU running back Tyler Lavine (31) carries during the second half of the American Athletic Conference championship NCAA college football game against Tulane, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023 in New Orleans. SMU won 26-14.
Any BYU fan worth their weight in Cougar Tails knows the story of the Cougars’ amazing comeback win against SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl.
The “Miracle Bowl” in San Diego was a launching point for BYU’s run of success in the 1980s and 1990s, the glory days for LaVell Edwards and Cougar fans, many of whom listened to the final moments of the game on their car radios while navigating the freeway after leaving early.
The 1980s were also the halcyon days for the Mustangs. From 1981 to 1986, SMU posted a 53-15-1 record while playing in the Southwest Conference, including a mark of 41-5-1 during a four-year stretch of success. But years of breaking rules and paying players caught up with SMU and the program was blown up by the NCAA, the so-called “death penalty” that sent the Mustangs into an 20-year tailspin.
Both programs have gone through adversity and come out the other side with hope and potential.
As the two teams prepare to meet in Dallas on Friday, BYU and SMU have emerged as members of power conferences. The Cougars joined the Big 12 last season and SMU, after years of college football exile, are now a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“We love where we’re positioned,” SMU AD Rick Hart said in an interview with the Associated Press. “Maybe that’s foolish, but I’d like to think that’s because we’ve fought our way back from being pronounced dead. We’re going to seize this moment. And I have the utmost belief and confidence that we’re going to position ourselves to compete at the highest level of athletics.”
It’s a miracle
The stories of the 1980 Holiday Bowl are well told. BYU was down by 22 points in the third quarter and trailed 45-20 with four minutes to play but scored 21 straight points, including a Hail Mary from Jim McMahon to Clay Brown on the game’s final play, to win 46-45. Every Cougar fan knows about McMahon refusing to leave the field on a fourth down, forcing Edwards to call a time out. BYU converted the first down and the comeback was on.
McMahon says Mustangs running back and NFL legend Eric Dickerson never fails to bring up the game when they connect on the golf course.
Current Cougar AD Tom Holmoe was a defensive back on that team. He tells the story of roaming San Diego after the game with his friends and punking a convenience store clerk who was watching the game on television not knowing he was watching a replay. Holmoe correctly predicted the final sequence of the game, stunning the clerk.
“He was looking at me like I was Nostradamus,” said Holmoe, who bet the clerk $20 on the outcome but came clean and didn’t take his money.
Vai Sikahema, a future NFL All-Pro, returned a punt for a touchdown in the game. He said when he returned to his hometown of Phoenix, he and his buddies donned BYU gear and took a victory lap around the local mall.
“I was five years old when the game happened,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said this week. “I don’t remember much but I do remember watching the highlights at 8 years old. I was the kind of kid that would watch replays of games all the time. It was cool to watch that SMU team with guys like Eric Dickerson. Then you watch guys like Kyle Whittingham and Jim McMahon out there for BYU. There are some cool parts of that game like Jim McMahon not wanting to punt and keeping the offense out there. I grew up as a kid hearing those stories and then, as a BYU player, got to ask LaVell [Edwards] about it.”
SMU doesn’t recall the game quite so fondly.
“It’s bitter,” the radio voice of SMU football, Rich Phillips, said on “BYU Sports Nation.””It’s still a very bitter thing. People were leaving the stadium already because it was over but then you lose on a Hail Mary at then end. Two years ago (the 2022 New Mexico Bowl) was a little bit bitter for some as well. (Mustangs coach) Rhett Lashlee went for two at the end because he decided that we weren’t going to overtime and somebody was going to win the game right there.”
Jakob Robinson stopped Mustangs quarterback Tanner Mordecai on a two-point conversion attempt in the closing moments of the game to preserve a 24-23 victory.
The two program also met when they were members of an expanded Western Athletic Conference, with BYU winning 31-3 in Provo (1996) and 19-16 in overtime in Dallas (1997).
Transition years
The end of the Edwards era was a slow decline (29-20 in his final four seasons) and gave way to a 12-0 start for new coach Gary Crowton in 2001. But Crowton suffered three straight losing seasons and was replaced by Bronco Mendenhall, who began to revive the program. The Cougars moved into independence and Mendenhall, facing a glass ceiling in terms of access to the Big Boys Club, left for Virginia. Kalani Sitake stepped in and has had some success, highlighted by a 11-1 mark in 2020. Then came one of the best weeks ever in BYU football: An invitation to the Big 12 on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021, followed by a victory against Utah the following day to snap the Utes nine-game winning streak in the series.
The most surprising aspect of the move to a power conference was that the BYU administration and board of trustees examined the financial commitment to joining the Big 12 and was all in.
The Cougars struggled in Year 1, posting a 2-7 mark in league play and failing to make a bowl game for the first time since 2017. But the access to the NCAA 12-team playoff is out there for the taking. That’s all BYU ever wanted.
“Congrats, Cougar Nation,” Holmoe said at the news conference announcing the move. “It’s been a long time coming. Here we are. And the journey continues.”
The struggle is real
SMU went from powerhouse to doormat after the NCAA dropped the hammer. The Mustangs, who had been on probation five previous times, didn’t play football in 1987 and 1988, then didn’t have a winning record for nine seasons. They jumped from the Southwest Conference to the Western Athletic Conference to Conference USA and the American Athletic Conference without a lot of success. SMU toiled 21 years without a bowl game, finally earning a Hawaii Bowl berth in 2009. Now, they’ve made bowl games in six of the past seven seasons. Last year, Lashlee led the team to an 11-3 overall mark and an 8-0 record in the AAC.
Last September, amidst the Pac-12 blowing up and other conference shakeups, SMU joined Stanford and Cal in becoming members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“Joining the Atlantic Coast Conference is an historic milestone in our institution’s history, and the start of a new chapter in SMU Athletics,” SMU President R. Gerald Turner said. “From early on in my tenure here on the Hilltop, we had a vision to reestablish SMU Athletics as a nationally recognized and relevant program, one to complement our outstanding academic reputation. It is truly an exciting time on the Hilltop.”
Still, it was a move that was widely criticized. The Mustangs had to pay a $10 million exit fee from the AAC and gave up over $200 million in ACC television revenue to join that conference. While critics claimed SMU bought their way into the ACC, there are plenty of movers and shakers in Dallas to keep the program competitive. The school raised over $100 million in the week after announcing the move. SMU boosters have pledged to give more than $200 million to offset that lost revenue.
A new hope
The fifth meeting between BYU and SMU represents a brand new opportunity for a rivalry with deep roots. The Mustangs are a 11.5 point favorite in the game, even though they are just 5-40 against power conference opponents since 2000.
Neither program is getting entirely comfortable in their new conferences. The chances that BYU and SMU could be on the move, or that their respective conferences will add more teams, is highly likely in the current volatile landscape of college football.
“There’s been a lot of buzz around our program, which is great,” Lashlee said. “There are a lot of overzealous people out there prognosticating what we’re supposed to do. There’s no pressure on us. We’re not supposed to win these games, right? I mean, if you look at history, the four teams that went into the Big 12 last year, none of them had a winning record in their first year.
“I don’t think we’ve won a game against a power conference opponent since 2010. So we just need to relax and go play. Some of these things out there are kind of baffling. To me, we’re the underdog every week. It doesn’t matter what the line says. We’re not supposed to come in and beat everybody.”
