Edwards was a college football coaching icon

College football lost one of its best coaches recently with the death of Lavell Edwards, who was also one of football’s truest gentlemen and best ambassadors.

Edwards, who turned Brigham Young University into a national football powerhouse in the late 1970s and throughout the 1990s, passed away at the age of 86 following complications after breaking his hip, family members said.

Coach Edwards was several years ahead of his time by using a passing game in college football when most teams back then relied on a powerful running game to make them successful, especially on the national level.

His team won 257 games from 1972 to 2000 and his 1984 team won a national title as his Cougars had an undefeated season. He ranks seventh in all-time coaching victories and second behind Penn State’s Joe Paterno for those who coached at only one school.

Most college teams back then had a simple playbook of run on first down, run on second down and pass on third down if you had to. Coach Edwards took the opposite approach most of the time. He would throw on first, second and third downs and toss the ball to a running back sometimes on fourth down.

During the years, he coached at Brigham Young; not many of his football games were on television. Four of his quarterbacks who some football fans might remember are Mare Wilson, Jim McMahon (who later played for the Chicago Bears), Steve Young and Robbie Bosco, who all put up incredible passing stats. BYU quarterback Ty Detmer won the Heisman Trophy in 1990.

Quarterback McMahon played in the NFL and was quite a character. He was quoted as saying about the teams that he played for at BYU, “No one could stop our offense.” In fact, many of the Cougar opponents were so over matched that Coach Edwards would tell his assistant coaches to call off the dogs and to not run the score up so high.

During the 1982 football season, BYU came to Athens to play the Georgia Bulldogs when Herschel Walker, the great running back who played high school football in Wrightsville, was a Bulldog running back. The Cougars played the Bulldogs a very close game and it took a Kevin Butler field goal late in the fourth quarter to give Georgia a 17-14 win. Most Bulldog fans will remember that Georgia won the national title in 1980 and that Herschel Walker was a Heisman Trophy winner.

Those who remember Coach Edwards know that he was much more than just a football coach. Faith and family were his top priorities and coaching football was just what he enjoyed doing. His coaching success led to several better opportunities, including chances to coach in the NFL; however, he stayed at BYU for his entire career and continued to live in the first house he and his wife purchased.

The football stadium in Provo, Utah, was named in his honor at the school he led with class and honor for so long. During his long tenure as coach at BYU, he never fired an assistant coach and during the 1980s, only Nebraska won more games than BYU. They won 103 games and BYU won 102 games.

Today, many college football teams use parts of the offensive schemes that Coach Edwards used decades ago to win so many games. He was ahead of his time on the football field and was most definitely a man of true character. He was a legend in every sense of the word and it saddened many people to learn about his death.

Information for this column was taken from a column that was written by Chris Bridges, who is a longtime newspaper columnist and a native of Monticello, Georgia.

HHJ News