A combination of college football outcomes too long to list fell in favor of the 1984 Brigham Young football team, winners that year of the national championship.
Arguments for and against the legitimacy of BYU’s poll-based title persist.
Robbie Bosco, BYU’s quarterback that season, was in Little Rock on Monday to speak to the Little Rock Touchdown Club’s weekly luncheon crowd. He was primarily there to promote the next game on the schedules for the Arkansas Razorbacks and BYU.
On Saturday, BYU (4-2) will host Arkansas (3-3) at LaVelle Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Central.
Bosco said he looked at the game as a must-win for both schools.
As for his team’s national championship, Bosco said he understands many of the pros and cons of its acceptance or rejection. Either way, he said he knows the Cougars’ title will remain in the books forever.
“Everything fell into place,” Bosco said. “It was really a miraculous season, not only from the games we could’ve lost but just being behind the eight-ball, knowing nobody wanted us to win except BYU fans. It was really special to be a part of it. It was awesome, and they can’t take it away from us.”
None of the 1984 national championship contenders complained louder after the final results than University of Washington partisans.
Washington and Oklahoma played in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1985, 11 days after BYU, with a 27-17 victory over Michigan in the Holiday Bowl, completed its season at 12-0. A less-than-steller Michigan team finished at 6-5.
Many considered the Orange Bowl the truest test to confirm the best team over the 1984 season.
Before the game, The Associated Press had BYU at No. 1 and Oklahoma at No. 2nd no. 4 Washington, the Pac-10 champion, won the Orange Bowl, 28-17 over Oklahoma, the Big Eight champ.
After the game, Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer made it clear who he thought was the nation’s best team.
“Washington is the best team we’ve played,” Switzer said. “Washington deserves to be No. 1. They’re more talented. They’re a better team than Brigham Young, I promise you that.”
While far less prone to controversy than Switzer, even longtime Washington coach Don James was willing to pick sides.
“I think we’re No. 1,” James said.
James was Washington’s head football coach from 1975-92. His teams were ranked No. 1 three times during his 18-season career at Washington, and finished ranked No. 2 twice, including in 1984.
Bosco agreed one thing was certain. He said everyone involved with BYU understood the school’s only chance to win the 1984 championship required a season with no losses or ties. Furthermore, no other of the nation’s top schools could also finish with an unmarred record.
Bosco said BYU faced many obstacles in its 1984 route to perfection, including a late fourth-and-long hurdle in the final minute of a 41-38 victory over Wyoming at Provo in BYU’s sixth game.
“There were probably four or five games that season we could’ve lost easily,” Bosco said. “The Wyoming game, we’re at fourth-and-10 at the 50. [Wide receiver Glen] Kozlowski turns around, but he’s behind a linebacker. I’m having to wave him over. But he makes the catch, and we go on to score to win that one. If we don’t get the first down, it’s game over. Wyoming wins. There was less than a minute left.”
Objections to BYU’s status as a national contender helped fuel the result, Bosco said.
“We used it to our advantage,” he said. “We always felt like, hey, everybody is against us. We loved going into major football areas and coming out with a win. We knew things had to work perfectly for us to do it. That’s just the way it worked then. We knew were going to have to win every game. There was no question, and we also knew that no one else could win every game. We knew a lot of things had to happen for us to win, and they all happened.”
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