RIP Lavell Edwards

[Jeff Lebowski]

Sad, sad day.

Post your thoughts and memories here.

[Commando]

The guy IS BYU football. Irreplaceable. Quiet confidence, humility, and just laid ass kickings all across the west. Gave us an N.C. and renovated the game of football. His legacy is spiderwebbed all over the country in the best minds of NFL and college teams. The legend will never die.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Praise to the Man!

Although he was an assistant when I arrived as a BYU freshman in the fall of 1970, I was unaware of him, as BYU football was joke. Basketball was the only sport that mattered on campus. When I returned from Austria a couple of years later, BYU was starting to get good, although I witnessed a 9-6 loss to Utah State at the start of the '74 season that, complete with a helmet-swinging fight that resulted in the game being called a minute or so early. That was the nadir of BYU football for me. But then LaVell and Gary Sheide took over, making the rest of the 1974 season one of my alltime favorites.

I organized the 2004 Cougarboard golf tournament that included the 1984 Championship Team. I arranged for myself to be in a foursome with LaVell and Robbie Bosco, but a bike accident and broken arm a few days before prevented that from happening.

He was not only one of the greatest coaches in college football history, he was superb with the press with a very dry sense of humor. Just a few years ago, after my team won the Law School alumni golf tournament, he presented us with our prizes which consisted of a poorly printed certificate and a BYU Alumni Association plastic yo-yo. As he gave them to me he said with great earnestness, "Where do they get these wonderful prizes?"

As it has done to YOhio, his passing affects me at the personal level as much or more than any other public figure in my lifetime. What a great man.

[Uncle Ted]

I was a freshman to see LaVell bring home the national championship and a graduate student when he was coaching the heisman trophy winner. He made me a BYU football fan for life. Goodbye to the "Coach of the Century". May you continue kicking the crap out of the Utes on the other side. Of course, they are all most likely in hell.

[BigFatMeanie]

My greatest BYU Football memory under Coach Edwards was when I was 10 years old at the 1980 Holiday Bowl. My Dad and I stayed until the end.

BYU averaged 46.7 points per game that season with Jim McMahon. It was the Cougars' first ever bowl win. It cemented my lifelong status as a devotee of all things BYU.

Rest in Peace, Coach.

[Blueintheface]

Man, just a huge gut punch. I met him years ago, chatted with him several times since, the last time on a cruise ship following the 2007 loss to UCLA. The man was mobbed like no octogenarian in history yet was always gracious.

I'll simply reiterate what his players always said: "Coach Edwards was a great coach, but a better man".

RIP, coach. You will be missed but your legacy lives on. Go Cougars!!!

[Omaha 680]

I was 7 in Nebraska when Lavell won it all. As you can imagine the majority of people in Big 8 country subscribed to the Bryant Gumbel assessment of that BYU team. I proudly wore my BYU NC gear to school whenever I could and relished the angst it caused, among teachers especially. The Heisman race in 1990 was similar. All my friends in predominantly Catholic Omaha were convinced Rocket Ismail had it wrapped up and wanted me to stop talking about Detmer. Apart from being a tremendous human being and ambassador for my school, that is the main reason I love Lavell: he made the country turn and take notice. He built BYU into a juggernaut that owned the intermountain west for a couple decades. But his national title and all-american quarterbacks demanded we be mentioned among the big boys and blue bloods occasionally, even if people had a hard time admitting it.

I was thinking earlier this year who would be on the BYU Mt. Rushmore with Coach Edwards. Now I think he doesn't belong on it himself. Mt. Rushmore is for lesser people to share. In the BYU world, he is the completed Crazy Horse monument or the Spring Buddha, towering above all other contributors. We love you, coach. And we will miss you.

[dabrockster]

RIP Lavell Edwards

My day is now one filled with overcasts of grey.. The loss of what is.. Whatever has and Whatever WILL BE of BYU football has left this earth and is welcomed on the other side of the veil.. He wasn't just a coach but an example of what we all should aspire to be.

His vision of football was pivotal to what is now The West Coast Offense. He legacy knows no bounds and is spread across all this nation on football fields across America..

I had the honor of watching him most of my life and attended many games he had coached. He brought joy to many of those memories.

BYU not only lost a legend but a true ambassador..

You will be missed..[emoji22]




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[Northwestcoug]

RIP Lavell. Growing up outside of Utah I saw more games on TV than I actually went to while at BYU. But I still remember watching those Holiday Bowls, the collective outrage we felt from the Schembechler insult, and the pride everyone had at the end of 1984. Those were good times.

[Shaka]

Praise to the Man!


I organized the 2004 Cougarboard golf tournament that included the 1984 Championship Team. I arranged for myself to be in a foursome with LaVell and Robbie Bosco, but a bike accident and broken arm a few days before prevented that from happening.

You stuck me with Eric Drage.

[BlueK]

Thank you Lavell. What he did feels personal for me. In 1980 my parents went through a very difficult divorce. I was 12 and my younger brother was 10. BYU football brought a ray of hope and happiness, and was a diversion for us at that time that helped us get through the tough times. Hoping my mom who passed earlier this year can thank him for me on the other side today.

[dabrockster]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=18371590
http://es.pn/2im2H0e


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[Topper]

This is gut wrench for me, as he was and perhaps always will be BYU football. His son is a local attorney whom I have known for many years, so I can only imagine what he is enduring now.

1984 was my first year of law school, and I watched and read a special football paper that followed BYU's ascendancy up the rankings. Having met Coach before, I was pleased how polite and approachable he was to those casual and passionate fans. PAC is correct in that he had an extremely fantastic dry wit.

He handled an assortment of personalities and usually very well, responded patiently after the game with a lot of coachspeak, and represented BYU as we would like all of coaches and players to represent BYU.

I remember him speaking at a small function when he described how he knew Detmer would be a great QB. He told us that a QB who flinches once he gets hit will never make it. He told of inserting Ty into the game, when he got blitzed from both sides and hit so hard, Ty had to peer through the ear hole. But Ty jumped up after the same play was called stood in there, threw a strike for a big gain or TD, and Lavell turned to an assistant and said, "We are back in the Quarterback business."

More than that was how Lavell seemed to always find time for everybody who approached him. You could call out to him on campus, or in a restaurant, he would take the time to ask how you were or to greet you kindly. He overcame the odds of coaching at BYU and did so gracefully. Thank you Coach, and RIP. There is hole in my BYU heart now. I trust his family will be comforted, Jimmy and the others. Hopefully his wife may receive comfort and love as well.

[Topper]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=18371590
http://es.pn/2im2H0e


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Thanks for sharing.

[Omaha 680]

Winter of 2000 we were walking between the RB and the field house and passed Lavell heading to his car. The loudest of my friends, who was a 5'-7" unathletic looking white guy with a receding hair line, said in what he thought was a great joke "Hey coach! I'm thinking of walking on this year. You think I have a shot?" Lavell didn't miss a beat; he smiled and said "well that depends on how fast you can run and how high you can jump. We'd love to see you out there." He was always magnanimous with annoying fans.