LaVell Edwards: In His Own Words 

BYU’s athletic department should put some serious effort into a long form documentary on Lavell Edwards. This could be a powerful documentary; lots of love for the man and lots of folks still around who’d love to talk about him. I love the athlete profiles and this short film, but I’d really love a much longer, deeper, more comprehensive documentary on this legendary coach.

Coach Edwards you were & always be a great coach. RIP we miss you dearly coach.

LaVell Edwards was a great coach!! Prior to him, the formula to winning a national title was a great defense and a strong running game. LaVell proved that yes, a national title can be won with a pass heavy offense and a deep defense. Later on, Miami and Florida followed this formula in 1989, 1990 and 1996. The situation at BYU is unique because the kids that play at this program are a year older due to mandatory mission work. Nevertheless, the kids that go there would usually be backups or role-players on traditional power five teams. The speaks well to development. Utah, is not a hotbed or traditional pipeline for CFB talent. Fast forward to 1984, BYU may not have had a team that would bang it out with an Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc. But, the synergy they had created an advantage in depth. This team was four deep in regards to talent. Oklahoma, Nebraska, Miami, Washington, Texas were two to three deep at best. There was no drop off in production regardless of who was in there. Finally, if one looks at the 1984 team, you would see many things modern offenses do now. There were wide splits on the offensive line, engineered passing routes an emphasis on the passing game supported by a complimentary running game. LaVell may have preferred the split backs/pro-set. But he was proficient in the shotgun and one back under-center sets. Nobody did this and it was hard to play against this.