I'd rather lose and live in Provo than win and live in Laramie

BYU takes on defending national champion Florida State in the Pigskin Classic in Jacksonville, Fla., eight days after announcing that the 2000 season would be his last before retirement: We looked at it. We knew it would make things tougher. But how many chances does anyone get to play Florida State? It was too good to pass up.

The Wyoming game in 1974, my third year as head coach. My first year, we were 7-4; the second year, we went 5-6; the third year started out 0-3-1. Some of the players got together and had a team meeting to get a few things straightened out. Starting with the Wyoming game, we won 6 straight games and won our first conference championship, the second in BYU's history. We went to the Fiesta Bowl, the first of many bowl games for the Cougars.

Commenting on playoffs to determine a national champion: I'm not in favor of 15 games either. I think that's way too much football. The thing that I feel good about is that these guys hung together through 15 games and played hard every week. That's a marvelous tribute to the kids. We just hung in there today and kept playing. It's just been a special feeling all year long.

At some point in time it will be right for me to step aside. That may be after this year, but that may be after two or three more years.

I went to many coaching clinics, talked to other coaches, read articles, books, etc. Anything I could do that would help me prepare to be the best coach possible. Fortunately, the coaches I had as a player were good men and were excellent role models in setting priorities and relating to the team members and coaching staff.

Edwards commented as he signed an extension to his contract. They had changed coaches every three or four years before my getting the head job. It was just going to be a matter of when I got fired. There were a lot of people that felt that.