Late in the third quarter the Cougars were behind 12-0. Duva had completed 5 out of 20 passes. Edwards looked at Gifford Nielsen. Giff had never done a thing, in practice or anywhere else, to give us confidence in him. . . . . . . the coach said later. He sent him into the game anyway. First play was a 19-yard completion. Second was a 6-yard run. He threw again on the third play to running back Dave Lowry who ran 37 yards for a touchdown.

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.

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.

I was asked this morning if it was frustrating to be 13-1 last year and not have more recognition and I said, "Hey man, I'd take that every year. I'd take that kind of frustration and not worry about it one bit. It wasn't frustration, it was one of those great runs and I enjoyed it."

In the early years, I was able to accommodate most of the requests and favors that came my way, but as the requests multiplied, I had to make tough choices because the numbers were more than I could handle.

I hope I've been a good example to the youth of the church.

When I started I knew it was a matter of when, not if, I would get fired. That's because that was just the past history of the previous coaches that had been there.