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Young Wants BYU To Get Shot At BCS Bowl The SportingNews.com Feature Story
Nov. 28, 2001
By Jeff D'Alessio He'll have to wait a few more years to get a plaque in Canton, but Steve Young goes into College Football's Hall of Fame next month. The guy Bill Walsh called the greatest athlete ever to play quarterback will be recognized at a ceremony in New York for his record-setting career at BYU, where he threw for 7,733 yards and 56 TDs. Now retired, Young spends his time cheering on the Cougars, analyzing the NFL for ESPN and overseeing Found, Inc., an Internet technology company he founded. In the latest edition of One-on-One, Young talks about Gary Crowton's Cougars, Wyoming's fans and Jim McMahon. TSN: If BYU wins out and doesn't make a BCS bowl, how big a gripe does your alma mater have? SY: If you're a Division I school, there's got to be some way to reward a spectacular season. At least test it, you know? That's the flaw in the BCS. In some ways, it's a closed shop -- and they've got to figure that out. If they played Nebraska every week, would they be undefeated? Probably not. But let's give it a look. Let's have a shot at figuring it out. Keeping them out and not letting them have an opportunity to prove their worth, it's a flaw. They've got to fix that.
TSN: What do you think would happen if they played a really good defensive team? SY: I don't know, but it would be fun to see. History, for the most part, is on our side because when we've played in big bowl games, we've still moved the football and scored some points. I would love to see them in the Fiesta Bowl versus a Florida. I'd just love it. It would be fun to see. TSN: But could their defense stop anyone? SY: That's the bigger question, right? TSN: How closely do you follow your alma mater? SY: Very closely. You know, for a college team, even way back, it was a pro-like offense. It's just been fun to watch the things that they do offensively. You can do more things in college because of the hash marks and some of the rules, so it's interesting to see what they come up with. TSN: BYU QB Brandon Doman has been called a poor man's Steve Young. Does he remind you of yourself? SY: I saw Brandon three years ago when he had a lot of eligibility left, and I just thought he was a gamer and a playmaker. You can learn a lot of things as you go. It's too bad that this is his only season (as the starter) because you can see that he's getting his feet under him and really starting to read and do some great things. I just want to see him have another season. It's too bad he won't. TSN: He told us the two of you have spent some time working out together. SY: His brother's a really good friend of mine, so I've followed him for a long time. I've tried to, in the right way, watch games all year long and give him one or two things to think about. With his mobility and his arm -- he's had to fight off a little bit of a shoulder problem, but when it's feeling good -- he's accurate and he looks great. I know that he's got to move quickly if he ever wants a shot to play on. I've tried to give him a couple little things from a vision standpoint, from a technique standpoint, that he can do -- even under pressure. I think he has the raw abilities to maybe give it a shot at the pros. TSN: What's behind BYU's tradition of great quarterbacks? SY: It's funny. Myself and Jim McMahon, particularly, weren't highly recruited. It wasn't like we were quarterbacks when we came out of the womb. LaVell (Edwards) always said, "I thought he was a better DB." Football is the ultimate team game and when you find a system that really works with your talents, it's a geometric explosion kind of thing. A one plus one equals three kind of thing. We've had some unique players over the years. Now, even in the pros, you find great quarterbacks who have great systems to work with, too. It goes hand in hand. You know, I don't think I could have been nearly as good a quarterback if I was running the wishbone. And that's why I went to BYU. Quarterbacking, to me, was throwing the football. TSN: You were college teammates with Jim McMahon. Any good stories? SY: Oh man, 1,000. We'd go to the local golf course. He would play naked if they wouldn't arrest him -- and he probably did a couple of times. I bet he did, just to see if they'd arrest him. But we'd play with 20 guys on one hole. He'd say, "Look, let's all play together." Guys would just be whaling at balls. You're lucky you didn't get killed. He'd play with no shoes and no shirt, just wandering around in his shorts. And that's nothing compared to some of the other things. He seemed like he always had a good time, whatever he was doing. I will say this, though: As far as the football, I really learned how to play quarterback from watching him. He was a great quarterback. The craft of quarterback -- all the little nuances and skills. I came out of high school very, very raw, and I really needed somebody to watch, that I could emulate, that I could really learn the game from. TSN: You were the Heisman runner-up in 1983. How close a race was it? SY: It was not that close, actually, because Mike Rozier would not take a week off. I tried to match him in the best way that I could, but he was relentlessly good that year. There wasn't a week where I could make some catch-up. TSN: A columnist at another national magazine took BYU to task recently for having older players than everyone else. SY: I saw it. Being out of Denver, he's just jealous because we've been whipping up on Colorado State and Air Force for so long. TSN: So he doesn't have a point? SY: If you really studied it on a whole, it actually plays as a negative in athletics. The truth is these kids go (on missions) and a lot of times just eat dirt for two years, then come back having to reclaim their athletic ability. All in all, if you weighed it all out, it probably makes it a little bit harder. I think there is clearly a maturity advantage, but I don't know that it's a physical or athletic advantage. All in all, it's a wash at best -- and probably a little bit harder for the kids to come back and play some good football. TSN: Does it mean much to you to go into the Hall of Fame? SY: Oh yeah. If you go back to when you were in high school and you thought to yourself, "I'm going to be in the College Football Hall of Fame," that would be the greatest thing in the whole world. I think it should be that way. I'm really proud of it in many ways. TSN: Who's the one player in football now -- college or pro -- that reminds you of yourself? SY: I don't know that I was as good an athlete as some of the guys that are playing right now, like Donovan (McNabb). I think I was. But there are a few guys playing right now in the pros that have the raw abilities, dynamic abilities and just need to learn what I needed to learn: how to be the orchestrator of the offense. It takes some time. But when it comes to the (Mark) Brunells and McNabbs and as raw as Mike Vick is, you see guys that can make plays. TSN: How much do you miss playing? SY: This time of year, I really miss it. Right around Thanksgiving, when the games start to become very meaningful and they start talking about playoffs. Just this weekend, I said to the guys at ESPN, "Geez. Forget this job. Let's go play some ball." TSN: How far do you want to go in broadcasting? SY: I don't know. I did it because I like Chris Berman a lot. I have a passion for football and it gives me an outlet to tell others about it, but I don't have a long-range plan, that's for sure. TSN: Do you want to coach? SY: I think I could coach Little League. But at this point, I don't see myself putting the time in to coach in college or the pros. TSN: What's in your CD player these days? SY: Let me look. Looks like it's Sarah McLaughlin. My wife must have put that in there. TSN: What's your favorite movie of all-time? SY: I'll be off the wall and say Tora! Tora! Tora! TSN: What's the craziest thing you've ever been asked to autograph? SY: Things I couldn't autograph. TSN: How about the toughest stadium to win in -- college or pro? SY: Wyoming -- because it's always horrible weather and they have some vicious fans. Vicious. I would say there or New Orleans, the Superdome -- especially with Ricky Jackson and Pat Swilling on the corners. Each week, Jeff goes "One-on-One" with college personalities. Email Jeff at jdalessio@sportingnews.com. |
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