Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: BYU TOP STORYLINES BY LOU SOMOGYI one game on the Notre Dame schedule that could be singled out as an "upset special," it was Brigham Young. It met all the prerequisites to be the prover- bial trap game, the one that bites most every team annually. Brigham Young is sandwiched in Prior to the 2012 season, if there was ALL THE 'TRAPPINGS' finish 0-4 against the Cardinal. Host- ing ESPN GameDay on campus for the first time in seven years helped fuel that showdown. Two weeks later, Notre Dame will between two preseason top-25 foes — Stanford Oct. 13 and at Oklahoma Oct. 27 — that are considered red-let- ter matchups for the Fighting Irish. It is the battle of fighting a letdown after Stanford while avoiding looking ahead to Oklahoma. Stanford had defeated Notre Dame make a much-anticipated trip to Nor- man, Okla., for the first time since 1966. The showdown between two of the blue bloods in college football his- tory had become one of the most an- ticipated events in the state, and that too would require a huge emotional investment from both sides. Lurking in between are the BYU Cougars — who have quietly finished with at least 10 victories in five of the last six seasons, and 11 three times. "You're only going to have three three straight times, and Notre Dame was projected to be on an emotional high to avoid having the senior class weeks out of the year — maybe — where the whole team is at an emo- tional peak," former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz told Blue & Gold Il- lustrated after his first season with the Irish in 1986. The corollary to that was that for com ranked BYU second to only Miami for that title (Notre Dame was seventh), but that was based mainly on the Cougars' amazing run from 1976-96: • Gifford Nielson was a first-team All-American who finished sixth in the 1976 Heisman Trophy balloting. • Marc Wilson was third in the 1979 Heisman vote while setting 10 NCAA records. • Jim McMahon set 70 NCAA records while twice placing in the top five of the Heisman balloting in 1980-81. • Steve Young, in 1983, joined Wilson and McMahon as winners of the Sammy Baugh Trophy, awarded Many schools can claim a "Cradle of Quarterbacks" moniker. As recently as 2004, CollegeFootballNews. QUARTERBACK U.? to the nation's top passer, and he was second in the Heisman. • Robbie Bosco was third in the Heisman in both 1984 and 1985, and steered the drive to the 1984 Trophy. • Current Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian also won the Sammy Baugh Trophy in 1996. national title. • Ty Detmer set 62 NCAA records and edged out Notre Dame's Rocket Ismail for the 1990 Heisman — Lou Somogyi