The 1966 BYU Cougars football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

(BYU) as a member of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

(WAC) during the

1966 NCAA University Division football season The 1966 University Division football season was marked by some controversy as the year of "The Tie", a famous 10–10 game between the two top-ranked teams, Michigan State and Notre Dame on November 19. Both teams were crowned national champions ...

. In their third season under head coach

Tommy Hudspeth Tommy Joe Hudspeth (September 14, 1931 – June 23, 2015) was an American and Canadian football coach and executive at both the collegiate and professional levels. He was the head coach at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1964 to 1971, and the ...

, the Cougars compiled an overall record of 8–2 with a mark of 3–2 against conference opponents, tied for second place in the WAC, and outscored opponents by a total of 269 to 163. Quarterback

Virgil Carter Virgil R. Carter (born November 9, 1945) is a former professional American football quarterback who played in the National Football League and the World Football League from 1967 through 1976. College career Carter was the first notable passing q ...

led the country with 2,545 yards of total offense; he also led the team with 2,182 passing yards and 56 points scored.BYU Football 2015 Almanac, pp. 162-164. On November 5, 1966, he set new NCAA single-game records with 513 passing yards and 599 yards of total offense against

Texas Western The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

.BYU Football 2015 Almanac, p. 118. Carter's totals of 513 passing yards and 599 yards of total offense stood as BYU school records until broken by

Ty Detmer Ty Hubert Detmer (born October 30, 1967) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. Detme ...

in 1991. The team's other statistical leaders included John Ogden with 906 rushing yards and Phil Odle with 920 receiving yards. Six BYU players were selected to the all-conference team: wide receiver Phil Odle; guard Grant Wilson; quarterback Virgil Carter; fullback John Ogden; linebacker Curg Belcher; and safety Bobby Roberts.BYU Football 2015 Almanac, p. 128.

Schedule

Personnel

Season summary

At Utah

References

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

BYU Cougars football seasons

BYU Cougars football The BYU Cougars football team is the college football program representing Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. The Cougars began collegiate football competition in 1922, and have won 23 conference championships and one national champion ...

{{collegefootball-1960s-season-stub