The 2006 BYU Cougars football team represents

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 ...

in the

2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 31, 2006 and ended on ...

. The Cougars won the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

(MWC) championship outright with an 11–2 record (8–0 in the MWC), their first unbeaten conference play since 2001. This was also BYU's third season with at least a share of the MWC title (co-champions with

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, and sole champions in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

). The Cougars play their home games at

LaVell Edwards Stadium LaVell Edwards Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, on the campus of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Primarily used for college football, it is the home field of the BYU Cougars, an independent in the ...

, named after its legendary coach,

LaVell Edwards Reuben LaVell Edwards (October 11, 1930 – December 29, 2016) was an American football head coach for Brigham Young University (BYU). With 257 career victories, he ranks as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. Among ...

Pre-season

Among the returning starters were

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

John Beck,

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

Curtis Brown,

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

Cameron Jenson and

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

Jonny Harline.

During the season

The Cougars started the season unranked in either the

Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

or the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

, and would not enter the polls until they had won their eighth game. They steadily rose in the rankings mainly on the strength of an offense that finished the regular season 5th in the nation in scoring and 4th in passing yards of 323.5 per game. The key to their offense was

John Beck, who was one of the nation's top quarterbacks,

Curtis Brown, and

Jonny Harline. They averaged a 465.5 yards and 36.8 points per game. The Cougars played five bowl-bound teams during the season—

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

, their second opponent from one of the six BCS conferences;

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

; TCU; the

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

; and their conference rivals, the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' ...

. Notably, BYU defeated TCU (then ranked #15) by 31-17 putting an end to the Horned Frogs' 13-game winning streak.

Postseason awards and citations

John Beck *MWC Offensive Player of the Week for seven weeks *Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year (unanimous) *Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Finalist *Davey O'Brien Award Semifinalist *Heisman candidate *Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week *First Team All-Mountain West Conference (unanimous) *Second Team All-America, The Sporting News **Honorable Mention All-America, CBSSportsline.com, Pro Football Weekly, College Football News Jonny Harline *Mackey Award semifinalist *First Team All-America, The Sporting News, ESPN, College Football News, CBSSportsline.com, SI.com **Third Team All-America, Associated Press Jake Kuresa *Second Team All-America, College Football News **Honorable Mention All-America, The Sporting News *First Team All-Mountain West Conference Bronco Mendenhall *AFCA Region 5 Coach of the Year Curtis Brown *First Team All-Mountain West Conference Sete Aulai *Second Team All-Mountain West Conference Cameron Jensen *First Team All-Mountain West Conference (unanimous) *Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Week Quinn Gooch *Second Team All-Mountain West Conference Bryan Kehl *Honorable Mention All-Mountain West Conference Jared McLaughlin *Second Team All-Mountain West Conference Nate Meikle *Second Team All-Mountain West Conference *Academic All-District *National Scholar-Athlete Candidate

Schedule

Rankings

Roster

Regular season

Arizona

Tulsa

*Source:

Boston College

*Source:

Utah State

*Source:

TCU

*Source:

San Diego State

*Source:

UNLV

*Source:

Air Force

*Source:

Colorado State

*Source:

Wyoming

*Source:

New Mexico

*Source:

Utah

*Source:''

*Announcer James Bates: "Five in a row won't happen." Referring to Utah winning the past four years in the rivalry series.

Las Vegas Bowl

*Source:''

*"Um, remind me again who's in the Mountain West Conference." - Mike Bellotti on BYU's undefeated conference record *"Collectively, no, they couldn't compete at the highest level in the Pac-10. They lost to Arizona this year. They wouldn't even be a midlevel Pac-10 team." - Bellotti on BYU as Pac-10 team *BYU first bowl win since 1996 season

References

{{Mountain West Conference football champions 2006 Mountain West Conference football season, BYU BYU Cougars football seasons Mountain West Conference football champion seasons Las Vegas Bowl champion 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 ...