BYU's Top 5 Moments Against BIG 12 Foes

Photo Credit - Ken Lund via Flickr

With the inaugural BIG 12 season for BYU fast approaching, let's take a look back at previous Big 12 match-ups and revisit some of BYU's finest. Without further ado, here are my top 5 moments against Big 12 opponents for BYU...so far!

No. 14 Kansas State January 1st 1997 Cotton Bowl (BYU 19 - KSU 15)

A game that had a lot of controversy heading into it. BYU was ranked 5th in the nation with a 13-1 record and was vying for a spot in one of the Bowl Alliance bowl games. Either the Fiesta, Orange, or Sugar bowl. The Bowl Alliance snubbed BYU and instead opted for No. 20 Texas who had an 8-4 record. BYU had to settle for a Cotton Bowl berth. Needless to say, BYU had quite the chip on their shoulder and wanted to prove that the Bowl Alliance chose the wrong team.

A hard defensive battle saw just an 8-5 score, in favor of Kansas State, heading into half time. But, with some late game heroics by now head coach of Texas, Steve Sarkisian (and Cotton Bowl hall of famer, Shay Muirbrook, who ended the game with 6 sacks) BYU came out on top and solidified their top 5 ranking to end the season.

No. 3 Oklahoma September 5th 2009 Cowboy Classic (BYU 14 - Oklahoma 13)

The first football game played in the Dallas Cowboys new, AT&T stadium, turned out to be a good one. Oklahoma's game previously was the national championship game. They also had a returning Heisman trophy winner in Sam Bradford and had high hopes going into the season. These hopes were quickly dashed just before half time when Sam Bradford sprained his throwing shoulder on a hit from BYU linebacker Coleby Clawson.

The Oklahoma backup QB couldn't find any more success either, and against this stout BYU defense, the Sooners struggled in the second half getting away from the pressure of BYU's linebackers.

BYU scored their game winning touchdown with 3:03 left in the 4th quarter to upset the 2008 national champion runners up.

No. 15 Texas September 7th 2013 in Provo (BYU 40 - Texas 21)

The game that got Manny Diaz fired from Texas. Texas gave up a school record 550 rushing yards to BYU. A total of 259 of those yards coming from BYU QB Taysom Hill's legs alone. Texas had no answer to try to stop Taysom from finding gaping holes in the Texas run defense and finished with three rushing touchdowns as well.

Texas September 6th 2014 in Austin (BYU 41 - Texas 7)

After the previous year's beatdown, handed to Texas from BYU, there was a lot of hype coming into 2014 rematch. Many of the Texas players had this game circled on their calendar for redemption. Texas' hopes of revenge diminishing as news come out before the game that David Ash, Desmond Harrison, and Kennedy Estelle would not be playing in the game. BYU rolled into Austin with a lot of confidence after 2013's blow out victory over Texas in Provo. BYU proved they were the better team that night. They controlled the line of scrimmage and stuffed the Texas offense from the get go. The stats weren't as skewed as 2013's match-up but the score was more telling.

No. 9 Baylor September 10 2022 in Provo (BYU 26 - Baylor 20)

Coming off a dominating 69-10 win versus Albany in Week 1, Baylor came rolling in to Provo with a top 10 ranking. BYU also had a strong performance in a 50-21 win at USF. LeVell Edwards Stadium was sold out and rocking for this top 25 match up which was looked at by BYU fans as redemption time for the previous years beating they took in Waco, when they were 5-1 and had hopes of a potential NY6 bowl appearance. This was a close game all night but the real drama started toward the end of the 4th quarter when BYU missed a game winning field goal with only 8 seconds left on the clock. This would send the game to overtime. In the first overtime, Baylor returned the favor by missing a field goal that would have put pressure on BYU's offense. During BYU's overtime drive they managed 5 yards on 3 plays and tried for another game winning field goal. Unfortunately that was missed again! In the 2nd overtime BYU started with the ball and were able to score a touchdown in four plays but instead of trying for an extra point, went for 2 and failed. Baylor then took over at the BYU 25 and chipped away yards with two first downs. This got them down to the BYU 4 yard line when the ROC (BYU's student section) became a factor in the game, causing two false start penalties for Baylor. Ultimately BYU's defense held out and Baylor was not able to score giving BYU the victory!

I am excited to watch more great games like these against Big 12 opponents in the years to come for BYU. I think there will be more instant classics like these, and some could even happen as soon as this season.