This former Cougar hoping for another ‘improbable’ finish for BYU

Scott Phillips knows what it’s like to lose a game and a perfect season at the same time. He also understands the joy of a positive response and the lasting power of improbable finishes.
His two hard-to-explain moments of pain and joy happened on the same field, but were separated by 363 days. They taught the former BYU running back everything he ever wanted to know about the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory.
For Phillips, agony arrived on Dec. 21, 1979 in the Holiday Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The Cougars showed up 11-0, ranked No. 9 and expected to easily defeat Indiana (8-3) and complete the program’s first perfect season.
Instead, two fourth-quarter mistakes on BYU’s special teams, including a 62-yard punt return for a Hoosiers touchdown and a missed 27-yard field goal with seven seconds left, allowed Indiana to escape with a stunning 38-37 victory.
The quest for perfection that was well within BYU’s grasp was over.
Twelve months later, Phillips and his No. 14 Cougars (11-1) were back at the Holiday Bowl looking for a better result against SMU (8-3). What they didn’t know was it would require one of, if not the most, improbable comebacks in football history, to get it.
The 6-foot-2, 193-pound Springville High product was Jim McMahon’s favorite target against the Mustangs with 10 receptions for 81 yards. Phillips also rushed for two touchdowns and caught a two-point conversion as BYU erased a 45-25 deficit with less than four minutes to play.
Following Bill Schoepflin’s blocked punt with 13 seconds remaining and just moments before McMahon threw his famous Hail Mary pass to Clay Brown, a call came in from the sideline.
“They called maximum protection, which means both running backs stay and block,” Phillips told the “Y’s Guys” podcast this week. “So, I’m there on the left-hand side and Eric Lane is on the right. It just so happened that the outside linebacker blitzed so I stayed and blocked, which mattered, because he might have got to Jim. But Eric didn’t. He just headed down the field.”
Phillips approached Lane after the game.
“I said, ‘Eric, where were you? I was in the backfield by myself.”
“He said, ‘I wasn’t going to miss that!’
“So, he’s down there and I’m sitting back here blocking,” Phillips said. “His guy didn’t blitz so luckily it worked out.”
As for the pass…
“I saw the ball go up in the air, but it wasn’t until (I saw) the ref put his hands in the air and simultaneously, the crowd erupts. It became obvious to everybody then,” Phillips said. “I was sort of a low-key guy. I didn’t do much. I didn’t have a touchdown celebration, but that time, I jumped in the air.”
Phillips keeps a close eye on the current No. 14 Cougars who are 9-1 and play at No. 21 Arizona State (8-2) on Saturday (1:30 p.m., ESPN).
“I think they have exceeded expectations and of course, expectations rise and so last week (against Kansas) was a disappointment because of the expectations, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so deflating,” Phillips said. “There is a belief system that we can win, that we can beat anybody, and I think that’s important.”
The 2024 Cougars are no stranger to dramatic finishes. BYU defeated SMU and Utah with late-game field goals and the Cougars beat Oklahoma State on a touchdown pass with just seconds remaining.
However, as dramatic as those moments were, and all the others that have decorated the college game since 1980, Phillips believes the 1980 Holiday Bowl stands alone.
“To be three touchdowns down with under for minutes left, it’s impossible. Certainly improbable, but I think impossible. So, every time I see a comeback and hear ‘Oh, it’s one of the greatest comebacks,’ I think ‘You didn’t watch the Mizlou station.”
Mizlou was the fledgling television network that broadcasted the famed game to parts of the country. ESPN didn’t get around to airing live college football until 1984 when BYU played at Pittsburgh.
“That’s the problem. It was the beginning of cable, and we weren’t widely publicized,” Phillips said. “I don’t know how you find a game in the history of football where you could say it was a better comeback or more improbable.”
In addition to their share of comebacks, Kalani Sitake’s Cougars are also enjoying an improbable season. In July, the Cougars were picked to win four games and finish 13th among the Big 12′s 16 teams. Here in mid-November, BYU controls its own destiny to the Big 12 championship game and College Football Playoff — a notion once considered as improbable as Jim McMahon’s touchdown pass to Clay Brown 44 years ago next month.
Improbable? Yes. Possible? Absolutely. Anything is possible.
To get there, Phillips wants BYU to resort to some “old-school” thinking.
“I’m a little biased. My upbringing in football at BYU was passing, and then passing, and then passing some more. When I see us moving the ball, it’s usually when we are passing,” he said. “I think (BYU needs) a little more innovation in the red zone and a little more willingness to put the ball in the air.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.