Retirement? : Not for LaVell Edwards, 66 and Going Strong

In a quarter-century as Brigham Young’s football coach, LaVell Edwards has worn a national crown, taken his Cougars to 20 bow games and collected 18 Western Athletic Conference titles.

It is a career that has come with a price. Edwards’ hair has grown thin and silver in BYU’s service, his brow and jowls furrowed by decades on the sidelines; his stride slowed to the more deliberate gait of a man who turns 67 next October.

The country’s fourth-winningest active coach (228-81-3) has every reason to retire in glory -- but he has no plans to do so. His health is good, Edwards will tell you, and he still loves his work.

“I’m already getting excited about spring practice and getting into recruiting,” Edwards said. “For me, that’s the enjoyable part of it, to start each year from scratch.

“I like the challenge of trying to fit the elements together, to be as good as you can be.”

He’ll have much to do. Gone from the fifth-ranked squad that went 14-1, that won the Cotton Bowl and championship of the newly expanded WAC, will be 12 starters -- most importantly to the pass-oriented Cougars, quarterback Steve Sarkisian and his several veteran receivers.

But the prospect of rebuilding each year is part of the college game and Edwards doesn’t regret his decision years ago to shun the NFL. Professional teams have made numerous inquiries over the years, including an outright offer from the Detroit Lions in 1985.

“I could’ve had that job if I’d wanted it,” said the grandfather of 12. “I had decided back then that if I had a chance to go to the NFL, I would. But the timing of it was bad. It was a big recruiting weekend.”

Edwards found himself putting off the Lions, time and again. “Then it struck me that this can’t be right if you can’t bring yourself to drop these other things.

“I’ve never been disappointed. I’ve been very satisfied, pleased with the way things have gone for us.”

During his tenure -- actually 35 years, counting a decade as a BYU assistant coach -- Edwards has had just one losing season (his second, 5-6), while building BYU into the nation’s foremost quarterback factory.

Among the quarterbacks Edwards has sent to the NFL: Super Bowl winners Steve Young (San Francisco) and Jim McMahon (Chicago), Marc Wilson (Oakland), Gifford Nielsen (Houston) and Ty Detmer (Philadelphia), who won the Heisman Trophy in 1990.

His success has made Edwards a campus icon -- almost on a par with the school’s namesake and founder, whose statue stands sentinel in front of the Mormon Church-owned school’s administration building.

No one has been more astounded by that than Edwards, a former Utah State center, linebacker and Granite High School coach who joined Tommy Hudspeth’s staff at BYU in 1962.

“It has been surprising, looking back on it,” Edwards said. “I didn’t really think I’d be around that long. It is a rarity in this business.”

Rare, too, is when Edwards will dwell on his lifelong membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His is a quiet faith, but “part and parcel of everything I do.

“It’s what I am and I don’t separate it. You don’t put it off in a corner and just turn it on when you need it,” he said. “(But) I don’t wear it on my sleeve.

“(Coaching) has more to do with relationships than anything.... I like the kids, the people I work with.”

On the field or off, Edwards insists it hasn’t been winning, or the number of bowl games and championships that have enriched his life.

“It’s not trying to climb up some ladder; it’s involvement with people,” he said.

You believe him, hearing his excitement about yet another spring practice in the crisp mountain air heavy with the scent of freshly mown grass, walking onto the field with another crop of recruits.

“It has the feeling of beginnings,” Edwards said. “You come off that practice field and you think, ‘Man, we have a long way to go and lots to do.’ But I’m always upbeat and feel we have a chance.”

Edwards said it will be when he stops feeling that way -- not after repeating his 1984 national championship run, or even after a disastrous season -- that he would step down.

There was a time he felt differently.

“I put a deal in my own mind at 54 that if I could hold out to 60, there’s no way I’d go beyond that,” he said. “By the time I got to 60, I had kind of forgotten about it.”

Five years later, when many people retire, Edwards instead signed a new five-year contract. His wife of 45 years cheered him on.

“Patty just takes the position that this is what we want to do, so we need to keep doing it,” Edwards said.

“The real tragedy in life is when you don’t have hope. I can’t think of anything worse.”