The 2006 BYU Cougars football team represented

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

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 a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

(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: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, and sole champions in

2001 The year's most prominent event was 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. The United States led a Participan ...

). The Cougars played 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, a member of the Big ...

, named after its legendary coach,

LaVell Edwards Reuben LaVell Edwards (October 11, 1930 – December 29, 2016) was an American college 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 tim ...

Pre-season

Among the returning starters were

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

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)#Offense ...

Curtis Brown,

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

Cameron Jenson and

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

Jonny Harline.

During the season

The Cougars started the season unranked in either the

Coaches Poll In the United States, 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 ...

or the AP Poll, 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 university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

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

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

;

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

; the

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

; and their conference rivals, the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, 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 in the Unite ...

. 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 College football ...