BYU is bringing back the group that helped flip college football on its head.
On Saturday, the 1976 Cougars will return to Provo to be honored 50 years after the season that Gifford Nielsen says “really changed the course of college football.” Nielsen, who threw for 3,401 yards and 32 touchdowns that year and earned first-team All-America honors, will be among the former players taking part in the celebration as No.
15 BYU opens Big 12 play against Arizona at 1:30 p.m. MDT on Fox.
The recognition will be woven into the day’s pageantry. Nielsen and his teammates will join the current team for the pregame Cougar Walk, then help “Light the Y” before the Air Force KC-135 flyover and kickoff.
For Nielsen, the reason that 1976 team still matters is simple: BYU was doing something most of the sport had not yet embraced.
“Gary Sheide, Jay Miller, John Betham - those guys were amazing in 1974, but I think everything changed when LaVell (Edwards) went out and got Doug Scovil and brought in a new offense, and it’s the offense that everybody who was an innovator was interested in,” Nielsen said. “It’s the offense you see today - different variations of it, but it’s the offense you see today.”
He added, “We didn’t know it at the time, but (1976) was really the implementation of the West Coast Offense, and looking back on it, that is pretty remarkable to me,” Nielsen said. “There were several occasions when I came up to the line of scrimmage and thought to myself, ‘In about eight seconds, this place is going to go wild because there is no way they can stop this next pass the way they are lined up.’ That was a pretty special feeling.”
Saturday also fits into a familiar BYU-A Arizona September pattern for Nielsen and several other Cougar quarterbacks.
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 25, 1976, Nielsen delivered one of the program’s signature moments in Tucson.
With the ball heavy and wet because of unseasonable rain, he guided BYU to the Arizona 43 with 18 seconds left. After a timeout with Edwards and Scovil, the 6-foot-5, 203-pound junior from Provo High went back out looking for 20 to 25 yards so the Cougars could try a field goal.
Instead, he spotted George Harris down the right sideline, rolled to his right and let it fly.
“As I dropped back to pass, I moved to my right and saw George down the right sideline,” Nielsen said. “He was kinda stopped, but when he saw me scrambling, he took off and I just let it go.
I think I threw it into double coverage, but it landed perfectly into his arms for a touchdown. That was exhilarating.
It was exactly what we needed to do. That win put us on a course that would take us to another level.”
The 43-yard strike with three seconds left stunned Arizona 23-16 and gave BYU its 200th victory. The Cougars finished 9-3 and won the first of nine straight WAC titles.
Nielsen is part of a small but notable group of BYU quarterbacks tied to September wins over Arizona. Max Hall did it on Sept. 1, 2007, throwing for 198 yards and two touchdowns in a 20-7 win in Provo. Freshman Harvey Unga added 194 yards of total offense and two touchdowns in Hall’s BYU debut, the first of Hall’s program-record 32 victories as the Cougars’ quarterback.
Taysom Hill joined the list on Sept. 3, 2016, when he pushed BYU deep into Arizona territory in the final minute at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. True freshman Jake Oldroyd then hit a 33-yard field goal as time expired to give Kalani Sitake an 18-16 win in his head coaching debut.
Jaren Hall added his name on Sept. 4, 2021, in the first Vegas Kickoff Classic at Allegiant Stadium. In front of 54,541 mostly BYU fans, he threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns, both to Neil Pau’u, while Tyler Allgeier ran 17 times for 94 yards and a touchdown in a 24-16 victory.
Now it’s Bear Bachmeier’s turn. On Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, the sophomore will have a chance to join Nielsen, Max Hall, Hill and Jaren Hall on that September list if BYU beats Arizona in the Big 12 opener. Bachmeier already showed he knows the script last October in Tucson, when as a true freshman he ran for a tying touchdown in the final minute and then added another in double overtime to finish off a 33-27 win.
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