Remembering the 1996 season, when Steve Sarkisian led BYU to a big Cotton Bowl win
Note: This story is part of Deseret News sports team’s Flashback Friday series, which revisits memorable moments involving Utah teams.
Twenty-seven years ago, Steve Sarkisian was not the head coach at the University of Texas. He was the star quarterback for BYU, the team his Longhorns will take on this weekend.
Sarkisian played for the Cougars during his junior and senior seasons, in 1995 and 1996. As BYU quarterback, he broke NCAA records, became the nation’s top passer and led the team to one of its most memorable bowl wins in program history.
Steve Sarkisian’s BYU career
Sarkisian transferred to BYU from El Camino College in Torrance, California, where he’d posted “hard-to-fathom numbers,” as the Deseret News reported in August 1995.
“In two years at El Camino J.C., the 6-2, 200-pounder threw for 7,274 yards, including 4,232 last season. He completed a national juco record 72.4 percent of his passes (228 of 335) in ’94 with 41 touchdowns,” the Deseret News reported.
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In his first season under BYU coaching legends LaVell Edwards and Norm Chow, Sarkisian showed flashes of his former brilliance, but he — and the rest of the Cougars — struggled to consistently play at a high level and string together wins.
“The final two games seemed to typify Sarkisian’s season, as he threw four interceptions and blamed himself for the loss to Utah only to follow it up by completing an NCAA record 31 of 34 passes against Fresno State,” the Deseret News reported in December 1995.
The Cougars earned a share of the WAC championship but missed out on a bowl game invite for the first time in nearly 20 years.
In 1996, Sarkisian and his teammates were on a mission to make up for 1995’s stumbles — and they didn’t disappoint.
“The Y averaged almost 41 points a game, good for fifth best in the nation, and scored at least 40 points in nine different contests in 1996,” KSL reported in a 2016 column arguing that the 1996 team was the best in school history.
The Cougars were 13-1 and ranked fifth in the nation at the end of the 1996 regular season. Sarkisian appeared on the cover of TV Guide on Dec. 28, 1996, to promote BYU’s appearance in the Cotton Bowl against Kansas State on New Year’s Day.
Sorry Coach, but we couldn’t keep this to ourselves.@CoachSark breaks down his plays from BYU’s 1997 Cotton Bowl win. pic.twitter.com/AIcptCrgSz
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) October 26, 2023
1996 Cotton Bowl: BYU vs. Kansas State
The Cougars’ entered the Cotton Bowl with a chip on their shoulder, frustrated that they’d missed out on a more prominent bowl and about being considered underdogs against Kansas State.
To be fair, the Kansas State Wildcats also had a strong record — 9-2 — and high ranking — 14th in the country — but they hadn’t put together as impressive a season as BYU.
The Cougars claimed the first lead of the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1997, thanks to a safety, but the offense wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders, as KSL Sports noted on the game’s 25th anniversary. The only offensive score BYU managed during the first half was a field goal, so they led 5-0 with just minutes left before the half.
“Then BYU lost the lead at the end of the second quarter when (Brian) Kavanagh aired out a Hail Mary that landed in the hands of K-State’s Andre Anderson for a 41-yard touchdown pass as time expired. The Cats then tacked on a two-point conversion to give themselves an 8-5 lead heading into the halftime break,” according to KSL Sports.
Cougars on the air
BYU (2-2, 5-2)
at No. 8 Texas (3-1, 6-1)
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. MDT
DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium
(Capacity: 100,119)
TV: ABC
Radio: 102.7 FM/1160 AM
Kansas State scored again in the third quarter to extend its lead to 15-5, but the BYU defense performed well enough to keep the team in the contest and to give the offense enough time to come to life in the fourth.
“Sarkisian had some late-game heroics left in him for his final game as a BYU Cougar. First, he connected with James Dye on a 32-yard touchdown to get the comeback started with 10:55 left. Then Sarkisian found K.O. Kealaluhi with 3:39 remaining to deliver another ‘K.O. Punch,’ just as they did to open the magical 1996 season against” Texas A&M, KSL Sports reported.
With those two touchdowns, the Cougars took the Cotton Bowl, 19-15, and became the first NCAA Division IA team to win 14 games in a season.
For his part, Sarkisian became something of a BYU legend, who is remembered for leading the school to one of its most significant postseason wins.
