So I've been debating with an aquaintance over which football team from the state of Utah is the best. His claim is obviously his 2004 Utes. Mine is either the 1984, 1985, 1996 or 2001 Cougs. He latest "point" was that 11 of 22 starters from the 2004 Utah team was drafted or played in the NFL. My question is two-fold: (and I'm too lazy/busy to find out for myself right now) 1) Is he bluffing or did they really have that many go pro? 2) Has BYU ever had as many off one team that have done the same?


I appreciate any of you facts/memory gurus that can fill me in as to the answers.

Go Cougs!!!

J. Child
Ammon, ID

Better questions are how many actually made their teams, and how long did they last in the NFL.

He's a liar (or at least flat-out wrong). There were no more than 9.

Here is Utah's draft history from nfl.com:

http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?collegeName=Utah&abbrFlag=0&abbr=U&type=school

They had 5 players drafted in 2005, and 2 each in 06 and 07.

Also, I don't know that Weddle and Soliai were starters as sophomores. Even if they were both starters, that still gives them only 9 starters (which is still impressive, IMO).


On the flip side, our 1980 team had 11 players drafted.

Our 1985 team had 14 players (not necessarily starters) drafted in the 86-88 drafts.

Nevertheless, I don't think NFL draftees is a good indicator of a team's strength.

ammoncougar1 wrote:

So I've been debating with an aquaintance over which football team from the state of Utah is the best. His claim is obviously his 2004 Utes. Mine is either the 1984, 1985, 1996 or 2001 Cougs. He latest "point" was that 11 of 22 starters from the 2004 Utah team was drafted or played in the NFL. My question is two-fold: (and I'm too lazy/busy to find out for myself right now) 1) Is he bluffing or did they really have that many go pro? 2) Has BYU ever had as many off one team that have done the same?


I appreciate any of you facts/memory gurus that can fill me in as to the answers.

Go Cougs!!!

J. Child
Ammon, ID

here is a site I go to to get quick stats. It shows only five

http://cfreference.net/cfr/show_school_season/296?season=2004

As for the argument just keep repeating National Champions, National Champions, National Champions.

ammoncougar1 wrote:

So I've been debating with an aquaintance over which football team from the state of Utah is the best. His claim is obviously his 2004 Utes. Mine is either the 1984, 1985, 1996 or 2001 Cougs. He latest "point" was that 11 of 22 starters from the 2004 Utah team was drafted or played in the NFL. My question is two-fold: (and I'm too lazy/busy to find out for myself right now) 1) Is he bluffing or did they really have that many go pro? 2) Has BYU ever had as many off one team that have done the same?


I appreciate any of you facts/memory gurus that can fill me in as to the answers.

Go Cougs!!!

J. Child
Ammon, ID

You might want to keep 2001 out of that argument. I think both 2006 and 2007 would wipe the floor with the 2001 team.

Honestly I think 1983 was the best team all time at BYU. It's hard to argue against Steve Young's team being the best there was (at least for me).

The important question is how the crud did they lose to baylor? yuck

I think Hengst is right. I think that the '01 team (with or without Luke) wouldn't be able to hang with the last two seasons' teams. I think they would be creamed even by the 2004 Utes. They just didn't play defense-it's almost as if we had an idiot HC that cared only about the offense.