When Ed Lamb decided to pursue a career in coaching, he turned to his coaches at BYU to help him get his foot in the door.

The results provided a distinct Cougar flavor to the T'Bird coaching staff which now consists of former BYU players Jason Anderson and Justin Ena, along with Lamb himself. Two other coaches served at BYU as graduate assistants in Steve Clark and Paul Peterson.

A number of factors led to the connection. First and foremost he wanted people who would be excited about the job.

"I was looking for was guys that wanted to be here," Lamb said. "I was looking for guys that really wanted this job, but still had some credibility with the players."

When Lamb was first hired, he quickly realized that it would be difficult to persuade many of his more established coaching colleagues to join him in Cedar City. Lamb noted that he would need some coaches who were up and coming in the industry and who already had some familiarity with the state of Utah. Due to the connections that he already had in place at BYU, he turned there first for help.

"It was a very natural fit for the contacts that I had to come down here and build football in this state," Lamb said.

Another thing Lamb had in mind when he took over the program at SUU was to model it after the successful program that BYU has built over the years. Lamb is quick to point out that it can't ever be exactly the same because SUU is not a religious institution, but he believes that the same general concepts can be used to build a winner in Cedar City.

"The thing that became clear to me as I interviewed here and talked to people around the program is I felt that the model that BYU has used to be successful can be used here," Lamb said. "I think that most specifically is that BYU has consistently recruited and developed men of character. To beat teams that were maybe more talented than us game after game is something that we want to duplicate here."

Lamb added that he doesn't necessarily mean that he only wants LDS kids, but simply kids with high character.

"They don't have to be LDS guys," he said. "We're not LDS, I'm not LDS, but it's hard to believe you can be successful without being LDS friendly."

Once Lamb, the former Cougar, went calling for some help, the current BYU coaches were more than happy to provide him with anything he needed, including both names of potential coaches who might be interested in coaching at SUU. BYU has also helped out by answering any questions the SUU staff has had about schemes on offense and defense.

"Ed's one of us. Ed's a BYU alum," said BYU linebackers coach Barry Lamb (no relation to Ed). "And Jason is, and Justin played here, and Steve Clark worked here, and Paulie worked here. We're obviously going to be fairly close with those guys. I think a ton of him (Ed) and I want him to be successful. The only guys that we recommended were guys that we really believed would help him be successful down there."

Now, with the help of BYU, SUU's coaches believe they have the right group of coaches and the right philosophis in place that will be enable them to build a winning program. Although it's still a work in progress, the T'Bird staff believes that it is moving in the right direction and that it will eventually get to where it wants to be.

"We're not there yet, but now guys are believing," Ena said. "They want to win just as bad as us. We all want to win and we'll figure out a way to. There's too many good football players in the state of Utah to not win. If BYU and Utah aren't getting them, we want them here."

Winning as a program that has lost its last 18 games is no simple task. However, there's at least one person outside of the program who believes SUU will be successful.

"I think they're going to win," Barry Lamb said. "I think they're going to do a great job and they're going to win."

Now only time will tell if the recipe for success that has been used at BYU can be replicated elsewhere.