The life of the party in Provo, the man with a college football national championship But get to that last query ... What in the name of Robbie Bosco did Edwards say?

"Will anyone go undefeated?"

"No."

That's the answer, from the man who had a lot of them on the sidelines during his incomparable career. Now BYU chases three letters, BCS, and the legend returns two.

Ouch.

Truthful? Probably so. But if Edwards cannot believe in 12-0, who can?

Bosco himself, the quarterback on that 1984 title team who now is a fundraiser for the athletic department, doesn't begrudge the answer. Neither do current Cougars, or coaches like Brandon Doman.

They know what LaVell knows: The odds are stacked against BYU running the table.

"There's just so much parity," Bosco said. "You can't fault coach for thinking like that. It will be awfully hard for any team to do it."

This is a big weekend for the Cougars, ranked 15th nationally and trying to de-mystify some historical voodoo.

Bosco will be with a group of about 200 high-roller donors who are flying out of Provo by chartered plane today . Not much golf is in store (a pity to the links-loving Bosco) but there will be a lot of sight-seeing. Most notably, of course, will be a noon Pacific-time kickoff (1 p.m. Mountain) in what's supposed to be 70-degree sunshine at one of the most idyllic stadium atmospheres.

While BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall's lack of non-conference road-game success away from Provo has been well documented, it bears mentioning that there are some fat wallets out there that would like to see the Cougars pull this one out.

These "legacy" members already donate their fair share, but a season-defining win would probably help the athletic department's coffers. It's not just in Las Vegas where people spend big after hitting a jackpot.

"It's not a fun flight home for anyone if BYU doesn't win," Bosco said.

There will be some folks in attendance who were also there in 1996, when UW sacked Steve Sarkisian eight times and the Huskies upset the 14th-ranked Cougars, 29-17. Then the quarterbacks coach, Bosco remembers all sorts of missed opportunities: a couple of field goals, passes, you name it.

He also remembers being in the press box, communicating with Sarkisian. Heads were rattling, trying to figure out how to keep the pressure away from the quarterback. The stadium shook, too, the more the home team dominated.

BYU finished 14-1 that year, though Bosco says the disappointment afterward came from failing that day -- not from some premonition that the team had blown its chances to go undefeated.

"It's a very tough place to play," Bosco said. "Washington had a good team, a strong defense, and we didn't play our best."

Edwards won 257 games but never in Seattle, losing in 1986, a decade later, then again in 1998 to account for three of just 101 defeats.

Truth is, the question posed to him by Sporting News was inherently unfair. If he chooses BYU to go undefeated, even in his heart of hearts, he's not only bucking the odds but also putting undo attention on a team that has a "Quest For Perfection" this year, but not much else to back it up on the field -- BYU's started 1-2 in all three seasons under Mendenhall.

"I asked coach Weber (Mark, offensive line), who's been coaching 28 years, if he had been part of an undefeated team," said Doman, who was the quarterback on the 2001 team that started 12-0 before losing its last two games. "He said never. It doesn't happen very often. I don't know how many people can say they were part of an undefeated football team, even if you go back to little league and high school."

Rare but not impossible. The BCS bowl season has produced three undefeated, non-affiliated teams since Utah in 2004. Boise State and Hawaii followed the past two years. Their themes are fairly common. Each played Utah State, each had some blowouts and close calls (Hawaii more dramatic than the others) and the trio each knocked out a paper tiger -- a BCS affiliate of the six power conferences that knew of historical success, but wasn't so good in that particular year.

This is a major hurdle for the Cougars to clear, as Bosco will attest every team encounters. He recalls the 1984 team doing it by winning the first game, proving to itself it was indeed good enough.

BYU knows it won't be easy, but it has a chance to run through eight Mountain West Conference games -- the Cougars have done that the past two years. And the Cougars win at home, where they have not lost in three seasons. The only other non-conference road game is at Utah State, which could be won with LaVell and his 10 best friends on defense.

The Cougars just have to take care of business against a team that was blown out in its opener, at Oregon, and has won just two of its past 12 games.

Is this game really what Edwards considered the difficult one, the one that kept him from declaring "yes" to that undefeated question?

He won't be in Washington; Peru instead.

All the program he built from scratch can do for him is win at Cougar-killer Husky Stadium, and politely go on its way proving him wrong.

Or maybe Edwards answered the sports publication's undefeated question with his fingers crossed, just as so many BYU fans will have their hands positioned Saturday.

• Jason Franchuk can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it