BYU's most memorable games of the decade

With the decade coming to a close within the week, I thought this would be a good time to make a list of the 10 football games from the last 10 years that were the most memorable. Here it goes …

10) BYU 35 – Utah State 34 (Oct. 4, 2002) BYU trailed 34-7 at halftime then responded with 28 unanswered points in the second half to claim the victory in Logan. True freshman Curtis Brown rushed for 217 yards and three touchdowns in the comeback.

9) BYU 59 – UCLA 0 (Sept. 13, 2008) In one of the most dominating games in memory, BYU extended its nation-leading winning streak to 13 games by shutting out UCLA. BYU quarterback Max Hall threw for seven touchdowns in just over two quarters of action, tying him with Jim McMahon and Marc Wilson for the school’s single-game record.

BYU 38 – Oregon 8 (Dec. 21, 2006) After listening to Oregon coach Mike Bellotti belittle BYU’s team leading up to the game, the Cougars led from wire to wire in the route of the Ducks. This was BYU’s first bowl win since the 1997 Cotton Bowl against Kansas State (a game that would have easily made this list if it hadn’t been played 12 years ago).

7) Boise State 28 – BYU 27 (Sept. 24, 2004) Matt Payne’s 37-yard missed field goal with 23 seconds left cost BYU a certain win on the smurf turf against Boise State, a game that capped a three-game losing streak in the midst of a 5-6 season. BYU coach Gary Crowton resigned after the season, a move that ushered in the Bronco Mendenhall era.

6) BYU 26 – No. 21 Utah 23 (OT) (Nov. 28, 2009) The game itself was nothing spectacular as BYU’s overtime win came in sloppy fashion, but Max Hall’s postgame rant about his special feelings about everything (and everybody) involved with the University of Utah will go down as an infamous event in rivalry history.

5) BYU 31 – No. 15 TCU 17 (Sept. 28, 2006) John Beck led the Cougars to the first defining victory under coach Bronco Mendenhall on the road against a ranked Horned Frog team. BYU broke TCU’s nation-leading 13-game winning streak while also breaking their own streak of 13 straight losses against ranked teams.

4) Utah 3 – BYU 0 (Nov. 22, 2003) Played in snowy conditions, BYU failed to score for the first time in 361 games. The last time BYU had been held scoreless was in 1975 against Arizona State.

3) BYU 14 – No. 3 Oklahoma 13 (Sept. 5, 2009) Never mind that Oklahoma ended up having a downer year (thanks mostly to BYU’s Coleby Clawson, who knocked out Heisman-winning quarterback Sam Bradford just before halftime) this win was huge for the Cougars. Max Hall led the Cougars on a fourth-quarter scoring drive to pull off the upset on football’s most glamorous stage.

2) BYU 34 – Utah 27 (Nov. 24, 2000) BYU quarterback Brandon Doman scored on a 4-yard quarterback sneak with less than a minute left to give LaVell Edwards a win in his last game as BYU’s coach. Edwards is sixth all-time with 257 career victories and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

1) BYU 33 – Utah 31 (Nov. 25, 2006) After Utah took a 31-27 lead with only 1:19 to play, BYU quarterback John Beck led the Cougars on a 10-play 75-yard drive that used every last second of the clock. As time ran out, Beck scrambled and eventually found tight end Jonny Harline wide open in the end zone for the winning touchdown — a play that lasted almost 13 seconds and will go down as one of the greatest plays in rivalry history.

What are your thoughts? Are there any other games you remember from the last 10 years that should be on this list?