New BYU coach replacing an icon

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.

The high expectations about to be placed on new BYU football coach Gary Crowton are unlike any he has ever experienced.

When Crowton agreed to become the 13th head coach in Cougar history last December, he knew that replacing legendary LaVell Edwards -- a two-time national coach of the year and the sixth-winningest coach in history -- wouldn't be easy.

Still, he said he gave no thought to taking another job where he could focus on rebuilding instead of maintaining what had become one of the top programs in the country under Edwards.

"I've done that before," the soft-spoken Crowton explained. "My whole career has been around teams that have been not winning.

"I've been in the AD's office many a time and they've said, 'If we we don't win this next year, the staff's fired. Are you sure you want to come here?' That's happened to me three times.

"So I think it's nice to go in somewhere where the pieces are in place. I'm excited about this."

Crowton, 43, spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears.

Prior to that, he spent three years as the head coach at Louisiana Tech, guiding the team to a 21-13 record overall. Known for his deep passing philosophy, Crowton's offense at Louisiana Tech ranked third in the nation in both passing and total offense, averaging 4,249 yards per season. In 34 games the team had 22 300-yard passing games and beat opponents such as Mississippi State, Alabama and Cal.

For Crowton, an Orem, Utah, native, leaving Chicago to return home was a no-brainer.

Crowton was an all-state quarterback at Orem High School and had an opportunity to attend BYU.

The school recruited him, but ended up signing Danny Hartwig and College Football Hall of Fame inductee Marc Wilson. Crowton remembers that Edwards asked him if he would move from quarterback to receiver or defensive back.

He declined, opting instead to play at Snow College where he earned All-America honors. Edwards talked to Crowton about signing with the Cougars out of Snow College. The deal never materialized because the team still had Wilson and Edwards had already signed Jim McMahon.

"So I couldn't really fit in at the time and I don't know how actively they would have pursued it," Crowton said.

Crowton transferred to Colorado State where he ended up being a wide receiver.

Now that he's back in Utah, he plans to stay.

"You get tired of moving around a lot," Crowton said. "My needs are immediate because the season is upon us.

"But I'm looking at this as a long-range situation where I want to establish a good team, and I don't want to be looking to move around any more. I just want to get it done here.

"I've made a lot of goals and this is one of those goals that I thought this would be a great situation if I ever got the opportunity -- just because I grew up here and believed it would be nice to be the head coach at BYU at some point."

The Cougars finished 4-3 in the conference, 6-6 overall, in Edwards' final season.

This season, the team was picked to finish third in the Mountain West Conference preseason media poll.

Fifth-year senior Justin Ena, a first-team all-Mountain West linebacker and a preseason all-conference selection, thinks that having a new coach will infuse some new life into the program.

"Change is good," Ena, the team leader in tackles last year, said. "After a while, sometimes you feel really, really comfortable. You're in your comfort zone and get complacent.

"But this change is really good. I like Coach Crowton. He really just adds a dimension to BYU football. We've still got a lot of things from Coach Edwards there, but now you can add somebody else's new ideas and bring it all together and that's going to make you a better team."