West Virginia quarterback Will Grier is not playing for the Mountaineers in the Dec. 28 Camping World Bowl against Syracuse. He’s among more than a dozen college players considered top NFL prospects that are passing on bowl games to avoid sustaining injuries that could ruin their prospects of a lucrative NFL career.
It’s a poignant reminder that college sports such as football and basketball aren’t about getting an education on a scholarship and playing for your school any more. It’s about money — big money. First the top tier colleges exploit young men among which many have an eye on the NFL by reimbursing them as if they were serfs for the abuse their bodies are taking to generate lucrative TV deals for colleges. That money allows obscenely high salaries for head football coaches such as Ohio State’s Urban Meyer who makes $8.4 million a year. That’s more than the combined salary of California’s 53-member Congressional delegation.
The bowl games are termed as being “meaningless” as they don’t offer anything except a chance to say you won them. If that’s a valid argument for a hot shot NFL prospect that doesn’t want to run the risk of an injury to hurt his chances for a pro paycheck, then why do they play the final games of their regular session if their team is out of the running for the conference title?
What brought up the sudden interest in bowl games and college athletes passing on them is Robbie Bosco.
That’s not exactly a household name but it was back in 1984 in Roseville where I was The Press-Tribune sports editor and certainly among Brigham Young University fans if not every college football expert at the time that debated whether the Cougars were legitimate.
Holiday Bowl VIII in San Diego was never meaningless for Cougar players as it was about winning one for “The Y” as BYU was called in Provo.
Bosco was a Roseville High product who started for the Tigers varsity as a sophomore quarterback and established varsity boys’ basketball scoring records as a freshman starter. When he signed to play for BYU he stepped into the long shadows of Gary Sheide, Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, and Steve Young.
Bosco stepped into the starting QB role his junior year and proceeded to smash NCAA records. He finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting in both 1984 and 1985. His two year NCAA statistics included 1,047 passing attempts, 670 completions (for a .640 completion rate), 8,172 yards, 67 touchdown passes, and 41 interceptions.
His most impressive game, though, was the 1984 Holiday Bowl. The game meant something to BYU. Strike that. It meant a lot to BYU. The Cougars were 12-0 going into the game behind Bosco, who as a junior, took over where Steve Young left off completing his collegiate career before signing with the Los Angeles Express of the now defunct USFL for a then record $40 million. Bosco was injured early in the game. They were playing Michigan that — before quarterback Jim Harbaugh broke his arm — had been ranked No. 3 in the nation. Bosco, though gimp-legged, stayed in the game. BYU ended up winning 24-17 and improving to 13-0. When the bowl season was over, BYU had been voted the national champions.
More than a few college football experts panned the Cougars pick as the national champions. Of those many argued Lavell Edwards’ high octane passing game guided by quarterback coach Mike Holmgren who went on to serve as the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator before working as the head coach for the Green Bay Packers and then the top coaching post for the Seattle Seahawks inflated the team’s stats. That was back when running dominated college football. Others argued the Western Athletic Conference as a Division 1A wasn’t a top tier league although the BYU teams in pre-season were pulling off big wins including upsetting the 1984 opening upset of the third-ranked Pitt Panthers.
There were even those that let religion get in the way — notably sports columnists from the East Coast — that rationalized as a “church” school somehow BYU didn’t have a legitimate football program. It came across more of a bias against Mormons given Notre Dame and Southern Methodist University — regarded as football powerhouses at the time — where founded by churches as well.
This was all back before bowl games became meaningless and a progression through a post season designed to crown a “national championship” without the current postseason football knockout system that is owned by Alabama’s Crimson Tide.
During a five-day trip to Provo on The Press-Tribune’s dime to do a series on Bosco and BYU, it allowed for a number of one-on-one interviews with a number of BYU and future NFL greats including Edwards and Holmgren.
The most interesting was Young. He showed up in Holmgren’s office (it was offseason for the USFL as they played in the spring) just as I was finishing an interview and had asked if I could get some photos of Bosco passing the ball.
Holmgren asked Young if he’d mind playing “catch” with Bosco so I could take photos of him passing with the Wasatch Mountains behind him.
Young wasn’t standing 10 or 20 yards away as I expected him to do. He stood 60 yards downfield. As I was changing the motor drive battery on my camera, the two continued passing back and forth. That’s when I glanced back and saw Young’s passing form.
By no means did I consider myself an expert judge of football players but a few years later when the 49ers inked Young as their quarterback I penned a column that drew a bit of negative reaction when I said based on what I saw in Utah and Young’s performance record he could be as good or even better than Joe Montana.
Roseville at the time was definite 49er territory. Not only was Danny Bunz — the linebacker that made two critical goal-line stops against Cincinnati to help deliver the 49ers’ first Super Bowl title from Roseville (he was an Oakmont High graduate)— but the 49ers were using Sierra College in neighboring Rocklin as their summer training camp.
I’m sure Bosco wouldn’t have minded a lucrative NFL playing career. He was drafted in 1986 in the third round by the Green Bay Packers but a shoulder injury ended his playing days.
I know he didn’t view playing for BYU as a warm-up for the NFL. He played for BYU because he loved BYU, the team, and the tradition.
That’s not the way of the world today.
Bosco I’m sure would consider his life a rich success. Bosco and his wife Karen raised six children. He served in Holmgren’s old job as BYU quarterback coach from 1990 to 2003 and is currently the director of the BYU Varsity Club.
This column is the opinion of executive editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA. He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209.249.3519.
