Sunday, August 11, 2002
Young says following McMahon prepared him for Montana
By TOM COYNE
AP Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Steve Young had practice replacing a popular quarterback long before he took over for Joe Montana.
Young faced the difficult challenge of following Jim McMahon at Brigham Young as a junior in 1982, and described the task as “a monster.”
“You could not comprehend the success Jim McMahon had at BYU,” Young said Saturday at the College Football Hall of Fame, where he was inducted along with 24 others.
“There were other quarterbacks before him that had great success, but he really stretched the envelope. I had to face the doubts and anxieties of a kid coming from nowhere.”
Young went on to average 318.8 yards a game in total offense that season. As a senior, he completed 306 of 429 passes and led the nation with a 71.3 completion percentage, 3,802 yards passing, 4,246 yards of total offense and 33 touchdowns. He set 13 NCAA records during his collegiate career.
The lessons he learned by successfully replacing McMahon helped Young when he took the San Francisco 49ers' starting job from Montana in 1991.
“I had already figured out how to do it,” he said.
Young still remembers the moment he knew he was a success at BYU. The Cougars had just won at rival Utah 17-12 to finish the regular season 8-3 and clinch a Holiday Bowl berth. He looked at the setting sun just as snow began to fall.
“I thought, 'Holy cow, we're going to the Holiday Bowl,”' Young said. “I did it. I didn't break the string. I think that was one of the greatest moments of my football career.”
The 40-year-old Young said he had “scammed” BYU coach LaVell Edwards out of a scholarship by convincing him he could pass, even though he played for a high school team that ran the option.
“It's a humbling thing,” Young said of his enshrinement. “I had no right to play college football, let alone professional football. How did this happen? That's the thought that's come out of being elected into the Hall of Fame.”
Young becomes the fourth straight BYU quarterback to enter the hall, joining Gifford Nielsen, who played from 1977-79, Marc Wilson (1977-79) and McMahon (1977-81).
Young told the crowd gathered for an evening banquet that football is the best game because it is the greatest laboratory for human interaction.
“If you want to find out how you can be better, watch a football game, watch about how people react to pressure, and after the game of how they handle losing with dignity and dealing with success. You'll learn about yourself,” he said.
Among the others enshrined into the hall were former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, former Georgia kicker Kevin Butler, former Michigan receiver Anthony Carter and former Mississippi State linebacker D.D. Lewis.
Switzer said coaching college football was far more satisfying than coaching in the pros, where winning is everything.
“College coaching is totally different,” he said. “It's 365 days a year of trying to make a difference in young men's lives. It's a passion business. It's trying to help young men develop themselves into being productive citizens for the next 30, 40, 60 years. That's what college coaching is all about.”
Butler said he was proud to be going in as the first player to make it into the hall who didn't play another position besides kicker.
“Today there are 887 football players in the hall of fame and now there's one place-kicker. I'm very proud to be that person,” he said.
Carter, who said he was driven to success by those who didn't think a 155-pound receiver could make it in the Big Ten, said he now is driven by his 7-year-old son, Anthony Jr., who was born with cerebral palsy.
“In college I was taught to set goals: to beat Michigan State, to beat Notre Dame, to beat Ohio State, to go to the Rose Bowl, to win the Rose Bowl to be all-conference. I have set another goal for myself. That goal is to see my son walk, to play catch with him. That's the highest goal I can ever set for myself.”
At a morning news conference, the audience turned quiet as Lewis recounted how he lost his wife, children and all his money battling drug and alcohol abuse after retiring from the Dallas Cowboys in 1981.
“My life fell apart. I lost everything,” he said. “I hit bottom as hard as any bottom as anyone could hit. Here was a guy who could put a square peg in a round hole with my own might and here I found something I couldn't win. I surrendered to that.”
Lewis, 56, said he has been sober for more than 16 years.
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Young says following McMahon prepared him for Montana
