Football Season Rankings: 35-31

In Part 2 of our football season rankings, it's not the worst seasons, but they're pretty bad. This group of five somehow missed Gary Crowton, but it has Bronco's two worst seasons and three forgettable (for the most part) LaVell seasons.

35. 1993
34. 1975
33. 2010
32. 1973
31. 2005

Read the season details below the jump. Click here to get an explanation of my methodology. Also check out Part 1: the worst five seasons in the past 40 years.

35. 1993
Coach: LaVell Edwards
Record: 6-6
Ranking: NA
Bowl: 28-21 loss to Ohio State in the Holiday Bowl
Point Differential per game: -2.00
Opp. Winning %: .507
SRS: 2.07
What you didn't know: This defense gave up the most PPG of any team in our rankings -- by a touchdown.
Summary: This team should have been better. Decent QB (John Walsh), talented running game (Kahn Hall, Jamal Willis, Hema Heimuli) and one of the best wideouts in BYU history (Eric Drage, 2nd all-time in receiving yards). But the defense was horrible, easily the worst defense since 1974; they gave up more than 36 points a game, including 58 points to a 7-5 Utah State team. With a decent defense, this is a 10-2 team, ranked and remembered. Instead, this team is forgotten and in the bottom third of our rankings.

34. 1975
Coach: LaVell Edwards
Record: 6-5
Ranking: NA
Bowl: NA
Point Differential per game: 1.45
Opp. Winning %: .496
SRS: 1.82
What you didn't know: The Cougars played two 1-10 teams in 1975: Utah and UTEP.
Summary: During LaVell's fourth season at the helm, I doubt anyone saw what was coming. After 1975, LaVell had a 25-19 record, which was good by BYU standards, but hardly a sign of the things to come. But with the talented Gifford Nielsen at the helm, the Cougars were poised to string of 10 straight WAC titles.

33. 2010
Coach: Bronco Mendenhall
Record: 7-6
Ranking: NA
Bowl: 52-24 win over UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl
Point Differential per game: 4.54
Opp. Winning %: .506
SRS: 1.38
What you didn't know: The 2010 Cougars played against (and lost to) three teams with 10+ wins. They also played against (and beat) four teams with 3 or fewer wins.
Summary: According to my rankings, this is Bronco's worst team. The offense, led by a combination of Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps, was terrible against good teams and loaded up against terrible teams. The defense had similar problems. It was a forgettable year that will be remembered more for Heaps' freshman season and subsequent departure than anything else.

32. 1973
Coach: LaVell Edwards
Record: 5-6
Ranking: NA
Bowl: NA
Point Differential per game: 7.82
Opp. Winning %: .464
SRS: 2.96
What you didn't know: BYU is 0-4 all-time against Iowa State, including a 26-24 loss to a 4-7 Cyclone team in 1973. BYU last played ISU in 1974.
Summary: After a surprising 7-4 start to LaVell''s coaching career in 1972, the team regressed in his second season. Statistically though, this team was better than its 5-6 record. And while it may have seemed like nothing special to Cougar fans at the time, this 1973 team foreshadowed the future dominant teams, with a talented QB (Gary Shiede), an all-conference TE (Jay Miller), and an improving defense, all elements of what became a winning formula for the Cougars in the late 70s and 80s.


31. 2005
Coach: Bronco Mendenhall
Record: 6-6
Ranking: NA
Bowl: 35-28 loss to Cal in the Las Vegas Bowl
Point Differential per game: 3.75
Opp. Winning %: .555
SRS: 1.58
What you didn't know: Junior QB John Beck's 137.6 QB rating ranks 32nd all-time for a season at BYU. His 169.1 the next season ranks 4th.
Summary: Bronco's first season was a positive one in many respects. The Cougars reached a bowl game for the first time since the 2001 season and finished higher than 3rd in conference for the first time over the same time period. Though the offense was good, the bad defense of the Crowton era still lingered, and Bronco wouldn't get his fingerprints truly on the team until the following season.

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Stay tuned over the next several weeks as we count down every season of the past 40 years, all the way down to #1.