BYU Football Top 100: Jason Buck, the QB Nightmare

We are only three weeks away from BYU Football, THREE WEEKS!

Three weeks is nothing! Okay well it is three weeks, but now the feeling of excitement for the season is starting to change to anxiety for the team. To this point, it has been a lot of "the team has time to get better" or "they are training hard". While they are still doing that, the current concern and thought is "are they going to be good enough?"

We will find out in 21 days.

Today's player in the Countdown features a defensive lineman who's stats may not be the greatest for this high on the Top 100, but his impact and memorable moments get him there.

No. 21 Jason Buck - Defensive End - 1985-1996

Growing up I always heard stories and saw highlights of Jason Buck and thought that he was some kind of dominant player that recorded 150 tackles per season. That is how much of an impact he has had on BYU Football. I had every intention on putting him in the Top 10 players of all time because of how much I heard about him.

Then I saw his stats and was less impressed. It isn't that he wasn't a great player with good stats, it was just that he wasn't the defensive monster that I grew up thinking he was.

Lucky for him and his ranking, stats only account for 33% of the ranking, and the other 66% pull him pretty hard in the right direction.

Rankings

Impact A+

I thought that Jason Buck was the greatest defender of all time for BYU. In the stories that I heard and without seeing many of his games before doing this Top 100 list, the way that people talked about him really did make an impact on those fans and now fans like me who hear about him. Buck was on the wrong team for him to be dominant. He played in 1985, one year after the National Championship and then in 1986, an odd 8-5 season that was one of the worst in the 80's for the Cougars. Despite this, he left an impact on future players and fans who watch the game.

Statistics C

As a reminder, statistics are against other players in the Top 100. Obviously in the history of BYU Football a player who records 75+ tackles every season and has 12.5 sacks in a season is going to be an all time great. Against the best of the best though, he is...average. Buck only played for BYU for two seasons which also hurts his ranking. He originally played for Ricks College before transfering to BYU. While he played he totalled 140 tackles, 24 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 22 quarterback hurries.

Memorable Moments A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F_uRCZlPCE Watch the video, it explains a lot about Jason Buck. He was an All-American, Outland Trophy winning player with the speed, agility, strength and talent to mess up any play at any time. His 24 sacks rank him 8th all time at BYU despite only playing for two seasons.