MORGANTOWN - There are some things about BYU football that cannot be ignored, like the legacy of quarterbacks. Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer. They're all legends, every one but Bosco honored in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Then there's the 1984 national championship, which has a legacy of its own. It's the last time a team outside a major conference won the title. Led by Bosco, BYU played in the mediocre Western Athletic Conference, finished the regular season 12-0 and then gave Michigan its fifth loss in the Holiday Bowl. That was enough to get the top spot above Washington, which finished 11-1 and beat Oklahoma, which had been ranked No. 2, in the Orange Bowl.
Some would argue that season put plans in motion for the BCS and the division between major and minor conferences. Others claim that BYU team is why college football needs a playoff.
Today, BYU isn't part of a mediocre conference or a major one. It's one of four independent programs but could be invited to the Big 12, and that serves as a backdrop for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. game against West Virginia at FedExField (ESPN2). This is a nationally renowned university and athletic department worthy of national television and an NFL stadium for a neutral-site game.
But the one thing that's never ignored when someone crosses paths with the Cougars is just how old they are.
"They're grown-ass men," WVU safeties coach Matt Caponi said.
BYU (1-2) is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Student-athletes participate in church missions. Women or couples serve seven days a week for 18 months. Men serve for two years. BYU's 2016 football roster has 84 players who served missions. Twenty-seven others are currently serving and will return to campus in the future.
The average age of a BYU player is 21.4 years old, roughly the age of a player in his fourth year of college.
"They're going to be the most mature team we ever face," running backs coach JaJuan Seider said.
What that means differs from one player to another. Colton McKivitz, the freshman left tackle, admitted the player across from him will be stronger and know more about the battles that happen between offensive and defensive linemen. But safety Jarrod Harper just watched former teammate Daryl Worley play cornerback for the Carolina Panthers.
"He's our age, but he's out there playing against grown men," Harper said.
The Mountaineers (2-0) are not overmatched. They're neither young nor immature. In fact, what's true of BYU is true of them: There aren't any teams like them. They start 14 seniors and have six others in the two-deep. No other Big 12 team can match that.
But there's a difference between WVU's old and BYU's old.
"In my opinion," said offensive line coach Ron Crook, "it means they're stronger than most of our guys. If you've got a sophomore who's the age of a fifth-year senior, he's a lot stronger than most sophomores. He's a lot more confident than most of the guys his age, as far as class goes. It makes it harder to go out and execute against those guys, because they're just older and stronger and more mature players."
That speaks to the hallmark of the BYU program, which cannot fall back on the framework of a conference schedule to produce eight or nine of the 12 games. The Cougars are instead admirably ambitious. This season alone, they've already played three Pac-12 schools and follow WVU with a Friday game against Toledo and then a surreal stretch of games at No. 8 Michigan State, against Mississippi State, at Boise State and at Cincinnati.
But every player is wired to welcome and to meet the challenge.
"You can see on video what they are and who they are," WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. "What they are is they're big, they're physical, they're passionate and they get in there and fight and struggle and get the job done. It's a different type of challenge."
That's the only thing the Mountaineers are concerned with Saturday.
The coaches believe - or at least tell their players - there's value to pitting 22-, 23- and 24-year-old players against 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds. Age and size enhance physical play. Older players prepare better. Composure comes with maturity.
But the thing that cannot be ignored about the Cougars this time is not that they push people around, but that they refuse to be pushed around by others.
"The thing that shows up the most is those guys fight to the end," linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton said. "A lot of times, unfortunately, you play some teams that have some younger guys and you can see the fight in them start to diminish as the game goes on. You watch film of these guys, and throughout all four quarters you see them fighting."
The Cougars have a losing record, but they beat Arizona in the opener 19-18 on a field goal with 4 seconds to go. They lost to Utah 20-19 when they missed on a 2-point conversion with 18 seconds remaining.
"The last game, they're down 10 to UCLA, and on the last play they threw a shot in the end zone and got a touchdown and made it 17-14," Benton said. "Those guys are going to fight until it's triple-zeros on the scoreboard. The biggest thing with their maturity is they're going to play no matter what."
Contact Mike Casazza at 304-319-1142 or mikec@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikecasazza and read his blog at http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/wvu/.