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What I'm about to attempt is impossible.

Lord knows, that's never slowed anyone here before.

It deals with greatness. Ranking greatness.

Naming the best Brigham Young football team of all time.

What exactly is the best? How is it defined? What does it mean?

This discussion is deep enough without spelling it out.

Like the old Supreme Court justice who framed the parameters of obscenity with the same words, I know it when I see it.

So do you.

The pursuit is inspired, in part, by the Cougars' impressive showing this past season, wrapped so convincingly by last week's victory in the Vegas Bowl. The 2006 iteration of BYU football rose up to shock some and surprise many. Not so much the numerical prowess of an 11-2 record, but the manner in which that mark was attained.

It was freakin' rolled to.

And, on account of that, the '06 Cougars found their place among their school's all-time Final Four.

It's noteworthy that the momentum gained by way of a 10-game win streak also underscores BYU's early season trouble against Arizona and Boston College. Too bad for the Oh-Sixers that they were unready at the start to be what they became.

Yeah, what might have been.

Based on what I saw, the Cougars were comprehensively better than both of the teams that beat them, which means they could have gone

u-n-d-e-f-e-a-t-e-d.

But, then, as Bronco Mendenhall pointed out, the early imperfections may have supplanted initial weaknesses with eventual strengths by the time it was finished on Thursday night, with the Cougars feeling so good about the road they had traveled, the mountain they had climbed.

"What was cultivated this season was remarkable," says longtime BYU assistant Lance Reynolds. "The team came to where it took the field with poise and confidence. The biggest change was in the way the players thought. It was a mindset of winning."

Maybe, some day, those two losses will come to vex the same players who were so jubilant after knocking off Oregon, 38-8. On the other hand, maybe the distance covered always will be enough.

Back to the work at hand.

Cogitating who else belongs on BYU's greatest-ever short list brings to mind the quote by Bum Phillips about Earl Campbell. The Bumster said: "Earl may not be in a class by himself, but whatever class he's in, it doesn't take long to call the roll."

Same thing here.

Slimming down the list of and to the Final Four is nowhere near as difficult as picking up the exercise from there to select the absolute king of the hill.

Hewn not so much out of statistics or quantifiable data, or even won-lost records, rather from an inexact mix of observation and opinion, here are the greatest-of-all-time contenders:

* 1983. 11-1, WAC champs. Holiday Bowl winner over Missouri. Only loss came in first game, on the road at Baylor, before 11 straight victories. Highlight: beating UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Reason to doubt: a mere four-point win over Utah State.

* 1984. 13-0, WAC champs, national champs, Holiday Bowl winner over Michigan. Highlight: never tasted defeat. Reason to doubt: tight wins over Pitt, Hawaii, Wyoming, Air Force.

* 1996. 14-1, WAC champs. Cotton Bowl winner over Kansas State. Highlight: first time ever playing on New Year's Day. Reason to doubt: loss at Washington, tight wins against Texas A&M, New Mexico, Wyoming.

* 2006. 11-2, MWC champs. Las Vegas Bowl winner over Oregon. Highlight: win over TCU in Fort Worth. Reason to doubt: early losses against BCS-league teams, close call at Utah.

We could bury ourselves in comparative numbers and stats, but forget it. Let's consider other stuff.

The '83 Cougars were led by Steve Young, who got to the point that year where he was impossible to defend. He was the most rare of talents, a ridiculously mobile QB who could roll out and pass or run, either way, all game long. Of the Final Four, this was the most fully loaded offense. It included tight end Gordon Hudson and a backfield made up of Waymon Hamilton, Casey Tiumalu, and Eddie Stinnett. The defense benefited from many of the same players who flourished in '84, such as Leon White and Kurt Gouveia.

The '84 team sported a better defense than the previous season, probably the best defense of these four teams, but the offense was not as talented, although Robbie Bosco stepped in nicely for Young. Physically, the national champions just weren't as imposing as the '83 Cougars.

In '96, BYU resuscitated a tradition that had sagged just a bit in LaVell Edwards' later years. Although quarterback Steve Sarkisian was more of a plumber than a virtuoso, he deftly guided an offense that could force a power game, a run game, if necessary, over the more usual finesse passing attack. Chad Lewis and Itula Mili shared time at tight end. Receivers included Kaipo McGuire, James Dye, and K.O. Kealaluhi. And the running game was as complete as it ever was with Ronney Jenkins, Brian McKenzie, and Mark Atuaia. The offensive line was headlined by John Tait. And the defense was led by Shay Muirbrook, and perhaps the best secondary ever at BYU, including Tim McTyer and Omarr Morgan.

This season's Cougars begin with John Beck, who, as a pure passer, may have gone beyond the quarterbacks on the other best-ever candidates, along with his favored target, Jonny Harline, who is, as Bosco says, "better than any tight end ever at BYU." Add in a squadron of running backs, including Curtis Brown, the all-time yardage-gainer, and the rest of an efficient offense that blew opponents away most of the year before halftime commenced. The defense ranks third or fourth in this group. If you're into comparative scores, especially in league play, this team, in its time and place, was as dominant as any in BYU's history.

Hmmm.

All things considered, with a number of consulting opinions by those who were not only there, but who helped shape the teams themselves, with a shovelful of gopher gizzards mixed in, along with a dash of magic dust, and what I saw with my own two eyes, measured by greatness in reverse order, here, then, are the conclusions hauled out of the impossible:

Fourth-best ever: 2006.

Third-best ever: 1996.

Second-best ever: 1984.

First, the best BYU team of all time: 1983.

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* GORDON MONSON can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.

1983

FOREVER YOUNG: Quarterback Steve Young accounted for 4,346 yards of total offense and the Cougars regroup from a season-opening loss to Baylor to win their remaining 11 games, capped by a 21-17 victory over Missouri in the Holiday Bowl. Young's offensive production is second only to former Cougar Jim McMahon (4,627 yards) at the time.

1984

NATIONAL CHAMPS: Building on the previous season's momentum, quarterback Robbie Boscoe and the Cougars go undefeated, winning by an average of more than 21 points. BYU boasted one of the best defenses in school history and justified its No. 1 ranking with a 24-17 Holiday Bowl victory over Michigan.

1996

RETURN TO GLORY: After losing 18 games over the previous four seasons, the Cougars return to the top 10 in the polls with a 14-1 season and New Year's Day victory over Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl. Tight end Chad Lewis is one of a handful of players who go on to play in the NFL. The Cougars' lone blemish was a 29-17 loss at Washington in Week 3.

2006

ON A ROLL: Two losses by a total of 10 points in the first three weeks didn't seem to be the start of a promising season. But the Cougars didn't lose the rest of the way, running over Mountain West Conference foes along the way, and quarterback John Beck helped cap the 11-2 campaign with 375 passing yards in a 38-8 thumping of Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl.