Oct. 21, 2000
PROVO, Utah (AP) -- San Diego State's Nate Tandberg drilled a 36-yard game-winning field goal with five seconds left to beat Brigham Young 16-15 on Saturday.
BYU kicker Owen Pochman thought he had won the game 45 seconds earlier when he kicked a career-high 50-yard field goal to give BYU a 15-13 lead. It was Pochman's third field goal of the game, but he missed three others in the second half.
After BYU (3-5 overall, 1-2 Mountain West Conference) took the lead, San Diego State (2-5, 2-1) put together a 6-play, 62-yard drive that was highlighted by a 39-yard pass from quarterback Lone Sheriff to Derrick Lewis to help set up Tandberg's game-winning kick.
"This was a sweet win mainly because I have so much respect for LaVell (Edwards)," said San Diego St. coach Ted Tollner of BYU's coach who is retiring at the end of the season after 29 seasons. "Tandberg's kick is the kind of thing that will live with him for a long time. When football is over for him, this will mean so much more to him."
Tandberg sprinted up to midfield to celebrate, drawing an unsportsman-like conduct penalty, but it didn't matter, the game-winning field goal was on the board.
"We played well enough to win, we just didn't get it done," Edwards said. "That's the disappointing part about it. We did everything we needed to do at the end until they hit that long pass."
The two teams came into the game averaging a combined 57 points per game, but BYU's only touchdown Saturday came on a 2-yard pass from quarterback Charlie Peterson to Margin Hooks.
San Diego State running back scored a pair of rushing touchdowns and finished with 59 yards rushing. He became just the ninth player in school history to rush for over 2,000 yards.
In the process Ned helped the Aztecs pick up just their second win in 12 tries at Cougar Stadium in Provo.