COPPER BOWL : BYU’s Walsh Finishes Off Gibbs, 31-6

John Walsh made Gary Gibbs’ last game as Oklahoma’s football coach a nightmare, passing for 454 yards and four touchdowns Thursday night in leading No. 22 Brigham Young to a 31-6 victory in the Copper Bowl.

Gibbs announced his resignation in November but chose to coach through the bowl game. Walsh may have made him wish he didn’t stick around.

He threw a 43-yard completion on the first play of the game and didn’t slow down. He wound up 31 of 45, setting a Copper Bowl record for completions and coming up only 22 short of the bowl’s record for passing yards, set two years ago by Drew Bledsoe of Washington State.

The Cougars finished the year 10-3, their ninth 10-victory season in 23 years under Coach Lavell Edwards. Oklahoma (6-6) saw its string of consecutive winning seasons end at 28.

Gibbs concluded his six years as coach with a record of 44-23-2. He is being replaced by Howard Schnellenberger.

Brigham Young dominated from the start, with Walsh completing 10 of his first 11 passes--the one miss was a drop. The Sooners didn’t cross midfield until the final minute of the third quarter.