Is that he understood the reason for playing the game is to win. And he did everything he could to win. Jimbo could put points on the board, he got the ball into the EZ.

In recent years, BYU QB's have struggled to score points. Our offense often stalls when we get in the red/blue zone and we settle for the FG or no points at all. Our offense is not as "explosive" and able to score and score quickly as it was with McMahon. There are reasons for this. Hopefully, we will eventually get it figured out and start piling up the points and winning more games.

Back when McMahon played, there wasn't so much instant publicity and everything a player did was not out there for everyone to hear and see. He probably wouldn't have lasted long at BYU if not for the understanding and guidance of LaVell. Jimbo wasn't the only problem player to ever play for Edwards, he had plenty of them. But he "fathered" them thru the tough times and the troubles they got into.

There are stories about how Jim was seen out drinking beer a couple of times. What isn't talked about is that there were many non-LDS players back then and they probably all drank beer more than a couple of times. Jimbo wasn't out drinking and partying by himself. He had plenty of company.

What they did is they got together somewhere well away from campus, often at the apartment or home of one of the players and they had a BBQ. Alcohol was available even though not all players that attended were drinking. Wives and girlfriends were there. They just didn't talk about it and there weren't all the prying eyes back then.

For the most part, the players were smart enough and discrete enough to keep it under control, not cause any trouble and not do anything to get arrested over. Local sports reporters knew what was going on but for various reasons just didn't report stuff like that. So, for the most part, the fans, most of them anyway, didn't hear about it.

No doubt the HC office and various administrators were not at all happy about what they knew was going on. Edwards and the coaches lived with it and he had enough clout to keep the players from getting booted out of school. However, as soon as McMahon had played his last game, out he went. He had a pretty lax attitude about school work and probably should have been booted much earlier. As a result, he didn't have enough credits to graduate. He says himself he never took it seriously. He was at BYU to play football and have a little fun.