It takes a unique individual to guide a football program that, like the entire school, is run by the tenets of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon faith guides the university to the point that the student-athlete Honor Code forbids premarital sex, smoking and drinking. Those aren't just guidelines -- those are hard and fast rules, the breaking of which can mean expulsion.

The requirements for the job hadn't been an issue for three decades, mostly because LaVell Edwards had defined them. Then Edwards announced Thursday he was retiring at the end of the season. Now it is obvious BYU will stay in-house. It is almost a certainty that a Mormon will fill the opening after the season. That means more than likely he will also be white.

Lavell Edwards is entering his 29th season as head coach at BYU.(Allsport)

"The next head coach will be Mormon," BYU athletic director Val Hale told SportsLine.com. "The pool (of possible replacements) isn't huge. It isn't like we have to look under every rock."

One of the most prominent minority organizations in the country understands that fact.

"Certainly we hope that any opening for any college football coach that African-Americans will certainly be considered," said Charles Farrell, director of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Sports in New York, "but as you said, this is sort of a slot that ... historically has gone to a Mormon. There are very few black Mormons."

Of BYU's 18 sports, only one is coached by a non-Mormon, according to Hale. School policy is to look at qualified Mormon candidates first.

Ninety-eight percent of the BYU's student population is Mormon. Less than one-half of one percent of BYU's students in the previous semester were black -- 122 out of 29,217. Seventy percent of the football team is Mormon.

Edwards' success has brought a large percentage of those minority athletes to campus. That's part of the reason BYU will most likely get a pass on this hire from minority groups campaigning for more opportunities.

"I don't think it's been deliberately biased against African-Americans," Farrell said. "It's been more biased more towards Mormons."

That means Edwards' replacement will come from a narrow list that right now includes these names:

• BYU defensive coordinator Ken Schmidt has been on Edwards's staff for 19 years.
• Gary Crowton, the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator, played high school football with Hale in Orem, Utah. Orem happens to be the hometown of Edwards.
• Alabama quarterbacks coach Charlie Stubbs played at BYU and served as a graduate assistant under Edwards during the 1984 national championship season. He has already expressed interest.
• Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is the Copenhagen-dipping offensive wiz who graduated from BYU in 1983.

"I don't think you'd ever see a head coach who's not Mormon or LDS (Church of Latter Day Saints)," Schmidt said. "A lot of our kids go on missions. They want somebody who understands that situation. You bring in a guy who is not Mormon, the kids start going on missions and he says, "Wait a minute, I don't want kids going on missions.'

"A guy who doesn't understand that would have a real struggle."

That the opening is limited by religion -- and probably skin color -- is certainly not unique at the Division I-A level. Minorities still have a problem getting head coaching jobs. Only six of 115 I-A coaches are black.

But religion? Even Notre Dame doesn't require its coaches to be Catholic. Current coach Bob Davie isn't. Neither was Ara Parseghian.

"At BYU, because of the nature of the university, you're not just a football coach," Leach said, "You also have, in a weird sort of way, a certain amount of spiritual leader qualities."

Credit Edwards for making the job what it is -- straight, narrow and successful. Edwards will start the season Saturday against Florida State as the seventh-winningest active I-A coach.

His replacement will have the 2000 season to show BYU fans -- and the Mormon church -- what he can do.

Football overload

That's the situation at Texas Tech, where sales have been sluggish for the Hispanic College Fund Classic Saturday against New Mexico.

No, it's not exactly the Kickoff Classic, Pigskin Classic or the Eddie Robinson Classic in terms of "preseason" games. In fact, it wasn't even a game until plans were finalized in mid-June.

Since then, Tech has sold only 35,000 tickets. That's barely enough to turn a profit after 25 percent of the revenue goes to the Hispanic College Fund.

Tech broke even after 30,000 tickets but was required to buy 40,000. In addition, New Mexico had to buy 10,000 tickets in order to fill 50,500-seat Jones Stadium.

But when the game was added to the schedule, it meant Texas Tech had eight home games. That hiked season ticket prices and strained wallets. Single-game tickets for the Hispanic game are going for $35, which is $13 more than a regular home game.

Throw in gas prices and the fact that Lubbock is "500 miles from anywhere" according to one city resident, and it's going to take an extra trip to the ATM to see Leach's debut on Saturday.

Snyder sees the light

Kansas State coach Bill Snyder had this Bowl Championship Series thing all figured out.

Conference play was tough enough. Why play a non-conference opponent who could actually give his Wildcats a game? The BCS rewards those who win all their games. Thus, playing punching bags made sense.

The philosophy got the Wildcats within two games (losses to Texas A&M in 1998, Nebraska in 1999) of playing in a BCS bowl, perhaps in the national championship game.

So Snyder defied (his) logic once again when it was announced that Kansas State will play at least a home-and-home series with Southern Cal beginning next season at the Coliseum.

That heightens the risk that the Wildcats could have a season-wrecking loss before entering conference play. But -- listen closely, Snyder critics -- it could also toughen up the Wildcats for those crucial games in November.

"I've never been here where everybody has made such a big deal out of scheduling a ballgame," Snyder said. "USC has a rich tradition but we've got people like that in our conference as well. We play them on a regular basis."

Under Snyder's old system, a BCS bowl was high risk and high reward. This way, the Wildcats can make points with the pollsters and computers who make up the BCS numbers. If they lose, they lose early enough to build momentum for that elusive $13 million payoff.

Quick hits

• It is truly a farewell tour for Edwards. BYU will travel 10,874 miles to play its games this year. That includes trips to Florida, Virginia and New York.
• As of Friday, only 39,000 tickets had been sold to the Pigskin Classic at Jacksonville's Alltel Stadium (capacity, 73,000). Are Seminoles fans taking their boys for granted?
• There was a lot of averting of eyes recently when former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame. In attendance was current coach Phil Fulmer, who Majors accused of forcing him out in 1992 after Majors' heart surgery. Fulmer spoke and reportedly went back to work at his office -- on Johnny Majors Drive.
• Sixteen I-A schools have failed to win a conference title in the past 25 years. Two of them will be in action this weekend -- Kansas State and New Mexico.
• Undistinguished North Carolina State has the second-highest paid staff in the country, according to a recent survey conducted by newspapers in the Southeast. Wolfpack coaches will earn a combined $1.007 million this season, second only to Texas ($1.035 million).