Logan • How often does the same person get honored by both teams in a college football game?
That happened Friday night at Maverik Stadium, as BYU and Utah State both honored former Aggie offensive lineman and legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards.
Decals with the number 50 and block letters LE were placed on Utah State’s helmets, while the Cougars’ jerseys and their coaches’ shirtsleeves bore the LAVELL patch that has been there all season.
Edwards died last December. He graduated from Utah State in 1952 and was a three-year letterman for the Aggies from 1949-51. He was inducted into the USU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Detmer’s debut
BYU quarterback Beau Hoge wasn’t able to finish his second career start, as he was injured in the second quarter. Fellow redshirt sophomore Koy Detmer Jr. took over, but had a rocky start. Detmer had a snap go over his head that he recovered at the BYU 2, and also threw a second-quarter interception that the Aggies turned into a field goal to take a 24-21 halftime lead.
Pregame disagreement
Players from both teams had to be separated during the pregame warmups. Coaches quickly broke up the jawing and no punches were thrown.
The brouhaha started when USU players came out of their locker room and walked through the middle of BYU’s stretching and light conditioning work. Then the Aggies huddled on the same side of the field where the Cougars were warming up.
Former BYU player Dallin Leavitt, now a Utah State senior, was the most animated and could be seen jawing at BYU linebackers Fred Warner and Butch Pau’u as he was being restrained by an Aggies assistant.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal, but I thought it was good to wake our guys up a little bit,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake told Greg Wrubell in his pre-game radio interview.
Huge news for Tristen Hoge
Offensive lineman Tristen Hoge, the transfer from Notre Dame who is sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, learned earlier this week that the NCAA has granted him a third year of eligibility. Hoge’s father posted the news on Twitter. Hoge, a 6-foot-5, 305-pound product of Pocatello, Idaho, is the cousin of BYU quarterback Beau Hoge. He will have three years of eligibility at BYU, beginning in 2018.
Briefly
Offensive lineman Austin Hoyt, defensive back Riley Burt and kicker Andrew Mikkelsen carried out the team flags for BYU.