Provo • Texas State may have pulled a fast one on BYU in the opening drive of Saturday night’s game at LaVell Edwards Stadium, but the Cougars quickly got their feet under them and ran away with the game.
No. 12 BYU followed up with 49 unanswered points to put the game far out of reach, 52-14, and improve to 6-0 on the season for just the fifth time in program history.
The Cougars' offense fired on all cylinders. Led by Zach Wilson, who threw for 287 yards and four touchdowns on 19 of 25 passing in less than three quarters, BYU put up 579 total yards.
After struggling to establish a running game at Houston a week prior, the Cougars managed 227 rushing yards. But more impressively, BYU used 14 different receivers — including Wilson — to put up 352 yards through the air.
Dax Milne led all receivers with 89 yards and one touchdown on four receptions.
Surprisingly, the longest BYU play of the night came on a 49-yard punt fake by Ryan Rehkow. Because it was toward the end of the game, when the Cougars already had a sizable lead, BYU coach Kalani Sitake said he would have preferred for Rehkow to just take the punt, but understands that the play that was run is what has been taught to his athlete in practices.
“He did exactly what we coach and why we had that scheme,” Sitake said. “But I talked to coach about it afterwards and apologized. It wasn’t anything disrespectful or with any kind of attempt to run up the score, it was just something he was used to seeing in practice.”
On the other side of the ball, Sitake said Texas State had “some new wrinkles in their scheme they hadn’t seen all year” in that opening-drive score, but the defense was able to adjust.
“Wish we could have got that one back,” Sitake said. “... A lot of credit to Texas State for being innovative and creative in finding ways to get the ball down the field and get a score early. Glad our guys settled down. Our offense was able to keep playing and stay on top of it and get some points on the board and give us some time to make adjustments to the scheme.”
After the Bobcats' gimmicks early on, BYU nearly completely shut down the Texas State offense. The Bobcats managed 267 yards of offense, but were most tested in the second and third quarters when they were only allowed 13 and 26 yards, respectively.
Storylines
• No. 12 BYU routs Texas State 52-14 to improve to 6-0 for just the fifth time in program history.
• BYU’s Zach Wilson throws for 287 yards and four touchdowns on 19 of 25 passing.
• Cougars tally 579 total offense yards while defense holds Texas State to 267 total yards
With the Cougars up by six scores, BYU started pulling out starters and putting in reserves.
Texas State had a chance to score off a fumble recovery in the second quarter and an interception in the third quarter, but the Bobcats were unable to convert. However, the Bobcats were able to put together a 96-yard, 8-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter.
Although Texas State quarterback Brady McBride started hot, completing his first seven attempts of the game, the sophomore ended the night with 150 passing yards, two touchdown and two interceptions on 17 of 31 passing.
“[BYU was] such a good team that we were playing and we had difficulty just doing some simple execution in terms of just moving them,” Texas State coach Jake Spavital said. “They are a talented team and we came out and threw a lot of different wrinkles at them for a shot because we knew they were a good team. They did finish the game and I am pleased with that, but we can’t have so many mistakes. We did some uncharacteristic things so we’ve got to clean up.”
Saturday night’s game was also the first time the Cougars played in front of a home crowd, with approximately 6,000 fans in the stands of LaVell Edwards Stadium, along with the band, cheerleaders and Cougarettes.
“It was so good to see our fans,” Sitake said. “I mean it was so good to see our fans last week in Houston, but it was good to see our fans here.”
