Provo • It wasn’t perfect, but a dominating first half led the way for BYU to crush Western Kentucky 41-10 on Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
And it was also a strong enough performance to crack the top 10 of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. In the latest rankings, released Sunday, the Cougars found themselves in the No. 9 spot. In the Amway Coaches Poll, BYU also got a bump up to No. 9.
For the first time since 2001, and for just the fourth time in program history, BYU is 7-0 to start the season.
“I’m really happy we got the win,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Obviously, there are some things we need to fix, and I wasn’t pleased with losing the second half. We didn’t feel like we were in control of the game, so we’ll try to get things better.”
BYU started the game having scored on its first five drives to lead 35-3 at halftime. But then the Cougar offense struggled some and lost the second half, getting outscored by WKU 7-6.
The Cougars were unable to score a second-half touchdown and instead had to settle for two field goals.
BYU quarterback Zach Wilson also had his weakest performance of the season, completing only 56% of his passes (the previous season low completion was at Houston with 71%) and had a season-low efficiency rating of 139.74.
Yet, Wilson still threw for 224 yards and three touchdowns.
Saturday’s win, particularly getting through the second half while the offense struggled to put up points, showed BYU is still good when not great.
“We still had a lot of big plays moving the ball down the field,” Wilson said. “Credit to those guys for running a weird defense. I don’t think they thought they could do their defense against us since we’ve been explosive this year. They tried to throw some different stuff at us so credit to them in that aspect.”
Three takeaways
• Last season, kicker Jake Oldroyd hit a couple of snags (having missed eight of his field goal attempts and one PAT attempt), but this year the redshirt sophomore has been perfect. Through six games (Oldroyd sat out the UTSA game due to injury), he has nailed all eight of his field goal attempts and 31 PAT attempts.
On Saturday, Oldroyd scored on two field goals — 49-yard and 45-yard attempts.
• While it seemed BYU was struggling with short yardage runs early in the game, the Cougars were still able to establish a running game. Of BYU’s 410 total yards, 166 were from the ground. Before Saturday’s game, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes had said establishing a rush against WKU would probably be the Cougars' biggest challenge.
Well, they succeeded.
“Their defense lowered the box a lot, they had some safeties trigger on the run, but the running backs and linemen worked around it and picked it up,” BYU running back Tyler Allgeier, who finished with 95 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries, said. “I think it was a good night for us with a lot of learning experiences.”
• BYU played a clean first half and didn’t draw its first penalty until midway through the second half. The Hilltoppers, however, struggled with penalties. In WKU’s first drive alone, the Hilltoppers were flagged with two false starts, and coaches had to call two timeouts to avoid delay of game calls.
The Cougars ended up committing three penalties for a loss of 35 yards, but WKU made 10 penalties for 96 yards.
Player of the game
Isaiah Kaufusi, senior, linebacker.
Kaufusi led the defense with nine tackles and three solo stops and forced and recovered a fumble. It was his fourth career forced fumble and third fumble recovery. His nine tackles on Saturday also tied a season high (UTSA).
Play(s) of the game
The BYU defense put up a four-play series that really highlighted what that group is capable of.
After allowing WKU quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome to run up 23 yards on a keeper, placing the Hilltoppers one yard from the end zone early in the second half, the Cougars put up a wall to prevent them from scoring.
WKU tried a rushing play (no gain) and two passing plays (both incomplete) and was faced with a decision: go with the easy points with a field goal or attempt to score on a fourth-and-goal with one yard to go.
The Hilltoppers went for it, and running back Gaej Walker did move the ball a bit but was stopped just short — forcing a turnover on downs.
Kaufusi said those four downs by the goal line were the highlight of the game.
“That was, I think, in my opinion, the best series that we had as a defense,” Kaufusi said. “Got backed up and the mentality of the defense was ‘we’re not going to let these guys score.’ We took it as a challenge, we looked it right in the eyes — right in the face — and we just stepped up.”
Up next
BYU will face its first ranked opponent when it visits No. 21 Boise State on Friday. In a battle of undefeated teams, the Cougars will look to get their first win at Albertsons Stadium.
The game will also present other challenges. Because the game is on Friday, and BYU doesn’t practice on Sundays, the Cougars are looking at a short week of preparation. But it will be made shorter by the NCAA’s civic engagement legislation.
The NCAA is forcing all Division I programs to give its students the day off on Election Day. BYU tried appealing but was denied.
“It’s exciting, we’ve been waiting a long time for this one,” Allgeier said. “They’re very consistent and we’ve never won up there on the good 'ol blue turf field, so it will be exciting. We’re about to forget about this game. We’ll like it tonight, but forget about it and keep the grind to learn from our mistakes and get ready for Boise State.”
