Las Vegas • BYU looked dead in the water. Then it had life. And finally, it ran out of steam.
Notre Dame beat BYU 28-20 at Allegiant Stadium in the third and final scheduled meeting between the two schools.
“Still not mistake-free football,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. “Just couldn’t get things going. Felt like the defense was on the field quite a bit, too much. We have to get some things going and score more points and defensively we have to get stops.”
Irish quarterback Drew Pyne threw for 262 yards and three touchdowns and tight end Michael Mayer added 118 yards and two scores to give the Irish enough offense to hold off a late flurry.
BYU quarterback Jaren Hall, who came into the night nursing a shoulder injury, finished 9-17 with 120 yards and two touchdowns.
“I don’t think he was 100%,” Sitake said of Hall.
BYU had a chance to tie the game on its second-to-last drive of the game, but was stopped on a fourth down and 1 at the Irish 27-yard line. With 3:37 remaining, Notre Dame bled out the clock and the Cougars never got a better chance.
Sitake said the team considered giving the ball to running back Chris Brooks on that final rushing play, and said the Cougar coaches have to “critique themselves” after the result.
BYU trailed by as many as 19 points in the second half before mounting a comeback, cutting it to just five in the fourth quarter. Brooks largely paced the effort with 90 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown. Kody Epps also added 100 yards and two touchdowns.
Notre Dame finished with 496 yards of offense, with 234 of them on the ground.
“Credit to Notre Dame. They played a great game,” Sitake said. “Such a cool experience tonight. The energy in the stadium was awesome from both sides. There was a lot of noise and the environment was special. It was a lot of fun, but we happened to be on the wrong side of it.”
BYU returns home to take on Arkansas next weekend.
“We have to get better and looking forward to getting to the next game,” Sitake said. “I’m proud of the way guys played, but we have to get better and get ready for the next one.”
