Postgame notes
BYU lost to Utah State 35-20 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The Cougars fall to 4-1 on the season and 542-394-26 all time.
The Cougars are 46-35-3 all-time against Utah State and 31-17-1 at home. The win marks the first time the Aggies have won in Provo since 1978, snapping a 17-game losing streak at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Since 2008, BYU is 5-8 when its time of possession is less than 26 minutes. It held the ball for just 21:59 against the Aggies.
Receivers Mitch Mathews and Jordan Leslie each recorded over 100 receiving yards. The last time two players had more than 100 receiving yards was in 2008 against Arizona in the Las Vegas Bowl (Austin Collie, Michael Reed).
Senior offensive lineman Brock Stringham and senior punter Scott Arellano carried the team and special teams flags, respectively. Former wide receiver Skyler Ridley (2007, 2010-13) carried the alumni flag.
Official attendance for the game was 64,090.
Taysom Hill
Coming into the game, junior quarterback Taysom Hill was one of three FBS QBs to have at least five rushing and five passing touchdowns this season. The other two are C.J. Brown from Maryland and Austin Grammer from Middle Tennessee. He added two more scores (one rush, one pass) in the first half before leaving the game with an injury. With his rushing TD, Hill tied Jamaal Williams for No. 10 on BYU’s all-time rushing TD list.
Hill also passed running back Brian McKenzie with 387 career rushing attempts, good for No. 10 at BYU.
Christian Stewart
Senior quarterback Christian Stewart completed his first pass at BYU. He finished with 172 passing yards on 10-29 passing.
Jamaal Williams
Junior running back Jamaal Williams rushed for 99 yards on 17 attempts. He passed John Ogden for No. 8 at BYU in career rushing yards (2,403). He also earned the No. 7 spot in school history for career carries (460), passing Peter Van Valkenberg.
Jordan Leslie
Senior receiver set a personal best at BYU in receiving yards (135) and added his longest reception as a Cougar (53).
Mitch Mathews
Junior receiver Mitch Mathews set new personal bests with eight receptions in a game and 117 receiving yards. His previous highs were five receptions and 112 yards against Utah State in 2013.
He collected his third receiving TD of the season.
Remington Peck
Junior defensive lineman Remington Peck set a career high with 1.5 tackles for loss and recorded his first sack of the season.
Jordan Johnson
Senior defensive back Jordan Johnson’s fumble recovery was his first of the season and second of his career.
Linebacker Zac Stout notched two tackles for loss, the most ever in one game for the senior.
Marques Johnson
Senior defensive lineman Marques Johnson tallied a season-high four tackles.
Fred Warner
Freshman linebacker Fred Warner recorded his first tackle for loss as a Cougar and added five total tackles, also a personal best.
Craig Bills
Senior safety Craig Bills had nine tackles to lead the team.
Postgame quotes
Head coach Bronco Mendenhall
Opening Statement
“First of all, congratulations to Matt Wells and Utah State. It’s a big win for them and their program. They really out-executed us, made a few more plays than us. We had too many balls go over our head and too many turnovers. In a game like that, I think could have been a great football game. They executed cleaner from beginning to end.
“From our standpoint, it was really difficult to watch Taysom go down. Christian Stewart will now be our quarterback moving forward. Now with a fast turnaround we have a lot of work to do before we play Thursday night against Central Florida. Five other players, from what I understand, have ankle sprains and will most likely be questionable for that game. We’ll find a real clear assessment of who’s in and who’s out and regroup and make sure we address whatever execution things we need to do to improve.”
On when Taysom went down
“Really, there wasn’t much from an offensive perspective. We trained Christian Stewart in the same plan as what Taysom had. The execution now has to be at a higher level because of Taysom’s ability to create and change things to go the distance. Everything within our offensive system will now have to be executed at a higher level. I think Christian tried really hard. He was forcing things there towards the end, but certainly the grit, determination and heart were there. I thought he tried hard and ran the ball well when given the opportunity.”
On big plays from Utah State
“Most of it came through the air and over the top of our corners. We had a slant andgo for a touchdown, we had a quarterback scramble. They had three giant plays - two touchdowns right before the half made it 28-14. The out-and-up before the third quarter was a huge gain. And that’s discipline. It’s been uncovered and now we’ve seen it. We’ve addressed it over the past two weeks. It’s now a matter of personal responsibility, not only for the players doing it but for the coaches as well. Credit Utah State - they had some fast guys out there.”
On second half play
“For the second half I actually think we played much better. We played more on edge, more aggressively, with more intensity, more grit and more determination. I liked the way we played more in the second half than the first half. We were too passive-aggressive though. We need to be more aggressive.”
Senior receiver Jordan Leslie
"Of course it's a big loss for us. It knocks the wind out of us, he's a leader, he's a great athlete. It's kind of just next man up and we have faith in Christian."
"I think Christian did a great job coming in, especially backing up Taysom and there are plays I need to make to help lift him up and I didn't do that. I had a couple drops on balls that I need to catch."
"It's just one loss, we have a quick turnaround and we want to go out there and do what we can do against UCF."
"Christian likes to get the ball down field and that's good for us, he's like a gun-slinger. He's just as mobile as Taysom and he likes to look down field and find the open guy so we're looking forward to Thursday."
"Expect a big game from the receivers because it's just another game, no matter who is at quarterback and we're going to go out there and we're going to be great."
Junior receiver Mitch Mathews
"We had a lot of opportunities and we trust our QB's no matter who it is. We don't worry about it at all because we know he's going to get us the ball."
"We trust Christian a lot and know he can go out there and make a lot of plays."
"It's tough to lose a game at home and it stings. We're never going to think about this game again and just focus on UCF. We're going to do everything we can to make plays for Christian. It's tough that we lost but it's time to move on."
"We want to beat UCF and not think about the loss. Losing is a growing experience and it helps you learn and it's a quick turnaround next week playing on Thursday. I'm sure people are going to hop off the BYU bandwagon and we don't even care."
Senior defensive back Craig Bills
"We played hard and I think we played the run well. We played a lot harder than we did in the first half than the second half. We didn't keep our eyes right and that's what has been hurting us in the last few games."
"We didn't talk about Taysom at halftime at all and we knew Christian was in there and we trusted him. Taysom is a tough dude so when he was down we knew it was something serious."
"We do a great job during the week to rotate players so the chemistry will be fine going forward if guys are out."
Senior quarterback Christian Stewart
"It was a tough situation especially when you see your best friend coming off the field hurt. All things considered I was pleased with the effort our offense gave. We came out of the half and were marching down the field and got an unlucky break with the tipped pass and the game kind of turned."
"It was good to get the feel of playing the game, it's been a couple years since I've started and I think BYU fans can be encouraged by what they saw even though Taysom went down."
"It's a terrible thing that Taysom went down but if there's a guy that's ready to step up it's me. I'm a leader, a confident guy and my teammates have confidence in me and I think we're going to have a great season. I have my teammates back and I know they have mine."
"I think we'll approach the game the exact same. You saw us coming out of halftime running our offense and running the same plays and I have confidence that against UCF we'll score points and score touchdowns."
"When we are getting everybody on offense involved then we are hard to stop. There are so many options and so many threats, we will put up points."