NOTES
ATTENDANCE: 56,015
FLAG BEARERS: ALUMNI: Sete Aulai, Offensive Lineman, 2005-07 TEAM: Michael Wadsworth (Sr., DB) SPECIAL TEAMS: Travis Tuiloma (Jr., NT)
GAME CAPTAINS: Bronson Kaufusi (Sr., DL) and Nick Kurtz (Jr., WR)
TEAM NOTES
Bowl Eligible.With the win, BYU becomes bowl eligible for the 11th consecutive season—every year under head coach Bronco Mendenhall.
Scoring.The 70-6 win is the first 70-point game for BYU since a 70-35 win over Tulane on Aug. 25, 2001. It is the fourth time in school history with at least 70 points.
Total Offense.The Cougars had 741 total offensive yards for No. 4 in school history and the most since 1989 with 750 yards in a 70-31 win over Utah.
Rushing.BYU’s 330 rushing yards are it’s first game of over 200 rushing yards this season and its first game of 300+ yards rushing since a 33-25 win over Houston in 2014. It was the first game BYU had two 100-yard rushers since Houston 2014. BYU has six rushing touchdowns of 20+ yards this season with scoring runs of 42, 37 and 70 yards against Wagner.
Passing.BYU's offense had 411 passing yards today for the 5th game of the year with 300+ passing yards and the first 400+ passing total since Nevada in 2014. BYU’s quarterbacks combined to go 23 of 27 for 411 yards and four touchdowns through the air.
Punt Returns. BYU had 94 yards on five punt returns with a long of 40 on the day. It is the most punt return yards since 107 in a 2013 win against Middle Tennessee.
Blocked Kicks.Logan Taele got a hand on the Wagner PAT attempt for the first BYU blocked PAT since 2012 (Russell Tialavea vs. San Jose State). It’s the third consecutive game with a blocked kick (punt, FG, PAT) for BYU.
Sacks.Since 2005, the Cougars are 47-2 when notching three or more sacks in a single game. BYU’s defense had three sacks, seven tackles for loss, one interception and two pass breakups.
PLAYER NOTES
Mitch Mathews
Caught three passes for two touchdowns and 44 yards, extending his streak to 32 consecutive games with at least one reception. He notched his 20th and 21st career TD catches, tying him with Dennis Pitta/Mike Chronister for 8th place in career TD receptions at BYU.
Algernon Brown
Scored his third rushing touchdown of the year of at least 35 yards with runs of 42 and 37 yards in the first quarter, totaling 109 yards on six carries.
Francis Bernard
Carried the ball six times for 54 yards and scored his third rushing touchdown this season.
Tanner Mangum
Threw three touchdowns while completing 12 of 13 passes for 237 yards by the 9:49 mark in the second quarter. It is his second career game with three passing scores. His passer rating was 321.6.
Beau Hoge
Scored his first two career rushing touchdowns, rushing for 47 yards on 12 carries. He also completed 8 of 11 passes for 117 yards and one pass TD for a 192.1 rating.
Fred Warner
Recorded his first two career sacks in addition to ending the game with four total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and one quarterback hurry.
CAREER HIGHS (The following players recorded noteable career highs)
Nate Carter
Long Run—70-yard run for the touchdown was the longest in his career and the longest TD run for a Cougar since Jamaal William’s ran for a 70-yard score vs. Idaho State in 2013
FIRSTS (The following players recorded their first in a respective category)
Career Firsts
Rushing TD—Beau Hoge (2-yard run)
Passing TD—Beau Hoge (47-yard pass)
Receiving TD—David Kessler (47-yard)
Reception—David Kessler (20-yarder), Josh Weeks (13-yarder), Jake Ziolkowski (7-yarder)
Rushing Attempt—Colby Hansen (8 yards)
Completion—Koy Detmer Jr. (5-yarder)
Punt Return—Michael Shelton (19-yarder)
Offensive Snaps—Remington Peck (TE), Theodore King (TE), JJ Nwigwe (OL), Jacob Jimenez (OL), Akile Davis (WR), Josh Weeks (WR), Koy Detmer Jr. (QB), Peter Welsh (RB), Colby Hansen (RB)
Pass Breakup—Chris Badger, Grant Jones
Tackles—Tevita Mo’Unga, Micah Simon, Lene Lesatele, Brayden El-Bakri, Moses Kaumatule
Sacks – Fred Warner, Va’a Niumatalolo
Season Firsts
Receiving TD—Colby Pearson (16-yarder)
Interception—Jordan Preator
Rushing Attempt—Toloa’i Ho Ching (5-yarder)
Tackles—Va’a Niumatalolo
QUOTES
BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall (VIDEO)
"What a unique challenge, as was mentioned all week. I think our team handled it well today, and in preparation for the week. I like how clean we played in the first half. The team responded in the second half, and they improved and showed some maturity and progress, especially throughout the week. We got a chance to play a lot of younger players and it gives us a great assessment on who's making progress within scout teams, how our backups look and what players might be able to have more of a substantial role down the final stretch for four games. Ideally, I think the team handled this game as well as they good."
On BYU’s quarterbacks:
"Both backup quarterbacks got some work, and I think we played all of those players we wanted to play. Now, we'll get some rest, which has been a long time coming. We'll do some scout work, even though that's ongoing because we want to be precise and sharp, we'll get some rest, and then we'll move forward."
On Beau Hoge and Koy Detmer Jr.:
"Beau got comfortable once he got to the third and fourth series, especially in the second half. He looked like he was throwing the ball more comfortably, his decisions looked a lot better and his throwing today a lot cleaner. I think he got better with every series, which is really fun. We got some great looks at Koy as well, which was nice."
On mindset for the game:
"Regarding our mindset for the game, we wanted to attack first. That was our big one. There were a few things we really wanted to focus on, such as starting fast offensively, which we did. I think we did well."
On the run game:
"The run game certainly has to be developing to a certain extent, at least it was showing today. There was no question that we were more explosive and dynamic in the first half, and our play calling was working. We wanted to make sure that we weren't just running the ball and keeping control, but that we were blocking the right people as well."
On Tanner Mangum’s health:
"He's fine. He was more healthy this week than he was a week ago, and now he'll have two full weeks of practice and recovery."
BYU Special Teams improving?
"I'm not quite sure. We were working on it this week and gave Michael Shelton a chance to return kicks. He's looking well at practice and was more dynamic and you saw that today. What could possibly be happening as a result of that, is now that we're returning the ball longer, our fundamentals of blocking and not holding are being exposed. When our returns were shorter before, blocks aren't sustained as long, so our technical parts are being exposed. We'll need to touch that up."
On Wagner and the score:
"I've been on the other side, maybe not to that extent. But they were first class. They kept talking about the mountains because many of them haven't ever left the East Coast. They kept complimenting us after the game, saying what a great team we had. What a neat college experience for them, that they were able to step back and recognize this experience, despite the score. I was impressed."
Remington Peck as Tight End:
"It's permanent for the rest of the season. He's emerged as a true tight end. He earned that spot this week for the rest of the season. The goal this game was to give him 30-35 snaps at this spot. I don't know what the total snaps were at the spot, but we're learning that he gives us the ability to run the ball effectively. He was a tight end in high school, and he runs and catches the ball decently. He already knows the defense inside and out, so we can use him there as well and we can use him to help us offensively."
QB Beau Hoge (VIDEO)
“I felt that we played well today, and that we came out and executed our game plan. I felt prepared for the game, personally. Coach Anae did a good job preparing me for the week.”
“Being able to score that first touchdown was fun. As quarterbacks we all root for each other, and it was cool to see Tanner and Taysom be excited for Koy and me. Taysom is very helpful in giving us tips and pumping us up.”
WR Trey Dye
“It felt good to get in the open field on that long catch. I wish I would have done more with it and scored a touchdown, though.”
“To me, it doesn’t matter who we play, what time of day we play or where we play. It’s a faceless opponent in my mind. Once we step on the field it’s time to go and focus on our own responsibilities. Today was a great opportunity for a guy like myself to focus on my technique and get some good experience.”
DB Grant Jones (VIDEO)
“I thought we performed well defensively. In the first half we shut things down, and in the second half we had one series where we let some things get away from us. Overall, I thought we played really hard.”
“We played a lot of guys defensively today, but we practiced for it and rotated enough in practice this week that we felt comfortable playing with everyone.”
LB Manoa Pikula
“We always want to try to start out strong, whether it’s the beginning of the game or as we come out after halftime. We kept our energy up all game and kept executing.”
“The bye week will be beneficial to us so that we can rest and prepare for San Jose State. It comes at a great time so we can have time to heal all our bumps and bruises.”​
Wagner Head coach Jason Houghtaling:
On making the trip to Provo
“Our guys got to experience a lot on this trip that they probably wouldn't have gotten to experience had we not played this game. A lot of our guys and coaches had never been out here and seen this part of the country. It was really something remarkable.”
“The people here at BYU really helped us out and we got to see some cool things and we enjoyed our experience at Aspen Grove. It was great, the people were terrific and everything was great with the exception of the 60 minutes we played on the field.”
“It was a great student-athlete experience. We talk about that a lot in recruiting. Giving these guys a chance to come out and play in front of a crowd like this in this stadium with the tradition they have here, that's a huge advantage for those guys and it is going to help our program out down the road. It was a positive experience.”
On familiarity with BYU program
“They have the tradition, the great players and its one of the winningest programs in the past few years in college football. So just coming out here and seeing that and being a part of that you just see them as winners. Obviously their coach does a great job and they've got an amazing program here.”
On positive takeaways
“I think defensively some of the guys played okay. Bruce had 8 tackles, Stephon Font-Toomer and Najee Harris flew around and made some plays. We just didn't finish enough plays or make enough plays.”