The following notes are from BYU’s 49-23 win vs. Hawai’i at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday.
ATTENDANCE: 52,354
TEAM FLAGS: Bracken El-Bakri, Brayden El-Bakri, Sione Finau, Kamalani Kaluhiokalani
ALUMNI FLAG BEARERS: Ifo Pili, Paul Walkenhorst, Adam Hine, Seth Probert
TEAM NOTES
Series Notes
BYU improves to 10-0 at home against Hawai’i. The Cougars also move to 23-8 in the series.
Freshman quarterbacks
Zach Wilson is the seventh true freshman to start a game as a quarterback for BYU. He follows Drew Miller (1997), John Beck (2003), Jake Heaps (2010), Taysom Hill (2012), Tanner Mangum (2015), Joe Critchlow (2017). Wilson, who turned 19 in August, is also the youngest freshman quarterback to start for BYU. Hill also recorded his first career start as a true freshman against Hawai’I (W 47-0). Hill went on to tally 112 passing yards with two touchdowns while also running for 143 yards and one touchdown. Hill was on the sidelines of the game against Hawai’i tonight.
Young starters
BYU started six freshmen on offense on the opening drive including Zach Wilson (QB, true), Lopini Katoa (RB, redshirt), Gunner Romney (WR, true), Brady Christensen (OL, redshirt), Keanu Saleapaga (OL, redshirt), James Empey (OL, redshirt). In the 2018 season, the Cougars have played 23 freshmen with 10 of them starting at least one game this year.
Starting fast
BYU opened the game with touchdowns on its first two drives. Lopini Katoa rushed for a 12-yard touchdown which was followed by a 23-yard run into the end zone from Zach Wilson. The last time BYU started a game scoring on both of its opening possessions was last season against San Jose State when Tanner Mangum threw a 23-yard touchdown to Micah Simon followed by a 11-yard touchdown to Matt Bushman. BYU won that game 41-20.
Cougar Scoring
The Cougars scored in every quarter of the game against Hawai’i. Scoring two touchdowns in the first, second and fourth quarters as well as one in the third. This was the second time this season, BYU has made it into the end zone every quarter, the last time being against Wisconsin.
Rushing Touchdowns
BYU had four players score rushing touchdowns including Katoa (12 yards), Wilson (23 yards), Hadley (21 yards) and Burt (3 yards). It was the first time since 2015 vs. Wagner, and the first time against an FBS opponent since 2009 (UNLV).
PLAYER NOTES
Zach Wilson
In his first career start for the Cougars, the freshman went 16-24 for 194 yards for the highest pass efficiency rating of a BYU true freshman quarterback in their first start at 167.5 (Mangum 162.7 vs Boise State in 2015). Wilson threw for three touchdowns which is the most by a true freshman QB in their first start. He also ran for one touchdown, totally four in the game, also the most touchdowns combined (passing/running) by a true freshman in their first start.
Lopini Katoa
After his touchdown against Hawai’i, Katoa is currently tied with Squally Canada for a team high of five touchdowns. Katoa scored his fifth touchdown on the opening drive with a 12-yard run. He finished the game with a career high rushing yards of 83.
Corbin Kaufusi
Kaufusi recorded a career high of two sacks while also leading the team with eight tackles including seven solo stops.
Isaiah Kaufusi
Kaufusi finished the game with a career high of seven tackles including five solo stops. He also recorded his first career sack and forced fumble.
NOTABLE CAREER HIGHS and FIRSTS
First career reception: Matt Hadley (5 yards, first quarter)
First career rushing touchdown: Zach Wilson (23 yards, first quarter),
First career touchdown: Matt Hadley (rush-21 yards, second quarter), Dallin Holker (receiving-13 yards, second quarter)
Career high rushing yards: Lopini Katoa (83), Matt Hadley (91)
First career sack: Isaiah Kaufusi (second quarter)
First career interception: Austin Lee (36-yard return, second quarter)
Career long rush: Matt Hadley (39 yards, third quarter)
Career high total tackles: Isaiah Kaufusi
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake
A lot of guys contributed to the win, obviously, it wasn’t perfect, but there are some things that we’re going to work on. Going into a bye week, it makes me feel good about ourselves and we just got over that slump of not playing our style of football during these last two weeks.
On Zach Wilson being QB
As we talk about it over and over again, you guys have heard us say that guys are competing in every position. We feel like everyone needs to do their job every week and there are a lot of positions where we’ll be making some changes and that just happened to be one of them this week. Going into it we felt like the competition, especially in the last couple of weeks, he was good enough to give him the starting spot because he deserved it.
First impression on Wilson starting.
There were some really good things. I’m not happy about the pick that he threw. I felt he got a little greedy and tried to think too highly of himself or tried to fit the ball in the there. He knew already that we can’t make those types of mistakes. There are a few other things that he himself can do better at. For what we recruited him to do he did well. I’m pleased with the way that he led the team and he’s going to keep competing and he’ll try and keep that spot. That’s going to be the goal with Zach and everyone else that’s starting, they want to hold onto their spot; they have to keep competing and find a way to hold onto the starting role.
On how the defense started the game.
I was pleased with how the defense played for the most part. The second half we just gave away too many plays and part of that was the adjustments that Hawaii made. Rolovich is a really good coach, McDonald is a really good quarterback and they have good receivers. On some of the adjustments we made, we were able to make some plays, but I think they have a really explosive offense and I’m really pleased with how our guys played and we got some pressure on the quarterback. I thought that we played a bit better than the last couple of weeks and I think the whole team played well.
BYU defensive lineman Corbin Kaufusi
On physical defensive response tonight
For us to come out and respond the way we did was amazing. You can’t really coach physicality. You can tell someone to be physical, but it’s all about just bringing it. Everyone has to find that fire. It was cool because before the game you could see it in everyone, everyone had that fire in their eyes. Everyone responded personally and took it upon themselves.
BYU linebacker Isaiah Kaufusi
On improving after two losses
Obviously losing two weeks in a row was not what we wanted. This was a really good win for us. This was what we wanted to do was coming out a play a solid game in all three phases and get a win.
On cousin Corbin’s play
He’s an animal. He’s stud, that’s all I can say really. We use him in a lot of different positions, we used him in three tonight: defensive end, middle linebacker and outside linebacker. To really hone in on those positions and play like he did, that just shows the type of ball player that he is.
On impact of the offense
When the offense is rolling like that it takes some pressure off the defense and we play more freely and make more plays. We can take some risks that we wouldn’t take if it was a tighter game. To be able to have the offense put us in that position helped a ton.
Sophomore Offensive Line James Empey
On changes in approach this week after struggling the past few weeks.
We struggled a little bit the past couple of weeks and everybody knows that if you can’t run the ball then it’s hard to be productive as an offense. We had a goal to run the ball and practiced it earlier this week with emphasis on techniques. It was nice to run hard. Our coaches have asked us to be more physical and get the ball and we did that a lot today.
On tonights game being more like BYU football.
Tonight was BYU football. We have a long way to go and tonight was far from perfect. We’ll watch the film and see where we can get better. When you can move the ball on the ground it makes playing offense a lot easier. So, that was more like BYU football.
Senior running back Matt Hadley
On what changes made the difference
The coaches challenged us a lot more this week. They’re always challenging us, but this week they really made an emphasis in us believing in ourselves. I saw that tonight. We believed in ourselves and those around us. I think that’s what made the biggest difference.
On offensive line performance
These guys are unbelievable. Not only are they strong and execute like they’re supposed to, but they’re smart. For the other guys in the offense, we love that. You can’t ask for much more than an offensive line that knows exactly what they need to do and when they need to do it.
On switching back to offense
There was definitely some rust but the offensive line did such a great job that it helped me relearn. There’s things that I need to work out, but that goes for all of us.
Freshman quarterback Zach Wilson
On how he found out he was starting
I think everybody’s pretty grateful for what they have and I trust the coaches. I’m just grateful for the opportunity and I’m just trying to make the most of it and luckily I have my teammates. Everyone knows that a quarterback can’t be successful without a good line or good receivers or a good scheme, so I think everything’s in place.
They let me know last week at practice that we were switching our mindset a little bit and that’s not necessarily because I was coming in, but because we knew that the offense had to make a big step. I think we did that all around. I think a lot of us take it personal with us losing games and not playing well on offense and I think we did a good job adjusting throughout practice.
Senior wide receiver Dylan Collie
On changes coming into the game
I saw a lot more confidence, drive and understanding in what we actually needed to get done. I think a lot of people from the outside looked at it as what we were doing wrong, but we looked at it and saw what we needed to do more of. We’ve got absolute grinders and no matter who’s in the game. We made things happen. This team has a lot of potential and we’re just going to keep going up and up.