Postgame notes
BYU vs. Wisconsin
Nov. 9, 2013
Camp Randall Stadium - Madison, Wis.
The Cougars fell to the Wisconsin Badgers 27-17. The Wisconsin victory snaps a five-game win streak for BYU and marks the first loss since Sep. 21. BYU is now 6-3 this season, 536-391-26 all-time, 1-1 versus Wisconsin and 2-5-1 against Big 10 teams.
Skyler Ridley and Chris Badger carried out the team and special teams flags, respectively, while Jim Herrmann carried the alumni flag. Herrmann, a Wisconsin native, was a defensive lineman at BYU from 1980-84.
The Cougars have not been shut out for 121 consecutive games dating back to 2003.
Cody Hoffman
Senior Cody Hoffman became BYU’s all-time leader in receiving yards with his touchdown catch in the third quarter. He now has 3,355 yards in his career. He is tied with Austin Collie with 17 games of 100 yards or more receiving, the most in BYU history. Hoffman has caught 33 touchdowns at BYU, also the most in school history. His two touchdowns in the game mark a season high. The senior finished with 113 yards on seven catches and improved his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 39. He has played in 46 games and earned 43 starts in his career.
Taysom Hill
Sophomore quarterback Taysom Hill finished the game with 207 yards and two touchdowns through the air, his 13th and 14th on the year. Hill has recorded five games this season with 200 or more passing yards. He also added 53 yards on the ground, moving him to No. 23 all-time at BYU for career rushing with 1,230 yards.
Jamaal Williams
Sophomore running back Jamaal Williams finished with 76 yards on 14 carries. He moves up to No. 13 in BYU history with 1,584 career rushing yards.
Terenn Houk
Sophomore receiver Terenn Houk caught his first career reception for seven yards.
Kaneakua Friel
Senior tight end Kaneakua Friel tied his season high with three catches. He finished with 22 yards receiving.
Kyle Van Noy
Senior linebacker Kyle Van Noy caught his seventh career interception in the second quarter. He also added eight tackles and two tackles for loss. He’s recorded a TFL in eight of this year’s nine games. Last year he had a TFL in 10 of 13 games. The senior got his 32nd start in 48 career games.
Uani ' Unga
Senior linebacker Uani ‘ Unga recorded 15 tackles, the sixth game this season he has 10 or more in a game and the third game with 15 or more. The senior captain leads the team with 100 tackles on the year.
Alani Fua
Junior linebacker Alani Fua notched a sack on third down to force Wisconsin to punt with 4:58 remaining in the third quarter. That marked his third sack of the season and the fifth of his career. He also added six tackles.
Daniel Sorensen
Safety Daniel Sorensen notched nine tackles, including 0.5 TFL, the most for the senior this season.
Craig Bills
Junior safety Craig Bills set a season high with nine tackles against the Badgers.
Jherremya Leuta-Douyere
Sophomore linebacker Jherremya Leuta-Douyere forced a fumble, the first of his career, and also added three tackles.
Scott Arellano
Punter Scott Arellano notched a career-high 73-yard punt to add to his 333 total yards on eight punts in the game.
Postgame quotes
BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall Postgame Quotes
Opening statement:
"I think that Wisconsin is a great football team. I think that they are physical, I think that they execute well. They had a nice game management plan, which we knew about going in. They run the ball effectively and I think that they made the right plays when they needed to in order to win the game. I thought that their two critical plays were their two minute drive right before the half and Wisconsin had a drive from the eight yard line when I thought we were making a run, I thought they executed really cleanly in those two instances. I thought it would be a one to two drive game in terms of determining outcome. I think that's the way that it played out. Wisconsin did a nice job of really targeting and focusing on Taysom (Hill), especially with his running ability. We made plays. We made quite a few plays at the receiver spot outside and I thought there were more to be made. That was a good thing from my perspective that we started to be explosive on the outside as the game went on."
On momentum change and turning points...
"Wisconsin statistically and rightly so was good on defense. I thought they were strong going into the game and I think the same now after watching them. I think to play from behind the chains after a sack makes it more difficult."
On losing Spencer Hadley...
"It hurt. Spencer (Hadley) is one of the best players on our team and is integral. We had a substitution package that we were planning on using that was no longer possible for some of their bigger personal sets when Spencer went out, but that's football and we still had our opportunities to play well and win without that, but it hurt."
On Wisconsin's first drive setting the tone...
"I think that there was a critical third down or two that they converted that surprised us more than anything and possibly the ability to throw and catch the ball in long yardage situations. They were physical, and we knew that going in. It's one thing to talk about and it's another thing to line up and play against. There still will be a player that was responsible for a gap that didn't do his job right and I can't tell you exactly what that is but that's the only way that the ball is run for any significant yardage. I think there were probably two or three of those runs on the first drive."
On James White's impact on the game...
"We thought that they had two good football players in James White and Melvin Gordon. We were surprised a little bit when one of our best tacklers Robertson Daniels, one of corners number 20, he made him miss in the open field on the first or second drive coming around. I was impressed, they have good skill and I think they are tough. Again there was one drive too many. I thought this would have been a 24-20 type of game going into it, and that's about what it would have and could have been, but we didn't play quite cleanly enough to make it that."Wisconsin Head Coach Gary Andersen
Wisconsin Head Coach Gary Andersen Postgame Quotes
Opening statement:
It's a great win. The kids played extremely hard. I thought that was maybe overall our best team victory of the season as far as just every aspect of the game -- offense, defense, special teams -- being a factor in a positive way.
And it's never perfect, but we knew this was going to be a battle. We knew it was going to be physical. I appreciate the kids listening to me and understanding when I talked to them about the toughness of the team that was walking in here. That's a tough team. They'll be tough every week. They'll be tough every year.
A lot of respect for BYU. It was great to beat them. So away we go.
Proud of this football program and the way they handled themselves and the way they took care of business this week.
QUESTION: Gary, I know you always salute the players when they make plays, but can you talk about the defensive game plan that was devised to, especially contain (Taysom) Hill and that offense in general?
ANDERSEN: Absolutely. I thought they did a nice job as a staff. Dave (Aranda) and his staff, they were highly worried walking into this game, but if you look at it and some different things that took place you know, Dez (Southward) moves out to corner, Nate Hammonmoves out and has to play (Mitch) Mathews a lot in some man to man situations. Those are matchups that you look at on film and you prepare and study like crazy and then put the kids in position with the game play you think will work.
I thought our pressure on the quarterback was good. The adjustments were good. We were able to get Chris (Borland) freed up a little bit on some rushes. Our pass rush in the second half wasn't quite as good.
The other thing is the game plan as far as handling the pace. The pace was a nonfactor, and that was huge for us. So there wasn't confusion. There wasn't guys running around and looking to see what was going to happen and where we were going.
So the coaches did a nice job. Like I talked about earlier, it's got to go from the coordinator it's got to go personnel group to the coordinator, onto the field to the kids, and they've got to make their calls and get themselves lined up, and they did that in a timely manner the whole day long.
So coaches did a great job, and the kids executed.
QUESTION: What did you like specifically about the matchup with Dez at corner on Number 2?
ANDERSEN: (Cody) Hoffman is so physical, and Mathews is too. You've got to have some length to be able to stay with them. Those contested balls they get up there and they caught a great contested ball on the fade in the second half. I don't know what else you can tell Dez to do really in that situation. He got a little bit beat off the line or what have you, but I thought he covered him well.
It was just clearly matchups, allowing our kids to be able to get physical with them at the line of scrimmage. We felt like we could gain an advantage pre snap, and hopefully our rush would take off and make the fade balls be difficult. It's kind of the essence of man coverage, if you will, is to disrupt and take offense out of their comfort zones.
QUESTION: Gary, is James the most complete back you've been around, and are you talking about the blitz pickup on the two minute drill? Is that the one you're referring to?
ANDERSEN: You know what, I'm so dazed right now, my mind is all over the place going through there. I don't know which one it was, but he had a bunch of them.
You know what, James is. I would agree with that. His ability to block and be physical, his ability to be our downhill runner, have some speed on the outside, and catch the football is a very unique package, and he can do all that stuff very well.
QUESTION: Clearly, Wisconsin and BYU aren't rivals, but considering your past, does this game, this win mean any more to you?
ANDERSEN: Yeah, I can't say it doesn't. It's a big victory when you grow up and that's that's the team that you're not supposed to like from the time that you're whenever you start learning things.
We all know I've got great respect for BYU. I can't say I dislike them. I don't. It's a competitive team, and it's a big win for us.
University of Wisconsin gets seven wins, improves our opportunity to have an opportunity to be a great team, and we're still working down those lines to get there. We've got to keep on fighting to get ready for next week.
QUESTION: BYU seemed to do a pretty good job of limiting Melvin's explosiveness. Is he at full strength?
ANDERSEN: Yeah, he is. Yeah, I think Melvin, he's good in practice, looks fast and clean. Those kids on BYU, they're fast, they can run, and they're good tacklers.
QUESTION: All three of your scoring drives in the first half were 11 plays, over 60 yards. How important was it for you to sustain some long drives and put some points on the board, keeping their offense off the field?
ANDERSEN: It was huge. I haven't looked at the stats to see the overall time of possession. It was good for us to be able to continually drive the ball.
Probably one of the best things you could say about the offense today is you didn't have a bunch of negative plays. There was some, obviously, and a sack here or a run here, whatever it may have been, but for the most part, BYU thrives on that type of defense, making the big plays behind the line of scrimmage. They thrive on turnovers.
We were able to handle that for the most part and keep the game within our control so they don't get in a feeding frenzy, and that's the type of defense they played for years and years, and that's how I believe our defense is built too. You want those kids to feel like that on defense. I don't think we ever let them get completely settled.