Postgame notes
BYU defeated Virginia 41-33 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The Cougars improve to 4-0 on the season and 542-393-26 all time. BYU is 4-0 for the first time since 2008 and the eighth time in school history.
The Cougars are 2-3 all-time against Virginia and 1-1 at home.
BYU is 73-4 under Bronco Mendenhall when leading after three quarters, with 13 consecutive wins.
The Cougars scored 14 points in the third quarter to go ahead 27-16. So far this season, they are outscoring their opponents 45-7 in four games in the third.
BYU has 17 wins against Power 5 schools since 2003, which ranks second among non-Power 5 schools behind fellow independent Navy.
The BYU offense is scoring on 94.7 percent (18 of 19) of its blue zone trips this year with 13 total TDs, including 16 of 16 (11 TDs) in the last three games.
BYU got its first kick return touchdown since 2011 when Cody Hoffman ran one back against Central Florida in a 24-17 win at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The Cougars scored 0.683 points per play while holding Virginia to 0.323 points per play in the contest.
Junior defensive lineman Logan Taele and freshman linebacker Sione Takitaki carried the team and special teams flags, respectively. Former linebacker Leon White (1981-85) carried the alumni flag.
Official attendance for the game was 59,023.
Junior quarterback Taysom Hill scored three touchdowns (two pass, one rush) while throwing for 187 yards and rushing for 72 yards with a passer efficiency rating of 153.5, his second best of the season.
Senior wide receiver Jordan Leslie caught his first touchdown as a Cougar. He finished the game with a team-high four receptions and 41 yards.
Junior receiver Devon Blackmon caught two passes, including a 56-yard catch from Taysom Hill, the longest pass play for BYU this season. He also added a 25-yard punt return.
Sophomore receiver Mitchell Juergens scored his first touchdown at BYU on a 50-yard reception in the fourth quarter.
Junior running back/kickoff returner Adam Hine scored a 99-yard touchdown on a kickoff return in the fourth quarter, his first score as a return man.
Senior defensive back Robertson Daniel recorded his first interception of the season. He added two pass breakups and four tackles.
Sophomore linebacker Sae Tautu notched a career-high five tackles, including 0.5 tackles for loss.
Senior linebacker Alani Fua set a new career high with eight solo tackles and season high with nine total tackles.
Junior linebacker Jherremya Leuta-Douyere recorded seven total tackles, including five solo—both personal bests.
Junior linebacker Manoa Pikula tied his career high with five total tackles.
Senior punter Scott Arellano tied his career high with four punts inside the 20-yard line. He notched five total punts for 275 yards with a long of 65, averaging 55 yards per punt, also a career high. It’s the first time in his career that Arellano has had three 60+ yard punts. The only time he had three over 50 yards was this year at Texas.
Senior safety Craig Bills notched a season- and team-high 10 tackles, while adding one pass breakup and 0.5 tackles for loss.
BYU Postgame Quotes
BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall
Keys to the win: "Taysom (Hill) played the second half as well as our early down defense did in the 2nd and 3rd quarter and that combination allowed us to move away. That and the turnover battle, we were plus two, in a close game."
Responding to Virginia's offense: "Each time we took (the lead) from eight to 15, to their credit they responded. We needed the players to respond as well. Between Taysom and Adam Hine and what was happening there with that combination, at least offensively, kind of kept us separated."
Defensive execution: "It was not great execution from play one all the way through to the end of the game, just in terms of assignment sound football, playing with an edge, playing with confidence and making the appropriate stops on third down, which really was tied to execution. I would have loved to seen us be more assignment sound and be playing with more edge within our assignments. Collectively, there were glimpses, but consistency was an issue today."
Playing behind for the first time this season: "I think they battled really well. You could tell it was different for us. It was different for us really from the beginning of the game.
It was an appropriate and necessary situation to learn from and we put ourselves in it and we showed ourselves what we could do."
Things to improve on defense: "We're not getting to the quarterback frequently enough nor are we making plays on the ball and the combination of those two things allowed Virginia to keep the ball and stay in the game. We had so many chances to either hit the quarterback or knock down a pass."
RB/KR Adam Hine
On kickoff return: “I caught the ball–and my team, they’re more than I can ask for–I saw it open up and couldn’t believe it and just kept running.”
“It means so much, especially doing the statistics and having our kick return be on the bottom from punt return and kickoff, it brings us up a little bit of where our goal should be, and it makes us feel really good to be where we need to.”
On BYU team this year and last year: “We’ve come so far from last year. Our first game against Virginia last year, our offense was new, but now things are clicking well. We still knew Virginia was going to be a good team and we prepared for that and they prepared really well for us, but things worked out in our favor tonight.”
On touchdown: “I was about third and short, and third and medium. We called a play, a shallow route for me and Terenn Houk. When I was open to get the ball, I looked over at Taysom and he was rolling out, and we practiced scrambling so many times, and I was shallow, and when you’re shallow, you’re told to go deep and when Taysom saw me, I caught it and turned around and saw daylight. It was a dream come true. It’s the first one in my career, and I definitely won’t forget it.”
On pulling away: “Virginia is a good team. We didn’t expect them to roll over and give it to us. We knew that no matter how big the lead was they were going to come back and we needed to keep performing our offense. Adam had such a key kick return to help the team out, and we can never take it easy.”
On personal game: “Our sports psychologist talked today about staying in the zone and not being too extreme. I had a rough warm-up and wasn’t very happy about my pregame, but our first punt came along and I made great contact with it, and from that point I just started having a lot of fun and felt really good. When I start having fun, I start stacking one on top of one another”
QB Taysom Hill
On offense in first and second half: “I don’t know we did anything particularly different. We didn’t get many opportunities to execute and run our offense. When we had those opportunities we took advantage of it in the second half where we didn’t really do that in the first half.”
“I think we ran 60 plays, which wasn’t a lot. I think offensively, they had a good game plan. Their best defense was keeping their offense out there, and I thought they executed it pretty well. Virginia was a great defense, but when we had drive stalls, it’s because we had silly penalties on our part.”
On putting game away: “We need that killer instinct. In hindsight we’ll look at it and make sure we come out on top, but I thought for the most part, we did what we needed to do to win the football game and that’s all that matters.”
UVa Postgame Quotes
Virginia Head Coach Mike London
“Our coaches did a great job of putting a game plan together that allowed us to be competitive. They played better than us in the end and deserved to win.”
“I'm proud of our team, playing against another top-25 team and being competitive. Hats off to Coach Mendenhall for the win.”
“We're encouraged by a lot of things that happened statistically, but the end result is we didn't win the football game. You play to win games and our execution wasn't good enough to win.”
“I like this football team. I've said that time and time again. We're not afraid to play good teams and travel to do so. We'll get back Charlottesville and get ready to go again.”
“A lot of it had to do with their quarterback, Hill. He broke some arm tackles. He's a physical guy. He's a really good player and quarterback. He performed in the clutch for them when it counted.”
“Again, that's a good BYU team we played that will win a lot of football games.”
WR Canaan Severin
On what the offense can take from this game to improve: "The offense put up a good amount of numbers. We showed today that we can move the ball. I think moving forward, we have to focus on executing and getting the ball in the zone. We have the running backs to do that, the skill players to do that, the linemen to do that. We just need to execute."
On injury to starting QB and playing well after: "We are not going to stop until the clock hits zero. Matt Johns pulled the offense together and said let's keep going and keep battling. That's what we did. We just don't give up."
On play of back-up QB Matt Johns: "We are fortunate to have quarterbacks to step in when someone gets hurt and come in and play well. That is the same with the wide receivers and the tight ends and the running backs. We have depth and we trust anyone who is in the game."
OLB Max Valles
On Taysom Hill: "I told him after the game that he was going to win the Heisman. He is the best athlete I have ever played in college or high school."
What they needed to do better today: "We needed to force turnovers. We just have to get off the field. If the offense scores 33 points we need to win the game."
On moving forward: "We need to remember this feeling and never let it happen again. We need to brush it off on the way home and regroup tomorrow."
QB Matt Johns
On exchange with starting QB on his way into the game: "He said, 'Hey, this is your chance. Go make the best of it. We need you right now. This is your team and your drive. Make the best of it and let's see what we can get out of it."
On his offense's performance this game: "At the end of the day we didn't win, and it's frustrating but I think our offense gave us a chance. And at the end of the day that's all you can ask for. This team never gives up. I'm so proud of our guys."
Moving forward from this game: "It's a tough one. It's a tough one to swallow and let settle in. But we aren't going to let it settle in. We are going to come back stronger."
MLB Henry Coley
What they can take away from this game: "We fought today. We just have to execute. In the second half, we can't give up that many points whether it's defense, special teams or what have you."
What his thoughts were on the defense's performance: "Our offense put together some key drives and they kept us in the game a lot. We just got to stick to the schemes and execute [on defense]"
On whether he like playing BYU early in the season: "Down the road this is definitely going to make us better. The schedule is what the schedule is."