ATTENDANCE: 34,575
AMERICAN FLAG BEARER: QB Tanner Mangum
TEAM FLAGS: TE Hunter Marshall, LB Va’a Niumatalolo
ALUMNI FLAG BEARERS: Hans Olsen, Harland Ah You, Parker Mangum
TEAM NOTES
CLOSE LOSSES
BYU’s four losses this season have been by a combined eight points. The Cougars fell to Utah 20-19, UCLA 17-14, West Virginia 35-32 and now No. 14 Boise State 28-27.
PICK CITY
With two interceptions tonight, BYU is tied nationally for the most in the FBS with 14 this season. Both were returned for touchdowns. It was the first time BYU has had two defensive touchdowns since the Poinsettia Bowl in 2012 when Kyle Van Noy had a fumble recovery for a touchdown and an interception return. It was the first time BYU returned two interceptions for touchdowns since Oct. 21, 1989, against UTEP. Bob Davis and Norm Dixon each returned picks for scores in a 49-24 win.
TURNOVERS GAINED
BYU gained five turnovers, giving them 21 in 2016, the most in the FBS.
TACKLES FOR LOSS
BYU recorded five tackles for loss against the Broncos. BYU has recorded at least four tackles for loss in every game this season.
PLAYER NOTES
Fred Warner
Warner intercepted Brett Rypien in the second quarter and returned it through traffic down the sideline for 59 yards and a touchdown. It was his second career pick-six, with the first coming his freshman season for 20 yards, also at Boise State in 2014. He now has five career interceptions and two this season.
Dayan Lake
Lake recorded BYU’s second pick-six with a 50-yard return. It was his second career interception, with the earlier coming this season against Toledo.
Squally Canada
Canada recorded a career-best 21 rushes for 88 yards. He also caught three passes for seven yards.
Sae Tautu
Tautu had a career high nine tackles. He added one sack and a forced fumble.
NOTEABLE CAREER HIGHS
FG: Rhett Almond 37-yard field goal
Punts Inside the 20: Jonny Linehan had a career-high five punts downed inside the 20.
Total tackes: Sae Tautu (9), Troy Warner (5), Kesni Tausinga (3)
FIRSTS (The following players recorded their first in a respective category)
Reception: Beau Tanner
Pick-6: Dayan Lake
Forced fumble: Sae Tautu, Kai Nacua
Fumble recovery: Zayne Anderson, Handsome Tanielu
Head Coach Kalani Sitake
On deciding to attempt the field goal on second down
As far as the clock goes, I didn’t know if we had enough time to get closer. We had to make a decision. They took a time out which helped us a little bit. It’s a good thing we had it blocked and had another opportunity to make some plays. Just looking at it afterwards, I think it was the right move anyways.
On BYU forcing five turnovers .
They got some scores. I thought we gave up way too many yards and way too many drives. There were a lot of big plays that we gave up. We’ll have to watch the film on that. I thought our guys played right. They made some nice throws. I think that one throw into the endzone, I thought it was a great throw and catch, and he threaded needle to the tight end on another one. You need to give them credit. (Rypien) made the throws when he needed to, we just didn’t make those plays. We were able to create some turnovers and some disruption and some scores. Overall the team lost, and there are some things we could do better on all three phases.
On Squally Canada’s play
Squally did well. I think we were hoping that Jamaal (Williams) would be ready to go. I anticipated him being ready to go, but in the end we wanted to make sure to take care of his health. Obviously as a head coach you want your best running back to be able to go, but I thought Squally was ready to go. He ran the ball really hard. He possessed the ball and had great ball security and did a great job at pass protection. He and Algemon (Brown) will be ready to go, but hopefully we get Jamaal ready to go after the bye.
On the close games BYU has played this season
We’ve played some really good teams and some great talent. Tonight was a hard one, but there were a lot of great things that we can work off of. We had an opportunity to win with the kick at the end, you can’t really ask for more than that other than trying to play clean. It’s hard to play clean and play great offense, and great special teams and great defense an entire game when you’re going against great teams like Boise was tonight. We can pick our spots, I was just thankful we had a chance to win at the end.
On Boise State
I thought they started the ball really fast. They were fast at the beginning and we were slow out of the gate. I think once we were able to settle down a little bit on defense we were fine. Offensively, I think it didn’t feel like we could get things going. Some of the issues we had, we’d get a penalty or disrupt our drive. I don’t know if we ever got comfortable on offense. That’s the game. We’ll just keep working on it. Obviously you’d like to see more production on offense and more stops on defense, but I’ll say that every week.
On the two pick sixes
It was huge. Those guys practice all that, and we rely on our defensive backs to make some interceptions. I think we’ve done a great job of that – creating turnovers. I think that’s what kept us in this game, those five turnovers. And I think being able to take care of the football on the other side. They’re a great team. More than anything, when you have five turnovers to zero, you should be in a great position, but that says a lot about how Boise plays and the type of talent they have as a team. That’s why they’re ranked and undefeated.
Junior Linebacker Fred Warner
On the close losses this season
We’ve battled through a lot of adversity. We’re coming in with a new coaching staff, and we’ve battled through all of the game we’ve competed in, it just hasn’t gone our way in those three or four games. I think we fought this game and I’m proud of our guys.
On the BYU lockerroom after the game
This one hurt the most. Just knowing that we could have won it by a small margin hurts. I’m hurt right now just knowing things that I could have fixed, but it’s always a team effort.
On his pick-six
I was just in coverage and I turned around in the drag route with the tight end and I caught it. I had to sift through the trash to get all the way home, and I did. I got that for my mom, it was her birthday today, so that was special.
On his touchdown giving BYU a spark
That’s momentum. Momentum can win you football games. We rode it for a while. We had some easy touchdowns that shouldn’t have been given up, but they’re for sure momentum builders.
On Jeremy McNichols
He’s a hard runner, and I think up front their o-line just got little gaps to wiggle thru. He’s a good player.
On Boise State’s passing game
We needed to be in the right position at the right time, unfortunately in those situations they competed harder and they got those balls. Those are things that we look back on and say ‘what if?’
Senior Wide Receiver Mitchell Juergens
On the spiked ball play on the final drive
Yeah, I think at that point we were looking over to the coaches, and they were just saying to spike the ball. I wasn’t going to think about doing anything different than that, just do as the coaches say and give us a chance to have one more play.
On the Hail Mary . . .
I was just asking someone, honestly I can’t really remember what happened. I think we were just trying to get down there as fast as possible. I don’t think we got down there as fast as we should of, I think the ball kind of beat us there. I think they got some pressure on the quarterback and we gave it our best. They made a play. Tough to go down that way.
On the final field goal . . .
I think they got pressure up the middle, I think that’s where it was blocked. From that distance, we were confident in Rhett (Almond)- they just came out hungry. We blocked one earlier, and they blocked one in a key moment. That’s just unfortunate that they got a hand on it. I’m not sure what else we could have done there.
On BYU’s struggles on offense
We had some moments. You can’t be anything but grateful for how the defense played. I think they put us in good position, we just didn’t capitalize. There were some penalties when we got down to the 10 that brought us back and made it some second and 20s, that I wish we didn’t have.
On his catch at the goal line
It was a great ball by Taysom. It was just a vertical, I beat the guy in front of me, and it was just a great throw. It was a fun catch. I’m glad I hung on.
On the effect of Jamaal Williams being held out
I’m not too sure. I feel like we’re at team that no matter who is down, we’re going to fight. We have confidence in Squally. He ran hard. He found some holes and squeezed through them. Jamaal is one of our captains, he is a leader and he does bring fire and passion, as a program, no matter who is not there, there’s got to be guys that step up and make plays on the field. We might have been missing something there, and that’s something we need to work on.
On the failed drives in the red zone
I’m not too sure what happened. Those penalties did kill us. That’s something that we do need to clean up. Disciplined football is something that we are proud of, but coming away from that game, yeah we did make some mistakes, but there were some positives we can come away with. Having a game winning drive, we were right in the game. Unfortunately, we just came out on the bottom end. We’ll watch the film and review some of the mistakes we made, and hopefully clean it up for Cincinnati.
On having a bye week
I think it’s needed. Guys are banged up, and this is only going to help us. We’re going to smart about it, rest up, and just be ready to come back for Cincinnati stronger.
On Fred Warner’s interception
It’s something about this blue turf, he’s got a nose for the ball. That was impressive. The pick itself was impressive, and then to see him go all the way and to top it off with a dive for the pylon, that’s just Fred making a play and Fred being Fred. That was fun to watch.
Sophomore Running Back Squally Canada
On his thoughts on the game
It was a hard-fought game, that’s how I’ll sum it up. It was a good game by both teams.
On when he knew he’d be the starter
I didn’t know until about five minutes prior to walking out for game time. They told me ‘hey, you’re going.’ I didn’t know what was going on, just that they called my number and I was like ‘alright, I’m here.’
On conversations he had with Jamaal during the game
I was just checking in and seeing how he was doing. When one man goes down, another has to step up, and that’s what I got to try to do.
On how he made his run game successful
The key was the offensive linemen, of course. We need to give a big shout out to the guys that don’t get credit enough, the scout team. The scout team D-line gave us some good looks in practice. And the same thing for the scout team offense. Shout out to the scout team defense and the scout team offense. This was a team effort, but it’s no secret, the offensive line had a great push up front.
On the mood in the lockerroom
It was just a whole bunch of guys loving each other up and saying ‘we got this, don’t worry about this, just move forward.’ You don’t want to worry about it too much. You just want to push forward and worry about the future. You can’t dwell on the past; the past is the past. We have a bye week coming up so we’re going to rest up and prepare for Cincinnati.
Freshman Defensive Back Dayan Lake
On Fred Warner’s play . . -
It was big. That was a game changer right there. As a defensive group, we have a challenge of who can get the most picks and how many yards we can get. We always make fun of Fred about how the Fresno quarterback caught him. No one caught him this time.
On being down 14-0 early
It was really big. Our goal is to get three turnovers a game. We obviously got more than that. We obviously didn’t end up with the win, but as a defensive group we reached our turnover goal. We just felt that if we keep it up, we can give the offense a chance to score. They usually make a good opportunity of it.
On watching the end of the game from the sideline
It was stressful man. The first time when we missed it, I wasn’t even paying attention, I was just on the sideline head down, praying come on we got to win this game. It was stressful. Then to have another chance to score, it didn’t work out on our part