The following notes and quotes are from BYU's 40-24 loss to Utah State.
ATTENDANCE: 24,112
AMERICAN FLAG BEARER: Spencer Hoyt
TEAM FLAGS: Riley Burt (RB), Austin Hoyt (OL), Andrew Mikkelsen (K)
ALUMNI FLAG BEARERS: Moose Bingham (K, 13-14), Steven Richards (TE, 14-15), Todd Barker (DB, 98-02), Derik Stevenson (LB, 92, 95-98), Jason Cooper (WR 89, 92-95)
TEAM NOTES
Series
BYU moves to 48-36-3 in the series.
Defensive Touchdown
BYU’s defense recorded its first defensive touchdown since Michael Shelton returned a fumble 52 yards last season vs. Utah State. It was the first pick-six since Francis Bernard had one for 39 yards against UMass last season.
Sacks
BYU had a season-best four sacks in the game. It was the first time BYU had at least four sacks since UMass last season.
Coach to Cure MD
BYU’s coaches wore patches featuring the Coach to Cure MD (Muscular Dystrophy) campaign.
Trickeration
BYU ran a successful “trick” play with Austin Kafentzis taking a direct snap, handing off to wide receiver Micah Simon, tossing it to quarterback Beau Hoge who threw it to fullback Brayden El-Bakri for a 26-yard touchdown.
Rushing yards
BYU rushed for a season-best 210 rushing yards.
PLAYER NOTES
Ula Tolutau rushed 21 times for 102 yards for a career high in both categories. It was his first 100-yard game.
Micah Hannemann recorded his first career pick-six against the Aggies on a 46-yard return. It was his fourth career interception and first this season.
Fred Warner
Warner filled the stat sheet with eight tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack and one pass breakup in the game. He had a career-best three tackles for loss.
Corbin Kaufusi
Kaufusi picked up his third career block in the second quarter. It was his first of the season and first of the year for the BYU special teams.
Brayden El-Bakri
El-Bakri caught his first career touchdown on a 26-yard throw from Beau Hoge on a gadget play. It was his second career touchdown after a 1-yard run last season.
Beau Tanner
Tanner scored his first career touchdown on a 40-yard strike from Beau Hoge. Tanner made a diving catch in the end zone, getting his foot down just inbounds for the score.
CAREER HIGHS (Notable career highs from today’s game)
Rushing attempts: Ula Tolutau (21)
Rushing yards: Ula Tolutau (102)
Receiving yards: Neil Pau’u (26)
Tackles: Sione Takitaki (9), Zayne Anderson (9), Khyiris Tonga (5)
Tackles for loss: Fred Warner (3)
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake
We had way too many errors for us to overcome and have a chance to win this game. We’re going to evaluate everything again. The only choice we have is to go back to square one and try to find a way to win games and try to get this win against Boise State next week.
Utah State head coach Matt Wells
That was an awesome team win. I’m happy for that locker room, this was a long time coming. That’s a tremendous win and I know how much it means to our fans and alumni. It’s a rivalry win and it’s a great feeling for a lot of Aggies. There were a lot of great individual plays. It was a tremendous job by our defense in getting the turnovers, we talked about that all week. Four of the last five years in this rivalry, the team that has forced the most turnovers has won the game. We didn’t capitalize on the first two there in the second half, which was frustrating, but I thought we did a good job of continuing to come back and search for balls. This is a big win.
On using this to move forward
I think we took a step in growing up. We have so many youthful players that are playing for the first time. They’re learning to play together and learning how to prepare, learning how to overcome adversity. Today is a step in the right direction, but we have to continue to grow up as a team. It’s a satisfying thing to see as a coach, seeing them overcome things.
Utah State senior quarterback Kent Myers
I think the offense did well. We came out and executed our plan to win. We came out and started fast, but could have done better when the defense got turnovers. We didn’t score as much as we wanted to, but we got the win and that’s what matters. This is the win that we wanted and this is the win that we needed. This is what I’ve trained for this summer. I can’t say enough about Jalen Davis and our defense, we couldn’t have done it without them.”
Utah State senior cornerback Jalen Davis
The defense played great tonight. I’m proud of the whole defense, the D-line, linebackers, the secondary. We just pride ourselves on forcing turnovers. That’s all we wanted to do this week was force turnovers and that’s what we did. We played a heck of a game.
On how it feels to have two pick-sixes in one game
It feels good, but then again, I just want to help my team win. That’s all I want to do, go out there and help my team win, so that’s what we did.