The following notes and quotes are from BYU's 30-20 win at Hawai'i on Saturday.
ATTENDANCE: 24,910
AMERICAN FLAG BEARER: Kamalani Kaluhiokalani
TEAM FLAGS: Johnny Tapusoa, Handsome Tanielu, Nate Sampson, Jared Kapisi
ALUMNI FLAG BEARERS: Kingsley Ah You, Hanale Vincent, Thor Salanoa, Spencer Hafoka
TEAM NOTES
Series notes
BYU improves to 22-8 in the series against Hawai‘i. The Cougars move to 13-8 in Honolulu. BYU has also won its last regular season game in seven-consecutive seasons.
Rushing yards
The Cougars rushed for a season-best 285 yards on a season-high 54 attempts. BYU’s previous season high was 266 rushing yards against San José State. The 285 yards are the most on the ground since the team ran for 338 against Toledo in 2016.
Rushing defense
BYU held the Warriors to their season-low of just 28 rushing yards after five tackles for loss and two sacks. Hawai‘i entered the game averaging 180 rushing yards per game. The Cougar defense also held Warrior running back Diocemy Saint Juste, No. 7 nationally at 133.7 rushing yards per game, to just 39 rushing yards today.
Road win
BYU picked up its second road win of the season against Hawai'i. Previously, the Cougars defeated UNLV 31-21 on the road in Las Vegas for its first road win of the year.
PLAYER NOTES
Squally Canada
Canada ran 17 times for 113 yards and two touchdowns in the first half before leaving with an injury. On BYU’s first drive, he had three carries for 68 yards including a 40-yard touchdown. The 40-yard run was the second longest of his career (54 yards at UNLV, 2017). He finishes the season with 710 yards and six touchdowns. He went over the 1,000 career yards mark, now at 1,026.
Matt Bushman
Bushman caught two passes for 52 yards, including a career-long 37-yarder. He finishes his stellar freshman campaign with 49 receptions, 520 yards and three touchdowns. His 49 receptions rank No. 3 in BYU freshman history and his 520 yards put him at No. 5.
Austin Kafentzis
Kafentzis ran for a career night, rushing a personal-best 18 times and 98 yards. He also attempted his first pass from the wildcat position.
Fred Warner
Warner played his final game as a Cougar, finishing with five tackles. He concludes his BYU career with 264 tackles, No. 24 all-time and No. 5 since 2000. He also finished with 32 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, seven interceptions including two pick-sixes, five fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles and 13 pass breakups.
NOTABLE CAREER HIGHS and FIRSTS
First start: Austin Lee, Trajan Pili
First field goal made: Andrew Mikkelsen (35 yards)
First fumble recovery: Merrill Taliauli
First touchdown: Riley Burt (rushing)
Rushing yards: Austin Kafentzis (98), Riley Burt (75)
Rushing attempts: Austin Kafentzis (18), Riley Burt (13)
Receptions: Micah Simon (tied-4)
QUOTES
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake
I’m glad we got the win. I’m glad we put it on our O-line to help us run some yards. I thought the running backs did a good job. I thought we got some first downs, scored early points and stuck with it. I’m proud of our players.
It’s something we can build off of. The goal was to win this game for the seniors and create something we can build on for next year. I thought a lot of young guys stepped up and I’m looking forward to those guys in the offseason. We’ll start right away. We have a team meeting on Monday and we’ll get working since we don’t have a bowl game. We’ll try to utilize as much as time as we can until finals.
You look at the strength of your team and you see a lot of places. When you have injuries, it’s always good to assess the strength every week. We haven’t had every running back available for every game, so the fact that they all got a lot of experience and had a lot of yards should help us next year.
Emphasis moving forward
I’ve said it before, but I owe it to the fans and players to get this team right and make sure that this season doesn’t happen again. The first year we went 9-4, the second year we went 4-9 and where will we go the third year? I’m willing to work with our coaching staff and players to work as hard as we can and see what happens when we play Arizona next season.
Difference tonight making plays
We had confidence and we established a run game. I think when you’re able to keep people balanced and on their heels, we can really do whatever we want with the run game. I think that helped us with our play action and our max pro-stuff, taking shots down field. We missed a lot of big plays downfield, a lot of open guys. That’s something to work on.
Sophomore running back Austin Kafentzis
I wasn’t expecting Squally to get hurt, obviously, but it was in the game plan for me to get some touches. I had some pass routes and run plays specifically for me as well as that wildcat package. I was expecting to play a significant amount of time, but things happen and the game plans changes. That’s what happened and you need to roll with it.
Wildcat sweep passing the ball
It’s been in there for a couple of weeks. This is the first week we called it. It felt good to go out there and throw it again. Obviously, we didn’t complete it, but it was going to work. The safety came flying up and everyone thought it was a run play. I need to put a little more air underneath it so Brayden El-Bakri can run under it. That’s on me, but it’s always going to be in the game plan.
Today’s game plan
The game plan was to come down here and run it. We have a great offensive line and they opened up holes for everybody, not just me. Squally and Riley had great games. Everyone was able to run through the holes they created, as well as the receivers blocking downfield. They created huge holes in momentum for us to make a move and try to do what we do best. Props to the receivers and linemen who were down there blocking for us.
Journey to eventually playing RB at BYU
After two years at other schools, I just wanted to get on the field and do whatever I could to play. I came to BYU and sat down and talked with Coach Sitake. I wanted to get on the field however I could, whether it was playing receiver, running back, quarterback or even switching to special teams or defense — wherever they felt I could play best. I took that and molded me into the position that I have on this team right now. I’m only able to run because of those big guys up front blocking for me.
Meaning of this win heading into the offseason
We prepared for this week as if it were a bowl game. We came in here, working hard and never giving up. It’s a great win to be able to build off of for next season. We come back in on Monday, work hard in the weight room, get our bodies healed up and bounce back to have a great season next year.
Senior linebacker Fred Warner
Going out with a win
It felt amazing. I’m the sorest loser on this team. I’m really happy that we ended with a win today. The defense was very exact in its assignments today and the offense got the run game going, which was huge.
Mentality in the second half when momentum changed quickly
Keep your foot on the gas pedal. You don’t want to relax just because you’re up. We got the win and the offense did a great job.
Game plan coming in
We knew Hawai’i had a very good running back who was a 1,400-yard guy. We wanted to stop the run and making sure we win our one-on-one matchups.
It’s a mentality. The guys up front need to make sure they penetrate and get a push, which makes it easy for the linebackers right behind them. Making sure we’re assignment sound and everyone is doing their job.
Next season
There needs to be good leadership. They need to take the offseason very seriously, not just in the weight room but making sure they learn the game, study film from this year and learn from mistakes we made.