The following are notes and quotes from No. 19 BYU's 38-24 win over Wyoming at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday night.
ALUMNI FLAGS: Ron Simmons (OL 1987, 1990-93), Tyler Anderson (WR 1988, 1991-93) and Brandon Heaney (CB 2000-04)
AMERICAN FLAG: Lisala Tai (OL)
STATE FLAG: Sonny Makasini (OL)
SERIES RESULTS: BYU leads 46-30-3
Attendance: 60,042
Y Lighter
The ceremonial lighting of the Y was conducted by former Wyoming football players John Griffin and Mel Hamilton, founders of Black 14 Philanthropy. Griffin and Hamilton were joined by former BYU football player Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, a General Authority Seventy with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Carl Hernandez, BYU Vice President of Belonging.
TEAM NOTES
Sitake-era success
BYU now holds these records during the tenure of head coach Kalani Sitake (2016-present)
23-1 at home when leading at the half
11-0 at home and 24-2 overall when turnover-free
19-0 at home when scoring 30+ points
14-0 at home when scoring in every quarter
15-0 at home with pass efficiency rating of 150+
Penalty Problems
The Cougars registered 11 penalties for 109 yards versus Wyoming. The Cowboys totaled just two for 20 yards.
Winning versus Wyoming
BYU has now won 10 consecutive home games over the Cowboys and nine straight overall
Offense
500-yard mark
The BYU offense surpassed the 500-yard mark for the second time this season (at USF). The Cougars cleared 500 yards three times over the course of the entire 2021 season.
Yards per-play
BYU gained 8.3 yards per play against the Cowboys. Wyoming put up 4.6 yards per play.
Red Zone Scores
BYU scored on each of its five trips inside the Wyoming 20.
Defense
Run defense steadies
Despite allowing 69 yards on the ground to Wyoming in the first quarter, the BYU defense went-on to hold the Cowboys to just 28 in the second quarter, 19 in the third and only eight in the fourth.
Third Down Defense
The Cougar defense held Wyoming to just three 3rd down conversions on 11 attempts. Meanwhile, the Cougar offense converted on 7 of 13.
PLAYER NOTES
- Jaren Hall: tied a career-high with four touchdown passes and became the first BYU quarterback to record three separate interception-free streaks of 100+ pass attempts. Hall has previously thrown 163 and 119 consecutive passes without an interception. His current streak is 115. Hall’s 337 passing yards are the third-highest of his career. Hall’s 81.3% completion rate on Saturday night is also a career-high.
- Keanu Hill: recorded fifth and sixth-career touchdown receptions along with a career high 160 receiving yards, the most recorded by a BYU receiver since Puka Nacua’s 168 at Baylor on Oct. 16, 2021. Hill’s six receptions were a career-high as well. With his performance Saturday night, Hill surpassed former BYU receiver Mark Bellini (159, 1986) for the program’s single-game all-time receiving leader versus the Cowboys.
- Miles Davis: broke onto the scene with a career-high 13 carries for 131 yards along with four receptions for 21 yards. Davis’ also compiled 152 all-purpose yards. With Davis’ 70-yard run tonight, BYU now has multiple players with rushes of 70+ yards in the same season for the first time in its history (Puka Nacua 75-yard carry at USF Sept. 3)
- Chris Brooks: recorded third rushing touchdown of the season
- Kody Epps: recorded second-career touchdown grab and second in as many weeks.
- Micah Harper: totaled a team-high and season-high six tackles and a career-high 1.5 tackles-for-loss
- Tyler Batty: a season-high and four tackles and first sack of the season
- John Nelson: recorded second sack of the season and second full sack of his career.
Notable career highs/career firsts
- Brayden Cosper: career high receptions (4) and receiving yards (58) first-career touchdown reception
- Miles Davis: career high carries (13), rushing yards (131) and all-purpose yards (152)
- Jaren Hall: single-game career-best completion rate (81.3%), career-best pass-efficiency rating vs. an FBS opponent (211.0), career-long pass (68 yards), tied career high four touchdown passes (Idaho State, 2021)
- Micah Harper: career-high tackles-for-loss (1.5)
- Keanu Hill: career high receptions (5), receiving yards (160) and touchdowns (2)
- Hunter Greer: career high two tackles and first-career tackle-for-loss.
- Hayden Livingston: tied a career high with four tackles
- Bruce Mitchell: first-career tackle and pass break-up
Postgame Quotes
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake
Opening statement
“Thankful for the win, and proud of the guys who played. I think we still had a lot of mistakes in the game, and the coach in me just keeps thinking of the ways we can improve, but we did enough to win the game. I give a lot of credit to Wyoming. I think the Wyoming coach is amazing and got his players really ready, and I think they will do well in the conference.”
On how the game went tonight
“The rhythm wasn’t right tonight. So as a coach, I need to find a way to make things run smoother. I’m glad we were able to get the win, and these guys were resilient and played hard. We have a quick turnaround for the Utah State game. So we need to get ready for that.”
On Jaren Hall’s abilities
“Jaren’s smart, and he has a great football IQ. He understands the game, and I give a lot of credit to him tonight. Wyoming does some difficult things up front, but I thought Jaren was able to be smart with the ball, and I thought he went to the right people. Jaren always wants to get better, and we are lucky to have him as the leader on our team. I just like that he takes care of the football.”
On using Miles Davis tonight
“I think tonight we wanted to see who had the hot hand, and our team felt good about Miles tonight. We needed something to get going with our run-game, because it hasn’t been great the last two games, and I think Miles did some really good things for us tonight.”
On team improvement in tonight’s game
“We knew it was going to be a physical game, and after last week, it felt good to get hit in the mouth a little bit and respond better. I appreciate the style of football Wyoming plays, because you can’t hide from it, and I think the guys answered the call tonight. We are a much better team tonight than we were last week, but we need to keep building off this and fix those mistakes that were made.”
On Keanu Hill and Brayden Cosper stepping up tonight
“We have to utilize all our players, and we have been without Gunner for a long time now, and we will see how Puka is doing with his injury from tonight. So I think Keanu and Brayden did a great job stepping up tonight. We have good players. We just need to minimize the mistakes as much as we can.”
Defensive lineman Tyler Batty
On stopping Wyoming’s run game
“They were moving the ball there in the first half, especially those first couple of drives. When adversity comes, it's just a next-play mentality. Wipe the slate. We’ve got to go out there. We’ve got to get a job done.”
Wide receiver Keanu Hill
On quarterback Jaren Hall
“That boy is so talented. Every time we come into practice, he always makes us get locked in and stay focused on what we need to do. Also, shout out to the offensive line and running backs for getting him enough time to sit there in the pocket and give me some great balls.”
On his fourth quarter touchdown
“I've been trying to focus on getting my weight up in the weight room, so I can make those big plays.”
Running back Miles Davis
On his career high performance
“When our offensive line blocks like how they were blocking and our coaches trust us, it just makes the night awesome.”
On the message from the coaching staff this season
“It was ‘Miles, just be patient and when your time comes, do what you do best. Just go out there, play, and have fun.’”
Quarterback Jaren Hall
On running back Miles Davis
“It was just a matter of time until Miles got a shot, and tonight was it. He was prepared and did a heck of a job as everyone saw. I'm really proud of him. I've been seeing him ball out since his freshman year at receiver and then moving to running back. To do that mentally and not even skip a beat is pretty impressive and talks a lot about his character and willingness to do what his team needs.”
On the emotions of the week
“There was a lot of emotion going on, from last week’s loss, to losing Dallin, who we all love so much. It took us a couple of days to figure out how we were going to move forward, but luckily we have Kalani leading the way, and he reminded us that we're here to love and learn and to find our love for the game. Our love for football and our love for each other is what got us back to be ready to play.”
WYOMING QUOTES
Head coach Craig Bohl
“First thing, I want to congratulate BYU. I thought they really responded well after a difficult loss against Oregon. Coach Sitake has done a great job with the culture of his team. They have good players. I heard what type of environment this was, and it was as advertised. It's a tough environment. The noise I thought was somewhat disruptive, but overall, we handled it okay.”
“We didn't play our best game. There were some things that we did OK. You can’t come on the road, play in a hostile environment, play a ranked team and just play OK. We need to bounce back. We have a lot to play for next week in another conference game.”
Quarterback Andrew Peasley
On Wyoming’s energy tonight
“Football is a game of momentum, and we had it in the beginning. You could feel it and see it. BYU took over in the third quarter, but we never gave up. We aired the ball out and even before the half ended we saw [BYU] break out a big run and [cornerback] Jakorey Hawkins dive to grab the runner’s ankle. That shows the level of effort this team has.”
On what he saw from BYU
“They’re a really good football team. We have to play almost perfect against them to be in the game, so I felt pretty good about how we played.”