PROVO, Utah — No. 19 BYU football overcame a sluggish first half to stave off Utah State 38-26 at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Thursday night.
Early touchdowns from both the Cougar (4-1) offense and defense gave BYU an early 14-7 lead. The Cougars and Aggies (1-4) slogged through penalties and stymied drives to a 17-17 tie at the half.
BYU set the tone for a win with back-to-back touchdown drives to begin the second half. An 18-yard touchdown run from Christopher Brooks gave BYU an 18-point lead and proved the game-sealer with 8:18 remaining.
Hall went 17-of-27 for 273 yards and three touchdowns, while finding six different receivers. Kody Epps was Hall’s top target on the night. The redshirt freshman from Los Angeles, Calif., hauled-in five receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown, his third in as many weeks.
Wide receiver Gunner Romney returned from an injury suffered in fall camp to record four grabs for 51 yards. Brayden Cosper caught three passes for 56 yards, and Keanu Hill posted two grabs for 46 yards and a touchdown.
Ethan Erickson, a redshirt freshman from Laie, Hawaii recorded both his first-career reception and first-career touchdown on a 14-yard scoring strike from Hall in the third quarter.
Brooks’ 11 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown led BYU on the ground and was supplemented by eight runs for 39 yards from Miles Davis.
Micah Harper and Talan Alfrey tied for the team lead in tackles with 10 a-piece. Harper recorded five solo stops to go along with a forced fumble and a pass break-up. The redshirt freshman Alfrey made his first-career start at safety for the Cougars and made the most of it with his career-high 10 tackles (five solo) and a fumble recovery. Ben Bywater had nine tackles as well as his second interception in three weeks.
Defensive lineman John Nelson wreaked havoc, recording a career-high six tackles (four solo) along with a tackle-for-loss and a pass break-up. Tooley benefitted from that break-up as he took his second interception to the end zone and now leads the nation in pick-sixes.
BYU gained 396 yards on 60 plays, while Utah State put up 392 yards of offense on 81 plays. The Aggies picked up 204 yards on the ground to BYU’s 117. BYU’s passing game out-did the Aggies’ 280-188.
With the win, BYU not only prolongs its hold on the Old Wagon Wheel but moves to 51-37-3 overall against Utah State as well as 29-18-1 against the Aggies at home.
First Quarter
Utah State opened the game with a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped off by a three-yard touchdown run from Aggie quarterback Cooper Legas. An unnecessary roughness penalty on BYU aided Utah State’s march into BYU territory as moments later the Aggies grabbed the 7-0 lead with 10:39 remaining in the quarter.
The BYU offense only needed 34 seconds on two plays to even the score at seven. Romney made his presence felt quickly as he hauled-in a 34-yard reception from Hall on the Cougars' first offensive play of the game, giving BYU the ball at the Utah State 33. On the ensuing play, Hall would find Hill wide open at the 26 yard line. Hill did the remainder of the damage, weaving his way through Aggie defenders the rest of the way for the 31-yard touchdown with 9:56 to go in the first.
The Cougars didn’t wait long to score again, though this time it came from the defense. With 8:35 left in the quarter, Tooley went from lurking in coverage to strolling into the end zone on a 34-yard pick-six. Nelson reached above his blocker to break-up the pass at the line of scrimmage and helped the ball find Tooley’s hands.
BYU ended the quarter in the lead at 14-7.
Second Quarter
Despite a promising foray into Cougar territory, the Aggie offense came to a halt when Harper plucked the ball from Legas and Alfrey recovered on the opening play of the quarter. A fumbled exchange between Hall and running back Lopini Katoa set the BYU offense behind schedule and led to a Ryan Rehkow punt from the Cougars’ end zone. Utah State responded by driving back into scoring territory, yet was held out of the end zone on a Jakob Robinson pass break-up. The Aggies did, however, conclude the drive with a 50-yard made field goal by Connor Coles. After the Utah State field goal, BYU led 14-10 at the 9:34 mark of the quarter.
Following a stalled drive for the BYU offense, the Aggies moved down the field on a six-play, 57-yard drive that culminated in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Legas to Brian Cobbs.
Down 17-14 with 5:04 in the half, BYU responded with a field goal scoring drive of its own. Cosper made key receptions on back-to-back plays to move the Cougars down the field, including a drive-extending grab on 3rd-and-2 and a 40-yard reception down the far sideline to put BYU in striking distance. An incomplete pass from Hall to Romney and a sack prevented BYU from finding the end zone, though Jake Oldroyd nailed a game-tying 45-yard field goal with 2:32 to go before the break.
Third Quarter
BYU went to the air en route to the end zone during its second drive of the half. On 3rd-and-10 from their own 25, the Cougars moved the chains with Romney hauling in a tipped pass intended for Cosper. The Hall-Epps connection took over from there. Epps caught consecutive passes of 27 and 26 yards, respectively, to set up the Cougars at 1st-and-goal. Epps would finish off the drive in the end zone on an eight-yard pass from Hall, as the Cougars extended their lead to 31-20 with 3:51 left in the quarter.
Fourth Quarter
The BYU defense shutdown Utah State’s first drive of the quarter with a key tackle-for-loss by Nelson and a 4th-and-1 stop by Tyler Batty.
Powered by Davis and Brooks, the BYU ground attack put the game away on its ensuing drive. Runs of five and seven yards from Davis jump-started the Cougar drive, while Brooks peeled off Aggie defenders along the way to a 34-yard gain. Brooks concluded the drive as he cleared the left edge of the line and rumbled 18 yards to a game-sealing touchdown.
Despite BYU’s 38-20 lead with 8:18 remaining, Utah State assembled one more scoring drive with Legas finding Cobbs for a 27-yard touchdown pass in the game’s closing minutes.
BYU (4-1) now has a long week to prepare before facing traditional power Notre Dame in its Shamrock Series at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m. PDT. The Cougars and Irish will enjoy a primetime national television broadcast on NBC. Listen to live play-by-play of BYU and Notre Dame on BYU Radio SiriusXM 143 BYURadio.org/BYU Radio App/KSL 102.7 FM/1160 AM.