COMPETING AS A RANKED TEAM
With tonight’s win the Cougars are 151-45 when nationally ranked in the Top 25. A ranked BYU team has won 20 of its last 24 games dating back to 2006.
FLAG BEARER
BYU has a tradition of selecting a player before each game to run the team flag onto the field, as well as a former Cougar to carry out the alumni flag. Each member of the team has signed the team flag, while former BYU players have signed the alumni flag. Their signatures reflect their commitment to uphold the tradition, spirit and honor of the BYU football program and to be a flag bearer of the University.
As part of the 25-year anniversary celebration of BYU’s national championship, each alumni chosen to carry out the flag this year will be a member of the 1984 team. Carrying the team flag today was offensive lineman RJ Willing, with former BYU defensive back Steve Haymond carrying the alumni flag. Haymond played for the Cougars from 1981-84, receiving Academic All-America honors as a senior.
COIN TOSS
Today BYU won the coin toss and elected to defer—for the fourth consecutive week. BYU is now 3-1 when winning the toss.
CONSECUTIVE CATCHES
All-American tight end Dennis Pitta caught his first pass of the game with 52-seconds remaining in the first quarter for a 13-yard gain. The senior has caught a pass in 34 consecutive games dating back to Oct. 23, 2004 (at Air Force), prior to his mission.
CAREER LEADER
With his five catches on the night, All-American tight end Dennis Pitta passed Hall of Fame tight end Gordon Hudson to become BYU's career receptions leader among tight ends. Hudson had 178 receptions during the 1981-83 seasons. Pitta now has 180 career catches. He equaled Hudson on a 13-yard catch on third down during BYU's second possession of the third quarter and then set the new mark two plays later on a 14-yard reception to the CSU 29-yard line. The drive ended with Pitta catching an 18-yard touchdown for his fourth catch of the drive, fifth of the game and 180th of his career.
HE WHO SCORES FIRST...
BYU was the first to score today on a 4-yard touchdown run by Harvey Unga with 12:44 remaining in the first quarter. BYU has been the first to score in two games this season, the other being Tulane. The Cougars are 2-0 in those two games.
CONSECUTIVE STARTS
Today marked senior defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen’s 43rd straight career start. During that streak, Jorgensen has started every game of his collegiate career and set a new MWC all-time career sack record at 22.5. His first career start came against Arizona on Sept. 2, 2006.
CAREER FIRSTS
Saturday marked the first career start for senior linebacker Terrance Hooks. Hooks started in place of senior Matt Bauman who suffered a knee injury during the Florida State game last week.
Sophomore wide receiver Spencer Hafoka scored his first touchdown in a BYU uniform with 4:05 to play in the game.
“FAN”TASTIC FANS
The 64,091 fans in attendance for the Cougars’ 42-23 win over CSU marked the 14th consecutive sell-out at Edwards Stadium. The current streak marks the longest streak of consecutive sellouts since the 1990-92 seasons. In two games this season BYU is averaging 64,150 fans per game. The last time the stadium was not sold out was against New Mexico on Nov. 18, 2006 when 63,814 fans were in attendance—231 short of a sellout.
UNGA IS BACK
Junior running back Harvey Unga scored his third touchdown of the day with 7:04 remaining in the game, capping a 16-play drive and giving BYU a 35-17 lead after the made PAT. His first two rushing touchdowns came in the first quarter. Three rushing touchdowns tie a career-high for Unga, a mark he also reached in BYU’s 43-27 win at San Diego State in 2007.
With a 4-yard carry on BYU’s final possession of the game, Unga surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time this season and the first time since the Cougars’ 48-24 loss to Utah on Nov. 22, 2008.
PITTA SCORES SIX
Senior tight end Dennis Pitta recorded an 18-yard touchdown reception with 6:56 remaining in the third quarter, marking his first receiving touchdown of the season and 14th of his career. Pitta last scored a touchdown in BYU’s 45-42 win at CSU on Nov. 11, 2008.
MWC HOME WIN STREAK CONTINUES
With the win today the Cougars have extended their MWC home win streak to 13 games--extending the conference record. The win also gave BYU a 6-1 record in its past seven MWC openers.
3-1 START TO THE SEASON
Tonight’s win improved the Cougars’ season record to 3-1. Before its 6-0 record to open the 2008 season, the last time BYU had a 3-1 start or better was in 2001, when the program posted four consecutive wins over Tulane, Nevada, California and UNLV.
DON’T LOOK BACK
In the Bronco Mendenhall era, BYU is 35-4 when leading at halftime and 33-1 when taking a lead into the fourth quarter.
Mendenhall’s teams have won 23 straight games when leading by at least 14 points at the halftime break, 70 overall as a team. The last time BYU lost a game after leading by at least 14 points at the half was on Oct. 10, 1987 when is lost, 29-27, in its homecoming game against Wyoming.
EARLY POINTS
The Cougars got on the board early after a 4-yard touchdown run by Harvey Unga with 12:44 remaining in the first half, marking the earliest score for BYU this season. The touchdown was set up by a 20-yard interception return by Brian Logan.
COUGAR PICKS
Junior defensive back Brian Logan recorded his second career interception on CSU’s opening drive, picking of a pass from quarterback Grant Stucker. The junior college transfer recorded a 20-yard return, setting the BYU offense up on the Rams’ 15-yard line. Harvey Unga ran in a 4-yard touchdown two plays later.
With 3:41 remaining in the first quarter, a hard hit by Logan jarred the ball loose, getting picked off by junior defensive back Andrew Rich. The interception set up a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Max Hall as the Cougars went up 14-0.
The Cougar defense has now snagged four interceptions through their first four games.
RUSHING SCORES
The Cougars offense recorded three rushing touchdowns in the first quarter today, two from Unga and one by Hall. The last time BYU scored three touchdowns on the ground in a single quarter was on Oct. 29, 2005 in a 62-41 win over Air Force. Running back Curtis Brown found the endzone three times in the fourth quarter of that game.
Tonight also marks the second time this season the Cougars have scored four rushing touchdowns in a game. JJ DiLuigi and Bryan Kariya recorded running scores in BYU’s 54-3 win over Tulane on Sept. 12.
PAPER OR PLASTIC
Defensive lineman Vic So’oto’s sack against CSU’s Grant Stucker with just over two minutes remaining in the second quarter marked the first of his BYU career. Senior linebacker Coleby Clawson recorded his first sack of the season on CSU’s first drive of the second half.
Collectively the Cougars have recorded five sacks in their first four games this season.