PROVO, Utah – Nevada scored 29 unanswered points in the second half to hand BYU football its third-consecutive loss as the Cougars fell 42-35 Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Postgame Notes & Quotes
Game Book
Photo Gallery

“First of all, this time period I’m challenging these kids. It’s time for cleaner execution,” head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “It’s time for a collective group to rise to the occasion and for each player to be accountable for doing their job exactly right–not just kind of right and not sometimes right, but exactly right.”

BYU senior quarterback Christian Stewart had career highs in completions (39), attempts (63), passing yards (408) and touchdowns (4). The BYU offense looked good early as Mitch Mathews had career highs with 16 catches and 182 receiving yards while catching two touchdowns.  Junior running back Nate Carter replaced an injured Algernon Brown and had a career-high 87 rushing yards.

The Wolf Pack took its first lead of the second half on quarterback Cody Fajardo’s 25-yard touchdown run to put Nevada up 35-28 with 7:34 left in the game, and the Wolf Pack led the rest of the game.

After giving up a first down on a roughing-the-passer penalty and a long screen pass on the first drive of the game, the Cougar defense stiffened and forced Nevada to settle for a 44-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

After forcing a Nevada punt, BYU took over from its 3-yard line.  A quick strike to Devin Mahina got the Cougars out of the shadow of their own end zone. Facing a fourth down in Wolf Pack territory, Stewart stood in the pocket and delivered a strike to Mathews to keep the drive alive inside the blue zone. On third-and-goal from the 1-yard line, senior captain Paul Lasike took the handoff and dove across the goal line for his first touchdown of the season to give BYU a 7-3 lead. The run capped a 12-play, 97-yard drive and was BYU’s longest scoring drive of the season.

Lasike scored his second touchdown of the night and first receiving touchdown of his career on a 20-yard pass from Stewart to finish off a 14-play, 72-yard drive to put BYU up 14-3 early in the second quarter.

Fajardo found running back Don Jackson on a 66-yard screen pass down to the BYU 9-yard line. Freshman James Butler took care of the rest and dove into the end zone on the next play to cut BYU’s lead to 14-10.

BYU’s offense continued to click on the following drive as Stewart found Mathews for a 20-yard touchdown to extend BYU’s lead to 21-10.

The Cougars were able to punch it in one more time with a minute left in the first half when Stewart found Mathews for an 11-yard touchdown to give BYU a 28-13 lead going into halftime.

After a missed field goal from BYU kicker Trevor Samson early in the third quarter, the Wolf Pack marched 74 yards in 13 plays capped by a 1-yard Fajardo touchdown run making the score 28-20 BYU.

After forcing a BYU fumble Nevada used an 11-play, 48-yard drive that ended with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Richy Turner, and Hasaan Henderson caught the two-point conversion to tie the game at 28 with 11:18 left in the fourth quarter.

After recovering a Stewart fumble, Butler put the Wolf Pack up 42-28 on a 6-yard touchdown run with 5:54 remaining in the game.

BYU marched 75 yards in 15 plays to get within seven when Stewart found Keanu Nelson for his first touchdown as a Cougar on a 7-yard pass, making the score 42-35 in favor of Nevada.

BYU’s offense had one more chance to tie the game, but a Stewart fumble in Wolf Pack territory sealed the upset win for Nevada.

The Cougars next travel to Boise, Idaho, to take on Boise State (5-2, 3-1) at Albertsons Field Friday. The game will kickoff at 7 p.m. MDT and be televised on ESPN.

PROVO, Utah–BYU welcomes Nevada to LaVell Edwards Stadium for an 8:15 p.m. MDT homecoming matchup Saturday.

ESPN2 will broadcast the game, with kickoff at 8:21 p.m. Radio broadcast coverage is available through the Cougar IMG Sports Network via BYUcougars.com, Sirius XM 143, KSL 102.7 FM/1160 AM and the BYU Cougars app. Radio coverage begins at 6 p.m.

BYUtv begins its coverage with Countdown to Kickoff starting at 7 p.m. MDT and concluding with the postgame show following the game. Both shows are available on BYUtv, byutvsports.com and BYU Radio. BYUtv will rebroadcast the game starting at 12:30 a.m.

BYU has homecoming festivities planned for the week leading up to the game. Hike and Light the Y at 6 p.m. MDT Tuesday kicks off the week. Saturday activities begin at 8:30 a.m. with the blue pancake breakfast, followed by the Cougar Run and homecoming parade at 10 a.m. For a complete list of homecoming week activities and performances, visit the official BYU homecoming parade website.

Nevada (3-3, 1-2 MW) at BYU (4-2)
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014 at 8:15 p.m. MDT
LaVell Edwards Stadium
Provo, Utah

BYU Notes

Nevada Notes

Notes

Last meeting. BYU’s last meeting with Nevada was in 2013, when the Cougars pulled off the 28-23 win in the last game of the regular season at the Wolf Pack’s stadium.

BYU vs. MW. BYU has 275 wins against Mountain West opponents. Its last victory against a team from its former conference was 2013 win against Nevada. Its last matchup with a MW opponent was the Oct. 3 loss to Utah State.

10 seasons. Bronco Mendenhall is now in his 10th season as head coach of the Cougars. Mendenhall has an 86-36 record, and BYU ranks 12th in total wins nationally during his tenure.

Beating the best. Since 2003, BYU has 17 wins against Power 5 schools, which ranks second among non-Power 5 schools behind fellow independent Navy. BYU has the longest season streak, with nine straight seasons with a Power 5 win.

Player of the Week. Tight end Devin Mahina had two touchdowns against UCF, earning him CFPA National Tight End of the Week.

New faces. Senior quarterback Christian Stewart made his first start as a Cougar Oct. 9 vs. UCF, taking over for quarterback Taysom Hill, who suffered a season-ending leg fracture against Utah State. Stewart threw for 153 yards and three touchdowns against UCF.

5 weeks in the spotlight. BYU’s game Saturday is its fifth-straight appearance on one of the ESPN networks. BYU has been on an ESPN network for five of its six games this season.

Quotes

Christian Stewart

What was the progression?

You could definitely tell that coming out I was a little bit nervous with it being my first start at a great opponent's home field. I was a little antsy at the get-go, but once we starting getting a few first downs, getting the run game going, I really felt like I settled into myself and was able to play the way that I play football. And I'm definitely encouraged with the performance, not the outcome that we wanted. The progression throughout the game shows that it's only up from here. Going forward there are a lot of things to be excited about. 

What is the next step?

The next step for me is I can't take two quarters to get things rolling, especially with this being my offense now and me being the leader. I need to help set the tone at the beginning of the game against Nevada. They're a great team, and we've got to come out strong. We've got to come out fast. 

Is the feeling in the locker room disappointment or progress?

Definitely guys are disappointed with the outcome. I mean, we didn't travel all the way to Florida just to get better as a team, we traveled there to win the game. We didn't accomplish that, so guys were definitely discouraged by that, but at the same time there are a lot of things to be positive about, especially that we had second-string, third-string guys in there for a lot of the game and we still played really well. Going forward I feel like this team is very focused on what it needs to do. Coach Mendenhall has done a great job of showing us exactly the things we need to focus on and what we need to be doing to be a great team. He's shown us that we are a great team when we're assignment-sound. So we're really just focusing on what we need to be doing this week to better ourselves. 

On throwing to tight ends:

My dad for some reason loves tight ends. David Krueger, who started at the University of Utah for a few years, he was my tight end in high school. He was always telling me after games on Friday nights, 'Why aren't we throwing to the tight ends? Why aren't we getting the ball to the big guys?' It's probably my subconscious thinking, 'Throw the ball to the tight end.'

On optimism as a whole team:

I really feel like meeting with Dr. Manning this year, the sports psychologist, has helped me specifically, but our team as well. Just focusing on the things that we need to be doing and the things that we can do. There's no need to focus on things in the past. There's no need to dwell on things that are out of our control. We just need to live in the moment and focus on what we can do, what I can do right now this play to be better. And I really feel like that's changed the attitude of this team and really helped us to see the bigger picture of what's most important. 

Fred Warner

On younger guys playing:

We got a lot more comfortable throughout the game. We had a lot of 3-and-outs going, I think back to back for five or six series. Us younger guys, we are prepared throughout the week in practice and everything, so I don't feel like we're that big of a shock. 

How did you feel you did?

I felt like I did just alright. I had a lot of mistakes assignment-wise. On some of the plays I felt like I got up to the quarterback pretty well in this game…It's just going to be a matter of continuing to get that experience, growing as a player in my assignment and execution and everything like that.

Bronco Mendenhall

What did you learn from the UCF game?

Our team tried really hard. They played with a lot of grit and determination and heart. Christian Stewart really came along nicely. So a lot of positives.

On simplifying the offense:

It's really a reference point to restart rather than staying there--to restart and then build from there. 

On sprained ankles:

That's a really good question. There was one point where we had 10 and that number has gone up. We've looked for commonalities. They've happened mostly in games. Trainers are researching it, trying to find out what the answer is, but really not much commonality–most of them being rolled up on by somebody else in piles right now. Very few of them out in the open. 

Was it encouraging to see success from true freshmen?

Really encouraging. Two true freshmen, Fred Warner and Sione Takitaki. Both did a really nice job. Sophomore Kai Nacua came in and played really, really well for not having many practice reps at all. Three of the starting four in the secondary were out for that game. Senior Skye PoVey came in and, even though he's not a new player, he came in and played really well. I thought our defense played much better and improved in that game.

Was it the best game from your front three this year?

Travis Tuiloma's best game maybe as a Cougar. Really, really liked Logan Taele and Marques Johnson as well. There were a lot of things that took a step forward in my opinion in that game. Really disappointed we didn't win the game. But again, I was encouraged that the defense played better than they'd been playing. I thought Christian Stewart did a really nice job and then Paul Lasike and Algie Brown stepping up for the lack of Jamaal Williams. I thought that looked good, and I thought Devin Mahina had kind of a breakout game. Glad to see some players stepping up when called on.

What do you expect from Christian Stewart?

I think it'll look more similar to the second half of Central Florida. So first half, still more of a continuation of Utah State–feeling, probing, finding. The second half of UCF was more execution, more deliberate, more specific, more confidence. So our hope is that our Nevada game looks more like the second half of Central Florida. 

On Nevada:

I think they're a good team, 3-3, but certainly capable. Really good quarterback. Two excellent receivers–same guys as a year ago. I would say kind of a gritty and tough defense. 

Is the high tempo a benefit or challenge for Stewart?

I don't think either. He's practiced so much in it that I don't really think that's contributing plus or a minus. I think he's used to it.

How important is it to get the kicks to the goal line?

Not so much getting them to the goal line, but in the target area. And we're really good right now landing it in the target area. In fact, our kick placement is fantastic. Depth isn't as big of a concern. Any kick return that's working well now, especially kickoff return, is really just a lane assignment.