BYU vs Utah postgame notes

POSTGAME NOTES

Jamaal Williams rushed for 52 yards to become the No. 26 all-time rusher at BYU with 1,153 total yards. Williams passed former running back Fui Vakapuna, who gave the opening prayer to start the game.

With 108 receiving yards, senior receiver Cody Hoffman passed Margin Hooks to earn the No. 4 spot at BYU for all-time receiving yards with 2,889 yards. He also has 15 career 100-yard receiving games, just two shy of Austin Collie, BYU’s all-time leader.

Hoffman has caught a pass in 34 consecutive games played dating back to Oct. 23, 2010.

Sophomore quarterback Taysom Hill threw for a career-high 260 yards. His previous high was 235 yards against Utah State in 2012.

Wide receiver Mitch Mathews hauled in three passes for 54 yards, both career highs. His 26-yard reception in the third quarter was also a career best.

With 10 tackles, linebacker Tyler Beck also set a career best—his previous high was six against Hawai’i in 2011. The senior tallied 2.0 tackles for loss, the first time he has registered a tackle for loss.

Senior Mike Hague notched a personal-best six tackles, with all six coming as solo tackles.

A sellout crowd of 63,470 was in attendance for the matchup. BYU’s last sellout was Oct. 13, 2012 against Oregon State.

The flag bearers for tonight’s game were Austen Jorgensen (special teams flag), Paul Lasike (team flag) and Waymon Hamilton (alumni flag). Hamilton was a running back at BYU from 1980-83.

BYU POSTGAME QUOTES

Head coach Bronco Mendenhall

“I’m looking forward to working with my team again on Monday. Certainly they’re disappointed and we’re disappointed. I’m anxious to see the resiliency and the resolve and to get back to work.”

“I’d also like to express my thanks to our student section. It’s changed our stadium.  They welcomed us here and they gave us the home-field advantage.”

“Anytime Jamaal is off the field it affects the game. Our concern right now is for his neck. Hopefully they get a good prognosis.  I haven’t heard anything since they took him to the hospital.”

On Taysom Hill:“I thought he gave us a chance right until the end.  That’s all I can ask from any quarterback. He’ll continue to learn and grow as well as our team, but I like him a lot.”

Do you know what the problems are with the blue zone? “No, not yet. We’ll just have to take a better look and try to analyze what it is. In going back to the number of missed opportunities, we had a missed field goal early on.  That would be one of the handful of plays that could really change a game like this.”

Daniel Sorensen

“A lot of guys are disappointed. The loss is upsetting. I think each game we play is different. Each game delivers new and different challenges. Tonight, maybe it was just that we didn’t make enough plays.”

“On defense, we had a couple of times where we could have created turnovers and we didn’t. If we made one or two of those plays, we might have helped the offense out and given them good field position.”

“A loss is a loss. It doesn’t matter who it is. This one definitely hurts.”

Eathyn Manumaleuna

“It’s very frustrating to have this loss. It’s very tough. We thought we prepared really well this past week, but they just made more plays than us.”

“We prepared for Travis Wilson to run the ball more. He was more spot-on with his receivers and he did really well.”

Offensive coordinator Robert Anae

“Our focus is to continue down the path that we’re going. We got beat tonight in the trenches, and that’s something that we’ve got to simply get better at. Credit goes to Utah. They were better than we were there. That’s not to blame any one group or any one person. It was an offensive effort, and their defense beat us.”

Taysom Hill

“You have to give credit to Utah. I think they played well. I think they had a good scheme. We didn’t make plays. There were a lot of third and longs, and we didn’t capitalize. It’s a tough situation to put your offense in.”

“We need to be better in how we start the game. We need to be more efficient. There at the end we started to find the gaps, and it’s unfortunate we didn’t find those sooner.”

Michael Alisa

“Our team wanted this one really bad, and we prepared really well this week. I think we’re more surprised with the outcome based on the way that we prepared.”

UTAH POSTGAME QUOTES

Head coach Kyle Whittingham

“I am very proud of our football team and coaches—just a great job by our defensive staff to slow down their offense. Offensively just another good football game and taking care of the football.”

“A lot of their snaps we had a spy sitting on [Taysom Hill]. Even with the spy sometimes we couldn’t catch him.”

Travis Wilson

“It feels amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a win like this. It truly feels amazing.”

“I knew our defense was going to do a great job. We just have to make sure on offense that we move the ball a little bit more. We should’ve ended the game sooner, but other than that, we did a good job.”

“BYU is definitely the toughest defense we played so far. It was really important we had a good day. I didn’t have any turnovers and we made some really good plays. I just wanted to make sure to handle the ball well and make smart decisions.”

Michael Walker

“I’m a senior this year, I was 3-0 against BYU and I wanted to be 4-0 and it felt great. We knew what was at stake for the whole team and we just wanted to win badly.”

“We need to stay focused, because we have a lot of football ahead of us.”

Dres Anderson

On 74-yard play: “That was a great grab. They set up the play, I knew what it was going to be and I knew I was going to get open. I just showcased my speed and we took care of it from there.”

“Travis had another great game. He got hit a couple times, but he did his thing. Thank goodness he’s healthy and we’re progressing.”