BYU at Utah State Postgame Notes

NOTES

ATTENDANCE: 22,509
FLAG BEARERS: ALUMNI: Jake Kuresa (OL, 2002-06) TEAM: Adam Pulsipher (Fr., LB) SPECIAL TEAMS: Trey Dye (So., WR)
GAME CAPTAINS: Bronson Kaufusi (Sr., DL), Mitch Mathews (Sr., WR), Remington Peck (Sr., DL/TE) and Ryker Mathews (Sr., OL)

TEAM NOTES

Win Total. The nine wins are the most since 2011 when the Cougars went 10-3.

Against MWC Opponents. BYU went 4-0 against teams from the Mountain West Conference this season (Boise St., San Jose St., Fresno St. & Utah St.).

Blocked Kicks. BYU blocked two field goals in the win over Utah State, upping its season total to eight on the year (4 FG attempts, 1 PAT att. & 2 punts). The Cougars entered Saturday tied for No. 1 in the nation in blocked kicks with six.

Scoring. The last time BYU scored 50 or more points in two consecutive games was in 2005 with wins over Air Force (62-41) & UNLV (55-14).

Defensive TDs. On Tomasi Laulile’s fumble return touchdown, the Cougars have scored a defensive touchdown in the last two consecutive games and in back-to-back games in Logan (Kyle Van Noy 17-yard INT return for TD in 2013).

Blue Zone. BYU went 5 of 6 in possessions in the blue zone, with the lone non-scoring possession coming as a result of taking a knee in the victory formation. The Cougars had scored 95.3 percent of the time entering the game.

PLAYER NOTES

Tanner Mangum
Threw 16 of 30 for 284 passing yards and four touchdowns, becoming the first 3,000-yard passer since Max Hall in 2009, the 13th member of the 3,000 club at BYU and the first freshman QB to reach that mark. It was his first game of four passing touchdowns and his third game with three or more this season. Mangum also set the BYU record for freshman quarterback pass attempts in a season, now totaling 390 for the season.

Bronson Kaufusi
Notched his third and fourth blocked kicks of the year and passed Kyle Van Noy for No. 2 in BYU career sacks since 2000 with 26.5 total.

Algernon Brown
Scored his 11th rushing TD the season, which is the most rushing TDs by a BYU player since Jamaal Williams had 12 in 2012. Also added a receiving TD, his second of the season with at least one receiving and one rushing TD.

Travis Tuiloma
The nose tackle had a career highs in total tackles (9) and solo stops (5) while bringing his sack total to 2.5 on the season.

Mitch Mathews
Had six catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns, including a career-long 72-yard reception, and his sixth 100-yard receiving game of his career. He is the 14th BYU player over 2,000 career receiving yards with 2,075. His 11th receiving touchdown of the season brought his career total to 24, passing Mark Bellini and Glen Kozlowski for No. 5 all-time at BYU. It was his fourth multiple-TD game this season and seventh of his career.

Harvey Langi
Had his first carry (11-yarder) since the UCLA game. His first three career runs went for first downs. He finished with three carries for 15 yards.

Francis Bernard
It was his second-straight game with two touchdowns. He had two against Fresno State (rush) and Utah State (rush/run) for eight total TDs this year.

Tomasi Laulile
Scooped up a USU fumble and returned it 37 yards for the score to put BYU up 24-21. It was the first fumble return for a touchdown since Kyle Van Noy’s touchdown in the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl against San Diego State and the longest since Van Noy’s in 2010 against Colorado State. It is the 5th-longest fumble return for BYU since 2000.

Michael Wadsworth
Notched double-digits in total tackles for the fifth time this year with 10.

Fred Warner
His 4th fumble recovery of the season is tied for No. 2 in a season at BYU since 2000. Shawn Doman had 4 in 2009. He also tied his career high with nine total tackles in the game.

CAREER HIGHS (The following players recorded notable career highs)
Receptions – Kurt Henderson (two)

Longest Kickoff Return – Riley Burt (38)

FIRSTS (The following players recorded their first in a respective category)

Career Firsts

Four Passing Touchdowns— Tanner Mangum

QUOTES

BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall: 

“Everything that could happen in a college football game did. I am glad we won, and I am happy for our players. The fumble recovery before the half was a huge momentum-changer. It was a very unique play. I think that Utah State’s quarterback was trying to fight to the end, luckily we picked up the loose ball and followed it with a good return.” 

"I’m really proud of our team and happy for our coaches. It has been a really fun season to work with this particular group of guys. This team fought hard and they are tough and they are resilient."

"We had a hard time changing field position today. It took an entire team effort to win the game today."

"We found a way to make plays when we needed to. Tanner does a nice job extending plays. We have a lot of tall and lanky receivers with good verticals."  

"It felt great (in the locker room after the game). It was a sense of accomplishment with complete effort and complete exhaustion by everybody."

BYU Freshman Quarterback Tanner Mangum

“That (72-yard) touchdown to Mitch got us going. Then Tomasi’s scoop-and-score, that was a game-changer right there. To take that into the half, then come out on the first drive and get another touchdown was a momentum changer that carried us throughout the second half. That’s how we’ve got to be. It doesn’t matter if we’re down. We’ve got to stay in it and stay focused because a few big plays can change the game.”

BYU Sophomore Defensive Lineman Tomasi Laulile

“It was crazy, really. I was running with it and thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. Is there a flag or something? I was looking around. I thought, ‘I guess I’ll keep running.’ I thought somebody was going to catch me. I just tried to run my fastest. I was just running for my life.”

BYU Senior Wide Receiver Mitch Mathews

“Tomasi is an unbelievable athlete. He can dunk it in basketball. He’s a great player. That (touchdown) was a huge jumpstart for us. We were going crazy in the locker room. Then we get the ball in the second half. It felt good.”

Utah State Head Coach Matt Wells:

“It wasn’t our night. Congratulations to them, they played well enough to win it. It was a critical stretch right before halftime and coming out of halftime. That swing was critical to the game. We weren’t good enough in all three phases to win it. We had a lot of good, but we struggled in a couple areas. We didn’t have enough to come back and make up that deficit in the end.”

On out-gaining BYU despite the result:

“There were several plays that contributed. When you have that big of disparity in the yards, the team that gains the most yards doesn’t always win. You have the fumble before halftime for seven, you have an uncontested shot with the receiver running wide smoking open. That’s 14 points. You have a couple of field goals that are atrocious and that should be six points. You can’t have those issues and expect to win against a very good BYU team.”

On the BYU passing game:

“He’s not a rookie anymore. That’s a very good quarterback. I’d look at a rookie as a guy who only played a week or two. Tanner Mangum isn’t a rookie. He played like a vet and that’s their offense. That didn’t surprise us one bit, we knew they were going to take shots. The only thing that deters a passing game is wind or sideways snow, I don’t think the weather affected it one bit.”

Utah State Senior Quarterback Chuckie Keeton: 

“It was a memorable Senior Day, not for 100 percent the right reasons. It was an unbelievable experience and that’s the biggest takeaway from this entire thing. We learned something about our team, not just as players, but as people. We can come in on the last possession and have a running back fight for 30 yards. That was an incredible thing to see. That’s always been my mindset, not just in football but in the realm of sports. To see someone else take on that same mentality was amazing. But at the same time, we didn’t get everything handled in the first 3.98 quarters. We have some stuff we can work on. Hopefully, we can get into a bowl game and have the opportunity to prove that we’ve learned from some of these mistakes.”

Utah State Junior Linebacker Nick Vigil: 

“Obviously there were too many points given up by the defense. I don’t think we did a very good job of stopping the run game. We knew they were going to come out and throw the ball a lot, but we knew we needed to stop the runs. They got a couple big runs that were able to move the chains. Tonight the defense let the team down, I thought the offense played well.”

“It’s always one you want to win, especially with it being the last regular-season game of the year. It’s disappointing.”