BYU vs. Louisiana Tech Postgame Notes and Quotes

The following notes and quotes are from BYU's 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech on Friday at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

FLAG BEARERS: USA: Joe Tukuafu, State: Hobbs Nyberg, Team: Ryan Rehkow, Caleb Christensen
COIN TOSS: Defensive back Zayne Anderson (BYU won the toss, deferred to second half)
SERIES RESULTS: 1-0

BYU vs. LA Tech recap

TEAM NOTES
Scoring
BYU has scored 148 points over the first three games of a season. It rankes No. 3 among first three games at BYU since 1972. The 2001 team put up 166 points and in 1977 the Cougars scored 158 over the first three games. BYU is outscoring its opponents 148-24, the second-best margin through the first three games since 1972 (1977, 158-25).

The 24 points allowed in the first three games are the fewest points allowed since 1951’s first three when the Cougars gave up just 21 points.

Sacks
BYU had three more sacks tonight, giving them 12 on the year through three games. The Cougars had just 17 for the entire 2019 season.

Yardage
BYU finished with 513 yards of total offense, giving them 500+ in every game to start the year and fourth consecutive going back to the Hawai’I Bowl in 2019 (505). The Cougars are outgaining their first three opponents 1,757 to 643. Having outgained opponents by a total of 1,114 yards through three games, BYU is smashing the previous mark of 860 in 1981. The Cougars have outgained opponents by 469 yards on the ground and 645 through the air.

Penalties and Punts
BYU’s eight penalties and four punts are the lowest marks in each category through the season’s first three games since at least 1981. The previous low marks were 14 penalties in 1993 and 2015 and six punts in 1983 and 2009.

PLAYER NOTES
Zach Wilson
Wilson finished the game 24-26 for 325 yards, two touchdowns and added a career-best three rushing touchdowns. It was his first career game with five total touchdowns. His completion percentage of 92.3 percent set the school record for completion percentage in a single game with a minimum of 20 or 25 attempts. He already owns the best mark for a 15 attempt minimum with his perfect 18 for 18 game in 2018 vs. Western Michigan.

He went for 300+ passing yards in back-to-back games for the first time in his career after 392 last week. It was the first time a BYU quarterback had back-to-back 300-yard games since Tanner Mangum did it in 2015 against UConn and East Carolina. Wilson also became the first BYU quarterback to have a pass efficiency rating of 200+ in three consecutive games (222.7, 231.6, 206.0).

Gunner Romney
Romney went for seven receptions, 101 yards and one touchdown. It was his third consecutive 100-yard game. The last player to have 100+ receiving yards in three consecutive games was Cody Hoffman in 2012 when the Cougars’ all-time leading receiver had four 100-yard games to close the season.

Troy Warner
Senior defensive back Troy Warner finally got his first career interception with a pick in the first quarter. The captain finished with three tackles and an assisted tackle for loss.

Tyler Batty
True freshman Tyler Batty arrived with three sacks on the night. The last time BYU had a player with three sacks was in 2015 when Bronson Kaufusi had three against Fresno State.  

Notable career highs/career firsts
First career receiving TD: Carter Wheat (22 yards, 2nd quarter)
Completion percentage (minimum 20 attempts): Zach Wilson (24-26, 92.3 percent – school record for minimum 20, 25 attempts)
Career high receptions: Gunner Romney (7)
Career high tackles: Tyler Batty (6)
Career high sacks: Tyler Batty (3)

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake
I’m happy with the win. LA Tech is a good team that had a lot of returning guys from last year that won 10 games. I think things are really starting to click for us as a team. Obviously, there are a lot of things that we can still work on and get better at. I’m pleased with the effort from our boys and pleased with the victory. I don’t think you can take wins for granted so I’m happy the guys controlled the game and were able to get the victory.

On looking ahead to the rest of the season
All we’re focused on right now is learning from this game. I’m going to give the coaches talk because it’s really important for our guys and this generation that we can’t look past anything that is coming up next. We like to be consistent with the things we’re doing well and improve on some of the things we’ve made mistakes on. I’m really happy with the performance of our team in all three phases, but we’re going to keep these guys humble and hungry. We still have a lot to prove and there is still a lot more football to be played. We’re not looking past anything, especially this year.

On Zach Wilson’s performance
We’ve been really excited to get Zach going. We just know when you’ve got a guy with a great work ethic that is willing to sacrifice a lot for his teammates, it becomes a natural thing for everybody to want to follow him. Eventually, with his work ethic and dedication to this game, it’s going to pay off. I’m glad that our coaches worked a great scheme. I love what Coach Grimes and his staff are doing with that side of the ball. We saw a lot of guys grow up in the game and make some big-time plays.

On the receivers and tight ends
They’ve been making plays in practice and we’ve seen it over and over and over again. It’s just giving them those opportunities to make those plays. I think we have a deep team that a lot of guys can make plays. What I like about it is, that a lot of guys make blocks down field and do the little things right. It’s not just one person making the catch or scoring the touchdown, it’s all the little things in everyone’s assignments out on the field. Everyone does their 1/11 and it all works out. If we can keep doing that and keep trusting the coaches, I think we can continue to find more consistency and more ways to put the points on the board. I saw a lot of guys grow up and I am so proud of so many players. I’m really looking forward to praising those guys, but then also teaching them so we can get better.

On Tyler Batty and the defensive line
Tyler’s going to be really good. The hardest part about Tyler Batty was that I had to wait for his church mission to be complete. He’s got a lot of football ahead of him. He’s a tough kid that loves playing football. You have to credit the D-line for all their hard work. We did a lot of three-man rush because we can. We made things difficult for LA Tech and their explosive offense. They got some yards, but I thought that a bulk of their yards came from two drives. We had some backups in there and they had to learn how to get out of drives. Really excited about a lot things we’re seeing from the defensive front. Give credit to Coach Tuiaki, he knows what he’s doing with the D-line. It’s a hard thing to create pressure with a three-man rush and we were able to get it done.

BYU wide receiver Gunner Romney
On what is the key for his consistency
I think everything is clicking right now. It’s obviously not just me … Our quarterback is just doing an amazing job of getting the ball to us. So, I think it is just everything combined. We are just producing big plays.  

On playing with Zach Wilson
It’s the most fun things as a receiver. It’s pretty much just backyard football because you know that he’s going to put the ball where you can go get it. That just comes with practice and communication. It’s that trust that you build between the quarterback and receivers that allows you to do that. It’s really fun playing like that.

On being in the moment
It’s a little bit hard but at the same time we always talk about our schedule after each game is 0-0. We go into the next game with the same energy that we prepared for the first game. You don’t get a big head from the other games and you just take it week by week and give your all to each opponent.

On the offensive line’s performance
Playing center on this team is probably one of the hardest positions to play. The coaches give so much responsibility and they have so much confidence in the line. When you are in the film room with them you see how much work put in and how much film study they do. They did an unreal job and we were able to pretty much dominate on offense all night and that’s a huge credit to the line.

BYU defensive back Troy Warner
On the first quarter
It was a bit of a roller coaster for sure. I got a little excited about the first one but obviously it is what it is. The next drive out we let up a big play and that starts with me and I take full credit but I am a competitor. I have short-term memory and I am onto the next play. I knew I had to come back and make a play for this team and shift the momentum of the game. When the time came I just had to seize the moment.

On the defensive success
I think what we are doing as a defense speaks for itself. We pride ourselves by being a stingy defense and this is engrained into BYU football. It’s a defense full of guys with short term memory. If something bad happens it is onto the next play and we are striving to be great and I feel like we did a pretty good job of dealing with adversity today.

On the leadership
Obviously it is amazing to have your head coach view you that way. I have been a starter for a few years now and I feel like it is part of my responsibility to hold guys accountable and to do what I can off the field to make this team the best possible. Whatever I can do to do that, I am more than willing to do so. At the end of the day it will just help the team be better and that’s the goal. We are trying to be great this year.

BYU quarterback Zach Wilson
On what it’s like to make a perfect pass
It’s satisfying. I feel like we were on the same page all night. We were having a strong connection and the guys were just making plays. I was putting the ball up there for the guys to make plays and they were getting it done.

On his passing efficiency
I would say being in the zone is definitely a thing for a quarterback. That’s where you want to be. You want to feel like your confidence is at an all time high. I think the whole team was in the zone. I felt like anything we wanted to do tonight we could do it.

On being in the moment
We take it one game at a time. We can’t take anything for granted. We can’t think we are anything yet. We are only three games in and we’ve done a great job up to this point but it really means nothing yet. No one’s going to get complacent and look into the future and talk about what if’s. We are just going to try and get it done every day in practice.

On taking control in the second quarter
All offenses have short-term memory. You have one bad play and you forget about it and go onto the next. The guys had energy the whole game. A bad play happened but guys were picking each other up and we had energy going into every series tonight. I am just proud of how everyone responded. I thought we did a great job of coming back and taking advantage of the next drive that we had.

Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz 
On using the loss to get better
We did not execute very well tonight as a football team. BYU exposed it. I think BYU is a very talented football team; I think they do a really nice job. I think we made things a lot easier than they needed to be from a defensive standpoint. I don’t think we made the routine play. You play a two-deep coverage and you’re not supposed to let the guy outside release and he outside releases and goes down the sideline and they throw a touchdown pass and it’s uncontested. 

We tried to come into this game and simplify things with a young football team on the road and we did not execute very well. We tried to blitz them on empty on the goalline, they run a quarterback draw, the perfect thing called to it, we have two guys both go in the same gap and all of a sudden it’s a touchdown. 

On Zach Wilson
They’re a very good football team and Zach was incredibly accurate tonight. We was really impressive sitting there watching him on the field. I think he throws the ball very well, he’s very accurate and he was really mature in how he handled their offense tonight. I was really impressed with him. 

We were dropping eight and there were guys running wide open. But you know, he still had to hit them. He still had to find them and he did that. I think he’s a very good quarterback, very seasoned, he’s been in this program and he’s doing a really nice job. There’s a reason he’s put up the number of yards and points that this football team has. I think he’s a very, very talented quarterback.