BYU vs. Idaho postgame notes and quotes

HOFFMAN KEEPS IT GOING
Wide receiver Cody Hoffman kept his streak alive, now catching at least one pass in 29 straight games and 35 of 36 career games. Hoffman finished the first half with eight catches for 91 yards and tied a career best with three touchdown catches, doubling his season total. He finished the game with another catch to finish his night with 9 grabs for 108 yards and three scores.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
Hoffman now has 168 career receptions, passing Reno Mahe for No. 7 in school history and has 2,267 career receiving yards, good for No. 10 at BYU, passing Glen Kozlowski. With three touchdown catches, Hoffman moves into No. 4 in career touchdown receptions. He also moved into a tie at No. 3 with his 11^th career 100-yard receiving game. Hoffman now sits at No. 8 in all-purpose yards with 3,601 yards.

QUICK STRIKES
Five of BYU’s touchdown drives in the first half took place in under three minutes each, scoring on drives of 2:31, :32 seconds, 2:47, 2:34 and 2:48. In the second half BYU had a touchdown scoring drive that lasted 3:10 and a field goal drive that lasted a lengthy 6:08.

SENIOR NIGHT
Several seniors saw action on a night with 23 being honored. Riley Nelson threw three touchdown passes and James Lark picked up another. Defensive back Robbie Buckner recorded an interception and defensive linemen Simote Vea and Russell Tialavea both recorded fumble recoveries.

MOST POINTS IN A FIRST HALF SINCE . . .
BYU’s 42 points in the first half are the most points scored in the first half since BYU hung 49 on UCLA in 2008. BYU went on to shutout the Bruins 59-0 for the win. BYU also scored the most points in game this season with 52.

TOUCHDOWN JAMAAL
Freshman phenom Jamaal Williams scored two rushing touchdowns, giving him 10 rushing scores this season. Williams is the 19^th player in school history to log 10 rushing touchdowns in a season and is tied for the third-most by a freshman running back in single-season school history. He is No. 3 among FBS freshman running backs with 10 scores on the ground.

BACK-TO-BACK 100-YARD GAMES
Williams also recorded his second straight 100-yard rushing game, racking up 104 yards on just 10 attempts in the first half. He is the first Cougar running back to rush for 100 yards in back-to-back games since Harvey Unga had 118 and 149 vs. Utah State and UNLV in 2009.

DEFENSIVE TOUCHDOWN
The Cougars scored their first touchdown on defense in 2012 when a bad Idaho snap inside the 10-yard line resulted in a scoop and score for linebacker Spencer Hadley in the first quarter.

RUNNING OUT THE FLAG
Senior defensive lineman Romney Fuga led BYU out of the tunnel carrying the team flag today. Junior punt returner and wide receiver JD Falslev also ran out the special teams flag. Former Cougar Bobby Roberts, a defensive back from 1965-1967 carried out the alumni flag.

BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall
It's nice to see the seniors come out of the tunnel and get honored in their last home game. It was a great way for us to finish up at home. I think they were anxious to play, they were resilient through the week of practice. We're looking forward now to going on the road for the next two weeks.

On taking out starters
When it's clearly going to be one-sided and the execution demonstrates that we're playing at a high enough level. I almost took Riley out before the end of the second quarter. The same with Jamaal. So I try to gauge it based on how I think we're performing.

Which reserves stood out?
I liked Skyler Ridley tonight. It seems like he's catching everything and he blocked well. I was very impressed with him and thought he did a nice job. Maybe Uani Unga too. He's done a nice job all year of backing up Uona Kaveinga, so I would say he was another player who had a good game.

How did Craig Bills do?
I think that it wasn't necessarily a game where Craig Bills was featured or highlighted much, but he did his job and tackled well. So yeah, I have a lot of confidence in him.

On Jordan Johnson not playing
Jordan Johnson will play next week. Basically team discipline, I gave him a bunch of hours of community service that took all the way up this game to finish. So he's back in good standing now and we'll have him next week.

On recent suspensions
I've been really saddened by it (the suspensions). I care a lot for every one of my players, so when they make a poor choice or two it hurts a lot. Especially when I've built strong relationships with them and I care as much or more about them as I did before. I'm really committed to help them.

Defensive lineman Russell Tialavea
It was just fun. It's hard to explain, playing your last home game as a senior. It was a tough series when Idaho scored, but I think overall we did good on the defensive end. We do our jobs and have fun.

Offensive lineman Braden Brown
I think this week we started fast again this week, but in the second half we kind of stopped ourselves on a couple of drives. Overall I think we played well and it was a fun night for us. I think every week we've done better as a unit. We've got guys who go out and battle every week and just continue to get better, so I can't be more proud of the offensive line.

Quarterback Riley Nelson
I was pleased with our performance in the first half, there are still some things to work on, but overall it was really good. It kind of takes the other team's wind away when you can score on them right off the back, so that was our plan going in.

It's nice to know that we've got true fans behind us who will brave all sorts of weather. It means the world to us as players to see people invest so much into the program.

I've been doing my best to manage my pain and overcoming some of the injuries I've had, but I think the bye week and coming out early tonight will help me get more healthy for our last few games.

Idaho head coach Jason Gesser
We came out and we started with a good drive and got down into field goal range and Trey got into range but he just pushed it a little to the left. That would have been huge for our team to start
off with some points and to show what we can do.

They started doing some things and they have a great defense and I was surprised a little on how well they could move the ball on offense.

I think once our guys kind of figured their stuff out and settled down a little bit, they were able to get some stops and get some three and outs. We were able to get into some tough situations
when they were down on the goal line and get some goal line stands.

I’m proud of our guys, fighting through all those things, especially with the score. We definitely need to clean up a lot of things. We need to get better in a lot of areas, of just sheer
fundamentals; you know it’s glaring out there.

BYU has a great program and they have some good players and they’re fundamentally sound.
 

Game recap