BYU Cougars vs. Utah State Aggies

Tanner Mangum threw four touchdown passes and BYU beat Utah State 51-28 on Saturday.

Mathews had 158 receiving yards and two touchdowns to tie a BYU season record with 11 touchdown catches.

It looked good for Utah State in the second quarter, as they built a 21-10 lead after a touchdown run from LaJuan Hunt and a touchdown pass from Chuckie Keeton to Hunter Sharpe. This season, Kaufusi has four blocked kicks and BYU a national-leading eight.

Keeton broke a school record with his 61st career touchdown pass.

Keeton passed for 243 yards and a score and also rushed for 54 yards and TD, but the Aggies fell to 6-6 on the year and surrender the Old Wagon Wheel, the traveling trophy awarded to the victor of the rivalry game each year. BYU responded with a 7-play, 75-yard drive that ended with an 8-yard run into the endzone by Algernon Brown. Not only was USU’s 14-game home winning streak snapped, it was only the Aggies’ third loss in their last 26 contests on Merlin Olsen Field.

“It was special, but at the same time it was a part of the game and, like I said, it was (something) that took forever and so it was kind of something I wanted to just get out of the way”, Keeton said of the record. “We’ve progressed with them these last five years and we will miss them”.

Utah State and BYU haven’t played each other in November for quite some time. On the next play, Cougar running back Francis Bernard ran untouched for a TD, making it 38-21 with 3:01 left in the third quarter. The score cut the Cougar lead to 10 with nearly a whole quarter left to play, but the Aggies didn’t get any closer than that. The BYU defense is giving up 21.3 points per game with 350.1 yards per game.

BYU started the second half right where it left off in the first.

Another Aggie field goal attempt was blocked by Kaufusi, his second of the game and Micah Hannemann recovered and returned the ball 66 yards, setting up the offense for an easy touchdown. But just like four years ago in a loss to Colorado, the Utes couldn’t take advantage at home and will now have to wait another year to try and get that elusive Pac-12 South title.

The Cougars and Aggies now await their bowl game destinations. 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. I know everybody is going to say no, but that’s the truth. It just wouldn’t be BYU this season if it didn’t wait until the very end to make the necessary plays to get it done. “We haven’t had nine wins in four years. We won’t go to the championship game because of head-to-head but to finish as co-champions and potentially 10 wins, that’s the high-water mark since we’ve been in the conference”. I hate that we couldn’t send them out as winners here at Maverik Stadium, but they had a heck of a run. “That’s something that is important to us, no matter where we go”. We have to rally the troops and play well in the bowl game.