69. 12/22/20 - Boca Raton Bowl: #13 BYU - 49, UCF - 23

             After Covid-19 wiped out the Cougars’ formidable 2020 regular season schedule, athletic director Tom Holmoe pieced together a respectable schedule against any team that would agree to play them. Despite starting the season 9-0, including a thrilling win over #21 Boise State in Boise, the Cougars were being overlooked in their quest for a major bowl game. In a last ditch effort to boost their rankings, the #8 Cougars jetted off to South Carolina to face the undefeated #14 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers with no advance preparation. Facing the combined forces of Coastal Carolina and their home town refs, the Cougars came with half a yard of an undefeated regular season, and finished the regular season with a 10-1 record after defeating San Diego St. in their season finale. Rather than a New Years Day bowl game, the #13 Cougars flew to Boca Raton to face the University of Central Florida (6-3). In their two previous match-ups, each team was 1-1.

Junior QB Zach Wilson led the Cougars to a quick score on their opening drive, blitzing 87 yards in five plays, with Wilson completing a 43-yard pass to Tyler Allgeier, and then bootlegging it for the final 15, diving into the end zone with a Knight on his back. After the Cougar D forced a 3-and-out, Wilson and company went back to work, this time zipping 72 yards down the field in four plays. *On the final play, Wilson handed off to Lopini Katoa, who pitched it back to Neil Pau’u, who pitched it back to Wilson, who then fired a missile to TE Isaac Rex. Rex caught it at the 7 and ran it in for a 36-yard TD reception. UCF finally stopped the Cougars on a fourth down play on their third drive; but on their fourth possession, the Cougars scythed through the Knights defense at a pace of 76 yards in four plays. The drive included a 34-yard pass completion to Katoa, who leaped over a defender before being forced out-of-bounds. That was followed by another razzle-dazzle play, with Wilson handing off to Katoa, who pitched to Pau’u, who then completed a 16-yard pass to Wilson up the right sideline. For those of you scoring at home, that was 1-4-2, and back to 1 for the first down. Wilson again did the honors, sneaking in from 4 yards out to finish the quarter with a 21-0 lead.

Lopini Katoa
Courtesy of BYU Photo
Zach Wilson
Courtesy of BYU Photo



Meanwhile, the Knights’ offense was churning out more yards with each possession. On their first drive of the second quarter, they marched 80 yards in 15 plays, with Greg McCrae bursting into the end zone for a 5-yard TD rush. BYU answered with a 68-yard, 7-play scoring drive. Wilson and Rex connected again for the score with a 27-yard TD pass. After another UCF punt, BYU extended its lead by driving 87 yards in 6 plays. This time Wilson struck with two successive big-yard plays. First, Katoa stretched out to his full 6’1” length, belly-flopping on the turf to snag a 30-yard pass up the left-hand sideline. Next was a precision 35-yard TD pass to Neil Pau’u, who caught it in the bread basket with a defender draped on his left shoulder for touchdown #5. The Knights laboriously chewed up 57 yards in 12 plays to put themselves in scoring position. Their 35-yard FG with 19 seconds remaining in the half made it 35-10 at intermission.

Neil Pau'u
Courtesy of BYU Photo

Isaac Rex
Courtesy of BYU Photo


 The Cougar D came out fired up for the third quarter, not allowing a single yard on each of the Knights’ first two possessions. Wilson and the Cougar Offense, meanwhile kept the pedal to the metal, scoring their next TD in a mere 2 plays, with RB Tyler Allgeier busting through a huge hole in the line and rushing 39 yards to pay dirt. With a 32-point lead, the Cougars finally slowed things down a bit on their next drive, using a whopping 8 plays to move 67 yards. WR Gunner Romney took the handoff and ran it in from 6 yards out. With a 39-point lead, Coach Sitake sent out the second-string to run down the clock. As the third quarter drew to a close, the Knights scored on a 21-yard TD pass from Dillon Gabriel to Jaylon Robinson.

After three quarters of highlight reel scoring plays, the fourth quarter was characterized by clock management - at least by the Cougars. The Knights did manage another TD, a 9-yard TD pass midway through the quarter, but then BYU ran out the final 7:53 to claim a 49-23 win that wasn’t even that close.

With the victory, the Cougars finished their hodgepodge season with a record of 11-1, earning a #11 ranking in the final AP poll. Although Cougar fans were stoked with their stellar season, many of us were left wondering what might have been. If only…

 *Didn’t make BYU’s list of Top 100 plays (televised plays through 12/12/2020) since it occurred in the 2020 postseason.

Game highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TCH3ptV6A4

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cougar Centennial preview

 This blog is dedicated to highlighting the 100 greatest games in BYU Cougar football history. I've been a BYU fan since I was a little kid, and attended the university from 1992-1996. When I realized that 2022 was the 100th anniversary of BYU's first official football game, I decided to compile a list of the 100 greatest games in the program's history (from 1922-2021) and do a write-up for each of those games. I did something similar for the 50th anniversary of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and figured I'd share my efforts with other BYU fans out there. Throughout the blog, I will be referring to Top 25 (or Top 20 prior to the expansion of the polls) rankings of either BYU or the teams they played. I realize that there are a couple of major polls, and even a few less famous ones, but for consistency sake I've decided to use the AP poll as the official ranking (even though BYU tends to be appreciated more by the coaches' poll). Also, many posts refer to the...
Read more

#98 - 11/1/80 – Most points in a game: #17 BYU – 83, UTEP - 7

Image
Junior QB Jim McMahon didn’t like to share the limelight with anyone. Yet that is exactly what he’d had to do in Provo. When Jim arrived in 1977, he found himself the backup to Marc Wilson, who enjoyed a spectacular sophomore season. The next year, the two QBs shared time behind center. That didn’t work out so well, so McMahon redshirted in 1979 - Wilson’s senior season. The result was the first undefeated regular season in team history. Now, it was Jim’s turn, and he wanted to break every single one of Wilson’s records, as well as set a bunch of new ones. Unfortunately, the Cougars started the 1980 season with a surprise loss to lightly regarded New Mexico. The loss served as a wake-up call to BYU, who were universally picked to repeat as WAC champions. The Cougars rolled out six straight victories, including a 28-3 win over Wisconsin on Sept. 20. These were convincing wins - with a minimum margin of victory of 16+ points. However, the Cougs didn’t break into the Top 20 until Oct. 18,...
Read more

#100 12/28/74 – BYU's first Bowl game: Oklahoma St. - 16, #17 BYU – 6

Image
               When the BYU Cougars (7-3-1) started the 1974 season with a 0-3-1 record, nobody would have guessed that they’d come back and win the WAC. However, since their 3 losses were against non-conference schools, they successfully won the conference title with a 6-0-1 record by knocking off two ranked teams (Arizona & Arizona State). As the winner of the WAC, the Cougars were invited to their first bowl game, to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys (6-5) of the Big 8 in the fourth annual Fiesta Bowl.                In the first quarter, the Cougar D corralled the Cowboys, forcing punts on each of the Cowboys first 5 possessions. The Cougar offense, meanwhile, moved the ball well early on. Senior QB Gary Sheide led the Cougars to the Cowboy 13, where Mark Uselman booted a 30-yard  field goal. Although they punted on their second possession, the Cougars took advantage of good field positi...
Read more