PROVO — There was a long line outside each entrance into LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday afternoon — nearly 40 minutes before gates opened an hour before kickoff.

That’s not so rare on a college football afternoon in the fall. But Saturday’s lines were for the annual spring scrimmage.

Nearly 19,000 fans flooded the stadium Saturday, filling close to capacity the east and west bleachers that run parallel to the Wasatch Front, as the White team ran past the Blue team, 30-12.

Players were mostly interchangeable on offense, and offensive linemen (as well as tight end Tanner Balderree) wore neutral black jerseys in a game more similar to a round of “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” Where points don’t matter.

But the crowd took notice of a few of BYU’s playmakers, even with starting running back Jamaal Williams on the sideline and quarterback Taysom Hill called away for a last-minute family emergency.

“There’s been a big excitement you can feel in the area with the new coaches, new system and new team coming in,” said quarterback Tanner Mangum, who completed 6-of-8 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown in scrimmage play. “I’m not surprised, and Cougar fans are awesome. I’m glad we could have a sunny day for the fans; it was fun.”

New coach Kalani Sitake wanted to blend a game-like scrimmage into the spring practice that opened the final week of fall camp, even if he admittedly didn’t open up much of the new playbook on offense or defense.

But the most impressive thing to him was the crowd.

“The environment was exciting for the guys,” Sitake said. “There were quite a few fans here, and it was exciting. Maybe a little bit of nerves, but I thought overall it was a good performance for our team.”

Moroni Laulu-Pututau made four catches for 73 yards, including a 21-yard touchdown grab on the first series following the 7-on-Y skeleton portion to pull the White team ahead, 13-12.

“Moroni made a great catch, and we threw a couple of touchdowns in skelly as well,” Mangum said. “Regardless of what you are doing, you always want to score touchdowns. It’s always fun to score in LaVell Edwards Stadium.”

With points coming during skelly work counting toward the final result, Beau Hoge completed 6-of-7 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns — one for the Blue team, and one for the White.

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The BYU football team will hold its annual spring scrimmage Saturday at 2 p.m. MT at LaVell Edwards Stadium. It will be the team’s first under new head coach Kalani Sitake.

“Beau’s been great,” said offensive coordinator Ty Detmer of Hoge, who also ran for 16 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. “He’s really picked up the offense really well under center, and he’s got enough athleticism to make some plays with his legs, too. He’s done really well.”

Hoge opened the first score of the day with an 8-yard strike to tight end Nate Sampson, who finished with 50 yards on four receptions. Mangum then hit back-to-back touchdown passes to Brayden El-Bakri and Nick Kurtz to cap the skelly session.

Garrett Juergens hauled in a 10-yard TD pass from Hoge on the final play of the spring game to add to the White team’s tally.

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