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HONOLULU — A year ago, Zach Wilson broke on to the college football bowl landscape on the strength of his arm.
A year later, neither his arms nor his legs were enough to save the day.
The Cougar sophomore threw for 274 yards and two interceptions, and ran for 72 yards and two scores, but that wasn't enough as BYU fell Tuesday night to Hawaii in the SoFi Hawaii Bowl.
Cole McDonald threw a 24-yard touchdown pass, his fourth of the game, with 1:17 left to help the Rainbow Warriors go up, then rally, then finish off a 38-34 win in front of 21,582 fans at Aloha Stadium.
Hawaii won 10 games for the first time since 2010, and just the seventh time in program history.
"That was a great football game,” said Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich, who has presided over two of the ‘Bows’ three wins over BYU this century, first as a quarterback in 2001 and as a fourth-year head coach. "I appreciate everyone that was involved in our season. To get a 10-win season, to win on Christmas Eve over BYU, in that fashion, it’s hard to find anything better."
Jake Oldroyd gave the Cougars (7-6) their first lead of the game with a 20-yard field goal just 23 seconds into the fourth quarter, 34-31 after holding the Warriors to negative-4 yards of offense and four punts in the third period.
BYU forced Hawaii (10-5) to punt four times in the third, while the only score came on Wilson’s 4-yard plunge on the Cougars’ first drive of the half after trailing 31-24 at the break.
The Rainbow Warriors led by as much as 21-7 in the first half, but BYU didn't go away. Tyler Allgeir had a game-high 77 yards on eight carries on the ground, and Lopini Katoa added 51 yards and a touchdown for the Cougars.
BYU piled up 505 yards of offense, but was no match for Hawaii. JJ Nwigwe had two sacks for the Cougars, including a crucial stop with just over 4 minutes remaining as Hawaii tried to drive for the win.
But with 2:01 left and no timeouts, McDonald drove the length of the field — including a critical 38-yard strike to Nick Mardner that set up his own 24-yard score on the next play.
McDonald finished with 493 yards passing and four touchdowns with no interceptions, the second-most passing yards in Hawaii Bowl history.
“I thought he was an excellent quarterback when we faced him last year,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said of the potentially NFL-bound junior. “He made some really tight throws, and some really technical throws (in the bowl game).
“He has the size, the arm strength and the ability as much as anybody (in the NFL).”
Aleva Hifo finished with six catches for 55 yards and added 97 yards on punt return, the second-most in Hawaii Bowl history.
A bowl game that has been decided by double digits in just two of the last eight meetings produced a thrilling finish, with Hawaii going up big, then falling behind, then having to rally for the final victory.
The Rainbow Warriors went up two scores twice, including a 21-7 lead on McDonald’s 1-yard run to open the second quarter, but clung to a 31-24 halftime advantage after BYU closed on a 17-10 run that included Micah Simon’s 11-yard reverse for a TD run in the second.
Then the Cougars found their defense in the third, forcing Hawaii to three-straight three-and-out punts to tie the game at 31-31 and take BYU’s first lead on Oldroyd’s 37-yard field goal to open the fourth quarter.
“I think we just went back to what we were supposed to do in the first half,” said defensive lineman Trajan Pili, who had one of the Cougars’ eight tackles for loss. “We had a good game plan, but in the first half, we didn’t make the plays we were supposed to.”
Along the way, they could’ve had a bigger lead, but Wilson’s helicopter-spin into the end zone from five-yards out was ruled an end-zone fumble and touchback. Even a brief review — which the Mid-American Conference-based officials didn’t commence until fans started booing from video replays inside Aloha Stadium — yielded nothing.
“I guess they didn’t have enough evidence to see that it was a touchdown,” Sitake said. “I can’t say that I saw it great; I just assume that they had the right angles and the right film. I couldn’t see from where I was. I would think the best view would be to have a camera on the goal line so you can always see across the plane.”
McDonald had two receivers go for over 100 yards, in JoJo Ward’s 7 catches for 159 yards and Jared Smith’s 142 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches. But he also added a third, Jason Sharsh, who put up 90 yards and a touchdown on seven catches in setting a Mountain West bowl record for passing yards.
But all McDonald could do was watch as his defense won him the game, and Khoury Bethley’s second pick — in addition to a team-high 10 tackles — did just that.
