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PROVO — With each passing stride, he got stronger and stronger.
With the run game needing a boost, Miles Davis provided the complement to BYU quarterback Jaren Hall that the Cougars have been seeking through the first four games of the season.
Sure, initial starter Chris Brooks ran for 10 yards and a six-yard touchdown in the first half, and Lopini Katoa added to his consistency with 17 yards on five carries.
But Davis' breakout in a 38-24 win over Wyoming may be the biggest discovery of the latest win over the Pokes, the Cougars' third-most played series that dates back to 1922.
With apologies to Keanu Hill, who had a career-high 160 yards and two touchdowns, Davis may be the breakout star that can make the most of BYU's season.
"It was awesome. Honestly, it was awesome," said Davis, a training camp all-star who ran for a career-high 131 yards on 13 carries, a 10.1 yards per carry average that included a 70-yard run that also lapped a career-high. When our offensive line blocks like how they were blocking and our coaches trust us, it just makes the night awesome."
Davis entered the season buried on the BYU depth chart, trailing Brooks, Katoa and rising sophomore Jackson McChesney, battling for playing time with junior college transfer Hinckley Ropati.
But an undisclosed injury to McChesney, which Sitake told BYU Radio is not season ending, pushed him forward into the lineup of a game against Wyoming where coaches were planning to test out their running back committee for a variety of reasons.
. @Md3baller33 was COOKIN' pic.twitter.com/jn2uCUplqb
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 25, 2022
Hall was told sometime Sunday that the coaches were going to give him plenty of time to prove himself against Wyoming. They then added one more piece of advice: have fun.
That led to Davis' big game, where all but three carries for 41 yards came in the fourth quarter.
"Our O-line did it all. I was just following their butts, hitting the holes and going," said Davis, who also caught four passes from Hall for 22 yards. "We've got to give all the glory to the O-line and the quarterback.
"The coaches just told me to go out there, and have fun. So I went there and had fun with the game. When my time came, I tried to do what I knew I could do."
Sitake said the coaches "wanted to see who had the hot hand," and Davis never cooled off.
"Our team felt good about Miles tonight," the seventh-year head coach added. "We needed something to get going with our run-game, because it hasn't been great the last two games, and I think Miles did some really good things for us tonight."
Indeed, the converted wide receiver and speedster from Las Vegas seemed to get stronger with every drive, even every rush. Before long, a BYU offense that scored on two of five drives in the first half but opened the game with back-to-back three-and-outs looked unstoppable.
All it took was a little patience — and a lot of Davis.
"It was just a matter of time until Miles got his shot," said Hall, who threw for 337 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. "Tonight, he was prepared for it, and he did a heck of a job. I'm really proud of him.
"I've been seeing him ball out since his freshman year at receiver. Moving to running back and not skip a beat is pretty impressive. It says a lot about his character."
There was only one thing Davis could've done to be better, he admits: the elusive end-zone dance following a touchdown escaped him.
Not by much, of course. After the 70-yard gain by the 6-foot-2, 210-pound back, Davis broke free on a five-yard sprint to the end zone — only to be called back by a holding penalty. The Cougars ended that drive with Justen Smith's 25-yard field goal, instead, to put the game out of reach before the defense forced Andrew Peasley and Wyoming to go three-and-out on the next series.
Should Davis have scored on the 70-yard sprint that ended on the Cowboys' 5-yard line? Hall joked with his running back, saying he would've scored on that run.
"He always thinks he's faster than me," pointing to Hall next to him. "I'm going to be hearing about it a lot more, especially from my dad when I call him. I'm going to hear it, for sure."
Keep running like that, and he may hear his number called out of the back field more, too.
That's just fine by Davis.
"I love playing running back," he said. "I feel like it's a lot easier than receiver, honestly. And (Hall) makes it better."
