Arlington-bound: No. 11 BYU overcomes slow start to down UCF in regular-season finale

PROVO — BYU's victory lap around LaVell Edwards Stadium a day after clinching a berth in the Big 12 title game started with a Saturday morning jog.

By the early afternoon, the Cougars were sprinting.

LJ Martin rushed 21 times for 95 yards and three touchdowns, and Bear Bachmeier completed 21-of-25 passes for 289 yards and a score as No. 11 BYU overcame a slow start to pull past UCF 41-21 in front of an announced crowd of 60,389 fans.

With Chase Roberts sidelined on senior day, Parker Kingston collected 126 yards and a touchdown and added another score on a 55-yard punt return as the Cougars outscored the Knights 38-7 in the final three quarters.

BYU topped 400 yards of offense, while holding UCF to 296 yards and just 42 on the ground with two sacks, five tackles for loss and a pair of turnovers.

Tayven Jackson threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and also caught a 4-yard score for the Knights (5-7, 2-7 Big 12).

But if Vampire Cougs come out at night, BYU's version didn't in the first quarter.

Jackson completed 10 of his first 12 pass attempts for 110 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown to Agyema Addae to give the 17.5-point underdog Knights a 14-0 lead.

"I'd like to see us start faster next time," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. "But we've been in that position before as UCF, where you're trying to get that sixth win and be bowl eligible. I think we started faster (two years ago) against Oklahoma State, and they had to rally and beat us."

The Cougars responded the same way that won 10 of their first 11 games of the season: with defense and the run game that powered a 41-7 spurt to the program's 14th 11-win season and third in Sitake's decade in charge of his alma mater.

Martin ran on six of nine plays before diving into the end zone for his first touchdown, then converted another on a direct snap from less than a yard out to tie the game at 14-14.

In between was an interception by Evan Johnson, and Will Ferrin gave the Cougars their first lead of the game with a 26-yard field goal with nine seconds left in the half.

Johnson didn't take much credit for his fourth interception of the year, and sixth of his career. But his teammates gave him plenty of it.

"Shmev always makes big plays in big moments," the senior linebacker who had a team-high six tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and two sacks with three quarterback hits and a forced fumble. "That was definitely a momentum shifter."

So, too, was Kingston's first touchdown, a 55-yard punt return moments after Martin completed his hat trick on the first drive of the half.

The fourth-year junior was denied another in the first half by the turf monster, but overcame a bout of food poisoning for his most receiving yards since catching seven passes for a career-high 133 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-27 win over Iowa State back on Oct. 25.

"He plays a pivotal role in our offense," Bachmeier said of Kingston, the former Roy High quarterback and track star. "Parker's a dude."

BYU moves on to the Big 12 championship game, a rematch with No. 5 Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — and the Cougars' first conference title game in 27 years.

After that — and a postseason, whether it involves a Playoff or a bowl game — will come several key decisions by four non-seniors who were honored pregame alongside the Cougars' 18 graduating seniors: Martin, linebacker Isaiah Glasker, defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa and punter Sam Vander Haar.

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