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TUCSON, Ariz. — To call BYU’s win at Arizona “surprising” may be an understatement — at least from a national perspective.
But the shock and surprise wasn’t evident on the faces of thousands of BYU fans who flooded Arizona Stadium to see the Cougars stun the Wildcats, 28-23.
The win was the Cougars’ first win over a Power-5 opponent since the 2016 season, and came after a dismal 4-9 campaign that saw the release of former offensive coordinator Ty Detmer and a complete overhaul on that side of the football.
But those changes have already bourne some fruit.
Here are three thoughts on Saturday’s late-night kickoff.
That Grimey O
When Jeff Grimes returned to BYU last winter for his first full-time offensive coordinator job, the message was clear: the Cougars need to be better on offense.
BYU ranked among the bottom-five teams nationally in every major offensive statistical category under Detmer, the former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who was fired by his beloved alma mater after just two seasons.
The message has been received, though.
The Cougars piled up 392 yards of offense, including 183 on the ground, led by Squally Canada. The senior rushed for 98 yards and three touchdowns on the evening, and quarterback Tanner Mangum added 209 yards passing with a 24-yard score to tight end Matt Bushman. The senior signal caller sprayed the ball around the field, hitting 10 different receivers with completions, including leading wide out Aleva Hifo (36 yards, two receptions).
The offense hit its peak in the third quarter, when BYU scored on three-straight possessions to out-score the Wildcats 21-0 before holding on.
“It gave us confidence as an offense, showed us what we are capable of, and what we need to do to get the job done the rest of the game,” Mangum said. “I thought our offensive line did a great job all night, moving the line of scrimmage, creating holes and playing physical. And Squally did a great job hitting the hole hard and getting some extra yards.”
More than anything, though, football was fun again — especially for Mangum, who missed the final three games of his junior campaign with a torn Achilles’ tendon and has been the punchline of many jokes since he burst on the scene as a Hail Mary-tossing winner as a freshman at Nebraska.
“It was fun. I was just enjoying it,” Mangum said. “I loved the atmosphere, and loved being out there with these guys. Being healthy is something I don’t want to take for granted again.
“Any time you can get a win, it feels good. To start a season 1-0 against a good team at their field, I think it’s good for our program. It makes us excited for next week.”
The Cougars are having fun again
After the Cougars took an extended victory lap around Arizona Stadium in front of a large section of the 51,002 fans in attendance, the elation settled in.
A team that went through the entire 2017 season without a win over a top-tier program — including just three victories against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents — had opened the 2018 season about as well as can be expected.
And that was fun.
“Any time you can get a win, and doing it on the road against a Pac-12 team is really good for us,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “I loved the momentum, and I loved the sideline, the way our guys believed. This team believes in each other, in the coaches, and they believe that they can do some great things.”
Football is a game, and there were multiple moments — at least nine of them, in fact — when BYU fans and players weren’t having fun in 2017.
The fun came back Saturday night, at least for a few hours.
“It was fun. I was just enjoying it,” Mangum said. “I loved the atmosphere, and loved being out there with these guys. Being healthy is something I don’t want to take for granted again.
“Any time you can get a win, it feels good. To start a season 1-0 against a good team at their field, I think it’s good for our program. It makes us excited for next week.”
Selling out not to sack
BYU didn’t out-athlete any of Arizona’s skill position players.
But the Cougar defense showed up in a big way.
The Cougars limited star quarterback Khalil Tate to just 14 net rushing yards and a mere 197 yards through the air, turning the dual-threat wunderkind into a pocket passer on college football’s opening Saturday.
They did this by not getting too happy to create disruption in the backfield, too. Corbin Kaufusi had a sack, but the defensive line provided enough pressure to simply keep Tate inside the pocket — and force him to will the Wildcats to a win with his arm.
“We got good pressure by the defensive line all game. That really helped to flush it out, to contain the backs,” BYU linebacker Zayne Anderson said. “It helped us a ton. They were stopping down the run game up the middle, which forced them off the edge or forced them to pass. Congrats to those guys. They did a really good job.”
That’s not an optimal solution for Arizona, and new coach Kevin Sumlin can learn from it. But it may also be a solution that Tate will have to learn from as he tries to prepare for a host of defenses that have taken notice of the Heisman contender.
“Part of being the quarterback is throwing the ball, so I think that’s something I have to do,” Tate said. “I wanted to win. That’s the overall vision. Everybody on my team, everybody out there and on this podium wants to win games. When the team wins, everybody wins. Every loss sucks obviously, but we’re going to go back to the film room and we’re going to learn from it.”
