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PROVO — The BYU Cougars took on BYU the Washington State Cougars and the game many thought would be a barn burner turned out to be a lop-sided win.
WSU head coach and BYU alum Mike Leach is known for his high-flying offenses, but the BYU defense kept WSU quiet for four quarters.
"Mike Leach's first game at #WSU goes down as a 30-6 to his alma mater #BYU," tweeted @DarnayTripp. "Tough one in Provo."
That's a good way to say it when it comes to WSU. Their offense started their first series strong. Moving the ball, but then deep in BYU territory WSU QB Jeff Tuel threw an interception. From there the BYU offense played solid, as did the defense. The story of the game, though, seemed to be the PAC-12 referees.
If you didn't see the game, and know what we're talking about here, just read these tweets that dominated the conversation during the game.
"These refs in the byu and wsu game need to chill on the flags," tweeted @hickory51.
"These referees in the BYU and Washington St. Game are absolutely brutal," wrote @Parmage1.
"BYU gettin some crazy calls," tweeted @JaeltnDesire.
@Cucky44 tweeted, "this byu, wash. st. game is just flag after flag.. brutal."
And this gem from @DanGreenspan, "The one positive Pac-12 takeaway from Wazzu-BYU? Jay Stricherz and his merry band of flag-throwers won't be seen again this weekend."
The refereeing was criticized all game and the penalties did seem to dominate the play. BYU had 10 penalties for 112 yards and WSU had eight for 73.
While flag after flag seemed to fly on BYU, the critical calls came when WSU was seeing some momentum.
Tuel threw a fade to the corner of the end zone to star receiver Marquis Wilson, who made a top-play catch to pull in the TD. But the six points was called back for holding.
"Wow, what a ca-..." tweeted @KevinOnCFB. "Oh, of course it was too good to be true."
Later in the game Wilson had another long reception which was again called back for holding. Each time the WSU O seemed to gain momentum and get in the redzone, either mental mistakes or great play by the BYU D forced them to settle for a field goal.
"Well, at least we know that Washington State can kick field goals," tweeted @Russwarne. "Too bad they can't seem to do anything else."
That's all Leach's boys would get, field goals.
BYU offensive coordinator Brandon Doman made some smart calls and QB Riley Nelson picked up right where he left off last season throwing for 285 yards and two TD's and running for another 18 yards. The offense looked pretty sharp and the defense looked solid, but David Locke made sure to point out that we should maybe wait to read too much into this game.
"Love everything I'm seeing from #byu," Locke tweeted from his account @Lockedonsports. "Defense strong. Doman on fire. Riley on it. Realize #wsu is not good right now at all."
WSU was not the offensive juggernaut many had predicted and we may have to wait for a few more games to see how good BYU really is, but the opening game has to have fans feeling at least a little optimistic for the upcoming season.
