LENNY GOMES SAT ON THE bench in the locker room, looking at his hands; looking admiringly at his hands.
"It's like a dream come true," he said. "I'm curious, does anybody know if that's a record?" Gomes and his hands - big, meaty hands, the kind you'd expect to accompany a 6-foot-2, 275-pound noseguard - had just intercepted two passes in the same game, interceptions that had a lot to do with BYU's 48-17 come-from-behind win over Utah Saturday in Cougar Stadium. Once Gomes got into his Ronnie Lott impersonation, the Utes were goners. You can look it up. BYU led 20-17 when Gomes got his first pick, a nifty little manuever in the second quarter that consisted mainly of raising his hands up and finding the ball stuck to them. Four plays later the Cougars scored for a 27-17 halftime lead.On the fifth play of the second half the aspiring free safety struck again, using basically the same tactic as before - when all else fails, go with your reflexes - and two plays later the Cougars were on the board with another touchdown and a 34-17 lead.
The rest was overkill.
By the end of the game, the Ty Detmer farewell party was a raging success. Detmer ended his career with five touchdown passes, another touchdown rushing, more than 15,000 career yards passing (stack them end to end and you could throw a spiral from Provo to Lima, Peru), and several thundering standing ovations from an admiring crowd of 66,003.
It isn't everyday that you beat Utah by 31 points, clinch the WAC title, clinch a berth in the Holiday Bowl, and watch a Heisman Trophy winner go out in style.
As Detmer was acknowledging the ovations, and getting his graduation blanket from school president Rex Lee, and retiring with 64 regular season NCAA records, Gomes was in the locker room, wondering about his record.
Most interceptions in a game by a noseguard?
He was told that the NCAA record book lists no such mark.
He shrugged and asked coach Tom Holmoe if he could go out for free safety.
Holmoe said yes . . . as soon as he lost 100 pounds.
Gomes, a sophomore from Santa Rosa, Calif. who had never before had an interception, said he might have taken his interceptions one step further - and taken off for the end zone, "but I didn't want to fumble or anything so I just fell down." He said he had faith in Detmer.
Gomes' interceptions served as a wakeup call of sorts for BYU's pass defense, which was in need of one. The previous week, in the famous and infamous 52-52 tie with San Diego State, the Aztecs struck for five touchdown passes, and more than 500 passing yards.
"A real bummer," said strong safety Josh Arnold. "They made us look like fools."
At the start of the Utah game, the Utes were doing a good job of further exploitation of the Cougar defensive backfield. Before the first quarter was finished, backup quarterback Mike Richmond had already thrown for two touchdown passes, both to wideout Bryan Rowley - and the Utes had a 17-14 lead.
But then came Gomes' interception and, as Arnold said, "we couldn't let a noseguard out-intercept us."
Only moments after Gomes' first interception, Arnold got one for the backfield.
After Gomes got his second, Arnold met him on the sidelines.
"I told him I'd match that," Arnold said. He did. He got his second interception early in the fourth quarter. In the meantime, linebacker Rocky Biegel gathered in a Ute pass as well.
Five interceptions and a fumble did not help the Utes' cause.
BYU Coach LaVell Edwards breathed a sigh of relief at the result. He said he'd much prefer to show up in San Diego the next time - at the Holiday Bowl against Iowa on Dec. 30 - with a defense.
"I don't like to go anywhere without a defense," he said.
"We were embarrassed last week," he added. "We had some problems (including the suspension of two cornerbacks for disciplinary reasons the day of the game) and we just got caught flat-footed. Today we were able to regroup and play more nickel (five defensive backs) and we were able to blitz more."
Plus, there was Gomes.
"Lenny was in the right place at the right time and it fired us up," said Arnold. "And he showed he had some good hands."
Gomes was still smiling an hour after the game. He was still smiling even after Detmer came in from the adoring crowd and the media that had been surrounding him left him alone again.
"No big deal, you know," he said. "Other than this will probably never happen to me again . . . maybe I'll be All-WAC DB, what do you think?"