PROVO — Going into Saturday's 42-35 victory over UNLV, BYU's Fui Vakapuna had rushed for 87 yards this season.
The senior running back nearly equaled that output against the Rebels with nine carries for 72 yards, an average of 7.9 yards per attempt. Of course, 33 of those yards came on one carry in the third quarter.
"The offensive line just exploded. The hole was right there," Vakapuna said of that long run. "You could have fit an elephant through that. I was just happy to see grass and I just went."
To cap that drive, Vakapuna caught a one-yard pass from Max Hall for a touchdown.
"I was surprised," he said of the play call, adding that it was his first TD catch since the 2006 season.
Vakapuna has spent most of the season blocking for Harvey Unga, who rushed for 84 yards on 19 carries against UNLV. During the week, coach Bronco Mendenhall said he wanted the ball distributed more to other players, which is what the Cougars did Saturday. Five different players had at least one carry while nine different players caught at least one pass.
Freshman wide receiver O'Neill Chambers caught the first touchdown pass of his career, a 20-yarder late in the first quarter.
COLLIE STILL CLIMBING: BYU's Austin Collie caught seven passes for 113 yards, giving him 2,619 receiving yards in his career, eclipsing Phil Odle to take the No. 4 spot on BYU's career receiving list.
The junior wide receiver needs only 16 yards to overtake Matt Bellini (2,635 yards) and jump to No. 3.
Collie's performance also broke a Mountain West Conference record. He now has six consecutive 100-yard receiving games, topping the mark of five set by San Diego State's J.R. Tolver in 2002.
If that wasn't enough, Collie returned the opening kickoff 75 yards to set up an early BYU touchdown.
"It was kind of a fake right, go left type of return," Collie said. "The guys blocked, and I haven't seen a hole that big since high school."
HOME RECORD: BYU has now won 17 straight home games, tying a school record. The Cougars haven't lost in Provo since falling to Utah in the 2005 regular-season finale. During that span, the Cougars have beaten their opponents at home by an average of 27.5 points per game while yielding just 11.2 points per game.
The last time BYU won 17 consecutive home games was from Oct. 7, 1989, to Nov. 23, 1991.
FLAG BEARERS: Junior linebacker Coleby Clawson was selected to carry out the Y flag prior to the game. Former Cougar linebacker Brady Poppinga, who now plays for the Green Bay Packers, carried the alumni flag.
BLOCK PARTY: Bryan Kariya blocked a UNLV punt in the second half, which was caught by Brandon Bradley to set up a Cougar touchdown.
For the season, BYU has blocked four kicks — Jan Jorgensen blocked Washington's potential game-tying PAT in the waning seconds of that game; Russell Tialavea blocked a UCLA field goal attempt; and Michael Alisa blocked a kick against New Mexico. The last time the Cougars had four blocked kicks in a season was in 2000.
THIRD-DOWN CONVERSIONS: The offenses for both BYU and UNLV enjoyed amazing success on third down.
While the Cougars converted on 7-of-11 third-down attempts, the Rebels made good on 11-of-15 third-down tries.
HOMECOMING: UNLV starting defensive end Thor Pili, a Timpanogos High product, saw limited action against BYU because of an ankle injury. He recorded one tackle for the Rebels. Several Pili relatives and fans who attended the game wore black shirts to acknowledge him.
EXTRA POINTS: Representatives of the Sugar Bowl attended Saturday's game. ... When UNLV scored with 6:33 remaining in the first quarter, it marked the first touchdown scored by an opponent at Edwards Stadium since the third quarter of the Northern Iowa game. ... Attendance for Saturday's game was 64,081, marking the 11th sellout in a row at Edwards Stadium, the longest streak of consecutive sellouts since 1991-92.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com