Tanner did a nice job. He's a freshman quarterback and it seems like every time he's out there he does something special. – Bronco Mendenhall
PROVO — Less than one week after gaining an abysmal 105 yards of total offense in a shutout loss to Michigan, BYU had no trouble rolling up yardage against Connecticut Friday night.
What the Cougars had trouble with was turning those yards into points.
In the end, BYU overcame a bunch of mistakes and snapped its two-game losing streak by pulling away from the Huskies in the fourth quarter, 30-13, before a crowd of 56,393 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
"I was proud of our team," said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "We were resilient ... We had some of the breakthoughs showed up at the end of the game ... There certainly could have been more points."
The Cougars finished with 539 yards of offense, compared to 230 yards for UConn.
BYU freshman quarterback Tanner Mangum completed 35 of 53 passes for a career-high 365 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. It’s the most passing yards by a freshman in school history.
"Tanner did a nice job," Mendenhall said. "He's a freshman quarterback and it seems like every time he's out there he does something special."
Terenn Houk had six catches for 129 yards and Mitch Mathews had eight receptions for 78 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Algernon Brown rushed for 95 yards and freshman Francis Bernard ran for 69.
BYU improved to 3-2 on the season while UConn fell to 2-3.
The two teams were tied at 10-apiece entering the fourth quarter.
"It was a little frustrating because we were moving the ball," Mangum said. "It was frustrating now finishing those drives."
The Cougars spent most of the game marching up and down the field — at least between the 20s — against the Huskies. Then BYU self-destructed in the form of turnovers, missed field goals and penalties, offsetting the Cougars’ huge advantage in total offense.
Tied at 7-all at halftime, BYU started the second half strong with a 34-yard run by Brown but a dead ball foul took away a chunk of that gain. The drive ended on a fourth-and-one play in UConn territory when Mangum was intercepted by Jamar Summers. It was the Cougars’ third turnover of the game.
Mangum prevented a pick-six, but the UConn’s Bobby Puyol booted a 37-yard field goal as the Huskies took their first lead of the night, 10-7, with 7:11 left in the third quarter.
BYU penetrated UConn’s red zone on its next series, but couldn’t get into the end zone. Trevor Samson drilled a 26-yard field goal to tie the game at 10.
At the end of the third quarter, BYU had 438 yards of total offense and UConn had 129. And the two teams were even.
The Cougars took a narrow lead early in the fourth quarter on a 25-yard field goal by Samson as BYU stalled in the red zone.
BYU’s defense got a takeaway of its own as Kai Nacua forced a bad throw by UConn quarterback Bryant Shirreffs that was intercepted by Bronson Kaufusi. One play later, Mangum connected with Mitch Mathews for a 21-yard touchdown pass as the Cougars seized a 20-10 advantage with 12:03 remaining.
"It was a huge momentum swing," Mangum said of Kaufusi's interception.
UConn cut its deficit to 20-13 a few minutes later after a 42-yard field goal by Puyol.
The Huskies’ ensuing onside kick was recovered by Grant Jones and BYU took advantage of its favorable field position again as Mangum threw a six-yard TD pass to Matthews to make the score 27-13 for the Cougars.
BYU moved the ball effectively from the start, reaching the UConn 32 before a muffed exchange between Mangum and Bernard resulted in the Cougars’ first lost fumble of the season.
On its next series, BYU drove 87 yards on 12 plays and took 5:18 off the clock for a drive capped by a one-yard touchdown run by Bernard. It marked Bernard’s first career touchdown and it was the Cougars’ first points in 93 minutes of game action, — going back to the third quarter of UCLA game.
The Cougars took a 7-0 lead and it appeared they were on their way.
Mangum completed 16 of his first 17 attempts while UConn’s Shirreffs didn’t complete his first pass until about three minutes before halftime.
While BYU continued to pile up yardage, scoring was a problem. Samson missed a 48-yard field goal in the second quarter, then Mangum threw a long pass into the end zone that was intercepted by Jhovan Williams.
The Huskies tied up the game on an 80-yard drive aided by a targeting penalty on BYU’s Sione Takitaki for his hit on Shirreffs. Takitaki was ejected from the game.
One play later, Shirreffs connected with Arkeel Newsome for a 30-yard touchdown pass.
BYU hosts East Carolina next Saturday (5:30 p.m., MT, ESPNU).