AMHERST, Mass. — BYU made the 2,100-mile trip to play fellow college football independent UMass on Saturday afternoon, and for awhile it appeared the Cougars were going to score that many points in the second quarter alone.
A 42-point favorite, the Cougars scored 42 points in the second quarter and took a seven-touchdown lead into halftime. They broke the school record of 36 against Washington State in 1990 and flirted with the NCAA record of 49 for a single quarter in playing almost flawlessly against the overmatched Minutemen.
Playing mostly reserves in the second half of a game that had long since been decided, the Cougars cruised to a 56-24 win at half-empty McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
“Proud of the way our team played,” said head coach Kalani Sitake, now 1-0 since signing a three-year contract extension last Monday, and 27-23 in his fourth season. “Great effort, especially in the first half.”
In front of the smallest crowd, 8,204, to watch a BYU football game since 1987 — when only 7,652 saw the Cougars defeat Colorado State in Australia — BYU improved to 7-4, won its fifth-straight game, and tuned up for next Saturday’s regular-season finale at San Diego State. The Mountain West-leading Aztecs will almost certainly provide a stiffer test than UMass, which finished the season with a 1-11 record.
Making his second start since returning from a fractured thumb, sophomore quarterback Zach Wilson shook off the rust that accompanied his so-so performance in last week’s 42-10 win over Idaho State and played almost perfectly in the first half before being relieved by Joe Critchlow after halftime.
Wilson completed 17 of 20 passes — a couple incompletions could have been caught — for 293 yards and four touchdowns and a passer rating of 274.1.
“It seemed like he was kinda in a zone and really comfortable out there,” Sitake said.
Reserve running back Jackson McChesney carried the ball 15 times for 228 yards, most by a Cougar freshman in school history and sixth-most all time.
“We knew he was a playmaker,” Sitake said. “He is a speedster, and whenever he breaks into the open, it is usually a big play for him.”
The coach wasn’t particularly pleased with the way the backups, third-stringers mostly, played in the second half when UMass made a couple big plays offensively and held the Critchlow-led Cougar offense to a single touchdown. UMass picked up all its points and 276 of its 292 yards in the second half.
Wilson wasn’t entirely happy, either, for different reasons.
He played so well and the offense clicked so magnificently in the first half that the sophomore and almost all the starters didn’t get to play in the second half.
“It kinda sucks,” Wilson said. “I mean, we came over here to play a (whole) game. Especially with missing six weeks, it was tough to sit the entire second half.”
“Everyone had a little piece of something. At times, it may have seemed like I was in a groove and had everything going, but it was everybody on the team that was ready to go.” — BYU quarterback Zach Wilson
It was the sportsmanlike thing to do, though, especially after UMass quarterback Andrew Brito was injured in the first half and left the game for good. Star returner Isaiah Rodgers was carried off the field on a stretcher in the second quarter, adding to the home team’s misery. Sitake said he spoke with UMass coach Walt Bell after the game and learned that Rodgers “was going to be OK.”
Tyler Allgeier, Talon Shumway, Lopini Katoa and Gunner Romney caught touchdown passes from Wilson in the first half and Katoa, McChesney and Aleva Hifo ran for scores as the Cougars scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions after being forced to punt on their first possession.
At halftime, when it led 49-0, BYU had amassed 440 yards to UMass’ 16 and was averaging 10.2 yards per play. Wilson said it was a collective effort, deflecting praise to teammates.
“Every single play that was made today had a little something to do with everyone,” Wilson said. “Everyone had a little piece of something. At times, it may have seemed like I was in a groove and had everything going, but it was everybody on the team that was ready to go.”
The Cougars’ first-string defense, which basically got the second half off, held UMass to 1.1 yard per play in the first half. It was complete domination, as expected. With starting senior safety Austin Lee out with an undisclosed injury — Sitake said he will be back next week — Dayan Ghanwoloku led with five tackles, all in the first half, and UMass had only two first downs in the first half.
About the only thing that went wrong for BYU in the first half was Jake Oldroyd’s 28-yard field goal attempt as time expired. It clanged off the right upright, denying the Cougars’ chance to score 45 points in the second quarter.
The first-half onslaught started when Allgeier, a linebacker playing running back due to the wave of injuries that have hit the position, took a swing pass and went 57 yards for the TD. It ended when Hifo scampered in from the 5 with 47 seconds remaining in the half to make the score 49-0.
McChesney added a second TD run in the third quarter, from 12 yards out, which was BYU’s only score in the second half.
“We decided in the second half to go young and go with our threes, more than anything,” Sitake said. “Obviously, they didn’t do as well. That’s OK, we will keep working on it.”