AMHERST, Mass. — The final score, 56-24, and the final statistics — such as BYU picking up 26 first downs to 16 for UMass and 628 yards to 292 for the Minutemen — might suggest that the heavily overmatched home team gave the Cougars a decent game Saturday afternoon.
Don’t be fooled. The last (hopefully) matchup in the four-game series was not competitive, as the Cougars took a 49-0 lead in the second quarter and might have been able to hit the century mark if BYU coach Kalani Sitake had not called off the dogs at halftime.
As expected, the Minutemen weren’t ready.
But the Cougars were, which has to be seen as a step forward for a team that wasn’t able to handle its favorite status well the last two times it ventured East. Remember Toledo? Forget about South Florida, already?
There was no playing down to the competition this time for BYU. And that’s the biggest takeaway as the Cougars won their fifth-straight game, improved to 7-4 and left everyone wondering what their record would be if they had brought the same intensity into the games with the Rockets and Bulls weeks ago.
Oh, what might have been?
That said, head coach Kalani Sitake, who earned a three-year contract extension Monday for, among other things, turning the season around after those inexplicable setbacks in the Eastern time zone, deserves the game ball for correcting those previous sins.
In taking the wind out of the Minutemen from almost the opening kickoff, the Cougars showed a maturity they didn’t have six weeks ago. Whatever chance the home team had of pulling off a monumental upset on Senior Day in front of a meager crowd of 8,204 shivering-but-sunsplashed fans went poof as soon as linebacker-turned-running back Tyler Allgeier collected a swing pass from Zach Wilson, broke a few tackles, and sprinted 57 yards for a touchdown.
“They have always done that,” Sitake said of his team’s road effort as a 42-point favorite. “They have always had a lot of energy. It is up to us coaches to use that energy and excitement and effort they give us and have success with it. So I am just glad the guys were able to handle it well. … a lot of them grew up a lot this year.”
Yes, Sitake was taking the blame, somewhat indirectly, for those previous two losses.
“This time, we were ready to roll,” he said.
Sure, the second half tarnished the showing a little bit — UMass out-gained BYU 276-188 in the second half and outscored the Cougars 24-7, but few, if any, of BYU’s starters saw the field after halftime.
After catching two passes for 20 yards in the first half, senior receiver Micah Simon, for instance, changed into tennis shoes and left his helmet in the locker room at halftime. Talon Shumway, Aleva Hifo, Matt Bushman and other stars also turned into cheerleaders in the final 30 minutes.
“I was mad (about not playing in the second half),” half-joked Shumway, who continues to make his final season in Provo his best, catching four passes for 91 yards and a TD. “At this point I am counting down the final minutes of my career. I want to stay in, but the younger guys deserved the opportunity. I am never happy to be pulled out.”
Much will deservedly be made of how the Cougars scored the most points in a quarter, 42, in school history and how the offense hit its stride after a puzzling three-and-out on its first possession. The Cougars scored touchdowns on seven-straight possessions, often in big-play fashion.
Of those seven TD drives, one took 13 plays, one took seven plays, two took six plays and the other three were two plays or fewer.
Wilson, who finished with 293 passing yards and four TD tosses with just three incompletions (one or two were dropped), said it happened because the offense was ready to make amends for what some said was a mediocre performance last week against Idaho State.
“That was a huge focus all week, was being ready from the beginning,” Wilson said. “No offense to these guys, but these games that we should win, we can’t be playing down to someone’s level. We can compete with the best teams, but we have to play like a consistent, really good team every week no matter who we are playing. That was the focus. It was like playing against ourselves this week.”
The defense was ready, too. UMass had shown flashes of offensive competence in previous games, and showed some firepower against BYU’s reserves in the second half. But not against the first-teamers.
The Minutemen had just 16 yards in the first half and lost starting quarterback Andrew Brito to an arm injury.
“Our defense didn’t give an inch in that first half,” Wilson said.
Junior tackle Khyiris Tonga set the tone on UMass’ second possession, knifing through for a 5-yard tackle for loss after the Minutemen had gained a total of 24 yards on three successive plays. UMass didn’t get another first down the rest of the half.
“The guys were especially assignment-sound on defense,” Sitake said. “They were really dominant in that first half.”
Which, thanks to showing up ready to play, is all that mattered in this particular game.