Everybody needs that one big break. Harrison Ford was a carpenter when he got the part for “Star Wars” at the age of 35. James Taylor was failing to get his songs heard until a friend arranged an audition with The Beatles. Tom Brady was a fourth-string quarterback as a rookie but the following year he got his chance when starter Drew Bledsoe was injured.
Closer to home, on Saturday night, two BYU players got their breaks and saved what’s left of BYU’s once-promising football season. Wide receiver Puka Nacua, all but forgotten much of the season, has become the focus of the offense the last few games at least partly because of injuries to teammates, and on Saturday night he took his game to a new level. And then there was somebody named Hinckley Ropati, a rarely used running back who got his chance and made the most of it when a teammate was injured.
Both players made star turns in BYU’s 31-28 win over Boise State that ended the team’s four-game losing streak and evened their record at 5-5.
Nacua is no stranger to BYU fans. He was a big contributor to the team last season, but this season he all but disappeared. Through the first six games — three of which he missed with injuries — he had only four catches for 22 yards, plus another 100 yards rushing. In the last four games he has 36 catches for 517 yards and five touchdowns. He had eight catches for 141 yards and a TD against Notre Dame; seven catches for 114 yards and one TD against Liberty; and seven catches for 79 yards and one TD against East Carolina.
With Gunner Romney sidelined by injury for all but two games this season and Kody Epps out with an injury, the Cougars turned again to Nacua. Against Boise State the game plan seemed to be: Get the ball to Nacua and everybody else get out of the way. He had 14 catches — tied for third most in school history — for 157 yards and two TDs. The last TD was the game-winner.
With 1:46 left on the clock and BYU trailing 28-24 at the BSU 6-yard line, Nacua ran a fade route toward the left corner of the end zone. Jaren Hall threw a low-arching pass, back-shoulder fade, but Nacua was in trouble. He was turned inside and hand-fighting with defender Caleb Biggers, who grabbed a fistful of Nacua’s jersey just above his left elbow.
Unable to use his left arm, Nacua reached back for the ball with his right hand and tipped the ball into the air. Nacua freed his left arm from Bigger’s grasp as he turned and somehow grasped control of the ball just as he was spinning downward to the turf, landing centimeters inside the out-of-bounds line. The referees reviewed the play for several anxious moments before ruling the play a touchdown.
“He’s one of the best players in college football,” Sitake told reporters afterward. Which is why the Cougars are trying to get the ball to him any way they can. Nacua has had 14 rushing attempts and two TDs in the last four games.
Nacua has three older brothers who also played for BYU. Isaiah was a defensive lineman; Kai started 38 games at safety and intercepted 14 passes before playing three seasons in the NFL; and Samson caught 103 passes for 1,344 yards and collected 18 touchdowns receiving and rushing for BYU and Utah.
Ropati, on the other hand, is a newcomer. A junior from California, he transferred to BYU from a junior college with some acclaim in 2020 — Sports Illustrated wrote a story stating he would be a big contributor for the Cougars. It hasn’t worked out that way. He sat out the 2020 season with a knee injury. He had one rushing attempt last season. This season he had one rushing attempt in the first nine games, which resulted in 4 yards and a fumble in Game 6 that landed him in the doghouse.
With BYU’s leading rusher, Chris Brooks, sidelined with an injury, Ropati moved to third string behind Lopini Katoa and Miles Davis last week. During the Boise State game, Davis came up lame and Ropati was thrown into the action. He had five carries for 28 yards and caught three passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. With BYU trailing 21-17 midway through the fourth quarter, Ropati caught a screen pass and weaved 48 yards through the defense for a touchdown. He turned another screen pass into a 28-yard gain.
His performance seems likely to earn him more playing time. Tyler Allgeier was another forgotten player for BYU buried deep on the bench until injuries forced coaches to move him first to defense and then back to offense, where he became a sensational running back. He’s playing for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons this season.
For Ropati, the Boise State game might be the big break he needed.
