BYU tied Texas last season for the most interceptions (22) in college football, but just one was returned to the house for a touchdown. Pick-sixes are as rare as finding a seventh McNugget in your lunch order, but when one shows up, it can make your day.
Returning an interception for a touchdown is the No. 1 psychological weapon in gridiron warfare. Pick-sixes are so emotionally powerful they not only change the game, but they change the athletes playing it — and the fans who are watching it.
“The biggest thing is momentum in the stadium,” said BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill, mastermind behind the Big 12’s No. 1-rated defense last season. “When you are in a road stadium and you get one, you can quiet the crowd and when you get one in our stadium, things erupt and that can compound things for the other team.”
For Hill, cooking up a pick-six begins before the quarterback gets the ball.
“Our job is to always try to confuse him. If you can give a quarterback a look where he is pretty sure he has the throw he wants, and then he throws an interception and it goes for a pick-six, that can affect everything he thinks he sees for the rest of the game,” Hill said. “Once you get them second-guessing at what they are looking at, it’s hard for those guys to recover.”
Isaiah Glasker’s pick-six against Arizona in October at LaVell Edwards Stadium was a direct result of Hill’s strategic use of smoke and mirrors.
“We were playing cover three. I backed off the line. (Noah) Fifita rolled out and I was baiting him to throw to the tight end. He threw it and I jumped in front of it,” said Glasker, a junior linebacker from South Jordan. “(QBs) think about it on every play after. It kills their confidence and they second guess themselves on every deep throw.”
Mental sucker punch
Brandon Doman threw a pick-six on his first pass against rival Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2000. The junior quarterback looked up at the scoreboard 52 seconds into the game and saw his Cougars trailing 7-0 as the home crowd howled in delight.
“A pick-six is the momentum changer of a football game,” said Doman, who bounced back to beat the Utes 34-27 in LaVell Edwards final game as BYU’s head coach. “You definitely take a major mental sucker punch when that happens. You have to train yourself to live in the present and maintain positive energy so you can move on to the next play, the next moment.”
Bouncing back after a pick-six becomes even tougher to do because, just as blood in the water attracts sharks, touchdowns off turnovers fire up defenses.
“Giving up a pick-six is not only a touchdown, but psychologically it does something to your opponent,” said Dewey Gray, a BYU safety (1989-92) who logged a pick-six against New Mexico in 1990. “It is a huge momentum play for the defense, and it deflates the offense.”
Linebacker Bryan Kehl (2002, 2005-07) witnessed opposing quarterback’s physically and mentally change in the wake of pick-six, including after his 2007 touchdown against New Mexico.
“It’s just a total gut punch,” Kehl said. “For the quarterback, it often makes them skittish for the rest of the game and it makes the offensive coordinator hesitant.”
Brian Mitchell owns the longest pick-six in BYU history — a 97-yard return against New Mexico in 1989.
“The game is all about the ball. The turnover differential is probably the No. 1 factor in winning,” said Mitchell, BYU cornerback (1987-90) and current cornerbacks coach at NC State. “So, any time you can take the ball away and score, it is a big-time blow to the opponent.”
House calls
Nobody forgets a house call for a pick-six — not the quarterback who threw it, the defender who caught it or the fans who watched it.
“I remember (the Lobos) were driving the ball on offense and that someone needed to make a play,” said Mitchell. “All I could think of was to get to the end zone and at the end of the run, all I could think about was ‘I can’t breathe!’ But that play changed the math in that game. It was one of my proudest moments as a player at BYU. It’s amazing that the record still stands.”
Other memorable pick-sixes include Todd Shell’s game winner against Utah State in 1981; Tom Holmoe’s 63-yard return at No. 7 Georgia in 1983; Rodney Rice’s 70-yard touchdown against Texas in 1988; Kyle Van Noy’s dramatic return against San Diego State in the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl; and Fred Warner’s pair of pick-sixes at Boise State in 2014 and 2016.
“What I remember most is that I had a dream of the exact play and interception,” said Gray, who set a team record with three interceptions in his first start against New Mexico in 1989, including a pick-six. “As the play developed, I remembered thinking, ‘This is just like my dream!’ Once I caught the tipped pass, I turned on the jets with high knee action. It felt epic! I knew I had changed the game.”
Linebacker Isaiah Kaufusi enjoyed some foreshadowing as well during the week leading up to BYU’s 2020 game against Texas State.
“I remember seeing on film some of (the QB’s) tendencies and I visualized myself getting a pick and scoring a touchdown,” said Kaufusi (2016-20). “I called my shot in the pregame to our media crew. Once I secured the pick, it was tunnel vision to the end zone. The best part was celebrating with my teammates. There is nothing better than getting a pick at LES, but to take it to the house is the absolute pinnacle.”
Safety Kai Nacua electrified LES with a pick-six to clinch the game against Boise State in 2015. Linebacker Max Tooley returned pick-sixes against South Florida and Utah State in 2022 and Jakob Robinson’s pick-six in BYU’s Big 12 home opener in 2023 helped take down Cincinnati.
“I just remember reading my keys and dropping into coverage and seeing the ball come out and ricochet off Brandon Bradley’s helmet. I was in the right place at the right time and immediately set my sights on getting into the end zone,” said linebacker and BYUtv Football Analyst David Nixon (2003, 2006-08) about his pick-six against Wyoming in 2008. “There is really no other feeling like it as a defensive guy. The fact that I returned it into the south end zone near the ROC made it all the better.”
Kehl calls his first-quarter pick-six against New Mexico in 2007 one of the top plays of his life.
“I was the flat defender. The running back had run an arrow route, and I was leveraging over the top of him. The X (receiver) ran a curl, and I reacted toward him on the throw,” Kehl said. “He was usually a sure-handed receiver, but he bobbled it, and I was able to snag it out of the air and then I was off to the races!”
The 36-yard run to paydirt for the former Brighton High star was no walk in the park.
“I knew the running back was hot on my tail and I had to outrun the angle of the offensive line and quarterback, but I was able to do it,” he said. “It was a huge boost for us to start what ended up being a one-score game.”
Next-play mentality
If there is a downside to a pick-six, it is the lack of celebration time and that is a point of emphasis for Hill and his defense as they prepare for the fall.
“We always want to have a ‘next play’ mentality and as soon as we get one, we have to move on to the next play,” Hill said. “When you get a pick-six your defense is right back on the field. If you can get a pick-six and then force a three-and-out or force another turnover, then you are looking at potentially game-winning back-to-back series.”
The quest to get more this fall is front and center for Hill’s defense, which finished 2024 on top of the Big 12 in total defense, scoring defense and turnovers gained (29). The Cougars cashed in two of those turnovers for touchdowns — while the other 27 helped shape the 11-2 season.
“As soon as I ran into the end zone, I wanted to do the LES leap into the crowd, but I didn’t want a 15-yard penalty,” said Glasker of his moment of glory. “I was super excited. It’s the ultimate!”
Glasker and his teammates will be hunting victories more than pick-sixes in 2025, but if another one should come his way, he’ll be ready to change the game again — for everybody involved.
That’s what pick-sixes do.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.