A ‘dream’ interception, and 2 more big plays that helped the Cougars improve to 5-0

There are over 1,900 miles of country roads and interstates that separate Provo from Morgantown. Friday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium, No. 23 BYU extended the distance by 191 critical yards to beat West Virginia 38-24 and remain undefeated (5-0) in 2025.

Big plays of 85, 57 and 49 yards led to 21 points for the Cougars, and proved too much for the under-manned Mountaineers to overcome.

Here’s a closer look at how they happened and what resulted.

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Alexander the Great

Therrian Alexander III had a feeling all week that his first career interception was going to come against West Virginia, and it did — during the Mountaineers’ second possession of the game.

The 6-foot-2 175-pound sophomore cornerback from Ellenwood, Georgia, jumped in front of Khalil Wilkin’s pass and took off for the end zone. After a 49-yard sprint, and with the sold-out crowd screaming at its peak, Alexander was brought down at the 3-yard line by an illegal horse-collar tackle from the desperate quarterback.

“I was disappointed to get tackled, especially by the quarterback of all people,” Alexander said. “But I grew up dreaming about plays like that.”

Seconds later, Parker Kingston ran a jet sweep to the end zone to turn Alexander’s big moment into a 7-0 lead.

The King has returned

Kingston missed much of fall camp with an injury and self-admittedly, it’s taken some time for one of the team’s fastest players to get up to speed.

With 3:30 remaining in the first quarter and facing a third-and-seven at the BYU 46, freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier hit Kingston on a perfectly blocked center screen, and the Roy High grad raced 54 yards for a touchdown to give the Cougars a 14-0 lead.

“I feel like I’ve built off ECU and Colorado,” said Kingston of his restored health and rediscovered confidence. “I finally felt like I was back to my normal self again this week.”

Kingston finished the game with four receptions for 111 yards and two touchdowns. The junior from Layton is now the first player in BYU’s modern history to have a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown, a passing touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown.

Bear bounces back

Moments after Bachmeier’s first interception of the season on BYU’s opening drive of the second quarter, the 19-year-old trotted back out onto the field. Cougar fans wondered how he would respond to his first taste of personal adversity.

A Mountaineer punt put the ball at BYU’s 11-yard line. On the first play, Bachmeier took the shotgun snap and fired a perfect slant pass to Chase Roberts to start the longest pass play for the Cougars in 29 years.

Hitting the American Fork speedster in stride allowed Roberts to dash 85 yards to the West Virginia 4-yard line to set an LJ Martin touchdown run.

“We’re figuring things out with a new quarterback, and with new plays, and that’s what happens,” Roberts said. “Now, we’re a big threat in the pass game, and teams need to prepare for that. That is only going to open up the box for LJ and our running backs.”

Bachmeier finished 18 of 25 for a career-high 351 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception. He also rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown. Roberts caught four passes for a career-high 161 yards —which was four yards fewer than he hoped for.

“He came off the field (after getting tackled from behind at the end of his 85-yard play) and said, ‘I wished I had your speed,’” said Kingston, his roommate. “I said, ‘I know. You gotta unhook the trailer.’”

Honorable mention

Two plays garnered honorable mention honors including Sam Vander Haar’s fake field goal with 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter. With Will Ferrin lining up to attempt a 53-yard kick, the holder, who is also the punter, took the snap from Garrisson Grimes.

As the ball arrived, Ferrin ran to his right, just like the fake-field goal BYU pulled off last year at UCF. This time, however, Vander Haar kept the ball and bolted 11 yards up the middle for a first down. The Cougars capped the drive four plays later with Ferrin’s 37-yard field goal to extend the lead to 31-10.

Moments after Ferrin’s kick, and during the television timeout, Cosmo delivered another honorable mention performance by pulling off a blindfolded high jump — with the cross bar lit on fire. Not even the falling rain could douse his head-scratching effort.

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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.