BYU uses huge second-half plays to bury Arizona. Sound familiar?

The play was symbolic.

He wasn’t supposed to even play, let alone start. That was Raider Damuni’s job, until he got hurt against Utah Tech.

But boy, did Tommy Prassas come through.

Arizona may have picked on him in Saturday’s game, but Prassas got the last laugh. His late fourth-quarter bone-jarring tackle on Arizona’s desperate fourth-and-four essentially ended the game.

That Prassas’ tackle, which officials refused to recognize as a stopper short of the line to gain in real time, was overturned on review.

Biggest play of the game.

It killed Arizona. It vacuumed the life right out of Brent Brennan’s squad, a team that came to Provo with revenge on their minds.

Instead, BYU coach Kalani Sitake got his sixth-straight win over Arizona in 11 seasons, as well as a step up in the Big 12 standings.

Folks may have seen a Big 12 championship-caliber game Saturday when No. 15 BYU pulled the rug out from under a determined, angry and focused Arizona squad in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

BYU needed a big-play second half and combat the pinpoint gunslinging of Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita. At crunch time, BYU’s new defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga threw circus blitzes at the Wildcats’ star, forcing his passes, knocking him to the ground, and neutralizing his big-play acumen.

This Big 12 win looms large for Sitake and Company.

They got in an alley fight and needed haymakers in the end to put it to bed.

Poppinga watched his team give up 17 points and 240 yards of offense to UA as well as an outrageous Wildcat edge in time of possession 21:29 to 8:31 and a lopsided 42-to-23 edge in plays run in the first half. Then, in the second half, Arizona managed zero points and just 87 total yards.

Credit Poppinga. His changes were brilliant.

Also credit offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, who didn’t get enough plays in the first half to establish a measurable heart rhythm out of his offense. He underutilized league offensive player of the year LJ Martin, and his new toy, freshman phenom receiver Legend Glasker. He didn’t get to fiddle much with his fancy transfer tight ends early.

But it all came together in the second half.

Poppinga’s pressure packages worked.

Roderick set up UA’s defense for failure, especially on Glasker’s 61-yard bomb to set up the final touchdown after the Cougars held a fragile 24-17 lead late.

And that’s the key to this big Cougar win: Adjustments made, plays created, even if late.

You start slow, you open the door for anything to happen.

You come out stuck in molasses, and you can lose to anybody.

And we’ve seen this show before.

Like last year — even in a 12-win season that ended with a bowl win over Georgia Tech.

BYU’s 2025 season (12-2 overall, 8-1 Big 12) featured several notable slow starts, with the Cougars frequently falling behind early — often by double digits — before mounting comebacks. They led the nation with five wins in games where they trailed by 10+ points.

Key examples of slow starts and comebacks include:

• At Colorado (W 24-21): Colorado jumped out to a 14-0 lead with touchdowns on its first two possessions. BYU cut it to 14-10 at half, trailed 21-17 heading into the fourth, then took the lead on a 32-yard run by Cody Hagen and held on for the win.
• At Arizona (W 33-27 in 2OT): BYU led early but fell behind 24-14 in the fourth quarter (amid a weather delay and other issues). They tied it late in regulation on a short run by Bachmeier, then won in double overtime.
• At Iowa State (W 41-27): Iowa State led 24-10 in the first half. BYU got within 24-17 by halftime and outscored the Cyclones 24-3 in the second half.
• vs. UCF (W 41-21): UCF scored touchdowns on its first two drives for a 14-0 lead. BYU scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter to take the lead and pulled away with 31 straight points overall at one stage.
• vs. Georgia Tech (Pop-Tarts Bowl, W 25-21): BYU led 7-0 early but trailed 21-10 at halftime (and still by 11 later). The Cougars surged in the second half for their sixth comeback win of the year.

They also trailed Utah 14-10 early in the fourth before winning 24-21 at home (a smaller deficit but still a late rally).

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In the two losses to Texas Tech (29-7 regular season and 34-7 in the Big 12 championship), the Cougars had poor overall showings. In the championship they scored first on a long opening drive (7-0) before the offense stalled amid an injury to Bachmeier and turnovers; the regular-season game featured early special teams issues and a sluggish start against the Big 12 champ.

Sitake noted after the bowl game that the team often put itself in rough spots early and expressed a goal of playing with more urgency from the start in 2026. Overall, BYU outscored opponents significantly in the fourth quarter across the season (131-68), including heavily in those big comebacks.

These patterns defined much of the “Cardiac Cougars” narrative for the year, especially in road and close Big 12 games.

Don’t tell us this 2026 team is off to the same personality as 2025.

In fact, Sitake told media members after the win that he was waiting for his team’s personality and identity to show itself in the first half of the Arizona game.

But maybe this is the team’s personality. Again.

Now it’s on to a road game at Fort Collins, a place the Cougars used to have sword fights with Colorado State in the WAC and Mountain West days.

It would be nice to see this team line up like a dragster and burn some rubber in a cloud of smoke off the starting line.

That would be fun.

The talent is there.

It was on display Saturday against UA.

But it mostly showed after intermission when lines formed for those Cougar Cup refills.

That’s a hard way to play football.

Prassas took his lumps early with Fifita and his rocket arm.

But he made a gigantic tackle when the game was on the line.

Late in the game.

It was symbolic.