BYU at Utah Postgame Notes and Quotes

The following notes and quotes are from BYU's 20-19 loss at Utah. For the game recap click here.

ATTENDANCE: 46,915
AMERICAN FLAG BEARER: Mitchell Sims (Westminster College student and Air Force ROTC member at Utah)
TEAM FLAGS: WR Colby Pearson and DL Trajan Pili
ALUMNI FLAG BEARERS: Jonny Harline, Bryan Kehl, Cameron Jensen

TEAM NOTES

Series Record. BYU falls to 31-56-4 against Utah, suffering its sixth-consecutive loss.

Turnovers.BYU forced Utah into six turnovers (three interceptions, three fumbles)- the most since 1991 when BYU also forced 6 and won 48-17. The nine combined turnovers were the most since 10 in that 1991 game and 10 in 1988.

Close Game. The BYU-Utah game has been decided by seven points or less in 18 of the last 23 meetings.
 

PLAYER NOTES

Taysom Hill
Hill’s 39-yard touchdown was his longest run since a 50-yarder against Middle Tennessee in 2013. He finished with 13 carries, 87 yards and two rushing touchdowns. He completed 21 of 39 passes for 176 yards and had two interceptions. Hill also moved into the top 10 in career total offense at 7,320 yards, passing Steve Sarkisian (7,253). Hill also tied Gifford Nielsen and Kevin Feterik with 58 career total touchdowns responsible for.

Mitchell Juergens
Juergens led BYU in receiving with eight receptions for 52 yards.

Jake Oldroyd
Oldroyd made both of his field goal attempts with a 43-yarder and a 42-yarder.

Francis Bernard
Bernard finished with eight total tackles, one interception and one forced fumble.

Kai Nacua
Nacua intercepted two passes for the third time in his career. He now has 11 career interceptions, the most by a BYU player since official defensive statistics were recorded by the NCAA. He passed Andrew Rich (10).

Jamaal Williams
Williams moved into No. 4 all-time in career rushing yards at BYU with another 58 for 2,746 in his career. He passed Lakei Heimuli (2,710). He also moved into the No. 12 spot in all-purpose yards with 3,253.

CAREER HIGHS

Field goal att/makes: Jake Oldroyd 2/2 (43, 42)

Tackles: Francis Bernard (8)

FIRSTS (The following players recorded their first in a respective category)

First career starts for:
Dayan Lake
Jonah Trinnaman

Reception: Ului Lapuaho, Aleva Hifo, Corbin Kaufusi
Tackle: Austin McChesney, Solomone Wolfgramm
Forced fumble: Francis Bernard, Harvey Langi
Fumble recovery: Kai Nacua, Dayan Lake, Michael Davis

POSTGAME QUOTES

Head coach Kalani Sitake
On the game
“Good game. Just really a hard-fought game and very entertaining. Congratulations to Utah for getting the win. It was just back and forth a little bit. I'm just really proud of our players and the way they played. Just really proud of our coaches. It’s just a tough, tough battle and it was a lot of fun. I'm really, really proud of the guys at the end of the game, being able to come back and score. Obviously, it didn’t work out for us, but we’ll keep working. I think we can build on this and we think this will make us a better team.

“We’ll learn from this and we’ll get better. A lot of great things happened in this game. I was really proud of our guys. We just didn’t get the victory. We can’t just squash on everything that was positive. But there were some mistakes too and we’ll get better. I thought coming off of week one to week two we had improved, and so did Utah. It was just a great game.”

Going for a two-point conversion and the win at the end
“I told the guys that if we score a touchdown, we are going for two so stay on the field. If you notice when they scored the touchdown, nobody ran off to the side. We planned on scoring and we did. We planned on going for two. Utah made a play and we didn’t. I love the ball being in Taysom’s hands. He had a couple of options and it just ended up the way that it did, but I think Utah just made a great play. I’d do it again.”

Two players being ejected from the game for targeting
“Obviously, you know how I felt about it. That’s just how football goes and that’s how the game of football is. I’m proud of the guys that came in and played and I’m proud of the guys that answered back and were able to make this a one-point game.”

Nine combined turnovers in the game
"Everyone was so concerned about turnovers that we just decided that everyone should turn the ball over and we’ll be fine. You have guys that really just try hard and play, and some guys took risks. I don’t believe in playing tight, so our guys were able to take some risks. Sometimes, it worked out and other times it didn’t. That’s the game of football. But I was really proud of the way our guys played. I just wish we had two more points.”