Cougars now bowl eligible after fifth straight win

It was a story of men versus boys Saturday afternoon as the BYU football team set several season highs in dismantling FCS opponent Idaho State. The Cougars improved to 6-2 and became officially bowl eligible.

Riley up
Saturday was junior quarterback Riley Nelson’s first start this season in which he didn’t commit a turnover. Nelson picked apart the Bengal defense for 11-of-17 passing for 215 yards and three touchdowns in just over one half of play. He also ran seven times for 65 yards and a touchdown.

Nelson didn’t dwell much on his statistics in post-game interviews, however.

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“I can feel the trust and confidence my teammates have in me and in my play, and that’s all that matters to me,” he said.

Wasting no time
After ISU’s second — and longest — drive gave the Bengals their only points of the day, BYU trailed in possession time by a margin of 9:44 to 0:07. But the Cougars led 7-3, having scored on their only offensive play in the game. With less than 10 seconds of possession time, the Cougars had already scored what would prove to be the winning points.

Long scoring drives
The Cougars scored on consecutive drives of 99 and 91 yards against Idaho State. Before the game, BYU had only two touchdown drives of 90-plus yards the entire season.

Margin of victory
BYU’s points at halftime (35) nearly tied its season high for points in a game, 38 the week before at Oregon State. The 56-3 final was the team’s largest margin of victory and most points scored since defeating UCLA 59-0 in 2008.

“It is a unique challenge, especially playing an FCS opponent, at this time of the year. … But I think our team showed a lot of maturity and handled it well,” BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said of the second most lopsided win of his tenure.

Bowl eligibility
By improving to 6-2, the Cougars officially became bowl eligible. The team has played in a bowl every season since Mendenhall took over as head coach; a streak that will now reach seven years.

Point differential
Before Saturday’s game, BYU was three games over .500 but still recorded a negative point differential in 2011. But with the lopsided win, the Cougars have outscored this season’s opponents 214-172.

Run, run, run
The Cougars rushed 45 times for 290 yards using eight different ball carriers. The most attempts a single rusher recorded was sophomore running back Joshua Quezada with 11.