Week 3 - Thurs, Sept 11, 2014 - #25 BYU (2-0) vs UH (2-0) - Provo, UT - 8:00 p.m. EST - ESPN

Houston has started hot, even though they haven’t played anyone and BYU has to face these guys on short rest coming off a tough road win at Texas...not exactly the formula for success. O’Korn is #3 in the nation in passing yards and, in 2 weeks has already racked up 859 yards, in two dominating blow-outs of UTSA and Grambling. Hill has been equally impressive and is getting serious Heisman talk after beating Texas twice in two seasons. A hilarious picture went viral a few weeks later of some OU player hanging Hill’s jersey in the OU locker-room with players praying to it like a statue or something, the day before the red-river rivalry. The only thing the tweet said was “#beattexas #divinehelp”. BYU can’t dwell on the Texas win too long, they have 3 days of prep for a tough, hungry Cougar team.

UH comes out and begins to drive the field, but Daniel comes up with two great PBU’s in a row and forces a punt which bounces into the end zone. Hill proves he can torture UH’s defense even more as a Junior than he did last year as a Sophomore and drives the Cougars down the field to score the game’s first points when he nails Leslie for a 46 yard TD bomb. Blackmon wows the crowd with his speed on a quick fly sweep that he takes 74 yards to the house. LES is booming! O’Korn fights back and leads UH on a long scoring drive of their own.

On the following possession, which starts at the BYU 20, Anae and Taysom then run 6 straight plays of 5 WR sets (dubbed “the bomb squad”), 5 yard completion to Apo, 16 yarder to Mathews, 9 for Houk, 17 for Apo and then a 33 yard post route to Mathews who was WIDE open for the TD. BYU fans are drooling, and praying no one gets hurt. But one thing is obvious...the OL sure looks better when the defense is spread out both the length and width of the field.

Hinds, who has slowly been working his way into the rotation makes his first “big play” of the season by stripping the ball from a scrambling O’Korn. Lebronson falls on the ball and after 3 straight completions (Blackmon 12 yards, Apo 5 yards, Leslie 13 yards) Hill takes it to the house from 14 out when everyone drops back to protect and the entire middle of the field opens up like the Red (ahem…) Blue Sea. BYU is up 28-7 but Houston will not quit. O’Korn hits his WR down the sideline on a blown coverage and UH adds a FG right before half to cut the lead to 28-17.

Houston gets into the end zone to start the third to cut it to 28-24 and it’s very obvious that they will not go away. JSwag adds another TD run in the third and, after an incredible pick by JJ, Lasike rumbles in from 3 yards out to give BYU a 42-24 advantage and essentially seal the game. O’Korn drives Houston down one last time in the fourth to cut the lead to 42-31 but Hill promptly answers by nailing Kurtz for a 15 yard first down against the under-sized and overmatched UH CB. BYU runs the clock out and wins another thriller, 42-31. The country is starting to take notice of this “Band of Brothers” in Provo.

Player of the Game - Hill, 29/36, 329 yards, 3 TD’s, 1 INT, 11 rushes, 84 yards, 1 TD.