Luke Staley Rusher of the Game: Squally Canada. What a game by number 22. The only gripe you can have is that they didn’t give him the ball enough! He only had eleven carries but had 118 yards, averaging 10.7 yards per carry. Oh, and let’s not forget two huge touchdowns! If he keeps playing like this, he may end up being a Doak Walker finalist.

Austin Collie Receiver of the Game: Moroni Laulu-Pututau. He had three catches for 33 yards but his big one from Hifo for 31 yards was vital to victory. The Cougars will need more from Laulu-Pututau as the year goes on and hopefully this gives him some momentum in delivering.

Steve Young-Curtis Brown Dual Threat of the Game: Aleva Hifo. I have a feeling Mr. Hifo will be getting mentioned here a lot this season. Five rushes for 45 yards, three catches for 32 yards, one pass for 31 yards and a touchdown. That’s eight touches for 104 yards and a touchdown. Hifo does a little bit of everything for this offense and Sitake has made it clear he wants to keep having him do it all.

Payne Special Teams Player of the Game: Skyler Southam. Southam’s 45-yard field goal that ended up being the difference in the game was set up by Squally Canada’s second big run of the day and a heads up play by Tanner Mangum to sling the ball out of bounds under pressure instead of taking a sack and taking the team out of field goal range. They gave Southam a chance and making up for an earlier miss from 52-yards, he came through.

Ty Detmer Heisman Play of the Game: Squally Canada’s first big run. His 44-yarder put BYU in position to get their first touchdown of the game. It was a harbinger of things to come for Squally in this game and hopefully in this season.

Andrew George-Jonny Harline Game Winning Play: It wasn’t a play made by BYU, but it was a play that decided the game none the less. As a Big Ten fan, I’ve seen senior Gaglianone make countless kicks, game-winners, and ones to send games like this into overtime. So, when he was warming up and Sitake was burning time outs I was furious at Coach Sitake for not saving his time outs to give the offense and Southam a chance to end it with under a minute to play. So, no one as shocked as me when Gaglianone missed the kick and the Cougars could go to the victory formation for a road win in one of the toughest environments in college football.

LaVell Edwards Call of the Game: The wide receiver double pass play. Best offensive BYU call made in the Sitake era. After getting the ball on a backwards pass from Tanner Mangum Aleva Hifo threw to Moroni Laulu-Pututau for a wide-open touchdown. It was a brilliant call as Hifo had been running on the reverse a couple times already, he’d end the game with five carries, the young Wisconsin secondary bit hard and Hifo made an easy yet good throw for the touchdown to Laulu-Pututau.

Unga-Williams Run of the Game: Squally’s big run 44-yard run to set up their first touchdown and his 46-yard run in the fourth quarter to set up Southam’s field goal, which proved to be the game winning points. Canada’s running lead directly to 17 points for the Cougars.  

Jorgensen-Herrmann Sack of the Game: With 7:33 to go in the fourth quarter and Wisconsin driving, on a third and three, number 99 Zac Dawe came up with a big sack that ended what had been a promising Wisconsin possession. This would allow BYU to keep winning the field position game and Wisconsin would start their last drive from their own 24-yard line. This would end up being important in Wisconsin trying to tie the game and not take the lead.

Sikahema Special Teams Play of the Game: 44’s tackle in third quarter

Reynolds Blocks of the Game: The offensive line played extremely well in this game. In the running game the team had 28 attempts for 191 yards. They only gave up two tackles for a loss and one sack. And they did it against one of the top ten most physical programs in the country.

Oates-Matich Lineman of the Game: James Empey. Empey had the key pulling block that lead the way for Squally’s first big run. It would be something he and his lineman comrades would do a lot of throughout the day.

Van Noy Hit of the Game: Around the eight-minute mark, Corbin Kaufusi gave chase to Alex Hornibrook and using his 6’9” frame to trip him up. The pass turned into grounding when he threw it and hit Takitaki in the belly. This made a fourth and two that Wisconsin might have attempted to go for it on into a fourth and seven that made Wisconsin punt. And in this game and in the new Sitake offense every stop matters.

Pitta TE Play of the Game: Dallin Holker made a play that would have given BYU first and goal inside the five had it been called correctly. Holker made the catch, took two steps, then started to lose the ball, he then recovered the ball in the act of falling to the ground. It was a good play that was called wrong by the refs and thankfully it didn’t change the out come of the game.

Beck-McMahon Throw of the Game: Hifo’s throw was definitely it or maybe the throw to Holker that got incorrectly called incomplete (he caught it, fumbled it, fell on it). But to me a huge aspect of this victory was no interceptions thrown and no turnovers overall. Sitake is running a system where in his view some of the best throws will be measure by whether or not they ended up in opponent hands or in Mangum’s case as mentioned earlier saves points that end up being crucial.

Steve Young Hall of Fame Moment of the Game: Okay, so this wasn’t exactly a Hall of Fame moment but it’s a play the Hall of Famer would make. Mangum on third and ten from his own 25 got outstanding blocking, stepped up, and threw a dart for a 20-yard gain to Talon Shumway. This big third down conversion led to the Hifo pass to Laulu-Pututau touchdown on the same driveway.  

Kai Nacua Pick of the Game: Zayne Anderson. His interception early in the third quarter set up Squally Canada’s second touchdown to put BYU up 21-14. It was a huge turnover that ended up being critical in this defining upset victory.

Glass Half Empty

            There was a third and eight in which an end around run was called. I don’t think that should ever be called in that situation.

As good as the trick play was, getting the ball with under 90 seconds to play and all three timeouts and just three runs to go into halftime is a give up call that if you want to win on the road against a top ten teams consistently you cannot do.

Glass Half Full

            Takitaki knows what kind of toothpaste Jonathan Taylor had before the game. He shadowed a running back who was just 23 yards shy of 2,000 yards rushing last year. Defensive standouts are turning up on this defense now and Takitaki is one of them.

Sitake has decided what he wants his offense to be. From what we’ve seen this season he and Grimes and the staff are molding their offenses in the image partially of the team they just beat. They’re going to pattern themselves after teams like Stanford, Wisconsin, Boston College, and Kansas State. Trench Warfare will be emphasized. Winning at the offensive and defensive lines will be the first priority. Next will be running the football well as the primary method of attack and the focus will be to just not lose in the passing game. And special teams will be looked at as way to win like Beamer Ball in the old days of Virginia Tech. This kind of football play will drive someone crazy. It did me for ten years as an Ohio State fan with coach Jim Tressel. But as the programs I mentioned above have shown, you can have great success if you execute these philosophies well.