This is my story about the game that appeared in today's paper.
OXFORD, Miss. — One of the reasons the BYU football team went independent was
to gain greater exposure and tell its story to a wider audience.
On Friday, the Cougars held a fireside in a church building packed with more than
1,000 people. Several football players told stories from their full-time LDS missions
and coach Bronco Mendenhall explained that football isn’t everything for this team.
On Saturday, in front of a crowd of 55,000 (and an even larger ESPN audience), the
Cougars proved they can play as well as they can talk, by emerging with a 14-13
victory over Ole Miss.
Linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who made the game-winning fumble recovery, saw the
game as a great opportunity for BYU to spread its message.
“It’s just good to do it on national TV and tell everyone our story,” he said. “Everyone
one of us has a different story on the team, but you combine all our stories together
and it creates one big one.”
Van Noy certainly has a story to tell after Saturday’s game.
With the Cougars trailing 13-7 with a little more than five minutes left, the
Rebels found themselves pinned at their own 21-yard line, facing a third-and-27.
Quarterback Zack Stoudt dropped back to attempt a long pass, but was soon caught
by Van Noy.
“I kind of just came and chopped down at the ball,” Van Noy explained. “And it
happened to come out and bounced off his thigh.”
What went through his mind when he saw the ball rolling toward the end zone?
“Pick it up!” Van Noy laughed. “It’s not panic — it’s adrenaline to scrap for the ball. …
I just got lucky.”
Van Noy’s touchdown provided some much-needed scoring for the Cougars, who
had difficulty moving the ball at times, especially in the first half. During two
quarters of play, BYU couldn’t even put the ball in field goal range, and went into
halftime with a 3-0 deficit.
“You can’t take away what Ole Miss did defensively,” said coach Bronco
Mendenhall. “We contributed by not having as clean of play as we would have liked.
That kept some scores off the board. It shows us that our execution can and needs to
improve going into next week.”
The third quarter started a little better for BYU, until Ole Miss defensive back
Charles Sawyer intercepted the ball at the 4-yard line and returned it all the way
back for a touchdown.
“We made some mistakes,” said BYU quarterback Jake Heaps. “You look at my
turnover, my pick-six. … You can’t have those kinds of turnovers when we’re driving
down like that.”
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter, after Ole Miss added another field goal, when BYU
was able to put together a successful drive. With 9:52 left in the game, Heaps found
Ross Apo for a 19-yard touchdown pass to make the score 13-7.
“We came together when it mattered at the end of the fourth quarter,” Heaps
said. “We put it together, and I’m proud of our team.”
After that, it was up to the BYU defense.
The defense not only held the Rebels to just two field goals, but also limited the
offense to 208 yards of total offense. Part of this may be attributed to the Rebels’ top
two rushers, Brandon Bolden and Enrique Davis, leaving the game with injuries, and
the question at quarterback for Ole Miss.
Barry Brunetti got the start, but only had four passing yards and 13 rushing yards
before being replaced by Zack Stoudt, who finished the game with 140 passing
yards.
Although Stoudt did play better than Brunetti, he committed the game-costing
fumble that Van Noy recovered.
“At a critical time, [Van Noy] made a critical play to help us win the football game,”
Mendenhall said. “That’s how you have consistency in terms of wins and success.”
Now BYU can focus on continuing to tell its story to a national audience. Next on the
schedule for the Cougars is a game at Texas that will be on ESPN2.
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