PROVO, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – The question wasn’t whether BYU would beat North Alabama, but rather by how much?
The answer, a convincing 52 points.
Tyler Allgeier ran for a career-high 141 yards and two touchdowns and No. 8 BYU routed overmatched North Alabama 66-14 on Saturday to improve to 9-0.
Allgeier had his fourth 100-yard game of the season.
Zach Wilson threw for 212 yards and four touchdowns before halftime and added 33 yards rushing. He had a season-high 256.3 QB rating.
BYU scored touchdowns on all six first-half drives. The Cougars rolled up 394 total yards and averaged 11.3 yards per play before halftime.
“Glad we got the win,” said head coach Kalani Sitake. “We had a lot of guys get in the game and play some reps, so we we felt like we got some good experience for a lot of our guys on the team.”
Wilson hit Gunner Romney with a 50-yard pass in double coverage on the Cougars’ first play from scrimmage to set up a 2-yard scoring toss to Isaac Rex that put BYU up 7-0.
Allgeier scored on 2-yard runs on each of BYU’s next two drives. His longest run of the day, a 39-yard sprint down the sideline, set up a 19-yard pass from Wilson to Neil Pau’u on the next play that gave the Cougars a four-touchdown lead.
“You know, it’s always a great feeling, but all that credit goes to the big guys, man, and the receivers, so all my success goes to the O-line,” Allgeier said. “That was just an offensive game right there. “
Isaiah Kaufusi scooped up a fumble and returned it 50 yards to set up a 3-yard TD catch from Isaac Rex, extending the lead to 35-0.
North Alabama finally got on the board with a 2-yard run from Ja’Won Howell with 1:37 left in the first half. Any momentum gained from the touchdown was short-lived. Wilson tossed a 58-yard pass to Dax Milne to open BYU’s ensuing drive. It set up a 22-yard score on a screen pass to Kavika Fonua that gave BYU a 42-7 lead going into halftime.
North Alabama allowed only 21 total first-half points in its first three games and held all three of those earlier opponents scoreless in the first quarter.
“I think first of all, we’re playing good team football, complimentary football,” Sitake said. “With the mindset of our team, our coaches and our philosophy as a program, we’re utilizing the skill and the strengths that we have and trying to make plays, trying to put as many points on the board as we can. In order to do that, you give a lot of credit to our coaches, our assistant coaches and coordinators for making it happen.”
Backup running back Miles Davis rushed for 54 yards and two touchdowns in the second half as the Cougars blew the game wide open.
BYU racked up 555 yards of total offense, 278 on the ground, and scored its most points in a game since beating Wagner 70-6 in 2015.
“I think the credit just goes to everybody playing really hard and doing their job,” said offensive lineman James Empey. “Football is the ultimate team sport, and when you’re out there, you just got to do your part and do your best to make a play, and it just comes from everybody trying to do their job, the best way they can, every time. When you do that, then good things happen. You score a lot of points, you have a lot of big plays and you have a good time. We’re trying to execute our best to coach, and they’re trying to call the best plays, and I feel like we’re doing a good job right now at going out and playing for each other and playing our best every time we get the chance.”
The Cougars are now off until December 12th when they play their final game of the regular season against San Diego State. It remains up in the air whether or not the Cougars will be able to schedule another game in the meantime.
“We want to play as much as we can,” Empey said. “We’re going to get after it this week, and these next few weeks, really, and do our best to be ready for that next game.”
