Recap: BYU football awakens from first quarter slumber for statement win vs UCF

I've been double-dipping into Nintendo's recent release on their Switch 2 console, Kirby Air Riders, over the past week. It's a terrific game -- slinging, sliding, and dashing around gorgeous race tracks in a frantic dash for the finish line. Attack your competition, the other racers, and receive a speed boost. Inhale enemies on the track itself, and you'll find yourself absorbing their abilities and notching an advantage in the sprint.

Absorb a night-capped "Noddy" enemy, however, and the only ability you'll be developing is a case of the sleepies (much like the one I've developed watching what was a 3:00 AM kickoff for this game over in Japan). Kalani Sitake's BYU football team must have met with a Noddy before game time, because they walked onto the frosted field in LaVell Edwards Stadium a step slow, showing very little urgency as the visiting five-win Knights silenced the home crowd and jumped out to a 14-0 lead, tallying 127 total yards in two possessions as the Cougar offense answered with 0 yards in a 3-and-out opening drive.

The alarm clock sounded after that second score, thankfully, as the BYU offense mirrored basketball's output and flipped a slow start on its head.

BYU sliced the deficit in half with a nine-play, 65-yard scoring drive punctuated with a one-yard LJ Martin trot. 14-7 Knights.

This drive marked a drastic shift in narrative, with Evan Johnson picking off his own man assignment on a UCF reverse pass to their own quarterback. Shmevan was at large and making his presence known.

Despite the ensuing Will Ferrin hook from 40 yards, the Cougars were in the driver's seat, and they steered the following possessions with another LJ Martin walk-in and a red zone field goal in the dying moments of the first half. A tough pill to swallow after the turf monster stole a would-be Parker Kingston end zone dash, but scoring 17 unanswered to close the half was a welcome shift for a team rapidly placed on upset watch at the contest's onset.

Receiving the second half kickoff, Bachmeier marched the offense right to the goal line where, once again, LJ Martin punched in the final yards of a 10-play, 75-yard drive to push the lead to 24-14. The Knights, knocked off-kilter and stumbling from their first quarter triumph's evaporation, responded with a 3-and-out that included a sack and an intentional grounding.

Unfortunately, there wasn't even safety in punting, because the receiving Parker Kingston wove through the hapless UCF coverage team in a house call that ballooned BYU's advantage to 31-14 in a flash. 31 unanswered points. Punting is death.

The Knights responded with a touchdown drive of their own, the first UCF points since the 3:39 mark in the first quarter, capped with a running back pass to quarterback Tayven Jackson, wide open in the far side of the end zone. Still, the BYU advantage remained 10 points, and Bear Bachmeier grabbed the reigns with a 31-21 lead.

Even on a 4th-and-3 with UCF's defense staring down an opportunity to reshape the game, number 47 in blue introduced the secondary to Parker Kingston on a crossing route, where his sprinter's speed was unleashed and struck the opposition in the heart as the 38th BYU points were planted on the scoreboard to re-establish the Cougars' 17-point lead and stifle any glimmer of a UCF comeback.

It didn't even take a minute through the fourth quarter for the ball to hit the turf as Raider Damuni jumped on a loose ball jarred from Jackson.

With some turnovers and stalled drives peppering the dying moments of this contest, Will Ferrin knocked through a confidence-boosting 50-yard field goal to push the Cougar edge to 41-21. A much needed successful try after missing two of his previous three attempts, all from closer range.

That score would hold out as the final in this one, carving the final result into stone and turning the calendar to December, where the Cougars will play in their first conference championship game since 1998.

BYU approached this game as the first team out of the playoff picture as an at-large. Now, with a record of 11-1 and plenty of the requisite "style points" to make the final score appear to be enough of a blowout to make Kalani hurl, the eyes of the nation turns to a rematch with the only team to have gotten the better of the Cougars all season: the fifth-ranked (and likely top four with the loss to Texas A&M) Red Raiders of Texas Tech.

Win the next game, and the playoff committee can't keep BYU out. Lose a second game to Tech, however, and opinions vary wildly around the Cougars' worth as a potential at-large. In the regular season, however, they did just about everything they could for a chance to compete in the final tournament.

If you ask my opinion, I'd quote former BYU QB Steve Sarkisian by stating that leaving the Cougars out of the bracket would be a "disservice to the sport", regardless of what takes place in Arlington.