BYU football recap: Cougars shut out Savannah State, 64-0

The game was over after the first drive but the game went on anyways. Much to the chagrin of the Savannah State University Tigers, the BYU Cougars had 60 minutes to toy with them and insert as many players into the game as possible. As if the 64-0 score didn't tell the tale, the 63 total offensive yards for the Tigers did. With the inability to move the ball against the Cougars, and special teams disasters, the writing was on the wall before halftime.

The Cougars started off the game with a drive that lasted less than a minute and a half, but ended up with a 71 yard touchdown pass from Christian Stewart to Mitch Mathews. The Tigers would manage 14 yards on their first drive but the highlight of the drive was the 66 yard punt that rolled just out of reach and into the endzone for a Cougar touchback. BYU would come back with a three minute drive and a two minute drive, both ending in touchdowns for the Cougars, before the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter treated the Tigers even worse as BYU scored on a a number of short fields. The first was a turnover on downs by Savannah State, the next was after an interception by Alani Fua, another was after a high snap on a punt. With the Cougars up 42-0 in the second, Bronco began to empty the benches and back up quarterback McCoy Hill managed a drive that ended with a Nate Carter touchdown run with four minutes left in the half. The next Tigers drive would end with a blocked punt by the Cougars which was subsequently kicked out of the endzone for a safety. BYU would run out the last two minutes of the half with a 51-0 lead, and trying really hard not to score.

The third quarter drew what might have been the loudest, yet strangest reaction of the game when a bad snap sailed over the head of Hill and was picked up by Marcus Lee and returned for the Tigers first points of the game. After an official review of the play, the officials called Lee down on the play and the BYU crowd rained down the boo's on the officials. Although the crowd wanted a shut out, the compassion for the struggling Tigers squad had many rooting for the fumble return. With BYU running out the clock, and the Tigers not moving the ball, the teams remained scoreless in the third quarter.

BYU would start off the fourth quarter with a Trevor Samson field goal, a Tigers fumble, and then another Samson field goal. With a 57-0 lead, and the back-ups to the back-ups in the game, the Cougars kept the ball for almost eight minutes on their next drive as they went 76 yards on 12 rushing plays. On fourth and five at the Tigers six yard line, Bronco had a tough decision to make. As stated in his post game show he was trying to avoid putting points on the board but knew that if he went for the field goal, Sampson wouldn't miss. However if he went for it on fourth down the Tigers had a "50-50" chance at stopping the Cougars. In fact, he admitted that he was rooting for the Tigers to stop his team, yet he was happy for AJ Moore after the six yard touchdown run.

The Cougars had a number of highlight players in the game but in a quarter and a half Stewart managed 196 yards, four touchdown passes, and two touchdown runs. Carter would add 116 yards on the ground and Mitch Mathews would record 110 receiving yards and two touchdowns on four receptions.

BYU will next travel to Berkley, CA for the regular season finally on Saturday the 29th of November. The game time has yet to be determined, but it will be televised on the PAC12 network.