Too bad Washington wanted out of the remaining two games of a scheduled four-game series with BYU. The Huskies and Cougars sure stage some thrilling football games. Saturday night's game was no different. Only when the Cougars stopped the Huskies on fourth-and-6 from their own 25-yard-line with less than two minutes remaining did they have a 23-17 win, their third-straight over UW. Of course, the Cougars played both quarterbacks, rotating Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps on every series. Coach Bronco Mendenhall said a similar strategy will likely be used next week against Air Force. Both quarterbacks said after the game that it is OK with them. "There are a lot of people that would doubt it would work but I just can't say enough about Riley and how well he performed and how much I have been able to lean on him," Heaps said. "He has been tremendous and the rotation has been working really well. We both bring different things to the table, and we got the win, so it worked." ———————— I will have to sift through all the postgame comments and bring you the best of those later, but one thing that stuck out was how Mendenhall credited the win not only to special teams play, but his team's conditioning. While going out of his way to not criticize Washington's conditioning, Mendenhall said he felt like the Cougars had more stamina in the fourth quarter. Other odds and ends: * Although Richard Wilson (three catches, 45 yards) had the best stats, Mendenhall said he is still not ready to name Wilson the starter at tight end. Mike Muehlman actually got the start, and had one catch. Tight end Devin Mahina (ankle) did not play. * As Mendenhall was walking off the field and toward the tunnel, he spotted a young girl hanging over the railing. He walked over and handed her the baseball cap off his head. * The BYU-Washington series is now tied 4-4 after the Cougars have won the last three. * A total of 16 Cougars saw the first action of their careers. The highlight for the newcomers was Josh Quezada's 9-yard touchdown catch and, of course, Jake Heaps' 131 passing yards. * Due to additional wheelchair access placed inside the stadium, BYU's capacity at LES is now 63,275 (having been reduced by 320 seats). Attendance was 63,771, BYU's 19th straight sell-out. * BYU has now won 12 straight games decided by seven points or fewer. * The Cougars recorded their first safety since Oct. 30, 2003 against Boise State on a similar play (punt snap out of end zone). —————————— Some comments from Washington coach Steve Sarkisian: "Well, I thought overall this was a good first football game. We played hard, I thought both teams played hard. I thought in a lot of areas we were sloppy, especially in special teams. In turn, I think with all of that, BYU did a good job managing field position. I know that was something they were focused on coming into the game, and it really paid divididends for them." Field position "was the reason for the first fourth-down attempt there early in the fourth quarter that we didn't make. It forced us into a situation where we had to go for it again late in the game, where we could potentially be in a situation for a tying field goal. "I know just this one game won't define our season. We've got 12 more football teams to play. I was proud of our effort tonight but there are definitely things we can look to improve on."