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Berkeley, Calif. • It might have taken all season, but BYU receiver Jordan Leslie finally figured out a way to get quarterback Christian Stewart to throw him the ball more often.
"Just pass him a plate of turkey, and he throws you the ball," Leslie said after catching five passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns in BYU's 42-35 win over California on Saturday at California Memorial Stadium.
Say what?
Leslie, the senior from Houston who transferred from UTEP, spent Thanksgiving at Stewart's home in Orem, strengthening a bond with the fill-in quarterback who had a sensational day in leading the Cougars to their eighth win.
"I am sure that's why he got the passes, because he was over for Thanksgiving," Stewart said, laughing.
Leslie had just one catch, for 11 yards, in the first half. That extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 40 games, but clearly left him unhappy heading to the locker room at halftime.
In the fourth quarter, though, he caught an 83-yard touchdown pass from Stewart on a beautifully thrown ball that hit him in stride, and then caught the game-winner, a 43-yarder with 2:39 left.
He was wide open on that one, thanks to a blown coverage. Cal finished the season giving up more passing touchdowns, 42, and more passing yards, 4,406, than any team in FBS history.
BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall was grateful for that porous defense, and also for Leslie's ability to rise to the occasion many times this season.
"It was nice to see Jordan become more healthy than he's been for a long time," Mendenhall said. "We have seen him have kind of a slight limp out there. He looked fast tonight. He looked closer to full speed. He's really dangerous when he's close to full speed."
Mendenhall also praised the play of seldom-used receiver Devon Blackmon, who has six catches for 60 yards, both career-highs, after entering the game with three receptions for 56 yards.
"The other player that I thought really emerged today was Devon Blackmon. He has labored and learned about BYU football, and the standards, and what maturity is and how to emerge and make some critical plays at the right time tonight," Mendenhall said.
Leading receiver Mitch Mathews suffered a concussion on his only catch of the day, a 39-yarder, and left the game. Mitchell Juergens dropped a key pass early, but redeemed himself with seven catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns.
Mendenhall called it one of the best wins of his 10-year coaching career.
"I don't even know if it is in relation to [beating a team from] the Pac-12," Mendenhall said. "I think it is just a really resilient, tough football team that faced a lot of adversity and came out the other side and started the year with nice wins against really good opponents, and now finishing the season against a motivated team, that had a lot to play for and at home, and a really good offense. I'm proud of our players and coaches."
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU's receiving stats for Saturday
Player Receptions Yds TDs Long
Mitch Juergens 7 107 2 47
Devon Blackmon 6 60 0 15
Jordan Leslie 5 155 2 83
Algernon Brown 2 31 1 22
Mitch Mathews 1 39 0 39