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Provo • There was a moment in the fourth quarter of Saturday's monumental mismatch at LaVell Edwards Stadium that drew perhaps the biggest reaction, at least the biggest laugh, from the crowd of 56,015 that witnessed BYU destroy overmatched Wagner 70-6 on an otherwise beautiful autumn afternoon.
After reminding the clock operator that "the clock should be running" and then getting disgusted later when his directive to put 17 seconds back on the clock was taking too long, referee Dan Romeo finally exclaimed, "all right, let's go" and told the Cougars to run a play before the time was changed.
Even the officials got bored in this one.
As expected, the Cougars improved to 6-2 and got bowl eligible for the 11th straight time in coach Bronco Mendenhall's tenure with an easy-as-it-looks thrashing of the winless Seahawks (0-7), who probably didn't care either that the clock was not functioning well, just as long as it kept running.
In the end, both sides got what they wanted.
Wagner goes back to Staten Island, N.Y. with a hefty paycheck estimated to be in the $350,000 range, and its traveling expenses paid. And heck, they only had to watch six players need medical attention or help getting off the field, five in the first half when BYU's regulars were mostly playing.
The Cougars got an easy win, stayed healthy if you don't count running Algie Brown's collision with the George Q. Cannon cannon in the northeast end zone after a 37-yard touchdown jaunt that produced a leg laceration. And all those backups finally got to play in a real live college football game, after seven close ones prior to this laugher.
OK, it was more like a glorified scrimmage in the second half after BYU scored touchdowns on its first seven possessions in the first half to take a 49-0 lead at the break.
"The team handled this game ideally as much as we could," Mendenhall said. "We got both backup quarterbacks [Beau Hoge and Koy Detmer Jr.] some work, and anyone we wanted to play did play. So now we will get a great chance to get a little bit more rested and healthy [with a bye this week], which has been a long time coming."
The only damper for BYU was that on Wagner's first possession of the second half, after picking up just 37 yards on 25 plays in the first half, the Seahawks drove 70 yards for a touchdown in 15 plays against a combination of starters and backups. That pretty much proved that Wagner was better than last year's FCS cupcake at LES, Savannah State, although both teams lost by 64 points.
The Tigers had 63 total yards in last November's 64-0 shellacking; Wagner finished with 129, to BYU's 741. It was BYU's most yards since it had 750 in a 70-31 win over Utah in 1989.
"It was great, the people were terrific and everything went well with the exception of the 60 minutes we played on the field," said Wagner coach Jason Houghtaling, summing up the experience of playing in front of the largest crowd in school history. "It was a great experience for our student-athletes."
If there was any suspense going into the game, it centered around BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum and whether he would play, and how much, after pulling a hamstring against East Carolina two weeks ago.
Mangum did play, almost perfectly, completing 12 of 13 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns. His only incompletion was batted down at the line of scrimmage and his passer rating when he left the game for good midway through the second quarter was 321.6. He got six series, and delivered six touchdown drives after BYU won the coin toss and took the ball first.
"There were really just a few things we really wanted to focus on, and starting fast offensively was one of those," Mendenhall said. "So that was certainly accomplished."
Hoge, a freshman who didn't fare well against ECU when Mangum left the game for four series in the second half, was markedly better this time against inferior competition. He directed the TD drive just before haltime that gave BYU a 49-0 lead, and finished 8 of 11 for 117 yards and a 47-yard TD catch-and-run to David Kessler, the walk-on receiver's first TD as a Cougar.
Detmer also played well, completing all three passes he attempted for 57 yards.
"I really became comfortable with Beau once he got to maybe the third or fourth series," Mendenhall said. "Especially in the second half, when he was throwing the ball, he looked more comfortable with the decisions he was making with the run-pass conflict, plays that we have. … I think he got better with every series, which was fun. And then we got some great work for Koy, as well, which was really helpful."
Defensively, linebacker Manoa Pikula led the way with six tackles, Fred Warner had two sacks and reserve cornerback Jordan Preator had an interception.
Twitter: @drewjay