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Provo • When you play well for just one half in college football, you usually get beat. But when you are playing the kind of opponents that BYU has been forced to play in November as an independent, 30 solid minutes has proven to be enough.
The Cougars sleepwalked through the first half on an unseasonably pleasant afternoon again on Saturday, but turned on the jets in the second half and crushed fellow independent UMass 51-9 in front of 51,109 sun-splashed fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
It was the smallest home crowd in the independence era for BYU, which improved to 7-4 and will close out head coach Kalani Sitake's inaugural season with a winning record, regardless of what happens next week against instate rival Utah State or in the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 21.
"I am really happy with our team right now," Sitake said, the Cougars having won six of their last seven. "We are playing really well right now."
Still, there were some tense moments in the first half and early in the second when the Minutemen played nothing like the 30-point underdogs they were supposed to be, and the Cougars "hadn't woken up yet," in the words of linebacker Francis Bernard after the noon kickoff.
"It wasn't anything to panic about," Sitake said of the scene in the locker room when BYU led just 14-9 and had continually shot itself in the foot in the first half with drive-killing penalties and a turnover when protection broke down and Taysom Hill was hit from behind attempting a pass.
"The guys came in and they knew what they needed to get done. So it wasn't like they needed any fire lit under [them.]."
UMass coach Mark Whipple said the Minutemen (2-9) simply ran out of gas against a team that was more physical, stronger and more mature.
"BYU looks [more] like my coaches than some of the freshmen I'm playing," Whipple said. "They were a solid team, which we knew going in."
UMass, which had a bye last week, look more prepared early on. It took a quick 6-0 lead on a 70-yard catch and run by Bernard Davis. The play came shortly after Hill was hit attempting to throw a pass and officials ruled a fumble upon review after originally calling it an incomplete pass on the field.
Freshman running back KJ Hall filled in again for the injured Jamaal Williams and ran for an 11-yard TD to give the Cougars a brief lead the first play of the second quarter. Hall finished with a career-high 101 yards on 18 carries.
The Minutemen regained the lead, 9-7, with a 44-yard field goal after a rare BYU special teams breakdown, a 51-yard kickoff return by Isaiah Rodgers, playing only because a targeting penalty called on him on the field was overturned in the replay booth.
Then the Cougars rattled off 44 straight points to win easily, starting with a 5-yard touchdown run by Harvey Langi, and cruising in the second half like they were expected to in the first. Yes, that Harvey Langi. The linebacker moved to running back in the absence of Williams (ankle) and Squally Canada (sprained thumb) and scored the first two TDs of his Cougar career, finishing with 56 yards.
Sitake said it remains to be seen whether the Langi move is permanent, while Langi said he will do what the coaches want him to do after being told last Monday that he would get some carries.
"I just like playing football," Langi said.
Added Sitake on the change: "I wanted to tell [the media] on Monday, but Ty [Detmer] wouldn't let me."
Leading 14-9 at halftime, the Cougars were still in a bit of a funk in the third quarter until a couple of big plays on special teams rescued them, a blocked punt by sophomore Morgan Unga and a fumble on a UMass kickoff return caused and recovered by Eric Takenaka.
"We lacked a little bit of energy coming into the game," Takenaka acknowledged.
"It was kind of a slow start, but once we started sticking to our game plan and communicating better, good things started to happen," Sitake said.
The Cougars went 17 yards in five plays to take a 27-9 lead after Takenaka's big play. Three plays later, Francis Bernard stepped in front of Andrew Ford's pass and returned it 39 yards for the pick-six, and the rout was on.
Having allowed 213 yards in the first half, BYU's defense put the clamps down in the third quarter, holding UMass to 49 yards in that period before reserves took over in the fourth. Isaiah Armstrong made an interception in the fourth, BYU's 18th of the year.
"It just seems like once we started rolling, we just kept it going," said Sitake, crediting defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki for making some halftime adjustments, including dumping a three-man pass rush that was mostly ineffective in the first half. "It would be nice to play that way the entire game, but we will take the win right now and work to get better for next week."
Offensively, the Cougars finished with decent numbers given the quality of competition: 247 yards rushing and 190 passing. Hill was 19 of 31 for 171 yards before Tanner Mangum took over with 11 minutes remaining and completed 2 of 4 passes for 19 yards and a touchdown, a 7-yarder to Garrett Juergens.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
P The Cougars score 44 unanswered points to improve to 7-4 and hand the Minutemen their worst loss of the season.
• Freshman KJ Hall fills in for the injured Jamaal Williams and rushes for 101 yards and a touchdown.
• Taysom Hill passes for 171 yards and rushes for 81 in front of 51,190 at LaVell Edwards Stadium, BYU's lowest attendance in the independence era