Provo • BYU worked and wandered into college football’s limelight on Saturday evening at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Lord knows, it was a long time coming. Work and wander and wait they did, and what’s more, the Cougars won the limelight, too, stole it away — from an opponent that brought so much acclaim, anticipation and attention with it. Yeah, Notre Dame.

When Irish quarterback CJ Carr’s last-second pass fell to the turf just outside the end zone with BYU up by four points, the roof blew off LaVell’s Place. Uh-huh, there is no roof here, but the noise that reverberated into the dark sky sounded as though there was a ceiling where there was none.

Maybe there is no ceiling over the Cougars, either.

Understand, Notre Dame was more than just an opponent. The Irish, on this occasion, were a measure for everything BYU football — the victories of the past two-plus seasons, the combined 28-4 record (now 29-4), the near misses in the CFP rankings, the ascent not just into the Big 12, but into the league’s upper echelon, the pursuit of national recognition. That was all on the line and in the offing here, waiting to be legitimized.

Consider the legitimacy earned, to the final count of 28-24.

“We trusted our guys,” a jubilant Kalani Sitake said afterward, as a huge wave of fans surged onto the field.

Later, he added: “What a great game. Our guys embraced the opportunity.”

Said Bear Bachmeier: “We know who we are.”

They know more now.

The Cougars were well aware of what was both available to them and at risk, as they went ahead and bolstered their record to 6-0. The measuring stick came not just in the form of the Irish, but also by way of network TV cameras focusing in, Chris and Kirk in the ABC booth, “College GameDay” having packed in and packed out, and CFP selection committee members tuning in.

All the folks had to be impressed with what they saw. BYU wasn’t perfect, but it was strong enough physically and mentally to take victory in a game most prognosticators decided in the run-up they would lose.

Here’s the truth: The football program BYU has longed to emulate came into Provo like a master ready to administer a hard and heartbreaking lesson to a student that would be reminded that it remains a student still.

Would be, but wasn’t.

The student did the teaching.

The Cougars took an early lead, going up, 7-zip. Notre Dame stormed back with a field goal and a touchdown. The second score coming in a fashion that made it appear as though the Irish would punish BYU with an offensive push up front and a run game that the Cougar resistance struggled to hold up against.

Instead of folding, BYU fired back with offense of its own, a load of offense.

Any BYU fan — or anyone else — who’s ever moaned and groaned about Aaron Roderick should send the offensive coordinator an apology, a thousand apologies, perhaps a bunch of roses, a box of chocolates, and a love letter, too, for the brilliant plan he put into place and play against Notre Dame. Sure, it bogged down a bit in the second half — against a defense that’s supposed to be one of the best, if not the best, in the country.

No matter.

“I liked the way A-Rod called the game,” Sitake said.

He should have.

Roderick’s ideology here revealed him to be part gambler, part genius, matched as it was with what Roderick was convinced his players — Bachmeier and the rest, all the rest — could execute. Through those initial two quarters, they did exactly that. And they did just enough at the end to triumph. More on that in a few paragraphs.

First, there’s this: Roderick, like a whole lot of OCs in college football, in football of all kinds, takes and has taken a lot of heat. Maybe more than any other coordinator on a team that’s posted as many wins as the Cougars have.

Over his years at BYU — and prior to that at Southern Utah and Utah —the man has lived and listened and learned. He’s heard the noise and paid attention to only the useful parts of it. And he’s powered on, developing many quality quarterbacks — Bachmeier is the latest — and creating steady-and-solid game plans all along, pretty darn sure that no matter what anybody on the outside or the inside said, he knew what in the name of Norm Chow and Mike Holmgren and Ted Tollner he was doing.

He certainly did to beat the second-ranked Irish.

BYU gained a mere 360 yards on Saturday night, 239 of them through the air, 121 on the ground. But those yards were judicious enough. The Cougars picked up 23 first downs, one more than the visitors. The points obviously were the thing with BYU’s scoring going like this: three touchdowns in the first half, a semi-clinching TD in the second. One of those scores came with imagination — Bachmeier throwing to Kyler Kasper, Kasper throwing back to Bachmeier, who weaved right, then left, following a block into the end zone.

“We knew our offense can score,” said Sitake.

As the Cougars did so, I thought of the words Roderick told me recently: “I like solving problems. I like staying up late at night, thinking about how I’m going to get that next first down, how I’m going to best use this player or this player’s skill set or that player or that player’s skill set. That’s what I enjoy the most about this profession.”

It was figured that Roderick had been pulling on the reins in earlier games this season, and that he would open up the attack against Notre Dame, as much out of desperation as anything else. He did that in spurts.

BYU made mistakes — a fumbled punt, a foolish fake punt that was stuffed at the Cougars’ own 24-yard line, an error that led to an Irish field goal. “The fake punt was on me,” Sitake said. “I’ve got more to learn.”

OK — so much so that his team is on the edge of entering the AP Poll’s top five. We’ll see. The coach heaped praise on his players and on Roderick, as he should have.

“I know our players are confident in how we play the game,” Sitake said.

Roderick said he is self-assured, as well. No brag, just fact.

“We have good players, and I feel confident in what we’re doing,” he said. “I believe in our coaches, in our players, and I believe in myself.”

In the wake of one of the biggest games and wins in BYU history, he should.