Monthly Archives: September 2014

The season opener versus was Taysom Hill’s best passing game as a starter in several respects:

• Hill completed 28 of 36 of his passes.  The 77.8% completion percentage ties his career best.  He was 14 of 18 against Nevada in 2013.
• His 308 passing yards was his 3rd best passing total in a game, behind his 417 vs Houston and 339 vs Boise State.
• Taysom’s 177.14 pass efficiency was his career best as a starter.
• This is the 2nd start Hill had 3 TDs with 0 INTs.  He also had 3 TDs and 0 INT against Boise State.
• Last year, BYU was atrocious passing on 3rd down and 7 or more yards to go.  In 2013, they were 21 of 69 (30.4) for 329 yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs and a pass efficiency of 61.8.  They converted only 17 of those 69 attempts for a first down (24.6%).   Against UConn, they were 6 for 6 for 45 yards and a pass efficiency of 163.0 and converted 3 of the 6 attempts for a first down (50.0%).

Hill “only” had 97 yards rushing vs UConn.  This snapped his 3 game streak of running over 100 yards, dating back to the Notre Dame game. Other Hill rushing notes:

• With at least 21 yards against Texas, Hill will pass JJ DiLuigi for 12th in the BYU career rushing list.
• Hill’s 5.7 career rushing average is better than anyone else in the top 16 of the BYU career rushing leaders.  Casey Tiumalu (17th) averaged 6.2 yards per carry.
• The UConn game marked the 4th game where Hill ran for at least 2 TDs.  His career high of 3 was against Texas last year.

Other odds and ends:

• In every game where Taysom Hill has thrown for 300+ yards, BYU has also rushed for over 200 yards.
• BYU’s average kickoff distance of 54.3 yards is the 5th worst in the nation thus far this season.
• The Cougars had the ball for 9:36 in the first quarter, but afterwards UConn won the time of possession 28:08 to 16:52.
• Bronson Kaufusi is 4th nationally with 2 sacks per game.
• BYU is 9th with 4 sacks per game.
• BYU’s 150 penalty yards is 31 yards more than any other team in the nation this year.
• BYU has had over 100 yards in penalties 15 times since 2001.  Their record in those games is 10-5.
• It would seem that 513 yards of total offense would be really good, but it’s only good enough for 35th in the nation after week 1 (thanks largely to the numerous FBS vs FCS matchups this week).
• The Cougars’ defense only allowed a total of 10 points on 5 UConn red zone possessions.