BYU Football: What We Learned About the Cougars Against UCF

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Amazing how much difference less than a week makes.

BYU was able to pick up the pieces after the worst loss in Cougars history to beat UCF at home 24-17.

This win will help lessen the sting of losing big to Utah, but it's clear that this team still has some things to learn as the season progresses. We saw flashes of brilliance from special teams as well as some of those nagging troubles of offense continuing to plague the team.

So, what did we learn about BYU tonight? Read on.

Riley Stephenson Is a Lot Better Than We Thought

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There was a whole lot of grumbling after one of his punts went out of bounds for only 10 yards at Ole Miss, but his punts were a thing of beauty against UCF.

Stephenson's punts routinely pinned UCF inside the 20 and a miffed punt lead to a BYU TD. He also kicked a boomer good for 67 yards.

Jake Heaps Still Has a Ways to Go

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Before people get too critical of the BYU QB, please remember that he is a true sophomore.

But Heaps tried to force some passes and he was off the mark on others. We saw some flashes of talent on some nice throws. But he's still making some sophomoric mistakes, including throwing the ball too hard. He now has one more INT (four) on the season as he has TDs (three).

Give him some time though. He is a young player and he'll be downright scary when he's an upperclassman.

But he's got a way to go to fill the shoes of Max Hall, much less Ty Detmer.

BYU Has a Running Game After All

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After three games without scoring a single rushing touchdown, both J.J. DiLuigi and Bryan Kariya both scored a TD each on the ground.

BYU got up to 4.0 yards/rush this game, which isn't earth-shattering, but it's a whole lot better than it had done up to this point.

The Secondary Needs Some Work

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The BYU secondary gave up some big plays on blown coverage.

For example, both the cornerback and the safety were caught looking into the backfield on a play-action fake as A.J. Guyton ran right past them both for a 54-yard pass that set up a TD.

They just have to be more careful back there.

BYU Can Score on a Kickoff Return

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WR Cody Hoffman became the first BYU player to return a kickoff for a TD since 1998.

Remember 1998? Bill Clinton was still president, the BCS was just getting started and BYU was still in the WAC.

This was the play of the game. It might even be the play of the year thus far.

Tight Ends Still MIA

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I don't know if BYU isn't using the tight ends enough on the field or if Jake Heaps just isn't throwing to them. Either way, tight ends have always been part of the BYU offense and they need to step up.

Marcus Mathews and Richard Wilson have only 12 catches for 111 yards and no TDs. This has got to change if BYU is to be, well, BYU.

The Front Seven Are Still Amazing

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Interesting what the defense can do when the offense doesn't turn over the ball seven times.

BYU held UCF to 81 yards and sacked QB Jeff Godfrey four times. These players did their job and came up big when they needed to in order to win the game.

The Utah Loss Wasn't the End of the Season

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That's what it looked like last Saturday. And the repercussions of that devastating loss at the hands of Utah could have easily snowballed.

Looking at BYU's remaining schedule, BYU can still win 8-9 games over the regular season. I know that's not what the fans were looking for coming into this season, but it would be a good step forward for a young team.