BYU Football: QB Jake Heaps, Cougars Offense Break Out against UNLV

The BYU faithful finally saw what they have waited for all season.

The Cougar offense had a huge breakout game, looking nothing like it had for the first eight games of the season.

The Cougars racked up a BYU-esque 517 yards of total offense and Jake Heaps made a massive leap in his performance in the 48-point victory.

Heaps was consistently on target for the first time this season, and pass-catchers looked like typical BYU receivers for the first time this year as well.

Granted, this win came against a woeful UNLV team. But given how the offense had performed up until today, Cougar Nation will definitely take every one of those 55 points and 517 yards.

Cougars Take the Wraps Off Heaps

For the first time offensive coordinator Robert Anae loosened the reins on Jake Heaps, and the true freshman responded. He went 19-for-31 for 294 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

The week off made a huge difference in Jake’s development.The break gave him and his offensive teammates a chance to catch their breath, work out the kinks and get on the same page.

Heaps completed passes down the field, threaded the needle on a couple of occasions and made impressive third-down conversions with his arm.

Today’s performance gave BYU fans a glimpse of what lies ahead for the freshman. After seemingly making very little progress up until today, Heaps appeared to make a season’s worth of improvement since his last outing against Wyoming two weeks ago.

Jake had the opportunity to visit with former Cougar great Steve Young during the bye week and perhaps that talk had an effect on the young signal-caller.

Heaps’ huge leap was reminiscent of the transformation in John Beck’s career when he sat out a game in 2006 against Utah State because of injury and had the chance to visit with Robbie Bosco during the week. Beck came out on fire the following week and destroyed TCU in Fort Worth. John was virtually unstoppable thereafter.

Juice Gets Into the Action

Josh Quezada was another true freshman that had a breakout game. Juice scored three touchdowns and averaged five yards per carry on his way to racking up 65 yards.

This is the time of the year that many thought Quezada would begin to emerge in the backfield for the Cougars. The three scores will no doubt help the youngster’s confidence.

The one thing you really have to like about Josh is how he delivers the blow at the end of runs. He shows a nice ability to pick up extra yardage after contact.

His emergence would give the Cougars a lot more flexibility. His presence in the backfield makes it more difficult for opponents to key in on what the Cougars are doing offensively.

The BYU Big Uglies Were Dominate

The offensive line did a great job of opening up holes for the ground game and giving Heaps plenty of time in the passing game.

For the second game in a row the Cougars rolled up 217 yards on he ground. It was the third time in the last four games that the BYU offense has rushed for more than 200 yards.

In addition to Quezada’s 65 yards, JJ Di Luigi rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown while Brian Kariya added another score and 46 yards.

Bronco Continues to Work His Magic

The transformation in the BYU defense since Bronco Mendenhall took over as the defensive coordinator has been nothing short of miraculous. Statistically the Cougars have gone from one of the worst defenses in the country to one of the best.

Today the Cougar D surrendered just 144 yards, much of that occurred when BYU had their second and third teams in the game. BYU held UNLV to a grand total of 22 yards rushing. In the last four weeks since Mendenhall has taken over the defense, BYU is giving up just 61.5 yards per game rushing.