Head over heels — BYU wonders 'who's next?' after sweeping league again

SAN DIEGO — With Saturday night's 48-27 victory over San Diego State punctuating a second straight undefeated run through the Mountain West Conference competition, the BYU football team collectively is wondering "who's next?"

As in who the 19th-ranked and two-time league champion Cougars (10-2) will face in their bowl game, likely a third consecutive trip to the Las Vegas Bowl against a middle-of-the-Pac-10 opponent.

Most recent projections listed a 6-6 UCLA team, who the Cougars played three months ago and will host next fall in Provo. Other possibilities include last year's Vegas opponent Oregon (8-4), Oregon State (8-4), 2005 Vegas Bowl winner Cal (6-6) or maybe non-Pac-10 invitees Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State or Ball State.

The darkhorse Las Vegas Bowl candidate — and fan favorite — would be ranked Boise State, but that would take some finagling from conference, bowl and ESPN officials.

"I'd like to play the very best team possible, one that will be competitive in nature, as we will be," said BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall.

While the San Diego State offense strived to be BYU's equal in matching the Cougars' scoring, the same can't be said for the Aztec defense, which allowed 538 yards total offense over 78 plays for nearly a seven-yards-a-play average, mirroring the per-carry averages of BYU backs Harvey Unga and Fui Vakapuna.

Unga rushed 23 times for 161 yards and three touchdowns, and Vakapuna — in his best outing of the season — added 97 yards and a TD on 14 carries.

Max Hall complemented the Cougar ground game with 19-of-26 passing for 227 yards and three aerial scores.

SDSU quarterback Kevin O'Connell tried to play catch-up with the Cougars himself, rushing for a team-best 61 yards and two scores and completing 33 of 55 passes for 288 yards and another TD.

After beating 4-8 San Diego State, BYU's focus was mostly on a bowl opponent.

"I would like to play someone in a similar-ranked position as us — don't care who, don't care where," said linebacker Bryan Kehl, adding. "For me, to play a fourth- or a fifth-place team, that's not fair to our conference and to the college football fan in general. It should be a competitive match-up, so whoever's in charge of that should see to it."

Saturday night, BYU saw to it that it never trailed.