BYU football: Cougars give San Diego St. the runaround

PROVO — Every time he touched the ball in the backfield, JJ Di Luigi felt an awesome responsibility resting on his shoulders.

He saw it as one more chance to push forward and grind out every single available yard. The BYU junior decided that dancing around and juking one direction or the other was not going to cut it.

It was up to him and his fellow running backs to put the Cougar offense squarely on their backs for 60 minutes.

"We knew what we needed to do," Di Luigi said. "We needed to be the playmakers and move the chains. The coaches were telling us it was on our shoulders and we just rallied behind the line and just made plays."

Di Luigi, Bryan Kariya and Joshua Quezada lived up to those expectations in a major way during BYU's 24-21 victory over San Diego State at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday evening.

Their collective performance resulted in a season-best team rushing performance for the Cougars. BYU generated 271 yards and all three of its touchdowns on 62 running plays.

Di Luigi shined the brightest in the backfield. He piled up 134 yards on his 22 carries and scored the team's first touchdown. Kariya added another 88 yards and two touchdowns — also on 22 carries. Quezada, a freshman, completed the dominant effort by chipping in another 50 yards on 11 carries.

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall pointed to the running game as the difference maker in allowing the offense to gain early momentum. The Cougars were able to chew up clock and hold onto the ball for long stretches because the three backs proved to be methodical in getting the necessary yards at the right times.

"It wasn't necessarily flashy," Mendenhall said. "It was five yards at a time, six yards at a time, a first down at a time — all the way to the very end."

One factor behind BYU's clockwork precision in pushing down the field was the ability of the offensive line to open up big enough holes to create wide running lane for whichever running back had his number called.

It meant a quiet day for Jake Heaps. The freshman quarterback completed 15 of 22 passes for 126 yards and an interception. Still, Heaps didn't care all that much that he had a limited role in moving the offense.

With the running game operating well, he was content to hand the ball off all day.