BYU football notebook: Cougars' quarterback Jake Heaps realizes he has a lot to learn

"We have two excellent boundary corners," Mendenhall said. "They are good tacklers and good football players. Preston on a day-to-day basis does everything with exactness and is eager. Joe is a football student. He loves watching games and studying players. We have a pretty nice combination over there."

LIFE OF RILEY: Backup quarterback Riley Nelson came into the game as a QB on fourth down two times on Friday.

In the second quarter, on fourth-and-2 at the UCF 32-yard line, Nelson threw an incompletion, which ended that drive.

Then, on the opening drive of the third quarter, BYU faced fourth-and-3 from its own 39 when Nelson ran the option and pitched the ball to running back David Foote, who gained 21 yards for a first down.

"We've worked on it from the very first day of fall camp," Mendenhall said of using Nelson on fourth-down plays. "We were just waiting for the right time. It was the right time."

Though that series that included Foote's run ended with a punt, it pinned the Knights deep in their own territory. On the Cougars' ensuing drive, they got the ball in UCF territory and ended up scoring a touchdown on a 16-yard run by JJ Di Luigi to tie the game at 10.

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