BYU football: Cougars cruise past Bengals; TCU up next

"That's who I am. I never take anything for granted. That's what fuels me. I appreciate coach doing that for me," he said. "It keeps me from getting complacent. Not that I ever would naturally. That's not the type of person I am. But I like it. I can feel the trust and confidence my teammates have in me and my play. That's all that matters to me. … It doesn't affect me in the least. If anything, it motivates me."

BYU's offense was balanced with 282 yards passing and 290 yards rushing.

Meanwhile, the Cougar defense was solid, limiting ISU to 251 yards and coming up with three interceptions. Safety Daniel Sorensen recorded a pick-six in the third quarter on a 30-yard interception return. Later, backup cornerback Jordan Johnson had an interception that he returned 42 yards. And Van Noy was all over the field. In addition to his blocked punt, he had two sacks, three tackles-for-loss and three quarterback hurries.

"I believe we played consistently for four quarters," Mendenhall said. "Our team prepared well this week at practice. It's a unique challenge playing an FCS opponent this time of year. It showed maturity from our team and handled it well."

First-year Bengal coach Mike Kramer was impressed with what he saw from the Cougars.

"Great demonstration by BYU where they are at in their program. They've grown a lot in the last three weeks," he said. "They started out of the gate and they didn't play as effective in their first five games. Now they are much different and much improved and they showed it today."

email: jeffc@desnews.com