BYU football: Cougars blow out Idaho Vandals 42-7

PROVO — BYU completely dominated both sides of the football on its way to a 42-7 victory over Idaho Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

The game was never in question with the Cougars scoring early and often against the hapless Vandals.

The story of the game, however, was starting quarterback Riley Nelson going down with a broken rib midway through the first quarter. Nelson lead the Cougars on five-play 64-yard scoring drive that was capped off with a 32-yard TD pass to Cody Hoffman with 8:26 left in the first quarter, but sustained to big hits to his midsection, which ended his night earlier than planned.

Jake Heaps entered the game and the Cougar offense didn't miss a beat, covering 78 yards on seven plays which was finished off by a Bryan Kariya 17-yard touchdown run to put them up 14-0 with 1:18 remaining in the first quarter.

Kariya scored his second touchdown of the half on a 1-yard run with 6:49 left in the half to put BYU up 21-0. The final score of the half came with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Heaps to Hoffman with just 13 seconds to give the Cougars a 28-0 lead at the half.

At the half BYU had 298 yards of total offense to Idaho's 63. It was a half defined by long scoring drives by the Cougars and numerous three-and-out efforts by the Vandals (2-8).

It was very much the same story in the second half.

The Cougars jumped on the Vandals early after the half, scoring on a three-play 57-yard drive that ended with a 38-yard TD run by Michael Alisa to put BYU up 35-0 with 12:31 left in the third quarter.

Heaps left the game on a high note, hitting receiver Ross Apo in the endzone from 18-yards out to put BYU up 42-0 with 5:37 left in the third quarter.

Idaho then responded with an 82-yard touchdown run by Princeton McCarty to give the Vandals their first score with 3:56.

Heaps then gave way to James Lark, who earned his first reps of the season. He finished the game going 2-of-6 for 21 yards. Heaps led the Cougar passing attack, going 15-of-20 for 185 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

BYU finished the game with 505 yards of total yardage to just 241 for Idaho.

With the win, the Cougars move to 7-3 on the year and will take on New Mexico State on Nov. 19 to finish out their home schedule for the year.

Email: bgurney@desnews.com

Twitter: @BrandonCGurney