BYU football: With Unga sidelined, Y.'s DiLuigi fumbles

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — At the time, it looked like a costly turnover.

As it turned out, it was just one of many twists and turns in the fourth quarter during BYU's 45-42 victory Saturday over Colorado State.

BYU was nursing a 31-28 lead with a little less than nine minutes left when freshman running back J.J. DiLuigi entered the game and fumbled on the Cougar 28-yard line. Four plays later, CSU regained the lead on a 7-yard run by Gartrell Johnson.

The reason DiLuigi went into the game was because of a uniform malfunction. Harvey Unga's helmet had some padding come out of it and the coaches took him out of the game to fix it.

Unga said it wasn't just the padding in his helmet that caused problems. His shoe was untied as well.

"They saw I was kind of straggling along and they made their call (to put DiLuigi into the game)," Unga said.

"J.J. went in and unfortunately for him, he made a mistake that was very visible," said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "But fortunately for him, we were still able to win the game and he was able to learn from it without carrying that extra burden."

Moments after CSU scored, BYU responded on the ensuing series as Unga ran for a 40-yard touchdown, giving the Cougars a 38-35 edge.

Earlier in the game, quarterback Max Hall also had problems with his equipment.

"I hit a guy so hard that my facemask bent," he said. "One side was smashed in. I had to get a new facemask."

COLLIE RECORD: BYU wide receiver Austin Collie recorded his seventh straight 100-yard receiving game, which is a school record. He also had the first three-touchdown game of his career.

Collie now has 2,775 career receiving yards, surpassing Matt Bellini at No. 3 on BYU's all-time receiving list. He needs only 67 yards to pass Margin Hooks (2,841 yards) to move into No. 2.

With three touchdown receptions against CSU, Collie has 26 career TDs, tying Pete Van Valkenberg and Eric Lane at No. 10 on the Cougars' all-time touchdown list.

Collie's 26 touchdowns puts him only three behind the all-time Mountain West Conference leader, Wyoming's Jovon Bouknight, who had 29.

NEW MWC RECORD: BYU defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen sacked CSU quarterback Billy Farris for a nine-yard loss in the fourth quarter. That gave Jorgensen 21 1/2 career sacks, which is a new Mountain West Conference record.