Top 10 plays during the BYU football season

Picking milestones, makinglists and picking out the best or worst of the year is a rite of passage at this time of the year. Looking back at BYU's 10-3 season, here's a final rundown of big plays and stats by the Cougars.

TOP 10 PLAYS:

1. Dennis Pitta's 17-yard, game-winning touchdown pass from Max Hall with 22 seconds left to lift the Cougars to a 45-42 win over Colorado State in a turnover-plagued BYU performance.

2. Pitta's 23-yard touchdown catch against Colorado State with 13:15 left in the fourth quarter to put the Cougars up 31-28. On the play, Pitta got hit by two defenders and his helmet popped up straight in the air.

3. The 45-yard touchdown strike from Hall to Austin Collie with 4:46 left in the game in the 38-24 win at Air Force, a game in which Collie had 7 catches for 130 yards and the Cougars reached 10 wins for the third straight season.

4. Jan Jorgensen's block of an extra point in the closing seconds of a win over Washington. The play prevented the Huskies from taking the game into overtime, a fact forgotten in the national controversy over UW's Jake Locker's excessive celebration penalty.

5. Andrew Rich's knockdown of a Omar Clayton pass in the end zone to preserve the win over UNLV in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

6. Scott Johnson's 64-yard fumble return against Wyoming in Lavell Edwards Stadium.

7. Matt Putnam's dramatic sack of UNLV's Clayton on the second-to-last play against the Rebels, essentially rattling an otherwise poised Rebel signal-caller for a misfire on the final play.

8. Harvey Unga's short touchdown run against Utah after taking a direct snap and finishing the run standing up to tie the game 17-17 with just over six minutes left in the first half. It was Unga's second straight touchdown of the quarter.

9. Collie's 37-yard touchdown catch against UCLA, part of a 35-point second-quarter explosion by the Cougar offense in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

10. Collie's 76-yard touchdown catch in a 34-14 win over Utah State in Logan, BYU's first touchdown of the game, back when the Cougars were ranked No. 7 in the nation.

TELLING STAT: The Cougars had 13 turnovers in their three losses — four at TCU, six at Utah and three against Arizona in the Las Vegas Bowl. Experts connected to the program claim that single statistic looms as the most significant reason — not the defense — as to why the Cougars did not win a least a piece of the league title and finish 12-1.

TELLING STAT II: Collie finished the season leading the NCAA in receiving yards per game (118.31), tying an NCAA record for consecutive games with more than 100 yards receiving (11). That record smashed a six-year old MWC mark of five set by SDSU's J.R. Tolver.