BYU Football’s Miracle Win At Nebraska In 2015 Replayed On ESPNU

PROVO, Utah – Can you believe it has already been five years ago since BYU pulled off a miracle at Nebraska?

It’s always fun reliving classic some classic games and ESPNU has been showing some of college football’s best the past few months. On Thursday the college network owned by ESPN aired Tanner Mangum’s hail mary pass to wide receiver Mitch Mathews that gave BYU a memorable season-opening win.

For people that question whether Taysom Hill is actually a quarterback or not, they should watch ESPNU right now. Taysom was brilliant in this game against Nebraska before suffering the lisfranc injury. #BYU

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) June 4, 2020

This was the first-ever meeting between BYU and Nebraska. The win for BYU ended Nebraska’s 29-year streak of winning their season openers.

Taysom Hill started at quarterback for BYU and it was his first start after recovering from a leg injury suffered in 2014. After throwing for 268 yards and running for 72 yards, Hill suffered a season-ending foot injury.

Mangum stepped in for Hill just months after he completed a mission in Chile for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and made the game-winning throw to give BYU one of their best wins during Independence.

For Nebraska, it was the first game of the Mike Riley era. The Cornhuskers fired Bo Pellini and hired former Oregon State and San Diego Chargers head coach Riley. Riley ended up coaching only three seasons with the Cornhuskers and the loss to BYU put his tenure off on bad footing.

BYU finished the 2015 season 9-4 overall and it was the final year with Bronco Mendenhall as head coach.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.