BYU Takes Down No. 14 Boise State In Romney’s First Career Start

PROVO, Utah – BYU is the most entertaining team in college football.

Name another team in the country that has every game that produce an unexpected outcome? The only answer is BYU.

BYU who is now 3-4 overall on the season defeated the No. 14 ranked Boise State Broncos 28-25 and they did it with a third-string quarterback in Baylor Romney.

#BYU in victory formation. The Cougars win it!

BYU 28, No. 14 Boise State 25

Second win of the year against a Top 25 opponent.#BSUvsBYU #KSLsports

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) October 20, 2019

Romney started for the first time in his career on rainy and storm-filled Saturday night after Jaren Hall hadn’t cleared the concussion protocol.

The nephew of Utah Senator Mitt Romney, Baylor threw for 221 yards on 15-of-26 passing and had two touchdown passes. The most impressive stat for Romney was the zero in the interception column. Romney hadn’t started in a football game since his high school career at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas back in 2014.

“This is what I had been preparing for all year,” said Romney.

What was more impressive in the game was that BYU had built a 28-10 lead entering the fourth quarter. It wasn’t BYU, but the nationally-ranked Boise State Broncos needed a fourth-quarter comeback to pull out the win.

WE WILL FIGHT

DAY OR NIGHT

RAIN OR SNOW#BYUFOOTBALL #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/SyOMGrwQa4

— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) October 20, 2019

The Broncos nearly pulled off the comeback scoring 15 unanswered to have BYU sitting on the edge of their seat.

Then with 2:17 remaining in the fourth quarter, BYU had a 4th down and inches from their own 34-yard line. Head coach Kalani Sitake had the offense huddled together to discuss possible options but the plan was to always go for it.

The Cougars brought out their famous scrum play that featured former Jordan High quarterback Austin Kafentzis who plays safety for BYU in at quarterback and then Khyiris Tonga was in at fullback. With the scrum play, BYU picked up the first down to ultimately give them their second win of the year against a nationally-ranked team.

Baylor Romney came back out onto the field for victory formation and a kneel down. It was a big moment for a BYU team that had dropped games against inferior opponents from the Group of 5 ranks in Toledo and USF. But on Saturday night, that was all forgotten after getting a rivalry win over the Broncos for the first time since 2015.

“I’m glad that we got this win,” Kalani Sitake said. “I’m extremely proud of the players and the coaching staff worked their tails off. I’m really happy with the guys who stepped up and made plays. Boise State is a great team and coach Harsin does an amazing job getting his team ready.”

BYU ended up with 359 yards of offense to Boise State’s 342. The Cougar defense which brought out more blitzes in the win over Boise State held the Broncos to 50 yards under BYU’s average they were giving up on the ground.

Leading Rusher

An unlikely leading rusher emerged for BYU on Saturday with Kearns native Sione Finau running for a game-high 89 yards on the ground. Lopini Katoa chipped in with 37 yards.

Kalani vs. Rivals

With the win over Boise State, Kalani Sitake’s record against rivals (Utah, Utah State, Boise State) now moves to 2-9 overall since 2016.

Next Up

Now BYU heads into a bye week and begins preparations for another rivalry game against a team from the Mountain West Conference in Utah State on Saturday, November 2nd.

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