From: jsnow@moons.sim.es.com (John Snow)
Subject: BYU REPORT: BYU vs. UTEP
Keywords: BYU football
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 19:57:05 GMT

Hi everyone. I had a lot of fun writing BYU basketball reports last
year so I thought I'd try doing it for football this year.

BYU entered its 25th season under Lavell Edwards in El Paso on
Saturday night. The big question for cougar fans was who would start
at QB. BYU has two sophomore QBs John Walsh and Steve Clements who are
very close in talent. Lavell didn't make a decision until Wednesday
and didn't tell the press until just before game time. The starter was
Walsh and it seemed to be a pretty good choice.

UTEP isn't the patsy they once were when BYU made a living beating them
60-0 in the late 70s and early 80s. Last year in Provo, BYU had to
hold its breath while UTEP missed a field goal with 18 seconds left
that would have given them a 1 point victory.

The game started with BYU winning the toss but deferring the choice to
the second half. BYU kicked off and held UTEP to 3 downs and a punt.

Walsh came out for his first series as a BYU starter and drove the
cougars down for a TD with a scoring pass to Eric Drage. UTEP
responded with a drive of their own to tie the score at 7-7.

Walsh again drove the team down and again scored on a toss to Drage
who was quickly emerging as Walsh's favorite target. UTEP's response
faltered on a failed fourth and one try at mid-field, but BYU gave the
ball back to the Miners when Walsh's screen pass failed to clear a
charging lineman who batted it into the air for a teammate to snatch.
UTEP's resulting drive again appeared to stall at the 10 yard line,
but BYU was flagged for a late hit on the QB and UTEP took advantage
to tie the score at 14-14 at the end of the first quarter.

BYU's knack for self destructing looked to be in full swing when a
nice gain on a screen pass was called back for holding resulting in a
first and 30 situation from which they couldn't recover. UTEP helped
out by fumbling the ball on their own 20. BYU went to the ground game
and sophomore Jamal Willis ran the ball in to make the score 21-14.

UTEP had to punt on their next possession and got off a 73 yard punt
in the process! Walsh seemed to have recovered his composure after the
interception and marched BYU down to another score, this one coming on
a toss to tight end Byron Rex after an impressive 11 yard run by Walsh
when all receivers were covered. At the end of the run, Walsh lowered
his head and took on the defender -- Lavell, teach that boy to take a
slide!

UTEP's last possession of the half was thwarted by a nice interception
by Patrick Mitchell who seems to have learned a lot since being thrown
into the lion's den in the San Diego State game last year.

BYU looked to be running out the half but then with 11 seconds left,
Walsh stepped back and heaved one 60 yards down field, but the ball
skipped of the receiver's hands. With 1 second left, Walsh tried the
same play. This time he was successful, but UTEP was on the lookout
and stopped the receiver at the 5 yard line with no time left.

BYU came out of the locker room at half time with a 28-14 lead and was
looking for the quick score to put the Miners in a big hole. It looked
like that were going to get it too when Walsh connected with Tyler
Anderson who ran 60 yards to pay dirt but it was all for naught as
Tyler had stepped out of bounds before catching the ball. Tyler, whose
nickname is "chemo", has shaved his head for the football season. I
thought that violated Standards!

UTEP's next possession resulted in a punt then Walsh threw his second
interception of the game giving new life to the Miners. UTEP replaced
their starting QB Gray with Perez who is considered to be a better
passer. Perez lead the Miners on a long drive, converting on third
down situations of 22, 20, and finally 3rd and goal from the 9 to
bring the Miners back to only one TD behind at 28-21.

BYU then showed that they too can convert long third downs as Walsh
connected with Drage on a 42 yard pass down to the UTEP 25. BYU
quickly took advantage of the field position as JC transfer running
back Kalin Hall ran the ball the intervening 25 yards to make the
score 35-21. Hall was the JC player of the year last year at Dixie
College, running for 1900 yards last year. He was very impressive in
this game rushing for a total of 114 yards on 15 carries.

UTEP's next possession saw them driving down to the BYU 10 yard line
before failing to convert a fourth down. BYU then looked to grind out
some yardage on the ground, alternating runs by Willis and Hall. The
Cougars settled for a 34 yard field goal to raise their lead to 38-21.

UTEP again failed to convert a fourth down try at BYU's 20. Walsh
leaves the game and is replaced by Clements who doesn't get to try a
pass as BYU tries to use up the clock but fails to get a first down.

UTEP replaces Perez with Gray who responds by leading the Miner's down
for a TD to make the score 38-28 with 2:17 remaining.

UTEP's onside kick fails and BYU runs out the clock this time to take
the 10 point win.

Walsh's final stats were 17-28 for 302 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs. BYU
had 467 total yards (302 passing and 165 rushing) to UTEP's 415 yards
total. Walsh looked very sharp and his passes were very accurate.
Walsh kept a streak alive as the last 9 BYU starting QBs have won
their first start. BYU's offensive line was supberb, giving Walsh
plenty of time to throw.

Kallin Hall had 114 yards on 15 carries and one TD. Jamal Willis had
46 yards on 13 carries and one TD.

BYU's leading receivers were Drage (6 catches for 99 yards), Willis
(4-44), and Byron Rex (3-49).

BYU's next game in Thursday night at 6:00pm MST on ESPN against San
Diego State. In last year's game, Ty Detmer rallied the cougars from a
45-14 deficit in the 3rd quarter to a 52-52 tie. SDSU is sure to be
out for revenge after blowing another lead against USC on Saturday and
tieing the Trogans.

BYU's offense looks sound but questions remain about the defense.
Those questions should be answered Thursday night. Against UTEP, the
defense showed a tendancy to bend (as witnessed by the number of third
downs UTEP converted) but not to break (as witnessed by UTEP being 0-3
on fourth down tries).

--John

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John F. Snow                         INET:           jsnow@moons.sim.es.com
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.    
Salt Lake City, Utah                 America Online: JohnSnow  GEnie: J.SNOW2