PROVO, Utah (AP) -Pick a streak – any streak. BYU has plenty.
The 14th-ranked Cougars host Wyoming on Saturday and are trying to extend a string of victories in the Mountain West Conference that has been around longer than some of the players.
BYU also has the longest overall winning streak in the country and hasn’t lost a home game in almost three years. The Cougars extended both of those streaks last week by shutting out UCLA 59-0, BYU’s biggest blowout in 20 years.
“The Cougs can roll it up on you in a hurry,” Wyoming coach Joe Glenn said.
BYU (3-0) is playing its Mountain West Conference opener, trying for a 17th straight league win after going unbeaten through the conference the last two years and winning consecutive outright titles. The last conference team to beat BYU was rival Utah in November 2005, which was also the last time BYU lost at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
rout, highlighted by Max Hall’s seven touchdown passes. BYU is averaging 521 yards and nearly 43 points per game and hasn’t allowed a sack this season. The Cougars have also converted 78 percent on third down so far.
BYU is a whopping 32-for-41 on third down, going 8-for-9 in the first half last week while taking a 42-0 lead on the Bruins. As much as BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall likes to push his players toward perfection, even he has to admit the third down rate through three games is impressive.
Whether its third-and-short or third-and-long, the Cougars have been stubborn about giving up the ball.
“There is only going to be so much you can do to keep your defense motivated after third down after third down after third down is converted,” Mendenhall said. “And then you have to start trying to guess your ways into making plays. And when you start to guess, frequently you give up points.”
Wyoming (2-1, 0-1 MWC) rallied last week to beat North Dakota State 16-13. The Bison, a Championship Subdivision team, led 13-0 in the third quarter before Wyoming started to come back and ended up winning on Jake Scott’s 29-yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining.
Wyoming has averaged just 251 yards of offense, 114 yards fewer than Hall’s passing average alone.
“We’re scheming the best we can against a team that’s pretty hot right now,” said Glenn, who is 1-4 against BYU.
rather see sophomore quarterback Dax Crum make his first road start someplace other than Provo, where Wyoming hasn’t won since 1987. Glenn said the best way the Cowboys can slow down BYU’s offense is to hang on to the ball as long as they can and keep it away from Hall, who has 12 touchdown passes already.
Hall is 91-for-117 for 1,095 yards and has the Cougars off to their best start since 2001. He also hasn’t been sacked and duly credits his linemen for keeping him from getting hit much in the first three games.
“The way they’re playing right now just kind of fires me up,” Hall said. “I’ve got tons of time to throw the ball and make my reads. I feel very comfortable behind those guys. Those guys are the reason for our success right now.”
Hall had to answer questions this week about a possible letdown after the UCLA win, which regenerated talk of a BCS berth for BYU. The win pushed the Cougars up four spots in the AP poll to No. 14, right where they were at the end of last season.
“I don’t think we’re going suffer a letdown – just for the fact that if we want to reach our goals, we’ve got to be pretty close to perfect by the end of the year,” Hall said.
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