BYU 49, UCF 23: Boca Raton Bowl 10 Things To Know

BYU 49, UCF 23. The 10 ten things you need to know about BYU win over UCF in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl.

BYU 49, UCF 23. The 10 ten things you need to know about BYU win over UCF in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl.

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BYU 49, UCF 23: Boca Raton Bowl

10. Was there a more underappreciated running back in the country than Tyler Allgeier? The BYU sophomore started the season hot, ended the season hotter, and finished with 1,130 yards and 14 touchdowns averaging 7.5 yards per carry – and he missed the San Diego State game. Zach Wilson is the superstar of the show, and the offensive line opened up a whole lot of big holes, but Allgeier was brilliant.

9. It’s been a really, really rough run for the Boca Raton Bowl. This was the seventh all-time game and none of them have been closer than 15 points. The seven-year all-time score is 323-138 – an average of 46-20. BYU was up 49-10 with just under 20 minutes to play.

8. No, this isn’t an indictment on UCF football, and for all the great things the program has done over the last few years, this doesn’t mean things are slipping … yet.

Remember, the Knights had a whole slew of player opt out before the season,  they still beat Georgia Tech by 28 – don’t mock it; there weren’t many Group of Five over Power Five wins this year if you take out Liberty and the Sun Belt – and the explosion was still there.

The losses? 50-49 on the road in a heartbreaker against Memphis, Tulsa, Cincinnati, and BYU. The two AAC championship combatants, a BYU team that was painfully close to being in a New Year’s six game, and a wild shootout.

7. All season long, BYU had a knack for ripping off big plays early and taking the heart out of a game. It did that against UCF, but UCF was supposed to be able to keep up. The first BYU scoring drive went 87 yards in under two minutes, and the second went 72 yards in four plays. The Cougars out-UCFed, UCF with a 14-0 lead four minutes in.

6. A 35-7 lead late in the first half, no turnovers, over 33 minutes of possession, and just one punt on the night. This was as perfect a bowl game as BYU could’ve come up with. As it showed throughout the season, when the lines were able to take over and the team was on a mission to make a statement, it was able to do it.

5. BYU didn’t do anything fancy defensively but 1) not let the UCF speedsters gets into space like Coastal Carolina could, and 2) it got off the field. It didn’t generate any takeaways, there wasn’t any pressure from the line, and it allowed UCF to hit 50% of its third down tries. However, it came up with the early stops it needed to, the offense did its thing, and it was 21-0 in the blink of a first quarter eye.

4. It was a bad day for UCF. BYU was totally focused, too physical, and it had an NFL franchise quarterback have an NFL franchise quarterback day. To put how rare this loss was into perspective, it was the first defeat by more than eight points since dropping the 2016 Cure Bowl to Arkansas State four years ago.

3. This was a complete and total disaster for the American Athletic Conference. Not only did Tulane lose big in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl to Nevada earlier in the day, but UCF was playing in Florida in a game that should’ve been the type of shootout it likes, and it was out of it two minutes in.

Considering Coastal Carolina beat BYU, it was a bad look that UCF didn’t look like it belonged on the same field as the Cougars, who started out the season rocking Navy from the AAC.

2. If you’re an NFL GM and you didn’t already have a hard opinion and scouting thought on Zach Wilson, you’re a bad NFL GM. However, if it’s possible, Wilson just helped himself in a huge way with his 26-of-34, 425-yard, three-touchdown, two touchdown run performance.

He was flawless, he didn’t make any mistakes, he was calm, and he was in command from the start. Now, with this, get ready for the buzz that the Jets might go with him over Justin Fields.

1. Considering what BYU had to do just to get together a schedule, this was a miraculous season. It rolled through it, the only blip was a wonderful game against Coastal Carolina that was put together at the last second, and it turned out to be an 11-1 campaign with a totally dominant performance against a brand-name UCF team. Zach Wilson might be off to the NFL, but it’ll be interesting to see what the program is capable off in normal times now that it showed it could do this.

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