PROVO — Bronco Mendenhall said he wanted to give senior QB Riley Nelson a break to recover from his back injury. So it’s Taysom Hill, the freshman transfer from Stanford getting his first start Friday night against Hawaii.
Hill made short time to lead the Cougars on one scoring drive. In the 2nd quarter he hits Ross Apo for a 22-yard touchdown — Apo’s first TD of the season, making it 14-nothing BYU.
Like Nelson, Hill can do some damage with his feet as well. He takes the shotgun snap on his own 26 yard line and runs it 68 yards nearly untouched for another TD to make it 20-zip, Cougars. The score stayed the same by halftime.
It was another shutout performance by the BYU as linebacker Kyle Van Noy rocks Hawaii’s QB Sean Schroeder and knocks the ball loose. Spencer Hadley recovers and is ruled down at the 3 before he looses the ball.
BYU cashes in again with a TD from 17-year-old freshman running back Jamaal Williams — his second of the night in place of Michael Alisa, who left with a broken right forearm.
Hill finishes with 141 yards on the ground and 112 through the air – hitting tight-end Devin Mahina for a 12-yard score in the third. Mahina missed last season with a broken neck.
BYU tacks on two more Paul Lasike TD runs for a dominating 47-nothing shutout of Norm Chow’s Warriors.
