- Week 1 – BYU (0-0) vs Portland State (0-0) – Sat Aug 26, noon – LES, Provo, UT – ESPN2
o A perfectly placed game by Tom Holmoe allows the Cougs to work out any kinks before taking on top-10 LSU in Houston. A good warm-up game where the D dominates, O looks meh. Ultimately BYU prevails 38-0.
o ESPN couldn’t pass up on the first Saturday football game of the 2017 season so what was going to be a BYUtv game suddenly becomes prime viewing for the football-hungry nation.
o It seems even early on that BYU’s goal is to literally use this newly added game as a glorified scrimmage. They go 3 deep in the first half, wanting to get film on everybody. Maybe because of this, the team, especially the offense, look a bit sluggish.
o BYU goes up 7-0 when Tanner finds KJ Hall out of the backfield for the first TD of the 2017 season. After some pretty sloppy play, Tanner hits Simon on a deep post for a 55 yard TD pass. Squally adds the first rushing TD of the season from 5 yards out right before halftime.
o The D holds Portland State to a single first down in the first half as well. They swarm, bother the QB and are very tight in coverage.
o After Tolutao bowls over the entire Portland State DL from 2 yards out, Tanner takes a seat and Beau Hoge comes in and leads a TD drive of his own in the 4th rushing one in himself from 12 yards out. BYU tacks on some FG practice in late from 30 yards out and come away with a 38-0 win. While BYU did score a bunch the D was the hero of the game…less than 100 total yards of offense, 4 total first downs (only 2 through 3 quarters), and giving the O plenty of reps and drives. (They scored on 6 and punted on 6)
o Player of the game – entire defense…Portland State could barely get across the line of scrimmage all game long.