PROVO — One week ago, Washington State coach Mike Leach said, when talking about his "Air Raid" offense and the roots of that aerial attack, "We may look more like BYU than BYU."
Well, BYU senior quarterback Riley Nelson heard that comment, and he took exception to it.
Nelson made a statement on the field by leading a balanced offense that gained 426 yards in BYU's 30-6 whipping of Washington State Thursday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium. WSU, meanwhile, finished with a paltry 224 yards of offense (including minus-5 rushing).
Then, after the game, Nelson made another statement.
"When an opposing team comes in saying, 'We're going to look like BYU more than BYU will,' how are you supposed to take that?" he said. "We had a great defensive effort and a great offensive effort. … It was clearly evident tonight that BYU looked like BYU and the other team was the other team. So I was happy with our performance."
While BYU scored 30 points — the most ever for the Cougars in an opener against a FBS opponent under coach Bronco Mendenhall — Nelson knows his team could have scored much more.
"We are definitely leaving this game hungry because we feel like we left points and some yards out on the field," he said. "We're excited because we played well enough to win the game and still have a lot of stuff to clean up and get better at. We're excited for Week Two."
BYU hosts Weber State next Saturday (1 p.m. MT, BYUtv).
BYU scored just three field goals on four trips inside the 10-yard line against Washington State. That's something the Cougars will address this week.
"That was definitely frustrating for us," said running back Michael Alisa, who rushed for a game-high 54 yards. "That's the biggest focus we're going to have going into next week — our red zone plays."
Against Washington State, BYU implemented a fast-tempo, hurry-up offense that stymied WSU.
"Riley is just so competitive and so tough and he has great leadership," Mendenhall said. "That (hurry-up offense) suits him really well. He demands respect and controls the game. When it's hurry-up, he makes sure everyone gets to the line. For a stretch in there, it put our opponent on their heels and they had a hard time recovering."
Nelson loves the up-tempo offense.
