BYU Football: 3 takeaways from gritty win at Utah State in Week 5

BYU football raced out to a comfortable 24-13 lead at halftime before the worst-case scenario happened. Backup quarterback Baylor Romney, who was filling in for the injured Jaren Hall, went down with a head injury after a red-hot start.

Third-string quarterback Jacob Conover entered the game for the first time in his collegiate career and did just enough to lead the Cougars to a gritty win. He didn’t need to do much in the second half but he also didn’t make any major mistakes.

The Cougars held on for a huge road win and improved to 5-0 on the season, just one win away from bowl eligibility.

Kalani Sitake has his team playing really well right now even with two quarterbacks going down with injuries.

What did we learn on Friday night?

3. The defense deserves a ton of credit

Down a second quarterback in the second half, the defense knew it needed to clamp down and make sure freshman quarterback Jacob Conover didn’t have to win a shootout or even a close battle. The Cougars held Logan Bonner and the Utah State offense to just seven second-half points and really didn’t let the Aggies break off anything big.

Conover was relatively stress-free in the second half even when the Aggies seemed to have some momentum early on and that was thanks to the defense.

BYU allowed just over 300 yards and Bonner needed 41 passing attempts to hit 276 yards on the night. The secondary bent but didn’t break and the Utah State run game was non-existent.

Give this group some props.