{"id":413722,"date":"2025-11-29T22:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/413722\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T22:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:03:12","slug":"arlington-bound-no-11-byu-overcomes-slow-start-to-down-ucf-in-regular-season-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/413722\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington-bound: No. 11 BYU overcomes slow start to down UCF in regular-season finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

PROVO \u2014 BYU’s victory lap around LaVell Edwards Stadium a day after clinching a berth in the Big 12 title game<\/a> started with a Saturday morning jog.<\/p>\n

By the early afternoon, the Cougars were sprinting.<\/p>\n

LJ Martin rushed 21 times for 95 yards and three touchdowns, and Bear Bachmeier threw for 289 yards and a score as No. 11 BYU overcame a slow start to pull past UCF 41-21 in front of an announced crowd of 60,389 fans.<\/p>\n

With Chase Roberts sidelined on senior day, Parker Kingston collected 126 yards and a touchdown, and added another score on a 55-yard punt return as the Cougars outscored the Knights 38-7 in the final three quarters.<\/p>\n

BYU topped 400 yards of offense, while holding UCF to 42 yards on the ground with two sacks, five tackles for loss and a pair of turnovers.<\/p>\n

Tayven Jackson threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and also caught a 4-yard score for the Knights (5-7, 2-7 Big 12).<\/p>\n

But if Vampire Cougs come out at night, BYU’s version didn’t in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Jackson completed 10 of his first 12 pass attempts for 110 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown to Agyema Addae to give the 17.5-point underdog Knights a 14-0 lead.<\/p>\n

The Cougars responded the same way that won 10 of their first 11 games of the season: with defense and the run game.<\/p>\n

Martin ran on six of nine plays before diving into the end zone for his first touchdown, then converted another on a direct snap from less than a yard out to tie the game at 14-14.<\/p>\n

In between was an interception by Evan Johnson, and Will Ferrin gave the Cougars their first lead of the game with a 26-yard field goal with nine seconds left in the half.<\/p>\n

Martin completed his hat trick on the first drive of the half, and Parker Kingston added a 55-yard punt return touchdown \u2014 the third of his career \u2014 to stretch BYU’s lead to 31-14 midway through the third quarter and pull away for good.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROVO \u2014 BYU’s victory lap around LaVell Edwards Stadium a day after clinching a berth in the Big…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":413723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[419,418,407,1318,421,420,425,1317,1315,1316,50,422,423,62,399,314,67,132,68,424,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-413722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-cars","9":"tag-classifieds","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-homes","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-local","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-football","17":"tag-ncaafootball","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-radio","20":"tag-salt-lake","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-television","23":"tag-traffic","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-utah","28":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115635251194070367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}