BYU Gets to 10 Wins with Senior Night Win Over Houston

Casey Lundquist | Dec 1, 2024

BYU wide receiver Jojo Phillips against Houston / BYU Photo

On Saturday night, Kalani Sitake and the BYU football program improved to 10-2 with a win over Houston. With the win, BYU clinched a tie for first place in the Big 12 standings. Due to Big 12 tiebreaker rules, BYU will not play in the Big 12 championship game. Instead, Arizona State and Iowa State will square off in Arlington.

As the game kicked off, BYU's Big 12 title hopes were still alive. BYU needed Kansas State to beat Iowa State to have a path to the Big 12 championship game. Unfortunately for BYU, the Cyclones pulled out a fourth quarter victory and eliminated BYU from Big 12 contention.

The win over Houston wasn't pretty, but the Cougars took care of business on a cold night in Lavell Edwards Stadium. BYU had the opportunity to go up three scores in the third quarter before a fumbled snap inside the Houston 10 yard-line gave Houston life. . The final score was 30-18, but it really wasn't that close. The Cougars controlled this game throughout.

BYU outgained Houston 356 to 250. It was the rushing attack that made the difference for BYU on Saturday night. The Cougars rushed for 189 yards, led by running back LJ Martin who finished with 87 yards on 22 carries. BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff had 57 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The BYU defense tallied another pair of interceptions in this game - one from Tyler Batty and another from Jack Kelly. The BYU defense recorded at least one interception in every game this season.

With the win, BYU will wait to hear where it will go bowling. The two most likely destinations are the Alamo Bowl and the Pop Tarts Bowl.