BYU went into SEC country and held the Big 12 banner high.
On the same day that the Cougars' new conference was besieged by upsets that included No. 15 Kansas State's 30-27 loss to Missouri, Iowa State's 10-7 loss to Ohio and Oklahoma State's 33-7 loss to South Alabama (among others), BYU handed Arkansas its first loss of the year in its road debut.
LJ Martin ran for 77 yards and two touchdowns, and Kedon Slovis found Chase Roberts for the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter to help the Cougars rally from a two-touchdown deficit and upset the Hogs 38-31 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Slovis threw for 167 yards and two touchdowns for BYU, including 57 yards to Isaac Rex and 46 yards and a score to Parker Kingston. The speedster from Roy High also threw a 37-yard touchdown to Deion Smith on a double pass, and caught his first career score from 20 yards out.
Arkansas committed 14 penalties for 125 yards as the Cougars (3-0) won for the fifth time in 12 road games against a team from the Southeastern Conference and the second under head coach Kalani Sitake.
"I'm just happy we got the win," Sitake told BYU Radio after the game. "Obviously, there are some things we need to fix and keep improving, but I'll probably say that every week. Our guys showed some great grit and resilience."
In the first start of his collegiate career, Martin led all BYU rushers — again, for the third straight week — to pull the Cougars back from a 14-0 deficit in the first five minutes of the game. But after KJ Jefferson and the Hogs rattled off 17-unanswered points to take a 31-21 lead on AJ Green's second touchdown to open the third quarter, BYU went to work.
After Will Ferrin made his first career field goal with a 43-yard kick, Kingston weaved through traffic for his first career receiving touchdown, aided by a monstrous block by Rex.
Moments later, Roberts, who fumbled a catch just before halftime that helped the Razorbacks to a 24-21 lead, went up and Moss'd a defensive back to haul in a 7-yard score from Slovis.
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 17, 2023PUT HIM ON SPORTSCENTER!!!!! 🫢 #SCTop10
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"I was just focusing on catching the ball. I knew I just needed to get a foot down, and a great throw by Kedon," said Roberts, who caught two passes for 12 yards. "You feel it. Being a receiver, you get a feel for the field and where you are at. I knew I had at least one foot down, and secured the ball with my hand. I knew it was a touchdown, and was just waiting for the ref to put up his hand."
Suddenly, the Cougars had a 38-31 advantage with eight minutes remaining and got the ball back after Arkansas got a false start penalty on fourth-and-1 at the 34-yard line.
But a costly illegal touch pass — the same call for a third straight game — nullified a 30-yard completion to Rex, and BYU punted away with 4:31 left to give Arkansas a chance to tie.
That is, until BYU's defensive backs struck again.
Eddie Heckard forced a fumble, and Tyler Batty recovered it with 3:49 to play. Ferrin's 50-yard field goal attempt was wide right, and Arkansas had 1:55 remaining to drive the length of the field with no timeouts — and allow the Cougars to hold on.
Jefferson threw for 247 yards, a touchdown and an interception for Arkansas (2-1), and ran for 83 yards on 13 carries.
Jakob Robinson and AJ Vongphachanh each had 10 tackles, and Max Tooley added four tackles, a sack and an interception for the Cougars.
Facing a 78% passer in Jefferson and an Arkansas team that hadn't given up a turnover in wins over Western Carolina and Kent State, BYU's defense finished with six tackles for loss — including four sacks — and forced two turnovers, including Tooley's pick that was the first by a BYU linebacker in 2023.
"There weren't any blitzes that were weren't ready for; it wasn't a blitz-fest. They just whipped us," said Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, a former star offensive lineman at Pittsburgh State and standout O-line coach. "We'd start chipping them and all that … and we didn't feel like we'd need to chip out there. But they proved that they were longer and stronger than we anticipated. ... No exotic blitzes, they got after us."
It was the opposite of the Razorbacks' win a year ago in Provo, when Jefferson threw for 367 yards and five touchdowns, Raheim "Rocket" Sanders ran for 175 yards and two scores, and BYU couldn't keep up in a 52-35 loss at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
This time, the defense — manned by a mostly new staff with several new faces via the transfer portal and led by new defensive coordinator Jay Hill — showed up.
Batty finished with nine tackles, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble. Ethan Slade — who started fall camp as the third-string strong safety on the depth chart — had eight tackles and a pass breakup. Ben Bywater and Isaiah Bagnah each had two stops, and Heckard finished with five tackles, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
A cornerback room that has exceeded all expectations early met a front-seven that had accumulated just one sack in its first two games — and suddenly, everything was clicking.
"It was go-time, just take off and throw the best move that you have," Batty said. "We were just trying to get home. I think that's what it came down to."
But that wasn't the most impressive thing about the defense, who allowed a season-high in points and 424 yards. The Hogs ran for 177 yards, including 86 and two touchdowns from AJ Green, who filled in nicely in Sanders' injury absence.
The most impressive thing was how the defense never got down, said Rex. No one hung their heads or let down, not even when the Razorbacks took a 14-0 advantage less than five minutes into the game on Isaiah Sategna's 88-yard punt return, or when Jefferson helped the Hogs rattle off 17-unanswered points and take a 31-21 lead on Green's second TD run with 11:41 left in the third quarter.
"Even though there were times we were down today, no one was long in the face," Rex said. "They didn't have their heads low; they were just getting back out there, making plays, getting stops, getting holding calls. It was awesome."
Added Sitake: "Second half, down by 10, the guys just keep believing."
After grinding out a 14-0 win over Sam Houston and slugging out a 41-16 win over FCS foe Southern Utah, the Cougars earned a physical win against an occasionally more physical team — except in the biggest plays of the night, when it mattered most, in a hostile road environment.
They're now 3-0 after nonconference play as they move to their first conference game in a dozen years, a Big 12 opener next Saturday at a Kansas team looking to move to 3-0 itself with Jalon Daniels' second-half rally at Nevada. KU has been the stunning surprise of the Big 12 for two years, but BYU learned a thing or two about itself Saturday night, too.
"I knew we had to play a physical game. That's what we built our guys to do," Sitake said. "It wasn't perfect; we gave up a lot of plays and a lot of opportunities … but I'm proud of the way we went down early, and the guys didn't hang their heads. I like that they stopped focusing on the scoreboard and tried to focus on one play at a time."
