No. 14 BYU forces 4 turnovers and beats Arizona 41-19 for its best start to a season since 2020

PROVO, Utah (AP) — BYU is thinking big after claiming its best start since 2020.

Jake Retzlaff passed for 218 yards and two touchdowns and the 14th-ranked Cougars forced four turnovers to beat Arizona 41-19 on Saturday.

Darius Lassiter had 86 yards on five catches and Parker Kingston caught a touchdown pass and later threw one on a trick play for BYU (6-0, 3-0 Big 12).

The Cougars are bowl eligible after missing the postseason a year ago, but they have their sights set on even bigger things.

“It’s cool, but a bowl game is not what we want,” Kingston said. “We want to go to the playoff and we want to go to the national championship. That’s what we’re looking forward to, and not really settling on a bowl game this year.”

Noah Fifita threw for 275 yards and a touchdown to lead Arizona, but he tossed three interceptions and lost a fumble.

“I got to fix a lot of things,” Fifita said. “I got to get better individually. So, (I’m) just not even close to where I want to be individually, and not close to where we need to be offensively.

Tetairoa McMillan had 78 yards on five catches for the Wildcats. He moved into fourth place on the school’s career receiving yards list.

Arizona (3-3, 1-2 Big 12) has lost four straight games in the series with BYU.

BYU forced turnovers on two of its first three defensive plays of the second half, echoing back to how the Cougars seized momentum against Kansas State earlier in the season.

BYU’s Jakob Robinson batted the ball to himself and came down with an interception, setting up a 9-yard touchdown catch by Chase Roberts. Then Harrison Taggart recovered a fumble when Isaiah Glasker stripped Fifita on a sack. That led to a 33-yard field goal from Will Ferrin and extended BYU’s lead to 24-7 less than two minutes into the third.

“Coming in here, we knew that the turnover thing was going to be a big deal and that was something that we didn’t handle great,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said.

LJ Martin scored on a 1-yard run and Glasker scored on a 21-yard interception return in the fourth quarter to seal it for the Cougars.

For the second consecutive week, Arizona got a fourth down stop on its opponent’s opening drive. After Retzlaff threw away a fourth down pass at the Arizona 5, the Wildcats drove 95 yards to get on the board. McMillan’s wide-open 39-yard catch in the flat set up a 14-yard scoring grab by Montana Lemonious-Craig that made it 7-0.

Another fourth down gamble paid off for BYU on its second drive. LJ Martin took a pitch and raced 15 yards on fourth down to get the Cougars in the red zone. Kingston scored on a 20-yard catch one play later to even the score at 7-7.

BYU took a 14-7 lead midway through the second quarter when Kingston threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to LJ Martin. Tanner Wall set the scoring drive in motion when he intercepted a pass from Fifita at the BYU 1.

The Cougars covered 99 yards in only seven plays.

“I just liked the play selection,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “I liked the momentum we were getting and I just liked the toughness from the team.”

The Takeaway

Arizona: After a strong opening drive, the Wildcats slowly unraveled on offense. Arizona struggled to finish drives and coughed up turnovers deep in its own territory, letting a chance at another road upset over an AP Top 25 opponent slip away.

BYU: An opportunistic defense switched momentum in the Cougars favor after the first quarter. BYU scored 24 points on four takeaways to break open a close game. The Cougars have intercepted 10 passes through six games and had at least three takeaways in a game for the third time this season.

Center debut

BYU lost starting center Connor Pay after he suffered a fractured foot against Baylor. Bruce Mitchell slid over from guard and made his first career start at center for the Cougars on Saturday. The offense didn’t skip a beat with Mitchell, a redshirt sophomore, snapping the ball.

Retzlaff was not sacked. The Cougars also generated 147 rushing yards while averaging a season-best 5.4 yards on the ground. Teammates and coaches credited Mitchell with playing like a veteran in the new role.

“You’d think a guy like that coming in for his first start at center in his career would be nervous or trying to be too focused,” Retzlaff said. “That guy was making jokes more than I was tonight on the sideline, which is saying something. It just goes to show that guy’s so comfortable and so confident in himself.”

Touchdown machine

Kingston has completed 3 of 4 passing attempts for 96 yards and three touchdowns in his career. The redshirt sophomore is just the third player in Big 12 history to have multiple career games with a passing and receiving touchdown.

Poll implications

BYU could move up in the AP Top 25 poll after another dominant home win.

Up next

Arizona: Hosts Colorado on Saturday.

BYU: Hosts Oklahoma State on Friday.

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John Coon, The Associated Press