BYU came into the lovely and cold Albuquerque and stomped UTEP, 52-24 in the New Mexico Bowl. This BYU team looked liked the vintage BYU teams of the past few years by putting up the points. They started off fast and the young Jake Heaps is starting to look like the recruiting hype is real, and he is making me look wrong which is fine by me.
BYU was able start fast at 14-0 and never looked back and Heaps set a New Mexico Bowl record with four touchdowns and then threw for 264 yards and only had one pick. Then fellow freshman, running back Joshua Quezada had his best game as a Cougar with 101 yards and one touchdown. Another freshman that got in on the action was freshman receiver Cody Hoffman who caught three touchdown passes and ended up with 137 yards
This was BYU's best game of the season and against a team that was not out right terrible, and the young players have finally showed their worth. The 2010 recruiting class was possibly the best ever in BYU history and finally hit their stride. This also does include wide receiver Ross Apo who was originally committed to Texas before switching to BYU. Apo who suffered an open dislocation to his left index finger in early September but never suited back up. He was the best receiver in this class and next year is looking promising for BYU.
Bronco Mendenhall finally mentioned that he mismanaged the quarterback situation early on when the decision was to play two quarterbacks. Looking back is easy and who knows if BYU would have one a few more games if Heaps was at the helm the whole season.
The only downside to BYU's game was their secondary that was torched by UTEP's Trevor Vittatoe who threw for 245 yards and three scores, but BYU's defense was able to pick him off three times. The Miners do have one of the best kept wide receiver secrets in the nation in Kris Adams who scored all three of those touchdowns.
Overall, it was just a beat down by BYU over UTEP.
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