It’s tight end Carsen Ryan, who emerged as a favorite target for the true freshman quarterback in practice sessions, and on Saturday the two connected four times for 63 yards, highlighted by a 20-yard touchdown pass midway through the third quarter to help put the game on ice.

“He’s quote-unquote the security blanket,” Bachmeier said of Ryan. “He’s a bigger body and he has a great catch radius, and our relationship is great. He’s a great dude, so he’s very deserving of his production.”

Ryan, who transferred to BYU from Utah during the offseason, has compiled 146 yards receiving, second on the entire team, along with a team-leading two touchdown receptions. In so doing, he’s largely quieted many fans complaining about lack of tight end targets while looking to perhaps even increase his target total moving forward for the rest of the season.

Nationally ranked

Associated Press reporters opted to vote BYU into the AP Top 25 rankings, which were released on Sunday morning. The Cougars had received votes in every poll released since just prior to the start of the season, and are currently ranked at No. 25, just one spot behind Big 12 Conference rival TCU, which defeated SMU 35-24 on Saturday.

Other Big 12 rankings include Texas Tech moving up to the No. 12 spot following its 34-10 win over then No. 16-ranked Utah and Iowa State holding the No. 14 spot. The Cougars are scheduled to play all of the other three ranked Big 12 opponents this season in consecutive weeks beginning with a matchup versus the Cyclones on October 25 and concluding with a home game versus TCU on November 15.

Fixing penalties

One aspect that plagued offensive production throughout too much of the game were penalties, with the Cougars committing 10 throughout the game for a total 0f 101 yards. False starts and holding calls were the most prevalent calls going against BYU with the offensive line the culprit of those calls on most occasions.

“Some of the holds were just them hanging on until the last second, and you don’t need to do that,” said BYU Coach Kalani Sitake. “They’ll get better at that. There’s really good film for us to improve on.”

Sitake also frowned on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty flagged against Cougar cornerback Therrian Alexander late in the game and was found chiding the sophomore on the sidelines shortly thereafter.

“I didn’t like the taunting penalty,” Sitake said. “We’re so much better than that and I need to do a better job of getting these guys more disciplined.”

Some like it slow

A big emphasis for the Cougar defense heading into the game was to clamp down on the Pirate’s up-tempo offense, and as the result would indicate, mission accomplished. East Carolina put just 13 points on the board while running fewer plays than it did during the three prior games of the season, and by more than 10-play margin.

Even when the Pirates were operating at a high tempo, defensive players were ready for it due to simulating all of it and then some during practice sessions.

“I think that was a huge thing and all week Coach Hill emphasized that,” said BYU linebacker Jack Kelly. “We actually made it harder than it was tonight with the tempo in the different drills we did throughout the week. So that was a big help for us.”

Home away from home

As is often the case, BYU fans traveled well on Saturday, helping provide a game atmosphere that wasn’t as hostile as most teams encounter when on the road. The support was noticed by players in earnest and certainly by Bachmeier who was playing in his first road game of his collegiate career.

“I think these are the best fans in the country,” Bachmeier said. “I mean, we’re on the east coast and it feels like a home game.”

All three phases

Most of the talk following Saturday’s win will be about the performances of both the offensive and defensive units, but it was again the Cougar special teams that proved at least as consistent and as impactful as any of the three position groups.

Sure, Will Ferrin contributed two field goals, but it was perhaps punter Sam Vander Haar who proved the most impactful, placing two of his four punts well within the 10-yardline, with one of them easing the path for Evan Johnson’s pick-6. Of course Vander Haar had help, with gunner Marcus McKenzie proving adept at racing up the field to down punts as they landed.

“We can count on our punter to just flip the field for us and make it hard for an offense to go 90-95 yards against our defense,” Sitake said. “Most teams can’t do that, so I think we played some really good complementary football in all three phases.”