BYU football beat writer Jared Lloyd gives his grades for the Cougar position units and coaches for Friday’s game against Utah State at Maverik Stadium in Logan:

Quarterback

Baylor Romney had a solid showing, going 15-of-19 for 187 yards and a touchdown in the first half before he was injured. He did have the ball get knocked loose on a third-and-goal that nearly turned into a bad turnover. Jacob Conover had a slow start but started hitting some short passes to keep the defense honest.

Grade: A

Running back

Tyler Allgeier was incredible, blasting for 218 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns. His combination of speed, power, decisiveness and balance were just too much for Utah State. It was a career day when the Cougars needed him to come up big.

Grade: A+

Wide receivers/tight ends

Puka Nacua and Gunner Romney came up with nice catches on deep throws while Isaac Rex scored on a screen pass. The bigger value of this group was their downfield blocking as Romney, Nacua, Rex, Dallin Holker, Neil Pau’u and others opened up some key holes.

Grade: A

Offensive line

This group struggled at times in pass protection against the quick Utah State linebackers, which resulted in Baylor Romney and Jacob Conover taking some hits. When BYU ran downhill, particularly with Tyler Allgeier, the linemen were able to use their strength and physicality to create space.

Grade: A-

Defensive line

The Cougar defensive line was excellent at limiting the Utah State run game, holding the Aggies to just 22 yards on the ground. BYU often dropped a lot of defenders but late in the game the Cougar linemen were still able to get some pressure, which helped BYU put the game away.

Grade: A-

Linebackers

Ben Bywater had a big fourth-down stop and a number of linebackers got tackles for a loss. BYU committed resources to try and keep Aggie quarterback Logan Bonner from scrambling but they still struggled to make plays on third downs.

Grade: B

Secondary

The Cougars got interceptions from Malik Moore and Jakob Robinson, while Kaleb Hayes and D’Angelo Mandell had some impressive pass breakups. BYU still can’t have been pleased by how open opposing receivers got on third-and-long situations when it had a lot of defensive backs on the field.

Grade: B

Special teams

Ryan Rehkow was phenomenal at helping BYU win the field position battle, particularly when Jacob Conover was settling in early in the second half. Hobb Nyberg had a nice punt return and a nice kickoff return, while Jake Oldroyd made a couple of field goals but missed one as well. Overall, this was another solid performance by this unit.

Grade: A+

Coaching

The Cougar coaches again had to make some key in-game adjustments as both the offense and defense had to change some things. In the end, though, BYU had the schemes and the preparation that was sufficient to earn the largest win of the season for the Cougars.

Grade: A-

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