BYU football beat writer Jared Lloyd gives his grades for the Cougar position units and coaches for Saturday’s game against Virginia at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo:

Quarterback

Jaren Hall ended up 22-of-37 for a career-high 349 yards with three touchdowns, as well as 42 yards rushing and a score on six carries. He also avoided turnovers (although that was aided by some good luck on a couple of tipped passes) and kept BYU’s offense humming for most of the game.

Grade: A+

Running back

Everyone is running out of superlatives to describe Tyler Allgeier, who put together another colossal performance. His 29 carries for 266 yards with five touchdowns showcased a jaw-dropping combination of speed, power and toughness. He continues to amaze and impress, week in and week out.

Grade: A+

Wide receivers/tight ends

The Nacua brothers put up nearly identical stat lines as Samson Nacua had three catches for 107 yards and a TD while Puka Nacua had eight catches for 107 yards and a score. The duo and Neil Pau’u (who had a TD catch) also made some nice runs on jet sweep plays.

Grade: A

Offensive line

This group earned praise from Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall for how physical they were in the run game and their success in giving Jaren Hall time to throw. There were a couple of miscues but any time a team has 385 yards on the ground, the line was a huge contributor.

Grade: A+

Defensive line

BYU once again put a lot on the shoulders of three or four guys on the line and the Cougar players answered, particularly when they needed stops late in the game. This was by no means a dominating performance but the way this unit rallied after halftime was big.

Grade: C+

Linebackers

Payton Wilgar (11 tackles) and Ben Bywater (nine tackles) had the most stops while Wilgar and Drew Jensen made interceptions. Uriah Leiataua was playing a linebacker role when he came up with the game-changing forced fumble. Still, no can ignore the disaster of a second quarter when BYU couldn’t tackle anyone.

Grade: C-

Secondary

This was by far the biggest test of the year for this unit and for a long time they weren’t up to the task. It’s their job to limit big plays and Virginia had four touchdowns on plays of 30 yards or more. BYU kept fighting and eventually started slowing the Cavaliers but this was a night this group won’t want to remember.

Grade: D

Special teams

Ryan Rehkow was fine in his punting duties, while the kickoff and extra point showings were steady. The unit had its grade dropped because of another missed field goal by Jake Oldroyd and the targeting by Chris Jackson on a punt return.

Grade: B

Coaching

The BYU offensive coaches put their team in position to be successful throughout the game, while the defense started strong but had to make some big adjustments. There were definitely not as successful during the second quarter and that dragged down the grade but at the end of the day they did enough.

Grade: B

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