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NEW -- Max Hall passed for more than 300 yards in just over three quarters of action as No. 9 BYU crushed Tulane 54-3 in the Louisiana Superdome Saturday afternoon.

“Max [Hall] played extremely well and we were very efficient,” BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “I think he managed the offense very well. The defense is just playing so well due to a lot of [defensive coordinator] Jaime Hill’s emphasis and attention to detail.”

The Cougar defense did indeed excel against Tulane after a superb effort last week in holding high-powered Oklahoma to 13 points. BYU held the Green Wave to not only a single field goal but also 162 yards of total offense. The defense also force turnovers with two interceptions and two recovered fumbles, returning one of the fumbles for a Cougar touchdown.

Offensively, Hall directed an attack that never put the team's punter on the field and amassed 527 yards with a strong balance of 321 yards through the air and 206 on the ground. The senior signal caller completed 26-of-34 passes for 321 yards and two touchdowns. He connected with 11 different receivers before leaving the game early in the fourth quarter. Overall, BYU quarterbacks found 12 different receivers, the most Cougars to catch a pass in a game since a 52-7 victory over Nevada on Sept. 1, 2001.

The Cougar ground attack saw the return of back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher Harvey Unga but his play was limited in his first action since a fall-camp hamstring injury. He carried the ball only three times, gaining 17 yards, while the bulk of the workload was shared effectively between sophomores Bryan Kariya and J.J. Di Luigi. Kariya picked up where he left off last week with 63 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown, while Di Luigi had a breakout game with 71 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns.

Kariya added 23 yards and a touchdown as a receiver and Di Luigi hauled in two passes for 16 yards. McKay Jacobson led all receivers with 79 yards, including his second touchdown catch of the season. Tight end Dennis Pitta and receiver O’Neill Chambers led the team with four catches apiece. Pitta extended his streak of consecutive games with a receptions to 32 games.

The only points of the first quarter came from a 31-yard field goal by BYU’s Mitch Payne, but the Cougars dominated the play on the field with 127 yards of total offense compared to just 24 for the Green Wave. The slow start to the scoring would soon accelerate.

BYU took a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter when Payne converted from 20 yards to cap a 13-play, 86-yard drive. After Tulane struck back with a 56-yard drive for a 29-yard field goal with 6:03 to go in the half, BYU made the most of the final minutes with two touchdowns to push the lead to 20-3 at intermission.

Junior wide receiver Luke Ashworth teamed with Hall for 37 yards on back-to-back plays to set up the first touchdown. After getting behind the defense for a 30-yard reception, Ashworth made a diving grab for seven yards on the next play to take the Cougars to the 7-yard line. The offensive line helped Kariya cover the rest of the ground on consecutive carries and bull into the end zone from the 1-yard line.

Leading 13-3, BYU forced a Tulane turnover on the next possession to set up the final score of the half. Linebacker Jordan Pendleton made an athletic play to reach up and tip a Joe Kemp pass, which then sailed into the arms of BYU cornerback Brian Logan. The junior college transfer returned the ball 21 yards to the Tulane 38-yard line to set up a short-field drive that culminated with a 12-yard touchdown reception by Kariya with just 25 seconds remaining in the half.

The Cougars totaled 236 yards during the first half while holding Tulane to 98 yards, including just 11 yards on 14 carries on the ground. While BYU’s defense continued the tough play it exhibited last week against Oklahoma, the BYU offense was efficiently gaining yardage using a multitude of weapons. Nine different Cougars caught a pass and five players carried the ball in the opening half as 12 receivers and 10 ball carriers contributed overall during the game.

BYU put together back-to-back drives of 80 or more yards in the third quarter to extend the lead to 34-3. Hall directed a 13-play, 89-yard march to pay dirt on BYU’s second possession of the second half with Di Luigi recording his first career touchdown with a three-yard dash to the corner with 6:24 to go in the third. The next time the Cougars got the ball they took only 1:07 to go 80 yards with Hall finding Jacobson over the top for a 38-yard scoring play.

The fourth quarter opened with BYU en route to another score. During the 73-yard drive, Hall and Jacobson connected for another long pass play, this one for 29 yards. Di Luigi had the honors when the team reached the end zone with 13:07 remaining in the game, taking it in from the 1-yard line for his second touchdown of the contest.

A missed point-after made the score 40-3 but the Cougar defense quickly made the Green Wave deficit 47-3 when Pendleton picked up a fumble and returned it 12 yards for a touchdown. On the play, linebacker Terrance Hooks force Tulane receiver Ryan Grant to fumble after a catch with Pendleton alertly picking up the lose ball for the score.

The Cougars forced another fumble on Tulane’s next possession as linebacker Jordan Atkinson jarred the ball from Grant again with Shane Hunter recovering. Backup quarterback Riley Nelson then entered the game at the 10:15 mark and led BYU the 19 yards to the end zone, taking it in himself from the 1-yard line for the game’s final touchdown.

True freshman Craig Bills came up with an interception in some of the highlights of the games final minutes as BYU closed off an impressive 54-3 victory. BYU is now 2-0 on the season while Tulane falls to 0-2.

After consecutive games on the road, BYU will open its home schedule on Saturday against Florida State in LaVell Edwards Stadium. The game kicks at 5 p.m. MT and will be televised nationally on VERSUS.

Box Score (Final)
Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score
-----------------    -- -- -- --   -----
BYU Cougars.........  3 17 14 20  - 54       Record: (2-0)
TLN.................  0  3  0  0  -  3       Record: (0-2,1-0)
Scoring Summary:
1st 06:23 BYU - PAYNE, Mitch 31 yd field goal, 10-45 4:48, BYU 3 - TLN 0
2nd 14:15 BYU - PAYNE, Mitch 20 yd field goal, 13-86 4:45, BYU 6 - TLN 0
    06:03 TLN - THEVENOT, R. 29 yd field goal, 16-56 8:12, BYU 6 - TLN 3
    03:28 BYU - KARIYA, Bryan 1 yd run (PAYNE, Mitch kick), 6-67 2:35, BYU 13 - TLN 3
    00:25 BYU - KARIYA, Bryan 12 yd pass from HALL, Max (PAYNE, Mitch kick), 7-38 2:53, BYU 20 - TLN 3
3rd 06:24 BYU - DI LUIGI, JJ 3 yd run (PAYNE, Mitch kick), 13-89 4:59, BYU 27 - TLN 3
    03:02 BYU - JACOBSON, McKay 38 yd pass from HALL, Max (PAYNE, Mitch kick), 5-80 1:07, BYU 34 - TLN 3
4th 13:07 BYU - DI LUIGI, JJ 1 yd run (PAYNE, Mitch kick failed), 9-73 3:30, BYU 40 - TLN 3
    11:47 BYU - PENDLETON, J. 12 yd fumble recovery (PAYNE, Mitch kick), , BYU 47 - TLN 3
    08:15 BYU - NELSON, Riley 1 yd run (PAYNE, Mitch kick), 5-19 2:00, BYU 54 - TLN 3
                                    BYU      TLN
FIRST DOWNS...................       35        9
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............   45-206    24-37
PASSING YDS (NET).............      321      125
Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  34-26-1  28-20-2
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   79-527   52-162
Fumble Returns-Yards..........     1-12      0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............      0-0      0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     2-45    8-149
Interception Returns-Yards....     2-37      1-1
Punts (Number-Avg)............    0-0.0   5-37.0
Fumbles-Lost..................      0-0      2-2
Penalties-Yards...............     5-47   10-102
Possession Time...............    33:40    26:20
Third-Down Conversions........   6 of 9  4 of 12
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   0 of 1   0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      7-7      1-1
Sacks By: Number-Yards........     3-19      0-0
RUSHING: BYU Cougars-DI LUIGI, JJ 12-71; KARIYA, Bryan 12-63; UNGA,
Harvey 3-17; HALL, Max 3-15; HAGUE, Mike 4-15; LAMB, Tucker 2-9; CHAMBERS, O.
1-8; TONGA, Manase 2-7; HEIMULI, A. 1-4; NELSON, Riley 2-2; TEAM 3-minus 5.
TLN-ANDERSON, A. 12-36; JASON, P. 4-15; WILLIAMS, J. 2-4; WILLIAMS, A. 2-minus
1; KEMP, J. 4-minus 17.
PASSING: BYU Cougars-HALL, Max 24-32-1-309; NELSON, Riley 2-2-0-12.
TLN-KEMP, J. 14-19-1-101; MOORE, K. 4-6-1-10; GRIFFIN, R. 2-2-0-14; WILLIAMS, J.
0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING: BYU Cougars-PITTA, Dennis 4-47; CHAMBERS, O. 4-38; JACOBSON,
McKay 3-79; ASHWORTH, Luke 3-49; GEORGE, Andrew 2-28; KARIYA, Bryan 2-23;
HAFOKA, Spencer 2-19; DI LUIGI, JJ 2-16; TONGA, Manase 1-6; THOMPSON, Brett 1-6;
HEIMULI, A. 1-5; UNGA, Harvey 1-5. TLN-WILLIAMS, J. 5-56; GRANT, R. 5-14;
ANDERSON, A. 3-12; JASON, P. 2-10; ROBOTTOM, C. 2-9; HELM, T. 1-12; PONDER, D.J.
1-7; MITCHELL, A. 1-5.
INTERCEPTIONS: BYU Cougars-LOGAN, Brian 1-21; BILLS, Craig 1-16.
TLN-ECHEBELEM, C. 1-1.
FUMBLES: BYU Cougars-None. TLN-GRANT, R. 2-2.
SACKS (UA-A): BYU Cougars-NELSON, Grant 2-0. TLN-None.
TACKLES (UA-A): BYU Cougars-HOOKS, Terrance 4-0; JOHNSON, Scott 3-2;
DOMAN, Shawn 3-2; BAUMAN, Matt 3-2; NELSON, Grant 3-1; BRADLEY, B. 3-1; TE'O,
Shiloah 3-0; RICH, Andrew 2-2; CLAWSON, Coleby 2-2; SO'OTO, Vic 2-0; OGLETREE,
B. 2-0; LOGAN, Brian 2-0; HUNTER, Shane 1-1; PENDLETON, J. 1-1; AGUIRRE, Lee
1-0; ATKINSON, Jorda 1-0; HOLA, Tevita 1-0; HAGUE, Mike 1-0; LAMB, Tucker 1-0;
PAYNE, Mitch 1-0; MARSHALL, Matt 1-0; BILLS, Craig 1-0; PITTA, Dennis 1-0;
MORGAN, Blake 1-0; JORGENSEN, Jan 0-2; TIALAVEA, R. 0-1; FUGA, Romney 0-1.
TLN-ECHEBELEM, C. 6-3; PODET, A. 5-2; WACHA, A. 4-4; SMITH, S. 4-3; DAVIS, P.
3-3; KIRKSEY, D. 3-3; GARRETT, J. 3-1; LAURICELLA, A. 2-3; KWENTUA, A. 2-2;
BURKS, T. 1-4; HARRIS, C. 2-1; KELLEY, L. 2-1; ECHOLS, T. 2-0; ADAMS, J. 1-2;
SANDERS, B. 1-0; ASUMNU, C. 1-0; CUNNINGHAM, B. 1-0; HOWARD, H. 1-0; SMITH, J.
1-0; RHYMES, K. 1-0; DELERY, S. 1-0; FARLEY, D. 0-2; ALUKO, E. 0-1; WILSON, C.
0-1; BLUM, C. 0-1.

Playing in its second NFL stadium in as many weeks, No. 9 BYU travels to New Orleans to face Tulane in the Superdome on Sept. 12. After an upset win over No. 3 Oklahoma last week, possibly one of the program’s biggest wins in over 15 years, the Cougars are 1-0 heading into this game with the Green Wave.

Tulane enters Saturday’s game 0-1, after suffering a 37-13 loss in its season opener against Tulsa on Friday, Sept. 4.

ON THE TUBE

Saturday’s game will be broadcast live to a national television audience on ESPN2. Terry Gannon will provide play-by-play coverage, with David Norrie giving analysis. The game will mark the second of 12 BYU games available nationally during the 2009 season. Last week’s game against No. 3 Oklahoma was shown on ESPN.

AGAINST CONFERENCE USA

The Cougars have a 38-13-1 overall record against current Conference USA opponents. BYU has faced seven of the 12 teams in the conference, including Marshall, Southern Mississippi, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP. The Cougars have a winning record against Tulsa (6-1) and UTEP (28-7-1).

The last C-USA vs. BYU matchup was on Sept. 15, 2007 when the Cougars were defeated, 55-47, at Tulsa.

The Cougars’ first game against a current C-USA opponent was on Nov. 22, 1946 when they handed UTEP a 14-13 loss.

WHAT THE GAME MEANS

- With a win on Saturday the Cougars would start the season with a 2-0 record for the second straight year. In 2008 BYU opened with wins against Northern Iowa and Washington.

- A win at the Superdome would not only mean a 2-0 start to the season, but also a 2-0 start on back-to-back road games. The last time the Cougars started the season with two road wins was back in 1994 when they claimed victories at Hawaii and Air Force.

THE BYU-TULANE SERIES

The series between the Cougars and Green Wave is tied 1-1 after a Tulane win at the 1998 Liberty Bowl (41-27) and a BYU win on Aug. 25, 2001 (70-35).

LAST TIME: BYU 70, TULANE 35 (AUG. 25, 2001)

In a shootout normally reserved only for the Wild West, BYU defeated Tulane 70-35. The 70 points was the most for the Cougars since the 70-31 victory against Utah in 1989. The record-setting game started off with a bang, before some of the 49,008 fans had the chance to sit down. Tulane jumped on top just over a minute into the game with a 75-yard touchdown run from Mewelde Moore. The teams proceeded to trade touchdowns for the rest of the quarter, ending the first quarter tied at 21.

BYU opened up the second quarter scoring just four seconds into the period with an eight-yard pass to tight end Spencer Nead. The Cougars, armed with a 28-21 lead, never looked back. BYU scored 21 more points in the quarter, taking a 49-28 lead into the half. The 49 points tied a LaVell Edwards Stadium record for the most points in a half, set in the first half of the 1989 Utah game. The offensive output slowed down in the second half, but with 14 more points in the third quarter, BYU took a 63-35 lead into the final quarter.

Brandon Doman left the game after three quarters, finishing 25-31 for 286 yards, with three touchdowns. He also ran for 115 yards and one touchdown, earning him BCA Classic MVP honors. Both Luke Staley and Brian McDonald scored three rushing touchdowns for the Cougars. Spencer Nead, a transfer from Ricks College, caught two touchdown passes in the second quarter. Ten different receivers caught passes for a total of 297 yards, and eight different Cougars combined for 437 yards, short of BYU’s all-time record of 465 yards. The 734 total yards fell only 43 yards short of the BYU record.

TULANE’S LAST OUTING

NEW -- Sophomore quarterback Joe Kemp threw for a career-high 278 yards and a touchdown in his first collegiate start and junior wideout Casey Robottom snared a personal-best six passes, but it was not enough as the Tulane University football team dropped its season opener to Conference USA foe Tulsa, 37-13, Friday evening at the Louisiana Superdome.

The Golden Hurricane stormed out to a 17-0 lead over the first nine minutes of play and withstood the Green Wave offense’s best efforts to cruise to the 24-point victory. With the loss, Tulane (0-1, 0-1 C-USA) dropped its fifth straight game to Tulsa (1-0, 1-0 C-USA) dating back to 2005 when the Hurricane joined C-USA.

COUGAR-GREEN WAVE TIES

- BYU’s senior tight end Dennis Pitta and TU’s redshirt freshman defensive lineman Casey Blum both played high school football at Moorpark HS in Moorpark, Calif.

BYU’S LAST OUTING

ARLINGTON -- Led by a strong defensive effort and quarterback Max Hall’s 329 yards passing, No. 20 BYU defeated No. 3 Oklahoma 14-13 Saturday in the first college game played in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

A sellout crowd of 75,437 filled Cowboys Stadium and enjoyed not only the spectacle of the massive state-of-the-art stadium but also the excitement of two top-20 programs battling to the final minute on college football’s opening weekend. In the end, a strong overall team effort helped BYU come out on top as the Cougars earned their first victory over a top-3 ranked team since defeating No. 1 Miami on Sept. 8, 1990.

Hall completed 26-of-38 passes to total his 329 yards through the air while connecting on touchdowns to tight end Andrew George and wide receiver McKay Jacobson. A local product from Southlake, Texas, Jacobson had more than 100 family and friends watch him catch the final touchdown in the back of the end zone with just 3:03 remaining. The BYU defense stepped up as they had many times during the game to hold off the Sooners and force a failed 54-yard field goal attempt with 1:23 left on the clock.

COMPETING AS A RANKED TEAM

With the win against Oklahoma, the Cougars are 149-44 when nationally ranked in the Top 25. A ranked BYU team has won 18 of its last 21 games, dating back to 2006.

The Cougars’ No. 9 national ranking in the AP Top 25 Rankings is their highest since earning the same ranking on Oct. 12, 2008 after defeating New Mexico. That same week BYU was ranked No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

COIN TOSS

BYU won the toss before the start of the OU game, elected to defer and eventually went on to win the game. Last season the Cougars won the toss seven times, going 5-2 in those games.

PULLING OUT THE CLOSE ONES

After a close 14-13 victory over the Sooners last week, the Cougars have won nine consecutive games decided by seven points or fewer. Last season BYU pulled out nail-biters against Washington, UNLV and Colorado State.

MENDENHALL TEAMS DEFEATING RANKED FOES

Under Bronco Mendenhall, BYU is now 2-6 vs. ranked foes, with its wins a 31-17 victory over No. 15 TCU on Sept. 28, 2006 and a 14-13 win over No. 3 Oklahoma on Sept. 5, 2009.

DON’T LOOK BACK

In the Bronco Mendenhall era, BYU is 33-4 when leading at halftime and 32-1 when taking a lead into the fourth quarter.

ENDING AN 18-YEAR DROUGHT

Before securing a 14-13 win over No. 3 Oklahoma on Sept. 5, the last time BYU beat a nonconference team ranked in the Top 10 was its 28-21 win over No. 1 Miami on Sept. 8, 1990. The win over the Sooners gave the Cougars their first win over a ranked nonconference opponent since it defeated No. 14 Arizona State, 26-6, on Sept. 12, 1998. Since that day, BYU lost 12 consecutive games to ranked nonconference opponents. The last time BYU beat a ranked nonconference opponent on a neutral field was the Cotton Bowl game of Jan. 1, 1997, when BYU beat No. 14 Kansas State, 19-15.

DOUBLE THREAT

Junior running back Harvey Unga needs only 37 more receiving yards to become one of only nine Cougars to record over 1,000 career yards through the air and on the ground. Unga currently has 964 yards receiving and 2,368 yards rushing.

Other Cougars who accomplished this feat are Curtis Brown, Jamal Willis, Lakei Heimuli, Luke Staley, Hema Heimuli, Todd Christensen, Scott Phillips and Fred Whittingham.

TALE OF THE TAPE

BYU’s starting five offensive linemen weigh in at an average 317.4 pounds and average 6-feet-4. The front five will be going up against a Tulane defensive front that measures an average 6-feet-3, 265 pounds. Defensively, the Cougars’ front three average 6-feet-3, 261.7 pounds, while the Tulane offensive line tips the scales at an average 6-feet-5, 297 pounds per man.

CONSECUTIVE CATCHES

All-American tight end Dennis Pitta caught his first pass of the Oklahoma game with 3:51 remaining in the first half. He has now caught a pass in 31 consecutive games dating back to Oct. 23, 2004 (at Air Force), prior to his mission. Pitta finished with a game-high 90 yards and seven catches.

KARIYA CONTRIBUTES

In only his second career start, sophomore running back Bryan Kariya totaled 76 yards receiving on four catches and 42 yards rushing to lead the team. His receptions included a 49-yarder to set up the Cougars’ first score of the game.

CONSECUTIVE STARTS

The Oklahoma game marked senior defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen’s 40th straight career start. During that streak, Jorgensen has started every game of his collegiate career and set a new MWC all-time career sack record at 22.5. His first career start came against Arizona on Sept. 2, 2006.

HOLDING THE SOONERS

When facing an offense that averaged 51.1 points per game in 2008, the Cougar defense successfully held Oklahoma to 13 points. In the first half alone, BYU forced three-and-outs on four of OU’s six possessions.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES

Senior linebacker Shawn Doman recorded BYU’s first fumble recovery of the 2009 season after the Sooners lost possession on BYU’s 16-yard line with 2:15 remaining in the first quarter. Doman recovered two fumbles in 2008 against Colorado State and San Diego State.

Senior defensive lineman Brett Denney recovered a fumble of his own in the second quarter, to start what would become BYU’s first scoring drive of the game.

LONGEST MARCH

BYU’s game-winning drive against Oklahoma in the fourth quarter consisted of 16 plays for 78 yards and took eight-minutes and 38-seconds off the clock. That drive marked the longest (in time) by the Cougar offense since Oct. 13, 2007. Against UNLV, freshman Harvey Unga found the endzone on a 5-yard run to cap a drive that lasted 8:49.

HE WHO SCORES FIRST...

Oklahoma was the first to score last week on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Sam Bradford to Ryan Broyles. In 2008 BYU was the first team to score in eight of 13 games, marking 31 times in the last 39 games. The Cougars are 29-2 in those 31 games.

HELD SCORELSS IN THE FIRST QUARTER

The Sooners held BYU scoreless in the first quarter for the Cougars’ second consecutive game. Arizona also held BYU scoreless in the first 15 minutes of the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 20, 2008.

PAPER OR PLASTIC?

Senior linebacker Terrance Hook’s sack against Oklahoma’s Landry Jones marked the first of the season for BYU.Junior defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen’s sack against CSU’s Billy Farris in 2008 gave him 21.5 career sacks, breaking the previous MWC record of 20.5 he shared with New Mexico’s Michael Tuohy, TCU’s Chase Ortiz and former Cougar Brady Poppinga. Jorgensen added a second sack and forced a fumble with just 22 seconds remaining to help secure the win and bring his career sack total to 22.5. He recorded four sacks his freshman season in 2006, 13.5 his sophomore season and five to date in 2008.