Las Vegas • They kneeled around their teammates and waited.
Some prayed. All worried.
BYU defender Keenan Ellis’ head was jerked back as he covered a pass attempt against Arizona in the first quarter of the season opener on Saturday night. When he was seriously injured on the field, his coaches, teammates and BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe surrounded him on the field.
It took nearly a dozen medical personnel, nearly 20 minutes, to tidy Ellis, secure him on a stretcher, and cart him off the field at Allegiant Stadium.
It took this moment to get the cougars up and running.
“I think it really brought everyone together,” said BYU’s Keenan Pili, who reached a career high with a total of 17 tackles. “Of course you never want to see a player like that – a teammate we love, who we love, to see him in such a way that it kind of hurts. But then we kind of teamed up. We took each other on the shoulders and said, ‘Let’s do this for him. Let’s do it for our brothers. ‘”
It wasn’t pretty – actually, it was downright ugly at times – but BYU survived the Arizona Wildcats, 24-16, on Saturday, preventing a late game dynamic shift and rally out of Arizona to take its first win of the season.
“I was really proud of our team’s struggle to react and find a way to win,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake. “That was a big deal. Of course, there are a lot of ways to improve – I’m just glad we got the win. Just get that out of the way and find a way to improve from week 1 to week 2. “
BYU took off slowly and looked shaky for the first quarter and most of the second quarter. It also didn’t help that several Cougars suffered injuries early in the game.
Then Ellis went down with an injury.
The moment it happened, it was clear that it was bad. Ellis was behind Michael Willie, who failed to catch Gunner Cruz’s pass. However, when Ellis collided with Willie’s lower back, the head of the defensive back snapped back visibly.
Ellis was taken to the University Medical Center trauma center in Las Vegas. BYU later reported that the CT scan of the defensive back was normal, but that he would “spend the night in the hospital for observation”.
The fans cheer as Keenan Ellis is carted off the field. You could see him writhing in pain even though he was strapped down pretty securely pic.twitter.com/2eTmGbRZIT
– Norma Gonzalez (@sltribbyu) September 5, 2021
Shortly after Ellis’ injury, wide receiver Gunner Romney went down with a leg injury. Romney was hit from the back when Arizona defenders prevented Tyler Allgeier from running back and his leg was trapped under him. Romney was later seen on the sidelines with a pair of crutches and appeared to be ready for the night.
BYU was finally able to combine a few moves into a successful drive and made its first touchdown of the night – in a 15-yard rushing game by Allgeier – with just under four minutes to go in the first half.
The momentum stayed on the Cougars’ side as quarterback Jaren Hall linked up with wide receiver Neil Pau’u for a 67-yard touchdown to give BYU a 14-0 lead.
The Cougars went into halftime with 14: 3.
Hall also impressed at the start of his third career. The BYU quarterback found Pau’u for his second touchdown connection of the game. The score was formed by a 39-meter keeper from Hall.
As soon as BYU rose 21-3, something started to click for Arizona. Within a minute and a half, the Wildcats made the perfect punt to get BYU to its 1-yard line, scored a safety in the following game, and then proceeded to quickly score their first touchdown of the night.
Arizona made it a game with a score, 21-13.
The teams each ended with a field goal, and BYU picked Arizona up to seal the victory late. Since Sitake took over the Cougar program, BYU has been 5-1 at the season opener and 3-0 against Arizona.
While the Cougars came out with a win, there is still room for improvement.
Arizona pitched a total of 426 yards – 58 more than BYU – most of which came by air (345).
At Hall’s first start since the 2019 season, the Redshirt runner-up threw for 198 yards and two scores in 18 of 28 passing games without having to forego an interception and only being dismissed once. The native Spanish fork also added 36 yards on five carries.
Hall’s predecessor, Zach Wilson, took time off from preseason with the New York Jets to travel to Las Vegas and support his Cougars from the sidelines. The number 2 overall pick was seen on the sidelines, the jumbotron, and among fans around town.
“Dude is a great player,” Wilson said of Hall in an interview on ESPN. “He’ll get better every week. He’s got all the tools so he’s going to do his thing. I’m curious where it will lead him. “
Pau’u had eight grabs for 126 yards and two scores, and Allgeier stormed for 94 yards and one score for 17 carries.
“The team, I just think we weren’t as tight as everyone says we should be,” said Allgeier. “I think that’s probably the big thing, we want to be crisper and really just learn from the mistakes we’ve made.”
