Bronco Mendenhall: BYU's 2015 Season

Many will remember BYU from 2013 and 2014 when the Cavaliers took on the Cougars. Mendenhall came to Charlottesville in 2013 and lost to the Hoos in the driving rain, 16-19. UVa returned the trip in 2014 and BYU returned the favor by beating the Hoos 41-33. But how did BYU's 2015 season go since many of us probably did not pay attention to the Cougars.

BYU entered the season with some hype around them. As an independent, some thought they might be able to challenge for a NY6 bowl, if not for the playoffs. Unfortunately, most of those expectations went out the window in the Cougars' first game against Nebraska when their star QB Taysom Hill went down with a broken foot and missed the rest of the season. Luckily for BYU, Freshman (coming off his mission) Tanner Mangum came in and threw a miraculous hail mary to give BYU the win, 33-28.

The good news continued the next weekend when the Cougars knocked off then #20 Boise State 35-24, which allowed BYU to enter the Top 25 for the first time in the season.

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there with the Cougars dropping their next two. They lost to UCLA (which UVA fans can understand) by one point, 23-24. It got worse the next week when they traveled to Ann Arbor and got blown out by Coach Harbaugh and Michigan, 0-31.

After that, BYU took on some teams UVa could have probably beaten. UCONN, East Carolina, Cincinnati, Wagner, and San Jose St. all fell to the Cougars which ran their record to 7-2.

The Cougars would drop their next game to Missouri 16-20, but that would be the last game they would lose finishing out the season with wins over Fresno St and Utah State.

Ultimately, BYU went 9-3 on the season. A year which many UVa fans would surely take. BYU's final game will come in their bowl, which they already accepted an invitation to. BYU will take on an opponent not yet determined on December 19 in the Las Vegas Bowl.