Junior quarterback Clayton Tune drops back to pass in UH’s season opener against Tulane. | Courtesy of UH Athletics
In the battle of the Cougars, which began Friday night and lasted into the first hour of Saturday morning, UH unraveled in the second half after holding a double-digit lead and fell to BYU 43-26 at TDECU Stadium.
BYU got out to a quick start, scoring 14 points on 178 yards offensively in the first quarter to jump out to an early 14-3 lead.
BYU threatened to add to their lead as they drove the ball down Houston’s 31-yard line 30 seconds into the second quarter. On first and 10 from UH’s 31, senior defensive lineman Payton Turner sacked BYU quarterback Zach Wilson for a 9-yard loss which helped Houston’s defense get off the field and force BYU to punt few plays later.
Turner’s sack fueled a short-lived comeback.
The Houston offense responded to their defense’s big stand with an eight-play, 91-yard drive that was capped off when junior quarterback Clayton Tune connected with junior tight end Christian Trahan 20-yard touchdown.
The Houston offense picked up right where they left off to begin the second half. After the UH defense forced a BYU punt to open up the third quarter, the Houston offense started on their own 2-yard line.
Houston’s defense held their ground the rest of the half and the offense tacked on 10 points, including a 49-yard field goal by senior kicker Dalton Witherspoon as time expired in the first half, to take a 20-14 lead into the locker room.
Sixteen plays and nearly seven minutes later, Tune avoided a sack and eluded multiple tacklers to rush for a 5-yard UH touchdown.
Houston attempted a 2-point conversion to try to make increase their lead to 14 but failed.
The final 18 minutes of the game were all BYU as the Cougars scored 29 unanswered points, highlighted by a 18 yard touchdown pass with just over three minutes remaining to put the nail in the coffin and capped off a 43-26 victory.
With this loss, Houston falls to 1-1 on the season.
Tune led Houston’s offense with 310 passing yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 25 yards and a touchdown.
Junior linebacker Donavan Mutin led the UH defense with 10 tackles followed by Turner’s six tackles, one of which was a sack.
