TWO MEMORABLE VICTORIES AT BYU
Faulk, Tandberg were stars, but that’s all in 18 contests in Provo
San Diego State victories against BYU in Provo, Utah, are few and far between.
In fact, SDSU has beaten the Cougars just twice in 18 games on their home field.
It took the legs of a future Hall of Fame running back and reliable kicker to get those two victories:
SDSU 45, BYU 38
Sept. 10, 1992
SDSU sophomore running back Marshall Faulk quieted a record crowd of 65,261 at Cougar Stadium by running for 299 yards — 211 in the second half — and three touchdowns on runs of 1, 10 and 65 yards.
Faulk carried 35 times for an 8.5-yard average in a rare Thursday night game. SDSU AD Fred Miller had accepted the date in exchange for a whopping $125,000 in TV money.
“This was our most important win,” Miller said afterwards. “To win on the road. Here.”
SDSU was 0-8 in Provo, with seven of the losses coming after joining the Western Athletic Conference in 1978.
SDSU had early advantages of 17-7 and 24-14, but the No. 25-ranked Cougars were within a touchdown at halftime with a 24-17 score.
There was no stopping Faulk, however. He had help from SDSU wide receiver Darnay Scott, who caught seven passes from quarterback David Lowery for 105 yards and two touchdowns.
SDSU came into the game still smarting from the previous year’s meeting in San Diego, where BYU quarterback Ty Detmer rallied the Cougars from a 28point deficit for a 52-52 tie. Faulk scored four TDs in that one.
The Cougars appeared poised to do something similar in the final minutes of this one.
BYU quarterback John Walsh threw his fifth touchdown pass of the game with 3:22 remaining to make it 4538 and he was about to get the ball back moments later when the Cougars forced an SDSU punt.
But BYU returner Brad Clark bobbled the ball after Scott Oatsvall’s punt. SDSU’s Darrell Lewis hit Clark before he could secure the ball, and SDSU’s Steve Matuszewicz recovered with 1:36 remaining.
Three plays later, SDSU had its first victory in Provo.
“We got the monkey off our back,” Faulk said.
BYU safety Dewey Gray shook his head in the locker room after the game, considering what he had faced in Faulk.
“Everything they’re saying about him is true,” Gray told the Deseret News. “How would I suggest defending him? I would say lock him up in a room and don’t let him play.”
In Faulk’s three years at SDSU, the Aztecs were 1-1-1 against BYU (the 52-52 tie in ’91 and a 45-44 loss in ’93 were in San Diego). Faulk rushed for 667 yards and nine touchdowns in the games.
SDSU 16, BYU 15
Oct 21, 2000
SDSU kicker Nate Tandberg ’s 36-yard field goal with five seconds remaining provided the difference for the Aztecs, stunning the 61,194 gathered at Cougar Stadium.
“Tandberg ’s kick is the kind of thing that will live with him for a long time,” SDSU head coach Ted Tollner said. “When football is over for him, this will mean so much more to him.”
Seems like it meant a lot to Tandberg — and the Aztecs — at the time.
The kicker ran up the field to celebrate what he did, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty along the way.
No matter.
Even the resourceful Cougars couldn’t pull out this one.
Moments earlier, it appeared BYU was going to get a 15-13 victory after Cougars kicker Owen Pochman hit a career-long 50-yard field goal with 50 seconds to play.
It was Pochman’s third field goal of the game and seemingly atoned for three missed field goals in the second half.
SDSU responded quickly with a six-play, 62-yard drive that positioned Tandberg for his game-winning kick.
“I really didn’t know what San Diego State-BYU meant before I got here,” SDSU defensive lineman Jerome Haywood said. “But now that I’ve been here three? years and played against those guys. ... We shut 60,000 people up.”
SDSU players were still standing on the field an hour after the game, hugging, smiling, crying, soaking it all in and taking pictures to remember the moment.
There have been five games played in Provo between the teams in the two decades since then. SDSU has yet to enjoy a similar moment.