Senior LB Sione Takitaki ends Cougar career with monster performance
BOISE, IDAHO >> He’s probably BYU’s best chance to have a player taken in the NFL Draft in April, and on Friday at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Sione Takitaki proved exactly why.
The senior linebacker roamed sideline to sideline and everywhere in between, finishing with a career-high 19 tackles — 10 solo, nine assists — and a sack in BYU’s 49-18 victory against Western Michigan.
The total was one off a bowl record.
“I just knew this was my last go around with these guys and these coaches,” Takitaki said. “They have been so good to me my whole career here. I just wanted to kind of go out there and leave it all out there on the field. Every play in my head, I’m like, ‘I’m not going to get these plays back with these guys,’ so I was just getting them all.”
Takitaki was always a premier talent, but had to sit out the 2016 season due to off-the-field issues. He credited getting married and his wife, Alyssa, for helping him focus on taking care of business on the field.
This season, Takitaki finished with 118 tackles, the 68th time a BYU player has topped triple digit tackles and the most since Uani Unga put up 143 in 2013.
The Cougars trailed 10-7 at halftime, but scored on five straight possessions in the second half. Much of that was keyed by the defense getting stops and keeping Western Michigan from gaining any momentum. The Broncos managed just 41 yards of offense in the third quarter.
“We went to the locker room and Coach emphasized, ‘ Everyone do their job and we’ll be fine,’ and we felt that, too,” Takitaki said. “That’s kind of what we cleaned up and you know, going into the third quarter, you could see it out there and you know everyone is doing their job and making plays.”
The 19 tackles topped Takitaki’s 14-tackle effort this season against UMass and put a nice exclamation point on a fine career at BYU.
“You look at the mentality of what it means to be a football player on the defensive side of the ball and very few, very, very few people do it like Sione Takitaki and that’s a guarantee,” senior receiver Dylan Collie said.
The Collie tradition
Collie came into the game with 18 catches for 153 yards and a touchdown – far short of what he expected of himself after transferring from Hawaii for his senior season. On Friday, Collie caught six passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns in his final BYU game.
“I think everything that happened from the get-go and the entire season, it was filled with a lot of ups and downs for the team and me personally,” Collie said. “To be able to go after that trial and go after those tribulations that we kind of went through all season long, to be able to come out and just finish out on a high note like this with guys that I genuinely do care about, and lucky to call teammates and friends.”
Good one
At one point in the sec- ond half, the press box announcer said, “Takitaki with his 15th tackle-tackle.” Breaking a legacy mark The third quarter for BYU was one for the record books as the Cougars scored more points in that quarter than in any other quarter in its lengthy bowl history with 28.
The previous record was the fourth quarter of the 1980 Holiday Bowl, dubbed the “Miracle Bowl,” when BYU scored 27 points to stun SMU, 46- 45. The final play, the Hail Mary pass from Jim McMahon to Clay Brown, is arguably the most iconic play in Cougar football history. Getting to the zone BYU junior defensive back Dayan Ghanwoloku scored his first offensive touchdown of his career to cap the third quarter for the Cougars.