An Unsteady Alliance

LAS VEGAS —  Ethan Pochman’s foot and Joe Tiller’s decision helped Brigham Young make its bid for a major bowl berth. Now the sixth-ranked Cougars can only wait and see what comes.

Pochman kicked a field goal to tie the Western Athletic Conference championship game as time expired in regulation, and then converted a 32-yard attempt in overtime Saturday as BYU escaped with a 28-25 victory over Wyoming to keep its hopes for a possible Fiesta or Sugar Bowl invitation alive.

“We should be going somewhere,” BYU Coach LaVell Edwards said. “Certainly we deserve to be one of those teams.”

With representatives from all three alliance bowls on hand, BYU (13-1) sputtered early and then had to come from behind in a game that wasn’t as pretty as its typical WAC ending suggested.

Whether it was enough to get BYU an invitation to one of the big bowls won’t be known until Sunday, but conference commissioner Karl Benson wasted no time in arguing the case for the Cougars.

“It’s not based on who deserves it, the system calls for who’s attractive [to the television networks],” Benson said. “I’m confident with what we displayed today, the WAC champion meets all their criteria: a premier player, a legendary coach, tradition and fan support. BYU delivers all those.”

BYU was one tick of the clock--no, ticks, according to Tiller--from not even being in the running for a major bowl, calling time out just before the game clock expired after Mark Atuaia bobbled a pass and fell at the three-yard-line.

“The game was over,” Tiller said, arguing that timeout wasn’t called in time. “It’s really a shame.”

Pochman then stepped up and kicked a 20-yard field goal to send the game into overtime, where he won it on BYU’s first possession.

It was an improbable situation for the first-year kicker, a former soccer player who was a walk-on this season.

“I was less nervous than I’ve been all season,” Pochman said. “It’s every kicker’s dream to win a game with a field goal.”

If not for a decision by Tiller, likely coaching his last game at Wyoming, to take a voluntary safety with Wyoming leading 25-20 late in the game and punting out of its own end zone, the Cougars would have had to score a touchdown in regulation to win.

But Tiller defended his call, saying he thought it would give punter Aaron Langley a chance to get the ball beyond midfield, where he thought Wyoming could stop BYU.

“It’s one of those strange calls but I really think it was a no-brainer,” Tiller said. “It was a good strategic decision.”

Pochman kicked four field goals as BYU took a 13-0 halftime lead and then had to come back after a miserable third quarter to win the first WAC title game since the league was expanded to 16 teams.

“We battled back and we battled back again,” BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian said. “We could have folded our tent when we lost our momentum but we didn’t.”

The game was probably the last at Wyoming for Tiller, whose team will likely not go to a bowl game despite finishing 10-2, with its two losses by a total of seven points. Tiller has already been named coach at Purdue.

“The thought we might not go to a bowl game blows my mind,” Wyoming linebacker Jim Talich said. “I don’t know about the other guys but I really expected to go to a bowl.”

Wyoming came back to take a 25-20 lead on two fourth-quarter touchdown catches by David Saraff.

But, after stopping BYU on the two yard-line with 2:57 left in the game, Wyoming was unable to move the ball and punter Aron Langley was in position to kick from the end zone.

Instead of punting, however, Langley took an intentional safety to pull BYU to within a field goal at 25-22. After a free kick, BYU took the ball on its own 40 and drove to the three as the clock ticked down to one second left.

BYU won the overtime toss and elected to have Wyoming take the ball first. The Cowboys lost five yards in the series and a 47-yard field-goal attempt by Corey Wedel was just left.

BYU took over on its own 25 and was stopped at the 16 on a third-down play, setting up the 32-yarder that Pochman put through the center of the uprights to win the game.

The victory set off a wild celebration as fans in the sold out Sam Boyd Silver Bowl stormed the field.

BYU appeared to have the game well in hand in a poorly played first half that saw both offenses struggle.

Wyoming quarterback Josh Wallwork, who threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns, had three passes intercepted.

BYU led 13-0 when Wyoming suddenly got back in the game on a 24-yard fumble recovery by Jay Jenkins for a touchdown.

The touchdown seemed to wake up the Cowboys, who held BYU to only 14 and one first down in the third quarter while scoring 17 unanswered points to take the first lead of the game.

But the high-scoring game expected between two explosive offenses never materialized.