Detmer Needs Only a Half to Save BYU : Cougars: After spotting Washington State a 29-7 lead, the quarterback’s four second-half touchdown passes lead to a 50-36 victory.

One week after upsetting top-ranked Miami, the Brigham Young Cougars appeared to be on the way to suffering an upset of their own.

BYU trailed Washington State, 29-7, at halftime.

“I told them it didn’t matter if we won or lost at halftime,” BYU Coach LaVell Edwards said of his locker-room speech, “but that the last 30 minutes would set the tone for what the rest of the season would be.”

So quarterback Ty Detmer threw four second-half touchdown passes, and BYU turned an upset into a 50-36 victory, improving its record to 3-0.

On the first series of the second half, Detmer completed a two-yard pass to Nati Vande to pull BYU within 29-14. Detmer, who threw five touchdown passes, hit three of them in a school-record 36-point fourth quarter.

“We got fired up and got hot,” said Detmer, who completed 32 of 50 passes for 448 yards, with two interceptions. “There are not many teams in the country that can score 43 points in a half.”

Washington State Coach Mike Price couldn’t argue.

“I thought we had a chance going in at halftime like we did,” Price said. “(But) you put Ty Detmer and that offense on the field and they are going to score. . . . They just out-executed us.”

Washington State (1-2) still held a 15-point lead going into the final quarter against the defending Western Athletic Conference champions.

But Detmer hit two quick touchdown passes--a 16-yarder to Brent Nyberg, along with a two-point pass to Chris Smith, and a 32-yarder to Andy Boyce, pulling BYU into a 29-29 tie.

After Washington State punted from its 28, Detmer engineered an 84-yard, 13-play scoring drive that ended with a nine-yard pass play to Stacey Corley.

Washington State tied the score for the last time, 36-36, on an 80-yard, five-play series, highlighted by Brad Gossen’s 51-yard pass play to Ron Young and a seven-yard touchdown catch by Calvin Griggs.

But Detmer came right back, hitting Boyce for 15 yards and a first down at midfield, then handing off to Peter Tuipulotu for a 30-yard gain. The next play, Tuipulotu ran 23 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

Gossen, unable to find a receiver on fourth and nine with 2:19 left, was sacked at the Washington State 13. Three plays later, Corley scored on a four-yard run to finish BYU’s comeback.

Gossen finished with 323 yards, hitting 25 of 42 passes. Wright-Fair ran for 125 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries.