WESTERN ATHLETIC ROUNDUP : Detmer Gives BYU Another Title, 45-22

Brigham Young quarterback Ty Detmer passed for five touchdowns and became the first junior to pass for more than 10,000 yards in a career as No. 5 BYU clinched the Western Athletic Conference championship with a 45-22 rout of rival Utah Saturday at Salt Lake City.

BYU, 9-1 overall and 7-0 in WAC, won its eighth WAC title in 10 seasons and earned the host berth in the Holiday Bowl at San Diego on Dec. 29. Utah fell to 4-7 and 2-6.

“Rivalries are tough,” Detmer said. “We knew they would start out fired up. . . . But we could see it would be there. It was just a matter of time.”

Detmer completed 28 of 50 passes for 451 yards, increasing his career total to 10,106 yards. He is only the fifth passer in major-college history to reach 10,000 yards and the first junior to do so. He trails leader Todd Santos of San Diego State by 1,319 with two games and another season to go.

Detmer, who extended to 22 his NCAA-record string of consecutive 300-yard games, needs 518 yards to move past Fresno State’s Kevin Sweeney into second place on the yardage list.

Detmer connected on touchdown pass plays of 21 yards to Andy Boyce, 55 yards to Brent Nyberg and six yards to Chris Smith to give BYU a 35-10 halftime lead. He connected on touchdown pass plays of 25 yards to Micah Matsuzaki and four yards to Eric Drage in the second half.

Utah quarterback Mike Richmond completed 27 of 50 passes for 326 yards and two touchdowns, including a 56-yarder to Bryan Rowley.

Air Force 14, Texas El Paso 13--Lane Beene preserved Air Force’s trip to the Liberty Bowl by stopping Reggie Barrett on a two-point conversion attempt with 1:40 left in a WAC game at El Paso.

The Falcons improved to 6-5 overall and 2-4 in the WAC. The Miners fell to 3-7 and 1-6.

Howard Gasser had connected with Barrett on a five-yard touchdown pass play to set up the conversion attempt.

Jason Jones and DeShawn Durham rushed for second-quarter touchdowns for Air Force.

Louisiana Tech 31, Colorado State 30--Gene Johnson connected with Bobby Slaughter on a 16-yard touchdown pass play with 2:14 left to complete a 17-point surge that gave Louisiana Tech (8-3) the victory over the Rams (7-4) in a nonconference game at Ruston, La.