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Provo • Colin Kaepernick beat Brigham Young University with his arm. He beat the Cougars with his legs. And he beat them with his instinct, talent and drive.
But, ultimately, the Nevada Wolf Pack quarterback beat the Cougars by simply being too much.
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound senior completed 16 of 25 passes for 196 yards and one touchdown. He ran for 82 yards on 17 rushes and added another TD.
And while BYU eventually figured out how to slow down Kaepernick, the fleet-footed quarterback's first-half attack was the first thread of many that came undone during the Cougars' 27-13 loss Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
"He's more elusive than I thought he would be. He's 6-6 and he can make you miss," said BYU senior defensive back Andrew Rich, who tied a career high and set a game high with 14 tackles. "He's a really deceptive runner. Just a great leader. A great player."
Rich said it was not that the Cougars did not prepare for or underestimated Kaepernick. It was just that the QB's unique blend of speed, strength and precision were hard to counter.
"I knew what kind of player he was," Rich said.
Kaepernick was dominating.
Particularly during the first quarter, when he completed 6 of 7 passes for 95 yards, including a 6-yard TD strike to Courtney Randall that made it 6-0 Wolf Pack.
Kaepernick was as comfortable rolling out and throwing on the run as he was hanging in the pocket and delivering a bullet. And when the Cougars brought pressure, Kapernick answered with speed. Sixty-eight of his rushing yards came in the first half, highlighted by a 4-yard score.
By the time the first two quarters were over, it was 24-10 Nevada.
Kaepernick's damage was done.
"First quarter, a ton of trouble," said BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall, who paid tribute to the QB's special skills.
But the Cougars coach was careful to credit his defense with making second-half adjustments that slowed Kaepernick, allowing BYU to stay alive.
"I think the staff did a nice job … as well as the defensive kids playing harder and executing their assignments better," Mendenhall said.
Improvement was even evident in Nevada's points total. The Wolf Pack recorded 24. But that was 10 less than the average the Cougars had given up to Air Force and Florida State during two consecutive defeats.
"We've just got to build off of the positives and just try to keep getting better," Rich said. "And I think we did a good job of sticking together as a team. Losses bring the worst out of people. Not our team."
In the air, on the ground
• Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick completes 16 of 25 passes for 196 yards and one touchdown.
• The senior QB adds 82 rushing yards and a TD on 17 carries.
• Kapernick accounts for 278 of the Wolf Pack's 435 total offensive yards.
• Kaepernick turns a first-quarter 4th-and-1 attempt into a 15-yard rush, setting up 6-yard passing touchdown that soon followed.