This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

What happened to BYU's defense in the fourth quarter against Arizona? Did the Cougars wear out, or stop playing as aggressively as they did the first three quarters?

Probably a combination of the two.

Thanks to Ty Detmer's ball-control offense, which gobbled up more than 37 minutes, Arizona's offense was held in check.

Linebacker Harvey Langi said the defense was grateful.

"It was great. I loved seeing Taysom back out there. And seeing him out here doing his thing with the offense, and all the other guys, younger guys, Moroni and new guys, Jonah, all these guys putting out work. Jamaal had a great game, too," said linebacker Harvey Langi. "This is what we expected as a team. We expect them to take care of their job and we are expected to do our part when we are on the field. When they take away 37 minutes, it is like, gosh, they are doing their part, so we gotta do what we gotta do."

I wrote about Langi's long-awaited return to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday (5:30 p.m., Fox Sports) in this piece in today's Tribune.

We haven't been able to interview Langi much in his time at BYU — he declined most interview requests before being named a captain last week — but when we do get the opportunity, he almost always delivers plenty of interesting comments and observations. He's probably one of the most fascinating BYU football players I've covered in eight years on the beat — right up there with Max Hall, Austin Collie, Kyle Van Noy and D'Ondre Wesley.

"We just talked about sticking together," Langi said regarding the fourth quarter defensive breakdowns. "Stick it out. Time was also on our side in that game. I felt like when time was running down and [Arizona] was pouring a little salt on us, we could have folded and hung our heads, or we could have used the time to our advantage, and take as many opportunities."

Langi was all-class in discussing his return to the stadium in which he began his college career, as you can ready in the article previous referenced.

He also talked about his first memories of the rivalry while growing up in the Salt Lake Valley.

"My first memory was Harvey [Unga] and Manase [Tonga] and Fui [Vakapuna] just running the ball really hard. Also watching Matt Asiata on the other side, and Shaky [Smithson] doing his job over there. I remember them. Of course, watching Sealver [Siliga] and Star Lotulelei. There are a lot of big names. We have [Andrew] George and [Dennis] Pitta that were doing work over here, and [Austin] Collie.

You all know the names. I know the names. We all watched them ball out. So, those are all my childhood heroes, instate heroes. Going off and doing great things. Bryan Kehl, Max Hall, Alex Smith. We can keep going on down the line.

To be honest, I watched both sides growing up and it was always cool to look up to them and live in their shadows and hope to be in their position one day, and it is crazy that it is here already."

Langi said he especially admired the running backs.

"Well, I wanted to be a running back. I was more of a pulling guard when I was way young. So I was a pulling guard growing up, a little bit of D tackle. Getting into my high school days when I became a running back, I just loved all the running backs on both sides, just watching all running backs from 2008 and up, I really looked up to them on both sides," he said.