TAMPA, Fla. — Not to rub it in or anything, but temperatures in west-central Florida were 45 to 50 degrees warmer than they were in Provo on Thursday afternoon as BYU’s football team boarded a charter flight bound for the Sunshine State’s west coast.
That’s somehow fitting, because a couple of coaches on the proverbial “hot seat” will direct their respective teams on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MDT, CBSSN) when South Florida hosts BYU at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“There has been a sense of urgency every week. I think the make it or break it for me is we need to play our best. And we need to see improvement. That’s what I can control.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake
A few weeks ago, USF coach Charlie Strong’s perch was considerably warmer than the one occupied by BYU’s Kalani Sitake, according to a website that tracks such mythical things. Strong’s Bulls suffered “embarrassing home losses,” in his words, to No. 17 Wisconsin (49-0) and now No. 21 SMU (48-21) and fell 14-10 at Georgia Tech, while Sitake’s popularity with the sizable BYU fanbase was surging after the Cougars knocked off No. 24 USC to improve to 2-1 against a murderers’ row of Power Five opponents.
Well, things have changed, much like the Utah weather did Thursday.
The Cougars (2-3) limp into the state of Florida — where they are 0-7 all-time, coincidentally — having lost 45-19 to No. 21 Washington and 28-21 to now 4-1 Toledo before last week’s bye, while the Bulls (2-3) believe they have hit their stride after pummeling woeful UConn 48-22 up north last Saturday.
Another loss to a team that BYU fans believe — accurately or not — the Cougars should handle could strike a blow to Sitake’s increasingly tenuous future. Despite missing two top offensive weapons — quarterback Zach Wilson and running back Ty’Son Williams — BYU is a six-point favorite.
Naturally, Strong has “dropped” to No. 20 on the hot-seat rankings, while Sitake — in the fourth year of a five-year contract — has “risen” to No. 7. Such is the nature of college football.
Sitake and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes downplayed suggestions this week that Saturday’s first-ever matchup between the two schools with very little in common is a “must-win” for the program, but the fact remains that nobody in blue wants to head into rivalry games with No. 14 Boise State and recent Cougar-nemesis Utah State on a three-game losing skid.
“There has been a sense of urgency every week,” Sitake said. “I think the make it or break it for me is we need to play our best. And we need to see improvement. That’s what I can control.”
Said Grimes: “What comes up after this game makes no difference. There is always pressure in this (sport). We don’t look at it like pressure. We look at it as an opportunity. … if you are insinuating a must-win scenario or anything like that, we don’t talk like that. We just talk about winning one game at a time.”
Strong has some familiarity with BYU, having watched the Cougars and Taysom Hill trample Texas 41-7 in 2014, his first season as the Longhorns’ coach. He called BYU “a great program which has a great history,” said that USF “is happy to have them on our schedule,” and referred to the Cougars as “a really good Power Five team” although BYU is independent and seemingly moving away from P5 status, rather than toward it.
“We have a strong opponent coming in this week in BYU, which has wins over Tennessee and USC. Very athletic and a team that is very aggressive. We are going to have to play well with a home crowd in front of us.” — USF coach Charlie Strong
“We have a strong opponent coming in this week in BYU, which has wins over Tennessee and USC,” he said in a teleconference Monday. “Very athletic and a team that is very aggressive. We are going to have to play well with a home crowd in front of us.”
It will be a home crowd that hasn’t seen USF defeat an FBS team in nearly a year (Oct. 20, 2018). And it will include a couple thousand BYU fans, Strong acknowledged.
“They will put people in the seats because of who they are and the program they have,” Strong said. “Any time you have a national program coming into here playing us, they are going to move the needle, and they are going to be able to put some people in the seats because they know that you have a good opponent. … So, the crowd will come out. It is homecoming weekend here also. That helps, but when you have a really good opponent like BYU, it really helps.”
While Jaren Hall will make his first start at quarterback for BYU, the Bulls also have some issues at the position. Redshirt freshman Jordan McCloud stepped in for senior Blake Barnett (high ankle sprain) and accounted for four touchdowns against UConn last week.
Senior running back Jordan Cronkrite rushed for 148 yards on 20 carries against the Huskies after having picked up only 77 yards on 33 carries the first four games.
“Coach Strong, he’s been around for a long time and he will have those guys playing hard. They are coming off a win, so they will be ready. We are going to their house, so we have to be ready for this game. More than anything, we respect them a lot,” Sitake said. “But for my purposes, we are just trying to get our team ready. It doesn’t really matter who we play this week. We are going to respect them and scout them like we have been, but more concerned with how we play more than anything now.”
Getting off the hot seat probably depends on it.
Cougars on the air
BYU (2-3) at South Florida (2-3)
At Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla.
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. (MDT)
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM