PROVO — For the 40th time in the last 50 seasons, and the third time in coach Kalani Sitake’s four years, the BYU football team will finish a campaign with a winning record.
The Cougars assured that with Saturday’s ridiculously easy 56-24 win over UMass to improve their record to 7-4 with two games left to play. BYU has won five straight games and mostly buried memories of that three-game skid in late September and early October that threatened to derail a lot of the progress the coaching staff made the past few years.
But to truly call this a successful season, for many BYU observers, the Cougars must win at least one of their next two games, either this Saturday at 8-3 San Diego State or their bowl game on Dec. 24 in Hawaii.
Although injuries continue to plague the young team — freshman running back Sione Finau became the fifth Cougar to sustain a season-ending injury last week — it has seemingly hit its stride just in time for a showdown (7 p.m. MST, CBSSN) against a former WAC and Mountain West rival, Sitake said after the victory over the 1-11 Minutemen.
“I like the fact that we came out of this (game) fairly injury-free on the offensive side and defensively (almost) the same thing,” Sitake said, noting that starting defensive tackle Bracken El-Bakri left the game with a right ankle injury. “We will get these guys healed up, and the healthy ones will be ready to roll next week. Looking forward to going to San Diego.”
“We saw a lot of our fans out here, supporting us, and we are looking forward to seeing all our fans down in the SoCal area as well,” Sitake continued. “I am looking forward to ending the regular season the right way.”
It won’t be easy.
San Diego State dropped to 8-3, 5-3 in the Mountain West, with a 14-11 loss at Hawaii (8-4, 5-3) late Saturday night and saw its hopes of playing in the MW championship game dashed. Instead, the Warriors will face No. 20 Boise State on Dec. 7.
The Aztecs pulled within three points on Ryan Agnew’s five-yard keeper and two-point conversion run with 12:58 remaining. However, SDSU kicker Matt Araiza missed a 48-yard field goal attempt with eight seconds remaining and the Warriors took the win.
Still, the Rocky Long-coached Aztecs will have plenty of motivation to beat BYU, which drubbed them 23-6 in their last meeting, the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl and, of course, bolted from the league in 2011 when it went independent. With BYU having already defeated Boise State and Utah State of the Mountain West, some conference pride will be at stake.
“It is going to be a lot of fun,” Sitake said.
The win over outmanned UMass certainly was for the Cougars. They totaled 628 yards, their second-highest output of the season behind the 639 they put on the Aggies. BYU hasn’t surpassed 600 yards of offense two times in the same season since Taysom Hill led it to 679 against Texas and 681 against Houston in 2013.
“There are things we can learn from and get better. We look forward to that as we make a big step up (in competition) against San Diego State.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake
The Cougars passed for 308 yards and rushed for 320, the first time they’ve totaled more than 300 yards in each category in a single game since a 62-41 win over Air Force in 2005.
Starting quarterback Zach Wilson was especially sharp, after struggling a bit with his accuracy and pocket presence last weekend against Idaho State.
“I think all around as a team last week (against ISU) we (weren’t sharp),” Wilson said. “It was good that we were able to come out fast, start strong. Everything is about the team, and it was good to just get back in the flow. You definitely get more comfortable the more you play.”
However, San Diego State could easily stem that flow. It will be the best defensive team the Cougars have played since the opener against rival Utah. The Aztecs have given up only 38 points total in their last three games.
“There are things we can learn from and get better,” Sitake said. “We look forward to that as we make a big step up (in competition) against San Diego State.”
Suffice it to say, it is not looking like one of those old WAC shootouts the Cougars and Aztecs once engaged in. San Diego State’s issues are on offense, as it has scored just 41 points its last three games.
The Cougars are averaging 30.3 points a game, but Sitake was most proud Saturday of the way they cut down on their pre-snap penalties such as false starts and illegal formations. They were not flagged the entire first half when the starters were in the game.
“There were things we wanted to improve on, and that was one of them, was limiting or not having administrative penalties,” he said.
Cougars on the air
BYU (7-4) at San Diego State (8-3)
At SDCCU Stadium
Saturday, 7 p.m. MST
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM