PROVO — Having studied the way it is done in the military, BYU coach Kalani Sitake said Monday that the Cougars won’t select team captains for the 2019 season this year.
Rather, the team’s leadership council will pick captains on a game-by-game basis, the coach said during his weekly press briefing as the Cougars continued preparations for Thursday’s rivalry game against Utah.
As for that 8:15 p.m. game that will be televised nationally by ESPN, Sitake said the Cougars “have all the respect in the world for the Utes” and are excited to be able to host the country’s No. 14-ranked team in the AP Top 25 preseason poll.
Tight end Matt Bushman said the Cougars have noticed all the preseason attention that the Utes are receiving.
“Utah has a lot of hype this season, and they are supposed to be really, really good.” — Matt Bushman
“Utah has a lot of hype this season, and they are supposed to be really, really good,” Bushman said, noting that the Utes are pretty much the same team that downed BYU 35-27 last November.
Monday’s other significant announcement from BYU was that fifth-year graduate transfer Ty’Son Williams has won the derby to be the starting running back against the Utes.
“He earned it,” Sitake said.
Williams, the 6-foot, 220-pound senior from South Carolina, beat out incumbent RB Lopini Katoa and fellow fifth-year transfer Emmanuel Esukpa. Sitake said all three will play.
Earlier Monday, all three coordinators appeared on the BYU Radio-produced Coordinators Corner show and repeated a familiar refrain: Opening against Utah made for a more focused, intense preseason training camp.
“It has been so nice to be able to focus on that rivalry throughout the whole offseason,” special teams coordinator Ed Lamb said. “This has been a welcome opportunity.”
Lamb said the loss to Utah last year left a “sour taste in our mouths” and led to many discussions regarding how the Cougars can avoid another late-game collapse.
“We respect the heck out of Utah, but we fully expect to compete well and come out on top,” Lamb said.
He called redshirt freshman kicker Jake Oldroyd the standout of camp among special teams players.
“He has hit some monsters,” Lamb said. “Some of his punts have been out of this world.”
Still, Lamb knows that Utah’s kickers have generally shined in the rivalry game, while BYU’s have not.
“Another aspect of their program we aspire to be like,” Lamb said.
Defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki said senior Austin Lee, a former Ute, was the defensive standout of camp.
“Austin, we knew he was going to be a leader coming in,” Tuiaki said. “He has done a phenomenal job throughout training camp.”
Tuiaki said two injured defensive backs — cornerback Chris Wilcox (knee) and safety Troy Warner (foot) — have practiced sparingly and probably won’t play in the first few games of the season.
“We want to be smart with bringing them back. … We could push them, but prefer to let it be their idea (when they return),” he said. “The projection is to wait a little bit and see a couple games in where they are at.”
Neither Tuiaki nor Lamb would say which of four candidates to start at middle linebacker — Payton Wilgar, Kavika Fonua, Jackson Kaufusi or Keenan Pili — will start against the Utes, but both said several could play, if not all four.
“It’s one of the deeper linebacker groups we have seen in the last four years,” Tuiaki said. “This will be a good one.”
Tuiaki said it is also one of the deepest defensive lines in his four-year tenure, noting that converted tight end JJ Nwigwe and returned missionary Seleti Feveleaki have bolstered the depth.
“We have a lot of guys we feel confident can play,” Tuiaki said.
Jeff Grimes, who heads into his second season as offensive coordinator, said Bushman stood out among offensive stars in camp, along with sophomore quarterback Zach Wilson.
“Matt didn’t miss a practice, and he continued to improve as a blocker,” Grimes said. “… You put it anywhere that his ears can even hear it, he comes down with it.”
As for Wilson’s surgically repaired shoulder, Grimes said it is fine and echoed Wilson’s comments made last Wednesday that he is 100 percent ready to go.
“I feel much better about it than I did in July,” Grimes said.
The OC said the Cougars wanted to improve their third-down efficiency in camp and also make more explosive plays, and he believes they accomplished both, noting that the third-down conversion rate in camp was 52 percent.
“We have been attempting to address the things that were our biggest (issues) last year,” Grimes said.