The thing you have to love about BYU’s 31-28 win over Boise State is the situational revelry of the moment in Albertsons Stadium on Saturday.
Here you had a Kalani Sitake-coached football team come off the ropes and rise above a cloud of criticism and second-guessing.
Sitake had an army of keyboard warriors hacking away at everything from his team culture, team heart, team talent, schemes, staff credibility, to even his intelligence.
Folks mocked Sitake on message boards associated with BYU. The scorn, the making fun of and the ridicule took on everything from his facial expressions to his postgame quotes during a four-game losing skid.
Saturday, Sitake got the last laugh.
He got his team to bear down despite warts and create beauty.
He jet-skied over a toxic lake thrown his way, and humbly strutted his way to the bus.
Sitake unleashed receiver Puka Nacua on the Broncos. Boise State’s defense knew he was coming, but it couldn’t stop him when it counted. His energy and competitive spirit lifted his teammates, and in the end, he delivered the game-winner.
But Sitake has to figure into all this, even with Nacua’s 14 catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns.
Sitake kept balanced the past month. He was patient. He taught belief and encouraged. He asked for energy as he and his staff were motivated.
And yes, Sitake loved, as he asked a team that went zero for October to learn as devastating injuries mounted almost daily.
Against a Boise State team in a place the Cougars were 1-5 all-time, Sitake got his beleaguered defense to make enough big stops, got a career passing game out of starting quarterback Jaren Hall, and watched as his offense scored on every second-half possession.
He also pulled the curtain back on junior college transfer running back Hinckley Ropati, who turned out to be a Bronco defense-eating screenplay artist for offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick.
The 48-yard TD screen from Hall to Ropati was a perfect call by Roderick as Boise State sent six defenders after Hall with two others hugging the line as spies at the line of scrimmage in a blitz call.
In short, Sitake got career games out of Hall, Nacua and Ropati.
Nacua hauled in a twisting, one-handed fourth-down touchdown pass with just over a minute to play, lifting the Cougars over Boise State. It busted a four-game losing streak for the Cougars and clearly put into sight a trip to a bowl game in December.
Nacua’s catch was a fade route. BYU football has had a lifetime of failures on fade routes for decades.
Not this time.
On that play, Nacua was mugged. It was a solid felonious pass interference by the defender, and there was no flag.
Nacua’s catch from Hall will go down as one of the most dramatic receptions in school history.
“That’s the kind of catch you live for, the kind you dream of as a little kid, making a play with the game on the line,” he told BYUtv afterward.
The game ended on a receiver strip on fourth and 8 by the Cougars’ Jakob Robinson.
The Cougars now get their first week off of the season. In Boise, BYU’s defense did not have starting linebackers Max Tooley, Payton Wilgar and Chaz Ah You or safety Malik Moore. It’s a team that’s started 42 players this season, third-most in the country. A rest is a good thing.
Hall, who has given BYU wins over rivals Utah, Utah State and Boise State the past two seasons, amassed 459 yards total offense. He did a hard-hat, blue-collar job against what was one of the nation’s top defenses in a myriad of categories.
“It was a hard-fought game, and I was proud our team stayed with it and got a win,” said Sitake, who said he sees growth regardless of wins, and that is the most important thing to him as the Cougars have navigated through losses.
“I liked how the defense kept their heads up through some setbacks, like not converting on some fourth downs and having some interceptions. They kept playing regardless of what happened.”
Sitake said he kept believing in his defensive players and asked them to keep working hard to get better. In other words, no magic, no secret formula, just believing and getting everyone to work hard.
Boise State coach Andy Avalos said it was hard for his squad to get things going when it didn’t have the ball enough in the first half.
“We played aggressively in this game, and sometimes it didn’t pay off,” he said. “There is so much we can learn from this game, and all our goals are still there for us to meet.”
Avalos, whose birthday was Saturday, said the game didn’t come down to Nacua’s TD catch. He said BYU caught his defense looking to stop the vertical game when Ropati nicked them with the screen play catch and run.
“We lost,” he said. “It wasn’t one play.”
Correction: The caption originally misidentified BYU’s Pepe Tanuvasa.