A lot of the pre-game narrative for the BYU football team’s season opener at South Florida on Saturday has revolved around what the weather will be like, and how the Cougars will adjust to the heat and humidity of Tampa in the late summer.
Coach Kalani Sitake joked Monday that maybe late, legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards could control the weather, but he can’t.
However, there is something Sitake can control, and that’s how acclimated the Cougars can get to not just the climate, but the two-hour time change.
Since taking over the program in 2016, Sitake has successfully petitioned BYU’s administration to allow the Cougars to fly to games in the Eastern time zone two days before kickoff. The Cougars’ results on the field have been markedly better.
Before the Sitake era began in 2016, BYU was 8-17 when playing in the Eastern time zone. Two of those games were bowl games when the team arrived four to five days before the game — a 10-7 loss to Ohio State in 1985 and a 55-48 2OT loss to Memphis in Miami in 2014.
BYU is 7-5 in Eastern time zone games under Sitake, most recently having defeated Georgia Southern 34-17 in Statesboro, Georgia, last November. Two years ago, BYU pounded Navy 55-3 in Annapolis after traveling to Maryland two days before kickoff.
The Cougars did lose to Coastal Carolina near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 2021, but for that game the Cougars traveled the day before the game because it was set up just a day before that.
Sitake told the Deseret News Monday that he’s grateful to BYU leaders for picking up the bill for the extra night’s lodging, which obviously is not cheap.
“I mean, it is always hard to go a couple time zones away and to adjust to the climate,” Sitake said. “I think that is always going to be part of the game, part of the preparation.”
Sitake brought the practice of traveling to the East Coast 48 hours before kickoff from his days at Utah. Players say it is just another sign of how much the coach has their backs.
“I do think it helps. You get out there and you get to relax a little bit and adjust to that time zone. I think it is super beneficial to get out there two days ahead (because) you get out there and there are limited distractions.” — BYU linebacker Payton Wilgar
“I do think it helps. You get out there and you get to relax a little bit and adjust to that time zone,” said linebacker Payton Wilgar. “I think it is super beneficial to get out there two days ahead (because) you get out there and there are limited distractions. You get in the hotel with the boys and so you can really focus up and get ready for the game.”
Three years ago, the plan didn’t work as well. The Cougars lost at Toledo 28-21 on Sept. 28, 2019, and lost star quarterback Zach Wilson in the game to a fractured hand. Two weeks later, they returned to the Eastern time zone, again making the trip two days before kickoff, and lost 27-23 to South Florida.
Not coincidentally, Jaren Hall made his first college start in that Oct. 12, 2019, game in Tampa, but sustained a concussion and could not finish. Third-stringer Baylor Romney drove BYU into USF territory late in the game, but the Cougars couldn’t get the ball into the end zone.
Hall downplayed the revenge factor, but not the benefits of traveling early.
“Yeah, it is very beneficial, just with the time change,” Hall said. “You get a couple extra hours to kinda rest, and you get an extra practice out there, in the weather, and you can kinda adapt to it a little bit.”
Hall and his wife have a baby, Jayda, but he said getting an additional night’s sleep away from the 14-month-old is not an additional benefit.
“She sleeps about 15 hours a night,” Hall said. “So me and my wife, we get plenty of sleep.”
More than anything, Hall said he will miss his daughter those two nights away.
“Probably not the typical new dad or mom answer, but that’s the truth,” Hall said.
As for the weather and expected rain showers, Hall said he’s not concerned.
“We will do our wet-ball drills, throw in practice,” he said. “We will make sure we are prepared for all that stuff. When game time comes, you can’t control any of that. You just gotta go and play ball, make plays.”
For BYU’s preseason All-America offensive lineman, Clark Barrington, East Coast trips mean more bonding time with his brother, fellow offensive lineman Campbell Barrington. The brothers were roommates on all BYU road trips last year, and the fifth-year junior assumes it will be the same in 2022.
“It is good,” Clark Barrington said. “We shared a room growing up so it is just like we are back at it again.”
Clark Barrington said BYU’s staff, from the coaches to the sports scientists and nutritionists, have done a good job preparing the team for the time change and the climate.
“It is different everywhere you go,” he said. “The time change, the weather change, whatever it may be.”
In mid-October, the Cougars will do it all again, traveling to Virginia for a showdown with fellow independent Liberty. Of course, when they join the Big 12 next year, there’s a possibility they will travel to West Virginia, Central Florida and/or Cincinnati.
Last year, Sitake recalled his playing days for BYU when the Cougars made three trips to the East Coast in the space of about six weeks. In Edwards’ final season, 2000, the Cougars logged 10,874 miles. They lost to Florida State in Jacksonville 29-3, beat Virginia 38-35 in overtime in Charlottesville, then fell flat at Syracuse in New York, losing 42-14.
In those games, the Cougars flew in the day before the game, and Sitake believes it showed.
“We know more now than we did when I was a player,” he said. “So using the data is important, and having people to rely on who say, ‘OK, this is a wise move’ is important.”
Sitake said preparing for the game itself — and not just the travel arrangements — has been a summerlong endeavor.
“We have been weighing the guys before and after every practice so we know how to replenish them along the way,” he said. “We will be doing the same things during the game. I don’t have all the answers, but other people do. And I am OK with allowing them to give us their expertise and their feedback and I am seeing it help our players out so far. So hopefully this will help us be 1-0 in 2022. That is all I am focused on.”
